text:
l'âge d'or, exhibition view at salts, Birsfelden / October-December 2014
photography: GUNNAR MEIER
This is a view from the first solo exhibition of PAULINE BEAUDEMONT presented currently at salts in Birsfelden (Basel).
Entitled l'âge d'or, the show is centered around a video called 'If you put a roof…' (2012) which features a dancehall queen performing some repeated movements in The Maison Blanche, the first house of Le Corbusier built for his parents in 1912 in his home town in Switzerland. This piece – as well as the new works especially created for salts – is made up of fragments in which elements of baroque, humor, sensuality and insolence are interwoven. The whole installation witnesses a profound investigation of modernism in popular culture.
Be sure to catch the show in person before it closes on December 8, 2014. You can also watch the video online here.
You use the term "secret" but "each secret has an emitter and a receiver, meaning someone who the secret is meant for but who mustn't know it." Who is the receiver in this case? Who do you let in on the secret and whom do you exclude?
The person whom I never deceive and who is my partner in crime is the curator; unless the piece is about them like my recent 'jung28′ (Festival des Urbaines, 2013). As for whom the pieces are meant for, they're obviously for the audience. But not necessarily the immediate audience since they're not always aware of all the elements of the piece right as it's happening. I'm thinking more of the later audience, the ones who think about the situation in a flashback through viewer accounts and my own comments. For example, the people who are reading this interview. Being able to identify the covert operation, whether it's in the moment or later on, is sort of the reward for the intrepid viewer. To figure it out, you need to listen, read, do some research. It takes time. And that's exactly why I don't record my pieces. Objects, including pictures and videos, are the baits that usually prevent people from being able to access the idea.
FLORENCE JUNG is a French artist based in Switzerland whose work blurs the line between constructs and accidents, rather than to say reality and fiction. Her work is difficult to define in fact: she primarily constructs situations which are mediated through the best medium she found to grab the complexity, and which is often performance. Her pieces are like narrative with consequences; narratives which encourage the viewer to question preconceived ideas of certainty and truth.
You can find the entire interview in french between FLORENCE JUNG and curator / art critic SOPHIE LAPALU via http://sophielapalu.blogspot.ch/
1982, 2014
found objects, polystyrene
exhibition view at Kunsthaus Glarus, November 2014
detail from Wall Paintings, 2014
plain plywood sheets, cement, metal, ceramic, engobe, enamel
exhibition view at Kunsthaus Glarus, November 2014
detail from Turbo Craft, 2014
printer, acrylic, wood
Wall Paintings, 2014
plain plywood sheets, cement, metal, ceramic, engobe, enamel
detail from Schnitzeljagd, 2014
ceramic, engobe, enamel
exhibition view at Kunsthaus Glarus, November 2014
Old Future, 2014
ceramic, engobe, enamel
detail from Old Future, 2014
ceramic, engobe, enamel
all images © wfw
The Kunsthaus of Glarus is currently presenting Coupé-Décalé, a solo exhibition for BASTIEN AUBRY and DIMITRI BROQUARD, two Swiss artists who started to work together in 2002 as graphic designers and who have slightly developed exuberant sculptures mixing high art and history with popular culture, creating a unique discourse between past and present.
The exhibition reflects the diversity of their artistic practice, in which painting, craft, design, and architecture intertwine in a dynamic relationship. The duo transforms the space of the Kunsthaus into a synthesis of contrasting visual forms and modes of presentation. The show is anchored by two installations. On the first floor, a series of cast-off CD shelves placed on fake stone plinths dominate the space creating a dazzling juxtaposition of past decorative forms. These share the room with a series of collages (using photoshop and scissors) presented on built-in exhibition walls covered with rough outdoor plaster.
The upper floor presents a large installation of plain plywood sheets treated with a rough plaster coating. The walls as well as the wood sheets supports constellations of ceramic forms with sometimes distinct morphologies, while some are rather abstract and clumsy.
After studying graphic design at visual arts school in Biel, BASTIEN AUBRY and DIMITRI BROQUARD worked together as FLAG design office. In the field of fine arts they have had several solo and group shows since 2008, including exhibitions in the Centre Culturel Suisse, Paris (2008), the Swiss Institute, New York (2012).
➝ Coupé-Décalé is on view at the Kunsthaus Glarus until November 23, 2014
all images © RITA LINO
Portuguese photographer RITA LINO explores, through a series of photographs and videos, the possibilities of her body with an uninhibited sexuality and a playful, stylized shamelessness.
But as always, things are not quite so simple or direct. While LINO's photographs use overly blunt imagery, they repeatedly conceal their messages: identity is always a mask — necessarily strange and ambiguous; her work constructs a self that is mutable and elusive. At times, she looks directly at the camera, daring and defying the audience to return her gaze; other times, she turns and looks away, blindfolding or covering her eyes. Whether concealed or conspicuous, RITA LINO asserts that no exposure fully reveals her.
More than mere snapshots, her work touches on voyeurism, loneliness, the manipulative power of the camera, and the urge to connect with others, through, within, and apart from technology and the media.
→ http://www.ritalino.com/
image courtesy AUDREY WOLLEN
AUDREY WOLLEN is a Los Angeles-based artist who has developed a body of work through instagram entitled the Sad Girl Theory. She explained to BENJAMIN BARRON for i-D that the 'Sad Girl Theory proposes that the internalised suffering women experience should be categorised as an act of protest. We have historicised gestures of externalisation and violence, because they already fit into our standards of masculinity, and therefore, power. But there is an entire lineage of women who consciously disrupted the status quo through enacting their own sorrow. I think that a sad girl's self destruction, no matter how silent or commonplace, is a strategy for subverting those systems, for making the implicit violence visceral and visible, for implicating us all in her devastation. '
Make sure to read the entire interview here or to follow her work on instagram.
click here to view more Instagram photos, captured on my recent trip to Iceland
both: Untitled (1985, manila rope, linen, slate)
by Icelandic artist RAGNA RÓBERTSDÓTTIR
seen in the group exhibition Synthesis
presented at the Reykjavik Art Museum
seen on Monday, November 3, 2014
image © wfw
Synthesis is on view until January 18, 2015
view from the exhibition Girl Culture,
a solo exhibition by American photographer LAUREN GREENFIELD
seen at the Reykjavik Museum of Photography
on Monday, November 3, 2014
image © wfw
this exhibiton is on view until January 11, 2015
I am obviously late to the game since CHRISTOPHER WILLIAMS's first retrospective at MoMA closed last week but I really recommend to read this conversation between the American artist and DAVID ANDREW TASMAN together with CATHERINE TAFT.
After its presentation at MoMA, the exhibition travels to Whitechapel Gallery, London in 2015. Note also that the exhibition was accompanied by a publication which seems to be really interesting. Meanwhile you can read the entire conversation via http://dismagazine.com/discussion/69719/christopher-williams-the-19th-draft/.
The Dawn, 2014
polystyrene, fibre glass, acrylic paint, acrylic resin
138.5 x 76.5 x 51.5 cm. (54.5 x 30.1 x 20.3 in.)
image courtesy of the artist and Eva Presenhuber, Zürich
This is The Dawn (2014), a sculpture by Swiss artist VALENTIN CARRON which is currently making small waves in the art pond. Presented at the FIAC last month, the sculpture has been highly inspired by l'Aube (1977), a sculpture by Italian artist FRANCESCO MARINO DI TEANA (1920-2012) presented in the public space of Neuchâtel.
His meticulous version is not a forgery, nor is it an homage. But VALENTIN CARRON's piece is very interesting for all the questions that rise from it about visual illusion, originality, authorship, the interior structures of art and image culture, and the limitations of any history of art wedded to the image.
Nothing comes from nothing. Someone, somewhere, is doubtless repeating CARRON. The cycle is endless. However the swiss artist seems to get involved in a legal dispute, à suivre!
source: rts
ERIKA CERUZZI, City (four-ten), 2014
vinyl, embroidery, dyed canvas 2014
ERIKA CERUZZI, Denise (detail), 2014
ALEX ITO, In Denial of Falling (fair-weather friends), 2014
aluminum, stainless steel, glass, digital vinyl print, digital fabric print, resin, ceramic, moss, wood, and plaster 2014
ALEX ITO, In Denial of Falling (fair-weather friends), 2014
aluminum, stainless steel, glass, digital vinyl print, digital fabric print, resin, ceramic, moss, wood, and plaster 2014
ALEX ITO, In Denial of Falling (fair-weather friends), 2014
aluminum, stainless steel, glass, digital vinyl print, digital fabric print, resin, ceramic, moss, wood, and plaster 2014
ALEX ITO, There is Always an Excuse, 2014
UV curable ink and metal etch on aluminum panel 2014
ALEX ITO, Think of Me Fondly (touching myself at work), 2014
aluminum, stainless steel, glass, digital vinyl print, digital fabric print, resin, wood, and plaster 2014
ALEX ITO, Think of Me Fondly (touching myself at work), 2014
aluminum, stainless steel, glass, digital vinyl print, digital fabric print, resin, wood, and plaster 2014
all images courtesy of the artists and Springsteen Gallery, Baltimore
Jardin n°19, an exhibition of ALEX ITO and ERIKA CERUZZI, captures the tensions between a natural environment that bears the mark of social and economic structures and synthetic material culture. CERUZZI's hanging horizontal rail system that navigates through the space has a visceral presence, and her unique embroidery works echo the basic assumptions of the artist's creative path. In contrast, ITO displays his concerns in two sculptures and a series of wall works, all engaged with the existence of the photographic image in a dematerialized format.
There is a graceful synchronicity between these two artists' work: according to the press release, at a singular point in CERUZZI's structure, a vertical pole drops to meet with one of ITO's floor sculptures which acts as a stage for his objects; taking the form of a planter filled with artificially produced floral elements. The peculiar, tortuous growth of the plant towards the square floor sculpture traps the viewer between sculpture and decoration, technological objectivity and human hand, present and idealized representation.
ERIKA CERUZZI (b. 1990) is a New York based artist who has recently relocated to Baltimore, MD. She received her BFA from Cooper Union in 2012. Her recent solo show, m, i, n, e, at Interstate Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, opened in March 2014. She will participate in the The Still House Group residency program in 2015.
ALEX ITO (b.1991) is an American artist living and working in Brooklyn, NY. Ito received his BFA from Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY in 2013, with a double minor in Art History and Cultural Studies. Recent solo and two-person projects include Rod Barton Gallery, London, UK (2014), The Home Tao Tsiao, Art in General, NY (2014); Think of Me Fondly, Water McBeer Gallery (2014); Single Image (with Brendan Lynch), Steve Turner Contemporary, Los Angeles, CA (2014) and Victory, The Still House Group, Redhook, NY (2013).
