NEWSgrist - where spin is art

My Favorite Zombie: Jillian McDonald

Fantastic review for Jillian McDonald here (+ stills and vid):

NYTimes: Art
Jillian Mcdonald, Performance Artist, Forsakes Billy Bob Thornton for Zombies
By CAROL KINO
Published: July 30, 2006 

IT was a sweltering Saturday afternoon on an L train hurtling across Manhattan toward Brooklyn. The last car held the usual assortment of characters: two women shrieking about a recent outing to a hardware store while a man lounged before them, guffawing; a young woman hiding behind sunglasses and iPod earbuds; a scruffy man slumped beside his messenger bag. Nobody paid much attention as a slender, elegant young woman began to enact a ritual familiar to subway riders: peering intently into a tiny mirror, she carefully started to make up her face.

Swiftly, though, it became clear that this was makeup with a difference. She was slathering her face with thick white paste, applying dark circles around her eyes and enhancing her frown lines and nostrils with blackmarks. Although she attracted a few glances, most of the other passengers maintained studiously blank expressions. Only when she slipped in a pair of green teeth and began daubing her face with fake blood did people start to stare, exchange meaningful glances and roll their eyes.

When the train reached Morgan Avenue in Bushwick, the woman stood, grimaced delicately and staggered to the doorway. As the man with the messenger bag hurried out behind her, one of the noisy women hissed, "I think it's performance art."

And it was, the latest chapter in the oeuvre of Jillian Mcdonald, a Canadian-born artist who in the last three years has developed something of an underground reputation for work inspired by movie mania. Her climb to cultdom began in 2003 with a series of videos and performances derived from her purported passion for Billy Bob Thornton that have been shown widely at small galleries and nonprofits around the world; her spoof fan site, meandbillybob.com, is linked to by countless blogs.

More recently Ms. Mcdonald has delved into the so-called "zombie renaissance" that some say has been sweeping the nation since around the 2004 remake of George A. Romero's film "Dawn of the Dead" (1978), the second in his classic zombie series. Her subway performance was filmed with a hidden camera by her boyfriend and sometime collaborator, Beckley Roberts, the scruffy fellow with the messenger bag. Called "Horror Make-Up," it will make its debut on Sept. 8 at Art Moving Projects, a gallery in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

a letter to Palestinian and Lebanese filmmakers

Above (Egyptian film stills via al-Ahram, 27 July - 2 August 2006, issue #805)): Late actor Ahmed Zaki is remembered at the Institut du monde arabe's 8th biennale by screening 10 of his films including (clockwise from top-left) Mohamed Khan's Zawgat Ragul Muhim (Wife of an Important Man) and Ayyam El-Sadat (Days of Sadat), Dawoud Abdel-Sayed's Ard Al-Khawf (Land of Fear) and Zaki's latest Sherif Arafa's Halim, in which he plays legendary singer Abdel-Halim Hafez.

 

via email [thanks Carrie]:

a letter to Palestinian and Lebanese filmmakers

[Link]

to coincide with the opening of the Arab Film Biennial in Paris July 22nd

(French follows)

We, the undersigned Israeli filmmakers, greet the Arab filmmakers who have gathered in Paris for the Arab Film Biennial. Through you, we wish to convey a message of camaraderie and solidarity with our Lebanese and Palestinian colleagues who are currently besieged and bombarded by our country’s army.

We unequivocally oppose the brutality and cruelty of Israeli policy, which has reached new heights in recent weeks. Nothing justifies the continued occupation, closure, and oppression in Palestine. Nothing justifies the bombing of civilians and the destruction of infrastructures in Lebanon and Gaza.

Allow us to tell you that your films, which we try to see and circulate among us, are extremely important in our eyes. They enable us to know and understand you better. Thanks to these films, the men, women, and children who suffer in Gaza, Beirut, and everywhere else our army exercises its violence - have names and faces. We would like to thank you and encourage you to keep on filming, despite the difficulties.

For our part, we will continue to express through our films, with our raised voices, and in our personal actions our vehement opposition to the occupation, and we will continue to express our desire for freedom, justice, and equality among all the peoples of the region.

