Still jet-lagged, and slightly sick now (again?), I woke up at four this morning and began reading The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Presents America (The Book): A Citizen’s Guide to Democracy Inaction, a little thank you gift from Simon Gush and Bronwyn Lace, for opening up my (parent’s) home to them, on Staten Island. The Daily Show, “the fake news that delivers the truth,” has become the most powerful and influential satire in the history of the US, and has over a million viewers each night (screened Monday through Thursday). Now, I’m that kind of annoying, loud-mouthed idiot that screams “inconsistent with the character!” or “that would never happen!” and also laughs loudly and claps in the movie theatre, but I rarely do that without an audience to offend (like, say, at home at 4 in the morning while reading a book). But I did find myself giggling often over this read (sorry to wake you, Nicky), a mock stolen textbook from a NY library….
But in more serious news (does that qualify as satire? just kidding….), the new artthrob is out, and has some great stuff. First up, good buddy, and amazingly talented teacher and artist, Ralph Borland stars in the artbio this month. We love him. Let’s see, there is also a review of Marina Abramovic at Performa05, which starts off OK, makes a really great argument, then ends up pretty wishy washy. Oh, and I wrote it (please ignore the typos and grammatical errors that mysteriously appeared between when I hit the send button, and when they published; oh, and note that self-deprecation is meant to get you to like me more, cuz they cut out all my jokes, which were meant to accomplish that feat for me, but obviously failed miserably; insert more deprecation here). Other great reviews include (all shows I did not see, as I was not here) Aggenbach, Kentridge, Siopis and Botha, among others.
The news of Nathi Gumede as KZNSA Gallery’s new curator has hit, as has Gavin Jantjes’ as Artistic Director for the Proposed Cape Biennale. The highlight, tho, is Linda Stupart’s cover of sessions eKapa, a fair and provocative piece on the non-foregrounding of the upcoming ‘non-Bienalle.’
Sue Williamson’s diary also assures us that Ed Young is doing OK after being mugged while overseas, and links us to some nice coverage of his show in ArtForum. It sounds a pretty dreadful experience, and props to Ed for his high spirits.
