http://www.nic-rad.com Nic*Rad Mon, 23 Jul 2012 17:56:20 +0000 http://www.nic-rad.com en http://www.nic-rad.com/Hope-Soap http://www.nic-rad.com/following/nic-rad.com/Hope-Soap Mon, 23 Jul 2012 17:56:20 +0000 Nic*Rad 3667767 The brilliant, charming, and 'mad-decent' Adam Wissing and I created this piece as part of the Wassaic Project Summer Show. The video is projected on 3' x 11' foot letter forms made out of Goatsmilk Soap. Major thanks also to Kenny Komer for helping make my dreams come true. The Summer of 2012 was filled with mayhem and corruption and a dub step San Pellegrino sipping party-like atmosphere. In basements across our great nation the best and brightest set to work on artesianal attack ads. Elsewhere Banksters were devising imaginary legislation to help elected officials pretend to know what to do about an incurable systematic mania. Dogs were barking a little bit louder. Laundry billowed more violently in the breeze. A four year old campaign slogan decided it was not flattered anymore by its american flag bikini and stayed home and ate marshmallow fluff. Kid Rock is now a sage, level headed political commentator. "Hey chill out man, let's just try to figure this out." Detroit is the new Berlin. In Williamsburg, the McCarren Park Pool reopened and mobs gathered then immediately descended into fist fights and petty theft. It was discovered public bathing is still appalling and not what the founders had in mind. Be the change you want to see. Soap is like LITERALLY a change agent. I mean literally bro. All things deteriorate at an alarming rate. Shepard Fairey is totes famous. Thumbs up for Rock n' Roll. The brilliant, charming, and 'mad-decent' Adam Wissing and I created this piece as part of the Wassaic Project Summer Show. The video is projected on 3' x 11'... http://www.nic-rad.com/ArtLiars http://www.nic-rad.com/following/nic-rad.com/ArtLiars Thu, 28 Jun 2012 11:17:53 +0000 Nic*Rad 2495753 ArtLiars LLC is a limited liability improv collaborative created by Nic Rad and Josh Lukaris. They are whatever they say they are and if they weren't why would they say they were? Previous performances: The Cell Theatre, Chelsea, NY / ArtLiars, Spring Break Art Fair, LES, NY / ArtLiars, Fountain Art Fair, 69th Street Regiment Armory, NY <img src="http://payload9.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2495753/art_liar_nic_heather_640.jpg" width="640" height="427" width_o="1000" height_o="667" src_o="http://payload9.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2495753/art_liar_nic_heather_o.jpg" data-mid="19030331" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload9.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2495753/9_640.jpg" width="640" height="425" width_o="1000" height_o="664" src_o="http://payload9.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2495753/9_o.jpg" data-mid="19030336" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload9.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2495753/8_640.jpg" width="640" height="425" width_o="1000" height_o="664" src_o="http://payload9.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2495753/8_o.jpg" data-mid="19030342" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload9.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2495753/7_640.jpg" width="640" height="425" width_o="1000" height_o="664" src_o="http://payload9.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2495753/7_o.jpg" data-mid="19030357" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload9.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2495753/6_640.jpg" width="640" height="425" width_o="1000" height_o="664" src_o="http://payload9.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2495753/6_o.jpg" data-mid="19030371" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload9.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2495753/5_640.jpg" width="640" height="425" width_o="1000" height_o="664" src_o="http://payload9.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2495753/5_o.jpg" data-mid="19030386" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload9.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2495753/4_640.jpg" width="640" height="425" width_o="1000" height_o="664" src_o="http://payload9.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2495753/4_o.jpg" data-mid="19030391" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload9.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2495753/3_640.jpg" width="640" height="425" width_o="1000" height_o="664" src_o="http://payload9.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2495753/3_o.jpg" data-mid="19030395" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload9.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2495753/2_640.jpg" width="640" height="425" width_o="1000" height_o="664" src_o="http://payload9.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2495753/2_o.jpg" data-mid="19030397" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload9.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2495753/1_640.jpg" width="640" height="425" width_o="1000" height_o="664" src_o="http://payload9.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2495753/1_o.jpg" data-mid="19030400" border="0" align="left"/> <img src="http://payload9.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2495753/nic_640.jpg" width="640" height="960" width_o="667" height_o="1000" src_o="http://payload9.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2495753/nic_o.jpg" data-mid="19030183" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload9.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2495753/kent_640.jpg" width="640" height="960" width_o="667" height_o="1000" src_o="http://payload9.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2495753/kent_o.jpg" data-mid="19030193" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload9.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2495753/heather_640.jpg" width="640" height="960" width_o="667" height_o="1000" src_o="http://payload9.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2495753/heather_o.jpg" data-mid="19030196" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload9.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2495753/connor_5_640.jpg" width="640" height="960" width_o="667" height_o="1000" src_o="http://payload9.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2495753/connor_5_o.jpg" data-mid="19030199" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload9.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2495753/will_640.jpg" width="640" height="960" width_o="667" height_o="1000" src_o="http://payload9.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2495753/will_o.jpg" data-mid="19030201" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload9.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2495753/josh_640.jpg" width="640" height="960" width_o="667" height_o="1000" src_o="http://payload9.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2495753/josh_o.jpg" data-mid="19030208" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload9.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2495753/evan_640.jpg" width="640" height="960" width_o="667" height_o="1000" src_o="http://payload9.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2495753/evan_o.jpg" data-mid="19030211" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload9.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2495753/jesse_640.jpg" width="640" height="960" width_o="667" height_o="1000" src_o="http://payload9.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2495753/jesse_o.jpg" data-mid="19030215" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload9.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2495753/george_640.jpg" width="640" height="960" width_o="667" height_o="1000" src_o="http://payload9.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2495753/george_o.jpg" data-mid="19030218" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload9.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2495753/smashley_640.jpg" width="640" height="960" width_o="667" height_o="1000" src_o="http://payload9.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2495753/smashley_o.jpg" data-mid="19030220" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload9.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2495753/keisha_640.jpg" width="640" height="960" width_o="667" height_o="1000" src_o="http://payload9.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2495753/keisha_o.jpg" data-mid="19030225" border="0" align="left"/> <img src="http://payload9.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2495753/whitney_640.jpg" width="640" height="480" width_o="800" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload9.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2495753/whitney_o.jpg" data-mid="19030522" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload9.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2495753/fountain_2_640.jpg" width="640" height="480" width_o="800" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload9.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2495753/fountain_2_o.jpg" data-mid="19030526" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload9.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2495753/moma_640.jpg" width="640" height="480" width_o="800" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload9.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2495753/moma_o.jpg" data-mid="19030532" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload9.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2495753/picasso_dog_640.jpg" width="640" height="800" width_o="850" height_o="1063" src_o="http://payload9.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2495753/picasso_dog_o.jpg" data-mid="19030540" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload9.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2495753/ros_mutt_front_640.jpg" width="640" height="800" width_o="850" height_o="1063" src_o="http://payload9.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2495753/ros_mutt_front_o.jpg" data-mid="19030545" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload9.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2495753/de_kooning_sherman_640.jpg" width="640" height="800" width_o="850" height_o="1063" src_o="http://payload9.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2495753/de_kooning_sherman_o.jpg" data-mid="19030569" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload9.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2495753/smithson_drawing_640.jpg" width="640" height="800" width_o="850" height_o="1063" src_o="http://payload9.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2495753/smithson_drawing_o.jpg" data-mid="19030575" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload9.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2495753/ART_liars_fresh.jpg" width="480" height="600" width_o="480" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload9.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2495753/ART_liars_fresh_o.jpg" data-mid="19030586" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload9.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2495753/pow_hirst_front_640.jpg" width="640" height="800" width_o="850" height_o="1063" src_o="http://payload9.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2495753/pow_hirst_front_o.jpg" data-mid="19030560" border="0" align="left"/> <img src="http://payload9.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2495753/logo_sample_4.jpg" width="600" height="159" width_o="600" height_o="159" src_o="http://payload9.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2495753/logo_sample_4_o.jpg" data-mid="13043205" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload9.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2495753/logo_sample_2.jpg" width="600" height="249" width_o="600" height_o="249" src_o="http://payload9.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2495753/logo_sample_2_o.jpg" data-mid="13043210" border="0" align="left"/> ArtLiars LLC is a limited liability improv collaborative created by Nic Rad and Josh Lukaris. They are whatever they say they are and if they weren't why would they... http://www.nic-rad.com/Drawings http://www.nic-rad.com/following/nic-rad.com/Drawings Mon, 21 Nov 2011 17:52:59 +0000 Nic*Rad 2343465 <img src="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2343465/tumblr_lqcpiyYYin1qzqwdno1_1280.jpg" width="625" height="900" width_o="625" height_o="900" src_o="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2343465/tumblr_lqcpiyYYin1qzqwdno1_1280_o.jpg" data-mid="11772852" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2343465/tumblr_lrl7t2j9W71qzqwdno1_1280.jpg" width="582" height="800" width_o="582" height_o="800" src_o="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2343465/tumblr_lrl7t2j9W71qzqwdno1_1280_o.jpg" data-mid="11772871" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2343465/tumblr_lrtz8jmy3x1qzqwdno1_1280.jpg" width="548" height="800" width_o="548" height_o="800" src_o="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2343465/tumblr_lrtz8jmy3x1qzqwdno1_1280_o.jpg" data-mid="11772875" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2343465/tumblr_kx2oyzJCK71qzqwdno1_1280.jpg" width="400" height="766" width_o="400" height_o="766" src_o="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2343465/tumblr_kx2oyzJCK71qzqwdno1_1280_o.jpg" data-mid="11772780" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2343465/tumblr_kyfotpcoYb1qzqwdno1_1280_640.jpg" width="640" height="823" width_o="656" height_o="844" src_o="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2343465/tumblr_kyfotpcoYb1qzqwdno1_1280_o.jpg" data-mid="11772787" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2343465/tumblr_l5gu5cB9x31qzqwdno1_1280.jpg" width="325" height="925" width_o="325" height_o="925" src_o="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2343465/tumblr_l5gu5cB9x31qzqwdno1_1280_o.jpg" data-mid="11772801" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2343465/tumblr_lkzygqspVV1qzqwdno1_1280_640.jpg" width="640" height="880" width_o="909" height_o="1250" src_o="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2343465/tumblr_lkzygqspVV1qzqwdno1_1280_o.jpg" data-mid="11772824" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2343465/tumblr_ll27glGH1i1qzqwdno1_1280_640.jpg" width="640" height="874" width_o="915" height_o="1250" src_o="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2343465/tumblr_ll27glGH1i1qzqwdno1_1280_o.jpg" data-mid="11772836" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2343465/tumblr_ln9h5oPEaU1qzqwdno1_1280.jpg" width="634" height="900" width_o="634" height_o="900" src_o="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2343465/tumblr_ln9h5oPEaU1qzqwdno1_1280_o.jpg" data-mid="11772839" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2343465/tumblr_lpz6bwMDs21qzqwdno1_1280_640.jpg" width="640" height="834" width_o="729" height_o="950" src_o="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2343465/tumblr_lpz6bwMDs21qzqwdno1_1280_o.jpg" data-mid="11772843" border="0" align="left"/> <img src="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2343465/imagination_nic_rad_640.jpg" width="640" height="436" width_o="1584" height_o="1080" src_o="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2343465/imagination_nic_rad_o.jpg" data-mid="12037316" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2343465/6aeRnYOIhno7tktjjgyQVwj6o1_400.jpg" width="400" height="549" width_o="400" height_o="549" src_o="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2343465/6aeRnYOIhno7tktjjgyQVwj6o1_400_o.jpg" data-mid="11772770" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2343465/6aeRnYOIhno7w77iYPOpKZvzo1_400.jpg" width="400" height="550" width_o="400" height_o="550" src_o="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2343465/6aeRnYOIhno7w77iYPOpKZvzo1_400_o.jpg" data-mid="11772772" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2343465/tumblr_ktzrpsKtOD1qzqwdno1_400.jpg" width="400" height="300" width_o="400" height_o="300" src_o="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2343465/tumblr_ktzrpsKtOD1qzqwdno1_400_o.jpg" data-mid="11772774" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2343465/tumblr_ktzvat01yV1qzqwdno1_400.jpg" width="400" height="498" width_o="400" height_o="498" src_o="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2343465/tumblr_ktzvat01yV1qzqwdno1_400_o.jpg" data-mid="11772775" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2343465/tumblr_ktzwbw2LZM1qzqwdno1_400.jpg" width="400" height="595" width_o="400" height_o="595" src_o="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2343465/tumblr_ktzwbw2LZM1qzqwdno1_400_o.jpg" data-mid="11772776" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2343465/tumblr_kxw69cUI4k1qzqwdno1_400.jpg" width="400" height="318" width_o="400" height_o="318" src_o="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2343465/tumblr_kxw69cUI4k1qzqwdno1_400_o.jpg" data-mid="11772781" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2343465/tumblr_ky1r9j0s5U1qzqwdno1_1280.jpg" width="579" height="415" width_o="579" height_o="415" src_o="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2343465/tumblr_ky1r9j0s5U1qzqwdno1_1280_o.jpg" data-mid="11772783" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2343465/tumblr_l2fogtEJFz1qzqwdno1_400.jpg" width="400" height="596" width_o="400" height_o="596" src_o="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2343465/tumblr_l2fogtEJFz1qzqwdno1_400_o.jpg" data-mid="11772788" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2343465/tumblr_l57otfKxYQ1qzqwdno1_1280_640.jpg" width="640" height="324" width_o="682" height_o="345" src_o="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2343465/tumblr_l57otfKxYQ1qzqwdno1_1280_o.jpg" data-mid="11772805" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2343465/tumblr_l2folx8Lgn1qzqwdno1_400.jpg" width="400" height="587" width_o="400" height_o="587" src_o="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2343465/tumblr_l2folx8Lgn1qzqwdno1_400_o.jpg" data-mid="11772790" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2343465/tumblr_l2fotmLFTc1qzqwdno1_400.jpg" width="393" height="600" width_o="393" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2343465/tumblr_l2fotmLFTc1qzqwdno1_400_o.jpg" data-mid="11772791" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2343465/tumblr_l4v8pujcgi1qzqwdno1_1280_640.jpg" width="640" height="373" width_o="730" height_o="426" src_o="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2343465/tumblr_l4v8pujcgi1qzqwdno1_1280_o.jpg" data-mid="11772797" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2343465/tumblr_l4wcaeKoAZ1qzqwdno1_1280.jpg" width="602" height="423" width_o="602" height_o="423" src_o="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2343465/tumblr_l4wcaeKoAZ1qzqwdno1_1280_o.jpg" data-mid="11772798" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2343465/tumblr_lkxutz1tsG1qzqwdno1_1280_640.jpg" width="640" height="454" width_o="840" height_o="596" src_o="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2343465/tumblr_lkxutz1tsG1qzqwdno1_1280_o.jpg" data-mid="11772822" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2343465/blind.jpg" width="400" height="544" width_o="400" height_o="544" src_o="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2343465/blind_o.jpg" data-mid="11773007" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2343465/cat_small_2_640.jpg" width="640" height="436" width_o="1000" height_o="682" src_o="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2343465/cat_small_2_o.jpg" data-mid="12133385" border="0" align="left"/> http://www.nic-rad.com/Even-Stranger http://www.nic-rad.com/following/nic-rad.com/Even-Stranger Mon, 21 Nov 2011 14:11:58 +0000 Nic*Rad 2341796 Even Stranger is an old and new media project by Brooklyn based artist Nic*Rad. It's about strangers. It was begun on Tumblr in the Summer of 2011. You can find a little more about it over there. <img src="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2341796/tumblr_lnw5fdeGgv1qzr1h1.jpg" width="500" height="332" width_o="500" height_o="332" src_o="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2341796/tumblr_lnw5fdeGgv1qzr1h1_o.jpg" data-mid="11765640" border="0" align="left"/> <img src="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2341796/tumblr_lnxk37x4iv1qmoj63o1_1280_640.jpg" width="640" height="425" width_o="1000" height_o="664" src_o="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2341796/tumblr_lnxk37x4iv1qmoj63o1_1280_o.jpg" data-mid="11765388" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2341796/tumblr_lnu7z0gXYt1qmoj63o1_1280_640.jpg" width="640" height="425" width_o="1000" height_o="664" src_o="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2341796/tumblr_lnu7z0gXYt1qmoj63o1_1280_o.jpg" data-mid="11765353" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2341796/tumblr_lnuey2zsQw1qmoj63o1_1280_640.jpg" width="640" height="425" width_o="1000" height_o="664" src_o="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2341796/tumblr_lnuey2zsQw1qmoj63o1_1280_o.jpg" data-mid="11765356" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2341796/tumblr_lnuf5rBVa21qmoj63o1_1280_640.jpg" width="640" height="425" width_o="1000" height_o="664" src_o="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2341796/tumblr_lnuf5rBVa21qmoj63o1_1280_o.jpg" data-mid="11765361" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2341796/tumblr_lnufjulcgQ1qmoj63o1_1280_640.jpg" width="640" height="425" width_o="1000" height_o="664" src_o="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2341796/tumblr_lnufjulcgQ1qmoj63o1_1280_o.jpg" data-mid="11765366" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2341796/tumblr_lnve26ZMg21qmoj63o1_1280_640.jpg" width="640" height="425" width_o="1000" height_o="664" src_o="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2341796/tumblr_lnve26ZMg21qmoj63o1_1280_o.jpg" data-mid="11765371" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2341796/tumblr_lnvehszIcq1qmoj63o1_1280_640.jpg" width="640" height="425" width_o="1000" height_o="664" src_o="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2341796/tumblr_lnvehszIcq1qmoj63o1_1280_o.jpg" data-mid="11765377" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2341796/tumblr_lnvfn8s4GY1qmoj63o1_1280_640.jpg" width="640" height="425" width_o="1000" height_o="664" src_o="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2341796/tumblr_lnvfn8s4GY1qmoj63o1_1280_o.jpg" data-mid="11765379" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2341796/tumblr_lnvfu3S2dP1qmoj63o1_1280_640.jpg" width="640" height="425" width_o="1000" height_o="664" src_o="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2341796/tumblr_lnvfu3S2dP1qmoj63o1_1280_o.jpg" data-mid="11765381" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2341796/tumblr_lnu7onfYpF1qmoj63o1_1280_640.jpg" width="640" height="425" width_o="1000" height_o="664" src_o="http://payload2.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2341796/tumblr_lnu7onfYpF1qmoj63o1_1280_o.jpg" data-mid="11765351" border="0" align="left"/> Even Stranger is an old and new media project by Brooklyn based artist Nic*Rad. It's about strangers. It was begun on Tumblr in the Summer of 2011. You can find a... http://www.nic-rad.com/Reason-as-Design http://www.nic-rad.com/following/nic-rad.com/Reason-as-Design Wed, 28 Sep 2011 12:32:05 +0000 Nic*Rad 2071097 A change agent requiring consistent use to achieve consistent results. Hope Soap on a Rope goatsmilk soap, rope <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2071097/hope_soap.jpg" width="531" height="800" width_o="531" height_o="800" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2071097/hope_soap_o.jpg" data-mid="10311105" border="0" align="left"/> EVEN MORE HOPE LESS goatsmilk soap <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2071097/even_more_hope_less_640.jpg" width="640" height="425" width_o="800" height_o="531" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2071097/even_more_hope_less_o.jpg" data-mid="10311149" border="0" align="left"/> Gone to Market, BRB clay sculpture, cutting board, chalk board <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2071097/market_nic_rad_preview.jpg" width="399" height="600" width_o="399" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2071097/market_nic_rad_preview_o.jpg" data-mid="11769493" border="0" align="left"/> Buy Sell Follow Revolt Covet Destroy acrylic on cutting board <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2071097/market_nic.jpg" width="550" height="828" width_o="550" height_o="828" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2071097/market_nic_o.jpg" data-mid="11769496" border="0" align="left"/> Take Me ______ Tonight mixed media on board, found cross-stitch <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2071097/Take_Me_Home_nic_rad.jpg" width="375" height="600" width_o="375" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2071097/Take_Me_Home_nic_rad_o.jpg" data-mid="11769499" border="0" align="left"/> CONGRATULATIONS mixed media on floor mat <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2071097/welcome_mat_nic_rad_small_640.jpg" width="640" height="425" width_o="640" height_o="425" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/2071097/welcome_mat_nic_rad_small_640_o.jpg" data-mid="11769501" border="0" align="left"/> A change agent requiring consistent use to achieve consistent results. Hope Soap on a Rope goatsmilk soap, rope EVEN MORE HOPE LESS goatsmilk soap Gone to... http://www.nic-rad.com/Rank http://www.nic-rad.com/following/nic-rad.com/Rank Mon, 29 Nov 2010 12:09:30 +0000 Nic*Rad 817669 Taking My Talents to South Beach: goodnight cleveland, we love you An exploration of talent, loyalty, and Miami transplant LeBron James as the Ubermensch; a stirring homage to the sad city of Cleveland and historic failures everywhere as told from the perspective of Jeff Koons' Three Ball Total Equilibrium. Performed by Nic*Rad. Presented as part of Jen Dalton and William Powhida's #rank and the SEVENMiami fair. In conjunction with the font Comic Sans, and special guest: photoshop's plastic wrap filter. A VERY SHORT STORY -------------------------------------------- <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/817669/three_ball_equal.jpg" width="234" height="300" width_o="234" height_o="300" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/817669/three_ball_equal_o.jpg" data-mid="4049470" border="0" align="left"/> Three basketballs are suspended in a fish tank. The first basketball says to the second: #1 "hey, it just occurred to me that white middle class kids have been using art the same way that black kids have been using basketball-- for social mobility." The second basketball responds: #2: "that's true. good point." The third basketball is silent and weeps a single tear. THE STATE OF THINGS -------------------------------------------- <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/817669/three_ball_equal.jpg" width="234" height="300" width_o="234" height_o="300" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/817669/three_ball_equal_o.jpg" data-mid="4049470" border="0" align="left"/> Three basketballs sit suspended in a fish tank. The first two basketballs converse while the third basketball sits stoically, withdrawn, introspective. #1: "Dude. I was thinking, you know one place I've always wanted to go but have never been..." #2: "Okay I'm game... Belize, Turks and Caicos, Angkor Wats?" #1: "I said places that I haven't been. I was actually thinking Miami." #2: "Oooh. Right right right.... Miami. Totally. Totally. A little pedestrian but I could see the appeal. That’d be tight. Koonsie could probably hook us up. He must know people there." #1: "He must. Just think- the parties, the booze, the bikinis, and people who get us... people who get art." #2: "Well... buy it at least." #1: "Hahaha. Fuck yes." The first two basketballs collectively imagine exchanging a high five while the third sighs, despondent, his thoughts oscillating between condescension and self-loathing. The first two gregarious and casually entitled basketballs continue: #1: "Miami baby. That's where the real shit happens. That's where we move product. It would be nice to go back to our roots, you know, see the plucky young things preening themselves for the cocktail hour, dawdling that line between international sophistication and heroin chic. I've heard you can throw a rock and hit ten supercollectors." #2: "And could you imagine the club scene? Not to be so explicit, but the tonality of that affair! Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh, Lebron James....oh my god" #1: "I'd let those boys pass me around, back and forth, back and forth, between the legs, behind the back, no look alley-oop... oh my gawd. They could handle me any way they wanted to. It wouldn't matter who scored." #2: "Why be selfish? It would not fucking matter!" #1: "Mmm. My nipple is getting hard!" The third basketball sighs, weighted and long. Its dimpled skin goes pale, limpid. While the first two basketballs converse slapdash and superficial, drunk of their own secretions and the infinite limbo of a fish tank life, our third ball does not partake. His words are contained in the cavity of his form, the black interior void-- can a basketball have a soul? Ah, but can anything have a soul? The third basketball speaks, not to the other basketballs, but to you, gentle human. This third basketball is the chosen one. #3: "Twenty-Six years of these two boobs' repressive babble and I am sitting here unmediated, truly empty. I cannot tell you how I've envied the fanny packs, the disposable cameras, the sweatshop sneakers, all those true consumer goods outside of this forsaken fish tank which lived disposable lives and died disposable deaths, land fills of New Jersey, rotting in that most venerable state. I suppose though, you all came here to discuss LeBron James. And yes, he's been on my mind a great deal. I believe the king of Akron and I have much in common. We are both phenoms in our respective vocations. We are both worth inestimable millions. Our friends are famous, our detractors are many and often on the verge of jealous violence. We are not formally educated, and yet precocious in many ways. If, for a moment, you could suspend your disdain for me, for my position--though I wouldn't blame you for having that disdain and if I were composed of any rubber but my own, it's a resentment I'd also harbor--but I ask for your respect on the grounds that keeping the company of fools is not always a sign of shared character, but sometimes a paralysis of shame. You may have more integrity than I, you seem that sort of crowd, self preservationists here in this rinky dink counter culture art fair--although I ask you, why come to Miami at all? In my case, I was not brave as a young basketball. Back then I would have told you I was ambitious. This Koonsian life I've accepted- well, it seemed like the ticket, not the tomb. People often ask me what it's like to sit so still--symbolic of intellectual paucity, privileged partner of these two middling sycophants, suspended in between life and death, wasting away. Sometimes I think they ask because they already know. So I turn these questions on to you, outsiders looking in, armchair MFA's: What should I do? Should I leap out of this fish tank and roll down the hallway, waiting for some lowly janitor to scoop me up and deliver me to his fat fingered son on the chance that he will discover a jump shot and love me for my poetic but failed self in that underachieving indierock sort of way? Should I adapt