Atomic Elroy

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Czech Artist Will Pay Money Back

here’s an UPDATE on Czech Artist David Cerny’s brilliant art work scam that was mentioned in the last post. I love this stuff. Normal Art (retinal art) is boring, dull and unimaginative!

“The original intention was indeed to ask 27 European artists for participation. But it became apparent that this plan cannot be realised, due to time, production, and financial constraints. The team therefore, without the knowledge of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, decided to create fictitious artists who would represent various European national and artistic stereotypes. We apologise to Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, Deputy Prime Minister Alexandr Vondra, Minister Karel Schwarzenberg and their departments that we did not inform them of the true state of affairs and thus misguided them. We did not want them to bear the responsibility for this kind of politically incorrect satire. We knew the truth would come out. But before that we wanted to find out if Europe is able to laugh at itself.
At the beginning stood the question: What do we really know about Europe? We have information about some states, we only know various tourist clichés about others. We know basically nothing about several of them. The art works, by artificially constructed artists from the 27 EU countries, show how difficult and fragmented Europe as a whole can seem from the perspective of the Czech Republic. We do not want to insult anybody, just point at the difficulty of communication without having the ability of being ironic.”

Grotesque hyperbole and mystification belongs among the trademarks of Czech culture and creating false identities is one of the strategies of contemporary art. The images of individual parts of Entropa use artistic techniques often characterised by provocation. The piece thus also lampoons the socially activist art that balances on the verge between would-be controversial attacks on national character and undisturbing decoration of an official space. We believe that the environment of Brussels is capable of ironic self-reflection, we believe in the sense of humour of European nations and their representatives.

Statement by Czech artist David Cerny
sampled from Boing Boing

It’s more addictive than coke, It’s great for the ego, but…
I can’t do it anymore! I CAN”T DO FACEBOOK!

Perhaps having actual contact with some of these alleged “FRIENDS” might be a bit psychologically healthier. Well if you’re reading this and you were one of my “FRIENDS” on FB, call me we’ll go out for a drink/lunch/coffee, I’m Buying!

P.S. here’s a cool photo of an old comedy troupe I was in, back ‘in the day’ that I was using as my profile pix.

( ED note: yes I removed the scathing anti-facebook rant, i’m into my Ken Keasy mode: Be Kind! )

My dear friend Gerry Riggs passed away this Saturday. I’m terribly sad. I’m devastated!
He was one of the original members of the art collective The Art Police we started in COS in the late 1990’s to rile things up in this complacent artistic environment. I will miss him terribly.
He was a great photographer, percussionist, and an avid skier. So much so we used to call him Dr. Skivil. For about 15 years he ran The University of Colorado Colorado Springs Gallery of Contemporary Art. He brought some truly dynamic art shows to the 719 area code. He truly performed a great service to the University and the community in how he ran the gallery. When he booked a touring art show, he always saved some space in the gallery lobby for local artist to exhibit thematically related work, and as money dried up for touring shows he became quite creative in aquireing decent touring shows. Noel Black did a great piece on Gerry for the local weekly paper The C.S. INDEPENDENT, here.
He went to damn near every art opening in town to show his support for other art institutions, a gesture that isn’t/wasn’t always reciprocated. He intended to return to photography after he was somewhat forced into “early retirement” at the University, and had bought a new computer and digital printing equipment, but never actually got it going. Instead he began skiing when ever he wanted, and played drums with local bands.
He had injured his arm skiing recently and was disabled by the injury, which caused him to be unable to either ski or drum. He had recently moved Pagosa Springs CO. after he left UCCS GoCA, and wanted to be close to what he felt were the best ski areas.
It’s a shame, a damn shame.

UPDATE: (01-06-09) The daily newspaper the GAZETTE had an obit today

OK we’ve all lived through the unfulfilled expectation of the Next Year Eve parties and the hangovers are worn off. ( I “rang in the new” only with a brief visit with the Widow C. at the witching hour, and surprisingly had no signs of excess this AM.) So it’s New Years Day and what’s different? Only the calendar. I’ve read the BEST/WORST of 2008 lists till I’m sick of reading. ONE THING IS TRUE… Each day will go forth, like the last, on and on in a Beckettian slog… unless we learn to live in the moment, forget the past and quit anticipating the future. enjoy what we have when we have it, totally.
Besides 9 is a cool number.

HAPPY NEXT YEAR!