Mapplethorpe at the Corcoran

 

The Corcoran Gallery of Art, which is not really the Corcoran any more, has mounted a show, "6.13.89" about the cancellation of the retrospective Robert Mapplethorpe: the Perfect Moment. ( In case you don't know, the Corcoran imploded several years ago and is now owned by George Washington University. )   

The exhibit is basically flat glass cases filled with documents that tell the story of the event. 

Here is the contract for the exhibit; here is the exhibition plan; here are some newspaper articles about the show in New York.  Here are letters of people complaining about the content of the exhibit.  Here are newspaper articles in which Jesse Helms rails against the NEA for funding obscene art.  Here is the press release saying the Corcoran will be backing out of the exhibit. 

Here is  the backlash.  

Here are internal memos from within the Gallery.  Here are membership forms covered with complaints, protests and cancellations.  Here are letters from artists  refusing to show their work at the Corcoran.  

It is in an interesting story, but I can't help but think that in the general emptying out of the Corcoran, someone opened a file cabinet and said, "Look at all this stuff about the Maplethorpe exhibit, this could be a show."  And so it is.

I think the saddest document is a letter from the lawyer of David Lloyd Kreeger, a longtime supporter of the Corcoran.  He has added a codicil to Kreeger's Will rescinding previously pledged gifts to the Corcoran.  

It's really the beginning of the end for the Corcoran, it would take about two more decades, but they lost credibility, they lost financial support and they mismanaged the rest of it. 

The whole thing comes across more like a wake than an exhibit.

The Glass Labyrinth

Unlike a maze, a labyrinth has a single path to the center, after which you turn around and follow it back out.  It is meant to be a slow meditative journey.  Robert Morris has constructed  a labyrinth of glass on the grounds of the Nelson-Atkins museum in Kansas City, MO. 

I entered the labyrinth close to twilight, there was no one else around.  I walked intentionally, searching for calm.  After a few steps, I saw the imprint of a face on the glass directly in front of me.  After that, I walked with a hand extended.  I quickly learned to look for the edges of plate glass, (the height was over my head);  but the sense of uneasiness began to build.  I think the fact that I can see through the walls adds to the tension.  I walk, and I turn, and I reach dead ends, but they are not dead, I am following a path.  By the time I reach the center of the labyrinth, I actually have reached a dead end.  The panic starts to rise in my throat.  "Oh my god, I am trapped in a glass box in Kansas City!  I am trapped here forever. The death of a mime is mine!!!!!"

Okay.

But then I realize, I just need to turn around and follow the path out. Breathe, Breathe, Breathe.  I resisted the urge to walk quickly or run, because that ends in a face print on the wall.  After a few more turns in the path, a man and a woman entered the maze and smiled at me.  "Don't worry. your almost out,"  they said through the glass.  What did they know?  But I was friendly and chatted with them as we passed each other.  With my hand on the wall, I finally made it back out .  I don't know if I have ever had a sculpture unsettle me so much.  The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in DC has a strong emotional effect, but this was unnerving.  

Breathing deeply, I was so relieved to be out.  As I walked down the brick path running through the fresh spring grass, I began to relax.  I glanced back over my shoulder at the maze just in time to see the man bouncing off the wall with an audible "SMACK'.

I'm glad I got out of there without a bloody nose.

Fastest American You Don't Know

 Tommie Smith won a Gold medal for sprinting in the 1968 Olympics.  But what he is famous for is raising his fist on the Medal Podium in Mexico City.  The gesture was meant to show solidarity with  the Civil Rights Struggle as well as to protest human rights abuses around the world.  

But the press painted him as a radical black panther ungrateful to his country.  There was no Wheaties Box portrait for Tommie Smith.  There was no career as a commentator on Wide World of Sports.  

Almost 50 years later when artist Glenn Kaino met him, he felt that Tommie was stuck in that bubble of controversy from 1968.  Kaino spent several years collaborating with him on art projects: photographs were altered, sculpture was cast, prints were made.  

The resulting work is this exhibit at the High Museum With Drawn Arms.  The Healing power of art on display.

  

Dark Star Park Day

Arlington County in Virginia is lucky to have a site specific sculpture by Nancy Holt.  It sits on a traffic triangle and a tiny pocket park in Roslyn, the section of Arlington closest to Key Bridge.  It consists of a tunnel, giant concrete spheres, pools and metal poles and metal plates. This is a very urban area and mostly the sculpture is viewed on a drive by basis.

View from traffic island to pocket park

Once a year on August 1, at 9:32 am the sun aligns with the sculpture to cast shadows that perfectly match the metal plates that project out from the spheres and the poles. It is Arlington's little Stonehenge. 

I had admired the sculpture for years before learning about the shadow connection.  And once I knew, I wanted to see the phenomenon.  For years I have tried to show up for it, but I am either out of town, or busy, or I just forget.  For the past two years I have had it on my electronic calendar in the hopes that it would get me there.  This year I had a contractor showing up at 8:00,  but that wouldn't really interfere.  The heavy rains took a break and the sun was shining.  I had no choice but to hop on a bike and go.

Tunnel from park to sidewalk

This is where the shadow magic happens

My phone told me the event was at 9:00, but I didn't arrive until 9:06. A few people were hanging around the sculptures.  I parked my bike and walked over to someone. "So I missed it?" "No" she smiled, "it's at 9:32." Thank god I had entered the time wrong, or I probably would have missed it.  I am always overly optimistic about travel time.

The shadow is almost aligned with the steel plates on the ground

Anyway, people gathered, it was an interesting mix of office people, art people, tourists and a group on a walking tour.  Cars at the traffic light asked what we were doing; the sun occasionally popped out from behind the clouds and showed us how close we were getting to alignment. I saw at least one person I know. 

