Life on Mars - Sus wraps up

Life on Mars - Paul Thek
Life on Mars - Wolfgang Tillmans + Vija Celmins
Life on Mars - Marisa Merz + Bruce Connor
Life on Mars - Rosemarie Trockel
Life on Mars - Rivane Neuenschwander + Thomas Hirschhorn
Life on Mars - Haegue Yang + Ranjani Shettar

There has been, as to be expected, a lot of commentary and Monday morning quarterbacking about Life on Mars. The majority of the commentary seems to be from beyond the Pittsburgh region and ranges from comparing Life on Mars favorably to the Whitney Biennial to suggestions of what the Canegie International should have been.

On one hand, I appreciate what the Carnegie International brings to the region. Although I can't say I connected with every work or artist that was exhibited in Life on Mars, it is an important experience insofar as it brings a glimpse of a larger world to Pittsburgh.

On the other hand, I think that the Carnegie International exemplifies the disconnect between the international and regional arts spheres. Similar aesthetics, quality or themes are being pursued by regional artists, at least here in Southwest Pennsylvania. But the international sphere only has a few portals for entry, none of which are accessible regionally. The Carnegie Museum, as well as several of the other renowned venues in Pittsburgh, has a history of distancing itself from the region's art and artists. Given that, it is no surprise that Life on Mars does not reach out to include Life in Pittsburgh. In fact, the only participatory program for local and regional artists are in discussion forums where local artists are permitted to talk about their responses to the works installed in the Life on Mars exhibit.

Interestingly enough, the local arts scene has forsaken the Carnegie International too. The long-term planning for the exhibit and the length of the installation presents a raft of opportunities for the local and regional arts sphere to hijack some of the International's energy. But there has been no related exhibits in the city's visual arts venues, no matter what their standing is beyond the region. Instead, the banner that everybody is rallying to is Pittsburgh 250, the year-long celebration of Pittsburgh's founding. Not that this isn't significant, but surely the city is large enough to address multiple celebrations of significance.

Life on Mars - Paul Thek

Paul Thek 96 Sacraments



Leaving Life on Mars artists on a quiet note. Paul Thek.

Life on Mars - Wolfgang Tillmans + Vija Celmins

A continuation of Life on Mars. It's been almost two weeks since I attended the exhibit, but things are extremely busy right now and there are other shows that won't be up quite so long that really should be attended. Like Paid Sick Days and the Tom Museum. There is still plenty to say about Life on Mars and thankfully the longevity of the show lends itself to leisurely posting. And so, on to one of the most impressive galleries in the exhibit.


Even this long shot of Wolfgang Tillman's gallery in the Life on Mars exhibit doesn't do the installation justice. As a totality, this artist's gallery was remarkable. The work ranged from non-objective to narrative, which I thought was one of the coolest things about the gallery.



This particular work struck me as being very eerie. I've used that word a lot in putting down my thoughts about Life on Mars. The theme comes through very forcefully throughout the exhibit. It was rather large, as you can tell from the long shot. It is difficult to tell with this image why the work was so strong. Part of its strength was in the print quality and in the subtle shadings which provided a subtext for the narrative.



Several of Vija Celmins' star fields were installed in their own gallery, providing a point of respite. Knowing the limitations of my camera, I didn't try to get a shot of these works. But I do want to mention some of the qualities of the artifacts that don't come across in reproductions. The works are all oil on canvas, which is mounted on panel. For the most part, the surfaces are without the texture associated with either canvas or brush stroke which is why the stars are able to glow the way that they do, making the works about light. Interestingly, the sides are left raw and it is here that the substrate is observed, providing a glimpse into the artist's process. The raw canvas is also visible, to greater and lesser degrees, along the perimeter of the face. Given the fineness of the canvas, it seems a deliberate act.

Life on Mars - Marisa Merz + Bruce Connor

I haven't mentioned how beautifully the works in Life on Mars are installed. Marisa Merz's piece is a prime example of the thought that was put into the installation of the show.

Placed as it was in the first floor gallery, it had an advantage of natural light. The gallery is nicely proportioned and good-sized. This solitary piece held the room.

