More Odds and Ends

Artempo

Wildly eclectic and full of surprises, Artempo is the best show I have seen in years. I will direct you to Roberta Smith’s enthusiastic review of Artempo on the New York Times for more information. Let me just say that if you happen to be in Venice before October 7, 2007, I would forgive you for missing a rather unremarkable Biennale, but please do not overlook this gem.

Clockwise from top left:

• Anonymous (Thailand), Hand of Buddha, bronze, 15th–16th century
• Anonymous, ivory carving, 1640
• Louis Finson, The Four Elements, 1611
• Emilio Vedova, Tondo ’87-3, 1987

Brian Dettmer

In a recent Giornale comment thread we mentioned Tom Phillips’s A Humument. I was reminded of that work as I saw Brian Dettmer’s exquisite carved books at Urtopia, a group show curated by Kelly McCray at Toronto’s Edward Day Gallery. In a sense, these works are the opposite of collage. Using surgical tools, Brian Dettmer removes paper like an archeologist releasing a fossil from layers of sediment, thereby unveiling connections between words and images hundreds of pages away from each other. The results are breathtaking: solid and sculptural, with a texture resembling the wood from which the paper pulp once came.

The Vanishing City

I just found this page in a pile of old magazine clippings. It is a late seventies wordless comic by Tiger Takeishi. I believe Tiger is currently active as a Manga artist; at the time he painted this, he was working at the Ettore Sottsass architecture and design firm. The city being wiped away, Hiroshima-style, by the emptiness emanating from the homeless guy is unmistakably Milan, although I can’t quite place the neighbourhood. If anyone knows more of Takeishi’s works in this vein, I’d love to see them.

Posted by michelangelo at August 19, 2007 09:12 AM