Larry Bell’s boxes

This past weekend I visited David Zwirner Gallery to see “Primary Atmospheres: Works from California 1960-1970,” an informal survey of art from the mainly Los Angeles based visual art movement called “light & space” — Cali’s flaked out, completely lovely response to minimalism, a mostly east coast affair. The favorite notice I’ve read comes (as it often does) from Peter Schjeldahl at The New Yorker. They won’t let you read him on the web unless you’re a subscriber, but they will let you see this slide show with audio. Take what you can get, I guess?

I feel the same about these pictures I’m sharing. They’re not the same as the real thing. But you’ll have to take what you can get.

These boxes, they’re by Larry Bell.
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Posted by Alec Hanley Bemis  

Tags: David Zwirner, Larry Bell, Minimalism, Peter Schjeldahl, Raymond Carver, The New Yorker, The Problem With Nostalgia, The Problem With the Avant Garde

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Gaga as gesamtkunstwerk & Fever Ray’s melting face: a short attention span essay on operatic gestures in contemporary pop music

I. THE KNIFE’s SPECTACLES

Let’s lead this post with a bit of theater: Karin Dreijer Andersson aka Fever Ray (or maybe it’s a stand-in?) accepting an award for best dance artist at that country’s equivalent of the Grammy Awards. (They’re called the Grammis. American cultural imperialism is no joke.):

Let’s follow that up with a bit of music by The Knife, the Swedish electro-pop group which Dreijer co-stars in with her brother Olof. It’s from Tomorrow, in a Year, the new opera about Charles Darwin they created in collaboration with Berlin-based artists/musicians Mt. Sims and Planningtorock and the Danish theater group Hotel Pro Forma:

The Knife: Colouring of Pigeons

When it begins the 11-minute long song equally recalls Bjork’s “Human Behavior” and Philip Glass’s Einstein on the Beach — a Greek chorus-like panoply of voices sings wordless oohs, ahhs & doots over a pattering of light martial drums. It’s the sound of spectacle and gravitas, unfolding more like a story than a self-contained pop song. The larger work from which this was drawn debuted this past September in Copenhagen; a download of the recording was released earlier this week, and a physical manifestation will arrive in in March — quite unlike most operas which are rarely documented so soon after their debut. If you like what you hear, there’s a lot more where that came from right here. (Admittedly the rest of it offers far fewer pop thrills than the song posted above.)

So, this thing — This Work — it calls itself an opera, a work of spectacle and gravitas. But why would a group who perform on television award shows and have their songs selected for global advertising campaigns even bother? This Work begs some questions: in today’s entertainment landscape is their room for operatic spectacles of the old-fashioned kind? Or do such productions need to take on a newfangled form? Or, finally, is something weirder happening — are lots of artists naturally aspiring to create some as-yet-unseen amalgam of old & new?

Jose Gonzalez: ad for Sony Bravia tvs
(a cover of The Knife song “Heartbeats”)

II. LADY GAGA’s SPECTADEBACLE

More thoughts about as-yet-unseen amalgams.

Perhaps you saw our own Grammys this past Sunday, and thrilled to a different kind of spectacle, the kind only televised award shows can deliver. Let’s call them spectadebacles, one of those special compound words the Germans produce with the same unique flair they do operas. The New Yorker’s television critic, Nancy Franklin, certainly had a good time with the show if the posts on her Twitter feed are anything to go by. Lady Gaga (given name Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta) was an especial target:

- “Well, maybe next year I’ll be seated behind Paul Simon,” he said to himself with a sigh.

Even better was a series of jibes related to Gaga’s ashen-faced duet with Elton John. It inspired three one-liners:

- Sir Elton sez: “How wonderful life is with Gaga in the world”
- Fame: a dirty, dirty job
- My my fireplace-poker face

But wait a second, is this kind of spectacle so different from the ones that The Knife have produced collectively and individually? Though Gaga’s means may seem laughable to a sophisticated viewer like Franklin, her ends should not be dismissed by the rest of us.

