International Paneling/February 2023
Image by Horster
Simple Tips on Avoiding a Mid-Winter Meltdown!
by Leo Kuelbs
NYC
During these cold days when being inside and alone is almost a virtue, it can be easy to lose you emotional footing and slip into crevices that may start off as comforting, before devolving into dangerous depressions. I would guess that during the height of the virus many of us were close to this kind of space. I mean, even if you did not experience loss directly, you certainly had some types of health or other life adventures, that were not all positive. I do love my friends who tell me they loved those lonely winter days. Some of my “B-type” personality colleagues and friends, especially with back yards, actually thrived. Bless those amazing people and their yards!
As it seems that we are coming out of our time encased in COVID amber, I began to try to gain some life perspective, meditating on my emotional state, waiting to see what came to the surface. Not that it is a great surprise, but I did realize that some relationships in my life had to end, new ones to begin, and others, most importantly, needed renewal. Also, my overall state of relating to people needed an update, requiring greater intention and management.
Around Thanksgiving time, I got some kind of funky bug. Not COVID, not the flu, no fever, just tired, some headaches and a little bit of lung crud. Whenever it seemed to recede, I would start getting busy again, only to be smacked back into bed. After about three weeks, with the end of year gathering time at hand, I decided to rest, and not to travel. I also realized a void in my emotional world and upon further inspection, I realized I missed my siblings.
I am the youngest of many boys, with bonus sisters—one older, one younger. As I tell my friends, most of my brothers do not even know who I am. Nor do they really seem to care. Especially the middle ones, who suffer from some vague, but certain mid-child syndrome. But I miss them anyway, even though most of them never reach out. And when we do talk, drinking is often involved and that lubricates an always slippery slope into ancient rivalries, real or imagined.
So, since I knew I needed to be physically alone for Christmas, and to rest, I decided it would be my mission to connect via phone with all 10 of my siblings, on either Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. A visit from Santa Leo, or perhaps Krampus Leo, depending on your perspective. No drinking, no stressful stuff, just, pretty much, interviewing everyone to catch up on where they are in their lives. I went 9/10 and it was amazing. Lots of listening and leading into new questions that were illuminating and interesting while also being safe and fun. It was a wonderful exercise and I highly recommend it.
The days of gathering for a BBQ and booze bash had given way to one-on-ones with cups of coffee or some apple juice. Suddenly, I was back to my 5-year-old self, running around in some old woman’s house while my mom talked to her about the old days.
I then wound up back in the USA, by myself, for about a month. A friend had died in November (not COVID, but it sure feels somehow COVID-related) and I was able to attend the memorial Upstate, though fresh virus worries abounded. A sad and stately gathering with wry smiles and edged with exhaustion, provided a chance to see some familiar faces missed for the last few years. I stayed up in Hudson some extra days to also catch up with other friends not seen since pre-virus, pre-selling of my old vacation spot, some five years ago. I realized it was a continuation of the family phone calls, though this time, in person. I was making the effort and happy to do it. What also dawned on me was that in the past 3-5 years, so many of us had become a lot older. The days of gathering for a BBQ and booze bash had given way to one-on-ones with cups of coffee or some apple juice. Suddenly, I was back to my 5-year-old self, running around in some old woman’s house while my mom talked to her about the old days. And now, here I was with friends dealing with newfound health or loss issues. A nice little connection to my dear mother revealed itself. Caring matters. Caring helps. In several cases, I discovered issues so serious that one is forced to take pause and reflect on life going forward. Things you may not put into a social media post or otherwise advertise.
And we did drink some beer, some wine. But not so much. And that was reserved for my more bar-based friends. The real thrill was just the warm, stout doses of connection and contact, especially after 4-5 years filled with virus isolation and misery. It was a fire in the wintertime. A glowing window seen at the edge of a snow-filled forest on a freezing dusk. I was warmly reminded of my place in my own scene, my own life, attached to those and their many others. A smile. A promise of spring.
Since then, I have reflected and realized that I am a different person than the one entering 2020. I still do not know yet who that person is totally. But I can recommend to you that instead of isolating with your devices and absorbing all of the marketing messages camouflaged as content, try reaching out to your close family and friends. Be present and polite, be generous with your time. Talk. Listen. Not everyone can do it. But if you can, then do it. You are a lucky one.
