cont.....My first Gallery Opening: Andrei Molodkin (& Elfi Snow and the Tasty Morsels)

Ok this is the 4^th and last gallery we went to on the 5^th floor of whatever building. It was called the Daneyal Mahmood Gallery.

DANEYAL MAHMOOD GALLERY

511 West 25^th Street 3^rd Floor

New York, New York 10001

www.Daneyalmahmood.com

(212) 675-2966

All these galleries were in old warehouses across the street from each other so we only went like to three buildings all right next to each other. A little note for my memory: artists and gallery owners just rent out random floors on these old warehouses and change them into galleries. There are old cats that live there and rats and all kinds of crazy things. You ride up these old big elevators up to the 6 or 8^th floor in some case sand get off. Every time that door opened it was a totally different architecture on the floors – one floor was strange, one was a bunch of galleries, one was an old dark space, one was hallways but looked so old and then you come to another floor with nice white halls and it would be a gallery. Oh, and the halls were tall, skinny and just as white as you can get it. Like right into a hospital. No art work on the walls. Nasty track lighting in the ceilings.

I totally felt that the white walls were “cleansing my pallet” if you will. Because then you would enter one of the little rooms which was “The gallery” and it would burst with whatever color was on the walls. It was very interesting and I loved the playful feelings I got. And I loved the white walls. It made the entrance into the galleries t hat much better.

(Empire At War, 2006 - 2974 Ball point pens on canvas - 106" x 149")

Every room was its own gallery but not all of them were open of having opening nights.

So, I REALLY LIKED THIS ONE!!! I mean, it immediately hit me when I walked in that is was a political statement and a humorous one at that. And the fact that his medium is an ink pen and that the instrument factors into his art just as importantly as his statement, that was interesting as well.

(This was the statement about the pen's on the wall - no title)

The russian artist’s name is Andrei Molodkin and his show was titled “Empire At War.” I mean, look at the pictures for yourself. I mean this is not one that is hard to define right? You kind of know where the artist is coming from and feeling from this compared to the other artists I saw that night.

The central piece that you saw above, George Bush reading from the bible in front of a crucifix (118x157") is drawn from 2,764 ballpoint pens. The number of pens used represents the total number of soldiers killed in Iraq by September 21st, 2006. The project serves as an allegory for death by process - as each pen is used until spent and then replaced with another until the project is completed.

So, I am guessing the above artwork is called "Support Our Troops" since I can't find it anywhere on the internet and I didn't write down the name of the art while I was looking at it. As you can see, I didn't even take the pictures. My co-worker Jason snapped a picture of me signing whatever it was I was signing.

(And again....)

This was the artist's statment on the handout we received when we entered: The hypocrisy of the slogan “Support Our Troops” yields a comparison with ballpoint pens “issued” to a former soldier Andrei Molodkin to produce his drawings and paintings. On the one hand, the repeatedly renewed process of using these dispensable tools linked to the iconography of death. The other idea is about the continuation of the line of the ballpoint pens, in the sense that the used-up set (the dead) is immediately replaced with a new generation. Each of them is destined to fight and work obsessively at any price, until the last drop of ink-blood. The end of this process is “the end of civilization,” or (as they say nowadays) “the end of history.” Therefore, the images of “Sweet crude leaders” (sweet crude commander-in-chief, etc.), responsible for turning ballpoint pens allegory into reality, serve as a symbol of that finale.

This picture was the first thing I saw when I walked into this gallery. I was immdiately aware of his point of view and was floored. I

just looked around at others reactions because I was like "HOLY SHIT." If i wasn't a mature grown-up, HAHAHA, this is something I would totally buy and put next to the dinging room table and have my parents over for dinner just to see thier reactions hahaha. Great dinner topic, don't you think?

It was genius and made me laugh outloud in an understanding way. The work is called Embrace, 2006 - ball point pen on linen. Dude had a thing to say and its said haha. The guys around me started debating on which one started it and which one would finish it...meaning the kiss of course. This was the best show in terms of food too - they had wraps and noone else had food - but thier beer was gross.

The gallery also had this little room in the back that almost looked like where they were storing an old show, and only by researching this artist did I learn it was part of the show but from a past opening or something like that. "His most recent projects have included a series of "liquid" sculptures created by Iraqi crude oil and acrylic. " Hello opinion?? Speak up - I can't hear you!!!

These are three of the peices. Crude Oil in the Form of Jesus, 2006, Crude Oil in the Form of Mohommad and Crude Oil in the Form of 911. This is what I found about his series:

"Andrei Molodkin conceptualizes the ideas of our present day culture in an ongoing series of crude oil sculptures. The artist collects residue oil from the pipelines of national corporations to create his art. In a labor-intensive process, wax sculptures are casts into acrylic blocks. Through means of heat and pressure the wax sculpture melts away - leaving a negative space. The hollow imprint of the mold is then filled with crude oil creating liquid sculptures.

By transforming oil from an organic resource into an aesthetic form, the artist raises important questions regarding the role of oil within our contemporary Western culture. Mr. Molodkin initiates a political and cultural discourse in which he asserts that oil as a necessary commodity substitutes our cultural heritage: “Our Heritage is a process of casting monuments. The memory of Earth fills up forms of cultural memory as oil displaces classical sculpture taking the place of o

ur heritage - our heritage is measured in barrels.” The clash between culture and economy is seen where the artist uses recognizable religious images or cultural iconography as his subject matter. These images are substituted and exchanged into oil icons. For Andrei Molodkin, juxtaposing classical representations with oil suggests a substitution of economy with culture.

In the human body parts series, oil flows within organs, reflecting the depth of our oil dependent society; oil becomes our cultural blood. The artist states that culture is an emptiness we have to fill and affirm with economics – “vacant forms are easily filled with equally vacant content, including any ideology and any discourse.” In the era of globalization, oil becomes a homogenous socio-cultural reference used by Mr. Molodkin as raw material for art."

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Then we have the music that I shall speak about - ELFI SNOW AND THE TASTY MORSELS. OK, so no matter what kind of music it is, when I go somewhere and they have any kind of music to purchase, I buy it – for so many reasons I won’t go into. This was a CD sitting on the counter and I forever knew I would remember this art opening if I listened to the CD. Of course, the music playing in the ceiling was much better but it was just someone’s IPOD and that would have taken much to long haha. So, I buy it. I take it home, and I give it a good hearty chance. This shit is strange.

First of all, the cover has a naked painted chick laying on her side but boobs out in your face. That is it – and it son a puke yellow background. The title of the CD is called Somebody Else. After researching this group, it’s apparently their second CD. The first cover has a naked painted chick as well. GO Them!!!

Seriosuly, I’ll be honest – it’s not my favortie but everything grows on me eventually and that is the best part about music. I'll fuckin' adapt tp it haha. And I am not one to ever say something is bad. If anyone is reading this – you might like them so give ‘em a chance. Her website says she is “influenced by Joni Mitchell, Aimee Mann, The Pretenders and Big Star” – so right there shows she is a friend of mine HA. Take a peek….

http://www.elfisnow.com/.