Miami Madness- Day 3- Friday Dec2
Friday Jane and I sleep in again, and then spend the morning talking...going through some pretty serious issues, looking at love and relationships, past lives and present, finances and dreams and deep-rooted fears. She's going through some rough stuff...:(. tears then meditation. After a while we gathered ourselves up to go drink in a bit of nurturing sunshine at the beach to fuel our day.
Slowww start but eventually we make it to -scope. Michael Sellinger is at the door thankfully and let's us in. We find Seth asleep (or practically) on a big white chair in the lobby and tease him a bit before moving on. Started up on the 5th floor and made our way down. I only made it to the 3rd floor in the time it took Jane to see the whole thing. *sigh* Enjoying talking with Kasia Kay (sweeet installation of little birds in her room made me smile). Also talking with Patrick Heide, liking many artworks there...subtle, text based, obsessive. some made by mechanical typewriter.., others reminding me of my readings series but in drawing. Awesome video works by Erin O'Hara(?) in 'Curator's Office Gallery'- morphing fractalized animations of food that seemed so....much like life evolving...fascinating to watch . But my absolute favorite yet again (I fell in love with these at -scopeNY) were works by Ruud van Empel. You'd really have to see them in person to get the eerieness of them...digital collage that is so crisp and so...odd surreal too perfect...the EYES...I can only think of the next stage of digital avatars and the strange future we are entering. The new series I loved but can't find any pics online.
Time to rush off to catch the opening of Mark Seidenfeld's photography exhibit in the lobby of the Catalina Hotel. We know he and his wife Cassandra from back home and promised to stop in. Erotic black and white nudes, fetish works...I'll admit they work for me.;)Here it was like a Hamptons reunion, met up with Tapp Francke, Perry Burns, Beth McNeill, my welding teacher/prof Michael Rosch, etc- all who I know from back home. I try to take one bite of the free sushi and am rushed out the door again (dang!)as we all make our way back to the -scope party, so Beth can maneuver us past the ridiculous $50 cover.
Back inside -scope I'm up on floor 3 again...and take up where I left off. Talked with artist Jason Gringler in his room, really liked his paintings (ok so they were resin and just enough magical glitter- I know I can be predictable) and was amused by his drawings (especially one that read "I haven't heard from my art dealer in days, I'm so lonely I could DIE")so I'm looking through a binder of his drawings (which totally remind me of Brent's binder)and I'm relating and talking and then this other dealer comes in and they seem to have some secret joke. I get the feeling that they think I was in there hitting on Jason..so eventually I get annoyed and uncomfortable and leave. I could be wrong but it was annoying. Later was worse when I ran into him outside and he says "Don't worry I'll give your card to my dealer." as in maybe That was my reason for talking to him.?? ok. Guess what- I had no ulterior motives. I really related to his work, he's around my age, I was doing this same thing last year (standing in a -scope room with my art talking to visitors), so I felt very comfortable (at first),and thought I would talk to him. whatever. (hmmm seems I'm still miffed at this lil scenario, eh?.)I'll get over it.;)
We went up to the rooftop and there was a pretty neat punk performance going on...androg girl with duct tape strapped round her chest, lowslung black jeans, wailing and jumping around with video projections behind her- hello, yes I liked it.;) Later we all went to check out some other venues...with Kurt and Seth and Bill and Jane and Beth,Tapp (Perry missing)...but each place we went was an insane line going nowhere. Waited a while at each and gave up and the group dissoved bit by bit. Jane called it a night and I decided to stay out this time. Pretty soon it was only Kurt, Seth and me. We sat on a bench a while not knowing where to go and I found that pretty fun in itself..people watching and playing 'pick a number and win something from my bag o tricks'. We end up at the door of some Gavin Brown party at the Angel Ultra Lounge waiting and waiting to get in. Comical- with the stereotypical big tough black doorman on a total power trip and the groups of people desperate to get in...I kept giggling at the absurdity. But we had nowhere else to go and it was free and what the hell so we waited and evennnntually were let in. Waited another hour (it seemed) for a drink inside. But finally FINALLY DANCIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNGGGGGGGGG!!! WHeeee! much needed release release realease.:)It's ben WAY too long. Felt so good. Thank you Seth and Kurt for sticking it out.
