Last Week for Domestic Utensils at COMA

Here are some installation shots of my work at COMA Alternative Space.

Detail. Pictures from the opening here.

The show closes this Saturday, December 6, and is open by appointment only.

Let me know if you'd like to see the show.

I have a key to the space, and can let you in.

The work makes great holiday gifts!

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MOCA's Fiscal Future, Contemporary Art's Rocky Past

Does MOCA's downward spiral remind anybody of the Bush Administration? Like MOCA, it starts with an outward projection of denial, as in, "The fundamentals of the economy are strong." Next comes tight-lipped loyalty in the face of disaster where projecting an inscrutable but unified front is more important than fixing the problem.

Even after Christopher Knight's open letter to MOCA, there were no mea culpas, only secret catered board meetings. It seems the only way to initiate a dialog was to either be a multi-millionaire and write an op-ed for the LA Times, or crash a lecture on conceptual art.

Realistically speaking, the support for cutting-edge contemporary art in Los Angeles has been pretty thin and fickle, despite the world-class art that's produced here. Comparisons have been made between MOCA and the defunct Pasadena Museum of Art, but I can also see another parallel form the more recent past.

In the mid-'70's, the only non-profit spaces dedicated to exhibiting contemporary art were the Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art (LAICA) and an exhibition space in the shopping mall under Arco Towers run by the oil company. As the contemporary art scene grew, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE) opened in the bridal district, and LAICA expanded, trying to position itself as an important venue as some of the other ICAs--like those in London and Boston.

At the same time, the groundwork was laid for building MOCA on Bunker Hill, and the money that flowed into not-for-profit art was pulled downtown--to the detriment of LAICA. By the mid-'80's when MOCA was in full swing, LAICA was forced to scale back its aspirations. Unfortunately for LAICA, LACE had already established itself on the lower rungs of the feeding chain, and coupled with spending and ambition that didn't match it's economic situation, LAICA shriveled into the ether.

In similar ways the Santa Monica Museum of Art (SMMoA) and the Hammer have been putting on important shows without MOCA's deficit spending, while the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) has been sucking dry the small pool (puddle?) of high-profile donors. Like LAICA, MOCA has found itself in a fiscally barren middle, while ignoring the financial reality of its situation.

Despite the context of the worldwide financial meltdown, MOCA's financial woes were years in the making. Even the Getty--with its deep pockets--was tightening it's belt. Back in May, Lee Rosenbaum reported on The Getty Museum's shortfall, and how it took decisive action:

The J. Paul Getty Trust, which recently posted its fiscal 2007 annual report online, last year incurred a staggering operating deficit of $49.36 million on a budget of $307.7 million. The previous year, the deficit was $18.29 million on a $293.57-million budget.

This growing shortfall is likely one of the reasons for the recently announced elimination of 114 jobs, including 40 layoffs. Anne-Marie O'Connor of the LA Times recently quoted this explanation for the cuts by trust president James Wood:

"The whole goal here is to focus the Getty on the core mission of the visual arts. This is to ensure that we have flexible funds to devote to both building our collections in the museum, the research institute and the library and undertake targeted strategic initiatives where we feel we can really make a difference..."

Other actions included reduced museum hours, increased parking fees, and reductions in routine maintenance and cleaning.

Now--like the automakers going to Washington with their hat in hand (via corporate jets)--MOCA's desperate for a cash infusion. At the same time, there's not a word from MOCA's management or trustees about fixing the money pit on Grand Avenue. I can expect the lower rungs of the art world to renew their memberships early as a way to help out, but I don't think that rich folk--who make their money by investing wisely--will throw their dollars in a pot that's leaking cash so profusely.

MOCA's management should watch the video below so see how other executives respond to financial problems on their watch:

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Can you believe Jeremy Strick makes four times as much as the CEO of Japan Airlines?

At this point, the ball seems to be in MOCA's court. Artists, journalists and philanthropists don't want to see MOCA's collection folded into another institution--or work sold off. And as Christopher Knight pointed out, those who value MOCA's world-class permanent collection are unwilling to support a board that is so cavalier about frittering that collection away.

I hope MOCA's board and management can figure out exactly how to reduce spending and plan for the financial long term. If not, then they should step aside.

