Radio Tania

Art Basel Miami

Art Basel Miami is like a mini city of artists, designers, photographers, curators, journalists and collectors that just springs up in the middle of Balmy Miami for a week, and it's extraordinary. A couple of the pieces shown here are works that I especially appreciated from the show (particularly Charles Guice's Gallery and Josee Bienvenu) except for one, the one of the boat on the water. I just happened to fall upon it because it's by fellow journalist and Armenian, Nubar Alexanian (who also shares his name with that of my Grandpa, Noubar).

This American Life

For the longest time, I wouldn't join the masses who adore this show. But this week, on my way to some fassoulia at Grandma's, I couldn't leave my car. The story was about two kids who babysat imaginary children so that they could find respite from their difficult home lives. There are countless quotes that have stayed with me, about love and abandonement and desire and sadness and strength. This is art at one of its finest, the art of sound that remains, that resonates, that fixates you, that reminds you of how blessed you are. Click here and then just listen. Listen.

how disposable is it?

My studio mate Gage invited us over for dinner a couple of weeks ago. He lives in the neighborhood I grew up in, an area that has changed dramatically over the last years, both aesthetically and culturally. In fact, a German friend staying with us talked about how much his neighborhood, St. Pauli, in Hamburg had changed in the 15 years he was there (much like the East Village in NY). He so wished he had tracked the changes, through video or photography. But alas, the evolution is only evident in his memory. But back to Gage. We had gone to get some beer and the shopping bag from the corner store was a collage of discarded medical records from the medical school near by. Why had someone taken the effort to create such disposable items as paper bags...I found the intersection of something so impersonal as a shopping bag and something so utterly confidential as a discarded medical record (albeit an anonymous one) infinitely interesting.

Mouse in the wild

A close friend suggested I make this blog more personal, offer a sense of experience rather than ideas. "Bring me in", he said, "it seems a bit like a textbook, too explanatory". I realized how easy it is to hide behind thoughts and how much more difficult it is at times to reveal experience. But also how much more liberating it can be. So this being a blog (what an odd word) about art, I figured I would associate my own experience with experiences I have had with art. Philip and I bought a house. It's from 1892 (quite old for a city that suffered two major earthquakes). The other day we walked into the kitchen and there was a little mouse nibbling at nothing on the floor. I asked Philip to capture him and liberate him into the wild wilderness of San Francisco. The mouse did a little roll over, muck like dogs do when they want to be petted, and soon found himself in a new environment. It reminded me of Bruce Nauman's work at the Dia:Beacon. A multi paneled video piece tracking the movements of a family of mice in his studio at night. The Beacon has placed it in their basement (where I got into trouble for taking pictures) and it seemd like the ideal place, a very well chosen location for this work of video art. Some images of Nauman work and pictures I too.

my country my country?

Laura Poitras, a Peabody award winning filmmaker, who credits her vision to that of Frederick Wiseman and the brilliant Armenian filmmaker Atom Egoyan, travelled to Baghdad on her own, without protection, contacts or knowledge of the language, to make a documentary about the elections there. She got inimitable access—in one scene, she is filming a black market arms deal between an Australian mercenary and a Afghani.