art that pops the brain: fearniture

art that pops the brain: fearniture

Joseph Wolf Grazi is not the first person to create furniture as art, but he does succeed in combining a new sophistication and confidence mixed with psychological influences. When first acquainted with the chair it becomes a matter of questioning yourself. The self is subject to either alienation of the chair (refusal to sit) or one can make the decision to be part and parcel of the art; almost as if you and the artist are forming a trusting relationship. You need to inherently trust the craftsmanship of the artist when sitting because if not the fear that you may collapse upon the needles within the plexiglass takes over your thoughts.

It is the second chair built by Joseph Grazi and serves to the viewer as a functional piece of furniture, but also a sculpture in the round. Evocative in nature, it encompasses the idea of emplacement–it affects the viewer through a total context: mind, body, and place. What the piece is able to do is evoke different reactions, which mostly depends on the personality type. If we are predisposed to fears than fearing comes organically. However, if one considers themselves more adventurous then the task of sitting becomes exhilarating. Art holds a power over our own psychological vicissitudes of self definition: we are all performing in front of an audience and apparatus.

As you walk up to the chair you first examine the 76 syringes that fill the plexiglass. You ask yourself several questions: Am I supposed to sit on this? Wait–how does an artist get a hold of 76 syringes? And as you walk around the chair and the angles and perspectives change you realize that no view is exactly the same. Gothic in stature, as you sit in the chair you feel as if you were sitting at a royal family’s dinner table, but atop syringes and plexiglass rather than rich-carved mahogany. It all comes down to being glamorous. Brigitte Weingart puts it eloquently: “Glamour is aura.” Glamour is beauty, fascination, strategies used to create an optical deception and, in terms of etymology, it can serve as an unexpected source of encouragement.

Given the transparency of the material and where the chair is placed, the aesthetic is manipulated based on its surrounding environment. The dynamism of the chair provides many distractions that lead the viewer away from the element that is trying to pull you in: “Would you like to have a seat?;” this is the psychologically-driven moment that I’ve observed first hand. Those being asked the question are left in limbo; either they take a seat (and find it pleasurable and comfortable) or they refuse. If one chooses the latter it is mostly out of fear and, thus, “fearniture” has affected this individual.

What exactly is “art that pops the brain”? It makes one think about the conversation that exists in art. The chair is perfect example because not only is it provocative it may very well scare the shit out of you. It’s not a matter of knowing a time period, it is more about the internal conversation between the chair and you. It’s only a chair; we sit in them everyday. So, have a seat or not.

Joseph Wolf Grazi’s “Fearniture” is currently on view in three different locations: Chelsea Art Museum through September 2nd; Damon Dash’s ART IS opening reception on August 18th; and Volume Black Gallery on August 20th.

new project

without a tv and copious amounts of money i decided to make a project that requires little money spent on art supplies and one utilizes items that i can find in my apartment. i woke up yesterday morning and thought of this for some reason. perhaps, it is related to a dream i had before i woke up.

i am folding origami using brown grocery bags from trader joe's and whole foods that we have in the cabinets under our sink. i like the texture of paper and how the cranes come out---it is a bit different if you were using paper made specifically for origami, a little more sturdy. it is a process piece. so, eventually they will be spray painted different colors (when it is nice enough to utilize the roof). however, i have not decided on the color scheme. once the paper is folded and painted, i will then begin to conceptualize what i want the final paper sculpture to look like, which will be composed of all these paper cranes.

i'll keep you posted as the project progresses, but for now it will probably just be a shitload of paper folding.

josh keyes

a few weeks ago i headed down to jonathan levine's gallery in chelsea to check out josh keye's show. his show sold out. i must say he is one of my favorite artists right now. his technical style coupled with contemporary social and environmental issues makes for a lasting presence in the art world. perhaps we'll see some of his stuff in the museum circuit in a few years?


josh keyes talks to juxtapoz magazine.

oh, canada.

i recently trekked up to canada to see a very good friend of mine from college, that is, ms. anela dujsic. here are a couple of cell phone photos that document my trip.

thanksgiving.

the other day i asked my student, "how was your thanksgiving?" he replied, "oh...it was good. i got a ten dollar haircut at supercuts, 900 dollar guccis, and a tattoo on my ass that says 'rip tupac shakur."

"what an eventful weekend."

The Garden

simply amazing. this documentary should be the next on your queue.

tediousness, etc.

i made this cd cover for shawn stidem's ep that comes out on september 1st:

doc loc; thank you, prometheus.

only 100 will be made
all individually numbered
and each cd has unique artwork on the cases by local artists:

robin hollis
christina entcheva
shane gertner
adam cutrone
larry mcallister II
ryan gutierrez
justine bienkowski

and more!

it is one of the three i'm makin.

this one required patience and lots of glue---which also left me trying to figure out how to get this permanent glue off my hands.

