Fresh Art: Allison Shulnik, anonymous

Allison Shulnik

Her works are of a clear aether, newly synthesized and bright-- but recall a mystery and deviance present in the art of Dubuffet. The effect: interplays of primal vitality and crumbling ephemerality of the body and mind.

Anonymous [Ego Leonard?]

Some jokester leaves an 8 foot tall lego man on the beach. Is this mixture of PR stunt, performance, and public installation a legitimate form of art? I honestly don't know you all must tell me

Pablo Picasso, meet Kenojuak Ashevak

Kenojuak Ashevak is an Inuit artist who produces prints with all the ethereal beauty of the Baffin Island landscape she grew up on. Her artwork are studies in the transformation of simple forms into traditional iconography. The spirit forms of various creatures are depicted in an elegant centralized composition, suggesting autonomy as well as the links to their mythological significance.


Ravens Entwined, lithograph


Birds from the Sea, stencil, 1960



and my personal favorite; Arrival of the Sun, stonecut, 1962

Inuit and Native American art in general has not traditionally been considered important to the Western World's conception of what art ought to look like, but as the world becomes increasingly globalized, we begin to look back to time-tested cultures for more natural solutions to the problems of representation and of life. Kenojuak's prints are successful at expressing that which is most urgent and primitive. They strive for order and meaning, without complication, as we do in life as well as image-making. See more of her work here.

Imaging the City II

PORTLAND, Many hundreds of people marched through the streets of downtown Portland today in protest of what they call "corporate greed." It is linked to the growing Occupy Wall Street movement that began last month in NYC, and has inspired similar movements in many cities across the united states. Citizens marched down second ave from Chapman Square where they have set up long-term "infrastructure," and over the Broadway bridge, halting traffic on many of Portland's main streets. The demonstrations here in Portland have remained peaceful.

The other sign of this kid's sign said "Horatio Alger is Dead."


Cute.




"Viva La Evolution"






This guy had a lovable goofy smile.








These folks had an amp and a generator that they were towing in a cart. It was hooked up to a microphone which really helped give the chants some extra "uumph"



Fellow GOP presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich told CBS that he agrees with Cain that the protests are "a natural product of Obama's class warfare. ... We have had a strain of hostility to free enterprise. And frankly a strain of hostility to classic America starting in our academic institutions and spreading across this country. And I regard the Wall Street protest as a natural outcome of a bad education system, teaching them really dumb ideas." But what Mr. Newb Biggrinch is forgetting is the idea that unregulated free enterprise creates vast economic disparity is only "dumb" if you're profiting from it.

Climbing in your Windows: Snatching your Culture Up

Chatting with my Music Theory grad student brother-extraordinaire recently I learned of the developing field known as Music Cognition. "What's that?" I immediately got excited. He explained its a mix of hard cognitive psychology, aesthetics, philosophy, and sociology used to figure out how we understand music. I thought of a dozen lab-coat clad academics gathered around some dude with headphones on. Creepy.

So many parallels between music and art, I thought. So, why not Art Cognition, or Media Cognition? (it does exist in scattered texts). If used for the forces of evil, much money could be made. Today's communicators must be psychologists as well as designers.

So who succeeds in an age where novel content is outshadowed by even more novel media? YouTube's most popular video of 2010; The "Auto-Tune the News" Bed Intruder Song exemplifies a familiar phenomenalism, but with viral videos taking the place of radio tunes or blockbuster movies. This well produced hip-hop mash up caught us off guard with its shockingly relevant mix of music and media. It elicits no response from the self-centered viewer, but is interactive in that it inspires them to afterwards view and create other remixes.

But if it wasn't the Gregory Brother's skill with software then it was their specific choice of each elements; a cliche snippet of network news, the auto-tuned voice of an urban black figure, a shiny pop song. It's classic yet avant-garde, a collision of the old and new, familiar yet fresh, safe yet edgy. A similar aesthetic is present in Dub-step, where the DJ/musician combines left-over 90's hip hop, drum n' bass, and reggae tropes with digitally produced sounds that early electronic artists only dreamed of.

But these cultural phenomenon have little to do with furthering art unless using the former to achieve the latter. Both will continue to change in appearance according to the spirit of the times, but for now the Gregory brothers seem to have the winning formula.

Zombies are Real: Post-Apocalyptia in Pop Film

In the words of the wise [guy] Jason Windsor who created the crappy early 2000's flash meme End of Ze World; "Ruling out the ice caps melting [sorta like Day After Tomorrow], meteors becoming crashed into us [definitely like Armageddon], the sun exploding and the ozone layer leaving us, we're basically going to blow ourselves up." Okay.

It is said that every generation believes that they are the last. "The world is going to Hell in a hand basket." But modern history is especially saturated with doom, during which a pair of World Wars brought to us such manifestations of the macabre as tanks, bombers, gas, and eventually, the nuke.

Ever since, the imaginations of authors and filmmakers have come to rest upon the Apocalypse. What will it be like in reality? What will it be like in the darkest nightmare? And how can some combination of the two be used to expose the destructive nature of humans and perhaps in some way prevent a ghastly conclusion to all of humanity.

Indeed, in apocalypse-narratives, the viewer is almost always placed (for dramatic effect) in the situation of an individual or small group as they struggle to survive the end of the world, or the immediate aftermath of whatever climactic event that aspired.

But more than gimmicky effects, this style of story-making appeals to us because we are cast into the standpoint of the main characters, and are cast into the decision making process of someone who disregards all conventions of a now non-existent society and performs various illegal and destructive acts in the name of self-preservation, such as stealing cars, or weapons, and in the case of zombie films; using them against people.



George Romero's 1968 film Night of the Living Dead was so successful in examining some of these themes, that it is rightfully credited with popularizing the phenomenon that would come to be known as zombie film. Night of the Living Dead begins with a young woman, Barbara, who acts as the viewer's surrogate throughout the first part of the movie, but once Barbara becomes incapacitated by fear and insanity so caused by her new apocalyptic reality, the viewer quickly transitions into the thought processes and actions of Ben, a young black worker, as he snaps into action boarding up the farmhouse they've both taken refuge in. Romero here draws a clear duality of reactions to the impending doom; one of denial and ultimate defeat versus a voracious will to fight and to keep alive. He continues to juxtapose the two characters throughout the film, emphasizing Barbara's uselessness and Ben's composure and usefulness, forcing the viewer to ponder his or her own natural reaction to a disaster of similar proportions.

The middle-aged father character, Harry, embodies yet a third paradigm of a human reacting on an animalistic level to the stresses of an apocalyptic environment. Generally unlikable, Harry is more proactive than Barbara, but his efforts are mostly counterproductive and clearly motivated by a cowardice that sharply contrasts Ben's altruism. His stubborn conservatism is demonstrated through his desperate attempts to convince the rest of the group to join him in the basement stronghold over which he feels he has control, and can be seen as a reference to the underlying ignorant fear and discrimination that defines the politics of state and national borders and home spaces.

The final and most compelling moment of the film occurs after each character is lost, one by one, to the "ghouls." Ben, the last remaining survivor, emerges from the basement to a quiet, zombie-free atmosphere, only to be gunned down immediately by an armed posse who mistook him for a ghoul. This abrupt ending to the film leaves the viewer in shock, numbed by the disregard for human life displayed by the zombie hunters, who like soldiers in a "hostile zone" show no hesitation to kill when they themselves perceive a threat to their own lives.

---

Most subsequent zombie and other post-apocalyptic narratives examine the same basic theme in various ways, but the common thread is the hand-delivered fantasy of operating outside the common laws and norms of refined society in a survival situation, including cannibalism. Some very successful texts in this area include most subsequent Romero flicks, 28 Days Later, AMC's Walking Dead, and a score of related non-zombie films like Mad Max, Children of Men, and The Road.

