Opening June 5, 2009, 7 pm Tuesday – Sunday Curator Duration of exhibition 10 am–6 pm Diedrich Diederichsen June 6 – August 30, 2009 Kunsthaus Graz

Artists

Saâdane Afif (FR) Rock – Paper – Scissors Cory Arcangel (US) Art & Language with Pop Music as Subject of The (UK/US) Sam Durant (US) Visual Art Kim Gordon, (US/DE) Renée Green (US) Pop music counts as a low, popular form of art, while visual art Stefan Hablützel (CH) Mike Kelley (US) ranks among the high arts. That relationship has changed pro- Klara Lidén (SE) foundly in the last 50 years. Pop music is a hybrid originally Lucy McKenzie (UK) spawned by the parallelism of sound and image found in TV Dave Muller (US) programmes, fanzines and record covers. The hyper-inclusive Albert Oehlen (DE) Katrin Plavcak (AT) attraction-logic of pop music is different from normal music. At Mathias Poledna (AT) its heart is a feeling of direct involvement with people rather Uwe Schinn (DE) than musical values. These can function as sex objects or the Vascellari (IT) embodiment of new lifestyles. For art, this form of expression is as much a subject as a rival event. Rock – Paper – Scissors brings together artists whose methods and formulations use pop music’s body politics, knowledge industry and relationship with the world for their own purposes.

Kunsthaus Graz am [email protected] Landesmuseum Joanneum www.kunsthausgraz.at Lenkai 1, A–8020 Graz T: +43 316/8017-9200 English program constantly scans the Internet for A second, landscape-format picture shows Albert Oehlen Foyer illegally distributed and purchased music, a brain that McKenzie puts, again almost * 1954 in Krefeld (DE) and on detection, prosecutes. The seven life-size, in an almost identical position on lives in Cologne (DE) and La Palma (ES) Uwe Schinn chrome-plated bowling balls of stainless the stepladder, though the hair and shoes In his new large-format triptych done *1971 Frankfurt am Main (D) steel – all the same size and weight and are darker. The background is likewise specially for the exhibition, Albert Oehlen lives and works in Cologne (D) distributed around the room – display sky-blue, and bits of wall can be recog- quotes the early Frank Zappa’s Help, I’m quotations, two of them from John Ken- nised, showing the framed section is The Message is the best-known piece of a Rock. All his life as a painter, Oehlen nedy, president of the International Fede- attached to a wall. It is not hastily airbrus- has been involved with music, as a musi- an early hip-hop group called Grandmas- ration of the Phonographic Industry, which hed on but done from a template with a ter Flash & the Furious Five. Except that cian, producer of records and related represents the interests of the recording fine pen, as with a modern fresco. Lucy objects, and a label operator. However, his Grandmaster Flash (Joseph Saddler off industry in protecting copyright. As a McKenzie’s work makes much of allusions stage) had nothing, absolutely nothing to perspective differs from that of many result of the digital dissemination of to past eras in art, particularly Socialist other artists who cross-refer to music. do with the recording. Flash is a DJ, and music, the Internet is visibly ousting – Realism or Scottish Art Nouveau artists record company Sugar Hill, the very first Whereas for the latter, art is often a place legally or illegally – traditional audio media around 1900 (the Glasgow Four), for of peace and quiet, offering the detach- hip hop label of them all, could not tole- such as vinyl, tape or CDs. Music titles are whom art had a particular social rele- rate music for raps coming from other ment to look at the tumult of pop music, often downloaded singly, so that the com- vance. Oehlen is obviously also interested in brin- records already produced, and so hired in plexity, intimacy and identity of a studio band to accompany the raps of ging the tumult itself into the pictures. In you can hold in your hand and put on the an interview with Max Dax, editor of Spex, the Furious Five. Grandmaster Flash can shelf become less important. Does Schinn Ohne Titel / Untitled, 2002 only be heard at all on just one of the Synthetic polymer and oil on canvas; 200 × 300 cm the magazine for popular culture, Albert consider the bowling balls, which are , New York. Fund for the many discs appearing under his name Oehlen thought recently that he always scratched like special editions of signed Twenty-First Century wanted to do “large colourful things that around this time. The fact that “The