Ai Weiwei at the Des Moines Art Center

AI WEIWEI IS NEVER SORRY

World renowned artist and Chinese dissident Ai Weiwei has released the above picture commemorating the Chinese New Year for download onto your computer. Some might think it seems strange that an artist would just give away his work, but the image itself explains why he is giving it away.

The mirrored figures seem to represent a dualism, two inherently alike but contrasting images each loaded with considerable symbolism that represent new and old culture. The left figure appears to be self portrait while the right looks like the iconic portrait of Chairman Mao.  Other important symbolic features I notice the open laptop and Twitter bird, a video camera, a cell phone, and the web character "@", all of which seem to represent the artist's Twitter and online activities which he uses to promote his visual arts and provoke Chinese Officials.  His Instagram alone is an online exhibit of his digital photo art that is both shocking and subtle.  Ai Weiwei likes sharing his work with the online community frequently and fervently, thus the New Years present. Thanks Ai Weiwei, you're a swell dude.

Another symbol in the above image I find particularly interesting is the number of sunflower seeds scattered in the negative space around both figures.  These represent a massive project currently on display at the Tate Museum called "Sunflower Seeds".  This work consists of 100 MILLION hand painted, ceramic sunflower seeds that Ai Weiwei filmed himself walking on.  

A portion, something like 250,000, of the seeds are currently on display at the Des Moines Art Center in a conical pile, Ai Weiwei foot prints intact.

http://www.desmoinesartcenter.org/webres/File/NEWS/NEWS_jfm_2013_web.pdf

The symbolism of his art is indebted to censorship and he takes full advantage of that fact by making thought provoking visual art to represent free artistic expression.  This of course gets him thrown into jail from time to time in China but he is still a very respected artist there who was even commissioned as a consultant for design of the Olympic Stadium. His world art fame achieved considerable exposure last year when a documentary about his career and views titled "Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry" won a Sundance Film Festival prize.  The film is now streaming on NetFlix.  Check out the pile of his work while it is still in Des Moines. Even though it is a quaint preview into this impressive artist's career it still speaks of the energy and power which his work possesses.

The Country Mice 2/18

Twister - The Country Mice

By namesake alone this band immediately seems to belong to Iowa's scene, but so does their foreboding countrified rock.  At times The Country Mice sound like those strung out guitar solos Neil Young still plays, but other times the group presents a sharp, youthful abandonment, not unlike Sonic Youth recordings (including the wall of guitars).  The tricked out guitars are often overdriven, sometimes fuzzy enough to make your hair stand, or float by, crowded with reverb like a canyon concert. At times they are dripping with Spaghetti Western swagger (and maybe pre-Republican Convention Eastwood worship).  Overall, their simplicity and delivery displays their skillfulness and love of Americana Rock.

Jason Rueger (a native of KS) and company gradually formed The Country Mice in Brooklyn over a span of about two years and put out their first full-length album shortly after in 2011 titled "Twister".  It shows the whole spectrum of rock The Country Mice are capable of - a range that can be trippy, but toes a line between Son Volt and Deer Tick at most times.

On February 18, 9:30pm at the Vaudeville Mews doors open for The Country Mice and opener, Brenton Dean a Des Moines singer/songwriter.

Free Energy (and friends)

Free Energy and Friends at the Gaslamp

To promote the releasing of Love Sign, their second studio album, Free Energy is delivering their brand of over-driven power-pop to a venue near you.  Slinging good vibes last night, the band played DSM's Gaslamp and well before the show was over the crowd was grinning and grooving along, some brave souls even jumped on stage for the finale.

Free energy is a quintet stationed in Philadelphia, but founded by the Wells brothers of Red Wing, MN; one on lead guitar, the other on bass.  The Wells bros got their start playing at clubs in the Twin Cities before adding other members to the band in 2008, which included Paul Sprangers on lead vocals (whose voice and vitality seems like the prefect match for Scott Wells' sweet, sleek licks that zap like lightning) and cow-bell-crashing drummer, Nicholas Shuminsky.

