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the MTAA-RR

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MTAA-RR:

Nov 19, 2003

The Tooth

posted at 15:20 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Yep, that’s me in that pic at the top of the page there. M.River told me that I should explain about the tooth (as you can see, it’s brown) and since I do everything that M.River tells me to do the explanation follows.

The photo above is a ‘before’ picture which I took to document the teeth-whitening and eventual replacement of the brown tooth with a glistening white veneer. Perhaps I’ll put the ‘after’ pic up in a bit.

But how did the tooth get brown in the first place you ask?

The short explanation is that I had a root canal performed on that tooth in my early twenties and with all my coffee-drinkin’ and smokin’ it became brown.

The long answer is much more interesting.

While in college, I was visiting my hometown of Elyria, Ohio on spring break. My brothers (Eric, the oldest, Mark, the middle child) and I went out drinkin’ at the local bars. We got a little bit drunk.

Anyway, we were at a bar called the Train Station (it was indeed right next to the train station) a female patron had a beef with my brother Eric’s wife (she wasn’t there though). The female patron was trying to get some guys to rough-up Eric but failed.

Things progressed and it finally became closing time and my brothers started jeering at the woman, making fun of her, and I joined in as well. My first mistake was not noticing that my brothers had walked out of the bar behind me and the second mistake was not seeing the guy leaning on the jukebox until after he had punched me in the mouth.

He knocked my tooth back; not out, but angled back. I went outside and showed my brothers. Mark pushed it back into place (the dentist would later compliment his effort) and then we tried to get back into the bar to beat-up the guy who had punched me. The bouncers, for some reason, wouldn’t let us back in so we angrily left the bar.

That’s not the end of the story really. But it’s the end of the story of the tooth. The damage to the bar, my later arrest, and other details I’ll save for a later post. permanent link to this post

Nov 17, 2003

Currin is an asshole

posted at 21:25 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

I’m talking about John Currin, or Mr. Bodacious as the NYTimes calls him in the recent article.

I’ve never liked his work. It’s always seemed too illustrative and market-pandering to my eye, but the article linked above makes clear that not only are his paintings horrid and stupid but he is an ignorant, arrogant ass.

Here are some telling quotes: “I wish I could find more to love about it,” he recently observed, “but it’s hard. I have not seen the will to make a masterpiece in American art. What’s here? Albert Bierstadt? He’s small beer compared to the Europeans.” Ever heard of a little painter called JACKSON POLLACK you ignorant boob!? “I know Warhol is a great artist,” Currin said, “but I don’t like him. It’s the kind of art that advertises that he knows the doorman at the club.” I can’t even go into the awesome ignorance embodied in that one.

Blackhawk of The Thing gave a concise crit of this super-doofus on Thingist recently: …you will plainly see that the guy does not have a single original idea in his head, merely rips off everyone from Holbein to Botero to Ed Ward. Because he doesn’t disguise this, the work is supposed to be “referential”; it’s not, it’s just fraud. No hand, no eye, no mind. What are we supposed to do w/ him then? He remains an idiot’s idea of “intellectual painting”, & therefore anathema. My advice? If you want to go see some truly great American painting and have only one afternoon, head over to the Met and check out the Philip Guston retrospective instead of visiting The Whitney. permanent link to this post

GoogleRace

posted at 16:15 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/politics

Found this over at Andrea Harner’s blog:

GoogleRace

It was created by the interesting folks over at Eyebeam’s R & D department. Parts of Eyebeam R&D have also given us the Nike Sweatshop Email and the ever popular BlackPeopleLoveUs.com. Their new idea is fairly brilliant and should get them lots of traffic.

But how does this effect MTAA you ask? Well, MTAA did a project at Eyebeam called Endnode (AKA Printer Tree) and Eyebeam continues to host the informational site, www.Endnode.net, on one of their servers. When Jonah and his crew release their enormously popular projects on this server they usually kill every other site hosted on it due to all the bandwidth being eaten. (At least that’s what happened with the release of BlackPeopleLoveUs.com).

I’m not complaining though. I wish I could get the kind of traffic Jonah seems to be able to draw. Let’s just be happy that he uses this gift for good instead of evil. permanent link to this post

Nov 14, 2003

Piece2piece: online collaboration

posted at 17:05 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

File this under “Actual News” from MTAA.

Here is the official release for the exhibition: A six month online collaboration of artists inviting other artists
November 15, 2003 - May 15, 2004
Official online launch: November 15, 2003
Opening reception: January 15, 2003
Hours: 6 - 9 PM
Hosted and sponsored by:
Postartum
Director:
Lora McPhail
946 Daisy Ave Studio 5
San Pedro, CA 90813

Current Artists:
(Alphabetically)

Antoni Abad
Annie Abrahams
Amy Alexander
Soo Yeun Ahn
b-l-u-e-s-c-r-e-e-n
John Cabral
Arcangel Constantini
d-i-r-t-y.com
Andy Deck
Intima.org
Jimpunk
Josh Larios
Peter Luining
Brian Mackern
MTAA
Eduardo Navas
Randall Packer
Roc Parez
Pavu.com
Eugenio Tisselli
Who In Lee

Organized by Eduardo Navas
Note the official launch is the 15th, the site will be live tomorrow.

