GEEE at the Showroom

Cream Co. Event Selected as TimeOut Chicago Critic's Pick

2011-10-21T10:29:00.000-07:00

TimeOut Chicago has selected our Artist Conversation with Michelle Grabner at the Depaul Art Museum as this week's Critic's Pick.

Wednesday, October 26th

6-8 PM

DePaul Art Museum

935 W. Fullerton

http://timeoutchicago.com/arts-culture/art-design/14976185/marie-krane-bergman-and-cream-co-in-conversation-with-michelle-grab

DePaul prepared the following description for the event:

If you have visited the new museum, you have most likely encountered the installation in the first floor entryway. If it has left you intrigued, and wanting to learn more, join us for a free conversation between Marie Krane Bergman & Cream Co and artist/writer/curator Michelle Grabner.
Marie Krane Bergman leads, with others, a fluid theory-practice collective named Cream Co. The group formed in 1997 among painting students at the School of the Art Institute and produces paintings, photographs and installations that raise questions about ways we make meaning. In 2000, the group took over Bergman’s construction of paintings that address the nature of being in time.
Michelle Grabner is the chair of the Painting and Drawing Department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and is currently a visiting professor at Yale University. On top of her own rigorous studio practice, Grabner also runs The Suburban gallery in Oak Park.

http://museums.depaul.edu/news/

"...There are stunning installations including one by Marie Krane Bergman and Cream Co..."

2011-10-03T10:42:00.000-07:00

Chicago Life, a weekend magazine supplement to both the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, published an article describing Marie Krane Bergman and Cream Co.'s installation at the DePaul Art Museum as "stunning."

Please check out the entire article for yourself:

