Wangechi Mutu

Wangechi Mutu "The Naughty Fruits of My Evil Labor", 2005, Ink, acrylic, collage, contact paper, packing tape on mylar,
80 1/2" x 42 1/2"

Wangechi Mutu, born 1972 in Nairobi, Kenya, lives and works in New York, USA. She works with cut outs of lifestyle and porno magazines, packing tape, glitter, ink, etc.. Material that she composes to collages. Wangechi Mutu unveils and magnifies the misconceptions used to define African people, particularly women, who were depicted as malformed, hyper-sexual or un-evolved. The creatures she creates sometimes look bizarre or fantastical, sometimes scary and mysterious.

Right now until December 7th 2008 you can see a great exhibition of the artists at Kunsthalle Wien, project space at Karlsplatz.

http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artists/wangechi_mutu.htm

http://www.kunsthallewien.at/en/events/index.shtml?id=3055

http://vielmetter.com/artists/Mutu/wangechi_mutu.htm

http://www.sikkemajenkinsco.com/wangechimutu_works.html

Austria conTemporary

From 14 November 2008 to 08 February 2009 you can visit the Austria conTemporary exhibition (emerging artists exhibition series) at the Essl Museum in Klosterneuburg.
The 16 artists selected from over 1000 applications are from 25 to 53 years old, so this is one of a few competitions for young art without age limits (!). The whole concept seems exciting and fair, the choice of emerging artists is interesting, curated by Christine Humpl.

Barbara Vögel, 2 Frauen in Luang Trabang erfreuen sich an einer Postsendung, 27.7.2008,

Collage

P.P.s favourite artists are Barbara Vögel- who is an autodidact and has been devoting herself exclusively to art for some years. For her works of art she uses objets trouvés, which she composes into collages without changing them- and Barbara Musil whose art work is based on a conceptual approach. In the video installation "Shift Expectations" she addressed a key issue in the artist’s every-day life, the "rejection letter", and transformed it into a work of art. Both artists works are thouhtful and humorous at the same time.

http://www.sammlung-essl.at/

http://www.barbara-voegel.com/

http://oe1.orf.at/highlights/29661.html

Busy Vienna

photo by p.p.queen, right side: big wellness skull, left side: small joep van lieshout

Until sunday the Vienna Art Week is taking place. You can choose from a load of events- artist talks, lectures, openings, discussions- which makes decision hard sometimes.
P.P.Queen heard an interesting lecture from Robert Morris at the MUMOK and was at the opening of Joep van Lieshouts Wellness Skull, which is located in the center of the city at the Karlsplatz.
"With his ironic monument to transitoriness, van Lieshout alludes to the fitness mania of present-day society that provides a surrogate for a spiritual experience beyond all bodily and material affairs. Metaphorically, the artist regards the skull as man’s mental shell. It is the interplay between supernatural, divine powers and the secular power that Joep van Lieshout thematizes in his “Wellness Skull.” The functionalization of such a symbol, which is characteristic of the artist’s work, lends an ironical tone to it: when the sauna is turned on, white smoke rises from the skull’s openings."(kör)
After the opening there was a fine discussion about Art in public space with Joep van Lieshout, Gerwald Rockenschaub, Brigitte Franzen, Thomas Edlinger and Gerald Matt (Moderation) at the Kunsthalle Wien, project space karlsplatz.

http://www.ateliervanlieshout.com/

http://www.koer.or.at/en/

http://www.kunsthallewien.at/en/

http://www.viennaartweek.at/2008/

Dog Axe

photo by p.p.queen

Have you ever seen a dog wearing a dog-shirt? Have you ever imagined a dog hanging on the wall wearing a dog-shirt? Have you ever thought of a dog hanging on the wall wearing a dog-shirt while a man is doing some wild movement with a pickaxe besides him?

No?

So this could be a proof of the idea that reality goes far beyond the powers of imagination.

