....and firewalls there were.

I'm sitting in Hong Kong airport and I see that I'm able to open Fugitive Vision for the first time since I left for Hongzhou on November 28th. It was nice to actually see the page open after trying without success for 2 weeks. In any case, China experience posts will start very soon as I'm back on the evening of the 11th. More to come!

Firewalls on the horizon?

Sitting in my Hong Kong hotel room a few days away from a departure for Lishui, China, I read with trepidation the post in Jeff Ladd's 5b4 blog about his own Chinese experience:

Hello all. I am currently in China press checking the next Errata Editions books. Like last year I intended to post a daily report about the making of each book but this year it looks like the Great Firewall of China is raining on my parade. Blogger has been blocked. So I will save all my reports and post them the week of my return. My apologies...

Now I'm curious what blog-blocks I might encounter. It has been my intention to write a diary style account of my week at the festival. If you don't see any posts, draw your own conclusions and be confident that I will be following Mr. Ladd's lead by saving my reports and posting when home. I'm keeping fingers crossed that I'll be able to post as usual. We'll see......

Camera Club of New York benefit auction

A Silent Photo Auction to Benefit The Camera Club of New York

Wednesday, December 2, 6 – 8pm
Calumet Photographic, 22 West 22nd Street
(between Fifth and Sixth Avenues)

Please join us for our annual silent auction, featuring work of choice emerging photographers, vintage photographs, and exciting works by established photographers.

Participating artists: Arturo Acosta, Cara Alhadeff Judea, Erica Allen , Mariette Pathy Allen, Merry Alpern, Steve Arnold, Peter Baker, Brett Bell, Leslie Bellsey, Anita Blank, Sam Branman, Timothy Briner, David Brommer, Hunter Brown, Susan Burnstine, Christine Callahan, Eric William Carroll, Sean Carroll, Lindsey Castillo, Jesse Cesario, Jesse Chan, Megan Cump, Pradeep Dalal, Kia Davis, Emile Dubuisson, Rian Dundon, Max Dworkin, David Ebeltoft, Robert Edelman, Amy Elkins, Sean Ellingson, Smith Elliot, Lisa Elmaleh, Jon Feinstein, Hugo Fernandes, Mark Fernandes, Larry Fink, Ryan Foerster, Martine Fougeron, Allen Frame, Anders Goldfarb, Samuel Gottscho, Lorraine Gracey, Robin Graubard, Jasmine Gregory, Lori Grinker, Leonora Hamill, Marissa Herrmann, Henry Horenstein, Meng Ling Hsieh, Joelle Jensen, Charles Johnstone, Jessica M. Kaufman, Salma T. Khalil, Michelle Kloehn, Anne Lai, Erika Larsen, Leigh Ledare, Ed Lee, Sebastian Lemm, Nataly Levich, David Levinthal, Sam Levinthal, Wayne Liu, Colleen Longo, Joseph Maida, Jerome Mallman, Rochelle Marmorek, John Meyers, Dana Miller, Azikiwe Mohammed, Carolyn Monastra, Alex Morel, Santiago Mostyn, Walter Naegle, Kae Newcomb, Lori Nix, Leah Oates, Nadhar Omar, Stuart O'Sullivan, Susan Paulsen, Carissa Pelleteri, Alexander Perrelli, Michael Rauner, Saul Robbins, Francesca Romeo, Caren Rosenblatt, Lynn Saville, Robert A. Schaefer, Abigail Simon, Aaron Siskind, John Stanley, Tema Stauffer, Will Steacy, Amy Stein, Harvey Stein, Joni Sternbach, Patricia Sullivan, Arne Svenson, Diana Teeter, Lucas Thorpe, Christina Thurston, Hugo Tillman, Sally Tosti, Maki Ueno, Wilhelm Von Gloeden, Ellen Wallenstein, Eric Weeks, William Wegman, Susan Wides, Emma Wilcox, Amy Williams, Bernard Yenelouis, Shigeki Yoshida Benefit Committee: Mariette Pathy Allen, Paul Amador, Brian Clamp, Daniel Cooney, Michael Foley, Martine Fougeron, Tom Gitterman, Howard Greenberg, Peter Hay Halpert, Henry Horenstein, Michael Mazzeo, Jessica Robinson, Lynn Saville, Spencer Throckmorton $10 admission. All proceeds go to The Camera Club of New York (CCNY), a non-profit 501(c)3 arts organization that has been nurturing talented photographers since 1884. Preview works at: http://www.cameraclubny.org/2009auction.html

