Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Exit interview Part 3: Abby Coe

Interview number three is with Abby Coe, who recently completed her MFA from University of Nevada Las Vegas and who--after what will surely be an epic paintball feud tomorrow night in Vegas--departs for Knoxville later this week. She will be missed, and here's her interview.

Your original Las Vegas dream:

I wanted to come to a city that was dynamic and weird and about as far personality-wise from my bible-belt hometown of Knoxville, TN as I could think of. I wanted to make some art and come out with my Master’s in Fine Arts.

On your connections:

Connections are great and fabulous for your career and all, but I am happy with the friends I have made. These are people that wouldn’t just include me in a show or opportunity if such a thing came along, but they are individuals that would scoop my cat’s shit if I couldn’t afford the cat sitter. They would come and jump my car if my battery died (again) in the dry desert heat. They would tell me what they really thought no matter if it was going to hurt my feelings or not without regard to the marketability of whatever I was making.

On casino executives and the media:

I could really care less. The novelty of them is kind of interesting. Where I come from Smoky Mountain Wrestlers and Evangelist preachers on Cable Access TV have more notoriety.

The popularity of poker:

Sure, whatever. It’s just another game. I’m not really a big gambler (and by this I mean I have probably gambled less than $50 in 3 years plus 2 other visits to Vegas), so I don’t think I can really speak to this. I like video blackjack okay and penny slots. John and I used to rent a hotel room across from Harrah’s in Cherokee, NC and bring a cooler of beer or liquor to drink in our room (because the Indian Reservation is dry) and walk over to play $5 in the penny slots. It would last us about 3 hours and the most fun thing about it was that they still used actual coins. I would cash out all the time just to hear all those coins come spilling out into the little buckets they give you.

What you’ll miss most about Las Vegas:

I think I already said how much I will miss the great people I have met and befriended, but it is worth mentioning again.

I will miss Davy’s Locker on Desert Inn and $4 shots and beers, and trivia night on Friday’s. I will also miss the walk there and the not-so-sober stumble back.

I will miss my apartment complex for all the strange things that I have seen there and the lovable resident regulars that I have dubbed: Wrinkle Head, Circle Puke, The Ceramicist, The Sexual Offender (because his card came in the mail with a picture and a warning), Crazy Eye, the Pacific Islander (always donned a floral sarong the minute he was home), and countless others.

I will miss people-watching while waiting for the light to change at Maryland Parkway and Flamingo.

If you're going to miss the Eureka, his [Dave Hickey's] favorite neighborhood casino:

Never been to the Eureka. I did, however, go to Bagelmania on Twain because I heard it had the best bagels in Vegas and you would have a good chance of spotting Dave there. I was sorely disappointed, but not because I didn’t see Dave. I know a lot of Northerners are very particular about their bagels, but I just want mine to not be toasted to the degree that it cuts the inside of my mouth. On a good note, the service was supreme and I think if you are particular about your bagels and that fish stuff people put on them, this is the place for you.

What you won’t miss about Las Vegas:

I won’t miss the intensity of the heat in August. My first August here I left a 24 pack of Diet Coke in the back of my car and heard a strange hissing noise after hitting a speed bump. I parked and went around the car to investigate. About half the cans were exploding and hissing and spewing diet soda everywhere. The other half rolled out of the open hatch of my SUV and exploded on the asphalt and on my legs and feet spraying near boiling-hot soda all over me.

What that last class at UNLV was:

I guess you could call that my Thesis Exhibition class. It seems really distant to me now, even though the exhibition just happened in March. Almost surreal. Probably because I spent all lot of time in a liminal state of high blood pressure and panic. I was sure I wouldn’t pass my defense. It was really tough. I think a lot of the things that were tough to hear were helpful and I learned from them. I don’t think I should comment on the things that I thought were tough to hear and not helpful.