In 2010 Free Energy put out their first studio album with a little help from LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy, who not only produced the album, but who also helped promote it merely by way of his clout in the music business.  Free Energy managed to get plenty of well deserved attention, including an 8.1 review rating of Stuck on Nothing by Pitchfork, thereby making them hipster GOLD.  The first track from the album "Free Energy" is, by definition, a clarion call for all those interested in being infected by their catchy tracks.  (It is so hooky you'll think an angler has caught you.)


Openers for Free Energy last night were Des Moines' very own Derek Lambert and the Prairie Fires (FREE DOWNLOAD), who played the Gaslamp for the first time (hopefully not the last) followed by Baby Boys, a quirky MPLS trio that featured pre made beats, lush hollow-body guitars sounds, and a standing drummer who maybe should have tried out as a marching band baton twirler...

This Tuesday Free Energy will play another show in Iowa, this time free show at Grinnell College in Gardner Lounge.

Jeremy Messersmith 10/8 - Urbandale

Jeremy Messersmith's music has been described as "metropolitan poetry" and it certianly lives up to that description.  His ability to weave a story while plucking his guitar is rivaled by few.

Messersmith based in MPLS (after moving there to attend North Central University) could be the posterchild fort the hip indie music scene there.  Here are a few reasons why I love Jeremy Messersmith and why you should too:

1) His sound is as sweet as sugar, smoother than vanilla, and as good as ice cream.  Exhibit A:

2) Some of his music (including the above song) is for sale at the amazing price "pay what you wish" on bandcamp.  This means that you can try him for free on your iPod, etc. before getting the vinyl/cd/t-shirt you really want or need. Score.  Kind of like test driving a car before you buy it...

3) He is hip as hell and probably coming to a neighborhood home near you.  This fall Mr. Messersmith began what he calls "The Supper Club Tour".  Earlier in the year he sent out requests to everyone on his e-mailing list to find yards, big living rooms, barns, or whatever to serve as places for him to play across the country.  People quickly responded and thus the Supper Club was born.

Luckily, for all you music/Messersmith fans in the area, he is playing a Supper Club show in Urbandale on Monday, Oct. 8.  An intimate setting such as this ought to be a surreal experience. I'm pretty sure it'll blow you away like the feather at the end of "Forrest Gump".

-CK

Manhatten Short Film Festival 10/5

"One World, One Week, One Festival"

Manhattan Short has descended upon Des Moines again this year and due to its popularity, the Des Moines Art Center will show it TWO weekends in a row. I have confirmation from the first showing that this is an event you don't want to miss if you're a film fan, but if you intend to get a seat you had better show up early because the first viewing premiered to a full house.  The second viewing takes place on Friday, Oct. 5 at 6:30pm in the Levitt Auditorium at the Des Moines Art Center---AND IT'S FREE!

Manhattan Short is unique because it is the first global film festival and they don't believe "the masses are asses". Starting Sep. 28 and ending Oct. 7 an estimated total of 100,000 people from 300 cities and six continents (unfortunately not in Antarctica because the emperor penguins can't agree on a location to build a theater) will view and vote for the best film. After the votes are tallied the winner will be announced via their press page. Sweet.

This is the 15th year of the film festival and organizers had to respond to its increasing popularity after reportedly received 520 entries from 49 countries with genres ranging from comedy to drama, thereby making Manhattan Short a truly diverse film experience.

-CK

Jackson Pollack and the Des Moines Print Club

Last week, during the Art Center's usual Thursday evening hours, a special lecturer was invited to speak in the Levitt Auditorium about Jackson Pollock.

Joann Moser, Senior Curator at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and one-time curator at the University of Iowa, has studied Pollock's works and spent a plethora of time with his largest work titled "Mural"- which was displayed at the Des Moines Art Center this summer on loan from the University of Iowa.

'Mural' - Oil on canvas, Jackson Pollack

Her lecture's focus was not on the 8'x20' behemoth that Peggy Guggenheim commissioned for her flat in NYC, but instead on Pollock's virtually unknown intaglio prints that he made at Atelier 17 in the mid 40's.

'For and Eye, an Eye' -Intaglio, Mauricio Lasansky

Atelier 17 was a print-making studio that started in Paris and moved to New York (where Pollock studied) after the outbreak of WWII.  The studio was started by an English artist named Stanley William Hayter, who's vast influence is connected to many other famous 20th century artists besides Pollock.  While at Atelier 17 Pollock jumped into the medium of intaglio and made seven engravings and found a new and important perspective.  

Intaglio is a form of print making where artists use metal tools to etch, mark, and/or engrave a plate that holds the ink for the print.  After the ink is applied and wiped away from the areas intended to provide negative space, the plate and paper are then sent through a rolling press which transfers the ink and visible indentations onto the paper.  Some intaglio artists, like Mauricio Lasansky (who too created works under Hayter's influence) would also use acid to etch into soft metal plates - which was his preferred material- thereby creating deep pools of ink for the paper to absorb. Lasansky used these jet-black ink pools to create dark moods for some of his works that are thought to reflect his feelings toward the Holocaust (like 'For an Eye, an Eye). 


Pollock's intaglio prints are not impressive (nor do I find them particularly entertaining- in fact they are almost childlike because they lack the overwhelming complexity that his paintings possess) but this phase in his art career was an important step in order for him to make abstract expressionism his own and by examining his intaglio works this becomes very clear.

In her lecture, Moser said that it was while working at Atelier 17 that Pollock showed important growth and without this experience he may never have become the artist we know him for today.  According to MoMA "Hayter’s personal engraving style, based on improvisation and chance, influenced Jackson Pollock, who made seven engravings with Hayter in 1944–5" (even though Pollock later denounced chance as part of his art, stating/believing that he could control the chaos of drip/splatter painting).

In 'Untitled', Moser pointed out the places where burrs made by inexperience and his tools forced Pollock to make something artistic of the accidents, thus introducing chance and feeding his improvisation.  After examining the print up close I can attest to the changed in style that Pollock shows in this piece as opposed to his earlier "organized chaos" work 'Mural'.

'Untitled' - Intaglio, Jackson Pollock

Pollock's dry point engraving will be on display at the Art Center until Sep. 23 as part of the 'Hornets' Nest' exhibit along with several other great prints from their permanent collection. Go and check it out, it's free and stuff.

-CK

Cloud Nothings @ the M-Shop in Ames 9/15

Because I already have a ticket for this intimate space, I'm not concerned about over-publicizing this event... but I am so damn excited for this that I might wet myself and if I keep containing this emotion it might make me explode. Saturday September 15 at the Maintenance Shop, Iowa State's personal venue in the Memorial Union, the Cloud Nothings are going to deliver a great ruckus to those lucky enough to attend (i.e. me).

For those of you who don't know the Cloud Nothings here's a little rundown...

A few months back Stereogum posted the odd video for "No Future/No Past" following the release of the bands latest album Attack on Memory (which is loud, packed full of angst, and driven by speedy, roaring guitars). The album contains some truly genius work and tracks from this 2012 release keep finding their way through my speakers at all hours of the day and usually on repeat.  The band's popularity is growing, in fact The Cloud Nothings have been touring like mad and even stopped at Gabe's in Iowa City this July (to my dismay; stupid work keeps me from being truly happy).

Other key tracks for this album are: "Cut You" (my favorite actually), "Stay Useless" which has a charming cartoon video that sits somewhere between Lord of the Flies and South Park, and the angry and anthemic tune "Fall In".

If you think you can handle the punch these Ohio boys deliver be sure to hit up this link where you can get a live recording from the Grog Shop.

-CK