Soon I am going to ask Londoners from all walks of life to write me a message. In Hyde Park and elsewhere - together we are going to write the poem of our collective subconscious and I will call it Today. /
Subway Grids /
Japanese Zen Gardens and I Have Everything Project /
Japan, and the way of Zen, had a profound effect on me. I had seen how the absence of a thing creates meaning, of the thing itself. I sat on the sidelines of a sand pit, with rocks in it, and this gave me a very meaningful experience - I got in touch with something within myself that was a part of the bigger world around me.. and this experience made me realize how connected I am to everything without actually owning it or having a formal relationship with it, or even an intellectual understanding of it. It was the absence of everything that we expect to give us a worthwhile experience ( in the west ). I returned to the sand pit several times. And went on to other similar gardens around Kyoto and had several days of uninterrupted near bliss which i have not had the capacity to explain as I am not a Buddhist and this wasn't a religious experience, I didn't have any crutches to stand on.
Around a year after the trip to Japan I decided to sell and donate most of my possessions and move to New York City. I had built a substantial cache of things and had a pretty lifestyle, this is all i want to say about it. The possessions that surrounded me had started to take a large amount of my time and resources. all required not only dusting, regular care and space to inhabit - they needed use. It means I had to sit around playing with my possessions to put them to good use or find them storage, organize them properly and so on. Imagine the amount of time it takes to properly care for a house full of stuff. Sounds like a lifetime.
Now I don't really recommend doing a big shed unless you are properly motivated. Short of putting on a robe or having another"proper" context - it is hard to explain or relate such a move to anyone. At the time I wanted to find self-worth beyond what I had, and beyond my commercial work. I found that with being constantly fed a program i had atrophied my own capacity for self-motivation and self-tasking which is essential for independent artists. I left my apartment in San Francisco and moved to a small room in Harlem. Till this day i only feel relief and not a single drop of regret or doubt.
What does it mean? Nothing, it really has no meaning to anyone or no purpose beyond what it really was - i did my first hand drawing in this room and because I had no distractions whatsoever and no other model - a whole body of work emerged focused on my personal space.
I often come back to the big shedding of things as it was really fascinating to watch all the stuff go. Each object I sent away had a connection to my life and held a string to a particular event or reflected on a particular experience. None was trivial, I always felt an object had a permanent bond to their owner on account of us being blobs and constantly absorbing molecules from our surroundings. Thus emerged the what I call "I Have Everything project". There was no intent for any of it to become any sort of project, simply had to photograph each item for either craigslist or ebay.. at different times, both in San Francisco and New York city.
Saks Fifth Avenue evening gown I wore to the Met opera, complete with box seats ( if you have ever shown up to the met overdressed and all eyes are on the gown and the bare back ), unforgettable moment which I never repeated. Since, I have always gone to the Opera in jeans and a jacket, standing room only. In fact the standing room area at the Met Opera is the most fun as you have often a reason to get a conversation going with others on the railings. The gown went on ebay.
My Tae-Kwon-Do gear. Had to question every single thing I was taught, and the whys outweighed the dos. Eventually realized I cannot be completely conscious and kick or hit another human.. Loved the color of the yellow belt.
Tae Kwon Do was not a trivial or trifle experience, I learned much about it and what creates a mastery of movement. The same thing that creates mastery in anything - practice. Once you have practiced poomse 10,000 times - you become one with motion, with the air around it and enter a zone of being. Never became Jackie Chan but appreciated him more. along with the doing I needed questions answered and a meaning built around it that I could't find in kicking itself, although i enjoyed it physically. I loved kicking paddles, not humans. The favorite lesson form Tae Kwon Do was the fact that my teacher, Mr K, always said commit the kick vs simply saying "kick" it. Commit the kick to me contained the whole philosophy of martial arts which is repetition and becoming one with air. Or with chairs as is the case with Jackie, it is an Art form after all.
This set got left i believe on the streets of Brooklyn. Perhaps I still have the belt.
The trusty jetta got donated to KQED. Bay Bridge, 101 taught me to appreciate audiobooks. I learned a bit of Japanese in this car, mostly during San Mateo bridge commutes.
Still have the ladder.
