The Board, the team and the Friends of Artists Space announce with great pride that the Annual Friends of Artists Space Dinner 2012 will On Saturday, May 5, 2012, 8pm, an event will be held in honor of SB5 contributor legendary artist and musician.

Alan Vega and his band Suicide are widely regarded as the godfathers of “No Wave.” The group’s seminal 1977 album Suicide is cited as an important influence by musicians such as Joy Division, Nick Cave, Spacemen 3, Spiritualized, The Horrors, The Cars, and Bruce Springsteen. Vega studied art in the 1950s under Ad Reinhardt and Kurt Seligman and was involved in the Art Workers Coalition. In 1969 he founded MUSEUM: A Project of Living Artists, an artist-run 24-hour multimedia gallery in Manhattan. Vega’s own artworks consist of light sculptures constructed from electronic debris. Previous honorees include activist and art historian Julie Ault (2010) and filmmaker and choreographer Yvonne Rainer (2011).

This event is held exclusively for the Friends of Artists Space. A limited number of tickets are available. Please contact: friends@artistsspace.org to inquire about tickets or how to join the Friends of Artists Space.

http://artistsspace.org/

I rarely use this page to display personal experiences and reflections, but I believe this one is worth sharing. This is a real email exchange which recently took place between me and a Manager at the Chicago Apple store.

From: XXXX XXXXXX
Subject: Hi Sang Bleu. From Apple.
Date: February 27, 2012 8:19:01 PM GMT+01:00
To: info@sangbleu.com

Hi Sang Bleu.


My name is XXXXX. I am the Events Lead for Apple Retail in Chicago.
I am looking to put a Meet the Artist event together in mid-April while the tattoo convention is in town.


Some information about the event layout…
The goal of the event is to educate and inspire our community as well as get the word out about the work you and the artists do.
The event is an hour in length (30 minute moderator discussion, 15 minute audience Q&A).

There would have to be a tie-in to Apple technology in the discussion.

A few questions…
Wondering if you would be interested in participating as the moderator for the event.
Wondering if you have any artist recommendations for the event (we would be looking for 3-4 tattoo artists).


Looking very forward to hearing from you and gauging your interest.
Thanks so much.


XXXX XXXXXXX
Chicago Events Lead
Apple Store, North Michigan Avenue
Apple Store, Lincoln Park
rascione@apple.com
www.apple.com/northmichiganavenue
www.apple.com/lincolnpark

To this first email I answer that I am interested, asking more details about the event etc. Mentioning people I’d like to present, etc. after a couple more emails, I receive this:

From: XXXX XXXXXX
Subject: Re: Hi Sang Bleu. From Apple.
Date: February 28, 2012 6:31:14 PM GMT+01:00
To: maxime büchi / sang bleu


You are definitely welcome to be the moderator.
And if BJ is open and available to this opportunity, we’d love to him.

I need to be clear about one thing though, Apple does not compensate for these events.


In this case, are you still willing to participate?


XXXX XXXXXXX
Chicago Events Lead
Apple Store, North Michigan Avenue
Apple Store, Lincoln Park
rascione@apple.com
www.apple.com/northmichiganavenue
www.apple.com/lincolnpark

I wonder if at least they would arrange travel expenses etc.

From: XXXX XXXXXX
Subject: Re: Hi Sang Bleu. From Apple.
Date: February 28, 2012 10:20:33 PM GMT+01:00
To: maxime büchi / sang bleu


Hi Maxime.
Unfortunately, we cannot cover travel costs either.
If you are ever in Chicago though, we’d love to have you.


XXXX XXXXXXX
Chicago Events Lead
Apple Store, North Michigan Avenue
Apple Store, Lincoln Park
rascione@apple.com
www.apple.com/northmichiganavenue
www.apple.com/lincolnpark

To this I answer:

Dear XXXXX.


I am sorry, i will not be and to be honest i find it cheeky if not dishonest for a company such as Apple tu dare asking for such a promotion for free.


It is one among a series of things that have been putting me off that company lately and i will make sure I advise people to not accept such offers.