One suggestion would be to set aside a wing of their Grand Avenue space for a permanent installation of a selection from their permanent collection. I expect everyone with a MOCA membership has the experience of returning to an art museum in another city and revisiting a familiar and loved work of art--be it Les Demoiselles d'Avignon at MoMA, El Greco's View of Toledo at the Met--or whatever floats your boat. Building an in-depth, and long-term relationship with a work of art is a logistical impossibility with all of MOCA's space being used for temporary exhibitions. Not only would this reduce the expense of pulling together large-scale shows, but it might help build a longer term relationship with Los Angeles' fickle art crowd.

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Whatever Happened to "A Day Without Art?"

Almost twenty years ago, the first "Day Without Art" took place as a way to remember those who have died of AIDS--and the impact the virus has had on the arts community. A New York Times article from that era captures a sampling of some 800 events that happened in museums, galleries and symphony halls across the nation.

In New York, in a prelude to the day's activities, about 500 people crowded into the lobby and balconies of the Museum of Modern Art on Thursday night for a service at which Leonard Bernstein dedicated a two-minute composition for piano and two voices to ''those I love who have died of AIDS.'' Calling the evening ''a half-hour of symbols,'' he added, ''What we do tonight is only a symbolic reaction to threatening and ugly issues.''

Today, looking at the on-line calendars for MOCA, The Getty, LACMA, and The Hammer, only the Getty lists events that mark the day. Does silence still equal death?

This got me to thinking...

Around the era that the first effective therapies for HIV were being developed, so was the internet. This means many artists who died young have few references to their lives and work in cyberspace.

In light of this fact, I thought it would be a good idea to encourage bloggers worldwide post on December 1 as a way to remember an artist or art worker who died of AIDS, and show the disproportionate impact the disease has had on the art world.

So come back here on December 1 to read about an artist and friend of mine who almost goes unmentioned on the internet, and feel free to link your remembrance post to mine through the comment section.

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Andy Warhol: 15 min/24fps at CSULB University Art Museum

Margaret Hamilton

The Andy Warhol Foundation has divvied up twenty-eight million dollars worth of Andy Warhol’s Polaroids and black and white prints, and donated them to 183 university art museums. Among the recipients is CSULB’s University Art Museum, which has a selection of Polaroids used to make his iconic silk screens and portraits on view through December 14.

Helium Tanks for Silver Clouds

In an adjacent room, Warhol’s helium-filled Mylar pillows are installed for the full factory effect. On my visit, the show was still being installed.

Divine Warhol

Like seeing Warhol’s Factory pickled in formaldehyde, the show includes Warhol’s working images of Margaret Hamilton (AKA The Wicked Witch of the West), O.J. Simpson and others, along with the resulting silkscreens and paintings.

Raw Materials

Back when I was in high school, O. J. Simpson was the most admired American in a poll of school children. It gives one pause to think how fortunes can change for celebrities and the memorabilia that surrounds them.

Finished Product

As Meg Cranston pointed out with her piles of library books, her 3-D bar graph of books is higher (and lasts longer) for esoteric literary types than it does for celebrities. Monographs for artists collect in libraries and are easily accessible, but hours and hours of courtroom footage and news commentary disappears into the ether. While Warhol's portrait of Marilyn is more iconic than anything written about the actress, some of the wealthy that commissioned Warhol portraits in the 70's and 80's have already been consigned to the dust heap of "Unidentified Blond Woman."

Warhol tied his fame to two different horses, and in a a couple of decades, the slippage is already profound: Ars Longa, Celebrity Brevis.

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How To Give Directions and Way Find

How Far to Wall Drug?

This post came about after reading about a study out of the Illinois State University that tested different methods of giving directions; either by “birds-eye” perspective with cardinal directions (go north 2 kilometers, turn east) or by route perspective (Mettent deux blocs à la Rue Voltaire, tournez à gauche). There is also a post here full of comments and suggestions for giving directions.

In the days before mobile telephones, it was necessary to give better directions, since communication was impossible en route (I'm at the east entrance, where are you?). Back when I threw (delivered) the LA Times, the route perspective was used. This got me to think of an ideal way to give directions, and a couple of issues that aren’t fully addressed in either link. One has to do with the syntax of direction giving, and the other has to do with the details of the circumstances.

When thinking about the syntax, I’m assuming that the way finder has a starting location that runs the gamut from familiar (home, work) to unfamiliar (a hotel, airport) and an unknown destination. The two points can be rural to urban and involve movements on foot, in a car, or public transportation. In almost all circumstances, directions will break into two parts that I’m calling The Funnel and The Route.

