Carolee Schneemann, Eyebody #1, 1963/1985
specific object / david platzker
presents
Screw You. an exhibition at Susan Inglett Gallery
http://www.specificobject.com/projects/Screw_You/index.cfm?project_id=54
Photo: Mirgun Akyavas
Austin, Texas has some of the finest examples of street art of any city on the planet. Here’s something that recently went up in the downtown area. I don’t know who did it and they may want to stay anonymous. If not, and you see this, let us know who you are so we can give you credit for this splendid piece of art.
To the right of the portrait is the famous Bukowski quote: “Some people never go crazy, what truly horrible lives they must live.”
Via Dangerous Minds
Back in 2009, during Japan’s biggest open-air art festival, called Echigo-Tsumari , artist Harumi Yukutake constructed a magical-looking house covered with thousands of round mirrors. After walking along a narrow path surrounded by grass on both sides, visitors would come upon this house that seemed to merge with its surroundings, making the border between reality and unreality unclear.
Each mirror was unique because it was hand cut by the artist. According to Guardian , the house, called Restructure, “had no back wall, just a space opening onto a view of the fields, reflected endlessly in the thousands of mirrors that lined the inside walls.”
Ray Johnson letter to Lucy R. Lippard, May 3, 1969
via: Archives of American Art
via The Third Mind
Texas Town Converts Abandoned Walmart into Award-Winning Public Library
By Neetzan Zimmerman
After Walmart closed up shop in McAllen, they left 124,500 square feet of retail space behind for use by the city.
Rather than bring in another big box corporation to pick up where Walmart left off, the southern Texas city decided to turn the building into its new public library. And not just any public library neither: Upon its completion, the McAllen Public Library became the largest single-story library in the United States.
The project was massively successful: Registration by first-time patrons went up by 23% in the library’s first month of operation, and its “functional, flexible and affordable” interior — constructed by Minneapolis-based Meyer, Scherer & Rockcastle, Ltd. — was recently named winner of the International Interior Design Association’s 2012 Library Interior Design Competition.
“In a city like McAllen, with cartel violence across the river (less than 10 miles away from the library), I think it’s amazing that the city is devoting resources to a) not only saving a large and conspicuous piece of property from decline and vandalism, but b) diverting those resources into youth and the public trust,” McAllen native Adriana Ramirez told the LA Times.
[TM Daily Post via Mother Jones, photo by Lara Swimmer via PSFK]