Blogcritics Author: Kevin Freitas

The Arts: What San Diego Wants

Kevin Freitas — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 14:17:05 EDT

Forty movers and shakers speak out on art in their town.
The latest polling numbers capture the attention of most of us these days, not that we can escape from them, as they appear to be everywhere and on about every conceivable subject, most notably of course, the presidential election. Alongside the backdrop of political buzz and speculation, the art world continues its often lethargic march towards...

Saving the Spiral Jetty

Kevin Freitas — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 13:11:15 EDT

Oil and water don't mix.
“People who tell us that the solution to our problem is drilling offshore are peddling our addiction,” said Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club. “The drug is oil, and they don't want us to get off it.”With the latest brouhaha in Congress over George Bush’s recent lifting of a presidential moratorium,...

Lions for Lambs: Art and Artists in the Public Discourse

Kevin Freitas — Thu, 22 May 2008 11:33:03 EDT

A movie review disguised as a larger debate on the role of art and artists today.
The following essay is part philosophical, part query into the role of art and artists in today’s social and political climate. It is disguised as a movie review of a popular film, Lions for Lambs, which spurred its writing.I watched the film Lions for Lambs the other night. Some of you know this film already, starring Robert Redford, a very...

Reflecting on Collections and Collecting Dust and Other Things

Kevin Freitas — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 18:32:24 EDT

Can you really have too much of a good thing?
The following is a philosophical reflection on the manner in which we collect things, whether it is art, souvenirs, or stories. In doing so, we reveal to the world how we picture ourselves through the lens of an inanimate object. These thoughts were also reassembled under the auspice of a performance piece, held at Four Walls Gallery in San Diego....

Announcement: Short-content feeds

Phillip Winn — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:00:00 EDT

Sunday, August 26, 2007, marks the switch of all Blogcritics.org article feeds from full-content to short-content. This is the result of several converging factors, and is unfortunately a permanent decision (as permanent as any decision can be on the web, that is). We are aware of all of the reasons that this is a Bad Idea, and we are aware that some of you will be quite upset about having to click on something to read the free content, and we're sorry. Unfortunately, despite great effort, full-content feeds are not currently economically viable. Two other factors are involved: full-content feeds have resulted in an unprecedented level of content theft, with BC content appearing on many websites, usually spam sites, without attribution or permission. This duplicate content causes a cascading set of problems, not the least of which is that search engines generally aren't favorable to duplicate content, and don't always guess correctly. Finally, our RSS advertising partner is strongly in favor of short-content feeds. We hope that you'll continue to subscribe to BC via RSS, and when an article grabs your eye, it's only a click away, still free on the BC website. Thank you for your understanding.

Faith Fashion: Reflections on Religion, Art, and Politics

Kevin Freitas — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 11:17:13 EDT

