Ai Weiwei Sit-In and Related Thoughts

Ai Weiwei at the Tate

 

Earlier today I participated in a protest against Ai Weiwei's arrest and detention in China. To provide a little background of the situation, here's a link to the Frontline profile of Ai, filmed before his arrest. 

The protests of today occurred in many other cities all over the world. Participants were asked to bring chairs and sit in front of Chinese embassies in peaceful protest. In San Francisco, Ai is represented by Haines Gallery, who organized the San Francisco protest.

The reason for this post is not to comment on the clear injustices of the arrest and detention of Ai, nor to discuss the shear courage and inspiration of Ai's work. What made the strongest impression on me was that this happening to a living, breathing human being (hopefully this is still the case). Not an artist, not a political activist. A human being. How differently would I have felt if this were happening to a blood relative? Part of the reason this made such an impact on me was because of how slow I came to this realization. It was not until the near end of the protest and we were asked to stand for one minute in silence. It finally hit me when I observed Cheryl Haines, director of the Haines Gallery, overcome with emotion at the situation.

Although I've been following this story from early on, it wasn't REAL for me until today. The image below is a bowl of sunflower seeds with a picture of Ai from today's protest. Here's more information about Ai Weiwei and the protests from NPR.

Michael McConnell at Braunstein/Quay

The work in Michael McConnell's recent show at Braunstein/Quay Gallery seems to continue his exploration of childhood innocence, even while treading on typically grown-up ground. Walking through the show, I thought about his non-traditional use of taxidermy forms, the plastic structures over which animal skins are stretched. These forms were not used to celebrate a violent conquest of a life taken in sport, but felt playful. This is an even stranger effect given that all the animals were bound in some way -- tied to trees, branches or stakes in the ground -- which provided the theme and title of the show, "Tethered." While not completely free from thoughts about mankind's transgressions against the wilderness and its animal inhabitants, this work somehow also made me think about animals in my childhood stories, animals of myth and folly that were more like us than any real wild animal. 

You can see more of Michael McConnell's work on his website.

 

blake, w

The Primeval Giants Sunk in the Soil

Kristine Moran at Nicelle Beauchene Gallery, nyc

Here's some images from a painter I just discovered courtesy of Steven Zevitas of New American Paintings, now a regular contributor to the Huffington Post. These paintings by Kristine Moran are pretty great. She currently has a show at Nicelle Beauchene Gallery in NYC. I'm intrigued by the coming together of fleshy sensuality, harsh angles and suggestion of 3-D space in these paintings. Very odd and evocative.

 

 

Sean McFarland @Baer Ridgway

Here's a show coming up in March from a local artist whose work I really like, Sean McFarland, at my favorite San Francisco gallery, Baer Ridgway. Info courtesy of Happenstand. The images below are from his "Dark Pictures" series.

Hellboy pt. 2

So, I know this is going to make me seem like a total Hellboy junkie, but in reality I'm still just becoming familiar with this comic. It's just interesting to me the way in which Hellboy is so willful (maybe his strongest attribute in my mind). He refuses to be the kind of being other people (including, but not limited to demons from hell) expect or want him to be. I think it's fairly common advice to "fulfill your potential" and to do things in your life that help you to bring out your potential. But it's not that Hellboy is denying his potential, just the potential that others want him to have. There's a big difference.

Hellboy

After having been attracted to this character ever since I saw the first Hellboy movie several years ago, I finally got around to reading some Hellboy comics/graphic novels. Nothing so far, In my opinion, comes close to Maus in the graphic novel world, but Hellboy is not bad. I like the drawing style, which is not so slick as many comics seem to be. Comparatively minimalistic even. And the stories are interesting in that they are (pretty transparently, to Mike Mignola's credit) mostly mash-ups of folklore from many different times and places. I particularly like Hellboy when he doesn't do much. At the root of it all his story is not about his fighting skills so much as his displacement -- he doesn't really belong here in the world of humans. Neither do talking skeletons and fish-men and all the other monsters that populate these stories mind you, but despite all this, he's not really among his own kind. And while he does some heroic things, he's mainly just trying to get by. I think this is makes him relatable because we are all born into a world that we've had no hand in creating (unless you believe in reincarnation) and to which we are strangers. I suppose you could say this about many comic book characters, come to think of it, but something about this seems to be more at the heart of Hellboy's story.

david shrigley

i first saw david shrigley's work in chelsea -- i forget which gallery -- last time i was in NYC. definitely one of the best shows i saw. the work has a great hickish quality about it, kind of creepy and funny, sometimes because it can be so anticlimactic. the wit seems to come from a darkly absurd place. anyway, i love it.

chad person: recess

i've been spending a lot of time tonight with the work of chad person via his website and youtube. his ongoing project for at least a couple of years now is called recess, which deals with self-reliance and centers around a bunker he has created by retrofitting his backyard swimming pool.

the latest development in this project is that just a few days ago the BATFE confiscated one of his pieces from this body of work (shown above), which was being held by mark moore gallery in santa monica. i'm fascinated by this. i simply cannot believe that they have nothing better to do than raid art galleries for homemade weapons...on the other hand, i can totally believe that this is what they choose to spend their time and taxpayers' money on.

but this illustrates why i think person's work is so successful. it addresses issues anyone can relate to and enters the world in a way art seldom does.

...suddenly i'm starting to wane tonight. about time.

there's more i want to write, but it'll have to wait. i encourage you to visit his website for now. the link below is for his recorded live webcam videos from when he lived in his bunker for a week.

http://chadperson.com/recess/bunker/

renee's on

http://blog.sfmoma.org/2010/07/75-reasons-renee-green/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sfmoma%2Fblog+%28OPEN+SPACE%29