The Art Glean

Scraps and thoughts pertaining arts and culture. Mainly from Melbourne. Other places too.      

[womenartistszine]

Two Beds and the Burdens of Feminism

“If “My Bed” turned blame and responsibility inward, “Mattress Project: Carry That Weight” directs them outward. For all the parallels that may be drawn between the two works, they do not derive from identical experiences: Sulkowicz’s unadorned mattress signifies a rape, a stark violation, while Emin’s bed suggests a multiplicity of more ambiguous stories.”

[theartglean]

Design Goes Violent

Currently on show at RMIT"S Design Hub in Melbourne is American architect/designer Adam Kalkin's Remote Controlled Terrorist Coffin and a public program covering the intersection of war and design/art/sound. The 'coffin' is a death toy as such, concealing an array of weapons (drones, missiles). See it in action below .

The curatorial premise of the exhibition is the same as MoMA's online exhibition 'Design and Violence': that design can be morally ambiguous and problematic. It's a move away from seeing the medium purely as aesthetic functional objects. 

'Design and Violence' includes both objects produced for the artistic realm (Menstruation Machine) and the non-art intended (the 3D printed gun). A curatorial blurb accompanies each work in addition to a piece of writing by someone outside the art world with their take on the object in question. 

Challenging, unsettling and not exactly a soothing gallery experience. 

[theartglean]

Submission and Control

Dead Still Standing 2014

Lou Hubbard’s exhibition ‘Dead Still Standing’ turns West Space’s five galleries into a tightly controlled experience populated with installations, sculptures and video that possess an enveloping charge. The works explore, according to the press release, ‘training, submission and the aesthetics of sentimentality’.

There is a feeling of the uncanny, and an undercurrent of horror in her works, although not stated as an influence. 

Curtain with Cat-Suit 2014

The show is meticulously curated, each room distinct in tone yet unfolding in ambient accord. 

Start Fall Start 2014

'Training’ is explored in the Foucauldian sense, permeating all fields of life: childhood extra curricular activities (the horse..), school, work…theartists’ practice.  Control resides in the micro as well as macro. 

Horse Pool with Dog Puddle 2014

In the video below her sister sings (another ‘training’ activity), her contorted lips mimicking the zombie horse that sits in the opposite (Lou’s observation)

Still from Danny Boy Canon 2014

The installations at first glance appear casual, but are as carefully composed and balanced as a Mondrian painting.

Part of Horse Pool with Dog Puddle 2014

Lou said that there’s a narrative of the funeral throughout the exhibition. With this knowledge the singing, flaccid suit and curtain take on a different light.

[womenartistszine]

An Ambitious List of 1400 Films Made by Female Filmmakers

[theartglean]

It’s a truism to say that Hollywood is a boy’s club but Dr. Stacy L. Smith of the University of Southern California put this saying into stark, empirical terms: a mere 4.4% of the top 100 box-office releases in the USA were directed by women. That’s it.

[adult-mag]

[moma]

Renowned designer Milton Glaser (creator of the “I Love NY” campaign) contemplates the shooting range target as a design object for MoMA’s Design and Violence blog. 

[Shooting Range Human Target. 2014. Image courtesy iStock/axstokes]

[theartglean]

Two works capturing motion with a century between them. Daniel Crook’s (left) Truth Unveiled by Time #4 2014: organic forms birthed by 3D printing. Umberto Boccioni’s Unique Forms of Continuity in space 1913: bold Futurist dynamism.

Crooks at Anna Schwarz gallery, Boccioni at MoMA