an alter ego and hang out in Bushwick until someone includes me a more self loathing kind of ready made installation and then revel in a late career Bill Murray sort of revival where a monotone sadness does penance for the preposterousness of my youth? What should I do? Should I accept my roll as a villain? Should I let you call me a twenty six year old piece of art terrorism ushered into history by a cabal of bond traders manipulating an opaque market? Or should I become an actor? Stand up here and entertain you with cute voices and dramatic flourish? Should I remind you I am a Jeff Koons' Basketball? What should I do? Take this as my warning-- I envy your liberation, your freedom, and your lack of stature. When I got into this art game it was about the ideas. We were young rubber balls playing tricks with gravity. A trio of punks and purists-- more dada than conceptualists... there was still a consumer culture worth shocking then, everyone forgets. This whole endeavor was about the endurance to sit up here in front of people, our naked banality in a zero gravity environment while the emotionally numb bourgeoisie judged us for forcing our brash spiritual emptiness into the realm of history. The three amigos-- simple pointless commodified objects that could have just as easily ended up deflated and sticky in a ditch of broken dreams. But no. We dared to walk into a museum, orange pimpled asses and all. I remember a time when I was proud to be a ready made. Proud to be American, if you will believe that. I digress--it's the lingering stink of sentiment that now disgusts me the most. Take me for what I am--an over privileged basketball milking the great institutional swindle --but do not dismiss the notion that I could have been more, or that you might've been less. I say that to preface a protraction, a fairy tale, a thought exercise. Some have religion, some have their vice-- I have my stories. And it's one particular story that I thought I'd share with you all. Let me be clear- this is a work of fiction-- just the imaginings of a basketball who did not have to 'work hard' for his prestige. Yes, I came straight from the factory with the glimmer of newness and youth as my only job qualification. I have never bounced a day in my life. But I make this admission to you because I believe that we are judged by our longings as much as our lackings. I fancied myself a stylist and had dreams.. how typical... of one day performing in the NBA. It's not as impossible as you might think-- I was born in the right neighborhood and had the proper pedigree. My uncle played in the NCAA for three seasons. My older brother was a practice ball for the Philadelphia 76'ers. And a close childhood friend was used by that thug Jason Kidd for a triple double in a loss to Phoenix a few years back. While I realize this inversion is complex, and that my reliance on your empathy is a flawed investment, I leave you with one question to ponder: what is the worse life, to be in the fish tank or to be outside of it? For if you have no interest in that at all, I'd ask you kindly, residents, tourists, art world enthusiasts... please stop tapping on the glass. THE ADVENTURES OF SPAULDING ORANGE ------------------------------------------------ <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/817669/one_ball_equal.jpg" width="235" height="300" width_o="235" height_o="300" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/817669/one_ball_equal_o.jpg" data-mid="4049471" border="0" align="left"/> A single basketball sits suspended in a fish tank. #3: "I am a basketball, Cleveland born-- Cleveland that sardonic city-- and go at things in a high-fructose way, erratically and delusional, like a dreaming child self styling my own comic strip, friendly to the point of abstraction, occasionally head butting rims and complaining of migraines. But as F. Lee Bailey said, a man's excuses define his character, and so I left Cleveland for a lot of good reasons, which will never be good enough for those who stayed. Cleveland, that grey and sighing city, molding in the breadbasket of fortune's picnic. I was privileged with the type of upbringing unconsciously free of rusty needles, outdoor courts, and leaky bladders--these were different times mind you-- and it made space for frivolities like high school games and novelty contests such as H-O-R-S-E and three point shoot out. So it happens I know a bit about each, and tried for a while to be accomplished at them. Back then the primary source of illusions were televised. Posters and ad campaigns spoke the broadest truths. They came from that all knowing eye, that vengeful murderous MBA messiah we understood to fear and resent but also to love. Many of our histories and futures were writ by an unknown depressive in New York, a copywriter churning emotional butter and serving it on pancakes eaten by already fat men. But what did I know? I believed in the awesomeness of every twenty three seconds. As I've got on in years, no longer young enough to steal pride from focus grouped fantasy, I've succumb to the consolation of secondary glamour, where by the very precept of my own lacking, I am free to fathom the full measure of genius in others. Mine has been the middle road, an enthusiastic mediocrity--sometimes an ecstatic second place. From that perspective I've been a Witness-- and culled within my character an expectation of fandom and revelry so advanced as to say it was a talent in its own right. Herein lies my most pronounced skill, those special powers of observation to see clearly from the common eye-- a unique facility in painting the broadside of a barn. Wherever the ego abides it's that peculiar perspective which emerges: that all men are failures, each of us in our own eccentric way. And to this I owe the highest concentration of my powers. I have been a Witness. Like those vacant eyed fans rattling their meated limbs, painted faces, painted chests--large and foam fingers aiming at the godless sky praying for greatness and for misery upon their foes. I have indeed been a Witness. And here is what I saw.... GET HIP TO THE KOH -------------------------------------------- <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/817669/three_ball_equal.jpg" width="234" height="300" width_o="234" height_o="300" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/817669/three_ball_equal_o.jpg" data-mid="4049470" border="0" align="left"/> Three Basketballs sit suspended in a fish tank The first two basketball's converse while the third holds it's breath and ponders the mystery of self combustion #1: "What's good? Whatcha doin brah?" #2: "Chillin. Chillin in South Beach baby." #1: "Tight bro. You checkin out the art and shit?" #2: "Well I've checked out a lot a shit. I don't know about art tho brah." #1: "Nice. But really, what you think about the state of performance art, brah?" #2: "Ha! You taking correspondence classes again brah?" #1: "Yea. I'm getting my MFA from Devry University brah" #2: "Word brah. You know what MFA means? #1: "Nah. Teach me bro." #2: "MFA means Mother Fuckin' Artist!" #1: "Yooooooo!" #2: "Haha. Brah check this... you know what BFA means brah?" #1: "Nah, what's it means brah!?" #2: "BFA means Broke Fuckin' Artist!" #1: "Yooooooooo!" The first basketball performs a 'that was a funny' hype dance. #1: "That's da truff, that's da truff, that's da truff.... yo. But seriously seriously. Seriously brah. What do you think about performance art? Ain't that some bull shit? #2: "Yo. Hard to say B. But I've been watching a shit load of Dancing with the Stars." #1: "Seriously brah?" #2: "Seriously! Palin's a MILF. Both Palin's are MILF's. Love to see those two in a you tube clip projected on the Guggenheim brah." #1: "Yo brah. Frank Lloyd WRONG muthafucka!" #2: "Hellz to tha fuck yeah!" #1: "Aight brah. Let me be real with you for a minute. I'm going to say it. I like Terence Koh brah" #2: "Oh fuck nah." #1: "No, I'm trying to be serious. I like him. I do." #2: "That's fucked up brah." #1: "Hey, no human and all but Koh is kinda my dude." #2: "You're creepin brah. You're creepin." #1: "Hey. I said no human. Any way. Look I don't know if that's performance art or anything brah. But like dag... he's a full time hustla." #2: "What the fuck man. I feel kinda sick. It's like you fuckin' sucked the air outta here. Really fucking sweet being in this tank with you. Always wanted to sit next to a humanfucker." #1: "I SAID NO HUMAN. Fuck. fuck. fuck. fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck." THE ADVENTURES OF SPAULDING ORANGE PART II ------------------------------------------------ <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/817669/one_ball_equal.jpg" width="235" height="300" width_o="235" height_o="300" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/817669/one_ball_equal_o.jpg" data-mid="4049471" border="0" align="left"/> A single basketball sits suspended in a fish tank. #3: "I have indeed been a Witness. And here is what I saw.... LeBron Raymone James, that glistening tattooed sphinx driving sugar footed arabesques through the angry sweeps of other outliers. One step, two step, and a high top thrust capacitor moonwards on might and multinational sponsorship. An orange rubber dimpled passenger cradled in his hand like a tangerine in a bulldozer basket, arched up through the delicate ether between fury and precision, shoveled downward, rocks on a casket, consummating that cylindrical event horizon, barring forth that miracle from which emptiness becomes two points. Then behind him, all around him, a blossoming mob of bald, bespectacled boys and babes, mouths agape punching the sky and their hangdog rivals in other colored jerseys falling off their chairs and weeping. For victory knows a transitive property; what is glory for the king is also glory for his people. Oh to be a Witness. In the yesteryear of my weaning, how I remember those locker room exchanges where casual racism and homophobia functioned as pleasant small talk. But least I judge the tide by its undercurrent, or those fat headed types who did not float on to more moderate views of economic convenience. Back there I was just rotting flotsam dreaming of a shore to be tossed upon. But where was I? Ah yes. A witness." The basketball turns at the most imperceptible angle. Its wanton gaze draws further, deeper into the blind pimpled abyss. "Witness the unbearable whiteness of Cleveland. The fallow faced boys in sickly pallor still wearing number twenty-three jerseys, whose only question is "should I take it off before I light it on fire?" From Lakeshore Boulevard to Shaker Heights, circled out through the oxidized