The Funnel

The funnel would move the person from their starting location to a densely traveled feeder route like a highway or train. The syntax would be:

Take (highway, train) (designation) (direction and distance if necessary) to (exit, stop).

In the case where it’s necessary to give more than one highway or train, the last exit or stop would be replaced by a transfer or highway change, with each leg of the directions on a separate line. Some examples:

- Take the A train to 72nd Street/Central Park West
- Take the 405 north about 20 miles to Roscoe Boulevard
- Take the 435 south about 11 miles to the 70 West,
take the 70 west about 225 miles to Russell
- Take the Narita Express to Tokyo Station

These directions assume that airports have signs pointing out rail or highway access, hotel clerks can point the way to the highway, or a person knows how to get from their home to a highway or train. It’s helpful to remember that highways have signage with number designations, so “Take the 5 south to the 710 south,” would be preferable to, “Take the Sadao Munemori Memorial Interchange to the Rosa Parks Freeway.”

For the most part, the less that is said, the better, then ad in qualifiers if necessary. In most cities, once a person is in a subway (or freeway) system, there are maps and signs that will help them find their stop or exit. By looking about (rather than at a piece of paper) one will more easily become familiar with landmarks and signs, thus build a better sense of direction. The same holds true for distances. Going “about 20 miles” will keep the way finder’s eyes peeled for the exit sign, not glued to the odometer and miss the exit. So an example of a paired down set of directions might be, “From the airport, take the subway to the Zócalo.” Yes, there may be better, more efficient routes than others, but nobody like a control freak.

The Nexus

The nexus between The Funnel and The Route, is probably the most justifiable place to include idiosyncratic landmarks. It may be cloudy, nighttime, or streets may run at odd angles, so cardinal directions may confuse more than help. Coming out of a subway (with multiple exits that are blocks apart and facing many possible directions) calls for a bit of landmark orientation. “When you get out of the subway, walk towards the big cathedral on the plaza with the huge Mexican flag.” Highways may have multiple exits for each direction on the surface street, “Take the second Anaheim Street exit going east.”

The Route

Once the way finder is on surface streets either by car or on foot, directions should follow a similar syntax using streets, distance and direction:

Go (distance in miles or blocks) (direction if necessary) to (cross street or intersection); (course change).

-or-

Take (street name) (direction if necessary) (distance) to (cross street or intersection)
[line break] (course change)(next street).

Some examples:

- Take Wilshire Boulevard east about a mile to Westwood; turn left
- Walk on the right side of Avenida Armendariz until it curves left;
take the first footpath on the right
- Go 2 blocks;
turn left on 11th Avenue

Directions are easier to follow if the same syntax is maintained; by separating course changes on a different line, it makes it easier for a driver to keep their place on the paper while navigating traffic.

Descriptive qualifiers may be necessary when encountering roundabouts, “T” intersections, or streets that bifurcate at odd angles. Some examples:

• Take PCH south to the traffic circle; take the second exit Los Coyotes Diagonal
• Counting blocks on the right side, go 2 blocks to Minerva Park; turn right
• Keeping in the left lane, drive about 2 kilometers to Rue Danton; veer left
• Go about 2 miles to Walnut Avenue which has a traffic light; turn right

There are those cities with inconsistent or hard-to-read signage and streets that run at odd angles. Tokyo, Venice, and the medina quarter in north African cities come to mind. In these instances, landmarks become more necessary.

It’s best to leave out relative or ambiguous terms like up or down, and stick to left, right, and straight (or gaily forward). If you find it necessary to give cardinal directions (Lakewood Boulevard exit east) it’s better to not capitalize them, so as not to confuse streets with cardinal directions in the names (go right on East 1st Street might be misread as go right (east) on 1st Street).

Mitigating Circumstances

There are situations when other systems of way finding are relied upon. If the person is in possession of and uses paper maps or GPS technologies, then information that relates to their tools—such as map coordinates, destination address with postal code, etc.—can be provided.

When approached by lost folks asking for directions, it’s probably better not to overwhelm them with detailed directions, but rather help them get a little closer—or back to some familiar landmarks. Too many changes of direction can be easily misremembered (was it left-left-right-left-right-left, or left-left-left-right-right-left?).

If you’re unable to find your destination, it may be better to first ask for more general directions to a neighborhood (Can you point me to Colonia Centro?), then a street (Where is Calle Allende?), and finally a specific location (Donde estas Café Tacuba?).