One doesn't need to be an expert in environmental science to understand that the human population has exceeded what our environment can provide and that an impending dieoff is indeed a reality. In a world where major social and environmental issues are innumerable, and their solutions seem as distantly hopeless and densely intertwined as the problems themselves, could our unconscious minds be seriously preparing for the real post-apocalypse? Does this explain the pop-realism imbued within these films and their subsequent achievements in the mainstream? Is Hollywood subtly trying to tell us not to go off eating each other when the shit really does hit the fan? I'm not sure, but what I can say is BRRAAAAIIINNS!

Snapshots from Sasquatch '11

Sasquatch celebrated its symbolic 10th anniversary this year, and as the decade turns over Adam Zacks flaunts his curatorial prowess by booking dozens of today's top alternative musical acts. The appearance of such groups as Against Me!, Foo Fighters, Bassnectar, and Bright Eyes represents a wide variation of genres. A division between the traditional guitar rock and single DJ electronic music was prominent, but the fragmentation of modern music did not prevent the folks at Sasquatch from bringing together the most talented practicing artist-musicians for 4 days of the rockin'est concert of all time.



My first roomate and trusty concert-going comrade Jeff and I hit up the Roseland on Thursday night to see Neon Indian and Sleigh Bells. I had never been there before, and although I was a bit skeptical of the guitarist hyping the crowd with Iron Man, the intense moshing that continued throughout was quite splendid.


Friday morning/afternoon we drove up through the Columbia River gorge then up through the Yakima Valley via WA-97/I-90 towards Wenatchee. This is a seriously scenic drive.


Friday night we saw Dave Greul and the Food Fighters. Seeing such a staple grungy alt-rock band was a special experience that lots of people enjoyed.


Saturday morning we woke up and wandered groggily over to the (shuttle) and saw Wavves and Radio Department on the main stage. Radio Dept's band members and sound are reminiscent of the best of Broken Social Scene, and contrasted the most pit of youngster punks at the Wavves that quickly turned into a pointless pushing match.


We headed over to the Yeti stage afterwards to check out Wye Oak who does well the awesome folk-rock sound that underlies the aesthetics of many of the younger rock groups playing the festival this year.


I met Jesse Rogers, a writer for pinpointmusic.com, at the Worf Parade show who told me to check out this band, the Thermals. They have a cool new-punk style that puts the required energy into updating the well-loved genre.


We had to peace because the Thermals played at the same time as Washed Out (who brought the band and knocked us over with ten foot high chillwaves). We missed Iron and Wine but got good spots for Bright Eyes which was awesome because their performance was spectacular. He was less drunkenly than when I saw him at the Concord Center for the Performing Arts in '05, which was much appreciated since every song, including new material, was crisp and delicious, and really tapped into the pop-emotionalism that makes Bright Eyes' music so successful.


Snapshot from secret seating area with secret trashcan tripod.


Death Cab played splendidly and really tempted me to go out and pick up all the new releases I haven't kept track of. You can see Ben Gibbard rocking out in this pic, but all the rest are blurry--like my memory of their insane performance at S'quatch '08.


Typhoon, one of the best known bands from the Tender Loving Empire record label, opened Sunday morning on the Bigfoot stage. The twelve-piece set up was pretty impressive. Complete with quasi-homeless looking percussionist shown above.


Typhoon is one of the most exciting new indie bands coming out of Portland. Their large ensemble with lengthy, sweeping compositions is pleasing to post-rock fans, while their pop vocals and lyrical themes cater to a more general audience.


Das Racist was pretty outrageous live, half hour late, belligerent, but the beats were good and the rapping was entertaining.. as always. Their recorded work is more expressive of their talents.

They were rapping to me, and only to me.