Shorty of the Month: Richard Jochum’s “Tear, Crackle, Split"
Richard Jochum’s conceptual video “Tear, Crackle, Split" originally appeared in 2019, as part of Digital Fairy Tales: Vengeance is Mine, a show which considered the price of vengeance as portrayed throughout history. Oh, 2019! Remeber how we waited for the “Roaring 2020s?” Which turned out to be roaring, indeed! Just not in the manner desired.
Richard’s video is an excellent representation of his user-friendly approach to conceptual art. It serves as no surprise then that the Austrian-born artist is on the faculty at Columbia Teacher’s College and an important voice in shaping conversations on the future on media arts. But, enough of my yakkin’, let’s take a look…
Image by Tom D. Rotenberg
Where are We Now? Poetry Place!
by Sanj Nair
Virginia Beach
Not Lost
You won’t look for me
in the half moon of her smile,
but of things halved,
there are many.
In this plural,
in the forms of fields,
of the wild,
of daisies uncounted, I am.
Oh my Lord! It’s time for 3 Questions with…the Totally Original, Veronika Rabinovich!
NYC-based Veronika Rabinovich’s brand of costumed performance art exists somewhere in world between fairy tales, storytelling, Surrealism, and the contemporary art world. It’s super refreshing to have an artist creating hand-made outfits in order to tell stories and perform in person in these increasingly digital days. So excited to see what she and “her friends” have to say! Here we go…
The Questions:
1. Hello Veronika! Can you tell us a little bit about your background? Also, describe your style of performance art/costume design.
2. What are some key differences between the experience of live performance as opposed to digital and more traditional media (painting, etc.)?
3. What are some performances/shows you are most proud of and what are you looking forward to?
Image by Pieper
Being a Good Artist is Not Enough
by Dirk Lehr
Berlin
Stars of the art scene teach at art academies. In Düsseldorf, for example, Gerhard Richter, Peter Doig and Tony Cragg taught. Years later, many artists' biographies are advertised with the addition "studied under ...". With whom who has studied can decide about careers. But is that enough to be successful as an artist today?
If you look at the curricula of art academies and ignore the illustrious names of professors, you will notice that they are blatantly different from other courses. There is a big gap to the outside world, to reality. As if art students could only be about art, as if they could exist unperturbed by the rest of society's regularities. In other courses, teaching basic knowledge of law and taxes and business administration is an integral part of the curriculum. There is no sign of this in art studies. However, it has been shown again and again that this is what is most needed here. Artists are no longer just cultural workers who need to revolve around their own axis and have nothing to do with banalities such as organization and bureaucracy. This reminds me of a situation during an exhibition opening.
I was chatting with an artist when a visitor joined us. He turned admiringly to the artist and said, "Oh, as an artist it's good to get up at some point and then make art, you should be so free." The artist snapped him out of his daydream with the words: „If I go to the studio at 8 a.m., I do office work for two hours and answer mail.” That’s the reality today. Today more than ever, artists are entrepreneurs. Rental, commission and lending contracts, insurance, import and export, tax matters, bookkeeping, copy rights - to name just a few aspects that artists have to deal with in their daily work. Business calculations and discussions with galleries decide on pricing, turnover and income.
It's time more than ever for art school curricula to recognize that just being a good artist is no longer enough. Today it is essential to also be a good entrepreneur. After all, it's not called the art market for nothing.
Basic knowledge of law and taxes is essential to protect yourself from nasty surprises or even to fail. Many artists overlook the fact that they too have to file a tax return and eventually have to pay taxes. Not to mention the formation of corresponding reserves. Simple things, such as collecting and storing purchase receipts or travel documents, are neglected and money is wasted in the end. A lack of knowledge of contract or copyright law means that the artist often has to accept disadvantages. You don't have to be a clairvoyant to realize that if you don't know your rights, you can't negotiate well either. Artists work every day with contractual partners such as galleries, printers or shipping companies. They differ in no way from market participants in other sectors. Art studies do not prepare them for all of these things, which largely determine the everyday life of artists today. They are dismissed from their studies and hit reality with full force, unprepared and defenseless, which is exactly why many end up failing. Negligence, such as missing or disadvantageous contracts or insufficient reserves for tax payments, will eventually come back like a boomerang. Not only material problems, but also psychological ones are often the result of such negative concatenations. Why do art schools do this to their students? Why this denial of reality?
It's time more than ever for art school curricula to recognize that just being a good artist is no longer enough. Today it is essential to also be a good entrepreneur. After all, it's not called the art market for nothing.