The moment arrived: people snapped pictures, people clapped. The funny thing is, taking a picture is kind of pointless: you are photographing a shadow that has disappeared. The picture looks the same as an overcast day photo.  We are all so attuned to photographing events, even the ones that we only need to experience, that we just can't help ourselves.

Okay now it's aligned

The walking tour guide spoke a few words, my two favorites being Radical Pedestrianism.  His idea of people daring to explore the world on foot.   Then he handed the megaphone to a representative from the Nancy Holt Foundation.  She talked about how pleased Nancy was with the sculpture. Her favorite part being when she saw children using their hands to paint water from the pool onto the spheres and touching the art. 

It wasn't exactly a druid moment, but I feel happy that I went.  It cost me about 45 minutes of time and a sweaty bicycle ride.  I have photographs that show nothing, but that's not the point. It's a moment in time to experience, it doesn't need to be recorded on a camera. The sculpture does that itself. It is a record of time - August 1st, 9:32 AM - in the physical world.

Small Domestic Miracles

The Reach

This weekend I had my first solo show since my Masters thesis show.  That show was not a very positive experience for a number of reasons.  This weekend was a whole different story.

Crushed by the Wheel, Eliza (the best title in the show)

The venue was a gallery in a concert hall at the local community college.  The curator, Mary Higgins, was supporting and helpful.  The format is three people having solo shows within the same venue, so that takes a little bit of the pressure off.   We hung the show about two weeks before the opening.  Ongoing renovations to the building delayed the opening, but it made it less stressful, because there was some space in between the hanging and the opening.  It did not feel rushed.

Trapped in this house

I was nervous the day of the show.  It was pouring rain, but not too cold.  Would anyone show up?  Would anyone care?  What if people were overly polite and obviously did not like the work?  Anyway, as the time for the opening neared, I put out snacks and blew my nose.  The guitarist arrived, as did student volunteers.  Finally people started to arrive.  My friend Hiromi, who had told me she would come early, was the second person up the stairs.  As I talked with her, more people arrived and before I knew it, we had a crowd.  People who I knew, and didn't know were complimentary and nice.  I sold a bunch of work.

Hurricane

  After packing up and tallying the sales, we went and had dinner and drinks with friends.  What a great day.  As Bill said, "My people showed up for me."

Clare Winslow, the other exhibiting artist-who made beautiful monoprints- and myself.

A Nice review by my friend Gary:

https://apothecaryshed.com/2018/02/11/small-domestic-miracles-emily-shepardsons-art/

The show runs from January 20 to March 4, 2018 at the Margaret &Joseph Fisher Art Gallery at the Rachel Schlesinger Concert Hall and Arts Center.

Sketchbooks on a Budget

When I first started teaching, I had a pretty tight budget.  My students were supposed to keep a sketchbook, but buying them for everyone ate up a lot of the money I had.  So I asked the students to supply their own, and I bought a case of sketchbooks with my own money that I sold to the students.  This kind of worked, but I wasn't very happy with the solution.

Then one day a truck pulled up to our school loading dock full of office furniture and supplies that a government agency was donating to our school.  There was a lot of copy paper, and the school took the regular sized paper, and asked me if I would like the legal and oversized  (17 1/2" x 11") paper. Why of course I did.

The  legal size paper made a good size book when folded in half. And the larger size made a really generous book. I have always been fond of bookmaking, and it makes a nice way to start the year or the semester. Plus I am a big believer in keeping a sketchbook myself and using it on a daily basis.  I use my own sketchbook to inspire the students and create sketchbook prompts from my own examples.

Once you establish the sketchbook habit with your students, it makes for great substitute lesson plans.  I'll often leave an assortment of materials for them to use such as watercolors, stencils,  and rubber stamps  as well as some prompts which I like to mix up among drawing, doodling and writing.

These are the instructions on how to make the smaller sketchbooks:
Simple Book with a Three Hole Binding

These are for the multi-section book.
Accordion Binding Book with Five Holes

I only do wrapped covers with my eighth grade students.  If you want to paint paper to wrap around your covers, view this slide show:

 Paste Paper

Also here is a video on how to sew a three hole binding:


Here are my Golden Rules for bookmaking with students:

1. Let the paper dictate the size of the book. What I mean is, don't end up cutting hundreds of sheets of paper to make books a particular size or shape. You'll cut a lot less mat board for covers.

2. Establish a relationship with a frame shop so that you have a steady supply of mat board.

3. Use good thread. I recommend 3 ply waxed linen thread from Royal Wood, Ltd.

Have Fun!

Not a student sketchbook, but a giant lead book by Anselm Kiefer at Mass MOCA

Utopia in Miniature

The Large House for Humanity proposed for Washington, DC

a model of a monument to women

The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is currently exhibiting The Utopian Projects,  a display of models of sculptures by Ilya and Emilia Kabokov.  Some of them have been built, some exist only as concepts and models.  This exhibit has not been getting much attention, because it sits in the inner ring of the museum outside of the Ai Wei Wei exhibit of Lego portraits.  The less said about that exhibit, the better.  I love scale models and found the Kabakov's show quite charming.

Themes of angels, toilets and ladders repeat throughout the exhibit, but you don't have to like any of those things to appreciate the humor and wistfulness of the art.

How can One Change Oneself? from 1998 instructs one to wear this set of angel wings for two hours of forced solitude and silence every day. Repeating this for two or three weeks will bring one closer to the person they wish to become.

Monument to Icarus

 

How to Meet an Angel directs the participant to climb an extremely high ladder projecting out into the stratosphere, placing themselves in mortal danger. They will ask for assistance, and an angel will come to their rescue. 

A piece of fallen sky