Tuesday, May 13, 2008

ANDREA FRASER COMES ALIVE AT THE HAMMER

Photobucket

Photobucket

Pictures are of Andrea F. from the nosebleed seats. My camera needs glasses.

UCLA Hammer Museum, Los Angeles:

To a 3/4 full house, Andrea Fraser nervously talked about her life's work. I thought that was interesting in contrast to her very confident, fluidly realized docent personas she's known for. She got emotional on us, but I guess it was a loaded situation in that many of her students and colleagues were in attendance. Since the infamous sex-with-collector piece in 2004 she explained how she had taken a two year break from production, preoccupied with her "new job" as a professor. But she also discussed how she needed to reevaluate the whole enchilada, why she does what she does. The last and latest piece she presented dealt with this specifically: a two-channel video re-enacted from 500 pages of transcripts taken from sessions with a shrink. It was refreshing to see an artist put all her shit out here in such an honest fashion. The rest of it was kind of a blur like the photos above.
I always get drowsy at lectures. It's the darkened room, the temperature controlled environs, the unwavering pedagogical lullaby from the lectern that sends me to nap time. I've been like this since I was 5, when I pulled off the impressive feat of falling asleep ON the shoulder of the teacher as the lesson was in progress. I also always have to pee when I go into book stores. But that's another story.....

1 comment:

erica said...

that's funny that you always have to pee in bookstores. i always have to poop when shopping in musty junk stores or basements.