Reviews of Photography at the MCA, MoCP

This week on ArtSlant: Chicago I write the gallery hop, click here to read them.  As I have mentioned before, most of my writing nowadays gets published on ArtSlant: Chicago, where I am City Editor, so check there each week for a new gallery hop written by myself or one of our talented staff.  This week I review the second exhibition of the Midwest Photographers Project, “MP3 II” at the Museum of Contemporary Photography and “Elements of Photography” at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago.

ArtSlant Interview with Chicago Photographer Jill Frank

This week on ArtSlant you can find my Rackroom interview with Chicago photographer and the Museum of Contemporary Art’s 12 x 12 Artist, Jill Frank.

Also if you read this on August 25th, Jill will be conducting an artist talk at the MCA at 6:30, see below for more information.

This Week on ArtSlant: Chicago

This week on ArtSlant: Chicago Robyn Roulo visits Corbett vs. Dempsey to see “Big Youth” and writes about some of the standouts there, then heads to the super new ebers|B9 apartment gallery to see more new work there and reflects on the advantages the current apartment gallery movement has. Finally it’s over to the MCA for some free jazz on their terrace on Tuesdays (and free admission to the museum).

Check it out: http://www.artslant.com/chi/main

This Week’s Words

This week on ArtSlant I review the Buckminster Fuller show at the MCA, Kathryn Born critiques the critics: http://tr.im/l9Ut

Jeff Koons Hearts Chicago

In anticipation of what’s to come, Jeff Koons’ Hanging Heart (Blue/Silver) (1994-2006) is now installed in the MCA.  I’m impressed I gotta say.

Interviews with MCA Director, AIC Curator

Past interviews for anyone interested in our cultural institutions:

Alan Artner for the Chicago Tribune interviewed the new director of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), Madeleine Grynsztejn about her plans for the future of the MCA. She keeps her cards pretty close in the interview but the good news is that her Olafur Eliasson exhibit will be coming here next Spring.

Tyler Green for his Modern Art Notes interviewed Art Institute of Chicago curator Lisa Dorin about the “Focus” shows that spotlight a contemporary artist and particular concerns of such a show, especially as they relate to the Art Institute as a whole. It’s in two parts: Part One, and Part Two.

Koons Vanquished by Daylight?

Librado Romero/The New York Times

A balloon dog. A chocolate heart wrapped in shiny red. A silhouette of Piglet from a “Winnie the Pooh” coloring book. These are the subjects of three glossily lacquered, stainless steel works — all previously unexhibited — by the Pop artist Jeff Koons now on view in the Cantor Roof Garden of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.– photo and text via NYTimes

This article by Ken Johnson on the NYTimes was interesting:

A Panoramic Backdrop for Meaning and Mischief

I thought this article, perhaps inadvertently, embodied two schools of thought on the work of Jeff Koons. In one paragraph Johnson describes the work of Koons in the highest terms. Using the titular phrase “mischievously meaningful” to describe the group he says of them:

“With its pneumatic, sausagelike parts, “Balloon Dog (Yellow)” is a sly Trojan Horse: it seems innocent but is loaded with aesthetic and erotic perversity. “Sacred Heart (Red/Gold)” acidly comments on the commercial debasement of emotional and religious experience. “Coloring Book” reflects the youth-obsessed infantilism of modern culture and society.”

However, immediately following he says:

“But placed on the architecturally nondescript patio, where there are also shaded areas for patrons of the Roof Garden Cafe, the sculptures too easily turn into benign, decorative accessories.”

Which is exactly what some of the misgivings about Koons work are. That they can cease being eternal, as the artist puts it, and become simply objets-d’art, easy fun. And apparently this is easily accomplished by taking them out of a gallery setting and bringing them into the light of day, which is kind of funny when you think about it.

Which begs the question, can Koons only do it in the gallery?

I thought the sculptures looked good out on the roof, but then I haven’t seen them in person. In May the Museum of Contemporary Art will be hosting a large Jeff Koons exhibit and perhaps something will be outside. It would be interesting to see the work in the sanctity of the white cube and outside, where this value-subtracting weather phenomena could be observed. I would like an answer to my question.

