Miscellany
1. First of all, congratulations to my friend Eoin (pronounced Owen) for his acceptance into the Yale MFA program. Eoin interviewed at the Art Institute a few weeks ago and stayed with us while here, then went on to interview at Yale. I have an even deeper respect for him now that I know he was able to endure the Yale inquisition… er, interview. Looks like the dogs really do get the scraps off of our table! (I’m just messing around… Congrats!!!) Just Googled him to try to find an image and discovered he got a mention and an image on the Philly ArtBlog last Thursday. If you don’t know the ArtBlog, you should. I wish Chicago had a Roberta Fallon and Libby Rosof.
2. Re-Enchantment is the title of a panel discussion of scholars being held at the Art Institute next week discussing the place (or not) of religion in contemporary art. I’m participating in a reading group leading up to the event discussing texts by the panelists. James Elkins is heading the whole thing up, whose book On The Strange Place of Religion In Contemporary Art I very much enjoyed. What qualms I did have with this book revolved around his identification of several different ways that art students have dealt with/incorporated religious ideas into their work. Not so much that these were wrong, they were based on real students, after all, but that I felt (and some friends agreed - out loud, over beer at Standard Tap if I remember correctly) that there were other possibilities - like just about every artist I know in Philly, and many in CIVA. Anyway, he’s a great, patient teacher, and he did mention today that I’d caused him to rethink at least that one thing about the book. He’s also going to use a couple slides of Tilting at Giants for a lecture he’s giving the evening before the panel discussion. How cool is that?! Also, if I have any friends out there in Boston, Elkins will be giving this same talk (with the same slides!) at the Deus (e)X Historia conference (”a conference exploring divinity and reason in the production of knowledge”) at MIT which runs April 26 - 28.
3. World renowned violinist Joshua Bell gave a little incognito free concert last week… in a D.C. Metro train station… with his $3 million Stradivarius violin… playing some of the most complex music ever written for the violin: and was largely ignored by commuters. (He did make $35 in tips…) Story
Michelle wrote:
There is a great response to the Joshua Bell article by a NYC subway musician in her blog: www.SawLady.com/blog
She interprets the situation differently from the Washington Post reporters… I thought you might find it interesting.
Posted on 10-Apr-07 at 8:35 am | Permalink
Benjamin Volta wrote:
Thierry de Duve is great… I wish I could be there
Posted on 12-Apr-07 at 4:42 am | Permalink
Dayton Castleman wrote:
For a guy who is 100%, full-on anti-religious/post-Christian, I’ve found him very enjoyable to read. Have you read “Mary Warhol, Joseph DuChamp”? That was an interesting, funny essay… A couple of the panelists are Christians (David Morgan, Taylor Worley), so it ought to be very interesting… Elkins is funny talking about it… like a kid with a chemistry set who mixes a bunch of the chemicals together but doesn’t really know what’s going to happen…
Posted on 12-Apr-07 at 6:14 am | Permalink
Dayton Castleman wrote:
Oh, and to Michelle… Criticizing a world-class, performer and showman like Joshua bell because he doesn’t know how to work a transit crowd like a good street musician is like criticizing a world-class chef because he doesn’t make good pan-fried chicken… Let’s see the Saw Lady captivate Carnegie Hall for two hours, then we can talk.
Posted on 12-Apr-07 at 6:21 am | Permalink