A small photograph from an obscure book
about a dry waterfall and a poem from Hyakunin isshu that read:
“Though the sound of the cascade long since has seized we still hear the murmur of its name”
Denise Bibro Fine Art is pleased to announce - Art for The Boros Closing Reception - August 4, 6-8pm /
Art From the Boros IV will be on view until August 13. See you soon! /
Fashion in an Age of Technology at The Met /
When you look at the first (3-D-Printed) piece made, you can see the fine lines of the print. You can see how the piece has been built up. In one millimeter, there are up to ten lines. It’s almost like a fingerprint - it’s as detailed as your fingerprint… It was inspired by the way limestone deposits from shells. With 3-D printing, I am very much drawn to the organic.
Iris van Herpen
I call this the the Matrix dress!
NEON DANS LA NUIT SUIT 1990/91 hand embroidered with fluorescent stripes
3-D-printed polymer
2014
Noa Raviv
“While working (with) 3-D software i was fascinated by the grid shown on the 2-D screen and by the way black repetitive lines define voluminous objects.”
1968 Egg Carton Dress
Modern Egg Carton Dress 2015
MIYAKE DESIGN STUDIO 2010
MIYAKE DESIGN STUDIOS 1990
MIYAKE DESIGN STUDIOS 1990 - same dress flat
My favorite! It is all about the name and it has got spirit.
MIYAKE DESIGN STUDIOS 1994 Flying Saucer Dress
BAHAI 3-D-printed Fractal weave dress - with six degrees of fractal growth.
3-D latticework dress 2015 Iris van Herpen
3-D printed dress using stereolithography. it was built layer by layer in a vessel of liquid polymer. The polymer hardens when struck by a laser beam.
Alexander McQueen 2012
Laser cut white foam 2013
Noir Kei Ninomiya 2015-16
Bye!
Happy Monday - self-reliance and the most important page ever written /
Having recently become overly reliant on images and words from long times past, on this glorious Monday occasion I wanted to mention that the most important words and thoughts you will ever read and have are your own. No one else is more important or wiser than what you got inside. That's why we were given this faculty - and this is why the thoughts of "sages and bards" are only second to the bard inside.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - Self-Reliance
Marble /
I have had many encounters with marble, most notably.. until the Pergamon show, in Rome, in the vatican Museums and Michelangelo's Moses. Rome is practically riddled with it and I discovered I really very much love stone. Not forgetting the Galleria Borghese where a certain marble rape takes place, it is a beautifully disturbing masterpiece which i spent several hours contemplating. Now, marble, as far as art is concerned, is not at all trivial. And very substantial - it doesn't wobble as paintings do and works quite well even in pieces or fractured.
Marble can certainly be decorative but when it is done by a master's hand it is the ultimate fine art. There's a shift that occurs when the decorative purpose gives way to craftsmanship and it seizes to be just a pretty object but a work of art. I'd imagine you can't fix marble, the bliss of undo totally unavailable in this medium. Oil painting can be fixed, architecture can be fixed, i know of a certain skyscraper in New York that got fixed, but you can't fix marble.
What was special of the Pergamon show at the Met was that, unlike all the other stone at the Louvre, or British Museum, or Rome, the Met was curated and installed by world class talent with desire to not just show but tell a compelling story through visual means. The show was impeccably devised and paced, you wouldn't think your mind is being controlled by beauty.
Don't think i have ever seen a sculpture show this strong.. most I have seen in world class museums were well presented exhibitions.. or in the case of Florence - a strong focus on one sculpture or artist. I remember very little of my long plane ride as I worked on my photographs of the show and my entire head turned, for a few hours, into a marble one.
This show was the art equivalent of Noah's Ark, it had all art of all the world that came after it. Michelangelo was an heir of these sculptures, and Andy Warhol, Dali, Picasso, Van Gogh.. everything we know about art and about how we see the figure, until this very day all academies in the world draw figures and busts in the same exact manner. All we know of beauty, what is pleasing, what is good to the eye, began with the standards these ancient greek sculptors established two millennia and some. I have been hearing trumpets of bliss in my head ever since i saw the Pergamon show. And i am glad I took my camera to it as it is, sadly now, dissipated into all corners of the world.
