Invisible Light by Margo Selski.
The Glass Garage Fine Art Gallery has an online collection of paintings by Margo Selski, many of which feature her cross-dressing son, Theo. Coilhouse profiled artist and model earlier in the week. Some of these paintings mix oil with beeswax which is something I’ve not come across before.
• The Periwinkle Journal‘s first issue will be available online, free, from March 22nd until mid-June, featuring work by filmmaker and artist Hans Scheirl (Dandy Dust), artwork and collages by Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, a 7-page colour comic by Mavado Charon, artwork by Timothy Cummings, artwork and installations by Cody Chritcheloe/SSION, photos by Megan Mantia, Science-Heroes by Peter Max Lawrence, an illustration portfolio by Diego Gómez, selections from the queer photography pool on Flickr, reviews and other stuff. More later.
• The Quietus wanted to remind us that this year is the 25th anniversary of the NME‘s C86 compilation tape, a collection that sought to capture a moment of ferment but which inadvertently inspired too much dreary sub-Velvet Underground pop. I’d rather celebrate the 30th anniversary of the NME‘s C81 compilation, a far more diverse collection and musically superior. If you want to judge for yourself, both tapes can be downloaded here.
Machine in the Garden — Our Island Shall Know Abundance Without End by Margo Selski.
• Rick Poynor continues his exploration of Ballardian graphics with a piece about the paintings of Peter Klasen. Related: Where Will It End? JG Ballard interviewed by V. Vale & introduced by Michael Moorcock (Arthur No. 15/March 2005).
In his autobiography, Miracles of Life, JG Ballard suggested that illustrated versions of The Arabian Nights helped prepare him for surrealism.
Robert Irwin, author of The Arabian Nightmare, on the illustrators of The Arabian Nights.
• Another Coulthart cult movie surfaces, Jerzy Skolimowski’s Deep End (1970), out of circulation for many years but newly restored by the BFI. A re-release is scheduled for May so I’m hoping now that a DVD release will follow soon after.
• Thom Ayres’ photostream at Flickr, and more long-exposure photos.
• Fuck You, A Magazine of the Arts, number 5, volume 8.
• Nicolas Roeg: “I don’t want to be ahead of my time.”
• MetaFilter looks at the films of René Laloux.
• The Eerie covers of Frank Frazetta.
• Requiem (for String Orchestra) by Toru Takemitsu.
There was another good artist you’d featured here recently who was also associated with Glass Garage. You complimented his webpage not only for the art but also for the fact that he didn’t bother with a long idiotic ‘artist’s statement.’ I usually tend to agree with this sentiment, as did I in that instance as well. However, I must say I am pleasantly surprised at how legitimate feeling Selski’s longer artist’s statement seemed, as well as her actual art of course.
Its sad reading about young people who are simply different, being ostracized by white trash in small towns, though, growing up in a similar environment, I couldn’t promise that I wouldn’t have also behaved in such a shameful way when I was younger. Hindsight is always 20/20, but foresight became a rare commodity amongst people in general long ago.
Yes, that gallery has a number of artists doing the kind of work I often like to see.
My complaint against artists’s statements wasn’t against all such things, just the ones you see too often which are very much the product of unthinking artschool-speak. No one becomes an artist with the intention of “researching physical and idealized space, and how they create a liminal interstitial engaging space“, that’s a post facto rationalisation using two cliches–liminal and interstitial–which occur with great frequency on art sites. Google “artist statement liminal” and you’ll find many people saying the same kind of thing. Aside from the occasional manifesto, artists in the past didn’t have “statements”, they just did what they did. As far as I can tell, the need for statements is a product of the art market; galleries need to be able to tell would-be purchasers of expensive things something that sounds important: “the artist is exploring liminal and interstitial space” regardless of whether the words they utter mean anything. I keep going on about this because it’s one of the reasons people are contemptible towards contemporary art. Bullshit language excludes people from a conversation about the place of art in our lives, and for some people reinforces an idea that gallery art is remote and difficult.
“Some of these paintings mix oil with beeswax which is something I’ve not come across before.”
Beeswax is often used as a medium for oil paint usually mixed with turpentine. It gives a matt finish. Monet used it frequently and I often use it myself as I particularly dislike the traditional glossy finish..
Thanks, I thought it may be something more specialised. My own painting never extended beyond using acrylics.