Modern Ruin

"On . . . September 25, 2008 the U.S. Government took over Washington Mutual, selling most of it to JPMorgan Chase.

"Roughly a year earlier, at the height of a frenzied economic bubble, Washington Mutual began building a new $1 million branch at 5030 Greenville Ave., just south of Lovers Lane [Dallas, TX]. Just after its completion, the government seized WaMu, and JPMorgan Chase decided not to occupy the building.

"The new building was never opened, never used, and has sat as an empty shell for more than a year.

"On February 20, 2010, Modern Ruin – an exhibition organized by Christina Rees and Thomas Feulmer – will open. The two-day exhibition will be the only use for the million-dollar building before the demolition process begins the following week.

* * * * *

"15 artists will create work inspired by and in dialogue with the building . . . ."

including Frances Bagley, Tim Best, Michael Corris, Thomas Feulmer, Annette Lawrence, M, Margaret Meehan, Tom Orr, Richard Patterson, Cam Schoepp, Noah Simblist, Christoph Trendel, Terri Thornton, Kevin Todora, Jeff Zilm. There's a "reception/intervention" Sat., Feb. 20, 8-11pm, and the exhibition will otherwise be open only Sat. and Sun. Feb. 20 and 21, 12-5pm.

In a related story today, indianexpress.com reports, "JPMorgan Chase & Co said it is cutting up to 14,000 jobs, more than previously disclosed . . . . JPMorgan expects $2.75 billion of savings from Washington Mutual . . . . by the end of 2009, sooner than originally thought."

"blind.ness"

by WaxFactory looks cool:



More at Brooklyn Rail.

C.A.R.T.E.L.

Feeling like your little artists' collective could use some "too-big-to-fail"?

Many years in the making, New York City-based 16 Beaver Group announced today the initiation of a complex multiyear process that will produce the largest global merger of arts and politics collectives known to date. Critics immediately attacked the move as being, “out of touch with recent developments in art and economics.” But the group argued at their press conference that the new mega-art collective, which will use the acronym C.A.R.T.E.L. (the group did not specify what each letter stands for), will soon be ready to compete within the current monopolistic anti-marketplace. C.A.R.T.E.L. plans to bring to a politicized cultural community a significant share of the benefits enjoyed by the recent slew of mega-mergers, also known as rescues, such as the few and well subsidized surviving banks that have risen from the ashes of the economic meltdown.

How about "Conglomerated ARTists of Every Leaning"? At any rate, count me in.

More at Art Work (via Temporary Services; see previous post here). To join C.A.R.T.E.L., e-mail cartel@16beavergroup.org.

Concert & Exhibition at Bitforms: Tristan Perich

1-Bit Symphony is an electronic composition in five movements that "explores the polyphonic potential of audio reduced to binary form." It "literally 'performs' its music live when turned on. A complete electronic circuit – programmed by the artist and packaged into a standard CD jewel case – plays the music through a headphone jack mounted into the case itself."

"By reducing sound into primary units of digital measure, Perich's musical compositions offer critique to overly produced and recorded media. Rather than use data to produce a representation of analogue phenomena, raw electrical pulses in these works create pitch and rhythm when played through a speaker-creating music that is, at its essence, electronic."

"Perich's visual compositions also explore texture, noise and order using recursive logic. Woven from geometric structures, his drawings contain layers of choreographed linear repetition. Executed with a pen connected to a machine, line in these images gives way to densely packed surfaces and planes."

As part of the show, a "pre-premiere" of Dual Synthesis for harpsichord and 1-bit electronics will take place in a benefit concert, Oct. 27, 6:30 PM. $100; tickets here. Exhibition Oct. 28 - Nov. 7, 200; all at bitforms, 529 W. 20th St., 2d flr.

2009 Armory Show

This is the first in a series of posts re- the art fairs in NYC. Please see disclaimers in the side bar at left.

More pics and vidis starting here. Because of time constraints, I only went to Pier 94.

A few of my faves at Armory were the Parkett editions (starting here), the Ryan McGinley pieces, the William Pope.L [sic] piece (starting here), and the Jon Kessler piece (starting here). I was also glad to get to see some John Bock sculptures (here and elsewhere; also see my previous post and search the page for "Bock").

I shot Pregnant Again! and some other crafty pieces partly for you, snarky! Although I also liked them. And Pan Am for you, Cris! Although I liked it, too.

I hope to discuss various trends or themes in a separate post (after I finish compressing and uploading all the pics and vidis from Pulse, Eyebeam, Scope, and Volta).