http://www.chicagolife.net/content/art/Re_Chicago

DePaul Art Museum Video with a Cameo of Abby

2011-09-21T11:45:00.000-07:00

Cream Co. at DePaul Art Museum on Artletter

2011-09-21T09:51:00.000-07:00

http://www.artletter.com/2011/09/

Drop Cloths

2011-09-08T10:05:00.000-07:00

Packing for DePaul

2011-09-08T09:59:00.000-07:00

Blue

2011-09-08T09:57:00.000-07:00

Perfecting the DePaul Installation method at the Showroom

2011-09-08T09:48:00.000-07:00

Organizing the Strings in Preparation for the Move

2011-09-08T09:41:00.000-07:00

Attempts at Photographing the Strings

2011-09-08T09:24:00.000-07:00

DePaul Space

2011-09-08T09:19:00.000-07:00

Kurt's "Shag" Material Study

2011-09-08T09:11:00.000-07:00

Rugosa Rose Installation Sketch

2011-09-08T09:06:00.000-07:00

Delphinium Study in Relation to Wall in Sketched in Yarn

2011-09-08T08:58:00.000-07:00

Rugosa Rose Installation Study in Relation to a Wall

2011-09-08T08:51:00.001-07:00

Considering Delphinium Strings in Relation to a Wall

2011-09-08T08:45:00.000-07:00

Sweet Pea Currant Tomato Pour Off and Detritus Study

2011-09-08T08:33:00.000-07:00

Packing for the Gallery

2011-03-05T09:53:00.000-08:00

Sweet Pea Currant Studies

2011-03-05T09:47:00.001-08:00

Installation Study

2011-03-05T09:25:00.001-08:00

Rugosa Rose Study

2011-03-05T09:15:00.000-08:00

Kurt's Next Panel Study

2011-03-05T09:09:00.000-08:00

Leah's Space

2011-03-05T09:05:00.000-08:00

Barbara's Space

2011-03-05T08:54:00.001-08:00

Kurt's Detritus

2011-03-05T08:46:00.000-08:00

Embalming Hydrangea

2011-03-05T08:40:00.000-08:00

Looking Up

2011-03-05T08:34:00.000-08:00

Hanging the Leah Strings

2011-03-05T08:28:00.000-08:00

Leah's Series

2011-03-05T08:24:00.000-08:00

Relics

2011-03-05T08:21:00.000-08:00

Kurt's Shag Study

2011-03-05T08:16:00.000-08:00

Barbara's Strings

2011-03-05T08:14:00.000-08:00

Crit Space Becomes Work Space

2011-03-05T08:05:00.001-08:00

Leah's Project

2011-03-05T07:58:00.000-08:00

Hydrangea Project

2010-11-16T12:54:00.001-08:00

Barbara's Strings

2010-11-16T12:47:00.000-08:00

Sasha's Work Station

2010-11-16T12:43:00.001-08:00

Barbara's New Painting

2010-11-16T12:32:00.001-08:00

Hydrangea

2010-11-16T11:53:00.000-08:00

Sweet Pea Currant Tomatoes

2010-11-16T11:47:00.000-08:00

New Twine Project

2010-11-16T11:34:00.000-08:00

The Central Hall

2010-11-16T11:00:00.000-08:00

String Production, Experimentation, Gridding, Ground Preparation and Display in the Critique Room

2010-11-16T08:55:00.000-08:00

Bob

2010-11-16T08:32:00.000-08:00

Gridding a Large Panel

2010-11-15T07:27:00.000-08:00

Patterns, Directions, Studies and Ephemera

2010-11-12T15:02:00.000-08:00

Beginnings of the Sweet Pea Currant Project

2010-11-12T14:09:00.000-08:00

Shadow of Tar Gel Marks Study and Miniature Pomegranate Tree

2010-11-12T13:11:00.000-08:00

Animations of the Production of 2 Paintings

2010-11-12T12:33:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Kurt for his ingenuity in making these!

Pomegranate Project

2010-10-29T14:02:00.000-07:00

Mapping of Delphinium Project

2010-10-29T13:44:00.000-07:00

Delphinium Pour Off Instructions

2010-10-29T13:33:00.000-07:00

Frames

2010-10-29T13:25:00.000-07:00

Delphinium Pour Offs

2010-10-29T13:21:00.000-07:00

Barbara's Workspace

2010-10-29T13:09:00.001-07:00

Leah's Workspace

2010-10-29T12:58:00.001-07:00

Abby's Blotter

2010-10-29T12:56:00.001-07:00

Sweet Pea Currant Tomatoes

2010-10-29T12:21:00.000-07:00

Hydrangea Pour Offs

2010-10-29T11:58:00.000-07:00

Another Look at the Rugosa

2010-10-29T11:51:00.000-07:00

Sweet Pea Currant Tomato Color Study Continues

2010-10-07T11:06:00.000-07:00

Pomegranate Strings Cut Free

2010-10-07T09:29:00.000-07:00

Rugosa Rose off the Wall

2010-10-03T09:33:00.000-07:00

Rugosa Ceiling Installation

2010-10-03T09:07:00.000-07:00

Rugosa Rose Ceiling Installation Process

2010-10-03T08:49:00.000-07:00

Sweet Pea Currant Tomatoes

2010-10-03T08:07:00.001-07:00

Strings Starting to Illustrate the Pomegranate

2010-10-01T08:48:00.000-07:00

Strings Over Plastic Sheeting

2010-10-01T08:38:00.000-07:00

String Casualty and Triage

2010-10-01T08:11:00.000-07:00

A Bridge from Representation

2010-10-01T07:27:00.000-07:00

More String Preparation

2010-10-01T07:22:00.000-07:00

Stretching a Canvas

2010-10-01T07:19:00.001-07:00

Rugosa Rose String Project Update

2010-10-01T07:16:00.000-07:00

Pour Off Updates

2010-10-01T07:11:00.001-07:00

Showroom Strings Prepared for Paint

2010-10-01T07:04:00.000-07:00

Floor Canvas Details

2010-10-01T06:59:00.001-07:00

Painting Using String as Brush

2010-10-01T06:56:00.000-07:00

Stringing the Showroom

2010-10-01T06:45:00.000-07:00

Pour Off Strings

2010-10-01T06:23:00.000-07:00

Another Act of Paint without a Canvas

2010-10-01T05:56:00.000-07:00

2 Workrooms Are Now 1

2010-09-14T07:19:00.000-07:00

Review: Hauntology

2010-09-14T07:12:00.000-07:00

http://www.artslant.com/sf/articles/show/18041
A Spectre is Haunting Berkeley...

by Julia E. Hamilton

Hauntology

Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive

2625 Durant Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94720-2250

July 14, 2010 - December 5, 2010

Hauntology is essentially the science of spooking. Jacques Derrida first coined the word in 1993 in the book Spectres of Marx. He used the term to illustrate how communism’s failed Utopian ideals haunt capitalist society in a way that not only upsets the easy progression of time, but also accommodates a radical critique of the present.

