Street Scenes, of a sort

Art Fag City on the opening of Michael Gondry's The Science of Sleep at Deitch Projects:

AFC had the good fortune of sharing the line with most of last years rejects from the failed Deitch sponsored reality show Art Star* a fate only marginally removed from hell. Flanked by an artist with clown red hair and a tattoo that read “I am living art”, it didn’t take long before the words “this is for suckers” passed through my lips. And you know, thank God that thought occurred to me, because when I walked to the entrance to try and get a better look at how the line was moving, I saw that the gallery was only letting five to seven people at time into a sparsely populated gallery. Needless to say, I did not make it into the show and no Gondry spottings were made. I did however manage to take these crappy ass photographs of the cardboard car in the window display, and document the four gallery goers inside the space. Oh yes, it was an evening of great tidings to be sure.

* The gallery notably insists on labeling this piece of shit a documentary.

Such lines (and, well, bullshit) aren't to be found at the many District openings taking place this weekend. But I won't be having any of it, anyway—not because I'm finally saying no to lukewarm white wine or have exhausted all my excuses for why I'm still out of business cards. No, art nerds, on Saturday night I'll be attending a much more exclusive and critical engagement—my home screening of the Texas–Ohio State game, the most critical game of the regular season along the Longhorns' path to repeat national titles. More on that later.

Though I won't be in attendance, I did want to especially recommend that people with the will and the way stop by G Fine Art on Saturday night to support a fundraiser for Street Scenes: Projects for DC. The first wave of this yearlong series of art interventions is a project called "Art Not Ads," which promises "mobile billboards that will drive around the Washington area displaying poetry, paintings and video." Price of gas being what it is, no doubt they could use the boost.

To be certain, there are some question marks over this series. Several artists have complained about sudden and seemingly arbitrary deadlines, organizational confusion, and lapses in communication. The Web site redirects to last year's "Found Sound" exhibit. But I also know that the work is well on its way, if not mostly completed. And anyway, the list of participating artists is excelsior—Sherman Alexie, Colby Caldwell, Lucille Clifton, Kathryn Cornelius, Joy Harjo, June Jordan, Maggie Michael, E. Ethelbert Miller, Brandon Morse, Jose Ruiz, Kim Schoenstadt, Reetika Vazirani, and Ian Whitmore. The curators (Nora Halpern, Ehtelbert Miller, and Welmoed Laanstra) and organizers (Lisa Kolker and Derya Samadi) should be commended for putting together a street team that doesn't rely on artists typically associated with public art. I'll buy it—this could be interesting.

So here's the deal: I'm going to save the money I intended to gamble on Texas and put it toward Street Scenes (and no, damnit, that's not for lack of faith in the 'Horns!). I'm pledging $50. If someone pledges money in comments, I'll match it (up to, say, another $50). With the cheerleader-in-chief taking up residence elsewhere, someone has to step up with the rah-rah. Therefore: Rah-rah. Give them your money, and I will as well. And hook 'em!

Posted by Kriston at September 7, 2006 7:16 PM