Aleksandra Mir wants your bad reviews

----- Forwarded Message -----

From: Aleksandra Mir <admin (at)aleksandramir.info>

To: Aleksandra Mir <admin(at)aleksandramir.info> 

Sent: Friday, October 16, 2015 4:26 PM

Subject: BAD Reviews

Dear ​Artist,

I am planning to publish an artist's book called BAD Reviews, a collection of bad art reviews in the form of quotes, transcripts and reproductions of previously published material.

I take the view that the bad art review is a near extinct form of creative writing which deserves to be honored, and who better suited to do this, than the artist concerned?

I know you were subject to many bad reviews in the early stages of your career and so will greatly appreciate your contributions to this book.

Whether you were hurt or amused, affected or not, the creative energy that went into describing your work in derogatory terms stands for a commitment and is a marker of its time.

I will only publish material that has been voluntarily submitted by the artists themselves, so no slander, but a genuine investigation into the nature of criticism.

The more artists who contribute, and the more material there will be, the more of a substantial survey we can collectively create, so please do forward this mail to your colleagues.

All contributors will receive updates and a copy of the book.

Bad wishes,

Aleksandra Mir

"…Aleksandra Mir, from Lubin, in Poland, is another maker of new maps of the USA, across which she declares the Cold War to be Hot Stuff, in the style of a mustard advert in a hamburger outlet…Young America is a bottomless source of the stuff. This entire display stinks of stupidity and an absent education. Has anyone here read a book or studied history or looked at a Botticelli or questioned a technique or patiently thought their way through an artistic conundrum? Not a chance. This is a generation of paint-happy know- nothings brought up on hamburgers and porn, a talentless bloom of post-pop trailer trash that makes our own Brit Artists look like a parade of Einsteins by comparison".

Waldemar Januszczak, Don't want to be an American idiot, Review of USA Today at the Royal Academy, The Sunday Times, London, 8 Oct 2006

​PS. 

The​ co-editor on the project Tim Griffin, Director at the Kitchen in NYC will host a first launch and live reading event when we are done.​ 

We understand it takes time to search through your archives so the project has no immediate deadline. Just let us know if you are interested and we will wait for your contribution.

Please send high res scans of printed pieces, screenshots or links to anything online.

We accept original material in all languages, which we will endeavor to translate to English.

This email has already reached artists of every generation and around the world. We are very excited by the contributions that are coming in from the most established, to the youngest of artists. Everyone who has material to add is welcome. Please spread the word.

admin(at)aleksandramir.info