WACK! 'd and loving it

If you haven't seen the WACK! show at the Geffen Contemporary, why not? Afraid of feminist art? Don't be. The show has a bit of everything: it's humorous, somber, playful, sad, mischievious, showy, intense, experimental, revolutionary, exploitational, intimate, legendary, so there is something for everyone.

There have been plenty of reviews about WACK! but I just wanted to share the pieces that affected me the most.

First of all, I think one of the funniest inventions of mankind is pantyhose, but it gets better...What if someone made a bold, sophisticated installation out of pantyhose? Not a lame piece, or a pretty docile piece about texture, but something, I dunno, macho, but in an ironic way? There have been times I must say I've been tempted to try, especially after a bad day from a corporate past-life, but Senga Negudi has done what needed to be done and let's leave it at that and enjoy it. It's the first image in the second row on the Geffen's online gallery.

Or have you ever seen any of Judy Chicago's work up close? I still see her Through The Flower piece turning in my head. And nearby was the "soft gallery" - I can now say I have been inside a self-reflective art gallery made of mattresses. So many great pieces but I don't want to spoil the surprises.

Gallery 825 just had an ArtSpeak series with some of the pioneers/renegades of early Feminist Art. We are lucky that we have the opportunity to look at art so politically charged for its time and talk about it openly.

Have you seen WACK!?

:: bogna ::

Crackerjack: Jay Belloli from the Armory Juries Gallery 825 Show...

...and one of my pieces, "tribe", is in it! Tribe is an abstract color photograph (not a painting) and it's all about the moment, a very long moment, an "even longer than you think" moment, captured on film. Check out Gallery 825 - they are a very cool gallery and I am very happy I get to be a part of this show.

:: bogna ::

[ my first blog ] The Getty LA & MOMA NY

So it should be fitting to start my blog after seeing the Tim Hawkinson show at the Getty. I knew I was into something with the Uber-organ that greeting me in the plaza lobby. A large, industrial organic floating plastic bladder organ with tubing that read sheet music, it played a "song" every hour. And, as a security guard pointed out, kind of sounded like a boat horn. After hearing a tune, I was ready for the rest of the show.
You really have to stand in front of the Octopus piece to appreciate it. Even though there are banners all around town showing off its striking color and composition, can you tell what the little suction cups are made from? I couldn't until I stood in front of it, and I won't tell you because I think it's a spoiler. My boyfriend loved the Leviathon piece. It was made largely of super sculpy. Which is very funny for me because I just threw out a big box of it because I was so "over it" and didn't know what to do with it. I should have given it to Tim! My personal favorite however was the bat made out of radio shack bags and around a twist-tie skeleton. The black plastic skin had an unusual texture on the wings, almost transparent in some areas, while the body had fur. I can't get over the little jaw and teeth too. Yes, all out of the black plastic bags courtesy of Radio Shack. I'm glad they are good for something.

As I was in New York recently, I darted in to
MOMA to check out the "Comic Abstraction" exhibit. The empty speech bubbles with colored backgrounds by Rivane Neuenshwander were printed individually, largely and brightly, and bannered around the city...VERY appealing, luring me right in like a moth to a flame.

I was particularly fond of Ellen Gallagher’s pieces, seemingly earthy, even decorative, abstract textures from a safe distance, but if you got closer the texture was actually a pattern of repeating eyes or lips taken from early racist cartoons. Put a whole other spin on the work.

Very fun to behold was the installation of “Speech Bubbles” by Philippe Parreno, and I realized as I stood underneath it, with empty plastic speech bubbles hovering above me, that I had nothing to say. And “Blossom” inspired by the Powerpuff Girls was deliciously colorful and nice to take in...and so many others (okay I’ll stop listing). The web images on the site don’t necessarily do justice but you get the idea. The Security Guards had fun inviting people to go see Jerry in “Waiting for Jerry” who, of course, never arrived.

:: bogna ::