From Library Journal
Edited by founder MacDonald, this largely pictorial overview of Artspace's activities since its 1986 emergence in San Francisco chronicles the organization's multifarious productions and the community it fostered before its recent move to New York. The uninitiated reader may occasionally feel left out, for photographs of people appear as in a family album, candid and without specific names or organizational relationship. However, the book provides valuable insight into the workings of a community arts organization and traces the aesthetic leanings of San Francisco's art scene. Included are excerpts from Dave Hickey's fiction and stills from filmmaker Chris Munch's latest productions, among many other samplings. The book's jumble of grainy images, often taken from video monitors, and the persistent denial of coherent narrative in both text and image mirror the disjointed and ephemeral nature of our postmodern, media-saturated culture. It also endows the book with a mood of transience appropriate for the story of an organization's history. Recommended for collections focusing on contemporary art and museum studies. Savannah Schroll, Smithsonian Inst. Libs., Washington, DC
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Book Description
An irreverent document of Artspace's 15-year commitment to exhibitions, publications, performances, videos and film, this book challenges the notion of what an organization for and about artists can be at the dawn of the 21st century. Supported by Artspace grants, the guerilla artists of Survival Research Laboratories terrorized San Fransisco with robots and air cannons, Karen Finley astonished audiences at Theater Artaud, and Jenny Holzer sucker-punched unsuspecting Giants fans with big-board LED messages at Candlestick Park. Here are projects by such provocateurs as General Idea, Jessica Diamond, David Mach, and Patrick Ireland, stills from videos by Tony Oursler and Sophie Calle, and the legendary "Lunch Movies" of emeritus museum director Jim Elliot, featuring Candy Darling. From "Shift" magazine come articles by Ingird Sischy and Kathy Acker; images from the newly released Chris Munch film "Sleepy Time Gal"; and excerpts from Artspace Books, an artist-writer series featuring works by John DeFazio, Dave Hickey, David Wojnarowicz, Jack Pierson, Jim Lewis, Nan Goldin, Klaus Kertess, Gregory Crewdson, Rick Moody and A.M. Homes. "Artspace Is/Artspace Was" is an engaging presentation of artists who know to combine subversion and fun in their work.
