Abroad: Peonies considered

There are many obvious advantages to digital substitutes: speed, accessibility, etc... And if digital media can meet or exceed the parameters of human perception what is lost in substituting digital for analog media can be unclear.

LED or RGB digital color is fast and convenient but it is inherently a programmed approximation. The spectrum of color that is visible when light passes through a film membrane reflects the spectrum of light captured during filming. Input reflects output. There is no approximation. Even though our eyes cannot recognize all of the colors in a film, the source of information is true. Digital color is programmed to mimic analog's infinite spectrum of color. Even if digital color is a very good approximation it can never be a true substitute. The digital experience is doubly mediated (first by human perception and second by digital approximation). The correlate analog experience is mediated by only human's physiological limits. It is hard to know what is lost by this secondary mediation but it can often be sensed, if not articulated. The colors in-between the colors we can register are imperceptible but they are there. Perhaps such imperceptible increments, whether they occur in social, aural, or color space, are more vital than we realize.

Abroad: Diana Thater's Peonies

Diana Thater's exhibition "Chernobyl" opened this past week at Hauser & Wirth in London. "Chernobyl" is an impressive video installation about the nuclear disaster that occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine in 1986. Rather than using editing cuts to convey Chernobyl's landscape Thater opts for film layers, superimposing images on top of one another. In doing this, Thater avoids linear time created by a sequence of images, in favor of time that is sculptural and has depth.


In an adjacent room is Thater's video installation "Peonies." As with "Chernobyl," "Peonies" also utilizes film layers, depicting 3 ghosted peonies on 9 video monitors. To make the video, Thater used her Standard 8mm film camera, which allows back-winding of film, to shoot a true double exposure of the flowers. The layers in "Peonies" were made with analog materials, as opposed to"Chernobyl," whose layers were made digitally. Regarding "Peonies," Thater states that she wanted to make the viewer aware of the difference between analog and digital techniques. Digital techniques may be analogous but they are never identical to the analog techniques they emulate. For example, digital media is pixelated and has only a finite number of colors. Analog media, on the other hand, provides an infinite spectrum of colors - many of which the eye cannot register.


To hear Diana Thater talk about "Chernobyl" and "Peonies" click here.

Abroad: Pae White at The Power Plant

This past weekend Pae White's exhibition Material Mutters opened at The Power Plant in Toronto. The exhibition focused primarily on White's tapestries, although it also included an impressive grid of White's Smoke Carvings and two video works. At the 2010 Whitney Biennial, White exhibited a large smoke tapestry but as this exhibition demonstrates, White's tapestries range greatly in terms of content and style. The smoke and foil tapestries are fairly straight forward in terms of imagery, but the viewer gets lost in all the intricacies. Others are highly collaged and manipulated, full of personal references as well as meta-references to other tapestries made by White.

The Power Plant's signature smoke stack.

30 Smoke Carvings

Some of White's more collaged tapestries

Abroad: Beijing and Pyongyang

This is the first part of an eight part post covering Brian's travels to Beijing, China and Pyongyang, North Korea. Brian was part of a six person group that accompanied Eungie Joo, New Museum's Head of Education and Public Programming, through Beijing to Pyongyang. The group spent five days in Pyongyang, one day in Kosong, and one day in Mount Paektu (the birth place of Kim Jong-Il) with Eungie and her mother, Dr. Pilju Kim Joo, founder and president of Agglobe Services International Inc. These experiences foster curiosity as well as criticism, not only of China and North Korea but also of America, all of which carry serious flaw and merits. Rather than being chronological, the posts documenting this trip will be focused on eight specific topics. Topics include: Dr. Joo's Farm, Food, Murals, Monuments, DPRK Architecture, and the Mass Games. For this first post we introduce the group:


From left to right: New Museum curator Eungie Joo, artist Byron Kim, Dr. Pilju Kim Joo, Hu Fang and Zhang Wei Wei of Vitamin Creative Space, sound artist Tarek Atoui, Brian Butler of 1301PE, & actress Kate Butler.

