Rushdie, Salman. Shame. New York: Random House, 1983. 3/22/20 – 4/1/20, 7:33 Transcribed (4/11/20): I’m continuously amazed at the ornamentation of his prose, things I would never have thought of in a thousand yeaers, a kind of inventiveness that I think I have been trying to prune out of my own writing… So fringed patterned… Continue reading Salman Rushdie – Shame
Category: Reading
Greg Allen, “The Dark Side of Success”: On Dan Flavin
Allen, Greg. “The Dark Side of Success.” The New York Times. January 2, 2005. https://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/02/arts/design/the-dark-side-of-success.html Rejected handmade virtuosity of abstract expressionism Chose mass-produced, off-the-shelf hardware specifically for its anonymity and industrial aesthetic; could be easily replaced: unsentimental Chose fluorescents because of their ephemerality 1982 (locate): “I believe in temporary art wholeheartedly.” Called his works… Continue reading Greg Allen, “The Dark Side of Success”: On Dan Flavin
Nadja Rottner, Object Lessons: On Claes Oldenburg
Nadja Rottner, Object Lessons 2/21/20 Thoughts Warning: Many quotes that follow. (173) Softness could mean both a flowing together and flowing apart of definitions.1 —Claes Oldenburg I want my work, my language to be as light as words and as changeable.2 —Claes Oldenburg (176) As Rosalind Krauss has shown, Oldenburg’s soft sculptures share much with… Continue reading Nadja Rottner, Object Lessons: On Claes Oldenburg
Gallery Walk 2-15-20: Michael Rakowitz at Jane Lombard; Noah Davis at David Zwirner
michael rakowitz at jane lombard • apkallu • wall text on floor. cool. • “it will be very hard to make it like it was.” • it had formed clots on the cots • the ballad of special ols cldy! amazing • cut on the neck • this gi thing is amazing story doll mass • “a dead detainee, a dead iraqi” • []… Continue reading Gallery Walk 2-15-20: Michael Rakowitz at Jane Lombard; Noah Davis at David Zwirner
Saul Bellow – Herzog
Bellow, Saul. Herzog. New York: Penguin Books, 1964. Transcribed 1/30/20; 2/16/20. General Thoughts * reads like someone in the mindstate of: herzog, barrage, too much stimulus, overwhelming. i fell in love with and feared madeleine with him, sitting on the rim of the bathtub as she applied makeup like a dictator. * this book made… Continue reading Saul Bellow – Herzog
Jenny Zhang – Sour Heart
Zhang, Jenny. Sour Heart. New York: Lenny, and imprint of Random House. 2017 This one it makes sense that there are so few quotes, I noticed that reading it. It was a really beautiful book; it taught me that ugly prose can be beautiful when it’s strung together right. Structural, not elemental. I guess the… Continue reading Jenny Zhang – Sour Heart
Alexander Chee – How to Write an Autobiographical Novel
Chee, Alexander. How to Write an Autobiographical Novel. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. 2018. Transcribed 12/6/19. “To my mother and father, who taught me how to fight.” (11) “There was something I wanted to feel, and I felt it only when I was writing. I think of this as one of the most… Continue reading Alexander Chee – How to Write an Autobiographical Novel
Laura Sims – Looker
Sims, Laura. Looker. Scribner: New York. 2019. Transcribed 10/14/19. This book scared the shit out of me. And probably would any other super educated, pompous, self-styled intellectual person. I’m at a point right now where this could be me. I already see the edges of it forming. What happens when the things that make one… Continue reading Laura Sims – Looker
Martha Graham and Modernism: Trauma, Interdiction, and Agency in “The House of Pelvic Truth”
With Carol Ockman, Netta Yerushamly, and Julia Foulkes what does it mean to live in a body over time? to know that you are going to die in it? “we’re commiting to shapes, to sound very… thin” what a form can be and what it can do and what it could hold contraction: it’s not… Continue reading Martha Graham and Modernism: Trauma, Interdiction, and Agency in “The House of Pelvic Truth”
Chad Harbach – MFA vs. NYC: The Two Cultures of American Fiction
Harbach, Chad. MFA vs. NYC: The Two Cultures of American Fiction. New York: n + 1/ Faber and Faber. 2014. Transcribed 12/6/19. (5) Chad Harbach: “Her voyage is a long one, and she has her frailties: her concentration is fragile, she wakes up too late and checks her email too often, she drinks too much… Continue reading Chad Harbach – MFA vs. NYC: The Two Cultures of American Fiction