SAMEH HABEEB: VICTIM'S VICTIM

AN EXHIBITION OF PHOTOGRAPHS
FROM THE RECENT WAR IN GAZA.

CURATED BY MOHAMMAD SALEMY

& PIROOZ NEMATI

MARCH 6 - APRIL 30, 2009

HTTP://DADABASE.CA

SAMUEL HUNTINGTON IS DEAD

-SAMUEL HUNTINGTON (1928-2008)

- OFFICIAL END OF PUBLISHING AS WE 'KNEW' IT
- THE YEAR (2008) IN ART

ARCHITECTURE: IT WAS FUN UNTIL THE MONEY RAN OUT

Herzog & de Meuron’s 40 Bond Street, NYC

WHO knew a year ago that we were nearing the end of one of the most delirious eras in modern architectural history? What’s more, who would have predicted that this turnaround, brought about by the biggest economic crisis in a half-century, would be met in some corners with a guilty sense of relief?

Before the financial cataclysm, the profession seemed to be in the midst of a major renaissance. Architects like Rem Koolhaas, Zaha Hadid, Frank Gehry, and Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, once deemed too radical for the mainstream, were celebrated as major cultural figures. And not just by high-minded cultural institutions; they were courted by developers who once scorned those talents as pretentious airheads.

But somewhere along the way that fantasy took a wrong turn. As commissions multiplied for luxury residential high-rises, high-end boutiques and corporate offices in cities like London, Tokyo and Dubai, more socially conscious projects rarely materialized. Public housing, a staple of 20th-century Modernism, was nowhere on the agenda. Nor were schools, hospitals or public infrastructure. Serious architecture was beginning to look like a service for the rich, like private jets and spa treatments...MORE

ART WORLD AFTER THE CRASH: LEANER, MEANER CLEANER

WHAT will the art world be like a year from now? In five years? These unspoken questions seem to hang in the air these days over art fairs and galleries of every size and persuasion.

One answer is that it will be smaller, leaner and, many assume, cleaner. All that supposedly nasty money and degrading hoopla will have faded. And to think it all began to unravel so quickly after two memorable milestones of sorts: the adrenaline-pumping Damien Hirst auction in London in September and the spectacle of a Louis Vuitton shop within the exhibition space of a Takashi Murakami survey that traveled in spring from the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles to the Brooklyn Museum...MORE

WHITNEY MUSEUM PICKS CURATORS FOR 2010 BIENNIAL

This time the museum has paired Francesco Bonami, 53, a seasoned Italian-born curator with an international reputation, and Gary Carrion-Murayari, 28, a homegrown senior curatorial assistant. Mr. Bonami will serve as curator for the Biennial, with Mr. Carrion-Murayari acting as associate curator.

“I grew up around the world of globalism,” said Mr. Bonami, who in 2003 became the first American citizen to direct a Venice Biennale and who recently organized “Italian Art Between Tradition and Revolution: 1968-2008,” which is on view through March 22 at the Palazzo Grassi in Venice. “It was a time, around 1992-93, when there were no boundaries. But now my challenge is to reflect on the idea of Americanness. Setting these parameters, these limitations could be an advantage.”

Mr. Carrion-Murayari said the notion of globalism, which was important in past Biennials, feels dated. “We’ve gotten beyond that,” he said. “It’s not so much an argument anymore.” ...MORE

GEORGE BRECHT (FLUXUS) IS DEAD

George Brecht, a core member of Fluxus, the loosely affiliated international group of playful Conceptual artists that emerged in the early 1960s, died on Dec. 5 in Cologne, Germany. He was 82 and lived in Cologne ...more

- GAZA FAMILIES EAT GRASS
- LIST OF LOSERS IN MADOFF CASE
- CONSTANTINE, MOMA'S DESIGN CURATOR IS DEAD
- CARTER MEETS HAMMAS LEADER
- END OF WASHINGTON CONSENSUS
- MOST AMERICAN BANKS ARE BANKRUPT

- JANET CARDIFF WON THE HANATYSHYN AWARD
- BUDGET CUTS AT THE AUCTION HOUSES

DADABASE ONLINE EXHIBITION- A.S.DHILLON: MODIFY ME

Curated by Mo Salemy
December 6, 2008 - January 15, 2009

CLICK TO VIEW THE EXHIBITION

An expansion of a project created for SHRINK-WRAPPED, curated by Alison Rajah

- THE RE-RISE OF LOW ART
- bust goes the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles

GROUP EXHIBITION: SHRINK-WRAPPED AT OR GALLERY

shrink-wrapped
Adel Abidin, Abbas Akhavan, A.S. Dhillon, Josephine Meckseper, Martha Rosler, Gail Wight and Retort
December 6, 2008 - January 24, 2009
Opening Friday, December 5, 2008 8PM
Curated by Alison Rajah

- DEATH OF A PRO ISRAELI ACTIVIST ON HIS WAY TO AN ARABIC CLASS
- LUXURY PRICES ARE FALLING
- MARK LECKEY WINS THE 2008 TURNER PRIZE

- UK ART COLLECTORS BUY MA GRADUATE WORK AT BARGAIN PRICES
- TODAY'S BIGGEST DROPS IN BANKING STOCKS
- NYTIMES: ISRAEL NEEDS TOUGH LOVE, WITH THE EMPHASIS ON TOUGH
- IF LIVNI IS DE KLERK, CAN BARGHOUTI BE MANDELA?

ACCIDENTAL WALMARTYR

A worker at a Wal-Mart in New York City’s Long Island suburbs was killed when a throng of shoppers broke down the doors to the store early this morning and knocked him to the ground ...MORE

ARE INDIAN TERRORIST ATTACKS THE REALIZATION of BIDEN'S PROPHECY?

We all remember less than a month ago, Joe Biden predicted that Omaba will face an international crisis within 6 months of his presidency. What he didn't make clear was if the two months between election and inauguration counts in the 6 or not.

Now "Westerners were targetd" and that close to 100 people are dead (nobody says a word about who these 80 plus people are. According to IBN, the CNN sister station in India, we know one of the dead is an anti terrorism high level guy names HEMANT KARKARE.

This also happen to be an indian version of 911 where the unfolding events are mass televised.

Is this going to become the reason why Obama will attack Pakistan?

We still don't know if this is what Biden was talking about, or not.

DANIEL RICH: DOWNBURST

DANIEL RICH
DOWNBURST

Daniel Rich was born in 1977 Ulm, Germany and raised in Atlanta, GA. He currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. Rich received a MFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (2004); a BFA from the Atlanta College of Art (2001); and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (2004). His work has been exhibited in New York at Elizabeth Dee Gallery (2005), at Sunday Gallery (2007), and at Mario Diacono Gallery, Boston (2007) among others.

Opening Reception
December 11, 2008
6-8 PM

Perry Rubenstein Gallery
527 West 23rd Street
534 West 24th Street
New York, NY 10011
Tel (212) 627-8000
Fax (212) 627-6336
www.perryrubenstein.com

WHICH ONE'S WORSE?

George W. Bush presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Alan Greenspan,the former Chairman of the Federal Reserve and the architect of the current financial metdown, on November 9, 2005 in the East Room of the White House.

NEW YORK ANONYMOUS

We will be publishing a series of diary entries by New York Anonymous, an artist, among other things, kind of guy. This ishis first post. Let's welcome him to idadabase.

----------------------------------------

A few days ago a friend of mine called to inform me he was moving to a new apt and asked if I was interested in getting back a painting I had given to him in 2001.meanwhile, I had not seen that painting since 2001 and was anxious to get it back. My first thought, when I saw it? How awful it was.

An abstract painting with swirls and half circles and Pollack strokes, with scribbles and not good colors. The Untitled 20"x54" piece was done on recycled Corian board. I must have been very angry or very unbalanced, no drug enhancement needed.



I brought it home and hung it in my bedroom. Viewing it daily. There were few elements in the painting I liked but compared to what I'm doing now, I felt I had progressed tremendously. I am content with everything creative I have released to the world and was so pleased that Untitled 20"x54" had been returned to me never to see the light of day.

Sunday night, I get a text message from a friend in Chicago. He was in charge of a benefit/auction that I had three works in, All 3 from 2008. None of my work had sold; not even a bid. By the time I got to bed I felt awful and really down in the dumps.

I have participated in so many Auctions/Benefits and the "new work" never sells. Then I started thinking even though my work had progressed, I'd never sold any, maybe 2 in total. The rest were bartered or given away as gifts. I'm going to continue making them anyway.

I thought contemporary art was about new ideas and practices. My new paintings are new and different. I've been told repeatedly (in a good way) they have never seen such a concept before. Yet I am in NYC and a cum shot on Page 6 or photos of naked teens vomiting, or DVD of open-heart surgery projected on a brick wall has more relevance than a 3D abstract painting made from paper.

I compare Untitled 20"x 54" to my (no bid) auction/benefit works and wonder if I had accomplished anything at all since that early awful painting. A Friend of mine tells me it's a good thing, meaning "I'm waaay ahead of everyone else".

CAN YOU FEEL IT: MR FINGERS VS OBAMA

CAN YOU FEEL IT?

CAN YOU FEEL IT? VS OBAMA
Produced by us at i.dadabase
original music: Can You Feel It?: Mr. Finger

GALLERIES CLOSED: ROEBLING HALL AND RIVINGTON ARMS CLOSE DOWN

We will keep a closed eye on the gallery closings around the world. If you hear of a venue closing, please email us so we can update the list. So far:
ROEBLING HALL
RIVINGTON ARMS (at the end of the current year)

IPHONE PICTURES FROM NEW YORK

CLICK HERE

GUGGENHEIM'S RELATIONAL AESTHETICS EXHIBITION

MY PHOTOS OF GUGGENHEIM
Jerry Salt'z Review of the relational aesthetics exhbiton at the Guggenheim in New York.
We saw the exhibition and felt exactly the same as the critic of New York Magazine. Especially missing in the exhibition was Andrea Fraser. There is a picture of Mauricio Catalan's Pinocchio. The bed was a great piece so as the coffee served by Illy.

- RUNWAY WARS BETWEEN WEINSTEIN AND ZUCKER (OF NBC)
- GANG TERRORISM ON THE RISE IN ISRAEL
- HOW OBAMA LEARNED TO LOVE ISRAEL
OLD ARTICLE FROM ELECTONIC INTIFADA
- ZIZEK ON THE ECONOMIC MELTDOWN (FROM LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS)
- IT'S THE END OF THE SPECULATIVE ART MARKET AS WE KNOW IT, AND I FEEL FINE
- ZIONIST WAR CRIMINAL HENREY KISSINGER PUSHES FOR CLINTON TO BECOME THE SECRETARY OF STATE

UPCOMING EXHIBITION AT CAG- SHANNON OKSANEN: SUMMERLAND

November 21, 2009 - January 18, 2009
OPENING RECEPTION: Thursday, November 20th, 6-9pm

LAST DAYS OF BUSH

The latest picture from the White House. Bush and his gang give the sign of horns.

OBAMA'S SECOND ZIONIST APPOINTEE

The Joy of change lasted what? Like a day? By yesterday evening America woke up to a relatively new name in the new power configuration: Rahm Emanuel, the son of an Israeli military officer, an ardent hawkish Zionist who now holds the second most senior position in an Obama presidency as his chief of staff. Like Joe Biden, he is a self declared and proud Zionist. Would that automatically make him a neoconservative? No, but it would be interesting to see if there has been a change in the attitude among left leaning Zionists. Do they really wanna deal with the mideast crisis? Or they see Obama as another 4 or 8 years of buying time for the Apartheid regime in Palestine.

I personally think that it is the economy, locally and globally that would give meaning to the Obama presidency and dictate the direction for the new regime in the White House. For a real change of direction, the stock market has to plunge further down. 8500 points is not low enough to trigger "change". We need a stock market below 6000. then maybe we will see real change. Until then, we can hold our collective breath and watch the transition team. meanwhile at Gagosian Gallery, a beautiful exhibition of work by HIROSHI SUGIMOTO opened last night.

