Tops of 2008: A Different Kind of Year in Review

Merry Christmakkah! Happy new year!

The turkey is defrosting (mmmm, bourbon basting), Sidonie stayed up late (for a two year old) last night eating chocolate and playing with her new doll house from her ouma (OMG I have the cutest daughter ever), and I have little bit of morning to pound out a blog on what will probably be the only full day off I take this year (OK, OK, I already spent 30 mins on my dissertation when I first woke up, but the thing has to get done, right? Wait, is blogging ‘work’?).

So for my Tops of 2008: A Different Kind of Year in Review, I’ve decided to go with four different Top 5 lists: The Top 5 people I newly met in 2008, The Top 5 people Iâ€™d like to meet because of what they did (or the work I saw from them) in 2008, The Top 5 exhibitions for me (what I found most enjoyable), and The Top 5 shows I wish I had seen, but didn’t. Hope you like it! Feel free to comment, leaving any things/people I missed but might (or should have) enjoy(ed)!

The Top 5 people I newly met in 2008

Scott Kildall. A great net.artist, video artist, SL performer, and more – and becoming a great friend – check out his work if you don’t know it, and expect some collaborations from the two of us in the near future. Scott and I were introduced online through a mutual friend over a year ago, and did several shows together because of that contact, but only met in person for the first time this year.
Scott Kildall's 'Uncertain Location,' 2007
Camille Utterback. Also an amazing (and award-winning) artist, working mostly in interactive media, Camille makes appearances in my recent writings on Rhizome and in my dissertation. She came out for the Act/React exhibition in Milwaukee, on which she has 3 works; we did dinner and grad crits, and plan to hang out again in San Fransisco before too long.
Edward Winkleman (that’s his blog link, here is his gallery). I popped in to curator and gallerist Ed Winkleman’s space for a chat on my stop-over in New York when moving from Ireland/South Africa to Milwaukee for the new job. He is as professional, excitable and generous with his time, critique and advice as his blog suggests.
Zach Lieberman (his site seems to currently be down, so that link googles him). Co-creator (with the also awesome Theo Watson) of openframeworks, the free, open source, multimedia art development environment, Zach is an Ars Electronica-winning artist, Eyebeam fellow and NYC-based teacher. I took an openframeworks workshop with him in London, where he “adopted” everyone there: a promise to help us with our work how- and whenever he could in the future.
Jessica Meuninck-Ganger, my new printmaking collaborator who I speak of at length here. Expect much from us in 2009.

Top 5 people Iâ€™d like to meet because of what they did (or the work I saw from them) in 2008

Rachel Maddow. Maddow is the only news pundit I’ve ever had a crush on. (Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert don’t count). I’ve been following her for over 3 years now – I used to listen to her show on Air America via the internet in South Africa – and she gets even cooler as she gets more famous.
Brian Massumi. Yes, I’ve been going on about cultural theorist and philosopher Massumi for ages; but I still have not met him, I am more familiar with his work the more I write about it, and he does have a new essay out in this book. I still find his Parables for the Virtual dreamy.
Johan Grimonprez. A brilliant video -actually, it may be film- and print artist. Grimonprez is obviously obsessed with Hitchcock and all he has done to culture and vision, and gifts it back to us in the most stunning and unusual ways. You must see his 2005, Looking for Alfred. I wish he had more of an online presence!
Ai Weiwei. I saw Chinese art celebrity Ai Weiwei’s interdisciplinary art work at dokumenta 12 – and I can’t remember where else – in 2007, and have been reading up on him ever since (and so am counting him in 2008). His site does him no justice, so google him. Amazing.
Ai Weiwei's 'Template'
Shai Agassi. Have you read this guy’s ideas for the electric car? Check out this Wired Article on him and his work/mission.

The Top 5 exhibitions for me (what I found most enjoyable)

Act/React at the Milwaukee Art Museum. This exhibition of full-bodied interactive art was like a welcome present – it opened just weeks after my arrival to my new home. It’s a great show – you really should go see it if you are in the Midwest before it comes down early next year. Read my review here.
Juan MuÃ±oz: A Retrospective at the Tate Modern. Granted, part of my enjoyment of this show was the company and conversation (every time I go to London, the wonderfully gregarious Michael Szpakowski takes me museum/gallery hopping), but MuÃ±oz’s work also encompasses some of the most affective and gut-wrenching sculpture I’ve ever seen.
Juan MuÃ±oz, Many Times, 1999. Polyester and resin, Dimensions variable
Song of Solomon at the Project Arts Centre, Dublin, Ireland. This was actually a performance-based adaptation of an 8-channel generative sound sculpture by Ralph Borland (fellow South African artist and Trinity grad student) and Julian Jonker, but I found the performance version wonderfully moving. See slightly more about the piece, and what I thought, here.
When enough people start saying the same thing, Michael MacGarry at Art Extra, Johannesburg, South Africa. This show was a double wammy: it proved MacGarry’s standing as the new hot young art star in South Africa, and simultaneously solidified David Brodie’s standing as the hot new gallerist. The latter already has an ongoing and reciprocal deal with Cape Town’s Michael Stevenson Gallery. Also, the show was great. More here and here.
Duchamp, Man Ray, Picabia: The Moment Art Changed Forever at the Tate Modern. So it’s a historical show and the second one I’ve put from the Tate, but what a show! And Michael really is fantastic to talk to about art – it makes the whole experience much more exciting. Also, check out his beautiful vlog.

The Top 5 shows I wish I had seen, but didn’t

(REPEAT) from the beginning, William Kentridge’s new solo at the Cape Goodman in Cape Town, South Africa (and elsewhere). Need I say more? This is on now.
Construction for 'Return' (Conductor), 2008, Steel, black paint, Two identical figures, each c. 61 x 61 x 33cm
The Art of Participation, 1950 to Now at SF MOMA. This show makes both implicit and explicit connections between relational aesthetics and interactive / net.art, through historical and contemporary work. And several of my friends are on it!
Take Your Time, Olafur Eliasson at MoMA and P.S.1. Eliasson has gotten to the point where he is big enough that it is trendy to hate him – and yeh, as Paddy Johnson asserts, his waterfall in NYC sucks. But from what I have seen of his work, I am sure this retrospective was stunning.
.ZA Young Art From South Africa at Palazzo delle Papesse, Sienna. Many of the new, young contemporary art stars from South Africa are on this exhibition. They all deserve props, and I wish I could have been there to give ’em some. Here’s a review by Rat Western.
Jozi and the (M)other City at Michaelis Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa. A group show of commissioned works by South African artists on their relationships to the cities of Johannesburg and Cape Town, and also the commissioner/premierÂ for my Doin’ my part to lighten the load. Some of the work looks awesome, so I was really sad to miss it. Sigh. I miss you, South Africa (especially from under all this snow in Milwaukee!).