Above is the last few minutes of Adam’s latest work, “It Felt Like a Kiss”. This I believe is being toured around art houses in Europe and has yet to make it over here in a legal format. Adam is best known for his documentary series “The Power of Nightmares” and “The Trap”.

What makes Adam Curtis brilliant:

Adam has found a way to take complicated, ambiguous content and fashion it into something so immersive that it plays like a feature film.  He puts these complex ideas into a narrative that anyone can latch on to and supports it with found footage. It’s in this footage spanning the past century that he builds these compelling montages .

Where the Zeitgeist art docs come off as condescending, Adam Curtis comes off as that cool British teacher that knows his shit (and doesn’t belong at your university). He also has impeccable taste in visual imagery. He never says too much or blatantly panders his position but rather leaves it to the imagery and a bit of your imagination. Still, you can sense there’s always a gentle nudge.

There’s a unique feeling that comes with watching an Adam Curtis series that I’ve never felt in any other news  delivery vehicles.  It’s a hearty feeling, one you achieve only when you’ve learned something. But beyond that and even more amazing …  I WAS ENTERTAINED.

Who thought news information and entertainment could mix in such a lovely fashion.

Cheers to Adam Curtis and the ilk soon to follow.

No artist can give you a glimpse into my psyche better than Mark Ryden. Take a look at these pictures and you’ll see a glimmer of my childhood. He creates a world in his paintings where I would gladly hop through the frame and run around in.  I’ve been needing some quality time with Abe Lincoln and the steak bunny lately.

There are plenty of artists out there doing similar work with childlike, characters in slightly twisted situations but none of them can capture an expression like this:

Or this:

Look at that fat bunny. Look as the children dance around him while he sweats. Sweat, tubby bunny do not fear. The children don’t care. See how the bunny is overwhelmed with anxiety. The children prance oblivious! Hahahaha. So good.

Mark Ryden represents the way like to approach art and for that matter see the world. Make it whatever you like, use your own symbols, it’s all in your head anyway. Who cares if Jimi hedrix is floating on a steak in your rear view mirror he’s simply there to make your day better.

Beyond the absurd situations you can look deeper and see the subtlety in all of the expressions (Or even the utterly devoid of expression). I know in each of these paintings I’ve seen an expression that I’ve felt personally or seen on someone else before. What makes it EVEN better is the combination of emotions he’ll put into a character…

Right there, you see it! That yak just said something that little girl did not like. Look at that yak. He knows he shouldn’t have said anything but he did it. He should have bit his toung but he let it slip and now that little girl is cross about it. Why…how could you, yak?

Anyway, where I was going with this was www.markryden.com. Go here and take your time.

If anyone should happen to be in St. Louis before September 19th

and that anyone should happen to be in Forest Park near the Art Museum–

then that someone should walk into the Art Museum and check out the latest video installation from Doug Aitken.

What you see: Wild animals enter or appear in various hotel rooms set free to do whatever they wish in the space. Some sit, others sniff, and some tare the place apart. Runtime: 18 minutes

This description doesn’t do the film justice. (no descriptions on this site will) But it’s quite good. There’s an excellent ambient soundtrack from some great artists.

If you like Mathew Barney then you’ll definitely like this. But even if you’ve never  seen a piece of video art in your life you’ll enjoy this.

Here’s some of Doug’s earlier work projected at MoMA:

and a music video he Directed for LCD Soundsystem:

I’ve been thinking a lot about Art School lately.

So earlier this week I wandered in to the Graduate Thesis Exhibition for the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC).

The show was bland until I found this video.

I was drawn in by the simple absurdity of what was taking place. The concept was simple:  Someone with a video camera had directed an autistic girl to open a closet door while he filmed the process.

I watched this video for 10 minutes. There was no artists statement on the wall. Just the title “dans mes habits”.

After a few cycles it was obvious this girl wasn’t autistic. It turns out shes actually the artist and doing this on purpose.

The artists name is Isabelle Schlitz and you can find her artistic statement here.

I did get the sense she was trying to mimic her environment by sounding like something between a creaking door and an infant but i never took it much further than that.

More fun: