Head of Buddha Śākyamuni, 4th century, Afghanistan, ancient Gandhāra region, probably Hadda, Stucco with traces of pigment, 18

PULITZER FOUNDATION FOR THE ARTS TO PROVIDE UNPARALLELED SETTING FOR CENTURIES OF BUDDHIST MASTERWORKS
IN THE EXHIBITION REFLECTIONS OF THE BUDDHA, OPENING SEPTEMBER 9

Serene Contemporary Architecture and Present-Day Art Contribute to
Uniquely Illuminating Experience of Buddhist Traditions, as
Foundation Inaugurates Its Tenth-Anniversary Season

ST. LOUIS, MO, July 19, 2011 — A superb selection of some of the greatest Buddhist sculptures and hanging scrolls held in United States collections, representing several major traditions and sites of production from the late 2nd to the 18th centuries, will be on view to the public in the serene and light-filled Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts from September 9, 2011 through March 10, 2012 in the exhibition Reflections of the Buddha.  The exhibition opens with a public reception on Friday, September 9, from 5 to 9 p.m.

Marking the beginning of the Foundation’s tenth-anniversary season, Reflections of the Buddha will offer visitors a unique encounter with Buddhist visual and spiritual traditions, experienced in harmony with the contemplative atmosphere of the Foundation’s building, designed by master architect Tadao Ando. Each of the twenty-two historic masterworks chosen for the exhibition will be installed to permit the attentive, unhurried viewing for which the Foundation is known. Three related works of contemporary art will add resonance to the experience: a set of photographs by Hiroshi Sugimoto conveys the sensation of seeing 1001 sculptures of the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara; a video by Oscar Muñoz evokes the evanescence of life; and a major work by Ellsworth Kelly, Blue Black, created specifically for the Foundation as a permanent feature of its building, provides a meditative focal point in the exhibition. Read the rest of this entry »

South African artist William Kentridge talks about Max Beckmann’s manipulation of physical space and its influence on his work. Max Beckmann’s The Dream is on view in the exhibition Dreamscapes. Watch the rest of this panel discussion on the Pulitzer’s YouTube channel.

What’s happening this month and some recent Pulizer highlights:

Panel Discussion on Psychology of Dreams
Thursday, April 7, 7:30 p.m. (Doors open at 7:00 p.m.)

The artist Max Ernst noted that painting gave “objective form to what is visible inside him.” This panel explores the varied and complex symbolism of dreams from different traditions in Western psychology. Panelists will introduce their particular traditions and then interpret some of the artworks in the exhibition as they would dreams.
Panelists include:
Britt-Marie Schiller, Dean, Faculty Member at the St. Louis Psychoanalytic Institute and Professor of Philosophy at Webster University, St. Louis

Rose Holt, Jungian analyst in private practice in St. Louis and Chicago and active in the C.G. Jung Institute of Chicago Analyst Training Program

Moderator:

Francesca Herndon-Consagra, Senior Curator, The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts

Social Dream Matrix

Saturday, April 9, 1:00 p.m.

Art therapist Shelly Goebl-Parker and artists Hap Phillips and Nita Turnage lead a dream matrix. The act of dreaming is normally a solitary one. Through dream matrices, it becomes a shared experience, building a small temporary community when participants enter a dream matrix together. Sharing dreams in this way enables the discovery of new meaning and significance in dreams. The dream matrices are followed by art making as a way to reflect on newfound discoveries, reflections and inspirations. 
Read the rest of this entry »

Francesca Herndon-Consagra, Senior Curator at the Pulitzer, describes Dreamscapes, which opened on February 11. For a longer version of this introduction, visit dreamscapes.pulitzerarts.org.

Do dreams mean anything? Are they just erratic firing of synapses, or do they actually tell us something about ourselves and our experiences? What was going though Philip Guston’s head when he painted Dark Room, and what is it that makes something surreal, nightmarish or simply dreamy? Over the next few months, the Pulitzer will investigate the significance of dreams and art through its current exhibition Dreamscapes.

It’s been almost a month since the Dreamscapes opening reception, and the Pulitzer is just beginning to scratch the surface of the dream-themed exhibition. As many of you art enthusiasts in St. Louis know, the Pulitzer typically has two exhibitions per year, and in the time that an exhibition is on view, the Pulitzer, as part of its identity as a “laboratory”, investigates themes in the exhibition through customized events and programs.

