power cord

The cord that powers my machine. Seen at Red Line Cafe, 1525 East Olive Way, Seattle, WA. February 25, 2005.

a winter sunset

Night comes to our city by the Sound. Seen from 524 Boylston Avenue East, Seattle, WA. February 23, 2005.

The Art Book of Doom

Camera Obscura Projection from 900 12th Ave (Facing East), Seattle, WA, 02/18/05

I created the above image for a project that's being organized by Matthew Burns and involving work from several different artists. It's a handmade book (right) that's being mailed from person-to-person where they then add their photos, drawings, stickers, stencils or whatever.

My contribution is an eight Polaroid photograph of a lensless camera obscura projection I set up at Photographic Center Northwest. The projection was made onto a sheet and then photographed. After removing the white borders of the Polaroids I mounted the photos in the book. When the glue dries it'll be time to pack it up and send it off to the next destination.

Images © 2005 Luke Strosnider

To Catch a Paper Thief

I am thoroughly convinced that there is an intriguing story behind all media. From famous works of art to the discarded shopping list you find in the bottom of your cart, there is a compelling human component to all creations - even the ones that were intended to go unnoticed.

Take, for instance, this New York Times article on a firing range target (right) that was created 40 years ago for use by the NYPD and is now and is now used by law enforcement agencies across the country, including being the "official target of the Department of Homeland Security."

It's a familiar image - a squnity, hairy-knuckled thug, ready to pump you full of lead - but who was it? Was there an actual person who inspired this drawing that is now regularly blasted full of bullet holes? Read on ...

"Cops' Favorite Target Thug, but Just Who Was the Guy?" by Michael Wilson, New York Times, 02/17/2005

[Image © 2005 Don Hogan Charles/The New York Times]

Saffron is the New Black

This wouldn't be much of an art-centric site without at least a passing mention about the cultural juggernaut that is Chirsto and Jean-Claude's "The Gates" in New York's Central Park. A friend in Pennsylvania tells me that the entire Northeast has gone nuts over the 7,500 pieces of billowy safforn cloth and seems a bit perturbed that it takes this sort of mega-project to get people talking about art.

Of course as with any monumental, media saturated artwork opinions are many, so I thought I'd provide a few links to some of the many voices:

• "At a time when the civic realm is blanketed with corporate promotion, from lampposts to landmarks, the artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude have shown that it is possible to hang 1,067,330 square feet of nylon in the heart of Manhattan - almost 50 acres of potential display space - without a slogan, trademark or logo." David Dunlap, New York Times, 02/17
• "I think the gates are beautiful in the park, and I'll be glad when they are gone. I don't find these two ideas incongruous." Eric Hancock, eric.buzzword.com, 02/15
• "The truth is, by New York standards the gates are even a touch dull. Watching families promenade, you realized that after a minute or two of oohs and aahs, they switched back to their previous, more compelling subjects of conversation. ('Chloe, I've had about enough of your attitude.' 'I don't haaaaave an aaaattiTUDE.')" Blake Gopnik, Washington Post, 02/12

Personally, I think "The Gates" are quite the visual feast but I'm not sure how brilliant they are. Listening to Christo on 60 Minutes, I got the feeling that he was satisfied to make this a piece that had no "reason" other than it was beautiful. As glorious and noble a goal as that is, I admire some of his prior projects that have transcended the idea of art for art's sake.

More compelling by far is Christo's Wrapped Reichstag, Berlin 1971-95 (left) which took a symbol of Germany's troubled past and turned it into a blank, white mass - a moving way of simultaneously exorcizing past demons and proclaiming Germany's future a clean slate and full of possibilities.


As with most everything else, The Daily Show had the funniest take on "The Gates" (full transcript available at Good Reads):

Stephen Colbert: "Jon, The Gates is a triumph of contemporary installation art. Each Gate redefining its section of the park as not a public place for private reflection, but a private place for public reflection, juxtaposed with the barrenness of the mid-winter, The Gates posits a chromatic orgy, this riot of colour achieves a rare re-defamilrazation with the nature of place-time, the whatness of our whereness. No longer framed .... I'm sorry I've run out of crap."