→ Jardin n°19 by ALEX ITO and ERIKA CERUZZI is on view at Springsteen Gallery in Baltimore until November 28, 2014
view from the solo exhibition of Iranian-born artist SHIRANA SHAHBAZI
presented at Kunsthalle Bern
seen on Saturday, October 25, 2014
image © wfw
Monstera is on view until December 7, 2014
Sediment Sampling (2014, unfired clay, water) by KARIN LEHMANN
seen at Kunst Raum Riehen in the group exhibition Narrativ / Performativ*
on Friday, October 24, 2014
image © wfw
*running through November 9, 2014
video still from Hustle in Hand, 2014
HD video, color, sound, 10'20''
courtesy SHAHRYAR NASHAT; Rodeo Gallery, Istanbul; Silberkuppe, Berlin, Museen Dahlem
This is a still from a recent video (click on the still to watch it) by the Berlin-based artist SHAHRYAR NASHAT (b.1975), called Hustle in Hand (2014). This video is the base of his current installation presented at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris at the moment.
'Hustle in Hand' (2014) revolves around secret negotiations carried out between two characters, only their torsos visible in the frame. Money, food, appearances, consumption: the viewer is pulled into a round of transactions, like a rumination on our society in which art occupies a coveted position. The film's rhythm is suddenly interrupted by the appearance of a green polyhedron that, once licked by one of the mysterious protagonists, becomes golden yellow, a magical event accompanied by an intense swelling of violin music*.
➝SHAHRYAR NASHAT, Lauréat du Prix Lafayette 2013, is on view at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris until November 23, 2014
*from the Palais de Tokyo's press release
I highly recommend to read Further Materials towards a theory of the hot babe, an essay by artist and writer HANNAH BLACK, that she calls a performance text and in which she describes the intangibility that characterizes the hot babe.
Further Materials towards a theory of the hot babe has been released on The New Inquiry in July 2013, read the entire text via http://thenewinquiry.com/essays/further-materials-toward-a-theory-of-the-hot-babe/
Do You Follow? Art in Circulation, copresented in London by Rhizome and the ICA
on 17 October 2014
The video above shows artist AMALIA ULMAN discussing her project Excellences & Perfections last week as part of Do You Follow? Art in Circulation, a series of talks copresented in London by Rhizome and the ICA.
Excellences & Perfections is a fascinating performance, actually a social media performance which started in April 2014 via ULMAN's instagram and facebook profiles and which lasted till September 2014. During these couple of months, 'she allowed her profiles to be exactly what social media seems to demand—that she be a "Hot Babe." As part of this project, she underwent an extreme, semi-fictionalized makeover: she pretended to have a breast augmentation, posting images of herself in a hospital gown and with a bandaged chest, using a padded bra and Photoshop to manipulate her image. (…) ULMAN's Instagram account is a parade of carefully arranged flowers and expensive lingerie and highly groomed interiors and perfectly plated brunches'*.
As an active instagram user, I followed AMALIA ULMAN and I unfollowed her in July 2014 after thinking that she had probably lost her mind (!). Of course, Instagram, like all social media, is about presenting a carefully chosen version of yourself, but what's very interesting about this performance, is to see how social media have blurred our old logic of authenticity, and finally how it keep us tied to clichés.
➝ Excellences & Perfections is presented as part of First Look, the ongoing series of digital projects co-curated and copresented by Rhizome and the New Museum (on view here). Additionally I really recommend you to catch in person her solo exhibition The Destruction of Experience which is currently on view at Evelyn Yard in London through November 13th.
*from rhizome
click here for a wider view
detail from Socketing in the Digital Age 2 (2014) by JANA EULER
seen at Kunsthalle Zürich
on Friday, October 17, 2014
image © wfw
JANA EULER, Where the energy comes from, is on view until November 9, 2014
detail from the exhibition Legacy
by JACENT VAROYM (JADE FOURÈS-VARNIER and VINCENT DE HOŸM)
presented at Lokal-Int, Biel
on Thursday, October 16, 2014
image © wfw
Speculum linguarum (2014, 16 mirrored plexiglass rahlé with speakers, each 30 x 30 x 50 cm) and Hung and Tart (2014, hand-blown glass, 25 x 15 x 35 cm)
sound installation by artist group SLAVS AND TATARS
from their solo exhibition Mirrors for Princes*
seen at Kunsthalle Zürich
on Friday, October 17, 2014
image © wfw
on view until November 9, 2014
HERE'S LOOKING AT YOU, exhibition view at Lychee One Gallery, London
October 2014
HERE'S LOOKING AT YOU, exhibition view at Lychee One Gallery, London
October 2014
HERE'S LOOKING AT YOU, exhibition view at Lychee One Gallery, London
October 2014
Untitled, 2014
silk, wood, rope, silicone, 230 x 140 x 9cm
Untitled, 2014
mixed wax, marble dust, earth pigment, 53 x 39 x 40cm
Untitled, 2014
mixed wax, marble dust, earth pigment, 53 x 48 x 42cm
Untitled, 2014
silicone, 19 x 18 x 69 cm, 19 x 19 x 71cm
Joanna / Shiro, 2014
mixed wax, marble dust, earth pigment, latex, paint, gel, wood,
89 x 62 x 15 cm, 169 x 32 x 30 cm
HERE'S LOOKING AT YOU, text by ALEXANDER GARCIA DÜTTMANN
mixed paint, 105 x 59cm, 2014
all images courtesy of the artists and Lychee One Gallery, London
It's Frieze Art Fair in London, and on this occasion, all the galleries come out with unique exhibitions, the Lychee One Gallery near Broadway Market is no exception.
Entitled HERE'S LOOKING AT YOU, the exhibition features the work of VIRGILE ITTAH (b. Paris, 1981) and KAI YODA (b. Tokyo, 1982) both graduate from The Royal College of Art. HERE'S LOOKING AT YOU continues their collaborative work exploring the spatial and experiential terms of borders and distance within human interaction into an intriguing narrative.
VIRGILE exhibited in collaboration with KAI YODA at Newark Park and The Wilson in the open west 2013. Selected shows include Saatchi New Sensations, New Order II at Saatchi Gallery, Young Gods at Charlie Smith Gallery and Griffin Gallery, London. Her work has been selected for the Catlin Guide 2014 and 100 London Artists book curated by Charlie Smith Gallery. She has exhibited in England and in France where she was awarded the Camera Clara Prize. Virgile Ittah was selected for the Catlin Prize exhibition in 2014 for which she created a new work.
KAI YODA exhibited at the OBS Gallery, Royal Festival Hall, Barge House, Wellcome Collection Windows, and the Lighthouse among others. He was the recipient of Japanese Government Oversea Study Program for Young Artists in 2011, and was shortlisted for Open Call, Beers Lambert Contemporary 2014.
➝ HERE'S LOOKING AT YOU is on view at Lychee One Gallery in London until November 12, 2014
Published in the latest issue of Frieze Magazine (Issue 16, September – November 2014), Network Fatigue is a very interesting essay by PABLO LARIOS about artists who resist to the current image circulation through a series of collaborations and ephemeral projects.
I highly recommend to read the entire text via frieze magazine
venus anadyomene, 2014
5 similar pieces each consisting of:
giant clam shell, neon tubing, transformer, high-fire ceramic vessel filled with olive oil, wick, flame, sand, mica, frankincense, benzoin, myrrh, brass
installation view at Ramiken Crucible, April 2014, New York
image courtesy of the artist
ELAINE CAMERON-WEIR's venus anadyomene is on display in the group exhibition Flat Neighbors at the Rachel Uffner Gallery in New York. Each piece consists of a suspended giant clam shell, edged with neon tubing, and high-fire ceramic vessel each filled with olive oil, sand, mica, and resins of Benzoin, Myrrh as well as Frankincenses that are being heated over a flame releasing their aroma.
I'm not trying to create decorated spaces by any means, but I am interested in that spirit of figuring out how to create a presence, or an atmosphere, using the relationships between objects, rather than a superficial strategy of merely pointing things out to people and asking if they also see those things. And when I work with scent, the idea of what scent it will be evolves alongside the idea of the object. I never make a sculpture and then decide to add a smell. If I'm making a sculpture that was never intended to be scented it never is scented. I'm not trying to illustrate glamour. – ELAINE CAMERON-WEIR in conversation with ISLA LEAVER-YAP
➝ Flat Neighbors is on view at Rachel Uffner Gallery in New York until October 19, 2014
view from the exhibition 'GAETANO PESCE, The Time of Diversity'
seen at MAXXI – National Museum of the 21st Century Arts in Rome, Italy
on Sunday, September 28, 2014
image © wfw
Loukanikos, 2014
megafineart-print auf hahnemühle photorag baryta, 90 × 120 cm
Upper Part (head) + Relief VI ( square) + Relief VII (small package), 2014
epoxy resin, metal chain, 104 × 120 × 59 cm
Upper Part (head) + Relief VI ( square) + Relief VII (small package), 2014
epoxy resin, metal chain, 104 × 120 × 59 cm
Upper Part (head) + Relief VI ( square) + Relief VII (small package), 2014
epoxy resin, metal chain, 104 × 120 × 59 cm
LENA HENKE, DIE, exhibition view at Parisa Kind, Frankfurt
Theodoris, 2014
megafineart-print auf hahnemühle photorag baryta, 90 × 120 cm
LENA HENKE, DIE, exhibition view at Parisa Kind, Frankfurt
Relief IV (medium package), 2014 (epoxy resin, metal chain, 46 × 25 × 16 cm)
Relief II (large helmet), 2014 (epoxy resin, metal chain, 38 × 22 × 20 cm)
Relief I (large package), 2014 (epoxy resin, metal chain, 45 × 38 × 17 cm)
Lower Part (legs), 2014
epoxy resin, metal chain, 93 × 98 × 81 cm
Middle Part (ass) + Relief V (pyramid), 2014
epoxy resin, metal chain, 71 × 109 × 59 cm
LENA HENKE, DIE, exhibition view at Parisa Kind, Frankfurt
all images courtesy the artist and Parisa Kind, Frankfurt
DIE is the title of the new solo exhibition of German artist LENA HENKE which brings together new photographs, sculptures and installations within the gallery space of Parisa Kind in Frankfurt, Germany. There is little information about the show apart a poem by PABLO LARIOS, but it seems that HENKE's images all occupy three dimensions, pushing photography into full object-hood just as sculpture may erode into the pictorial.
