Yuri Ancarani at the Hammer Museum

Here is an excerpt from Yuri Ancarani's trilogy of short films, La malattia del ferro (The disease of iron) from 2010-2012.

This is the most hypnotizing video I have seen all year. It reminded me of Ed Burtynsky's photographs of the marble mines in Northern Italy and seeing the quarries on the train ride from Florence to Cinque Terre.

The main character in the film is the Italian foreman who is coated in marble dust and sweat. The subtle nuances in sign language (and the resulting actions of the machines) and the potentially dangerous situation both he and the excavators are placed in, will cause one's jaw to drop. Even though this video clip does not do it justice, it was the most detailed resolution and high sound quality of any video I have seen in recent memory. The moment that caused me to gasp had nothing to do with marble crashing but an upclose detail of two of the foreman's missing fingers.

From the Hammer Museum's brochure:

"We are confronted with a massive white marble wall and gigantic excavator claw slowly stretching over the peak and latching onto the top to extract half the wall under the direction of the foreman, who moves back (seen in slow motion) as a chunk of the wall gently falls away and marble dust fills the air, meeting the dense fog... In Il Capo, the tanned, shirtless foreman directs his crew wordlessly, using a series of lyrical hand gestures similar to those of an air traffic controller or a symphony conductor. A series of close-ups reveal his hairy chest, a gold crucifix around his neck, and his deeply wrinkled face. Slowed down, his motions become almost balletic."

"Damage Control" at the Hirshhorn Museum

In January, I briefly mentioned reading the book Damage Control: Art and Destruction Since 1950. Imagine my surprise when it was on view at the Hirshhorn Museum over Spring Break. It featured some of my favorite video pieces including:

Steve McQueen, Dead Pan, 1997

Pipilotti Rist, Ever is Over All, 1997

Bruce Conner, A Movie, 1958 [finally available online = wish that happened when I taught Art and Its Relationship to New Technology]

Robert Rauschenberg's Erased de Kooning Drawing, 1958

I am fairly certain I have seen this Rauschenberg on half a dozen occasions. It is featured in any exhibition that includes aggression (also Target Practice: Painting Under Attack, 1949 - 1978) and suddenly, its presence is expected. I would like to be surprised the next time it makes an appearance - perhaps curated into a show focusing on exercise or meditative actions.

There were some terrific Ed Ruscha works including The Royal Road Test and Los Angeles County Museum on Fire. I was also able to spend time with John Baldessari's Cremation Project and was reacquainted with how often nuclear bombs are featured in artwork. 

East Lansing: Eli and Edythe Broad Museum

One last post from the Michigan trip. Hannah and I drove through East Lansing and visited the Eli and Edythe Broad Museum on the Michigan State University campus upon leaving Detroit. I was intrigued by the presentation of the artwork in Zaha Hadid's angular structure. I have visited her Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati many times and looked most forward to seeing this art space since it opened last year.

References to ships were inevitable when approaching from the outside.
 

 

Reflections in the main gallery with the light fading rapidly from daylight savings.

View of the main gallery from above with wall drawings at the extreme left (hard to tell if they were permanent as the signage was not obvious) and two canvases underneath them.

I won't lie - it was odd to look at art presented at these angles. I am glad to see this as an experiment but wonder if it will create problems with future installations.

The windows on the second floor resembled a Dan Flavin sculpture.

Oh yeah... there was artwork too! Here is an installation photograph of Michelle Handelman's Irma Vep, the last breath. We arrived near closing time and I would have spent far more time with this video if it was possible.

The storage space in the basement is visible, enabling the public to see even more of the collection. 

The building was highly worth the visit and here's to hoping that there will be more exhibitions that are not solely drawn from the Broad collection in the future.

The Collections of Susan Hiller

I recently discovered Susan Hiller on one of my new favorite blogs, Nihilsentimentalgia.

Susan Hiller, Homage to Joseph Beuys (felt lined cabinets of bottles of holy water collected by the artist from around the world), Ongoing from 1969

Susan Hiller, Painting Books and Painting Blocks, 1972-1984 (previously exhibited paintings reconfigured as sculpture)

 Susan Hiller, Homage to Marcel Broadthaers: Voyage, 2009

 Susan Hiller, The Last Silent Movie, 2007/2008 (20-minute single-screen video, continuous soundtrack of extinct and endangered languages subtitled on black screens)

From the artist's website:

"Each of Susan Hiller’s works is based on specific cultural artifacts from our society, which she uses as basic materials. Many of her works explore the liminality of certain phenomena including the practice of automatic writing, near death experiences, and collective experiences of unconscious, subconscious and paranormal activity."