I hope you inderstand this is nothing personal but in such economical context, having one of the world’s richest company asking for favours is disgusting.


Kind regards.


Maxime

answer:

From: XXXX XXXXXX
Subject: Re: Hi Sang Bleu. From Apple.
Date: February 29, 2012 4:39:39 PM GMT+01:00
To: maxime büchi / sang bleu


I understand your concerns.
This portion is out of my control.
But I do understand your concerns.


XXXX XXXXXX
Chicago Events Lead
Apple Store, North Michigan Avenue
Apple Store, Lincoln Park
rascione@apple.com
www.apple.com/northmichiganavenue
www.apple.com/lincolnpark

I think it’s all pretty straight forward. I just wanna ask anybody in the tattoo industry, who might get approached by Apple to refuse to do anything for free. Apple is not a charity or non-profit humanitarian organization. It is one of the world’s larges corporation which is about NOTHING but profit. There is no reason to give away our culture, skills, network, inspiration to these people with no compensation.

Trying to explain exactly what Jim Shaw’s (a contributor to Sang Bleu 6) newest exhibition is about seemed a truly difficult task with out just quoting from the press release:

”For Jim Shaw’s exhibition at Metro Pictures the Los Angeles-based artist presents a large mural and 20 drawings comprising a comic book that center on his fictional religion Oism, a narrative Shaw has been developing for more than 20 years. The works draw on eccentric aspects of American history and quirky old imagery to illustrate part two of Shaw’s proposed, four-part Oist prog rock opera. Its story, told through the comic book, follows two small-time crooks as they break into the Museum of Oist History in Omaha. Seeking refuge from encroaching FBI agents the pair ducks into a 24-hour wig museum where a helpful curator hides them beneath wigs that inexplicably render them invisible and transport them to the ancient homeland of the religion’s founding deity O.”

The exhibition will run from tonight until April the 21st at Metro Pictures in New York

More information here

 

Mexicali Rose is a community media center and gallery in the Mexican border city Mexicali. Artists Space will be will exhibiting the work of artists, journalists, activists and filmmakers on both sides of the border.

Founded by Mexicali-born filmmaker Marco Vera in 2007 as an audio-visual workshop for neighborhood kids in border-adjacent Pueblo Nuevo, the workshop quickly expanded to include craft and trade classes, a community gallery exhibiting the work of local and international artists, a cinema club that showcases the work of Mexican and foreign filmmakers, and a radio station formed to provide a free and uncensored platform for local youth.

The exhibition features a wide range of work from this innovative space, including experimental and documentary films produced by the workshop; photographs and collages by Mexicali-based, international artists Pablo Castaneda, Carlos Coronado and Julio Torres; photographs by documentarians Rafael Veytia and Odette Barajas and Zeta journalist Sergio Haro, and an original mural created by Fernando Corona.
Concurrent with the exhibition, Artists Space will present the symposium The City Machine and Its Streets – Anomalous Ecologies on March 31-April 1, featuring conversations between renowned Mexico City writer and journalist Sergio Gonzalez Rodriguez, Los Angeles writer and journalist Ben Ehrenreich, Zeta journalist Sergio Haro and Marco Vera, hosted by writer Chris Kraus.

The exhibition will run from the 31st of March until the 27th of May 2012

More information here

NICOTIANA UMBRELLA


-I could look at a woman smoking for hours.
-I got nothing but breath…

(dialogue improvement)

Instructions:

1. Lie down on your bed.
2. Position unlit cigarette between first and second fingers of right hand; grasp lighter in left hand.
3. Lean head forward until forehead touches knee.
4. Extend arms forward, flicking lighter. Slowly rise, and bend backwards. Cigarette is lit.
5. Place cigarette between upper and lower lips and inhale; cough on exhale.
6. Focus on the release of tension attained through the power of totally organic nicotine.
7. Sleep.

