caa yearly wrap up

a blurry view of the flight in to LA. Although it wasn’t my first trip to LA it was the first time since i left California.

This is one of those rare intersections of cultures that seems so LA. The convention center where the conference was being held also served double duty for the mass swearing in of new american citizens. There was something very cosmic about the two energies of these groups colliding at the convention center. I know there is a great punchline in there about the expectant citizen being sworn in and the eager art nerds waiting to be inspired by their peers and the location around them.

This one of my favorite things that happens every year, these tables in front of the bulletin board become a dumping ground for every possible leaflet you could imagine. By the end of the first day the organized piles just become this mass of printed matter like a mini David Mach Installation.

Of course I did manage to get over to the Broad Contemporary art center at Lacma where they had a couple new Richard Serra’s. Big Papa never ceases to amaze, this set actually featured a triple curving form, with multiple interior spaces. Big Papa always brings it with his sculpture and these were no exception. Although this time I kept thinking about Roberta Smith’s line in that ny times article about public art where she said that he has essentially been remaking tilted arc in various permutations since the first one was removed, and god bless him for it. I am sure as long as people are willing to build buildings around his pieces, he will continue to make them.

Another favorite aspect of caa is all the evening receptions. This is a quick shot of the spread from the reception at the LACMA, it included little sandwiches, some sort of rice salad, a great cheese and fruit plate, and really cool crackers for the cheese

the chris burden lamppost installation at the broad contemporary art center, which they call the bcam. the piece is a lot of fun and formally beautiful to walk through. It also seems to have some resonance with robert irwin’s work, who it turns out was an early teacher/mentor of burdens. Although in his talk Irwin claimed no responsibility for the way chris burden turned out and in fact said he was already that way when he worked with him.

every year i look forward to the caa conference, and this year was no exception. I managed to hop from session to session this year and get a really great dose of art related discusions. I sometimes lose hope living in cultural isolated place, but being in LA, and seeing great speakers was uplifting. One of the nice things about the conference is it is a chance to put a face and a voice to the theorists i read. when I am reading many of these thinkers work I assign what i imagine their voice to be like or what their look is, but year after year i get that mental image shattered. In 2006 It was the discovery that when Arthur Danto reads his talks he sways like some sort of rabbi at a podium. This year it was the discovery that Grant Kester was in fact a pretty casual cool dude, despite his writing and ideas. I also got to see the exhibition art of the two germanys which really was both depressing and inspiring. I caught a really funny interview with Robert Irwin who is not only a funny insightful artist but in his early years taught artists like vija celmins, chris burden and ed ruscha, among others in his classes. He said of Chris Burden that he always had two questions about him, 1) is he sane? 2) is he dangerous? He shared many personal anecdotes about the california art scene and his early start with it. There were several panels focused on social networking and among the various takes were two intriguing presentations. The first was a talk on the ideas of race in a virtual or game environment like second life, the other was a british guy talking about the role of myspace in organizing civil disobedience and political protest. It is hard to encapsulate the experience but every year i am amazed at the random connections and meetings that lead to a follow up conversation the next year. Although next years is in Chicago, which means it will probably get snowed out like the new york conference in 2007, but we will see. maybe one year they will have it in miami, so all the pasty white art historians and theorists can let loose of the black wardrobe for a change. I am still fighting a cold/soar throat nastines that seemed to follow me back across country, i will consider it a parting gift of the conference. the caa also mainted a pretty sparse but funny blog of the conference here.