So in the lead up to the Armory madness that is about to descend on New York, I wanted to give you a heads up that I have a solo show opening in Houston March 4th. It’s at SKYDIVE art space and will feature a handful of new collages, drawings and a new 24-hour performance. And as if that wasn’t enough, I’ll have something up for Flux Factory’s open “studios” during Armory weekend. More info on that later though.

NEW SOME
The title for my Houston show comes from a couple places (besides the obvious implication that it’s new work). When I came up with it I was listening to my some time muse Joanna Newsom’s album “Have One On Me.” I’ve found myself returning to her music a lot over the years in the studio. Something about her unabashed quirkiness, and commitment to her vision of a very unique and eccentric reality. Plus she plays the friggin’ harp. So yeah. There’s that. The title is also a pun on the French “nous sommes” which translates to “we are.” Which, indeed, we are. I’ll spare you the long-winded story about my relationship to France and the French language, but it is an old love affair. I also like the implied potential that this is a collective experience. Be it in the seemingly one-way experience of viewing created works, or the more explicit participation in a performance.

Speaking of performance:

#24hClerk
How much are your dreams worth? For twenty four hours beginning March 5th I will operate as the Absurd Grocer, and will “price” your dreams. Each dream (your own or those of a nation/people/etc) will be assigned a “value” and a price sticker stuck to a large sheet of paper. This performance is a continuation of my work as the Absurd Tailor (for #rank in Miami) as well as the recent performance #24hKith. I am also recalling this work by Brent Birnbaum I saw at Winkleman Gallery a few months ago:

(image via)

I had actually forgotten about it until after I conceived this performance. Expectation setter: Our stickers will almost definitely be monochromatic.

The performance will livestreamed with a “social chat” function here: http://www.manbartlett.com/24hClerk/ This will allow folks with various accounts (not just Twitter), to participate. In the future I’d like to develop a system that is independent of any particular social network. I have some misgivings about how if you choose to participate in my performances you subject your followers/friends to content they might not otherwise necessarily care about. At the same time I think the connection to your “identity” is important. So, for now, this is what we got!

the consumables
I’ve already described a little bit about this new body of work here, so I won’t repeat myself. I will however share two images of work I’ve been thinking about, without even having realized it at first. The first, by David LaChapelle (wtf?!) I saw at a show he had at Shafrazi in September of 2008. I had just moved to New York and had that fresh-from-the-country (aka Chicago) sheen on my face. I walked out of the show however with an eye-roll and a “meh” and thought it was gone from my mind. Apparently not as a few days ago this image returned in a flash:

(image via)

It’s somehow operating in a parallel world to my consumables. Or I am.

For example, compare that to twoboozelabuick:

Another image, or rather entire artist, I’ve been thinking about (again without realizing it) is Tony Fitzpatrick. Dude is the man. Will spare the words, however really you should just go look at all his work. Such a feast:

The Night Parade, 2007 - (image via)

as compared to Onion Soup Hug:

I actually had never seen the above Fitzpatrick before I made Onion Soup Hug, but something about it all is spiraling around the gyres.

Still with me?

I’m not, I need to eat (haven’t done that yet). So, briefly, lastly:

Drawings
Also in the show opening next week will be some of my pointpieces. For example, this one, which I’ve already posted, but will repost here for solidarity:

new horizon, 5”x7”, ink on paper, 2011

…

Ok, there’s probably more, and that’s probably already too much. It’s all too much. Always, everything and more. Yes.

Thank you for you. For looking. For reading. For being.

Now feed the hunger…

xx,
Man