Mes- discs, the optimum three-dimensional sage” is an evergreen that became one of Ohne Titel / Untitled, 2002 speak directly to you,” in a rather pop medium? Synthetic polymer and oil on canvas; 300 × 200 cm the most important pieces in hip-hop musical way. That is why in recent times Museum of Modern Art, New York. Fund for the he has often integrated obtrusive trashy history must be a sore point for him. It Twenty-First Century was not only the first socially critical rap, The Message, 2009 advertising motifs into his paintings in for which Furious Five member Melle Mel Plywood, steel, car paint, Fender amplifier, desk, order to generate an “edgy mood”. Yet he plastic, microphone set-up; c. 7 × 7m is not suggesting contemporary rock aest- was largely responsible. It was also the Courtesy Galerie Kai Hoelzner first piece of pop music to effectively hetics should be adopted, hence the cry tackle the devastating social policies of Notice-and-take-down, 2009 for Help. On the 50th anniversary of the 7 chrome-platedbowling balls; stainless steel; the Reagan era. Uwe Schinn explores the first Elvis single, Oehlen said a few years diam. 27 cm ago: “Rock means to me , way the DJ, who co-invented the revoluti- Courtesy Galerie Kai Hoelzner onary technique of scratching, ultimately Smashing Pumpkins, Nickelback, Tote ran aground on the (still calamitous) state Hosen and the Stones. The Melvins can’t of copyright law. In addition, the large- undo the damage. The bottom line is, it scale installation evokes two further ele- would have been better if rock had never ments – fire escapes in US cities and existed.” Thus for Oehlen Elvis survives loudspeaker towers at major pop con- only via a diversion through . certs. Balconies are applied to them that range from shabbiest at the bottom to Rock, 2009 glossiest at the top. An unmistakable fea- Oil on canvas; 3-part, 2 parts @ 280 × 230 cm and ture at the heart of the work is the noise 1 part @ 105 × 350 cm broadcast round the room via Amp Gizmo Owned by the artist and Fender amplifiers, constituting a refe- Untitled, 2006 rence to the now rather outworn tech- Oil and print on cotton; 221.5 × 221.5 cm nique of scratching. Owned by the artist

Notice-and-take-down attacks the music Text: Diedrich Diederichsen, Monika Holzer-Kernbichler industry’s Internet procedure whereby a Translation: Paul Aston calibrated to: pictures of those who are which its founder, influential American What do you expect from an artist, a like me or like I want to be, pictures of the producer Rick Rubin, can himself be Space02 performance, or a sound respectively? Is community (Tonight At The Pleasure heard. This knowledge is so special and there a boundary between the supposedly Dome); pictures of what I admire, stars beautiful that it justifies the often despised Kim Gordon, Jutta Koether private (as on YouTube), a public perfor- and sex objects (She’s So Hot She Makes expertise of nerds: Rick Rubin, one of the mance and restaging in an art venue? Me Sexist); and finally pictures of places two most influential hip-hop producers Kim Gordon Who, what and where is the public for of yearning, locations and scenarios I and the man responsible for Johnny * 1953 in Rochester (US), each of these? fantasize about (Revolution of the Ento- Cash’s late work, did a Mondrian-inspired lives in New York (US) and mopter). In each case, Plavcak complexi- cover in his art-punk youth! Northampton (US) fies these calibrations without ruining Sacred Body Practice, 2009 Jutta Koether Installation consisting of 3 acoustic booths (Auralex them – or indeed rescuing them. Max Wall 1141VB The Complete Solution), 3 videos Letter to Richard (One-Four), 2008 * 1958 in Cologne (DE) (colour, sound); dimensions variable Ink on paper; 27.94 × 34.29 cm lives in New York (US) Complete Solution 1, Purple: Julie Cafritz. Basement. Courtesy of the artist and Blum and Poe, Round Hill Rd., Northampton, MA, February 2009; Tonight At The Pleasure Dome, 2009 Three acoustic booths obtainable in the Oil on cotton; 180 × 300 cm camera: Phillip Virus Courtesy Galerie Mezzanin, Vienna trade as “complete solutions” in the three Complete Solution 2, Charcoal Gray: Noise Nomads. colours used here form the spatial ele- VFW Hall Western, MA, 2-28-08 She’s So Hot She Makes Me Sexist, 2009 Lucy McKenzie Complete Solution 3, Burgundy: Twodeadsluts One- Oil on cotton; 200 × 200 cm ment of an installation that suggests her- goodfuck. Somewhere at a farm barn in , Courtesy Galerie Mezzanin, Vienna *1977 Glasgow (UK) metically