Here's an interesting fact: the work was actually produced in 1966. It's great to see the definition of contemporary includes relevant work that was created over forty years ago. It emphasizes the timeless potential of art. This work is so beautiful. It has this silver glow to it.


In contrast to Merz's light-filled installation, Bruce Connor's photograms were hung on the darkened balcony in sculpture hall. The image below, of Kiss Angel 1975, doesn't do the work justice. Obviously, you'll just have to find some of Connor's work from this series yourself. I did shoot without a flash, to preserve some sense of the space. These works glowed for an entirely different reason. The lightest areas seemed to float around the perimeter of the room.



Below is a detail from Angel. The works really held up on close examination, providing subtle depths of texture.

Life on Mars - Rosemarie Trockel

Slowly, I am getting to posting about the Life on Mars exhibit. There are still several more artists whose work really struck me. I will mention, though, that I didn't spend any time with the video artists. At laest, not on this trip. Maybe when I return to the exhibit. After all, it is a very long show.



This is a really eerie piece. It struck me as soon as I walked into the gallery. I admit, I wanted to sit down on the sofa and make I on my sofa into We on my sofa. What made it so eerie was the shadow box construction. I felt like the portrait was floating up through some heavy liquid. The sofa itself was strange, which really doesn't come through in these images. On close examination, I know that it would be uncomfortable to sit next to this I. Very uncomfortable.



I am looking forward to visiting Rosemarie Trockel's work when I return to the museum.

Life on Mars - Rivane Neuenschwander + Thomas Hirschhorn

By far, Rivane Neuenschwander's I Wish Your Wish is the most popular work in this year's International. During my visit to the Carnegie Museum, I passed this piece several times. There was always a crowd gathered around it, sorting through the ribbons to find the one sentiment that matched their own wish.



It is a visually appealing work, with its bright, sun-drenched colors. Installed in the main entrance to the building, it faces a glass wall, so the lighting was full on.

The other piece that I have heard widely acclaimed is Thomas Hirschhorn's Cavemanman. I really wasn't going to mention Cavemanman since it is not a work that I find intriguing. But it was obviously well traversed and several artists that I know here in Pittsburgh were thrilled to see it or were looking forward to seeing it when they visit Life on Mars.



What the inclusion of this piece demonstrates to me is that the curator is offering the fullest exploration of the theme within the art sphere that he is most knowledgeable about. That does not mean that everybody is going to feel in accord with all of the expressions of the theme.

Now, with that disclaimer out of the way, I will say that I found this piece to be too blunt. I prefer work that is asking questions. Cavemanman did not make me explore. Perhaps it is familiarity with the politics that infom this work, about which I have already drawn my own conclusions.

The exercise of writing about CI08 is definitely an unabashedly biased appraisal of what I experienced in this exhibit. And I am finding that I enjoy putting these thoughts down. It is helping me to catalog what and why I am reacting.

Life on Mars - Haegue Yang + Ranjani Shettar

Friday May 16 2008 - Notes from Life on Mars, Part One

Yang and Shettar are both housed in the second floor galleries of the Carnegie Museum. I stood in the middle of Haegue Yang's installation of Three kinds of Light Painting for quite a while. It deserves even more examination. The color shiftings were complex; layers of light breaking and receding in waves. It made me think of the formal arrangements of music with repeating rhythmic themes, punctuated with intensity and silence. A viewer could choose a theme on which to focus and follow its permutations throughout the room. However, there is something to be said for remaining stationary while the themes come to you.



By contrast, Ranjani Shettar's Just a Bit More required movement to come alive. The work is comprised of netted beads of wax in a range of softly glowing jade. The nets were suspended in sheets, drawn taut in places and left to fall gracefully in others. It was like standing on the outside of a field of stars. It would have been interesting to be able to see this work from beneath, to look up into the star field. I can understand why it was restricted from that kind of access, it was exceedingly delicate. But still, I wonder what that would have looked like.



