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Weekend Update

Some random photos from this past weekend roaming around New York City. Dropped by some Chelsea art galleries.

Looks like a gallery had a little party the night before.

Creepy mannequin legs.

I like this piece. Forgot the artist though.

Coffee shop fun. I look forward to doing this to all coffee cups in my future.

Giant nutella.

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Miroslaw Balka at Tate Modern

Polish artist Miroslaw Balka's latest installation, "How It Is" at the Tate Modern is an imposing elevated steel container with a ramp that leads visitors into it and plunging them into darkness. It's a hit with visitors.

The experience is sombre, discombobulating and perhaps a bit sinister. But it is beautiful too — and not least when, as your eyes slowly adjust, you begin to discern the infinite subtle shades of grey or turn back to face the entrance and see other visitors vacillating nervously on the brink before, stepping into the engulfing shadows, they are transformed into stalking silhouettes.

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Ai Weiwei, Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn

Politically vocal Chinese artist Ai Weiwei (previously) makes another obvious statement in this tripartite photograph "Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn" which depicts the artist dropping a 2,000 years old urn.

While the triptych gained notoriety as an iconoclastic gesture, it encapsulates several broader constants in Ai’s work: the socio-political commentary on the random nature of vectors of power; questions of authenticity and value (vis-à-vis the artist’s comment that the value of “Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn” has today exceeded that of the once-prized urn itself), and the cycle of creative destruction necessary for any culture’s survival and evolution.

This is what happens when you exile the dude's famous poet father to a labor camp during the Cultural Revolution. The sons gonna drop all your famous shit.

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Edel Rodriguez, Chairman Mao

The cover for Lürzer’s 200 Best Illustrators Worldwide featuring Cuban artist Edel Rodriguez's (no relation) portrait of Chairman Mao Zedong wearing Louis Vuitton caught my eye today at the bookstore.  Rodriguez's image was originally published as the cover for the June 27, 2005 issue of TIME Magazine, which resulted in a letter to the editor from the president of Louis Vuitton who complained:

We were surprised to see that the cover of your June 27, 2005, issue used a reproduction of our historic and highly recognizable registered trademark, the Louis Vuitton Monogram Pattern, without our knowledge or permission. Such use is likely to lead your readers to the mistaken impression that you are authorized to do so or that Louis Vuitton Malletier was involved in some way in its publication. The use of the monogram presents the potential for significant dilution of one of our core intellectual-property rights and is all the more of concern since it also appears on your website. Importantly, this use of our trademark in connection with an iconic Chinese figure [Chairman Mao] could damage the long-established relationship we have carefully built with China and its people since the opening in 1992 of the first Louis Vuitton store in Beijing.

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American Gothic

I like this photograph more than the painting itself. It's so meta. Grant Wood’s American Gothic subjects — his sister Nan and his dentist, Dr. Byron McKeeby — standing next to their iconic likeness.

[Via]

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Unnecessary Collaboration

Artist Takashi Murakami is (unnecessarily) collaborating with Kirsten Dunst and director McG (previously) for a "video project" that involves Dunst in cosplay singing "Turning Japanese" in the streets of Tokyo. I can't really defend this one: It's just so weird, and paradoxically derivative. For something a bit more inspiring, go see Murakami's new painting "A Picture Of The Blessed Lion Who Stares At Death" at Gagosian Gallery in Chelsea. I saw this a few weeks ago and it was pretty grand.

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