http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/08/arts/design/08penn.html

risd alum!

a little thought from a book on Mapplethorpes X portfolio...

"..one need not literally become what an artwork represents in order to find it good. This is the great fear of fundamentalists who condemn "obscene art." They believe that appreciating it is being it, and they fear that the seductiveness of this art will transform them against their will. Even the most liberal of us have had this anxiety. Despite our knowing the difference between a story and reality, art and real life, we have at times been unwillingly "invaded" by works of art. We should not fear art either for corrupting our reality or blunting it." 

- Wendy Steiner 

Interactive museum space!

The interactive room in the British Galleries of the Victoria and Albert Museum. You can tell that we were more interested in trying on the petticoats and corsets than finding photographs to talk about. You can't see it, but there was a building blocks set behind me of the crystal palace so that you could build your own. As you can tell, that petticoat was not easy to get on. 

!

The first photography exhibit held in the Victoria and Albert Museum. 

Blind images

" On the first day, we worked dramatically, excitingly, in black and white , and on the second day with colour, using digital cameras, beautifully, contemplatively, in the gardens, chasing the penumbra of the total eclipse of the sun. 

We found endless avenues of photographic exploration and the possibility of universal participation in this particular artistic field." 

-Christine Kugele 

Christine has no useful sight. 

These were hidden in the benches of the Victoria and Albert's "photography wing." Yes they are a little boring to look at, but also intriguing at the same time. If blind people can see this much beauty in the world maybe the world would be a better place with a little missing sight. 

The National Art Library

So the National Art Library is located in the Victoria and Albert Museum, it is a magnificent place as you can see. The annoying part is that you can't check anything out!! You can use the books there, but it's a little annoying to not be able to bring the wonderful books home with me! I have a feeling that this place will be my main hang out place next summer. I'm not super bummed about that seeing as it's not so shabby. I snuck these photos because there was this crazy scary security guard/ welcome lady to at the entrance of the library who basically was mean if you made noise and probably would've thrown me out if she saw I was taking photographs, because the world is scared of photographs these days. You'd think the brits would be used to being on camera seeing as they're on public camera 90% of their day. just a thought....

anyways, just wanted to share the beautiful library goodness 

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/13/arts/design/13cott.html

coolest library ever

for book lovers everywhere....

http://theartblog.org/2009/07/a-new-library-an-exhibition-of-book-design-and-a-bookstore-the-best-contemporary-art-in-amsterdam-at-the-moment/#more-8702

stolen art!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/11/10-warhol-paintings-stole_n_284257.html

F. Holland Day , 1889

An image we went over in class today that i felt was pretty powerful. I have a lot to say about it, probably too much. But for right now just some contemplation and I wanted to get it out there. A lot of the power comes from knowing the biography of the artist and I think its very important to know because artist work from their emotions, and knowing something that could cause a spike in their emotions can help you understand the work on a deeper level. In the case of this work, i think it is particularly important. 

1722

A passage from the french novel Giphantie written in 1772 :

"Some paces from the noisy globe, the earth is hollowed, and there appears a descent of forty or fifty steps of turf; at the foot of which there is a beaten subterraneaous path. We went in; and my guide, after leading me through several dark turnings, brought me at last to the light again. 

He conducted me into a hall of middling size, and not much adorned, where I was struck with a sight that raised my astonishment. I saw, out of a window, a sea which seemed to me to be about a quarter of a mile distant. The air, full of clouds, transmitted only pale light which forebodes a storm: the raging sea ran mountains high, and the shore was whitened with the foam of the billows which broke on the beach. 

By what miracle (said I to myself) has the air, serene a moment ago, been so suddenly obscured? By what miracle do I see the ocean in the center of Africa? Upon saying these words, I hastily ran out of the window, I knocked it against something that felt like a wall. Stunned with the blow, and still more with so many mysteries, I drew back a few paces. 

Thy hurry (said the prefect) occasions thy mistake. That window, that vast horizon, those thick clouds, that raging sea, are all but a picture." 

goodbye new york, hello london

So I'm off across the pond tomorrow for a year of exploring the photo world of London, while also trying to get a grasp of the fascinating world behind the big doors of Sotheby's. The book list I received a few weeks ago already excites me for what is to come of this year. Seeing that the concept of going to grad school at the moment has become almost a survival tactic of the recession; I am avoiding the idea that I am missing out on all the fun of finding a job at the moment. Don't worry, my time will come. 

I am eager to explore this new world and the new ideas of a whole new group of peers. I am hoping that they will both inspire and challenge my thoughts on photography in the next fourteen months. That I will begin to see differently, in a more informed and passionate manner while also, hopefully, doing the same for them.  

But for now, I leave with a thought by one of my favorite writers on the topic of graduate school: 

"My optimum solution would be to to abolish graduate studies in art altogether. Failing this, one might just avoid it. Try Raymond Pettibon's trajectory: grow up in a literary family in a beach house full of books, get a degree in economic, teach math, draw posters for your brothers band, hang out and get discovered. Or Josiah McElheny's trajectory: study sculpture and anthropology as an undergraduate, become interested in single source traditions like glassblowing, go to Venice to study that tradition, learn to blow glass from the masters and start making art. Or, as a last resort, try the solution my classmate Gilbert Shelton fell upon. Gilbert and his co-conspirators went up to the art department at the University of Texas every day and painted Abstract Expressionism. Every night they came home and drew underground comic books. When they had enough pages, they founded Zap Comix and moved to San Francisco. Finally, they moved to Paris, where they still draw comics. 

All these strategies seem riskier and more circuitous than graduate school, but they don't hurt nearly as much. They don't include cinderblock walls. There are no creepy has beens with sour admonitions or nincompoops in the food court. Also, in the egg and spoon race for artistic recognition, you are a thousand times more likely to get there with your egg if you avoid graduate school. More critically, if you want to be an artist and you must go to graduate school, you must bring your own egg, your talisman, your jones, your touchstone in the larger culture, something you love, even if it's just an old Hobie or a street tag or Jane's Addiction. You need something whose loss you will notice when it begins to slip away, something to serve as a hedge against opacity, because it's not just about you, it's about bringing the fire from wherever you found it to an art world that needs it. " 

Dave Hickey, Art in America