Both of these works were, quite simply, beautiful. Both spoke to me about rhythm, about density and sparseness. There is a sense of acknowledgement about the grandeur of life, the universe and everything. Their complexity was so alive, so textured and layered. Yang's work brought to me a sense of a cohort with the mysteries of the world. In Shettar's work, there is a distinct sense of observing from the outside. The two separate views of the universe in such close proximity provided a counterpoint of response.

The Carnegie International - the reviews are rolling in

The reviews for Life on Mars are starting to roll in. I have been skimming them, in preparation for an excursion on Friday. I am planning on spending most of the day at the museum. I did have a very brief peek on Monday evening at the Art for AIDS, Art for Change fundraiser. The brief view was enough to whet my appetite.

There are several reviews in both traditional print and blogs. The general impression I am getting is quite positive. At least about the art and artists. I will examine these sources a little more closely after I see the exhibit on Friday. But for now, here are the highlghts --

Roberta Fallon on Philadelphia Weekly

Tyler Green on Modern Art Notes put up several posts

Christopher Knight on the Los Angeles Times

Roberta Smith on New York Times

Christopher Yates on the Columbus Dispatch

There were, of course, several articles in both of Pittsburgh's local papers, the Pittsburgh Post Gazette and The Pittsburgh Tribune Review. If you get a chance, make sure to read Kurt Shaw's take on the International.

It's a small, small world

Well, it wasn't the only thing I came away with while doing the research on CI08. But it certainly did strike me as significant. I didn't tally all of the artists in CI08 whose work appeared at the Tate within the last several years but it certainly seemed that a significant number of the artists had. Small world, isn't it?

A high percentage of the artists included in CI08 work in multiple disciplines. Not all of them, but such a significant portion that I have to take note of it. It belies the conventional wisdom that says that the way to solidify your career as an artist is to focus on one medium, don't you think?

I found, by far, that I appreciated the work of the seasoned artists. Most exhibited a sense of growth in their discipline as well as in their themes and dialogs. But perhaps, since I am a seasoned artist, I find more personal empathy with the continual learning that manifests itself in a varied body of work. Since CI08 is a group show, I don't expect the curator to exhibit a retrospective of each artist. Too bad.

Modern Art Notes interviewed the curator, Doug Fogle, over two posts. This is probably the clearest explanation about the Life on Mars theme that I have seen to date --

I think the best contemporary art takes us to other worlds. It's not a show about extra terrestrials, it's a metaphor. When I discuss the idea around Pittsburgh I have to be extra-clear because the Carnegie has a science center. I always say that the theme was just an interesting way of hooking on to some ideas that could form a bit of structure for the exhibit.

The banner for CI08's blog reads "Are we alone in the universe? Do aliens exist? Or are we, ourselves,the strangers in our own worlds?" Well, okay. So the artists represent alien thought processes, taking us to uncharted territory, to other worlds. But all of the artists in the exhibit are pedigreed and vetted. In keeping with the theme of other worlds within our own, it would have been refreshing to include the work of some artist working outside of this system. It would certainly remove the dialog of self-reference that has become so prevalent in the art sphere.

Interestingly, the CI08 has adopted a lot of social networking components to extend CI08 beyond the region. The blog, of course, has been noted. CI08 has also mounted a Flikr site, with in progress, installation images. (Thanks, MAN. I didn't realize this was up until I read your posts) It is taking a chance, giving CI08 visitors an immediate and intimate way of discussing the exhibit with the curator and staff at the Carnegie Museum. So, make time in your schedule to see the exhibit.

The 55th Carnegie International
Life on Mars
5.3.08 - 1.11.09
4400 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213-4080
Tel: 412.622.3131

The Carnegie International - Richard Wright + Haegue Yang

The Carnegie International opens in just one week. The Post Gazette and the Tribune Review have both published several articles in anticipation of the exhibit. This link is to Google's news service.



Richard Wright

This is pretty much it, people. It's lovely, isn't it? There are actually several artists, writers and musicians sharing this name. An awful lot of search pages to go through.



Haegue Yang

Yang creates mostly installation art. Decidedly delicate installation art that incorporates light and smell. There is an interview on the Walker Arts blog that is pretty well steeped in artspeak. Great images, though.

