Early this morning, commuters nationwide were delighted to find out
that while they were sleeping, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan had
come to an end.

If, that is, they happened to read a "special edition" of today's New
York Times.

In an elaborate operation six months in the planning, 1.2 million
papers were printed at six different presses and driven to prearranged

http://www.lacoste.com/visionaire/

Your guess is as good as mine as to what this means. Zaha Hadid is designing shoes for Lacoste and I really want that Thomas Demand polo. So it seems as if I've found myself at some crossroad. As of this moment I don't know if the wearable magazine will be available at Macy's but we're having a big meeting Wednesday so maybe I'll know after that. But wouldn't Warhol be thrilled? Too bad he's dead.

If you would like to discuss the aesthetic implications of this I'm in residence at the Macy's Lacoste on 34th Street in New York, 2nd Floor Men's Store:

TUE 11/11 1:15 AM - 9:30 PM
WED 11/12 10 AM - 6 PM
THU 11/13 10 AM - 6 PM
MON 11/17 12:45 PM- 9:30 PM
TUE 11/18 8 AM - 4:45 PM
WED 11/19 2:15 PM - 11:00 PM
THU 11/20 10 AM - 6:45 PM
SAT 11/22 10 AM - 6:45 PM

The accumulation of culture
Culture – a build up of.
In Dialogue.
The Transmission-ability of culture.
Plateau Platformo.

The “cultural stealth” of our own existence has started to take its toll upon us. In a culture where the idea of transmission-ability//progress is given up in the name of Post Modernity, the disillusion and disenchantment
that is accredited by de-motivated academics, leaves us – both as artist practitioners and spectators – feeling somewhat alienated.

This was a charming little piece of street art but perhaps I felt that way about it because I saw it after a bad day at work. In any case I'm tired of galleries so I support this sort of effort by default. As with the Chanel Art Container, which I also enjoyed in spite of the art, whether it's good or bad art is still up in the air.

RothStauffenberg: Based on a True Story
Edition Patrick Frey
ISBN 978-3-905509-74-8

"Toward the center of the field there is a slight mound, a swelling in the earth, which is the only warning given for the presence of the work. Closer to it, the large square face of the pit can be seen, as can the ends of the ladder that is needed to descend into the excavation. The work itself is thus entirely below grade: half atrium, half tunnel, the boundary between outside and in, a delicate structure of wooden posts and beams. The work, Perimeters, Pavilions, Decoys, 1978, by Mary Miss, is of course a sculpture or, more precisely, an earthwork."

via greg.org:

http://greg.org/archive/2008/10/13/october_surprise.html

diffenbacchia

Wednesday, September 3, 2008 -- A large explosion in a Video parlour blast in the Ethiopian capital kills six.

Wednesday October 01, 2008 -- Fifteen men have died and 10 more people have been injured after a suspected arson attack on an all-night adult video parlour in Osaka, Japan.

The other day I was summoned to the Williamsburg studio of the tall, curly headed Swiss artist Christoph Draegger to help him prevent a disaster—tying down an oversized art work to the roof of his car for transport to the gallery. The perversity of the occasion hit us fast and hard; that in order to prevent a disaster, we must first presuppose it.

A response to the Jerry Saltz review in New York Magazine.

Martha Rosler has typically been too pat and jejune in her politics, and in her assumption that it makes for good art, and Jerry Saltz correctly nails the rehash aspects of the current Mitchell-Innes & Nash show. The word "on the street" (in this case West 26th) is that Rosler is breaking no new ground, merely updating and enhancing both the scale and production values of her familiar collaging of images. Once they were taken from the Vietnam battlefield and conflated with magazine clippings from the home front: fashion models, washing machines, living room sofas and credenzas, Playboy nudes. Now they include some "relevant" Iraqi/Afghani footage - burkas and amputees - and benefit from Photoshop. Rosler might have succeeded in "bringing the war home" in 1968, but as Thomas Wolfe said, "You Can't Go Home Again". The epithet "pretty war porn" might be a bit harsh, but it is not that far from the mark.

Not exactly known as a hotbed of mad dog leftist sentiment, the German newsweekly Der Spiegel recently published a long piece on the failed arrogance of the Bush years, the loss of American prestige around the world, the economic miscalculations and missteps since Reagan, the hubristic greed of Wall Street. All this and more in a five part article that includes:

* Part 1: America Loses Its Dominant Economic Role
* Part 2: Bush's Failed Leadership
* Part 3: Wall Street's Central Values: Avarice and Greed
* Part 4: Irrational Exuberance
* Part 5: 'One Can See that We Are on a more Solid Base'

Blunt and scathing, it provides a fascinating overview, a centrist European critique of the current global economic crisis, its antecedents and its likely unfolding, distinctly placing blame on the Bush II regime. Too long to re-blog, I link to it here.

On the cover, "The Price of Arrogance", with the Statue of Liberty holding aloft a smoldering torch.