Gothamist has a small review of John Weir‘s new book, What I Did Wrong. The best part about the posting, though, is John’s wondeful comment in response to the review. We love him.

[at least ones where I have a photo]

Some of these have closed, unfortunately.

Matt Connors at Sikkema Jenkins, Turn The Beat Around

Lars Fisk at Taxter & Spengemann

Jennifer Toth at Holland Tunnel, Ménage à Trois (through April 16)

Larry Bamburg at Esso (through April 15) — He also has amazing kinetic sculptures which I was unable to photograph.

David Humphrey at Triple Candie — See this post by James for more.

Icelanders, photo by Dona Ann McAdams

Michael Turay as The Gnome, photo by Dona Ann McAdams

It’s a cheesy title, but I couldn’t resist. Now through April 9 you have a chance to see an extraordinary opera by the composer Michael Webster and the poet Eileen Myles. It will be one of the best hours (it’s not long so don’t be scared) you’ve spent in a while. I don’t want to give too much away, because it is theater, after all. Let’s just say it’s about a world where the war-mongers have done such a good job that Hell is practically jealous.

Here is an excerpt from the libretto (available on the Hell web site):

</p>

Poet:

No, I’m serious. There’s a group of trees coming right towards us.

Man:

And I’m telling you don’t even think about it.

It’s Father Tree.

People love him.

He’s our leader.

And he doesn’t do a thing

He’s the President of the World.

Poet:

Well, shouldn’t we greet him, or something?

Maybe he wants to meet me?

Man:

No, that’s what’s so great about him. He doesn’t care.

He has absolutely no curiosity.

He’s famous for that.</blockquote>

I also love the description of “the opposition,” the Gnome:

If the Gnome mattered at all he’d be Father Tree’s enemy.

If you need more incentive in addition to the word of Eileen Myles, great music and singing, and brilliant use of video by Peter Flaherty, there is also an “opera hunk” of whom I have spoken before, David Adam Moore. He looks like this and he can sing and act.

David Adam Moore as Lewis, photo by Beth Morrison

Links:

Hell

Performance Space 122

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A divided Supreme Court declined on Monday to decide whether President George W. Bush has the power in the war on terrorism to order American citizens captured in the United States held in military jails without any criminal charges or a trial.

By a 6-3 vote, the court sided with the Bush administration and refused to hear an appeal by Jose Padilla, who was confined in a military brig in South Carolina for more than three years after Bush designated him an “enemy combatant.”

The last time an executive got away with suspending habeas corpus, the country was engaged in the Civil War, with Washington in actual danger.

What’s their excuse this time?

I have just added weekly e-mail announcements for ArtCal. Go here to see a sample and sign up.

Hermann and Juan
source

A question asked by the character Hermann Simon (a young composer), in Heimat 2:

Are there any standards apart from taste and fame?

This is pretty crass. Tyler already posted it (Don’t miss his image), but I got the email too and wanted to share.

We would like to bring to your attention a fraudulent situation or at the very least, a misrepresentation.

The artist Jack Pierson has been making what he calls “word sculptures” for over 15 years now. The works are composed of found and retrieved signage from locations as diverse as Las Vegas casinos to defunct 42nd Street movies palaces. In a catalogue representing the collection of the Whitney Museum, they are described as “ready-made objects to express the pathos underlying the American Dream — a pathos embodied in the mismatched letters of old movie marquees and commercial signs from which his work is created… His found letters are, in a sense, discarded dreams, their original purpose long forgotten.”

These works have been documented in numerous books chronicling contemporary art and are in the collections of the Whitney Museum, The Musée d’Art Contemporain in France, The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, The Baltimore Museum of Art, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. They have also been published in box sets of postcards available at many museum bookshops.

Around a year or so ago, imitations or forgeries of these works began to appear in Barney’s clothing stores throughout the country saying such things as “fabulous, courageous, and outrageous.” They are formally weak plagiarized versions of Jack Pierson’s work and we want you to know that they are not by Jack Pierson. Many people have assumed they are. They are, in fact, made by Simon Doonan, the chief window dresser at Barney’s. Jack Pierson has asked that he remove them but he has refused.

We regret this lack of integrity on the part of Simon Doonan and Barney’s. They obviously have no respect for artists or the art world.

Sincerely,
John Cheim

Here is an image of a real one, provided in the gallery’s email:

Jack Pierson DESIRE/DESPAIR, 1996

Jack Pierson’s show at Cheim and Read opens at the end of this month.

For future reference, the store is “Barneys” not “Barney’s.”

Originally uploaded to Flickr by Siarhei Leuchanka

I’ve been looking at photos tagged with “minsk” on Flickr to see the demonstrations in Minsk, Belarus. The above image from from a set by Siarhei Leuchanka.

If you’re wondering what this is all about, here is a recent story from the BBC. I don’t think this is getting much coverage in the American press.

NOT CLOWN
by Steve Moore + Carlos Treviño

DIRECTED by Carlos Treviño

In a time when clowns are tortured and circuses banned, a renegade troupe enacts the story of a girl who longs for their outlawed life.

I don’t know if there are tickets left, but there are two more performances (tonight and Saturday) of “Not Clown” at Soho Rep. It will be the best $15 you have spent on theater lately.

I have to say, this isn’t the play for people expecting a Broadway show. It’s more in the spirit of the good East Village / Lower East Side work I saw in the late 80s and early 90s. It’s disturbing and strange. I will admit that, at times, I found it annoying and repellent, and wondered what I was doing there. By the end, I realized the dramatic reasons for those sections, and felt it was one of the best things I’ve seen in the theater in a long time. Those of you who know us probably aren’t surprised to read that we like art that annoys, disturbs, and then pulls it all off briliiantly.

The company presenting it, Physical Plant is based in Austin, Texas.

I don’t have time to write more right now, but wanted to get this posted so maybe some more people can go see it.