Faye smoked 3924 cigarettes. I smoked 2024. Taken together in two hours, it was probably the single greatest of cigarette smoking in history. We made a list of the top ten greatest songs of the month and the songs are from number ten to number one: Make Me Proud; All I Really Want; More; Thinking About You; What We Do; Let Me See the Booty; Why Were Fighting; Too Easy; Have Your Way; Rockin’ That Shit.
I said, I will need many millions of dollars. Faye said, Why should I give them you? I will build up an infinite Nicotiana trees forest that will embrace all aspects of ultimate truth and beauty, I said, we will then chew the tobacco, smoke the tobacco and and people will give you money to view us chewing and smoking. Faye said, I’ve heard these promises before. Many times. Daily. Watch this, I said. And Faye burst into flames. I can respect this kind of power, she responded, but I am not convinced, she said. Watch this, I said. And outside our panoramic conference room the sun set behind a perfect, amazing bluff that we had never seen before and soon the stars rose in a bright and hazy streak across the forest smokey sky.


Terius walked up the driveway and went to the front door and knocked the knocker and asked the Mom: Is Faye home? The Mom said, They’re in the forest, Terius. We said: Hi, I’m The-Dream and I’ve got a nice purple splotch on my face. Hi, I’m The-Dream and I walked in the Nicotiana forest and Elvira and Faye spit warm and wet chewed tobacco at me and I didn’t even realize it. The Mom said, Don’t chew too much tobacco kids or you’ll get sick. Terius said, Can I have some? He stepped foot in direction of the forest and tried to approach the sacred route. We told him: You’re not allowed until you pass the test. What test? asked Terius. The test took place underneath the back porch, right next to the forest. Terius got on the ground and pulled down his pants. Don’t give me a wedgie, he said. Faye sat on Terius’ legs and struck the little green garden hose that attaches to the big black garden hose in his butt. She dropped three stones one by one into the hose. The stones rattled and clanked. She poured a handful of dirt into the hose. The dirt sifted and slid slowly. Terius yelled: Cut it out. Hey, cut it out, Faye, it hurts. Faye said, pussy. Confirmed, I said. We told him: Rule number one. Never pronounce the E when a name ends with E. Tiger got up and went into the corner and bent over and made a face. Faye said, Jeezy’s greatest line from Standing Ovation is, “Calculate my every step, I’m a mathematician, Make them pigeons disappear, I’m a damn magician (yeah)”. I said, “I’m the author of the book, yea a genius wrote it ‘jeah’, There’s a message in my words you gotta decode it ay’”. Thug Motivation, Faye said. “Ay” she repeated. Correct, said I. Terius said, can I enter the forest now? We told him: You got a pussy. That means you have to pass set number two. Terius said, What’s test umber two? Faye said, Do you know what the best song is? Terius said, No. Faye said, The Night Chicago Died. Terius said, So? Faye said, Do you know what the best movie is? Terius said, No. Faye said, The best movie is Total Recall. Terius said, So? Faye picked up the bicycle pump and showed it to Terius. Faye said, Do you know what this is? Terius said: Bicycle pump. Faye said: Wrong. This is the most unbelievable farting machine ever created. I said, You won’t believe it. Faye said, This is the best. I said, It’s unbelievable. Faye said, Bend over. Terius bent over. Faye took the end of the bicycle pump and stuck it in his butt. Stay still, I said. I started pumping. I pumped and Terius started giggling and I pumped and he grabbed his stomach and giggled and I pumped and Terius said, That’s enough and I pumped a couple more times until it got hard to pump the lever and Terius reached around and pulled out the end of the bicycle pump and cut the single greatest fart in the history of farting. He farted one long fart which didn’t change in pitch or volume but just kept going and Terius held his stomach which was puffed up and said, Make it go down. Faye and I hit the dirt. We rolled in the dirt and laughed the soundless laugh. Then we went on youtube, watched bits of Total Recall and ruled that it was not the best film. However we agreed that the best lines were:

Elvira: Open the goddamn door!
Faye: I can’t.
Elvira: Open it!
Faye: They’re all connected.