Christine Hill

Volksboutique Home Office (2003)

Shown at Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York, NYHome Office Trunk Show

1968 Born in Binghamton, New York1991 /
Bachelor of Fine Arts, Maryland Institute, College of Art, Baltimore, MD /
1991-1999 Residence in Berlin, Germany /
Lives and works in Brooklyn, New York and Berlin, Germany

“Hill’s Volksboutique can be called a second hand store. Or it can be called a participatory
artwork that takes the form of a functioning salesroom and workshop space. Simultaneously a
shop, an evolving installation, a space for performance, a slice of life, and an amorphous messy
inclusive work open to all questions, it absorbs found objects as compositional elements and
viewers as participants. Above all, Volksboutique is a place of informal human exchange that
raises the conceptual stakes.”
-Kim Levin, in The Volksboutique Guide, 1997.

http://www.eigen-art.com/Kuenstlerseiten/KuenstlerseiteCH/index_CH_DE.html

http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/2007/07/interview-with-20.php

Einbrenn brennt

P.P.Queen received this letter with very mysterious content:

Liebe Frau Mehl,

die petschuffiziere habern mich Gans, das kann ich mit Pflug und rechts behaupten verwirrt, denn die Einbrenn brennt mir unterhalb der Fingernager. Da das mehlen mit Staub auf das Inniglichste verbunden ist, muß man auf alle Felle zum Abstauben aufrufen, damit das Uffizienbüro offic iell zum Tag des Kuchens, der am 32. November gegangen Wirt, für die heilige Einbrenn geöffnet werden kann.

Es gilt nun klaren Kropf behalten um Post - traumatische Zustände am Hintern zu halten beziehungsweise ecetera.

Kopf hoch, es wird schon wieder, auch ein blinder Hund findet den Korn.

(text by e+k kodym)

Hyungkoo Lee

Hyungkoo Lee,2006
Anas Animatus; Anas Animatus L; Anas Animatus H; Anas Animatus D
2006
Resin, aluminum sticks, stainless steel wires, springs and oil paint
45 x 79 x 53 cm; 49.5 x 31 x 33 cm; 52 x 28 x 34.5 cm; 52 x 30.5 x 33 cm

Hyungkoo Lee
HK LAB-WR
Performance

1969 Born in Pohang, Korea / Lives and works in Seoul /
2002 M.F.A. Yale University, School of Art, New Haven, CT, USA /
1998 B.F.A. Hong-Ik University, College of Fine Art, Seoul, Korea

"Homo Animatus was an extension of a series of earlier pieces where the artist physically sought to alter – to reduce to cartoon simplicity – his own anatomy. Using plastic forms, enlarging and reducing lenses, Lee created a variety of body costumes that altered both one’s appearance and one’s vision of the real world at the same time. Homo Animatus is, for Lee, the ‘Origin of the Species;’ in a peculiar and devolutionary way, of course, and in keeping with how animated creatures serve as stand-ins for their human counterparts. Canis Latrans Animatus (Wile E. Coyote) and Geococcyx Animatus (Roadrunner) followed and are now joined by Lepus Animatus (Bugs Bunny), Felis Catus Animatus (Tom), Mus Animatus (Jerry), Anas Animatus (Donald Duck) and his three nephews, Animatus H, D and L (Huey, Dewey and Louie).

There’s a whole new bit of forensic activity at work and the viewer is drawn into an exploration of the process behind this reductio ad absurdum." (Howard Rutkowski)

P.P. saw Lee Hyungkoos art at the Biennale in Venice 2007, where he represented Korea. The Queen thinks that his work is impressive, clever, masterly and witty.

http://www.hyungkoolee.net/

Strictly forbidden

photos by karl kodym

Sometimes the Queen gets a little confused, strange signes with vague meanings have been seen. P.P. received the photos from an attentive citizen who is also puzzled.

No heterosexual relationship allowed?

No man and woman torso allowed?

No embracement while wearing swim suits?

No shooting a photo with one eye closed?

No taking a photo with an old camera allowed?

No photographers with black hair allowed?

Puzzels, puzzels, puzzels...

How scandalous!

Last week a poor town in the rural P.P.Queen Land had its first art scandal. The artist Caren Dinges made an installation in public space, the artwork had the mayors blessing, everything seemed to be fine. The topic of the work was death and to show "death" in public space, on a place where people are usually not confronted with their own finiteness. Some of the cute inhabitants of the tiny town couldn´t cope with the fact that everything has its end sometime, so they went to the mayor and wanted him to stop this scandalous happening. The real scandal is that he did what a few narrow minded asked him to. But now after 250 people gave their vote for freedom of art in G., everything is almost o.k. again and the installation will be there for a week instead of two months. Very interesting story in the 21st century and somehow really sweet.

If you want to know more about it, this is a link to an article in german

http://www.tips.at/zeitung.php?page_id=286&active=247