Cuyahoga, down interstate 306 where victims and progenitors throw coke cans from SUV's and cattle fart and melt the earth and still it is covered in three foot drifts of snow, that other white flight. Jabbering in their native font; Pekaresque cartoon men lacking all sense of humor--always comic sans. Not 'doing' anything. Anti heroes buried in seven years of talcum powder. Witnesses. Witness a dough colored people chewing our gnarly finger nails as the great discontent swelled on argentine skies like the Goodyear blimp, "Spirit of Akron," predictably wavering then loping off towards other cities with lesser income tax and more cleavage. Witness the miserable powder boys who never tried basketball except with their thumbs and playstations, now taking pale umbrage at the violation of courtside tradition, who otherwise show no such loyalty to their fantasy leagues or women or nearest starbucks franchises. Peasant culture whom kings desert. Yes, I too took my talents to other cities where art fairs sprung up and sold those talents to people who felt they were lacking or else had an empty place above their couch or God shaped holes in between the many zeros of their bank accounts. Maimi that offspring city of Cleveland, sprung from the brackish by Miss Julia Tuttle native Cleveland hussy and widow, bargaining maiden, a basket of oranges in Biscayne Bay, buttonhooking William Brickell, another Cleveland lad taking his talents to South Beach-- those two early spring breakers who founded Miami as a city of refugees and fugitives, but they the intellectual sort, escaping boredom and bad weather to lay the foundation for trance, coke parties and threesomes with C-section scars and hairy ankles. Sir James was hardly the first. There are many talented people from Cleveland that also left. R.B. Kitaj grew up in Chagrin Falls, made himself as British as David Hockney and as Jewish as Phillip Roth, painted like a Fauve, and achieved so much admiration that he sold a post it note for $925-- at seventy-two he put a plastic bag over his head and killed himself. Bill Waterson is from Chagrin Falls too. He wrote Calvin and Hobbes. Halle Berry was from Cleveland. She moved to Chicago to be somebody. Later she married David Justice who played baseball for the Atlanta Braves and Cleveland Indians, thus ruining his chances to work for the ACLU. Chief Wahoo is an overtly racist mascot that won't leave Cleveland because it would be more racist to admit the inherent racism than to simply ignore it. All five members of the rap group Bone Thugs 'n Harmony are from Cleveland. Lil Bow Wow. Gloria Steinem was from Toledo, which 'almost counts.' John Brown left Cleveland for Pottawatomie where his posse used hatchets and broadswords to disassemble political rivals. Their opposition were traditional conservatives in favor of smaller government, lower taxes, state's rights, and human slavery. Cleveland was always a place you could start off from and go on to do great things. Most things seemed great, afterwards, anyhow." YOU'RE JUST ART, AREN'T YOU? -------------------------------------------- <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/817669/three_ball_equal.jpg" width="234" height="300" width_o="234" height_o="300" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/817669/three_ball_equal_o.jpg" data-mid="4049470" border="0" align="left"/> Three basketballs sit suspended in a fish tank. The first two basketballs argue while the third listens stoically. #1: "look okay--there's a difference between cash and value." #2: "i doubt that. that's the great lie man. that's what people drill into your head-- so they can keep slamming it into the ground... over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again..." #1: "no no no. see-- take us for instance. you may not be getting paid to be here, but you have value. art is not about how much you make in immediate cash, but how much you're worth. there's a difference" #2: "that's some real bullshit. i'm just sitting here. it's a boring life and i'm starving. i'm just a fuckin' basketball in a fuckin' fish tank. i'm worthless. i want to be out there man, even if that means getting slammed into the ground like a real basketball. this effete water floating shit is some real bullshit." #1: "okay, pay attention-- because that attitude is your problem, it's going to get us in into a whole lot of shit if you don't keep it down. cash payment is bullshit. payment is the thing that should make you ill. it's a one time deal, it's a fixed rate. if i pay you to ten dollars to sit still for the next hour, then an hour of your time is worth ten dollars. if i pay you ten dollars to jump through a hoop, then your task is worth ten dollars. that makes you a wage worker and you're cheap and pathetic. if you accept cash for your time, just like that i'm telling you that your time and your life has a price tag and i know what that price is. payment says: you're a regular old basketball and i can buy a million just like you." #2: "okay." #1: "okay what?" #2: "i'll take the ten dollars." #1: "don't be stupid. no. you don't want the cash- you want the perception of value. hear me out: don't ever take the money-- just sit here and refuse the money. starve if you have to. steal shit on the side, mooch off of your friends. you are in good company here, there are many valuable things all around you. as long as you can politely sit in this room people will eventually decide that you are also valuable." #2: "and then i get paid?" #1: "what? no! you don't ever get paid. there is no honest money in this." #2: "great." #1: "you're just a thing. you have no utility on your own." #2: "yes i do! i'm a basketball! i have a very specific purpose. i can fucking bounce-- i go through hoops!" #1: "like i said, you have no utility to rich white people. and that's who buys art. do you know who jen dalton is?" #2: "i don't care. i don't care who anyone is. i'm hungry and i'm bored. i want to be smashed against the ground. i want to be passed from handler to handler. i want to be handled and i want to jump through hoops. i have a specific use and that's worth something!" #1: "no. this is the super wealthy we're dealing with. they don't need to buy things. they already have them. they buy the set of interactions it takes to make a thing. they buy what surrounds the thing." #2: "great. i'm surrounded by a fish tank." #1: "yes. and what is that surrounded by?" #2: "a bunch of idiots looking at me and getting pissed off that i'm in here." #1: "exactly! and what else? what else is out there?" #2: "well there's some actually great fucking shit on the walls. a lot of it's really pretty cool looking. and old." #1: "yes! and historically important! this is value my friend. you are in the company of value." #2: "great." #1: "great? no, not just great... sublime. look, do you remember who put you here?" #2: "yea. some sad sap wearing a "clash" tee-shirt with an infected eyebrow ring." #1: "right- that was an employee. but I mean the guy who came up with the idea to put you in here." #2: "i don't know, it was the 80's, it seems like something gallagher II would have come up with" #1: "it was jeff koons. it was jeff fucking koons." #2: "oh, right, that wanker." #1: "hardly. he's a genius man. he understands the difference between cash and value." #2: "okay dude... at best, and I'm being very generous with this idea, but at best he's an expert party crasher. at best." #1: "yes, okay, that's right. and the party is life itself. and you know what? some day you're going to have to leave that party. like it or not." #2: "so... you're saying..." #1: "i'm saying you're going to die someday. and that's something you can take to the bank." #2: "i find that.... i find that hard to comprehend." #1: "yes. it's impossible. there it is. it's the physical impossibility of death in the mind of living." #2: "but i'm a basketball. a basketball god damn it!" #1: "no. you're just art. aren't you?" ----------- <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/817669/3_ball_rank_640.jpg" width="640" height="425" width_o="800" height_o="531" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/817669/3_ball_rank_o.jpg" data-mid="3891604" border="0" align="left"/> Taking My Talents to South Beach: goodnight cleveland, we love you An exploration of talent, loyalty, and Miami transplant LeBron James as the Ubermensch; a... http://www.nic-rad.com/Portraits http://www.nic-rad.com/following/nic-rad.com/Portraits Sat, 21 Aug 2010 21:23:03 +0000 Nic*Rad 583536 Oversaturated culture dehydrogenated-- emphemera preservationalists, persona (non) grata-- gorgeous encounters of the brief and internet saavy. Villains too. Always invite trouble. A steady diet of things that could cure or kill you. <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/583536/Nick_Denton_2.jpg" width="600" height="730" width_o="600" height_o="730" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/583536/Nick_Denton_2_o.jpg" data-mid="2686645" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/583536/Magic_Molly_2.jpg" width="600" height="730" width_o="600" height_o="730" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/583536/Magic_Molly_2_o.jpg" data-mid="2686646" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/583536/grey_lady.jpg" width="600" height="600" width_o="600" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/583536/grey_lady_o.jpg" data-mid="11939501" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/583536/Alex_Carnevale_2.jpg" width="600" height="730" width_o="600" height_o="730" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/583536/Alex_Carnevale_2_o.jpg" data-mid="2686647" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/583536/Hamilton_Nolan_2.jpg" width="600" height="730" width_o="600" height_o="730" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/583536/Hamilton_Nolan_2_o.jpg" data-mid="2686648" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/583536/Tina_Brown.jpg" width="600" height="730" width_o="600" height_o="730" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/583536/Tina_Brown_o.jpg" data-mid="2686331" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/583536/charles_snarkly_title.jpg" width="411" height="580" width_o="411" height_o="580" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/583536/charles_snarkly_title_o.jpg" data-mid="11718025" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/583536/charles_snarkly_640.jpg" width="640" height="425" width_o="670" height_o="445" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/583536/charles_snarkly_o.jpg" data-mid="11718026" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