LENA HENKE has held solo exhibitions with Real Fine Arts, New York; Neuer Aachener Kunstverein, Aachen; Galerie Parisa Kind, Frankfurt am Main; Kunstverein Oldenburg, Oldenburg; and 1857, Oslo. She has participated in group exhibitions held with Greene Naftali, New York; Pro Choice, Vienna; and the Glasgow International, Glasgow. Together with artist MARIE KARLBERG, she co-founded the itinerant curatorial project M/L Artspace, which has mounted exhibitions in such locations as a nail salon and a parking lot under the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. HENKE completed her MFA dually at at the Städelschule, Frankfurt am Main and the Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow. She lives and works between in New York.
➝ DIE is on view at Galerie Parisa Kind in Frankfurt until October 18, 2014. Please note that HENKE will present her work during the FIAC in Paris (Lafayette Sector) that will take place from October 23 to October 26, 2014.
On the occasion of his new solo exhibition entitled Counting on People at ICA London, French-Algerian artist NEÏL BELOUFA talks in the October issue of Artforum about the works presented in the exhibition which premiers two new films Data for Desire (2014) and VENGEANCE (2014) as well as a special commission by the ICA and The Banff Centre (Canada) entitled Home is Whenever I'm with You (2014).
Like his previous displays, the space at ICA seems to be filled with a sprawling array of objects, structures, cabling punctuated by screens playing BELOUFA's films.
Read the entire text here, and be sure to catch the show in person before it closes on November 16th.
Parapetto, exhibition view at The National Exemplar, New York
Untitled (Arezzo), 2014 (oil on linen, 86″x 124″)
Untitled (Arezzo), 2014 (oil on linen, 77″x 38″)
China Mountain (small), 2013 (glass, 16 1/4″x 6″x 6 1/2″)
Shade Shelter (bronze, 7″x 15 1/2″x 6 1/2″)
Nestor's Tub Variation (terracota, 9 3/4″x 22″x 14″)
image courtesy the artists and The National Exemplar, NY
This is a view from the exhibition Parapetto by Italian painter ENZO CUCCHI (born 1949) and ceramic/ glass artist TRISTANO DI ROBILANT (born 1964) that opened a month ago at The National Exemplar Gallery in New York. Parapetto is – according to the press release – a term used in religious paintings for the dividing line or wall that separates the temporal space of the viewer from the religious/mystical space of the painting.
➝ Parapetto is on view until October 20, 2014 at The National Exemplar, New York
Touching the Art – Episode 1 – CATHERINE OPIE, BETTINA KOREK, JORI FINKEL
Touching the Art – Episode 2 – Postmodernism, Post-Net & the Art Market
There's a new web talk show called Touching the Art which is moderated by CASEY JANE ELLISON, an American comedian and artist who becomes for the show the perfect art-world cliche – snobby, bored and falsely cool. The guests of the show (only women) discussed topics range from art and celebrity to gender politics to the art market. We've already caught appearances from photographer CATHERINE OPIE, artist MARY WEATHERFORD as well as New York Times critic JORI FINKEl among others.
The result is pretty funny and satirical (and yeah…entertaining), while at the same time poses actually interesting questions. Though we're only two episodes in, but I like what I've seen so far.
Find out more on youtube or via http://www.ovationtv.com/touching-the-art/ (note that future episodes will coincide with and cover timely topics and events such as Miami Basel, The Armory Show, etc.).
Nase (2013, steel tube) by Swiss artist ERIK STEINBRECHER
from his solo exhibition at Kunsthaus Baselland, Muttenz/Basel
seen on Sunday, September 21, 2014
image © wfw
this exhibiton is on view until November 16, 2014
view from the installation by poet and critic QUINN LATIMER and British artist MEGAN ROONEY
for the exhibiton Der Leone Have Sept Cabeças
seen at Crac Alsace, Altkirch
on Friday, September 19, 2014
image © wfw
Un Coucher de Soleil, 2014
installation view at Exo, Paris
image courtesy of the artist
➝ Un Coucher de Soleil is currently on view at Exo in Paris. Please note that a limited edition book is published at every exhibition, more info via http://www.exoexo.fr/happyexo_sunset.html
untitled ("looks like the sea" after Fellini, athletics reception mat), 2014
untitled (helix, houseplant), 2013
untitled (cloud, window), 2014
untitled (mesh, trampoline net), 2014
untitled (lamp post), 2014
untitled (mailbox), 2013
untitled (spinnennetz), 2013
all images from the series Permanent Present
Permanent Present is photographic series by OLIVER CLÉMENT (1978) – a former engineer in the field of biomedical research who finally graduated from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de la Photographie d'Arles in 2009 – that hovers on the boundary between the familiar and the strange, where something doesn't feel right, or where something doesn't look like what it seems to be, thanks to the precise compositions and the distinct look of OLIVER.
I focused my attention on non-spectacular and modest events standing at the fringe of modernity which can be seen as objects, things and states of affairs directly prehensile by my vision. Things that in the past could embody possible future and which are today unfinished. Through images that flirt with virtuality and abstraction, I'm trying to restore fragments of discrete expired utopias and to regard some blind spots of modernity. – OLIVER CLÉMENT
The a-temporal and dreamlike quality as well as the multiple narratives of his work reflect the conundrums of idealism and ideology of a past generation, and illustrate the development of the sediment of time, which does no longer coincide with the idea of velocity promoted by modernity but, on the contrary, it expresses the manifold time dimensions of progress.
➝ An edition of small prints from the series Permanent Present is currently on view at Castelcoucou in Forbach, France until the end of October.
Meanwhile, on yet another side of the planet, or Los Angeles, to be precise, the David Kordansky Gallery is currently hosting RASHID JOHNSON's solo exhibition entitled Islands, a show (the exhibition views are here) which explores some of the concerns of RICHARD WRIGHT's novel Native Son (1940). For this occasion, I have chosen to share with you a short excerpt of the very interesting conversation between the American artist and TOM MORTON that has been released in the September Issue of Frieze Magazine. Make sure to read the entire interview via http://www.frieze.com/issue/article/the-history-man
➝ Islands is on view until October 29, 2014 at David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles. Additionally his work is part of the group exhibition The Forever Now:Contemporary Painting in an Atemporal World that will take place at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, from December to April 2015.
Poto and Cabengo (1979)
written and directed by JEAN-PIERRE GORIN
Poto and Cabengo (1979) is a documentary essay about American twins GRACE and VIRGINIA KENNEDY (Poto and Cabengo were the names they called each other) who invented a language of their own that they used until the age of eight. Shot in San Diego in 1979, in 16mm color negative by French filmmaker JEAN-PIERRE GORIN, the film attempts to capture the moment before they lost their language, before they were forced to adapt to English.
The film is about an unstructured discourse—the language of the twins—surrounded by structured discourses—the discourse of the family, the discourse of the media, the discourse of therapy, the discourse of documentary filmmaking. There are as well other structured discourses at work in the film: the discourses of science, capitalism, and education. They are each a method of using words that presumes a type of authority. Clearly the twins' unstructured discourse challenges discursive authority: it erupts as a subversive act which has not been authorized by any social or ideological establishment. In a sense its special threat is that its "unauthorized" nature relativizes the arbitrary nature of those institutionalized discourses. The singsong of the twins reveals the shaky grounds of institutional power. It relativizes discursive authority from the family to the scientific community in their competitive and ineffectual attempts to "define" the twins who spontaneously flit about the screen exceeding any definition. In a fashion, I wanted the viewers to feel the twins made more "sense" than anybody around them. Or at least to perceive that the twins' way to handle language offered a marker for the way people around them used language and were used by it, and were spoken through it. – JEAN PIERRE GORIN in conversation with LYNNE TILIMAN for Bomb Magazine
Poto and Cabengo (1979) is the first part of a trilogy devoted to language by JEAN-PIERRE GORIN. That film was followed by Routines Pleasure (1986) and Crazy Life (1992). Poto and Cabengo was also the starting point of the group exhibition Der Leone Have Sept Cabeças that took place this summer at Crac Alsace in Altkirch.
Emotional Mesh (2014) by EMANUELE MARCUCCIO
seen in the group exhibition Metarave I – it's only a fantasy *
presented at WallRiss, Fribourg
on Friday, September 12, 2014
image © wfw
* this exhibition is on view until September 29, 2014
from the series Thatcher is Dead, 2013
JULIEN GREMAUD is a Swiss photographer who – for this project solely – set aside his camera and turned to preexisting media imagery. The project Thatcher is Dead (2013) started at the death of former British prime minister in April 2013. The medias and the newspapers particularly were flooded by pictures of MARGARET THATCHER, it's at that time JULIEN began to underline the moment when two pictures collide randomly by superimposition in newspapers.
I capitalize on this posthumous visual treatment and turn it aside by juxtaposing contemporary images according to a strict protocol of reappropriation of newspaper clippings. I seek indeed to obtain a two-sided image, a perfect collage in the grid of the newspaper that will offer an image in both sides. I then scan it as I do with a positive film. – JULIEN GREMAUD via his website
By selecting, scanning and printing these double images in large format, JULIEN GREMAUD developed an elegant strategy for exploring press photography and finally giving theses images an original meaning at odds with their origin.
JULIEN GREMAUD was a recipient of the 2014 Swiss Design Award for this project and he is also part of the new Talent Issue Summer 2014 in Foam Magazine (ps. make sure to follow Foam on instagram, JULIEN is also taking their account for this week)!
Congrats Julien!
أعظم الجهاد You Shall Not Steal
بعد الصورة After the Image
القناص The Sniper
all videos courtesy © ABOUNADDARA
Every week ABOUNADDARA – an anonymous collective of filmmakers and artists from Syria – shares via internet short films which offer a fresh and personal representation of Syria. Working in what they call "emergency cinema", their approach is as much creative as political: their objective is 'not to capture the tragedy or the confrontation or the current news as it unfolds, but rather to construct a new image with the tools of cinema'.
When the revolution began, we tried to find a way to translate this breakdown or explosion of energy. We wanted to translate this event formally. We wanted to create films like bullets. We wanted to make something beautiful and violent. We wanted to surprise the viewer. Maybe he is looking for information about Syria, or looking for stereotypical images of militants or people. It was our first attempt to build a new format, so the importance of the editing here is huge because the idea here is to mix a present and a past, images from the past and sound from the present*. – CHARIF KIWAN
I have selected three videos from the 260 'bullet films' that are available on their vimeo account. The videos range from one to five minutes and very little informations are given in order to destabilize the viewer, they also vary widely in content and style.
The idea here is also to confuse people. We want the universal viewer to recognize himself, his place, his country in this Syrian place and voice. We want him to imagine that he could be there*. – CHARIF KIWAN
Please note that you can see their work in the current exhibition Here and Elsewhere at New Museum in New York that features contemporary art from and about the Arab world, on view through September 28.
➝ If you are interested in ABOUNADDARA's work, I really recommend to read this interview (*) of CHARIF KIWAN,the group's spokesperson and single public face, with artist, curator and founding member of the Arab Image Foundation AKRAM ZAATARI for Jadaliyya
Jennifer_in_Paradise liquid creative Suite 6 (2014, print on vinyl)
by CONSTANT DULLAART for the group exhibition Megarave
seen at Kunsthaus Langenthal
on Wednesday, September 3, 2014
image © wfw
Megarave lasts until November 16, 2014
detail from the installation Calderas* (2014) by NOHA MOKHTAR & LUCAS UHLMANN
presented at Alte Papierfabrik** in Landquart, Switzerland
seen on Saturday, September 6, 2014
image © wfw
* click here to have an entire view of the installation
**Calderas is on view until September 28, 2014 (the alte papierfabrik is not so easy to find, so if you want to go this is the location)
MG Montego (2014, print on glass, 71 x 58 x 0,5 cm) by CLARE KENNY
seen during the Kunstkredit BS exhibition at Kunsthalle Basel
on Friday, September 5, 2014
image © wfw
all images from the series therealstarkiller, 2014
archival inkjet prints, 7 x 7 x 1 inches each (17,8 cm x 17,8 cm x 2.5 cm each)
images courtesy of the artist, and Marc Foxx Gallery, Los Angeles
FRANCES STARK is a Los Angeles-based artist who is best known for her work – comprising works on paper, videos, sculptures and performances – that explores image-making and the written word. Her recent works therealstarkiller (2014) is no exception. The series consists of small, square prints, taken directly from STARK's Instagram account — @therealstarkiller.
Between poetic and visual arts practices, as well as analogue and digital processes, therealstarkiller (2014) reflects the complexity of FRANCES STARK's blend of Internet images, autobiographical elements, art history references, scraps of texts, sms and digital culture.
Dalmatians run, play, 2013
ceramic plate, faux dalmatian fur, dirt, general floor matter, glue
ALEX VIVIAN (born 1981) is an Australian artist whose work are mostly made or assembled with second-hand clothes and found objects. The objects he selects are domestic, decorative baubles, that articulate the values of a social class, and they are the product of semi-industrial labor (since none or very few of them are actually hand-made). Thanks to the slightly pornographic relationship to objects, half-sentimental, half-lecherous, that these kinds of things generate, and the recurrent presence of Vaseline, the resulting work is both fascinating and slighty discomforting.
Found objects bring an idea of chance and/ or change to a practice. Brings forth new ideas, new materials (sometimes) at a rapid pace. Presents aesthetics and/ or objects one would not normally artistically support. Often it is 'problem solving' in a way – working out what objects go together, stand together, lock into each other. Glass Scales have a small gap between it's structure and glass – just enough room to squeeze in a pair of socks, A white vessel has a 5cm opening – just enough room to balance the heel of a shoe, the base of a china doll etc. – ALEX VIVIAN for Regimes of Value
I found this picture via his blogspot http://stenchinnumbers.blogspot.ch/ which seems not really updated but which features images from his researchs (I presume) and several exhibitions views as well poetry.
If you are in Melbourne this week on Thursday 4 September, do not miss the opening of his new exhibition along with LOU HUBBARD at West Space (the exhibition lasts until September 20, 2014).
NICO BAUMGARTEN is a German photographer who questions the editorial and art market by creating books. So far he has already self-published three books. Earlier this summer he had an interesting conversation with photographer IEVA RAUDSEPA from Riga, Latvia about books, self-publishing and photography.
Make sure to read the entire interview via http://fkmagazine.lv/2014/08/08/interview-with-nico-baumgarten/
found via
a view onto the loudspeaker (click here to hear) from the solo exhibition
entitled Delay Dust by EMANUEL ROSSETTI
seen at Kunsthalle Bern, Switzerland
on Wednesday, August 27, 2014
image © wfw
this exhibition in on view till October 5, 2014 http://www.kunsthalle-bern.ch/
Full of emptiness, 2013
oil on canvas, 40 x 60 cm
courtesy of the artist
Today's pic shows a painting by VITTORIO BRODMANN entitled Full of emptiness (2013). For those not familiar with his work, VITTORIO (1987) is a swiss artist who deals almost exclusively with painting. The images he produces outlined human relationships and, at the same time, reflects social and political themes. It is often grotesque, raw, melancholic, yet timeless.
The good news is that tonight on Friday 29 August 2014, VITTORIO BRODMANN opens his new solo exhibition at Gregor Staiger gallery in Zürich that will last until October 4, 2014.
The text above is part of the ongoing project entitled Scratching on Things I Could Disavow: A History of Art in the Arab World started in 2007 by New York-based Lebanese artist WALID RAAD. This work takes a critical look at the accelerated emergence of art spaces and institutions in the Arab world, and finally to inexplicable physical phenomena like the flattening of art spaces, the shrinking of artworks, and the availability of colors, lines, and forms for contemporary Arab artistic creation.
I highly recommend to visit http://www.scratchingonthings.com/ for more texts and images.
➝ WALID RAAD is currently having a solo exhibition at Carré d'Art in Nîmes, France which is running until September 14, 2014.
found via
The Shapers, installation view at Grünerløkka Kunsthall, Oslo, July 2014
The Shapers, installation view at Grünerløkka Kunsthall, Oslo, July 2014
installation view at Vestfossen Kunstlaboratorium, Norway, July 2014
Standing Couch, 2012
Standing Couch, 2012
Lilac horizons Lavender sky, 2013, installation view at KHM Gallery, Malmö
detail from Lilac horizons Lavender sky, 2013, installation view at KHM Gallery, Malmö
detail from Lilac horizons Lavender sky, 2013, installation view at KHM Gallery, Malmö
all images courtesy of the artist (unless otherwise stated)
TIRIL HASSELKNIPPE employs traditional sculptural techniques and a range of materials— resin, polyester, plastic, steel — to create forms which are mostly familiar and seem to be tied to commercial products. Inspired by minimal art, yet less strict and instead adding a touch of humour, her focus is on the work process which is based on text and imagery, and plays a major role in defining the shape the objects, sculptures and installation.
The surf board represents the height of the wave, the hubris, and its consecutive crash. It's connected to the two previous themes of cars and crashing waves and the ocean, about having a Moby Dick moment or a longing for Moby Dick; to be swallowed whole and to disappear willingly, a death and an afterlife. It is the ecstasy of mania and the guilt of all endings. California was a muse for this project too, as it was also for the car project before that. Geographical muses are interesting. It's like a site specific fan fiction. – TIRIL HASSELKNIPP about his solo exhibion Swim Good at Landings Project Space, 2013
TIRIL HASSELKNIPPE (born 1984, Norway) lives and works between Oslo and New York. She has most recently exhibited at Lunds Konsthall, Lund, Sweden; Toves Galleri, Copenhagen, Denmark; and Peinture et Sculpture, Copenhagen, Denmark (all 2013). HASSELKNIPPE ran CEO Gallery in Malmö from 2011-2013.
➝ her work is currently part of Skulptur Odense, an extensive sculpture exhibition throughout the city of Odense in Denmark, on view until September 21, 2014!
found via
a glimpse into the book Blind Gestures by NICOLÁS LAMAS (previously featured on wfw) which gathers 25 images scanned from dormant IPad screens. Each scan registers the marks, scratches, fingerprints and dust indefinitely accumulated on the screen surface.
published by alt editions in 2014 (available here)
image © wfw
thank you Manu!
Souffleuse, 2014 by Swiss artist LUC MATTENBERGER
presented at the 12th edition of the Bex & Arts triennial exhibition, Bex (Switzerland)
seen on Sunday, August 24, 2014
image © wfw
➝ a few more images of this event are available on the wfw instagram: http://instagram.com/wefindwildness
Keep driveway clear, thank you, 2014
© ESTRID LUTZ and EMILE MOLD
Keep driveway clear, thank you (2014) is a video by ESTRID LUTZ and EMILE MOLD, drawn from the infinite recombination capacity of the internet's crazed mashup culture and paired with the manipulation potential of digital imaging tools. In the twisted world of Keep driveway clear, thank you (2014), surface phenomena are the content and unstable structures of color, shape and spatial motion become narrative and protagonist at the same time.
There is very little information about the artists but I can tell you that their work will be part of a group exhibition entitled A Sip of Cool at Galerie Arnaud Deschin in Marseille that opens next week on Saturday August 30, 2014.
pu foam, stones
courtesy of the artist
ANGELIKA LODERER is an Austrian artist whose work explores her ongoing interest in matter and time by creating fragile and vulnerable compositions or elements that become worthless once again when dismantled, just like these floating stones presented above.
Her toolbox is elemental and frequently organic, including soil, water, stones, sand, plaster, wood and grass among others. In her installations, LODERER transmutes these materials, oftentimes fixing them in ephemeral states, suspending matter in a transfiguration that envelops and inundates the viewers' senses.
Here is an extract of British artist ED ATKINS's 500 words for Artforum who speaks about his three-channel video entitled Ribbons (2014) which is currently on view at the Serpentine Sackler Gallery in London until August 25, 2014, as well as at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris until September 7, 2014.
Make sure to read the entire text via http://www.artforum.com/words/#entry47876
At Laura Bartlett Gallery with Eddy Bailhache (RAM 2580), four unfinished paintings and various non-ambient heating elements (10-14.02.2014), 2014
plexiglass cover, fibre based bromide print, Barbie Dream House flooring, framed 34 x 32,2 x 3,5 cm
At Laura Bartlett Gallery with Eddy Bailhache (RAM 2580), four unfinished paintings and various non-ambient heating elements (10-14.02.2014), 2014
plexiglass cover, fibre based bromide print, Barbie Dream House flooring, framed 34 x 32,2 x 3,5 cm
At Laura Bartlett Gallery with Eddy Bailhache (RAM 2580), four unfinished paintings and various non-ambient heating elements (10-14.02.2014), 2014
plexiglass cover, fibre based bromide print, Barbie Dream House flooring, framed 34 x 32,2 x 3,5 cm
all images: courtesy of the artist, and Laura Bartlett Gallery, London
These three pieces presented above are part of a series of work by British IAN LAW, entitled at Laura Bartlett Gallery with Eddy Bailhache (RAM 2580), four unfinished paintings, and various non-ambient heating elements (10-14.02.2014). According to the artist, 'they were attempts to reconcile the aforementioned quandary into objects, employing a life model to carry out the job they do on a regular basis, whilst placing myself in the position of image maker, using equipment I'd not previously used. Using simple directives, asking Eddie to respond and interact with these unfinished canvases, we made a series of images at the gallery during a period between shows which were casual set-ups; utilizing what was to hand as a way to recondition the way I was thinking about the space, and how to work with this for the exhibition. Both these instances are operating within clearly defined and established contracts between artist/photographer and model'. – IAN LAW in conversation with MARTA RAVASI for Apt Diary
IAN LAW (b.1984) has developed a body of work that engages with his direct environment during the processes that underlie the cycle of producing, exhibiting and contextualising his works. The result often takes the form of objects, installations as well as writings that interact each other, come together and construct the sense.