 

Nous, cineastes israéliens , saluons tous les cineastes arabes réunis à Paris pour la Biennale du cinema arabe . A travers vous, nous voulons envoyer un message d'amitié et de solidarité à nos collegues Libanais et Palestiniens qui sont actuellement assiégés et bombardés par l'armée de notre pays.

Nous nous opposons categoriquement à la brutalité et à la cruauté de la politique israélienne, qui a atteint de nouveaux sommets au cours des dernières semaines.  Rien ne peut justifier la poursuite de l'occupation , de l'enfermement et de la repression en Palestine. Rien ne peut justifier le bombardement de populations civiles et la destruction d'infrastuctures au Liban et dans la bande de Gaza.

Permettez nous de vous dire que vos films, que nous nous efforcons de voir et de faire circuler autour de nous, sont tres importants à nos yeux. Ils nous aident à vous connaître et à vous comprendre. Grace à ces films, les hommes, les femmes et les enfants  qui souffrent à Gaza, à Beyrouth, et partout où notre armée déploie sa violence, ont pour nous des noms et des visages.  Nous voulons vous en remercier, et vous encourager à continuer de filmer, malgré toutes les difficultés .

Quant à nous, nous nous engageons à continuer d'exprimer, par nos films, nos prises de paroles et nos actions personelles,  notre opposition catégorique à l'occupation et notre désir de liberté, de justice et d'égalité pour tous les peuples de la région.

Nurith Aviv, Ilil Alexander, Adi Arbel, Yael Bartana, Philippe Bellaiche, Simone Bitton, Michale Boganim, Amit Breuer, Shai Carmeli-Pollack, Sami S. Chetrit, Danae Elon, Anat Even, Jack Faber, Avner Fainguelernt, Ari Folman, Gali Gold, BZ Goldberg, Sharon Hamou, Amir Harel, Avraham Heffner, Rachel Leah Jones, Dalia Karpel, Avi Kleinberger, Elonor Kowarsky, Edna Kowarsky, Philippa Kowarsky, Ram Loevi, Avi Mograbi, Jud Neeman, David Ofek, Iris Rubin, Abraham Segal, Nurith Shareth, Julie Shlez, Eyal Sivan, Yael Shavit, Eran Torbiner, Osnat Trabelsi, Daniel Waxman, Keren Yedaya 

More about the 8th annual Arab film biennial in Paris:

via   

Prospects for Euro-Arab film
The development of a Euro-Arab film market is the theme of this year's Biennale of Euro-Arab cinema in Paris, the continent's bi-annual rendez-vous for Arab film
[read article]

Letters from Lebanon, 2006

 

Joao Silva for The New York Times; Smoke billowed and a fuel tank continued to burn in Jiyeh, just south of Beirut, where at least 10,000 tons of oil have spilled into the sea since Israeli airstrikes hit a fuel storage depot there on July 13 and 15.

 

via:

[thanks Ryan...]

Walid Raad --2 letters from beirut -- 07.15.06

Yet another day of bombing all over the place.  In the mountain here, we were subject to about three different bombing runs: 1 to continue destroying the Beirut to Damascus road; another to destroy the cell phone antennas; and another to again hit the Beirut to Damascus road. Just a few minutes ago, the house was shaking again, and I only assume the Israelis are pounding the same area.  The safe areas are much further to the north, the northeastern enclave, an area traditionally christian.  Listening to Nasrallah's speech tonight was not reassuring one bit.  After pleading with the Lebanese to stand firm, and after denouncing Arab government leaving Lebanon to pay the price for Israeli aggression, he asked us all to look at sea and watch the Israeli gunboat that had been pounding the coast and hills all day.  he said that it was about to be hit by a HizbAllah missile.  He promised that it will burn, that it will sink, that its sailors will die.  It made me sickto my stomach, almost as much as it makes me sick to hear Olmert, Bush, the Saudi, and Palestinian position about this. Nasrallah also called for an open war against Israel, and that he will hit Haifa, and what is behind Haifa, and behind and behind Haifa. What this means remains unlcear.  But clearly it is worrying.  Within minutes of the speech, parts of West Beirut were celebrating.  The city is about to be reduced to rubble, and fireworks are being fired in the air.  Incredible.  Al-Jazeera and most local networks pointed their lenses towards to sea, to look for a missile launch, which came but was not visible.  This is just not good.  This is just about to get worse. I dont know what to think anymore.  Pundits are speculating, making noise: Did HizbAllah need to drag Lebanon into this mess at this time? How can HizbAllah monopolize the decision to launch a war, to destroy the country? Others are convinced that Israel is simply intent on enforcing resolution 1559, namely to disarm HizbAllah by force. HizbAllah is asking everyone to stand form, and to be patient.  This has happened before and we have triumphed.  We will triumph again, they say.  Whatever all this leads to, one thing is certain, the scale of the destruction is enormous.  People are dying in the south and elsewhere.  Too many.  The bombing has moved to the north and in the past hour positions inside Syria were hit.  Iran has said that were Syria to be hit, they will respond.  A regional war?  What's going on? [read on...]

