scene of the day

A scene taken from Douglas Sirk's 1959 version of Imitation of Life, then contemporary remix of the tale of the "tragic mulatto"

wordUp

Today's Word of the Day is Irascible, meaning, marked by hot temper and easily provoked anger. Immediately, I thought of the 1951 cover of Life Magazine featuring the Abstract Expressionists (de Kooning, Rothko, Sterne, Pollock, etc.) and their protest of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The irony of the photograph, entitled The Irascibles, operates twofold. On one hand, these artists are making a statement against what art institutions considered "advanced American art." And on the other, these institutions would eventually utilize this particular art movement as the ubiquitous poster-child of U.S. cultural world dominance. How iconic/ironic.

Image: Nina Leen, The Irascibles, 1950. Life magazine. Front row, left to right: Theodore Stamos, Jimmy Ernst, Barnett Newman, James Brooks, Mark Rothko. Middle row: Richard Pousette-Dart, William Baziotes, Jackson Pollock, Clyfford Still, Robert Motherwell, Bradley Walker Tomlin. Back row: Willem De Kooning, Adolph Gottlieb, Ad Reinhardt, and Hedda Sterne.

gratuitous sidenote...

The image of Hedda Sterne (above) clutching her purse reminds me of this video clip/unPC PSA ...completely gratuitous, but hilarious nonetheless.

video cult(ure)

Because I'm in a glittery mood... from Michael Jackson's classic album Off the Wall and perhaps my favorite MJ single of all time, Rock With You.

Michael Jackson - Rock with You

Jackson's glittery ensemble is vaguely reminiscent of Nick Cave's elusive yet phantasmagorical soundsuits. You can check out some of Cave's recent work at Jack Shainman Gallery in New York City.

Image: Nick Cave, Soundsuit,Mixed Media, 98 x 16 x 20 inches, 2008.

white walls

Rachel Mason: I Rule with A Broken Heart opens tomorrow @ Andrew Rafacz Gallery in Chicago.

This excerpt was taken from a press release on behalf of the gallery:

"Since 2004, Mason has been sculpting political figures and imagining herself as one of them. The project has extended to live performances, video, albums, and writing. The body of figures began as a project called The Ambassadors, as Mason sculpted herself as an imagined ambassador to wars in her lifetime. For this exhibition, we present a literal timeline of Mason's life as a fictional ambassador to conflicts, in figurines set on a shelf that wraps around the perimeter of the gallery. Mason is interested in using her own personal experiences to address the public experience of these historical, and very real, human beings. Reading a passage in a Shambala Buddhist text led her to think of the leaders as being heartbroken, and her own interpretation is deeply empathetic, attempting to imagine what it might be like to be Saddam Hussein, Jimmy Carter, or Deng Xiaopeng."

Mason will be present to talk about her first solo exhibition in Chicago as well as the release of her new book, I Rule with a Broken Heart and she will be giving a performance on Saturday, February 7th. Click here to view the entire press release.

In addition to Mason's exhibition, A Force for Change: African American Art and the Julius Rosenwald Fund opens today at the Spertus Museum.

The works of artists such as Hale Woodruff, Elizabeth Catlett, and Aaron Douglass will be displayed. Here is an excerpt from the description of the exhibition:

"A Force for Change: African American Art and the Julius Rosenwald Fund is the first exhibition to explore the legacy of the Julius Rosenwald Fund created by the Chicago businessman and philanthropist to foster black leadership through the arts, literature, and scholarship. From 1928 to 1948, the Fund awarded stipends to hundreds of prominent and emerging African Americans artists, writers, and scholars across such disciplines as history, sociology, literature, and the visual and performing arts. A Force for Change will present the artistic and scholarly products of Julius Rosenwald’s support, and will include more than sixty paintings, sculptures, and works on paper by twenty-two Rosenwald fellows, as well as a selection of documentary and archival materials."

On Sunday, February 8th, renowned art historian Richard J. Powell (Duke) will be giving a lecture pertaining to African American art and collecting. The exhibition will be on display until August 2009.

video cult(ure)

Lauryn Hill's I Gotta Find Peace of Mind from her MTV Unplugged performance

stolen memories

The preservation of cultural memory has long-standing been a product of nationalism and integral to demonstrating the artistic and socio-political legacies of peoples of the world. So what happens when institutions that facilitate the preservation of such objects are completely ransacked and obliterated? You get what's left of the Iraq Museum in Baghdad. 

In 2003, as a consequence of the U.S. invasion into Iraq and the War on Terror, the Iraq Museum was looted, and thousands of ancient artifacts were stolen, many of which are currently circulating on the black market. This devastating occurrence has garnered international attention from the museum world, as well as key figures in international law.  It has also captured the attention of artist Michael Rakowitz, who recreates art objects and artifacts lost upon the looting of the museum with sculptures made of found pieces of paper and trash from Iraq, which function as replicas/place holders until the items are recovered. 

One of Rakowitz's artistic signatures are a confluence between seemingly simple solutions to real and extremely complicated problems and recreating a sense of urgency in addressing them. (He is well-known for providing inflatable and heated shelters for the homeless in New York)  

You can find out more about the lost objects from the Iraq Museum at the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago, and you can check out more of Michael Rakowitz's work here. 

Image: Michael Rakowitz, Male with short coat and kilted skirt, middle eastern packaging paper and glue, 2007.

scene of the day

Performance and installation artist Mona Hatoum delivers a powerful representation of war, family, sexuality and the monotony of everyday life in Measures of Distance, which features letters of correspondence between Hatoum and her mother in and out of Beirut. You can check out more of Hatoum's work at White Cube in London.

REmix

Today Visualité will reach 1000 hits! A small milestone, but a milestone nonetheless. Thanks for your continued support!!

Meanwhile, check out Sam Gilliam's 1969 draped canvas painting Light Depth, and one of Chicago artist Rashid Johnson's unconventional adaptations, often garnered with Q-tips, black-eyed peas, and chicken bones, Grand Galactic Cloak. If you like what you see, you can find Johnson's work at Monique Meloche Gallery in Chicago, as well as Gilliam's work in major art institutions across the country.

Top: Sam Gilliam, Light Depth, 1969, acrylic on canvas, 10 x 75 ft.

Bottom: Rashid Johnson, Grand Galactic Cloak, 2007.

scene of the day

Chappelle Show's Anthony Berry skit: "Holla Holla Holla"