Plastic Alto with Mark Weiss

The Museum of Modern Art,
New York

Cindy Sherman
Through June 11, 2012

Special Exhibition Gallery, sixth floor

The Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53 Street
New York, NY 10019

(212) 708-9400

MoMA.org

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The Museum of Modern Art, New York, presents the exhibition Cindy Sherman, a retrospective tracing the groundbreaking artist’s career from the mid-1970s to the present. The exhibition brings together some 170 key photographs from the artist’s significant series—including the complete “Untitled Film Stills” (1977–80), centerfolds (1981), and the celebrated history portraits (1988–90)—plus examples from all of her most important bodies of work, ranging from her fashion photography of the early 1980s to the breakthrough sex pictures of 1992 to her 2003–04 clowns and monumental 2008 society portraits. In addition, the exhibition features the American premiere of her 2010 photographic mural, presented outside the entrance to the galleries on the Museum’s sixth floor.

Masquerading as a myriad of characters in front of her own camera, Sherman creates invented personas and tableaus that examine the construction of identity, the nature of representation, and the artifice of photography. Her works speak to an increasingly image-saturated world, drawing on the unlimited supply of visual material provided by movies, TV, magazines, the Internet, and art history. To create her photographs, Sherman works unassisted in her studio and assumes multiple roles as photographer, model, art director, make-up artist, hairdresser, and stylist. Whether portraying a career girl or a blond bombshell, a fashion victim or a clown, a French aristocrat or a society lady of a certain age, for over 35 years this relentlessly adventurous artist has created an eloquent and provocative body of work that resonates deeply with our visual culture.

Cindy Sherman will travel to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (July 14–October 7, 2012); Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (November 10, 2012–February 17, 2013); and Dallas Museum of Art (March 17–June 9, 2013).

PUBLICATION:
Cindy Sherman is accompanied by a 264-page publication. Text by exhibition curator Eva Respini, contribution by art historian Johanna Burton, and conversation between Sherman and filmmaker John Waters.

The catalogue is available in English, German, French, and Spanish.

RELATED EXHIBITION:
Carte Blanche: Cindy Sherman
April 2–10, 2012
The Roy and Niuta Titus Theater 1, MoMA

Carte Blanche: Cindy Sherman is presented in conjunction with the retrospective exhibition Cindy Sherman. Film—the common cultural language of our era—has had a profound influence on Sherman and is an inspiration for much of her work. Ranging from camp to horror to classic art films, Sherman’s choices reflect the artist’s diverse interests and influences. As the “Curator’s Choice,” one screening features Sherman’s 1976 short film Doll Clothes, followed by her feature film Office Killer (1997). Visit MoMA.org for a full schedule.

PUBLIC PROGRAM:
Cindy Sherman: Circle of Influence
March 26, 2011, 6:00 p.m.
The Roy and Niuta Titus Theater 2, MoMA

Artists working in a variety of mediums explore Cindy Sherman’s influence on contemporary art practice, including issues such as feminism and identity. Panelists include George Condo, Elizabeth Peyton, Collier Schorr, and Kalup Linzy. Moderated by Eva Respini, Associate Curator, Department of Photography, The Museum of Modern Art.

WEBSITE:
A comprehensive website accompanies Cindy Sherman. In addition to featuring the complete selection of images that appear in the exhibition, MoMA has commissioned exclusive video content for the site, in which artists, filmmakers, art historians, and cultural critics speak about their favorite work by Sherman.

The exhibition is organized by Eva Respini, Associate Curator, with Lucy Gallun, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Photography.

Major support for the exhibition is provided by Agnes Gund, Jerry I. Speyer and Katherine G. Farley, The Modern Women’s Fund, and The William Randolph Hearst Endowment Fund.

