These kiosks are from Lorna Mills' recent show at Robert McLaughlin Gallery. The texts running across the bottom of the screens are streams of race horse names, chosen for their punning, allusive qualities. For instance the kiosk on the right, titled "Greeter" contains about 250 names including: Hello Duck Entoria Percipient Twisted Wit Hello Loneliness Beau Manners Sure Blade Meinberg Omi Par de Deux Devaluation Azazel Hassenack Ack Ack Haiati Muted Triple Fax Lillian Gish Marienbard Trupon On Chiecaworld Emblitterate Bullistic Slam the Door
 | The kiosks (seven in all), are accompanied by much earlier work, that also probes at colour, broadcast, and lateral meaning. I am particularly interested in a series of cibachrome prints (image on the left is a detail, re-shot from the catalogue by me), crappy screen shots of sports on TV, enlarged so that the image, already crunchy, dissassembles further into globs of RGB. There is horse racing, swimming, curling, golf... Sports are so specific, a particular type of cultural narrative that is delivered to us within a particular lexicon of words and pictures. Mills judders this broadcast and sends it back, adding information about the physiology of perception and the resonance of association. You could call this culture jamming, and you could call it abstraction at the same time. The show really got my gears turning but I am writing about it for a print magazine, so will not go on too much more about it here and now. |
Hey, Sally
According to NOW Magzine today. You were 'sensible'
at the AGO talk. Can you confirm or deny this?
Hey Tino, my response is over here. Just trying to keep the threads on topic.
Sally,
My bad.
Will be more considerate in future for sure.
The installation looks good in the picture. I found an earlier piece in an art mag that relates to this work that I may be posting soon. Do the horizontal bands on the plinths relate to sports or racing in any way? Also, why the scrolling horse names? Is it a (dadaist?) non sequitur to the formal vocabulary of the stripes? Is that what you mean by "lateral meaning"?
My sense from talking to Lorna Mills is that the relationship is oblique. Race horses are codified with 'colours' and these plinths are also codified with colours, but the actual colours do not necessarilyrelate to any actual horses. Lorna complained that people sometimes read the red white and blue stripes of "Greeter" as referring to the American flag, while she sees it as much more French. The horse names are really a spiral of puns. They play off the title of the piece, they play off the other names in the scroll, some of them may just be 'made up' by the artist because she's saucy. They are really long. At the bottom of this post is the whole scroll from "Greeter." To sum it up, there is a multiple of organization systems going on behind these schemata, but the artist is not exactly divulging all her methods, rather hinting at them, and inviting us to speculate.
There is one really interesting part of the show that I didn't mention above. There's a painting in the gallery's collection by J.J.Munnings, an uptight oil painter who was head of the British Academy in 1858 and apparently closed it to anyone who was from abroad. It's a pretty poorly rendered lurid thing depicting horses and riders preparing for the race. The gallery's ownership of this work is sooo Upper Canadian it makes your fillings ache. The painting has its own little room, with curved bay window, avocado walls and floral drapes. Mills made a special kiosk just to face off against this painting in the little room. It's stripes match the drapery, and the horse names on the scroll depict sex and money. A sample: Bonnie Blue Me Monetary Dancer Secret Deposit Blowing Bartok Red Riding Wood You Pay The Bill I Love The Organ Bed Pro Come On Joy
Names from "Greeter": Greeter Sheikh and Awe Whirled Peas Fastness Hello Tuna Awisebuy Chasmo Hice Condorcet Severus Dam Tam Cargi Alina Alina Hello Beauty Rose Palana Aggadan Loma Preata Flager Fontina Logical Fecial Gomka Agolo Latching Graceful Klinchit Truckin Specialette Afleetilation Glitter Mean A Kin to Mod Hello Duck Entoria Percipient Twisted Wit Hello Loneliness Beau Manners Sure Blade Meinberg Omi Par de Deux Devaluation Azazel Hassenack Ack Ack Haiati Muted Triple Fax Lillian Gish Marienbard Trupon On Chiecaworld Emblitterate Bullistic Slam the Door Myzomela Almuhathir Plugged Nickle Lojo Toots Alla Ideal Cut Attest Well I'm Beaming Puffer Chacha Bamba Nicely Nasty Stradocaster Orka Stone Soup Demons Begone Operatic Etbauer Steffon Chordette Molane Perkin Warbeck Meggles Kemeka Two of a Kim Colophon Pie War Holy Man Hey Wood Looking Swainbow Big Burn Meritable Nostralachee Polly Pitso Like Her Brother Moro Oro Rizzaletta Valdez Louie Downtown Milligram Uber Alyce