/583536/emily_gould_2.jpg" width="527" height="600" width_o="527" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/583536/emily_gould_2_o.jpg" data-mid="11718028" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/583536/girl_colored_moose_flavored_title_2.jpg" width="413" height="580" width_o="413" height_o="580" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/583536/girl_colored_moose_flavored_title_2_o.jpg" data-mid="11718029" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/583536/hipsternetters_studio_640.jpg" width="640" height="425" width_o="670" height_o="445" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/583536/hipsternetters_studio_o.jpg" data-mid="11718030" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/583536/hipsternetters_title.jpg" width="409" height="580" width_o="409" height_o="580" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/583536/hipsternetters_title_o.jpg" data-mid="11718031" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/583536/kimmel_gould_640.jpg" width="640" height="498" width_o="650" height_o="506" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/583536/kimmel_gould_o.jpg" data-mid="11718037" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/583536/kimmel_large.jpg" width="464" height="600" width_o="464" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/583536/kimmel_large_o.jpg" data-mid="11718039" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/583536/Nic_Rad_800x600_640.jpg" width="640" height="480" width_o="670" height_o="502" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/583536/Nic_Rad_800x600_o.jpg" data-mid="11718041" border="0" align="left"/>{image 23}<img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/583536/o_in_oprah_title.jpg" width="393" height="580" width_o="393" height_o="580" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/583536/o_in_oprah_title_o.jpg" data-mid="11718047" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/583536/oprah_studio_640.jpg" width="640" height="425" width_o="670" height_o="445" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/583536/oprah_studio_o.jpg" data-mid="11718048" border="0" align="left"/> Oversaturated culture dehydrogenated-- emphemera preservationalists, persona (non) grata-- gorgeous encounters of the brief and internet saavy. Villains too. Always... http://www.nic-rad.com/PeopleMatter http://www.nic-rad.com/following/nic-rad.com/PeopleMatter Fri, 20 Aug 2010 15:57:00 +0000 Nic*Rad 148338 Early in 2009 I began painting journalists, bloggers and infolebrities, especially those affecting New York City. The great digital continuum had swallowed an industry and was steadily digesting. Panic and opportunism came in all colors, flavors, and shapes. That was either the point or the problem. Free was a feature of the industry, at once a failed experiment and a new reality for journalists and creatives. Loss leaders and liberty went hand in hand. I gave 99 of the works away. Subjects pitched me to replace my selections, to be painted, and to reserve a painting. I clipped their social media outreach--and sold the paintings that were bumped off the list to the 'paywall.' This was the bartered territory between the cultural commons and economic manipulation. Subjects ranged from the (in)famous to the obscure. Edward R. Murrow to Perez Hilton to my food blogging neighbor. Whoever interested me. It was all human factor. 'Awareness' as a fledgling world view. Breadcrumbs in a labyrinth. PeopleMatter received a lot of press. Many reveled in the project, some were genuinely touched-- a few found it impotent and annoying. I was described in a reblog as "an instant personality." My kingdom for an instant. View Complete Image Archive <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/148338/People_matter_1.jpg" width="640" height="425" width_o="670" height_o="445" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/148338/People_matter_1_o.jpg" data-mid="2360768" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/148338/PM_install_shot.jpg" width="640" height="425" width_o="670" height_o="445" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/148338/PM_install_shot_o.jpg" data-mid="2655074" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/148338/People_matter_4.jpg" width="640" height="425" width_o="670" height_o="445" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/148338/People_matter_4_o.jpg" data-mid="1301935" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/148338/People_matter_2.jpg" width="640" height="425" width_o="670" height_o="445" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/148338/People_matter_2_o.jpg" data-mid="1301932" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/148338/pm_3_640.jpg" width="640" height="424" width_o="720" height_o="477" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/148338/pm_3_o.jpg" data-mid="2360609" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/148338/pm_2.jpg" width="640" height="424" width_o="670" height_o="444" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/148338/pm_2_o.jpg" data-mid="2360608" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/148338/PM_7.jpg" width="640" height="424" width_o="670" height_o="444" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/148338/PM_7_o.jpg" data-mid="2360616" border="0" align="left"/>{image 7 <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/148338/pm_1.jpg" width="640" height="424" width_o="670" height_o="444" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/148338/pm_1_o.jpg" data-mid="2360607" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/148338/PM_5.jpg" width="640" height="425" width_o="670" height_o="445" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/148338/PM_5_o.jpg" data-mid="2360613" border="0" align="left"/>{image 1}{image 2}<img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/148338/PM_4.jpg" width="640" height="425" width_o="670" height_o="445" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/148338/PM_4_o.jpg" data-mid="2360610" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/148338/PM_9.jpg" width="640" height="425" width_o="670" height_o="445" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/148338/PM_9_o.jpg" data-mid="2360782" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/148338/PM_10.jpg" width="640" height="425" width_o="670" height_o="445" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/148338/PM_10_o.jpg" data-mid="2360784" border="0" align="left"/>{image3} <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/148338/4904949791_6819b71860_b_640.jpg" width="640" height="772" width_o="670" height_o="808" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/148338/4904949791_6819b71860_b_o.jpg" data-mid="11759087" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/148338/4904950077_e7b4ef75c4_b_640.jpg" width="640" height="772" width_o="670" height_o="808" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/148338/4904950077_e7b4ef75c4_b_o.jpg" data-mid="11759092" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/148338/4905525910_ace4b34db2_b_640.jpg" width="640" height="772" width_o="670" height_o="808" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/148338/4905525910_ace4b34db2_b_o.jpg" data-mid="11759104" border="0" align="left"/> pageTracker._trackPageview("/PeopleMatter"); Early in 2009 I began painting journalists, bloggers and infolebrities, especially those affecting New York City. The great digital continuum had swallowed an... http://www.nic-rad.com/The-Celebritist-Manifesto http://www.nic-rad.com/following/nic-rad.com/The-Celebritist-Manifesto Fri, 05 Mar 2010 13:05:49 +0000 Nic*Rad 297059 Initially performed as a part of the #class project at Ed Winkleman gallery in New York-- organized by William Powhida and Jennifer Dalton. #Class was selected by New York Magazine senior critic Jerry Saltz a top ten year in art pick for 2010. Reprised performances of the Manifesto have taken place at PhotoLA and LuMagnus Gallery. <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/297059/Celebritist_new.gif" width="640" height="490" width_o="640" height_o="490" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/297059/Celebritist_new_o.gif" data-mid="4390752" border="0" align="left"/> Prologue: My first attempt at 'a stirring defense of James Franco as the greatest artist of this generation, if not all time' was constructed in the following manor-- Step 1: For fifteen minutes I planned to repeat the name "Franco," to you... my increasingly disappointed audience. Step 2: I would "see what happened." That was all. That was it. I was hashtagging reality. It was "social media art." Something I keep referring to as "SoMe" Art (to the horror of those associated). It was simple, and derivative, and only as interesting as the minds and dispositions that my audience would project onto it. In this way, it was the prematurely bald head of graduate school quality performance art. It seemed mildly inappropriate, and contextually funny, and pretty awful. "Perfect," I thought. To increase my impact on the night of the performance, I would practice. This involved video taping myself "performing" the word Franco in 15-minute intervals. Again, de rigueur Master of Fine Arts behavior. On these tapes I pantomimed the speech patterns of every you tube video I could remember. I researched by watching mostly 13 year olds, who seemed very natural with the medium. Behind me there is a whole generation of Stanislavskities, weaned on "reality culture"-- and so they are not just method acting, but method living. They are horrifying and wonderful and I wish I didn't feel like I understood them so well. Sporadically I did other impressions of television, film, and cartoon characters as they came into my head. In one practice session I lay on my stomach with my nose touching the floor and whispered "Franco" flatly into the earth. "Is this a post environmental earthwork?" said a hopeful voice in my mind. In another video I threw myself against the walls and shouted "FRANCO!" and made vaguely fascist gestures and sneers. '"Oh... maybe he means the other Franco!" said the hopeful voice-- "the political one! He's Spanish right? ... didn't Picasso have some beef with him?" Then, to astound you with my bravery, I conceived of a conclusion in which I stripped naked, wearing only a sock on my penis and the sock would have the phrase "Franco," written on it. "Oh!! Franco is the name of his penis! It's always about the penis! That's so right! It's like his penis is Rosebud!" In the unfettered bliss of my imagination I'd be instantly raptured into the canonical slide lectures of the Art Industrial Complex. It was all Tino Sehgal and Marina Abramovic and Dan Colen and Vito Acconci and Trisha Brown and Tristan Zara and Gertrude Stein and the Situationalists and Dada, it was American Weimar, the culture was burning and self obsessed and Salinger was dead everyone would agree I was so fucking clever and then we'd all go home and just light ourselves on fire. It was a fucking awful two weeks. It wasn't the "practicing" that got to me, but watching myself 'practice' on film. In my deteriorating confidence I kept repeating the last line of James Joyce's Araby: "Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger." Something is broken when you are using Joyce as governance for artistic restraint. There were three factors that convinced me to pay more respect to my audience, and to treat them... you... like grownups. I don't need convincing that acting like a grown up is its own kind of failure... but in this case... 1. Bruce High Quality happened, and I found out about it. The 'market' was cornered on cooler than you art kids laughing at them selves for having learned a whole lot of nothing and felt sorry and angry and soldiered on towards the museum parapet and acted funky. 