VVORK

I have been wondering how the recession would hit art magazines.  Would there be a noticeable change or would some magazines just disappear?

When I received the January/February 2009 issue of Art on Paper I was disappointed to see that it had shrunk down to half its former size.  It seemed ironic; art on less paper.  In the publishers note at the beginning of the issue, Shelly Bancroft and Peter Nesbett brush off  financial troubles, claiming their reasoning for the change in size was because of environmental concerns and the physical weight of the magazine.  They promise that content, quality, and the “publications spirit” have not been reduced.  I have mixed feelings about it.  I am sad to see the small version of Art on Paper, but I also agree with their reasons for reducing the size.  It seems not only representative of the current economic climate, but also of the shift from print to digital, and increasing eco-awareness.

Other art magazines have made changes in layout, design, size, and paper too.  Bomb, for example, has shed it’s glossy paper for a heavy matte, Capricious printed it’s last two issues on newsprint (although it doubled in size), and The New York Times Sunday Magazine is smaller, thinner, and has been redesigned to cram as much information onto the page as possible.

I also recently received a letter informing me that Artweek has gone out of business after 40 years of publication.  This is the first major art periodical to go bust.

The only successful story to report on is the choice editor Tod Lippy made with the most recent issue (no.12) of Esopus Magazine.  When faced with financial trouble he made a truly creative choice.  The theme of the magazine is black and white, which saved him the high cost of printing in color.  Read The Editor’s Note here.  With the exception of a simple black and white poster, no fancy papers have been used, there are no inserts, or other ephemera which adorned previous issues.  The content, however, is just as rich and colorful as ever, and I was most excited to see an article about Bern Porter with a reproduction of his artist book: Where to Go/What to do/When in New York/Week of June 17, 1972.

This is a reminder to support the arts!  Don’t let your subscriptions lapse.  Art Magazines are wonderful venues for emerging and established artists to exhibit, write, and speak about art.  But, if you are feeling truly strapped for cash, here are some *free* online art magazines, blogs, and websites:

Triple Canopy

e-flux journal

Shifter Magazine

Art Fag City

ASDF

Club Internet

The Highlights

I Heart Photograph

Loshadka

Netmares/Netdreams

Private Circulation

Ubuweb

VVORK

Why + Wherefore

Spring Break

*many of these links borrowed from the exhibit Let’s Meet in In Real Life at Capricious Space this past spring.

Bruce Nauman sorri

Sem muita pressa de postar algo mais substantivo, coloco aqui outros endereços com boas da internet. Um dos meus atletas favoritos fez bonito ontem. Alguns trechos já estão no You tube.

A discussão sobre o blog da Petrobras pega fogo aqui, aqui, aqui, aqui e aqui. O site me deixou entusiasmado e acho que as equipes de reportagem têm uma questão nova para lidar. O resultado será bom. Não dá mais para ser preguiçoso. Acho que existe algo ludista em pensar a reação da empresa como um ataque à imprensa.  Hoje a noite, Sérgio Gabrielli, diretor da empresa, estará no estatal Roda Viva.

 Nas semana passada, li artigos muito bons na rede. Deixo-lhes alguns: Aqui, Maria da Conceição Tavares interpreta a crise financeira. Descobri o texto no ótimo blog do José Paulo Kupfer. Ao visitar outra biblioteca, encontrei um texto do Fredric Jameson que eu não conhecia, um debate com o Jacob Gorender (que sempre me ensinou sobre aspectos da URSS) e uma entrevista esquisita com o Domenico Losurdo sobre a China. No fim, vemos que o que ele critica no Lênin é uma qualidade do bolchevique.

Aproveito que a Bienal de Veneza está na ordem do dia e posto o VVork, um dos sites sobre arte contemporânea que mais visito, um artigo sobre a artista Renata Lucas (que participa da mostra) e comemoro o Leão de ouro à Bruce Nauman (um dos maiores criadores vivos).

Para quem não quiser ler nada, veja esses dois vídeos com o chapa Steve Swell tocando. É muito bonito:

At Vvork I’ve found this piece. It’s called Gold Drip by Petra Cortright.

Vvork is a cool blog on visual arts. From 27/2 till 22/3 they will be curating a show at Mu/ Eindhoven. Including this list of artists.

Two photos of the online web arts project ‘No Men’s Land’ have been featured in the Belgium magazine Code – Issue 8 – Winter 2009. The article which featured the photos has been contributed by VVORK. You can download a pdf of the magazine for free from the Code Magazine website.

Go check out the Code Magazine and the vvork website if you don’t know them already!

>> Code Magazine
>> The VVORK blog

i think eight months ago my friend linked me to vvork
it was quite the explosive channel for me. my god so much information

(and now that i have a laptop i have to on the internet browsing all the time
its only when there is nothing left for an easy brow that i go to vvork
please understand my regards, the photos are becoming more and more bland
they are not the original work, not the documentation of the work
they are of themselves
perhaps its the sheer volume of rectangles set together without context or perhaps the photos are not the highest quality due to whatever computing technical stunts
dude what’s the point? but more at seeparisanddie space

VVORK simply highlights one piece of contemporary art in each entry. The works each have an electrifying sense of originality and spirit, but many make me ask questions about ontology too…. Is every work really art or do some of these pieces have that status by virtue of their installation into a gallery setting?

Found the website through the links section of space invaders > the story of an invasion. Click each image to be brought to VVORK’s description

More:

• “Graph,” Sébastien Delire (2008)
• From “Security Barriers A-L,” Bani Abidi (2008)
• “Mega Promo,” Anthony Peskine (2006-7)
• “MoMa Highlights,” Sid Gomez Hildawa (2007)
• “Untitled (Paperback Covers #01),” Herman Chong (2006)

Grace Jones is back, it seems (linking to Dagbladet generates traffic; traffic is fun; mor fun than trafficing, for example). There is a lot of crazy stuff lying around out there on the web, and you find it when you least expect it. I googled Grace Jones and came across an imitation (or reconstruction, or tribute,  or cover picture (?) maybe) of a famous picture of her on vvork.com.

It doesn’t say who neither the model nor the photographer is; maybe it is the administrator of the webpage. I did not hang around long enough to figure out what kind of place vvork.com is, but check it out, some of the artwork presented there is actually interesting. I liked the empty bookshelf. However, the short movie ‘Semiotics of the Kitchen’ (1975; Martha Rosler) is quite crazy (in a good sense). You have to watch it to the end to understand it, or, at least I had to (I’m not too smart).

Hattip: vvork.com

I simply love the work “In Silence” by Chiharu Shiota. One of the strongest works I have seen lately.

Go see it here.

Cool kids from eastern Europe run this site. It’s worth a visit. They run with a theme every day or two and pull-through art ranging from strange to trite to brilliant.