Tizumptuous Eishin Illini Now Smarten Seed Case Glancing Wannabeflying Ashdown Siberiano Stackal Faisal Twiggams Prudencia Fly This Quico Disco Boshkung Szerbusz Sunk Wisset Vulpix Noactor Ing Ing Sharpo Bauhauser Barbaloot Gatap Trysail Sharpen Up Duce's Image Ops Run Yazor Great Auntee Hymns of Glory Maid of Money Stew Nada Tafaseel Fitfoe Broad Ha Ha Leaks Last Actcellent Umpateedle Another Snapper Chickadee Zip the Bright Powderjay Badinage Voluntariosa Panimetro Felicita Manduria Monarchos Monoestrellado Locorotondo Hermanita Copernica Parlay Me Tella Fib Bolchina Chansel Cagey Bidder Que Tormenta Thou Swell Marvelous Monster Tickle Me Silly Hello Bat Man Fuego Seguro Testhaven Jomax Trickmeister High Dice Hello Wall Traveling Victress Machiavellian Rabba Jabba Doo Boliche Arterial Teak Totem Hello Move Over Please Mong Alwuhush Mensa Madam Hello Let's Gossip Affirmity Apt to Be Rebeau's Pleasure Herculated Pretty Caddy Slew Chatta Code Invisible Ink Igofast From Thisday Forward Eye a Shur U Cash Hellohellohello Hello Thing Hello to Me Chez Chez Chez Quatre Dix Neuf Oka No Bon Bon Louis Quatorze Fifi La Tour Charm a Gendarme Chenette Cozette Femmette Candelette Frigidette Planchette Swimette Very Femme Heyahohowdy La Bruja Pronto Paco Calma Prado Bemmalou Puntivo Zamboni Belchamp Otten Bontanka Tray Bone Hugsie Songsung Hello Goodbye Hello Again Hello
It perhaps makes more sense to read the entire show as a response to that painting--the full stop modernist conceptualist "yah yah"--especially if there's nothing connecting the stripes to the horse names. It could be "play of language" vs "play of stripes" without necessarily being horse-centric. In other words, the piece could suffer if it traveled outside the context of a site specific, institutional critique.
I saw a few of kiosks on their own in a previous show and did not really twig to them. The works that give them the required context for me are the 80s cibachromes. In those works the colour is clearly part of a broadcast, coming from the TV to the artist, and then, filtered and re-jigged, from the artist to the viewer. In this light, the colour choices in the kiosks make sense to me as a game with code. The horse content is kind of important as a reference point the real world of normal communication. But maybe any such reference point would do. There's another important work as well, called "Focal" in which she's shot video through a fancy drinking glass, framing the blurry scene beyond in this weird Mondrian-patterned vortex. Here's the picture (stolen from Walter Philips Gallery, which has a nice review posted).
Lorna Mills, Focal, 2001 (video still, double monitor)
Now just stop it you two!!! First of all Tom, I'd never describe my activities as any kind of critique, although making a mockery of much is a bad habit of mine. (for the record, I am more interested and mystified as to why we like what we like, than to why we shouldn't like what we like. My own list of guilty pleasures is so long that it has ceased induce guilt)
The stripes and the race horse names do not have a literal relationship when I am making the work. Its not necessary to even know they are names of race horses, but viewers do recognize them as names (small towns? strippers?).
The stripes are a current painterly obsession, sourced from commercial logos, book covers, Gap & Old Navy rugby shirts, design sources that don't demand the type of visual tensions that an interesting painting would need, but still serve the idea of visual information compression. (also removing masking tape puts me in a state of ridiculous joy ...because I am a freak)
The repeat of the stripes on the TV set amuses me as it verifies, by it's broadcast, the colours below. (There's your proof! damn it!!) At the points in time when the text doesn't appear on the crawl (in between 3 minute cycles) it's a self contained, closed system. Although, I love that aspect, that alone would ultimately be an unsatisfying activity for me, as an artist.
The text crawl is essential to my making the work, it relieves the raving formalism. (and it comes first in the process of the making) Simply put, names are expansive, and these names hover in a strange territory not generally traversed by proper nouns, encompassing bad puns, malaprops, cheesy sexual innuendo, wry allusions to world events, supplications for success (luck, love & money) as well as the truly inexplicable. (Autumnal Umbrellas - more of a pet than a racehorse)
Not dada at all, although reading the race results from Equibase every day can be a dada experience, especially when names like "Spoken Fur", "Bletchingly" and "Infomint" jump out at me. Running across the bottom of the TV screen they suggest promiscuous information (and when it comes to promiscuous info, I am, indeed, a Willing Maid).
