Owns Your Genitals (!?!)

The Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia does not own your genitals

Edward Ross "Untitled" - 1971 - oil, wax on canvas

but they do own a collection of abstract minimalist, pattern-infused, paintings currently being shown under the exhibition title "Aesthetic Connections: Selected Works from the MOCA GA Permanent Collections." The show opened Friday night, and nugatory title aside, it was interesting to get a glimpse of what the MOCAGa has been cherry picking from the work of Georgia artists over the last few decades.

Judy Barber "Untitled" - 1993 acrylic on canvas

A few things were fascinating for an entirely different reason, like, was this painting ever considered not tacky? Even in 1993? Or was that the point of the painting - to poke fun? Or is this representative of a very brief trend in painting that caught on like wild fire in every cheap Florida hotel chain from Panama City to Key West? I am truly curious and feel this painting deserves its own little information label to clear things up.

Other paintings, like Joseph Perrin's "Untitled" acrylic on canvas from 1982 has better withstood the passage of time, with many elements (especially the use of color and pattern) being reinvestigated by painters now.

The best part of the reception was seeing the MOCAGa situated in their new space (what use to be Lowe Gallery along with a few other areas of the Tula Art Center). The space is much larger than the old location on Peachtree and gives the Museum a new prestige and enough room to display multiple fully developed exhibitions. For me this is one of the bigger signs of late that the city of Atlanta is developing into a stronger art center for the south.

Tying into the show of abstract paintings from the permanent collection is the second exhibition, recent paintings by Don Cooper called "This Moment As It Is: A Connection to the Whole"

The work explores color through the premise of the circle, creating depth through rings of varying color, and experimenting with contrast of hue. The paintings came across more as color fields than geometric studies, more Rothko than Stella, though Cooper does seem to give the circles more universal associations, i.e. referencing the "whole" in the show title and the painting title "Traveling Through the Universe."

Don Cooper "Travels Through the Universe" - 2007 - acrylic on canvas



And now for something completely different...


On the other side of the building, housed within the museum's new archive and resource center, is a tribute to the 1980's art collective TABOO.


Mapping out various theme shows created by the politically charged gay artists collective.




The shows were a mix of shock and amusement with an underlying sense of urgency, protest, and questioning of the status quo.


And the south never seemed to escape their mischievous gaze.


Perusing this show made it clear Atlanta has lost something since the end of TABOO, actually two things I would greatly miss had I ever experienced them, 1) a group of gay artists creating work in reaction to being a fag in the deep south (and in turn creating a community of sorts) and 2) a group of artists ready to shake it up politically, cause some ruckus socially, and have some fun along the way.


Sigh. The end is near little lamb.


The retrospective was curated by the only surviving member of the five man group Larry Anderson, who wants everyone to know that TABOO owns their genitals.


Apparently, in one "performance" the members of the group moved through a large crowd of people, putting the stickers of ownership on random strangers. And here is a portrait of Larry with a headless skeleton on his back and wait, is that the rear-end of a carousel horse up his...?


Label reads: "Senator Jesse Helms Lawn Jockey. Not a friend of the arts..."

But MOCAGa I think, is a friend of the arts, and not Cobb County kind of art either. All shows up until September 20th 2008. Check 'em out.

Front & Center Staged

Went to see the much talked about Carrie Mae Weems show, "Constructing History: A Requiem to Mark the Moment," of photography and video at the SCAD-acquired ACA Gallery in the Woodruff Arts Center.

Word to the wise, picture taking is Not Allowed(!) in the ACA Gallery. I was scolded. Really, when are people going to get over it? Art is meant to be photographed and shared, ideas should not be held hostage in an institution's white box, guarded by a panic-inducing and dangerous barrier (commonly referred to as Peachtree St. under construction).

"A Classroom Ponders the Future" 2008 - Archival digital print

Nevertheless, the presentation of the show was sharp. Large black and white pigment prints on heavy rag paper. The paper texture worked will with the grainy mat images, which came across as aged film stills.

