Saturday, Aug 23, 2008

What is it like to be a bat?, "5" questions with Carrie Collins.

(28 downloads)

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Carrie Collins is 50% of 10% Tiger Fire, which will open Friday, September 5th at Copy Gallery 7-11. The other 50% being Beth Brandon who I have already interviewed here.

I would say a good 80% of the artists, who still make art, that I talk to would call anything they have to do to make money besides fine art their "day job", and many of them might work in coffee shops or grocery stores to sustain their art habit. There is nothing wrong with this way of life and I only point to it to point to how Carrie Collins is a little bit different, she loves her "day-job" which is running a company of her own making; Fabric Horse. I would say that she even puts her industrial design work, creating aesthetically awesome hip pouches, lock holsters and etc. for the bike culture (mostly), before her art work. A good 60% of the time Carrie Collins prefers a higher rationality of form and function that unities good taste with sustainability.

I would say that it isn't impossible, but perhaps highly unadvisable, for a person to be about anything 100% of the time. When we close ourselves off to options then we shut down the myriad of possibilities that life may allow us, and besides that, society created the holiday because the people always need a break from their own ideas of moral and order. When Ms. Collins picks up her sewing machine and allows herself to create any flight of fancy she can imagine regardless of function or rationale the result are works of art that address our need to escape order, if only for a moment.

Posted by Annette Monnier at 3:16 PM |   

Sunday, Aug 17, 2008

Some Say I'm a Dreamer, "5" Questions with Beth Brandon

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Picture is a group shot of everyone involved in Hang-Ups/Bang-Ups at Padlock Gallery

Beth Brandon is one of the two artists I asked to be in 10% Tiger Fire, an exhibition "I" (I think the majority of any sort of credit goes to Beth and Carrie, the artists) put together for Copy Gallery in September (coming up in like, three weeks!!!), so I think really highly of her and her art. You could even say that Beth has consumed maybe 20% of my thoughts for over a year, which when you consider I have to pay bills, work 9-5, draw some, and drink beer, is quite a lot.

In the past I expected too much from art and the art-world: I wanted it to save lives, feed the hungry, fix discrepancies in the class structure of the world and pay the IRS for me. Art is never going to do this, but art still has a really intangible awesome quality that I can't seem to ditch and still have impossible hopes for. This is why I like the work of Beth Brandon; she sort of unites a fundamentalist return to drawing with just the right amount of idealism in the power of ideas. Don't know what I'm saying? I'm not sure I do either.

Beth Brandon is a young artist in progress, just as I am a youngish (getting older all the time) artist/curator/art-writer in progress, which is to say 50% of what we try is experimental and so what we "do" isn't clearly defined. I can say that Beth has produced happenings/installations that have included a fully functional salon complete with cocktails and cucumber sandwiches. I can say she has produced art that is closer to the idea of a slumber party, and that she creates drawings and prints. She is drawn to the idea of creating a human habitat where tradition is important and our landscape dictates our actions. You can call her a utopianist if you want, but she's not the only one.

This time I tried to only ask five questions, I didn't really succeed but I think I'm going to continue to try it.

Posted by Annette Monnier at 10:53 AM |   

Wednesday, Jul 30, 2008

BEER SONG by Paper Napkin

(12 downloads)

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This song is about the only thing I want to do when I get off of work.

Posted by Annette Monnier at 7:04 PM |   

Monday, Jul 21, 2008

L-O-V-E song by Paper Napkin

(18 downloads)

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A recording of one of the last-ever paper napkin songs.

Posted by Annette Monnier at 9:35 PM |   

Thursday, Jul 10, 2008

Marisa Olson: Background Information

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Image taken from Marisa's blog

The following is a telephone conversation I had with Marisa Olson. I must warn you that the quality of the audio is appallingly bad.

The first question I asked was supposed to be "What is New Media Art?", a question Marisa, classified as a new media artist herself and also curator-at-large and staff writer for the new museum's new media component; rhizome.org, is in a better position then most to attempt to answer. However, I forgot to turn on the recorder for most of that answer.

Marisa, who lives in New York and has recently taken her oeuvre on tour to Paris, Berlin, and Cincinnati, Ohio, is in no fewer then two exhibitions in Philadelphia at the minute. A solo exhibition of her work, "Background Information", opens at the Esther M. Klein Gallery TONIGHT (she is also in Bitmap at Drexel):

Posted by Annette Monnier at 8:12 PM |   

Sunday, Apr 13, 2008

Alex Da Corte, forever and ever

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Alex Da Corte has an exhibition opening, Love Explosion, on Friday (with Jack Sloss) at Fleisher/Ollman Gallery. It's not the sort of thing you should miss out on. The text below is the transcripted version of a talk with Alex DaCorte over the hum of traffic outside The Last Drop.

For a quick primer on Alex visit his work on the web, or read this review I wrote not long ago.

Posted by Annette Monnier at 2:11 PM |   

Sunday, Mar 02, 2008

DUNE

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I've decided to start posting random music to my podcast in between interviews because interviews take so much time and effort and posting music does not.

Working on: An Interview with Alex DaCorte about, or more surrounding, his up-coming exhibition at Fleisher-Ollman, and re-vamping an old interview with the creators of Harold and Kumar go to White Castle because the second one is on it's way out. . .

This post is the theme to Dune, done all midi-style.

Posted by Annette Monnier at 1:12 PM |