BABEL-ING THOUGHT

Sound, Rhythm, Theory. Misuc, Msuic, Music.

For some people it is important to study music history because it categorizes who they are as musicians and where their influences are rooted. But why should a studied interpretation of albums released by Billy Holiday or Jimi Hendrix shape who we are as listeners? Aren't we all tuning in for the same reasons: a common interest and pleasure in sound? A smooth way to spend your afternoon should not be justified by autobiographical citings and trivial facts. What makes music so beautiful is its ability to universally connect. Music is art and, with art, we are all linked to the same colorful language. With that being said, open your heart to the sound and you will find yourself sitting in front of blank pages waiting to be filled by your own musical interpretation.

Happy Birthday, Mike

To a man who needs no introduction,
a drummer, brother, role model and friend
with nicknames varying in syllables
(short like slim
long like smidge-a-el-a-cul-la--)

You are one of the greatest people I know and am so lucky to have as my brother.
Watching the roads you've traveled to make it to where you are today serves as an inspiration for anyone who comes along your path. So as one who has also been inspired, I, with the help of Shaina, decided to recreate stages of your life through photographs. This is my virtual present to you. With love, art and liberation, I hope you enjoy!

As I remember quite vividly,
you never seemed to like sports very much growing up. Instead, you were rocking to your own beat and rolling with that sweet rebellion.
This was what you were meant to do and your contributions never fail to bring all those melodies home.

As the only actual male actor in our home videos (not counting myself, Jade or Shaina as the cross dressing fools we played in half the skits), you always brought comedy, creativity and darkness to each scene.

Infamous for your role as Mr. Norman Bates, your leading lady has returned from the dead for another psycho scream!

So there it is; your casual, crazy, exciting personalities compiled into a two day shoot by your two favorite cross dressing fools. After viewing this, I want you to grab some (organic) chocolate syrup, shoot some patron off of Stella's beer belly at the Motherload and celebrate the first day of your twenty-third year flying on Planet URTH!!

MCCLUMP: being very small

WORKWORKWORKWORKWORKWORKWORKWORKWORKWORK

“One pill makes you larger and one pill makes you small..”1 When Alice was tiny she’d get along quite well with the works of Charles LeDray! His works in many ways are all about dimensions, small ones, but considerably more. New York based LeDray creates perfectly scaled objects from incredibly detailed clothing to a really wild range of ceramic vessels.

His most recent work in his survey show at the ICA in Boston is Throwing Shadows, 2008-10. This is, in many ways, an unbelievably complex work that features more than 3,000 vessels around 2” high made from black porcelain. The works are arranged on a large, rectangular, white surface enclosed in glass with multiple light sources casting overlapping shadows. As much as I tried it didn’t seem as if I could find any two alike! The details on these pots were obsessive to the point where he may need help…! The overall effect is very disconcerting as if one was 25’ tall looking down and in on a display of actual vessels.

Minolta '76

Her "Alter Ego" in a Black and White sector

I've been playing around with my mom's old Minolta SR-T 202 for the past three months. My weekly routine has turned into a series of outdoor photography shoots (due to a broken flash and a strong dislike for artificial light) with living or non-living things. My picture taking adventures are followed by a trip to the local CVS photo lab where my friends, Mark and Tim take charge in printing. Once one-hour has passed, we spend time and go over the film: what worked with color, where focus was beneficial and how the subjects responded in the prints. It has become my new hobby that I would now like to share with you. All pictures will be posted on a separate website within the next month or so...

RED LIPS & FLASHBACKS

Lady Gaga channels iconic looks in Show Studio interview

Fashion website 'Show Studio' featured Fashion Director and staged journalist Alexander Fury interviewing the futuristic and culturally evolving fashionista/performance artist, Lady Gaga. What I found most intriguing was the production and setting of the two hour questionnaire. A black back drop, two rolling chairs and side table (for the musician's intricately designed tea cup and saucer) created a chic, intimate feel, as if you were sitting alongside your friend in a studio engaging in conversation full of thought, interests and laughter while also thinking to yourself "wow, I'm in a studio with HD equipment and an audience of online viewers listening to me talk." It sounds like a dream, if you ask me.

There were no other colors removing the viewer from the content of the interview considering the artist herself was sporting a black metallic bra with a velvet cropped suit coat fitted to her petite frame. Red lips and nails polished off the overall glamour of the set. Not only did it add color, but it also directed most of my attention to her mouth: physically prominent and full, the controller of all verbal communication for a strong figure in music, art, and philosophy.

Furthermore, though famous for her corky wig choices, Gaga seemed to be reliving moments of the past over any other of her looks seen before. Displaying a very retro short blonde do, I felt as though I was watching an adaptation of Madonna's 1980's "Truth or Dare" documentary or clips from Edie Sedgwick's "Poor Little Rich Girl."

It all seemed channeled from another era, consciously emphasizing the timelessness of these fashions while synthesizing her own attitude into a combination of stylish appeals. But instead of addressing the overall aesthetic as "unoriginal" or "already done", we should consider how our individual fashion sense relates to past decades. If we can be inspired, why can't she?

Plus, I wouldn't mind wearing a black bra and jacket out in public. We must embrace the cycle of fashion and continue to be inspired by those who aren't afraid to re-make statements into their own.

Watch interview here: http://showstudio.com/project/in_camera/lady_gaga

MCCLUMP: FEELING BLUE

Yves Klein (1928-1962) was arguably one the most important, groundbreaking conceptual artists of the 20^th century. He only lived for 34 years and one wonders how much more influential his work might have been had he lived?

