The other highlight for me was the video ‘Annotated Plans for an Evacuation‘ (2009) by Alex Hubbard.
In the video, Hubbard continuously alters the look of an old, used Ford Tempo. He does this with styrofoam, plaster and spraypaint in a way that makes it seem like he has a very clear plan for the make-over. However, over the course of the video, the purpose for his alterations becomes increasingly unclear, while their pointlessness becomes ever more clear.
With its title and form referring to Joseph Beuys’s performance ‘I like America and America likes me’ (where Beuys was picked up from the airport with a Cadillac ambulance and brought to the gallery, where he lived with a coyote for three days) an old ambulance stands in one of the rooms of the Whitney, a film playing on its windshield. The film is comprised of different clips taken from youtube videos. The female voiceover tells us about her difficult relationship to America, while it is constantly unclear whether America is a man, a woman, a lover, a friend, or really just the country.
The original video that’s shown on the windshield of the ambulance.
The show runs until the end of this month and coming Friday, the 28th, during the Kunstweekend Charlois, we will have an altered exhibition and special activities at Galerie Gallery!
During 3 days in June 2007 Gianotti went to the technical room of the Arsenale after the closing hour of the Venice Biennale. Every evening, sitting in front of the central microphone for one hour, he sang the song “Mr. Lonely” (by Bobby Vinton), which was transmitted over speakers all across the deserted exhibition halls.
Lonely, I’m Mr. Lonely
I have nobody for my own
I am so lonely, I’m Mr. Lonely
Wish I had someone to call on the phone…
Seen last Friday at Gregor Podnar in Berlin; Ariel Schlesinger’s solo show called ‘Reverse engineering’. Although not many works and not all of them as good; a nice show, with quite some energy!
Macuga was commisioned to make new work by the Whitechapel Gallery in London, where Picasso’s ‘Guernica’ had once been exhibited. Inspired by this historic fact, Macuga made a replica of the Guernica tapestry that Nelson Rockefeller commisioned in 1955. Some thirty years later this was lent to the United Nations Headquarters in New York where it has hung ever since outside the Security Council. Offered as a deterrent to war, in 2003 the tapestry was covered by a blue curtain in front of which Colin Powell delivered his fateful speech on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
Macuga’s installation ‘The nature of the beast’ in the Whitechapel Gallery consisted of the Guernica’s replica, as well as a round meeting table (a symbol of democracy) in front of it. The room had been designed to accommodate meetings, discussions and debates around the central table, with Guernica once again as a backdrop. Groups were invited to organise these events free of charge during opening hours.
Last friday was the presentation of the work ‘Impuls’ by Thomas Bakker.
‘Impuls’ (2010) was made for the CKE Eindhoven (NL), a center for the arts.
A series of LED-screens on the outside of the building project visual noise. The screens are connected through LED lines, showing the flow of energy. The intensity of the noise corresponds with the activity inside the building and changes accordingly during the day.
The video was shot during the opening…
Alex Hubbard @ Whitney Biennial
The other highlight for me was the video ‘Annotated Plans for an Evacuation ‘ (2009) by Alex Hubbard.
In the video, Hubbard continuously alters the look of an old, used Ford Tempo. He does this with styrofoam, plaster and spraypaint in a way that makes it seem like he has a very clear plan for the make-over. However, over the course of the video, the purpose for his alterations becomes increasingly unclear, while their pointlessness becomes ever more clear.
The video, as installed at the Whitney.