Something Between Want and Desire: October 2011

Monday, October 31, 2011

"Nine Fake Cakes" Published in Afterimage

Check it out (plus this summer's addition).

Bannerman Castle on the Hudson River

The first time I saw Bannerman Castle, I was on the train from NYC to Rutland, Vermont. I had no idea what I was looking at and once arriving at my destination, I researched what on earth this dilapidating structure was in the middle of the Hudson River. I learned that the island of Pollepel was purchased in 1900 by Frank Bannerman to house ammunition and he proceeded to build a castle as a weekend home.

Needless to say he was a rich man who liked to recycle and there were a couple accidents on the island that led to its current state. Moral of the story: don't use creosote soaked boards for the flooring when gun powder is housed in the building next door. This is what remains after an explosion, a fire, and decades of vandalism.

It was a really enchanting deserted place that has undergone much transformation since it's glory days. The view of the Hudson River is also spectacular.

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Happy Halloween from "Anatomia del Corpo Humano"

Storm King Art Center

Mark di Suvero, IK OOK (left) and Are Years What? (For Marianne Moore), 1967

The photograph above of di Suvero's sculpture was my main point of reference for Storm King until I had the great fortune of visiting it in mid October. I knew it was immense (500 acres) and imposing (over 100 monumental Post WWII sculptures). I wanted to see it during autumn and it proved to be beautiful.

The field of di Suveros from above.

Tal Streeter, Endless Column, 1968

Alexander Lieberman, Iliad, 1974-76

Alexander Calder, The Arch, 1975

Robert Grosvenor's Untitled, 1970

Robert Grosvenor's Untitled, 1970 from above

Alyson Shotz, Viewing Scope, 2006

Louise Nevelson's City on the High Mountain, 1983 through the windows of the main house.

Archive photographs from the original installation in the main house.

I can't wait to return to visit this sculpture above (from the Storm King website) - Andy Goldsworthy, Five Men, Seventeen Days, Fifteen Boulders, One Wall, 2010.

In addition, there is a Maya Lin Wave Field to visit and bicycles to be rented. Truly an amazing place to see sculpture in a beautiful landscape!

Storm King Post Coming Soon but in the Meantime...

JR photographing the thermostat:

The thermostat at Storm King:

Top photo via RSSB.

Saturday, October 29, 2011

The Oddest Marilyn Monroe Photographs

By Richard Avedon no less (1958). From Fans in a Flashbulb.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Julian Schnabel Lives Here

It was easy to find the much publicized Palazzo Chupi. Its pink facade was covered in scaffolding but it was recognizable blocks away. The name comes from the nickname of Schnabel's Spanish wife, Olatz. Schnabel lives in a 50,000 square feet building that was once a stable and a perfume factory. Interior photographs can be found here. The best image in the link above certainly is the basement swimming pool (certainly not a former horse watering trough):

Something tells me I will have to return once the construction is complete.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Steve Lambert's "Everything You Want Right Now"

.... and I want you to have this. Check out Steve's website here.

Monday, October 24, 2011

Obsessive Collections by Sarah Hobbs

Sarah Hobbs, Denial, 2008

I have always loved Sarah Hobbs's Untitled (the perfectionist). Upon perusing the Critical Mass finalists, her portfolio is one that struck me the most with examples of mass collections of the same object all relating to eccentric behavior.

Untitled (paranoia), 1999

From her artist statement: "These photographs are the result of an ongoing exploration of the neurotic tendencies that exist in all of us. The images represent the psychological arena as opposed to real space. The carefully staged photographs depict phobias and obsessive-compulsive behaviors and how we attempt to deal with them. Set in domestic spaces, the images illustrate the idea that even the most comfortable spaces can house our uneasiness...."

Untitled (indecisiveness), 1999

"My process begins by researching human behavior. I then set out to put my concepts into three-dimensional form. Sometimes this process comes quickly, but other times it may take months to translate a mental image into an environment. The interiors create a mood in the work that aptly mirrors what is going on inside one’s mind while experiencing a certain condition."

Escapism, 2009

Sunday, October 23, 2011

16 Hours of the Last 28 Spent on This...

Fun times if I am blogging about tenure notebooks and faculty retreat doodles. Excuse the BAD, blurry photos. They were taken late at night in my school office. Should have used the flash. I printed 22 pages of imagery (student work and yours truly) from the past year.

I'm finished with the exception of the fact that I am waiting patiently for my peer review to appear. I don't know if it's acceptable to have a notebook this fat or whether or not I'm supposed to have two.

The (can't believe I'm admitting this) fun fact about all of this is that I started my own version of a tenure notebook the day after I graduated from high school. The proof lies here (home again with a flash = hi wrinkle!). Apparently I teach photography yet one would hardly know it from this entry.

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Doodling at the Faculty Retreat

Today I had to attend an all day faculty retreat. What follows is my doodling output for the second session (3 hours worth):

Half way through the first page (unfortunately I didn't photograph it completed)

When I turned the page over, the ink bled through from the previous doodle so I connected all the dots.

I remember two penmanship exercises we had to repeat over and over in elementary school while learning cursive. They frequently show up in my doodles. This one almost feels like punishment (it now belongs to Hannah).

The mother of all doodles! This one occupied nearly 45 minutes of my time and was compared to a rug by one of my colleagues. Faculty doodle show in the works? Perhaps!

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Dia:Beacon with Colleen

Saturday I hung out with my friend Colleen who recently moved to Red Hook, NY. We went to Dia:Beacon and saw some Richard Serras, the Blinky Palermo retrospective, and my favorite Donald Judd plywood pieces.

Richard Serra, Union of the Torus and the Sphere, 2001 (image from Dia)

Richard Serra, Torqued Ellipses, 1996-2000 (Image from Dia with a "real camera")

More Torqued Ellipses via my iPhone

Leopard spots on a Torqued Ellipse (shortly before hearing a woman loudly vocalizing sounds as she moved through one of the ellipses).

Donald Judd, Untitled, 1976 (a perfect installation in an old Nabisco factory)

Lunch at the Peekskill Marina, NY

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Hannah Barnes's "Drawings of Collections of Things"

Hannah has a new website! I'm really excited about her latest project Drawings of Collections of Things. Of course I could be very biased since one of them includes my lunch bags. From Jacinda's Lunchbags:

Here are two from Stephen's Ropes.

New (Long Overdue) Acquisitions Part 2

It's a dreary, dark day here in Muncie hence the high quality image. Fall acquisitions (i.e. birthday money) soon to be displayed on the new bookshelves (clockwise from top left): my friend Kelli Connell's Double Life; Illuminations (Venice Biennale catalog that was much easier to purchase online than haul throughout Italy); J.M. Coetzee's Disgrace (a book I've wanted for quite some time); Adam reminded me about Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder during my visit to LA over the summer after our failed attempt to see the Museum of Jurassic Technology; Jonathan Safran Foer's Tree of Codes (I decided to purchase that before it went out of print); Errol Morris's Believing is Seeing (the book I wish I had time to read right now!); and Robert Smithson's Collective Writings (on the never ending "rebuy list").