THE NIGHT OF THE REGIME CHANGE IN AMERICA

It felt like the night of a regime change, like the ones we see on TV in Ukraine or Georgia. Last time I experienced this type of outpouring of public emotions was the day after the Islamic revolution in Iran back in 1978.

There were no slogans. No banners, only one word and one picture: OBAMA. Everyone screamed Obama. The cab driver, the people on the street, neighbours hanging from their windows.

The night started for us in midtown in front of the Rockefeller centre and CNN and it continued on to Gavin Brown's Gallery at the southwest corner of Soho where an election exhibition was about to open. The artist had replicated the portraits of all 43 US presidents and had hung them around the room, with Obama's framed picture waiting to be hung on an empty spot in the row of portraits. There was also a big bag of balloons hanging from the ceiling waiting to come down in case of an Obama Victory. (PICTURES)

There were free food, free drinks, wine, beer and champagne for everyone and the city's art community more or less had gathered to experience the night. We were sitting next to Dan Colen, Tomma Abts and Gavin Brown himself. At one point someone ordered 1000 dollars of Mexican Takeout for our side of the room. It was an amazing experience of collective joy. Socialism seemed very close.

The sharing didn't stop among the artists. Outside, on the way to the Lower East Side hang out Nowhere Bar, people were giving away drinks, food and even drugs. I received so many hugs and kisses it felt like a very special new year's eve.

Next morning, I had to fork up 10 dollars for a copy of New York Times that right now trades for up to 500 dollar on EBAY.

Check out the pictures. I will post more pics, videos and commentary very soon.

Welcome to change!

TONIGHT (OCTOBER 30, 2008): STAN DOUGLAS AT DAVID ZWIRNER
525 West 19th Street (between 10th Ave. and West St.)
New York, NY 10011


Stan Douglas
Hastings Park, 16 July 1955, 2008
Digital C-print mounted to Dibond
60 x 89 1/4 inches

BACK IN NYC... A BRIEF ENCOUNTER WITH A CITY IN CRISIS

Shops are empty, so as restaurants and the streets. Unlike every other year, tourists are missing from the streets. Shopkeepers are aggressive, but they can't magically put money in the pockets and enthusiasm in the hearts of the few who dare to go in. Obama's hope posters and change buttons are on the walls and on people's jackets, but nobody really talks about politics, instead, everyone keeps checking the stocks on their smart phones.

Last Friday, on the first day of our visit, We ran into a bunch of Vancouver art people in the Art Book Fair. The artist Noam Gonick took us to their booth and treated us with Canadian hospitality. Jeff Khonsari of Fillip mentioned my passionate performance at Jaque Rancier talk in UBC last winter. He had the courage to admit to me how pinpoint accurate I was to calling the French theorist on his bullshit about the impossibility of the end of Capitalism.

melanie O'brien at Artspeak table seemed worried about the state of the economy and the silence of the Canadian media regarding the state of our ever weakening dollar.

Thanks to Illingworth Kerr Gallery, I was able to score a copy of Tim Lee's new catalogue. I may hate the artist for his lack of social skills and his indiscreet display of self importance, but I have to admit, the more I read on his work, the more I like it. Can we like the art and dislike the artist? I think so. But we also can dislike the art and the artist, which is my case with the crap, oh sorry the craft of Brian Jungen. He had donated envelopes of 'art ideas' on sale at the Artspeak for 50 dollars. Excuse my bluntness, but do i need Brian to tell me how I can take some sport thing and remake it into an art object like his now very boring Nike Masks?

Here is a very good article on the state of contemporary art from New York Magazine. I quite enjoyed reading it and happen to agree with the writer.

To be continued...

ANGLO CANADIANS AND ARTS

We all know what Harper said: "when ordinary Canadians come home after work and turn the TV on and see an art gala with rich people" His bottom line was that ordinary Canadians don't care so much for arts.

Harper was right and wrong about culture.
The election results show us that he was right about the english Canada and wrong about the French Canadians. This means, if it wasn't for quebec, we could have had a majority Conservative government. The percentage drop in the Conservative support correlates exactly to the way Quebec people revolted against harper after the art comment. English Canada, however, came out and supported harper even more so. Maybe English Canada doesn't really care about arts?

Thank you Quebec for caring for art and culture.

MCCAIN CALLING OBAMA "THAT ONE"

ZIZEK'S INTERVIEW ON THE CURRENT SITUATION

DEAD CAN DANCE, EVEN HARPER

SARAH SILVERMAN VOTES FOR OBAMA

WE BOTH LOVE ISRAEL

WELCOME TO POST CAPITALISM

Welcome to Post Capitalism. We thought it could never happen. Our powerful and flexible global economic system was supposed to transcend irrational human greed and constitute the objective and the organically practical solution to the sensitivities and needs of both the society and the individual. Capitalism, we had came to believe, was able to organize both our labour and our leisure, giving us all we need materially and spiritually, making us who we are. Capitalism was the negative space and we were the agents of a cyclical failed attempt of its overcoming.

People who have theorized the idea of post capitalism often agree that 'if capitalism is to die, it could do so because its property rights prove to be inefficient.' Of course no one yet has proclaimed that the transformational moment has arrived, and they have suggested the end of capitalism, with the passage of property rights from from "the firms" to other forms of private ownership, like collectives or cooperatives. It's as if somehow people will find the cash or the borrowing power to purchase their jobs from the capitalists and turn them into something more functional and fun like a capitalist commune, socialism inside capitalism outside. Here I like to agree with the first half of their claim and not the second. What we are experiencing right now with the economy is the passage of property rights from one group to another.
but this group of people are high level bankers who privately own the Federal Reserve. We are going from a limited open capitalism to a very closely tight network of elites who would own everything behind the shadows of an extremely powerful government bureaucracy.

