small thought about minimalism

  

I was reading Jeffrey Deitch's  vision for where he wants to take MOCA; and in the article he talks about the 80's "expressive" reaction against Minimalism.  This, to me, easy explanation of both the 80's and of Minimalism seems to be pervasive in a lot of things I read. A lot of people talk about Minimalism as if it was "un-visible"; as if it were lacking in visual and emotional power.  That seems to me to be a misunderstanding of Minimalism;  Minimal art was never lacking in visuality.   I saw a retrospective of Donald Judd's work in the 80's at the Whitney (yes, when museums, for better or worse were practically empty, as Deitch mentions the MOMA being at that time, in the same article) and I realized then how emotionally powerful the work could be.  And compared to some of the things I see in museums today, Minimal art seems positively dazzling!

And in case you forgot: BOYCOTT BP-- and I wish we could boycott the government too...Visualize disaster here

I'm not easily impressed...

...though I must admit that the weather here has been impressive of late...but I digress... 

What really has me riveted is this image I keep coming back to every time I flip through my latest issue of Art Forum 

It's a picture of Herman Nitsch doing what Herman Nitsch obviously must do.  I've never been too interested in the actions of the Vienna Actionists, and I'm still not.  Europeans and their relationship with violence scare me when it is real and bore me when it is aestheticized (watch the video).  But here, with this one still, I'm affected...  

Obama says he will not tolerate pettiness...

which is funny, because he is so petty himself...  Politicians, you gotta hate them...

the inevitable march towards darkness begins...

OMG I lapsed and forgot to mark the solstice by blogging about it yesterday.  Not that it makes any difference in the inevitable shortening of days that will take me into much hated and dark Winter. Overly rational that I am, I still greet solstices and equinoxes with something akin to religious, if not fervor, at least acknowledge- ment. Those days do mark me and I like to mark them.  I totally understand Evo Morales' impulse to declare yesterday as the true new year's day in Bolivia.  Of course what in the southern hemisphere marks the lengthening of days, here only reminds me that all the lushness I see around me at the moment will, much to my chagrin, be gone in a few months...

...Lushness not withstanding; and as much as I hate "text-write", OMG is once again an appropriate beginning for my next sentence. OMG it is motherfucking hot!!!  I leave the global warming debates to those who like to debate that intellectual and political rat's nest of data; all I know is that this is the hottest June I have experienced since moving to this godforsaken place.  The sun is celebrating that which we humans on this hemisphere call summer with a vengeance! 

Well, Happy One Day After the Solstice little life giving star!

The day is now marked and I leave church to go toil under your blaze.

one more letter to the fuckers in Washington

Dear Blank,

Do you think that maybe now is a good time to start listening to T. Boone Pickens’ plan to convert our trucking fleet from oil to natural gas? 

I know it will be costly; but it is time to get off our oil addiction and diversify our sources of energy.  Was the Gulf Coast really worth destroying so we can keep gas prices at the pump artificially low.  And I say “artificially” because we clearly do not price the stuff to reflect its actual cost.  That cost includes environmental damages, the one in the Gulf being only the most visible, and all the wars we continually incur in the Middle East to supposedly keep the region stable.  No, the price at the pump does not in the least reflect our costs. 

Please stop listening to lobbyists for the oil industries, stop cow towing to the Saudis, and start listening to some other lobbyists... or if you can find your conscience, start listening to it for a change. (and yeah, I want a lot more nuclear power--- just in case you are classifying me as one more liberal environmentalist nut)

Really mad in SC,

Katya Cohen 

one more day without miracles

boycott BP

...to have faith...

It is in times like these that I wish I had faith to pray to a higher order and ask for the end of the tragedy happening in the Gulf of Mexico.  No joy.  This is a disaster made by man that will be resolved (it’s to late to solve it) by man alone without the help of any higher order.

As goes the old joke:

God is sitting in Heaven when a scientist says to Him, "Lord, we don't need you anymore. Science has finally figured out a way to create life out of nothing. In other words, we can now do what you did in the 'beginning'."

"Oh, is that so? Tell me..." replies God. 

"Well," says the scientist, "we can take dirt and form it into the likeness of You and breathe life into it, thus creating man." 

"Well, that's interesting.. Show Me. " 

So the scientist bends down to the earth and starts to mold the soil.

"Oh no, no, no..." interrupts God, "Get your own dirt."

The death and destruction continues.                                             
Boycott BP--- like prayer, it can't hurt...