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My quest for severed heads in museums continues. I think my ultimate goal is to find a museum with an almost gratuitous number of severed heads, so I can crown it “Most Metal Museum”. Something along those lines. The two works below are of severed heads from the Getty, and although they’re not amongst my favourites, but they must be cataloged for completeness’ sake.

Above - Jean-Baptiste Chatigny, Head of Saint John the Baptist, 1869 - This piece has the unfortunate fate to be crammed next to the door in the same small room with James Ensor’s massive Christ’s Entry into Brussels in 1889.  I’m not going to say that I like this piece much, although I do like the detail on the gory neck.  It’s just too loosely sculpted for my taste, and Johnny here still looks alive, which I think is a huge error on the part of Chatigny.

Above - Paul Gauguin, Arii Matamoe (The Royal End), 1892.  I wrote about this piece when the acquisition was announced, but I hadn’t seen it in person before today. As I’ve said before, Gauguin’s work is uninteresting to me, but I’m glad that he did visit this subject.  I still can’t believe the Getty went to such lengths and paid millions for this.

Technorati Tags: severed head, Paul Gauguin, Arii Matamoe, Saint John the Baptist, John the Baptist, head, Saint, Jean-Baptiste Catigny, Getty, Getty Center, art

On the radio Wednesday I listened to some poor sap learn that his entire retirement portfolio was worth nothing and, yet, apparently some part of humanity is living like it’s the gilded age.  I think Britain is collectively smoking something.   That’s the only explanation for that black swan that is For The Love of God, and now this, Siren, a 50kg solid gold statue of Kate Moss by artist Marc Quinn. It’s on display at the British Museum, part of their Statuephilia exhibition, opening Saturday. Apparently this exhibition ties in with a “major new television series.” Woo Hoo…

Technorati Tags: Marc Quinn, Siren, Kate Moss, solid gold, gold, sculpture, statue, art, contemporary art, sculpture

Thursday, October 2

Eric Johnson: Maize Artist Talk @ Torrance Art Museum.  Mentioned yesterday, join curator Kristina Newhouse and Eric as they discuss his epic project.  Starts at 3 PM.

Executive Order Karaoke @ MOCA (Sculpture Plaza).  It’s what it sounds like, and presented by the Finishing School.  Hosted by Tammy Tomahawk. Win Prizes!  Part of MOCA’s Engagement Party project.  7-10 PM.

Friday, October 3

Michael Lewis Miller:Psychophysical Prosthetic #1, 1989-Present @ Municipal Art Gallery.  Michael will be playing music while wearing the furniture-like portions of the Psychophysical Prosthetic Wardrobe. Starts at 8 PM.

Ugetsu, Night of the Living Dead and Day of the Dead @ The Silent Movie Theatre.  The mighty Cinefamily is bombarding October with horror films, and in their usual range of taste, from utterly classic to some of the worst things ever projected on screen.  Friday nights this month are devoted to Japanese ghost stories, and they’re kicking off the series with Kenzi Mizoguchi’s classic, Ugetsu.  If you want to make it a long evening for one ticket, their late Friday series is devoted to George Romero, and this friday they’re doubling up on zombie action with Night of the Living Dead and Day of the Dead.  Can’t beat that.  Ugetsu starts at 7:30 and the two Deads start at 10.

The Rising Tide @ Pacific Asia Museum.  Documentary that “investigates China’s meteoric march toward the future through the work of some of its most talented emerging artists.”  Bone up on your “Chinese artists are our new Blue Chip masters” material.  Director Robert Adanto will be introducing the film.  Starts at 8 PM.

Saturday, October 4

THE GOOD BAD: One nite of Photography, Paintings, Tacos @ Above an Ace Hardware in Hermosa Beach (743 4th Street).  Feturing works by Sean Cassidy, Joel Ahrens & Robert Abeyta, Jr.  This may be the first time in a long time that anything curious or interesting has occured in Hermosa Beach.  Reception is 7-10.

Tokyo Nonsense @ Scion Space.  Found out about this through the awesome folks at PoNJA-GenKon.  11 YJA’s including Ichiro Endo, Taro Izumi, Ai Kato (aka ai*madonna), Sachiko Kazama, Iichiro Tanaka, and the six-member artist group, Chim↑Pom.  Curated by Gabriel Ritter. Reception is 7-10.