Boogied over to the mainstage to see Wayne, Steve, sunglasses-bassist guy and the remaining Flaming Lip I did not recognize. They played soft bulletin all the way through, which was totally righteous as it is one of their finest most comprehensive (and certainly well-loved) albums.


Their shows are beyond the hook.


This is an image of Isaac Brock illuminating the world with beautiful lo-fi music.


A bright new group named "the Young Evils" kicked off Monday.


After some minor bands and a visit to the comedy tent, I couldn't have been ready for the face melting that Guided By Voices delivered. Chromeo fans cleared out from the mainstage area, leaving behind a committed group of experienced indie rockers. The assembly was small, but certainly had the highest crowd-surfing and mosh-dancing per audience member ratio of any show that weekend.


Epic cloudery


The lead singer of Best Coast is a real comedian, and a cutie! (Whatever, I got a crush.) I shouldn't let that overshadow the fact that they had one of the most satisfying lo-fi indie rock sounds of all the new performers (that I caught) this year.


My distant view of Decemberists fans.


The long awaited Wilco played THE headlining spot on Monday night, tearing up every classic and new track with exceptional clarity and energy. They played the catchiest riffs the loudest and made sure to deliver ample guitar and drum solos, which may seem like cheating but damn what could really make a rock concert better?

Food for Thought

Combining text and image has always been a welcomed challenge for me. This formula came to me in a half-asleep revelation after witnessing youth culture in a pure form. "Kids these days." We must be frank with them, they're tired of old sarcasm. Though they do not like to be indoctrinated, my message is urgent. The planet hasn't time for another generation of Western egocentricism.




Short phrases provide meaning on the surface, the inset images juxtaposed with one another, as well as with the words they apply to, help further the meaning and add a little ambiguity.

The photos are originals, from Flickr Creative Commons, Wikipedia public domain & freedigitalphotos.net. I liked the humanity of the selection on Creative Commons.


The photo credits are a copyright compliance and a reference the post-structuralist art-making conventions that have been gaining speed in music (in the form of sample-based hip-hop & electronica) and visual art (in the form of collage and montage) since the late 20th century. The room for originality nowadays is more in the basic concept and less in the representational style.



Is it significant that I build these just as I would ads for the newspaper? What do you think?

Thrifting Eugene's Scene

Graduation's coming real soon, and as my college career comes to a screeching halt, I ask; besides a few Carlo Rossi jugs full of bottle caps, what do I have to show for myself? One thing I've managed to do over the years is locate many of Eugene's finest second-hand establishments. This may not seem like a significant accomplishment to most Republicans, but potentially thrifty and fashionable readers will appreciate this article's critical intel surrounding the acquisition of people's old crap. These folks know what troves of fantastic stuff lie in store.

Your route will vary by location, but the first stop on a typical Eugene Thriftxpedition for me is usually the dueling St. Vincent de Paul and Goodwill on 11th and Seneca. These two huge thrift stores are literally right next to each other and are even laid out similarly to those who are used to homogeneous store layouts in their shopping experience. Both stores are packed with a plethora of clothing, shoes, electronics, furniture, and other housewares that have been cycling through the homes of Eugene residents and college students for the past couple decades. A few blocks down Broadway back towards campus and you're at the SVDP donation center, a thrifting Mecca with more random items than a mystery box in Marioland. This Bermuda Triangle of thrift stores provides shoppers access to maximum volume & diversity (making it easier to find more good stuff in fewer visits).

Whether you live in North Eugene (probably not if you're reading this), or if you don't mind cruising the North Bank bike trails, the Goodwill off Delta Hwy is totally worth a visit. This store has a huge area, super friendly associates, and a good selection of jeans.