Additional funding is provided by The Broad Art Foundation, David Dechman and Michel Mercure, Robert B. Menschel, Allison and Neil Rubler, Richard and Laura Salomon, The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, Glenstone, Michèle Gerber Klein, Richard and Heidi Rieger, Ann and Mel Schaffer, and The Junior Associates of The Museum of Modern Art.

edit to add, three minutes later: this is perhaps a weird segue, but I was talking about this earlier today, having seen the article in yesterday’s Times about the young man who starred as an exaggerated version of himself in “Degrassi High” which I’ve never seen, and died five years ago but was just now identified as being Neil Hope, 35. I was also reading and not liking, slagging even, Jeannette Walls and also thinking about Stew (“Passing Strange”) and fictionalized versions of life, and Dao Strom especially the racy parts I’ve apparently never read from “Gentle Order”, and Augusten Burroughs who I don’t think I met but I have distinct memories of people describing him, unfavorably. We all tend to self-mythologize but watch out for Faust, Icarus and many other classic Promethian pitfalls. I took a UC extension class with a Jungian therapist named I think William Sherwood, who had a horrible sway back, on literature and Orestia — classics — and he said, which I think the Dalai Lama said a version of this apropos of the Holocaust, “we always get what we want.” Jeannette Walls did say something like that, in “the glass castle” in the scene at Barnard with the Jewish professor of soci and whether the homeless want to be homeless. I also think that or wonder if JW knew about Sonic Youth “Daydream nation” and its use of Gerhard Richter candle painting, in her final scene.

We thought it classic or dramatic irony that the scene included a toast to her dead alcoholic father, Rex Walls (who I called Wrecks Walls).

Perhaps going to far: think also “into the wild” which I do recall as a Sunday Chronicle “sunday punch – was that actually its name the section — when it was news, chris mccandless was that his name? and then who seb junger wrote about it(?) and then jerry hannan, who I ironically enough bought luggage with in chicago in fall 2000 on tour — I have a photo of he I and Trouz outside the luggage store with matching kenneth cole black overnight bags, although Chris Cuevas quickly returned his for something more practical — I still have mine and beat the crap out of it. I thought the tell on the Alaska dude saga was something about the parents and either alcholism or abuse — seemed omenous but not stressed. but good song, jer bear, about “society”. Eddie Vedder. We are all souls playing roles and shards mowing yards. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/28/arts/television/neil-hope-dies-at-35-degrassi-actor-whose-life-unraveled.html

the word “unraveled” above makes me want to swap my “yard” for “yarn” somehoe, also “yarn” as tale…45 minutes too much on big wiry today…is “wiry” a word? “wire-y”

i thought of an idea for some music avails in june: plastic alto whirld muse (sic) daze, a multi-part event bridging solstice, make music, francophilia, downtown versus parks per se, lytton plaza, cogswell plaza, a picture of robert johnson speaking of faust in a turban and playing the don cherry african harp, icobopa, vichy vs vc and more.

edit to add, on the top, two hours later:

Fact-checking or search-injuning an after-thought, about TLPW456 and Bob Mould, I found this jpg of a Ray Pettibon poster, for SST and BAM, of a tour, that  came through Palo Alto, Keystone not Varsity, then LA, SD etc, of HUSKER DU, THE MINUTEMEN, MEAT PUPPETS  and two others. Talk about brain-pop. Which begs the question: what became of the archives of Keystone and Stone – I heard it is sordid and sad–??

O what a brave old weird noise pop world we live in, and such creature?

compare:

Brave New World’s ironic title derives from Miranda’s speech in Shakespeare‘s The Tempest, Act V, Scene I:^[2]

O wonder!How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world!

That has such people in it!

Original post, from two hours ago, started like so:

Stanford’s Russian linguist and psychologist the lovely Lera Boroditsky claims that there are five billion languages on this blue marble in that each of us uses his or her lengua slightly differently. Ok. But when you call me light blue are you trying to say I am not man enough for you? Almost blue, almost doing things we used to do? What are you trying to say?

I caught one Noise Pop show this year, Saturday, at the Great American Music Hall, and two bands. The bands were Archers of Loaf (for the tenth or fifteenth time) and The Big Sleep (my first time).

The year before I went to one event, a drawing clinic with Kid Koala at Public Works, which rolled into a Robert Syrett show there a few months later, things to the lovely Betty Bigas, from Barcelona, the curator, who I like to call, despite her petite nature Betty Big Ass.

