Oil vs. Art or You've Got To Be Kidding!!!

Robert Smithson, The Spiral Jetty, 1970

The date has passed to contact the Utah congressmen to complain about this insidious attack on one of the most infamous and important art pieces of the past century - THE SPIRAL JETTY ... And guess what -- I didnt even make the deadline, which was Feb 13th!!! Yes, like many, like even my students, I had the date in my "head" as Feb 22nd .... Too busy I guess .... (yes, that same old excuse) .... !#%#$^@$^$%^

But why not go ahead and send those guys an email and let them know that you care? Check out the NOW REPUBLIC article and link to these guys' emails .... Let them know that Pearl Montana Exploration and Production, LTD - from Canada (now that just blows on all fronts) - has no right to drill so close to a national monument (well, it SHOULD be!) that is also a symbol of "American" freedom, art, Earth, indigenous awareness, and well, anti-manifest destiny!!! Not only will these "exploration boreholes" disrupt the color, elevation, and floor-base of the beautiful Great Salt Lake it will also disrupt an important migratory bird ecosystem ... Now is the time to make it all STOP ... How long can this over zealous, money mongering, tight-assed society that the Bush's have reigned over keep tearing away at the earth and our art, = OUR FREEDOM ... ??? ALSO: SEE DIA ART SEE THE NEW YORK TIMES OPINION SEE THE DAILY HERALD AND THERE ARE SOME GREAT LINKS AND STORY ON TREE HUGGER

ArtStuff

If you have not seen this show you really should ...

FANATIC by Jillian McDonald ...

@ 1708Gallery / 319 W. Broad St. / Richmond, VA ....

Jillian proposes the artist as celebrity obsessor -- walking the line between voyer, stalker, or artist interested in jamming the culture -- ideas of the comodity of desire ....

See Jillian's Billy Bob Site for a walk through ... Billy Bob obsessions and the power of the female in general .... And for more info see the Screen Kiss site ...

And the article from the New York Times in 2006 tells it ALL !!!

AND SEE GINGER SPIVEY'S REVIEW IN THE MAY/JUNE EDITION OF ART PAPERS ...

Artist & Writers ... and other things ...

These are some images from the ARTISTS AND WRITERS Exhibition from last April. This exhibition was curated by Kathryn Shaw-Sweeney at Flippo Gallery, Randolph Macon College. (click on image for enlargement)

Brad Thomas Birchett; The Everyday Act of Exhistence; photo-documenation (18, 8x12" silver geletin prints) of environmental intervention, audio; 2007

In this installation I worked with the idea/theme of story telling, building a narrative over time. I recorded my evening practice of throwing a stick for my dog, Luka. A repetative, physical, and learning experience that I work on every day..

... A detail of the installation.

... another detail.

... and another.

Included is an audio piece created from the every-day sounds that happened during the interventions. These pieces were hand-edited and dubbed by my friend Johnny Hott. At the gallery there were also stacks of cards so people could have something ...

On the back of the cards were various segments of a short story by my wife, Stacie ... an epitaph she wrote for our other dog, Zuzu.

See Artist & Writers review by Christina Esposito: Read Into It

Please see also: Plant Zero Exhibition ... Matter of Time

AND, the Vanderbilt Exhibition ... Rubberneckers

G. Roy Levine, Director of MFA in Visual Arts, Vermont College ~2001

Vanderbilt Exhibition - A Walking Tour by Curator Jodi Hays

Vanderbilt Rubberneckers Exhibition

CLICK IMAGES TO SEE THE SUPER ENHANCED VERSION

After driving 9 hrs installing the artwork for the Rubberneckers exhibition at Vanderbilt was easy ... especially when you have a great curator like Jodi, who dosnt mind climbing ladders ... and of course my assistant & companion ... Estaci ...

The show looked great, the spacing and laying out of the show was what really made it work. Although there were 9 artists/groups showing, there was a perfect amount of space and rhythm between the works to allow them to ebb and flow ... This rhythm of negative space is what made the show both cohesive and the works all relative to the curatorial statement, which was about movement, voyeurism, and how "lookers" sometime get in the way ...

Gleaning Time & Alley Sites Installation ...

Jake Galle's corn field (in back) next to my found object & photo installation ...

Shea Craig & Yvonne Swanson's Most Beautiful Thing interactive web-based piece ... with Victoria Burge's prints as the visual entry ... and there's Jake's corn-art again!!!

Paula Booth's urban paintings & Erika Wollam Nichols' 58 minute video of Shelby Creek Reservoir ...

The rest of Erika's piece - The Trash Mandala - trash found around the same Reservoir

This Must Be the Place's collaborative performative interventive piece a la Bob Ross mentorship video - A Pretty Nice Painting ...

Tania Kupczak's interactive audio piece - the sound of snow ...

... and back to the beginning. The battery in my camera ran out so I don't have an image of Larry Caveney's incredible video of 2 girls fighting at a gallery - arm wrestling actually - or of John Calley's drawings of cars & people -- done with a bit of motor oil ... Nashville is great and Jodi ROCKS!!!

Nuclear Venus and Nest Ring

These are a couple of paintings that were in the Disrobed exhibition at Gallery 5 in Richmond. This exhibitions was last June and the painters were hung in the midst of beautiful peformative works that spoke of co-existance of industry and nature.

Brad Thomas Birchett, Nuclear Venus or Cest Le Vie, ~ 45 x 49, 2005-2007 

Nuclear Venus or Cest Le Vie and her ilk can be seen at Gallery 5, the Disrobed 2 exhibition, June - July 2007.