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| Sarah Charlesworth, Pipe, 2002 |
JTLR and the Neue Merzhalle are sadden by the news of artist Sarah Charlesworth death.
We are happy to have this piece in our collection!
Le Rêve Américain
8 years ago
Thursday, June 27, 2013
Memento Mori : Sarah Charlesworth
JTLR and the Neue Merzhalle are sadden by the news of artist Sarah Charlesworth death.
We are happy to have this piece in our collection!
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
L'Chaim, To Life: Adventures in the Holy Land Pt 1
Well, according to a certain "friend" I would be amiss if I didn't come to Israel and the Holy Land for the 10th anniversary of "Gay Pride" there in Tel-Aviv.
And Pride in Tel-Aviv is certainly an "event". Not one to spend 4 hours in the prime afternoon heat on the beach, I will say the parade itself was festive, manageable and a gregarious mix! In fact, it brought back pleasant memories of what the 10th annual parade was like here in NYC.
Otherwise, Tel-Aviv being a cosmopolitan seaside center, it's not even spitting distance from its sister city, New York where attitude and circuit sisters are concerned!
But if you are resourceful and curious there were plenty of things to take in without being caught in Pride Fever!
I can't say how happy I was to take an afternoon off and checked out the Tel-Aviv Museum of Art. This mid-sized institution has enough room to provide a derivative history of Israeli art. However, the pleasant surprise here is the strong engaging collection of late-19th and early-to-mid-20th century art. Strong impressionist works are provided by two major donations that combined include important works in Fauvism, Cubism and Abstract Impressionism.
The great surprise was an excellent survey show of the Berlin-based, Scottish artist Douglas Gordon. The museum dedicated a great amount of space to display an intriguing collection of video installations. It was nice to see some of this artist's major video works played in context to each other. Personal favorites were "24 Hour Psycho" and "Play Dead; Real Time". They also dedicated a large amount of space to large, text-based installations.
It was also a delight to encounter some queers who weren't in leather and tweaked out of their gourd at the Tel-Aviv LGBT Film Festival. We took in two late night screenings at the beautiful and well-appointed Tel-Aviv Cinemateque; James Franco & Travis Matthews "Interior. Leather Bar." and the fabulous bio-doc "I Am Divine".
Let's start with the latter which is a charming sensitive biography of Divine (October 19, 1945 – March 7, 1988), born Harris Glenn Milstead, an American actor, singer and drag queen. An appropriate 90 minutes is dedicated to the subject and the film-makers are able to provide some great early material along with intriguing bits and pieces that remind us of what a diverse career "Little Glennie" had! The original soundtrack is also a lot of fun!!
The Franco/Matthews project is much more troubling. Proposing to "reimagine" a lost 40-minute leather bar sequence from William Friedkin's 1980's "Cruising" with Al Pacino, the film dips its toe into the deep-end of the fetish pool, but in typical Aptow-era homophobia dares you to jump in while pointing rudely at you and snickering. Each man, less gay than the next, "opens up" about their heterosexuality and their discomfort with homosexuality. After a while you have to question the sincerity of anything or anyone involved in this film, except for a brief pornographic scene between a genuine gay couple (ooo shocking). Does toeing the homosexual line really make straight men feel more "complete"? Did anyone really think James Franco was going to take off his clothes for this film? Does anyone really care??
And Pride in Tel-Aviv is certainly an "event". Not one to spend 4 hours in the prime afternoon heat on the beach, I will say the parade itself was festive, manageable and a gregarious mix! In fact, it brought back pleasant memories of what the 10th annual parade was like here in NYC.Otherwise, Tel-Aviv being a cosmopolitan seaside center, it's not even spitting distance from its sister city, New York where attitude and circuit sisters are concerned!
But if you are resourceful and curious there were plenty of things to take in without being caught in Pride Fever!
I can't say how happy I was to take an afternoon off and checked out the Tel-Aviv Museum of Art. This mid-sized institution has enough room to provide a derivative history of Israeli art. However, the pleasant surprise here is the strong engaging collection of late-19th and early-to-mid-20th century art. Strong impressionist works are provided by two major donations that combined include important works in Fauvism, Cubism and Abstract Impressionism.
The great surprise was an excellent survey show of the Berlin-based, Scottish artist Douglas Gordon. The museum dedicated a great amount of space to display an intriguing collection of video installations. It was nice to see some of this artist's major video works played in context to each other. Personal favorites were "24 Hour Psycho" and "Play Dead; Real Time". They also dedicated a large amount of space to large, text-based installations.
It was also a delight to encounter some queers who weren't in leather and tweaked out of their gourd at the Tel-Aviv LGBT Film Festival. We took in two late night screenings at the beautiful and well-appointed Tel-Aviv Cinemateque; James Franco & Travis Matthews "Interior. Leather Bar." and the fabulous bio-doc "I Am Divine".
Let's start with the latter which is a charming sensitive biography of Divine (October 19, 1945 – March 7, 1988), born Harris Glenn Milstead, an American actor, singer and drag queen. An appropriate 90 minutes is dedicated to the subject and the film-makers are able to provide some great early material along with intriguing bits and pieces that remind us of what a diverse career "Little Glennie" had! The original soundtrack is also a lot of fun!!
The Franco/Matthews project is much more troubling. Proposing to "reimagine" a lost 40-minute leather bar sequence from William Friedkin's 1980's "Cruising" with Al Pacino, the film dips its toe into the deep-end of the fetish pool, but in typical Aptow-era homophobia dares you to jump in while pointing rudely at you and snickering. Each man, less gay than the next, "opens up" about their heterosexuality and their discomfort with homosexuality. After a while you have to question the sincerity of anything or anyone involved in this film, except for a brief pornographic scene between a genuine gay couple (ooo shocking). Does toeing the homosexual line really make straight men feel more "complete"? Did anyone really think James Franco was going to take off his clothes for this film? Does anyone really care??
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