ain't family grand, curating project
I was on the east coast for two weeks, visiting colleen and having meetings in new york for one and then seeing my dad and my highschool best friend, eva, for the other. it was really cold. and the airline broke my bike. but it was fun. and I got to see my grandmother on my dad's side, which is good. not necessarily fun, but good. one of my aunts and her two kids were there, and I always enjoy seeing them. unfortunately my dad's other sister was out of town but one advantage of moving back to the east coast is being able to participate in all of the stuff they all do together. I went to the beach since I pulled a hamstring and couldn't ride my bike in the mountains, and it was CRAZY windy. so really it's been two weeks of a cycling comedy of errors. now I am off to palm springs to hang out with my mom. really, I just want to relax in LA in a house where I can put my things away and have a routine and not have to be around my mother for extended periods of time. but that's not what vacations are for...
while I was in NY I had a great meeting with my friend steve and with the organization that asked us to submit an exhibition proposal, Visual AIDS. Our proposal is due in a few days but the whole process has been really really fun. cool to see new work, find out about new stuff, schedule some studio visits. there's a guy in LA whose work I like a lot, that I don't know very well, who I am planning to have a studio visit with in the next week or so, and also AA Bronson, the last guy around from GI, said the show sounds interesting and he wants to talk about revisiting their AIDS piece. everyone we talk to think it sounds interesting. basically we want to think about love as a political tactic, with 3 sub interventions - into activism, into identity politics, and into the archive. locating this within a show for an AIDS organization seems to make a lot of sense, given the role that AIDS activist art played in the cementing of identity politics, at least within the field of art. in terms of work, we want to juxtapose contemporary and historical work to demonstrate the ways in which love functions in a kind of pre emergent way within the historical work to undermine liberal enlightement subjectivity, in a way that has been written over by the historicization of AIDS activist art within the rubric of identity politics. we're thinking about GI, fierce pussy, and gregg bordowitz for the historical stuff, but are a bit all over the map in terms of contemporary work, other than a piece by luis camnitzer. part of what we want to do is show how an engagement with race brings out the use of love as an activist tactic within the contemporary work. so we're looking at a bunch of stuff but haven't settled on anything yet. here's hoping it works out! they have a budget for a publication and for speakers and a panel and gallery talks and stuff, so that all would be really fun. and also good both for my resume and my peace of mind that I haven't fallen off the map of the art world in which I was circulating last year. fingers crosses they pick us!
while I was in NY I had a great meeting with my friend steve and with the organization that asked us to submit an exhibition proposal, Visual AIDS. Our proposal is due in a few days but the whole process has been really really fun. cool to see new work, find out about new stuff, schedule some studio visits. there's a guy in LA whose work I like a lot, that I don't know very well, who I am planning to have a studio visit with in the next week or so, and also AA Bronson, the last guy around from GI, said the show sounds interesting and he wants to talk about revisiting their AIDS piece. everyone we talk to think it sounds interesting. basically we want to think about love as a political tactic, with 3 sub interventions - into activism, into identity politics, and into the archive. locating this within a show for an AIDS organization seems to make a lot of sense, given the role that AIDS activist art played in the cementing of identity politics, at least within the field of art. in terms of work, we want to juxtapose contemporary and historical work to demonstrate the ways in which love functions in a kind of pre emergent way within the historical work to undermine liberal enlightement subjectivity, in a way that has been written over by the historicization of AIDS activist art within the rubric of identity politics. we're thinking about GI, fierce pussy, and gregg bordowitz for the historical stuff, but are a bit all over the map in terms of contemporary work, other than a piece by luis camnitzer. part of what we want to do is show how an engagement with race brings out the use of love as an activist tactic within the contemporary work. so we're looking at a bunch of stuff but haven't settled on anything yet. here's hoping it works out! they have a budget for a publication and for speakers and a panel and gallery talks and stuff, so that all would be really fun. and also good both for my resume and my peace of mind that I haven't fallen off the map of the art world in which I was circulating last year. fingers crosses they pick us!