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I don't know if i have ever mentioned this on the blog before but I love comic books. I was a huge comic fan when I was a kid. I used to attend conventions with my sister all the way up until I was 18. I stopped reading them though and in the past year I started to pick up on where I left off. Anyways, I really like a series that ended recently called Y the Last Man. It is written by Brian K Vaughn who writes for lost and Pia Guerra who is an artist. Over the summer I sent Pia a letter requesting a drawing of Ampersand who is a monkey in the series. On the envelope I drew my favorite ape Dr. Zaius of Planet of the Apes. As Months went by I forgot about it until yesterday I received a padded envelope in the mail from her. Not only did she send a drawing of Ampersand but also drew Dr. Z on the back of the envelope.
Entrance to Phil Collins installation
I had a great time in Dallas. CAA was fun and a bit overwhelming. I wish I had more time to so I could've seen more of the conference. I can not thank the school enough for making the trip possible.
Attendees of the conference were granted free admission into some of the museums in Dallas. Lauren and I were able to catch Phil Collins video installation entitled The World Won't Listen at the Dallas Museum of Art.
The World Won't Listen
"Filmed in Colombia, Turkey, and Indonesia, the video trilogy features fans of the influential British indie-rock band The Smiths performing karaoke versions of tracks from their 1987 compilation album The World Won’t Listen. Along with the first-ever public presentation of Collins’ completed trilogy, the Dallas exhibition will also include a series of works based on letters that Morrissey, the band’s iconic lead singer, wrote as a teenager to London music weeklies"
I wasn't crazy about the installation but I did enjoy some aspects of it. Three rooms were sectioned for each video and one could walk around to see all of them as the people performed the songs. I was able to check out some work by Cosima Von Bonin who I blogged about back in January. They also had Felix Gonzalez Torres' Perfect Lovers which was really...I guess I'll use the word touching.
Yesterday Lauren and I went with SAIC alum Amber Hawk Swanson and her girlfriend Sam to the Sixth Floor Museum. Since I arrived in Dallas I have been kicking around the idea of going to the museum, but the $13.50 entrance fee really put me off. It just seemed really steep to visit a former book depository. But I came around when Amber and Sam expressed interest. If you have not heard of the Sixth Floor Museum then I should let you know that it is the location in which Lee Harvey Oswald shot John F. Kennedy. The museum was really worth the $13.50. As soon as you get out of the elevator it is sort of a whirlwind of information from JFK being elected to him being assassinated to conspiracy theories. It was a really intense. Being able to stand in the location where Oswald was was really hard to fathom.
There was an exhibition on the seventh floor of home movies that people had taken of that fateful day. In a smaller closed off room they played the Abraham Zapruder film which shows the entire assassination and was pretty graphic. I felt really overwhelmed when I left the museum from both the footage and just thinking about all of the theories that are out there.
So I am a bit behind on updating my trip. I am leaving Dallas today and am just posting pics from 3 days ago. There has just been so much to do in Dallas plus there are so many people I know from SAIC around for the conference that I have been rather booked lately. So I'll try and catch up in the next couple of days.
The location of where Martin Luther King was assassinated.
While Lauren and I headed out to Dallas we stopped by the National Civil Rights Museum. I had been there once when I was 16 and really enjoyed it. The museum is built where Martin Luther King was shot. The kept the facade of the motel and two rooms intact. One was where King usually stayed and the other was the location in which he stayed as he prepared for his speech just before his assassination. I really enjoy the museum as a while because it deal with so much information in a really visual way. There are many installation based rooms of people doing sit ins and even a burnt bus. I am currently taking a class called Black Power Fantasies with Stanford Carpenter which is probably my favorite academic class this year. We are studying the black power movement and the black panthers and I was really puzzled by how little information they chose to present. Both where happening at the same with common goals and yet there really was almost no information being given except a wall in a hallway. But all and all I had a fun time and seeing where MLK was killed and being able to see how the movement struggled for equality was really powerful.
On our way to Dallas Lauren and I stopped over in Memphis for two days. Here are some photos from our first day.
Were staying at a Days Inn that is not only across the street from Graceland but also has a guitar shaped pool.
One of the reasons we decided to stop over in Memphis was to visit Miranda Powell who 's studio was right next to mine in New York. Miranda goes to the Memphis College of Art and had us meet her at Huey's. They are consistently rated as rated one of the top burgers in the nation and they did not disappoint.
We then went to Sun Studios which is famous for recording Elvis' first single plus many other acts including Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis. The tour was actually really good and it was only $10 compared to the $30 it costs to tour Graceland. If your in the area and want to visit a Rock & Roll landmark this is the place.
While waiting for tour to begin at Sun Lauren and I decided to walk around the neighborhood. We stumbled on the Hostess factory. I practically died and went to heaven.
New hat (left) Old hat (right)
If you know me you probably have not seen the top of my head. For the past two years I have worn my 1977 throwback Pittsburgh Pirates hat everyday. I have literally not gone outside without it. But as you can tell it is so dirty that I had to buy a new one. It's going to take a bit of time but I guess I'm going to have to get used to it.
I hope everyone had a nice Valentine's Day, and if your not into the Hallmark holiday then I hope you a fine day as well. I am in the middle of packing my suitcase for my trip down to Dallas this week. I am going to CAA with Lauren and luckily I won a grant (which I mentioned earlier) which will cover all of my basic fees of hotel, transportation, and the conference. I'll post several times while I'm down there with updates of the events and I'll probably go to a few museums. I have to admit that I am rather excited, not for the fair but to go to a warmer location for a little bit. Stay warm Chicago.
I just got back from a day trip up to Milwaukee to visit two of my former NYSP studio mates. Milwaukee is only an hour and a half away and although it is very accessible via Amtrak I was lucky enough to have Lauren drive me up there. We met up with Chris and Boris at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design and walked over to the Milwaukee Museum of art. On our drive up I kept telling Lauren about how I was pretty impressed with the museum's permanent collection. Last time I was up there was to see the Gregor Schneider show, Currents 33, which I must was very disturbing. But while I was there I was really taken with Robert Gober's Untitled suitcase piece and Tony Oursler's MMPI (Self-Portrait in Yellow).
This time around I saw their Kehinde Wiley piece, which it appears every museum must have one at the moment. I enjoyed the piece but it definantley did not knock my socks off. The piece however was next to a painting by Jose Lerma. (Unfortunately I don't remember the name of this piece) If your not familiar with his glob like paintings you should take a look. I missed his lecture last year when he came to SAIC but Bad At Sports interviewed him around the same week and I was able to catch that interview.
