leannegoebel

Archive for April, 2008

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Temporal Tenuosness: Whitney Biennial 2008

In Art Museum, Biennial, contemporary art on April 22, 2008 at 4:20 pm
Mika Rottenberg, Production still from Cheese, 2007.
Digital video, color, sound; approximately 12 min.
Collection of the artist.


Below is the original article I wrote and submitted for publication:

“A biennial is an exercise in imposing temporary order and control onto a situation that is, essentially, out of control,” writes Adam Weinberg, director of the Whitney Museum of American Art in the foreword to the catalog for the 2008 Whitney Biennial.

The Whitney Museum opened in 1931. The first Biennial was introduced in 1932 and remains a cornerstone of the museum’s mission to support living artists. Purchasing art from the biennial is the foundation of their permanent collection.

However improbable, the biennial attempts to provide a snapshot of “where American art stands today.” At least that’s what the ads say.

Eighty-one artists were selected to participate in the biennial by two young curators given a mere 13 months to pull together one of the most high profile exhibitions in America. Henriette Huldisch, 36, assistant curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art and Shamim M. Momin, 34, associate curator at the Whitney and branch director and curator of the Whitney Museum of American Art at Altria were entrusted the much hyped task. Weinberg then assigned Donna De Salvo, the Whitney’s chief curator and associate director for programs to oversee Huldisch and Momin. The team also worked with advisors Thelma Golden, director and chief curator of the Studio Museum in Harlem; Bill Horrigan, director of media arts at the Wexner Center for the Arts at Ohio State University; and Linda Norden, independent curator and writer.

Weinberg writes in his foreword that the artist selection process is exhaustive, explaining that the curators “distilled artists into a collage of artistic expressions that resonated to reveal networks”—a sort of invisible reticulation. These threads tenuously hold together this biennial that fills more than three floors of the museum. The result is a show that is highly cerebral featuring a lot of art with complicated back-stories.

Huldisch and Momin write in their introduction: “Many of the projects presented in the 2008 exhibition explore fluid communication structures and systems of exchange that index larger social, political and economic contexts, often aiming to invert the more object-oriented, ends-driven operations of the art market.”

Well, yes, I suppose intellectually that is the idea. But in the end, being in the Whitney Biennial means that many of these artists will now be the stars of the art fair world (if they are not already) where one can truly find out where art stands today. And, after all, the Whitney is going to buy some of this art, too. So as much as we may want to glorify process and experience, in the end the intellectual idea does become a product sitting in a museum.

Some of the products are made with very modest materials. Take for instance Charles Long’s sculptures made from detritus found along the banks of the Los Angeles River. Feathers, cans, bottles, cigarette butts, you name it it’s bound together in his desiccated effigy’s that echo the frail figurative sculptures of Alberto Giacometti. Great Blue Heron bird droppings found along the riverbank inspire the sculptures. Long made albumen prints of the droppings and then translated the images into three dimensional sculptures describing them as somewhere “between beauty and anger.” Long sees his tall ghost figures as harbingers of death that paradoxically assert the resilience of life. There is something treacherous and yet life affirming about the work.

Charles Long, Untitled, 2006.
Papier-mâché, plaster, steel, synthetic polymer, river sediment, and debris, 144 x 72 x 7 in. (365.8 x 182.9 x 17.8 cm). Collection of the artist; courtesy Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York.

Another paradox inducing work is Mika Rottenberg’s video installation “Cheese.” It is an artwork one enters like a womb. Inside the maze like shanty made from wooden debris, several video screens show crowded pens of goats and a group of women with extremely long hair in floating white dresses. These Rapunzel’s milk their locks and the goats they live with to make cheese. There is something erotic about the piece, yet objectifying, something mysterious and magical, yet earthy.

In contract, Daniel Joseph Martinez creates work that is unapologetically uncomfortable and explores complicity. “Divine Violence” is a room-sized installation filled with 125 rectangular, sleek, gold panels with crisp black lettering spelling out words like Al Qaeda, Central Intelligence Agency, Army of God, Iduwini Youths. Martinez aims to name all of the groups in the world currently attempting to enforce politics through violence. The title comes from Walter Benjamin’s coinage for a form of violence that function as pure means with knowable ends.

Daniel Joseph Martinez, Divine Violence, 2007 (installation view, The Project, New York).
Automotive paint on wood panel, dimensions variable.

A biennial is not pure means with a knowable end and this is but a smidgen of the work on display, most of it installation and video with a smattering of sculptural objects and a few token paintings and photographs. This is a biennial about what is bubbling beneath the veneer. While on the s
urface it may seem uncharismatic, beneath the surface there is something to think about.

