If A Then B: Postcard Collective Spring 2016

Because Stalking Artists: In Pursuit of Home never dies...

With a behind the scenes photograph by Amelia Morris (and special thanks for watching my back during this ridiculous affair).

Emporia State Visiting Artist Lecture

Emporia State University, March 2004 (photo by Eric Conrad)

At the end of February, I visited Emporia State at the invitation of my dear friend, Eric Conrad. I first spoke here in 2004 and was happy to return to present the Stalking Artist: In Pursuit of Home series and visit students in a digital photography course. Here are some random images from the visit:

Emporia State: Where Art Departments are Tornado Shelters.

If only I had a story to tell on these rotating chalkboards.

Ever since starting the Art Department series, I am fascinated with taking quick snapshots of other classrooms in the pedagogical environment. Here is one from the Art Ed classroom....

... and jewelry display case.

The view from Eric's old (non Chair of the Art Department) office and poster advertising his Ball State University visiting artist talk.

A small detail in Yoonmi Nam's Lawrence, Kansas studio featuring one of Eric's sculptures with a cast on her arm.

Emporia State University, February 2015 (photo by Eric Conrad) - we couldn't find the pointer from eleven years ago so chalk was used instead.

In Hindsight...

Screen shot from A Brief History of John Baldessari

I should have rewatched A Brief History of John Baldessari before visiting California. I could have tested this WiFi password.

On the Subject of Stalking: Jon Horvath's "Stalking Michael Stipe"

Jon Horvath, From Stalking Michael Stipe (all images via)

I found Jon Horvath's photography last summer when he was taking over an Instagram account that I was following. He was in Southern Idaho, depicting the places I had visited days earlier for the "autobiography in water" project. After perusing his website, I discovered a small surprise, the series Stalking Michael Stipe: Another Prop to Occupy My Time. I think about it every once in awhile in relationship to my own activities, noting the differences and similarities between Stalking Artists: In Pursuit of Home. I appreciate his sincerity, the use of multimedia, and more often than not, I am thankful that I am not alone.

Jon Horvath, From Stalking Michael Stipe

From Jon's artist statement:

 

"Stalking Michael Stipe: Another Prop to Occupy My Time is an interactive multimedia installation detailing the accounts of a 36-hour photographic road trip through the Georgia landscape in pursuit of my one-time Rock n’ Roll idol. The project parameters were simple. When Michael emerged from his house the project began. When I lost his trail the project ended. All spaces I was led to in between became my photographic territory.

"Stalking Michael Stipe is experienced in 3 parts: 30” x 35” color photographs, an interactive 35mm slide box experience referencing the research and events that brought me to Michael’s door in Athens, GA, and a performed lecture detailing the many moments of coincidence that happened along the way. This online gallery is an abbreviated reinterpretation of the original installation, integrating both research slides and the final photographic outcome into a new self-contained and nonlinear sequence. Many have inquired about why I chose Michael Stipe as my subject. In short, for me, he was worth it."

Jon Horvath, From Stalking Michael Stipe 

Check out the rest of the series here.

Stalking Artists: Ed Ruscha

In June 2011, Adam Davis took the above photograph of me outside Ed Ruscha's Venice Beach address. Later on, after reading a profile in the New Yorker, I realized he lived in Beverly Hills. At the time this image was taken, Adam and I remarked how surprised we were that he lived in a "dump." I owe Ed Ruscha an apology after seeing the remainder of his real estate holdings earlier this month.

I will reiterate that this side project is supposed to be humorous with an earnest sense of trying to discover the definition of "home" as seen through the eyes of other artists. As this activity winds down (with only a handful more to go), I cannot help but feel unease. I dread every single moment of it, most specifically when I talk myself into stepping out of the car and walking by the house in question. There will be a great sense of relief when this is done. If anything, Stalking Artists: In Pursuit of Home has challenged me in ways that I have never imagined (making art from the Internet, placing myself in difficult situations, researching the law and making sure that I am not breaking it, and so on). I cannot help but wonder if anything will ever become of these photographs other than documentation proving that I did something I never imagined I could do.    