2. I leave my television on nearly all the time- with the sound off because I like the company of randomized color. And on one of those nights while I practiced-- "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" appeared on my screen. Jimmy was commentating on a cage match between men dressed as mustaches-- this is a fairly regular bit for him. There was a ringside girl in an American flag bikini so small it would make Jeff Koons blush. A third mustache came marching down from the crowd with high fascist leg kicks; this mustache was short and vertical, and shaped like Hitler's. Soundlessly I watched the "comedy" develop as the mustache climbed into the ring and delivered a flying cross body block to the other mustaches. Fallon bounced around wearing a mullety wig and shouted, I'm imagining, in the self-referential dudely tones of fraternity culture-- he looked like he knew how silly this was. He was O.K. with the great rouse. And predictably, my MFA stashed away in a studio drawer, I wanted to vomit. Mind you, I'm sitting on several hours of footage in which I repeat one word and spastically perform a kind of ritualized seizure. It occurred to me that Jimmy Fallon had edgier material than myself. It was structurally more experimental. And his audience was near a million or so on any given night. I have never met anyone who would openly admit to watching the Jimmy Fallon show. The universe was becoming impossibly complex. 3. Despondent, and having chanted his name for weeks, it then occurred to me to actually think about the real James Franco. And this was a revelation. I hadn't authentically considered my satirical premise-- James Franco as the greatest artist of this generation? What if it were true? And the more I thought about my motivations for picking, or picking on James, the more I recognized the ugliness at root of it-- Envy. James Franco is a star. And I admired that. Was this a decent motivation for art? Is envy a worthwhile vehicle of expression? My irony melted away. Artifice and the shelter of abstraction became vile in my mind. I'm actually just a fan...This work is fan art: a pleasure poem. I'm in love with my imagination, and my imagination is in love with James Franco. The "work" has become sincere. Someday I would like to talk about the economics of sincerity. But tonight I'm talking about James Franco. ****************************************************** The Celebritist Manifesto: " A stirring defense of James Franco as the greatest artist of this generation if not all time." ******************************************************* This is a warning shot from Middle America: where I last saw my point of view, destitute, watching skin flicks and cartoons, orphaned by a catholic priest undoing his rust belt, and later selling used cars to molestation victims, etc, etc. There is a fracas on the horizon. A division and a land grab. Heroes will be the most ruthless. Fame is its own ethic... let me tell you what you already know... This is a shot fired from Middle America where I learned from Barnes and Nobles what the "Art World" was. It's a rack next to Maxim and the other "nipple possibilities." This is a manifesto written from an intellectual vacuum, sucked by the perpetual televised inbetween... I saw culture consummate one night on the internet... ...Hollywood and New York are pregnant, dividing zygotes: twin tyrants choke fucking in the womb. Call this the new American Tableaux: Romulus and Remus suckling the wolf's poison milk. It's a brand of infantile sexualization and beastiality based on an ancient recipe, then deep fried and packaged and sold off as culture. Not news. 'Just my take.' One twin is an escapist fabulist with great tits. The other sells negative pleasure and intellectual asphyxiation. Two separate bodies sharing the same horrible brain. Celebrity is the disease and the antidote. There is only one man positioned to save us.. One man who unites America's pleasure seeking hedonism with America's self loathing intellectual bewilderment. When we talk about America as a culture hallucinating on the celluloid shadows of celebrity we over romanticize the value of actual Sunlight. The Sun is the most conspiratorially anti American of all the stars, as far as stars go. We need to create our own stars... to conjure sublime metaphors of possible human transcendence and graft them on to organic actualities. We need vehicles to make-believe in the possibility of our dreams. We need fuel for our delusions, milk for our lucky charms. Breakfast should always include marshmallows... Am I joking? I am only half joking. I am exactly half joking. The escapist in me is laughing earnestly. The intellectual in me is cringing. I am these two twinned choke fucking incestuous lovers. But I am not the man. There is only one man... At the crest of every epoch, in all cultures where spectacle turns inward and exploitative and vicious, charisma is the catalyst. In a present tense where everyone is a futurist with typo faith and ego bleed and carpal tunnel and savage mistrust for brands and names and underwear models; when buying a hamburger feels directly connected to support for NAFTA or the Iraq war or an unnamed contra contra contra in deserts and jungles who do not have celebrities-- who do not yet have celebrities-- where magic still exists, before magic was outdone by charisma and the public relations industry... I propose one man over all the static of your art fairs and biennials and pluralisms. I propose we elect that man, not by democratic process but by shaking the trees of the liberty; committing a love revolt of immaculate and unimpeachable praise for our saint and savior...that we the virulent cynics spreading and then feeding our own distrust of class and industry and hierarchy and celebrations with any more than twenty five people... that we the self regarding sect of over educated lost boys and girls allow for passion's tryst and throw off ironic detachment and make wild and unwholesome group love to one man before all other possible gods... that we might be remembered as something just north of sycophants-- a proud fan culture, a fan culture who loves without malice... Here tonight, let us make it manifest, let us declare: There is one celebrity who is *good* for us... There is one man, and only one man... that man is James Franco. James Franco. James Franco is a Freak. James Franco is James fucking Dean. James Franco is the Green Goblin. James Franco is Harvey Milk's Boyfriend James Franco is a giggling burnout pot smoker James Franco is Allen Ginsberg James Franco is Eating, Praying, Loving James Franco is a wet tee-shirt model for Gucci James Franco is a Director and a Producer James Franco is a Novelist James Franco is an Ivy League grad student pursuing two separate masters degrees James Franco is a Soap Opera star... James Franco is a performance artist James Franco is a situationalist James Franco is a self satirizing icon James Franco is both overprivileged by his good genetic fortune, and also a humble a student of the universe James Franco IS America. In the visionary words of John Mayer, I propose that we crush him up and snort him. A chemical change is necessary... That we might completely disengage from our own smallish and autonomous pursuits and revel in the phantasmagoria of a man as a product, a man aware of his own product, who sells the joke about the man in the same package as the man himself. There are scant fantasies left for even the most ambitious of daydreamers. James Franco is the vision and visage of fantasy wrapped in a wet dream about a tall dark and handsome version of a rugged intellectual individualist-- a glamrock cowboy gone east and done good in the shade of ivory towers and still had time to smoke his fine weed and laugh at bad viral videos... James Franco the bilateral symmetry...One hemisphere fingering LALAland where Marilyn did fuck and Marlon did fuck and each generation and half generation and then quarter generation found a new Marilyn and a new Marlon and they did fuck or half fuck or quarter fuck...and everyone was a comic book word bubble shouting WHAM! ZAP! POW!.... and the other hemisphere is turning tricks for caviar and brioche in smokehouses of the west village where Sartre and Camus and Nabokov have lunch with Steinum and Foucault and Sontag, where long established cocksmen and poets and nightclub owners still remember Miles Davis and heroine and Basquiat and wallow forth in the deejay skeet of New Museum flunkies shipwrecked and mustachioed on the lower east side all night vomiting to the specular rhythms and sometimes plausible song structures of the Animal Collective.... His success story is now new next America: how he cleverly avoided twenty seventh street and rose rank on his dashing good looks and public willingness to experiment with gender roles. James Franco whose name is easier to remember than Massimiliano Gioni, Josephine Meckseper, or Guthrie Lonergan.... James Franco who would name check Kalup Linzy's tossed salad animation style on one night and on the next night play opposite Julia Roberts in a romantic airport self help biopic. Here is your prom king deviant...only James Franco can simultaneously eat America's asshole and charm America's all American sweetheart who is also America's all American hooker... James Franco who should play Vito Schnabel in a movie about Vito Schnabel directed by Julian