➝ http://www.ianlaw.org/ or http://www.laurabartlettgallery.com/artists/ian-law/
Notes on Sadness by PHILLIPE TROTI
© 2013 Duvida Press, the author
This image comes from The Sad Savages, a tumblr project started in 2012 by Portuguese artist PEDRO BARATEIRO as a storage space during the research he made when he was writing a novel of the same name. Little by little the tumblr gained independance and became a work in its own right. The Sad Savages is now conceived as a flux, a collection of thoughts and pictures that questions how images are constructed and read, an how images construct a language of their own: http://the-sad-savages.tumblr.com/.
➝ this work is currently part of the exhibition Der Leone Have Sept Cabeças at Crac Alsace in Altkirch (on view until September 21, 2014)
screen capture from Vernacular Criticism by BRIAN DROITCOUR
published on The New Inquiry in July, 2014
This is an excerpt from the very interesting essay entitled Vernacular Criticism by American critic and writer BRIAN DROITCOUR. Basically he writes that a review site like Yelp which gathers masses of user experience evaluations, has a real potential to refresh critical writing as well as to rethink institutional and critical practices. Make sure to read the entire essay via http://thenewinquiry.com/essays/vernacular-criticism/
➝ by the way, if you like The New Inquiry, you still have a few hours to support the website via http://thenewinquiry.com/flashfundraise/
still from Body Assembly – White Exteriors, 2014
courtesy of the artist
The picture above is a still from a video entitled Body Assembly – White Exteriors (click on the still to watch the video) by WYATT NIEHAUS who is currently presenting this work as well as a series of c-prints that show renderings of car interiors at Retrospective Gallery, a space that opened earlier this year in New York. The video has been filmed at the Rex 2013-International Robot Exhibition in Tokyo and at the FANUC factory in Oshino, Japan, and documents a production process performed by industrial robots. This combination of visual elements examines how the contemporary methods of industrial automation play a role in the visual language of labor and industrialization.
➝ Lights Out 2014 Interiors – Germany/Italy/UK is on view at Retrospective Gallery in New York until August 24, 2014
detail from People in Pain, 1988
paint on heat-set vinyl and neon, 84 × 560 × 11 in. (213.4 × 1422.4 × 27.9 cm)
remade by PHILIP VANDERHYDEN,2014. The Estate of Gretchen Bender
photograph by PHILIP VANDERHYDEN
Today's image shows a detail from the monumental wall sculpture People in Pain (1988) by GRETCHEN BENDER (1951-2004) which consists of a crumpled field of vinyl backlit with neon illuminating a series of movie titles. The original work never found a permanent home; it fell into disrepair and was discarded after BENDER's death in 2004. Over the past two years American artist PHILIP VANDERHYDEN has worked to reconstruct and exhibit a number of BENDER's works including People in Pain with an interest in how the piece's "reappearance" illustrates the way "our cultural experiences live and die.
➝ a part of this installation is currently on view in the group exhibition Bad Influence curated by ANDREW J.GREENE at Michael Thibault Gallery in Los Angeles. You can also view more images of this work here.
from the series New Life, 2011-present
image © MAURICE VAN ES
It's that time of the year again: the city of Arles in France is hosting its photography festival. For this year's edition, Dutch artist, photography collector and curator ERIK KESSELS has gathered a series of works from Dutch photographers who are best known for documenting, with a certain obsession, details of their direct surroundings.
As part of KESSELS' selection is the work of MAURICE VAN ES with the series Textures of Childhood (2012) and New Life (2011-present) which is presented above. Since 2011 he is photographing his brother when he leaves the familial house; a moment MAURICE chose since his brother didn't want to get photographed any more. The result is a funny and tender series of heels turning around a house.
Usually when I asked what keeps my brother busy, he would just tell me. But around the time he turned sixteen he told me nothing anymore. When I tried to photograph him he hid his face, threw a pillow at me or covered my camera with a blanket. What I do now is photograph the last thing I can see of him when he leaves the house. – MAURICE VAN ES
➝ Small Universe is on view at l'Atelier de Chaudronnerie in Arles, until September 21, 2014. Please note that a presentation of each of the participating artists can be found on the website of the Rencontres d'Arles.
(untitled), 2013
courtesy of the artist
Yesterday FABIAN BOSCHUNG opened Soap, a small intervention created especially for the gallery space die Diele in Zürich. Die Diele ist not a classic space but two shop windows that features every month a solo or a group exhibition.
The work above is not part of the installation but only serves to introduce FABIAN BOSCHUNG, a swiss artist best known for creating process-based works connected by sculptural concerns.
➝ Soap is on view at die Diele, Sihlhallenstrasse 4, in Zürich until August 23, 2014
on: Catherine Cochard]]>
Prepared Space, 2014
view from the exhibition The Longest Echo
at Mamco, Geneva, July 2014
image © wfw
Today's image shows a view of the installation entitled Prepared Space (2014) by TATIANA TROUVÉ which is part of her solo exhibition at Mamco in Geneva.
Prepared Space (2014) consists of a bright white space where gashes transect the walls and the floor, and bronze pieces are wedged into the cuts as if the room would collapse without them. Carefully orchestrated, the whole exhibition that occupies two floors of the museum, is such a vast succession of small universes populated by miniature objects, haunting situations and precarious installations that the viewer is constantly oscillating between the real, the imaginary and the illusory, a truly fascinating exhibition!
➝ The Longest Echo is on view at Mamco in Geneva until September 21, 2014
detail from The Secret Garden of Sleep, 2008
image © wfw
For his solo exhibition at Centre d'Art Contemporain in Geneva, Danish artist JOACHIM KOESTER presents a body of work that mixes documentary archive and fiction and that demonstrates his interest in alternative communities and in histories of occult and esoteric practices. The picture above comes from the Secret Garden of Sleep (2008), a work which includes a series of silver gelatin prints featuring home-grown cannabis plants, a collection of magazines as well as an artist's text:
In the mid 1970s a new type of imagery turned up in counter-cultural magazines, such as High Times and Sinsemilla Tips. Resin-dripping cannabis plants would appear as centerfolds, modelled on the photographic style of Playboy. This interest in the physicality of the plant happened at a time when more people in the United States were growing cannabis themselves. The formerly lush Mexican fields were in shambles and a huge market for domestically grown marijuana had opened up.
The season of domestic outdoor growing came to halt in 1982 when the Reagan administration set out to crush the domestic marijuana industry. Not only did Reagan see the increase in home-grown marijuana as unpleasantly reminiscent of more lenient times, he also perceived the use of marijuana as an important symbol of the counter culture, a symbol that had to be eradicated. In a few years cannabis moved from being on the cusp of acceptance to being domestic enemy number one. The means for achieving this was fierce legislation on growers and users.
Little did the Reagan administration suspect that they had started a genetic revolution. As harsh sentences were implemented—for example, growing any amount of marijuana in Oklahoma could result in a life prison sentence—and surveillance and government control increased, domestic cannabis growing moved indoors and, ironically, a plant of wonder materialized. Amateur gardeners in the Pacific Northwest applied their talents to crossbreed cannabis Indica and Sativa strains. They created hybrids that thrived indoors, cultivated under blazing metal halide light. Gone were the days of low-yield plants that sometimes grew to be as tall as five meters. Instead a muscular dwarf emerged, only knee-high, with buds the size of fists and a concentration of psychoactive compound significantly higher than before.
Psychoactive plants, like cannabis, can alter our experience of reality, bridging the world of matter and consciousness. In this history, consciousness, for better or worse, became engraved into the very flesh of the plant, as a consequence of desire, politics and legislation. With the series From the Secret Garden of Sleep I have made photographs of several strains of home-grown cannabis. These images of hybrids, that reflect a sub-genre of plant photography, point to the history behind modern cannabis' otherworldly appearance. – JOACHIM KOESTER, 2008
➝ The place of Dead Roads is on view at Centre d'Art Contemporain in Geneva until August 8, 2014. Please note that the exhibition features a new video installation, coproduced by the Centre.
view from the photographic installation Barock, 2014
at Bellelay Abbey, Switzerland
image © wfw
This is a view from the abbey of Bellelay in Switzerland which is currently hosting its annual exhibition. For this year's edition, Swiss artist RENATE BUSER displays a series of large realistic images that underscore architectural aspects of the abbey. Under the title Barock, the monumental photographic installation focuses on the succession of pillars and the volume between them, enlarges certain details, or even reverses others. Looking at these pieces, you are tricked into seeing something that is not there: the work of RENATE BUSER not only offers a new reading of the space, but it also provides a cinematic experience .
➝ Barock is on view at the Bellelay Abbey in Switzerland until July 27, 2014
Pumps for Lunch, 2014
55-gallon Rubbermaid BRUTE container in yellow, 44-gallon Rubbermaid BRUTE container in yellow, 2 Rubbermaid BRUTE swivel dollies, 2 Tview headrest monitors in beige, media player, 33 x 33 x 37 in and 31 x 31 x 26 in
image courtesy of Laurel Gitlen, New York
The tactility of my work traffics in a kind of erotics whose wires have been crossed and confused. Food is used in many of the sculptures—real food and also fake food. Cherries are bright and sexy, while nutritional yeast might remind you of snot, fat, or the gum soles on some shoes. You aren't sure whether they stir sensations of hunger or disgust—whether they make you horny or have stirred your decorative juices. – NANCY LUPO for Artforum, March 2014
NANCY LUPO (born 1983) creates sculptures, objects, and site-related installations that are part ready-made, part appropriation. Because she incorporates non-traditional materials like quinoa, chia seeds, nutritional yeast, or kitty litter into her sculptures, her work exists as disconcerting objects that invite us to re-evaluate our own criteria for understanding forms and their cultural origins.
➝ this work is currently part of the group exhibition Mineral Spirit at Laurel Gitlen Gallery in New York on view until August 8, 2014
Extrapolations, 1978
limestone and steel cable
courtesy the artist © BENNI EFRAT
Extrapolations (1978) is a sculpture by Israeli artist BENNI EFRAT which consists of a huge, heavy, slab of stone caught by what seems to be a thin cable plugged itself into one big block of limestone. A simple gesture yet precarious which explores – thanks to the scale and the position of the masses – the energy, the space and the perception.
