Today Show

Ok so this was my first time going to the new CS13 space on main st. for the Today Show. This was an exhibition in which the artists had 24hours to create/curate/open. All in all, the artists did a great job. The only thing I kept thinking when hearing this concept though was... wait a minute, shouldn't it be less than 24hours? Talking with my friend Loraine (who runs MG/GM on sycamore) she had the same thought because a lot of artists are so last minute they are used to making and installing in one day. 8 hours and the audience would have really smelt and felt the desperation. Also, then there would have been some real questionable decision making which would have made for some interesting art.

But anyway, I thought going to this space was super refreshing. I have found that the group shows I have gone to in cincinnati have been a bit over saturated. Even some of the ones I have been in have been way to dense and conceptually all over the place, so it was nice to go to a show and have some room to breathe.

Jordan Tate's work as always is a conceptually interesting take on technology and new media. The print of a projector on a projector, the image of a kindle on a kindle, it makes sense, and doesn't disregard aesthetics either. I'm interested to see where he takes these ideas in his next few moves. I would love them to take a bit more of a stance maybe (do I even know what that means, I don't know I'll have to think about my wording). But they are very clean and concise and always strong pieces whenever I see them.

Sarah Blith-Stephens, I'm always biased in favor of because she is my BFF, but she has good work too. She did one of her signature plaster walls for the exhibition, which there are pictures of in their little catalogue before it fell, but it did crumble into a beautiful white mess on the floor. In talking to Sarah after the show she regretted not doing something new or taking a risk with something different, but next to Jordan's and especially John's work I thought it was great. Also, in her past work the plaster walls were in tact with a different form of movement and clean aesthetic. In this exhibition it had completely fallen. Leaving the in plastic tarp changed everything for me. It became more about the residue and traces on the tarp which recreated the plaster in my eyes.

John Night's pink was a show highlight for me as well. He mentioned that after being a preparator at the Contemporary Arts Center it was hard painting a wall in that way. I think the action came across as necessary for him and his audience. In that clean white space the subtle arbitrarily mixed pink in white and flippantly painted wall was a very interesting breath for the visuals of my brain. Once again the traces went with Sarah's tarp, but I thought simply the color of the pink was a smart decision. John said he has been obsessed with that pink lately on an intuitive level, that pink and bob dylan lyrics in his titles. The connection, who knows, but its working, and I'm interested to see what connections are next for his work.

The only thing that really drove me crazy about this show was the live video feed of the install. Jordan set up a webcam that I tried to watch a couple times over the night and it barely worked. I was super disappointed. It was just a few stills of the empty room. There was also a chat function for those watching the feed and no one would talk to me. What happened to the interaction! Don't comment in an art chatroom if you aren't ready to trash talk.