ArtCall Diary - Webbittown - Industry Standard Aftermath

ArtCall Diary - Entry 2/21/2001
Webbittown: Industry Standard Aftermath

Mito y leyenda, Maria Llanos

For those of you who are tuning in late: Webbittown has broken through to coverage in other media outlets. The ArtCall was written about hardcopy in The Industry Standard in the December 25, 2000 issue. IDG, the parent company, also had CNN mirror the story on December 29. Many foreign press outlets picked up the article, and ran their own synopsis versions. Hungary, Italy, Spain, Japan and Singapore all checked in with ArtCall articles. Arts and community journals all began to spread the ArtCall story, as the clock began to run on Webbittowns' moment in the sun. Red Ed (#100) and KatKitty (#99) have been running all over the eastern seaboard distributing reprints. As of press time, 95% of all of the shares were in artists' hands, while 68% of the ArtCall stock certificates were back at Headquarters completed. An "alpha" run of the ArtCall financial details was conducted by Donahue/Sosinksi Art to validate our financial concepts. 0.1% of the ArtCall value was paid for 35 black and white Xeroxes of a share. They will soon pay 1% of an ArtCall's artist value for 35 color Xeroxes. Now back to the program...

KatKitty (#99) has become fascinated with art critics and the words they use. Words and phrases like 'rectilinear forms in opposition and curvilinear harmonics', 'enigmatic abstract conglomerations', 'easeful and painterly', or 'tension of absence' stand out like plums in a wonderful 'alliteral' pudding. We have been informed that the statement, "obstructed meaning is critical to a sense of true understanding" is "the most retarded thing I have ever heard". A quotation from Mr. Land, inventor of the Polaroid camera, says it better, "A premature attempt to explain something that thrills you will destroy your perceptivity rather than increase it, because your tendency will be to explain away rather than to seek out". Another person explains 'polychromatic effervescence' exists in the Calmx (#6) piece First Kiss. KatKitty (#99) enjoys the intersecting diagonal sweeps of contrasting texture in that same piece, as well as the palpable anima present in the fiber sculpture of Maria Llanos (113 Gallery) shown next to it. Oops. Sorry. No alliteration.

We have seen paintings coated with sugar (please do not lick the paintings, warns a sign on the wall), paintings done on baby crib parts, painted wood scraps (wonderful sense of color), paintings abandoned by one artist signed and sold by another, banished paintings, paintings with shapes cut out of them and other paintings inserted in the spots, paintings done on plastic half torsos, and pastels done on sheet rock Pollack, Penley (#58), Picasso, Tomasso, Marchuk (#41), Calmx (#6), and Klimpt. Ancient recipe oil media sold in twenty dollar ten gram jars, and whole junkyards with rich patinas rusting into scraps of metal, ready for use. It is information overload for KatKitty. We fear it may be infecting her perceptivity with dissociative ideation.

Red Ed reflected in Alan Montain's Repulse Bay Li River - Photo by Alan Montaine

We have seen photography, too. Some of Bentley's snowflakes at a 6th floor charity event, and next to them room sized photos of a looming iceberg wall with details that held KatKitty's fascination for good fractions of the hour. No foreground subject there, the sense of scale obliterated any relevance to other objects. Mr. Alan Montaine's (#88) photos, on display at EMR Asian Antiques, on the other hand, pride themselves on capturing motion, with visual cues as simple as foreground foliage framing the retreating overcast sky above Repulse Bay, another photo that seemed to mesmerize Kat, or with more subtle cues in the cats paws and turbulence leading in from upper left in a photograph of the Li River.

Red Ed (#100) is focused on the art call, getting the remainder of the one hundred share designs back. On his way to pick up share number 96 (Jonathan Feldschuh), he encountered the following high-energy scene.

A group painting party at Jim Murray (#56) Studio on Franklin, off Broadway!

Group Painting Party at Jim Murray Studio

The result of a group painting party is lots of paint, and lots of painting.

Now, certain important shares were still outstanding, and something had to be done. The energy of a seven-man manhunt was co-opted, and flyers with the names of some notorious East Village artists pasted in the place of escaped convicts found their way into Max Fish.

7 escaped convicts wanted poster at Pink Pony

We cannot show images from the Gagosian, the paintings with shapes cut out of them. However, the same poster was disseminated there with some odd results. Somewhere in the back room, KatKitty encountered the most horrible stench, like old wool soaked in stale male cat urine. We later tracked the stench to a nicely dressed couple in the crowd. The stink cloud followed them for a good five meters. The smell was truly obnoxious! Suspicious KatKitty (#99), after first dismissing the idea that Pan from the novel Jitterbug Perfume was in the room, concluded that these two did this as an amusement. They would hang out near persons much less well dressed than them, and get the poor target kicked out of wherever they were.

Red Ed in his Valvoline starter jacket, handing out the wanted posters to folks he knew, was an obvious target. The ploy worked perfectly. Amidst murmurs of "what a horrible smell" and "there he is," a security guard swooped down on Red Ed and escorted him out with an admonishment to take a bath.

Heidi Follin, Paul Kostabi, Red Ed looking for missing shares around Tompkins Square Park

Paul Kostabi (#1) thought this was not right, that anyone would get kicked out of the Gagosian for stinking. Somewhere out in Hoboken, at The Clam Broth House (where they have laid claim to a Tompkins Square Park legacy) he drew a scene related to the event, Tale Drag, which has been sold on E-bay after spirited bidding. KatKitty (#99) is not too happy about the drawing suggesting it was -she- who was responsible for the stink. TALE DRAG, Paul Kostabi

The drawing was done on a first draft of a Webbittown Corporation press release, so the winning bidder will get some information that reporters from Business Week and The Industry Standard could not.

The big search term on E-bay lately is Lord of The Rings. The following work by Miky Noma, on display at 113 Gallery (113 Ludlow), immediately had me thinking of the Gollum creature in that story, with its malevolent green wraith like presence. Sauron's all seeing eye has some resonance with the I Love You piece by Diane Sbano (#36), as well.

Next issue: Toy Fair and the licensing deals.

Jottings: Content Delivery Networks Javits Center 2/21-23 All Day, Open Mouse Fun Club 130 Madison 2/22, Cynthia Broan 2/22 6-9, 531 W. 26 St. 6-8, All The Pretty Horses at Meow Mix 2/25 8-10, Sunday Dinner With Gecko Collective Unconscious 145 Ludlow 2/25 8-12, Calmx at Philip Alan Gallery 30 Ave. B till 2/25, Elinor Ettinger 119 Spring 6-8, Wide Open Cabaret ABC No Rio 156 Rivington 3/2 9-12, Montserrat Gallery 584 B;way 3/8 6-8, Sunday Dinner w/Gecko Collective Unconscious, Richard West & Co. 45 E 33rd 8-11.

photos ©carol braddock aka red ed, katkitty aka Roberta Bennett, Calmx
Artwork Permission of Webbittown Corporate Collection, 113 Gallery, Alan Montaine, Jim Murray and Friends
artwork©Paul Kostabi, Alan Montaine, Miki, Diane Sbano, Jim Murray and Friends

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