For those who claimed that the twentieth century capitalism was an exceptional state, and we have quite a few of those theorists, this basically is the end of the exception and Capitalism is finally settling in its proper form. And in doing so, America and the West are behind quite a longer list of countries with a similar state. China, Russia, Venezuela, Iran, to name a few. Except these societies, due to their cultural flexibilities to the proper form of post capitalist rule have a competitive advantage to their rivals from the West.

So what making the discussion of post capitalism more important than ever?

As US government quietly nationalizes billions of dollars of (useless) banking assets, a classic case of property expropriation, that we usually identify with communism, is sweeping across America. As Gwynnn Dyer wisely observes, the US media and the government are not using the word nationalization when they mention the bail outs. But that’s exactly what these deals are. In most of them, the shareholders are not compensated, rather, and have to move on with their losses. This includes the Chinese Government, who had invested billions in Freddie and Fanny. The enormity of this massive loss of property and value will change the face of the global economic constitution.

Another sign of the end of Capitalism is approaching: the devaluation of the US dollar and the western monies against international average, the paper object that itself functions as the most commonly used stock-share for the company called the United States of America. The dollar, as the US stock, will be facing a humiliating defeat in the hands of those who were supposed to turn it into a universal world currency. Instead, they are abandoning so it can join the south American and third world currencies.

This is not a catch 22 where the government that feeds you ends up eating you. This is really the moment at which capital and state power cannot afford to have two dofferent interfaces, so for the sake of the internal unity, the two have to merge and become one.

This unity will soon produce for the world not a single resulting entity, but again two dialectically related things called state capitalism and private socialism. Was there a metaphor for these transformations somewhere in the opening and the closing ceremony of the Beijing Olympics? Because the more we look, the more we notice the similarities of China and The coming post Capitalist state in USA, of the inter-conversion of state power and capital on one hand and the private sector and socialism on the other. Were Chinese secretly celebrating their victory over American Capitalism in Beijing?

What is the nature of the new beast that is being created, out the ashes of the 20th century finance capitalism and centralized government, as we speak? Did you know that the US government is now the biggest insurer in the world? Very soon it could own a very big chunk of the banking industry. If this is not the unpredicted end of Capitalism, what is it?

And if this is the end of capitalism as we knew it, one should ask, why didn’t anyone, including the Marxists in the academia theorize and more importantly organize for this moment? Why is it that Capitalism is dying, but the intellectuals, the youth and the working class are depressed and not excited? Why is it that out of the fear of the unknown, no one even wants to admit that the show is over, or at least another show is about to start?

For those of us who knew all along that 9/11 was the beginning of the end, for those of us who started to turn back from the clouds of cultural studies and discourse into the concrete darkness of the mysterious political economy, this is coming at no surprise. For us, finance Capitalism was already identified as the truest form of Communism. For us, the materiality of the central ownership of property and means of production in the willing hands of the federal Reserve could never mask itself behind the ideological edifice of free market. Here, I am not contrasting the reality of market economy against our collective fantasy called democracy. Instead, I am comparing the true totalitarian nature of the American government against the pretense of free market capitalism.

Whether America was or was not a communist country from the get go is up to debate, what we can now finally agree is that even if there was an assurance about the idea of a fair and free market, it can now be safely put to rest.

Post capitalism borrows from socialism, but it’s not the same thing. We know this, because we have been watching China for more than 20 years. The question is, does the new constellation of economic power and political will, in the hands of state bureaucrats, translate into a new form of fascism or not? I don’t think we need to worry about the return of an obvious fascist state, but the possibility for the society to move closer towards a post modern fascism is always there to poke its head out of the background and disturb our lives.

What interest me in this particular moment is the characteristics of this new economic system. Post Capitalism will transform the face of the planet. It will have far reaching consequences on not just economy, but all other aspects of life including education, culture, art and the legal political systems of power. This is going to be an interesting show, but more interesting, if we follow the Brechtian advice and leave our theatre chairs to join the play on the stage.

RON TRAN EXHIBITION AT LAWRENCE ENG GALLERY

RON TRAN
And you can do anything with them under such circumstances
September 20 - November, 2008

- US ARMY RETRACTS THE ALTERED PHOTOS

RIRKRIT TIRAVANIJA AT THE DRAWING CENTER

Rirkrit Tiravanija: Demonstration Drawings at The Drawing Center, New York

September 12 – November 6, 2008
Opening Reception: Thursday, September 11, 6-8 pm

BRIAN KENNY AT 5+5 GALLERY

Brian is a friend of ours who lives and works in New York City. He has been making drawings from early 2000 and lately his work has been grabbing the attention of the art world.

His first solo exhibition will open at 5+5 Gallery, Brooklyn on September 14.

Brian Kenny's drawing series.

PINK FLYD'S RICHARD WRIGHT DIES AT 65

Pink Floyd keyboard player and founder member Richard Wright has died aged 65 from cancer.
Wright appeared on the group's first album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, in 1967 alongside lead guitarist Syd Barrett, Roger Waters and Nick Mason...MORE FROM BBC

DAMIEN HIRST CUTS OUT THE MIDDLE MAN AND GOES STRAIGHT TO THE AUCTION HOUSE

In a move that some say has the potential to change the face of art dealing, Mr. Hirst has cut out his dealers — the New York-based Gagosian Gallery and the White Cube in London — and taken his work straight to auction. Last summer thousands of people lined up outside White Cube waiting to glimpse a human skull cast in platinum and covered with 8,601 diamonds. Mr. Hirst claimed to have sold the piece at its $100 million asking price. But the buyer is said to have been a consortium of investors that included Mr. Hirst himself; Jay Jopling, owner of White Cube; and Frank Dunphy, Mr. Hirst’s business manager.