Can’t Make it to St. Louis? See Dan Flavin at the MCA

If you can’t make it to St. Louis to see “Dan Flavin: Constructed Light” at the St. Louis Art Museum but were intrigued by the review online, don’t worry, Chicago has a really great example right here in town.  Head down to the Museum of Contemporary Art (tomorrow, they’re closed today) where there are several shows on display right now: “Karen Kilimnik,” “Collection Highlights” and “Recent Acquisitions.”  Those seeking out the florescent of Flavin should head to the “Recent Acquisitions” section on the third floor.  Purposely occupying the corner is a Flavin grid of florescent lights that create a soft and subtle field of color along the wall.  If you have only seen Flavin’s work with white florescent (the Monument for V. Tatlin series) the work with color is quite different, it feels much more emotional and transcendent, which is a good feeling to get from something as commonplace and mundane as a florescent tube.  Out of the entire show, the Flavin work is one of the best pieces on display.  Don’t miss it when you visit Kilimnik.

Britain’s Museums One Step Ahead- Again

I recently wrote about museums admissions policy here in the United States and how I believe that museums should move towards the model that has been adopted in Britain and is having a trial run in France, that is making museums, especially art museums, free.  Tyler Green of Modern Art Notes echoed some of my sentiments, citing comments from the director of the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York City to the effect that they were noticing a downturn in attendance of  20- and 30-year-olds.  Both Green and I are not shocked at this revelation considering it costs $20 to get in the door at MOMA.

Today’s Sunday Chicago Tribune had an article relating again directly to this issue of further involving 20- and 30-somethings in the cultural landscape and their cultural heritage.  According to the article, some London museums are participating in a late night programs, events that mix culture with standards of evening entertainment.  As the author of the article, John Lee, put it: “It’s 9 p.m. at London’s cavernous old Natural History Museum, and I’m leaning against a marble column, beer in hand, under the watchful eye of a giant fossilized fish.”  

This got me thinking.  I know that monied corporations, or even parents, can rent out the Field Museum for a corporate event or a birthday sleepover, so why not have late night modeled after the British?  The thought of sipping a Goose Island 312 under the Field’s Tyrannosaurus Rex, Sue, sounds pretty fun and certainly unique.  Chicagoans are rightly proud of their cultural institutions like the Field Museum, the Shedd Aquarium and the Art Institute, we also spend more money per-capita on alcohol, by far, than any other city in the U.S. so why not try out a late night program that makes these institutions a fun, social place to hang out?  Everyone needs a break from the omnipresent plasma TVs, blasting music, and unremarkable decor that plagues so many bars, making the name the only thing different about each one.  

The Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) already has a program like this in place, their First Fridays.  On the first friday of each month, the museum stays open until 10 at night and has live entertainment, a cash bar and free hors d’oeuvres, well, free with the $15 admission (or $10 in advance, $7 for MCA members).  The MCA is also realizing its potential as a meeting place for singles as well, as they have “the world’s only iMac G5 digital dating bar,” whatever that is.  Regardless, the MCA is on the right track of bringing more people into the museum and showing that it can be an active, vibrant, community meeting place.  Lowering or eliminating the cover charge would only assist this goal.  

Chicago is far at the forefront of the three major American cities (LA, New York, Chicago) in its museum admission policies.  While most museums offer free or discounted admission times (usually underwritten by a corporation, since the federal government long ago checked out of financing), Chicago has the Museum Passport, available at all Chicago Public Libraries (these are given out first-come, first-served, though).  Chicago also experimented with free admission during the entire month of February for several museums.  We’re on the right track, let’s keep opening the doors of our cultural institutions.

Reconsidering Karen Kilimnik

The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (MCA), recently opened Karen Kilimnik from the Philadelphia Institute for Contemporary Art (ICA) on February 23rd and will be open until June 8th. The show opened to heated debate in certain quarters, and received a poor review in the Chicago Tribune, which can be read here. What is it about this show that has sparked such heated debate and is Kilimnik an artist unworthy of attention as some would have us believe?