sealed, intimate studio situa- October 2006 lives and works in Glasgow (UK) tions. In each booth, a brief video runs Editing of DVDs: Andrew Kesin Revolution of the Entomopter, 2009 Courtesy of the artists Oil on cotton; 250 × 300 cm The artist writes Brain in large letters in that shows the artists in apparently pri- Courtesy Galerie Mezzanin, Vienna the sky. With her distinctive short hair- vate closed spaces doing their stuff. There style, and wearing plain overalls and are next to no members of the public in looking at her template, it seems to be the shots. The quality of the films comes Saâdane Afif the artist herself standing on the steplad- across to some extent like a spontaneous, Dave Muller *1970 Vendôme (F) der. Her androgynous look draws atten- barely choreographed shot. The experi- *1964 in San Francisco (USA) lives and works in Berlin (D) and Paris (F) tion to the controversial gender politics of mental space seems protected, the musi- lives in Los Angeles (US) Lyrics on the wall, guitar bodies with amp- painting, an art where men especially cal commotion introverted. Dave Muller spends $ 3,000 a month on lifiers attached to them, signed posters tend to predominate. Lucy McKenzie For Kim Gordon, a band member of Sonic discs. His work is the soundtrack of his life and a listening station make up the work wears – partly to identify herself as an Youth and (with Julie Cafritz), – in a way, a kind of self-portrait in notes, of this French artist, whose conceptual artist – working clothes she designed and painter, performance artist, critic, sounds and musical history, but especially installations always involve pop music in a herself. The large-format picture is about musician and writer Jutta Koether, wor- in bizarre covers, rarities and parapherna- very analytical sense. the world of the male music nerd, whose king from different author positions and in lia from junk stalls. At the Institute of Con- Saâdan Afif commissions people (musici- nature is made clear in the second pic- crossover is important. Here they stage temporary Art in Boston, he installed a ans, writers, song writers) to respond to ture level casually overlaid on it. An out- and cite works of others: Julie Cafritz, who radio station of his own, for which he one of his works in defined formats of pop size penis, a very long, agile tongue and reproduces a song by her Pussy Galore strung together music for 399 days wit- music. The aim is to get a product that on a state of mind as a speech bubble over- band from 1987 solo in the studio, the hout repeating a single track. the one hand constitutes a response to lay the very precisely executed person on Noise Nomads, whose screeching ampli- Afif’s work and on the other hand possibly Here at the Kunsthaus Graz, Dave Muller the stepladder still working on the lette- fiers make you want to bang your head till develops as the basis for a continuative answers artist Richard Prince’s question ring, which develops from a linear profile you drop, and Twodeadsluts Onegood- work by others, so that the end of the about the three most important record of a face. What she is painstakingly pain- fuck, who churn out a semi-naked noise- interpretative division of labour chain is a covers in musical history. His answer is ting here is the logo of the German label punk performance in a farmyard barn. four black-and-white drawings, three Brain, which is regarded as a pioneer of cover pictures and a suitable envelope for and Krautrock in the them. No. 3 shows a cover inspired by 70s. In the 90s, it was a cult reference in Piet Mondrian (who did his last pictures the cosmos of a trivia-obsessed pop much impressed by boogie-woogie in music culture dominated by nerds. New York) produced by art-punk band McKenzie links a feminist critique of pop Hose. This disc was the first publication music with a commentary on a male- by the Def-Jam label and the only disc on dominated art world. new beginning. Music thus produced may in the sense of contemporariness, the Mike Kelley Katrin Plavcak then for example reappear in the broad- present day, the aspect that has enor- *1954 Detroit (US) *1970 in Gütersloh (DE) casts of a radio station that has tempora- mous importance in pop music, i.e. “being lives and works in Los Angeles (US) lives in Vienna (AT) and Berlin (DE) rily hosted Afif on a channel that can be new” and “being there”. Sex, drugs and rock ’n‘ roll. It’s noisy on Like some of her colleagues represented received by a gallery installation. In his The work is about