boulevard

a new landscape inquiry loosely springing from an experimental combination of about 300 sheets of expired 4x5 film, an ultra minimalist wooden pinhole camera loaned from a friend, and the simple utter truth that i fell in love with a 14 mile palm-lined boulevard in Fresno

Saturday, January 20, 2007

Alÿs in wonderland

Head to toes: Francis Alÿs's paths of resistance - artist
ArtForum, April, 1999 by Carlos Basualdo
. . . part of an ongoing series of projects the artist calls paseos (strolls). Generally carried out with various props in tow, the paseos have been enacted in any number of diverse locales: Alÿs strolled the avenues of Havana while wearing magnetic shoes; he traversed the working-class neighborhood of Pinheiros in Sao Paulo carrying a punctured can of paint that left a fine. colored line tracing the artist's path; and, in the case of the loser/the winner, he walked from one end of Stockholm to the other clad in a sweater that unraveled with every step.

In the loser/the winner, Alÿs's work - his walking - connected two sites separated in space and time: The point of departure was the modern, rationalist building, very much in the Bauhaus style, that houses Stockholm's Museum of Science and Technology. The destination was a nineteenth-century neo-romantic structure recalling in turn the palaces of a century before: today it is home to the Nordic Museum, a curious visual encyclopedia embracing everything from ethnographic displays of Laplander culture to a recent show concerning the relationship of Swedes to their cars. Alÿs's hike had taken him through the parks that lie between the museums. At both sites, viewers had at their disposal (in racks located at the entrance of the two rooms where the exhibition took place) postcards printed with the artist's image, his back turned to us, clad in an electric blue sweater, its tonality obviously manipulated on a computer, with a long unraveled thread extending from one of the sleeves to the edge of the photo. The following typed inscription was found on the postcard:

Here is a fairy tale for you Which is just as good as true What unfolds will give you passion Castles on hills & also treason How, from his cape a fatal thread To her window the villains led.

read more about the paseo

Thursday, January 04, 2007

The Horse Fair


this is a painting i used to visit at the Metropolitan Museum, just pop in to see anytime i was headed past the musuem. it is 8 feet by 16 feet.

The Horse Fair, 1853–55
Rosa Bonheur (French, 1822–1899)
Oil on canvas; 96 1/4 x 199 1/2 in. (244.5 x 506.7 cm)
Gift of Cornelius Vanderbilt, 1887 (87.25)


the Met's description: This picture shows the horse market held in Paris on the tree-lined boulevard de l'Hôpital, near the asylum of Salpêtrière, visible in the left background. For a year and a half Bonheur went there twice a week to make sketches. She dressed as a man to avoid attention. This work was shown in the Salon of 1853 and in 1854 in Bonheur's native Bordeaux, where the municipality refused to buy it for 12,000 francs. It was apparently retouched in 1855, the year it was sold to a London dealer for 40,000 francs.

learn about an 1852 oil study for The Horse Fair
read more about Rosa Bonheur

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

oh deer, elk x-ing


the first ever electric WILDLIFE CROSSWALK has been activated in Arizona.
The crosswalk system uses thermal infrared cameras that send images to sophisticated software normally used by the military to find targets. The software determines if the object is large enough—such as an elk or deer—to be a risk to motorists. The software sends signals to electronic warning signs placed in advance of the crosswalk in either direction, and to flashing warning signs at the crosswalk.
read more about the wildlife crosswalk

ouch, my head hurts

in today's NY Times, an essay on the epidemic of diagnosis, something to consider

train the brain

interesting images of brain scans reported today. The Washington University researchers wrote: "Perhaps one of the most adaptive capacities of the human mind is the ability to fashion behaviour in anticipation of future consequences.

"Much of our everyday thought depends on our ability to see ourselves partaking in future events."

Monday, January 01, 2007

economy: 6x1 min

hey yeah so its new years day and i guess things are supposed to feel fresh, huh? they kind of do, in a way. keeping it on the quiet side. a few calls, a few movies. Angela drops by with a tiger T shirt and we sit for tea. inspiration & motivation hit. i pack up a bag and head to the gym for BOULEVARD training session number one. day one, week one. it is actually Tuesday's workout but i've had nearly three months off since CROSSWALK so i don't need my Monday Rest. it feels good to be back at it again. Happy New Year.