DAVID FOSTER WALLACE

David Foster Wallace in 2006. He was found dead in his home on Friday, after apparently committing suicide.

sed his prodigious gifts as a writer — his manic, exuberant prose, his ferocious powers of observation, his ability to fuse avant-garde techniques with old-fashioned moral seriousness — to create a series of strobe-lit portraits of a millennial America overdosing on the drugs of entertainment and self-gratification, and to capture, in the words of the musician Robert Plant, the myriad “deep and meaningless” facets of contemporary life.....MORE FROM NYTIMES

STREET ART EXHIBITION AT BRONX MUSEUM

Street Art Street Life: From the 1950s to Now”
opens Sunday September 14, 2008 at the Bronx Museum of the Arts
http://bronxmuseum.org

If I say “street life,” and you think noise-lights-action, you may find “Street Art Street Life: From the 1950s to Now” at the Bronx Museum of the Arts a puzzling show. There is noise — a pop song, the clatter of metal across concrete — but not much. Lights and action are confined to videos, several of them bleached, grainy, way predigital. The bulk of the work is photography. Some of the pictures are snazzy: Jamel Shabazz’s color portraits of sidewalk supermodels from the 1980s; photomontages by Fatimah Tuggar that transport New York to Africa and vice versa... MORE FROM NYTIMES

JEREMY SHAW AT BLANKET GALLERY

Jeremy Shaw

This Transition Will Never End
September 13 - October 11, 2008
Opening Reception Saturday September 13, 6-9pm
Artist in attendance

Blanket Contemporary Art is pleased to present This Transition Will Never
End, an exhibition of new works by Vancouver/Berlin artist Jeremy Shaw.
Opening on Saturday September 13th, the exhibition is the artist's first
solo show with the gallery. Shaw's work has been exhibited nationally and
internationally with solo shows at the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art,
Toronto; Or Galley, Vancouver; Cherry and Martin, Los Angeles; Galeria Dels
Angels, Barcelona; and group exhibitions at Lisson Gallery, London; Whit de
Witte, Rotterdam; Berlinale 2008, Kunstverein Wolfsburg and Gallerie Ben
Kaufmann, Germany; The Seattle Art Musueum, and The Henry Art Gallery,
Seattle.

JERRY PETHICK AT CATRIONA JEFFRIES

JERRY PETHICK
SEPTEMBER12 - OCTOBER 11, 2008
CATRIONA JEFFRIES GALLERY
Opening Reception: Friday September12,

Catriona Jeffries Gallery will present a solo exhibition of major works by Jerry Pethick. On the fifth anniversary of his passing, the exhibition will include large scale sculptural works, photographic arrays and numerous wall works representing the broad range of Pethick’s explorations into imaging technologies and epistemological thought. At a moment when a younger generation of artists such as Geoffrey Farmer and Gareth Moore are exploring new approaches to sculpture and material, the innovation of Pethick’s work is pivotal. His practice is strongly rooted in its visceral materiality and is marked by a rigorous inquiry into art history, science and theories of visual perception.

REBECCA BELMORE AT CSA SPACE

REBECCA BELMORE:
MAKING ALWAYS WAR
11 September – 11 October, 2008
Opening reception Thursday, 11 September, 2008, 6 - 9pm

CSA SPACE
Curated by Steven Tong

911: WHAT'S MISSING IN THE PICTURE?

911 was a transformational moment in history, we can all agree on that. But seven years later, I wonder whatelse did we lose besides a pair of beautiful minimal modernist buildings in Manhathan?

Here is a short list of all other missing items

+ Universal values applicable to all people regardless of race religion and ethnicity
Before 911 one could not assume so much stereotypes about anyone particularly Muslims and Arabs. 911 lifted this barrier and allowed commentators, politicians and average people to engage in politically motivated racism. Suddenly it was OK to generalize, to lay blame at other people's culture and to see our problems as someone else's again. Seven years later, this rule has been extended to a lot of other population groups. Slowly, the West has overcome political correctness and has asserted its power in naming and framing anyone and anything.

+ Confidence in Liberal Democracy as an open system
Before 911, most people believed that liberal democracy is powerful because it's essentially an open system and it can contain all forms of resistance to itself. It was believed that this strength comes from its openness. This was the second casualty of 911. People started to see liberal democracy as a fragile balance that needs protection, inside and outside. This single shift in attitude allowed the western governments to quickly take on the task of changing the nature of Liberal democracy itself. Both wars outside and increase surveillance and clamp down on individual/civil rights are direct results of this shift. Nowadays it is common sense to assume that "our democratic system needs protection against intruders".

+ Meaningful relationship between economy and world events
911 finally break the link that existed even in ordinary people's mind about the connection between political economy and world events. It used to be commonplace to quote Clinton: "it's economy stupid!" but not anymore. 911 had nothing to do with economy and everything to do with international culture wars.

+ effectiveness of the international organizations in managing the world affairs
Whoever physically destroyed the twin towers also demolished the UN metaphorically. the collapse of World Trade buildings was also the collapse of the international cooperation under the banner of the United Nations. 911 ushered the dawnof the new world of dog eat dog competition.

+ and finally, 3.2 million Afghanis and 1.5 million Iraqi people

On a lighter note, For those of you who don;t know, Stevie Nicks arrived in New York in the morning of 911 2001 for a concert at Radiocity Music Hall the same evening, a concert that was obviously cancelled later on that day. Confined in her midtown Hotel, the queen of American music instead chose to write a diary. here are what has been known on the internet as Stevie's 911 JOURNAL

JEAN LUC GODARD ON OPINION POLLS

Lately, Mccain has closed his gap with Obama in opinion polls and pundits can't stop ranting about Sarah Palin's poll-based popularity. I never trusted or liked polls, because myself I am never honest when asked these sorts of questions. Here is a little bit of theory from the French New wave director Godard on opinion polls.


FROM MASULIN-FEMININ, CHAPTER 14


Do vacuum cleaners sell? Do you like cheese in tubes? Do you read a lot? What's a cadre? Do you like poetry? Winter sports? Short skirts? How do you react to an accident? If your love left you for a black person? would you mind? Do you know about famine in India? Do you know what a Communist is? Do you use birth control pills? or a thing in your vagina? Where do you live? What's your salary? Why are society women more frigid than factory girls? Did you know there is an Iraq-Kurd war on?