Then we changed our minds. The best lines were actually:

Elvira: What is it that is exactly the same about every single vacation you have ever taken?
Faye: I give up.
Elvira: You! You’re the same. No matter where you go, there you are. It’s always the same old you. Let me suggest that you take a vacation from yourself. I know it sounds wild. It is the latest thing in travel. We call it the Ego Trip.

We confirmed. We began to watch bits of Basic Instinct but did not really finish because Faye got the runs and had to go home.
The myth if you is broken, I said. The myth if you is broken too Elvira, Faye said. You’re still young I said, It could be a phase. Faye looked at me: The smell of the dentures, she said. What’s with the smell of the dentures, I said. I can’t take it anymore, she replied. For you, I would improve my brushing technique, I said. Faye said, We need security. You are ineffectual and silly. She stuck a toothpick between her teeth and hopped a passing wagon train. She waved her arm twice, long and slow, then did the same with one of her legs, long and slow, before turning away and vanishing into the dusty horizon ahead.
I said to Terius: Faye’s left. Who’s Faye? He said. Still, I sat on the forest floor. I developed a sudden need to smoke. My teeth rattled in my palm like dice. Welcome, Terius said. Shut up, I said, I am a girl, if I was not a girl I would tear at my guts, but there are none. I am a girl. Terius replied, I have never been so happy. The forest is a failure, I said. Fuck the forest, Terius said. My name is The-Dream, for Christ’s sake. We stared at each other for a long moment. Red juice stained his chin. You’re bleeding, Terius. Show me your tongue, I said. I don’t want to be unseemly, he replied and sighed. I said, If there was some place we could cleanse. Plant what I have taken from you in the forest Elvira, he said. I buried my teeth, small and worn now, under a young Nicotiana tree. We lied down, it rained, and afterwards, a rainbow.


I woke up I said, Hi Terius. He was now sitting in his new car, listening to the radio. He said, My mother says I can’t play with you anymore. I lit a cigarette, we shared it and rode to Faye’s house, pushed the doorbell but no one answered. We moved around, climbed onto the house’s wall over the garage and looked throughout the window and saw Faye. She was smoking a huge cigarette and watching an unspecified episode of Episodes. She was wearing braids and therefore looked a little bit like Ludacris. Hi, I’m Faye and I look a little bit like Ludacris. Hi, I’m Faye and I have very bad breath. Hi, I’m Faye and that’s the way it is for now. Hello you two, I’m Faye’s father. We startled, my hand slid on the edge of the window, I fell and grabbed The-Dream’s foot, his hand slid too and we both fell in front of the garage like bird craps. The father said: She’s lying down. She’s nauseous. Her tongue was dark brown when she came home and she made in her pants because she couldn’t help it. I want you to promise me to stay out of the Nicotiana forest for two days. Promise me, Terius. Promise me, Elvira. Promise me that you won’t let Faye enter the forest.


My phone rang. I startled again, jumped off the edge of the driveway’s wall as if to pounce on my own pocket where the phone was ringing. Then I hear Faye’s shrill voice speaking to me, and I withdraw to a dark corner of the garden. Yo E, it’s me Faye, Pick up… I think she’s not answering… no, I think it’s a Beverly Hills number… who the fuck knows? E-E, I’m doing book signing tonight and wanted to see if we could hook up after… E? This is the only chance I got. I won’t be in town for a couple of weeks, book tour in Italy. Who knew that pomodori could also read? Ha ha. I can send a car, E. OK, I’m running out of time here, Seven o’clock, I’d love to see-