Some folks are particularly drawn to thrift stores for the unique styles of yesterday. If fashion is what you're in to, then head straight down Eugene's bustling thoroughfare; Willamette street. Between 10th and 11th you'll find Kitsch, and off 13th, Deluxe; a duo of fashion boutiques with a range of second hand and original garments for all Eugenians. Kitsch specializes in eccentric and avant-garde clothes, original t-shirts, accessories and other novelites, whereas Deluxe carries more hip and classic stuff. Both stores are owned and operated by Mitra Chester and her husband Aaron, and are often teaming up with other local boutiques like Redoux Parlour to put on pageants and other great events. These shops save you time sifting through stretched out sweaters and ugly shirts, and are very competitively priced with other vintage re-sale shops in the area like Eugene Jeans and Value Village.

Hosea Youth Services thrift store on 7th and Blair is a unique, small boutique which carries a really nice hand-picked selection at the lowest prices. Relatively new and in cognito, Hosea is the perfect target for experienced thrifters looking for that extra edge in finding cool stuff cheap. Another tip is the St. Vincent De Paul in Santa Clara, a large facility that is frequented less by the hip types notorious for snatching up good flannels and retro stuff.

Whatever shops you choose, visit them occasionally in as regularly spaced intervals as your schedule allows, but be discretionary in your purchases. It is best to shop often and buy rarely, this will ensure that you only walk out of the store with that one garment that is "totally you." And when you rock clothes that express your personality, you're inevitably more confident and successful in your everyday interactions.

Also, by stocking your wardrobe with second hand clothes, you're supporting your local economy in a big way by creating jobs and wealth, recycling unused goods, therefore reducing waste, as well as being sure you're not paying $15 for a t-shirt that was made out of subsidized cotton from Texas only to be made in China. After a while, scoring cool clothes cheap and guilt-free could cause you to wonder why you ever shopped at a mall in the first place. So check out one of these fine thrift-stablishments, or one I missed, you really never know what you might find.

IMMIGRATING NORTH: A Glimpse into the Opression of Latin America

Border Wars

The discussion of Mexican immigrants in America is often truncated by political debate, leaving the humanitarian crisis affecting millions largely unaddressed. But the region is a historic hotbed for conflict that ought to be examined at the institutional level-- as well as the personal level-- in order to gain insight into the bigger picture of immigration.

It begins around 150 years ago, as the political and economic borders that we so passionately defend today were first drawn. Indeed, the entire southwest portion region of the US was owned by Mexico until the Mexican-American War. Mexico invited American settlers to homestead in the fertile soils of the Texas territory, and the number of white settlers soon exceeded that of the native Mexicans. Mexico’s condition that they not bring slaves was unfavorable to the American settlers, and they revolted, successfully. The new Republic of Texas was annexed to the US a decade later however, just in time to become a committed pro-slavery state in the American Civil War. California, Nevada, Utah, and the rest of Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico were ceded later for 15 million (~300 billion adjusted), only after the US invaded central Mexico and forced them to sign the treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo. West of the Rio Grande, an additional 29,600 sq miles was purchased for 10 million in the Gadsden Purchase in hopes of establishing a trans-continental railroad through the deep south. This land makes up the infamous desert border of Arizona, where so many have perished by nature or by man. Besides being geographically significant, these “acquisitions” made by the US immediately located hundreds of thousands of indigenous Mexicans and mestizos North of the border, setting the precedent for the xenophobic and territorial altercations that continue today.

Mexico was weakened greatly by the war, and after a brief occupation by a French Habsburg emperor, then a re-institution of the Republic, in 1876 a dictator Porfirio Diaz established a relatively stable 30 year totalitarian regime which was very friendly to foreign investors. American capitalists and wealthy Mexican landowners established factories, or maquiladoras, which exploited the cheap labor of women and children in impoverished areas. Mostly located on the border, they are distinguished for the practice of importing raw materials duty-free and re-exporting them, sometimes back to the original country at large profits.

Today, the NAFTA agreement and agricultural subsidies in the US allow American farmers to under-price their southern counterparts in staple crops and meats, causing Mexican farmers to have to sell a significant portion (around 20%) of their goods below production cost. Global competition has also hurt the Mexican economy. Indeed in a simple glance at North American history, it is painfully obvious how corruption and profiteering in both countries have caused a condition of serious economic disadvantage to the citizens of Mexico.

