Charles Ray with Frog
Charles Ray’s “Boy with Frog” (2009) originally stood canal-side in Venice on a spot previously occupied by an old lamp-post where lovers came to kiss for good luck. When Ray
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Charles Ray’s New Beetle
The exhibition “Charles Ray: Sculpture, 1997-2014” is elegant and unsettling. Cannily uncanny, it solicits repeated visits. A good way to approach this work may be to question the intentions of
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Dr. West’s Lesson
Kanye West’s first act as a Doctor of the Fine Arts was to clear the plexiglass podium of a clutter of water-bottles. His first words were, “I’m sorry that was
An Evening of Magic with Rob Zabrecky
Tall, slender with short dark hair and dark eyes that stare, Rob Zabrecky enters in a black suit and matching bow tie, as easily taken for an undertaker as a
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Le Chambre du Spectacle
The night before our I-Ching-dérive, we had three hours to set up. Six of us, working furiously, pulled together “the chamber of the spectacle” before the close of the library.
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Dériver to Flâneur
But rather than jump back to ancient antecedents, I want to drift more directly in the biblio-tracks of Situationist Guy Debord. The origin of his technique of urban exploration, the
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Tao to Taotie
The I Ching: The Classic of Changes has its origins in “dragon bones.” In 1899, when the young missionary Richard Wilhelm the future translator of the I Ching was arriving
Randomly Rambling
My mind has a tendency to wander. In conversation and in class, I am prone to digress. So my natural sympathies lie with the Situationist Guy Debord’s dérive. His random
I-Ching-dérive
On Friday 20 February 2015, the Flaxman Library at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago will host a “biblioderive” (http://biblioderive.tumblr.com/about): “Bibliodérive is the application of the Situationist International
Make Your Own Moses
An empty stage but for a bare unpainted wooden table. Enter Moses, borne by three black-clad people. He is limp, lifeless. The people look at one another, giggling, smiling giddily.
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