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Evil Genius
(on Brian Wilson and the films of Wes Anderson)
by Jean-Philippe Tessé
In this article, film critic Jean-Philippe Tessé undertakes an analysis that compares singer-songwriter Brian Wilson to the protagonists of the films of Wes Anderson. An ambiguous icon of the 1960s and ‘70s—sometimes bright and sunny, sometimes dark and tormented—Wilson incarnates, claims Tessé, a figure of failure specific to pop culture, which the author associates with his own study of contemporary burlesque humor. This text is adapted from a lecture given at CAPC in the context of a symposium called A travers le miroir. La culture pop et au-delà (CAPC musée d’art contemporain de Bordeaux, December 7–8, 2007). Tessé, born in 1977, is a member of the editorial board of Cahiers du Cinéma and editor of the movie section of Chronic’art magazine; in 2007 he published Le burlesque (Paris: Les Éditions des Cahiers du Cinéma).
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video
La vague et le vague.
Gilles Deleuze on surfby Arnaud Viviant
Gilles Deleuze on surf, la vague et le vague, a “performance lecture” by Arnaud Viviant, implements a kind of free, intellectual, and progressive drift within the philosophy of the “surf” concept. From Wikipedia to surf music and from the Beach Boys to Gilles Deleuze, Viviant sketches a theory of pop and of our contemporary relationship to culture.
This video piece documents a lecture given at CAPC in the context of a symposium titled A travers le miroir. La culture pop et au-dela (CAPC musée d’art contemporain de Bordeaux, December 7–8, 2007).
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texte
SISTERS
by Patricia Falguières
Here we are introduced to the work of the uncategorizable Sister Corita Kent through the tale of her rediscovery by another unique artist, Julie Ault, a co-founder of Group Material in New York in 1980. In SISTERS, Patricia Falguières recounts a recent chapter in art history that suggests some reasons for this ineluctable encounter of two major artistic figures: on the one hand, Sister Corita, a nun working in California in the 1950s and ‘60s in a realm somewhere between pop culture, political activism, and religion, and on the other hand Ault, whose artistic, critical and curatorial work constantly raises issues of exhibition, design, and politics.
Falguières is a French historian who teaches at both the École des Hautes Ètudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris and the École des beaux-arts in Bordeaux.
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video
Jason Rhoades
Visite d’atelier
by Atelier pensée nomade, chose imprimée
Los Angeles, 1984
This visit by the group Atelier Pensée Nomade, Chose Imprimée, (École des beaux-art de Bordeaux) to the studio of Jason Rhoades, a Californian artist (1965–2006) begins with a light box and ends with the firing of a gun that turns a potato into French fries.
From box to fries, we see the making—and using—of a piece of art. Rhoades takes us to his favorite DIY store, Homebase in Inglewood, in search of the parts needed to make an “ABS Gun with Pom Fritz Choke.” It is built around a plastic tube and triggered by a can of hairspray, all inspired by the warrior gear of the kids in Rhoades’ neighborhood. A pure gem of LA suburbia.
On the way, Rhoades discusses his childhood in northern California, his recollection of country fairs, Brancusi, and why he opts for yellow.
“Why this special yellow?”
“To match the gallery… just a stupid way of choosing something … just a choice.”
Back in the studio, he hectically saws, assembles, and glues, offering practical tips over the din of the machines. Rhoades gets his hands dirty, showing us how to make art. He thinks with his senses, senses things with his mind.
“We can build a potato gun!”
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texte
In Search of Pop: From Seductive Beat to Global Ecstasy
by Yann Chateigné Tytelman / Florent Mazzoleni
In this e-mail exchange, Yann Chateigné Tytelman and Florent Mazzoleni discuss what are the stakes of “pop culture” today, extending from art and music to criticism. They address the forms it takes, its economy, its geography and its politics right from the birth of worldwide pop, ranging from the USA to Africa and back again, not overlooking the “French situation.”
Mazzoleni is a writer, journalist and photographer whose publications notably include L’Épopée de la musique africaine (Hors Collection, 2008), Disco (Flammarion, 2007), L’odyssée du rock (Hors Collection 2004) and, more recently Les racines du rock (Hors Collection, 2008).
