PARADE

PARADE by Nathalie Djurberg. Currently at the New Museum.

HUMAN NATURE

Debbie Carlos - Human Nature.

TIDY

OCD........ engage.

NO FLASHLIGHT

I can only love those dark hills
because I live in the day.

I can only see the mountain
because I live in town.

I only (claim to) love night
because I have only smelled it.

Actually living in the night means not talking about it.

I can only say 'no flashlight'
because once I accidentally forgot it.

Actually living in the night means actually walking
in the dark, means

to find caves in song.

-No Flashlight by Mount Eerie

STONE COLD

BEETLE QUEEN CONQUERS TOKYO

DEATH &

DELIRIUM OF ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE

The objective of the best art and science is not to strip nature of wonder but to enhance it.
-Mark Dion

Mark Dion's piece on Alfred Russel Wallace's malaria delirium which led to his inspiration for survival of the fittest.

MY PET FRANKENSTEIN

RUNNING THE LOPING

TWIN PEAKS, JAPAN

THE MORNING AFTER

This past weekend I visited the New Museum to see the exhibition entitled "After Nature." The title vainly presumes that humanity will finally kill off nature once and for all. It's another dire entry in the contemporary art world's backlash against biennials and big art market consumerism. Like the International Center for Photography's recent exhibition, the ironically titled Ecotopia, the New Museum's current morbid exhibition is slathered with pessimism for a world past salvation. This is plain acceptance of a bleak, barren and boring landscape free of human or animal life. Many of the works are too mundane to stir much interest, apart from the spacious fourth floor which houses a taxidermy horse body rammed into the wall, a frankenstein tree and tiny photographs of star light. All in all, another downer from the bowery's New Museum, home of the summertime blues. Never mind the building's shiny facade, the contents within create a feeling reflective of the neighborhood - the dirge of dingy and disposable modern life. Save your money and take a walk round the bowery at night for the same effect.

New York Times Review
New Yorker Review

BOWS AND ARROWS AND GUNPOWDER

I hate the Guggenheim. The NY museum has become a global franchise. Their policy is "more is more" - their emphasis is on revenue. They make new buildings, rather than putting anything worthwhile inside them. Frank Lloyd Wright's monster on Fifth Avenue is a monument to the vanity of Wright and Guggenheim and a cruel joke to any visitor attempting to climb up the entire spiral. It dwarfs most art displayed within, and it mocks the ambition of any two dimensional artwork - ironic considering it was originally built as a showroom for Guggenheim's collection of non-representational paintings.

It takes an artist like Cai Guo-Qiang to really make a visitor forget how much the Guggenheim sucks. Guo-Qiang does his best to conquer Wright's space. This mid career retrospective entitled I Want To Believe features exploding cars, gunpowder drawings, indoor boat rides, and faux animals blasted with arrows. Guggenheim loves blockbuster exhibitions and this fits the bill. But Guo-Qiang's art is too wonderful to get caught up in the politics. The tiger here speaks to extinction, man's battle with nature, and colonial defilement. An interesting contrast to the Guggenheim franchise's ambitions.

FLATOUT AND BLUESOME

"Nanoq: Flat Out and Bluesome" was a recent catalogue and exhibition of taxidermy polar bears in the UK by artists Bryndis Snaebjornsdottir and Mark Wilson. The bears were documented and then removed from their status as educational tools in museums and colonial souvenirs in stately homes. The artists were able to liberate these dead bears from their cultural roles. The bears were placed in a communal limbo where the viewer was able to contemplate the history of man domineering nature. The viewer has an opportunity to consider the polar bears' current state as stuffed trophies, and their former role in the wild. The fate of the bears' dwindiling arctic environment is also called into question. Polar Bears are a beautiful and necessary arctic animal, and they command the title of world's largest living land carnivore. Please read more about the exhibition here and here. You can read about the book at Black Dog Publishing.

TAXIDERMY 4 CASH

It's weird to have an obsessively detailed and dense website about Victorian Taxidermy. It's even weirder to name that website Taxidermy 4 Cash. Nevertheless, it is probably the most comprehensive site out there. And they really want your taxidermy.....for cash. Check out all the different taxidermists and eras; you could spend all day on the site. Its a good source for the academic and the morbidly curious.

SOCIAL TAXIDERMY

From the Bureau of Upcoming Nocturnal Events:
The Carnivorous Nights Taxidermy Contest
Friday, November 2
at UNION HALL in beautiful Park Slope, Brooklyn
Here's the details:
Secret Science Club Taxidermy Night

"Dammit, where's my javelina?"

TAXIDERMY DISSECTED

Here's a great website/blog about Taxidermy, its origins and manifestations. RAVISHING BEASTS
The image is from the Smithsonian's collection of bird skins. So neatly organized, the victorians would have been pleased.