Archive of Rhett Jones

Rhett has written 41 article(s) for AFC.

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Rhett Jones

Monday Links: Tough Times for Tumblr

by Rhett Jones on July 25, 2016

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Tumblr artists take note. Verizon is set to buy Yahoo, Tumblr’s parent company, for the bargain basement price of $4 billion. Changes are expected and no service is safe, so make sure to back up any artwork. [The Verge]
Hans Ulrich-Obrist’s latest project has reportedly run into trouble. The Shanghai Project, a multi-disciplinary biennial that Obrist was organizing with Yongwoo Lee has been reimagined as a community-based event rather than art exhibition. Reports of scheduling, funding, staffing and bureaucratic difficulties have plagued the project for months. [The Art Newspaper]
The New Yorker takes a dive into the mysterious circumstances surrounding the archives of the conceptual architect Luis Barragán. Following his death in 1988, the archives were sold and have been held in a Swiss bunker ever since. [New Yorker]
The net artist Guthrie Lonergan has installed a new work on the Hammer Museum’s website and it has made visitors baffled, delighted and angry. The museum has put together some messages they’ve received over the last six weeks along with an interview with Guthrie about the work. [Hammer Museum]
Edward Snowden has collaborated with hardware hacker Andrew “Bunnie” Huang to design a cell-phone case for journalists and other people who may be tracked by malicious forces. It’s not the prettiest thing in the world but it’s far better than Snowden’s music video. [Fast Company]
Have to say that this James Turrell takeover of a memorial church in Berlin is great. It’s like the nightmare funeral scenes in Heathers made sublime. [The Creator’s Project]
U.S. Congressman John Lewis has won the prestigious Eisner award for the second volume of his graphic novel memoir, “March.” Done in collaboration with illustrator Nate Powell and co-writer Andrew Aydin, the series chronicles Lewis time in the American civil rights struggle. [The Guardian]
Bushwick will be a major pain in the ass in a few years. MTA officials have voted to shut down the L train for 18 months straight. The scheduled maintenance won’t begin until 2019 but this can’t possibly be good for local businesses or galleries. [DNAinfo]
Alanna Heiss recently gave a shout out to Laurie Anderson’s criticism from the early 1970’s, so ArtNews decided to collect some capsule reviews that Anderson wrote for them. Capsule reviews are a tough format and Anderson mostly sticks to a style of quick impressionistic description that’s light on opinion. [ArtNews]

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GIF of the Day: A Glitch at the Convention

by Rhett Jones on July 22, 2016

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This GIF pretty much sums up the Republican National Convention. It was quite a mess. Technical glitches plagued the video displays on Wednesday, resulting in some great visuals that were far more appealing than Ted Cruz face. Between this, Melania Trump’s plagiarized speech, white supremacist tweets being displayed, Cruz basically telling voters to not vote for Trump and a parade of D-List celebrities, it’s safe to say that things were chaotic. This may be our future.

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The Spiritual Failure of Tony Oursler’s “Imponderable”

by Rhett Jones on July 22, 2016

Is there a secret, intertwined history that ties together mass media, spiritualist con artists, pulp fiction and the unreliability of the image? Tony Oursler’s “Imponderable” would like you to think so. The multimedia artist’s latest work (on at MoMA through January 8th, 2017) is a 90-minute immersive video experience that attempts to draw connections between all of those topics as well as his own familial autobiography and other threads that relate to his collection of spiritualist memorabilia. Unfortunately, when the work seems to come close to solidifying a thematic relationship between the various subjects on its mind, it tends to feel a bit like a magician clumsily employing misdirection. The audience sees a hat, a beautiful assistant and a rabbit up the sleeve, but no magic.

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Friday Links: Matthew Barney’s Perineum and Alexander McQueen’s Skin

by Rhett Jones on July 22, 2016

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Barbara Gladstone Gallery will recreate, “Blind Perineum,” the performance that put Matthew Barney on the map 25 years ago. Gladstone has borrowed the original elements that were used in the performance in which Barney climbed around the gallery ceiling with ice screws and a harness. The anniversary show is scheduled for September 8th. [New York Times]
Robert Irwin is just finishing up a permanent installation at Donald Judd’s Texas outpost Marfa. It will be the first new permanent work in 16 years. It’s hard to tell from the photos what exactly this project is but it will be officially unveiled to the public on July 23rd. [The Art Newspaper]
The latest artist to jump into the Trump protest fray has built a wall around the Donald’s star on the Hollywood walk of fame. I know that this election has been hard on everybody but try a little harder people. Most of the protest art has been pretty weak. [BBC]
Heads up video artists, Japan is making its final VCR this month. It might be a good time to pick one up for that retro project you wanted to do or to back up those old tapes for posterity. [Mental Floss]
The internet was freaking out, yesterday, over this sculpture of a human evolved to withstand a car crash. His name is Graham and he’s pretty gross. [Jalopnik]
Kurt Cobain’s daughter, Francis Bean, is selling her art online. All we can say is it’s … affordable. [depop]
A design student, in London, wants to make a bag out of Alexander McQueen’s skin. The proposed project would involve using stem cells from the late designer’s hair to manufacture new skin. The student, Tina Gorjanc, is actually trying to patent McQueen’s genetic information and sees this as a larger piece of social commentary. [artnet News]
A number of big name artists will be taking over the prison that caged Oscar Wilde for an exhibition entitled “Inside.” Participants include Ai Weiwei, Patti Smith, Marlene Dumas, Robert Gober, Nan Goldin, Steve McQueen, Jean-Michel Pancin, and Wolfgang Tillmans. [artnet News]
John Stewart gets behind Colbert’s desk and lets it all out. [YouTube]