For the duration of Dreamscapes, the Pulitzer is offering free public programs, every Saturday at 1 p.m., which include art-making, storytelling and discussion-based tours among other activities. Next month, we’ll add dream matrices to the mix, and as usual, our team of social workers will test how art can empower people and build community, beginning with The Dream Journal Project (find out more here). 

On April 7, senior curator Francesca Herndon-Consagra will moderate a panel discussion, in which psychologists from different traditions interpret artworks as they would dreams. (Apparently, stairs in dreams have been interpreted in many ways.) You’ll be able to see an archive of this and all Dreamscapes happenings on an interactive Dreamscapes web catalogue, where you’ll also be able to virtually explore the exhibition in the Ando building.

If you haven’t seen the exhibition yet, this Saturday is a great opportunity to do so, since the curator will lead visitors on a journey through the building:

Saturdays at 1 p.m.

Gallery Talk with Senior Curator Francesca Herndon-Consagra
March 12, 2011
Senior curator Francesca Herndon-Consagra takes visitors on a walk through the exhibition. Experience the shuffling and reassembling of pictorial themes and fictions that evoke a journey from one dream to the next. At the same time, learn about the artists and the thought behind each work’s composition.   

Social Dream Matrix
April 9, May 14 and June 11, 2011
Art therapist Shelly Goebl-Parker and artists Hap Phillips and Nita Turnage lead social dream matrices. The act of dreaming is normally a solitary one. Through social dream matrices, it becomes a shared experience, building a small temporary community when participants enter a dream matrix together. Sharing dreams in this way enables the discovery of new meaning and significance in dreams. The dream matrices are followed by art making as a way to reflect on newfound discoveries, reflections and inspirations

Frame of Reference
Every first Saturday of the month
Members of the St. Louis community from diverse backgrounds, from psychologists to poets to art historians to social workers, talk about their favorite work of art from their personal perspectives.

Dreamtime Storytime
Every fourth Saturday of the month
In conjunction with the exhibition Dreamscapes, the Pulitzer hosts Dreamtime Storytime, a series in which writers, artists, readers and dreamers share stories related to dreams to people of all ages. Among others, storytellers include librarians from the St. Louis Public Library and members of the literary arts center StudioSTL.

Exploring Art: Dreamscapes and Ando’s Architecture
Every third Saturday of the month
During these open tours, docents encourage group discussions on how the artworks on view and architecture relate to one another as well as how the visitors individually relate to the exhibition. Space is limited. RSVP to Visitor Services Manager Courtney Henson at chenson@pulitzerarts.org.

The Pulitzer will announce additional event details on www.pulitzerarts.org as Dreamscapes continues.

The Pulitzer is open and free to the public Wednesdays from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Pulitzer is located at 3716 Washington Boulevard, St. Louis, MO 63108.  For more information about the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts, visit www.pulitzerarts.org or call 314-754-1850.

The Sheldon Art Galleries announces the opening of five new exhibits on February 18 with a wine and hors d’oeuvres reception from 5 – 8 p.m.  New exhibits include  Larry Fink: Attraction and Desire – 50 Years in Photography and two related exhibitions by German-born painter Max Lazarus.  For a complete listing, visit www.TheSheldon.org/galleries.asp or RSVP for the opening on Facebook!

Time Wounds All Heels makes the audience reconsider the purpose and creation of the works that it features. Upon first glance at the gallery space, one immediately questions the unity of the ecclectic pieces presented, but upon closer examination, the link becomes clear: duplicity.

A prime example of this is Do The Right Thing, 2009 by Donelle Woolford. The piece is composed of different pieces of wood put together like a puzzle. Each piece of wood has a different thickness than the one adjacent to it, making this work more of a relief sculpture than a traditionally hung rectangular composition. What makes Woolford’s work so interesting is that it is actually the product of a fictional character created by the artist Joe Scanlan, who hires actresses to play the role of Donelle. After completing a number of wood assemblages, like the one included in Time Wounds All Heels, Scanlan felt that they did not fit within his body of work; hence, he decided to invent the alternate persona of Donelle Woolford – a young African-American female who harnesses aspects of her cultural identity to create abstract compositions. In hiring an actress to claim responsibility for the works, Scanlan makes us question the importance of artistic ownership and the role of personal identity in informing a given artwork.

