MOVING ALONG A FILAMENT OF DUST

Just a summing up of one of my recent paintings,  a kind of scavenging of maps that I can barely read,  but insist on basing my movements upon. Masking and gesture go hand in hand here,  a troubled caress and kick to the process.

AT CONTROL VOLTAGE FAIR 2014

Electronic noise navigators Daren Ho (top) with Robert AA Lowe and Roe Enny on Van Eyck St.

MORE MAILART ON THE MOVE

WEIRD SCENES JUST INSIDE THE SIXTIES

Apparently these guys were performing a sacred rite during the second month of 1960,  wouldn't you agree? Our propensity for the aberrant was just beginning.

CONJOIN

Here are three recent triptychs conjoined in an effort to straddle both meaning and unmeaning in their unfinished state.  Let the pieces fall where they may.

DEATH & EROTICISM: A LECTURE AT THE MORBID ANATOMY MUSEUM

What a dark and lovely subject we have here,  but well documented in art, literary creations,  and various spiritual impulses throughout the centuries.  Here opposites are seemingly entwined. Lecture by Romany Reagan (July 21)

From medieval Death and the Maiden imagery to the modern cemetery as an after-hours sex den, the link between sexual arousal and death has been a long-noted aspect of the human sex drive. Far from being relegated to the outer fringes of necrosadism, the sexual thrill of flirting with death and danger has been explored and analyzed from political, psychological and medical angles. The very act of confronting death sends up a primal drive to reassert life in the form of virile sexual expression. This impulse is commonly thought to manifest exclusively in the psychopathy of deviants, but sexual arousal in response to death imagery and near death experiences is actually an impulse based on affirmation of life rather than a desire for death. This talk will explore this darker side of desire through the works of Foucault, Berscheid & Walster, Bataille, the Victorian post-execution autopsies of Dr Croker King and personal research in Abney Park Cemetery.

VIDEO: ORGONE ENERGY, WILHELM REICH AND UFOs

While this DVD may have rather archaic production values, it does spell out the rather troubling science of Wilhelm Reich and the tragedy the ensued. Books like FUNCTION OF THE ORGASM (1942) and THE MURDER OF CHRIST (1953) hardly endeared him to scientists, theologians, the FDA,  or the general public. Prejudices of the time (he was a Jew,  a communist,  and some thought him insane) hardly made for smooth sailing for this visionary. This lecture by Peter Robbins is certainly not visually striking with its single camera approach,  but it does present the mysterious undoing of someone who was clearly ahead of his time and worthy of our further investigation. 

WORK IN PROGRESS

For an unnamed musical project that will appear in the near future.

JACK RUBY: HIT AND RUN

Abrasive,  punk,  no-wave noise from the Seventies that barely registered a blip on the historical continuum,  yet deserved so much more.  Songs like the title track,  "Mayonnaise,  Bored Stiff",  and "Bad Teeth" are sounds from the wasteland that was lower Manhattan at the time. Strangely enough,  this double CD also includes some of drummer/synthesist's Randy Cohen's recordings on a Serge synthesizer (called "the peoples' synth" here suggesting a price differential that made it more affordable than Moog and Buchla instruments,  yeah,  right!!!).  Some of these tracks are joined by voice, sax,  electric viola  and guitar (I think?),  and take several interesting detours without ever seeming  the least bit academic. Punk,  maybe?

Not a Guston Head

Not a Guston Head

PRESSINGS & SENDINGS

There's really nothing like the visual and tactile sensation of letterpress printing,  a hopelessly outdated but wonderfully analogue alternative to digital foragings. Bruce Licher of the band Savage Republic sent me this postcard years ago,  and it's a fine example of his expertise in this medium. If you care to check out victorian technology filtered through a contemporary mindset,  Bruce is your man.

STUDIO VIEW

My slow quest to simplify and achieve an "essence" has left a trail of scattered sine waves,  nearly random  control voltages,  and some visual clutter.  It's always a bit of "what if?".

LEST WE FORGET

Barney Rosset of the Grove Press also published the Evergreen Review as an analogue adventure between 1957-73,  presenting a host of post-war artists and writers to the reading public in an easily digestible form.  Authors as diverse as William Burroughs,  Allen Ginsburg,  Albert Camus,  LeRoi Jones, Marguerite Duras, and Alain Robbe-Grillet were given forums to express newly wrought political, social,  racial, erotic,  existential,  and artistic views. The magazine was not a kind of "gated community" of radicalism,  but a challenging immersion into First Amendment rights.

SERGE RE-EMERGENCE

I'm revamping my studio in order to prioritize use and reach a certain "essence"  as demanded by disciples of ether^ra and w/o vertices.

New THIS SECOND SLEEP CDr

A FLEA IN HER EAR is a collection of shivering awning flaps flip-flopped into sound and it's uppity neighbor,  music... maybe. It is available through this site in nearly non-existent numbers.  Enjoy.