CultureCandy - v3

Forum 35′s ever sensational Art Melt issues a call for entries for its 7th year running. Just think, the minimal age entrant, 18 years-old, was in sixth grade when competition debuted 2003!  In a surprising turn of events, for the juried show that has never been short of drama, the exhibition will be housed at the Louisiana State Museum instead of the Shaw Center. The much larger exhibit space will no doubt be more conducive to actually seeing the art work and handling the ample crowd. Forum 35 coordinators are also offering a more centralized camp ground for marketplace vendors. If the Baton Rouge Book Festival is any indication this move should be advantageous for Art Melt. Nonetheless there are some constants, Susan Brunner will continue to curate the show (despite having also moved from the Shaw Center), the preview party is slated July 15 and multiple juror process is still part of the gig (no word on who the jurors are just yet).

In an ideal world attendees could shuttle up and down 3rd and 4th Streets effortlessly enjoying the ambiance of the Shaw and LSM in one evening.   And who knows, that may be in the cards. As for now interested artists should submit their work no later than June 2, access to the online entry form is here.

Michael Rakowitz works as a cultural archaeologist, uncovering an unexpected network of connections between historical fact and fantasy. The worst condition is to pass under a sword which is not one’s own traces links between western science fiction and military-industrial activities in Iraq during and after Saddam Hussein’s regime.

Through a series of interwoven narratives this project addresses, among other things, the Iraqi leader’s fascination with the iconography of Jules Verne’s novels and the Star Wars films, and the World Wrestling Federation’s unique take on Gulf War politics.

The project centres on the Swords of Qādisiyyah monument in central Baghdad. This triumphal arch, otherwise known as the Hands of Victory, was inaugurated on 8 August 1989. The invitation card for the opening ceremony featured the heroic proclamation, “The worst condition is for a person to pass under a sword that is not his own or to be forced down a road that is not willed by him.” Rakowitz explores the multiple references and resonances of the Victory Arch, from the history of its design to its use as a backdrop for military posturing.

More of this article can be found at http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/michaelrakowitz/default.shtm

I am here to throw myself and the future of Louisiana at your mercy. So please just here me out: This is not about our jobs. There’s some backroom brawl going on that I’m not privy to and I know nothing about it. But I do know this: Whatever deal they’re making, it’s only good for LSU in the short run. And it’s bad for Louisiana in the long run. And what’s good for Louisiana in the long run is best for LSU in the long run. You know the real reason we are arguing about instructor cuts, the real source of these budget cuts has to do with the problems with Louisiana’s constitution AND the tax structure. If we fix these problems, you don’t have to go begging again hat in hand to the legislator every 1 to 5 to 10 years. And right now, we are in a rare position to fix those problems. LSU faculty has the attention of the State and the nation. We have the will of the people. I just know it. And if LSU faculty stands up—you know, the administration can’t—we can make this happen. And then LSU becomes a truly beloved Flagship University. Right now, the people in Louisiana love LSU, but you know many resent it, because it repeatedly sells out the rest of the State at times like these for its own short-term gain. Don’t sell out the rest of Louisiana right now. Stand up and do what’s right and LSU will truly become the Flagship University. Treat Louisiana as your home state whether or not it is. Unite today. Fight to reform the constitution and the tax structure. Ignore the backroom brawls. When someone asks you, tell them: We are in this mess because the Constitution and the tax structure need to be reformed. If we unite and work together, we can get the attention of the people of this State and the people of this country and we can make this happen!

More info on the LSU budget cuts on ABC.com http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=9611963

CultureCandy’s UncommonThread Cryptozoology Swells to 90 Entries from Over 20 Different States, Get in the Zoo on December 12, 8 p.m. Read the rest of this entry »

Artist Robert M Hausey, beloved father, relative, friend and teacher affectionately called Bobby by one and all died Friday October 16 in his Baton Rouge home, he was fifty nine.

Born November 25, 1949 in Baton Rouge he  graduated from Central High School in 1967. Along with his close friends, artists Melody Guichet, Michael Crespo and James Rink, Hausey studied fine arts at Louisiana State University with such notable professors as Edward Pramuk and John Opie. He received his Masters of Fine Arts degree at the University of Pennsylvania studying painting with world renowned artists; Alex Katz, Neil Welliver and Rackstraw Downes.

Hausey taught painting and drawing at the University of Texas at San Antonio, Sam Houston State University, was a visiting Professor at Ohio University, at Southern University, and from 1977 until his demise enjoyed a long and distinguished career as Professor of Art at Louisiana State University. Hausey is represented in many important national collections and is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships including a residency at the American Academy in Rome.

Though he achieved distinction in his profession it may be for his gentle creative soul that Robert Hausey is most remembered. In his regard for the feelings for others he was the very exemplar of the philosopher Philo of Alexandria’s (20BCE- 40CE) appeal to be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle. To a person his many students and friends remember him as a “gosh, shucks” kind of guy, yet underlying a demeanor nourished on Louisiana gumbo, country grits, humid summer nights and loving parents was a keen intelligence. From the start Hausey was a reader and dreamer who rode rodeo, sought love and discovered painting as a way of coming to consciousness. His paintings survive.

In keeping with his temperament, Hausey’s first years as painter produced intimately scaled representations of social interactions often between humans and their animal companions. While these works often depicted our simpler even sillier side, they were always deeply human, expressions of genuine empathy with his subjects. In their form and motif his plein-air landscape paintings reflect his deeply felt modesty. In that oeuvre Hausey depicted no grandeur or degradation. The art of this period never grandstands, lectures, or complains. Hausey was an artist who loved the world around him for what it was, even as his body was progressively ravaged by adolescent diabetes. Over many decades this terrible disease took its toll as well on his soul and was to be reflected in the art of his middle age.

