Points of Penetration: The Grotesque Body and Humor in Art

Compagnie Marie Chouinard

2010-05-27T08:45:00.000+02:00

April 26th 2010 Event Photos!

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Penetrated for the Last Time, April 26th 2010, CCA Hooper 1 Atrium, San Francisco.

Census 2010 Human Inventory

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Grotestical

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Fred AlvaradoGrotesticalWhat is the function of the grotesque and humor in contemporary art practices? Baktin in the History of laughter and Situation Comedy writes about the link between the grotesque and humor as a strategy to address contemporary society’s norms and ills. I'd like to look at specific art works that deal with a social commentary using the grosteque and humor as a point of

The Grotestical

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The Lexicon Of Unbecoming: A Beginner's Guide to the Grotesque

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Please click on the image to make it bigger!

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Vomix

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Image too small? Click on the title to be redirected for better viewing.

Chason Matthams

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April 2010 interview conducted by George Pfau.Chason Matthams is based in New York and many more images of his work can be seen on his Flickr page or at thefuckingchason.GP: Your work allows us to re-view and re-think the human body in its many forms, what is your approach to human anatomy and what are your sources of information?CM: No thought goes into the interior of the body, its all exterior

Art Production Mechanism Trajectory Diagrams

2010-04-25T04:18:00.000+02:00

Four Artists Produce Through Grotesque Bodily ThresholdsBy George PfauWim Delvoye : Cloaca (2002)Keith Boadwee : Untitled (Piss in Mouth) (2008), Purple Squirt (1995)Piero Manzoni : Merda d’artista (Artist’s Shit) (1960), Lines (1959)Dennis Oppenheim : Two Stage Transfer Drawing (1971)Artist as Drawing Tool (Ways to make a line)

Fascinating

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I wish I lived here.

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A little writing about the show.

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Brigid's post about her work for An American Orifice was a good idea. Here is some writing I shared with the folks at Arttransponder with regard to my piece in the show.One of the things I address in my work, which links to the grotesque, is the aesthetics of unfinished things, particularly architecture. (Unfinished things are open-ended and somewhat borderless, like the grotesque body) The way

About my piece in the Arttransponder exhibit...

2010-01-22T07:29:00.000+01:00

Over the course of preparing for the show, our group met many times to discuss the topics relevant to our course, and how our projects were developing in relation to those topics. As you know, the name of the class is: "Points of Penetration: The Grotesque Body & Humor in Art". Obviously, many different kinds of physical penetration were discussed. I thought it would be worthy to investigate the

2010-01-17T00:17:00.003+01:00

What we can learn from a quick google search.

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Raj mentioned that a google search for "an american orifice" yields a lot of fun stuff (depending on how you like your fun; I enjoy irony) on airport security. This makes sense, as I got a fairly joyless but extremely intimate pat-down at Tegel Airport before returning to the US from Berlin. Raj mentions similar brouhaha in Paris.But the point is, my search didn't come up with as much hair

Niet Normaal: Difference on Display

2010-01-16T17:57:00.003+01:00

Birgit Dieker, Bad Mummy, 2005Marc Quinn, Stuart Penn, 2000Thomas Hirschhorn, Mannequins avec Outgrowths,Le Creux de l'Enfer, Thiers, 2006http://www.nietnormaal.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=5&Itemid=33&lang=en

An American Orifice Press in Der Tagesspiegel

2010-01-15T16:45:00.005+01:00

So they make me a man in this short write up . They also make Raph's love story in East Berlin between a man and a woman! Should we respond to the inaccuracies and write the author? Adrian Piper did this with great bravado. http://www.tagesspiegel.de/zeitung/Ticket;art2811,3000272

Only in an emergency...

2010-01-07T22:49:00.001+01:00

A nice safety tip involving the asshole. I just read Moby Dick so this seems like practical advice to me.

Das Berliner Medizinhistorische Museum

2010-01-03T18:46:00.003+01:00

Today I went to the Berliner Medizinhistorische Museum, in the spirit of the grotesque. My timing was good because there is a show about the history of German dentistry, with lots of alarming antique dentures and pliers. I also checked out the Pathological Museum, a collection within the main museum, of anatomical specimens. There was also an exhibit both from a patient's and a medical point

In Berlin at last!