[Image Source]

Via the NEWS section at Greg Sholette's website, (July 13 - ongoing):[Thanks Carrie, Sheila...]

The following sequence of emails were sent to me in NYC (beginning July 13th EST) by my friend Rasha, a film curator and cultural critic from Beirut who is now back in Lebanon. I am posting them on this site because they
provide  insight, analysis, and a unique perspective on the expanding war.

Letters from Lebanon, 2006 [Link]
[excerpt]

In the Israeli invasion of 1982, I was in West Beirut. I was 13 years old. All my friends and classmates fled the siege of West Beirut. The political rifts were different then, but I remember that when I returned to school after the withdrawal of the Israeli forces that fall, I carried the burden of the trauma of the siege while my classmates had memories of fun and games of that summer spent in the mountains. While they recalled witnessing shells fall on Beirut from a distance, I recalled their sound as they exploded. I resented all the stories they told of that summer. They were all happy stories. I shut my ears when they recalled them. Until now, there are a set of songs that were popular then, that I cannot hear without feeling a pinch of anxiety in my stomach. It's the impact of that trauma. Part of the reason I cannot leave Beirut is that I don't want to become like them. It's like a pledge I made to myself. But this is happening again, on a smaller scale, because the shelling has reached beyond the southern suburbs of Beirut and the south.

These distances that separate the people of this country have to be bridged somehow. The "united" front has to find a more cogent gel. We have everything to win if we are able to meet that challenge. We have our country to win. If we remain hapless victims who beg, and who remain beholden to the "charity" of Arabs we will never have full sovereignty... Hezbollah's victory can be articu-lated to become Lebanon's victory (this too might be naive folly on my part, but I need to believe this, at least for the next few days, so just humor me). Particularly now that the Syrians are making noises about plans to roll their rusted tanks and army of underfed and illiterate soldiers with its thuggish command back in the country.I am so weary of the return of Syrian control over Lebanon. The Syrian people, all those pictured cursing the Lebanese for their arrogance and lack of gratitude should protest against a re-entry of the Syrian military into Lebanon. And if the self-described "last fort of dignity of the Arabs" are inspired to fight Israel, they have the entire front of the Golan to do so. The Lebanese will not liberate the Golan, the Syrians will have to. You don't subcontract liberation. Moreover, Hezbollah has claimed time and time again that they are prepared for the long haul and don't need a bullet from any of the Arab states.This is another reason for the Lebanese political forces to band around the resistance and shield the country.We might have a chance to rebuild this country without owing a percentage of every contract to a thug from the Syrian junta, and that feels like humane relief.
      
I will end this siege note with another of the obsessions that taunt me.      

People caught under rubble. In describing the surreptitious commonplace horror of the civil war in a televised interview perhaps ten years ago, the famous Lebanese novelist Elias Khoury drew the following scene. While everyday life was taking place, traffic, transactions, just the mundane stuff of life, and as you walked passed buildings, you knew that in the underground of that commonplace building, there might be someone kidnapped, waiting to be traded or simply held in custody for money or whatever reasons militias kidnapped for. And you walked by that building.