Abroad: Angela Bulloch & Christian Dior in Japan

In 2005, Angela Bulloch was commissioned by Dior to create a permanent installation for the Dior flagship store in Osaka, Japan. The installation is titled 'Anroidika Descending The Staircase', referencing Marcel Duchamp's famous painting from 1912 'Nude Descending a Staircase'.

The illuminated cubes change color as the viewer walks down the stairs.

Map of Osaka

Abroad: Fiona Banner Turns a Jet Into a Bell

Fiona Banner used metal from a decommissioned Torando jet to cast a large bell for her new public artwork at Gateshead Quay commissioned by Great North Run Culture and Locus+.

Tornado ZE728

Aluminum ingots

Abroad: Kerry Tribe at the Arnolfini

Rolling hills from train ride between Bristol and London Paddington. Here is a great day trip that only takes an hour and a half. In addition to the historical significance of Bristol and Bath, there is a fantastic Kerry Tribe exhibition at the Arnolfini.

Here & Elsewhere, 2002

Abroad: Jessica Stockholder in Spain

In Madrid for Jessica Stockholder's exhibition "Peer out to sea" at the Palacio de Cristal at the Reina Sofia.

The future of long haul travel. The Airbus a280 at Heathrow, London

Madrid on Monday, July 13 just before the parade to welcome home the Spanish FIFA World Champions

Abroad: Fiona Banner at Tate Britain

At the opening of Fiona Banner's two part installation Harrier and Jaguar at Tate Britain.

Jaguar, 2010

Harrier, 2010

Abroad: Next Door at LACMA

LACMA puts on a one day exhibit of work by Walter de Maria in the new Resnick building which officially opens in Oct.

Abroad: Printing Diana Thater's catalogue in Auckland, NZ

Below are images from Brian's trip to Auckland, New Zealand to oversee the printing of Diana Thater's catalogue Between Science and Magic.

A piece by Robert Hood at the 4th Auckland Triennial

Perfect flat white

Abroad: In Los Angeles (A Voyage of Growth and Discovery)

Wednesday was the opening for "A Voyage of Growth and Discovery," a Mike Kelley and Michael Smith sculpture, video, and sound installation that Mike Kelley hosted at his studio in Eagle Rock.



The exhibit traveled to LA from the Sculpture Center in NY.

Abroad: A Long Weekend in New York

1301PE artists were busy in New York this weekend. Uta Barth opened at Tanya Bonakdar. Kerry Tribe organized a performance at the Whitney Museum. Jorge Pardo had an opening at Friedrich Peztel and Blake Rayne had one at Miguel Abreu. Below are some images from the busy New York weekend.

Images from Uta's opening



Friday afternoon at Cafe Sabarsky inside the Neue Galerie



when cigarettes were elegant

Kerry Tribe performance at the Whitney. Tribe staged a performative reading of Hollis Frampton’s classic film, Critical Mass. This began with the audience witnessing the break out of an argument between a man and a woman. The second part was the reading of the transcript from the film with edits.

New work by Jorge Pardo. The installation creates a labyrinth of popular images.



and Blake Rayne

Abroad: Quick trip to SF

1301PE made a quick trip to San Francisco on Monday to visit the SFMOMA. On the way they stopped by La Farine Bakery for a Morning Bun.

Sweet

Savory

At SFMOMA, a Brice Marden as part of the current exhibition, 75 Years of Looking Forward: A series of exhibitions and events celebrating SFMOMA's 75th anniversary. On January 18, SFMOMA marked its 75th year as a pioneering force in art, locally and globally. From mounting Jackson Pollock's first solo museum exhibition in 1945 to exhibiting vernacular photographs and championing the emerging Mission School scene in the mid-1990s, The Anniversary Show brings together more than 400 works from the collection, including paintings, drawings, prints, sculptures, videos, photographs, architectural models, and design objects. Beginning with SFMOMA's founding in 1935, the exhibition highlights moments when the history of the museum has intersected meaningfully with the history of art. It includes a range of artists whose early career work SFMOMA had the foresight to collect, such as Bruce Conner (below).

Abroad: 1301PE in Cologne

1301PE's second hanging at Art Cologne. The Pae White tapestry was replaced by a work from Uta Barth's Sundial series.



Sausages at the market

Spargel season arrives in Cologne

New hanging at K21