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Tim Hawkinson—Finding the Extraordinary in the Ordinary

Garden Variety SF

It’s been awhile since I saw the Tim Hawkinson’s exhibition Zoopsia at the Getty, almost ten years in fact now that I look it up online, and its centre-piece creation "Urberorgan" remains in my mind as one of those rare contemporary works that holds true to its eccentricity while capturing the attention of a mass public.   

Uberorgan on display at the Getty

Youtube video Owen Smigelski

Witnessing "Uberorgan’s" glutinous belching berth crowded into the architectural splendor of the Getty’s atrium was like giving a mysterious sea creature of the deep (sea slug, jelly fish, crossed with a whale and an actual organ) reign above land in a castle of man.   Hawkinson’s images and sculptural renderings of octopuses and bats, combining composites of human parts--lips, hands, fingers, nails--and recycled materials were so deceptive that it took some inspection to dissect their true provenance—unsettling, strange, rooted in the familiar.

Detail, Thumbsucker, 2015

On view Hosfelt Gallery March 26-May 7, 2016 

Cosmonaut thumb, made from impressions of Hawkinson's thumbs

Catching up with Jennifer Vanderpool

Minimalism in an Age of Hoarding: Artist Jennifer Vanderpool

I first experienced Jennifer Vanderpool’s hypersensitive reality close to a decade ago, having walked into one of her elaborate installations at the former Bandini Gallery in Culver City.  It was one of the most obsessive, engaging installations I had come across, and it remains as such in my memory today.

"Hysterical Paradise," 2008 
Bandini Art 
Hysterical Paradise, Culver City, CA 

Jennifer is someone who understands the charm of visual narratives, her works unfolding with an imaginary appreciation, and this room-sized setting was one of her most intricate stagings.  Called, 'Hysterical Paradise', the title summed up well this over-the-top, technicolor landscape of flora, fun, fervor and fanaticism (with the countless hours spanned to spin, tie, mold, paint, and glitter the eruption of pieces, immediately evident).  The work was both appealing and slightly unsettling (like eating too much cotton candy at the fair); hugging that fine line between extremes that Jennifer does so well. 

"Hysterical Paradise," 2008 
Bandini Art 
Culver City, CA

Carlos Blanco’s flair for air. . .

Sculpting with Race Cars 

In addition, to my earlier post about Carlos’ ‘post-it-note’ exhibition in Los Angeles at Lurie Gallery I thought I’d share some of his other work—sculpting with race cars. . . well, not exactly but pictures of the before and after of these unassuming chalk-like pieces offer a glimpse into his process as well as the accompanying video (and, yes, that’s him in the race car):

Carlos Blanco, "Bigger than Life" (Before and After)

A recent Spanish-language interview talks a little more about Carlos’ ‘other side’ of art-making.

I’ve invited Carlos to add in his own comments about his creative process or perhaps the images speak for themselves?

Carlos Blanco in reply:

The images shown of Before and After were attached to a commercial flight at 14.000 feet high at 540 miles /hour.

The Art Project AIR- BIGGER THAN LIFE is a four chapter project:

The TRAIN: AVE high speed train: 140 miles /hour. SPAIN.

The CAR: NASCAR CAR. 130 mile/hour. L.A. USA.

The SKY DIVING: 10.000 feet high. 130 miles/hour. FLANDES-COLOMBIA.

The AIRPLANE: 14.000 feet high 540 miles/hour. COLOMBIA.

Motivation:

The [element] of speed comes from my youth encounters with extreme sports (skateboard, hang gliding) and a mix of my roots from a country with everyone has something or an alter ego with the guerrilla.

I did some of these guerrilla acts entering with no permission to the DOCUMENTA 9 (Director: Jan Hoet) and Venice Biennale under Bonita Achile Oliva. Then the Bomb Cars (Check video), which we in Colombia describe helium balloons as bombs.

Informing artists:

Always on my mind Bas Jan Ader, Robert Smithson, Daniel Buren (airplane piece) and Calder Flying Colors for Braniff Airways.

Lincoln Clarkes, “Giving Notice”

Lincoln Clarkes, “Giving Notice”

Recent street works by photographer Lincoln Clarkes, Initial Gallery, Vancouver.

In a time when camera phones have turned ‘everyman’ into a photographer and the ‘selfie’ has surpassed the allure of the portrait, Lincoln Clarkes’ new series of works, “Giving Notice”, returns this expertise to the terrain of the skilled photographer.  In this thoughtfully curated show by Julie Lee, culled from a larger selection of work dating back to 2008, Clarkes turns his lens on the cities and people of Toronto, Vancouver, and a handful of scenes in Miami, Detroit, and London.  The show’s title, “Giving Notice”, suggests the movement of city-life itself as it shifts through its many guises from dressed-up to broken-down.

Bestowing his subjects with a straightforward ease, Clarkes disguises the true complexity of his compositions—two women sitting in a laundromat, a group of friends hanging out on a street corner, shots gazing into and through windows, city-scenes in effect doubling as character–the sensation is that of a fly on the wall, skirting the uneasy rift between discovery and that of not-so-innocent onlooker. 

Lincoln Clarkes, Bathurst Streetcar,Toronto, 2010