There have been times when I’ve turned to talk radio to get me through the drives to Santa Fe and back; because sometimes, you get sick of your own music. And I know other people who have been in the same situation (luckily, I don’t have to make that drive anymore). For example, Jonathan Sandmel used to come down to UNM and I would laugh at the wonderfully creepy (and accurate) impression he would do of Sean Hannity. And last night, driving home from Kelly’s Brew Pub in Albuquerque, I was sucked into a talk radio world that had Ozarkan women putting forth their ideas about using specially-designed pumper submarines to plug the BP well in the gulf. Another guy talked about the world ending because there is a giant gas bubble below the well that’s about to explode and release the earth’s crude into the oceans. And who was I to say they’re wrong?
Getting your head wrapped around what’s going on in the gulf is hard–especially when thoughtless punditry gets in the way–and it gets even harder when you feel the high wave of helplessness stick your stupid head in the toilet and give you this latest ecological swirly. And artists will most likely line up to make art about this: Nikes covered in oil, or perhaps someone performing as a dolphin and dying inside a gallery, which I would go see. Audiences have always derived great pleasure watching artists push themselves to the edge, and sometimes over it. And it’s that kind of expansive, maniacal activity that allows for future innovation.
I haven’t seen the new Bravo show about artists trying to be the next big thing, but it struck me today that a show like that might further confuse the definition of art as it relates to cooking (and maybe clothes design). Art is reliant on a faith-induced alchemy, whereas cooking never attempts to twist salmon into a symbol for man’s struggle for love or world-consciousness. Or maybe it does and I’m eating too quickly to realize it.
I was lucky enough to meet up with Erika Osborne and Tracy Stuckey on Tuesday and I was all ears listening to Erika talk about mountain top removal in West Virginia and how she has modified her approach to teaching and art making. Just hearing the language was interesting: slurry pond, “the hollows”, Marsh Fork, Massey.
And through all of that, things move forward. A new turbine vent for the gallery, an ad in a magazine, new work, people coming (Christina Marsh) and people about to leave (Zach Meisner, whose show you should check out at Inpost Gallery).
This is the big opening for the Biennial at SITE and I’m looking forward to going up on Sunday to see it. I feel like I should go up on Saturday to listen to Rob Storr with Sarah Lewis, Daniel Belasco, David Adjaye, Paul Chan, Mary Reid Kelley, and Kara Walker, but I’m already not feeling it. We’ll see. Either way, this Biennial will have the effect of recalling negative feelings and nostalgia about previous Biennials.