Hans Haacke

Hans Haacke turns 90 today. 

Videoscape: An Exhibition of Video Art

Marty Dunn, Peggy Gale, Gary Neill Kennedy

Videoscape: An Exhibition of Video Art

Toronto, Canada: Art Gallery of Ontario, 1974

[74] pp, 26 x 22 cm., spiral-bound

Edition size unknown

Exhibition catalogue for an early presentation of Artists’ Video works at the AGO in Toronto, from November 20th, 1974 to April 1st, 1975. 

The artists include David Askevold, Dana W. Atchley, Jill Bellos, Charles Binamé, Jean-Pierre Boyer, Eric Cameron, Colin Campbell, Doug Carbert, Barbara Cochrane, Stephen Cruise, Don Druick, Marty Dunn, Ed Fitzgerald, General Idea, Gerry Gilbert, Carole Itter, Goddamatch (Max M. Anderson, Bob Wilcox, Bruce Green, Gordon Reed, Robert Montgomery), Michael Goldberg, Timothy A. Hanson, Noel Harding, Michael Hayden, Les Levine, Douglas MacLean, Richard Martin, Anne McMillan, Winston G. McNamee, Graham Metson, Robert Morris, Ian Murray, Bruce Parsons, John Pope, Al Razutis, Alex Salter, Richard Serra, Jeffrey Spalding, Lisa Steele, David Tipe, Brad Townsend, Visus Foundation, Vortex Intermedia, Doug Waterman, John Watt, William Wegman, Walter Wright, and John Young. 

The volume includes brief biographical notes on the participating artists, some of whom provide statements of their own. Marty Dunn’s text describes the conceptual, performance, synaesthetic and experiential elements of video, while Peggy Gale highlights the differences between television and video, traditional art forms and video and various centres for video production within Canada. Gary Neill Kennedy defines cybernetic, synaesthetic and synergistic aspects of video artworks. 

The Adventures of Willem De Ridder [Special Edition]

[Willem De Riddder]

The Adventures of Willem De Ridder [Special Edition]

Amsterdam, The Netherlands: CultClub, 2017

32 x 23.5 x 4.5 cm.

Edition of 50 numbered copies

Published by Harry Ruhe and Jeannette Dekeukeleire's CultClub, this white box contains the monograph of the same name, alongside editions Eric Andersen, Pieter Engels, Ken Friedman, Geoff and Jon Hendricks, Hugo Kaagman, Bengt af Klintberg, Alison Knowles, Ben Patterson, Wim T. Schippers, Mieko Shiomi, Ben Vautier, and De Ridder’s former lover Annie Sprinkle. 

Editions:

"For Willem" by Eric Andersen

     Print on cardboard, 14.5 x 10.5 cm.

     Signed and numbered 32/50

"Willem de Ridder. A double portrait" by Ken Friedman

     B/w offset on cardboard, 21 x 30 cm.

"Untitled" by Bob Lens

     Color print on paper, 21 x 28.5 cm.

"Portrait of Willem" by Peter Pontiac

      Print on paper, 21 x 29.5 cm.

"Wie ist die Worst" by Willem de Ridder

      B/w offset on paper, 30 x 21 cm.

      Self portrait from the 60's

"Paper Constellation" by Willem de Ridder

      Mixed media on paper, 30 x 21.5 cm. Signed

   

"Untitled" by Annie Sprinkle

      Handcoloured print, 27.5 x 21.5 cm. Signed

  

"Untitled" by Ben Vautier

      Screenprint with USB, 29.5 x 21 cm.

"Replying Music for Walkman Piece" by Mieko Shiomi

       21 x 29.5 cm.

Photos:

 

"Wiesbaden, 2012", by Geoffrey Hendricks

      Color photograph, 12.5 x 18 cm.

Photograph with Ben Patterson at CultClub, 1 December 2012

      20.5 x 30.5 cm.

      while performing "Piano Activity" by Philip Corner

Media: 

DVD "The Lost Art of Willem de Ridder" by Frank Herrebout

Audio CD "Het Draadloze Individu" by Hugo Kaagman

Texts:

Texts by Jon Hendricks, Pieter Engels,

Bengt af Klintberg & Alison Knowles

Press:

Three articles,Romance Magazine by Wim T. Schippers

     June 1964, 31.5 x 25 cm. each

Pierre Bismuth

[Pierre Bismuth]

Pierre Bismuth

Toronto, Canada: Art Gallery of York University, 2004

96 pp, 6 x 8”, hardcover

Edition size unknown

The catalogue to an exhibition of collages - both paper and video - at the Art Gallery of York University, from October 8th to November 23rd, 2003. 

Respect for the Dead features the opening scenes from various feature films - The Magnificent Seven, Jaws, Goodfellas, Dirty Harry, Dr No, and Breathless - truncated immediately following the first death. 

Collages for Men involves enlarged glossy images from porn magazines, with the models' bodies covered with white paper garments. 

For Unfolded Origami, Bismuth had an origamist fold and unfold posters, then displayed them flat. The posters include Andy Warhol's flowers, a map of Europe, an advertisement for the a fight between Muhammad Ali and Ken Norton, a cute kitten, and (a concession to the Toronto venue?) a Maple Leaf hockey player. The works are titled for the unfolded origami shape: dog, frog, peacock, yacht, etc. 

The fourth and final piece presented is the main draw here: The Jungle Book Project. For this work, the artist spliced together nineteen different international versions of the 1967 Walt Disney animated classic in such a way that each character speaks a different language.  Mogli speaks Spanish with a Latin American accent, Tigger speaks English, King Louie the orangutan speaks Japanese, Baloo speaks Hebrew, Bagheera the panther speaks Arabic, etc. etc. 

