Saturday Double Feature

Toni had the idea yesterday that if were going to
go to Flux Factory to -hopefully- meet Grant
Bailie- at the Novel launch party at 7pm-
we might as well also go to PS 1 to see
Greater New York 2005- 160 New York
artists who have "emerged" since 2000-
which was nearby. This turned out to be a prescient
idea as Flux Factory was anything but easy to
get to. Our cab driver managed to barely
miss going over the Queensboro Bridge twice
trying to locate the Flux Factory. But we
did locate it in plenty of time. We also managed
to find the nearest N Train subway stop after
leaving the Flux Factory party. But Toni was
damn mad we didn't get a cab out of there!
We were disappointed to have to miss
Stan Apps and Douglas Rothschild at
the Bowery Poetry Club. Hopefully, another
blogger has filed- or will- file a reading report
on what must have been a dynamite reading!

Well, we did get to meet Grant Bailie-
and we do have good news. Here's a treat
for ::fait accompli:: readers. Two of the *Novel*
writers- so far- Grant Bailie and Laurie
Stone- have opened blogs in which they
promise to post excerpts of their novels.
These blogs are


Grant Bailie Novel Blogspot {click here}

and


Laurie Stone Novel Blogspot {click here}

After going to the blockbuster
Greater New York 2005 {click here}
we did get to meet Grant Bailie and Ranbir Sidhu
at the Flux Factory Launch. As Grant mentioned
in the interview below, he was anxious to get
started on the project. Flux Factory is a loft
building in Long Island City near Northern
Blvd where 15 artists and writers-in-residents
live and do their work. We were very pleased
to meet Grant- and Ranbir Sidhu at the launch party.
We're sure many - if not all of you- have had the
experience of meeting someone online and
finally getting to meet them in person. After a little bit of
party type waiting around, it was
a sheer delight to meet Grant- and Ranbir Sidhu.
We had spotted Grant chatting with someone
in the corner and fortunately had seen his photo
in the aforementioned interview (see below).
Fortunately we didn't need to ask him a whole
lot of questions about the project
that had already been fully answered in this very
recent interview (Grant was surprised to hear
it was already online). But we did find out that
the Flux Factory novelists involved in this project
can't leave the Factory- for long- for the entire month! Pretty
strict rules. We'll be following this project closely
here on ::fait accompli::. Best of luck to Grant
and to the other novelists participating in this
adventurous- and very rigorous- experiment in writing!

Can't resist mentioning that wandering around looking
for something to eat after visiting the amazing PS 1
massive group show we found an
excellent French restaurant in the
middle of this relatively deserted Queens area.
It is called *Tournesol* and it is located at
50-12 Vernon Blvd- but this won't help you find
it after visiting PS 1. We suggest calling for
instructions- and maybe even reservations
(we got there early but we were lucky to get a table)
(#7 train to Vernon-Jackson stop)
(718) 472-4355. Cool place.
*****************************************************
The PS 1 show is fortunately up until September 26.
We'll say right off the bat that we have never heard
Toni say she wanted to return to a group
show right after seeing one before this.
But even with several hours it was impossible to cover
this entire show. We hurriedly scribbled down a few
notes but missed the name on our favorite video in
the show- a video of a violin performance that is transformed
into a complex and rapidly mutating film, doubling and
quadrupling the image of the violinist along with constantly
accelerating the film and the music!
Here are a few favorites:

Oliver Michaels lyrical *Train* (2003-2004)
originally shown at the Shoshana Wayne Gallery.
This is a 13 minute film. The observer is a passenger
on a little train riding along the floor of a room which
disappears again and again into tiny mouse-hole
tunnels in the floorboards of the rooms only to emerge
into another room or somewhere in the surrounding
area.

Anna Conway's stunning 2001 35"x 48" painting
titled *October 17th, 41 degrees 46 minutes
N. 70 degrees 31 minutes W.* The painting
depicts four puppet heads floating in a whirling ocean
storm, with a searchboat casting a beam on
each head in moody, continuous rain.

