Bella Roma

Comparative objects...

The Spawn of Cindy Sherman

autobiographical video diary log (vlog) that Jillian Mayer records for her unborn grandchildren. Envisioned as an authentic solution to fleshing out the detached model of the family tree, Mayer hearkens to bygone times when ancestors could glimpse one another through a locket or lock of hair. However, by placing the video in a public forum she conducts a phenomenological study of why people ultimately share their personal feelings with anonymous strangers, and whether this sharing effects the actual emotional significance of the piece. The work challenges notions of self-perception of mortality, celebrity, even the universal impetus for creation and legacy. At the same time, the packaging of the work as a viral-friendly video, complete with a young female protagonist, catchy song, and short duration creates metaphysical questions of artifice and reality.

she chants, “I wish I could have met you. I would have hugged you so. But you are in the future, you get loved by video.” 

http://worldclassboxing.org/exhibit_love_trip.php

Miami artist Jillian Mayer has chewed off her own arms for Art Basel. In "H.I.L.M.D.A.," a video in Love Trips: a Triptych on Love on view at World Class Boxing this week, the artist performs as Venus de Milo. At the start of the video, the living statue has her arms in place. By the end, however, there are just bloody nubs and Mayer's smiling, blood-dripping mouth.

Sibyl says Rome

I'm off to Rome for a month long resinency, departing in two days. I thought this new work seemed symbolic and appropriate. The piece is a work created  entitely on paper using linen and cotton pulps . i think of her as ths Sibyl, dispensing wisdom I don't understand but entirely appropriate for the beginning of a journey. 

pipilotti rist — one of my favorite artists

Willem DeKooning talks about the absurd, Paul McCarthy is...

Tom and James do some hard work!

Tom Sachs new paintings and sculptures at Sperone Westwater remind us of the creativity of artists and the laborious work that goes into the creation of an art object. It also showcases the totally groovy way artists use materials and techniques like resin or  pyrography, where "paint strokes" are burned and etched into wood.

His cultural iconography from McDonalds to James Brown addresses the conception, production, consumption and circulation of modern-day stuff.

My  favorite seen here is "James Brown’s Hair Products" (2009) and relates to color studies by artists such as Albers and Richter.

There's also a nice interview in "Huffpo" with lots if pix. See Keeping Time With Tom Sachs: An Interview With the Artist .