Thanks for chiming in here, you Willing Maid you. I like your forward momentum. Avant!
|
These kiosks are from Lorna Mills' recent show at Robert McLaughlin Gallery. The texts running across the bottom of the screens are streams of race horse names, chosen for their punning, allusive qualities. For instance the kiosk on the right, titled "Greeter" contains about 250 names including:
- sally mckay 10-25-2004 7:47 pm
Hey, Sally
According to NOW Magzine today. You were 'sensible'
at the AGO talk. Can you confirm or deny this?
- Tino (guest) 10-29-2004 12:14 am
Hey Tino, my response is over here. Just trying to keep the threads on topic.
- sally mckay 10-29-2004 1:19 am
Sally,
My bad.
Will be more considerate in future for sure.
- Tino (guest) 11-01-2004 8:40 pm
The installation looks good in the picture. I found an earlier piece in an art mag that relates to this work that I may be posting soon. Do the horizontal bands on the plinths relate to sports or racing in any way? Also, why the scrolling horse names? Is it a (dadaist?) non sequitur to the formal vocabulary of the stripes? Is that what you mean by "lateral meaning"?
- tom moody 12-08-2004 6:04 am
My sense from talking to Lorna Mills is that the relationship is oblique. Race horses are codified with 'colours' and these plinths are also codified with colours, but the actual colours do not necessarilyrelate to any actual horses. Lorna complained that people sometimes read the red white and blue stripes of "Greeter" as referring to the American flag, while she sees it as much more French. The horse names are really a spiral of puns. They play off the title of the piece, they play off the other names in the scroll, some of them may just be 'made up' by the artist because she's saucy. They are really long. At the bottom of this post is the whole scroll from "Greeter." To sum it up, there is a multiple of organization systems going on behind these schemata, but the artist is not exactly divulging all her methods, rather hinting at them, and inviting us to speculate.
There is one really interesting part of the show that I didn't mention above. There's a painting in the gallery's collection by J.J.Munnings, an uptight oil painter who was head of the British Academy in 1858 and apparently closed it to anyone who was from abroad. It's a pretty poorly rendered lurid thing depicting horses and riders preparing for the race. The gallery's ownership of this work is sooo Upper Canadian it makes your fillings ache. The painting has its own little room, with curved bay window, avocado walls and floral drapes. Mills made a special kiosk just to face off against this painting in the little room. It's stripes match the drapery, and the horse names on the scroll depict sex and money. A sample: Bonnie Blue Me Monetary Dancer Secret Deposit Blowing Bartok Red Riding Wood You Pay The Bill I Love The Organ Bed Pro Come On Joy
Names from "Greeter": Greeter Sheikh and Awe Whirled Peas Fastness Hello Tuna Awisebuy Chasmo Hice Condorcet Severus Dam Tam Cargi Alina Alina Hello Beauty Rose Palana Aggadan Loma Preata Flager Fontina Logical Fecial Gomka Agolo Latching Graceful Klinchit Truckin Specialette Afleetilation Glitter Mean A Kin to Mod Hello Duck Entoria Percipient Twisted Wit Hello Loneliness Beau Manners Sure Blade Meinberg Omi Par de Deux Devaluation Azazel Hassenack Ack Ack Haiati Muted Triple Fax Lillian Gish Marienbard Trupon On Chiecaworld Emblitterate Bullistic Slam the Door Myzomela Almuhathir Plugged Nickle Lojo Toots Alla Ideal Cut Attest Well I'm Beaming Puffer Chacha Bamba Nicely Nasty Stradocaster Orka Stone Soup Demons Begone Operatic Etbauer Steffon Chordette Molane Perkin Warbeck Meggles Kemeka Two of a Kim Colophon Pie War Holy Man Hey Wood Looking Swainbow Big Burn Meritable Nostralachee Polly Pitso Like Her Brother Moro Oro Rizzaletta Valdez Louie Downtown Milligram Uber Alyce Tizumptuous Eishin Illini Now Smarten Seed Case Glancing Wannabeflying Ashdown Siberiano Stackal Faisal Twiggams Prudencia Fly This Quico Disco Boshkung Szerbusz Sunk Wisset Vulpix Noactor Ing Ing Sharpo Bauhauser Barbaloot Gatap Trysail Sharpen Up Duce's Image Ops Run Yazor Great Auntee Hymns of Glory Maid of Money Stew Nada Tafaseel Fitfoe Broad Ha Ha Leaks Last Actcellent Umpateedle Another Snapper Chickadee Zip the Bright Powderjay Badinage Voluntariosa Panimetro Felicita Manduria Monarchos Monoestrellado Locorotondo Hermanita Copernica Parlay Me Tella Fib Bolchina Chansel Cagey