We went to a Bob Carey exhibition at the Bokeh Gallery. Carey's photos were of him leaping around New York and Brooklyn in a pink tutu. Some of the photos are humorous, some absurd, but all are very colorful and eye catching. It was well worth seeing.

The blurb to the show said that he has had some interesting situations while photographing himself; such as being asked to leave a park as school was about to exit and posing for photographs with police. I guess a middle aged and overweight guy in a pink tutu will draw attention to himself. Bob Carey has a blog where he posts his daily images.

We went to a Mayme Kratz exhibition at the Lisa Sette Gallery recently. Her art is a series of acrylic layers in soft colors that have organic material embedded deeply within them. The material either glows through or is cut such that is it shows in sharp relief. They are very soft, pleasant and quite beautiful artworks.

We went to John Tuomisto Bell's exhibition at Kitchen Sink Studios as part of the 3rd Friday's Art Detour. The display was called the Unstable Group.

There was some very cool stuff there, including a new piece that was in iron. It was rusted well and suited the Phoenix style use of Corten in architecture perfectly. It was a series of iron heads, about the size of a male fist, that were mounted on iron poles about five feet tall. In essence they were a like a large wind chime. It was wonderful.

John mainly works in brass/bronze and most of the pieces were of that nature. The photo above is of a piece that is about nine foot long with symmetrical figurines on it. This photo captures one of the figurines expression really well.

We went last night to the opening of the faces exhibition. It was a strong display with a lot of interesting work. The image above is one of John Tuomisto Bell's artworks.

In the sculpture garden John had several large bronze heads on display. He said enjoyed watching the kids interact with the arwork as they basically jumped on the heads and stuck their fingers in the sculpture's eyes and nostrils. The parents were horrified of course, and quickly told their kids to get off, but John enjoyed how the kids did not have any inhibitions or respect and it enabled them to appreciate the work in a different way to adults.

Another display had the eyes and eyebrows of every American sketched out in charcoal. However, mixed in amongst there was the eyes and eyebrows of Adolf Hitler. A nice statement of American politics especially recently as the current President has been accused of being everything from a Nazi, to a Socialist, to a Communist and the resurrection of Hitler. It was impossible to pick out the eyebrows of Hitler and when we left a couple of people were still asking the artist, "This one?" (more)

Paper chairs by Junya Ishigami. Via rolu design. I really like this image.

Phoenix has a strong modernist and contemporary streak to it. Most of the public spaces have extra care and attention payed to little details such as making things look good/arty. Architecturally rusted metal has become popular in Phoenix.

McDowell Library from my photostream

It is pretty simple. Metal is put up and left to rust. For the terminally impatient pre-rusted metal can be bought for great cost. It comes through in a wonderful orange color though I am yet to convinced that it isn't treated to make it oxidise (rust) in a certain way. (more)

Biopolitics is consumed with the notion of political power becoming sovereign over all aspects of human life. This includes what we know as the nanny-state, such as health care, but also police states. An important aspect of the subjugation of human individual and social life is the threat of government violence to protect rather than destroy.

As American constitutional jurisprudence has recognised with the First Amendment, the threat of government power or scrutiny is enough to suspend liberty, such that populations are subjugated through self-regulation. (more)