If you go:

Through June 1, 2008
Whitney Biennial
Whitney Museum of American Art
945 Madison @ 75th Street
212-570-3633
www.whitney.org

artsjournalist@centurytel.net Leanne Goebel attended the Whitney Biennial as a project of the Creative Capital | Andy Warhol Foundation Arts’ Writers Grant Program.

List of Artists in the Biennial and links to their online Biennial catalog page:
Rita Ackermann
Natalia Almada
Edgar Arceneaux
Fia Backström
John Baldessari
Robert Bechtle
Walead Beshty
Carol Bove
Joe Bradley
Matthew Brannon
Bozidar Brazda
Olaf Breuning
Jedediah Caesar
William Cordova
Dexter Sinister (Stuart Bailey)
Harry (Harriet) Dodge and Stanya Kahn
Shannon Ebner
Gardar Eide Einarsson
Roe Ethridge
Kevin Jerome Everson
Omer Fast
Robert Fenz
Coco Fusco
Gang Gang Dance (Lizzi Bougatsos, Brian DeGraw, Tim DeWit, Josh Diamond, Nathan Maddox)
Amy Granat and Drew Heitzler
Rashawn Griffin
Adler Guerrier
MK Guth
Fritz Haeg
Rachel Harrison
Ellen Harvey
Mary Heilmann
Leslie Hewitt
Patrick Hill
William E. Jones
Karen Kilimnik
Alice Könitz
Louise Lawler Spike Lee
Sherrie Levine
Charles Long
Lucky Dragons (Luke Fischbeck)
Daniel Joseph Martinez
Corey McCorkle
Rodney McMillian
Julia Meltzer and David Thorne
Jennifer Montgomery
Olivier Mosset
Matt Mullican
Neighborhood Public Radio (NPR)
Ruben Ochoa
DJ Olive
Mitzi Pederson
Kembra Pfahler/The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black
Seth Price
Stephen Prina
Adam Putnam
Michael Queenland
Jason Rhoades
Ry Rocklen
Bert Rodriguez
Marina Rosenfeld
Amanda Ross-H
o
Mika Rottenberg
Heather Rowe
Eduardo Sarabia
Melanie Schiff
Amie Siegel
Lisa Sigal
Gretchen Skogerson
Michael Smith
Agathe Snow
Frances Stark
Mika Tajima/New Humans
Javier Téllez
Cheyney Thompson
Mungo Thomson
Leslie Thornton
Phoebe Washburn
James Welling
Mario Ybarra Jr.

Copyright Leanne Goebel. May not be used without permission.

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Cerebral art for modern minds, Durango Herald, April 8, 2008

In Art Museum, Biennial, Durango, contemporary art on April 21, 2008 at 2:53 pm

Daniel Joseph Martinez, “Divine Violence,” 2007,
automotive paint on wood panel, dimensions variable.

The article as it appeared in The Durango Herald:

NEW YORK – “A biennial is an exercise in imposing temporary order and control onto a situation that is, essentially, out of control.”

That’s what Adam Weinberg, director of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, wrote about the 2008 Whitney Biennial.

However improbable, the biennial attempts to provide a snapshot of “where American art stands today.” At least that’s what the ads say.

Eighty-one artists were selected to participate by two young Whitney curators who were given 13 months to pull together one of the most high profile exhibitions in America.

Henriette Huldisch and Shamim M. Momin were entrusted with the task. Weinberg then assigned Donna De Salvo, the Whitney’s chief curator, to oversee them. The team also worked with Thelma Golden, chief curator of the Studio Museum in Harlem; Bill Horrigan, director of media arts at the Wexner Center for the Arts at Ohio State University; and Linda Norden, independent curator and writer.

The result is a show that is highly cerebral, featuring a lot of art with complicated back stories.

Huldisch and Momin write in their introduction: “Many of the projects explore fluid communication structures and systems of exchange that index larger social, political and economic contexts, often aiming to invert the more object-oriented, ends-driven operations of the art market.”

I suppose intellectually that is the idea, however awkward their prose. But being in the Whitney Biennial means that many of these artists will be the stars of the art fair world, if they aren’t already. And the Whitney is going to buy some of this art, too. So in the end the intellectual idea becomes a product sitting in a museum.

Some of the products are made with very modest materials.

Take Charles Long’s sculptures made from detritus found along the banks of the Los Angeles River. Feathers, cans, bottles, cigarette butts, you name it, it’s bound together in his desiccated effigies that echo the frail figurative sculptures of Alberto Giacometti.

Great blue heron droppings found along the riverbank inspired the sculptures. Long made albumen prints of the droppings and translated the images into sculptures he describes as somewhere “between beauty and anger.” Long sees his ghost figures as harbingers of death that paradoxically assert the resilience of life.

Another paradox-inducing work is Mika Rottenberg’s video installation “Cheese.”

