The tremendously talented actress and performance artist Helen Shumaker performing at the DeYoung Museum as part of a series of events called Our People curated by Monique Jenkinson (aka Fauxnique) with a group of performers, most of whom she knows through the queer club scene, to create a dance/installation inspired by the work of Jean Paul Gaultier—"his icons, his fetishes, and a light-hearted, humanistic irreverence." Photograph by Oliver Maxwell Kupper for Pas Un Autre.
Liberatum Hong Kong International Festival of Culture opens today and runs through the weekedend. Participants include Khalil Fong, Daniel Wu, Rossy de Palma, Wing Shya, Nobel Laureate Sir VS Naipaul, Paul Schrader, Rosey Chan, Terence Koh, Pharrell Williams, Hong Kong New Music Ensemble, Mike Figgis, OMA Partner – Architect, David Gianotten and many others.
Koudlam performs See You All at ACME in New York for the Dom Pèrgnon dinner last Wednesday night with a video installation by Rita Ackermann.
Transmission LA, curated by Mike D of the Beastie Boys, is a multi-disciplinary festival that will be the meeting point for the Los Angeles art and music community. The sequel to the series of festivals that premiered in Berlin last year with curator and fashion designer Raf Simons, the 17-day collaborative festival includes work by Roy Choi, Benjamin Jones, Mike Mills,Tom Sachs, Public Fiction, and additional artists and musicians. Tomorrow night Santigold opens the festival tonight at The Geffen Contemporary at the Museum of Contemporary Art. Transmission LA will be on view until May 6.
On view now in Toronto the Seveth Annual Good For Her Feminist Porn Awards. Tonight will be a screening of selected films by filmmakers Erika Lust, Buck Angel, Nenna and N Maxwell Lander.
"Shia [LaBeouf] is in some ways an art rapist," says Marilyn Manson. Who knew the actor was such the consummate artist and publisher. LaBeouf says he "is obsessed with the history of visual culture" and puts out around 10 books a year with his publishing imprint The Campaign Book. Right now the modest, but impressive catalogue includes graphic novels by himself like Let's Fucking Party and Cyclical, as well as books by Marilyn Manson and Kid Kudi. Above is an illustration by LeBeouf himself from Cyclical.
Paul McCartney & crowd (including Autre's own Adarsha Benjamin seated on the left) at the My Valentine music video (directed by Paul himself starring Natalie Portman and Johnny Depp) premier at the Stella McCartney boutique in Los Angeles. McCartney will also be re-releasing his amazing first solo album Ram on May 21st. A deluxe edition box set will include a 112-page book, photo prints, copies of handwritten lyrics and notes and four CDs as well as a film that tells the making of the album on DVD, Ramming.
Annual Friends of Artists Space Dinner 2012 will be held in honor of legendary artist and musician Alan Vega on Saturday, May 5, 8pm. Alan Vega and his band Suicide are widely regarded as the godfathers of “No Wave.” The group’s seminal 1977 album Suicide is cited as an important influence by musicians such as Joy Division, Nick Cave, Spacemen 3, Spiritualized, The Horrors, The Cars, and Bruce Springsteen. This event is held exclusively for the Friends of Artists Space. A limited number of tickets are available. Please contact: friends@artistsspace.org to inquire about tickets or how to join the Friends of Artists Space.
On 6 June 2012 the second and the last transit of Venus of the century will occur. Departing from this extraordinary phenomenon, the Adam Art Gallery, in New Zealand, presents the exhibition Dark Sky which delves into the relationship between photography and astronomy to examine the intriguing photographic consequences and new territories discovered from capturing the skies. The exhibition has been timed to coincide with the 2012 Transit of Venus, a rare astronomical event when Venus passes between the Earth and the sun. The exhibition will be complemented by a public programme, including talks by scientists, artists and writers, including the German and New Zealand poets who have been commissioned by the International Institute of Modern Letters and the New Zealand Goethe-Institut to write about the Transit of Venus. Dark Sky will be on view from May 1 to June 8, at the Adam Art Gallery Victoria University, Gate 3, Kelburn Parade.
One of the most important artist's working today is without a doubt Doug Aitken. From photography, sculpture, and architectural interventions, to films, sound, single and multi-channel video works, and installations Aitken's work is a truly unique and distinctive voice of this century. On view now at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington D.C., Aitken's multimedia exhibition, entitled Song 1, is a 360 degree projection of films onto the exterior museum set to the soundtrack of the 193os jazz standard reinterpreted by the likes of LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy, Beck, Devendra Banhart, No Age and more. Song 1 "will illuminate the entire facade of the Hirshhorn’s iconic building, transforming it into 'liquid architecture' and an urban soundscape. Using eleven high-definition video projectors, Aitken will seamlessly blend imagery to envelop the Museum's exterior, creating a work that redefines cinematic space." Doug Aitken: SONG 1 will be on view until May 13, 2012.
GG Allin naked and smearing and throwing his own feces at the audience whilst performing his hit tune Bite It You Scum. Performance art or disturbing?
Artist Richard Prince opens a gallery, rare bookshop, and publishing house called Fulton Ryder in NYC.
Alongside the 2012 SHOWstudio Shop exhibition Selling Sex, SHOWstudio launches Fashion Fetish, a series of fashion films, performances, multi-media pieces and accompanying essays by women in fashion. The latest addition takes us on a trip to the coastline, courtesy of acclaimed photographer and film director Poppy de Villeneuve.
Performance artist, pseudo-porn star, singer, Actually Huizenga looks like a throw back to something out of the pages of Hustler circa-1979, but the vision she is creating through her art and music is distinctly new - even verging on futuristic. Huizenga, born and raised in the Hollywood Hills, specializes in "raw Bacchanalian Los Angeles music video kitsch" and performs live as Actually with her band Wet Look - a solo record is on its way. And along with her collaborator Socrates Mitsios are creating a series of 5 to 8 minute videos, entitled SoftRock, that they call an "exercise in the photogenics of sex, exploring the power within the act (both social and aesthetic)." They also refer to the films as "Pop Rape" which in its simple, brilliant distillation is a perfect term to describe an entirely new, futuristic brand of cinema and music. The first two installments of SoftRock premiered at the Pompidou Centre as part of Diane Pernet's A Shaded View on Fashion Film, and a third installment is currently being edited and is due out soon. Actually will perform at King, King in Los Angeles on April 19.
Homocult and Other Esoterica is a group show of short experimental queer films focused on magick and the occult and art works curated by Daniel McKernan. Featuring films by Genesis P-Orridge and Bruce LaBruce and artworks by Christos Andres and George Keller. McKernan says, "[Homocult is a] collection of artists & filmmakers who have an affiliation to the Generation Hex era, a blend of old school and new school. Each individual has his/her own unique interpretation of the theme of the occult and esoteric. Jason Louv, in his introduction to Generation Hex (2006), states that the book is a snapshot of those 'who are not only delving into this art of magick and science of the future, but who are coming to magical consciousness at a time when it has never been easier to find and link up with people of like minds and experience.' This is a video survey of such people. As Scott Treleaven, in the final issue of This is the Salivation Army (1999), said: 'We are the new circus. And we are the envy of the fucking World.'" On view April 6 and 7 S&S Projects 3145 S. Morgan Street, Chicago, IL.
"One night, when the parties were over, I guess she didn't want to sleep with somebody, so she asked me to share a room with her. She always had to have her glass of hot milk and a cigarette in one hand. In her sleep her hands kept crawling; they couldn't sleep. I couldn't keep my eyes off them. She kept scratching with them. Perhaps she just had bad dreams....I don't know, it was really sad." Andy Warhol on Edie Sedgewick
Aphrodite and the Gods of Love at the Getty Villa in Malibu until July 9, 2012. Photograph by Oliver Maxwell Kupper
“Photos de Cinéma: Images of the French New Wave by Raymond Cauchetier,” which includes production photographs from “Breathless,” is the first exhibition outside of Europe to showcase Cauchetier’s motion picture work. On view will be 125 newly made, black-and-white prints from Cauchetier’s own 35mm negatives. The printing was personally overseen by Cauchetier, now in his 90s, at his preferred lab in Paris. Other films represented in the exhibition include “Adieu Philippine,” “Baisers volés” (“Stolen Kisses”), “Jules et Jim,” “Lola” and “La peau douce” (“The Soft Skin”). “Photos de Cinéma” is open to the public through June 24 in the Academy of Motion Picture's Grand Lobby Gallery in Beverly Hills.
Bob Dylan With Top Hat Pointing In Car, Philadelphia PA 1964 © Daniel KramerAn exhibition on view at the Cité de la musique in Paris retraces the important moments of Bob Dylan between the years of 1961 to 1966, during which Dylan radically changed his artistic approach and sparked a musical revolution. Created by the Grammy Museum of Los Angeles, Bob Dylan, Rock Explosion presents, through previously unpublished photos, objects, rare documents and audiovisual archives, the astonishing story of a personal evolution that marked a societal earthquake. On view until July 15 at the Cité de la Musique.
Future Eyes, glasses that give you the power to see the future, an invention by Brent Pearson. Photography by Adarsha Benjamin. Los Angeles, CA.