a point in pop history this merry-go-round of high spots. Wel- in the exhibition, Katrin Plavcak is an all- works, pop music, art and poetry continu- after which the apparently mechanical, come to a world of vacuous, extreme, round talent. As a painter with extensive ally and habitually go beyond the systems “natural” attributes of “being new” became sexualised hedonism. The bouncy castles band experience – her current band is and techniques of the genre. What is deliberately actuated material for produ- – normally places of childish exuberance called Erste Stufe Haifisch – her contribu- involved is the transmittal of works that cers. Appearance, attitudes and visual – are stylised into female torsos, mutating tion to the exhibition is the three large- are changed, interpreted and re-interpre- elements of presentation were now highly through their vaginal apertures into uteral format pictures here. ted by being transmitted. nuanced components of the way pop nuclei of life that have shed every pre- Tonight At The Pleasure Dome shows music was staged. Poledna more or less tence of innocence. Yet the work is cer- people reacting to music, screaming, laug- Blue Time vs. Suspense, 2007 freezes the moment when pop music tainly to some extent ambivalent. This hing and swamped by noise. We become Various materials: 3 guitars, 3 amplifiers, cables, became aware of itself, its performative monumental, sarcastic presence is for one stars on the stage looking down at a 3 song lyrics on holographic film, signed poster 1/20, details and their controllability. That was thing a caricature of the omnipresent bemused public below. The faces seem to 3 unsigned posters, 1 CD player, 1 audio CD (Blue the innocent beginning of irony, pop the- imperative that we should have as much Time vs. Suspense by Vale Poher), 1 set of earphones, cite various styles of caricature, from Hog- 1 amplifier for the earphones, 1 controller for 4 spots, ory and lavish exploitation. fun as possible. Then again, a productive arth and Daumier to Deix. The happy cables, wood, paint; dimensions variable disruption of the tranquillity and satisfac- partying people with their choir of pseudo- Private collection, Belgium tion of institutional aloofness survives of Courtesy Xavier Hufkens, Brussels individuals turn out to be a compilation of Actualité, 2001/02 its graphicness and massiveness. Pop 16 mm film, colour, sound; 8:58 min clearly definable representational styles. Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Meyer Kainer, music and the consumer culture envelo- Vienna; Galerie Daniel Buchholz, Cologne; Richard ping it feature simultaneously as a dysto- Supraphon is the largest Czech record Mathias Poledna Telles Fine Art, Los Angeles pic menace, Adorno’s notorious “chalybe- label and the only label in the former Iron Photo: enlargement of a 16 mm single image * 1965 Vienna (AT) ate bath of fun” and place of maximum Curtain countries to have survived the lives and works in Los Angeles (US) regression, and yet also as a tribute to the political and economic upheavals of the energies that are released in this culture, 90s. It features here on an outsize record You enter the rehearsal room and are asserting themselves and condensing into cover that shows the Venus of Willendorf taken back three decades, to the time Cory Arcangel grotesque, bizarre voices protesting riding a fragile Pegasus. The title – She’s around 1980, somewhere in New York or * 1978 in Buffalo, NY (US) against the smugness of high culture. The So Hot She Makes Me Sexist – is borro- London. The scene is enormously con- lives in New York, NY (US) installation has to hold its own not only wed from the new HBO series Flight of densed, and turns out to be a re-staging Cory Arcangel filtered out all the - against the room that contains it – it tack- the Conchords, another caricature, this of fashions, dispositions and small stylistic playing cats he could find on YouTube, les, head on, a cultural order that leaves time of the Indie rock industry, in which a details of the immediate post-punk era. isolated the notes they made in the indivi- us only with two options: the lofty detach- New Zealand band in New York plays We are shown an imaginary band (all dual images and entered them in a data- ment of high culture, or being swamped itself. At the same time, the typical argu- actors), who in age, dress and hairdos base. A piece of video software he wrote by mass culture. ment trotted out by defenders of the sup- match bands of the time. Mathias