2010-01-02T17:44:00.009+01:00

After a long journey, three of us have made our arrivals in Berlin and are getting things moving for Friday's opening at Arttransponder. In the meantime, I keep thinking about buildings, incomplete buildings, buildings that are falling apart. Plenty of buildings here in Prenzlauer Berg are pleasantly worn down and it's easy to see how old they are. But I've also come into a bunch of old photos

Rosa Luxemburg's Body

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Quads

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Urs Fischer at the New Museum

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At least two of us are in NYC right now (I ran into Brigid on the street last night!) and last week I went and checked out Urs Fischer:Marguerite de Ponty at the New Museum. The museum itself continues to be a circulation nightmare... getting from floor to floor stinks, but this show makes the awful, bottom-of-a-swimming-pool feeling work. One floor is papered with photographic wallpaper of the

"Baby Yotaro"----Please Watch This.

2009-12-19T07:06:00.003+01:00

Thoughts?

Maja's website!!!!!!

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majaruznic.com

Berlin

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"Take My Breath Away" (kareoke version)- Berlin

Tis the season

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A song for Berlin.

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Love is all the food he'll be feeding, love is where you'll start in Berlin. This song is a stretch as grotesque, because it just seems to be mod, but in the spirit of upcoming events, and perhaps with the Goldfinger credits before your eyes instead of the bad video montage, it's worth posting. Let's learn all the lyrics by January 8th!

Kate Gilmore does drywall.

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I really like this. Lots of building materials, sweating, crumbling and smashing. Something to think about!

Disgust, leather, the New York Times.

2009-12-14T02:08:00.003+01:00

Martha Nussbaum is interviewed in today's Sunday Times Magazine and there is a nice section about disgust. Also on philosophy in American public life and the fun of wearing leather.

PLASTIC SURGERY

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WET, STUFFED ANIMALS

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Caption This (for maggie)

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Best bandage ever.

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I am feeling this look right now. Splints are in.

Blandness in Berlin?

2009-12-09T21:08:00.002+01:00

Since the PoP crew is headed to Berlin in January, this article seems relevant. Whether we prefer a grotto, a palace or a squat, we can agree on one thing: Blandness is not an option!

FABULON is back.

2009-12-09T02:37:00.001+01:00

Nothing exceeds like excess. One of my favorite blogs seems to have returned from hiatus!Also see here.

Abraham Cruzvillegas

2009-12-09T01:48:00.006+01:00

I'm late in posting this and the show is already down, but I've been thinking a lot about the work of Abraham Cruzvillegas this fall. I had the good luck to see Autoconstrucción at RedCat in LA, and again in San Francisco when it was screened by the Wattis Institute, with Abraham and Jens Hoffman in conversation. I like his sculpture a lot, but even more exciting is the way he talks about

Work

2009-12-08T03:37:00.008+01:00

Hi Everyone---The images above are two paintings that are in process. There are many more images of new paintings plus lots of other effluvia and ephemera on my Flicker page and blog.Here are links both of those sites:http://www.flickr.com/photos/brigidbrigid/http://mynameisjenniebaldrin.blogspot.com/Most of the writing on my blog are parts of an ongoing alphabet project that I've been working on

OPENING<>UP

2009-12-02T12:00:00.002+01:00

Hail Fellow Grotesqueness's---I adjusted the settings of this blog because some others have expressed interest.Un-naturally.If there is a problem, you may kick me.Xo

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Hildegard von Bingen

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Blessed Hildegard of Bingen (German: Hildegard von Bingen; Latin: Hildegardis Bingensis; 1098 – 17 September 1179), also known as Saint Hildegard, and Sybil of the Rhine, was a Christian mystic, German Benedictine abbess, author, counselor,linguist, naturalist, scientist, philosopher, physician, herbalist, poet, channeller, visionary, composer, and polymath. Elected amagistra by her fellow nuns

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Time of the Gypsies

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cyBXPMurJY

more show title possibilities....

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grotesque comes from the Latin root as "grotto"....meaning a small cave or hollow...this is interesting....made me think of: below ground, Underground (Emir Kusturica's film...you all should check it out)...the "LOW", the hidden, beneath....the lower part of the body (far away from the brain)

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Raph and Jerry

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more ...