[Images © 2005, 1995 Christo]

Times New Roman up your a**

Who doesn't love fonts? No one, that's who! And who doesn't love spine-ripping heavy metal? EVERYONE, right?! So it's only logical that people would be going off the rails for some heavy metal fonts!

Graphic design meets ear-splitting, bong-rattling, face-melting metal at this RockRage.com site that features the fonts of all your hard-rockin' favorites, including , , and my hometown heroes !!

So quit writing band names on your tattered jean jacket with a ballpoint pen and get into the digital age! Imagine how much fun the grocery store will be with a new metallized shopping list: why buy toilet paper when you can buy
?

Ted Leo / Rx > Live

Ted Leo, performing live with his band the Pharmacists, at Neumo's, Seattle, WA. February 13, 2005.

Visit my Flickr.com site for more photos from the show, and check out fansite Timorous Me for other good stuff including video of Ted Leo/Rx on Conan O'Brien last week.

Polaroid-o-nizer™

So this is pretty fun ... you find a photo somewhere on the web (yours or someone else's) and use the Polaroid-o-nizer™ to automatically turn it into a Polaroid!

Take this blurry digital snapshot of Portland, Oregon:



After cutting n' pasting the link, adding your text, and ignoring that the site is Dutch and you really couldn't read any of it, you get this:



Go crazy! Polaroid-o-nize™ your photos, friends photos, news photos, one of the web's trillions of porn photos - whatever! And if the language barrier is driving you crazy, filter the site through Babel Fish (select Dutch to English translation) and see it in America-talk.

let the shark rot

Damien Hirst’s dead shark is dying. His piece The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living (right) features a tiger shark suspended in a glass tank full of formaldehyde. Unveiled in 1991, the work propelled Hirst to the status of a household name (or about as close to one as a living artist can get) and inspired hoots and hollers from fans and detractors alike. Say whatever you like, but as the piece was recently purchased by a private collector for $12,000,000, Hirst is likely unfazed by the criticism.

According to an article in The Art Newspaper, the tiger shark is starting to decay due to the inability of formaldehyde to preserve large specimens:

According to a 2000 report, which includes a section entitled "The rotting shark," by Alison Bracker of the Royal College of Art, Hirst used a formaldehyde solution of 5% strength. The report states that "conservation scientists have queried the wisdom of employing a weak solution to preserve an entire shark."

So the question is raised: How to … umm … “save” this dead animal?

Just as interesting is the question of whether it should be saved at all. Hirst has acknowledged that he was “[not] using formaldehyde to preserve an artwork for posterity … I use[d] it to communicate an idea”. Hirst has used unstable materials and paints in prior work and seems more concerned with conveying an idea than ensuring it lasts forever.

Though I’m not intensely familiar with Hirst, I admire his stance. Working around photographers, I find myself listening to a ridiculous amount of conversation about certain processes and whether or not they are archival. What a waste of time … more important (and much less discussed) is whether or not the artist’s ideas are “archival.” Damn the materials - will the ideas endure?

Hirst’s many tank pieces (featuring all sorts of dead things floating in liquid) address the uncertainty and maddening mental puzzle of death and its aftermath. It appears that his use of a solution that preserves for only a short time is another layer to his seemingly obvious (but ultimately multi-layered) concept.

I say let the shark rot. It is the next inevitable step in the life of a continually changing work of art. The piece addresses death, a subject we envision as an ultimate cessation of being. Ever changing, this artwork mirrors our bodies and minds reaction to death - both now and after our passing.

(via Conscientious)

her brain is like a blender

Found drawing. Another sheet was blank except for the words "HER BRAIN IS LIKE A BLENDER." Found on windowsill in Room 302, Masonic Temple Building, Seattle Central Community College, Seattle, WA. Tuesday, February 1, 2005. Around 8pm.