The Kitchen - virtual sketchbook

Saw a fabulous show at the Kitchen!

I could see how this virtual phenomenon through internet, youtube... could become artists' wired up sketchbook. Humorous and canny, musically stunning.

Posting a few videos...

Omer Fast, RoseLee Goldberg

Do you get nervous when you meet one of those... really fancy people? People you highly admire and never think or expect to meet them... then all sudden, they're right front of you?

At Performa, I see the director RoseLee Goldberg. She wrote books on performance art which now have become a fundamental text in studying a historical progression in performance art in the states. She always wears black, and her bang always cleanly cut. What she's been able to do through Performa is quite phoenomenal.





I remember Omer Fast's The Casting as one of the most memorable pieces at the Whitney Biennial 2008 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYfIxEfywKM). And there he was front of me, talking about his project commissioned by Performa this coming November. So I started researching for his project, reading through hundreds entries of soldiers' blogs... some of them are in fact amazing writers. Check out Michale's blog -

I come back to my senses when I realize the significance of me signing up for the Army three years ago to this day. I signed up for three years. Today is my ETS date. I’m free to go home. They must have a jet fueling up right now, waiting to fly me back to my wife, home, and freedom. Maybe Michael Moore will be there to greet me at the airport with a video camera in my face. I could take him my mattress, with its shit covered floral design, and let him eat it, since I know he’s hungry. As soon as he’s taken a bite, I have kicked him in the balls and punched him in the teeth, shit flowers rising into the air, light as snowflakes, with every hard breath he takes. Settling down, they come to rest on him, forming a shit flower blob.
I’m once again brought back to reality and remember that my enlistment has been extended for the duration of this deployment, plus a few months after I get home. This doesn’t bother me since I would feel like a floral mattress with the weight of Michael Moore on me if I didn’t come back over here a second time. I slide my flip-flops(shower shoes in military speak) over to my bed, careful not to touch them with my hands. No amount of antibacterial hand sanitizer can kill the germs that are making their home in my shower shoes. The nylon strap that goes over my feet is hard and crusty from their last use. The bottom of each is dirty with mud from walking back through dirt the last time. Struggling to get my toes underneath this nylon is difficult without using my hands. I will my toes to burrow underneath and finally succeed, the part that goes in between my toes now in place. Heading for the door, I grab my towel, soap case, shampoo, and a clean pair of boxers.

-posted by Michael

The Casting, 2008

Cutting Clothes, hah!

Armed, 2005

Cut fabric (military uniforms from US soldiers), thread and starch

14 ft h x 36 ft w x 6 ft d

Ironically, I cut a good amount of clothes here in Jean Shin's studio. It's quite different from my own work though. In contrast to an obsessive, rather destructive cutting hours of mine (haha...),
Ashes, 2008

Jean Shin's Armed piece consists of collected veterans' military uniforms. The cut pieces are then transferred on the wall as a large-scale fabric mural. Her way of deconstructing the materials and stories to bring a coherent community and visual phenomenon is meticulously planned and organized. As I was cutting the jackets and pants, each garment was labeled with names of veterans. We then complied a list of garments with itemized labels for a later installation. As each one of her installation moves to a next installation, a very specific installation instruction needs to be communicated... wow, so here I am, learning a lot more about organization, organization... for the sake of artist's work and efficiency.


Today, I'll be heading out to Washington D.C. to help installing her show at the Smithsonian. Fancy. It will be intense, but exciting - I've never done such a large scale installation like this!






Check out New York Times article on Jean Shin's work - Because Everyone Deserves a Trophie.


I'll update more on how a full week of installation goes...!