For further inquires, contact CCNY at info@cameraclubny.org or by phone: 212-260-9927

Please visit us at www.cameraclubny.org

Après Vue Paris Photo

Paris Photo ended its 5 day run yesterday closing on what organizers could only call a success. The halls of the Carousel du Louvre were jammed day in and day out and notable crowds gathered for the evenings of the vernissage and the finissage in which any unobstructed movement was nearly impossible. But a success for fair organizers and a successful fair for a gallery are two different things. I received diverse reports, perhaps as one might expect since not every gallery had the same caliber of work or could appeal to every sort of client. A few galleries complained of slow or indifferent sales while others claimed to have record-breaking years. Of course, neither complaint nor boast are verifiable so I will confine my thoughts to more subjective matters.

The theme this year was the Arab World and Iranian photography. In theory, I am all for this. I suspect I'm not alone in being rather under-informed when it comes to photography from this part of the world, so any effort on the part of a major art institution like Paris Photo to promote awareness and to foster dialogue is very welcome.

However the reality is, as reality always is, a little more complex. First off, the definition of what is meant by "the Arab world" is unclear at best. Certainly a culture as important and old as this has spread its influence to every corner of the earth. And in our global, "flat" world, what does geography mean to artistic output? Is Hiroshi Sugimoto a Japanese artist? Is Mona Hatoum a Lebanese artist? British? German? Palestinian? None of the above? I found taxonomic questions like these rather unaddressed by the galleries involved. Secondly, given that the definition for what what the "Arab" world describes remains hazy, I was unconvinced that there is enough distinctive work around which to build a thematic foundation. Perhaps there are, but I wasn't moved by the totality with which I was presented here.

But there were notable exceptions. Motive Gallery from the Netherlands had examples from Martine Stig's "Sisters" series. I had admired this work 3 years ago when I saw it for the first time during the FIAC show, and I continue to respect the combination of the political and the graphic in her high contrast shots of covered women. Hamburg/Beirut gallery Sfeir-Semmler had a great example of Walid Raad from his work "I Might Die Before I Get A Rifle". Hans Kraus, as one would expect, brought superb examples of 19th century work featuring Arab sitters and portraits.

I also found some unexpected pleasures in work outside of the theme category. Serge Plantureux was showcasing the work of Rossella Bellusci. I am always intrigued by work at the limits of visibility, so Ms Bellusci's explorations of blown out portraits, objects, and self-portraits caught my eye. I'll be looking to learn more about her work. Galerie Vu had some fine work focusing on the Mexican-American border by under appreciated artist Jeffrey Silverthorne. Too many have only known him for his early morgue-based work neglecting his later output. Take a look. Vu also had a fine self-portrait by Christer Strömholm. I'm pretty familiar with this artist's work, and I've never seen a self-portrait like this. Pretty great. I was completely blown away by some exquisite vintage Raoul Ubac prints at Galerie Thessa Herold. This gallery is new on my radar; I've never seen them at a fair nor heard of them. I found the contemporary work at the booth to be a mixed lot, but the Ubacs were superior in every way. I'll be curious to see more of what this gallery is about.

As I have mentioned in the past, European fairs just seem to draw bigger crowds than North American ones. I don't think this is represented in sales figures, but it I do think it represents a difference in the way culture is consumed in the two locations. Families and couples out for a weekend diversion spend hours at these fairs (FIAC, Art Paris, Paris Photo, etc.) in a way that is simply not found even in New York City. While it makes for uncomfortably packed conditions for the serious collector, I can only see it as a positive thing when looking the society as a whole. Perhaps responding to this, Reed Expositions, the organizer of Paris Photo, inaugurated a VIP morning time on every day of the fair. Instead of the usual practice of having one VIP preview a few hours earlier than the scheduled general opening, Paris Photo had a VIP-only morning period every day from 10:00-11:30. Any collector who needed some quiet face time with a gallery would find the fair at a civilized density each morning. I cannot applaud this innovation loudly enough, and I hope it was enough of a success that it will be copied by every fair on earth.