The book closes with two essays: “Why do Jewish mothers...?” by Aaron Schuster and "Chinese Whispers” by Alexander Alberro. These are followed by biographies and an exhibition checklist. 

“The Jungle Book Project comments on the entertainment industry's relationship to globalization. As they do with all of their products, prior to translating the film the Disney Corporation carefully researched the commercial viability of The Jungle Book in a number of languages and countries. The consumer reports seem to have indicated that whereas marketing the film in most European languages would be profitable, this would not be the case with African languages. As a result, The Jungle Book has not been translated into any African language. Evidently, Africa is not yet part of the culture industry’s global landscape. The exportation of the Disney product is relatively easy since the change in the voiceover virtually seamless. Unlike the type of out-of-synch effect that occurs when a film with actors is dubbed, to suture new voices to the animated cartoon figures does not pose problems of coher-

ency or delay. Films like The Jungle Book work equally well in all languages."

- Alexander Alberro

Vito Acconci | Think / Leap / Re-Think / Fall

Vito Acconci

Think / Leap / Re-Think / Fall

Dayton, USA: Wright State University, University Art Galleries, 1976

[56] pp., 21 x 21 cm., softcover

Edition size unknown

 

A mostly hand-scrawled account of the development and construction of the piece Middle of the World at Wright State University in 1976, and it’s relationship to the artist’s previous work. 

Simone Forti | Dance Constructions: Yoko Ono Chambers St. Loft Map

Simone Forti

Dance Constructions: Yoko Ono Chambers St. Loft Map

1974

Pen on paper

17.8 × 25.4 cm.

Unique

In honour of Simone Forti’s passing last month, Hyperallergic has just published an interview that Julia Bryan-Wilson conducted with the artist, dancer, choreographer and writer, particularly about her relationship with Yoko Ono. 

Julia Bryan-Wilson: When did you first meet Yoko Ono? What were some of your initial impressions of her?

Simone Forti: I must have started hearing Yoko’s name around 1960. I knew that she was married to Toshi Ichiyanagi and that they both were doing interesting work in the larger artistic community that I shared with La Monte Young.  

JBW: Your Dance Constructions were first seen at Yoko’s Chambers Street loft.  How did this event come about? 

SF: I became aware that she had a loft studio and that she was very generous with it, letting dancers sometimes use it. I have memories of working in a loft with Trisha Brown and Steve Paxton, and in a different loft with Bob Morris and Yvonne Rainer, and one of these lofts may well have been Yoko’s loft. La Monte Young is the person who invited me to participate in the series, and with whom I was in touch for practical matters. And Bob Morris is the person who helped me set up. 

JBW: We’ve all seen pictures, but can you describe more about what the Chambers Street loft was like, architecturally as well as socially? 

SF: The loft was a large raw rectangular space with a very rough wood floor and windows at one end. The entrance was along one of the longer walls and closer to the windows than to the “deep” end. My memory of it is that, like many of the lofts at that time, nothing had been painted. The walls, the floor, all had been left pretty much as they had been found, abandoned after decades of industrial use, just swept “clean” with a broom. 

In terms of who frequented Yoko’s loft, I saw some of the performers in that series, Jackson Mac Low, Henry Flint, of course Bob Morris. And La Monte. I know that Merce Cunningham came to one of my evenings, because someone told me that he had liked it. I don’t think any of the artists from the Reuben Gallery frequented that series. I may be wrong, but I think that the conceptual and the imagistic theater (happenings) folks didn’t follow each other’s work. In fact, when I had performed at the Reuben Gallery a few months earlier, Lucas Samaras complained to me that my work was not poetic.

[...]

JBW: Some of your Dance Constructions use the word “instruction.” Had you known of Yoko’s Instruction Paintings, which are also from this time period? 

SF: It’s possible that the “instructions” idea came to me from Yoko, through intermediaries, such as La Monte Young and Jackson Mac Low. But certainly the concept also came from John Cage, through Bob Dunn’s class. And I had probably worked with instructions with Anna Halprin, but I don’t remember if she used that term.

JBW: Did you ever see any of Yoko’s performances? 

SF: I did see Charlotte Mormon perform Yoko’s piece where the audience members are invited to cut pieces of her dress right off of her [“Cut Piece,” first performed by Ono in 1964]. I think Charlotte had already been fighting cancer for some time, and the performance was very moving.

JBW: Did you participate in the cutting, and did you save the scrap? 

SF: Yes, I cut a very small piece. I think it was red satin. I kept it for years in one of those little special containers we all have, but I’ve lost track of it.

JBW: Were you aware of Yoko’s 1961 “Voice Piece for Soprano, to Simone Morris,” in which she instructs us to scream “against the wind, against the wall, against the sky?” It is dedicated to you using your married full name. Do you have any idea why she might have specifically invoked you here?  

SF: I’m thrilled to learn, or relearn, that Yoko made that piece and dedicated it to me. I tend to forget really important things. Maybe she dedicated the screaming piece to me because of my piece “Censor” that I performed in my spring 1961 concert in her loft. In that performance, one person vigorously shook a pan full of nails while the other sang an Italian folk song as loud as she could. 

[...]

One memory I have is from around 1976, when I made a performance, Planet, at PS1. I remember sitting with Yoko on a ledge on the PS1 roof and talking together comfortably. It was restful. Decades later, in 2011, I received the Yoko Ono Lennon Award for Courage in the Arts. Yoko, of course, was at the reception, handing out the awards. I’m now 79. I think Yoko is one or two years older than me. Well, she was looking very sharp in her cap and high heels and her blouse that revealed her cleavage. Very quick on her feet and smiling.

Read the full text, here. 

Kristin Hersh

 My favourite singer/songwriter turns 60 today.