One thing is certain: commentaries on Art are the result of shifts in the economy. – Marcel Broodthaers Imagine it’s 1970 in Chicago, Illinois. It has been rough going lately for the city’s independent record labels—what with the corporate monolith of Motown and the recent buyouts of Chess and VeeJay—but a keen ear […]
The Art of Disappearing
A beautiful thing happened over the summer: Ellsworth Kelly’s Sculpture For A Large Wall came to New York. Originally commissioned in 1957 and installed in the lobby of the Penn Central Transportation Building in Philadelphia, the work was on view at Matthew Marks Gallery for the month of June. Which is to say that, forty-one […]
Unbuilt Roads: Eight Days a Week
In 1994, after several years of studying the history of calendars and their basis in the solar system, I designed a new calendar that was more “in tune” with my personal rhythms. Although it contained the same 365 days, the calendar was divided into fifteen months instead of twelve and sixty-one weeks instead of fifty-two, […]
Making and Wasting Time, or: A Calendar For Self-Employed Agnostics Living in Seasonal Climates Who Follow Astrology
“They always say that time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.” –Andy Warhol At different times in different parts of the world, there was and is great variety in the number of days in the week: calendars with four- (Central Africa), five-, six- (Soviet Union), seven- (Chaldean, now Hebrew and Christian), […]
Back to Basics and Back Again: Dan Peterman
It’s common knowledge that recycling has had a very limited effect on the imbalance between the production and consumption of natural resources. The idea that we can save the planet by managing our glass, newspapers and plastics in naïve, not only because those materials are a mere fraction of the problem but also because they […]