The Spanish-born artist Jaime Pitarch’s Theory of Evolution, 2009 also fits perfectly into the exhibition’s exploration of duplicity. This spiral arrangement of household cleaning products on the floor of the gallery immediately catches the viewer off guard and makes one question how cleaning products can be considered art. I walked around the piece for a while before I decided to look up its name. Then it hit me: Theory of Evolution was an arrangement of cleaning products that chronicle the creation of the earth, plant, animals, and mankind. Beginning with Big Bang, the spiral finds its end with Mr. Clean.

Finally, Adam McEwen’s Untitled (Richard), 2007 is a fake obituary written for the artist Richard Prince. The odd thing is, Prince is not deceased. This faux chronicle of Prince’s life makes the viewer question McEwen’s intent when he created the work. McEwen exemplifies again how multiple meanings can inhabit the same piece. What the underlying social critique of Untitled is, I am not able to tease out; but, perhaps there is no neat punch-line in this, or any of the displayed artworks.

Time Wounds All Heels is currently on view through Saturday, February 26. For more information about this exhibition and other upcoming programs at White Flag, please visit www.whiteflagprojects.org.

White Flag’s upcoming exhibition, Time Wounds All Heels, features a black and white photograph, which you can view here, by the artist Jane Hammond, titled “October First (Mom’s Birthday)”—and, indeed, it is a picture taken on the artist’s mother’s birthday, in her mother’s living room. You have the family present, as on any other birthday (the artist herself is in the background), you have balloons, you have an ordinary living room in which you can see stuffed chairs and a boxy television set, and…you also have a young woman, situated front and center, who sits in one of the armchairs and lifts her pantyhose-clad legs to expose her vagina. What kind of a birthday is this, you ask? The most natural one in the world.

In 2002, nearly 600 Nigerian women staged protests against petroleum pollution in their country by threatening to do as the woman in Hammond’s photo does – expose their genitals, that is. This threat had serious leverage in a region that responds to the “Curse of Nakedness,” which promises shame and harm to men who view female strangers’ naked bodies, especially married and elderly women. Anthropologist Terisa Turner explains,

“We all come into the world through the vagina. By exposing the vagina, the women are saying: ‘We are hereby taking back the life we gave you.’ It’s about bringing forth life and denying life through social ostracism, which is a kind of social execution. Men who are exposed are viewed as dead. No one will cook for them, marry them, enter into any kind of contract with them or buy anything from them.” (Source.)

Is this the ultimate form of female empowerment? Reclaiming the vagina from its sexual connotations and putting it to use as a political weapon? Or does it just reinforce possibly harmful taboos?

Like these Nigerian women, the woman in the photo exercises complete agency – she is in control of her body and her sexuality. She is the one telling the inappropriate joke at the dinner table. “Birthday,” she says, “Get it? Birth day.” She is the visual equivalent of a good pun – explicitly, painfully obvious but knowingly sophisticated. Sexuality, birth, pleasure, femininity, domesticity—these are all overlapping spheres that influence and interact with each other. And when they’re all present at once and made explicit, this reality can provoke our discomfort. She rocks the boat in the otherwise placid waters of domesticity.

Like any lady comedian, she makes a joke out of the elephant in the room—her very lady-ness. Though she has two things in common – her anatomy, and her determined control of it – with the Nigerian women, her mission couldn’t be more different: to make light of “the source of all things,” and to expose it for what it is and all it really is.

The opening reception for Time Wounds All Heels take place at this Saturday, January 15, 2011 at 7 PM. For more information about this exhibition and other upcoming programs at White Flag, please visit www.whiteflagprojects.org.

On view thru November 28, 2010, the exhibition at the Front Room, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, presents an installation of the Belgium-based organization, Agency, alongside a series of photographs by Miriam Böhm.

Agency, the invention of Kobe Matthys, serves as a platform for highly systematic investigations that make formal inquiry into issues of authorship, copyright, and intellectual property. Existing as a compendium amassed and catalogued by Matthys, Agency gathers facts, subjects, objects, collectives, humans and non-humans to perform speculations and conduct Agency’s exhibitions. In this installation, titled Assembly, Agency displays evidence for the copyright infringement of a certain artist’s renderings of Place des Terreaux – Fontaine Bartholdi et Hôtel de Ville, wherein dubious distribution was enacted. “Thing 001408 (Lyone (Rhône)” bears witness in the Front Room, as testament to the problematic events that take place in the realm of artistic property.