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This Week’s Must See Events: Benefits, Boom Boxes and Bears

by Rhett Jones on July 18, 2016

It’s a light week for galleries that’s heavy on screenings. That’s just life in the middle of July. But fear not, these screenings are good. We’ve got some demented digital video art from Jacob Ciocci and a MoMA retrospective that promises to shed some light on modern New York. Two excellent online galleries have joined forces to go IRL and there’s a boom box party at the Brooklyn Museum.

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Monday Links: Goodbye Alan Vega

by Rhett Jones on July 18, 2016

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Famed founder of Suicide and prolific poet Alan Vega has died at the age of 78. [The Quietus]
Following budget cuts and buyouts, the Met says it will begin layoffs in order to balance its budget. More than 50 people reportedly accepted the buyout offer and the Met says that layoffs will increase the total positions cut to more than 100. [New York Times]
Jonathan Jones takes a stand against all of those people who think that you can make great art by clicking a button in a photo filter app. We’re pretty sure that is practically no one, but glad he’s on the case. [The Guardian]
It turns out Damien Hirst’s work isn’t toxic after all. [The Art Newspaper]
The Contemporary Austin has established $100,000 art prize that will also include a solo show for the winner. [Artforum]
Is transrealism the first major literary movement of the 21st-century or just “Post-Internet” for books? You be the judge. [The Guardian]
The Keno Brothers, antique specialists famous for appearing on Antiques Roadshow are involved in a couple of bizarre lawsuits. Having worked at both Christie’s and Sotheby’s, one would assume the brothers would know how to handle themselves at an auction. But, on at least 3 occasions at two different auction houses, they say they didn’t realize they were bidding against each other and sending the respective item’s prices soaring. They’ve refused to pay and are being sued by different auction houses. [New York Times]
Photojournalists are packing bulletproof vests, gas masks and other war-zone type gear to get ready for the Republican National Convention. They aren’t the only ones who are worried, the head of Cleveland’s largest police union has asked for open carry laws to be suspended during the convention out of fear for officer’s lives. [Wired, CNN]
Speaking of the RNC, Jon Stewart will be rejoining Stephen Colbert as he broadcasts live from the convention this week. [CNN]
Yayoi Kusama is releasing an illustrated edition of Hans Christian Anderson’s “The Little Mermaid.” [Dazed]

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Friday Links: Creation and Gentrification

by Rhett Jones on July 15, 2016

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The Lowline, a controversial project that plans to create a bizarre underground park in the Lower East Side, has gained its first official approvals from City Hall. For its detractors, the park represents another step towards gentrification. For its supporters, the park is a way of opening up public space in a dense area of the city. For Alicia Glen, deputy mayor for housing and economic development, its “some crazy, smoking-dope stuff.” She likes it. [Curbed]
Activists in Boyle Heights, a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood in Los Angeles, want the art galleries to pack up and get out. The organizers view the gallery owners as pawns in “planners and politicians and developers” efforts to “art wash” gentrification. Some gallery owners are upset, while others are attempting to join in the dialogue. We’ll keep an eye on this story as it develops. [LA Weekly]
A 91-year-old woman was arrested at the Neues Museum Nürnberg on Thursday. Charges of vandalism were related to the fact that she “solved” a crossword puzzle that was part of a work by the Fluxus-artist Arthur Köpcke. Something tells us the Fluxus people would like this story. [artnet News]
The New Museum’s newest show, The Keeper, is an attempt to explore why we collect things. It’s packed, floor-to-ceiling with 4,000 objects from two dozen collections. It opens next Wednesday. The Times talks to the curators about this unusual show. [New York Times]
Check out the convoluted history of the McDonald’s “I’m Lovin’ it” jingle. It’s fascinating that even people that worked on the campaign at a high-level don’t seem to know for sure who wrote it. [Pitchfork]
Hyperallergic breaks down some OKCupid data. Among the findings: liberal artists don’t think orgasms are the most important part of sex. It’s all about the journey, not the destination. [Hyperallergic]
We know surprisingly little about NYC’s rat population. For instance, it’s estimated that there are somewhere between two and 32 million rats in the city. We’re just not sure. Researchers have begun to chip and surveil them, hoping to get a better understanding of how they operate. The end goal is to find more effective methods of control. [Motherboard]

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Monday Links: Tough Times for Tumblr

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