when order is re-ordered

Brian Biskie
Fixed, Reinventing the Steel

We Expect Pharmacy Life
You Can Always Pay Prices
The Big Ingredients Expect Something Extra
Store Brands Can Help The Right Stuff A Little
Grocery Always Trusts Low Life Prices
Here It do Right For America Full More/Less



after my poem, 10 Store Slogans

(somewhat) Patiently Waiting

Adam Farcus - Sunset (digital file) 2010

New Pluto

I have re-visited this piece and finished it. Pluto has fallen from orbit/the galaxy/window pane. Installed directly on the floor, preferably under or near a window.

Adam Farcus - Eternal Night (247.7 Years) (window sticker) 2010

Scanner Lick

Adam Farcus - Scanner Lick (digital file) 2010

(detail)

New as of yesterday.

Ryman Love

Robert Ryman - The Elliot Room (Charter [center], and two pieces from the Charter Series II-V [left and right]) (Charter: Oil paint on anodized aluminum with six hexagonal round-faced steel bolts; Charter II-V: Lascaux acrylic on epoxy-edged fiberglass with aluminum with four unpainted round steel bolts) 1985-87
[image via the Art Institute website]

Why I like the white Robert Ryman paintings [Charter II - V] at the Art Institute:

*they are poetic - they have most amount of effect by the lightest touch
*even monochrome paintings can still be art objects (a canvas)
*these are painted wall sections - some as though they may have come from an office where someone painted around the furniture - in any case they are things from the world
*this tension between painting and found object is productive one for me - the work has a hard time being "this or that"
*the fact that they escape mere monochrome painting by referencing (and looking like) found objects helps to make them have even more of a light touch
+ the room (installation) is very dependent on the natural light in the space - the work seems to glow, while at the same time makes them dispensary into the wall

for me these are solid real-world objects that, taken from their original context, have become fleeting and poetic objects that both reference the every day and seem to be imbued with some magic.

orange walks

I often want to go for walks
in the evening
when the sun makes everything more orange

Big Eye

Tony Tasset - Eye (installed at Pritzker Park, Chicago) 2010

I made it down to Tony Tasset's eye yesterday. I had heard and read a lot about it. I was impressed - it is a spectacle. Lots of people where taking photos of it and it was 7pm on a Thursday (not peak tourist time). I was first struck by the size, then thoughts on big brother/all seeing eye/eye of Sauron/God, but then I was reminded of the film Amélie when Nino was following clues to get his photo books back. - He comes to a man mimicing a bronze statue that is pointing. A child next to man says, "Only a fool looks at the finger." Nino then looks to where the finger is pointing and sees Amélie putting his photo book into his scooter. - I turned around to see where the eye was looking; to see what could be so worthy of such a huge critical gaze... and saw only the intersection of State and Van Buren and a section of the loop. I think a big opportunity for commentary was lost here, but given the location I'm not sure what would be the best gazing point: Harold Washington Library? Robert Morris College? Barnes & Noble? Maybe it's just looking at us.
At any rate I do admire the amount of public draw this piece has. Tasset says himself in this Tribune article,

"I'm an artist that's shown in galleries, and occasionally museums, and I've made all kinds of different work, some of it very exclusive," he said. "But these public works … suddenly to try to make a work which sort of addressed everybody, was weirdly freeing for me. It was like I came to a point, maybe sometime in my early 40s, where I thought, I just don't think it's good enough to say, 'Oh, you all are idiots. Here's my art: Take it or leave it.' I just thought that somehow, even if I, as an artist, liked it, that just wasn't a satisfactory answer." He said his goal as a public artist is to make work that both appeals to "intellectuals" and speaks to a wider audience. "With every piece," he said, "I'm always negotiating how much the audience can handle — what they like, what they don't like."

As further example, it was #3 on the Yahoo 'trending' list today. Evidently Gaga and Rachel Maddow are more popular now, not bad.

More on light and faith

Eaton Chapel, Beloit College, Beloit, WI

Untitled

Adam Farcus - Untitled (rag on conduit box) 2008-2010

After having this thing/piece around for 2 years I think I've finished it (or let it settle) - so may move on. In person it is slightly uncanny in that it seems purposeful but it is not clear what the purpose is. It is almost accidental, and it resembles some sort of nest or marker.

UPDATE: This needs a better title - something poetic. It is a mysterious piece; part magical, part romantic, and part uncanny.