Footdown fallen

Don’t ever forget who’s boss, Toby

|o| Sean Killen

Who’s afraid of a little snow?

Pictures from the bridge battle in Vancouver. Here’s a nice shot of Nick Berry pulling into the final checkpoint (Pat’s Pub, no less):

He won. The whole thing looked like hell (kinda wish I was there).
More pictures here

On the Conditions of Politics

A series of discussions held in conjunction with artist Paul Chan’s recent show at the Serpentine Gallery, worth checking out. I haven’t watched all of it, but I highly recommend the discussion between artist Gustav Metzger and Marxist political aesthetician Esther Leslie. Metzger rips apart the media spectacle surrounding (and, he argues, calculated and produced by) Damien Hirst’s life-size platinum and diamond bejeweled cast of a human skull (For the Love of God, 2007), while Leslie pretty much demolishes a lot of recent criticism and scholarship around the ability of contemporary art to provide answers to crucial political questions, arguing rather that most of it moralizes and talks down to viewers rather than engaging and mobilizing audiences. There’s a lot more happening here and it’s well worthwhile.

Shared Propulsion Car gets its day in court

You guys heard about this yet?

Peter Goddard, the Star’s resident art critic/aging rocker wrote this about the Mercer Union’s current art exhibit that recently got busted by the cops on Queen St:
Whenever art gets busted it usually involves some high-minded principle such as obscenity or the wrong-headed politics.

That’s what makes Michel de Broin’s Shared Propulsion Car so special. It was ticketed Oct.25 by Toronto’s finest for being unsafe.

Now at Mercer Union, Broin’s vehicle, an ancient Buick Regal, sure looks pretty safe to me, even if its worn exterior suggests it’s been parked out under one acid raindrop too many. Then there’s the one working headlight, made of flickering candles, likely the artist’s offering to the long-departed soul of the American auto industry.

Missing from the Berlin-based artist’s car are those particular factors that indeed make cars unsafe, such as an engine or a gas tank. The innards of his car were entirely gutted to allow four yellow bucket seats, four sets of pedals and those few basic extra necessities, such as a rudimentary steering wheel, that go into people-powered vehicles. So yes, it’s a vehicle but one which only appears to be a car.

Driven earlier this year in downtown New York, the vehicle attracted little attention. Driven later in Montreal, the artist’s hometown, it merely received a police warning. But everyone should have known things wouldn’t go so easily in Hogtown, where Barenaked Ladies, the most innocent band in pop history, was once banned by City Hall because the band’s name “objectifies women.”

“Cruising at speeds of up to, oh, 12 kilometres per hour,” writes gallery director Dave Dyment on the Mercer Union website, “we drove nine blocks (from Lisgar to Strachan) before being pulled over by the police.” The charge? “Operating an unsafe vehicle.”

Mercer Union spokespeople have been assured by their lawyer that they have a good chance of winning their case. Trial date is set for April 3.

“The prosecution will have to prove that the car is dangerous, which we suspect will be difficult,” notes Dyment. “In the last 50 years, 200,000 Canadians have died in motor vehicle accidents. No pedal car deaths have been reported.”

OK, I’m a bit conflicted here. Firstly, I like the Mercer Union folks. They’re one of the most vital art institutions in Toronto, they throw great parties, they’re smart and have good programming, etc. Secondly, I’m an avid cyclist and a general believer in N.WA.’s assertion that a cop is just a sucker with a badge trying to get shot. Thirdly, I think this is a funny piece, and I love that it actually worked– the fact that the car is propelled by peoples’ feet is impressive and hilarious at the same time.

But the thing is, the cops have a point. In the immortal words of the ticketing officer, “the safety factor is …unsafe”. Even if it’s going at 5km an hour, it’s still unsafe in my view. Cars are going to expect a vehicle that looks exactly like a car to act like a car (I’ve argued elsewhere that people also expect a sculpture that looks like a bomb to act like a bomb, but that’s another story– I guess I’m just into mimetic debates). Even a 100 year old arthritic man riding a bike still appears to be riding a bike, and if he’s not insane, he’ll drive close enough to the shoulder to let people pass. This “car” was taking up a lane of traffic in a manner far more confusing to the average motorist than a horde of stinky critical massers. So they got ticketed, and I have to say the cops’ logic seemed fairly reasonable.

That said, I’m glad they’re fighting it– on the basis alone that anyone should fight a ticket because usually it works. I also think that none of these safety concerns take away from the work’s artistic merit. I for one think socially engaged art thrives on a level of danger and even potential for antagonism, so if the slow car pissed anyone off, the better for it (and as far as I could tell, at no time did anyone nail themselves to the car’s hood in a Jesus Christ pose, so it can’t have been all that bad). I guess I just find the argument that this car was perfectly safe to be a tad disingenuous.

Manic-related

Matt Lee’s back in Toronto and brought back a bunch of goodies. Some 49th Parallel (not sure what- I don’t think those bags have been cracked yet), a Batdorf and Bronson Ethiopia Limu that smelled like candy when the bag was opened, and a Novo Panama Finca Carmen that he got from Elysian Room. Word has it coffee in Vancouver right now is more light roasted and more tea-like than ever. I will report back on this when I’m in Vancouver on the 16th, and in the mean time I will give tasting notes when I get to try these bad oscars.

Make sure and request any of these coffees off the Clover next time you’re in the shop.

The Sign Flashed Out Its Warning

Gonna check this one out tonight, anyone wanna come?

Works by Olaf Breuning, Goody-B. Wiseman and Phil Collins
Friday, December 7, 8pm
Cinecycle, 129 Spadina Ave.

For those who don’t know, Phil Collins is the UK-based artist, not the singer. He’s also the main reason I’m planning on going to this thing. But if it’s the former-Genesis frontman you like, look no further:

VernissageTV

At first I thought this was a really stupid idea: a website that offers streaming video of footage taken at art openings. But it’s actually pretty amazing, especially when most of us only get the opportunity to look at a press photo of any show outside of our geographical reach. Here, someone walks around an entire exhibition, allowing prolonged views of works of art (mostly contemporary- I’m sure this is done to help fuel the art market). Even video works are allowed prolonged shots to account for duration (I’m not even going to touch the mediation/simulacra can of worms opened up by videotaping video art). Granted, it would be nice to see some of these exhibits without hordes of people walking around, but in the case of, say, the Felix Gonzalez-Torres American Pavilion exhibition at this Summer’s Venice Biennale (an exhibit that, alas, I am viewing for the first time on a fucking website, but my budgetary restrictions are part of what makes VernissageTV so appealing), the presence of viewers is what activates the work. It’s nice to see people interacting with the work, and I’m sure museum types who are into studying the ways audiences interact with exhibits could get a lot out of this too.

Bridge Battle!

Dang, wish I was coming to Vancouver two weeks earlier (ie. tomorrow):

And on a related note, Super Champion just launched their site. “We are a track bike shop from the deepest depths of our satanic souls”. Yessssssssssssssssssss.

Art school confidential

And this is why art school exists– so that folks can work out their stupid ideas before they hit the marketplace. Makes me nostalgic for cat killers.

Pure Unholy Bloodlust

Steven Shearer at the Power Plant, opens tonight. I miss Vancouver.