What I know about BENNI EFRAT is very little but he is considered to be among Israel's most prominent exponents of conceptual art thanks to his drawings, paintings, installations, photographs, films and performances. The good news is that his work is currently part of the exhibition Other Primary Structures at the Jewish Museum in New York City until August 03, 2014.
Extrapolations is on view in the Sculpture Garden of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.
Untitled, 2014 (detail)
salt, funerary arrangements, ink, dimensions variable
from the group exhibition from whose ground heaven and hell compare at Croy Nielsen, Berlin (image courtesy of Croy Nielsen Berlin)
I just came across this photo from a group exhibition that is currently on view at Croy Nielsen gallery in Berlin. It shows a detail of an installation by JARED MADERE, which transformed a part of the gallery into a unwieldy landscape made of salt and flowers from funerary arrangements. By looking for informations about JARED MADERE, it seems that he remains disinterested in building an archive; his works are often made using fragile and ephemeral materials such as salt, flowers, or fruits, that are dismantled and destroyed once an exhibition has ended. MADERE's installations and sculptures suggest the passage of time and mess with space, and image-making. View more images of the installation here.
➝ From whose ground heaven and hell compare with OLGA BALEMA, GEORGINA BRAOUDAKIS, ELAINE CAMERON-WEIR, GEORGIA DICKIE, DAVID FLAUGHER, ALEKSANDER HARDASHNAKOV, JASON MATTHEW LEE, JARED MADERE, CARLOS REYES, ERIC SCHMID, ANDY SCHUMACHER, BEN SCHUMACHER, LUKE SCHUMACHER organized BY BEN SCHUMACHER is on view until July 26, 2014 at Croy Nielsen gallery Berlin
view from the installation Like Child's Play (2014) by DANIEL BUREN
seen at Modern and Contemporary Art Museum in Strasbourg
on Thursday, July 10, 2014
image © wfw
Horses, Trainers and Donkeys (oil on canvas, 2014) by DAVID CHIEPPO
seen at Kunstmuseum Solothurn, Switzerland
on Wednesday, July 9, 2014
image © wfw
Porteur (excerpt), 2004
DVCam PAL N&B / 2 min (loop)
Memento Mori – Le discours des vanités au XVII° siècle (excerpt), 2012
video HDCAM – coul – 97min
Chroniques (excerpt), 2006
fiction exp. 35mm color/ B&W / 30 min
dolby SR/1/1,66
Passages (excerpt), 2006
35mm color /4min (loop)
Although I heard about CLEMENT COGITORE before my visit at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Strasbourg yesterday which is currently presenting a solo exhibition of the French artist, it was a real revelation to discover his short films.
Like his photographic work, his movies continue his practice as an individual intrigued at how the subjective and collective memory, representations of the past and the ways in which people cohabit with their images crash into each other. At the border between cinema and contemporary art, COGITORE's videos often balance between the familiar and the unexplained wrapped up in tension and fascination. All elements – the positioning of the characters, their posture and interaction, the use of light and colour, the landscapes – seem to have been meticously constructed and appear to fit together like the pieces of a puzzle. And yet the meaning of the whole remains ambiguous, fact and fictons are constantly at odds with each other. The enigmatic quality of COGITORE's work offers the viewer the chance to lose himself in the work each time and to discover new readings and narratives.
His exhibitions usually include an assortment of images cased in minimal frames or simply pasted on the walls like in Strasbourg as well as a series of video installations.
Stories arrive in the head in order to be told. Sometimes paintings do the same. – JOHN BERGER, Essays in Seeing, 1979
Here is a selection of not so recent video extracts which are available online via his vimeo, but if you have the chance to see one of his exhibitions or screenings, do not hesitate!
➝ CLEMENT COGITORE's exhibition Fictions at Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Strasbourg runs until 21th september, 2014
Sala delle feste, 1998
exhibition view at Musée de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, 1998
photo: ATTILIO MARANZANO
Sala delle feste, 1998
exhibition view at Musée de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, 1998
photo: ATTILIO MARANZANO
Un giorno così bianco, così bianco, exhibition view at Maxxi, Roma 2014
photo MATTEO CIAVATTELLA
Stanza azzurra, Dedicata a mio fratello che amava gli azzurri, 2006.
installation view at Museum Kurhaus Kleve, 2009.
photo: WERNER J. HANNAPPEL
Un giorno così bianco, così bianco, exhibition view at Maxxi, Roma 2014
photo MATTEO CIAVATTELLA
Un giorno così bianco, così bianco, exhibition view at Maxxi, Roma 2014
photo MATTEO CIAVATTELLA
Nostalgia Roma, 2009.
installation view at Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna di Roma, 2009
Courtesy OREDARIA Arti Contemporanee, Roma
Veduta dello studio, 2013
photo: WERNER J.HANNAPPEL
mostra Studio la Città , 2007
installation views at Studio La Città, Verona
Stanza, rosso porpora, 2010
Rosa, sposa, 2010
Scatola di colore, 1991
Courtesy Studio La Città, Verona
Disegno , 1987
© Rizziero Arte
Senza titolo, sottosopra, 2000
photo: DI PAOLO IMMAGINI
courtesy Galleria Lia Rumma, Napoli/Milano
Studio, 1999
Disco, 1981
Pietra dipinta di rosso cinabro. Disco, 1981
photo: GIORGIO COLOMBO
Rosa, fiore di pesco, 2009
photo: WERNER J.HANNAPPEL
Documenta IX, Kassel, 1992.
photo © ATTILIO MARANZANO
all images courtesy of the artist (unless otherwise stated)
With a current exhibition at MAXXI in Roma, one at GAM in Turin and one at MADRE in Naples under the single title Un giorno così bianco, così bianco, we can easily stated that Italian artist ETTORE SPALLETTI is the man of the moment.
The three exhibitions on display this summer have been conceived like the chapters of a trip through Italy and aim to retrace SPALLETTI's whole artistic practice from the 1960s to the present day. According to the press release, the exhibition at the GAM Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea in Turin presented (the exhibition closed on June 15, 2014) a selection of works from the artist's studio and important private collections. In Roma, the exhibition concentrates a series of large environmental installations conceived specifically for the occasion with which the artist confronts such a highly characteristic architectural space. Finally the show at the MADRE Museo d'Arte Contemporanea Donnaregina in Naples is currently featuring an excursus of historic and recent works retracing SPALLETTI's artistic activities.
ETTORE SPALLETTI (1940) is best known for his minimalist paintings and sculptures that explore geometry, precision, material, colour and light. Finding his roots within Minimalism, Arte Povera and the Renaissance, his work takes the form of freestanding geometric sculptures, volumes and blocks of compact and calculated material – such as alabaster, marble, onyx, gold leaf, metals, precious stones, paper and pure pigment – as well as paintings even there is no painting in the traditional sense of the term, all having a soft color surface that constitutes an active and mobile destiny of seeing and touching.
I always refer to my works as paintings or sculptures. The eternal form of the panel encloses, as it always has for me, the inner content. Inside is the figurative imagination that the fragmentation of the pigment produces in the desire for an atmosphere, for an atmospheric image. . . . We're in Venice, I'm thinking of San Marco, an amazing place, or of Piazza dei Miracoli in Pisa, the cathedral square: to look at those "objects" placed on the grass and then to think that de Chirico's little painting with the tower is as big as that piazza. – ETTORE SPALLETTI in conversation with HAIM STEINBACH and GERMANO CELANT, Venice, Italy, 1992
This dynamic dialogue between the three major Italian public institutions not only demonstrates how ETTORE SPALLETTI is a seminal figure in the Italian contemporary art but also reveals a certain proactive nostalgia.
Here is a short summary of the dates and places:
– MAXXI, Rome 13 March – 14 September 2014
– MADRE, Naples 13 April – 18 August 2014
If you understand Italian, I highly recommend to watch a short documentary dedicated to the artist here
Earlier this year, Art critic WALTER ROBINSON coined – via one of his articles for Artspace – the term of Zombie Formalism in order to identify the current abstract painting trend, an expression taken over by American critic JERRY SALTZ for Vulture in June. Whether I am agree or not with their opinion, it's really appreciated to see a small attack on the current landscape of the art scene.
Make sure to read the entire article by ROBINSON via http://www.artspace.com/magazine/contributors/the_rise_of_zombie_formalism
and the one by SALTZ http://www.vulture.com/2014/06/why-new-abstract-paintings-look-the-same.html
detail from the work The Princess is Caged in the © by CARTER MULL
seen at Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen
on Friday, July 4, 2014
image © wfw
this work is on view at Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen until July 13, 2014
trailer from La Procesión de Las Sombras, 2014
Meanwhile, on yet another side of the planet, or Mexico, to be precise, Swiss artist VIRGINIE MORILLO – who offered us a great tour in her Geneva's atelier earlier this year – is creating some haunting projects like La Procesión de Las Sombras, a movie shot in the desert of Oaxaca in May 2014 with the motorcycle gang the Legionarios. A few days ago she put up this project on the crowdfunding platform we make it, in order to finish the post production and to release the movie in September.
You could click right here right now to find out all about it,
a good deed a day can make all the difference!
It's Symptomatic / What Would Edith Say, 2014
permanent ink marker on inkjet print mounted on aluminum, wood brace
60 x 40 in (152.4 x 101.6cm)
© CARISSA RODRIGUEZ – Photo: THOMAS MÜLLER
Courtesy the artist and Bortolami Gallery, New York
It's Symptomatic / What Would Edith Say, 2014
permanent ink marker on inkjet print mounted on aluminum, wood brace
60 x 40 in (152.4 x 101.6cm)
© CARISSA RODRIGUEZ – Photo: THOMAS MÜLLER
Courtesy the artist and Bortolami Gallery, New York
It's Symptomatic / What Would Edith Say, 2014
permanent ink marker on inkjet print mounted on aluminum, wood brace
60 x 40 in (152.4 x 101.6cm)
© CARISSA RODRIGUEZ – Photo: THOMAS MÜLLER
Courtesy the artist and Bortolami Gallery, New York
It's Symptomatic / What Would Edith Say, 2014
permanent ink marker on inkjet print mounted on aluminum, wood brace
60 x 40 in (152.4 x 101.6cm)
© CARISSA RODRIGUEZ – Photo: THOMAS MÜLLER
Courtesy the artist and Bortolami Gallery, New York
It's Symptomatic / What Would Edith Say, 2014
permanent ink marker on inkjet print mounted on aluminum, wood brace
60 x 40 in (152.4 x 101.6cm)
© CARISSA RODRIGUEZ – Photo: THOMAS MÜLLER
Courtesy the artist and Bortolami Gallery, New York
This series of poster-sized inkjet prints entitled It's Symptomatic/What Would Edith Say? (2013/2014) which is currently on view at Bortolami Gallery in New York, has been started in 2013 when the artist, CARISSA RODRIGUEZ, made her New York debut at the hybrid space Front Desk Apparatus. Actually CARISSA RODRIGUEZ started as an artist in the 1990s, however she worked more actively as art dealer and writer for several years, after which she started again showing her work in the beginning of 2000s.