It's a wrap. These were the last two artists on the list for the Carnegie International. Next up, what has Susan learned from all of this?

The Carnegie International - Rosemarie Trockel + Apichatpong Weerasethakul + Andro Wekua

Rosemarie Trockel Rugs and related works

I love the fact that so many of the artists in CI08 have a varied body of work. Trockel, however, is the first one that includes fiber works in her range. Trockel is exploring feminist and feminine themes in her work. There's a great article in Time Out Chicago that you should read.



Apichatpong Weerasethakul Blissfully Yours

Filmmaker.

I like to watch what's happening. For instance, I really like watching people pass by and stuff like that and that's why I really like Andy Warhol's films. It's more like watching, kind of observing what's going on, and the audience makes up the narrative themselves. It's more like that. I didn't plan to make a theory or anything except for my interest in observing life... Read the interview

Andro Wekua

Nice post about Wekua --

Andro Wekua’s sculptural figure is like a hybrid mélange between a professional magician that practices the traditional skills of magic and his model, a ritual engagement for him/her self . Read the post

The above image really pulled me in. You want to see some pretty magnificent works, go check out the Flash Art article.

There will be one more post in this series of previews about the Carnegie International. I was getting concerned about having this complete in time for the exhibit, which opens in one week.

The Carnegie International - Katja Strunz + Paul Thek + Wolfgang Tillmans

Katja STRUNZ, Germany, b. 1970

There's something really whimsical here. In a ruined sort of way. The King of Hearts comes to mind for some inexplicable reason. You might have the patience to read this ArtForum review. I'm afraid that I don't.



Paul Thek Fishman

Two very interesting sources for this artist. On Clusterflock, a post with links to a few sites that celebrate this artist's work. On Modern Art Notes, an interview with Olga Viso, the director of the Hirschhorn. The discussion opens by addressing the disintegration of the above work.



Wolfgang Tillmans Sportflecken

A friend and I were discussing the way that, in the current art sphere, beauty is equated with decorative. In my mind, many confuse beauty with pretty, which certainly is decorative. Beauty transcends and breathes. Tillmans' photography does exactly that.

The Carnegie International - David Shrigley + Paul Sietsma + Rudolf Stingel

David Shrigley

There is an interesting tattoo project on the artist's page, documenting individuals that have had Shrigley's images tattooed on their bodies. While you're at it, check out the rest of Shrigley's site. This guy has a real entrepreneurial spirit.

Artist's sites always give me a greater sense of how an artist perceives themselves. Shrigley strikes me as a man with a sense of humor.



Paul Sietsma Still from "Empire"

It helps if you are nearly as versed as Mr. Sietsema in the theories and influence of Clement Greenberg, the most powerful American art critic of the 20th century, or immersed in experimental film. Many people are. Everyone else will have to get by on the artist's dollhouselike model rooms and his outsiderish, language-crazed drawings. Roberta Smith, Art in Review
There is another Frieze review of Sietsema's work here.



Rudolf Stingel

Okay. Wow. Seriously beautiful.

Roberta Smith review here. Here's one that I am looking forward to seeing.

The Carnegie International - Wilhelm Sasnal + Thomas SCHÜTTE + Ranjani Shettar

Wilhelm Sasnal Girl Smoking (Anka)

You can see more of Sasnal's smoking girls on his MyGallery page. But I thought the following quote on Raster was interesting --

Sasnal in a painter of the present day, his works often differ so much from each other that one could suppose they had been painted by numerous artists. However all of them share a common deep sensibility of the author which reflects both political, moral and aesthetic aspects of reality. Read more

Okay, you sort of get the gist. If you scroll down the page you'll see some examples of what the article means. I would say that Sasnal tends toward the narrative. Also, that the work seems highly polished.



Thomas SCHÜTTE

Well, um. It definitely fits the theme of CI08's Life on Mars.



