A project that was little more than a kitchen table brainstorm five months ago is now attracting attention as one of the Carnegie International’s best works. In December, when Carnegie International curator Douglas Fogle was still just talking to artists and working on his final selections, he found himself in the southern California home of film maker Doug Aitken. The two talked about projecting a film on the front of the museum. Aitken was coming off a successful piece for the Museum of Modern Art in New York and was working on a few other projects but he was excited about the possibility of being part of the International.
Aitken eventually was chosen and quickly began thinking about the piece. He came up with the idea for a film he calls “Migrations” and began shooting in Pittsburgh the third week of March. Aitken then began a migration of his own that would take him back to his home in L.A.
The film juxtaposes the natural landscape and the manmade landscape, and explores how humans have remade the country to fit their needs, including their need to feel at home even when they are halfway across the continent. Then he places the animals that once roamed the land into our environments.
A bison tosses a bed in a hotel room, a beaver explores the bathroom complete with complimentary shampoo, conditioner and coffee pot. And the omnipresent hotel television becomes the window to allow us pass between those worlds.
The work has been well received by critics and most of those who have happened upon the piece since it began showing. Aitken says he was not looking to make a film with a message or an ending. “I’m looking for a continuum, I’m looking to provoke or create a response and a personal reaction,” says Aitken, “I was after a new America, a new landscape.”
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Showing posts with label Carnegie International. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Carnegie International. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Friday, May 2, 2008
Carnegie International: The Opening
Millions of dollars, nearly three years of one man’s life, and hundreds of thousands of air miles have been invested in building the 2008 Carnegie International art exhibition and starting tomorrow the public will get to see the fruits of those labors.
Curator Douglas Fogle writes in his essay for the Carnegie International, “Underlying each of the works is an attempt to come to grips with what it means to be human today.” But that search carries a signature piece by artists Paul Thek who died in 1988. As you walk through the galleries you get a long look at Thek’s painting of the earth from space on newspaper done in the 70’s. Fogle says Thek’s work carries many of the sensibilities of the show.
As you walk into the main gallery a wall of 60 repetitive, works by Mark Bradford greets you. He uses advertising posters as the foundation for his art, building them up and sanding them down. In this instance he has collected posters for a lawyer working with dads to get custody of their children. Bradford also has two large works that almost look like a city streetscape from a satellite.
Turn around that imaginary satellite and you have the work of Vija Celmins. She builds layer after layer of blue and white paint until she comes up with what looks like a sky full of stars. They look like scientific photographs but the star fields never existed.
Objects not being what they seem is a theme that runs through the show. Peter Fischli and David Weiss have created a room filled with objects you might find in an industrial break room. A dusty vinyl couch, parts of an engine, cigarette buts. However, none of them are real. They are all made of Styrofoam and weigh next to nothing. Another artist’s makes minimalist couches out of ceramic where each “cushion” comes in at more than 200 pounds.
The Carnegie international continues outside in the courtyard where Scotland native Susan Philipsz has installed a sound piece. Philips recorded herself singing “The Banks of the Ohio.” The work is solar powered and it slows as the sun goes down. That is when another work is just getting started. Doug Aitken’s film “migrations” will be projected on the building’s façade.
Listen to a longer version of this story.
To hear all of the stories in the series click here.
Curator Douglas Fogle writes in his essay for the Carnegie International, “Underlying each of the works is an attempt to come to grips with what it means to be human today.” But that search carries a signature piece by artists Paul Thek who died in 1988. As you walk through the galleries you get a long look at Thek’s painting of the earth from space on newspaper done in the 70’s. Fogle says Thek’s work carries many of the sensibilities of the show.
As you walk into the main gallery a wall of 60 repetitive, works by Mark Bradford greets you. He uses advertising posters as the foundation for his art, building them up and sanding them down. In this instance he has collected posters for a lawyer working with dads to get custody of their children. Bradford also has two large works that almost look like a city streetscape from a satellite.
Turn around that imaginary satellite and you have the work of Vija Celmins. She builds layer after layer of blue and white paint until she comes up with what looks like a sky full of stars. They look like scientific photographs but the star fields never existed.
Objects not being what they seem is a theme that runs through the show. Peter Fischli and David Weiss have created a room filled with objects you might find in an industrial break room. A dusty vinyl couch, parts of an engine, cigarette buts. However, none of them are real. They are all made of Styrofoam and weigh next to nothing. Another artist’s makes minimalist couches out of ceramic where each “cushion” comes in at more than 200 pounds.
