Photographed by me on Tenth Avenue near 22nd Street.
Hey what’s up. Happy Easter, if you celebrate, and Happy Spring if not! While I could not find an Egg, Bunny, or Jesus-themed video for this holiday posting, I did find one that repeatedly mentions a type of candy, so, somewhat appropriate! This fun and super engaging video for the song “Taffy Come Home” by the Brit-Pop quartet Telegram feels wildly retro on a couple of levels. First of all, there’s the use of the rotary-dial telephone motif as the video’s primary image — an anachronism that many people under 20 will be entirely unfamiliar with, but one which takes me right back to my youth. Also, lead singer Matt Saunders‘ voice encourages a deeply-nostalgic feeling for The Undertones and their vocalist Feargal Sharkey. What a great band they were.
The press release that accompanied this video clip calls Telegram‘s new album “… a series of frenzied meditations on Time and Speed, steeped in the sensitivity and strangeness of Kurt Vonnegut and approached through the erstwhile themes of love and intoxication. Melding post industrialist kraut rock with garage rock and the best bits of Eno and Bolan, the record offers twelve luminescent tracks, rooted in solid grooves but anti-gravitational in your mind’s eye.” Wow, high praise indeed. I would tend to agree with the Brian Eno comparison, specifically because “Taffy Come Home” reminds me of Eno’s glam rock masterpiece, “Needle in the Camel’s Eye,” which is a work of genius.
Saunders‘ band mates in Telegram are bassist Oli Paget-Moon, lead guitarist Matt Wood, and drummer Jordan Cook. The groups’ eagerly awaited debut album, Operator, was released last week via Red Eye. Enjoy!
And Don’t They Have a Good “Rock Star” Look, as Well?
Edward Kienholz, The Friendly Grey Computer — Star Gauge Model #54 Consists of Aluminum painted rocking chair, metal case, instrument boxes with dials, plastic case containing yellow and blue lights, panel with numbers, bell, “rocker switch”, pack of index cards, directions for operation, light switch, telephone receiver, motor, and doll’s legs (All Photos By Gail)
“I really began to understand any society by going through its junk stores and flea markets,” remarked artist Edward Kienholz. “I can see the results of ideas in what is thrown away by a culture.” Here, Kienholz incorporates such discarded materials into a hybrid construction — a machine with human physical traits (such as dial “eyes” and toy doll legs) and emotions.
Continue reading Modern Art Monday Presents: Edward Kienholz, The Friendly Grey Computer — Star Gauge Model #54
All Photos By Gail
French artist François Morellet (b. 1926) began making abstract work in the 1950s. Together with Sérgio Camargo, Jesús Rafael Soto, and Julio Le Parc, Morellet founded the Groupe de Recherche d’Art Visuel (Visual art research group), which experimented with collective authorship and with art based on kinetic and optical experiments. In their application of science and technology, the group created new types of optical experience.
Continue reading Modern Art Monday Presents: François Morellet, Random Distribution of 40,000 Squares…
Photo By Gail
Life Underground is the name of a series of whimsical bronze sculptures by artist Tom Otterness, which have inhabited the 8th Avenue and 14th Street Subway Station since 2001. The sculptures can be found all along the platforms for the A, C and E Trains and also the L Train, as well as literally all over the station. This sculpture of an anthropomorphic pay telephone is installed on one side of a support beam on the Uptown A, C and E platform.