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grotesque |grōˈtesk|adjectivecomically or repulsively ugly or distorted : grotesque facial distortions.• incongruous or inappropriate to a shocking degree: a lifestyle of grotesque luxury.noun1 a very ugly or comically distorted figure, creature, or image : the rods are carved in the form of a series of gargoyle faces and grotesques.• ( the grotesque) that which is grotesque : images of the

Some definitions to spur ideas

2009-10-16T01:14:00.004+02:00

William Pope L., Correct, 20075 minute brain storm starting now:1. A title with the prefix in parenthesis and a list of words...(Un) Ideal Homely Ruley sightly etc.... " " 2. Vomit vomit be sick, spew, heave, retch, gag, get sick; informal throw up, puke, purge, hurl, barf,upchuck, ralph.2 I vomited my breakfast regurgitate, bring up, spew up, cough up, lose; informal throw up, puke, spit

Images

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This first image is 40 x 60 inches. the other images small 8 x10 and the sculpture piece is roughly 10 x 10 x 10 inches....

New Drawings & Paintings

2009-10-13T00:36:00.004+02:00

Petster Gustonitis Little Gulliver Neverending Tough Shit

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New Work

2009-10-08T20:57:00.006+02:00

Hey everyone,Great meeting today. I'm really stoked on working with everyone again.Anyway, here are two new photographs I've made. These are just quick scans.Also, here is the link for the music video I made with Raph. (This is a low quality version)It's called "Reading Rosalind Krauss" by The Size Queens.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FF6l4X-EhJA

The right way to play a Piano

2009-10-05T12:41:00.002+02:00

I've heard of two left feet, but...http://www.flickr.com/photos/epiclectic/3978305225/sizes/m/

Digital Rectal Massage Cures Hiccups and Bra Doubles as Gas Mask

2009-10-05T05:17:00.003+02:00

Dr Elena Bodnar's bra that can be converted into two gas masksA Link to to a BBC article on the 2009 Ig Nobel Prize Award

I'm Watching You: Surveillance and the Body in Mona Hatoum's Influential Work

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Mona Hatoum, born 1952, is an artist currently based in London. The first image is from a performance from 1983 made in response to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, titled The Negotiating Table. It consisted of the artist's body with feet bound wrapped in plastic and gauze, covered in entrails and blood. She lay completely still, breathing, on a table flanked by two empty chairs. The

The Vagina as Parenthetical: Baylee Hikawa, CCA

2009-10-04T01:49:00.005+02:00

What more can I say? I love these. They are direct and funny and yet unexpected. All great qualities in art provoking ambivalence in this viewing subject. Baylee Hikawa's intervention in a Dick and Jane book reminds me of the character, Claudia MacTeer, the nine-year old narrator in the Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. If I had a prize for the grotesque, she would get it this month.

Reflections on Did You Kiss The Dead Body?

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Thursday, June 18, 2009 Catalyst Project Room, Berlin These images are from the exhibition, Did You Kiss The Dead Body? The title of the exhibition comes from a larger project I am working on that incorporates drawings, sculpture, sound and video. The project comes out of a four year reflection on U.S. Military Autopsy Reports of Afghan and Iraqi men that died in U.S. custody. These reports

Dinner with Kant

2009-05-26T22:48:00.003+02:00

The current issue of Cabinet magazine features a piece on Kant and disgust: Leftovers/Dinner with Kant, by Christopher Turner.It also features an awesome Hogarth painting, Francis Matthew Schutz in His Bed.

Full Spectrum Dominance: Harold Pinter Poems on Death and Iraq

2009-05-20T18:22:00.004+02:00

American FootballHallellulah!It works.We blew the shit out of them.We blew the shit right back up their own ass.And out their fucking ears.It works.We blew the shit out of them.They suffocated in their own shit!Hallellulah.Prasise the Lord for all good things.We blew them into fucking shit.They are eating it.Praise the Lord for all good things.We blew their balls into shards of dust,Into shards

Wonder What the Others are Up To?