AI in Advertising
Image and text by Mark Bailey
Minneapolis
It feels like a hopeful moment for cryptocurrencies and NFTs. The recent collapse of crypto exchange FTX shook things up a bit, but now the shenanigans that led to the exchange collapse are being exposed by legal proceedings and media attention. How much will really see the light of day is an open question. The law firm Sullivan and Cromwell is directly involved, which is notable because they've historically worked on behalf of the Central Intelligence Agency.
Personally, I'm trading a little on the moment's volatility, but am holding off on taking new jobs in the industry for the time being. Instead of crypto, I'm focusing more on AI. Specifically, I've started an AI ad campaign to advertise my science fiction novels on Facebook. Although this campaign is unlikely to sell more than a handful of books, it's producing interesting data on viewer responses to AI art, and I'm having fun with it.
The first ad I ran featured an image of a fictional creature from my book One Man Embassy called a Trital. Essentially, a Trital is a small octopus bioengineered to interface with computer systems. Generating an acceptable image of a Trital using DALL-E-2 wasn't instant, but I still found satisfactory results in under an hour, after generating several dozen possible images. To me, this illustrates the power of AI. If someone had paid me to illustrate a Trital by hand, it would have taken several hours and the results might not even be what they were going for. With AI, the illustration of scifi concepts has become much simpler.
Back when I was eking out a living doing traditional art, I sometimes took on illustration jobs and I hated them. I'd spend tons of time figuring out a job and creating artwork for clients, only to have them change their minds about what they wanted and expect infinite revisions. AI transforms that entire process. In a way, it confines the art of a project to the correct selection of prompts and starting images, automating everything else.
Some artists are up in arms about the automation of their busywork. In practical terms, busywork often equals billable hours, so I understand their objections. But most of the artists that I know are embracing AI art and the new possibilities it creates. Because what is automated isn't creativity itself, but the labor of bringing that creativity to life.
The image generation process may now be largely automated, but the image selection process remains firmly in the artist's control. In this way, artistic discernment is as important as it ever was.
The image generation process may now be largely automated, but the image selection process remains firmly in the artist's control. In this way, artistic discernment is as important as it ever was. The power to select one line over another or one compositional element over another has always been a part of creating visual art. Now, this power of discernment involves selecting one complete image from an endless list of permutations. There's something interesting in that.
How did viewers in my target demographics respond to my first AI ad? 4,000 people saw it, 500 people liked it, and 100 people clicked on the AI image of a Trital to inspect it more closely. What these figures mean isn't entirely clear, but no one complained to Facebook about the ad, so I'm considering these results to be positive.
As the tech continues its rapid evolution, I expect the whole advertising industry to be disrupted within the next couple of years. I can even envision scenarios where ads are generated by AI on the fly, based on user profiles, then served to viewers on an individualized basis. Whether this is a good or a bad thing remains to be seen.
3 Questions with…the Amazing Laura Splan! Art Meets Science in the Viral Times!
intro by Leo Kuelbs
Laura Splan has been considering links between biological science and the arts for several years. Her practice of turning the sometimes misunderstood (by the masses) wonders of the micro world into objects of beauty has grown into a field of its own. As a leading light in the space between art and science, Laura has shown all over the world. Her work is not only beautiful, but it also promotes understanding and interest in the kind of life forms we live—and sometimes die—with every moment of our lives. The first works of hers I encountered were knitted doilies, just like Grandma used to make. Only these quaint and kitschy objects were actually digitally rendered and sewn representations of viruses, such as SARS, HIV, Herpes, Influenza. She’s an artist for our time. That is for sure. But let’s hear what she has to say about all of this…
The Questions:
1. Wow! How are you? We met a while back. What have you been doing these last couple of decades+? And maybe tell us a bit about your background.
2. Your work is pretty timeless since your subjects have been in existence (almost) forever. Do you ever feel that the art-science world you work in is restrictive? Or is it ever evolving and so essential it just cannot get old since it literally does not know time?
3. What are some recent successes you can tell us about and what are you looking forward to?
THE WAY WE WINE: RAW
Images by Roberto Vitali
by Alberto Salvi
Mannheim
This is still not my last try for getting into natural wines.
I’ve been visiting Berlin for the Rawwine, a natural wine fair with participants from all over the world. It was a chance to see how the natural wine culture has been developed and spread in different countries.
