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“On a shady, tree lined street in New York’s Chelsea, Louise Bourgeois lives in a townhouse identifiable by the curved iron gating which the sculptor herself created. Like everything else about Bourgeois, it is unique. Formerly occupied by a pornographic photographer and used as a boarding house for sailors docked at the nearby Hudson River, the house is narrow and utilitarian. Climbing the steps, one enters an arena thoroughly devoted to the making, pondering and discussing of art.“
Quote and images from W of I November 1998.
It was the summer of 2000 and The Tate Modern had just opened. I was in a summer course at Fitzwilliam College entertaining myself by sketching English rococo picture frames at the Fitzwilliam Museum. My classmate Deborah had an acquaintance Jessica who had a place in London not far from the British Library with whom we would stay on the weekends. Jessica was red haired and intense and didn’t properly rinse her dishes. I was drinking a lot of instant coffee or beer depending on the hour. One evening over a beer, Jessica who worked for a PR firm, told me that her favorite artist had paid her a compliment. Louise Bourgeois had held her hand and said that she was a dear. Jessica told that I should go to the Tate Modern and see her work.
In my fashion I didn’t know that Tate Modern was a Power Station converted by Herzog & de Meuron. I walked down into the building and with great surprise I came upon the spider sculpture Maman not quite knowing what to feel. I was in the presence of something that was impactful beyond its physical immensity but uncertain as to what it meant.
Louise Bourgeois December 25, 1911 – May 31, 2010.
The autobiography of Alice B. Toklas. c1933
Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas, United Airlines, Newark Airport, November 7, 1934.
Gertrude Stein at Monticello. February 4, 1935.
The autobiography of Alice B. Toklas. c1933
Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas, United Airlines, Newark Airport, November 7, 1934.
Gertrude Stein at Monticello. February 4, 1935.
W of I June 2003.
Photos from my phone of Thursday’s Downtown Art Walk. I love synchronous moments. Earlier that morning I had been paging through Nick Cave: Meet Me at the Center of the Earth while, scanning various receipts. I had never heard of him, captivating. A random email came in about the art walk downtown on Spring that night and I told myself to go. There I was walking downtown on Spring St. at 7:30 and I hear a lot of brass and drums. It was a little Nick Cave Soundsuit invasion. What fun. Here’s a bigger production on YouTube from the opening of the LA Art Show. Cave’s exhibition is until the 30th at the Fowler.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksm7LkzyFrk]
Photos from my phone of Thursday’s Downtown Art Walk. I love synchronous moments. Earlier that morning I had been paging through Nick Cave: Meet Me at the Center of the Earth while, scanning various receipts. I had never heard of him, captivating. A random email came in about the art walk downtown on Spring that night and I told myself to go. There I was walking downtown on Spring St. at 7:30 and I hear a lot of brass and drums. It was a little Nick Cave Soundsuit invasion. What fun. Here’s a bigger production on YouTube from the opening of the LA Art Show. Cave’s exhibition is until the 30th at the Fowler.
Prudence worked on this piece for 7 years and died a year later. She was 26. May we all produce one thing as beautiful as this in a lifetime. This piece inspired Kiki Smith’s exhibition, “Sojourn” at The Brooklyn Museum. I didn’t read much on “Sojourn”as site specific art installations tend to jerk my sense of narrative. This seems as I type a somewhat insolent thing to say, but I believe in questions and in pointing at things.
Sojourn is one of my favorite words and I think that the shortness of Prudence Punderson’s life is not lost on Kiki Smith. Nor was it lost on Prudence Punderson. The initials ‘PP’ are embroidered on the coffin. Sojourn, indeed.
From the Brooklyn Museum’s website:
Prudence Punderson’s remarkable silk embroidery offers a unique perspective on women’s lives during the Federal period. It depicts a well-appointed parlor in which three stages of a woman’s life—birth, adulthood, and death—take place, from right to left. The image is rare in that its central vignette shows a woman engaged in an artistic pursuit rather than a scene of marriage or motherhood. Also rare for the period is the portrayal of an enslaved female of African descent as an integral part of the scene. With its pronounced element of autobiography and sophisticated use of symbolic imagery, Punderson’s iconic embroidery is an inspirational narrative, which provided the model for Kiki Smith’s installation project Sojourn.
Anzen Hardware, a Downtown LA favorite. March 28, 2010.