Los Angeles artist Michael Arata invited me to write the introductory essay to his catalog, Virgin "T"s, that would accompany a one-person exhibition of his work at the California State University in San Bernardino in the fall of last year. Michael, a long-time resident of Los Angeles, has exhibited his eccentric and often humorous works in several Southern California galleries, in the US and abroad in France and Belgium. The Virgin "T"s in this body of work, some of which are actual silk screened T-shirts, are in part a response, albeit a sometimes biting one, to the continued fraying of the separation between Church and State and all the political, social, and commercial ramifications that entails. In the essay below, I strove to be as provocative and visceral as the work before me. FAITH FASHION You shouldn’t believe that the T-Shirt you’re likely wearing right now is a modern invention. By today’s standards, a T-Shirt is a walking bulletin board with your favourite designer label silk-screened onto it. Michael Arata knows this already because ancient history taught him that the boys in marketing around the time that Jesus was dining on his last bit of foie gras, commonly referred to as the Last Supper, had an enlightening idea for Jesus’ resurrection. On the third day, Jesus rose with a T-Shirt made out of distressed cotton painted purple that said in Times New Roman: “I went to Mount Golgotha and all I got was this lousy T-Shirt”.However, the “tee” shirt as it is also affectionately called was really the brain child of Mary, the Virgin. Her nickname the Virgin fit her like a “T”. And while we’re at it, here’s something else you might not know about the Virgin Mary. You probably confuse the story of Mary and the Immaculate Conception with a virgin birth, angels, and the like, but it didn’t quite happen that way. According to the Wikipedia Free Encyclopedia, “The Immaculate Conception is a Catholic dogma that asserts Mary, the mother of Jesus, was preserved by God from the stain of original sin at the time of HER own conception”. Furthermore, “Mary was conceived by normal biological means (her parents had sex), but her soul was acted upon by God or kept immaculate”. Mary grew up living a life completely free of sin and stayed a Virgin Mary. Fortunately, peer pressure in those days was nothing compared to today. For the record, it was the Miraculous Conception, not the Immaculate Conception nor L’Immaculée Conception by André Breton and Paul Eluard, that involved the Angel Gabriel and the Virgin Mary.That historic event marked the first time since the birth of (wo)MAN that virginity became both a liability and a commodity, simultaneously: a burden from birth, yet a treasure to be protected by overly zealous fathers and chastity belts, only to be unlocked within the sanctity of marriage; a prize commodity sought after so ardently, perhaps even more than the Holy Grail, which every man swore his honour and allegiance to but so very few actually had partaken. Mary understood this dilemma and when the Angel Gabriel swooped down from the Heavens to announce his fertile message, Mary was already wearing a T-Shirt that said “What, me worry?” Only since James Dean hit the movie screens in a virgin white T-Shirt and faded blue jeans that clung to his ass like Pamela Anderson’s tits in a wet t-shirt contest have T-Shirts enjoyed such popularity. That is, of course, until Michael Arata got a hold of them.Isn’t this what it’s all about anyway? Getting hold of something virginal, pure white, Snow White, oil, land, your daughter’s fifteen-year-old girlfriend with the pointy breasts who never wears a bra that you just want to gut up the middle Lolita-style? Managing perceptions, rumours, beliefs, religion, culture -- did she or didn’t she get fucked in the ass? Perception: Every time you use the word fuck from now on, replace it with the word suck and you’ll see how it changes your world. Spin. Artists do it all the time. So do Presidents. So does the Church. The Vatican has known this for decades and capitalized on it. The Religious Left, the Religious Right it’s all about you believing that what you expect, desire, want to be the TRUTH - or is at the very least accepted behaviour carried out under the supervision of your peers, society or government.Michael is carrying on a time honoured tradition, spreading the WORD, crusading to restore and reform; cleansing us of our Original Sin, giving us all a second chance, a second Virginity, filling us with a child’s innocence, under one Democratic Nation and one merciful GOD. Like any other grassroots movement, Michael’s gospel gets out by word of mouth, bumper stickers, rallies, T-Shirts and nowadays, text-messaging, DVDs and Powerpoint presentations. Michael even owns and operates his own franchised Church of Mary’s Parents complete with urban Stained Glass windows. He might not have been the first to welcome all spiritual denominations into his Church, but Michael clearly has been the first to accept all major credit cards through Ticketmaster to secure a ticket to paradise. You might think these Virgin T-Shirts are a joke, and you’re probably thinking that they’re art as well; Christ, what else could they be? But you’re not sure. It’s a tough place to be with your pants down around your ankles looking silly looking at silly art no? OK, so they’re a bit kitschy sometimes. God knows that there are a million T-Shirts out there with Adidas plastered on the front, made in China and finding their way into Africa and Palestine but it’s all good. We live in a Democracy – everyone shares in the wealth.But the real question is: do you care about what you’ve become, what you wear, the car you drive, the God you pray to, the food you eat, the art you frequent? Of course you do. IM, Image Management, I told you. Pretend to be cool, pretend to be a virgin, pretend to be an artist if it helps, but it doesn’t matter and it won’t matter in today’s society cause they are all inflated currencies. Take another look at Michael Arata’s work; it is through any lens titillating without the cheap theatrics of a red light district whore or barroom stripper. The Prophet Mohammed can take you to the mountain but he can’t make you jump unless you believe. Michael has taken us up there many times before. Jump, you’ll see and you just might find that what you discover at the bottom hurts a lot harder than the fall. Open your eyes. This is you.

