Hrag Vartanian

Since Hurricane Katrina, refuse and squalor have inspired a popular aesthetic in the art world. There’s a laissez-faire decadence in a work like Peter Garfied’s “One: Number 31, 1950” (2008) sculpture at Pierogi Brooklyn (below).

These artworks of devastation all seem to reference (even if unwittingly) Jeff Wall’s stunning and prescient photograph from 1978, “The Destroyed Room” (below).

Jeff Wall has said:

My first pictures like “The Destroyed Room” emerged from a re-encounter with nineteenth-century art.

I’m consistently impressed with Jack the Pelican Presents‘ bold taste. The gallery shows art that should’ve been included in New Museum’s “Unmonumental” exhibition instead of the overwhelming number of weak pieces (sometimes by bad artists).

Today, I stopped by to check out the “HEADSetera” show which featured three artists: Peter Drake, Laurence Hegarty and Mark Mennin. It was a little uneven though Peter Drake’s paintings were perfectly suited to hang across from Laurence Hegarty’s sculptures.

Hegarty’s large “Untitled” installation (2008) is witty and well choreographed. A teddy bear walks a tight rope with a cloth sack on its head. Underneath a toy-scaled missile is constructed of banker boxes. It is seemingly being filmed by miniature 1930s Hollywood-style movie cameras. Figures on wooden children’s pull toys reveal bolts behind the figurative facades. On the wall, small flames peak out. The work’s bare bulb lighting augments the starkness and adds drama. It’s easy to spot subplots everywhere in the installation. The narrative possibilities go on and on.

Late 19th C. imagery easily mixes with contemporary corporate materials.

Has the teddy bear been captured or made a hostage? Is the teddy escaping from the flames…high above…as media attention is focused on the weaponry?

See my Flickr set here.

Someone at The Strand bookstore by Union Square has a sense of humor about the Americana section.

I particularly like the image of George Washington coronating Abraham Lincoln–though I think it looks like they’re kind of cuddling….awwww.

Via Shoot! the Blog…I came across this amazing installation in Australia by Nike Savvas…WOW!

Here are more images.

Today I digress from arts matters since the sad news that a new civil war may be underway in Lebanon has made me very upset.

Having briefly lived in Beirut in the late 1990s I can imagine the fear the Lebanese people are experiencing considering the devastating toll the first civil war (1975-1990) had on the country and the wounds from that period that still fester among the populace unresolved and largely ignored.

Thankfully the blogosphere offers us a number of first-person accounts of this (unofficial) war via the English-language Lebanese blogs here and here.

If you’re interested in some MSM background on the current stalemate in government that has caused this flare up, I suggest reading the very intelligent Michael Young, whose op-ed in Beirut’s Daily Star newspaper is entitled “Heading Towards a Lebanese Divorce:”

Once we accept that this week’s alleged labor unrest was only the latest phase in Hizbullah’s war against the Lebanese state, will we understand what actually took place yesterday. And once we realize that cutting the airport road was a calculated effort by Hizbullah to reverse the Siniora government’s transfer of the airport security chief, Wafiq Shouqair, will we understand what may take place in the coming days…

…Most [Lebanese] Christians, not to mention vast majorities of Sunnis and Druze, see no possible coexistence between the idea of the Lebanese state and a Hizbullah that insists on demanding veto power over any decision that might limit its political and military margin of maneuver.

...And if Hizbullah does decide to reject Lebanon, then we shouldn’t be surprised if some start speaking of an amicable divorce between Shiites and the rest of Lebanon.