Lindsay Foster: Show #4 @ Open Gallery.  I met Lindsay during Salty Dog Bites the Hand, an exhibition of Cal Arts MFA candidates in Alan Sekula’s program that we hosted at Angels Gate last year.  She made this amazing, beautiful video diary for Sixtus Petraeus a former ship captain, the father of now well known General David Petraeus, about the Port of Los Angeles.  This is an exhibition of her photographs.  Curated by Claudia Bohn-Spector.  Reception is 7-10.

The Intergalactic Discorse @ MOCA.  Presented by the surely awesome and before now, unknown to me Women’s Science Fiction Book Reading Club of Greater Los Angeles.  Benefit program to promote children’s literacy.  7-10 PM.

20 Years Ago Today @ Japanese American National Museum.  It’s the 20th anniversay of the California Community Foundation’s Fellowships for Visual Artists and this show features works created during their grants by a mountain of recipients.  Opening starts at 7:30.

Cat People (trailer at top) @ The Silent Movie Theatre.  More Cinefamily action.  Early Saturdays in October are devoted to the films of Val Lewton, and this is the classic that you can’t miss.  Watch artist Irene (played by Simone Simon) explore the mysteries of her possible Satanic past and literally catlike sexually murderous side.  Film starts at 7:30. 

LA Derby Dolls: Fight Crew vs Varsity Brawlers @ The Dollhouse.  Banked tracked action is on as the Varsity Brawlers, the newest team of bad gals on spinning urethane, make their debut against the Fight Crew.  Buy your tickets before they sell out!  Bout starts at 8 PM.

Sunday, October 5

MOMENTUM @ various locations in the East Village Art District in Long Beach.  Not too sure about the exact location, but Betsy Lohrer-Hall is installing a lemonade shop in the back of a rental van and has asked artists to do work based with and on paper cups for it.  I’m cooking up a “Gluttony Cup” for it.  More details to come. 10 AM - 8 PM.

Mr. Peanut Haim Steinbach on Mike Kelley @ Overduin and Kite.  Works made by Steinbach based on items from Mike Kelley’s home, offices and studio.  Reception is 5-7 PM.

Technorati Tags: art, contemporary art, film, la art, roller derby

Still having some kind of wacky Wordpress problem here that’s screwing up all my plugins and my ability to post. But that won’t stop me from pimping Eric’s artist talk at the Torrance Art Museum tomorrow. Eric will be discussing all things Maize, starting at 3 PM.  Eric tells a story better than nearly anyone I know, so don’t miss it.

Technorati Tags: Eric Johsnon, Torrance Art Museum, TAM, art, Maize, sculpture, artist talk

Ally, this one’s for you, as usual, and it can be all yours for $24.95+shipping and handling.  The bottom, and I mean the bottom, of the art economy is Z Gallerie, and that’s where this stinking pile of bling is sold.  Kudos to the hack designer who made the above crappy knock off possible.

FYI, to any wire-fu enabled Mission Impossible style art thieves - the Z Gallerie warehouse is located off Rosecrans in Gardena, but it’s guarded by legions of rabid mallrats and aesthetics-disabled crypto-yuppies.  It’s massive, and frightening.  I wonder what the ratio of the retail value of the totality of the merchandise contained within to the “estimated” value of Hirst’s bookend to end all bookends is?

Thanks to C-Monster and Ryan Frank for the joy of this.

Technorati Tags: For The Love of God, tchotchke, Damien Hirst, Z Gallerie, skull, bling, knock off

Dear Readers:
After months of labour on the part of many, many extraordinary individuals, Eric Johnson’s Maize is up and complete in it’s home at the Torrance Art Museum. Today at around 6:30 PM I had the great honor of placing the final kernel (right before I engaged in the mundane taske of spotting and helping Raymond flip over an upsidedown kernel). I’m not posting any pictures of the completed corn until after the opening, because you have to come and see the magic for yourself.

Opening Reception is this Saturday, September 6, 7-10 PM. Be there or else! This project is one of the most amazing efforts I have ever seen or participated in in my lifetime, the culmination of the efforts of hundreds of participants. So many people have had a hand in this project, as laborers, funders, kernel makers, BBQ attendees and in a plethora of other roles. It’s just completely amazing. A big and special advance thanks to Eric Johnson for giving me the opportunity to have a hand in this baby, and to TAM Curator Kristina Newhouse for her patience and support as we make our mess in her yard.