Kevin Freitas has been involved in the arts for most of his life (not in any particular order) as: a gallery dealer, artist, art transporter and now blogger and art writer. Art as Authority

Go Ask the LACMA and Jeff Koons: Are All Cubes Square?

Kevin Freitas — Sun, 27 May 2007 09:18:43 EDT

So what is it about boys and their toys, or should I say their choo-choo trains? The LACMA is wishing on a star both figuratively and literally in the hopes of erecting an operational replica of 1943 Baldwin 2900 class steam locomotive and Liebherr LR 1750 lattice boom crane 160' tall x 140' wide by the artist Jeff Koons, as a permanent installation after the museum’s current renovation, designed by the architect Renzo Piano, is finished. According to LA Times staff writer Diane Haithman, “the yet-to-be-created work, which would be visible for miles, would turn its wheels, whistle and belch steam three times a day.” Apparently a grant to study the feasibility of placing Koon’s Train was awarded in excess of one million dollars. Haithman quotes Koons as saying “that placing the artwork at the center of the LACMA campus would create a sort of town square for L.A., with the train essentially serving the purpose of a small-town clock tower." I think it’s pretty cool – why not? It seems to fit perfectly with Koon’s iconoclastic and eccentric personality and mirabolant career and is certainly in line with other major outdoor installations he’s produced and goes nicely it seems with LACMA’s current ambitions. So what does the MCASD (Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego) have to show for its ambitions? A Richard Serra sculpture. Not bad you say and normally I would agree with you if it was any number of other extraordinary works by Serra. I would have even settled for a Torqued Ellipses or Tilted Arc, anything other than the “plop plop fizz fizz” entitled Santa Fe Depot recently installed under the arcade at the Santa Fe Depot station, just outside the doors of the newly renovated MCASD annex. Listen,can we just this once all agree that not everything that comes out of an artist’s mind or studio is the stuff of pure genius – even for Richard Serra? Can we all agree that even sometimes the great ones, and certainly Serra is one, “make an error in judgment” if you will? The goal here is not to criticize the artist or his career but the artwork.Santa Fe Depot is for this viewer, let’s just say, extremely boring, complacent, stagnant, and unimaginable taking up a whole lot of dynamic space that any number of artists –even local San Diego artists- could have transformed into a thing of beauty. Man, what was everyone thinking? Go see for yourself, you’ll find six blocks of forged weatherproof steel each having the exact dimensions of 52” x 58” x 64” and each weighing 25 tons. Not that it matters or that you could tell unless you were that concerned as to what these blocks were doing here in the first place. Curiosity is not one of the reactions the sculpture incites within oneself when experiencing this installation as its mere presence seems almost apologetic, almost embarrassed for taking up too much space, over compensating in a very non-clever way, the concept has been drained out of the conceptualization, it is merely ballast for a very unsteady mission and journey. Unfortunately that journey ended here in San Diego no matter how much the artist wants us to “think” about these blocks. Robert Pincus the art critic for the San Diego Union Tribune writes in his article, “welding and carving aren't part of Serra's sculptural vocabulary. The block arrives straight from the foundry. The reality of their making matters. What you see matches what you get. This is part of the conceptual integrity of his art. As massive as Serra's sculptures are, they're ignited by concept. But they're just as concerned with how you experience them. He relishes the way these blocks, placed as they are, provoke a potential viewer to wonder: What are they doing here? How do I look at them? How do they relate to this site?” Trust me, people aren’t going to ponder these blocks in this way because it is exactly the reason why they don’t relate is that they don’t relate to people’s very complicated, ambitious, multi-tasking, internet connected, cell phone ringing, Hummer driving, WalMart shopping, American Idol lives that need constant stimulation and entertainment. Santa Fe Depot does not entertain, it is not necessarily the fault of the work but there is nothing the least bit poetic or melodic in this work to sooth the savage beast in all of us. It does nothing to slow us down or intrigue us and no amount of “arrangement in two axes, mirroring the idea that there are train tracks running both directions” or that “each block is aligned and turned differently, so looking down the row creates a rising and falling set of rectangles and planes” is going to make it better. There is simply no room under this arcade with matching inlaid bricks of the same color underneath, that do nothing more than absorb these forms into the ground instead of projecting them upward, levitating them in some magical act of weightlessness, defying gravity and floating effortlessly like two barges passing in the night. Please don’t be fooled, these pieces cannot support the artistic weight or local history they must bear. There is simply no room in this setting for minimalist, post-minimalist or post post minimalist work as there is no room in our lives for something that is not treacherous, deadly, chaotic, and foreseeable.It is the small things in life that count as they say, trouver du bonheur the French would say and I believe the Surrealists (of any artistic movement) would understood this better than anyone. There are plenty of Surrealistic moments in everyday life that give us pause and a huge grin on our faces – you just have to be open to them and realize some are more personalized than others. Case in point, writing this article. One of these moments occurred when I was in the process of scouring the net for what other people had to say about Richard Serra’s sculpture and the tiny little typo that made its way into one review I found. I’ve already referenced that article above, but if you look closely though under the heading On View, you’ll find written Santa De Depot instead of Santa Fe Depot. It’s no big deal right and I concur, except I was able to find my bonheur in that little mis-type. In French, the word "dés" or "les dés" means dice. And since I’m a strong believer that everything happens for a reason – even Santa Fe Depot – and since grammatically speaking you normally do not pronounce the -s- in dés, it made me realize what an apt ending this was to a crap shoot the museum took in installing this piece.