Some think of Gaga’s career a mere extension of Madonna’s ever-shifting project of guerrilla-bombing the culture for fun & profit; some think she merely tarts up fine artist Matthew Barney’s aesthetic for fun & profit. Viz:
Lady Gaga: “Bad Romance”

Matthew Barney: “The Order From Cremaster”

Sometimes, though, an echo is more than an echo: Last Friday’s Wall Street Journal had a more subtle take on Ms. Germanotta’s act in an article called “The Lessons of Lady Gaga”:

“Underneath Gaga’s haystack wigs is a case study of what it takes to succeed in the music business today. Gaga, 23 years old, has made shrewd use of new digital platforms, while still leveraging the clout of a major label, an institution deemed obsolete by many proponents of DIY culture. She is a product of a new kind of recording contract which goes beyond just selling records to encompass everything from touring, merchandise–even her make-up deal. Though she writes her own material, she is as focused on visual theatrics, fashion, and global appeal as she is on the music.“

Ignore the fact that lot of the article focuses on Gaga’s implications for old-line businesses (“a new kind of recording contract”!). Because the WSJ’s readership runs these old line businesses, the paper need to pay heed to that kind of stuff. What’s more interesting about WSJ’s take, however, is that they grasp how Gaga’s contemporary peers could give a shit about older metrics for success. Quote: “she is as focused on visual theatrics, fashion, and global appeal as she is on the music.”

What does this mean? Well, for one thing, if Gaga were to pantomime a lesbian kiss or commit a wardrobe malfunction, you can be damn sure the intended aim would be more than a one-week sales bump for her new single.

For another sense of how Gaga differs from old-model pop stars let’s compare her to a generational peer who models herself on the more classic ideal. Let’s compare her, for example, to Beyonce:

Beyonce herself is described in this week’s New York Times as “a spokeswoman — usually a dancing and singing one — in commercials for DirecTV, American Express, Wal-Mart and L’Oréal, among others.” So she is multi-platform. But Beyonce’s multi-platform attack is different. It is merely a brand extension, not an extension of her art.

Both Beyonce and Gaga play a sort of vanishing act, hiding their true selves while in the public eye. But whereas Beyonce’s is expressing her vibe as one of self-effacement (modest, attractive, old-school), Gaga’s vibe is more intense. It’s about self-defacement (mostly offputting, ingratiating only because it’s so bizarre, new school).

Gaga takes the focus off herself as a person and puts it on This Work that she does. That’s something decidedly new school.

Or is it?

III. NEWFANGLED GESAMTKUNSTWERK aka THE PACKAGE

Here’s another German compound word to try on: gesamtkunstwerk sometimes defined as a “comprehensive artwork synthesizing all of the arts,” often used in the context of Richard Wagner’s operas. Some say he coined the term. Is that what today’s most ambitious musicians are increasingly — if unconsciously — re-shaping their careers to pursue? Fever Ray is, for instance, clearly interested in high drama. Here she is striking a Butohesque pose.

Does this count as an operatic gesture? I’m not here to provide an answer so much as I’m here to ask the question, but let’s consider this quote from Karin Dreier’s brother Olof about The Knife’s operatic debut, published on band’s website:

“At first it was very difficult as we really didn’t know anything about opera. We’d never been to one. I didn’t even know what the word libretto meant. But after some studying, and just getting used to opera’s essence of pretentious and dramatic gestures, I found that there is a lot to learn and play with. In fact, our ignorance gave us a positive respectless approach to making opera. It took me about a year to become emotionally moved by an opera singer and now I really do. I really like the basic theatrical values of opera and the easy way it brings forward a narrative. We’ve approached this before in The Knife but never in such a clear way.”

Well, it’s always been pretty clear to me. Here, for example, a live version of “Heartbeats” from  a 2006 show in Gothenburg, Sweden:

I saw a version of this a few years back at New York’s Webster Hall. Performing behind a scrim, one got the sense that that the performers actions on stage represented only a fraction of the show. It was as much about the Robert Wilsonesque play of light as it was about the live music.