One more thing to add - occasionally I listen to Indian mystics who say they feel one - the inside and outside they feel as one, there is a blurry line as to who they perceive as themselves and where their inner world ends and the outer world begins. Not there yet myself. But on the particular instance of seeing the Pergamon exhibit - i felt as one with a much much larger world, not just the inside and the outside, but all past and present felt as one. That is how I imagine nirvana if there's one such thing.
NYC GALLERY OPENINGS: DENISE BIBRO - Group Show /
Video from the Art From the Boros opening reception, which was shot by O'Delle Abney. The video showcases the featured pieces from the exhibition as well as footage of the gallery attendees.
Chelsea Grids /
The astonishing sculptures of the Pergamon show at the Met /
Saw the Pergamon over the weekend and just can't get over the fact it's over. The first photograph is a sculpture of the great orator Demosthenes. The lesson from his story is that words need to be backed with actions. The astonishing beauty of these sculptures - not just in person - even from my computer screen they absolutely dominate my consciousness. The craftsmanship, the lines, the stories, the fact that they have been around for more than 2000 years - more than any other object I know. It is about beauty and eternity… forever beauty.
Since ancient times artists and philosophers have tried to impose a standard - of beauty, of conduct, but the most important is the standard that endures and resonates deep within the folds of our DNA.
I have long been obsessed with classical mythology, the Gods and Goddesses of times long past. They epitome the longing for eternal beauty deep within ourselves.
Myths guide us into the divine in ourselves. All our aesthetic dreams, all philosophy, our dreams as a civilization. Our myths, the main themes of our folklore, our songs, start here.
Did people notice they are in a divine presence? of beauty. Did people realize that we are looking at the cradle of civilization.
This is not about Gods and Goddesses, it is about the great, and not so great, within ourselves.
The great orator Demosthenes was one of the most vocal intellectuals in Athens to warn, unsuccessfully, against the treat posed by the Macedonians to the freedom of Greece. This portrait conveys the mental resolve, not physical strength. An epigram on the base of the original statue read, “If you had power equal to your resolution, Demosthenes, the Macedonian Ares would never have acquired dominion over the Greeks. (text from the Met) As I mentioned earlier and to add a 21st century perspective - often intellectual acts are not enough, certainly not enough against powerful enemies with armies and horses. In life too, words can do only so much and often times action is required to force change in the world. Action is the blood of life and a powerful thinker here missed an opportunity to become a great man.
Marble portrait of Aristotle. Aristotle was called to Macedonia by King Phillip II to serve as the tutor of the young Alexander. This portrait is striking for its distinct individuality. It is probably the most faithful of some twenty surviving Roman copies which were presumably based on the posthumous statue in Aristotle’s school in Athens. His short, fashionable beard reflects the fact that, unlike most philosophers, he participated in society and, especially, politics. (text from the Met) This bust is in Vienna.
Animated Pen and Ink drawings tonight - as part of Art From the Boros at 529 West 20th, Opening reception tonight 6-9pm /
When artwork generates several outcomes and when work pushes its way into different mediums /
I created Winter with this simple purpose in mind, with a frame from Winter Diagrams: December.
And the making of Winter:
My parents, and everything /
.......
It probably is very difficult to be my parents and, not only because of it, I wanted to thank them for their unwavering support and for being with me in spirit and hope to see them in New York soon.
..
Next week's show will include animations in part inspired by friends and scored by portland artist Marcus Fischer's album For Friends This Winter /
http://www.mapmap.ch/index.php/sound/for-friends-this-winter/
Doing commercial work is not .... the same as fine art work. Commercial work is a synthesis. And a lot of it gets done by talking - I used to get in touch with around 20 people when creating art commercially for a specific project - and at the end the work gets evaluated by another set of at least 20 people. While it is not necessarily a committee work as it is done in ad agencies, the work I used to do at Lucasfilm, you could say, was my best shot synthesis on a visual theme. Being "good" commercially meant you were a good listener and interpreter of a cloud of ideas. Sorry ... a very receptive 3d printer.