Kevin Freitas has been involved in the arts for most of his life (not in any particular order) as: a gallery dealer, artist, art transporter and now blogger and art writer. Art as Authority

Exhibition Review: Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego - Brazilian Artist Ernesto Neto

Kevin Freitas — Mon, 21 May 2007 06:16:54 EDT

I just got back from visiting the newly renovated Jacobs building at 1100 Kettner Boulevard downtown San Diego, the contemporary art annex to MCASD's (Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego) permanent exhibition space across the street. It was up until recently, the Baggage Express holding area for the Santa Fe Depot train station that is adjacent to it and still in service. It had been empty for several years and then acquired by the museum.According to the Pacific Southwest Railway Museum web site the depot is "an outstanding example of the classic Spanish Mission-Colonial Revival style of architecture, including Moorish influences." Recently christened the Jacobs building after Irwin Jacobs (the founder and chairman of Qualcomm) and his wife Joan, which is, I suspect, the result of a generous donation, is nothing less than perfect for exhibiting contemporary art.What was less than perfect was the greeting I received after paying the $10 admission fee and venturing into the main salle to see the current expo by Brazilian artist Ernesto Neto. As I entered, a museum guard with hands clasped together in some benevolent gesture of sincerity and authority came to my side and uttered, "Hi, I would like to inform you that there's no touching allowed." I assumed it wasn't himself he was talking about and that it was the installation he was referring to. I was right of course, but just minutes later I read in big, black, three-inch vinyl letters on the wall a curatorial statement put there to aid the viewer's comprehension: "Neto describes his works as both an exploration and representation of the body's landscape from within. Fascinated by skin, the largest and most sensitive organ of the human body, Neto creates works that both evoke references to skin and engage the viewer's tactile senses. It is important to Neto that the viewer should actively interact with and physically experience his work through touch, smell, and immersion. Suggesting polyps and bodily organs, Neto's Lycra forms, filled with the intoxicating scents of spices, envelop the viewer and become a labyrinth for the senses." Wait a minute. Did the curator, Stephanie Hanor, just describe the artist's intent and most importantly his wishes in a statement in black and white on the wall for a viewer like me to read, understand and then interact "through touch, smell and immersion"? I guess not.What's annoying in all of this is when contemporary art ceases to be contemporary. What is it about contemporary artwork, once it's installed or hung on the wall, that it becomes ancient, sacred, untouchable, distant, and sterile? Often times I find that contemporary art no one recognizes or sees as such is often mistaken for something else: Meaning utilized like any other ordinary object as in the case of the Richard Serra installed just outside the museum walls as a shady seat from the blazing sun. In the case of Ernesto Neto, his work is labeled as such, but the viewer is confused as to what it does and/or its' meaning - hence the explanation on the wall and Neto's explicit desire for people to touch his sculptures. Does either perception of contemporary art help its enlightenment? It's difficult to say. Neto obviously understands that people use all of their five senses in life to make sense of their environment. Touch is just one way of relating, examining, and obtaining information from something they don't quite recognize or that is foreign to them. The irony in all of this is that there were already plenty of fingerprints and graffiti on the surface of these Lycra polyps when I arrived. In fact it was one of the first things I noticed, so how did they get there and when did they get there? Were these unwanted caresses illicitly applied when the museum guard's back was turned? Shameful. While I believe it is necessary to protect all works of art from harm and I'm certainly not minimizing this in saying that it is a concern most museums have on occasion experienced worldwide, they are -- the acts of vandalism and theft -- the exception to the rule