Phone ran out of battery. Now Faye was listening with her headphones to the Elton John album Elton John, which should have been at least number twenty-five on the all-time top 100 album list. There was no noise except for Faye’s breathing. She nodded when she saw me. I sat on the sofa across from her sofa. I lied down. Faye said very loudly although she thought she was speaking normally: Baby, you make me wish I had three hands. I am not a three-breasted hooker, Faye. There was a plate on the living room table with fruits in it. I took a banana and pretended to smoke it. Then I took a mandarin and placed it between my breasts. Then I went to the window and peeled two other mandarins, well one mandarin and an orange, and threw the peels towards Terius’ house. It landed in the bushes and on the father’s car. I wound up and threw another. Then i threw the naked fruit itself. It all bounced off the side of the house. Faye removed the headphones and picked up a orange peel and hurled it. It bounced off Terius’ window. Then I threw an orange and a mandarin and they both hit the window. There were no more mandarins, no more oranges, no more peels. A couple of minutes later the doorbell rang and we looked out the window and saw Terius’ mother standing on the doorstep with a pile of dripping orange and mandarin peels in her hand. We went into Faye’s father’s closet and closed the door and pulled the rope to make the ladder come down and climbed the ladder into the attic and crawled into the crawl space beside he attic window where absolutely no one I repeat no one could possibly find us no matter how long they looked especially not Terius’ Fat Ass Mother and her stinky fruit peels. Faye said: I got the runs but it was worth it. 3924 cigarettes, a new all-time record. A shiver ran down my spine, as it always did. I could never tell for sure whether she could read my thoughts or not. We lied there patiently.

Barfly (1987)

Trouble Rainbow 2, Favorite Goods, CA

The incredible photographs by Diane Arbus are about to reside in the Fotomuseum in Zurich until the end of May. Two hundred photographs will be on display showing Arbus’s world of couples, children, carnival performers, nudists, middle-class families, transvestites, zealots, eccentrics, and celebrities. Arbus’s spectacular ability to showcase a total honesty in her subjects found around New York still remain unbeatable in originality, as well as existing as a piece of amazing 20th century American history.

Find out more here:http://www.fotomuseum.ch

The exhibition runs from the 3rd of March until the 28th of June 2012

 

Olive Oatman was kidnapped from her Mormon family in the Gila River (present-day Arizona) by the Yavapai Indians, while her family were traveling across the South West of America in 1851.
Most of her family were murdered but her and her sister, Mary-Ann were kidnapped by the Yavapai. After receiving harsh treatment by them for a year she was ransomed by a band of Mohaves. Olive went on to be accepted into the Mohave lifestyle and spent four years living with them. This was most famously acknowledged with her blue chin tattoo.
Mohaves considered tattoos to be a form of identification in the afterlife. The tattoo was secured by pricking the skin in small regular rows with a cactus pine until the skin bled freely. The cactus spikes were then dipped in weed juice and blue stone powder which was then applied to the pinpricks on the face. These chin tattoos indicated that the woman was ready to embark in adult tribal life.
Chin designs with the Mohaves were chosen by the tattooists and were based on the shape of the face. Narrow faced people usually wore designs of narrow lines or dots to accentuate the length of the face. Patterns for broad faces tended to have wider lines and cover more of the chin, making the face look even broader.
Olive was ransomed in 1856 by the United States Government at Ft. Yuma. On her discovery she was apparently found in nothing but a skirt made of bark which fueled suspicions of debauchery and sexual exploits.  Considering her puritanical upbringing, Olive’s experience was deemed as outrageous. An ambitious Methodist minister named Royal Byron Stratton wrote a scandalous book about her story which was named Olive and Mary Ann. The book sold 30,000 copies, a huge best-seller for that era. Rumours of her mothering two children by the chief’s son circulated but she denied this thoroughly.

Her story gripped the country so much that in the 1880′s, the “tattooed captive” became a popular circus theme. Their stories turned provocatively, on the notion that people of colour could transform whites into people of colour  ethnically and decoratively, as a means of exploitation and degradation.
Images and stories of Oatman’s tattoo fed the new America’s fear and ignorance’s towards the First World. In many ways Olive’s tattoo has captured a rather colonial view of the First World as terrifying primitives. Rather than a rather uplifting story of acceptance of this new culture and lifestyle bestowed upon her. Olive often proclaimed her love for the Mohaves in interviews and her brother indicated that she would weep night after night after leaving them. It has been said that she was the first white woman in America’s recorded history to have a tattoo.
Much material written about Olive appears to be confused and sensational but a  comprehensive book, The Blue Tattoo has recently been written about Olive’s life. Check it out here.