Blog
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2016 Year in Review
Fifty-six blog posts published so far this year
Number one, most-read blog post: Review of Justin Cronin’s “City of Mirrors”
Number one, most-watched videos: Sun Yuan and Peng Yu’s “Can’t Help Myself” from the Guggenheim Museum
Two poems published: “That Day in Assisi” and “For Your Own Safety”
One short story published: “Auntie Lovely Says Goodbye”
Two countries visited: Guatemala, South Korea
Twenty-four books read
Twenty-one seconds: Best completion time of the NYTimes mini puzzle
Patronus: Fox
Participation Award: La Tortilla Cooking School, Antigua, Guatemala
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A crime
In this photo of the back of our car, you can see the outlines of where a car magnet had once been. That magnet was political. It said, “Hillary ’16.” The reason you don’t see it there is because someone in the parking lot of our hotel in Pittsburgh thought it’d be a good idea to remove the magnet.
At first we thought it was stolen. We felt victimized — doubly so, considering who won. Being back in western Pennsylvania, though, it seemed likely that some Tr*mp supporter feeling embolden but also a coward thought he or she would just rip off someone else’s property. We later did find the magnet face-down in the rain-soaked parking lot, as if it had been flung away from our car.
In the grand scheme of things, I know it isn’t that big of a deal. But still, come on.
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Video: Sun Yuan and Peng Yu’s “Can’t Help Myself”
In Sun Yuan and Peng Yu’s “Can’t Help Myself,” an industrial robot works away inside a glass box at the Guggenheim Museum.
What’s it made of? Kuka industrial robot, stainless steel and rubber, cellulose ether in colored water, lighting grid with Cognex visual-recognition sensors, and polycarbonate wall with aluminum frame.
Is it making art? Is it commenting on how art is made? As a robot uses a giant brush to push liquid around, are we watching a creative act or a programmed act? What determines these actions? Where does this leave viewers? In awe of a machine in motion?
Check out one of the Guggenheim’s newest additions to its collection:
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Paul Klee + Gertrude Stein + Nederlands Dans Theater
On the fifth floor of the Met Breuer, in an exhibition called “Humor and Fantasy — The Berggruen Paul Klee Collection,” is this untitled Paul Klee watercolor painting from 1914:
A dance program called Shutters Shut was performed among the Paul Klee work by two dancers from the Nederlands Dans Theater who danced in time to Gertrude Stein’s voice reciting her poem “If I Told Him: A Completed Portrait of Picasso.”
The dance looked like this:
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Some cool art at galleries in Chelsea, New York City
Carol Bove, Polka Dots, at David Zwirner
Philip Guston, Laughter in the Dark, Drawings from 1971 & 1975, at Hauser Wirth
Josef Albers, Grey Steps, Grey Scales, Grey Ladders, at David Zwirner
Arlene Shechet, Turn Up the Bass, at Sikkema Jenkins
Terry Winters at Matthew Marks
Valerie Hegarty: American Berserk at Burning into Water
Paul Pfeiffer at Paula Cooper Gallery
Joan Mitchell, Drawing into Painting, at Cheim and Read
Ernesto Neto, “The Serpent’s Energy Gave Birth To Humanity,” at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery
