Doug Aitken's "Migration" at 303 Gallery

Scene from Doug Aitken's Migration

For his new installation piece, Migration, at 303 Gallery Doug Aitken projects video onto three massive billboard-like screens. The video features a series of anonymous roadside motel rooms inhabited by North American migratory animals. With this piece Aitken does a wonderful job of drawing the comparison between our own travels and the migration of these animals.

Motel rooms are the cold and functional way stations of our journeys. They are stocked with the bare essentials necessary for us to rest and push forward on our journey. We are lonely and restless in these spaces just like the animals he uses as stand-ins for our experience. The individual scenes play out with a Jarmusch-like stillness as each animal interacts with specific mundane objects in the motel room. The results are a hypnotic and often moving comment about uncertainty and isolation. Aitken's statement and execution are flawless.

I Heart William Lamson

© William Lamson

I just happened upon this video that typifies the playful genius of his work. Really brilliant stuff.

If you dig his work like I do don't forget you can own one of his Me In America prints via Humble Arts Foundation.

I've Been Hijacked

I just received two copies of the wonderful new photo book, Hijacked Volume One: Australia and America. The book was edited by Mark McPherson & Max Pam and is an excellent survey of emerging photographers in Australia and America. They were kind enough to include eight of my photos over twelve pages in the book. Also included are friends Jon Gitelson, Lisa Kereszi, Bill Sullivan, Shen Wei, Grant Willing and Alana Celii.

Mark McPherson has been quite the hustler and has managed to set up book launches and exhibitions in New York, Berlin and Australia. The video below is from ABC Australia about the exhibit at The Australian Centre for Photography in Sydney.



Pick up a copy today.

Light Rail Coyote

Inspiration rarely lands fully formed in my lap ready to party. Sometimes inspiration comes in fevered flashes of random images as I sleep; most of the time it comes in a slow march of real world dots and dabs that eventually add up to something grand. For Domesticated some of those dots came from the now defunct band Sleater-Kinney.


Sleater-Kinney's exploration of the tense space between the natural and human world seemed to begin at about the same time I was exploring the initial ideas behind my project. Starting with the song "Light-Rail Coyote" (inspired by the newspaper article above) and ending with the cover art for their final album The Woods and the video for "Entertain," Sleater-Kinney's choice of imagery and words helped inform the direction of my work in ways I didn't fully realize at the time.

Battle Eruption: Eddie vs. the Volcano

© UPI

Just saw these breathtaking photos from the eruption of the Chaitén volcano in Chile. Truly awesome display of nature's power.

This got me thinking about another awesome display of nature's power. I speak of Eddie Van Halen melting terra firma with his guitar on Eruption.



Naturally this begs an epic question. If Chaitén and Eddie met in a back alley and staged an 'eruption-off' who's bringing the hot lava and who's going home crying Pele's tears?

Chaitén photos via Talking Points Memo

Trapped!

The New Yorker has posted a fascinating time-lapsed video of Nicholas White, who was trapped in an elevator for forty-one hours. Mr. White stays remarkably calm during his ordeal. I would have chewed off my arm and clubbed myself to death with it.

Todd Hido at Aperture Tonight

Untitled, #4078 2005 © Todd Hido

The very talented Todd Hido will be giving a lecture tonight at Aperture. Todd consistently produces images that are uncanny and haunting, but never foreboding. Much like Hopper his work propagates the kind of mystery that invites you into the scene instead of warning you to keep a safe distance. I am a big fan.

I am feeling sick today, but if I can drag myself out of bed and onto to the F train I will be there.

If you can't make it, check out the video of Todd below.

Robert Adams On PBS

East from Flagstaff Mountain, Boulder County, Colorado © Robert Adams

Last night's episode of the PBS show Art in the Twenty-First Century featured profiles of four artists whose work exists at the intersection of the natural and man-made world. The subject matter and the inclusion of one of my all-time favorite photo heroes, Robert Adams, made the show absolute must viewing. In the video below, Robert Adams talks about his landmark series "The New West."More video and interviews with Adams can be found on the PBS site.

The Girl on the Magazine Cover