DOCLOC MUSIC

weeksville historical center: why don't more people know about this hidden beauty in the heart of brooklyn?

As I was walking down Bergen Street in Bedford Stuyvesant I was looking for Buffalo Avenue. Well, I found the cross streets, but I could not find Weeksville Heritage Center. So, I stopped a man and asked him if he knew where it was. He was not sure, but oddly enough, we were standing right in front of the site. We laughed and I made my way through the gate onto the historic Hunterfly Road and entered this hidden oasis. This road is not paved nor is it on the grid. It is a hidden gem in the heart of Brooklyn and when you walk into the old Hunterfly Road Houses it is like stepping into history.
As a group we chose the Weeksville Historical Society because it is an opportunity to share a different kind of history with our students; a history that digs deeper than the skimming textbook effect which only addresses slavery and Reconstruction. Weeksville delves deeper into the social history of free blacks from the early 19th century. Our guide told us that at one point in the 1870s Weeksville’s population consisted of 500 people and the community stretched five to six blocks in each direction. The progressive neighborhood was heavily wooded and, therefore, secluded.
The first house that we entered was that of a middle class family from the 1860s. The floors were carpeted, there was furniture from Sears Roebuck & Co, with separate bedrooms and a room in the back, not a kitchen, but it was where most of the preparation of food and goods took place. Coming to a historic site like this would be a great way for students to visually grasp a different kind of history---one that was free from shackles, whips, and plantations. A living, thriving, and hard working community that developed along with the rest of New York City and the nation. This development is evident as we made our way into the other types of houses. Adjacent to the latter house described was a house that displayed the way a working class family lived---a bit more modest, but nonetheless charming. Next, we traveled to the house that represented a family’s home from the turn of the 20th century. Here, in the parlor was a beautiful piano and atop the piano were photographs from this time period that gave a face to the home. These little details were fascinating to learn from. Artifacts throughout the home are great prompts for questions. So, why are so many teachers unaware of Weeksville’s presence in Brooklyn?
The last house I found most interesting. It was built in the early 20th century. It has beautiful molding and decorated glass cupboards. It is spacious and based on the literature and musical instruments that was lying around the living room it was clear that the family was very focused on learning and music. In a magazine holder next to an armchair was WEB Dubois’ The Crisis and an issue of Life Magazine from 1939. It was modernized and fully equipped with electricity and a telephone. Our guide has informed us that the father had four jobs to keep up the household. This house was the last house standing on Hunterfly Road. It was sold to Weeksville Historical Society in 1968.
To sum up our trip, I will leave the most exciting information for last. As our guide was talking about different primary documents (i.e. census records, artifacts, photographs, journals) they use to gather information about Weeksville and the families that lived there, I asked, “As teachers, do we have access to any of these records to share with our students?” She informed me that the WHS has begun construction on the new research facility and community center on site at Weeksville Heritage Center. It will be a green building where teachers and students can come to research. The WHS is in the process of digitizing all of the documents, so the delicate and precious materials can be democratized. The green building, which has been 40 years in the making (gathering funds, designs, finding documents and materials) will be completed in an expected 22 months.
Weeksville is the perfect opportunity to share the social history of African Americans that is close to home for our students. It is a microcosm of New York City: walking through the houses from different time periods you find that Weeksville started off rural and became urban. Weeksville was almost demolished in the mid-20th century by the NYC’s Urban Renewal Project. Luckily, Professor James Hurley, spotted Weeksville overhead by plane with a student who just so happened to have a pilot license. The Hunterfly Road Houses were officially declared New York City landmarks in 1970 and in 1971 and in 1972 they were placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

all over brooklyn, all day, everyday.

revolutionary road, george tooker, and homogeneity.

although revolutionary road has been out for quite some time, i just watched it today.

one thing that i found particularly interesting was a few scenes in the first half of the movie. the character played by dicaprio, frank, traveled from connecticut to new york to work. as he was leaving the train one day, with every other business man in a suit and cap, i thought of george tooker's painting the subway, which coincidentally was painted in the decade the movie was set to take place. i took a few screen shots and i will compare these shots to a couple of tooker's paintings. also included is an excerpt from a paper i wrote on this subject two years ago.









Government Bureau, 1956
George Tooker (American, born 1920)
Egg tempera on wood; 19 5/8 x 29 5/8 in. (49.8 x 75.2 cm)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
George A. Hearn Fund, 1956 (56.79)



George Tooker The Subway 1950. Egg tempera on gesso panel, 18 X 36 in. Whitney Museum of Art, NYC.

