Missed the opening but headed over to Dude Monster! @ Think Tank tomorrow to peep the show and probably going to try and make the closing party… We really dig the underlying questions of how to deal with artistic and cultural movements in a age where the internet and 24 hour news cycle have made subcultural gestation almost extinct.
Question: how many truly American folk art traditions/subcultures (especially with a radical tinge) have you seen successfully incubate and grow into forces to be genuinely threatening to Power in the recent years? I am reminded of an advertisement for a “premium denium” company that will remain nameless but who had a campaign a few years back wherein all the copy and imagery was taken from “direct action / political activist / protest” gestures but shot and retouched so much that they looked polished beyond privilege (the jeans also set you back hundreds of dollars).
In an era in which punk = Warped Tour (for many) and communication/human connection generally takes place over social media or some other form of non-meatspace mitigated pseudo-connection, how likely is true structural change? Of course, standing in opposition to this fairly easy line of thinking are the sparks of cultural change thrown off by the likes of the Occupy movement, an essentially anarchist and genuinely radical social movement for social change and structural reworking… Well maybe we should just make some finger steeples and ruminate on it while waiting to change our online status to: socially heat dead.
From the Think Tank Gallery website:
The recent appropriation of genres like street and punk art to the gallery space has polarized many artists and fans, while pushing them forward to continue searching for something new. The idea of social “misfits“ of all kinds is the driving force behind Dude, Monsters!, which adopts a post-street art ideal of basic low-brow principle. The use of zines, alternative art spaces, and true street art and graffiti have recently been methods adopted by artists with or without a prominent voice to get their message out, and Think Tank’s vision recognizes this history. A zine created by Pelletier highlights the work and experience of each artist involved in the show, and will be given away exclusively at the opening.
Are we really post-street art? Effluvians think that while the idea has been co-opted by the cool hunters and marketing agency taste-makers (*cough*)… a vital (and still currently illegal) form of the reclamation remains vital (if a bit diluted) and while we might be a little post, that pretty much goes for everything these days. You can’t think it up before someone comes up with a line of distressed t-shirts to “represent the brand DNA” of your mental machinations… and anything even remotely anti-Power… forget about it. Just save yourself the trouble and buy the Street Art Beginners Kit at Urban Outfitters.
The exhibition includes beautiful wood mobius-like topological (and skatable!) surfaces and manifolds…
RICH HOLLAND’S LARGE-SCALE SKATEABLE SCULPTURE
Touted as the world’s first large-scale, skateable sculptural installation, The Kiasma Museum of Modern Art in Finland recently unveiled their new work by artist Rich Holland. The organic shapes with minimal, graceful lines flow upward from the ground in a manner that invites viewers to both admire and interact with the work. The piece is titled Skateable Sculpture, and was conceived of the notion that public space can orcannot – simultaneously – be owned.
LATACO has some coverage of the opening…
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