seen

video still courtesy of Porest

the bomb billboard

altered billboard in Belltown story

jesse plays paper

Yonder with Curtis Taylor

Curtis Taylor will be showing some paintings and light boxes with stills from the Bachianas that I took. There's an opening this Friday night, June 15 at 7 p.m. Wall of Sound.

Rob Zverina

Rob Z. was blogging before that distasteful word was in common use. First page in April, 1997, and called Picture of the Day. Even more media driven are his "792 short films" and "777 short films", being very short (a few to several seconds each) slice of life video clips which he takes with the camera pictured here. A bunch of samples are indexed here. Rob is also a very active advocate for public and bicycle transportation, working with Carbusters for instance. He also programs at the Alibi Room. This Thursday and Friday DJing will be Eric Lanzilotta and Alan Bishop, respectively.

Marefumi Art Show at Wall of Sound

Marefumi came from Tokyo to hang a show (here with Jeffery) at Wall of Sound. He was a regular at the store while going to art school here and before moving back to Japan. He brought a lot of great work and there's an opening this Friday night at 7. His show will be there until the end of May, check it out...

Adolf Wolfli

via UbuWeb
or book, designed by enso-on

Treatise On Understanding

Aspen no. 10, item 12

Naoshima Island Art

More info on Naoshima Island at the bottom of this post.
Above artwork: Pumpkin, Yayoi Kusama;
Cylinder Bisected by Plane, Dan Graham;
Time Exposed, (framed photos) Hiroshi Sugimoto;
Shipyard Works, Shinro Ohtake;
The Secret of the Sky, (stone sculpture at bottom) Kan Yasuda;
Architecture by Tadao Ando.

Art House Project, Naoshima

Art House Project by Shinro Ohtake, Bokkon - Nozoki:
Building, entryway, uninstalled sign in backyard...

Naoshima Island

Naoshima Island sits on the Seto Inland Sea and took a bullet train ride from Kyoto for a couple of hours and then a local train south from Okayama to get there. A short ferry ride and I arrived on the tiny island that has been partly converted to an Art Site over the past decade or so. It features two major museums designed by Tadao Ando, one for large site specific works and one to house a major modern collection as well as a bunch of outdoor works situated nearby. In another port on the other side of the island are several Art House Projects, existing historic buildings and structures given to artists on commission to do what they want with... In the words of the president of this concept "Naoshima subtly asserts its existence as a site of creation where the rhythms of the nature and history of the Inland Sea and the selected artworks resonate as one. It is also a site that transmits a powerful message to modern society." True enough. Anyway, I got there a little late in the afternoon, and missed the bus that would have got me to one of the museums with enough time to check it out, so after some conferring with a few people who I thought I wasn't having much luck communicating with, one gentleman walked off and soon spun around in his car to give me the short ride there... more exceptional Japanese helpfulness. I couldn't take pictures there, but more to come from other spots. Oh, and you have the choice of staying in $200. and up per night rooms, designed into the hillside overlooking the inland sea, or $40. per night "Mongolian Paos" at Tsutsuji-so on the beach - not a tough choice...

Shinro Ohtake ~ Japan

Shinro Ohtake has long been an influence, since seeing the book London/Honcon 1980 in the early 80's. Since then I've been fortunate to see his work in book form over the years, mostly through my friend Alfred who lives in Tokyo/Seattle. The top image is from that book, a notebook format combination of drawing and collage presented in a gorgeous box. The next two images are from Atlanta 1945+50 published by and in collaboration with Nexus Press in Atlanta, Georgia, 1996. It is a feat of printing, each book is unique in that the paper is different for each copy, throwaway sheets from printers and billboards and including hand tipped vernacular photographs. The color is vivid and varied and the project is insanely wonderful,,, Ohtake suggests viewing the book under a black light, something I've never done for some unknown reason. I guess I left mine back in the attic decades ago. The next image is from the book America II 1989, and is similar to Atlanta 1945+50 but larger and not so elaborately printed> This book also comes in a box and the cover is die cut. The final image is of a one of a kind Scrapbook (#18) one of many he has evidently made scores of. Why am I going on about Shinro Ohtake? Tomorrow I leave for Tokyo/Japan and will see a major retrospective of his. It took 7 different locations to exhibit his output. The guy is obviously prolific and works in many different media, including very large scale sculpture, installations and paintings. The major show is at Tokyo Contemporary Museum of Art and takes up 4 floors. Apart from that I'll be in Japan for 2 1/2 weeks, and need to start packing.

Curtis Taylor

Curtis has regularly produced live art song theater from his Vodvil studio and elswhere over the last several years. This past weekend he converted Vodvil into a 70's era amusement club for men as a set for a short film adapted to the 1934 operatic art-song The Bachianas, by Heitor Villa-Lobos. The music, recorded specifically for the film, was adapted for three sopranos and saxophone orchestra by Scott Granlund while the vocalists play the part of the "women of the night". In the low, lustrous light male patrons exchange pink slips for enticement while tragedy looms...