Finally, what both Gaga and Fever Ray are presenting is a more total artwork than pop stars of the past. It doesn’t just encompass music, fashion, theater, and aesthetics; it allows the music to be surpassed by the fashion, theater, and aesthetics. Let’s call these newfangled gesamtkunstwerk(s) The Package. The Package is not a sideshow to the music, nor a piece of flypaper to draw people in, nor a way to highlight a pop star’s real personality. The Package is the thing in and of itself. The Package does not evolve into clothing lines, movie roles & Broadway shows as new levels of popularity are achieved. Rather, furthering The Package is the core creative goal these artists have in mind from the start. The artist, in a way, loses themselves within The Package. If you really take the time to compare Fever Ray (at left) and Gaga (at right) side-by-side and you’ll be surprised to find they share far more qualities — or a lack of qualities — than you’d expect.

In a world where the economics of culture no longer allow artists to grow wealthy off of mechanical reproductions, doesn’t it make sense that making yourself a blank canvas for your work, making yourself into an opera — or something like it — would become an attractive option? Total experiences are what audiences are craving. Read here, for example, this article about the unexpected success of high-definition (HD) opera broadcasts at movie theaters:

“Opera at the movies is a surprise new business. In 2006, when the Metropolitan Opera announced its plans to show operas live in movie theaters, skeptics wondered who would actually pay to go. Plenty of people, as it turned out. The Met program has grown exponentially: For its fourth HD season, the company is transmitting nine operas live and attracting sell-out crowds in over 900 theaters around the world.”

As I was saying, sometimes an echo is more than an echo: it’s a conversation happening within the culture, or among cultural practicioners. I’ll close this post as I began it. Here, again, is Drier (at left) winning an award at the Swedish Grammis a few weeks back, alongside Gaga (at right) winning a prize at the MTV Video Music Award this past September. Compare and contrast — that is, if there’s any contrast to be made.

Like it or not, Lady Gaga is a powerful force in culture. And, as I was saying, American cultural imperialism is no joke. Fever Ray’s appearance was taken by many as parody of Gaga. But every parody has an element of tribute, and perhaps that’s what this was, one cultural innovator tipping her veil to another.

See, also: Dirty Projectors, El-P & Def Jux, The National & the Dessner Brothers

Tomorrow, in a year (excerpts):

The Knife: “The Captain” (live in Gothenburg, Sweden, April 12th 2006)

UPDATED FEBRUARY 7, 2010: And lest we forget that opera remains a very old school business, on Friday came news that the Metropolitan Opera’s current general manager, Peter Gelb, has brought back the former head, Joseph Volpe, to negotiate the most intractable element of the opera venture: union contracts. Though the handover of power from Volpe to Gelb was reportedly quite contentious, the new school Gelb (a former record industry exec and born impresario — his father was managing editor the New York Times) simply could not do without the old school Volpe (a former master carpenter & impresario only via on-the-job training).

Posted by Alec Hanley Bemis  

Tags: Beyonce, Butoh, Fever Ray, Gesamtkunstwerk, Grammis, Grammys, Joseph Volpe, Karin Dreijer Andersson, Lady Gaga, Madonna, Metropolitan Opera, Peter Gelb, Spectacledebacle, Sweden, The Knife, The Package, The Problem With the Avant Garde, Wall Street Journal

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Seven pictures from Los Angeles & a slur against the city’s good name

To you, my western friends, with your new California babies,

“Another recent study, from the University of California, Davis, published in Autism Research, also found high rates of autism in children born around Los Angeles, as well as nine other California locations. Autism, usually diagnosed before a child is 3 years old, is a developmental disorder characterized by impaired social interaction and communication and repetitive behavior.“

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Posted by Alec Hanley Bemis  

Tags: Abstraction in Real Life, Autism, California, Clean Rooms, Direct Dial Phones, Groceries, Los Angeles, Photos, Shopping, Shopping Carts, Strawberries, The Problem With Glamour

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Ultimate effacement

“The only recent photograph of him (taken many years ago) is of him wearing a furious face as he fends off an intruding cameraman.”