Karen Kilimnik The Hellfire Club episode of the Avengers, 1989 Courtesy of 303 Gallery, New York & Institute of Contemporary Art. Photo by Aaron Igler at ICA

After reading much about Kilimnik I decided to investigate the show for myself, bracing myself for the worst. The Kilimnik show replaces one side of the Collection Highlights exhibit on the top floor of the MCA. Upon first entering the “scatter-piece” The Hellfire Club Episode of the Avengers (1989) is, well, strewn around. This piece establishes some basic themes and methods throughout the rest of the exhibit: perceptions of glamor and fantasy, the use of assemblage and installation, and a marked confusion of fantasy and reality.

The bulk of the exhibition is found next in the long, wing gallery. Prior to visiting the exhibit I had read several reviews and expected to see nothing but paintings, the objects of much scorn. However, the work in this room showed a range of practice from assemblage to drawing to photography and video, with Kilimnik often incorporating unusual media to suit her purpose. Wondering where the hated paintings were I took in the apparently ignored output of Kilimnik, the work that wasn’t painting.While it has been hard for some to discern the thematic content in Kilimnik’s work, in the main gallery of the exhibition they emerged clearly. The fascination with with glamor and beauty in general and especially related to celebrity, and typical (almost stereotypical) girlhood interests like ballet, fashion, fixations on “it” boys and imagination. These themes surfaced most overtly through both the drawings and installations. A fake dinner party with the pink panther, illustrated fantasy stories about being an internationally famous Russian ballerina or a child who never became a model, all concealing more than a hint of the macabre.

However the most interesting theme that presented itself was that of an underlying violence and the methods of dealing with trauma resulting from it. Most poignant in this respect was I Don’t Like Mondays, the Boomtown Rats, Shooting Spree or Schoolyard Massacre (1991), a scatter piece that featured target silhouettes, bullseyes, chicken wire and a toy gun. I don’t think that this piece was intended as a memorial to school violence but as a reaction to it. The toy gun is a mainstay of children’s play but placed in this context the boundary between violent fantasy and reality is challenged. The haunting unreality of children committing murder is underscored by the artifice of the materials displayed. Plastic guns and flimsy targets belie the reality of our increasingly violent times. The conscious artifice of the “bleeding” holes in the wall echoes the violent fantasy drawing of children but also its distance from reality. In this way the reality of violence has been repressed into an unreal, dreamlike state, the end product of a mental defense mechanism.

The themes of repression and violence was continued in other works. In the video gallery the 1989 film Heathers, a film about students plotting to murder their classmates and ultimately trying to blow up the high school, is stretched to six hours. Snow was a repeated motif in many images and is appropriate: snow whitens, brightens, covers and dulls its surroundings. Snow covers up ugliness. In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe the White Witch suspends the land of Narnia in eternal winter, similarly Kilimnik uses snow and has a professed interest in witchcraft (another topic all together). In photographs showing street-level entries to houses Kilimnik added white acrylic paint the images to transform them in a quiet snow bound scenes. Any unpleasantness in the image of the house is repressed through the addition of snow. Another photograph, contained within the red room in the modern Architecture (2007), depicted a dead squirrel on the street with the title Just Resting. This indicates the general way trauma is denied, death does not exist, only a deep sleep like Snow White (another frequent allusion of Kilimnik’s). Likewise, the scatter-piece Smallpox (1991) was totally hidden out-of-sight behind the cube structure for the red room. . . Containing fake blood, powder and the kinds beauty marks that were used to conceal the physical signs of the disease, this piece overtly hinted at covering up a trauma, this time through physical means.

While much has been made over the paintings in the red room. . . I don’t believe I shall address them at all, at least not now. Criticisms of the paintings seems more based on the fact that someone has trespassed onto the sacred ground of oil-on-canvas than any criticisms of substance. My point here has been to draw out themes in Kilimnik’s art that others have claimed don’t exist at all and to show that Kilimnik’s painting is only one part of her varied output. If anyone has anything constructive to add about the paintings or these themes I would welcome those comments. Finally, much has been made of Kilimnik at the MCA and my fears that it would veer close to the tendencies of certain so-called Young British Artists were assuaged. I was disappointed to miss the soundtracks that accompany both I Hate Mondays. . . and The Hellfire Club. . . on my first trip and then several weeks later they were still silent, with the guards clueless as usual about why the sound was off. If an artist mixes a soundtrack or chooses a certain song to accompany the display of a certain artwork then it should be included or else it seems that one is doing a disservice to the artist and artwork. The MCA should fix this problem.