Gradually over these three months, I came to realize that these questions did not reflect but deformed the collective mentality. My lack of objectivity, even when unconscious, tended to provoke a predictable lack of sincerity in those I was polling. Unawares, I was deceiving them and being deceived by them. Why? Probably because polls and surveys quickly veer from their true goal, The observation of behavior, and instead insidiously go for vale judgments. I discovered that the questions I would ask any French person expressed an ideology that reflects not present mores but those of the past.

So I had to be on my guard. I used some random notions as guidelines:

"A philosopher posits his conscience against opinion."

"To have a conscience is to be open to the world." "To be faithful is to act as if time didn't exist."

"Wisdom would be to see life, truly see it. That would be wisdom"

VANCOUVER LATIN AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL

VANCOUVER LATIN AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL
SEPTEMBER 4 - 14, 2008
Visit the Website

GYM CLASS HEROES

Travis McCoy — 6-foot-5, covered in tattoos, plugs in his ears, barbell through his septum — strolled up to the CBS Broadcast Center on the West Side of Manhattan last Wednesday to tape an appearance on BET’s “Rap City.” For the few young people waiting in line outside the building to be in the audience at another show’s taping, it was a curious sighting — Mr. McCoy is a rapper, but he fronts a gold-record-selling rock band — and they approached him tentatively, taking time to warm up to him...MORE ON NYTIMES

ASIA SONG SOCIETY (ASS): MY LIFE IN TISHIRTS

TERRENCE KOH'S ASIA SONG SOCIETY PRESENTS: MY LIFE IN TSHIRTS, THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AARON BONDAROFF

Opening: September 6, 2008 7-10 PM
45 Canal Street, New York 10002

ANN HAMILTON WINS HEINZ PRICE

Ann Hamilton, a visual artist known for her eye-popping installations including paper-sucking machines and a weeping wall, is among the winners of the Heinz Family Foundation's Human Achievement Awards, reports Patrick Cole in Bloomberg. Hamilton, a professor of sculpture at Ohio State University in Columbus, won the $250,000 cash award for installations that often use items culled from flea markets and warehouses, Kim O'Dell, director of the Heinz Awards, said in a phone interview. “Her art engages you in a way that walking past traditional works of art wouldn't do,” O'Dell said. “Everyone we spoke to talked about how inspiring it is to work with her.” She'll receive the award on October 21 at a ceremony in Pittsburgh, where the Heinz Foundation is based. Hamilton specializes in site-specific works, relying on found objects, videos, photographs, textiles, and other materials. In “Corpus,” her 2004 show at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, she installed forty machines onto a gallery ceiling and had them descend to the floor, suck up sheets of translucent, onion-skin paper, and later release them. In another installation, Welle, more commonly called “The Weeping Wall,” drops of water were pumped through tiny holes in a flat white wall. The Heinz Award is the latest major prize Hamilton has won. She received a $500,000 “genius grant” from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in 1993. She has also won fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.

FLY OPERA OPENS IN LA

Despite the inventive staging and all-out efforts of an admirable cast — especially the courageous performance of the Canadian bass-baritone Daniel Okulitch as Seth Brundle, the obsessed scientist who morphs into the hideous creature he calls Brundlefly — “The Fly” is a ponderous and enervating opera, and the problem is Mr. Shore’s music....MORE FROM NYTIMES

- 16 US SOLDIERS COMMIT MASS SUICIDE
- ALQAIDA NO.2: IRAN IS WAGING WAR AGAINST ISLAM
-BRIDAL BOOT CAMP GETS WOMEN IN SHAPE FOR THE BIG DAY
- MSNBC DROPS OLBERMAN, MATTHEWS AS NEWS ANCHORS

CORIN SWORN AT ZIHERSMITH

SEPTEMBER 4 - OCTOBER 4, 2008
ZIHERSMITH GALLERY, NYC

For More information, click HERE. Corin Sworn was featured in UBC's Exponential Future.

WATCH AN INTERVIEW WITH THE ARTIST

JUAN MCLEAN AT RICHARD'S ON RICHARDS

Tuesday, September 9, 2008 at 8:00pm

From NY, influential disco/house/electronica artists led by Juan Maclean, on tour to support upcoming new release.
BAND WEBSITE

DADABASE has a few free tickets. Contact us, if you would like to party with us on Tuesday night.
idadabase AT gmail DOT com

FARIMANI: A NEW CRITICAL JOURNAL OUT OF NEW YORK

FARIMANI is a new publication-book. It's first ever issue features a new essay about torture and pleasure by Zizek. The first issue also includes a short but intense essay by OLAFUR ELIASSON on the role of what the museum, the university, and the studio can do about the negotiation of art, architecture and reality:

"For quite some time, I have been developing plans with the Universitat der Kunste in Berlin for a school that would benefit from its proximity to my studio."

FARIMANI - is founded and edited by AMIR MOGHARABI, A graduate of Columbia University.

The publication was launched at the DANIEL REICH GALLERY.

- RUSSIANS DISCOVER THE CAPITAL OF THE EUROPEAN JEWISH EMPIRE
- COOL RECEPTION FOR DICK CHENEY IN AZERBAIJAN
- ISRAELI HACKER ARRESTED IN MONTREAL
- EGYPTIAN BUSINESSMAN ARRESTED FOR THE MURDER OF LEBBANESE POP STAR SUZANNE TAMIM
- DID US JUST INVADE PAKISTAN?
- WINKLEMAN GALLERY (NYC) REPRESENTS: ADOPT LENIN
- GERMAN ANTI WAR POSTER HAILS SOLDIER'S DEATH
- ISRAELI MINISTER: WHISTLE BLOWING IS AKIN TO TERRORISM
- RON PAUL MATERIAL CONFISCATED AT THE REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION
- SWARM 2008: WESTERN FRONT EXHIBITS ABORIGINAL ARTISTS IN A GROUP SHOW

GROUP EXHIBITION ON DADABASE ONLINE GALLERY

DADABASE is proud to present NEW BLOOD, an exhibition of new works by Vancouver and New York based artists,
David Campion, Ignacio Corral, A.S.Dhillon, Kevin Bright, Mo Salemy and Pirooz Nemati.