Outside of the fair, there was an exceptional surrealism show at the Pompidou Center, La Subversion des Images. If you going to Paris anytime before January 11, 2010, just plain don't miss it. I spent hours on 2 visits as did everyone I spoke to about it. It's an exciting, scholarly show that also rewards even a casual visitor. If you're not heading to Paris, the catalog has its own pleasures. It's only in French, but is still worth the $60 tariff. Amazon.com sometimes says it's out of print. Don't believe it. Pompidou bookstores had copies piled to the ceiling. There's also a soft cover bi-lingual "album" that is worth it especially if you don't speak French. Amazon.ca has plenty of copies though the album seems a little harder to find outside of the Pompidou bookstore.

An invitation and a pat on the back

I got an email a few days ago from the noted curator and writer, Marvin Heiferman. He invited me to take a look at a few new projects he's undertaken at the Smithsonian. Here's what he sent me:

click! photography changes everything (www.click.si.edu) is a provocative rethinking of photography's cultural impact that encourages site visitors to explore the ways photographic images enable us to visualize, comprehend, and interact with the world we live in.

click! features readable and informative short texts commissioned from experts, writers, inventors, public figures, and selected visitors to the website. Each text is illustrated with images chosen by project contributors and selected from the Smithsonian's vast collection of over 13 million images. Stories explore the many ways photography changes who we are, what we do, what we see, where we go, what we want, and what we remember. As digital technology is altering the form, content and transmission of camera imagery. click! photography changes everything provides a unique opportunity to reflect on the history, practice, and power of photography in the past, present, and future.

The second project, THE BIGGER PICTURE (blog.photography.si.edu), is a blog about photography and the Smithsonian. It features photographs from the Smithsonian Institution's archives, news about visual culture, and posts about photography in the digital age.

I took a look and I think it's a broad, inclusive program that deserves a look. I'll add the blog to my blog roll so you can click on the link anytime. The link for "Photography Changes Everything" is above.

On a personal note, I had a sweet little encounter this morning. I was visiting the Paris Photovintage hotel table fair looking for the odd vernacular treasure. I gave my card to the folks at AnamorFose Photo Gallery from Izegem, Belgium. Xavier, the owner, said, "I know you!". "Really? How?", I asked.
"I read your blog", was the reply. I can't tell you how much this warms my heart. My stat counter tell me that tens of people read my blog every day. To know that it is reaching a photo dealer I've never met in a Belgian town I've never heard of just makes me smile and smile. Thank you dear readers.

Lishui Photo Festival

I've been invited to participate as a nominating curator for a new photo festival in China. It starts at the end of this month in the Southern city of Lishui. I'll be spending a week there promoting the two artists I've nominated, Christian Erroi and Cornelia Hediger, and looking at the work of almost 100 other artists. The work will be a mix of Western artists brought by Western nominators and Chinese work by Chinese nominators. The website (almost entirely in Chinese) is here: http://www.lsphoto.org/syj/. Take a look. I'll file a report as soon as I'm back in mid-December.

More from Berlin, 2009

A visit to Berlin is not defined by art fairs alone. Though I was introduced to one new and interesting gallery, Feinkost, at Art Forum, Berlin was its usual dependable self in providing a variety of satisfying experiences away from the fairs.

I guess it's no surprise that I had not been to Galerie Feinkost before. The gallery is in a converted convenience store directly across from a northern border of the Berlin Wall quite a distance from any of the standard gallery districts. But their Art Forum booth was one of the true successes for me this year. They showcased two artists, Ignacio Uriarte and Arcangelo Sassolino, to exceptional effect.