I am haunted by the nameless and faceless caught under rubble. In the undergrounds of destroyed buildings or simply in the midst of its ravages. Awaiting to be given a proper burial.

Useful links [thanks Carrie]:

 

Relief Center - Sanayeh, Beirut, Lebanon

Updates from a grassroots group working with refugees in central Beirut. In coordination with the media center in Beirut DC. "The Sanayeh Relief Center is composed of groups who were on the ground on the first day of the Israeli aggression on Lebanon. We are coordinating between humanitarian aid and the displacement centers in Beirut, providing information, and organizing political action against the complicity of the 'international community'."

 

Updates on the aggression against lebanon

News updates from Lebanon. Unless stated otherwise, these are headline items from NewTV, one of the main Lebanese television stations.

Call for Proposals: Beyond Recognition: The Outer Limits of Artistic Creation and Critical Reception after September 11, 2001

conference/session23
Beyond Recognition: The Outer Limits of Artistic Creation and Critical Reception after September 11, 2001
Convenors:
Christopher Bedford, J. Paul Getty Museum.
Tel: (00 1) 310-440-7522 cbedford@getty.edu 
Jennifer Wulffson Goodell, Getty Research Institute.
Tel: (00 1) 310-440-6675 jgoodell@getty.edu

In the wake of 9/11, a surge of art writing emphasized the democratic and expressive qualities of art in a world defined anew by grief, uncertainty, paranoia, and anger. James Wood of the Art Institute of Chicago, for example, affirmed in November 2001, "[a]rt can become our Virgil shepherding us through the labyrinth of life and death. It reaffirms the beauty and creativity that distinguish man-made expression from raw nature and reaffirms tolerance and embrace of diversity." Approached as historical documents, such statements are striking in their reliance on a conception of art-making as an inherently redemptive, humanistic act, a quixotic intellectual conviction that vanished long ago with the rise of post-modernism, if not before.

The day after the attacks on the World Trade Center, the ephemeral Towers of Light project was proposed. While elegant, moving, timely, and suitably elegiac, this was a traditional memorial that served as a placeholder to reanimate nonexistent structures. Irrespective, it was celebrated by both art critics and mainstream journalists. Yet since then the critical community- while often invoking the notion that 9/11 has altered the way we understand extant art- has been less receptive to new projects. As Sarah Boxer noted in early 2002, "[t]he events of September 11, 2001 were beyond measure. But when the day ended, the visual limits were fixed." Boxer's observation is evinced by a reinvigoration of photojournalistic images. But has our investment in these images foreclosed or discouraged work in other media that reflects on 9/11? It appears that faith in the capacity of art to represent and interrogate our responses does not underwrite the discourse of art criticism today, despite recent efforts by artists such as Jenny Holzer, Thomas Ruff, and Carolee Schneeman. Has criticism, consequently, stymied the capacity of visual art to engage such matters?

We encourage artists, art historians, critics and curators to submit proposals that engage with any of these issues and/or seek to answer some of the questions set forth above. We recognize that artistic and critical response to 9/11 is a fitful work in progress, but believe the time to begin to address these issues is now.

The Association of Art Historians (AAH) was formed in 1974 to support and promote the study of art history. We are the national organisation for professional art and design historians, researchers or students who are involved in education, galleries, museums and art-related publishing, or any other activity linked with art and design history.

Concrete Domain @ Bronx River Art Center

Bronx River Art Center presents:

CONCRETE DOMAIN
curated by Jose Ruiz
July 28 - August 31, 2006

Featuring wall paintings and prints by Billy Colbert & Kelly Towles
more info

OPENING RECEPTION: FRIDAY, JULY 28th, 6 - 9pm

BRONX RIVER ART CENTER
1087 East Tremont Avenue
Bronx, NY 10460
718.589.5819
www.bronxriverart.org

Gallery Hours:
Monday - Friday: 3 - 5:30pm, Saturday: 11-5pm

Travel Directions:
Subway: # 2 or 5 to East Tremont Ave. (Same stop as the Bronx Zoo) Walk one block east.

Car: Bruckner Expressway to the Sheridan Expressway and exit at Tremont Ave., or Cross Bronx Expressway to Rosedale Ave. Exit.