What you will be doing in Knoxville, TN:

John will be working at UT Knoxville. I don’t have a job as of yet, but I did make sure that our new place would have room for me to have a work space. I’m looking forward to being able to go to affordable rock shows again. I won’t be lacking for boobies and tassel twirling as my cousin just joined a burlesque troop in Knoxville.

If you're ready to start over:

I like the way that John put it… he said this was a new chapter, not starting over. I suppose going back to the city we both grew up in isn’t the best way to go about starting over anyway.

What kind of city you're leaving behind:

The same weird and eccentric one that I chose to move to. I feel like I just know more of its dirty little secrets now.

If CityCenter was the right answer:

What was the question it was supposed to answer?

What’s to fear about Las Vegas in the future:

I fear one of the things that also lends Las Vegas its appeal. It is the constant cycle of tearing down, scrubbing away the evidence, and rebuilding. I worry that in this it might end up destroying some of the really great little nooks and crannies of the city.

What Las Vegas is going to miss about you:

I’m a good tipper. I donate everything I can to Saver’s. I am a diligent recycler. I am blunt and forthright with my criticism. (Other artists can appreciate this.) I know for sure Wrinkle Head will miss me as he told me once, “Girl, I would die for you.”

Image: Abby Coe, installation view, Contemporary Arts Center, Las Vegas, 2009.

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Exit interview Part 2: John Bissonette

Our second interview in this series of four is with John Bissonette. While Davy's locker may not be the perfect studio shot, well, it may be. A significant part of John's studio practice has always been to donate paintings to bars he likes. In the spirit of Cedar Tavern or Max's Kansas City, Davy's Locker has come to be a nexus of artists who congregate there for their Friday Night Trivia. At present, they own two of John's paintings; one is behind the bar, near the front door, and the other remains in their on-site storage facility and is used as a backdrop for Halloween festivities. Really.

Wikipedia offers this description of The Cedar Tavern:
The Cedar Tavern was opened in 1866 on Cedar Street. In 1933 it moved to 55 West Eight Street, and in 1945 it moved to 24 University Place. Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko, Franz Kline, Michael Goldberg, and others of the New York School all patronized the bar in the 1950s when they lived in Greenwich Village. Historians consider it an important incubator of the Abstract Expressionist movement. It was also popular with writers Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Gregory Corso, Frank O'Hara, and LeRoi Jones. Pollock was eventually banned from the establishment for kicking in the men's room door, as was Kerouac, who allegedly urinated in an ashtray.

While I've witnessed only small amounts of kicking and no urinating in ashtrays (yet), Davy's seems vital to our community. Support them. Here is John's take on Vegas and what happens next.

Your original Las Vegas dream:

My initial hopes for coming to Las Vegas were to be able to pay my bills, get a cheap studio, and make some new friends. I am happy to report that I succeeded on two of those fronts. I have met some wonderful people in Las Vegas and really like my studio.

On your connections:

I’ve never considered the people I know to be connections, which may explain my career. I will admit though to regularly receiving free drinks at Toot’s Little Honky Tonk in Knoxville, Tennessee. Abby and I also get ridiculously large “shots” here at Davy’s Locker.

On casino executives and the media:

I’ve never seen a casino executive in person but I really like the photographs of them I see in magazines. Does that answer both parts of this question?

The popularity of poker:

I can’t speak to its popularity because I’ve never been interested. I also think it causes too many stupid tattoos of spades and vanity license plates. I saw one yesterday that said “P.I.M.P: Poker is my passion”. I rest my case.

What you’ll miss most about Las Vegas:

I will miss my friends more than anything, but I will also miss all of the strange and magical aspects that come with living in this city: the ambient noise from the slot machines inside a casino that I hear on my way to the movies or out to dinner, buying a bottle of Vodka at 4 AM in the grocery store, the way the color of the sky above my apartment changes nightly depending upon the casinos, being surrounded by the desert…

If you're going to miss the Eureka, his [Dave Hickey's] favorite neighborhood casino:

I’ve never been there. Abby and I prefer going to the Orleans for the movies and Gold Coast for bowling and bingo. We have gambled a grand total of maybe 50 dollars since 2006 and that total includes Bingo. I do like that there is such a thing as a neighborhood casino though.