Ranjani Shettar Just a Bit More

Nothing ever goes away on the internet. This is from 2004 --

According to Douglas Fogle at the Walker Art Center, "The organic qualities of Shettar's work might be profitably read in the art-historical contexts of Arte Povera artist Marisa Merz, postminimalist sculptors of the same period such as Eva Hesse, Brazilian Neo-concrete artist Lygia Clark, or Argentinean artist Gego. Each structure invokes a shelter that is poetically suggestive of our oneiric ability to invest spaces with our own desires and phenomenological memories." Read more

Okay, artspeak aside, this is lovely. So were many of the other works that I saw. I am looking forward to what Shettar will bring to CI08.

The Carnegie International - Rivane Neuenschwander + Noguchi Rika + Manfred Pernice + Susan Philipsz

Rivane Neuenschwander I Wish You a Wish

Maybe its the ribbons; this work seems to me to be particularly feminine. Everything that I've seen so far has a feeling of beautiful, saturated color, very soothing. There is a review on Frieze that discusses Rivane Neuenschwander's themes in detail.



Noguchi Rika Works from the Sun

Japanese photographer. There is an interesting post on Tokyo Art Beat about an exhibit that this piece was in. There are also several works on the Asian Photography Blog. Very beautiful work, nicely varied. I think that this artist is one whose career you could follow and see continual growth and change.



Manfred Pernice

No No No. Seriously.

Manfred Pernice could be called a memorialist of the forgettable. This makes him an apt if obvious choice for the New Museum’s current ‘Unmonumental’ exhibition, but renders his new show, ‘diary,’ at Anton Kern curiously anomalous. It seems unusual, after all, that an artist known for refiguring the quotidian and anonymous structures of modernism should fly under such an ostensibly autobiographical banner. Read the rest of the Frieze review.

Susan Philipsz

Sound artist. Here are some thoughts.

The Carnegie International - Barry McGee + Mario Merz + Marisa Merz + Matthew Monahan

Barry McGee, image from Fragmented blog

Street art, a touch of graffiti. There are a lot of images in the e-sphere for Barry McGee's work. Not much criticism, though.



Igloos. More igloos. Even more igloos.

So, do you think an igloo is in store for CI08?



Marisa Merz

Marisa Merz was born in 1931. The images that I have found reflect a varied artistic practice, ranging from drawing to kinetic sculpture. Isn't that wonderful?



Matthew Monahan

Okay, so Matthew Monahan is known mostly for his sculpture. But this image really spoke to me. So, it might not be representative of what you will see at CI08. Also, see this page.

That's it for today's preview of CI08. More to come. Make sure your voices are heard on the Life on Mars blog.

The Carnegie International - Friedrich Kunath + Maria Lassnig + Sharon Lockhart + Mark Manders

Just a few pictures today. I am not even halfway through the artists roster. I am leaving shortly for an open model session, too.



Friedrich Kunath Finding your feet again

One comment: Kunath seems to be another artist working in several mediums.



Maria Lassnig Untitled (Horizontally on Two Crutches)

More at Serpentine Gallery. Very disturbing work.



Sharon Lockhart The Testing of Assumptions

Photography, mostly. But I thought that these were cool.



Mark Manders Inhabited for a Survey

Installation art, you can see more on his page.

The CI08 opens in three weeks. On May 2.

The Carnegie International - Thomas Hirschhorn + Richard Hughes + Mike Kelley

Continuing with the catalog of CI08 artists we have Thomas Hirschhorn

Thomas Hirschhorn Unfinished Walls

Installation artist. More specifically, working with detritus. Looks like he is talking about consumerism in this particular piece. There is a great review by Jerry Saltz here. He is much more measured than I am and seems to be willing to take his time and really delve into this artist's work.



Richard Hughes

A sculptor, using many different mediums. In doing a quick search, I found at least two artists with the same name, a writer and a number of others. I am assuming it is this Richard Hughes because his work has been presented at the Tate. Seriously, I can't believe how many of the artists for CI08 have been presented at the Tate.



Mike Kelley Memory Ware Flat #18 (detail)


Ooohhh! Shiny!