himself subsequently enabled him to posed naturalness of cultural effects is Poledna asked (Red string the notes together so as to make highlighted – the whole structural conser- Krayola, then as now), Tom Watson (Slo- up one of Arnold Schoenberg’s Three Sex, Drugs, and Rock and Roll vatism of rock. venly at the time) and Piano Pieces, Opus 11. These Three Piano Party Palace, 2009 The Revolution of the Entomopter shows (Minutemen) in 2001 to record their own Pieces marked Schoenberg’s adoption of Installation of various materials; dimensions variable the mini flying robot developed by Robert reduced musical structures in the style of an atonal approach. Courtesy of the artist the period, small mechanical scraps of Admission only to those aged 18+ C. Michelson as pioneering technology for Around 500 cats and approximately 5,000 music such as you hear in rehearsal exploring Mars but also for spying. In notes produced by them are the basis of rooms, so they could be reproduced for Plavcak, they have already landed on this work, which constitutes a develop- the film by the band of actors. This sta- Mars and are having a trial insurrection, ment of Arcangel’s newly recorded You- ging of history deprives the performance getting entangled in images of an earlier Tube version of a Bach Goldberg variation of any spontaneity and leads to a synthe- surrealism. played by Glenn Gould. sization of the material. But in contrast, Katrin Plavcak’s paintings home in on the staged rehearsal speaks of “actualité” Cory Arcangel sees Arnold Schoenberg as three visual settings that pop music is Sepultura. She called the video Mega- a turning point in composed music, the word rock – the heaviness, and pre-civilised Space01 hertz, Megastar, Brother, Brazil, in which point when it finally parted company with and tellurian aspects are combined with a Admission only to those aged 18+ we learn about concert dates, reviews of any kind of mass culture. One might think critique of the political atavism of Southern the band’s participation at various music his compositions are as remote from pop Rock, while on the other hand he ponders festivals or the singer’s tour diary by lea- music as it is possible to be, and yet he on the aesthetics of the sublime in the Klara Lidén fing through sundry music magazines. At exercises great influence on a whole host depth and boundlessness of stone. Particu- * 1979 Stockholm (SE) the same time, we hear Sepultura as if in of contemporary pop musicians, particu- larly 70s’ rock often explored elements of lives in Berlin (D) a broadcast, interlarded with excerpts larly in the electronic field. The everyday that kind, in an equally fascinating and Klara Lidén dances, leaps and moves from interviews. How is pop history writ- aesthetics of YouTube documenting cute dubious attachment to the prehistoric and hand over hand from bar to bar. She ten? How are musicians dramatised and cats on musical instruments represents planetary. Durant dedicates a piece of undresses, liberating herself from eve- heroicised if they trigger off a music revolt the maximum popularisation of something garden architecture to these contradictions rything that hampers her in her boisterous in a country such as Brazil? inherently not popularisable – and a cari- and the fascination they have. Gardens dancing (life). She allows her body free In the associated banners, Green traces cature of it. What Arcangel distils from it here are places for both contemplation and rein, and in spontaneous choreography the link between Brazilian pop music his- is a new quality. It is in fact what one play, but are at the same time places for flips to Paralyzed, a grotesque piece of a tory and political and art movements. The scandalized member of the audience ori- memorials – aspects of reception that are a Texan eccentric who called himself The links with the Tropicalismo movement and ginally called Schoenberg’s compositions long way from the hyperactivity and quest Legendary Stardust Cowboy. On the bat- the Musica Populeira Brasilheira, which – pure katzenmusik (caterwauling). for identification that distinguish the rock tered, grimy commuter train in Stockholm especially in the 70s came out against the public. that leaves marks on her body, the other dictatorship, are particularly numerous, And that is where the landscape architec- passengers remain calm and seem rather Three Piano Pieces Op. 11, I, 2009 mainly through figures such as artist Hélio Single-channel video: colour, sound; ture of Isamu Noguchi and the