What you won’t miss about Las Vegas:

Ed Hardy!

What that last class at UNLV was:

I don’t know that I can speak to this question because I am not affiliated with the university in any way. Abby is still submitting paperwork three months after she graduated, so maybe I can answer that question when she is done.

What you will be doing at the [University of Tennessee]:

I will be teaching Graduate and Undergraduate Painting and Drawing. I’ve not quite figured out exactly what I want to cover yet but I imagine that it would be hard for my experiences in Vegas not to influence what and how I teach.

If you're ready to start over:

This implies that I would be stopping something or doing something different. In Knoxville I imagine my life will be very similar to the way it is now, just with less sunscreen and no Friday night trivia.

What kind of city you're leaving behind:

I think this city attracts and cultivates resilient people. I have seen a lot of desperation and insecurity since I have been here but I can’t help but hold out hope that the people will find a way. The other option is…
If CityCenter was the right answer:

I don’t really know if I am qualified to answer this question, but my sense is that it is a disaster. This is also coming from a person who much prefers seeing the mystic falls at Sam’s Town and the aquarium/pool at the Golden Nugget. For people who are less attracted to sparkly things and animatronics, it might just be the ticket. I can’t help but think it would be great if there were a staged disaster that happened there every evening like at Treasure Island- something to the effect of the movie Cloverfield or Godzilla. Now that would be fun.

What’s to fear about Las Vegas in the future:

See above image.

What Las Vegas is going to miss about you:

I think that Las Vegas has bigger things to miss than me, like Prince’s old club or that giant Michael Jackson robot that was rumored to be built a few years back.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Art School

Here is Jen Graves' article for The Stranger on the state of art schools in Seattle. Her comments come in the wake of her exit interview with Michael Darling, who is leaving his position at Seattle Art Museum to head up curatorial programming at Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. Darling's podcast interview is here.

Image: Michael Darling, courtesy The Stranger.

Saturday, June 19, 2010

4Culture and Las Vegas Arts Commission

4Culture is Seattle's answer to the Las Vegas Arts Commission. Which is to say, like the local agency here, 4Culture strives to present artist opportunities to, well, artists. As they write,

Our new on-line Public Art Calls to Artists List is going strong and accessible to you at any time. Bookmark the calls page linked below and check it often to stay up-to-the-minute with all the new opportunities as they come in from fellow agencies. Subscribe to the Calls List to be the first to hear about our new 4Culture calls, and to receive these monthly reminders to check the list at www.4Culture.org.

This list compiled by Public Art 4Culture provides basic information about our current Public Art Calls to Artists as well as current public art opportunities from fellow agencies. Please note each Call may have specific eligibility requirements including geographic restrictions. If you would like to repost this list, please credit 4Culture.

Saturday, June 12, 2010

RIP Sigmar Polke

This text is lifted completely from Artforum.com, but it seems really important to note Polke's passing. He will be missed.

Sigmar Polke, one of Germany’s best-known artists, died last night from cancer at the age of sixty-nine, his dealer Erhard Klein said in a phone interview, according to Bloomberg’s Catherine Hickley. Polke, a painter, graphic artist, and photographer, was “one of the most important and most successful representatives of German contemporary art,” culture minister Bernd Neumann said in a statement. “He was a critical, ironic, and self-ironic observer of postwar history and its artistic commentators.”

Born in 1941 in eastern Germany, Polke emigrated to the west in 1953. He settled in Dusseldorf, where he studied at the Art Academy. In 1963, he founded the “Capitalist Realism” painting movement with Gerhard Richter and Konrad Lueg. The three artists mocked both the realist style that was the official art of the Soviet Union and the consumer-driven pop art of the west. Polke moved to Cologne in 1978.

