ACBA: The Alps/Tauba Auerbach Easy Action LP

The Alps/Tauba Auerbach
Easy Action LP
Brooklyn, USA: Mexican Summer, 2011
31 × 31 cm.
Edition of 1000 copies

Erwin Wurm | Den Schmutz der Welt abwaschen

Erwin Wurm
Den Schmutz der Welt abwaschen
Cologne, Germany: Edition Koenig, 2019
15 x 25 x 5 cm.
Edition of 30 signed copies [+ 5 AP]

"Wurm’s "Den Schmutz der Welt abwaschen (To Wash Away The Dirt Of Our Time)," 2019, is a washing sculpture made of soap. The cucumber as a self-portrait is a recurrent motif in Erwin Wurm's work. He believes they somewhat resemble humans—each cucumber is distinct, but nonetheless distinguishable as a cucumber belonging to a greater whole."

- press release

John Peel Auction

The other somewhat relevant material from the John Peel Collection auction (see previous post) is a series of music zines and counter-culture publications, including the legendary OZ magazine (which was the subject of a high-profile anti-obscenity court case in the mid-seventies). 

To view the full collection, click here. 

Yoko Ono in John Peel's collection

Several friends have been kind enough to alert me to the Bonham’s auction of John Peel’s collection, which closed yesterday. 

John Peel was arguably one of the most influential radio DJs of all time, and the longest serving presenter on BBC Radio (1967 to 2004). He is of particular note here, for playing Laurie Anderson’s eight and a half minute experimental song O Superman, sending the performance artist  to the top of the charts briefly in 1981. 

I wasn’t aware that he was a big Yoko Ono fan, but the collection features a large number of materials sent by her and Lennon. It consists of their collaborative material and her solo work, but not solo material for her husband, and certainly no Beatle items. 

When the collection turns to works by other bands (almost all of them good - The Smiths, The Specials, PJ Harvey, Belle & Sebastian, The Fugees, Kate Bush, etc.)  I like to see it as a lineage from Ono’s proto-punk to the punk of the Pistols and the post-punk of Joy Division. 

The material includes promotional ephemera, personal postcards, vinyl test pressings, t-shirts, greeting cards, Ono's artist book Grapefruit and her classic artist Fluxus multiple Box of Smile. 

Scroll through the collection at the auction house site, here:

https://www.bonhams.com/auction/27992/live-in-session-property-from-the-john-peel-archive/?page=5

"Around the time of the dissolution of the Beatles, when he was living with Yoko, I met them then, and you know, I used to see them from time to time. And one of those things, there are very few people actually in the whole of this history that I rather wished weren’t famous people, because I enjoyed their company a lot. But you realized you couldn’t go to the match with them or go around and have breakfast with them at the café, just because they were such celebrities life would be intolerable if you tried to do that."

- John Peel

Douglas Huebler | Crocodile tears

Douglas Huebler

Crocodile tears

Buffalo, USA: Albright-Knox Gallery/CEPA Gallery, 1985

[44 pp.]. 28 x 22 x 1 cm., staple bound

Edition of 2500

Subtitled  "brief fictions re-sounding from the proposal in Variable Piece #70-1971, "to photographically document the existence of everyone alive", this title builds on Huebler's signature work, with photographs, drawings, and reproductions of famous artworks by Cézanne, Mondrian, Picasso, etc. 

Published in conjunction with the 1985 exhibition of the same name at Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Crocodile tears illustrates a disjointed screenplay involving a number of fictitious characters dealing in high-end art forgery. The cast includes Richard Decker, a “signature artist” cranking out salable objects to pay the mortgage; Arthur Lord, known as “the great corrector” for his ability to replicate the works of the old masters without their original “mistakes”; and Alec Gregory, a con-artist who sells forgeries of famous paintings to unsuspecting collectors. 

"Huebler’s parable is a witty and dark reflection on art-market politics and a compelling exploration of the problematics of authorship and authenticity." 

- Printed Matter

Geoffrey Hendricks | Five Found Photos

Geoffrey Hendricks

Five Found Photos

New York City, USA: Printed Editions, 1979

[12] pp, 15 x 22 cm., softcover

Edition of 600 signed and numbered copies

A slim volume with tipped in found photographs published by Dick Higgins' imprint. 

Five Found Photos is available here, for $150.00 US. 

"Last summer in Germany, rummaging through flee markets, I collected some old postcards and photographs. The collection was made casually just picking out what struck my fancy. One night I noticed certain photographs were of the same people. Other cards seemed to go together because of similar structural elements. I began to group and regroup the material, pairing images visually, narratively, and numerically, seeing contrasts and similarities of form, subject, location, time, or emotion. Sometimes there were surprises. These five cards are one distillation from this process. They might imply a story, or a dream, perhaps a souvenir of a summer abroad. They are for reflection."

- Geoffrey Hendricks