I actually did produce my own Noise Pop in 1997 when Jim Romeo suggested I book his client Spoon the day after its Noise Pop bow. I ended up booking seven bands around that one avail and calling it Twin Harmonic Pop Festival. The poster featured baseball slugger and MLB logo model Harmon Killebrew of the Twins. Get it? Poster design by Michelle Nelson of Santa Cruz by way of La Para Drive and Gunn High, as opposed to Lisa Marie Nielson who did one or two projects prior to her and also if memory slurves she did the art work for the vanity project of Phillippe Kahn, a sax player and tech leader, from France, he of the famous “FU-1” visa, meaning, “Deport me? Go fuck yourself, I have 100 employees counting on me.” Emma Lazerus was on his original board of directors. Man, I digress.

The other bands were, at my Noise Pop knockoff: Van Goghs Daughter (featuring Zoe Keating and my eventual short-lived management client Jane Woodman pka stonedays — twice, they made it a residency and did a clinic at JLS), The Babysitters Club (featuring my intern or campus rep Rachel Metz and eventual Guardian writer Matt Sussman), the Keeners, Engine 88 — the exact list is on the poster, in my car, I will add later.

So briefly here is what I knew of the 50 or so Noise Pop 2012 bands going in:

And congrats to Jordan Kurland and Kevin Arnold on their monstrous success!

Archers of Loaf: I wrote about them below. I could sing along to about half the songs, but I sort of thought “Wrong” was a Superchunk cover. I was the one who yelled out “Precision Auto” and someone perhaps sarcastically congratulated by slapping me on my back and yelling “good one.” Lane Wurster, when AOL played  BOTH for the first time said “throw beer cans.” I resisted urge to throw first my program then my balled up paper cup.  Barton the guitar tech and merge dude also sat in on some kind of keyboard thingy. The other merge dude or dudette was a lady who says she is in Crooked Fingers. That’s no lady that’s my…

Built to Spill is a big name but I don’t think I’ve heard them. Martch. Doug Martch. Or Martsch, that is. I bought the “Instrument” book on Chronicle books and wrote “March XX, at Fillmore” and left it open to that page during part of Rockage.

Cursive. I know they are huge and Weezer-y (although AOL hates being reminded of their Weezer tour — apparently Rivers Cuomo does not like tour manager to make eye contact and will fire at will, if gratuitous detail that — and I met a lady at Canyon Ranch the year Jerry Garcia died whose son met Weezer for Make A Wish, but this is about Cursive not Weezer). I know they played Amoeba and GAMH. I think Mike Kelley of Absolute Artists (Bruce Solar’s firm, and Brad Stewart) booked them for a while.

Flaming Lips I saw with Cake (and Henry Butler — I took him to concert and we were hanging sidestage at the Greek, thanks to Bruce Solar who rescued us from limbo — and Henry and John McCrea talked about how a keyboard would fit in, perhaps not seriously – and Henry would not wear the Unlimited Sunshine shirt I bought him – he left it at my house) and was thinking during AOL  “are they as good as Flaming Lips?” but other than that — oh, didn’t they produce a four-cd set where you are supposed to play all four cds on different players? — not in their camp, really.

Jolie Holland — I met at Alabama Chicken and she invited me to play scrabble once. I like the rap thingy she does with, who is it, Russell Sage? I mean Sage Francis? And Danny Barnes asked me if her accent was supposed to be for real.

Imperial Teen — I would absolutely buy their record when I see it, or go look for a record store to find it. Where do they still sell records, cds for you under 30 types? Tower>Rasputins is gone – I would have to think about that – do you have to drive to city to find Amoeba, where Imperial Teen played Saturday? When they played the Cub, back in the day, I split their poster with a Stroke 9 (“Little Black Backback” one hit wonders although Luke Esterkyn their singer to me looks exactly like the guy from “Glee” the teacher), and used a picture of Mickey Mantle. Huh? Let me break that down: stroke as in baseball or homerun stroke, imperial as in “yankee imperialism.” Also, I caught up with Jone Stebbins recently in my satire>slander piece about Palo Alto City Councilmember Nancy Shepherd declaring a no yapping zone around 456 University. As it happens, planning commissioner Arthur Keller last night at State of the City address baited me into berating this occurence and then I realized that Nancy was right behind me, but didn’t seem to notice. She was with Valerie Stringer, whose daughter Laura B. Stringer is principle in a theatre group in New York called Witness Relocation. She yoo-hoo. I yoo-hoo. Let us all conjugate or congregate. I would, by the way, love to get cut by Jone someday. (cut vs. caught)

