Six memos for the next millennium By Italo Calvino / Lightness







































Similarly to Greek philosopher Heraclitus, for Italo Calvino, Lightness is the flexible; the weightless; the mobile; the connective; vectors as distinct from structures. Italo Calvino explored Lightness in the first of his Six Memos For The Next Millennium. He saw Lightness as an important aspect of post-modern society and existence that should be celebrated; he, like Heraclitus, never viewed Lightness as negative, indeed he never ascribed any evaluative content to it.
Calvino keenly explores the borderline between lightness and the superficial; he posits that a contemplative lightness may make light-heartnedness seem heavy and dim; the pursuit of lightness as a reaction to the dutifulness of life.
Calvino emphasises that he does not intend to exclude or to define as inferior the opposite, as for example light/heavy, quick/slow; instant deduction is not necessarily better than well-considered thought, the case may be even contrary. It simply communicates something which is only emblematic of lightness. The balance or tension between the two 'poles' is an important aspect.
In Six Memos he says that "It is true that software cannot exercise its powers of lightness except through the weight of hardware. But it is the software that gives the orders, acting on the outside world and on machines that exist only as functions of software and evolve so that they can work out ever more complex programs. The second industrial revolution, unlike the first, does not present us with such crushing images as rolling mills and molten steel, but with `bits' in a flow of information traveling along circuits in the form of electronic impulses. The iron machines still exist, but they obey the orders of weightless bits."

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Olivier Filippi

for a long time now i am carrying this notion that the drawing act is actually the first recording act, since it saves traces of movement in a certain space in a certain time. visiting the last salon du dessin contemporain in Paris @ the AL/MA gallery booth, i so this series of drawings by Olivier Filippi that looked fresh to me, in a way that recognizes the possible relationships between drawing and movement.








http://o.filippi.free.fr/

Richard Tuttle



Host Arne Glimcher talks with artist Richard Tuttle in his New York studio. Richard Tuttle, a prolific postminimalist, has been a favorite of serious art collectors and an "artist's artist" since he first showed at the Betty Parsons gallery in the mid-1960s. As Richard opens up to Arne, he discusses the serendipity of his career, the dichotomy in his work between humility and grandeur, and his belief that artists never truly understand their own work.

Paul Pagk @ Some Walls / press release















Some Walls is pleased to present "Drawings from the Series: The Mequite Drawings" by New York artist Paul Pagk April 9, 2010 – May 29, 2010.

At Paul Pagk’s New York studio in September 2010 we spent a good amount of time looking at and talking about several large, complex, impressive paintings. It was a wonderful visit. Shortly before I left he began pulling out boxes, stacks, and piles of drawings in various media and different sizes; it was an amazing sight. Among these were The Mesquite Drawings, about which Pagk says, "I made these drawings and others in two drawing pads during and after my visit to Marfa and the Chinati Mountains." From this visit a plan was hatched to bring a selection of Pagk’s drawings to Some Walls in Oakland.

Eighteen drawings are hung close together in a three-row, six-column grid. Each are 14 x 17 inches, made with graphite, crayon, oil pastel, and watercolor. These drawings not only demonstrate how Pagk thinks through and develops motifs for his painting, but also deserve examination and appreciation as finished works themselves. Line and form move between architectural and organic, emanating light and air. His imaginative structures and varied spaces tweak perspective and hint at intimate and surreal experience. They bring to mind Bachelard’s favorite images in The Poetics of Space—houses, cellars, huts, drawers, nests, corners, and human bodies—and we how subjectively experience these spaces. Joan Ockman says in her review of Bachelard’s book, "…space is the abode of human consciousness." Bachelard writes, "I should say: the house shelters day-dreaming, the house protects the dreamer, the house allows one to dream in peace."

http://somewalls.com/?p=596

(standard) interview

A cool direct well made blog presenting extremely good works

"a one-size-fits-all interview with a straightforward approach and a simple aim. "




Can you briefly describe what you do?

What drives you to make work?

Can you tell me something of your day-to-day working practices?

How long have you been working in that way?

Which artists have had the greatest affect on your work?

What, outside visual art, informs your practice?

How would you like people to engage with your work?

Have you seen anything recently that has made an impression?

Do you have anything exciting on the horizon?

http://standardinterview.blogspot.com/