Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Sol LeWitt


Wall Drawing #462. On four walls, one room, arcs 4 inches (10 cm) wide, from the midpoints of four sides, drawn with alternating bands of gray and black ink wash. January 1986.

A display of the work of Sol LeWitt, A Wall Drawing Retrospective, is taking residence at MASS MoCA in North Adams, MA from now until, well, 2033. The 25-year long exhibit follows LeWitt's trajectory from 1968 til his death last year. The exhibit rests in MASS MoCA's mill building #7, specially chosen by LeWitt and renovated to hold as much of his work as possible. There's three whole floors dedicated to this, starting with his early work on the first floor, his middle years on the second, and his late career on the third. The content evolves from basic exercises in line and color to more involved arrangements of colors, shades, and textures, and ends up in a brilliant combination of vibrance, movement, and complexity. It's very overwhelming the entire walk through, which could take a couple hours. Even the less over-the-top pieces are amazing. Every piece is larger than life, on giant scale, product of either laborious calculations and number crunching or creative ways to express the idea of basic movement with simple building blocks.


Wall Drawing #419. The wall is bordered and divided horizontally and vertically into four equal parts with a 6-inch (15 cm) black ink band. Each quarter has alternating parallel 6-inch (15 cm) bands of white and color ink bands. Upper left: gray; upper right: yellow; lower left: red; lower right: blue. September 1984.


Wall Drawing #38. Tissue paper cut into 1½-inch (4 cm) squares and inserted into holes in the gray pegboard walls. All holes in the walls are filled randomly. April 1970.


Wall Drawing #422. The room (or wall) is divided vertically into fifteen parts. All one-, two-, three-, and four-part combinations of four colors, using color ink washes. November 1984. (foreground)
Wall Drawing #681C. A wall divided vertically into four equal squares separated and bordered by black bands. Within each square, bands in one of four directions, each with color ink washes superimposed. August 1993. (background)


Wall Drawing #335. On four black walls, white vertical parallel lines, and in the center of the walls, eight geometric figures (including cross, X) within which are white horizontal parallel lines. The vertical lines do not enter the figures. May 1980.


Wall Drawing #396. A black five-pointed star, a yellow six-pointed star, a red seven-pointed star, and a blue eight-pointed star, drawn in color and India ink washes. May 1983.
DH for scale.


Wall Drawing #793B. Irregular wavy color bands. January 1996.






Wall Drawing #901. Color bands and black blob. May 1999.


Wall Drawing #1152. Whirls and twirls. April 2005.


Wall Drawing #1112. Square with broken bands of color. December 2003.


DH for scale

Related: Philip Glass is performing/talking about his music for films at MASS MoCA January 16 as well as screening a few portions.

Joy



David Byrne played the Calvin Theatre tonight. Best show I've seen this year, I do declare. "The Great Curve" was unreal, something I never thought I'd be able to see live. The set consisted of mostly Talking Heads songs with some David Byrne/Brian Eno collaboration stuff spliced in between. The whole theatre was packed with aging Talking Heads fans, who got down at their seats or in the aisles, begging three, count em three encores, the second of which surprisingly contained "Burning Down the House." He and his band also played "Once In a Lifetime" (phenomenal), "Life During Wartime" (rock n roll), and some My Life in the Bush of Ghosts stuff (souped up with weird lyrics in place of samples). Stay tuned for a proper review.

It must be noted how rad the dancers were who accompanied Byrne onstage, as well as the perfect lighting and everyone in all white.

Also, up top there is a bike rack which is a series which Byrne has designed for the city of New York.

Unrelated:



Eleanoora Rosenholm has been catching my attention lately. They're not the only Finns to raise eyebrows this year - Paavoharju has gotten much praise for its less pop-oriented Laulu Laakson Kukista - but I haven't heard anything about em. Their website and Myspace pages are both in Finnish, so I still do not know much about em except they're a trio and the singer's name is Noora Tommila. Their debut Vainajan Muotokuva (Fonal) came out quietly this past June, and they apparently released another album, Ala Kysy Kuolleilta He Sanoivat in October. I've only heard the former. It's a moody blend of hazy electronics, multi-layered vocals, eerie orchestration, and synth-pop hooks.

Here's a creepy video for the last track on the record, "Maailmanloppu."

Monday, December 1, 2008

David Byrne



David Byrne's playing at the Calvin tomorrow. Tickets are expensive but I'll be there.

Africa Comps





With year-end lists shaping up and all, I can't help but feel weird putting a compilation on a year-end list. Since that's the case I'd like to mention how much I've been digging this Analog Africa compilation African Scream Contest: Raw and Psychedelic Afro Sounds. It's a great listen, very funk-heavy all the way through. The various vocalists are all, for the most part, excellent, belting out some crazy notes over multiple percussion layers and shredding guitars. Probably my favorite comp I've heard all year.

VA - African Scream Contest: Raw and Psychedelic Afro Sounds

Also mentioned in some year-end lists is Nigeria Special: Modern Highlife, Afro-Sounds, and Nigerian Blues (Soundway). What I'm confused about is exactly why, since the record's listed as being issued last November. It's certainly a great blend of sounds, but not as in-your-face as some of the Scream Contest stuff, which actually did come out this year.

VA - Nigeria Special: Modern Highlife, Afro-Sounds, and Nigerian Blues







Eleanoora Rosenholm

Tape



So these guys Tape have been subtly blowing me away if that's not a contradiction. Very low-key, repetitious, bedtime-ambient jams. They're a trio from Sweden who seems to have been around for a few years, but I hadn't caught wind til tonite. Luminarium came out this year on Häpna, which you can check out certainly.

Tape - Luminarium