tribute: the eye

Gisele, New York, April 1 1999
Photographed by Irving Penn

I think this was the image that secured my love for Brazilian supermodels. Rest in peace Irving Penn and many thanks.

W.

god bless america

10 things I love about America:

• Hilary Rhoda
• The collaborative works of Steve McQueen and Sam Peckinpah
• Bacon Cheeseburgers (on a sesame seedless bun, of course)
  
• Converse All Stars
• Bulleit Bourbon
• J. Crew Button Downs
• 70's era Stevie Wonder
• Whit Stillman
• Mid-Century Modern Art
• New York City

Happy 4th!
W.

the look

Avedon Fashion
1944-2000
International Center of Photography
The lines, the composition, the glamour, the sex, the energy--what more could you want?

variety lights

Yayoi Kusama
Aftermath of Obliteration of Eternity, 2009
Mixed media installation
now at the Gagosian Gallery

I saw Kate Winslet on the street about ten minutes after I stepped out of this installation. I still can't decide which was a more eye-popping experience.

working against the clock

"One Year Performance 1980–1981 (known as Time Clock Piece)"
Tenching Hsieh
1980-1981
Bitch, Please was in town this weekend and oh what a joy to see a face from home. The last time I visited her , it was nothing but a weekend of binge eating, drinking, and shopping. We're a little older now and we're in a recession, so only one Diane Von Furstenberg shirt dress for Bitch, Please and one Marc Jacobs plaid tie for me. It wasn't a total weekend of frivolity. On Saturday we went to the Guggenheim and Sunday we took in the MoMA. Unfortunately we missed having our psychological state potentially altered at the Robert Mapplethorpe exhibition in the Guggenheim (damn closing times!), but we were introduced to Taiwanese performance artist Tehching Hsieh, whose work was featured at both museums. His work is somewhere in between a stunt, a fascinating document of the man made social construct that is time and a dialogue about where art and life begin and end, his performance pieces vexed me, amused me, but most of all intrigued me. The set-up is always as basic and straight forward as its title. In 1978-1979, he locked himself in a cage for a year. In 1980-1981, he punched a time clock every hour of every day for a year. In 1981-1982, he spent the entire year outside, never going in doors (that has be nearly impossible with the temperamental weather in this city). And the true test of endurance came in 1983-1984, when he was attached by rope to artist Linda Montano, but couldn't and didn't touch her. Requiring the monastic concentration of the most Zen monks, Hsiesh goes beyond the edge for his art and I liked what I saw.

bag it

Somewhere in Central Park, a giant spaceship with gleaming blue lights and snow white shell landed several weeks ago packed with contemporary art and an army of attendants dressed in Chanel nylon jackets to patrol its site. On a rather blah, rainy day last week I visited this space oddity or as Chanel creative director, Karl Largerfeld and architect Zaha Hadid would refer to it, the Chanel Mobile Art Pavilion. Its primary function is to embody the spirit of the Chanel 2.55 bag--nomadic as its curious wearer, spacious and yet contained in its ability to carry various contents, and pleasing to the eye--as envisioned through a traveling space (it was only here for three weeks and now will move on to London, Moscow, and Paris) that contains the works of several contemporary artists doing their own idiosyncratic riffs on the classic bag. Lead through the guided tour by the tough as concrete voice of Jeanne Moreau, it's definitely an interesting way to spend an afternoon, but I'm not sure what I was supposed to make it of it all. Most of the art did incite some thought, but was it art, advertising, an out of place celebration of wealth and high culture for those that can afford it and are a part of the cultured cognoscenti that will surely understand its supposed point, or a simple creative whim on part of Mr. Lagerfeld? Whatever it's supposed to be, it was a welcomed spectacle on such a day when Central Park was lined with dreary-looking, wet trees and post-rain city sludge on the walking paths.
For more on the Pavilion click here.