24 hour culture-a-thon
First up was the Quotidian opening at the Buia Gallery. This was an exhibit of art pulled from various galleries such that it was all "found objects."
This was a lot of stuff that makes you go "hmmmm".
An example of a piece is to the left. This was cut out images from fliers for various places that sell toys and taped on a white sheet of paper. I was told by the gallery owner's brother that it was to inspire a sense of awe and bring us back to childhood by having all the good stuff right there for us to feed upon with our eyes without having to hunt through pictures of detergent and batteries first.
yes, well, thats all nice and good except, why not cut the images a little nicer, and present it with more cleaner lines? or was it supposed to be a childish cut job? We spent some time infront of this piece and I raised the question of copyright. The artists took these images and put them together as art. My question is, do the models, the stylists, the photographers of these images recieve any recognition? Should they? For some reason or other these images were chosen from other pictures of stuffed animals and what not. My main opponent in this discussion retorted that since these images were found in the trash, and therefore, free, that this dismissed the artist of having to acknowledge anyone involved in producing the original picture. I retorted that we pick up music free of charge from the radio, and if I was to record it and broadcast is as art, or part of art, say in a play, I would have to acknowledge the original recording. The opponent came back with. "no, this artist doesnt have to acknowledge the designer of tras
h."
mmmm. I wonder if she really meant to call the piece trash.
Next up on the culture a thon, was the dragon parade yesturday in Chinatown. The image to the right was similar to most of the dragons going down Mott St. Its 2 guys (seemed to be all males) making the legs and mouth/eyes move. Mostly they would just come in and walk around each shop and blink and open their mouths and one of my bosses would give them a little red envelope with some cash as good luck. But there were 2 dragons that set up directly in front of the shop to "perform." Why they chose us, I dont know, perhaps my boss knows the leader of this particular group. But anyway these guys were amazing, they danced and jumped and got on one another's sholders so that the dragon was standing up and waving. The dragon continued to "eat" the gifts of oranges and red envelopes left out for it. (it was incredible to see this . . . i mean everything was gone from the bowl. . . it really looked like a dragon was eatting it). Next the dragon spun around and tossed out of its mouth the oranges, mostly at little kids, because recieving one of these means good luck for the whole year. A second dragon (this was only 1 guy) then got up on a pole 12' in the air and spun in danced on a freakin' pole, grabbing a lucky cabbage also in the air, on a pole, with its paws* and eatting it, tossing the then shredded cabbage down to our awed upturned faces.
If you missed it this year, go down and check out the parade, its always 6 and 7 days after the official Chinese new year (this year is 4705 in the chinese calendar).
Finally, last night I saw Coming or Going. This was the best performance I've seen in a long time. And it was off,off Broadway. And, of course, TS helped out with the sound design. But I am telling you, if you are in town on a Wed- Sat next couple of weeks, go see this show (Closes March 10). It takes place on the back porch of the childhood home of 4 sisters in Texas. Their father, Big Daddy, has just died. Frankly, no one seems to upset by this. The story is more about the sisters' relationship, those who stuck in town, the one that moved to NYC, and the one who found God and moved to Dallas. The set, costumes, music, were all right on point and Amy Dickenson was amazing as big sis Mo.
So with all that culture in the last 24 hours, what to do today? well, hmmm. . . . I'm thinking bad Style network shows, like Bridzilla, and later, some Winey Stars and Cheesey costumes with the Oscars.
*this means the guy was using his feet to grab the cabbage, one arm to hold up the heavy dragon head of the costume and one arm to move the mouth up and down/blink the eyes and grab the cabbage, all while balencing on about 1/2 square foot of space on the top of 12 foot pole. seriously incredible and he did it so that it was really a magical looking dragon.
posted by gordian knot @ Sunday, February 25, 2007
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