BLOGUMENTA

Contemporary artists have learned their lessons well; it is arguable that all art today is site specific, meaning, made with a view to the particulars of where it is going to be presented/installed; meaning more than that, made to interact with that situation/place. This is no less true for paintings painted for presentation in galleries to “extra-gallery” artworks, e.g. that might involve signs or bus shelters or billboards or park benches.

This is no less true within the art fair called Blogumenta within the social networking space of Facebook. A few of the artists who have so generously contributed to the exhibition have paid particular attention to the situation, the context of Facebook.

Phil O’Connor, for example, created collages of Facebook profile pictures using the unique tagging and linking tools of Facebook. More about his piece here.

Other artists have taken a more “structural” approach, following the trajectory of more critical, “institutional critique” strategies.

Facebook group on Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=3247535200

Self-referential artwork, most nihilistic category:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2454514095
Galan Akin, creator

About the “I Facebooked your Mom T”, the original is hard to track down, but the real beauty of it of course is that there are any number of websites where you can design your own T, making up your own text, so anyone can have that shirt, you just have to make it yourself. And perhaps, like a lot of site specific art, the art of it resides in the idea of it more than in the owning of it.
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Blogumenta on Facebook is here:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2380698481

This is a still from a video project by Montreal based Patrick Doan (aka DEFASTEN)

“AEXEX is a textural work informed by the details and aesthetics from particular strains of deconstructivism, semiotics, computer error, and deep audio.”

The work can be viewed at: http://www.vagueterrain.net/content/archives/journal07/defasten01.html

Thanks to Greg J. Smith for posting this and other works to the Facebook blogumenta group.

Something about artworks that are less about the art and more about the life and commitments of the artist, e.g. this artist I came across pretty much by random:

Taliah Lempert
http://www.bicyclepaintings.com/

Reminds me of Canadian Greg Curnoe, e.g.

Also the activist version, this year’s Art Ride, written about elsewhere here.

And then there’s Critical Mass.

Phil O’Connor’s “a dance party at the end of history (finally)” cleverly uses profile pics of his Facebook friends in a series of photo montages. O’Connor then tagged the photo with his friend’s names, which you can read when you roll the mouse over the photo. He also added a caption with their names, which, because they are Facebook friends become hyperlinks to their personal Profiles.
A complex work that uses the context of Facebook exceptionally well. Nice Phil. Nice.

The specific page with the installation shot of the combined montages is here in Facebook.

The Facebook Blogumenta group URL is: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2380698481

All this energy goes into producing a product. Forgive me if I’m a little obsessed.

The first sample T was ordered June 14, shipped June 16 in this padded envelope, and arrived June 21st in my mailbox.

Inside, it’s nicely folded and wrapped in plastic.

The T itself is great. Manufactured by American Apparel. 100% combed cotton, stretchy and soft. Stitching is fine and colours solid. All in all I’m very satisfied with Spreadshirt’s service.

It’s too crazy to be true, but Spreadshirt, the app. that runs behind Shopumenta, has this great feature where you can create your own text. Click on Shopumenta and the first item should be the editable text Tshirt in baby blue. Click on “Change Text” and away you go. Write your own slogan for Blogumenta. Choose your favourite colour and correct size too.

So we invite you to write a slogan for Blogumenta. Then buy the shirt to support the project. When you get the shirt, take a pic and send it to us and we’ll post it here and within the Facebook group.

The best slogan will become the official slogan of Blogumenta.

P.S. If you can’t bring yourself to buy the actual shirt, that’s ok too. Just send us your slogan by email and we’ll consider it too.

Petra Chevrier and Cheryl Rondeau are doing the Grand Tour! As you all know by now, “once every ten years four international art events collide (?) in three different, yet geographically connected, countries and all four open within two weeks of each other: La Biennale di Venezia 52nd International Art Exhibition (Venice, Italy); Art 38 Basel (Basel, Switzerland); Documenta 12 (Kassel, Germany); skulptur projekte münster 07 (Munster, Germany).”

Petra and Cheryl are blogging their trip:
http://warc.net/v3/index.html

For the opening ceremony, Blogumenta Facebook members have been asked to upload an image from the bank of images here:

http://www.blogumenta/june16/

and replace their Facebook Profile image with that image.

Over the course of the day, all the Profile images appearing within the group should change until we have only those images, and the images of the art, and text of course.

If you would like to join in, please join the group

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2380698481
The Blogumenta exhibition currently features over 100 photos and numerous links to websites, blogs etc. If you missed the close of the photo upload period but would still like to submit a photo please email me art AT blogumenta DOT com. The Wall and Discussion areas are still open for troublemakers too.

A nice clean new theme for the blog and a shop courtesy Spreadshirt.com… visit the “shopumenta” page linked in the sidebar… three designs, choose your shirt style and size. Proportionally, Spreadshirt makes more per shirt than I do, but hey, we’re not in it for the do re me…