Okay, that wasn't nice. First reactions and all. In looking at some of the gallery sites where Kelley's work is represented, I did notice that this artist is practicing pluralism. With a vengeance! I'm curious to see what he presents for CI08.

On another note, the CMOA has put up a Life on Mars blog, with a lot of stuff in the sidebar. It has tons of links to the artists in the exhibit. Hey, maybe I should have checked before I started posting on this, huh?

The Carnegie International - Peter Fischli & David Weiss + Ryan Gander + Daniel GUZMÁN

Peter Fischli and David Weiss: Suddenly this

Peter Fischli & David Weiss have been collaborating since the 1970's. from Wikipedia -

For their work, they make use of a large bandwidth of artistic forms of expression: Film and photography, art-books, sculptures made out of different materials, and multimedia-installations. They adapt objects and situations of the everyday life and place them into an artistic context — often using humour and irony. Read more

The Wikipedia article didn't mention whimsy, so I will. The above image is from a retrospective at the Tate. There are additional images on the site. I'm curious to see what will be presented by this duo because of the assertion that the artists work in a number of materials. I work that way myself, but I don't always exhibit the experiments that I do in mediums with which I don't have a high degree of competence. I find that experimenting in other mediums freshens my approach.



Ryan Gander @ Store Gallery - She Walked Ahead, Leading Him Through a Blizzard of Characters

There is a review by Brian Sholis that might shed some light on Gander's work. I found very little written about his work, really. He seems to be concentrating on installation/site specific pieces. He had early success in his career, exhibiting at the Tate in 2006. (As an aside, I can't believe how many of the artists I've looked into were shown at the Tate.) These are pretty quiet pieces, as you can see from the Store Gallery catalog link. Sharon Butler has an article in The Brooklyn Rail that addresses this much more eloquently than I can.



Daniel GUZMÁN

There is a really great review by Jessica Berlanga Taylor in Frieze Magazine of Daniel Guzman's work.

By deconstructing the wealth of images that surrounds him, Guzmán moves away from the artifices of Western civilization towards what lies within himself and is natural to all humans: the ongoing search for the powerful energies that permeate our existence.

Again, this is another artist that works in multiple mediums. But these feel large, even though I can't find a scale reference in what I was able to find online.

To be continued.

The Carnegie International - Vija Celmins + Phil Collins + Bruce Conner

"Untitled (Web), by Vija Celmins, oil on canvas, 15 1/4 by 18 inches

Vija Celmins was born in 1939, She has been creating prints and paintings for decades. Interestingly, I found when looking for images for this artist that the same group of images were used. This one is from the 2002 Whitney Biennial. The images that I had found were of work clustered in the late 60's - early 70's. The above painting was done in 2000. The works that I saw were amazingly consistent, given that they spanned nearly forty years. I know that's not the most important thing about this artists work. Just sayin'.



Phil Collins - baghdad screentests 2002 - Courtesy Kerlin Gallery

From the Tate site - For the return of the real / gercegin geri donusu 2005, originally commissioned by the 9th Istanbul Biennial, Collins invited people who felt their lives had been ruined by appearing on talk-shows and makeover shows to tell their extraordinary stories at a press conference. Furthermore, Collins hired a director of a Turkish reality TV show to conduct hour-long interviews with the participants. By putting these individuals under scrutiny once again, Collins makes the ethics of further exploitation one of the main subjects of the piece. Read more

Huh. Okay.



Bruce Conner - Luke

From Artopia - Conner was born in 1933, and Luke in its present form is one of those career-confirming mature works of art. And although we may yearn to see some of the artist's moldering assemblage sculptures -- using nylon stockings among other things -- Luke in the meantime will send you running to your local video store's avant-garde section to catch up on this West Coast artist's masterful found-footage films. Read more

Okay, so that's a wrap for today. Out of the seven artists that I have looked into, four of them create video art. That doesn't necessarily mean that the work included in CI08 will be video work, but I am starting to wonder. There are still over thirty artists to look through. I will say again that I am not a big fan of video art. What I'm wondering though is if this is what is seen as contemporary art right now.

The website for the CI08 has not been updated yet, by the way.