Favorite Sun: Basquiat as “The Radiant Child”

by Alice Gregory on July 30, 2010

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It’s unclear whether Davis has edited her archival footage so as to exaggerate Basquiat’s charisma or whether Basquiat’s charisma is potent enough to redeem even most throwaway of reels. Regardless, you half-expect his charms to subsume his talent. To locate Basquiat’s genius in that paradox of personality would be a misstep though, and one that he would hate. In 1981, when Annina Nosei offered him a room underneath her SoHo gallery to use as a workspace, Basquiat’s career transitioned from street to studio. He takes deep offense, however, to an interviewer who jokingly refers to him as an artist “locked in a basement.” Basquiat, without a moment’s hesitation, responds that if he were white, he would be called an “artist in residence.”

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Other Halves, Lived: Lush Life on the Lower East Side

by Daniel Pearce on July 29, 2010
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Using a novel as a way of organizing artwork activates two curatorial impulses, both of which undergird much of the work on view here. The first is to focus on atmosphere, to address the novel’s setting and thematic index without offering any chunky narrative bits; conversely, there is an impulse to invoke plot points overtly, and to intimate the book’s arc for the viewers able to discern it. This balancing act isn’t easy, but it’s pursued by Lopez-Chahoud and Evans with remarkable grace.

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Experimental Geography at iCI

by Persis Singh on July 23, 2010
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The installation chronicles the journey of two people between almost identical latitudinal points; the only difference being that one holds an Israeli passport, while the other is a Palestinian citizen. Through meandering documentary footage and texts, which are split onto separate video projections and monitors, Multiplicity’s spatial experiment calls attention to the systems of control that create starkly different experiences based on constructs such as nationality, ethnicity and race.

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The Blues is Dead, Long Live the Blues: The Most Southern Weekend on Earth

by Margaret Eby on July 22, 2010
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Which is why The Oxford American, a Southern literary journal based in Arkansas, chose Clarksdale as the site for their weekend-long shindig, a convention/festival/editorial vacation on July 9th and 10th entitled “The Most Southern Weekend on Earth.” The hundred or so intrepid festival-goers who descended on downtown Clarksdale managed to book out all the hotels and swamp the afterhours juke joints. Most of the Southern Weekend events were staged at Ground Zero, a newer blues club with a carefully curated rundown look opened by Clarksdale native Morgan Freeman—most of the locals refer to it simply as “Morgan Freeman’s place.” Along with ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons, Freeman has been instrumental in the marketing of Clarksdale as a Southern tourist spot—a piece of authentic blues history, still kicking, still accepting donations.

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Who’s Bad? The Kitsch Pop Surrealism of David LaChapelle

by Laila Pedro on July 20, 2010
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Once we start down the path of visual referents though, everything becomes tangled—If Michael is the Son and the bird the Holy Spirit, where is the third part of the Trinity, the Father? Is LaChapelle just messing around? Picking references at random? Is the impact of the Sacred Heart and Michael’s figure enough that the image doesn’t need to formalize its symbolism any further? This last option is, I think, the most palatable, because it acknowledges the preeminence of the pop in his photography. The other symbols are used, referenced, and cast aside— while the real power comes from top 40 Radio, not the Old Masters

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