Chad Hopper's "Sky Worms"

Note Paul Slocum as the Fidgeting Chauffeur. I love the use of audio to subvert or re-define visuals (e.g., "herds" of ducks); the juxtapositions of nature vs. our tech-based but already rapidly-obsolescing virtual world, and of historical, "Olde West" clichés vs. modern trademarks; the sense of disorientation created by the welter of completely familiar yet completely odd or incongruous elements; the Zen-ness; the humor; etc.

Report from NYC

Just to let you know, I'm back in the city of hate (or as I prefer, love/hate), still wading through emails but expect soon to report at least briefly on Erick Swenson's new sculpture at James Cohan, the Whitney Biennial, the Bruce High Quality Foundation's Brucennial, Marina Abramovic and William Kentridge at MoMA, etc.

(Click on the image for a larger version.)

UPDATE: More visuals here, including more of Swenson's piece plus Marina Abramovic and Joan Jonas at MoMA and the Brucennial.

"Blueprint" at The M.A.C.

(in Dallas), curated by James Cope of the Goss-Michael Foundation, the show includes work by Brian Fridge, Amy Revier, Ted Setina, and Paul Slocum.

For Slocum's triptych, Skiing cat, Heathcliff, Garfield (2009), he appropriated an image of the cat and cleaned up the resolution, then created two more rather eery, Garfield-ish images, including the one at right. Also included in the show is Slocum's One frame of a GIF animation printed and hung above a video projection of the same animation scaled to approximately 66%, which is well worth seeing in the flesh. Slocum is represented by Dunn and Brown Contemporary.

Setina's most impressive piece, Concentrations # 2:DOPP[L(E)(L)REFLE[X(CT)ION] (2009), involves a video projected onto a free-standing, frosted glass screen mounted on a low white pedestal (note: a related piece has a similar title, punctuated slightly differently; the foregoing title is as shown on the List of Works available at The M.A.C.) In the video, a life-size Setina, wearing a white space suit, is on his hands and knees – which seem to rest directly on the white pedestal – and he appears to be vomiting. On the pedestal beneath Setina's head is a one half of a large, dark red pool – on the side of the screen away from the projector and toward center of the room; the half of the pool that should be on the other side of the screen is missing. (The image is a documentation photo shot during the filming of the video.)

There's a lot to think about re- these and other works in the show, so check it out; through Sat., Oct. 10. More info at The M.A.C.'s site.

Paul Slocum

is moving to NYC. He's made a huge contribution to the art scene in N. TX and beyond as a working artist (more at Dunn and Brown), musician (myspace page here), and gallerist (and/or gallery was, I think? the first in N. TX to show JODI, Paper Rad, Cory Arcangel, Olia Lialina and Dragan Espenschied, Kristin Lucas, Marisa Olson, Artificiel, Michael Bell-Smith, Kevin Bewersdorf, and many more, while also providing a venue for many worthy locals). And we're so going to miss Paul's hair (tamer than usual in this video).



UPDATE: Follow-up questions:

c: Do you expect to do music gigs in NY?

PS: Yes, I will probably be focusing on my music for a while after I move.

c: Any comments about how you view the relationship between work you make as a musician and work you produce as a visual artist -- present and future?

PS: I focused on music and performance for years before I got into visual art, so many of my ideas grow out of music. The general concepts are similar, but the base aesthetics require the building of different "chops." Video and music are both time-based mediums, so they have more commonalities with each other than they would with static mediums.

c: Re- discussions among your artist friends in NYC you've been missing . . . any examples of particular subjects/issues/developments?

PS: Recently, Guthrie Lonergan spoke at Light Industry, which attracted most of the best new media artists in NY, followed by everyone meeting up at a mexican restaurant to hang out and talk shop. I like both mexican food and new media.

He'll never find the quantity/quality of mex food we've got here in NY, so I'm hopeful he will be back.

Tom Moody Interviews Paul Slocum Re-

his "sampler remixer," used by Paul in his performance at the opening nite of The Program -- interview here.

Kristin Lucas's "Whatever Your Mind Can Conceive" at And/Or Gallery

. . . in Dallas, Texas -- one of the best shows I've seen anywhere in the last twelve months; smart and insightful, expressing archetypal yet urgent concerns in the idioms of today.

There are two, thematically-related parts. In the front gallery is her "contemplative installation including video, light box prints, cast rocks, and laser cut comets" featuring, among other things, fragments of a narrative including sessions the artist undertook with a real hypnotherapist to treat a grotesque eruption on her face that she purports to believe enhance her job performance as a bingo caller. In the back of the gallery is her related, "Refresh group exhibition [comprising the legal documentation and courtroom sketches from when] she legally changed her name from Kristin Lucas to Kristin Lucas as a kind of re-awakening, [plus portraits] she had her colleagues produce . . . of her before and after the change."

The work in the front gallery is shown in the picture but looks better as installed at And/Or. There are three channels of video, one screening on a boxy, older computer monitor that's been painted with a finish similar to that of the fake "rocks," and two screening wholly or partly on beautifully-knotted plywood -- a last-minute decision that may sound weird but looks fantastic and works well with the Western setting of the narrative.

See the show if you can; more info on And/Or's site.