4 AM egg sandwiches at Raffi's Cuban Cafe before zonking at the hotel.
Slowww start but eventually we make it to -scope. Michael Sellinger is at the door thankfully and let's us in. We find Seth asleep (or practically) on a big white chair in the lobby and tease him a bit before moving on. Started up on the 5th floor and made our way down. I only made it to the 3rd floor in the time it took Jane to see the whole thing. *sigh* Enjoying talking with Kasia Kay (sweeet installation of little birds in her room made me smile). Also talking with Patrick Heide, liking many artworks there...subtle, text based, obsessive. some made by mechanical typewriter.., others reminding me of my readings series but in drawing. Awesome video works by Erin O'Hara(?) in 'Curator's Office Gallery'- morphing fractalized animations of food that seemed so....much like life evolving...fascinating to watch . But my absolute favorite yet again (I fell in love with these at -scopeNY) were works by Ruud van Empel. You'd really have to see them in person to get the eerieness of them...digital collage that is so crisp and so...odd surreal too perfect...the EYES...I can only think of the next stage of digital avatars and the strange future we are entering. The new series I loved but can't find any pics online.
Time to rush off to catch the opening of Mark Seidenfeld's photography exhibit in the lobby of the Catalina Hotel. We know he and his wife Cassandra from back home and promised to stop in. Erotic black and white nudes, fetish works...I'll admit they work for me.;)Here it was like a Hamptons reunion, met up with Tapp Francke, Perry Burns, Beth McNeill, my welding teacher/prof Michael Rosch, etc- all who I know from back home. I try to take one bite of the free sushi and am rushed out the door again (dang!)as we all make our way back to the -scope party, so Beth can maneuver us past the ridiculous $50 cover.
Back inside -scope I'm up on floor 3 again...and take up where I left off. Talked with artist Jason Gringler in his room, really liked his paintings (ok so they were resin and just enough magical glitter- I know I can be predictable) and was amused by his drawings (especially one that read "I haven't heard from my art dealer in days, I'm so lonely I could DIE")so I'm looking through a binder of his drawings (which totally remind me of Brent's binder)and I'm relating and talking and then this other dealer comes in and they seem to have some secret joke. I get the feeling that they think I was in there hitting on Jason..so eventually I get annoyed and uncomfortable and leave. I could be wrong but it was annoying. Later was worse when I ran into him outside and he says "Don't worry I'll give your card to my dealer." as in maybe That was my reason for talking to him.?? ok. Guess what- I had no ulterior motives. I really related to his work, he's around my age, I was doing this same thing last year (standing in a -scope room with my art talking to visitors), so I felt very comfortable (at first),and thought I would talk to him. whatever. (hmmm seems I'm still miffed at this lil scenario, eh?.)I'll get over it.;)
We went up to the rooftop and there was a pretty neat punk performance going on...androg girl with duct tape strapped round her chest, lowslung black jeans, wailing and jumping around with video projections behind her- hello, yes I liked it.;) Later we all went to check out some other venues...with Kurt and Seth and Bill and Jane and Beth,Tapp (Perry missing)...but each place we went was an insane line going nowhere. Waited a while at each and gave up and the group dissoved bit by bit. Jane called it a night and I decided to stay out this time. Pretty soon it was only Kurt, Seth and me. We sat on a bench a while not knowing where to go and I found that pretty fun in itself..people watching and playing 'pick a number and win something from my bag o tricks'. We end up at the door of some Gavin Brown party at the Angel Ultra Lounge waiting and waiting to get in. Comical- with the stereotypical big tough black doorman on a total power trip and the groups of people desperate to get in...I kept giggling at the absurdity. But we had nowhere else to go and it was free and what the hell so we waited and evennnntually were let in. Waited another hour (it seemed) for a drink inside. But finally FINALLY DANCIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNGGGGGGGGG!!! WHeeee! much needed release release realease.:)It's ben WAY too long. Felt so good. Thank you Seth and Kurt for sticking it out.
4 AM egg sandwiches at Raffi's Cuban Cafe before zonking at the hotel.