If you missed last year’s massively hyped MoMA exhibition, Marina Abramović’s The Artist Is Present, don’t fret — Copenhagen-based artist/game designer/professor Pippin Barr had created the perfect video game approximation of the experience. In this 8-bit adventure, gamers play the part of an art fan excited to face off with Abramović in the show’s title performance piece. But first, we have to pay $25, breeze by some Van Goghs and Warhols, and then stand in a line a couple of hundred people long in order to even get a glimpse of the artist. Although the MoMA looks almost nothing like Barr’s representation of it, his lo-fi summation of that frustrating line is eerily accurate. [via Kottke]
From subway ads to blog posts to TV shows, the average American must see hundreds of celebrity photos a week. But just when we think we can’t stomach even one more, Booooooom points us to the captivating work of Antony Crook, whose low-key photographs tend to find their artist subjects in introspective moments and poses that reveal much about their personalities. David Byrne, for example, seems almost angelic, wearing all white and posing against high, white-trimmed city windows, with a multicolored array of effects pedals at his feet. Click through for a gallery of our favorite Crook photos, including portraits of Marina Abramović, Malcolm McLaren, Rufus Wainwright, Tim Burton, and more. Then be sure to visit his website, where you should also check out his otherworldly landscapes.
Earlier this week the NYPD shut down a block of Little Italy because a massive swarm of bees decided to relocate from their overcrowded hive into a city mailbox, effectively swallowing it up in a matter of minutes in a visually stunning spectacle of nature. A local beekeeper was called to isolate the queen and scoop 15,000 of bees safely away. No one got hurt, but the story generated enough fascinated buzz for us to wonder… Are bees inspiring? Why, yes! Here are our ten favorite artworks made with real bees, beeswax and honey.
[Editor's note: While your editors take the day off, Flavorwire will be counting down some of our most popular features of 2011 so far. This post originally ran on April 10th. Enjoy your Memorial Day!] This week, New York Magazine ran a series of fairly great articles documenting apartment living in New York City. One of these in particular, entitled ‘The Perpetual Garret: Where the starving artists slept’ caught our eye for its rare peek into the homes of some of our favorite artists. Inspired, here we’ve put together some of our favorites from the NY Mag article as well as some of our other favorite artists’ lairs from around the world (and the internet), the whole collection running the gamut from the tiny and cramped to the ridiculously messy to the spacious and modern. Click through to see how the other half lives.
There are artists who get grand museum retrospectives. There are artists who can’t get their foot in the door of the mainstream art world. Then, there are those artists that look the museum institution in the face, say “Meh!” and take matters into their own hands. From Banksy’s “hang and run” infiltrations of The Museum of Modern Art to Eva and Franco Mattes “borrowing” bits of art from high profile exhibitions, let’s survey a few of these interventionists, conceptual vandals and one-upping exhibit crashers with a round-up of museum hackers.
The words “art whore” get thrown a lot these days… Surely, there are reasons why artists tread the line between visual art and pornography and between performance art and prostitution other than to titillate, provoke and anger the public. Chinese artist Cheng Li was recently sentenced to a labor camp for performing such risque acts — and under a repressive political regime to boot! In light of this risktaker and in tribute of all those controversy-makers that create out of our most carnal acts — or try to — let’s survey some specimens of this art trend. Make your own conclusions. Oh, and this one is most definitely not for sensitive types.
Suffice it to say that The Art Newspaper‘s 17th annual survey of exhibition attendance figures contains a few surprises — namely the fact that a brainy look at the intersection of photography and sculpture beat out Marina Abramović’s buzzed-about retrospective, and not one, but two of the shows in the top 10 feature the work of Japanese master painter, Hasegawa Tohaku. Click through to see which other exhibitions topped the list, and head over to The Art Newspaper for the full breakdown.
“An artist should avoid falling in love with another artist, an artist should avoid falling in love with another artist, an artist should avoid falling in love with another artist…” reads Marina Abramović‘s artist manifesto. Cynical? Live with another performance artist in a van for a decade, and then decide.
Ah, artist couples. Their love is fraught with temperamental tension and lubricated by each others’ creative juices. How does it work? Let’s look at some famed artist romances that are still smearing their mark all over art history.
If an army of fully stripped people galloped down our street right now, we’d probably think, “Oh, that Spencer Tunick is at it again!” So what does it take to liven up this photography genre? Contemporary photography like Miru Kim’s nude jaunts has become iconic, but how many nighttime rooftops and decaying buildings does a girl have to climb to make a statement?
The newest photographer to join these ranks is Erica Simone whose series Nue York at Damon Dash’s New York City gallery opens next month. Let’s take a survey of the contemporary risk takers whose work toes the line between exhibitionism and fine art and how they evolve and stand out. Grab a jacket. It might get a little nippy.
Performance artist Terence Koh attracts the press once again. In his exhibition nothingtoodoo at the legendary Mary Boone Gallery in New York, Koh has taken a vow of silence and slowly circles a giant mound of salt on his knees with a monk-like reverence. With only one week left in the show, this weekend’s crowds grew thick.
The new work is a departure for Koh, whose previous sculptures, installations, and performances, while diverse, tended to expose a domme personality. Here, the physical endurance required of the work evokes many of the same questions viewers asked last year at famed Marina Abramovic’s exhibition at MoMA in New York, The Artist Is Present. When does the artist eat? How will he go to the bathroom? What will happen to his knees? Also, why does he like white so much and what’s the significance of the salt? Is anyone making spin off art or attending several times through out the course of the show? The following photo essay documents his current show, and answers a few of these questions.