2009-05-13T13:28:00.006+02:00

Hetain PatelA small group exhibition at Gallery OED in Cochin, India that questions identity and the relationship between South Asians and those in the Diaspora.Artists: Mequitta Ahuja, Anna Bhushan, Vandana Jain, Rajkamal Kahlon, Fawad Khan, Swati Khurana, , Divya Mehra and Hetain Patel.Press:http://www.hindu.com/mp/2009/04/27/stories/2009042750420400.htmhttp://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/

Members of POP participate in MFA Exhibition, San Francisco

2009-05-13T09:29:00.009+02:00

Annie McKnight, Material Processhttp://sites.cca.edu/gradthesisevents/2009/finearts/Annie_McKnight/1.htmlFrom CCA's Website:The Graduate Program in Fine Arts is proud to present the 2009 MFA Exhibition. The program has an interdisciplinary orientation that supports both the crossing and merging of mediums as well as the investigation and use of content from diverse areas of thought. Our program

War and Medicine

2009-05-06T12:21:00.005+02:00

I wanted to share some new drawings I'm working on. They're ink drawings on U.S. Military autopsy texts from Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Grotesque Body

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Seriousness and Fun

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The binaries I encounter as an artist (form/line, depth/flatness, shape/color) recall the doubleness of Maurice Merleau-Ponty's Chiasm and Mikhail Bakhtin's theory of the grotesque, which, like my practice, is grounded in the body. Bakhtin's analysis of Rabelais articulates the grotesque as "a body becoming," the opposite of the Classical ideal of the body, much in the same way that

Reading Rosalind Krauss by the Size Queens

2009-04-17T05:33:00.003+02:00

Hey Everyone,I just wanted to share some stills with you from a music video I made in collaboration with Raph. The song is called "Reading Rosalind Krauss" and it's by this band called The Size Queens. I know Rosalind Krauss hasn't really written on the grotesque, but I feel like my interpretation of the song qualifies. I will be posting a link to the video when the final edit is up on youtube.

Between Science and Fiction: Mirror Neurons and Hyper-Empathy

2009-04-16T23:06:00.007+02:00

My posts on the grotesque and empathy are based on research I did for my Jan Van Eyck application to work as part of the Cross-Cultural and Counter-Modern Research Group led by Kobena Mercer. This post looks at empathy through science fiction and neuroscience.Octavia Butler, 1947-2006Octavia Butler on Writing and Hyper-EmpathyMy rule for writing the novel was that I couldn't write about anything

I Feel Your Pain: Empathy and the Grotesque

2009-04-16T22:51:00.005+02:00

Mikhail Bakhtin defines the grotesque body as unfinished, perpetually changing and rough and one which is opposed to the classical body which is finished, complete, smooth and achieved. At the heart of the grotesque is an unstable and always shifting growth defying categorization which threatens anything that is fixed, stable, permanent or ideal. The logic of hybridity serves in many ways as a

Carnival: Billy Bragg, Riot Police and G-20 Protests

2009-04-02T12:01:00.008+02:00

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/02/g20-protests-london-rbsGuardian Video Clip

Lynda Benglis, Female Sensibility, 1974

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Cheryl Donegan, Head, 1993

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Paul McCarthy, Sauce, 1974

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Otmar Bauer, Zeigt, 1969

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Laughing at Abu Ghraib

2009-03-26T10:49:00.006+01:00

Laughter is essentially not an external but an interior form of truth; it cannot be transformed into seriousness without destroying and distorting the very contents of of the truth which it unveils. Laughter liberates from external censorship but first of all from the great interior censor; it liberates form the fear that developed in man during thousands of years: fear of the sacred, of

2009-03-14T12:26:00.002+01:00

Kobena Mercer The Cross-Cultural and The Counter-ModernJan Van Eyck Website http://www.janvaneyck.nl/0_1_1_news/news_current.htmlCall for ApplicationsArtists, designers and theoreticians are invited to submit proposals for individual or collective research projects for a one-year, two-year or variable research period in the departments of Fine Art, Design and Theory.Deadline for submissions is

2009-03-13T14:36:00.008+01:00

Points of Penetration: Locations of the GrotesqueA proposal to Arttransponder http://www.arttransponder.net/index.php?id=20&L=1Last fall I was invited to teach a graduate seminar at the California College of Art in San Francisco. I developed a course that would allow me to extend my studio practice and research through the process of teaching the course, Points of Penetration: The Grotesque

2009-03-12T19:15:00.016+01:00

Double Consciousness: Painting and Performing the Racial Grotesque, Lecture at NGBK http://www.ngbk.de/site/?id=46 Berlin by Rajkamal Kahlon, March 20, 2009Re/Positionierung Conference organized by Meta Nationale http://www.metanationale.org/index.php/repositionierungSUBJECT! Racist structures degrade People of Color to objects – the taking on of a subjectivity by rejecting an ascribed passive