Zen garden unimpressed by her performance. But Oiticica, musicians Caetano Veloso and dimensions variable at the Ryonaji Temple in Kyoto come in. In they are the ones who sit there quasi- Gilberto Gil, the Brazilian film-maker Glau- Courtesy of the artist and Team Gallery, New York the rock garden set up at the exhibition, a paralysed and incapable of action, waiting ber Rocha. Green therewith continues a sound track specially composed by Takeshi for their stop as usual. Lidén succeeds series of banners that she has recently Kagami comes out of the fibre-glass rocks. with simple resources where music videos used to contextualise her works. Sam Durant Peace, harmony, disharmony and chaos and dance theatre often fail – translating * 1961 in (US) are produced by the individual soundtracks, a song into a performance. lives and works in Los Angeles (US) which clash as in extemporised guitar- Relations: Brasil +, 2009 playing. The waste bin in the middle loca- iPod Touch with video (Megahertz, Megastar, Brother, The sculpture follows an installation by tes the groups of stones to an urban envi- Paralyzed, 2003 Brazil, 2000), 2 banners; Sam Durant from 1999 called Proposal for Video: colour, sound; 3 min iPod Touch: 11 × 6 cm, video: Mpeg-4, 14 min, colour ronment, providing a stable hub for the Private collection and sound, banner: 300 × 100 cm a Monument in Friendship Park, Jackson- informal flow of the set-up. Courtesy the artist and Free Agent Media ville, which suggested setting up a memo- rial to Southern Rock in Friendship Park, Jacksonville. In the 60s, the park was the Southern Rock Garden Beginning- less/ Renée Green venue for numerous Sunday afternoon jam Endless Primordial Connection to a Floa- *1959 Cleveland (US) sessions, and is considered the birthplace ting World with Consciousness of Sheer lives in New York (US) and of Southern Rock, whose notable expo- Invisible Mass (Ton mit Takeshi Kagami) San Francisco (US) nents include the Allman Brothers Band 2000 Southern Rock Garden Beginning-less/Endless Pri- Renée Green uses an iPod Touch as a and Lynyrd Skynyrd. The histories of both bands are overshadowed by accidents and mordial Connection to a Floating World with Conscious- medium for making a sculpture out of ness of Sheer Invisible Mass (sound by Takeshi music, sound and film in the exhibition dubious political statements. Members of Kagami), 2000 14 fibreglass rocks, 1 fibreglass waste bin, space, while at the same time giving the the Allman Brothers died in motorcycle accidents, while more than half the Lynyrd- 1 audio rack W/system, 2 CB loudspeakers, 1 plastic work an ostensibly private, intimate template; size variable framework. Ten years ago, she used jour- Skyrnyrd group lost their lives in a plane Courtesy Galerie Praz-Delavallade, Paris/Berlin nalistic material to produce a documen- crash. The band is notable for its Southern tary essay about her brother Derrick Leon patriotism, which in for example “Sweet Green, who succeeded the legendary Home Alabama” goes head on against Neil singer and charismatic Max Cavalera as Young’s anti-racist song “Southern Man”. front man of the Brazilian metal band But Durant plays on the ambiguity of the Stefan Hablützel Far and near and low and louder, 2009 not so much a musical experience as a and documented. The film, audio and * 1964 in Bern (CH) Installation consisting of sculpture, floor sculpture and social one. In the age of SingStar and photographical material thereby genera- 8 paper works; sculpture with pedestal: synthetic resin, lives in Düsseldorf (DE) paper, metal, paint, wood, 65 × 40 × 40 cm; Guitar Hero, karaoke already seems to ted is the starting point for the installation Stefan Hablützel effectively gives us an floor sculpture: wood, metal, mixed media, belong to a history in which making music at the Kunsthaus Graz. approx. 75 × 80 × 55 cm together in public premises enters the exhibition within an exhibition. In the one- Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Dennis Kimmerich As a singer and co-founder of the four- room show, completely traditional pictures private sphere of a new domestic music; member punk band With Love, Nico Vas- 8 paper works, inter alia: where one normally dreams of occupying hang on the wall, with smart new glass cellari has been active in the music busi- the privileged position of a star within the and frames. In the middle is a sculpture on Untitled (Plugs), 2009 ness since 1995. He is also active a pedestal. Everything seems laid out and