This is an interesting curatorial idea from Eduardo Navas. He invited 2 artists to be included in the show and invited them to invite 2 and so on creating a truly networked curatorial experiment.

In case your curious, MTAA was invited by Pavu.com and we plan to invite Cory and Cary. We included the Creative Commons licensed image from Manual Zoom Mirage in the exhibition. permanent link to this post

Nov 13, 2003

Actual News

posted at 21:40 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

It looks like YOUR favorite artists (wannabes? slackers?) MTAA are probably (most likely? hopefully?) going to be featured (mentioned? slighted?) in an article written by Valerie Lamontagne for the Canadian art magazine Parachute.

I have an idea that French speakers like MTAA for one reason and one reason only. This is the reason: MTAA’s 99 Steps to Contemporary Art in Your Bedroom. Why? Well, if you follow the link you’ll see that the text is in english and french. I think that we’ve tricked the french speakers into thinking we’re fellow travellers where the fact of the matter is that I was kicked out of my high school french classes on an almost daily basis and M.River, well, lets just say that he speaks the “international language” if you know what I mean—wink, wink.

Hopefully Parachute will include some full-color repros of our brilliant web work. Sources tell us it will be in the January/February issue so get you subscription now! permanent link to this post

AIOTD - Rightstarter

posted at 17:20 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

In a dream last night, MTAA made the following work. In each room of an empty house, pair of speakers are installed. All the speaker wires go back to one room that contains a small a wooden table with a computer hooked into the speakers. The computer sends, in a random order and with a somewhat random delay, a small sound sample. The sample is from Public Enemyıs Rightstarter (Message to a Black Man). The sample is just half of the first line - Mind over matter… permanent link to this post

Nov 11, 2003

AIOTD

posted at 10:09 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Actually, I have two AIOTDs, but they run along similar lines. So, here is the wind up.

For the Pirated Movie, Twhid and I took a pirated version of a pirate movie and showed it black and white without sound. We asked 5 artists to create a new, live, soundtrack for the work. Simple. We are still working on the final DVD that mixes the performance documentation with the found bootleg material. As we work on this DVD, two other ideas for film projects have surfaced.

AIOTD 1 ­ Tiny Diva (Peggy) suggested using the docu-drama DC911 for another film. I think we should follow the same basic methods as the Pirated Movie by again rendering the material black and white without sound. We should then have Peggy score the entire film.

When we show our new version of the film, renamed DC911 - The Big Dance Remix (note: The Big Dance was the working title used while filming DC911 in Canada), we should project it on a mirrored disco ball. This projection effect would, in a way, shatter the film. It will also create an environment in which the audience can dance within the film. (see c. peppermintıs work for more on this thought)

As for the politics of this, my line of thought has been…if you take our pain as a community for your propaganda, we then have the right to claim your film for our art.

AIOTD 2 - Refilm all 8 hours of Warholıs 1964 film Empire from Twhidıs office window. Show it, with live music, in a warehouse this coming July for the filmıs 40th anniversary. Film performance and create new DVD to be called Empire 40. permanent link to this post

Nov 09, 2003

eyebeam in ny times

posted at 13:00 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

eyebeam is sounding spunkey in this nyt story.

or as eyebeam insiders now call it…THE eyebeam. permanent link to this post

Some updates on some of our Pirated Movie friends…

posted at 09:09 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

PSI goes on musical rampage across Mid-West. Check here for dates near you.

After staring as the poster-boy on the mtaaRR last month, Jackmaster Archangel (Cory) has been selected into the 04 Whitney Biannual ­ Cory tells us that he owes it all to high level of buzz generated as Mr. October on the mtaaRR. Congrats Cory!

And last, but certainly not least, Tiny Diva and askROM tie the knot this Sunday. Yeah! permanent link to this post

Nov 05, 2003

Postcard Show Catalog

posted at 11:24 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Last summer, MTAA may or may not have sent you a postcard for our sculpture “In Preparation For An Attack By Mobs Of Hideously Deformed Radioactive Mutants On 31 Grand (AKA Cage Match)” which was featured in the group show “Dealers Choice” at 31Grand in Brooklyn.

Or a postcard for our solo show at Rome Arts in Brooklyn entitled “IN PREPARATION FOR THE SUMMER AIR IN BROOKLYN TO RISE FROM THE CONCRETE IN A MANNER WHICH DISTORTS ONE’S ABILITY TO JUDGE DISTANCE AND MEANING (AKA MANUAL ZOOM MIRAGE)

Or even one for our one-night performance “Pirated Movie” at Postmasters in New York.

You may have even heard about our unofficial solo show at IALA, Louisiana in which the curator, much to our surprise and delight, hung all our summer of 2003 postcards as a show.

But now, if you missed any of this, IALA brings it all home to you in the form of an exhibition catalog chapbook. Yes, six bound and full color pages, encompassing MTAA’s long hot summer of fun and hi-jinx. You can get yours today by following this link.

MTAA’s general art context note: the above-mentioned show at IALA and chapbook created from it are a good example of what happens when you decide to release your art with a Creative Commons license so that others can play with it. Hint. Hint…and enjoy permanent link to this post

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