The first thing I saw when I walked into Danger Came Smiling: Feminist Art and Popular Music, an exhibit at Stamford’s Franklin Street Works, was a diamond-shaped portrait featuring the faces of two iconic musicians. Shizu Saldamando’s Alice Bag and Martin Crudo juxtaposed the images of two punk vocalists who have decades’ worth of presence and inspiration between them. It was a memorable introduction to the exhibit to come, which both ventured into dynamic cultural spaces and repurposed musical imagery […]
Trans-Atlantic Friction: Visiting Martin Creed’s “The Back Door”
The Park Avenue Armory is a deeply American space. At least, that’s what ran through my head on a recent visit there to see Martin Creed’s The Back Door. (It will run through August 8th.) Most of the interior looks divorced from the modern era, as though a visitor could round a corner and witness archaic soldiers in preparation for a war below a flag with a reduced number of stars. A video monitor near the entrance displayed a slideshow […]
Lori Ellison and the Death of a Comrade
Philadelphia, 1995: Shannon’s walking me through a maze of bright white art studios. Soon faces appear and voices erupt: New friends greeting each other. Introductions are made. Lori is tallest, and her voice distinguishes itself from the others. From the moment I heard her speak, Lori Ellison’s characteristic contradictions were immediately legible in her voice. I noticed first what wasn’t there: Almost every other artist or peer I met in the ‘90s talked with a layer of self-protection, whether it […]
The Vivian Mire
Dmitry Samarov looks at the work, life, and posthumous reception of photographer Vivian Maier, examining questions of artistic intent, visual legacy, and more–along with a look at the film Finding Vivian Maier.
Caroline Bergvall’s “Drift,” in Gallery Form
A couple of weeks ago, I read Caroline Bergvall’s Drift, and had one of the most jaw-dropping reading experiences I’ve had in the last few months. If Bergvall’s book were a collection of prose poems, or a meditation on language and its limits, or a nonfiction work documenting national tragedies on the water, it would be hugely effective; instead, it’s all three, a poetic and freeform work that’s both associative and documentarian.
The Piano, The Water: Notes on “tears become… streams become…”
Because I’m coming at this from a literary angle, and because I don’t get to see art as frequently as I’d like, I know Douglas Gordon’s 24-Hour Psycho largely from its presence in Don DeLillo’s short novel Point Omega. The title of Gordon’s piece describes it: it’s Psycho slowed down so that its running time is 24 hours. Its spirit infuses DeLillo’s novel, setting in motion a place where expectations are defied and pacing takes a backseat to atmosphere. Will someone make use of tears become… streams […]
Dmitry Samarov’s “Where To?” Book Tour Diary, Part 2
Albuquerque, 10/16-17 The West Coast leg of my book tour starts in Albuquerque. My friends Bud and Jessica invited me to come to town and suggested Bookworks to host a reading. They’ve been out here for years now. They moved from Chicago for the weather and an attraction to the desert. I’ve visited a few times and have never quite figured out what the place is about. This time around I notice signs all over town marking former “Breaking Bad” […]
Dmitry Samarov’s “Where To?” Book Tour Diary, Part 1
Before Leaving Town I’ve never gone on book tour before. When my first book, Hack: Stories from a Chicago Cab, came out three years ago, touring didn’t seem like an option. That book was published by University of Chicago Press, which opened up a lot of opportunities for me. I got to be a guest on NPR’s Talk of the Nation, wrote a guest column for Chicago magazine for a month, and got some pretty positive reviews. The book […]