A terribly blurry photo above of the Beverly Hills address (the cake was delivered here) and a well groomed front yard (proof that the poorly positioned sun could illuminate something correctly).

One Malibu address:

Check out those security cameras:

Another Malibu house:

Yet another Malibu house:

One conclusion: Ed likes his fences and security systems.

John Baldessari Lives Here

I have threatened to find John Baldessari's house for a couple years and I can cross that off the Artist Stalking list as of last week. Above is the video still from A Brief History of John Baldessari and below is his house. The foliage has grown considerably between the two.

Of all the artist's houses I have seen, this one is my favorite (read: I am most envious of this location and design = this is something to strive for one day).

There were two visits to this Venice Beach complex because I neglected to bring the big camera the first time. This blown out photograph features the front door open (!) and evidence of someone moving around in the house (!!).

The second day, the sun was in a better position (damn this winter light) and the front door was closed.

On both days, this truck was parked out front complete with a map of the US tossed in back. That small detail was a highlight since one of my favorite artworks of his is California Map Project.

Also, see that bush on the far right of the house in the photograph below?

A piece of Camden's Rock was tossed there.

Next up... Ed Ruscha.

"Art Review" Autumn Issue 2013 is Finally Here

This academic publication is a collaboration between Ball State University,  Concordia University and Sichuan University. It's printing was delayed due to the earthquake in China last year but it is here now.

My essay looks out of context with everything else but it's great to see in print.

My bio in Mandarin (showing my ignorance = I think). Thanks to Natalie, cake decorator extraordinaire, for including the essay in the publication.

Precedent: The Kienholz House in Beyond Hope, Idaho

Ed Kienholz died in June 1994 from a heart attack while hiking near his Northern Idaho home. One year later, my friend John and I drove by the Northern Idaho house he shared with Nancy Reddin Kienholz. I still have the photographs I took nineteen years ago of the mailbox with their name on it and the airplane in the front yard.

I unexpectedly stumbled upon the house again last week. It was easy to recognize the airplane: the mannequin still resides in the pilot's seat and more rust has accumulated in the years since then. A simple thought occurred shortly after: this was my first artist stalking experience. Despite the fact that Ed was no longer alive, Nancy resided there in the summer months. I would see her in Houston in the winter at various gallery openings in the Heights, never revealing I knew anything about her Northern Idaho home. This experience of driving around Beyond Hope in search of anything that looked like a famous artist's home and finding this was ingrained in me years before the series Artist Stalking: In Search of Home began. If ever I do anything with this series beyond the essay in Art Review and posts on this blog, I need to include it in the discussion. 

Alec Soth: Steve Jobs' Family Garage

Alec Soth, Los Altos, Califoria, 2013, 2066 Crist Drive, Garage of Steve Jobs' Family Home

Ever since Alec Soth showed the above photograph during his lecture at Photolucida last year, I have thought about it in relationship to the Artist Stalking Series. It is documented in the manner of Robert Adams but in broad daylight. We do not see the shadows of the neighborhood trees overlapping the geometry like we would in an Adams' photograph, yet it, nevertheless, reminds me of the Summer Nights Walking series. The high noon light makes it less conspicuous, yet the proximity to the house suggests Soth is standing in the driveway. It is a straightforward image concentrating on the formal qualities until one reads "Garage of Steve Jobs' Family Home."

I am thinking about titles (as Soth is wont to do) and how they can force my viewers into other realizations (because photographs of houses from the street are indeed, rather dull). My title Stalking Artists: In Pursuit of Home might already contain too much information. More to ponder in the Rust Belt on the brink of summer vacation...

Artist Stalking: James Turrell #2

Once nearly five years ago, I was in a very small airplane flying over James Turrell's Roden Crater outside Flagstaff, Arizona. When the pilot offered to buzz over his ranch, the answer was an unequivical yes. A photograph was snapped and two years later, the series Stalking Artists: In Search of Home began. I have since learned that well-known artists often have one, two, three, four, and even five houses in his or her name. This week, I added the second of three addresses to my image folder on James Turrell. Here they are with a few observations.