Miriam Böhm, Berlin-based artist, presents a series of recent photographs that, like Agency’s Assembly, demonstrate shifting events of perspective. Böhm’s process begins with photographing marble slabs and faux marble paintings, followed by staging the prints against a textured backdrop, which she then re-photographs – producing a different image altogether. The work emerges, much like the marble slab itself, as a layered tablet of materiality – a compression of pictorial illusion, revealing the limitations of representation.

Image Credits:

Agency & Miriam Böhm, Installation in The Front Room, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, 2010. Photos by Alex Elmestad.

London-based filmmaker John Smith screens Lost Sound at the Front Room today thru December 5, 2010.  From his compendium of over 40 videos, films and installations, which he presents across a variety of platforms including movie theatres, exhibition spaces and televisions, Lost Sound is specific case of film that obscures the roles of representation and abstraction, documentary and fiction.

Developing this specific kind of cinematic language, Lost Sound composes footage taken on the streets of East London: the subjects are pieces of discarded audio tape inhabiting barb wire fences, tree branches, and other miscellaneous locations within the city’s sidelines.  In collaboration with sound artist Graeme Mille, the ambient sound is skillfully mixed with audio data from the remnant music tapes found on-site, which was re-recorded and inserted back into the film’s sound design. Smith and Mille layer image and sound into an elaborate experience for the viewer to de-code, addressing traditional roles of environment and viewer, perception and narrative.

Image Credit:

John Smith, Flag Mountain (Southern Nicosia, looking towards the border with the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus), 2010. HD video, color, sound, seamless loop (8 minutes cycle). Courtesy of the artist and Tanya Leighton Gallery.

Which Witch is Which? and/or Summertime is a group exhibition operating on a level of truthfulness that dips in and out of questionability without ever ringing conventionally false.

Liam Gillick’s video piece Vicinato 2 (made in collaboration with Douglas Gordan, Carsten Holler, Pierre Huyghe, Philippe Parreno, and Rirkrit Tiravanija) opens with a nighttime shot of a brightly lit city and a robotic narrator who states: “The camera pulls back from the city. The scene is being set. It could be daytime or nighttime. There will be four characters who think they are friends.” The scripted nature of the conversations of the four “friends,” the emotionless affect of the narrator, the references to the work’s own inevitable narrative (another voice-over: “This scene is only important to link what you saw before with what will happen next”) add up to an admission of artifice that might drown the work in self-consciousness. Instead, it opens up a profound space for questioning and demonstrates a curious emotional depth.

Scripted in a different way is Ajay Kurian’s “Studio Visit #1: Auder and Kurian,” an interview between artist Michel Auder and Which Witch is Which? and/or Summertime’s curator that intimates a false veneer the moment you pick up the earphones to listen to the supposed audio of the transcript. The first rift in the façade is that the voices in the audio are female. Holes in the conversation, then, can be heard – such as a “the” that goes unsaid but documented in the transcript, or a pause in a response doesn’t seem to logically follow the flow of the conversation. The listener, then, is pitched into uncertainty – Is it truth? Is it fiction?

And what about the text on the wall, claiming to be a note from Kurian regarding his thoughts about the exhibition? Does it relay an event that actually happened?

Bruno Latour, as quoted in Kurian’s essay for the exhibition, declares, “Truth is nothing but a chain of translation without resemblance from one actor to the next.” Which Witch plays with an investigation of truth through distortion; many of the works – particularly Maria Petschnig, Michel Auder and Leigh Ledare’s – present us with ostensible “truths” from the artists’ lives, fragments of their realities. Though they document real life, they nevertheless are not real life – instead creating a parallel universe that mirrors but do not reflect.

The truth, this show seems to say, exists in innumerable possibilities – from the works themselves, the lives referenced in the work, and our sense of the work as we navigate the context of exhibition. Darren Bader’s “Friends” is a collection of standard black combs affixed to the gallery walls, placed in unexpected locations that highlight the process of searching in-between – the truth lies not in the destination of the found comb, but in the act of looking for it. Our engagement with the piece, and not the significance of the locations themselves, is what activates it.

In the end we are left not with an ultimatum or a realization, but with an open invitation for conversation. Kurian’s essay attempts to guide us through this “this strange and unlit space”, and proffers: “Perhaps the life of a show is based primarily on what is left out, what remains to be said by others, allowing the organism to have not one center but many nodes of interaction, joining and separating without end or answer.”

Which Witch is Which? and/or Summertime is on view at White Flag Projects until December 18.  For more information on our current exhibition and other upcoming events, please visit www.whiteflagprojects.org.