Mac McCaughan — His real name is Ralph. He’s working. He’s not working for me. I said below, I missed his show but met a Mormon Stanford student with Mac’s boyish good looks, named David Rockland, who performed at Cantor next to a very colorful work by COMING and soundchecked using a Death Cab song that has the word “color” in it. Mac also has, besides mighty Merge — winner of the Grammy for album of the year with Arcade Fire — a jazz label called Wobbly Rail which I think is a Joe Hill reference.

Bob Mould – -and here I am cribbing because I got this wrong the other day, or staggered with it: Sugar, Husker Du. I want to say Replacements but I said Adolescents maybe? I made a joke about “Macalester” as his “safe word” without actually knowing what a “safe word” is and not realizing consciously that Mould is an alumnus. Jon Wurster of Superchunk plays drums for him. Never heard of “Copper Blue” but I am certain it means “gay secret police” in the Ukraine.

o O o O O or o 0 o 00 — not sure I know anything about them but I heard KFJC air talent announce their show during concert outlook. They should tour with !!!.

Papercuts — I get them mixed up with a former San Jo band that has a dude who also works as a checker or bagger at SF SOMA Whole Foods, that I gave a paper doll of Joe Flacco to randomly one day about three years ago, and I also bugged Romeo’s assistant Kate or Katie and sent them a cellshot of the marquee at GAMH about a year ago, I hope that is still in archive in my yahoo. or my    o o.

OC – my hands are cramping so i was hoping my bib (brothers in blog) at Spinning Platters would carry me here, having already written about OC below. I will just reiterate that both of Kevin Arnold’s original two clients played The Cub, Overwhelming Colorfast and Pee. Also, I cannot find easily facts to confirm my recollection that OC covered (fast) “Mrs. Robinson” before and better than Lemonheads or whoever.

Sleigh Bells I don’t recall knowing anything about, not to sound too Descartes-like, or cartesian? But I know they had a big sounding in the New York Times right before if not a preview of NP. In the way that Surfer Blood I recall did one year around SXSW. I will find the links.

Sonny (Smith) and the Sunsets. I recall that the lovely and mom-ish Hilda from Down Home suggested Sonny Smith either as a client or as a gig years ago. And I bought but probably still owe some money to or on the Griff Williams Gallery 16 box set I bought myself (with Steve or Eric Cohen as my moral support and character witness) on incredibly favorable terms — like $5 down and $1 a year until the blue shift of the universe — not forever but forever minus 100,000 years or so. Can’t wait to hear some or all of it, and maybe I will review it, here for Plastic Alto.

Surfer Blood, see Sleigh Bells.

Thao — I guess they mean Thao Nguyen also known formerly perhaps but also forever or forever minus 10,000 years as Thao and The Get Down Stay Down. I met her at SXSW, the same day I met Carrie Brownstein, within an hour of each other even. I spoke of Dao to Thao. I drink Tsing Tao, I think. I read Thich Nhat Han and worked at Parralax, or in the same building, on Solano, or thereabouts, near a fancy restaurant who employs Mary Armentrout. She went to William and Mary, pretty sure, and moved to SF or East Bay. Jess Hemerly of the noise Pop staff of crack writers knows worlds and worlds more than I do here so search him or her out.

Two Gallants. Doug Shevlin digs. Nuff said. I wonder, taking Jordanna Finnegan’s course on Literature of Poverty and Inequity at Foothill, if Two Gallants name is a John Steinbeck “Tortilla Flat” reference. For, yes, Dr. Moore, “two gallons” of wine.

