As we conclude our week of exploring the role of myth in contemporary society, we have taken a close look at the myth of art and art materials as seen by Mike Kelly, the myth of artistic boundaries as undermined by Maurizio Cattelan, the Mad Man Myth as displayed by the late Dennis Hopper, and the global spread of myth that is perpetuated by Disney[…..]
For nearly a century, Disney’s eclectic assembly of animated characters have persisted the hopeful notion of Happily Ever After. (And the certitude that a duck without pants is always quick to anger.) Like modern-day mythology, Disney stories take seemingly ordinary characters and place them into extraordinary circumstances, through which they eventually persevere and often learn a lesson along the way. Boy meets genie and earns[…..]
L.A. Expanded: Notes from the West Coast A weekly column by Catherine Wagley When they were newlyweds living in Switzerland, my grandparents met Terry Southern, the beatnik bad boy who would eventually co-write Easy Rider. My grandmother worked with Southern’s wife, Carol, at the United Nations nursery school in Geneva. Carol charmed her. “What a sport she was,” my grandmother remembers, “and a super gorgeous[…..]
When I first heard that Kadar Brock was using Dungeons and Dragons dice as engines of chance to determine the elements in his new paintings, I was as suspicious of it as I am of mullets on the L Train. I’d seen his work in several recent group shows, but it didn’t really stick with me until I saw Night Fishing at Thierry Goldberg Projects[…..]
A myth is a foundational narrative that may be based in truth or fiction but either way it tells a story of who we are. Thus self-consciousness is constructed by a shared narrative and helps us to give shape and even name our identity. If we think of identity in the usual terms of religion or nationalism, some examples of these mythological narratives include the[…..]
Flip through any Mike Kelley catalog and you’re likely to find a plethora of images that show the artist to be a maker of videos, installations, and objects that betray what critic Jerry Saltz once described as “clusterfuck aesthetics“. So it may be a surprise to view the relatively straightforward Arenas at Skarstedt Gallery, comprised of seven out of the eleven works from the original[…..]
Over the next 7 days, DailyServing will be bringing you the first installment of a new series that considers a selection of new international artists through one central topic. This week, our writers tackle the concept of Myth through the work of a variety of artists by way of features, articles, reviews and interviews. Check back every day this week to see how our artists[…..]