He experimented with a wide range of styles, subject matter, and materials. In the 1970s, he concentrated on photography, returning to paint in the 1980s, when he produced abstract works created by chance through chemical reactions between paint and other products. In the last twenty years, he produced paintings focused on historical events and perceptions of them.

His work has been exhibited at London’s Royal Academy and Tate Modern, the museum Ludwig in Cologne, the Martin-Gropius-Bau and Hamburger Bahnhof museums in Berlin, New York’s Museum of Modern Art, the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, the National Museum of Art in Osaka, and the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, among others.

Image: Polke, Watchtower.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Interview with Erin Stellmon


Stellmon's exhibition Reign of Glass is on view at CAC through July 20. Erin graciously donated her time recently to respond to a series of questions (via email) from John Bissonette and myself about her exhibition, Elvis, and the mutable nature of community.

Marc: Do you remember the first time you saw CityCenter and, more recently, the first time you went to visit?

Erin: I remember going to see the model of CityCenter at The Bellagio. I had seen some renderings on the local news before the model, but the model really made me think of George Romero’s last film Land of the Dead in which an all inclusive condo structure becomes more of a prison than a refuge when the zombies attack. The first time I made that comparison I was secretly thrilled to see it come to fruition.

The first time I actually walked through the CityCenter, my family was staying at Aria and I went to pick them up. Navigating into the core was next to impossible and no ones cell phones worked inside, so once we finally found each other after an hour, they begged me to take them out and away. I couldn’t go with at least a peek of their room and Crystals, and they reluctantly indulged me. I was really disappointed in how dated Aria already seemed, the decor feeling more than a decade old, but their room had some cool Jetson’s automation, and the bed was like a giant marshmallow, so the Pier One influences were easily forgiven.

As for Crystals, I had heard quite a few people describe it as an airport terminal in a negative way, but that is what I probably liked most about it initially. It was cold and empty and full of potential…it felt like a futuristic lair with a couple of natural elements thrown in to keep you from losing your sense of balance. After taking time in later visits to explore the entirety of City Center, Crystals comes the closest to my spaceship fantasy of what a sterile palace should feel like.

Marc: In an interview with 944 Magazine, Daniel Libeskind recently described his plan for Crystals [the mall at CityCenter located on The Strip] as being analogous to a jewel in the Center Strip, reflecting the Strip back onto itself and projecting outwards in numerous (and perhaps conflicting) ways. This question is a bit outside of the others perhaps, but as your recent work (intoned by the accompanying statement) offers a collective project designed to question CityCenter, are there any works at CityCenter that you feel are helping you in situating or negotiating or informing this type of critique? Is there a kinship in your approach to sculptural works by, say, Nancy Rubins or WET Design or Isa Genzken? And, as those works are located at CityCenter, do they share a privilege in their context for commenting on their location (locational identity)? Are they inside Liebskind's reflective surface?

Erin: I imagined the collaborative piece If You Lived Here You’d Be Home By Now to do just as Libeskind intended actually, but instead of it reflecting the Strip, to reflect the memories of visitors and residents of Vegas. It really is visually stunning to see the strip refracted in Crystals, but all in all, a giant broken mirror doesn’t have anything to offer intrinsically other than an inverted way of seeing things you’ve already seen. After a certain age (adolescence?) mirrors lose their “magic” and something more is desired. Those individual drawings in the collaborative piece are an offering to that desire.

As for the sculptural works at CityCenter, I do feel that they offer some sort of emotional identity to the place even though they come off as struggling to be noticed. Richard Long’s mud drawings “Circle of Life and Earth”, Maya Lin’s “Silver State”, Nancy Rubin’s “Big Pleasure Point” and Isa Genzken’s “Rose II” are so awesomely subversive in their effort to discuss nature, memory and touch within this corporate behemoth. Unfortunately it was as if the artists’ master plans were purposely squelched by their placement. Don’t get me wrong, it is nice to see some great art in Vegas without having to pay $20 inside of a casino, I just wish the pieces were given the reverence they deserve. It is as if there was a list of things to be checked to make a giant corporate home. Fountains? Check. Public art that you don’t have to see if you don’t want to? Check. Anyway, this is why I have tried to avoid talking about this subject…but the cat is out of the bag now (gee thanks Marc).

