
"It's all the same," is an argument at the core of the Twentieth Century. We find it in the totalizing narratives of anthropology (Joseph Campbell or Sir James Frazer), and structuralist-inclined psychology (Freud or Jung)-even in notions of art as universal or timeless. But by the second half of the century, artists and critics were no longer convinced that everything was the same, world-over, even if they had gained assurance that as far as pop culture went, the same, over and over and over, was all there was: a uniform dimension of the spectacular, insipid, and unfathomably shallow. Step in, cultural decoders and re-fashioners like Andy Warhol—and prefabricator extraordinaire (and not coincidentally post-FabFour) producer-cum-artist Malcolm McLaren.
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Whether filled with concrete or crotchless, the depiction of fabric in David Rimanelli's exhibition, "Denim," at New York University's 80WSE Gallery extends well beyond the bounds of the material. Using the blue jean as a platform to clothing as a uniform, as a means of expressing social or sexual identity, the exhibition also highlights our ability to rebrand ourselves depending on our attire. Complicating the reading of literal materiality with abstraction and metaphor, Rimanelli curates a show of artworks by 11 artists created over the last 40 years. Here he explains the bias against exhibitions on fashion, and how to get more action out of your pants:
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"Were you always...gay?" an interviewer behind the camera asks a Hispanic woman as the film opens. The camera's subject, Nadine Armijo of Pasadena, is simultaneously posed on her bed and avoiding the gaze of the camera pointed at her. She hesitates, then affirm this. Nadine's reserve is not unique among the 26 voices interviewed in Word Is Out: Stories of Some of Our Lives (1977), re-released at Anthology Film Archives this week. The film, directed and produced by Mariposa Film Group, recorded openly gay men and women from around the country as they relayed their pasts and sought to define their role in a society that had long excluded them. Word is Out would set a precedent in gay and lesbian filmography for candidly documenting the gay experience in the Twentieth Century.
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Last night, as 73-year-old poet John Giorno cast his honey and hashish-scented spell over a rapt audience at Artists Space in Soho, a group of artists-many half a century younger than the poet-were busy making their own dreams come true: getting their work shown at a prestigious Chelsea art space. For 24 hours beginning the morning of February 3 at 11 AM, any and all artists were invited to show art at the X Initiative. The result was a Relational Aesthetic mini-masterpiece, inspired by curator Walter Hopps' infamous 1978 event
"36 Hours," and a fitting conclusion to a year of improvised but accomplished programming that added a dose of beneficent, renegade energy to an art world undone by bubbles and bursts.
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