The entrance ticket for private customers was for around 50€, 30€ for people in the wine business; a bit pricey considering that it was lacking organization and services. You were not provided a map of the market, a list of the wineries participating, not even big and readable signs for each stand, and again there was no disclosure about the natural wine topic: I was basically wandering around, lost in a chaotic market.
After the time needed for becoming familiar and comfortable with the situation, I began my tour aimed primarily at getting to know the people behind this movement, and there was no shortage of surprises.
As reiterated on this channel before, there is no official set of rules defining a natural wine, and this was blatantly confirmed by the large presence of wineries using human intervention in the production processes, such as sulfites or other additives. The focus this time was mostly on the vinification processes.
Figure 1. Rawwine fair at Markthalle Neun, Berlin
I was surprised by an Italian winery making natural Amarone della Valpolicella, a famous and valuable wine. If you own vineyards that meet the specification to produce Amarone, this means you already have what it takes, combined with knowledge and experience, to achieve a quality and winning product. Intrigued, I asked what the reason for it was, and the answer displaced me: this guy inherited the vineyard from his family, and he had no intention of complying with the specification for which aging must be a minimum of two years; “I don't produce much, I don't want to accumulate wine to keep sitting there in the cellar”.
He was basically giving up the label designation in order to produce and sell faster. Riding the wave of hype behind this world. It was quite sad and desecrating.
Thankfully, I also had good vibes.
At a Georgian winery stand, this gentle lady took me on a time travel of thousands of years in the past. They are still making wine following the same vinification process, placing the grape juice in the qvevri, a large clay pot that is sealed and interred. Sometimes these pots are large enough for a human to get in for scraping and cleaning the inside walls before starting a new cycle.
The wine produced unfortunately was too intense for my palate, due to the vinification in contact with the stems which, loaded with tannins, made the wine very stodgy. But the experience and storytelling definitely paid off.
Figure 2. Wine maker holding a scaled model of a 'qvevri'
Innovation in techniques for daily living is a topic that has always excited me, and here at the fair I had the chance to meet the creator of the first PetNat opening tool. This new and simple system allows you to open any high-pressured bottle of wine with crown cork without making a mess: a concrete housing for the bottle, working also as a cooler, through a built-in LED highlights the bubbles, and keeps the bottle still while you drill a tiny hole in the cap with a screw system. In this way it gets easy to depressurize the bottle making the hole bigger and bigger, until the pressure inside of it becomes equal to the pressure outside, and it is finally possible to safely open our bottle.
Figure 3. Man operating the "Sekhina" system
Besides some bizarre encounters, the fair was nothing different from any small-sized wine fair. Perhaps I was expecting more by the organization, especially on the disclosure side, about sustainability and human intervention, for the world of raw wines as of it being a very hot topic today.
I thank my buddy Roberto Vitali for sharing this with me and taking these wondrous pictures.
This month’s cuddles:
NobleBlanc, Castello di Gussago
Franciacorta DOCG, Blanc de Blancs
Vintage: Sans année
Area: Lombardy, Italy
Varietal: Chardonnay
Alcohol content: 12.5%
Price: 25€
Dogliani DOCG Superiore, San Fereolo
Vintage: 2015
Area: Piedmont, Italy
Varietal: Dolcetto
Vinification: 6 months in inox tanks and 12 in bottle
Alcohol content: 14.5%
Price: 25€
Sulne, Korenika & Moškon
Vintage: 2013
Area: Istria, Slovenia
Varietal: 50% Istrian Malvasia, 25% Chardonnay, 25% Pinot Gris
Vinification: 6 years in oak barrels
Alcohol content: 14.5%
Price: 30€
A Short Note on Letting Go/Being Let Go
by Leo Kuelbs
Baden Baden
Part of living with more intention is realizing that some relationships in your life are not meant to go on forever. I have recently found it rewarding, though difficult sometimes, to let people go, or at least to renew boundaries in order to lessen exposure to toxic, old relationships.
Consider it a pre-Spring house cleaning. And when spring comes, there will be band-width available for new experiences and new people in our lives.
Sometimes, small things—resentments, hurts, bad behavior from the past collect and metastasize. It becomes toxic to a point where it causes harm to you. Why am I doing this? Why am I allowing this to happen to me? And whether its old friends or family, sometimes one must just let it go. And we must have the decency to allow someone else to let us go, for the same or for other reasons.
