Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Off to Paris

I leave tommorow for two weeks in France! I'll be attending, and reporting on, the Biennale des Antiquaires (http://www.bdafrance.eu/) and visiting River Dillon in Normandy (http://riverdillon.blogspot.com/), the Chateau de Groussay (http://www.chateaudegroussay.com/), the Musee de l'Ecole de Nancy (http://edn.nancy.fr/web/index.php/portail) and a hundred other wonderful places (I'm exhausted already). Gorgeous photos of the 1966 Biennale below.


ALIX PEARLSTEIN AT THE KITCHEN

A vintage Yves Saint laurent gold lamé blouse and a wild mink coat by J. Mendel make star appearances in Alix Pearlstein's bold, ambitious and strikingly successful video/installation After the Fall, now on view at The Kitchen. In the piece, which surrounds the viewer with projections on four sides, a cast of eight is divided into two "teams"--red and gold--suggesting opposing social groups. According to the artist (in an exclusive interview with me) the glittering metallic blouse "was the inception for developing a group identity that is flashy/trashy/glamorous/Hollywood-Vegas, in opposition to the other group that is utilitarian/sporty/abstract/bright--night and day: two different logics that are detailed and specific but can't be precisely identified in terms of time and place." The piece is absolutly mesmerizing: you are surrounded by moving figures on four sides--you move, they move, and the black box that you/they inhabit extends without limit in time and horizon. This major work is complemented by two smaller pendant pieces making this a spectacular presence in the Fall art scene. In Goldrush "a seemingly invaluable object - a white rectangular panel - is placed in the middle of a black box theater. A group of nine, each wearing an article of metallic gold clothing set upon the task of ripping it apart. They tear it to shreds, taunting, fighting and climbing all over each other to greedily gather every last shard of it for themselves." Two Women suggests a runway fashion show and, as with all the artist's work, is a hypnotic study of performance and relationship.


Tuesday, September 2, 2008

LAWRENCE COPELAND IN SILVER MAGAZINE

My article on silversmith Lawrence Copeland is now out in the September/October issue of Silver magazine (http://www.silvermag.com/). Some examples of Copeland's work from the early 1950s are shown below. Lawrence Copeland is one of the least well-known mid-20th century American silversmiths but as a student, craftsman, designer and teacher he interacted with some of the most important personalities of the mid-century crafts scene and contributed to some of the most prominent crafts institutions and enterprises. He studied silversmithing at Cranbrook and in Sweden with Baron Erik Fleming. Copeland's work was exhibited at America House, Shop One and the 1958 Brussels Worlds Fair. Now 86 years old, Copeland lives in retirement in Colorado.