Love,
Kernel Monkey Marshall

P.S. You can see almost all of the 387 kernels that go into the structure in the shot below. Laid out they covered more than half the floor of the whole museum.

Technorati Tags: Eric Johnson, Torrance Art Museum, corn, Maize, kernels, sculpture, LA art, art, contemporary art

Right now my life consists of brief periods of sleeping and eating between long periods of art making. I’ve spent much of the past three days or so either machining holes, deburring said holes or fitting struts to the structure of the Maize cob. For most of yesterday, Lewis Dulin (seen above, in his element) and I worked as a team to fit the 84 struts to the cob.

Above - Yesterday at about 7PM we finally assembled all of the kernel holding struts onto the cob. This was a battle, a battle of ideas, of methods, of trial and error, and it has been awesome. I’m sore and tired, and I as we take each step towards completion, it just gets better and better.

Above - Despite the press of deadline (show opens September 6!)and the need to keep the heat on, there’s always some downtime at the studio. Sometimes you daze off, sometimes you sit down and have a beer (or two, or three) and sometimes I just like to snoop around, checking out the endless cabinet of wonders, especially automotive wonders that make Eric’s Studio their home. That Fables Club Plaque above, sitting on a tire, in front of the wooden master for a sphere mold is just one of a million mysterious details.

I’ve been uploading new pictures from the past week to the Flickr set. Peruse at your pleasure

Technorati Tags: Eric Johnson, Maize cob, corn, metal, metalworking, welding, Lewis Dulin, art, contemporary art, process

So much of yesterday was spend building the primary frame for the cob that will hold the kernels. Made more complicated by the presence of dozens of badly made brackets (seen above). The moron who made the brackets according to this Eric’s diagram, punched the holes and then bent the whole steel sheet on a bending brake, badly, before cutting them into a little parade of mistakes. So they all are a little off 90, so we’re compensating for that and manually straightening the brackets to make it work.

Above - So those brackets are used to mate the four aluminum rings and five steel posts that are the primary structure of the cob. This is the bottom ring, which is the largest, in place, with brackets in place, ready to receive their posts.

Above - That’s Lewis Dulin welding on a stabilizing beam to be removed later. We had all kinds of problems with the welding rig yesterday, giving us a bit of a slow start.

Above - Chris Williamson wrangles rope as we raise a ring into position.

Above - View from the loft, as we lower the 2nd ring into position. The raising and lowering of the rings went really smoothly.

Above - The Cob with the top ring in place. It’s awesomely huge. This piece is gonna be insane when the kernels get mounted.

As always, all photos from this project are here on Flickr.

Technorati Tags: cob, corn, Eric Johnson, welding, metalwork, Chris Williamson, Lewis Dulin, art, sculpture, contemporary art

I was yammering about spokes the other day, without showing what they were. That’s Eric with a cast resin spoke. It’s cast in clear resin and hollow for light weight, and it’s going to be painted black in the final piece. There are sixteen of these, I think.

Technorati Tags: Eric Johnson, art, resin, polyester resin, spoke, sculpture, process, contemporary art, documentation is everything

We’ve finished making kernels, and now we’re into the metalshop part of the project. We’re actually making hardware for two pieces, the metal armature that will support Maize, and a variety of bits that are part of a large “spoke” piece who’s name I do not know. I hadn’t worked on the spoke piece until yesterday, so I’m still a little fuzzy on the details there. The ovoid cut pieces above are some of the end caps for the spokes. They’re made of aircraft aluminum, which is honeycombed for light weight. We’re going to be bonding them into the spokes today with resin, which will flow into the side with the holes. I’ll take some pictures of the spokes themselves today so that what I’m talking about makes a bit more sense.

Above - Chris cutting the honeycomb aluminum.

Above - Eric and Chris cutting 1/4″ aluminum plugs for the opposite end of each spoke. Notice how Eric is cutting while Chris applies a pretty constant stream of WD-40 to the blade to keep things moving. We didn’t really have the right blade, so a little savvy, and a little “we’re going to do this anyways” was needed.

Above - Young Nick with angle grinder. These bolts are for the individual kernels, and he’s putting some rough on the underside so that they grip better.

As always, all the Maize related photos are here in this set.

Technorati Tags: art, contemporary art, sculpture, process, documentation is everything, Eric Johnson, metal shop, metalwork, Maize