I abhor sarcasm, but something about Joan Cornella’s takedown of the spiritual bypass of today reveals a bleak emptiness masquerading as enlightenment in a way that feels necessary. His simply drawn cartoons are idyllic, teeming with joy, and teeming with blood.
Visual Art
Pothole Mosaics
I thought that this public artwork, created by Jim Bachor and featured in this Colossal article, was both funny and heartwarming (a much needed combination of emotions in today’s day and age). Bachor has created a series of tile mosaics to fill in potholes in Chicago, with two of the mosaics inspired by essential items associated with COVID-19 (a roll of toilet paper and a bottle of hand-sanitizer). Bachor uses playful colors and fun backgrounds to give a sense of hope and light-heartedness, which I think is a really admirable tone for the artist to choose to embody when creating something related to a serious and sometimes heartbreaking public health situation. He’s also made some other pothole mosaics unrelated to COVID-19, which offer similarly unexpected patches of fun and color in the otherwise everyday experience of walking (or driving) down the street.
One thing that particularly stood out to me on reading the Colossal article was Bachor’s commentary on how some people perceive his works as political statements intended to spur the city government to fix the potholes. Instead, Bachor says, “[the potholes] are an unsolvable problem…. I actually have empathy for city government. It’s a no-win situation.” The real motivation behind Bachor’s pothole mosaics is “[to] keep myself connected with people that like my work but might not be able to afford an original or print.” I think that’s a great sentiment.
Crash Kiss
It’s interesting to think about human contact and what that means several years into Covid. We are touch deprived, but also we don’t want to die…a familiar sentiment from the arrival of the AIDS virus. Technology seems to also push us further and further apart so it is fertile ground for artists explore how these aspects of life intersect.
Crash Kiss, by artist Rollin Leonard, combines a real live event where the participants are in proximity, but it’s up to the computer to create touch. The result is a terrible mashup of nearest points smashed together. It underlines what remains impossible and a hoax of the digital age: that there is any other path to human connection other than human connection.
How a Gray Painting Can Break Your Heart
Dance writer and historian Alastair Macaulay wrote on his Instagram “Jason Farago’s “New York Times” essay on Jasper Johns is sensationally good criticism: an ideal meeting of rich sensibility and keen scrutiny. And in today’s online edition it’s an ideal meeting of written criticism with highly sophisticated online design – the kind of venture that makes newspaper writing of great aesthetic importance.”
Posts like this demonstrate how the New York Times is conquering the digital realm and providing experiences that are unique to what can be said best in this forum.
Thomas Jackson
Thomas Jackson was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and grew up in Providence, Rhode Island. After earning a B.A. in History from the College of Wooster, he spent his early career in New York City working in book publishing, then as an editor and writer at Forbes Life magazine. An interest in photography books eventually led him to pick up a camera, shooting Garry Winogrand-inspired street scenes, then landscapes, and finally the installation work he does today. A self-taught artist (with the exception a number of classes at the International Center of Photography in New York), Jackson has pioneered a unique working process that combines landscape photography, sculpture and kinetic art. His work has been shown widely, including at The Photography Show (AIPAD) in New York, the Center for Contemporary Arts in Sante Fe and the Bolinas Museum in Bolinas, CA. Jackson was named one of the Critical Mass Top 50 in 2012, won the “installation/still-life” category of PDN’s The Curator award in 2013 and earned second place in CENTER’s Curator’s Choice Award in 2014. He lives in Pennsylvania.
Phoebe Scott
Phoebe Scott is a figurative sculptor who is currently an MFA candidate at Indiana University. Having received her BFA in Sculpture from Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston, Phoebe Scott has assisted on projects with HandsHouse Studio. She studied drawing and painting at Florence University of the Arts in Italy, and studied under Christina Mastrangelo at Wethersfield Academy for the Arts. She has been a resident artist at c.r.e.t.a. Rome, as well as A.I.R. Vallauris in the South of France. Her most recent residency was at the Worcester Center for Crafts.