The cityscape [of New York] contained “rich, high-keyed raw material.” Within New York were its people, who ranged from “plutocrat to pushcart vendor, jubilant or desperate, triumphantly of the crowd or isolated in it.” The Subway is one of many city views, one in which invites the viewer; as described by an article written on 29 April 1956 in the New York Times; into New York’s underground stations, with its endless tunnels, prison-like walls and cage-like bars that are symbolically transformed by Tooker into a nightmare setting for the individual lost in “the lonely crowd.”


The emphasis placed on “the lonely crowd” by the newspaper relates the painting to sociologist David Riesman’s book The Lonely Crowd, which conveys a negative attitude similar to Tooker’s painting. Published in 1950, the same year dated to the painting, Reisman’s sociology “provided a moody contrast to the cold war’s flag-waving, arguing that the return of material prosperity led not to social peace but inner desolation.” In other words it was a sad attempt to stave off cultural despair. Furthermore, Reisman argued that the deepest problem in American life was a “quiet nihilism and depressed apathy.” Tooker gives form to this apathy in his painting in its figures, which are based on an archetype known as “the anonymous Tooker protagonist.” The Subway is a visual example of Reisman’s sociological rhetoric: “Cultural mores were enforced through people’s sensitivity to the wants and demands of those around them. There were no obvious leaders; everyone was constantly looking at everyone else. He believed that modern Americans were prisoners without bars, frantically glancing from side to side.” Tooker applied this sociological discourse to aesthetics, only taking it one step further. By using the subway as a realistic setting in New York, Tooker trapped this “lonely crowd” behind this caged and contained space, thus imprisoning these archetypal figures, which, according to Reisman, modern society thought incapable of independent action.

sex, lies and videotape

i'm not quite sure how i came across this film. perhaps browsing through instant play on netflix mixed with serious ennui due to the fact that i'm broke as hell until i get my stipend check. so, after eating samosas for dinner i watched this.

lately, i've been really interested in films from the late 80s/ early 90s (some a bit more obscure than clueless---although i do love clueless). Anywho, the movie is from 1989. if you watch it, pay particularly close attention to certain details. for example, one of the main characters, graham, mentions the fact that he is impotent. well, this is pre-viagra----being that it was introduced to the mass market in the late 90s. it is the pre-cell phone era: not one person in the film has one or mentions one. i love how everyone uses land lines. the stealthy and scandalous calls made to and from different characters are quite impressive. ann and john are married, but ann doesn't like sex. she'd rather talk to her therapist about how she cannot help but think of where all the garbage will go when there is too much for the earth to hold. to make up for his wife's pitiful sex drive, john is having an illegitimate affair with ann's artsy pre-hipster sister, cynthia. you'll have to watch the movie to fully understand the twisted plot.

we're all laughing with god.

who gets to call it art?

amazing.

tv stars in my dreams.

last night i had a dream that i was living with 4 people not two. one of these additional two people was jerry seinfeild. he disorganized my entire apartment. he took the books off the book shelf, he moved everything in the kitchen. he brought with him a microwave and a tv. it drove me nuts in my dream. i woke up around 3 am thinking this was reality. that's been happening lately. i couldn't sleep so i left my bedroom, got a glass of water and tried to go back to sleep. why am i dreaming about jerry seinfield! i don't even watch his tv show!

Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligences

This article from the New York Times is about ten years old. However, it is still relevant.

I'm researching this topic today for school. I find it interesting. So, I'm sharing it with you.



Multiple Intelligences Interview

adventures @ brooklyn brewery.

on friday we went to brooklyn brewery. for twenty dollars you get 6 tokens. each beer is a token.

the cuvee de cardoz was my favorite. a belgian strong pale ale. 8.5 %.

some how cory and i ended up in tribeca, eating sushi @ 1 am. in between the brewery and sushi we saw the xylopholks on the subway.cory was loud. he told me he was never good at using his inside voice. luckily, i made it home in one piece. before i went to bed that night i realized i had a giant bruise on my ass----the night before i fell off lc (little chair).

Passion Pit/ Shy Child/ Cale Parks

So, last night I went to see Passion Pit at Bowery with some friends. It was great, but my favorite of the night was the opener, Cale Parks. It's a solo act, it's great.

http://www.myspace.com/caleparksmusic

Paris, Je t'aime

i watched this film last night, Paris, Je t'aime. it's a compilation of 18 shorts about love, separation, joy, heartache all set in the city of paris.

my favorite shorts were:

Tuilerie by Joel and Ethan Coen.
and
Tour Eiffel by French animator Sylvain Chomet

mousebread. yum.

you wake up in the morning.

you grab the bread from the cupboard.
you take the jam out of the fridge.
you get ready to cut a slice, to put in the toaster.
and you find this.
a mouse does not belong in my bread.
perhaps, i'll eat it anyway.
maybe it will add some flavor.
i'm no longer a vegetarian. so, why not?

i've loved you so long

this movie is remarkable and i recommend it to anyone who has any interest in film.