A Week of Trading!

Somewhat unrelated to artmags but fun events nonetheless:

Tonight (Wed. Feb. 3) from 6-8pm at the Swiss Institue, B’L'ING will host a screening and DVD trade.  The screening will include videos by Liam Gillick, Phyllis Baldino, Michel Auder, Chris Marker, Michelangelo Antonioni, and others. If you bring a DVD you can trade it with the B’L'ING collection of bootleg media art and rare media!

This Saturday (Feb. 6) from 12-5 at the Museum of Modern Art (54th Street entrance/Cullman building) NADA, Regency Arts Press Ltd., and the MoMA Library will host an Art Book Swap. Bring an art book and trade it for a better one!

Esopus and Cabinet at The Kitchen

Continuing with their ongoing literary series, The Kitchen will host a night with Esopus this Tuesday February 2nd at 7pm (free). There will be a reading by the actress Lilli Taylor of Kelly Sandoval’s short story ‘How to win in Reno’  along with a musical performance by El May and a video by Neil Goldberg.

Cabinet will be there the following week on Tuesday February 9th, 7pm (free) for a discussion between Brian Dillon (UK Editor of Cabinet), D. Graham Burnett, and Marina van Zuylen about Dillon’s new book The Hypochondriacs: Nine Tormented Lives. More info on The Kitchen website, which appears to have ditched their former calendar design, which was really hard to navigate – yay!

Also check both magazine websites for upcoming events at their spaces this spring.

I.D. Magazine Ends

I missed the news back in December that I.D. magazine has ended -perhaps I should have guessed from their foreboding final issue cover for November/December 2009 that it was getting the axe? Like Art on Paper, I.D. had been around for over fifty years. The blog Fast Company ran an interesting article about I.D.’s demise, titled What Killed I.D. Magazine?. It sounds as if most of the problems were internal – as evidenced by the newsbreak being given one day after “Employee Appreciation” Day. Yikes! Bad marketing, and a failure to fully embrace the web to compete with other design websites were also factors.

Art on Paper Folds

Back in August I posted an entry about the new small format of Art on Paper magazine. I was sad to see it had diminished to a size only a bit larger than a paperback book. But, I understood their reasoning and hoped that their decision would allow them to push through the tough times. Unfortunately, this has not been the case. On Tuesday, Shelly Bancroft and Peter Nesbett, co-publishers of the magazine, announced that they would not continue with the publication. Artinfo reported that they hoped someone new would revive the magazine within the next year. Their website claims that “art on paper has temporarily ceased publication,” but everything about their website looks grim: the just-after-sunset blue, the font, and in general the lack of good design.  This is very sad news, but if we look back to the past NY Art Book Fair, which took over PS1 and was larger than it has ever been, we can say without hesitation that there is excitment and interested for the printed page.

Fluxus Art at MoMA

Magazines, multiples, artists books, and ephemera from the newly acquired Gilbert and Lila Silverman Fluxus collection are now on view at MoMA. Make sure to check out all of the issues of ccV Tre, the fluxus magazine edited by George Maciunas and George Brecht.

Reviews

Forté Magazine at Audio Visual Arts

In the small white room that is AVA there was a lone laptop sitting on a pedestal. It was set to the Forté Magazine website so that visitors could interact with it, except there wasn’t much to interact with. Every time somebody went up to the computer and started to click on the links, the audio would restart and you would find yourself trying to listen to the first few minutes of the same things over and over again. It was pretty much impossible to hear the magazine. Jenn, who visited the gallery with me that night, commented that her experience of being in the space was like being in an airport in Europe. The woman narrating the beginning of the magazine was speaking in a monotone European accent, and over the buzz of gallery-goers I could understand what she was talking about. I didn’t think the opening was much of a success, but I think the idea of an audio magazine is extremely interesting and inventive. There have been a fair share of audio serials similar to the format of a mix tape, but I am not aware of any that mimic the format of a magazine – with contributors, contents, and articles spoken. I imagine a visit to the gallery on a quiet afternoon would be a much different experience. Otherwise, I recommend sitting in a quiet place and listening to Forte magazine on your own.

Ecstatic Peace Poetry Journal at White Columns

As predicted the opening for Ecstatic Peace Poetry Journal #10 was packed.

For this reason, I didn’t get a good chance to check out the exhibit. But what I did see through the crowds looked like it was worth another visit. Thurston Moore’s collection of journals, record covers, and ephemera were sitting in vitrines and hanging on the walls. I didn’t stay long enough to see the performance by the Northampton Wools, but I did brush shoulders with David Byrne as I left the gallery – and boy is that man’s hair looking fantastically white and wild!

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[Katrina Ellis and Amanda Sullivan]

*photos courtesy of Amanda Sullivan

North Drive Press Celebrates Issue 5

Next Thursday January 21st, North Drive Press will be having a release party for issue 5 at X-Initative, 6-8pm. This will be the final issue of the publication, as well as one of the last events at X-Initative, which will be closing on February 3rd.

_Quarterly Issue 4 Release Show

This Saturday January 16th, _Quarterly will celebrate the release of issue 4 and their first year anniversary at Silent Barn (915 Wycoff Ave, Ridgwood, Queens). Doors open at 7pm and music by Ctrl Top, Weekend, Soft Circle, and Lichens begins at 8pm. The $10 entry fee also includes a copy of issue 4.

_Quarterly is an art and literary magazine with themed issues, edited by Jesse Hlebo. The most recent issue revolves around the theme of ‘Sea’, and they’ve stepped it up a notch with a larger newsprint format and full color printing. The layout is also much more sophisticated. This issue is guest edited by photographer Grant Willing and features photographs by David Schoerner, Ruth van Beek, and Marten Lange, along with a nice text piece indexing the sightings of the Loch Ness Monster by Daniel Gustav Cramer, and a microscopic copy of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. If you aren’t familiar with any of these artists make sure to click on the links to their websites. I’m excited to see future issues of this new publication.

Ecstatic Peace Poetry Journal Tonight!

Thurstan Moore is presenting issue 10 of Ecstatic Peace Poetry Journal tonight (Friday January 15th) at White Columns. The issue takes place in the gallery as an event with a stapled issue to be created during the show. A selection of enlarged pages from previous issues of the journal will be on display along with Moore’s personal collection of poetry publications. Tonight the opening is from 6-8pm and includes a live performance by the Northampton Wools. More events are scheduled throughout the duration of the exhibit so make sure to take a look at the White Columns website.

Artist Book Database

I just found this website ‘Artist Book Database.’  It looks fairly new and features artist’s books by Michael Snow, John Baldessari, and Hans-Peter Feldmann, just to name a few.  An alphabetical index is coupled with a photograph and information about the artist’s book.  No information is given about who started this – does anybody know? It’s a nice resource.

Update: I found out that this is David Schoerner’s project.  I just blogged about his recent work in  _Quarterly and he also runs Hassla Books.