Schnabel in which Vito Schnabel plays the young Julian Schnabel... wherein they lounge together and talk about the excesses of the art world and sip port in the Palazzo Chupi, that massive labia of the west village, wherein any of us, all of us, have dreamed about climbing up there and getting inside of her. Let us toast a drink tonight America, let us christen a drink; America tonight let us concoct a drink that is James Franco and so also is America. This drink is one part high fructose corn syrup and one part petroleum and one part metallic pheromones leaking into our pulsing blood streams and out through water supplies and the toxicologist is taking samples and teaching big pharma about our boners and sadness and solitary confinement to digital prisons built by Photoshop... depressed America drinking its stupor of day time television and needing a General Hospital for its General Malaise. Depressed America is chewing on its socks in the nude locker rooms of teenage America who is sexting middle school America who is playing hide the coconut and waiting for everyone to shut up so they can just exacerbate whatever, whatever... Exacerbating the imaginary industry of the imaginary Art World that is too big for our imaginary economy, which trades greed for pornography and each transactor competes for ethical inferiority--that sinister industry which would try anything once (even fascism) just to prove it was not fascist... Where a flower puppy is a flower puppy is a flower puppy. Where criticism is an unpaid religious vocation, the last remaining religious vocation for the non matriculating class, not hip to the power sugar sauce-- where power is truth and not the versa... the vice is president.. the vice is squeezing each art critic into the same pissing pot and that will be the premise of a new show on the Bravo television network that we all bitterly tried out for and were bitterly not selected but will bitterly watch and bitterly critique and bitterly pretend that our bitterness was actually virginal. And how we learned on Bravo that Jerry Saltz was a very decent fellow who owns a fucking spaceship and from time to time leaves the planet because if you owned a fucking spaceship you would also leave the fucking planet. How America has left the fucking planet… How the Bravo network chased around the possible socialist William Powhida and asked him if they could borrow his middle fingers. And Powhida said no because his middle fingers might not fit in the shot… And how both of these men are star crossed art lovers whom know they are star crossed art lovers. And how James Franco could convincingly play both of them in the biopic – Jerry Saltz and William Powhida, the Allen Ginsberg and James Dean of critical discourse-- how everything is the sexier version of the thing it actually wanted to be... before it forgot what it actually wanted to be. How it once figured out what it wanted to be in all night plotting sessions with the Hunter Mafia concerning the distasteful success of the Columbia and Yale and Hunter Mafia. Who moved to Hooverville and drank fair trade coffee and wore Burberry glasses and resisted buying sandals. Who met the starfucker Nic Rad and had a horrifying suspicion. Who adopted an ex-derivatives trader as his business partner and spiritual mentor. Who harassed art bloggers and tweeted live during sex and went to every restaurant in Manhattan and ordered the special. This is also for you, graduate students of the New York Academy of Art, which started when Andy Warhol lost a bet, and so then had to train twenty years of somewhat artists to paint the bald vaginas of classicism... and avoided the bald vaginas of contemporary culture. Who woke up one morning with an art scenic headache and went 'hair of the dog'… …and binged on Deitch and Gagosian and Zwirner and James Cohan and Lehman Maupin and Pace and Feuer and Matthew Marks and Barbara Gladstone and 303 and Andrea Rosen and Elizabeth Dee and Marianne Boesky and Leslie Tonkonow and Mary Boone and Metro Pictures and Steve Kasher and Whitebox and Leo Koenig and PPOW and Sikkema Jenkins and Postmasters and Tony Shafrazi and did not know what to make of it and so staggered up to the Met and did copies of the bald vaginas of classicism. At the critical point in social history when name dropping is no longer tactical, when it becomes name carpet bombing and obliterates both names and gravity-- there will only be one man left standing. James Franco will be left standing. James Franco whom Jeffery Deitch has considered the next Warhol onto whom Jeffery Deitch has also been considered the next Andy Warhol...In 15 minutes everyone will be considered the next Warhol--and for 15 minutes... Jeffery Deitch who is leaving the choke fucking baby of New York city for the innocent blonde baby with silicon tits of Los Angeles. Jeffery Deitch who sold urine stained phonebooks and semen stained collages and got tired and wanted to see other fluids and other bodies fledgling in other sun soaked avenues. Leaving the spermizoid stew of the Chelsea shore to the LES museum tenements of moneyball magistrates where infomercials grew legs and walked out of the swamp and became press releases. Broadcast on networks that also sell knives and diet pills... On selfsame networks that are somehow still networks with ancient laws about rights and ownership which predate both rights and ownership and so cannot be deciphered by the living and stand like other worldly obelisks and dictate bad juju. Bad obelisks missing Banks Violet missing Rachel Whiteread missing Roxy Paine. Bad obelisks damning Shepard Fairy for sticking his hopscotch thumbs in the sore butthole of the Associated Press. Bad obelisks telling China how the highly celebrated rockstars of the highly celebrated United States should be highly celebrated... where also securities regulators are rockstars and horticulturists are rockstars and real housewives are rockstars and pedophiles are rockstars and alaska king crab fishermen are rockstars and users are rockstars and binary codes are rockstars and waterbuffalos are rockstars and salsa dancers are rockstars and bounty hunters are rockstars and hotdog eaters are rockstars and teleprompt operators are rockstars and dogwalkers are rockstars and scorpion lickers are rockstars and hairstyles are rockstars and eight hundred pounds is a rockstar and bone bone bone is a rockstar and divorce is a rockstar and punch you in the face is a rockstar and only rockstars are not rockstars because no one will have them. And so it has been said "working for a larger common good is the vocation of the terminally innocent, leaving no likely outcome except heartbreak." Then let us believe in a heartbreaker. Let us ask for our hearts to be broken. James Franco, this is a love letter. James Franco is the only name I am manifest to remember. James Franco who might someday be sitting in a coffee shop and have a good idea for a script or a story or a poem. James Franco who is a guy like any other guy; he's just a guy. James Franco who may come across this love letter and scratch his head and wonder what is wrong with the universe. James Franco who seems like a guy who does sometimes wonder what is wrong with the universe. James Franco I could tell you several things that I think are wrong with the universe and we could compare notes. Was this about the Art World or this generation or history or anything at all? James Franco I have a studio in Williamsburg and it's pretty chill out here and I'm sure you're busy but why don't you check it out sometime? James Franco who I met once for about thirty seconds and it was good. James Franco I stayed up all night for seventy-two hours listening to podcasts of the convergence culture consortium hoping to find an intellectual basis for the platonic appreciation of some other human's existence and I fell asleep and dreamt about whales. James Franco I'm a fan. James Franco write me back sometime, Okay? Initially performed as a part of the #class project at Ed Winkleman gallery in New York-- organized by William Powhida and Jennifer Dalton. #Class was selected by... http://www.nic-rad.com/Compositions http://www.nic-rad.com/following/nic-rad.com/Compositions Tue, 01 Dec 2009 17:10:14 +0000 Nic*Rad 169348 <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/169348/Remember_Me_final_640.jpg" width="640" height="573" width_o="670" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/169348/Remember_Me_final_o.jpg" data-mid="11718764" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/169348/ICUNUCME.jpg" width="511" height="518" width_o="511" height_o="518" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/169348/ICUNUCME_o.jpg" data-mid="730574" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/169348/Homosapiens_final_640.jpg" width="640" height="815" width_o="670" height_o="853" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/169348/Homosapiens_final_o.jpg" data-mid="11718759" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/169348/INVALIDS_final_640.jpg" width="640" height="538" width_o="668" height_o="562" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/169348/INVALIDS_final_o.jpg" data-mid="11718763" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/169348/USERS_final_640.jpg" width="640" height="821" width_o="670" height_o="860" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/169348/USERS_final_o.jpg" data-mid="11718767" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/169348/tornado.jpg" width="640" height="439" width_o="646" height_o="443" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/169348/tornado_o.jpg" data-mid="730575" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/169348/Tornado_alley_Detail_Best.jpg" width="640" height="424" width_o="670" height_o="444" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/169348/Tornado_alley_Detail_Best_o.jpg" data-mid="2679044" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/169348/ice_cream.jpg" width="640" height="513" width_o="648" height_o="519" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/169348/ice_cream_o.jpg" data-mid="730577" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/169348/NRA_clear_and_present.jpg" width="640" height="688" width_o="670" height_o="720" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/169348/NRA_clear_and_present_o.jpg" data-mid="2678864" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/169348/NRA_zombies_large.jpg" width="640" height="688" width_o="670" height_o="720" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13251/169348/NRA_zombies_large_o.jpg" data-mid="2678879" border="0" align="left"/>