Maurizio Cattelan's Good versus Evil

A 2003 chess set by the Italian contemporary master where the artist posits "the figures of Adolf Hitler as the Black King against Martin Luther King, Jr. as the White King. I like.

Piotr Uklanski

Musings

Hans Ulrich Obrist with Stefano Boeri and Barbara Vanderlinden describe today's citizenship in terms of "bands of perception" - "less about belonging to a single and fixed geography but more about constructing a personal collage inflected by the various place one travers, travels to, lives in, emigrates to" etc. -- I had a conversation last weekend with Tejpal Ajji and he was telling me about his research about airport cities, outside major cities, like Heathrow, Queens, and Malton (which happens to be Tejpal's city of residence) + a conversation with Will Kwan led us into speculating about sharing a studio in Berlin or New York in the future, an outpost for our careers. I started to think about outposts and hubs and extensions this week. Sometime during the week i've been hypothesizing about the idea of a "Little Canada" --- I wonder how that could transpire in the fabric of a city like Berlin or Beijing, for instance; in Toronto we have China town, Korea town, Little Italy, Little India et al. and I'm thinking it would be interesting (and fun) to flip the idea back around and let immigrant culture come full circle - I bet there's a word for it... but what do you call an immigrant who goes back to where the hell he came from?

My father, who travels much between Canada and Poland has recently lamented to me about the migration of Polish, and now EU, citizens out of Poland to try and earn better money; many have ended up in England, Ireland, Germany etc + he says that the country has "lost" about 5 million inhabitants. I ask him if that's bad, and he says that it is, of course it is. And when I ask: How do you know? We both smile.

Image: Yesterday's Queen Street W. fire.

Stardate Feb 7, 08

A couple weeks ago my friend told me that about weather engineering in China. I thought it was amazing. In a whole other China factoid, China is now planet Earth's third largest Art market behind leaders US & UK. The above video has nothing to do with China but it is awesome, even if you're not big time into electronic music like I'm not. Laura told me about it.

Skateboarding

I learned from a good source yesterday that, supposedly, Art|Basel| Miami Beach version 2007 will feature a skateboard park on Miami Beach designed and artified by Ryan McGinness, supposedly... and then I get the above video linked to me in email today, from millo... Geoff McFetridge gets us in the mood. I'm not a huge fan of Geoff's, but that video is capital L Lovely. My favourite part is when the pupilless iris falls out of the eye. That's smart.

Bonus Beat

The Shared Values of Lil' Wayne and Zbigniew Herbert

Camillo linked me to this insightful comparison between rap and poetry. The ending is the best part but it only makes sense if you read the whole thing.

Link

I got an A+ in Art and You can too.

Hi,

I'm launching a book at Art Metropole on September 13th, 2007 @ 7pm-10pm. I hope you can make it. I haven't seen you in so long. Here's some more information about it:

I got an A+ in Art and You can too. by Tonik

Specifically published for the art student, this guide, full of explanatory text and pictures, delves into exposing how art school operates and how and why students should address the system. Written in a clear and jargon free prose, it elucidates a cheat sheet for the naïve, lazy, artless or keen student; complete with a glossary and chapters concerning “What is higher learning?” and “Good Art vs Good Grades.” Tonik sums up the book thus:

“School is indoctrinated smoke and mirrors, man. All you gotta do is check the world these institutions are creating. Weed beer guns AIDS? What happened to bread, peace, work, dignity? It’s the new millennium! This is a manifesto kind of, but more so, I had to right it. If not me, then who? If not now, then when?"

A special edition of 77 accompanies this release.

Born in Poland, part French, tall, white, ugly and raised in the jungle... Tonik's art investigates the pneumatic romance between everything and nothing at all. His work is represented by Art Metropole, Toronto and Printed Matter, New York. Tonik is looking forward to going back to Europe in the autumn of 2007.

There are 2 other books being launched by my publisher on the same evening:

Sonority of Words by Katie Bond Pretti

Sonority of Words, consists of three chapters designed to develop a narrative as the drawings progress from beginning to end. Though not containing any literal message, the lines and shapes which form each drawing direct the viewer through a sequence of events. Similar to way in which the letter-symbol elements of sound poetry necessitate that the viewer forms their own associations, this story depends upon handmade marks to express dynamics and intonation. The format of the book echoes the linear theme featuring fold-outs to accommodate larger and continuous images, while its scale maintains intimacy.

A special hand-coloured version will be released in a limited edition.

Born July 6, 1980, graduated OCAD 2004, Katie Bond Pretti is a Toronto based artist who is interested in the ability to employ the formal concerns of line and colour to achieve narrative in semi-abstracted form. Pretti is represented in Toronto by LE Gallery. Her works in ink, oil, and graphite have been exhibited at Gallerie Simon Blais in Montreal, Lehmann Leskiw Fine Art in Toronto, and Bjornson Kajiwara in Vancouver.

A Report by Alex Durlak

A Report is a response to a report written in 1978 by the Advisory Arts Panel to the Canada Council entitled The Future of the Canada Council. The government-subsidized publication features an introduction originally written in a concrete poetry style explaining the importance of art in society. Alex Durlak has created a new layout for the text using the introduction to both critique the challenges of contemporary artistic practices and to reinvest the ideals held by the late-70's artistic community. Written in both French and English, this new rendition features colourful typographic layouts and will be printed and bound entirely by the artist.

Alex Durlak is a Toronto based artist and musician, best known for his contributions to the music community spanning over a decade. His parallel artistic practice strongly focuses on the graphic arts, including typography, printmaking and book design. Durlak is the proprietor of Standard Form Printing and Publishing.

About the press

Standard Form Printing & Publishing is a Toronto based press that is growing out of a cross-pollinated fine art and indie music scene in Toronto. It is a young press interested in working with artists within the vanguard of Canada's flourishing art scene and its catalogue is printed entirely in-house.

I hope to see your smile. :)

Joe Fig, Artist

Sly and oblique and beautiful.

Link

3 gems for April 3rd

1. Tom Burckhardt and his cardboard and india ink studio is amazing and some of his painting is kind of tight too.

2. The graphics of Eric Nitsche (1908-1998)

3. Max Dean's Chair

Bonus Beat:

Rirkrit Tiravanija is at OCAD tomorrow giving a lecture.

Flows on top of flows...

200 carats in my b-boy pose, my milkshake sells way better than yours. And I only have Yoko Ono to beat? Winning is gonna be easier than defeat.

The Painting of Mustafa Maluka

Is it just me, or does this dude seem to be painting cadavers? I haven't read his blog much so I can't read them properly. Nevertheless I like the juxtaposition of flat, bright color and the work up "skin" tonalities.

Link: mustafamaluka.com

Images: Michael Stevenson

The art of Alfredo Martinez

"I met Basquiat a few times, but we didn't really know each other. He would have paid more attention to me if I was a big-titted blonde."

Images: The Proposition

Honda: Cog

See also The Way Things Go by Fischli & Weiss and Rube Goldberg

St. James, Director for Special Projects for the State of Eternity

Daniel Baumann came by the gallery today and talking with him and Ann Webb about some work I made in Korea, it boggled my mind to forget this dude's name. Today I found him again:

James Hampton.