Glenn Ligon @ the Whitney Museum

Mirror, (2002), Coaldust, print ink,glue, gesso,and graphiteon canvas82 5/8x55 1/8 in.Collection of Mellody© Glenn LigonLast Friday, I traipsed over to the Whitney Museum to view Glenn Ligon: America, the first mid-career retrospective of Ligon (1960-), an artist who is perhaps best known for his wall-sized, oil and coal dust text paintings from the 1990s through today. (I must note immediately that his beautiful painting "Black Like Me #3 (Study),"...

Read More

Film Review: Pariah

In my initial, mostly mental draft of this review, I began with a long paragraph about my declining interest in mainstream--Hollywood--and a good deal of independent US cinema, but on rereading it, I decided to forgo the rant and instead focus on one aspect of it, which is to say, the mainstream and a good deal of queer American moviemaking. As with the broader US film mainstream, in far too many US queer cinema, the stories represent a narrow spectrum,...

Read More

And Speaking of Relational Aesthetics: Youngman Hennessy

Carolina G. (thank you!) sent me the link to the video below, by Hennessy Youngman, which also appears on 1) the Gavin Brown's enterprise site as part of the Rirkrit Tiravanija commentary and 2) on Negrophonic's site, as a stand-alone March 15th post.  (If you'd like a short refresher on Nicolas Bourriaud (1965-) or "relational aesthetics" and "relational art" you can drop in her...

Read More

Rirkrit Tiravanija: Fear Eats the Soul

A while back, when I was still in the habit of posting regularly (and had the time and mental energy to do so), I mentioned the artist Rirkrit Tiravanija in conjunction with another relational aesthetic project that was occurring at the Flux Factory. Aah, the old days! A friend of C's saw the post and ended up deciding to check out one of his events, and even mentioned it to see. But I'd never had an opportunity to experience his work live--to participate...

Read More

C'est la fin (du terme/quartier)

The quarter has barreled towards its end and I am now in recovery mode, having felt more than a little flattened beneath it. At a certain point I had to impose mental triage and this blog, unfortunately, lay moribund on the gurney.  In addition to my usual commuting routine and a heavy traveling schedule from the very beginning of the year (classes began on January 3, and I had to attend a conference that first weekend) and to an exacting departmental...

Read More

Photos: Dust of Suns

Here are a few more photos from and several iPad drawings I did  during my lulls in that performance of Raymond Roussel's The Dust of Suns! (The supersaturated and black-and-white photos are courtesy of the Hipstamatic app Joel suggested.)  I already miss my eyepatch and cape--well, the cape. I shall have to get one, and a top hat as well. Enjoy!"Jacques" from backstageJoel before his sceneExcitement building backstageJoel and Joshua, backstageThe...

Read More

NU MA/MFA Reading & "The Dust of Suns" Images

If you're in Evanston on Sunday (tomorrow), please consider catching this quarter's Northwestern University MA/MFA in Creative Writing Program reading, featuring two of my graduating students Jaji Crocker and Jason Crock, as well as fellow graduate Nik Gallicchio.The reading will take place at 4pm, March 6, at 405 Church Street, Evanston. There's ample street and lot parking, and the reading is free. You can also take the L to Davis Street and walk...

Read More

Chicago Staged Reading: Roussel's Dust of Suns

It's been a while since I've posted (including missing my 6th blogaversary--I'll finish that post soon), but when I haven't been traveling I've buried under paper this quarter, with no let up for the next few weeks.  Between my classes, all the great undergraduate and graduate students whose work I'm supervising, and a committee I served on (whose work is now done), I haven't had much time to breathe.I did, however, happily agree to participate...

Read More