"The Assasination of Medger, Malcolm, and Martin" 2008 - Digital archival print

The photograph "A Classroom Ponders the Future" serves as a starting point for the images of the show, each being a reenactment of a moment in history (whether obvious, obscure, or fictionalized) from 1968 to the present. Weems says that each photograph is not necessarily meant to refer to one particular historical event but instead to have a broader, more universal connection, to represent the attitudes or movements during a period time.

There is a focus on the assassinations of prominent political figures, from Malcolm X to Benazir Bhutto, and also on the assassins themselves and the contemplation of the murder, the moments before one person alters history.

"The Fall of Bhutto" 2008 - Archival pigment print

A majority of the photographs are shot in an empty classroom, often using open windows to symbolize a sense of the future or hope. Using the same classroom to stage the reenactment of different events that happened decades apart draws a visual connection between them, emphasizing the heaviness of a snow-balling history of tragedy and resistance.

"Looking Forward/Looking Back" 2008 - Iris print

As Farrell states in the show catalogue, Weems decided to recreate these historical moments as a "means of processing, understanding, reflecting, and laying to rest these memories." (Speaking of catalogue - they're free at the show, very nicely put together, and worth a trip to the gallery to get one for your collection).

As with "Looking Forward/Looking Back" above, Weems is also interlacing her own commentary and emotions into this series by constructing additional images which serve as insights into her own relationship towards the past. I've said it before, and I'm sure I'll say it again, but there is an interesting parallel between this show and McCallum/Tarry's "Another Country" at Kiang last March.

"The Endless Weeping of Women" 2008 - Archival pigment print

While Weems does create these photographs using models and sets, she is still basing the imagery off of historical photographs and/or accounts. In many of these images it is Weem's low-budget attempt at recreating these moments which reinvigorates an otherwise overly saturated, and therefore less impactful, image. McCallum and Tarry work directly with historical images from the Civil Rights Movement but they too imbue them with a new sense of emotion and nostalgia by translating them through a layering of printed silk and oil painting.

In both cases the artists are translating history, reducing or altering information for a conceptual impact, and leaving their own personal impressions all over the pseudo-historical documents.

"Mourning" 2008 - Archival pigment print

"Someone to Watch Over Me" 2008 Archival digital print

A few of the images bordered on being too sentimental

"The Execution of Innocence" 2008 - Archival pigment print

while others were incredibly powerful. "The Execution of Innocence" was striking without clearly relating to any particular historical moment though the male being execution did bring to mind the horrors occurring in Iraq and Afghanistan.


I viewed the photographs before watching the accompanying 20+ minute digital video piece, which I left with mixed feelings. I found it both too long (the first five minutes is a black screen with Weems talking) and too preachy, giving me the impression I was watching a biased History Channel special rather than an art piece. Nevertheless, the video was successful enough in its dramatizations that by the end of it was firmly rooted to my seat.


More so, I found it fascinating to discover all of the photographs in the show were taken in tandem with filming. Whether the photograph or the video was the initial intention (or maybe it was both?) the two work well in tandem. Weems does not try to hide the evidence of the filming in the photographs. The framing of the photographs often includes stage lights and the circular track around the models that is used for the video camera. To have seen the photographs without the video, or vice versa, something would have been lost. Weems wants these photographs to appear grainy, old, historical, yet the video is clear documentation that she created these moments. The video is in color, giving an entirely new view of the same scene in the photographs, showing that these images do not document history, but Weem's own impressions of it.

Video Still - Obama

Where Weems began to lose me was when the video suddenly turned political, wrapping up her long summary of strife, persecution, fear, and hope by talking about Barrack Obama (whose face flashes alongside Ghandi and the Dalai Lama). When the video ended there should have been a "Paid for by Obama for President" logo. While Weems does question whether Obama is the man he claims to be or a puppet controlled by the old guard (insert image of fat white men), she quickly diverts into imaging what Hillary Clinton must have been thinking when she had to admit defeat, and I found the assumptions a bit disturbing. The political curve ball at the end was unexpected and disappointing, Weems allowing her own opinions to crowd out any poignant message that may have been buried within the video.

