I’m dashing toff to Temple Gallery for the artist’s talk inconjunction with the Philagrafika show there. The talk, featuring artists Carl Pope, Frencesc Ruiz, Barthelemy Toguo and YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES, plus Curators Sheryl Conkelton and Jose Roca, sounds pretty interesting.
I met Pope, Ruiz (ultra briefly) and Heavy Industries, (Young-Hae Chang and Marc Voge) at the Philagrafika opening festivities last night. I can’t wait until Pope’s billboards go up in North Philly. Voge refused to have a conversation about his work, but I took a look on line and realized I’d seen one of Heavy Industry’s pieces before–in the Big Nothing at the ICA. It was an amazing piece, and here’s what I wrote:
For good readers only
First my fave, which is upstairs separated from the video corral by its own little, black-curtained room.
“Dakota” (shown), is a film noir digital animation by YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES. It’s a CD-ROM of words flashing in a variety of sizes and shapes at a variety of rhythms, set to a fabulous Art Blakey drum solo. In true film noir fashion, it’s all in black and white, and tells three noir stories, one of kids on the road, one an homage to Blakey, and one set in the seedy, fast-food-noodle-stand world of late-night Seoul, Korea. You can actually view it on line at the link above. Be sure to pump up the volume.
Unlike a lot of art video, this was compelling, its pace a wild pony ride from beginning to end, its stories rich with atmosphere and hip-hop poetry.
Meanwhile, I’m off to see what everyone else’s work is like and to hear what they have to say. And it’s a lot, since there’s mucho text in this exhibit.
