Like a Flower in the Snow Like a Flower in the Snow Like

Waiting for cooking secrets and eggs that bloom into flowers.

TWO SPOONS KNIVING

Two Spoons Kniving, 2010, 30x40cm, Gouache on paper

Welcome to my blog(s)! TWO SPOONS KNIVING and TWO KNIVES SPOONING are my attempt to organize images of my artwork, writing and exhibitions I have participated in along with those I have curated. I plan to post already published art writing alongside new writing and new paintings with older works. Wall Violin performances might be posted alongside a good looking rock or a cake I bake. It is a slice of a life I live and the art I make. It is a works in progress. Thanks for stopping by!

TAMUNA TAKES TIGER by TAIL: TEXT

TAMUNA TAKES TIGER by TAIL

In 19th century Tibet tiger pelts and tantric carpets representing tiger images were thought to stand for secular power.  These carpets often had fully splayed tiger bodies realistically woven as if it were a pelt or standing in for a tiger body.  In other Tibetan carpets of the time the tranvsverse black stripes indicative of "tiger" are used alone in the representing of "tiger" or no tiger - an abstraction.

The leap from 19th c. tantric Tibetan tiger carpets to the artwork of Georgian artist Tamuna Sirbiladze may not be a long one or an obvious one.  In itself representation necessitates story telling where abstraction can be about sovereign color and geometrical forces, about gesture, space.  But even in so-called abstraction a degree of realism can prevail.  The various modes of working by Sirbiladze is the difference between an actual tiger pelt, a carpet made to look like a tiger pelt or the abstract stripes of the tiger.  In each case Sirbiladze negotiates her relationship with this beast named art.  Call it what you may: abstract or representaional but Tamuna has taken the tiger by its tail.

The artist has built a repartoire of different artistic practices: painting, sculpture, photography, video and performance.  These various expressions fluxuate between periods of representation and periods of abstraction.  It may not be the theme of the work per se but is something that drives the differences between a video of a ballet dancer reflected in a tea cup and the more recent Elements that she conceived to accompany the paintings.

Sirbiladze describes Elements (wall forms that create architectural interventions in a space alongside her paintings) as "anti-Judd" and prefers to think of  them as painterly geometry.  With this Sirbiladze says she takes an "anti-minimalist" "anti-Judd" and "anti-white geometry" stance.  Elements therefor are not an emptying out or pairing down as much as they are an elaboration in a sculptural form of how the artist thinks about painting and serve as an extended discourse with her two dimensional works. 

Judd considered himself a painter - not a sculptor - and was interested in "real materials in real space" while rejecting illusionism.   This may also be said about  the Elements of Sirbiladze.   But where Judd sought a 'purity of form' Sirbiladze seeks a painterly extension of architure and not a philosophy in pursuit of purity.

 

Sirbiladze makes expressive paintings, whether it is a depiction of her dog Sancho or an amalgomation of colors and gestures.  The paintings are usually large in scale and nothing about the work is timid.  Some of her work can be taken as a direct challange or, more likely, a dare.  The panitings are a proposal that if one is going to make a mistake lets make big mistakes.  I dare you to challange me.  It is this bold individual expression that distinguishes Sirbiladze amongst seas of shyness and triteness.  Tamuna takes the tiger's tail and makes artwork that is the essence of "anti-timid."

2009

BEFORE COFFEE

This morning before I even had the water on for coffee I had the mixer on whipping up eggs for a Birthday concoction. Happy Birthday my friend! Last year not a single wrapped present and this year so much more you receive and a slightly burnt, but well intentioned, apple cake. And now that the cake is done and the sample devoured beside a small pot of coffee I may even be so inspired to frost it! 


Someday I promise I will measure something (anything!) before I bake, that I will read a recipe and follow said recipe rather than ignore aforementioned recipe. And then cakes will rise and cookies with not melt into wafer-like masses of crisp mud (no matter how good tasting!) and quick breads will become not only quick, but edible and the sea will part.


I am also wondering as an avid practitioner and believer in tea leaf and coffee ground readings if the same can be done with the remains of a cake pan? If so this one looks fascinating! 

The frosting and cake decorating segment:

FLOUNDER, SOLE, PLAICE: DRAWINGS 2008

Flounder, Sole, Plaice, 2008, 70x100cm, ink and gouache on paper

Sturgeon, 2008, 70x100cm, ink,graphite and gouache on paper

Sturgeon(detail), 2008, 70x100cm, ink,graphite and gouache on paper

On the Plate, 2008, 100x70cm, ink,graphite and gouache on paper

Flounder, Sole, Plaice(2), 2008, 70x100cm, ink and gouache on paper

VIENNA REPORT: 2010

Christoph Schlingensief @ TB A21

When will you realize, Vienna waits for you?

-- Billy Joel

The latest installment of the now-six-years-old Vienna Art Week, directed by Robert Punkenhofer, arrived with something of a dull thud during the week of Nov. 15-21, 2010. Too bad. One of a long line of ambitious, incredibly funded, far-reaching Viennese art-world extravaganzas, it pummeled the city with openings, performances, illustrious visitors, local color and panel discussions and, oh, a stripper. Can’t forget the stripper!


Click below to read more....
Artnet: Vienna Report

Image of Christoph Schlingensief installation Vienna.

BED HALLS RANGING

BED HALLS are RANGING and why? Well, RED BALLS HANGING just sounded too crude and the alternative of switching spheres for balls seemed repressed. However BED HALLS RANGING perfectly describe the subversive oddity of these the most Viennese of Christmas decorations. They are fluffy in texture and glow bright red at night but it is the proportion of the things that perplex and fill the mind with wonder while visions of sugar-plums dance in our heads.

GREEN AND ALL ITS MEANS

Recently I have been picking through old emails, texts and images trying to apply some system of order over what now can only be called 'random'. That's when I ran across the above image of an innocuous green stem held by anonymous fingers. Except it is not. 
I remember the green and the hand and the man attached to it. The email read "Wanna share?" I thought, "Ha! Sure. You can have the woody stems and I'll take the bitter little leaves." And that would have been that had I not started to think about the watercress itself and the idea offerings. 

So in observance of having found the long lost offering of a wee green stem I decided to transform it and bitterness in general into a new edible offering. I caramelized two large onions with several anchovy fillets and a splash of sherry vinegar. I sauteed watercress, radicchio, romaine. I piled the first over the later and covered them with roasted red grapes and toasted hazelnuts. I don't think I could ever reproduce the dish exactly making it the perfect offering: Grapes and Greens. 

MIDWEST BUFFET BOAT AND VIENNESE FORTUNE SEEKS NYC PROSPERITY

What will the ship look like when it comes in? A Chinese junket off (way off!) the shores of lake Michigan?

Arriving on a wave of cheap brown tiles and a torrent of shag carpeting the specialties included Egg Foo Young, Hot 'n Sour soup and Chow Mein. I'd like to say it was shrimp Chow Mein or beef Chow Mein, but really, it was barely Chow. 


In Vienna recently I had received the following fortune....

IWON'T worry but on New Year's day I walked to PROSPERITY DUMPLING (46 Eldridge St.) NYC and ate 5 fried pork dumplings (just in case).