untitled (red battens) 2008

Only, it isn't trompe-l'oeil. It is what it appears to be.

untitled (3) 2008

Ten days ago while I was in D.U.M.B.O. I casually snapped this detail of an old brick wall. I was intrigued by the weeds growing out of cracks in the worn masonry and rusted iron of the dignified mid-nineteenth-century former warehouse of which it was a part. The massive structure had long ago lost its purpose and it now hovered above a neat lawn on a Brooklyn shore being made safe for investors and young families.

Only as I looked at the picture just now while I was putting it up, remembering what the huge pattern of brick and shuttered openings looked like on that drizzly day, did it occur to me to relate it (the scene, not my photograph) to Piranesi's "Vedute di Roma", which described the weedier walls of a much more ancient city 250 years ago.

Arthur Russell (and 'phones) in photo booth

Matt Wolf's beautiful homage to Arthur Russell, "Wild Combination", has been showing at the IFC Center in the West Village, the former Waverly, since September 26. It also opened at the ICA Cinema in London that day. In New York it's currently scheduled to be shown through next Tuesday, October 7, but it might be extended, depending upon attendance. So go now.

It's a work of art, and a great joy.

I wrote about it after seeing the preview at The Kitchen last May. There are a number on links, including a short sound widget, on my earlier post, but you probably won't want to miss the film.

[image, credited to Audika Records, from Matt Wolf]

"Del Baldwin, Tence Massey and Anna Pope are preparing library books for circulation."

Apparently the first time around it was such a great success, and everybody had such a good time, that this Saturday Friends of the Greenpoint Library are repeating an event they held at the Library last September.

"Greenpoint 100" is a benefit art show of works donated by artists living or working in Greenpoint. One hundred pieces, in almost every medium, will be available for the astoundingly modest sum of $25. We're told that the money and the enthusiasm raised a year ago went toward acquiring new materials for this branch of the Brooklyn Public Library and toward creating a safer, more inviting library environment for the vibrant community it serves.

I'll say again what I said last year, when we were asked to help with the event: We love Greenpoint, and we love libraries. This time I can add that the work we saw in 2007 was very impressive. Oh, and I still love this photograph.

Details:

The Greenpoint 100: Friends of the Greenpoint Library Artists'
Benefit

Saturday October 4, 2008
11:00 am to 2:30 pm

at the Greenpoint Library
107 Norman Ave. at Leonard St.
Brooklyn, NY 11222

for more information call the library at 718-349-8504 or email: friendsofthegreenpointlibrary@gmail.com

[1878 image by unknown photographer, along with supplied caption, from wichitaphotos.org]

untitled (green shrimp) 2008

This beautiful salty oxymoron is permanently mounted above a wholesale seafood business on Madison Street in Chinatown.

untitled (clover) 2008

Just west of the East River shore in Brooklyn Bridge Park a large lawn supporting several huge patches of clover was dotted with raindrops this past Sunday.

a clutch of some of the pink and yellow [g a y] balloons which accompany Sharon Hayes's "Revolutionary Love 1 & 2: I Am Your Worst Fear, I Am Your Best Fantasy", spotted hanging out at the bottom of a dark corner of the hall just outside the room where the sound and video piece is installed

I didn't have time to do a full post on the show tonight, so I decided that I'd put up just one image and make a very strong recommendation that everyone who can do so make her or his way to the Park Avenue Armory tomorrow (actually that's today, Saturday) for the last day of Creative Time's essential contribution to the moment we're all sharing right now, questioning the idea of "Democracy in America".

It's an awesome show, it's not going to be forgotten, and you know you're going to want to have been a part of it - especially after the news that an important and not unrelated show at the Chelsea Museum has been [summarily ?] pulled.

*
This headline is the title of the exhibition catalog, edited by its curator, Nato Thompson.

untitled (B E CO) 2008

A surfer colony in Bushwick? Who knew? Yesterday afternoon these surfer dudes were busy loading a number of boards into and onto this beach buggy on Bogart across from Grattan.

untitled (Blindness) 2008

I just found this a few minutes ago while looking at my gatherings for my day in Bushwick and Williamsburg. I probably shouldn't admit it, since I like the image so much, but it was just one of those captures I manage to dredge up while carrying my feather-triggered camera around dropped more or less at arms length. The wall is on Metropolitan Avenue just east of the BQE.