take it or leave it, chump
A current exhibition at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, Take It or Leave It: Institution, Image, Ideology, is a deft rebuttal of Institutional Critique that mashes a variety of well-known works by well-known IC artists together in a confused jumble of brands intelligible only if viewed in the same spirit as one views a shoe rack at a department store. The message, delivered through the cunning mess organized by curators Anne Ellegood, senior curator at the Hammer Museum, and Johanna Burton, Keith Haring Director and Curator of Education and Public Engagement at the New Museum, seems to be: Institutional Critique, and by extension most current critical art, is irrelevant. Take it or leave it. I am tempted to agree.
Top 5 Weekend Picks! (2/21-2/23)
1. The Call Is Coming From Inside the House at Roots & Culture Work by Elizabeth Allen-Cannon, Rachel Mesplay Helm, Matt Roche, Pat Egger, and Danni Parelman. Roots & Culture is located at 1034 N. Milwaukee Ave. Reception Friday from 6-9pm. 2. Coriolis Effect...
Book Review: Polpo
I received Polpo as a gift. When I first held it in my hands, I wasn’t quite sure what it was. I thought it was an artbook about, I don’t know, octopuses or something. The cover is a pale sand-colored hardboard with gold embossing. The spine is naked to reveal the...
Ron Athey: In the Flesh
by Autumn Hays Considered to be one of the most renowned performance artists, Ron Athey began his works in the 80s. They are notorious for including aspects of S&M culture and it’s relation to the AIDS crisis. Athey’s iconic pieces focus on a wide range of...