"The Capture of Angela" 2008 - Archival pigment print

But by no means take my word for it, go see the show (and get yourself a catalogue). It's up at ACA Gallery through August 21st 2008.

The Cyclops and the Siamese Peens

Last weekend Club Awesome brought a little happy-go-lucky to Beep Beep Gallery.

Last time I saw them play, they were opening for Captured By Robots and giving the crowd a strip tease (sans the white tiger mascot). Mehgan and I debated whether they intentionally slurred their words so that their voices were used more as additional instruments or if they were just difficult to understand.

Artist Alex Kvares made it out (in the hat) and Virginia (in the blue and holding the cool Lomo camera with circular flash you can't see).

All the hub-bub was for the closing of "A Paradise for Couples Only" a two-person exhibition of work by two former Golden Blizzard members, Ann-Marie Manker and Jason Butcher.

I'd have to say this is was one of my more favorite shows I have seen at Beep Beep - maybe the most daring? most provocative? most complicated? The works of watercolor and drawing seemed straight from the subconscious, both artists pouring their emotionally and sexually charged right-brain dreaming onto the page. Embarrassing admissions, troubled fears, guilt and longing, all drawn by hand like naked little secrets.

"Micturation Series" - graphite and ink on paper

Jason Butcher's drawings come across as more blatant in their pondering than Manker's more symbolically filled, saccharine dreamscapes. Butcher does not hesitate to to distort the figure and other recognizable forms as a direct mode of reference, as if these compositions are film stills from a mind operating free of language and separation between objects.

The arrangement of small pencil and ink drawings are economical yet complex, the subject of each drawing trapped within its own cycle of self-loathing, self-loving, confusion.

"Micturation Series" - graphite and ink on paper

Sexuality is the rampant issue (which, admittedly, is always my favorite subject) and Butcher focuses largely on the male form, concentrating on and distorting, the face and the peen - arguably the two body parts which most constitute a man's personal identity (or at least this is what the drawings may imply).

All of the drawings were excellent, especially "Jiggers of Semen."

"Wedding Bands" - ink, pencil, watercolor, on paper

Butcher's larger labyrinthine drawings had all of the rich imagery you could handle. Butcher writes about these larger pieces, "I seek to explore insular worlds of intimacy that couples create for themselves and the perspectives and posturing each must assume when reconciling one's life with that of a partner."

That is no easy feat to accomplish but Butcher is able to translate this visually without becoming obvious or cliched.

"Wedding Bands" -Detail

Smoke wafting into I don't know what, with crystals blooming out (crystals seem to be popping up everywhere these days - is this all the influence of David Altmejd? Doubtful, maybe The Dark Crystal?)

"Wedding Bands" - Detail

The level of detail in these drawings, the play between foreground and background, and the just-right amount of information given combine for something truly intelligent and intriguing.

Manker - "In that Moment Devine" - watercolor, ink, pencil on paper

The play of fine colored lines and thick black lines begins to break down the foreground in Manker's work. Certain objects and figures read as pasted onto a scenic backdrop, the realm of these drawings almost cartoonish. Manker references 1960's pop culture and the lyrics of Disney's "It's a Small World" ride.

"Down by the River of Love" - watercolor, ink, pencil on paper

Getting back to the point of the show, which is a sort of exploration of the relationship between a couple, Butcher digs into the duality of this private realm while Manker resides in the first person, depicting the individuals own fairy tale escapism, as if unable to meet the harsh reality of true love's rather mundane existence after the honeymoon.

"How I Brought Home a Son" - ink, pencil, watercolor on paper

One more interesting point about the subconscious world of Butcher's work. Butcher chose not to frame his drawings on paper because, as he puts it, "these drawings emerge from a very particular place - I didn't see them from behind a piece of glass." The white of the paper merges with the white of walls, as if the floating image seen could dissolve or transform at any moment into a new thought.

"How I Brought Home a Son" - detail

Like a new approach to getting a baby. Was it Jung who said dreams were the mind trying to problem-solve the issues resting most heavily on the subconscious mind?