Chris K's Open Salon Blog

I'm in Buenos Aires and soon people will shoot each other...

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 15:09:26 -0400

Because I tell them to! Yes, people will do violence to each other at my whim. Oh, the power. It's all in the name of art, of course. And sadism. I have convinced 6 people to play a game (which is a "performance art" thing)--they won't know the rules in advance and have agreed to follow whatever rules I set. So, that kinda makes me god. Oh, the POWER! I'm drunk on it.

They won't be using real guns--apparently that's illegal even down here--they'll be using paintball guns. But from what I hear, those things hurt pretty bad. There's more to it than the shooting though. The whole thing is going to be a ridiculous, over-the-top, all-too-brief extravaganza. I'll be sure to link to the video, when it's done.

In the meantime, here's a pic from Buenos Aires.

Buenos Aires Bonanza!

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 17:08:46 -0400

I'm head back to Buenos Aires in less than a week, and I'm quite excited. I'll be there for another 3 months and I'm going to have a big solo show. Here's some pics from last time I was there.

A delivery truck, "My Dream"

The entry to an enormous building that was once a house. My friend told me that every piece was imported from England. It is an amazing building.

This box measured the air quality. I can assure you it is not good even without using the box.

More photos from Buenos Aires

Sat, 11 Jul 2009 14:07:29 -0400

Here are some pictures from my ongoing adventure in Buenos Aires. Hope you enjoy.

PS My drawings are in the art fair in Lithuania, ArtVilnius. You heard me: Litha-frickin-wania. The gallerist I work with here in BsAshere is in Vilnius now. Weird.

A view of the city from Puerto Madero.

Reflections on a building in Purto Madero.

From the roof of PROA, a museum of an art foundation.

There was a great show of German photography at PROA, Andreas Gursky, Thomas Ruff, Thomas Struth, Alex Hutte. It's a small museum, but the show had over 30 photos, including some important ones. I had to sneak in with my backpack even though women were allowed to go through with those enormous purses.

I was there with my friend Miguel, who works in the art world, and we met up with one of his friends. Miguel's friends are all rich. This is not an exaggeration. Except me. Anyways, his friend was apparently the most important collector in Argentina. She was cool, not really pretentious, excellent style. She treated us to lunch, then we all went shopping and she was asking us which color dress looked better. So, yeah, that was kind of strange. Maybe she'll buy a drawing some day.

BTW, PROA has very good food for a museum. And reasonably priced. I highly recommend it.

Boycott Camille Paglia

Wed, 8 Jul 2009 19:07:40 -0400

If you, like me, think that Camille Paglia's columns on Salon are a total waste of bandwidth, I have a simple solution: don't read them. A high percentage of the comments on her columns say, in one way or another, that the writer wishes Paglia was not on Salon. Let's make it a reality.

If we can decrease the number of page views and comments that she gets, perhaps Salon will get the point. As long as her column is "popular," Salon will keep publishing it. So when you check out Salon and see that endearing caricature of Paglia, remember that she is a caricature of herself and DON'T CLICK on the story.

PS Why does Paglia always mention the fact that she's a "Democrat"?

"This woman": Palin and Prejudice

Sun, 5 Jul 2009 14:07:41 -0400

Let me begin by saying this: I cannot stand Sarah Palin. I think she is ignorant, unintelligent, incapable of using the English language, egotistical, irresponsible, hateful and horribly misguided on so many levels. All of her wounds have been almost entirely self-inflicted, no matter how much she blames the media. I find it hard to believe that anyone still thinks she could be a candidate for Prez. I found it baffling even before this incident.

That being said, there is something about many opinion pieces and comments that I find disconcerting: the use of the phrase "this woman," as in "this woman is so ignorant" and other things along these lines. Something about it strikes me as sexist. I can't recall seeing the phrase "this man" used very often when referring to male politicians (unless in the context of a sex scandal I suppose). So why do people use it to refer to Sarah Palin (or Hillary Clinton etc)?

Is it because there are so few women in politics? Is it because people find this behavior more intolerable or more unexpected from a woman? I mean, we all know that Sarah Palin is a woman, right? Why do we need to be reminded like that? When criticizing Barack Obama do you say "this man" or "this African-American" or "this black man"? I didn't think so. So why do people refer to Sarah Palin as "this woman"?