hyde or die

The Guggenheim Museum and YouTube have finally announced the jury for YouTube Play.

Do I have thoughts about this Guggenheim/YouTube mashup ploy for attention and desperate attempt by the Gugg to be in with the internet age?  I think I blatantly answered that question by just the wording of my question. Sometimes I am too obvious.  Anywho, that’s not what we are talking about today, today we are talking about the selection of the jury! So who is this group of elite internet multimedia artists and experts to serve on this panel? I’ll tell you who, along with my unfiltered thoughts about their fitness as jurors.

• Laurie Anderson, I am not too familiar with her work, but from what I do know, she goes to the beat of her own drum enough that I think she will make some honest decisions.
• Animal Collective. REALLY!?! I already have mentioned what a ploy I think this is, but Animal Collective? I like there music just as much as the next girl who likes to occasionally listen to music that isn’t hip hop, but I really don’t see what they can bring to the table besides inexperience, naivety and a little “we’re in a popular band so our opinions matter” attitude.*
• Darren Aronofsky is a great director. Period. I love him and enjoy his work. Wait…aren’t you making Black Swan right now, Darren? Oh you are.  Then you shouldn’t have time to be doing this! I am looking forward to that film and if it sucks I am going to blame your being sidetracked by this silly jury and farce of a competition as the reason and never watch The Fountain by myself and cry again.
• Douglas Gordon. Gordon’s video and visual art are quiet and thoughtful enough that I think he is a genuinely good addition to the jury.  Also he’s a little older, 44, and been doing this for a while, so that experience will be useful.
• Ryan McGinley seems to be too nice and too grateful to ever say anything critical about anyone in regards to art. That being said, I don’t know the guy, maybe he’s brutal in his opinions outside of the public persona he has created.  I just really don’t think that’s the case.
• Takashi Murakami. Sure, why not? He hasn’t sold out with a museum show in a while so he has some spare time.  Also, someone has to be there to defend anyone using semen as a lasso in their videos. 
• Marylin Minter, I think that Minter was an early purveyor of video and she still employs it today, so I am ok with this choice.
• Shirin Neshat, Stefan Sagemeister and Apichatpong Weerasethakul, I have never heard of one of these people, although I enjoy the last name of Sagemeister, it makes him sound like some expert of the spices.  He might make me a delicious bolognese sauce.
• Nancy Spector, Deputy Director and Chief Curator of the Guggenheim, is the Jury Chair. Understandable.

Now for more traditional interpretations including monetary advantages for the museum, I would highly suggest reading what Paddy Johnson and Tyler Green have to say about this.

*I’m sure they are very nice and smart people, I just think they aren’t necessarily qualified to be on a jury for something concerning the Guggenheim. 

July 26, 2010, 10:00am  

» Calling all Art Handlers (New York)

Calling all art handlers: The Art Handling Olympics wants you! Register your team of four on their website and go head to head with New York City’s best, Sunday March 21st. The first competition of its kind, The Art Handling Olympics (AHO) celebrates the art world’s unsung heroes. These are the people who figure out how to fit over-sized sculptures into undersized elevators, find the straight lines in crooked paintings on slanted walls and eat the double park ticket so clients don’t have to! This March, we will crown the champions of the trade.

February 03, 2010, 2:24pm  

Today is the deadline for submissions to the National Arts Journalism Program’s ‘National Summit on Arts Journalism,’ a competition that hopes to produce five arts journalism projects that can be presented before a live audience.

The project’s goal — to find new models for art journalism — is admirable: Art journalism is disappearing from American newspapers, alt-weeklies and magazines. I’d guesstimate that in recent years 60-75 percent of arts journalists have been downsized from the commercial media. via…

August 19, 2009, 10:04am  

Man Ray Keep London Going 1938

LONDON.- Artists are invited to design a poster that promotes areas of London that lie beyond zone one of London’s public transport map in a new competition called The Outer Limits – Beyond Zone One.

Continuing the tradition of commissioning cutting edge poster design, London Transport Museum and Transport for London (TfL), along with partners London Design Festival and Visit London, have launched an open competition to design a poster that celebrates the discoveries, pleasures and excitements that London has to offer beyond the city centre.

The winning design will become part of London Transport Museum’s collection and will be reproduced as a poster for display on TfL’s transport network. Entries of particular merit will be exhibited at the Museum during the London Design Festival in September 2009.

The organisers are looking for designs that positively portray non-central London areas as exciting and varied destinations for both Londoners and visitors alike. Entries are limited to one poster per entrant and the deadline for entries is Monday 27 July. via…

July 01, 2009, 9:32am  

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Google today announced the launch of Design It: Shelter Competition, a global, online initiative that invites the public to use Google Earth and Google SketchUp to create and submit designs for virtual 3-D shelters for a location of their choice anywhere on Earth. The competition opens today, June 8, 2009, Frank Lloyd Wright’s birthday; closes to submissions on August 23; and ends on October 21, the 50th anniversary of the Guggenheim Museum’s opening, when two prizes, a Juried Prize and a People’s Prize, will be awarded. via…

June 11, 2009, 2:37pm