The Carnegie international continues outside in the courtyard where Scotland native Susan Philipsz has installed a sound piece. Philips recorded herself singing “The Banks of the Ohio.” The work is solar powered and it slows as the sun goes down. That is when another work is just getting started. Doug Aitken’s film “migrations” will be projected on the building’s façade.
Listen to a longer version of this story.
To hear all of the stories in the series click here.
Friday, February 22, 2008
Carnegie International: The Artists
The names of the 40 artists whose work will comprise the 55th Carnegie international will be officially released later today. They come from more than a dozen countries and represent a wide variety of styles. One of the first artists chosen by Carnegie International Curator Douglas Fogle was Swiss born sculptor Thomas Hirschhorn. Fogle says Hirschhorn brings to his work many of the sensibilities of the exhibition, which looks to explore the question of what it means to be human today. Like many of the artists in the show, Fogle says Hirschhorn can make something wonderful out of everyday materials.
Another artists using every day objects in new and creative ways is Haegue Yang. She creates art, using items such and mini blinds, air conditioners, theater lights and even scent machines used by department stores. Yang says she will collect much of her material from local sources before she installs in Pittsburgh to make sure she gets the right feel.
The work of American born artists Doug Aitken will grace the façade of the museum. He is creating a new film that explores the “new American landscape” and he says he was inspired by the exhibition subtitle “Life on Mars.”
Matt Monahan is also thinking about “Life on Mars.” While working on the pieces for the show he has been playing the David Bowie tune of the same name. Monahan works in paper, foam and a long list of other materials and he says he has not yet decided on what he will use for the International.
WDUQ’s Mark Nootbaar speaks to many of the artists in the version of the story aired this morning on WDUQ FM.
WDUQ’s Mark Nootbaar will examine a different aspect of the Carnegie International every month through the opening of the show.
Another artists using every day objects in new and creative ways is Haegue Yang. She creates art, using items such and mini blinds, air conditioners, theater lights and even scent machines used by department stores. Yang says she will collect much of her material from local sources before she installs in Pittsburgh to make sure she gets the right feel.
The work of American born artists Doug Aitken will grace the façade of the museum. He is creating a new film that explores the “new American landscape” and he says he was inspired by the exhibition subtitle “Life on Mars.”
Matt Monahan is also thinking about “Life on Mars.” While working on the pieces for the show he has been playing the David Bowie tune of the same name. Monahan works in paper, foam and a long list of other materials and he says he has not yet decided on what he will use for the International.
WDUQ’s Mark Nootbaar speaks to many of the artists in the version of the story aired this morning on WDUQ FM.
WDUQ’s Mark Nootbaar will examine a different aspect of the Carnegie International every month through the opening of the show.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Carnegie International: Pulling it Together
Every three years the Carnegie International opens with much fanfare and a rush of public and private reviews, but visitors rarely think about what went into choosing the artists. For the curators, that is the key to a good show and the continuation of the mission to find the “old masters of tomorrow.”
Like every Carnegie International curator in the last decade and a half Douglas Fogle came from out of town to take the job. He had to start from scratch, learning about the city, the institution and his new roll as curator of contemporary art, and of course, the International. Fogle says every curator finds the first artists or piece that they want to put into the show and it grows from there. During the last two years Fogle has logged some 200-thousand miles in the air, searching the globe for the next emerging artist.
The board of the Carnegie has been known for giving curators all the support they need to pull the show together. Fogle says they also give a great deal of freedom in putting the show together, which is a double-edged sword. “The board gives you enough rope to hang yourself,” says Fogle. The world will not know if he climbs or swings from that rope until the 55th Carnegie International opens in May.
Listen to a longer version of this story.
WDUQ’s Mark Nootbaar will examine a different aspect of the Carnegie International every month through the opening of the show.
Like every Carnegie International curator in the last decade and a half Douglas Fogle came from out of town to take the job. He had to start from scratch, learning about the city, the institution and his new roll as curator of contemporary art, and of course, the International. Fogle says every curator finds the first artists or piece that they want to put into the show and it grows from there. During the last two years Fogle has logged some 200-thousand miles in the air, searching the globe for the next emerging artist.
The board of the Carnegie has been known for giving curators all the support they need to pull the show together. Fogle says they also give a great deal of freedom in putting the show together, which is a double-edged sword. “The board gives you enough rope to hang yourself,” says Fogle. The world will not know if he climbs or swings from that rope until the 55th Carnegie International opens in May.
Listen to a longer version of this story.
WDUQ’s Mark Nootbaar will examine a different aspect of the Carnegie International every month through the opening of the show.
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