Spectacular, Spectacular: Venice, Vegas, and the A-Y-P Expo

17Jun09

On Artsbeat, Randy Kennedy recently recounted a Kafkaesque experience receiving his press credentials at the Venice Biennale:
“The words ‘grande confusione’ are often heard. They were running through my head as a woman told me I was in the wrong place and that I should walk to the Arsenale, the other site for the event, several [...]

Filed under: contemporary art, critique, destruction, excess, exhibition, interdisciplinary, local, museology, popular culture   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: a-y-p, alaska, blockbuster exhibitions, casinos, dave hickey, dawn cerny, exhibitions, exposition, fear and loathing in las vegas, hunter s. thompson, journey, kitsch, las vegas, pacific, pilgrimage, popular culture, press credentials, randy kennedy, seattle, spectacle, venice biennale, visual culture, yukon

Fake Honesty, Honest Fakery

17Aug08

This morning on NPR, Daniel Schorr discussed the “fakery” of the fireworks and lipsynching of the Beijing Games, bringing to mind Dave Hickey’s examination of the authenticity through Las Vegas’s Liberace Museum, “A Rhinestone as Big as The Ritz“:
“[Friends who visit Las Vegas] prefer the page of the landscape to the text of the neon. They [...]

Filed under: art theory, authenticity, critique, excess, interdisciplinary, peripheral vision   |  1 Comment
Tags: ancient art, art history, authenticity, beijing olympics, caesars palace, casinos, dave hickey, elvis, fakery, footprint fireworks, las vegas, NPR, replica