Parsing 9/11: 10 years on MoMA remembers, at PS1, with Janet Cardiff

(Image: Janet Cardiff's "40-Part Motet," installed at New York's Lincoln Center for its White Light Festival last year)

I received a fascinating notice this morning about an upcoming show at MoMA's PS1, designed to address the cataclysmic cultural upheaval that's taken place in the decade since the World Trade Center towers were toppled by terrorist attack on the awful morning, almost 10 years ago.

I suspect a few hackles will be raised by even the attempt, however deft, or respectfully plied; in the view of many, this is sensitive ground to tread on with anything less than pure, uncomplicated reverance. As we know, very little good art comes from that impulse, and I seriously doubt many of the 70+ works will be so cloying; what I do know, though, is that Janet Cardiff's "40 Part Motet," one of the most moving works I've ever experienced, will be a central component of the show.

The piece was last at PS1 in the weeks following the attacks, its 40 haunting, distinct choral voices, each with their own speaker, came to embody both a potent collective grief, and deep personal loss.It will be installed in exactly the same location for this show.

Having experienced "40-Part Motet" at the National Gallery's Rideau Chapel before 9/11, I can say without reservation that is a visceral, emotionally moving experience. How one is moved, I suppose, relies largely on the context, and this one leaves little room for negotiation. I hope to have the chance to tell you in person.

GI tonight

 

Did I mention? The AGO is hosting a free public opening from 6 to 9 pm of Haute Culture tonight, with full access to the exhibition and remarks at Walker Court at 7.

There, I just did.

(Image: AA Bronson with the General Idea installation  "One Month of AZT" this week at the AGO. Courtesy Art Gallery of Ontario)

Haute Culture, indeed

 
Like everyone else in the Toronto art world, I was at the preview for General Idea: Haute Culture at the AGO this week. As would be the case for most people my age (late-ish 30s), it was a bizarre experience: We've read, studied and seen pictures of so much General Idea work that being in the presence of the actual pieces is a de-centring experience, and I mean that in the best possible way.

Really, how much opportunity have we in Toronto had to see GI's ouevre in the last decade or so, anyway? Aside from the AGYU's recreating the 1984 Miss General Idea Pavillion show, and Blackwood's show of multiples, the opportunities have been few and far between. Ottawa has been much better served by the National Gallery, which just last year devoted a good-sized room to various video works, not to mention its lengthy display of "One Day of AZT/One Year of AZT," up until last year ("One Day" is on loan to the AGO, and previously, La Musee d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, where Haute Culture began).

So, Haute Culture: I've reviewed it for Saturday's paper, but not really; it's too huge, too comprehensive, too overstuffed with ideas for any newspaper essay to begin to reflect in a reasonable way. I was stunned by the volume, overwhelmed by the consistency and force of the ideas, and taken aback time and again by remarkable iterations of craft -- very fine painting and sculpture, alongside video and silkscreens -- that I suppose I never really associated with the group. I've always been fully seduced by General Idea's conceptual, media-conscious frame, but this show brings home the vast rift between understanding works of art, and truyl experiencing them. With Haute Culture, my world opened a little wider. Would that every show can offer that experience.

Anyway, the hits don't stop. Major installations, some never seen here before -- the Armory, for one, is mind-blowing; ditto the charred fragments of the 1984 Miss General Idea Pavillion, "destroyed" by "fire" in 1977 -- left me kind of agape. I suppose I knew it was real, but with GI, seeing is believing. And even then, are you sure?

Get yourself over there. Now.

Gary Taxali tonight at the Drake

(Above: A Taxali illustration for a recent cover of Newsweek)

For a generation of Toronto illustrators -- maybe 2, by now -- Gary Taxali is The Franchise: A Toronto illustrator whose work has traveled far and wide, establishing him as a bonafide brand. A long time instructor at OCAD, is career represents the aspirational apex of students and pros alike. Tonight, a reception and book signing at the Drake Hotel, where his simple, iconic figures of cartoonish angst will be splayed on the dining room's walls for the balance of the summer, will be a packed affair.

Then, in September, the AGO launches an artist's monograph on September 22, titled "I Love You, OK?" Did I mention frachise?

Drake event is tonight at 7:30. See you there. 

 

Ai Weiwei to leave China?

 

(Above: Ai's svelte self after 2 months on Party catering while incarcerated)

Ai Weiwei appears to be on the cusp of a very smart decision: Getting the hell out of China. Ai, recently set free by the government following 2 months of imprisonment on likely trumped-charges of "economic crimes," this week accepted a professorship at the University of the Arts in Berlin.

This could be tricky, given the fact that he's been banned from leavign Beijing for a year as the goverment investigates its charge of tax evasion against him, though stranger things have happened: Writer Liao Yiwu, also an outspoken critic of the regime, arrived in Berlin himself yesterday after wrangling his way through Poland and Vietnam en route, according to the New York Times.

Ai has been charged with $700,000 in tax evasion; the current fine is $2 million. He meets with government officials today to dispute the charges, and no doubt some face-savign deal for the government will be struck in the wake of the international furor their imprisonment of Ai provoked. Humiliation for being heavy-handed neanderthals is not something a communist regime trying very hard to project a warm and fuzzy "new" China takes very well, so we'll see. But don't expect to see Ai in studio crits in Berlin any time soon.

Cy Twombly dies at 83

Art history is littered with overlooked geniuses -- one rescued posthumously from the trash heap is our own Kathleen Munn, now on display at the AGO -- but the modern poster-child for this status could well be Cy Twombly, who died this week. Twombly, thankfully, was recognized in his own lifetime, however late; in the 1995, he received a major retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art (to mixed reviews), which jump-started both a recognition of his work and a productive late-phase of his career. Twombly resistance to major movements like Abstract Expressionism and Minimalism at times left him on the margins, but in time, allowed him to be recognized for his unique talents. He was one of those few painters bold -- or stubborn -- enough to go his own way, regardless of the currents of fashion or trend, despite the cost to his career. We need more like him.