for the most part. Does it make it right? Of course not, but I wonder about the disconnection between a lot of contemporary art and its audience. I wonder if contemporary art is for everyone and especially those who may be visiting it for the first time in an institution that society has deemed necessary for personal, intellectual, and cultural enrichment. I wonder if we're not missing some very basic elementary steps in the education and understanding of contemporary art, assuming that since it is art, the message will prevail and the viewer will simply get it.I wonder if instead of telling people not to touch, we could tell people why not to touch and, in the case of Neto, what we could learn if we did. Explaining contemporary art does not take away one's personal and unique experience or interpretation of it. Even a seasoned veteran such as myself who has the habit of looking up, down, and all around an exhibition space, looking for any incongruities or circumspect objects, found, for example, the Richard Wright exhibit in the space next to Neto's difficult at best. Part of it was placement, part of it was lighting, and part of it is that art shouldn't look better in a catalog than on the wall.Reading and appreciation of art can only occur when the viewer has the full effect of what is being presented and if that presentation works. Yes, art still needs a helping hand or at least some insightful planning. In the case of Neto's installation, air conditioning and climate-controlled spaces, while good for the comfort of both the viewer and the art, shouldn't have played a role. Smell obviously plays an important part of the immersion process in Neto's work when he is using tumeric, clove, cumin, ginger, and pepper to fill his hanging pods. Keeping with his fascination of skin, (Neto) "in his commission for MCASD, the scent of the spices conjures visceral connotations. Exotic and enveloping, the discovery of new scents as one navigates through the veils of fabric, is akin to the intoxicating experience of smelling perfume on the surface of warm skin." The key word is "warm," not cool and filtered. Smell is a powerful memory trigger and an essential component in any amorous relationship. Perfume, like spices, gets you salivating. Erotic, sensual, dirty, and sweaty (not the "I just ran the Boston marathon" sort of sweatiness), all the crevasses of the skin and all orifices of the body become major stimulants as well as the cement that bonds any physical and emotional contact between lovers or gourmands. I may not have the best sense of smell, but I had to be right up on Neto's sculpture to get any whiff at all generated by an air current or two created in my passing. When I spent some time in Conakry, Guinea a few years back, I remember going to an extremely crowded open air market shaded loosely with undulated tin sheets of metal offering relief from the sun, but it was the incredible odors emanating from the center of this market that was the most inebriating - spices, salted fish, dried beef, vegetables, fruits, handmade soaps, grease, perspiration, freshly dyed fabrics, dust, heat, flies, and life. I'm almost sure Neto, amongst other hopes and desires he had, wanted this same amount of intensity and sensorial experience from his installation but the museum wouldn't let it happen. Isn't this just another form of vandalism in the name of protecting the interest of the piece, its aesthetic appeal, its monetary value, its collectiveness, its sacredness? Wouldn't you want to sacrifice just a little bit of the work's "integrity" (couldn't and wouldn't the artist just want to make another one) in exchange for a much richer viewer/public experience and understanding of the art before them? I would think so. I would hope so.Imagine for just a second the impact Neto's work would have had if the climate control had been turned off in that huge space as the day heated up - the San Diego sun beating down on the red mission tiles, the air still, a bit musty, particles of cumin dust floating lazily in the filtered light, the spices cool to the touch bundled up in their taut bosoms filled with an aromatic history thousands of years old: sensual, no. That, Ms. Hanor, is total immersion.

Kevin Freitas has been involved in the arts for most of his life (not in any particular order) as: a gallery dealer, artist, art transporter and now blogger and art writer. Art as Authority