The second half of his painting life embraced the art of the past that he revered and the women he loved, wed, and desired. These paintings are part valentine, part memorial as one senses in the graying palette a fading grasp of vitality now ever mourned.

This gentle man will remain in the hearts of all who met him including the author of this elegy who writes from Rome and is eternally grateful for Bobby Hausey’s friendship of forty years.

His devoted son Neil Gopalan-Hausey survives Robert M. Hausey along with his friend Sujata Gopalan, big brother Jim Hausey and all those he touched so profoundly.

In sad remembrance,

Ronald M. Cohen

J Morgan Puett’s artist colony in Pennsylvania, “Mildred’s Lane” (website).

This enchanting farm house was brought to CultureCandy’s attention by our friend Holly. You can see more about the project at the link above or on Pia Bijkerk’s blog.

The location serves so many different functions it worth taking the trip to the website to submerge yourself in it all.  But the images of the property found on Pia’s website are hypnotic and overwhelming.

 
Baton Rouge Gallery
SUBMISSION DEADLINE: no later than 6pm on October 20, 2009
LOCATION: 1442 City Park Ave Baton Rouge LA 70808

MORE: Baton Rouge Gallery center for contemporary art, one of the nation’s longest-standing professional artist cooperative galleries, has announced its annual call for new Artist Members.

Since its founding in 1966, Baton Rouge Gallery has grown into the area’s premier contemporary arts center. The mission of the Baton Rouge Gallery center for contemporary art (as adopted by its board of directors in May, 1999), is to provide a forum for the arts, especially for professional visual artists to exhibit their art. The Gallery places emphasis on education and enrichment, including multi-disciplinary arts programs.

As a cooperative gallery, artistic decisions (such as exhibit installations and artist membership) are made by the existing artist membership. Currently, BRG boasts an Artist Member roster of 53 professional artists ranging in media including fiber, print, drawing, glass, sculpture, painting and photography.
 
Artists of all media are encouraged to apply. Applications must be received by Baton Rouge Gallery no later than 6pm on October 20, 2009. 
 
Artist application guidelines are listed on www.batonrougegallery.org
 
To obtain a membership application, visit the Gallery’s website or visit the Gallery (located inside BREC’s historic City Park) and ask for an artist membership packet. For more information, call 225.383.1470.

If you missed the presentation last Tuesday at the Manship Theatre from Thinc, the designers behind the proposed Alive museum/experience/edu-recreational/zoo/waterpark. Here is the pitch:

Image from Faces of Evil

Check out this amazing project actualized through hours of blending the photographs of hundreds of people to create a seamless collage. The result was portraits of the world’s dictators.

“The world is not threatened by evil people but by those who allow evil things to happen.”

Albert Einstein

The question of what constitutes ‘evil’ has been engaging humanity since ancient times. An eternal subject, a familiar subject – an exhausted subject? Far from it, ‘evil’ in its universality is still prevailing, always showing its face anew. Throughout history, people have tried to grasp ‘evil’ by picturing it, hoping to recognize and thus prevent it. This desire has been expressed in pseudo-sciences such as physiognomy and phrenology.

In the 20th century, the image of ‘evil’ has been represented by the faces of many cruel dictators and despots. Their faces have become modern incarnations of ‘evil’. Kept alive through photography and film, the portraits of people like Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin and Saddam Hussein have become deep-seated in the world’s collective memory. How were these men able to reach positions that enabled them to act out their ruthless and often cruel tendencies?

Here, Einstein’s quote gives us an important clue: Because society allowed them, sometimes even encouraged them, to do their ‘evil’. This suggests that a multitude of faces of active and passive accomplices stand behind the face of every dictator. Whilst everyone joins in to say „Never again!” after a reign of terror has ended, history shows that new tyrants can be allowed to rise to power again and again, in all parts of the world. This realization has inspired

FACES OF EVIL.

Between November, 2007 and March, 2008, we took photographs of over 350 people in Hamburg, Munich, Vienna, Dresden, Frankfurt, Berlin, Amsterdam, Moscow, Belgrade, London, Barcelona, Paris and Milan. From them emerged the thirteen FACES OF EVIL, assembled from faces of people of the same ethnic origin as the according dictators. For example, the portrait of Hitler consists of 37 people. His nose belongs to an estate agent from Berlin, his upper lip to a locksmith in Dresden. His hair is put together from the hair of an artist in Weiden and a painter in Bamberg. The chin stems from a Hamburg restaurant owner, the eyes are those of a bank advisor in Frankfurt, the lachrymal sacks are from a precision mechanic in Bautzen, the throat is that of a Viennese banker, the beard belongs to a chef from Wuppertal… Every wrinkle, eyebrow and mole has been replicated true to the original so that it is possible to get a direct and close impression of every scar, nose hair, wide pore and other fine details.

But what do these composites stand for? A pars pro toto, showing that under the right circumstances, there is, if not a Hitler, then a potential accomplice or at least someone who ‘allows’ dictatorship in every one of us? At least they clearly show that cruel men such as Mao Zedong, Ceauşescu or Franco were people made of flesh and blood like everybody else, a phenomenon that Hannah Arendt called ‘the banality of evil’. They are not the abstract ‘monsters’ we try to disguise them as in order to distance ourselves from them.

Through the special and unusual way they were created, the FACES OF EVIL challenge us to deal with the human nature of tyrants on one hand and on the other hand with the fact that many helpers hide behind the head of a dictator, together creating the collective face of a dictatorship.

Christian Lechelt, Hans Weishäupl

Faces of Evil – Website