Artworks are available for private viewing and sales.

To view the work, please visit DADABASE.

For questions regarding the purchase of art work featured in the exhibition, or to ask about DADABASE collection, please write to
idadabase AT gmail DOT com.

SAWRM 2008 MAIN STREET

Vancouver is kicking off thee fall's art season with the opening of SAWRM 2008 this Thursday. Here are a list of Galleries that will be having openings tonight. For a comprehensive listing Check the link above at their Web site.

Blim
Dadabase Online Gallery
Grace Gallery
Grunt Gallery
Malaspina Printmakers
Morris and Helen Belkin Gallery, UBC
New Forms Festival
On Main The Dead:
The Emergency Room
VIVO Media Arts
Western Front
Gallery 42

GROUP EXHIBITION: DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA

Rachel Mason, Kissing President Bush, 2004. Via Creative Time.

Creative Time in association with Park Avenue Armory presents Democracy in America: The National Campaign

ARTISTS INCLUDE: Erick Beltrán, Center for Tactical Magic, Critical Art Ensemble, Annabel Daou, dB Foundation, Hasan Elahi, Feel Tank, Luca Frei, Chitra Ganesh + Mariam Ghani, Group Material, John Hawke, Sharon Hayes, Jenny Holzer, Kenneth Tin-Kin Hung, InCUBATE, Magdalena Jitrik, Matt Keegan, Jon Kessler, Olga Koumoundouros + Rodney McMillian, Steve Lambert, Ligorano/Reese, Pia Lindman, Rachel Mason, Carlos Motta, Angel Nevarez + Valerie Tevere, Trevor Paglen, Cornelia Parker, Jenny Polak, Steve Powers, Greta Pratt, Paul Ramírez Jonas, Red76, Duke Riley, Martha Rosler, Dread Scott, Allison Smith, Chris Sollars, Chris Stain, Mark Tribe, United Victorian Workers, Chu Yun, and more.

After traveling across the country to glean perspectives from artists and activists on the state of democracy, Creative Time's year-long program Democracy in America: The National Campaign will culminate in the "Convergence Center": a major exhibition in the historic rooms of New York City's landmark Park Avenue Armor with speeches on democracy by artists, political thinkers, community leaders, and activists throughout its run.

FLEETWOOD MAC'S LOST YEARS IN BETWEEN BLUES AND POP

I started listening to FLEETWOOD MAC back in the late 70's in my early teens. But All I knew of their music was recordings they made after Stevie Nicks and Lindsay Buckingham joined the band in 1975. My uncle used to have some of their early 70's records, but they never interested me.

Lately, since 2005, I have been slowly collecting all of the band's work prior to 1975's self titled Fleetwood Mac album. Listeing over and over to these recordings one cannot wonder why they weren't as big earlier on. So much talent, in so much direction all pointing to a future that we all know.

The ever changing line up of the band in this period makes their recordings a pool of fresh ideas and approaches that kept refreshing and refocusing the sound of the band in the later years. here is the name of the people who were responsible for Fleetwood Mac's sound between 1968 to 1975:

Bekka Bramlett
Bob Brunning
Billy Burnette
Mick Fleetwood
Peter Green
Danny Kirwan
Dave Mason
John McVie
Christine McVie
Jeremy Spencer
Rick Vito
Dave Walker
Bob Welch
Bob Weston

Their innovative use of their instruments. Together with Mike Fleetwod's consistent drumming binds the recordings of this band like a cool hippie precious rosary. As documented in the collaboration of these musicians, their vision manages to transform both pop and rock music and foreshadow most of what we came to identify as late 70's, 80's, 90's and 00's music

Here, I have selected 35 songs that traces the future sound of the band in the older material. I have included the recording date of each song to contextualize the band's work in the history of rock and pop music. 

It is astonishing to notice that much of the songs from earlier on sound exactly like their recordings for Tusk (1979) and Mirage (1982).

My highlights include:

+ Motown sounding rendition of Little Willie John's Need Your Love So Bad
+ magical arrangements of Prove Your Love and Emerald Eyes
+ Pink Floyd induced Future Games
+ Brian Eno precursor My Dream
+ FMc's tribute to Buddy Holy in Buddys Song
+ Abbey Road inspired Jewel Eyed Judy
+ Disco inspired Keep On Going (the most amazing song included)

The list goes on... Most of these songs are nowhere available for purchase. You may find these albums for a few dollars in second hand record stores on Vinyl. I doubt one can find many of them on CD.

I tried to give the selection the feel of a good double album like the Beatles' White Album. 

As usual as any post 1975 Fleetwood Mac recording, the selection is peppered with beautiful ballads by Christine McVie all the way down to the Truly amazing and Queen sounding Spare Me A Little Of Your Love. 

For those of you who are not familiar with these songs, WELCOME TO REDISCOVERING FLEETWOOD MAC. 

DID US VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE FAKED HER PREGNANCY?

WHICH ONE IS FIVE MONTHS PREGNANT?

UPDATE TUESDAY SEPT 2: So far the mainstream media is breaking the story of Sarah Palin's daughters another pregnancy without fully and directly denying the original rumors about the downsyndrom child. As it appears by double checking the dates, it is possible to have been pregnant twice. I still speculate the original rumors were leaked so the real news of her current pregnancy wont shock and awe both democrats and the hardcore Christian crowd. You've gotta give it to Karl Rove one more time.

According to DAILYKOS.COM Sarah Palin faked her pregnancy to coverup for her daughter, Bristol's "illegitimate" child. It's the newest conspiracy and it has already generated a thousand anecdotes and details, and a lot of circumstantial evidence. Along with his actually might be true.

