7.24.2013

Bits: Lefty Hoarders, Pirate Utopias, Artist Pay

Docked raft at night. Photo: Tod Seelie

• In the spirit of the Miss Rockaway Armada and Swimming Cities of Serenissima, Swoon and her band of DIY eco-art rafters are heading out on another excursion next month, accordint to crew photographer Tod Seelie--this time down the Willamette River in Portland. Wired looks at this "Burning Man Aquatic" through Seelie's photos documenting these "pirate utopias."

• The Interference Archive--begun as the personal collection of activist ephemera of "lefty hoarders" Josh MacPhee and his late wife Dara Greenwald--now houses some "12,000 posters, 7,500 books and 7,500 pamphlets, zines and other objects" from radical social movements from modern American history. “Use is its own form of preservation,” MacPhee (of JustSeeds) tells the New York Times of a collection that visitors to its Brooklyn location can handle without gloves. (Note to Josh: This non-New Yorker would donate to a crowd-funding campaign for digitization.)

• Regardless of how well art institutions or art markets are doing, most artists aren't the beneficiaries. Alexis Clements writes for Hyperallergic about five models for change, ranging from a renewal of artist labor unions to certification programs that ensure “ethical payment practices" (like the one W.A.G.E. proposes) to going off the grid altogether.

• For his show at the Natural History Museum in London, Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado is showing works that depict the “stunning mosaic of nature in all its unspoilt grandeur." Surprising then is the show's sponsor: mining company Vale, which is accused of despoiling the Amazon and was dubbed company with the “most contempt for the environment and human rights” in the world by the Public Eye in 2012.

Impeach returns with more boxcar graffiti: this time an obituary for the middle class.

• Your moment of stripes: Italian street artist Mimmo Rubino paints the rotating tank on a cement mixer.

No comments: