Nicholas Terzoff describes a collaboration with Kiki Smith in Bodyscape: Art, Modernity and the Ideal Figure. Blurry B&W Picture at link.
"In an earlier collaboration with the late David Wojnarowicz, Smith created a group of four photographer's light boxes overlaid with photographs of sections of the two artists' bodies, covered in blood. The boxes are connected to each other with cables, and collectively to a plaster model of a human body in fetal position. The cables suggest the umbilical cord, linking child to mother, and the internal lymphatic and circulatory systems. The sculpted body and its means of vital support intersect across the light boxes, in the form of photographs. It is the hands which make the strongest impression in these pictures, but it is unclear in what activity they are engaged. On one level, hands suggest communication, touching and healing, but they are covered in blood, evoking surgery or even torture"
KIKI SMITH Untitled (For David Wojnarowicz), 2000, Etching and aquatint in colors, on wove paper, is a beautiful thing, here.
A Kiki Smith exhibition at the University of North Carolina sparked this description:
"How I Know I’m Here (1985 – 2000, linoleum blocks printed in four sheets Thai paper) showcases Kiki Smith's own body, both inside and out, over sixteen feet. The piece consisted of many photographs taken by fellow artist and friend David Wojnarowicz of Smith biting her toenails, eating a watermelon, picking nits out of a child’s hair or picking her nose along with various key internal organs to portray the senses."
This pdf with Michael Kimmelman at Harlan and Weaver describes Kiki Smith circa 2006, organ and ether.
Friday, December 24, 2010
David Wojnarowicz in the Media ~ 1991
from New York Times October 25, 1991
The Spoken Word
READING, the Drawing Center, 35 Wooster Street, Manhattan. Kathy Acker, Hilton Als, Karen Finley, Richard Hell, Hapi Phace, Simon Watney and David Wojnarowicz will read from Mr. Wojnarowicz's new book, "Close to the Knives," to benefit Act Up's Needle Exchange Program. Tomorrow at 8 P.M; a cocktail reception is at 7 P.M. Admission to the reception and reading is $15.
The Spoken Word
READING, the Drawing Center, 35 Wooster Street, Manhattan. Kathy Acker, Hilton Als, Karen Finley, Richard Hell, Hapi Phace, Simon Watney and David Wojnarowicz will read from Mr. Wojnarowicz's new book, "Close to the Knives," to benefit Act Up's Needle Exchange Program. Tomorrow at 8 P.M; a cocktail reception is at 7 P.M. Admission to the reception and reading is $15.
James Romberger has an excellent personal history and analysis of David Wojnarowicz influence over at The Hooded Utilitarian with Wojnarowicz's Apostasy. He includes a link to Wojnarowicz's last painting here.
I'm curious if Wojnarowicz had any contact with David Foster Wallace, and this speculation about originals and copies via Montevidayo from Joyelle McSweeney doesn't provide my answer, but defines interesting questions.
I'm curious if Wojnarowicz had any contact with David Foster Wallace, and this speculation about originals and copies via Montevidayo from Joyelle McSweeney doesn't provide my answer, but defines interesting questions.
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Curatorial Explanations
David Ward, the curator of Hide/Seek, responds to the Warhol Foundations threat to pull money in this Washington Blade article by David J. Hoffman.
"Ward also criticized the action announced last week by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, which warned Clough that unless the Wojnarowicz video is returned to the exhibit it will withhold all future funds to any Smithsonian museum. The Warhol Foundation funded $100,000 of the costs to mount the exhibit.... Ward declared that, though “I find their reaction understandable,” it’s more important for such institutions to remain active in support for the arts at the Smithsonian galleries, which in the past has received a total of $375,000 in Warhol funding of various shows including “Hide/Seek.”
This might be restated: "While the ideals of freedom are important to you, your money is important to us."
"Ward also criticized the action announced last week by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, which warned Clough that unless the Wojnarowicz video is returned to the exhibit it will withhold all future funds to any Smithsonian museum. The Warhol Foundation funded $100,000 of the costs to mount the exhibit.... Ward declared that, though “I find their reaction understandable,” it’s more important for such institutions to remain active in support for the arts at the Smithsonian galleries, which in the past has received a total of $375,000 in Warhol funding of various shows including “Hide/Seek.”
This might be restated: "While the ideals of freedom are important to you, your money is important to us."
David Wojnarowicz in Sound
available at UbuWeb
David Wojnarowicz and Doug Bressler - American Dreamtime
from Tellus: The Audio Cassette Magazine
Wojnarowicz and Bressler's other audio offerings are detailed at The End of Being in Viral Witnessing by Samantha Anne Scott.
"In the musical vein, Wojnarowicz comprised one-fifth of 3 Teens Kill 4, which was three-fifths gay. The other members of 3 Teens Kill 4 were Doug Bressler, Brian Butterick, Julie Hair and Jesse Hultberg. The band’s name was snatched from a New York Post headline. While 3TK4′s No Motive is frequently compared to Brian Eno and David Byrne’s collaboration, My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, their sound is as different from that album as it is similar. Whereas Byrne’s affinity for world music rose to the surface on My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, 3TK4′s sound is pure postmodern America. In a 1984 review of a 3TK4 show at The Pyramid, Christine Cassidy described the 3TK4 sound: “Sirens, rat-a-tat-tat, clashing cymbal, whistles, a robotic voice: ‘this is 3 Teens Kill Four.’ The noise is hypnotic, even frightening, like being in a Keystone Kops film during an air raid”."
Track 13, described as follows, includes some of the same players and the audio is also available on youtube.
Bite Like A Kitty - Excerpt from Same Way
June, 1984. Mare Earley, Julie Hair, Kathy lnukai, Eileen Muir, Sandra Seymour. Produced by Doug Bressler and engineered by Mark Mandlebaum
David Wojnarowicz and Doug Bressler - American Dreamtime
from Tellus: The Audio Cassette Magazine
Wojnarowicz and Bressler's other audio offerings are detailed at The End of Being in Viral Witnessing by Samantha Anne Scott.
"In the musical vein, Wojnarowicz comprised one-fifth of 3 Teens Kill 4, which was three-fifths gay. The other members of 3 Teens Kill 4 were Doug Bressler, Brian Butterick, Julie Hair and Jesse Hultberg. The band’s name was snatched from a New York Post headline. While 3TK4′s No Motive is frequently compared to Brian Eno and David Byrne’s collaboration, My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, their sound is as different from that album as it is similar. Whereas Byrne’s affinity for world music rose to the surface on My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, 3TK4′s sound is pure postmodern America. In a 1984 review of a 3TK4 show at The Pyramid, Christine Cassidy described the 3TK4 sound: “Sirens, rat-a-tat-tat, clashing cymbal, whistles, a robotic voice: ‘this is 3 Teens Kill Four.’ The noise is hypnotic, even frightening, like being in a Keystone Kops film during an air raid”."
Track 13, described as follows, includes some of the same players and the audio is also available on youtube.
Bite Like A Kitty - Excerpt from Same Way
June, 1984. Mare Earley, Julie Hair, Kathy lnukai, Eileen Muir, Sandra Seymour. Produced by Doug Bressler and engineered by Mark Mandlebaum
David Wojnarowicz in the Media / 20 Years Ago This Month
From The New York Times /
Art View: An Artist Who Seeks Every Opportunity to Unnerve
By Michael Kimmerman / Published Dec 9, 1990
Same as it ever was.
"It took a misstep by the National Endowment for the Arts to put his name on lips across the country."
I'm not sure i'm fan enough to get THAT tattoo.
Quoting the quote of the text, I am.
"The notion of death is linked most poignantly by Mr. Wojnarowicz with the theme of escape, as in one of the texts he has stenciled onto a recent painting: "I wished for years and years that I could separate into 10 different people," he writes. "Ten versions of myself in order to give each person I loved a part of myself forever, and also have some left over to drift across the landscapes and maybe even to go into death or areas which were dangerous, and have enough of me to survive the deaths of one or two or three of me. This is what I thought was appropriate for all of my desires and I never figured out how to manage it all and now I'm in danger of losing the only one of me that is around."
Found via google news archive search
Art View: An Artist Who Seeks Every Opportunity to Unnerve
By Michael Kimmerman / Published Dec 9, 1990
Same as it ever was.
"It took a misstep by the National Endowment for the Arts to put his name on lips across the country."
I'm not sure i'm fan enough to get THAT tattoo.
Quoting the quote of the text, I am.
"The notion of death is linked most poignantly by Mr. Wojnarowicz with the theme of escape, as in one of the texts he has stenciled onto a recent painting: "I wished for years and years that I could separate into 10 different people," he writes. "Ten versions of myself in order to give each person I loved a part of myself forever, and also have some left over to drift across the landscapes and maybe even to go into death or areas which were dangerous, and have enough of me to survive the deaths of one or two or three of me. This is what I thought was appropriate for all of my desires and I never figured out how to manage it all and now I'm in danger of losing the only one of me that is around."
Found via google news archive search
Words In Action
Hyperallergic.com has several photos of Sunday, December 19, 2010, action in NYC. The protesters marched to the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, operated by the Smithsonian.
Silence = Death
Smithsonian Stop the Censorship ART+
Silence = Death
Smithsonian Stop the Censorship ART+
Consequences of Censorship
"The Andy Warhol Foundation, which part-funded the exhibition and other exhibitions at the Smithsonian, wrote a letter to Clough on December 13 stating that if the video was not replaced, the Foundation "will cease funding future exhibitions at all Smithsonian institutions."" from an Andy Warhol Foundation Pittsburg is ART press release.
The pdf also includes screening schedules for A Fire In My Belly by supporting Pittsburgh arts institutions.
The pdf also includes screening schedules for A Fire In My Belly by supporting Pittsburgh arts institutions.
World Class Hero
Philippa P.B. Hughes at The Pinkline Project describes Patti Smith's performance and words of tribute to David Wojnarowicz at the National Portrait Gallery on Saturday in Patti Smith is still a hero.
"Her best line of the day: "I imagine Jesus coming back and embracing the ants and being appalled by the crucifix." "
"Her best line of the day: "I imagine Jesus coming back and embracing the ants and being appalled by the crucifix." "
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
A Camera In Some Hands Can Preserve An Alternate History
This space is an attempt to gather information about David Wojnarowicz, as his art continues to influence "the social landscape". I also plan to go off on completely unrelated tangents, personal, political and otherwise. For my birthday in 1992 I was given Wojnarowicz's Close to the Knives and have considered him an idol and influence ever since.
"A camera in some hands can preserve an alternate history." This quote is from CttK but I just read it in Brush Fires in the Social Landscape, the fabulous Aperture 137. I'm pleased to see him (what shall I call him? how many times can i type David, Wojnarowicz, DW?, W?, Waje(no)) spreading.
"A camera in some hands can preserve an alternate history." This quote is from CttK but I just read it in Brush Fires in the Social Landscape, the fabulous Aperture 137. I'm pleased to see him (what shall I call him? how many times can i type David, Wojnarowicz, DW?, W?, Waje(no)) spreading.
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