John Vanderslice — although I did momentarily and on his voice mail confuse with Action Slicks with MC whatever the mind control project of the CIA that he once referenced or called out — and didn’t he once prank Microsoft??? Tiny Telephone. Saw at Stanford on Escondido Street a couple years back. There is a younger Asian woman in his two-shot in the program, a string arranger I recall…searching…circling…Minna Choi, thank you, (insert Jonah Hill A’s Cap curl and pull the fist, yes!).

Laura Veirs — I was re-listening to a Laura Veirs demo from 2005 or so she sent me, girl with a tiger not dragon tattoo and wrote a draft of something and sent to her publicist maybe I will cut and paste it in here. I get confused Laura Veirs, Jolie Holand and Mary Halvorson. She has cute puppet videos, I recall. Or paper dolls.

Veronica Falls, not to be confused with Rebecca Falls featuring the Dartmouth guy.

Wye Oak on Merge, right?

Ok, that was just the headliners (I mention 20), now here are the support:

Sasha Bell , of Essex Green, I don’t know but Dartmouth alum  by way of Portola Valley or Atherton Britt Myers does.

Big Sleep. Liked. Terry, my Terry, Terry Acebo Davis, was unsure. It’s a Raymond Chandler reference right? Literary reference sends me back to….

On Frenchkiss which is a lable I’ve heard of.

Built Like Alaska — were on stage when we got to AOL at GAMH but didn’t focus.

Fake Your Own Death – reminds me of the time when I suggested to my client Doug Hilsinger, whose band Enorchestra I and only I got into Noise Pop 2006 because I met Ryan from Man Man at Last Drop and called Romeo from a cab and he said he had noticed the Eno tribute, “Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy” by Doug Hilsinger and Caroleen Beatty, supporting Devotchka, that he should do a tribute to that pretty darn good movie about a fake rock band that fakes its own death but I think because we were not getting along too well my days were numbered, ironically enough I was faking my own death or falling on a sword he took it as some kind of agro thing to say. I think he said he was too young to fake his own death or something. I definitely recall that Romeo had never heard of the Enorchestra bass players band, the one that seemed to only play at anti-Israel events.

Carlos Forster — was he in not Carlos! but For Stars and got a Cake credit? It says he plays with M. Ward who also plays with Zoeey Dechannel, yes? Future former farmers all.

I am cheating but I like “Foxtails Brigade…classically trained vocalist and guitarist Laura Weinbach.”

Rachel Haden: briefly, there are three sisters. One had a band named My Sister Amazing and one married Jack Black, but how many permutations of that dog combo could there be? Three to the second times two to the second or 81? I have a one in 81 chance in getting this right, which reminds me of the WSJ story about one over f, (1/f) and how to predict what movie is “good”. Huh? I would like to say that I gave Tanya Haden a demo tape, literally a demo cassette of the Negro Problem because she told me she wanted to learn accordion (in this case, ala ) and I thought she said she was part-black. (soon to be Black, is what she somehow meant). I also invited, okay this is Tanya not Anna or Rachel, Ms. Haden to go to a Elastica show at Fillmore but she said her grandparents were in town.  She had an 0 in her digits and made a little smiley face. On a coaster.

I traded text messages in real time Saturday with Jonah Matranga of Far and onelinedrawing: sorry I missed your gig. No worries.

Is Maus Haus related to Blectum from Blectum?

Oranger: I had their bumper sticker on my Forerunner and once, near corner of Embarcadero (westbound) at El Camino had a young attractive very indie looking woman roll down her window and give me the “Oranger!” smile and thumbs up. I was stalked by an Oranger stalker!

Preteen not Pre Teens from Santa Cruz with geneder diversity, alas.

Princeton sucks, dude. Save “A Sense of Where You Are” and FSF “this side of paradise.” RIP the teen band from San Carlos Experience Dartmouth.

Release the Sunbird I am cheating again but method to it is Rogue Wave.

ok, Slouching Stars is members of Carlos!