Consider it a pre-Spring house cleaning. And when spring comes, there will be band-width available for new experiences and new people in our lives. And though sometimes these things hurt, I suggest being grateful for having the ability and depth to feel that pain, which is necessary to grow through these difficult days, and into a healthier future. From endings come new beginnings.
Image Courtesy of Rowena Dring
Artist in Focus: Textile Artist, Rowena Dring
by Dirk Lehr
The English artist Rowena Dring is a person who strives for a new approach to landscape.
At first glance, her works appear like conventional painting. On closer examination, however, they reveal themselves as stitched images composed of countless single pieces of coloured fabric, each one a different size. The images are based on photographs that the artist took on trips; the motifs are drawn using a computer program into flat colourfield images. Then the reduced fragments of the image are transferred to the fabric by hand. Finally, Dring cuts the countless fragments and sews them together with a conventional sewing machine into a new image. Therefore Dring reorganises the existing landscape: First breaking it into pieces, then reducing it to mere form and assigning each one a colour. The abstraction of the subject simultaneously leads to a hyperbole. An exaggerated colour field is created because of the plurality of composite, monochrome areas of colour. Dring's work reminds us of color by numbers kits, motifs from comic magazines or camouflage patterns. Dring’s purpose is not to create a nostalgic view of landscape painting but it informs her work as a means to an end. She consistently draws attention to idylls of "peaceful countryside" and romantic places. However in view of their related ambivalence she plays with their laconic images and thereby exposes the shallowness of such ideas. Dring reveals that our image of "perfect" nature is a cultural construction.
Image Courtesy of Rowena Dring
Dring began making her '70's-home-craft-inspired stitched paintings in the late 1990s. She did this in response to the emerging flood of cheap mass products from the Far East, which brought into question the traditional notion of value, quality and ethics.
In her latest series, Darned Landscapes, she reworks etchings by Dutch Golden Age masters, particularly Hercules Segers (1589–1638). To achieve this, Dring combines sewing and painting, drawing on traditional techniques. This creates very contemporary but hauntingly old images. „Darning is a method of repairing holes in clothing or reinforcing fabrics by using only one needle“, reminds Dring. „It's a technique that has been pretty much lost in Western society as textiles and clothing have become so cheap that we can just buy something new instead of repairing it“, she adds. In contrast to her monumental appliqué work the Darned Landscapes reflect (literally and figuratively) Segers' etchings, offering us both an actual and an idealized view of landscapes at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution.
Dring began making her '70's-home-craft-inspired stitched paintings in the late 1990s. She did this in response to the emerging flood of cheap mass products from the Far East, which brought into question the traditional notion of value, quality and ethics. Today, cheap textiles and other consumer goods from Asia are standard. Values, quality and ethics no longer matter, what matters alone is the lowest possible price and fast and almost infinite availability. With her technique Dring questions our today’s perceptions of value.
Rowena Dring lives and works in Amsterdam.
Meanwhile…OTHER PLACES appeared in Berlin
Images by Roberto Vitali
Text by Leo Kuelbs
Berlin
Image by Bob Vitali
Image by Bob Vitali
Wednesday, January 4th saw the on night only presentation of “OTHER PLACES,” at Kino International in Berlin. The Kino is an East German Mid-Century Modern gem, loaded with history and created with care. About 200 visitors showed up to see paintings, installations and videos by a number of Berlin-based artists. It was one of the first large art events for this group of creators and a welcome relief from the darkness and cold of the transitional days.
Image by Bob Vitali
Also known as “Rauhnacht,” this period between the years can be loaded with dangerous visitors from the spirit world. There did seem to be a few ghosts around Kino International that night, but for the most part, a wonderful, fulfilling time of connection was had by all. Roberto Vitali was there to snap some pictures with an old school film camera. Here are some of his images from a night that will be remembered—at least until the warmth of summer!
Image by Bob Vitali
Artists included: Christopher Winter, and Römer + Römer, Sarah Oh-Mock. Tracey Snelling with Arthur Debert. Almagul Menlibayeva, Vadim Schäffler, Constantin Hartenstein, Amir Fattal, Julia Obst
Kiev Sketchbook
by #headacheeartlaboratory
Kiev
Warning: Some images are pretty graphic.
by #headacheeartlaboratory
by #headacheeartlaboratory
by #headacheeartlaboratory