But since lately, the truth doesn't mean anything anymore, We are going to guess this whole pregnancy story must be all the works of Karl Rove who is giving the poor hockey mom the equivalence of Obama's Muslim rumors. So what's officially acknowledged about Sarah Palin is that :

(CNN) — Top McCain adviser Steve Schmidt said Monday that newly-minted Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin informed John McCain of her daughter's pregnancy in one of their "private conversations" last week. McCain aides insist the Arizona Republican already knew about the pregnancy prior to that conversation, having found out earlier during the lengthy vetting process. "She was very upfront about it," one aide said. Speaking with reporters, Schmidt also said McCain expected the pregnancy would eventually become public, as did Palin. "Obviously people would know because she’s going to have a baby that she was pregnant," Schmidt said. "What we want to see happen is the privacy of Governor Palin’s daughter respected. And that’s what Senator McCain wants."

Obviously, this is the same daughter, but a completely different pregnancy i supposed. I copied the text here since CNN Ticker items disappear rather fast.

FASCIST CHIC: TWO NEW COMMERCIALS FROM UNITED KINGDOM

THE UGLIEST NEW BUILDING IN VANCOUVER

The ugliest new building in Vancouver can be found at the southeast corner of Main and 12th. This monument to architectural failure reeks of cheap material, bad design and just about any other bad attributes one can find when addressing architecture.

On top of all the hexagon window and poorly made awning we are left with some of the worse color combination ever used in any given palette.

The trashscape at this corner mirrors the other atrocity that was completed last year and homes a Subway store and a Starbucks coffee shop.

Somewhere there amongst these corporate giants there is an out of place grocery store and a franchised french bakery.

Back to our lovely building, so far a "Neighborhood" UPS Store has started to move into one of the empty retail spaces on the street level. We are curious to see what kind of people this eyesore would add to our neighborhood.

The whole block between 12th and 13th streets basically has become a waste, minus the old corner Dairy Queen that thanks to its late 70's's sleek architecture charms the passerby's.

CANADIAN FAKETIVISM

"Vancouver young radicals were at it again last night, attacking the olympic clock with white paint and a few minutes later getting arrested and charged with mischief under 5000 by the cops on Robson St. Meanwhile the Afghan war, our most embarrassing tax endeavor goes unchallenged.

I want to ask these brave young guerillas what is more disgusting? Our mercenaries killing Afghani civilians thousands of miles away in another country? or an Olympic that was approved by our democratically elected representatives at different levels of government?

Are you doing these to feel good about being radical? or your white paint is covering up the fact that you have nothing to say about our military involvement and ongoing war crimes in Afghanistan? This kind of public disorder not only won't stop the olympic but invites more clamp down on our privacy and freedom in the years to come.

You kids should just give up the activism carnival and go grab a beer or roll up a joint somewhere and, just like most kids your age, please don't give a damn about the Olympics. I prefer genuine apathy to faketivism of otherwise apathetic kids. While real apathy creates a real void that sooner or later has to be filled with a new kind of social action, by pretending to be politically active faketivists only delay the arrival of a real genuine social movement.

DEMOCRATIC & GOP CONVENTION WEB SITES: MYSPACE VERSUS FACEBOOK?

It may be true that the two major political parties in America only reflect one another's inability to address the pressing issues facing USA. But you won't nessesarily find their similarities reflected in their convention web sites:

REPUBLICAN CONVENTION
DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION

In our opinion, the Republican web site is far superior to the Democratic one in presentation, design and aesthetics. What does that tell you about the differences of the two parties?

Notice the website lacks any large photographs of Republican leaders and instead it glorifies the country and the flag. Not that they have any gems that are being hidden; why would anyone in their right mind want to remind the people of Bush, Condolleeza Rice or even McCain hinself? So instead of relying on cool leaders, Republicans are relying on cool design. Whereas Democrats who have stars like Edward Kennedy, Bill Clinton and Obama have to tone down the design and let their stars be the design.

So in this twisted picture, Republicans must have opted for an art directed, myspace customized rock'n roll look for their convention web site but democrats chose the faceless Facebook look of dry and scientific objectivity. 

It would be interesting to see which one of these two interfaces can really touch the voters in America.

CBC SPREADS ANTI IRAN PROPAGANDA WITH OUR TAX DOLLARS

SPET 1ST UPDATE: SInce the publication of the article on CBC web site,  I have left several messages on Matthew Hays' answering machine at TIFF but no call backs so far. Also Tanaz refuses to be interviewed by Iranian journalists about her documentary.  This was communicated to me by the press office of Montreal's World Film Festival, which featured this film in the Labour day weekend as part of its documentary section. 

How dare to make a controversial movie yet fail to feel the importance to talk about it. I call this extreme cultural arrogance, to betray your subjects' trust, to spread lies and to hide afterwards. 

---------------

I started my morning by reading this on cbc web site about Tannaz Eshaghian and her documentary called "Be Like Others" about transgendered people and homosexuals in Iran. Great. According to our Concordia professor turned expert on the Iranian culture, Iran has a "...culture so steeped in hatred of gays and lesbians that it deems a sex change preferable to simply accepting differences in sexual orientation."

As far as I am concerned, Iran should be praised for allowing transgendered people to receive public funding for their sex change. Imagine if Iran had created a program to force transgenders to commit into their male gender. I bet Matthew would have seen that as another sign of hate, One way or another, Matthew is determined to see hate in Iran.

I thought to myself, If Israel Asper's children and CanWest GlobalMedia like to trash Muslims, Palestinians, Arabs and Iranians on a daily basis, one can shrug and blame capitalism, after all they own the media company they use as a propaganda vehicle, but what about CBC? Where is public integrity? Dear Mr Robert Rabinovitch - President and CEO of our publicly funded broadcasting network, you can't do the same with our money.

Then I started reading on the film, its producers and the CBC writer Mr. Matthew Hays, a professor at Concordia University and a programming director at the Toronto International Film Festival. Before I even tried to write something on it, I noticed my friend Hossein Derakhshan already had done a great piece about the film and its pushers back in February 2008. Here is a link to Hossein's brilliant piece on the film.

As Hossein comments about the director, "If you are a Jewish Iranian, living in the U.S. from the age of 6, it is very likely you don't like Ahmadinejad. So of course you would like to show how you hate him and how he is such a liar and how evil the entire government he represents is, in any way you can."