Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Early Desponder


Three early responses to 9/11- my review of the Shaker Gift Drawings exhibit at The Hammer; Hunt Down & Punish, a Mannlicher Carcano piece recorded within a few days (and debuted September 21st at the Mark Dutcher-curated exhibit-in-a-van "Gas, Grass, or Ass"); and above, Ground One (2001) - a hand wited-out bootleg of Art Spiegelman's 9/11 New Yorker cover limited edition print Ground Zero.




"Last Tuesday when I got up, I was uncharacteristically organized due to the fact that I had to catch a noon plane to Dallas to participate in a roundtable discussion on the influential art schools of Los Angeles. Of course I never made it, and, having cleared my schedule for a couple of days, spent a therapeutic afternoon chopping firewood for the coming nuclear winter. When the smoke cleared, it seemed the Weekly’s Best of L.A. issue had been postponed and my column was back on schedule for today, so I had to find something to write about. It’s hard to come up with anything that doesn’t seem frivolous or disrespectful. A hypothetical précis of the canceled discussion on the influential art schools of Los Angeles? A roundup of the current bout of gallery gewgaws that mark the new L.A. art-world season? It’s hard enough, at the best of times, to make believe that my opinions are more important than anyone else’s. An aesthetic analysis of the World Trade Center destruction as a brilliantly choreographed appropriation of John Carpenter–esque B-movie cliché? No thanks, I can live without the death threats..."

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