How come every time I am (legally) around a property James Turrell owns, a truck appears making me look even more suspicious?

There is hope in making a decent living in the art world if Turrell now lives in a mansion this size (wondering if there are any experimental light spaces hidden behind all those windows?).

In addition to trucks appearing when I am nearby, the presence of a porta potty is also a commonality between his Maryland residence and Roden Crater. There is construction happening here unlike the earthwork in Flagstaff.

The front view was far more welcoming than I initially suspected from the satellite view on Google Street maps, as was the friendly woman who waved while walking her dog shortly before this photograph was taken.

Clear Water Sample: Captiva, Florida, Robert Rauschenberg's Pool

I love it when my friends participate in my clandestine activities. This box and contents arrived safely a couple weeks ago from Captiva, Florida, the location of my dream residency.

Nate Larson and Marni Shindelman gathered a water sample from Robert Rauschenberg's pool and all of a sudden two separate collections (clear water samples and artist's houses) came crashing together as one. This is something that deserves far more contemplation.

Omnipresence: James Turrell

James Turrell  [image via]

Last week, the New York Times Magazine published a lengthy article  by Wil S. Hylton on James Turrell's concurrent exhibitions at LACMA, MFAH, and the Guggenheim. Considering how much I have researched Turrell in the past, there were many passages with new information that were fascinating.

"Not everyone enjoys the Turrell experience. It requires a degree of surrender. There is a certain comfort in knowing what is real and where things are; to have that comfort stripped away can be rapturous, or distressing. It can even be dangerous. During a Turrell show at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1980, several visitors to a piece called City of Arhirit became unsteady in the bright blue haze and tried to brace themselves against a wall made of light. Some of them fell down. A few got hurt. One woman, who broke her arm, sued the Whitney and Turrell for more than $10,000, claiming that the show made her 'disoriented and confused' that she 'violently precipitated to the floor.' Another visitor, who sprained her wrist, sued the Whitney for $250,000. The museum’s insurance company then filed a claim against Turrell, and although a member of the Whitney family put a stop to the suit, Turrell still gets sore thinking about it. He spent $30,000 to defend himself, but it’s not the money that bothers him the most. It’s the lingering feeling that the work didn’t . . . work. 'On some level,' he told me, 'you’d have to say I failed.'" 

"We were at his townhouse on Gramercy Park in Manhattan. Like Turrell’s other two homes, in northern Arizona and eastern Maryland, it was furnished mostly in the Shaker style." 

[I am more astounded at how many houses some famous artists own. Looks like I have more artist stalking research to do especially since James Turrell's compound near Flagstaff was the very first photograph taken that inspired this series.]

"Much of his art is located in the far corners of the earth. There is an 18,000-square-foot museum devoted to Turrell in the mountains of Argentina, a monumental pyramid he constructed in eastern Australia and an even larger one on the Yucatán Peninsula, with chambers that capture natural light."

James Turrell, Roden Crater [image via]

"On a recent drive across the desert to see the crater, he turned to me and said, 'I was absolutely going to get this project done by the year 2000, so I’m a little embarrassed by it. There have been periods of euphoria. There have been times that I’ve been discouraged, and times when I’ve just gone out and enjoyed the place — and realized that maybe this would be it. Maybe it wouldn’t get any further.'"

"In 1966, he was arrested for coaching young men to avoid the Vietnam draft. He spent about a year in jail, and after his release in 1967, moved into a shuttered hotel in the Ocean Park section of Santa Monica."

"Over the next five decades, he would become an expert on light-bulb varieties, studying the distinctive character of neon, argon, ultraviolet, fluorescent and LEDs. For his 70th birthday last month, a friend gave him a bulb he’d never used before; Turrell was ecstatic."

