Palais de Tokyo, Summer 2002
amol: what up bro
theteenage: hey
theteenage: where's teh professor today?
amol: well, it's 9.30 already. but no class on friday anyway.
amol: went to an art show at the Palais de Tokyo.
amol: Then our favorite indian place...now we're home.
theteenage: how was the show?
amol: Oh it was really cool.
amol: The Palais de Tokyo is like this fancy old museum building they built during the art deco style.
amol: But they've gutted it and are redesigning it (I think).
amol: So it's like a giant warehouse at the moment.
amol: Well, they decided to pause for a bit and let these guys install this huge set of exhibits there.
amol: Three really good things:
amol: 1. Tillman --
amol: He's this photographer.Wolfgang Tillmans. Lots of interesting "abstraction" -- pairs of jeans, body parts, whatever.
theteenage: I think i've seen his books
amol: 2. Laurent Moriceau -- rad sculptures made of photographic paper. Rad presentation, in particular. Built this long winding tunnel, completely pitch black inside, Feel your way through this door/velvet curtain. Then you're in this room where the only light is these pillows with weird red lights inside.
amol: There's furniture. But it looks like a boutique-type shop. They're "selling" "stuff" made from photographic paper.
amol: Bras, masks, war medals, whatever.
amol: But you can't put any real light on anything cuz it will destroy all the photo paper. Really cool eery red-room.
amol: Inside the photographic process..the work of art as ephemeral object...the materialism of the room and the consumerism of the presentation...the "aura" of the room as if you were inside the artists brain...
amol: 3. They don't have the third cool thing/guy name on the website --
amol: He installed a room (the living room) of The Museum of Contemporary African Art.
amol: The room is literally a living room -- tables, couches, chairs, cool music, some TVs, computer with internet...whatever (remember it's a big warehouse).
amol: So you go "hang out in it".
theteenage: fun
amol: I didn't even notice at first, but the coffee table is wood with this glass top..and has all these coins under the glass.
amol: Cool. But then I suddenly notice that the wallpaper is made of all the currencies of africa -- 10,000 dollar bills from Ghana and shit.
amol: THEN I realize that the patterns covering everything -- the couch the lampshades -- is these "dots". The dots are the size of the coins. Looks like coins. But the dots...are made of paper currency too! Euro notes etc.
amol: Museumcorp and all that.
theteenage: funny, i like detail work liek that
amol: It's the 11th room of his "virtual" and "traveling" musem" that he's installed in a european museum
theteenage: hes done eleven of then you mean?
amol: he did ten so far, and this is the 11th.
amol: yeah
amol: Tillmans -- the "abstraction" is interesting. I haven't seen rough and meaty abstraction like that. Of course I've seen "patterns" or "design-like" photography of non-figurative sufraces...
amol: beautiful pile of bricks or whatever.
amol: But this is an attempt to do with abstraction to photography what was done to painting. Anti-figurative, criss-crossing "forms" -- like a pant leg and a shadow and some sand -- that don't like themselves or like anything in the frame of the photo. All the while the images are very "photographic" -- ultra-high resolution images with sharp color, detail, composition, light, etc. Just no figuration.
theteenage: no people
amol: Some of the photos had people....portraits etc. but the interesting 'abstraction' stuff didn't really.
theteenage: james karales, siskind
amol: some weird body part stuff too...his own anus...his armpit
theteenage: yeah french people like armpits
amol: funny that you say that!!!
amol: There was his "insert" to Le Monde a few fridays ago. A mini-novel.
amol: Very erotic. And the guy in the novel was obsessed with armpit hair...because it reminded him of another female body part
theteenage: seriously
amol: http://www.aaronsiskind.org/images.html
theteenage: a photographer can mistke it if she isn't careful
Posted by amol at August 9, 2002 10:00 PM
