It started off so nice
Howdy!
Back on May 27th, the Gazette published a really good article on contemporary art by Cameron Skene, but they also promised that it would be part of a series that got published every six weeks. Well, the second one is horrible and filled with mistakes the most glaring one being that July 29 is actually nine weeks since the first one was published, and they have the temerity to write as an introduction "Every six weeks or so over several months, In Profile is presenting a cross-section of work now being produced on the island..."
Then while I still think that Mr. Skene is a good writer this article got hacked up somewhere and never should have seen the light of day.
Some of other mistakes/errors/bad things (in chronological order):
Mr. Skene starts off his article with a quote from Michael Kimmelman of the New York Times, who he quotes as writing "a barnacle on the cruise ship of pop culture." The actual line he wrote was back on March 3 and it reads "The whole ethos of the show is provisional, messy, half-baked, cantankerous, insular — radical qualities art used to have when it could still call itself radical and wasn't like a barnacle clinging to the cruise ship of pop culture." And it was in reference to the Whitney Biennale. And while you might think I'm nitpicking, if I can find it, so should the Gazette and Mr. Skene.
"Jana Sterbak's iconic image of a barcode on the back of a bald head" is in fact called "Generic Man." It is not iconic in the least, nor is the gentleman photographed bald. What is iconic is the Individuals of Style Gap ad campaign, the Holocaust, and the Terminator series of films. All of which had people with barcodes (or in the case of the holocaust an equivalent) long before Ms. Sterbak. Heck I'm positive that Ms. Sterbak has taken a photograph of a sunset on a beach, I don't think that her photograph of a sunset on a beach would qualify as "iconic." Why should this one?
Mr. Skene then goes on to talk about and with Isabelle Hayeur, somehow missing completely that one of her her "images... of places in the netherworld of the contemporary urban environment" is being shown now as I am writing this at the Musee des Beaux Arts. C'mon! I don't care when this article was actually written, there are people at the Gazette who are paid very good money to make sure that articles don't look stupid.
Then Andrea Szilasi's sweetie's name is Michael Merrill, he is not Michael Meredith. Mr. Skene must have been mourning the death of Milena Del Valle when he got them confused.
And then finally, since this article took 50% more time to publish than they planned, but they still refer to an article coming out every six weeks. I wonder if the next one will be appearing in three so that they can keep the average at six?
Back on May 27th, the Gazette published a really good article on contemporary art by Cameron Skene, but they also promised that it would be part of a series that got published every six weeks. Well, the second one is horrible and filled with mistakes the most glaring one being that July 29 is actually nine weeks since the first one was published, and they have the temerity to write as an introduction "Every six weeks or so over several months, In Profile is presenting a cross-section of work now being produced on the island..."
Then while I still think that Mr. Skene is a good writer this article got hacked up somewhere and never should have seen the light of day.
Some of other mistakes/errors/bad things (in chronological order):
Mr. Skene starts off his article with a quote from Michael Kimmelman of the New York Times, who he quotes as writing "a barnacle on the cruise ship of pop culture." The actual line he wrote was back on March 3 and it reads "The whole ethos of the show is provisional, messy, half-baked, cantankerous, insular — radical qualities art used to have when it could still call itself radical and wasn't like a barnacle clinging to the cruise ship of pop culture." And it was in reference to the Whitney Biennale. And while you might think I'm nitpicking, if I can find it, so should the Gazette and Mr. Skene.
"Jana Sterbak's iconic image of a barcode on the back of a bald head" is in fact called "Generic Man." It is not iconic in the least, nor is the gentleman photographed bald. What is iconic is the Individuals of Style Gap ad campaign, the Holocaust, and the Terminator series of films. All of which had people with barcodes (or in the case of the holocaust an equivalent) long before Ms. Sterbak. Heck I'm positive that Ms. Sterbak has taken a photograph of a sunset on a beach, I don't think that her photograph of a sunset on a beach would qualify as "iconic." Why should this one?
Mr. Skene then goes on to talk about and with Isabelle Hayeur, somehow missing completely that one of her her "images... of places in the netherworld of the contemporary urban environment" is being shown now as I am writing this at the Musee des Beaux Arts. C'mon! I don't care when this article was actually written, there are people at the Gazette who are paid very good money to make sure that articles don't look stupid.
Then Andrea Szilasi's sweetie's name is Michael Merrill, he is not Michael Meredith. Mr. Skene must have been mourning the death of Milena Del Valle when he got them confused.
And then finally, since this article took 50% more time to publish than they planned, but they still refer to an article coming out every six weeks. I wonder if the next one will be appearing in three so that they can keep the average at six?
posted by Zeke's, the Montreal Art Gallery on 29.7.06
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