He was one of the first artists to create a number of inventive and innovative works, many in his signature blue, that he called IKB – International Klein Blue. He used this hue in most of his works and starting around 1958 created the majority in IKB. Some of his most interesting, original and, at the time, unusual pieces were his figurative works. In these, he first painted color onto naked models and then had them either lie on blank canvas or roll on it. The results were strikingly abstract but recognizable images that were humorous and seductive. They were not prurient in their seduction but inviting. One is immediately taken by the forms and after a few moments recognizes the human figure.

In many of these works such as Anthropométrie de l’époque bleue (ANT 82), 1960 110” x 61”, he repeated the images a number of times. In this work, we see five partial figures seemingly moving across the canvas. These are female images from the breasts to the knees.Together they become something other than what they are individually. There is clear expression in their movement and placement. The title translates to Anthropometry of the blue time. Anthropometry is defined as the measurement and study of the human body and its parts and capacities¹. Using this definition, we can see Klein’s possible jab at the artistic use of anatomy. As artists, we are trained in anatomy, to understand the proportions of the human body and to think about the scale and interrelationship of the parts in our work. In these and many other works, he plays with this concept by not painting the body on the canvas but painting the body and placing it on the canvas! The resulting works are marvelous.

Anthropométrie de l’époque bleue (ANT 82), 1960
Pigment pur et résine synthétique sur papier monté sur toile
155 x 281 cm Achat, 1984 AM 1984-279 © Adagp, Paris 2007

Klein created quite a large oeuvre considering the short period he had to work. His art was influential from the start and still is today. His works are shown to and discussed with today’s art students who see that what many of them think is wild and unusual was already done by Klein over 50 years ago! There is presently an excellent retrospective of the work of Yves Klein at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C. that is more than worth the trip. Just remember to wear Blue!

^{1 http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu}

Yves Klein: With the Void, Full Powers, Hirshhorn Museum, Washington D.C., May 20 - September12, 2010: http://hirshhorn.si.edu/exhibitions/view.asp?key=1&subkey=252

MCCLUMP in ITALIA: De Chirico's Metaphysical Representations

To say that I was amazed by this show is an understatement. I was in Rome mainly to see the Caravaggio show and on my way there passed the Palazzo delle Esposizioni and saw the banner for this show.

I have always loved De Chirico’s work and had recently seen a show in Firenze (Florence) that dealt with his influences on the work of Max Ernst, Magritte, Balthus, and other Surrealists. This was a fine show but the one in Roma was far more spectacular!

It was a very hot day in Roma and very cool in the museum which is housed in a marvelous, neo-classical building built in 1883. The show was on the ground floor that has a massive, three story open rotunda styled after the Pantheon with a skylight at the occulus. The open rotunda had eight sides with seven galleries accessible from it (the eighth side was the entrance to the museum). Over 120 of De Chirico’s works arranged in these galleries each one dealing with a specific aspect of Nature, Water, Air, Earth, etc. The exhibition was mounted to celebrate 100 years since the birth of Metaphysical Art, what De Chirico called his work.

I would spend time in one gallery then go to the rotunda that had four large couches, each 4-sided in the center with small speakers suspended about ten feet above constantly playing De Chirico discussing his work. I'd lounge a while and then move on to the next gallery. I had two goals: take my time, relax and really see the show and use up time as my return train to Firenze was @ 7:45 p.m. Having seen and studied De Chirico’s work, I realized right away there were so many here I’d never seen, known about or hadn’t ever been shown before.

I discovered many things about De Chirico. For example, he had many paintings in the show that were signed with a date sometimes 30 years before he actually painted it. There might be a work signed Giorgio De Chirico 1927 that the gallery card noted was actually painted in 1963! He had a great sense of humor not only with this but also with the juxtaposition of objects in many of his works.

In the gallery that dealt with Water many of the paintings were from a series called I bagni misteriosi [The Mysteries of the Baths.] These were extremely surreal, but somewhat frightening and funny, enigmatic to the max! In I bagni misteriosi II, 1935-6 we see a man in a business suit sitting on a box looking at three unclothed men, two standing (?) waist deep in the bagno, the third knee deep. The pool contains three mysterious platforms supported by angled logs. On each is a sort of cabana with a different type of closed door. There is a second clothed man standing further away with his back to us. This all exists in De Chirico’s signature, starkly lit and shadowed, vast surreal plane.

The water is usually rendered as a series of lines that are triangular repetitions, here in black and orange, like angular waves; the same way an opera set might be constructed to show moving waves. These “bagni” in which all of the figures stood could be miles long but consistently narrow with the occasional circular bulge. There would always be at least one fully clothed (suit & tie) man either standing or seated. The paintings had a very strange atmosphere, very dream-like but edgy. At first you didn’t really see what was [possibly] happening. After viewing a whole gallery of around 12 of these I was easily taken into their world.

Then there were a series of Furniture paintings: La mobilia nella valle (The furniture in the valley), La mobila nell’oceano (at the ocean), at least 5-8 of each. In each of these there would usually be a large, high-backed armchair, a mirrored, tall vanity, usually with a bit of flourish at top and a bookshelf, all usually on a carpet. They would just be arranged in the valley, or on the mountain (La mobila sulla montagna) or on the seashore, as if someone had placed them there to use as an outdoor room. These never contained any figures. The way he painted these was, of course, all about atmosphere. The unusual placement was never in question, but where was everyone? Had they just left and were they coming back?

Being able to see a complete range of De Chirico's work emphasized his significance as one of the most important innovators and artists of the 20^th century. He managed to create, populate, and establish a seemingly endless world of images that hold just as much ambiguity, humor, and unanswerable questions when viewed today in our society of instant information and high tech solutions, truly Misteri.

Links to the two shows mentioned:

http://english.palazzoesposizioni.it/mediacenter/FE/home.aspx

http://www.dechiricoafirenze.it/index.jsp?idProgetto=2