"We were pulling around the base of the crater and began to climb the side. Halfway up, we turned into the parking area of a small lodge. The lodge is built mostly from local stone and leftover materials from the crater project. There is a small kitchen, a large common area and four bedrooms tucked into the back. Someday, Turrell hopes to build additional lodges and rent their rooms, so visitors can spend the night at the crater." [someday indeed]

Chuck Close's experience visiting Roden Crater in a wheel chair and the author's description of seeing the crater at dusk are not to be missed. The article ends with this passage: "The crater was perfect, and incomplete, and his time to finish it was winding down. 'You know,' he told me earlier in the truck, 'I’d like to see it myself.' [I have always known that one day I will return and see the interior as the "grand opening" at the base was never quite enough.]

Follow this link to see how the Guggenheim is constructing his piece in the rotunda. The museum guards are going to have their work cut out for them preventing people from photographing it.

Sophie Calle's "Address Book"

From Sophie Calle's introduction:

"Paris, End of June 1983
I found an address book on the Rue des Martyrs.
I decided to photocopy the contents before sending it back anonymously to its owner, whose address is inscribed on the endpaper. I will contact the people whose names are noted down. I will tell them, 'I found an address book on the street by chance. Your number was in it. I'd like to meet you.' I'll ask them to tell me about the owner of the address book, whose name I'll only reveal in person, if they agree to meet me.
Thus, I will get to know this man through his friends and acquaintances. I will try to discover who he is without ever meeting him, and I will try to produce a portrait of him over an undetermined length of time that will depend on the willingness of his friends to talk about him - and on the turns taken by the events...."

The subject (Pierre D.) recently died, enabling Sophie Calle to publish The Address Book. I talk about this work frequently in my classes and as an inspiration for the ongoing "artist stalking" series so it was a must own book for my collection.

Immediately noticeable is the form - it refers to the original address book in terms of scale, the black cord that holds the pages together and the color. In the first entry, Calle lists the facts (of course this would appeal to my organizational nature and the desire to know how things are represented numerically):

The book addresses Calle's "fear of the first contact" and how she selected who to approach. Given the year this action took place (1983 = long before the Internet invaded everyone's privacy), many of the people are more than happy to talk to Calle about Pierre D. There are some who flat out refuse (thankfully Pierre does have some friends within all those contacts).

What is so interesting is how obsolete a physical address book is these days. It is much easier to find out information about someone than it was in the early 1980s and an action like this most likely would not take place in this manner today.

My favorite part of the book (which I was not aware of before reading the publication) is that Calle visits his domicile. Calle's learned through his contacts that Pierre was working out of town for a few weeks in the Lapland and she seized the opportunity to learn where he lived.

"Here is the main door, the entryway to the building. There is no concierge, just a panel with the names of the tenants. Next to 'Pierre D. Building A. 5th floor, Right,' there is another name: 'V." and no first name. I enter the courtyard. Building A is on the left. It has a narrow stairway. The paint is peeling off, the ceiling crumbling.... On his door, Pierre has thumb-tacked an honor roll with his name on it. There is a white doorbell button. What if he has postponed or cancelled his departure? His neighbor on the same floor opens his door a crack and peers at me."

Like so many of her projects, as soon as Calle is done with the series, her interest wanes and she moves on to something else.

In terms of the "Artist Stalking" series, I thought it was far more humorous to only have photographs of male artists' homes. I would only add one woman if I found out her address and that is Sophie Calle. Wonder of all wonders, I learned about a month ago where Sophie lives. Perhaps my next trip to Europe will feature a photograph of her house.

Richard Prince Also Lives Here

Last fall, I inadvertently paid too much attention to a GPS location in my twitter feed. That action produced this piece for the Postcard Collective.  Since then, I noticed that in addition to Richard Prince's Long Island house, he also tweets from a Manhattan address. It was near the Museum of Modern Art and proved to be easy to find. Here are some quick snapshots from the iPhone (note the sculptures on the rooftop).

Realization #1: I am acquiring quite the mailing list if ever I had the guts to use it.
Realization #2: I need an old school Rolodex to store the Artist Stalking addresses preferably in the style of Phillip Johnson's:



"I know where you're going because I'm right in the middle of it." from The Philip Johnson Glass House.

(video still from above link)

Mine requires no white labels.