Occupational Hazard

However, undocumented US immigrants are from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and from around the world. They come to the US for a variety of reasons, but typically a provider immigrates first for economic reasons, then relatives come to join the family, legally or otherwise. The difficulty of gaining legitimate citizenship status begins with obtaining permanent residency (the green card). In order to do this, you must already have a job lined up or family members in the States (there are some exceptions-- mostly business or academic related). Once you are a permanent resident, you must live here for five years before being eligible for citizenship. Often the immigrants’ situation is too dire to wait half a decade or more. This is all also very difficult, especially nowadays that US citizens themselves are having massive unemployment issues. In fact, evidence shows that the illegal immigrant population has fallen by as much as 13.7% (Camarota) between the summers of 2007 and 2009. This indicates that America’s own unemployment problems have been a serious deterrent for impoverished asylum-seekers.

Once an undocumented immigrant has made it to the US, he or she must face an entirely new series of tribulations in their quest for economic prosperity. They must find an “under-the-table” gig, or a furnish false documentation just to land a minimum-wage job. Many work in the fields as migrant laborers following the seasons throughout the United States. Others find jobs in the city as janitors, construction workers, maids, or waiters. No matter where they work, without documentation, these folks are highly susceptible to exploitation and almost always work for less than minimum wage. Although some do not pay taxes while utilizing social services, their cheap labor essentially balances out any effect on the US economy. They also must risk the constant fear of deportation, the equivalent of a dirty secret they must keep just so they may feed themselves and their family. Civil rights are human rights, and undocumented immigrants are not afforded them.

A Culture of Clash

What they do encounter is a climate of intense discrimination—and violent racism—in border states and around the nation. Groups like the Minutemen and the American Neo-Nazi movement represent the worst of their oppression on the personal level. These organizations are noted for being highly irrational and sometimes militant, the Minutemen ‘volunteer border monitors’ often murder immigrants crossing the Arizona border. They receive no mercy from the government either, with an additional 6 billion dollars in the 2011 budget to help hire more border agents and complete a ‘virtual wall’ along the desert border. Public officials often run along the platform of anti-immigration to reach the wide range of moderates and conservatives who see immigration as a threat to the country’s way of life (which is ironic to those who realize that Anglo-Americans took the land by force from the millions of darker skinned indigenous peoples who lived here before us). These and other forms of cultural imperialism mark the intense Eurocentricism that plagues American discourse.

Although the US was indeed founded with European-Christian ideals, this cultural paradigm has come to be regarded by many as outdated and problematic. While traditional Americans look to the Bible for a spiritual guide, others recognize a wider pool of available texts, from the teachings of the Dalai Llama to the metaphysical systems of Indigenous Americans. What I am suggesting is that our sense of entitlement to the land and ‘way of life’ is based off a self-perpetuating belief system which ignores the homogenizing effect of globalization upon world cultures. This is based on the observation that throughout history, cultural exchanges between two distinct groups can happen cooperatively and beneficially. When Europeans first began to interact with the indigenous Americans, just as many if not more whites were quite willing to convert to the indigenous culture than vise versa. When some indigenous Americans chose not to adapt European-Christian culture, the domineering aspect of it got the better of them.

The point is, people will move to wherever there is opportunity. When cultures clash, one can integrate with another to adapt to new social and technological conditions, or ignore those new social conditions and stubbornly impose one’s own beliefs. In the future of America, some will continue their pointless discrimination and cultural imperialism even as whites become the minority. Others however, will welcome the natural shift towards a pan-American national identity. By not regarding different cultures as contradictory to ones own, we can be free to facilitate the growth of the most natural and relevant culture possible.

Photo-Narrative

For the photo-narrative project, I decided to project a possible future for planet earth, more specifically, North America. Instead of taking photos of the planet, however, I had to synthesize them myself.