New York Art Book Fair

Last weekend, I finally had the opportunity to catch the New York Art Book Fair, which the bookstore Printed Matter, Inc. organized and held at MoMA PS1, Long Island City, Queens. The Fair, which convenes all manner of art book artists and publishers, including creators of zines, fine art books, magazines and journals, art prose publications, and ephemera, ran from September 20-22, with a preview on September 19 on the steps of MoMA PS1, which featured a live set from MASKS, a New York City-based dance music duo, comprising Alexis Georgopoulos and Max Ravitz, along with basement house star Terekke (aka Matt Gardner).

There were a number of publications and publishers I was familiar with, ranging from Yale University Press to Butt, but there were far more that I'd never heard of before, such as B&D Press, and had I thought to bring cash with me (which I will do next year), since many of the exhibitors were not accepting credit or debit cards, I would have purchased many more of the (refreshingly and) relatively inexpensive smaller publications. (I did pick up a replica of a Joseph Beuys felt business card; it is as strange and fascinating as it sounds.) I also will give myself more time to walk through all the booths and view the related exhibits. There was a room at PS1 dedicated to the work of Ray Johnson, one of my favorite artists, that I raced through in part because it was crowded and in part because I'd allotted myself only so much time to see the entire exhibit before I was to meet a friend in Manhattan for a late afternoon lunch.

Next year, I plan to check things out early and over several days. Given how much there was to see, I almost wish it ran for a week. Below are photos from the event.

A portion of the crowd on MoMa PS1's stairs
(there was a performance on the landing)

The geodesic dome exhibition space in the courtyard

Artist Carlos Quispe and another exhibitor

The Butt table (with related publications)

Exhibitors

Exhibitors

Bear art exhibitors

A medium giving tarot readings

Artist-author Eloisa Aquino, signing a copy of one of her
Famous Butch Dykes zines

Pinups

More photos after the jump:

My "Subway Stories" in German Zine Show

Last year about this time, on a whim, I submitted a zine I'd offered for free on this blog (there was only one taker, eheu, who never sent me an address) to a zine exhibit open call at D21 Kunstraum in Leipzig, Germany.  The self-assembled, limited-edition zine, "Subway Stories," featured some of my iPhone drawings, with minimal text, though the images created something of an associative narrative.  I never heard anything back from the exhibit, "Thank You for Sharing," figured they were not interested and chalked it all up to experience. Last week, while cleaning up one of my email inboxes, I came across a mention of the show, and decided I would write the curator, Regine Ehleiter, just to find out if she had ever received my submission.  Things do sometimes get lost in the mail.

Lo and behold, not only had she received it, but the little zine was accepted and appeared in the May 2010 exhibit!  I never received an email or the acceptance letter, but these things happen. Ms. Ehleiter also told me that it was also listed in the printed documentation that the organizers finally finished last week (p. 37), and it will be mentioned in the publication at left, Thank You For Sharing, which will be released on Friday, January 21, 2011, at MZIN in Leipzig.  Ms. Ehleiter also kindly sent a link to pictures of the exhibition on Flickr, and to an article that appeared on their website, which listed my zine among the many others.  Although it appears that there won't be any more zine events at D21 Kunstraum, the zine collection, along with the display units developed by the four Leipzig designers, may travel to other sites in Germany and Europe. It would be great if they came to the US as well; perhaps a store/exhibition space like Printed Matter (a wonderful arts institution which I've never had even the slightest luck getting a response from) might be persuaded to partner with Ms. Ehleiter's organization. Perhaps someone (other than me!) could mention it to them.

Nevertheless, I was delighted by the news; I have never set foot in Germany, but I can now say that something I created has. Now, to "Subway Stories #2"....

Friday Full Fare (Reed on Precious, 2.0 + Embodied Cognition + Killer Phones + Free Stuff)

I still haven't seen Precious, Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire, though I suppose I'll get around to it eventually. Having read the book, I really have no desire to see the movie, though many people whose opinions I value, including a notable Black filmmaker, have told me not only that Gabourey Sidibe and Mo'Nique (at right, Lucy Nicholson - Reuters), like others in the cast, turn in excellent performances, and I believe them, because Mo'Nique could act her way out of a lead safe, but that they thought the film was very good.

My old prof, Ishmael Reed, isn't having it, nor is he having Hollywood's praise for and hyping of this film, nor, for that matter, producers Tyler Perry and Oprah [Winfrey]. Back in November I mentioned (and updated in December) his full-blast critiques of the movie, and he breaks it down, in much more condensed form, in today's New York Times: "Fade to White." A sampling:

Redemption through learning the ways of white culture is an old Hollywood theme. D. W. Griffith produced a series of movies in which Chinese, Indians and blacks were lifted from savagery through assimilation. A more recent example of climbing out of the ghetto through assimilation is “Dangerous Minds,” where black and Latino students are rescued by a curriculum that doesn’t include a single black or Latino writer.

Yes sirree.

Any surprise that this film is also high on the Oscar buzz list?
==

About three weeks ago while discussing orality and literacy I was trying to make a point in class and reached for a name I usually can utter without pausing--UC Berkeley professor George Lakoff--but what came to mind was a completely different scholar and intellectual, George Landow (the hypertext guru, of Brown University) ["I said Landow when I meant Lakoff" almost sounds like a line from a Michael Palmer poem, doesn't it?], so I offered a verbal ellipsis, to be filled in later, to the class, and proceeded to the next point.

Lakoff is probably best known for his important linguistic insights and, perhaps more widely, for the brief moment of public attention he received when the Democrats, who for a host of reasons, are incapable of sustained effective messaging, turned to him after their 2004 electoral disasters to help craft their appeals to voters. New York Times writer Matt Bai even wrote a longish Times Magazine piece about it. Lakoff's ideas on "framing" incurred some caricatures and ridicules--he wants the Democrats to use special words and phrases to gull people was the gist--but his larger ideas, about how people cognize ideas and why frames are so crucial, how metaphors are embodied, and so on, which in fact would have and should be internalized by every liberal commentator, though they still aren't, got lost in the shuffle. (Cf. "Jobs bill" vs. "stimulus package," "Employment spending" vs. "Deficit growth," etc.) Republican messengers--"death tax," "death panels," "welfare queens," etc.--long ago figured this out.

More stuff + the free joint after the jump!