by the wayside

With another Francis Alÿs, Zapatos Magnéticos.  (See here, too.)  And, a studio interview with the artist about his creative process in The Last Clown.



 One of his later and better known works, When Faith Moves Mountains.

 

20,000 leagues under the sea

A photostream of the remarkable South Philly home of Adam Wallacavage, militant ornamentalist and father of octopus chandeliers.  Much of what you see in that photostream was made by Adam Wallacavage himself with a solo exhibition of his works, Magic Mountain, slated for the Jonathan LeVine Gallery in NYC, Oct 19th-Nov. 16th, 2013.  Mr. Wallacavage is also a photographer - so don't miss this series.  Or browse here at instagram.

city of the angels

Via Huffpost, L.A.'s Radar Theater festival is a not-to-miss if you're city-scape south through October 1st. Includes Japanese Dogugaeshi, Mexican surrealist theater, and one very, very sinister puppet plot .. amidst other contemporary and urban, visually compelling, socio-political explorations.  Yes indeed.

*Photo credit/via Redcat, photographer: Amanda Shank, Puppet scene from the serial murder tale in "Clouded Sulphur" by Janie Geiser and Erik Ehn.

back alleys of tribeca

Weekend's last chance to see the complete current show at Museum, reportedly NYC's tiniest museum housed in a 60 square foot freight elevator on Cortland Alley between Franklin and White Streets.  This is the place that boasts the shoe thrown at George Bush amongst its permanent collection of modern day artifacts from around the world. 

What's to see currently includes personal ephemera from Al Goldstein, rocks & tools from Tom Sach's Mars expedition, objects made for or by prisoners in U.S. prisons, fake vomit, and Jim Walrod's collection of NYC tip jars.

Visit Sat. or Sun. between 12 noon to 6 PM.  Otherwise, check out the viewing window 24/7.  Or a virtual catalog here with objects of interest from previous exhibitions. 

 

*Photo credit/via Szabrodski Instagram and Inhabitat.

jabberwocky

Jan Svankmajer's 1971 animation, Jabberwocky.

 

blue blanket

Some kiss.

shine on harvest moon

Hope you had the chance - or will have the chance - to see a lovely harvest moon September 18th and 19th.  Some awesome photos here via EarthSky News.  And more here, including why you see that red color and what farmers were doing with all the extra moonlight in the days before electricity.

Leon Redbone's wonderful rendition of Shine On Harvest Moon, composed by Nora Bayes and Jack Norworth in 1903.  If you enjoy Django Reinhardt, you'll also want to listen to Milton Brown's version here, "cofounder of western swing" and an important influence on Reinhardt.  Of course, the musically sweet sound of the Hal Kemp orchestra in 1929.

 

*Photo credit/Wikipedia, uploaded by Roadcrusher, "Harvest Moon."

in the street

Francis Alÿs in Mexico City, 1997, Sometimes Making Something Leads to Nothing, or Paradox of Praxis 1. 

 

"this doesn't look like france"

But it's pretty good.  Besides, consider this.  

frida

Via Museo Frida Kahlo, a rescued Blue House image; raw, fleeting, unedited, unpublished. 

  

 More Frida blogging here.

from attic to museum

So journeys a newly discerned Vincent Van Gough, Sunset at Montmajour, enthusiastically unveiled by Amsterdam's Van Gough Museum on Monday.  Museum experts thought otherwise in 1991 when an undisclosed collector initially carried the painting over for them to have a look at.

Since 1991, new techniques for authenticating art have developed;  so, reports the New York Times, about ten years later, the owner (still haunted by questions, one gathers) took the painting back.  Enabled and emboldened by these new techniques, researchers looked again, and have been looking ever since, with Van Gough now believed to have indeed painted this "more experimental" work from his "mature period" on July 4th, 1888 when he wrote to his brother on the following day,

“Yesterday, at sunset, I was on a stony heath, where very small, twisted oaks grow, in the background a ruin on the hill, and wheat fields in the valley. It was romantic, it couldn’t be more so, à la Monticelli, the sun was pouring its very yellow rays over the bushes and the ground, absolutely a shower of gold. And all the lines were beautiful; the whole scene had charming nobility.”

 A flicker photographer (similarly bewitched, one supposes) snapped this yellow Montmajour sunset upon a group of wild horses.

The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston reports that painting on site in Montmajour was a constant struggle for Van Gough because of "fierce, blustering winds that swept through this region" and "whipped violently against his canvases."  MFAH is home to another 1888 Montmajour Van Gough titled The Rocks.  The Rocks played a key role in conclusively determining that Sunset at Montmajour was truly a Van Gough.

1888 is also the same year Van Gough's ear incident went viral. 

Via wiki, Montmajour Abbey, the "ruins" of which are said to be seen from a distance in Sunset at Montmajour.  During the Middle Ages, the abbey was an important pilgrimage site, and during the 18th century, housed a Maurist monastery that is now in ruins, shown second.  Wiki reports the building largely demolished for building materials after the French Revolution (1789-1799).

 

 

*Photo credit/top, New York Times, photographer: Herman Wouters; second, via cbswpam, Sunset at Montmajour, by Vincent Van Gough;  third, Wikipedia, uploaded by Len'Alex, March 2005, Vue générale de l'abbaye; fourth, Wikipedia, photographer: Marc Ryckaert (MJJR), Montmajour Abbey near Arles (département des Bouches-du-Rhône, France): ruins of the Monastère Saint-Maur, 18th century.

a coney island of the mind

From Hazy Productions and director Nora Finton, A Coney Island of the Mind.  

pastimes

"I'm trying to illustrate a dream I had last night."

sepan todos que muero

By José Marín (1628-1699), Montserrat Figueras: Soprano, Rolf Lislevand: Guitare Baroque, Pedro Estevan: Percussions.  From album "Marín: Tonos Humanos", 1997 Alia Vox.