In more apolitical terms, the “persistence of a present past” also seems so fundamental to the concept of a museum, the cannon of art history, and the preconditions of modern art that we might often overlook it. Works of art produced in “reference” to that which have come before also provide a self-conscious collapsing of art histories easy progression, including notions of originality, form, aura, and content. This philosophy of history is compelling; however, it’s not quite the focus of Hauntology, a show currently on view at the Berkley Art Museum. This show could have used a bit of focus.

Curated by BAM director Lawrence Rinder and local artist Scott Hewicker, the broad thematic umbrella of “haunting” primarily provides an excuse for the museum to showcase several works from their permanent collection, many of them recent and contemporary acquisitions. The 52 pieces on display reflect a loose group. A wide range of styles and concerns, tied together along broad thematic lines, both figurative and literal. An alarming number deal with being lost at sea: literally, as in on a boat and metaphorically, as in displaced or homeless. Other works are simply meant to be “spooky” and mysterious, or invoke longing, sadness and distress.

While the show doesn’t exactly provide rigorous exploration of the theme, it contains some incredibly beautiful work. Particularly “haunting” were three prints by filmmaker Donal Mosher from the larger October Country film and photo series in which Mosher has been documenting his rural, working class family in upstate New York. The use of the camera flash creates a high contrast style that heightens the eerie effect, but also gives the photos the quality of an intimate snapshot. In one, an outstretched, truncated hand reaches for a newborn. In another, an older woman stands in the snow gazing at the ground in front of a house covered in Christmas lights, her hair also sprinkled with snow. These people seem down and out, and according to Mosher, already are ghosts, haunted by both a traumatic past and an uncertain, unsettling present. Without the benefit of the personal narrative, the work also functions as evidence of Derrida’s original notions of hauntology—a visual critique of the capitalist enterprise through ghosts that have fallen between the cracks.

Another standout of a different kind was Marie Krane Bergman and Cream Co’s A Few Weeks, One Year Later (like August into September), 2003. Made from acrylic and pencil on canvas, the large painting is one out of an ongoing series in which Bergman attempts to attach visual form to her memory of observing and recording the color of a hydrangea flower as it bloomed, decayed, and disintegrated, from the summer of 2000 through the spring of 2001. Up close, one can register the presence of each mark as a visual record of the passage of time, yet as you move further away, time and space collapse into a large, atmospheric picture plane. It fuses the history of landscape painting with high modernism, and references structuralist exercises of Agnes Martin and the obsessive mark making of Yayoi Kusama.

The juxtaposition of two seemingly monochromatic works, centrally located in the show—Ad Reinhardt’s Abstract Painting #3 and Carina Baumann's Untitled, from 2008-2009—helped me grasp the potential of Hauntology. Reinhardt’s piece, one in the larger series of Abstract black paintings he created in the early 60s, reads as pure black from far away, but up close reveals itself to contain a distinct grid in shades so similar and uniform that they collapse the idea of foreground and background. Reinhardt used abstraction to promote his own vision of aesthetic purity—yet the work is almost generic in that it contains the ghosts of so many attempts at “purging” in the art historical cannon. Baumann literally creates a portrait of a ghost, using a large piece of aluminum, under which a translucent white film of a close up of young man's face gleams out very faintly, and only on close inspection. It is as if the shadowy face is our reflection in a mirror, peering at us the same way we are peering at the work. Next to each other, the two pieces almost haunt each other—Reinhardt undermining Baumann’s claims at depth, and Baumann at Reinhardt’s flatness.

Permanent collection shows help the museum assert its identity as a collecting institution, but so often and so easily resemble the treasures from a storehouse, roped together under a weak theme. However, Hauntology manages the trick of pulling together a collection of objects that go together, and the show comes off as thoughtful and essayistic. Leaving the galleries, I felt not necessarily spooked, but imbued with the strange presence of the past as a spirit that haunts the presence. History exerts a pull, a mourning. The past still lives in the present, if only as a specter.