It’s art that one enters like a womb. Inside a mazelike shanty made from wooden debris, video screens show crowded pens of goats and women with extremely long hair in floating white dresses. These Rapunzels milk their locks and the goats they live with to make cheese. There is something erotic about the piece, yet objectifying, something magical, yet earthy.

In contrast, Daniel Joseph Martinez creates work that is unapologetically uncomfortable and explores complicity.

“Divine Violence” is a room-sized installation filled with 125 rectangular, sleek, gold panels with crisp black lettering spelling out words like “Al Qaeda,” “Central Intelligence Agency,” “Army of God,” “Iduwini Youths.” Martinez aims to name all of the groups in the world currently attempting to enforce politics through violence.

Most of the work on display at the Whitney is installation and video with a smattering of sculptural objects and a few token paintings and photographs. This is a biennial about what is bubbling beneath the veneer. While on the surface it may seem uncharismatic, beneath the surface there is something to think about.

artsjournalist@centurytel.netLeanne Goebel attended the Whitney Biennial as a project of the Creative Capital/Andy Warhol Foundation Arts’ Writers Grant Program.

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Copyright Leanne Goebel. May not be used without permission.

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Feminists Under Forty show honors novel and neon, Durango Herald, March 21, 2008

In contemporary art on April 5, 2008 at 2:03 pm

BELEN, N.M. – Feminists know the name Judy Chicago.

She is an artist, author, feminist and educator whose work spans 40 years. She pioneered feminist art and education through programs at California State University, Fresno, and the California Institute of Arts.

In 1974, Chicago turned her attention to the history of women and created her iconic work, “The Dinner Party.” This multimedia work was executed between 1974-1979 by hundreds of volunteers and has been seen by more than a million viewers in six countries. In 2007, “The Dinner Party” was permanently installed at the Brooklyn Museum of Art.

Today, Chicago lives and works from her studio and nonprofit feminist art organization, Through the Flower, in Belen. On March 1, Chicago opened an exhibition that she juried, at Through the Flower, which is near Albuquerue.

It provides a glimpse into work currently being created by young New Mexico feminist artists: Maureen Burdock, Kate Carr, Andrea Cermanski, Helen Colton, Shara Hannah Finnerman, Erin Lynn Forrest, Mikhayla Harrel, Kimberly Hargrove, Nicole Kowalski, Emily Kimball, Ashlie Maxwell, Merce Mitchell, Kelsy Waggaman and Sheila Wilson.

The purpose of the show for Chicago is to encourage a younger generation to explore feminist themes through art.

“By looking at the work of young feminist artists, we can see what issues are still unresolved. We see artists working in a variety of media, but they are still concerned with the body; with what it means to be a woman today; with sexual orientation; and with abuse,” Chicago writes on the Through the Flower Web site.

“Although we wish that some of these issues were in the past; that we truly lived in a ‘post-feminist world,’ unfortunately, they are still with us. Until this changes, there must be spaces for Feminist art – and there aren’t enough of them.”

Maureen Burdock and Sheila Wilson were both awarded $500 prizes and solo exhibitions at Through the Flower.

I met Burdock last fall at a Narrative Art Center writing retreat in Carson, N.M., where she shared some of the ink drawings and paintings for her feminist graphic novel series called “The F Word Art: Five Feminist Fables for the 21st Century.”

Each book tells the story of a super heroine who fights oppression.

Images from Marta and the Missing and Mona and the Little Smile are showing at Through the Flower.

Marta and the Missing is the first book in the series, available from Narrative Art Center Press. Told in English and Spanish, it tells of a woman in Juarez, Mexico, who puts an end to the femicide there (the disappearance of hundreds of women) and saves her own cousin.

The second book, Mona and the Little Smile, told in English and German, is about a girl in the U.S. who heroically and humorously deals with childhood sexual abuse and transforms herself through drawing. Mona sends her magical drawings to other children who are then empowered to get back at their abusers and turn them into mushrooms.

Sheila Wilson creates neon signs that tell a story: “STILL HERE” in bold pink letters, “(sigh)” in flowing blue script punctuated by the parentheses and the elegant green scroll “forget your past.” Each word or phrase is the hiccup between language and storyteller, between fantasy and history, between fact and myth.

This exhibit strives to be more than a hiccup. It attempts to reinvigorate feminist artists and to remind viewers that the goal of feminism is to achieve equality for everyone on the planet. Everyone.

View the art in person or on the Web site. Listen to the political rhetoric between the first woman and the first black man to be on the brink of the presidency and realize that Through the Flower provides an important space for continuing discourse on equality for everyone.

artsjournalist@centurytel.netLeanne Goebel is a freelance arts journalist from Pagosa Springs.

Copyright Leanne Goebel. May not be used without permission.