Marc: When reading the press descriptions of CityCenter, it immediately makes me think about Disney’s engineered city Celebration, Florida and the risks (and rewards?) of planned communities. How does this sense of community respond to the communal approach you’ve taking in designing your collaborative drawing project If You Lived Here You’d Be Home By Now for this exhibition? Are these notions of community intrinsically separate or conflated? Community and community? Us and them? All of us together now?

Erin: I like that “all of us together now?”, how really terrifying. Community should never be forced otherwise it resembles an institution. Thinking about it now, I suppose that is why I wanted there to be spaces between each of the drawings in the collaborative piece. I don’t feel you can have an active and flourishing community without each person being celebrated as an individual. The biggest problem I have with planned communities is the erasure of the individual by forced uniformity. I think that there is a safety felt by some when choices are limited and rules are posted and that is fine, those people are free to live in institutions, I just choose to fight that inclination a little bit harder.

Marc: Have you seen Viva Elvis and could you speak about Elvis’ role in discourse around CityCenter? Do you seem him as a symbol for the project?

Erin: Ha! This question is awesome. Honestly I haven’t seen it and have kind of dismissed it as a half-hearted attempt at bringing old Vegas to CityCenter. I guess the fact that they fired the original director could be compared to the project’s problems with construction, and the lack luster reviews of the show could represent the underwhelming critical opinions of CityCenter as a whole, but I’m not sure that I see Elvis’ life as a symbol for the project. I think a big reason why Elvis was so loved was due to his small town charm/naiveté and the CityCenter really has little of that authenticity. If anything, maybe that’s why they chose to “celebrate” him?

John: Planned communities? Awesome. I wonder if CityCenter is better suited to exist than Celebration, Florida because it is still more geared toward the transient. Living- really "living"- in city center seems like hell, or a horror movie to me.

Erin: That’s funny, did you see Romero’s Land of the Dead too? Or maybe Argento’s Suspiria?

John: Here are some thoughts, sort of questions: The concept of “home” is in my mind tied to a number of different things: belonging, nostalgia, memory, place, etc. Is this a concept that was born or nurtured in Las Vegas?

Erin: The concept of “home” has been present in my work for a long time, but I think one of the reasons I came to Vegas is to really investigate what that means/could mean. Like in the song New York, New York: “If I can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere”, I felt that if I could feel at home in Las Vegas, the city of transience, I would never feel homeless again. Of course I have surrounded myself with not only locals, but people who really take advantage of the city and try to make the best of it. It is hard not to feel some sort of comfort when you are around such positivity and when it sucks, an understanding for how harsh this town can be.

The Neon Museum is an extremely positive place to work with awesome people coming from all over to embrace their memories of Vegas or what they would prefer it to still be like. Nostalgia can be a dangerous thing when it whitewashes things that shouldn’t be forgotten, but I think it helps people to feel part of a larger collective unconscious.

John: I tend to think that nostalgia is an interesting thing to consider in relation to Las Vegas. It would seem to me that the strip (and city center is an excellent example of this) is invested in the commodification and delivery of some form of nostalgia. We don’t visit New York New York because it is in any way.. NY, but rather we do because it reminds us of the place. Memory trumps actuality. It would seem to me that your installation of drawings functions in an oddly similar manner. Thoughts?

Erin: I was hoping the installation would function in a similar way, pointing out that memory has a intrinsic weight that shifts depending on it’s value. I made the rule that the artists could only use contour line, no shading, to represent their memory thinking that a series of line drawings would visually represent my idea in a cohesive way, but in the end I was happy to see some of them break the rule; having different visual weights worked with the idea of memory being intrinsically transient as well.