Anna Conway- *October 17th* {click here}

James Yamada's quirky, hilarious *Smoking at Home #1* (2005).
(wood, steel, DVD player, DVD, karaoke version of
Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire" sung by Takayoshi
Nonaka, Mica Joshita and Hanayuki Hagashi, motors,
mirrors, cigarette smoke, cigarettes, laser, smoke
detector, misc. 30"x 30"x 18" plus pedstal).
This piece consists of a small wooden house constructed
out of wood and steel. The museum guard has to light a
match, put it inside the little house, which triggers a smoke
alarm- this starts up a small blue laser light show inside the tiny house
and the Johnny Cash song sung by the singers listed above.
The piece was originally shown at the Galleria Raucci in
Santamaria, Naples.
James Yamada-interview {click here}

Frank Magnotta's intricate, subtly detailed, surrealistic drawing *Breakout*
(2004 graphite on paper). An imploding, eroding, abandoned factory with broken
sign "OXY" falling off the side of the building, with a bent wire fence around it it.
Frank Magnotta at White Columns {click here}

Carol Bove's nostalgic, wistful *Adventures In Poetry* (2002) which
consists of a cheap, brown wood bookshelf with various books from
the 60's piled on it: Henry Miller, Freud's *Civilization and Its Discontents*,
The Radical Therapist, Quotations from Mao-Tse Tung, A Skeleton
Key to Finnigans Wake, the script for Michaelangelo Antonioni's *Blowup*,
Genet, The Communist Manifesto, Clockwork Orange
Carol Bove {click here}

Tobias Putrih's delicate, yet incredibly monumental cardboard sculptures,
called *Macula Series A & L* (2005) originally shown at the Max Protech
Gallery. These are biomorphic forms about 3-4 feet high and varying dimensions
around, made by cutting out thin slices of cardboard
attaching, stacking and sandwiching the pieces. The
sculptures are shown in one of the most beautifully lighted rooms in the museum,
with windows facing out on the skyline and the bridge.
You can see light through these gorgeous
cardboard sculptures, about 10 in all. Don't miss this work!!

Rico Gatson's 2001 film *Gunplay* . Sounds and images from
westerns are altered into bent and twisted, multiple, kaleidoscopic,
cartoon-like sequences, faintly reminiscent of op-art,
with sounds of gunshots and some of the lines repeating
thoughout. A witty must-see piece shown on one of the 3rd or 4th
floor staircases.

Rico Gatson- video still from Gun Play- Ronald Feldman Fine Arts {click here}

Peter Coffin's dreamlike installation piece,
*Untitled (Hollow Log with Model of the'
Universe)* A teepee in the sand, with
Neil Young-like 70's dancemix playing
inside. A mannikin with long hair, dressed in cowboy
clothes is standing in the sand looking out the
museum window onto a brick wall, with a couple of rusty beercans
lying at his feet. The piece made me think of Neil Young's
*Cowgirl in the Sand*

One of the most interesting aspects of this young
artists show is to consider what aspects of modern
and recent art is still of interest to them. Notably: Dada,
surrealism, collage, altered film and sound images and
filmed animation.
There are numerous apparent references to contemporary
artists such as Tony Oursler, Jenny Holzer, Carolee Schneeman,
Tim Hawkinson, Barbara Kruger and Vito Acconci, and many others, of course.
This is a fine opportunity to try to pick out which artists
and artistic techniques are being noticed and
seized on by more recent artists.
Nostalgia for the colorful, imaginative,
idealistic world of the 60's is clearly revealed
in many of the pieces.
But a good many of these works are more meditative
and consciously less "flashy" than their predecessors,
even when the earlier works are being echoed.
Still, preoccupation with fragmentation and discontinuity
continues apace as it has from the later 19th through the 20th century,
and much earlier, if you think of Bosch and Archimbaldo,
just to select two examples.
Very few 1980's influences seemed to be present,
thinking of the recent Lower East Side retrospective
at the Chelsea Museum: much more emphasis on technique.
Not so many pop references, a la Andy Warhol and when
they are referenced the allusions are embedded securely
within the formal techniques being employed.
Cut paper and cardboard, collage, mixed media,
and most notably gentle irony and humor are
constantly in evidence. We noted a work reflecting on
9/11 and another one concerned with the Lebanon car bombings.
We were impressed by the huge amount of excellent work
and the generally impressive qualities of of the work in this show:
profundity, social awareness, formal innovation, focus.
We'll identify many more works for discussion more closely on our
next visit.

We are definitely returning to this show next
weekend - so more on these artists next week-
there are a number of artists, such as
Mika Rothenberg and Aida Rulova, and numerous others
-whose names we missed- we need
to consider further. No doubt a number of
works will jump out at us only after a
second visit- which we plan to make
after going to view the work of
Jean Foos- studio #403
May 14 and May 15 open studio
at Jevenal Reis Studios- 43-01 22cd Street
L.I.C. 646-403-9584
E or V train to 23rd St./Ely Ave.
#7 to 45th Road/Courthouse Square
G to Court Square

walk north on 23rd Street (under the train
tracks) make a left on 44th Avenue
and right on 22 Street

Jean Foos

Images {click here}