raillery at the CuMCuP 3
[continued from part 2] it's a hodgepodge noncollection, a random assemblage (& i know it's not random, it was "selected" but from what sources? they certainly didn't seem to look very far beyond the obvious) that should have been so much better, given the supposed means of the museum & gallery (Oakville). even the music lacked, only the final 3 cuts on the Boys' tape doing much beyond the expected (& i am taking into account the period, the same period that had F.T.Marinetti performing nonsyntactical sound texts in praise of high technology & the mechanisms of its machines). by the way: why are there a coupla songs by women on the Boys' tape but none by men on the Girls'?
the videos: Frank Vitale is a flake, an excellent example of arts council funding gone seriously awry. only the David Rimmer was of sustained interest.
around & around & around this damned exhibit i've gone (meanwhile running around further on the freights) & i keep coming back to several images, none of which are from this show. the main one is a photograph by Jennifer Books. all the technology & processing & finickry in this place cannot compare to what she accomplished with a cardboard box with a hole in it, a shot taken of the Gatineau-Ottawa freight as it came across the Prince of Wales bridge the other side of Lebreton Flats. a colour photocopy from her original pinhole print has more life & interest to it as a "straight" railway shot. [see www.flickr.com/photos/48593922@N04/6403933945/]
the CMCP goofed on this one.
[3] small guerilla exhibits have been mounted on the stairs & cleaned away immediately like so much garbage. did anyone other than a janitor even see the stuff? if they did, did they give any thought to what it was & why it might be there? (i'd glue a shot in here of one of them but we've not gotten those rolls developed yet: the expense of the genre takes its toll & further augments my frustration at seeing such lowlevel material here, representing a (to me) tremendous amount of money only to reinforce notions of æsthetic mediocrity). watching people whiz through the show, seeing nothing, only to drop 5 bucks in the box as though they were feeding a weasel in a cage, is a frustrating experience. we even set ourselves up outside with an alternative exhibit for those who would be writing in [the guestbook] that they wished to see more but it's all lies; they did not wish to see more when it was offered to them.
& now i'm left with another futile exercise, writing away to noöne (except: hi, Jennifer!) & knowing it('s too late), the whole charade another bad dream that started out somewhat hopeful, the notion of cultural & æsthetic interest met with cultural & æsthetic stultification (in the main).
this is my "donation" to the museum, then: a few pages of semi-venomous spew, an attemped engagement in activity that you'll never kill no matter how hard you try.
thanks.
raillery at the CuMCuP 3
[continued from part 2] it's a hodgepodge noncollection, a random assemblage (& i know it's not random, it was "selected" but from what sources? they certainly didn't seem to look very far beyond the obvious) that should have been so much better, given the supposed means of the museum & gallery (Oakville). even the music lacked, only the final 3 cuts on the Boys' tape doing much beyond the expected (& i am taking into account the period, the same period that had F.T.Marinetti performing nonsyntactical sound texts in praise of high technology & the mechanisms of its machines). by the way: why are there a coupla songs by women on the Boys' tape but none by men on the Girls'?
the videos: Frank Vitale is a flake, an excellent example of arts council funding gone seriously awry. only the David Rimmer was of sustained interest.
around & around & around this damned exhibit i've gone (meanwhile running around further on the freights) & i keep coming back to several images, none of which are from this show. the main one is a photograph by Jennifer Books. all the technology & processing & finickry in this place cannot compare to what she accomplished with a cardboard box with a hole in it, a shot taken of the Gatineau-Ottawa freight as it came across the Prince of Wales bridge the other side of Lebreton Flats. a colour photocopy from her original pinhole print has more life & interest to it as a "straight" railway shot. [see www.flickr.com/photos/48593922@N04/6403933945/]
the CMCP goofed on this one.
[3] small guerilla exhibits have been mounted on the stairs & cleaned away immediately like so much garbage. did anyone other than a janitor even see the stuff? if they did, did they give any thought to what it was & why it might be there? (i'd glue a shot in here of one of them but we've not gotten those rolls developed yet: the expense of the genre takes its toll & further augments my frustration at seeing such lowlevel material here, representing a (to me) tremendous amount of money only to reinforce notions of æsthetic mediocrity). watching people whiz through the show, seeing nothing, only to drop 5 bucks in the box as though they were feeding a weasel in a cage, is a frustrating experience. we even set ourselves up outside with an alternative exhibit for those who would be writing in [the guestbook] that they wished to see more but it's all lies; they did not wish to see more when it was offered to them.
& now i'm left with another futile exercise, writing away to noöne (except: hi, Jennifer!) & knowing it('s too late), the whole charade another bad dream that started out somewhat hopeful, the notion of cultural & æsthetic interest met with cultural & æsthetic stultification (in the main).
this is my "donation" to the museum, then: a few pages of semi-venomous spew, an attemped engagement in activity that you'll never kill no matter how hard you try.
thanks.