John: (I’m trying to avoid Baudrillard or Hickey, but am having trouble) I have always found the comments from people visiting the city like “do you really live here” to be particularly amusing and relevant to the condition of existing in this place. I wonder if notions of home and community are magnified in the minds of residents of Las Vegas because of the nature of the city.

Erin: I know. I love that people still think that everything exists on the strip and that UNLV is in a casino and that I live in the Bellagio….no wait, I guess I would live in Circus Circus probably…oooh! That is a potential Facebook quiz, but I digress….There is something special about the people that choose to live here I think. I was just talking to a friend that was visiting from New Orleans and he was explaining that moving there had squelched his feelings of wanderlust due to the many different worlds within that city. There are elements to Las Vegas that are similar, the separations of communities and lifestyles keep things interesting, and unlike a lot of other cities, there are a lot of free things to do and explore. (I’m not sure if this answers your question)

John: Despite its scale, is city center any different that other resorts in Las Vegas? I’ve read statements that it is not a themed resort but take a staunch opposition to that notion. It is the ultimate simulation, NYNY 2.0. Being inside of city center is like being in a comic book to me, the skewed perspective, the fleeting feeling of a metropolis. I find it spectacular in its inability to convince me, and maybe that is why I like it. (I think there is a question in there somewhere)

Erin: I think I feel similar, the place has a bunch of problems, but there are moments that are really cool, like the public parking structure with its dance club accents. My boyfriend Aaron went to the sportsbook in Aria (which he loved), and saw a gaggle of hoodlums skateboarding in front of Crystals. He said it warmed his heart…maybe the City Center has some potential yet!

A collaborative installation that is part of Erin Stellmon's exhibition "Reign of Glass" and is on view in the gallery through July 24th. The proceeds of most sales will generously be donated to the CAC. Describing the project, Erin has written,

It is impossible to build a city out of nothing. As much as it seems so, Las Vegas did not spring from the middle of the desert overnight. It was built on the impossible dreams of many both living and visiting here and survives as a town of memories (fuzzy as they may be) and extreme realities. I am striving to create a counter to this forced society that is CityCenter with a structure built of memory, touch, and community. For this installation I have asked artists that have lived here, live here currently, or have visited in the recent past, to participate by completing a simple black and white contour line drawing on an individually cut piece of archival paper that I supplied. Each artist had the option to either have their work donated (with proceeds going to the CAC, a 501-C3 non-profit), or to have them returned. The CAC has been a Las Vegas institution for over 20 years that feeds the community in numerous ways. I am hoping to help the CAC raise funding to keep its doors open and to help ensure its future growth.

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Dave





So there has been a good amount of press on Dave and Libby's imminent departure from Las Vegas. Rather than add to the fray right now, we're just going to wait till some of the dust settles and then really respond, perhaps. In the meantime, we're presenting an archive of articles about the departure and some of the reasons that contributed to the decision. Thanks to the Las Vegas Sun, Vegas Seven, Saatchi Gallery, and the LA Times for all the photos.
LA Times here
Las Vegas Sun here
Vegas Seven here

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

One Trip Pass


One Trip Pass is something I've been returning to repeatedly lately to look at and consider. It's hard to say if it's nostalgia, curiosity, or doubt that keeps me coming back, but their *Board* is a stream of consciousness collage of images (the two above are part of it, albeit from different areas) that's hard to account for, at least for me.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

RIP Tobias Wong and Louise Bourgeois

A friend just called to let me know that Tobias Wong passed away over the weekend. If you're not familiar with his work, Core77 wrote this really great post. Images of his projects (like his modified Rashid book, above) are also arranged loosely on this post via Flavorwire.

We also lost Louise Bourgeois this weekend. Holland Cotter's article for the NY Times is here.

Image: Tobias Wong, I Want to Change the World.