Tag: 02.16.06

Traces Of Action, Evidence Of Torture

Disturbing new photos have emerged of the violence committed by U.S. troops against prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, and some of the most shocking images don’t have a single human being in the frame. Instead, spattered blood serves as a metaphor for the horrors we have yet to hear about. “Comparing blood to paint, violence to art, is dangerous, even repellent. But in one sense, the blood on this floor is exactly like the paint drippings of Jackson Pollock, who captured the visible traces of action, the visual memory of gestures.”

High-Rises Clash With Green Space: Can Everyone Win?

The city of Minneapolis has long prided itself on maintaining a highly livable and green-intensive urban environment, with dozens of parks, lakes, and the Mississippi River serving as the primary selling points. But a downtown population boom has developers champing at the bit, and high-rise buildings have begun to spring up all over the city, much to the dismay of some observers, who were hoping that Minneapolis would stick to its original vision.

Hayward’s New Chief

London’s Hayward Gallery, part of the prestigious South Bank Arts Centre, has plucked its new director from San Francisco’s Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts. Ralph Rugoff, who is “known for organizing unorthodox group exhibitions and writing provocative essays on contemporary art,” will take up the post in late spring.

An Art Center The Frozen North Can Call Its Own

“Cities are both real and imagined places. What’s interesting about Winnipeg and the reputation of its visual artists — both those who have left and those who continue to live here — is that the real and the imaginary have become indistinguishable. Because of the emergence on the international art scene of a group of artists… Winnipeg is now viewed in New York, Los Angeles and London as a place that has produced an inexplicable number of good artists… What is unquestionably true, however, is that Winnipeg has developed a keen sense of itself as an art city, and the success of their peers is a model on which the current crop of artists can imagine how they might flourish in the rough-and-tumble art world.”

Breaking News: TV Station “Pollutes” Chicago Loop

Chicago’s downtown Loop has been undergoing a dramatic revitalization in recent years, capped by the unveiling of the lakefront Millenium Park and Frank Gehry’s towering bandshell. But the latest architectural addition to the Loop has some observers profoundly unhappy. The perpetrator is Chicago’s WLS-TV, which has constructed a 42-foot monolith that it says mimics some of the art found in Millenium Park. Alan Artner begs to differ. “[WLS’s creation] takes back the language into advertising and plays with it to pretend it, too, is art. But it’s not. It’s pollution that along with the rest of the frills added to the exterior of the building brings the sensory irritation of ABC studios in Times Square to North State Street.”

Students Sue To Block Atlanta Art School Merger

Since the Atlanta College of Art announced plans to merge with the Atlanta branch of the Savannah College of Art & Design, students and faculty have been up in arms, trying to galvanize public support for keeping the schools separate. Now, six students at ACA have filed a lawsuit asking for the merger to be blocked, and for damages to be paid to students who will see their tuition jump at the combined school.