Indeed. His name is JD Salinger, and now he’s dead.

In some ways, it feels wrong to reproduce that picture, but let it underscore the mechanical age we live in, an age in which people’s likenesses and personalities are reproduced with the same brutal efficiency as texts and records and automobiles and television shows and microwave ovens. It was the exact thing Salinger’s life seemed a silent protest against. This Rick Moody tribute which appeared on NPR today encapsulated a number of my thoughts. His one time literary home The New Yorker is running a memorial, including subscriber-only access to his stories.

My main thought is about the work which might await us. Yes, there’s been speculation about boxes of unpublished work, recapitulations of Salinger’s statement in 1963, a few years before he went quiet…

“I like to write. I love to write. But I write just for myself and my own pleasure.”

…but there’s been little notion that maybe now (or at least soon) these writings will be published. Let’s remember it’s not publication that Salinger seemed to mind, so much as it was the dangerous, self-exposing, quintessentially modern phenomenon of widespread renown. He committed to staying away from the spotlight, and stuck to it like few others one can recall.

Greta Garbo said: “I never said, ‘I want to be alone.’ I only said, ‘I want to be let alone.’”

Artie Shaw said: “Tell ‘em I’m insane. A nice, young American boy walking away from a million dollars, wouldn’t you call that insane?”

Posted by Alec Hanley Bemis  

Tags: 30 Rock, Artie Shaw, Effacement, Greta Garbo, JD Salinger, Obituary, Rick Moody, The New Yorker, The Problem With Glamour, The Problem With Nostalgia, Walter Benjamin

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Brian Eno has beef with Steve Reich, enjoys musical seduction

Few artists’ careers are as unimpeachable as Brian Eno’s. (Well, ok, there is that Paul Simon record.) Anyway, you can marvel at Eno’s recorded accomplishments elsewhere. As impressive as his long list of amazing, culture-impacting albums, though, is the way he talks about music:

“I came out of this funny place where I was interested in the experimental ideas of Cornelius Cardew, John Cage and Gavin Bryars, but also in pop music. Pop was all about the results and the feedback. The experimental side was interested in process more than the actual result — the results just happened and there was often very little control over them, and very little feedback. Take Steve Reich. He was an important composer for me with his early tape pieces and his way of having musicians play a piece each at different speeds so that they slipped out of synch.

“But then when he comes to record a piece of his like, say, Drumming, he uses orchestral drums stiffly played and badly recorded. He’s learnt nothing from the history of recorded music. Why not look at what the pop world is doing with recording, which is making incredible sounds with great musicians who really feel what they play. It’s because in Reich’s world there was no real feedback. What was interesting to them in that world was merely the diagram of the piece, the music merely existed as an indicator of a type of process. I can see the point of it in one way, that you just want to show the skeleton, you don’t want a lot of fluff around it, you just want to show how you did what you did. As a listener who grew up listening to pop music I am interested in results. Pop is totally results-oriented and there is a very strong feedback loop. Did it work? No. We’ll do it differently then. Did it sell? No. We’ll do it differently then. So I wanted to bring the two sides together. I liked the processes and systems in the experimental world and the attitude to effect that there was in the pop, I wanted the ideas to be seductive but also the results.”

This appeared a few days ago in an interview that Eno did with the Guardian. In this age of blogs & Twitter posts, Eno is well served by his genius at expressing big thoughts in relatively small bites. I’ve actually heard variations on his above-quoted sentiment from many people. But Eno’s platform, his ability to speak in full paragraphs that are one part aphorism, one part logical proof, it gives his words a particular power.

I’m not all praise: Eno’s dismissal of “Drumming” and elevation of Reich’s early tape pieces made me wince a bit. Later on, Reich also wrote one of the 20th century’s most sublime pieces, “Music for 18 Musicians”:

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Posted by Alec Hanley Bemis  

Tags: 20th Century Composition, Brian Eno, Drumming, Music for 18 Musicians, Paul Simon, State of Grace, Steve Reich, The Problem With the Avant Garde

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