RODRIGUEZ's images of tongues onto which are scribbled health diagnosis, seem more and more relevant, as you look at them. Somehow, they lost the feel of directness achieved by the sharply focused style and instead they convey a certain fascination for the human body via the virtual space.
A service top is one who tops under the direction of an eager bottom. A versatile top is one who prefers to top but who bottoms occasionally. Starting at the top, the artist's tongue – muscle of conceptual articulation and arbiter of aesthetic disposition – is more simply, the locus of language and taste; while accordingly at the bottom, the filth of distinction gathers in the anus. Pornography sanitizes anuses by cosmetically bleaching them for the screen, rendering natural flesh "more uniform with its surrounding area", similar to the way art galleries light and fluff
their spaces to achieve the cold, fluorescent-white installation shot that emits an ambience akin to the sweatshop– an artwork at its maximum efficiency. Between tongue and anus are the organs, situated midway, or Midtown, much like the art advisor's position between the artist and the collector. Practitioners of Chinese medicine diagnose the conditions of internal organs as its symptoms appear on the tongue's surface, which is read and appraised like a rare map, rug, vase or painting, and although it is too overwrought to liken the tongue to a screen (mirroring the artist inside) or to a 'mood board' in the case of the branding consultant, the liver and spleen are nevertheless dutifully at work scripting messages to the moist upper surface. *
➝ this work is currently part of the group exhibition Chatbots, Tongues, Denial and Various Other Abstractions on view at Bortolami Gallery in New York until August 22, 2014
*from the press release at Front Desk Apparatus
excerpt from After the End of Art: Contemporary Art and the Pale of History (1997) by American critic and philosopher ARTHUR C.DANTO (1924-2013)
read more via http://press.princeton.edu/titles/5911.html
at her studio, Basel
june 2014
images © wfw
I have read somewhere that a studio space is an intimate space, which puts the critic in an awkward position that he is no longer objective. It's even more the case with MIREILLE GROS. MIREILLE is a Swiss artist based in Basel and she is probably one of the most engaging person in the city.
After a course of studies in Basel and New York, MIREILLE GROS (born in 1954) traveled the world drawing inspiration from the language, the local culture and the nature in each place she went, especially in China and West Africa. From these trips she has not only adapted her artistic practice by allowing more place in her work for the concept of spontaneity, random and chance but she has also brought back several processes and materials. Made of photographs, paintings, drawings and artist's books, her body of work depicts universal configurations taking the form of mysterious plants or vegetables, micro and macrocosms.
Her studio reflects her intuitive and experimental process (although the space is very well organized) and her passion for language with a series of sentences or words written on the walls. Over cardamom coffee and the quietness of the neighborhood, MIREILLE GROS talked about her live, her uninterrupted interest in art, her upcoming exhibitions and how to not have ideas.
If you happen to be in Zürich, do not miss her solo exhibition entitled Ouvrir les Archives which presents an overview of pieces by the artist which have been collected over the past twenty years, on view at the Collection of Prints and Drawings at ETH Zurich until July 6, 2014.
Art Unlimited
on Tuesday, June 18, 2014
image © wfw
On Sunday evening, Art Basel has officially closed its door! Apart the deluge of art, it was really a great occasion to have precious discussions as well as to meet you!
detail from the installation Kids who eat dirt are called kids. But when adults eat dirt, it's called geophagy (2014) by KIM SEOB BONINSEGNI
seen at Swiss Art Awards
on Tuesday, June 18, 2014
image © wfw
Untitled (1969/2013) by DOUG WHEELER
seen at Art Unlimited
on Tuesday, June 17, 2014
image © wfw
Triangular Series (2014) by JAMIE ZIGELBAUM
a site-specific lighting installation commissioned by Design Miami/ Basel
seen on Monday, June 16, 2014
image © wfw
Claque & Shill, 2014 (graphite on paper, marble) by ANDREA ROMANO
seen at Gaudel de Stampa (Paris) during Liste
on Wednesday, June 19, 2014
image © wfw
We Killed the Bear (2014) by DENA YAGO
featured on the booth of Sandy Brown Gallery (Berlin) during Liste
seen on Wednesday, June 19, 2014
image © wfw
a glimpse into the studio of CLARE KENNY
on Friday, June 20, 2014
image © wfw
Untitled Textile Arrangement (Towel Rack), 2014 by AMANDA ROSS-HO
presented in the group exhibition Picture This* at Salts, Basel
seen on Friday, June 20, 2014
image © wfw
*this exhibition is running through July 21, 2014
detail from Eternity (2013/2014) by XU ZHEN
seen at Art Unlimited
on Tuesday, June 18, 2014
image © wfw
photograph by TORBJØRN RØDLAND
featured on the booth of Nils Staerk Gallery (Copenhagen), Halle 2.1 / K4
seen on Thursday, June 19, 2014
image © wfw
mood board for the ALUFOIL furniture by CHRISTOPHER SCHANCK
seen at Johnson Trading Gallery (New York) during Design Miami/Basel
on Monday, June 16, 2014
image © wfw
fair moment in front of Artificial Rock N°126 (2007) by ZHAN WANG
seen at Art Unlimited
on Tuesday, June 17, 2014
image © wfw
from the solo presentation of AMY YAO
featured on the booth of VI, VII (Oslo) during Liste
seen on Wednesday, June 19, 2014
image © wfw
Pull (torsadé), 2014 by DANIEL DEWAR and GREGORY GICQUEL
presented at Truth & Consequences from Geneva during Liste
on Wednesday, June 18, 2014
image © wfw
Socketing in the Digital Age (2014) by JANA EULER
seen at Cabinet Gallery (London), Hall 2.1 Stand K22
on Wednesday, June 18, 2014
image © wfw
detail from Cipher (Wavepool), 2014 (ash coated TV) by JON RAFMAN
seen at Balice Hertling Gallery during the satellite art fair Liste
on Wednesday, June 18
image © wfw
WOLFGANG TILLMANS after his talk with gallerist DANIEL BUCHHOLZ and MARK RAPPOLT, editor of ArtReview
on Wednesday, June 18, 2014
image © wfw
this talk will be available online soon via youtube.com/user/artbasel/videos
detail from Formless Happiness (2014) by CHRISTOPHER FÜLLEMANN
seen at Swiss Art Awards
on Tuesday, June 17, 2014
image © wfw
Marjorie (2014) by DANIEL TURNER
seen at Art Unlimited
on Tuesday, June 17, 2014
image © wfw
Ectoplasmes #2, 2014 (unique silverprint, rayographs on Kodak Endura, photo paper, perspex and iron frames) by PAULINE BEAUDEMONT
seen at Swiss Art Awards
on Tuesday, June 17, 2014
image © wfw
detail from the installation Kinder dieser Welt (Children of this World), 1990-1996
by German artist HANNE DARBOVEN (1941-2009)
seen at Art Unlimited
on Tuesday, June 17, 2014
image © wfw
detail from the bench Souvenir of the last century (2012) by Italian designer NUCLEO
featured on the booth of Gabrielle Ammann Gallery, Cologne at Design Miami/ Basel
seen on Monday, June 16, 2014
image © wfw
detail from the booth of Jason Jacques Gallery, New York at Design Miami/Basel
which features Art Nouveau, Japonist and Contemporary ceramic masterpieces
seen on Monday, June 16, 2014
image © wfw
It's that time of year again, Art Basel and its satellite fairs have just begun. As the previous years, wfw is going to offer you, during all the week, a series of pictures featuring some art moments and other delights from the fair!
For a quicker view, you can also follow wfw on instagram or on tumblr,
a big bright thank you for your love,
Thread Wrapped Architecture 020514 by ANTON ALVAREZ
presented by Gallery Libby Sellers during Design Miami/Basel
for the special project Design at Large curated by DENNIS FREEDMAN
seen on Monday, June 16, 2014
image © wfw
detail from one of the 144 notebooks (La Vie en Gros, 1987–2014) of MIREILLE GROS
seen at the Department of Prints and Drawings at the ETH, Zürich
on Friday, June 13, 2014
image © wfw
this exhibition is on view until July 6, 2014
detail from a work by HAIM STEINBACH
seen at Kunsthalle Zürich for his solo exhibition Once Again The World is Flat
on Friday, June 13, 2014
image © wfw
Prop4aShw, (2010/2013)
courtesy of the artist
To coincide with MARK LECKEY's current exhibition at Gavin Brown's entreprise in New York, wfw presents LECKEY's Prop4aShw (2010/2013), a video proposal that features a fascinating composition of a collection of ideas for a touring group exhibition he wanted to mount; the resulting show, The Universal Addressability of Dumb Things, has since toured several spaces in the UK.
This is a proposal for a show a version of which I first uploaded in 2010. I made this video to win around venues for a Hayward touring show. The show has happened in three venues, Liverpool, Nottingham and the De La Waar Pavilion in Bexhill in July 2013. This is a rejig of the original video. The singing at the beginning is from AMANDA BAGGS's video 'In My Language' and is played over the sound of an original Wurlitzer Sideman drum machine. It has bits of SHELDON BROWN's Scalable City, bits of GtsMod's Giantesses and the singing at the end is from 'I light the fire' byVERONICA OUCHOLIN.
'The Universal Addressability of Dumb Things' was part of a series of artist-curated shows organized by Hayward Touring. I was asked in 2010 and spent three years searching and gathering, putting together the show on my desktop. Once I'd decided on which things I wanted I could then ask the Hayward to try and get me the actual thing itself. So the way the show developed was by flip-flopping from the digital realm to the real world and once the exhibition actually materialised in a physical space I was left with a feeling of, not quite anti-climax, but a sense that this was to final; that these things that had been alive to me for the last couple of years were now just dead media, they'd been through all these transformations but were now somehow inert. But more importantly they had now passed out of my hands and one of the main drives in collecting all these things together was to have them within my grasp, to actually hold them and touch them. I didn't want to give up my possession of them, and in the Modern World I don't have to. So I scanned as many of the objects as I could and with the help of FormLabs and GBE they will be 3D printed over the month of May. This is not an exhibition in itself but the making of the next generation of the show – this one called UniAddDumThs – for WIELS, in Brussels, opening in September this year. The making is an event, a chance to see these machines in action, making the future."- MARK LECKEY, 2014
➝ A Month of Making by MARK LECKEY is on view at Gavin Brown Entreprise in New York until June 21, 2014
➝➝ make sure to watch also Proposal for a Show (2010)


text:
Bison Video Blog: Monday presser recap, UNI preview
Join WDAY sports director Dom Izzo and The Forum's Jeff Kolpack for the Bison Video Blog! Jeff and Dom will recap the Monday morning NDSU Athletics presser and preview this weekend's game against UNI....
