The promised LAND

"Momin chalks up her L.A. move to a bit of a Wild West fantasy. “[L.A.] is a place where you choose how you want things to be, and there’s an idea that you can actually make it happen,” she says. (W, nov 09)

Shamim Momin, former contemporary curator of the Whitney, has founded the non-profit art organization LAND (Los Angeles Nomadic Division) along with Christine Kim (curator at LACMA) .

According to their statement, "LAND is a public art initiative committed to commissioning and producing site- and situation-specific projects with national and international artists, in Los Angeles and beyond."

"So last fall she and Christine Y. Kim... began holding salons at Kim’s home. The get-togethers “started with tea and ended with wine,” according to Kim, and included seasoned artists Mark Bradford and Glenn Kaino, and Olga Garay, the executive director of the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs, among others. The conversations sparked Momin’s new venture, a “museum at large” called the Los Angeles Nomadic Division (LAND)."
(Thompson, W magazine)

Mathew Barney in Brazil

“DE LAMA LÂMINA” (2004-2009), BY MATTHEW BARNEY, IS ONE OF THE NEW PERMANENT INSTALLATIONS INAUGURATING IN INHOTIM

“De Lama Lâmina” (2004-2008) may be considered the latest achievement of a project that began in the performance with the musician Arto Lindsay, during the 2004 Carnival in Salvador, Brazil, and documented in the homonym long film, already part of the Inhotim collection and shown since 2008. By taking the candomblé from Bahia as a source of reference, Matthew Barney weaves in this project a complex narrative on the conflict between Ogum, orisha of the iron, the war, and technology, and Ossanha, orisha of the forests, the plants, and the forces of nature.

"A site-specific creation, “De Lama Lâmina” (2004-2008) is the first permanent installation developed by Matthew Barney for a museological institution. The artist has chosen to place the work amidst a eucalyptus forest, viewing the displacement experience as part of the project. After walking a winding path to reach the work, the visitor faces a seemingly unfinished scenario: two geodesic domes of steel and glass, attached to each other, amidst iron ore hills and fallen trees. Inside, space is taken by a huge tractor that lifts a resin tree. Used in the shooting and in the performance, the tractor is here transformed into a big sculpture. Tension is generated by bringing together opposite poles that constitute the work’s organizing principle, evoking the dualism between creation and destruction, fertility and death."

Instituto Cultural Inhotim is an original museum complex, formed by a non-linear sequence of pavilions in the midst of a botanical garden. It is focused mainly on contemporary art and environmental issues, in addition to research and education in these two areas. It is a place where knowledge is produced based on its art pieces and botanical richness.

*All info taken from Inhotim site.

Feat of..

What the World Eats, Part I

What the World Eats, Part I
Lovely visual narrative on world family diet, from Time.

The Intelligent Hoodlum

“It ain’t where you from, it’s where you at.” Rakim

Intelligence is the most effective form of violence, resistance and opposition. There is a pungent flavor, polemically inclined and rooted in historical irony that can only be achieved through this marriage of disparate elements. A breaching experiment in itself, undermining expectation, the intelligent hoodlum frees spirit to overcome circumstance and environment. The mind of a young adult steeped in tragedy and dissatisfaction, asking the questions that matter and listening to the answers. **Bless you**

Asch Experiment

The Asch conformity experiments were a series of studies published in the 1950s that demonstrated the power of conformity in groups.

Carrie Mae Weems | Thirteen Questions for Wynton Marsalis & Cornel West

At times, asking the questions can be just as (if not more) important than having the answers spoken.

Art21: