Every once in awhile, it’s good to have one of those “Come to Jesus” moments where you ask yourself if the work you’re producing is really for you or for somebody else. Bad at Sports’ Zurich correspondent Mark Staff Brandl (who reports on Art Basel for this week’s podcast) has just completed a new video, “TV Art Evangelist,” in which he (or rather, a miniaturized version of himself as an action figure), installed at the pulpit of an equally diminutive white cube “church” aka Brandl’s Collapsible Kunsthalle, delivers a sermon “calling the artworld back to inspiration, away from hypocrisy and sophistry,” as the artist himself describes it. This 16 minute long oration is both tongue-in-cheek and deadly serious in its intent. I love the wielding of a paintbrush in lieu of a microphone. Also check out the teeny tiny versions of Brandl’s own paintings installed on the walls behind him–incredible. Watch the video, and then go check out Mr. Brandl’s website to see larger versions of these paintings along with additional series of works, critical writings and news on upcoming projects.

Claudine Isé has worked in the field of contemporary art as a writer and curator for the past decade, and currently serves as the Editor of the Art21 Blog. Claudine regularly writes for Artforum.com and Chicago magazine, and has also worked as an art critic for the Los Angeles Times. Before moving to Chicago in 2008, she worked at the Wexner Center in Columbus, OH as associate curator of exhibitions, and at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles as assistant curator of contemporary art, where she curated a number of Hammer Projects. She has Ph.D. in Film, Literature and Culture from the University of Southern California.

4 Comments

Tom Torluemke on July 31, 2009 at 1:45 pm

Mark Staff Brandl, Thanks for writing and filming this. Very poignant and strong. This is what it made me think about. As an artist, to aspiring towards nobility and reaching for the divine. (Not that we can reach it, but at least we try to have our heart and mind in the right place.) This can help us create honestly from a feeling very deep within ourself. Which helps guide us toward an investigation of all things terrestrial and celestial. The artist then is blessed with presentiments that allow the artist to rise above the fallacy of superficial behavior.
Mark Staff Brandl on August 1, 2009 at 2:15 am

Thanks Tom! Your response and Claudine’s are exactly what I hoped for. My wife told me it is guaranteed to make many people angry at me — religious folks seeing it as blasphemy, art people having great fear of the esposusal of non-cool “higher” goals for art.
Kianga Ellis on August 1, 2009 at 11:22 pm

THIS IS FANTASTIC!! Amen Brother Mark. This is righteous, not blasphemous. And God does not give us a spirit of fear.
Tom Torluemke on August 3, 2009 at 8:49 pm

Mark, Climbing the mountain of materialism and superficiality has created over the last 30 years, hard times for many. I think we are at a point now that we are on the way down from the mountain to more level ground, if you will. The climate a bit lower will be just right for artists to be able to once again aspire towards some of those uncool, higher qualities.

Mark Staff Brandl, TV Art Evangelist

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