Will Sprout of the Mumlers may or may not be the San Jo 408 band that I confuse with Papercuts — thus nullifying half the effect of my Joe Flacco paper doll gift, see above. Doh! Calls to mind: Dove from Duster.

We passed on the Shepherd Fairey poster as well as the more enticing Tuffy AOL silk screen. But we did buy two AOL shirts. We wanted Vee Vee on vinyl but ran out of gas. Speaking of Fairey, the more I mention wanting to commission Barry McGee to tag the Caltrain Station more or less likely to come true. Poll?

I liked Carey Perloff’s “Higher” at ACT (or in this case the former Zeum at Yerba Buena) but was disappointed with the music supervision. In the past Carey has over-achieved with commissions and performances by the likes of Tracy Chapman and Madigan Shive, and Kitka. But in this case, for a play that takes place in the U.S. and Israel, I thought the music by Will McCandless (an SF Mime Troupe contributor) was paint by numbers. There was a cue drop for “Tzena Tzena” when the principal goes to Israel — isn’t that a 1950s song?

Not that I am an expert, but I asked Raya Zion of KZSU and Tribal Blues Band to forward me that fun, poppy current Israeli song she used to spin. I also posted previously about a Hebrew remake of Cake’s “I Bombed Korea” (general, not necessarily for “Higher”)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wDDgSwEo1s

I re-watched ten minutes of “Rachel Getting Married” as part of a little exercize to further process and contextualize my relationship with “Passing Strange” the Broadway play and Spike Lee movie starring my former client Mark “Stew” Stewart.

I watched scene 23, the wedding scene, that featured Tunde Adebimpe singing a Neil Young song a cappella. Tunde is best known as leader of the acclaimed rock band TV ON THE RADIO (of TVOTR).

There is actually another “Rachel Getting Married” connection: Quincy Tyler Bernstein who has two lines as the 12-step receptionist in the Demme film (“She is here to pee in a cup”, Rachel, Anne Hathaway is or was, Bernstein says), actually originated the role of Stew’s mother when the play workshopped at Stanford. For Broadway and Berkely Rep the role evolved into featuring Elsa Davis, daughter of Angela Davis. Quincy I just recalled or search-inured also once played Ben Affleck in an early production of Mindy Kaling’s “Matt and Ben”, which I saw Mindy originate off-Broadway.

“Rachel Getting Married” almost qualifies as a comedy based on what I was taught a Dartmouth about the strict definition of comedy as being something that ends with a marriage. Or it is about the son to be beating the father in law, in this case a showdown about who can load the dishwasher fastest and most stylistically.

Although it is sort of about Kym, Rachel’s sister and her envy of the good things happening to other people. Their writing songs of love but not for me, kind of thing.

But overall it’s a showcase for who you could get to play your life event if you happen to own a Stamford mansion and be a recording exec with a hot daughter: Cyro Baptista, Robyn Hitchcock, Sister Carol East, Donald Harrison et cetera.

That I only gave myself 10 minutes to review the film and then slapped together this ode rather unsatisfying is also my ode to Nick Hornby and his famous “books I bought books I read” schtick for The Believer. My apartment is crammed with stuff I mean to read, watch or listen to; most of it I own although I have tabs going with several library systems as well.

I did once go to a wedding at a Stamford mansion but don’t recall the music (the groom loves Springsteen, I know, but not enough to let Bruce upstage the futures missus).

I saw Green Day play unannounced at Cinder Block t-shirt companies anniversary party, is as close to the Demme film as I can come. My cousin rocked his own bar mitzvah under name Souldiers (Cross Your Fingers). His first cousin at her wedding had a pretty good cover band and then, at my urging, her brother in law jumped on stage for a song or two. Aleta Hayes sang a Neil Young song at my kickoff party for City Council, and then sang “Rolling and Tumbling” at my concession party, although that’s a red herring.

“Rachel Getting Married” is a red herring inside a red herring, but worth seeing, as Halliwell might say, for two reasons: the music and a reality check about family.

I will have to “spit in the whole and tune again” about how it compares to Stew. Stew and Heidi have another work in progress about Black-Jewish relations in the large sense that maybe crosses some lines about RGM.