- Julia E. Hamilton

for reference:

An interview done by Chuck Smith & Sono Kuwayama with painter Agnes Martin at her studio in Taos in Nov. 1997.

http://www.yayoi-kusama.jp/

Cream Co. in the Hauntology Exhibit at Berkley

2010-09-10T13:02:00.000-07:00

Hauntology

July 15 - December 15, 2010

University of California Berkley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive

http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/exhibition/hauntology

Hauntology, essentially the logic of the ghost, is a concept as ephemeral and abstract as the term implies. Since it was first used by the French philosopher Jacques Derrida in a 1993 lecture delivered at UC Riverside concerning the state of Marxist thought in the post-Communist era, the term hauntology has been widely discussed in philosophical and political circles, as well as becoming a major influence in the development of various sub-genres of electronic music.

This exhibition focuses primarily on the museum’s recent contemporary acquisitions, mixing these with a number of other works representing a wide range of periods and styles. Although the artists included inHauntology do not necessarily see themselves as part of a larger movement, when viewed collectively a number of resonances appear, not unrelated to the musical interpretations of the theme. Works inHauntology frequently incorporate archaic imagery, styles, or techniques and evoke uncertainty, mystery, inexpressible fears, and unsatisfied longing.

For Derrida himself, hauntology is a philosophy of history that upsets the easy progression of time by proposing that the present is simultaneously haunted by the past and the future. Specifically, Derrida suggests that the specter of Marxist utopianism haunts the present, capitalist society, in what he describes as “the persistence of a present past.” The notion of hauntology also can be seen as describing the fluidity of identity among individuals, marking the dynamic and inevitable shades of influence that link one person’s experience to another’s, both in the present and over time.

In the fifteen years since Derrida first used this term, hauntology, and the related term, hauntological, have been adopted by the British music critic Simon Reynolds to describe a recurring influence in electronic music created primarily by artists in the United Kingdom who use and manipulate samples culled from the past (mostly old wax-cylinder recordings, classical records, library music, or postwar popular music) to invoke either a euphoric or unsettling view of an imagined future. The music has an anachronistic quality hinting at an unrecognizable familiarity that is often dreamlike, blurry, and melancholic—what Reynolds describes as “an uneasy mixture of the ancient and the modern.”

This exhibition marks the first time that a museum has presented works of visual art within the framework of hauntology. Works by Luc Tuymans, Paul Sietsema, Carrie Mae Weems, Bruce Conner, Robert Gutierrez, Diane Arbus, Travis Collinson, Paul Schiek, Arnold Kemp, and others form loose groups in which one can discern various thematic concentrations: the enigma of place and placelessness, memorial and longing, transitional beings, displacement and disappearance, demonic manifestations, auras, elegies of nature, and the translucency of the psyche.

Scott Hewicker, artist and musician
Lawrence Rinder, director, BAM/PFA
Curators

The Canvas

2010-08-09T09:53:00.001-07:00

The Grounds Fully Covered with Pigment

2010-08-09T09:44:00.001-07:00

Painting the Grounds with Pigment: the Rugosa Rose

2010-08-09T09:39:00.000-07:00

Preparing the Grounds

2010-08-09T09:32:00.001-07:00

Creating the Paint Colors for the Strings

2010-08-09T09:28:00.000-07:00

Setting the Strings for the First Color Shift

2010-08-09T09:21:00.000-07:00

The East Workroom

2010-08-05T09:02:00.000-07:00

Kurt's Table

2010-08-05T08:32:00.000-07:00

Stringing the Pour Offs

2010-07-31T12:08:00.001-07:00

Relics and Artifacts

2010-07-31T12:03:00.000-07:00

Grounds Room

2010-07-31T11:46:00.001-07:00

Process

2010-07-28T06:18:00.000-07:00

Pour Off Drips with Twine

2010-07-28T06:16:00.000-07:00

Summer Fresh

2010-07-28T06:15:00.000-07:00

Youth and Beauty Can Not Be Preserved

2010-07-28T06:12:00.000-07:00

Pour Off Drip Progress

2010-07-28T06:11:00.000-07:00

Dried Blossoms Speaking

2010-07-28T06:09:00.000-07:00