Newest Features
By MONICA MCFAWN When I was a child, I remember being read “In the Troll Wood,” a strangely compelling picture book. Its characters were trolls, fairies and princesses–not exactly the most original subjects for a children’s book, yet there was something so bewitching about the book’s images that even as an adult I can still picture my favorites: a dark mountainous troll with a glowing fairy in his hand, a princess captured and ogled by trolls who looked upon her with a befuddled fascination that was neither threatening nor completely benign. Too…
By THOMAS MARQUET #29: This is a genuine grievance of mine with the Artforum. It’s like they’re hostile to the act of reading and want to make it as awkward as possible. -Tom Thomas Marquet is a cartoonist, sculptor, and critic, based in Brooklyn, New York, which is an admittedly unoriginal place to be pursuing any of these things. Get The White Cube every day at Tom’s blog.
By JASON DEAN In 2006, brothers Lucas and Jason Ajemian transcribed the Black Sabbath song ‘Into The Void’ backwards and arranged it for a classical orchestra. The piece, entitled ‘From Beyond,’ was scheduled to be performed 4 times in association with New York Is Deadon February 13th at their space in Chelsea. When I first heard about Black Sabbath growing up in a tiny rural New York town, they were the first band that truly scared me. I don’t know if it was the stories I heard from kids on the back…
By JAMES NADEAU “The spectacle cannot be understood either as a deliberate distortion of the visual world or as a product of the technology of the mass dissemination of images.” – Guy Debord It is tempting when entering the new ICA to ignore the art and simply bask in the presence of its architecture. If fact, entering the building becomes a work of art itself as the austerity of the building and its surroundings lead one to believe that you have left Boston and have entered a whole new realm of angles…
By MATTHEW NASH In October of 2006, Big RED & Shiny was included in the PRC|POV exhibition at the Photographic Resource Center. This show featured 30 artists, groups or companies that PRC members considered important for the future of photography and art. We were quite happy to be included. For PRC|POV we produced a one-of-a-kind, hand-bound book of the first 49 issues of Big RED & Shiny. We would have included the first 50 issues (that was the plan), but #50 wasn’t launched until after the deadline for the book. I still…
By JESS T. DUGAN Big Red & Shiny writer Jess T Dugan sits down with Daron Manoogian, Director of Communications at the Harvard University Art Museums (HUAM), home to the Fogg, Busch-Reisinger, and Sackler Museums. Jess and Daron to discuss the upcoming renovation of the building on Quincy St. to better integrate these collections under a new state of the art facility, the challenges to overcome, and the hopeful outcomes will become of it. – Ed. – Jess T. Dugan: What is the main focus of the Harvard University Art Museums? Daron…
A few years ago, I was privileged to have my work included on Aspect: The Chronicle of New Media Art, alongside the work of Lee Walton. I knew a little of Lee’s work through his “Lee Walton vs. Shaquille O’Neill” project, but as I spent time with his video I grew to love his work. His humor and intelligence turn seemingly simple ideas into rich and complex artwork. Our friendship began when I interviewed Lee for Big RED & Shiny, and led to some great collaboration. While experiencing his “Life/Theatre Project” at…
Yesterday George Fifield sent along a link to the Arts Action Fund’s ArtVote website, which lists the arts positions of the various presidential candidates. As the field has narrowed, there are really only three or four that are relevant, but they are definitely worth checking out. On the Democratic side, both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama offer fairly comprehensive overview statements regarding their positions. Clinton hits all the key issues for the creative economy: the NEA, the NEH, Arts Education, a Cultural Exchange, and Public Broadcasting. Obama offers two separate documents, first…