Saturday, September 8, 2007

From the Branch Collective

Word of the Day from The Branch Collective (i.e. dictionary.com)

fungible ..FUHN-juh-buhl.., adjective:

1. (Law) Freely exchangeable for or replaceable by another of like nature or kind in the satisfaction of an obligation.

2. Interchangeable.

3. Something that is exchangeable or substitutable. Usually used in the plural.



"People think this tax is for Social Security. But tax monies are really fungible. They get raided all the time."

-- Eugene Ludwig, "Motivated to Work," interview by Kerry A. Dolan", Forbes, March 20, 2000


"The setting is Ireland in the 1950's, but, a cynical reader might reflect, this sort of fiction is so common that the characters will be completely fungible."

-- Susan Isaacs, "Three Little Girls From School", New York Times, December 30, 1990


"Genuine eros makes us desire a particular person; crude desire is satisfiable by fungible bodies."

-- Edward Craig (general editor), Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy


Fungible comes from Medieval Latin fungibilis, from Latin fungi (vice), "to perform (in place of)."

Who Would Win In A Fight?



Otabenga Jones
vs.
Assume Vivid Astro Focus

From House of Pies to Louis Vitton leather flowers

Waht the fuck happened to Tribeza? In the three months since this promising new magazine from Austin opened in Houston with a polished graphic look and high fashion photography their content has gone from cross-culturally relevant articles to publicity photos from high-end shoe stores and vapid press release articles.

From curator Franklin Sirman in K. Bernstein's Otabenga mention: "I love collective work, where the individual gets subsumed... It's really powerful and rare these days when individuals prepare to subsume themselves in the collective."

Umm... isn't collective work on a rise in popularity is the past decade? Would The Wrong Gallery, Assume Vivid Astro Focus, Paper Rad, Animal Collective, Critical Art Ensemble, or online collectives like Wooster or ST/ART been accepted even ten years ago? (Not to say that there isn't a long history of collectives in the past century, but they weren't as successful, prevalent or diverse as the ascendant crop)

Tonight, Tonight, Tonight


Suzanne Bloom, Ed Hill, World Maker, 1992 @ Moody


Color1 @ CSAW




Midtown-
Sonja Roesch: a painter who doesn't paint.

Richmond (Gallery Row)- All of 'em!
Hooks-Epstein: A realist Chinese drawer.
New Gallery: Abstracty painter (kinda like the McClain show)
Moody: Suzanne Bloom, Ed Hill, MANUAL War and Peace and Quiet.
McMurtrey: a modernist painter.
Goldesberry: jewelry, I think...
More photos and painting and stuff as well!

River Oaks-
Texas: The same guy putting his photos of cowboy boots and bluebirds at the Blaffer.

North Downtown-
CSAW: One show of graffiti, another of interdisciplinary UH kids.

Heights-
Super Happy Fun Land: more paintings for punk rock kids and hippies.
Art Car Museum: get your war on...
Deborah Colton- Chemical City... guess what city this is about...
M2- (19th Street) "600 sq. mi" photos from Houston.

Friday, September 7, 2007

Nightwatching


The Nightwatch, 1642
What's big at Cannes? Besides Tunisian-French filmmakers, wars about the Iraq War (including the scandelous Redacted) and surprise Hong Kong action movies? A somehow "light-hearted" biopic of Rembrandt, Nightwatching, by Peter Greenaway and starring Martin Freeman- the lead from the British The Office. HERE is a huge synopsis that may drive you insane, but it's an intriguing bit of leftfield art history.

"The ideas go beyond manufacturing a film," Greenaway told Variety, “...a living phenomena...”

Damn I'm Quick

What'd you do tonight?



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Dixie Friend Gay

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fantasy poster style! friggin' Zap comics...

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Charlie-Jean Sartwelle

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Art League opening
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sweet.


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Wade Wilson
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this guy was taking pictures of people too.

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Joan Wich opening

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Floyd Newsum drawings behind the bar at JW


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William Canning at Anya Tish
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Tobye!

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Peel Gallery pimps their street cred- a conspicuously placed section of the Chronicle



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Danny Boyle's wall drawing installation at Barbara Davis

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Candy- James Surls in the back at BD

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Travis and Jagi

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Joann Park looking 60s sweet



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Hi Keijiro!

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XX, Margot Handwerker and Bert

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Glassell opening

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Lillian Warren

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Ditto

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exhibit curator Jeff Ward, Stephanie Martz, and others
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Asked by Emily Grenader to contribute to Stranger Drawings, artists
drew their versions of photos solicited from the public on the street and on Craigslist

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David Ubias and others in the collaborative installation

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contributor Haloise Redding (red vest) partying it up
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artist Seneca Garcia

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Blaffer

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David McGee

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Dan Steinhilber

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ancient technology

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James!

Waiting For the Paper...



So I was waiting for the Chron to post their photos from Diverseworks' opening last night, and now they're up HERE. Guess who's ugly ass is up on there? Yours truly! The photog apparantly missed all of the artists (curator Sasha Dela is up there) and the Diverseworks kids like Shawna Forney and Diane Barber, but Jordan Graber did catch partygoers and pieces of cake.

David McGee's installation is huge- he's going for a Don Quixote vibe with a windmill going through the roof and an installation of boxing gloves on worn poles nearby. His 'glorious failure' aesthetic has always come through in his paintings, and as the recent watercolors attest, McGee is going back to the classical... whatever that means. The Diverseworks archives are curated into a chock-full curio room in the front, instead of going for exemplary pieces or concentrating on symbolic singularities, the sheer volume of information is a very overwhelming introduction to 25 years of history. Rachel Cook was in her embroidered chef's jacket, diligently handing out lemon cake.



new logo for DWorks, whaddya think?

Our own little bit of Tokyo


What does this look like?

The redevelopment of the Astrodome is at least moving forward, although the Chron is lamenting the loss of a countrified Texas theme HERE in favor of a luxurious bullshit fantasy world more reminiscent of Las Vegas. The Japanese capitol known for running out of space at every turn holds indoor ski slopes and beaches as a substitute for the real thing, and as Houston crawls into the 21st century we have an indoor waterpark on the waterfront in Schlitterbahn and a possible indoor hotel and amusement here in the city to keep us in cozy air-conditioning at all times. Not that we're running out of space, but lets keep going- there are at least 5 ice rinks in town and I'm sure we can get an indoor mountain at some point, just like Dubai.