Varnish, watercolour, coffee, ink on magazine page; virtual opportunities of one’s own home, internationally as a noise musician, and structured in the normal way. Only at the 30 × 23 cm one unexpectedly finds oneself in a posi- has worked with many of the well-known Courtesy Galerie Dennis Kimmerich second glance do various levels appear, tion of having to advocate in song the names of noise-music. the various cross-references with which Untitled (Shop), 2009 controversial ideas of Art & Language, for the artist works. It is not the sound that Varnish, watercolour, airbrush paint, Indian ink on example that one should not talk to socio- magazine page; 30 × 23 cm logists. Contextualised by cover pages of interests him about pop music but the Courtesy Galerie Dennis Kimmerich Lago Morto, 2009 Installation: videos, collage, photocopies, sound; collective experience – what’s OK and the periodical published by Art & Lan- Untitled (it gives), 2008 guage, questions of narrator position and dimensions variable what’s not OK. There is also a cross-refe- Varnish, Indian ink on magazine page; 30 × 23 cm Courtesy of the artist and Galleria Monitor, Rom rence to , which to him is Courtesy Galerie Dennis Kimmerich legitimation for talking publicly are thema- inconceivable without pop music. Like tised. many young people at the time, in the 1980s Stefan Hablützel read and hoarded Art & Language with The Red Krayola Karaoke Bar, 2005 magazines, gleaning his musical know- DVD in a loop, poster, table, chairs; text and music by ledge from Spex or The Face, and kept up Michael Baldwin Art & Language and The Red Krayola from Corrected with contemporary art developments via *1945 in Chipping Norton (UK) Slogans, 1976 (Drag City Records) and Kangaroo?, 1981 (Drag City Records); 10 posters by Art & Lan- the Wolkenkratzer Art Journal. These publi- * 1944 in Ilkeston (UK) guage, 1977; silkscreen on paper, each poster 108 × cations now serve as a store for his pain- 80 cm, edition of 40 tings to draw on. He detaches individual Charles Harrison Courtesy of the artists pages from them (preferably those that *1942 in Chesham (UK) advertise sound recordings) and, building Art & Language has been challenging the on these, develops a second, very delicate traditional concept of art since 1966 by Nico Vascellari painterly level. This process may look denying any individualistic view of art and *1976 Vittorio Veneto (IT) spontaneous, but it isn’t. In fact, the delica- taking Marxist and linguistic analyses as lives and works in Vittorio Veneto (IT) tely constructed compositions generally their starting point. How far can art and New York (US) take shape on screen like digital sketches, objects be replaced by linguistic concepts? slowly, step by step and with much Nico Vascellari founded the Lago Morto In the early 80s, and then again in recent band in April 2009, naming it after a little thought. Only at the end are they painted, years, Art & Language wrote lyrics for The airbrushed or drawn in ink manually on to lake in the Veneto in northern Italy and Red Krayola band. Back in 1976, they casting it according to criteria he set per- the earmarked magazine pages. Art histo- worked with the only permanent member rical citations are of critical importance sonally. The basic condition was that all of the band, Mayo Thompson, on an the members recruited should come from here, whether as direct overlays or as that appeared under the Art & freely associated structure. Likewise the Vittorio Veneto (pop. 30,000) and should Language name. The Karaoke Bar that Art go on tour together round the town. From sculpture in the middle is not left to itself & Language have installed draws on that and the room. A dismantled chair in its 10th – 24th May 2009, Lago Morto played album, (1976), and in every conceivable venue in the town, individual parts, a dismembered picture Kangaroo? (1981), one of the joint albums frame and a performance by Peter Gabriel whether osteria, pizzeria, club or bar. You they did with The Red Krayola. The public could hear the fast, sound (1974) interrupt the order of things, crea- are invited to pick up the microphone and ting a sense of detachment that is conti- at a different place every night, and – sing along themselves as part of the ins- unlike the effort involved in traditional nued systematically here in the room, tallation, following the text shown. The beginning with the pictures. touring – after the show, everyone simply musical cue makes it clear that karaoke is went home. Every show was recorded