Fine art work is, on the other hand, genesis. A brand new world is created where you generate an idea, you are the primary vehicle, the messiah, the creator, the motivator, the heavy lifter, the ceo and the heart of the operation. But art is rarely created in isolation and completely without an agenda. Michelangelo worked for the Pope. Renaissance artists worked for the Medici. I personally like when artwork generates several outcomes. winter diagrams were just simple drawings of hands before they were strung together in an animation, then they became a three-dimensional sculpture in Winter - the dress. They will continue to push their way into various forms I am sure, some of the stills from the animations are to become a painting , or several stills combined and interlocked into one painting - I haven't decided yet.
I grew up as an artist creating work commercially and have a lot of the same habits. I love bouncing ideas and talking about work - others' or mine or old masters or new ones.. love dissecting and putting out feelers for the impressions any work leaves on people.
I remember vividly the winter in Brooklyn when I created the animations - although Hand Painted ocean was originally conceived in Manhattan. I came across Marcus Fischer's album For Friends This Winter and decided to use the music for the animations, also feeling that the animations themselves and how I wanted to do them were in large part a synthesis, inspired by many conversations and then a first(i think) visit to one of my favorite museums in New York. I remember one particular evening with a lot of New-Agey talk, with a girl that was doing New-Agey type massage and having really strange conversations about how she feels her patients with her hands. True? I don't know but deepened my obsession with hands.
Also my friend Rob List had earlier come to my Harlem room and did an impromptu performance which i for some reason filmed, and almost set me on a course:
https://vimeo.com/12269715
The seed for Hand painted ocean and fruit:
Hand Painted Ocean and Fruit from mirena rhee on Vimeo.
I keep the same shifty perspective for my installations where i do value people's unscripted intrusions and impromptu contributions more than my attempts to control a visual outcome.
ART FROM THE BOROS IV Press Release /
By popular demand, Denise Bibro Fine Art announces Art From The Boros IV, on view July 14-August 13, 2016. After a copious amount of submissions and studio visits, forty-one diverse artists were selected to participate in this group show highlighting talent found within New York City’s five boroughs. Art From the Boros IV exemplifies the eclectic artistic community of New York City, showing a varied range of genres of art and mediums. With a nod to the Renaissance and Dutch painting, artists Thurston Belmer and Sally Cochrane create rich, highly representational contemporary paintings referencing the great masters through light and application. Roger Preston’s Heathcliff shares a similar worldly feel in a contemporary fashion as photographer Zeren Badar’s Very first Accident mocks the propriety of the old world. In contrast, paintings by artists Jack Rosenberg and Robert Jessel rely on thick, often staccato brushstrokes to create and highlight their compositions while Courtney Bae’s evenly painted figurative narratives and Petey Brown’s lusciously painted swimmers are quirky and often, whimsical.
The fourth edition of Art From The Boros, also, features three-dimensional works and multi-media videos such as the deftly manipulated wood assemblages by Mikhail Gubin countered by the sleek, polished metal works and bronzes by Daniel Sinclair. Artist Mirena Rhee offers a fresh, personal perspective through animated interpretations of her own hand drawings. In a world that often projects galleries as being jaded and inaccessible, we are demonstrating that we are one that values and shares the desire to keep abreast with the bustling creativity all around us.
Artists: Margery Appelbaum, Zeren Badar, Courtney Bae, Thurston Belmer, Petey Brown, Kenneth Burris, Bob Clyatt, Sally Cochrane, Marilyn Davidson, Andre Eamiello, Laura Fantini, Anne Finkelstein, Mikhail Gubin, Yasmin Gur, Amir Hariri, Robert Jessel, Elizabeth Knowles, Amanda Konishi, Kate Lawless, Amanda Lenox, Park McGinty, Harvey Milman, Maria Morabito, Laura Mosquera, Suyeon Na, AJ Nadel, Douglas Newton, Kathleen Newton, Lisa Petker-Mintz, Ben Ponté, Roger Preston, Chelsea Ramirez, Mirena Rhee, Jack Rosenberg, Zvi Schreiber, Daniel Sinclair, Jeff Sundheim, Paul Antonio Szabo, Scott Walker, Lucy Wilner, and Charles Yoder. Opening Reception: July 14, 6-8pm For more information call (212) 647-7030, email info@denisebibrofineart.com, or visit www.denisebibrofineart.com
