Greg Allen, writer....
"It's like Martha Stewart and Soldier of Fortune running their Etsy store out of Marfa."
Atelier van Lieshout: A Manual, is the exhibition catalogue for his 1997 show at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in his hometown of Rotterdam. When I first discovered Joep's work in the mid-1990s, I was in a very serious relationship with some Donald Judd furniture. Atelier van Lieshout's lumpy, raw, tactile, and hilarious art/object/furniture/merchandise/craft projects broke the spell.
If anything, van Lieshout's parodic survivalism has proved eerily prophetic. A Manual includes instructions for making your own van Lieshout-style structures and fixtures, as well as for slaughtering your own pig. It's like Martha Stewart and Soldier of Fortune running their etsy store out of Marfa.
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My other pick seems like the diametric opposite, but as I type this, I realize they're both intense explorations of the fusion of art and daily life.
A Selection of Snapshots Taken by Felix Gonzalez-Torres is an offhand, intimate tribute to Felix and his circle of friends. A longtime dream project for A.R.T. Art Resources Transfer founder Bill Bartman, who didn't live long enough to see it realized, the book collects hundreds of the thousands of photos and notes that Felix sent to his friends.
They're a document of Felix's life and loves, and they comprise a matrix of imagery and inspiration from which he created his canonized artwork.
via artresources transfer:
"This book presents a selection of snapshots, and accompanying inscriptions, sent by Felix Gonzalez-Torres to Doug Ashford, Julie Ault, Bill Bartman, Susan Cahan, Amada Cruz, David Deitcher, Suzanne Ghez, Ann Goldstein, Claudio González, Jim Hodges, Susan Morgan, Robert Nickas, Mario Nuñez, and Christopher Williams between the years 1991–1995.
The snapshots are quick poetic communiqués, a visual report on Felix's outlook at particular moments in time, small gestures of hope, pleasure, and desire. They give evidence to some of his multiple fascinations: pets, furniture, collectible dolls, politics, art, friendship, beauty, love and optimism. "
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Greg Allen, writer, Greg.org.
"On greg.org, I document my filmmaking, art, and writing projects, which currently include a series of documentary-style shorts, an animated musical, and a couple of feature film scripts. I've recently begun making things, too: paintings & photographs, and some objects. I also expand on ideas and inspirations related to my work. So I publish interviews with filmmakers and artists I admire. And I discuss relevant news and events. "
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