Mr. Sassolino makes sculptures that have at their core some kind of mechanical or engineering component. These mechanical components are used to destructive ends, usually interfering with the environment in which they're placed. Noisy and dangerous, I found the work completely engaging. The work at Art Forum was relatively mild for this artist consisting of a 9 bar air cylinder connected via a computer to a small plastic water bottle. The computer directed the cylinder to alternately inflate or deflate the bottle. When inflated it was somehow perfect and unharmed. When deflated, it was always a different, disastrous deformation of itself. One could not imagine how it would re-inflate to its former self. Inflation and deflation was a deafening crackle of plastic.

The gallery invited me to a concurrent exhibition at the only-in-Berlin exhibition space Micamoca:

There I found a more typical example of Mr. Sassolino's in that it existed solely to destroy it's surrounded space:

Detail of it's clawing effect:

The Sassolino work I didn't see was A huge wall of cor-ten steel held in place by a massive magnet. At rare intervals, a computer would tell the magnet to fail allowing the steel wall to fall a few inches to the floor. Over time, the wall would pound deeper and deeper into the floor; a testament to the inexorable march of time and mass.

Ignacio Uriarte was the other artist Feinkost was showing at Art Forum. Mr. Uriarte exploits office materials for his practice. Other artists have plumbed this territory before -- pens, typed pieces, faxes, etc -- but Mr Uriarte explores new corners of the office both with his diverse materials and single-minded practice. I was impressed again and again what this artist achieved with extremely simple materials. At the fair, I was caught by a Sandback-like display made only from folded paper:

Detail:

I bought a typewriter piece that used only the left and right hand quotation marks. If you weren't told how it was made, the mark-making technique of the piece would be a mystery.

This artist also works with office paper, office software, and printer ink among many other media. Take a look.

I always go to Daimler-Chrysler Contemporary when I'm in Berlin. the shows there are always smart and concise. Thios visit didn't disappoint. Continuing with the them of fabulous work acieved with spare or simple materials, I loved Georg Herold's untitled piece using particle board bookshelves and cinderblock bricks. While not as explicitly destructive as the Sassolino pieces, I was mesmerized by how the piece seemed to balance on the point of failure. There was incredible tension in such a static work:


I made a first time visit to the About Change Collection on Museum Island. They had a text heavy group show that was sure to appeal to me. My favorite was a Gonzalez-Torres-like piece by Vincenzo Latronico in which the public is invited to take away parts of the work. Unlike Gonzalez-Torres, in which each piece in the paper pile is identical, each piece of paper in Mr. Latronico's work are unique. Each page you take with you deletes that page from an awesomley varied whole. I quote from the About Change website:

The Italian Vincenzo Latronico explores the various ways of interpreting and composing a text. Beginning with eight text sequences, each comprising five parts, the young author has written down all the possible combinations thereof, yielding a total of 32,768 short stories, or 32,768 variations of a love story—each independent of the other, and utterly unique.
Latronico’s debut novel Ginnastica e Rivoluzione was released in 2008 by the Italian publishers Bompiani. For Next time, perhaps (2009), he drew inspiration from the French author Raymond Queneau (1903–76), who in 1961 published One Hundred Thousand Billion Stories, an experimental ensemble of ten sonnets. Queneau constructed the book so that the fourteen lines of each sonnet can be individually turned over, and consequently combined with the lines of the other sonnets. Thus, potentially, this thin booklet of 14 sonnets contains “one hundred thousand billion poems.”
Whereas Queneau’s one hundred thousand billion combinations and various poems could never be actually seen in its entirety, Vincenzo Latronico sought to render visible the sheer volume of his 32,768 love stories. Each story was printed on a single page, resulting in a total of 32,768 pages which—each containing its own love story—are now stacked in the About Change, Collection . Visitors are also invited to take a page, as a variation of the piece Next time, perhaps. The English version of the work Magari la prossima volta (2009) is now on view for the first time outside Italy, and has been adapted especially by Vincenzo Latronico for the About Change, Collection.

So, despite wan or meager offerings at the fair, Berlin remains a vibrant and eclectic place to see art. Count me in for Gallery Weekend next May.