All anyone is talking about here in Southern California is the forecast for much needed drought-busting rain. Sandbags are in place for mudslides, newsrooms are on storm watch, gardeners are crossing their fingers, and roofers are starting to count their money.
Let it rain!
I've found a few videos to get you in the mood.
Let's crank it up and start with the Beatles singing Rain. (Sorry for the fuzzy video quality, but if you look hard enough, you can see Paul McCartney's chipped tooth from a moped accident.)
How do you walk through the rain without getting wet? Leave it to artists, in this case a group of artists, rAndom International, who created Rain Room, an interactive installation originally installed at the Barbican in London. Sensors detect and track visitors allowing them to move through the downpour in dry clothes surrounded by falling rain.
This mesmerizing "rainfall" is actually a kinetic sculpture, Kinetic Rain, made up of 1,216 bronze rain droplets at the Changi Airport Singapore's Terminal 1.
Infinity Water - Case Study by director Rimantas Lukavicius and VFX / Design company: KORB, is not about rain per se, but a short, fascinating journey through the physical properties of water.
I'll end with this dreamy snippet, Lights and Water, by James Adamson (jamesadamson.com). It was shot from his car in downtown San Francisco in one take with no cuts.
Upcoming at Offramp Gallery
March 14, 6-10pm
Spring 2014 ArtNight Pasadena
Special Preview of Susan Sironi: Forget Me Not
Music by Unpopable
You may have noticed I haven’t been blogging much recently. Let’s call it a case of writer’s block that took being sent into apoplectic shock by a recent outbreak of artspeak to cure.
As you know, MOCA has hired Phillipe Vergne as its new director. In the LA Times article announcing the hire, the writers chose the following quote to introduce us to Vergne:
"My vision is to commit to the most experimental artists of our time, but also to contextualize their work within a broader context," Vergne said in an interview. "And I think Moca's collection is one of the best to contextualize that kind of experimentation." [emphases mine]
Really? Are we expected to blindly accept this drivel? Once again no one seems to notice that the emperor is naked. Can we raise the bar an inch or two? This isn’t even good artspeak (an oxymoron if ever there were one)! It reminds me of trying to fake answers on essay questions when I didn’t have a clue.
I decided to investigate and see just who this Phillipe Vergne character really is. And OMG! I found a video of an hour-long lecture by Vergne defending one of my other all-time pet peeves, the work of artist Gedi Sibony.
Quoting from my own blog, here is my one and I hope only experience of Sibony’s work:
"A couple years ago I was at MOMA in New York looking at an exhibition of conceptual works from the museum's permanent collection. One piece consisted of an ordinary vertical window shade laid out on the floor. There was some explanatory text saying that the artist had had an epiphany of sorts as he removed the blind from an empty studio and carried it across the hall to his studio and placed it on the floor exactly like it was displayed at MOMA. The piece was titled "The Middle of the World." Really? I suspect marijuana was involved." Click here to see an image of "The Middle of the World." Your reaction?
So I watched as much of the Vergne/Sibony video as I could stand, (I'm inserting it below with apologies) probably about 10 minutes, and here is my take-away: Vergne is charming, has great hair and appropriate art world eyewear, a French accent [note to self: consider changing name of gallery to “La Galerie de L’Offramp.”], a self-deprecating sense of humor, and is passionate about dry, conceptual art. I have no doubt rich people will throw money at him. Good for MOCA. But what about the rest of us?
Vergne has since publicly stated he will not do much curating but will hire curators and let them do what they do. I’ll try to keep an open mind, but the forecast from here seems to mirror our current Southern California drought.
Prove me wrong Phillipe Vergne!
Upcoming at Offramp Gallery
March 14, 6-10pm
Spring 2014 ArtNight Pasadena
Special Preview of Susan Sironi: Forget Me Not
Music by Unpopable
March 16 - April 20, 2014
Susan Sironi: Forget Me Not
Opening Reception: Sunday, March 16, 2-5pm
Closing Reception: Sunday, April 20, 2-5pm