Posted on 11/3/14 at 2:20 PM
NDAD's 20th Escape to the Lake a few weeks away
The 20th Escape to the Lake created by NDAD is set for Sat., June 21, at Nelson Lake Recreation Area near Center, N.D., in Oliver County northwest of Bismarck and Mandan. The adaptive water recreat...
Posted on 6/5/14 at 9:07 AM
UND ranks in top 10 Best Online Graduate Business Programs for Veterans
The University of North Dakota online Master of Business Administration (MBA) program was recently ranked #9 by U.S. News & World Report in its 2014 Best Online Programs for Veterans. According t...
Posted on 5/28/14 at 2:04 PM
Employer mandate delayed until 2015
Last month the federal government announced a one-year delay in the employer mandate provision in the Affordable Care Act until 2015. The employer mandate requires companies that employ more than 50 f...
Posted on 8/5/13 at 11:28 AM
Rick Berg - Heidi Heitkamp 2012 NDBA Debate
Rick Berg and Heidi Heitkamp debate at the 2012 North Dakota Broadcasters Association Fall Conference in Bismarck, ND. brightcove.createExperiences(); ...
Posted on 9/6/12 at 9:46 AM
Plans for oil refinery revealedProposed facility near Devils Lake would produce 20,000 barrels per day
DEVILS LAKE, N.D. -- A Canadian energy company unveiled plans Monday for a $200 million, 20,000-barrel-a-day clean fuels oil refinery that could be built near Devils Lake. At a standing-room only meeting held Monday at Lake Region State College, residents turned out to listen to officials from Eagles Ledge Energy, based in Vancouver, B.C., discuss details of the refinery. In a question and answer session following the presentation, residents sounded off with a number seeming in favor of the project. "I look forward to it," resident Angela Mikkelson said. "I think it's a great thing for Devils Lake, for our schools, our health care, our businesses that are already in town, restaurants, hotels. It's going to do a lot for our community." Others weren't convinced quite yet.
By Kevin Bonham , November 25, 2014
Party bus crasher accused in stabbingFARGO, N.D. – An uninvited guest on a party bus was arrested in connection with a stabbing Saturday night. The stabbing suspect – according to a second man who was arrested on suspicion of resisting arrest – was not invited on the bus, which had been rented to celebrate a birthday. Officers responded to a report of a stabbing at about 11:15 p.m. Saturday near 25th Street and First Avenue North. When they arrived, they found a large group of people standing on the street next to a party bus, Fargo police Lt. Joel Vettel said. Among them was a 21-year-old man with a small stab wound in his lower abdomen, Vettel said.
By Emily Welker , November 25, 2014
Calendar model: One-eyed pet gets enough nurturing to be featured as a cat of the dayBISMARCK, N.D. -- Terra Cotta, named for her coloring, arrived at the Central Dakota Humane Society in June of 2006 with severely infected eyes and weighing a mere 1.1 pounds — far from being picture perfect. That is where two animal lovers, Lee and Jolene Podoll, for the first time met the cat that is being featured in a 2015 cat calendar. It's called the Workman's Publishing "365 Cats" calendar, with a cat photo for each day.
By Faith Harron , November 25, 2014
Former North Dakota workers' comp insider says agency sacrificing workers to save employers moneyFARGO, N.D. – North Dakota has broken its promise to injured workers who rely on workers' compensation, according to a lawyer who knows the system as a former insider now on the outside. The bedrock legal promise of providing injured workers "sure and certain" relief in North Dakota has been sacrificed in the interest of saving employers money, Bismarck lawyer Dean Haas argues in an article in the current North Dakota Law Review. "Employee safety has taken a backseat to saving employers' money," Haas wrote in the law review article. "This is evident in nearly every aspect of workers' compensation in North Dakota."
By Patrick Springer , November 25, 2014
North Dakota ranch family, stockmen's association put up reward for stolen cattleNAPOLEON, N.D. -- Chad Weigel is convinced that 20 calves were rustled from the family ranch pasture near Napoleon, southeast of Bismarck, and he hopes a $24,000 reward will entice someone to tell authorities who took them. The cattle market is at an all-time high and the calves are more valuable now than ever before, at somewhere in the range of $1,500 each.
By Lauren Donovan , November 25, 2014
Small cities left in lurch as retailer closes shopsEverything must go at Alco, but small towns hope stores stay
MAYVILLE, N.D. – The Alco chain of department stores will close its stores after the holiday shopping season, somber news in area small towns where Alco is the main retailer. Alco is a shopping hub for towns such as Mayville and Oakes in North Dakota and Mahnomen and Long Prairie in Minnesota. Shoppers are already mourning the loss of the Alco store in Oakes, Natalie Selby, operations manager at the store, said Monday.
By Dave Olson , November 25, 2014
Ad company sees money in cash machinesFARGO, N.D. – A new Fargo-area tech company is taking advantage of some underused real estate located about 65 inches off the floor in convenience stores, restaurants, bars and motels. iLevel Digital manufactures digital displays, installs them on top of automatic teller machines, and sells advertising space on the 20-inch full-color screens. Darrin Voeller, one of the founders of iLevel Digital, said they've just begun to roll out the screens in western North Dakota, and by the end of the year, will have toppers on 300 to 350 ATMs throughout North Dakota and western Minnesota.
By Sherri Richards , November 25, 2014
MDU to purchase Hettinger wind farmBISMARCK, N.D. -- Montana-Dakota Utilities Co. announced Monday that it has agreed to purchase a the wind farm to be developed outside of Hettinger next year. The $200 million project by ALLETE Clean Energy will be comprised of 43 turbines that will produce 107.5 megawatts of electricity, according to a statement from MDU. In October 2013, MDU signed a 25-year agreement with Thunder Spirit Wind, LLC, a subsidiary of Wind Works Power Corp., to purchase the wind farm's power output. However, according to the statement from MDU, the company said it determined owning and operating the wind farm to be its best best long-term solution.
By Dustin Monke , November 25, 2014
Centralized pipeline info a good first step, landowners sayBISMARCK, N.D. -- Landowners trying to help smooth relations between pipeline companies and property owners say a new Easement Information Center launched Tuesday by the North Dakota Petroleum Council is a good first step. Landowners Troy Coons, of Mountrail County, and Daryl Dukart, of Dunn County, were part of a right-of-way task force that met over several months to talk about easement problems and ways to solve them. Festering issues and landowner fatigue are causing lengthy delays in pipeline projects. Petroleum Council spokeswoman Tessa Sandstrom said pipeline companies say it's taking from 90 to 180 days to get easements signed.
By Lauren Donovan , November 24, 2014
FACES OF THE BOOM: Teacher welcomes new faces, diversity to reservation schoolNEW TOWN, N.D. -- On a recent day in Camarilla Hunter's sixth-grade class, rainbow-colored candy made math a whole lot sweeter and fun for her students. "When can we eat the Skittles?" a boy interjected, as Hunter, 35, explained the goal of their assignment was to find the fraction, decimal and percent for each color in their small bag of candy. It was all in a day's teaching for the third-year educator at New Town Middle School on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in western North Dakota. Earlier in the school day the students learned about the U.S. presidents playing bingo and practiced their English skills by writing pen pal postcards.
By Kathleen J. Bryan , November 24, 2014
MDU eyes Minot area for second diesel refineryBISMARCK, N.D. – Developers of a nearly completed diesel refinery near Dickinson are eyeing the Minot area as the potential site for a similar plant. John Stumpf, senior vice president of business development for WBI Energy Inc., said the second refinery would process about 20,000 barrels of Bakken crude oil per day, the same capacity as the Dakota Prairie Refining LLC facility near Dickinson. "Minot's a little different situation, but the demand for diesel up there is even stronger than it is here," Stumpf said in an interview Thursday at the Dickinson refinery.
By Mike Nowatzki , November 24, 2014
Central North Dakota ski resort has earliest opener everMANDAN, N.D. -- For the first time ever, Huff Hills has opened before Thanksgiving thanks to the recent streak of frigid weather. The main runs off the ski resort's blue lift are covered in snow and ready for the season's first skiers and boarders. The ski resort is south of Bismarck-Mandan near the Missouri River.
By Amy Sisk , November 24, 2014
Getting with the program: Grafton uses housing incentive to stem population decline, stabilize communityGRAFTON, N.D. — Mayor Chris West has a quick answer for anyone questioning the value of an eight-year-old Grow Grafton housing construction incentive program. "We have 50 new homes built in Grafton in that time, and people are still building," he said. "Grafton's rolling." That's why he lobbied to extend the program through additional funding from the Grafton City Council, which recently approved another $100,000 for the housing incentive this year but is also facing questions about whether it's the right benefits and doing enough to help lower-income residents build starter homes.
By Kevin Bonham , November 24, 2014
North Dakota voter ID changes being proposedGRAND FORKS, N.D. -- The North Dakota Secretary of State's Office and Grand Forks Democratic lawmakers are drafting separate bills to tweak the state's voter identification law. The proposed legislation comes after reports of people being turned away from the polls on Election Day due to identification problems. This year marked the first major election since North Dakota passed a law in 2013 that removed the option to sign an affidavit, allowing voters who didn't have proper ID to swear under the penalty of law that they are eligible to vote.
By John Hageman , November 24, 2014
North Dakota higher ed board again violates state open meetings lawBISMARCK, N.D. – The State Board of Higher Education violated open meetings law when it asked attendees of a July 30 meeting to leave the room so a consultant could speak only to board members, the state attorney general ruled Friday. During its summer retreat, the board brought in Tom Meredith, a former chancellor of two state university systems, to advise members on issues plaguing the board. In a recording of the meeting, board chairwoman Kirsten Diederich can be heard asking everyone but board members and legal counsel to leave so the board could have a conversation with Meredith.
By Grace Lyden , November 24, 2014
View your ad here! Cost effective targeted advertising.
Contextual advertising starting as low as $79/month. This includes targeted ad delivery and search results!
Add your business to the Marketplace »

subset: commoncrawl