Disorderly Conduct at OCMA

I am going to be honest and risk sounding narrow-minded.
The show on balance was a dud. It was so boring I had to walk through it about five times praying that something would really grab me. Well I felt pinched more than grabbed. The show is very small and while that helped me focus on the few artists involved and I could therefore give them all time, it felt like an incomplete idea.

Peaal C. Hsiung painting intrigued me but she has big paintings and small ideas. Glenn Kaino's chess piece was beautiful to look at. Nice metaphores as hand signs. Gestures as Passive or aggressive, the peace and love next to the fuck you. The accompanying limited palette portraits had subdued emotion the way the subjects contemplated their next moves.

The Condolizza Rice inspired work made me curious as to why the artist has become obsessed with this woman. ( an interesting note, the artist has directly copied Bridget Burns who has been drawing on paint chip samples from home depot for a decade). The eyes falling like bombs from the fighter jet? Huuuum. It seemed lame at first but I would admit it did have some impact.

OCMA is a great museum space with very high ceilings and great lighting. They hang the work with lots of empty wall space to make each work stand out. Basically anything you hang in that environment should look good! I could hang my dirty boxer shorts on the wall and it would look profound. How is it most of this stuff still manages such a weak visual response? Is it because artists have been taking away so much that nothing is left? Less is not always more, sometimes it's just less.
Much of the text I read was far more interesting than the artwork and I see that a lot with shows these days.
Mike Kelleys "Gospel Rocket" was an abysmal failure.

A black man signing "The Way We Were" in clown makeup? Wow, there is a real profound idea! He admits in the text that he watched too many music videos growing up and that is how he came up with the idea. He was interested in how the performers would lose themselves in the songs and he wanted to do that. My daughter sings her favorite songs around the house to her I Pod and has makeup and dress far more interesting than this guy.
OCMA used real insight and some of their very limited funds to buy this piece!

We have all seen the Fred Astaire film with the turning room. This guys work is trying to be funny and serious at the same time. Huuuuum...NOT! I'll go with silly and useless.

I have talked to a few other T.E.A. Party members about the attendance at this show. When I saw the show I was the only person in the building who didn't work there and the same for the other members I talked to. Maybe they should show work that truly has value instead of trying so hard to be arcane and clever with the shows they curate.

OCMA hired a friend of mine to promote the exhibits and try to get people to see the work. He's so persuasive he could get the Pope to invest in a new Mormon Temple but he admits that getting folks to see these shows may be beyond even his considerable powers.

Perhaps there is just not that much good work being made right now that is conceptual in nature. Art is not like science, it does not always advance or get better with time.

--The Fish