Art Pranks - The Art of the Prank

March 27, 2007January 15, 2019

The George and Helen Spelvin Folk Art Collection

Visiting George and Helen Spelvin”s modest house in Lenoir City, Tennessee, is like making a pilgrimage to a sacred temple of American Folk Art. While their neighbors purchased bass boats, home entertainment systems, recreational vehicles, and patio furniture, the Spelvins were quietly amassing a significant collection of contemporary folk art.

The Spelvins seldom purchased work through art galleries. Instead, they believed it was important to establish relationships with the artists whose work they acquired. As an agent for State Farm Insurance, George Spelvin loved to meet people and had a way of making the artists they encountered feel at ease. However, it was actually Helen Spelvin who was the driving force behind their collecting habits. Continue reading “The George and Helen Spelvin Folk Art Collection”

March 26, 2007January 15, 2019

Jouet en plastique jaune pour de vrai (Post is in French)

Samuel Bester’s 4:40 video clip, 140 Pop Method, produced in 2004, uses found footage to explore the intrusion of the unknown in our media. Here, is his description of this piece in French:

Cette vidéo est un exemple de contre-culture: elle représente le goà»t pour l’insolite et la spontanéité. Elle veut échapper au poids de l’histoire et du conditionnement socio-économique. Elle existe grâce à notre société industrielle qui engendre une forme irrésistible de pollution médiatique qui a donné naissance à une génération d’image-junkies qui mixent, copient et détournent les médias tout en en créant des nouveaux. Il s’agit dans cette vidéo de montrer avec insistance ce que l’habitude nous fait oublier: la banalité, la nullité, la stupidité en la forme d’un jouet en plastique. C’est l’irruption inopinée de l’étrange dans un flot d’image identifiées. Car comme le disait si bien Aragon: “il y a plus de prodiges dans un moulin à café que dans tous les séraphins du ciel” Cette incursion dans les médias n’évoque rien, ne parle de rien ne symbolise rien car comment se faire comprendre d’une biche quand on n’est pas sà»r d’àªtre un cheval!

March 25, 2007January 15, 2019

Community Service (2002)

Graffiti, in case anyone missed the point, is a marking on a surface. Graffiti eradication is typically the application of paint over the marking of the surface. In terms of “damage,” there is no evidence that one layer of paint is less destructive than the one beneath it. In the course of painting over graffiti, the eradicators create a unique marking of their own that writers call “buffmarks.” Roll along the highways of LA and see thousands of buffmarks, each as visually compelling as the next and the last, each with a story to tell. Continue reading “Community Service (2002)”

March 18, 2007January 15, 2019

It was a cold day in San Francisco…

It was a cold day in San Francisco, the winter solstice 1983. The city by the bay was about to be attacked by a military force of 21 plaster snowman. What can I say, having grown up in New England I missed winter and it didn”t look like it was going to snow anytime soon so I sent out some press releases warning the city that “”¦you can”t escape!” Continue reading “It was a cold day in San Francisco…”