Contemporary Art

Saturday’s Visual Moments (part 2 of 2)

Image: eteam, still from 'Track One' (2011), video, 1:37 min. 'Co- Re-Creating Spaces' will present eteam’s related, participatory project with live video, 100 meters behind the future, in its U.S. premier.
Image: eteam, still from ‘Track One’ (2011), video, 1:37 min. ‘Co- Re-Creating Spaces’ will present eteam’s related, participatory project with live video, 100 meters behind the future, in its U.S. premier.

Co- Re-Creating Spaces, a group exhibition curated by Carolyn Sortor and Michael A. Morris, will survey how artists are questioning and subverting existing contexts or spaces and contributing to their re-imagining and re-creation. The exhibit recognizes that “reality” itself can be both art medium and art object, and speculates how developments in the virtual and the actual might affect one another.

The opening reception is Saturday, November 17, 8-10 pm, at CentralTrak: The UT Dallas Artists Residency, 800 Exposition Avenue. The exhibition will run from November 17, 2012 to January 5, 2013.

The exhibition will feature videos, performances, installations, and other works by: Morehshin Allahyari; Nadav Assor; Amy Balkin; Aram Bartholl; Zanny Begg & Oliver Ressler; Linda Bilda; Irina Botea; Martha Colburn; Michael Corris; eteam; Cao Fei; Yevgeniy Fiks, Olga Kopenkina, & Alexandra Lerman; Institute for Wishful Thinking; Greg Metz, Kristin Cochran, & Cassandra Emswiler; Martha Rosler; Dread Scott; Yes Lab/Steve Lambert; Karen Weiner/Celia & Frank Eberle; The Yankee Doodles and more.

Contemporary Art

Saturday’s Visual Moments (part 1 of 2)

Brandon Kennedy's 'Exit For Sale'
Brandon Kennedy’s ‘Exit For Sale’

At The Reading Room, Saturday, November 17 from 7pm to 9pm, is the opening of Brandon Kennedy’s Exit For Sale. This exhibition will include slightly absurd sculpture and confused signage and will continue through December 22. A conversation between Kennedy and Peter Simek, Arts Editor for D Magazine will take place on Sunday, December 9 at 3pm.

Kennedy received an MFA in Sculpture from Yale University and a BFA from the University of North Texas and is a DeGolyer/Kimbrough Award recipient from the Dallas Museum of Art. His work has been featured in The Art Foundation’s Fountainhead exhibition this spring, at And/Or Gallery, Plush, Dallas Center for Contemporary Art, McKinney Avenue Contemporary, University of Texas at Dallas as well as PAWNSHOP, an e-flux exhibition in New York City. He lives and works in Dallas with his wife and son.

For more reading, visit Peter Simek’s post on FrontRow.

The Reading Room is located at 3715 Parry Avenue between Exposition and Commerce.

Landscape & Gardening

What’s Blooming Now

One of two blooming Japanese Aralias.
One of two blooming Japanese Aralias.

Oh my goodness! My Fatsia japonica (or Japanese Aralia) is blooming. If you look closely, you can see several bees buzzing around the flower heads. This was planted over a year ago during my backyard’s makeover, and I had no idea that it was a fall bloomer. From a little research, I have learned that these blooms will eventually become “fruiting bodies”—a very fancy phrase indeed. Nonetheless, I expect these fruiting bodies to provide me future Kodak moments.

Landscape & Gardening

Accessorizing the Back Terrace

Hopefully your eye is not drawn to all the electrical stuff on the back wall.
Hopefully your eye is not drawn to all the electrical stuff on the back wall.

Two new planters and one elderly frog now grace my back terrace. This composition was badly needed to screen out the the transformer and irrigation boxes. Bear in mind that the Inland sea oats in the bigger planter will eventually grow taller and flesh out the space more gracefully. Right now they look a bit stumpy and ragged. The shorter container is planted with variegated hostas. Both plants are perennials. Because these two cast concrete containers sit on a non-permeable surface, they were not draining. So I had to elevate them with plant dollies that were strong enough to withstand the containers’ massive weight. Aesthetically, it’s not the best looking option, but I had no other choice. I found the elderly frog, who in a former life spouted water in some English garden, through Antique Swan on 1st Dibs. To see a close-up view and to admire his warty patina, click on the link below.

Landscape & Gardening

What’s Blooming Now

I chose to photograph the terrace from the front to show all of the new elements. Unfortunately doing so also captured my neighbor’s “collection”. Eventually the antique rose bushes along the fence will grow larger and help screen out that view.
I chose to photograph the terrace from the front to show all of the new elements. Unfortunately doing so also captured my neighbor’s “collection”. Eventually the antique rose bushes along the fence will grow larger and help screen out that view.

These two Lindheimer’s muhly suddenly bloomed while I was away in Newport during the first two weeks of October. I wasn’t expecting this kind of show so late in the season. Boy, what a surprise! And what a wonderful frame for my new teak bench and cast stone planter. I’ve planted a Squid Agave in this planter, because it’s a perennial that can endure full sun all day, intense summer heat, and dry conditions.

Interior Design

Illuminating the Recesses

This is one of four Barovier glass sconces produced in Murano, Italy, circa 1940.
This is one of four Barovier glass sconces produced in Murano, Italy, circa 1940.

These four new, but old, sconces will add some much needed light to my north-facing dining room. For some time now, I’ve been aware that my library/dining room needed more sparkle or illumination after dark. I can always use candles for dining, but what about those other evenings when there’s company for cocktails and such? Guests would arrive through the front door into a well lit living room and then cross through the dark dining room on their way to the kitchen and back areas of the house. Relying on the overhead ceiling fixture as the only light source was less than optimal, because the space has been too well designed to consign the book cabinets to the shadows. Charley McKenney, my architect, came up with the sconce concept which is something I originally didn’t think was feasible. We did consider other sconces, including a custom design, before he found these fixtures at John Gregory Studio in Dallas’ Design District.