Bidder Que Tormenta Thou Swell Marvelous Monster Tickle Me Silly Hello Bat Man Fuego Seguro Testhaven Jomax Trickmeister High Dice Hello Wall Traveling Victress Machiavellian Rabba Jabba Doo Boliche Arterial Teak Totem Hello Move Over Please Mong Alwuhush Mensa Madam Hello Let's Gossip Affirmity Apt to Be Rebeau's Pleasure Herculated Pretty Caddy Slew Chatta Code Invisible Ink Igofast From Thisday Forward Eye a Shur U Cash Hellohellohello Hello Thing Hello to Me Chez Chez Chez Quatre Dix Neuf Oka No Bon Bon Louis Quatorze Fifi La Tour Charm a Gendarme Chenette Cozette Femmette Candelette Frigidette Planchette Swimette Very Femme Heyahohowdy La Bruja Pronto Paco Calma Prado Bemmalou Puntivo Zamboni Belchamp Otten Bontanka Tray Bone Hugsie Songsung Hello Goodbye Hello Again Hello
- sally mckay 12-08-2004 8:13 pm
It perhaps makes more sense to read the entire show as a response to that painting--the full stop modernist conceptualist "yah yah"--especially if there's nothing connecting the stripes to the horse names. It could be "play of language" vs "play of stripes" without necessarily being horse-centric. In other words, the piece could suffer if it traveled outside the context of a site specific, institutional critique.
- tom moody 12-08-2004 8:58 pm
I saw a few of kiosks on their own in a previous show and did not really twig to them. The works that give them the required context for me are the 80s cibachromes. In those works the colour is clearly part of a broadcast, coming from the TV to the artist, and then, filtered and re-jigged, from the artist to the viewer. In this light, the colour choices in the kiosks make sense to me as a game with code. The horse content is kind of important as a reference point the real world of normal communication. But maybe any such reference point would do. There's another important work as well, called "Focal" in which she's shot video through a fancy drinking glass, framing the blurry scene beyond in this weird Mondrian-patterned vortex. Here's the picture (stolen from Walter Philips Gallery, which has a nice review posted).
Lorna Mills, Focal, 2001 (video still, double monitor)
- sally mckay 12-08-2004 9:42 pm
Now just stop it you two!!! First of all Tom, I'd never describe my activities as any kind of critique, although making a mockery of much is a bad habit of mine. (for the record, I am more interested and mystified as to why we like what we like, than to why we shouldn't like what we like. My own list of guilty pleasures is so long that it has ceased induce guilt)
The stripes and the race horse names do not have a literal relationship when I am making the work. Its not necessary to even know they are names of race horses, but viewers do recognize them as names (small towns? strippers?).
The stripes are a current painterly obsession, sourced from commercial logos, book covers, Gap & Old Navy rugby shirts, design sources that don't demand the type of visual tensions that an interesting painting would need, but still serve the idea of visual information compression. (also removing masking tape puts me in a state of ridiculous joy ...because I am a freak)
The repeat of the stripes on the TV set amuses me as it verifies, by it's broadcast, the colours below. (There's your proof! damn it!!) At the points in time when the text doesn't appear on the crawl (in between 3 minute cycles) it's a self contained, closed system. Although, I love that aspect, that alone would ultimately be an unsatisfying activity for me, as an artist.
The text crawl is essential to my making the work, it relieves the raving formalism. (and it comes first in the process of the making) Simply put, names are expansive, and these names hover in a strange territory not generally traversed by proper nouns, encompassing bad puns, malaprops, cheesy sexual innuendo, wry allusions to world events, supplications for success (luck, love & money) as well as the truly inexplicable. (Autumnal Umbrellas - more of a pet than a racehorse)
Not dada at all, although reading the race results from Equibase every day can be a dada experience, especially when names like "Spoken Fur", "Bletchingly" and "Infomint" jump out at me. Running across the bottom of the TV screen they suggest promiscuous information (and when it comes to promiscuous info, I am, indeed, a Willing Maid).
- L.M. 12-11-2004 8:47 pm
Thanks for chiming in here, you Willing Maid you. I like your forward momentum. Avant!
- sally mckay 12-12-2004 11:02 pm