Opportunities like the next may only happen one in a lifetime, so it’s best to be prepared. While out walking my dog in Westwood, a car—presumably full of UCLA music students and their instruments—pulled over and asked how to get to Royce Hall. What could I say but, “Practice, practice?”

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When It's a Photograph at Otis' Bolsky Gallery

Phil Chang's Peel on Table, 2007
C-Print 40x30

In the gallery sometimes set aside for student exhibitions, director of Otis' photography program Soo Kim has curated a mix of local and European artists who use photographic materials as their medium. This Saturday November 22 is the closing reception, from 6-8pm.
Directions to Otis here.

Carly Steward's Untitled Landscape, 2003
Gelatin Silver Print 30x24

As Howard Singerman and Lane Relyea noted on a few occasions, traditional models for educating artists have been in flux for some time now. In the old Beaux Arts (bow-zarts) and Bauhaus models, you sat pupils down with some tools, and got them all to accomplish (more or less) the same thing: be it rendering a naked lady or a teapot in charcoal, or developing and printing some black and white film. For some bizarre reason, it was thought that at the end of four years, students would have produced an independent body of work. Even at places like CalArts, which have attempted to supplant old pedagogical practices with a critique model that only brought in skills when needed, the photo/art dichotomy still holds sway.

Wolfgang Tillmans' Lighter 77 (left) and Lighter 78, both 2008
Unique C-Prints 24x20

For the best artists, the compartmentalization of media is ignored, and finding the best way to express their concept or idea takes priority. For Phil Chang and Wolfgang Tillmans, the ur-stuff of the photographic media pulled apart, sculpted, and processed, decoupled from the negative.

Rather than printing from a negative (which hypothetically, could be done an infinite number of times) Tillmans singly manipulates each piece of photo paper--making them unique and individual, just like every single person on the planet. Like his book says, "If one thing matters, everything matters."

Sebastiaan Bremer's Day For Night, 2006
Ink on C-Print 91x118

For some of the artists in the show, the photograph can become the substrate for other art supplies. Sebastiaan Bremer culls from his Dutch heritage still lifes drawn in careful pointillist white. The faint image of a woman's face (in the dark area disappears as the work is approached, and other more amazing techniques and images come into focus. Unfortunately the large sheet of Plexiglas over the work distracts from the effect. Other works suffer from the perfect storm of glass, glossy media, and dark images across the room, creating a distracting funhouse of reflections.

Around the corner Morgan Cuppet-Michelsen presents a diptych of landscapes photographed at either end of the Simi Valley. The reversed text puts the you in the movie, presumably a western. The specific locations--Spahn Ranch and the Reagan Library--both have filmic and mythic western references; the dairy ranch was used as a location for the Lone Ranger and Bonanza TV shows, and the other hosts the interred body of the famous actor/president.

Yanina Spizzirri's Model Kit #1/Los Angeles, 2005
Cyanotype Prints 8x10 each

For both Carly Steward and Yanina Spizzirri, systems of display and representation have been foregrounded at the same time traditional use has been sabotaged. Steward's more recent work has shown empty vitrines and sculpture supports as the LACMA's rooms have gone under renovation. In what looks like blueprints of Thomas Guide pages without their text, Spizzirri's compositions (like Stewards) foreground the formal aspects while stripping their source material of their primary function. Even Ansel Adams traditionally vast depth of field is inverted, giving a landscape-like quality to the cut up book.

Morgan Cuppet-Michelsen's "The End" of Simi Valley (Reagan Library), 2008
C-Print and Silkscreen 38x48

There is an exhibition catalog, which should be available.

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Sarah Thornton Talks About Seven Days in the Art World

On the Eighth Day They Critiqued the Ethnography

Sarah Thornton came full circle Tuesday, offering her take on the art world in CalArts room F200, the site of chapter two and Michael Asher’s infamous critique class. (The class is so mythic, that the twelve-hour critique Thornton sat in on and described in the book morphed to fifteen hours in the lecture).

Last night the room was being used for the visiting artist lecture series, and in the back of the room next to the video camera that records the presentation, were remnants of the previous iteration of Post Studio Art.

Most interesting was the focus on validation in each of the overlapping magesteria depicted in the book. Besides California Institute of the Arts' classroom, other chapters focused on a meeting between MOCA and Blum & Poe at Murakami’s studio, the Venice Biennale, the Turner Prize and the like. In the case of the commercial spaces, validation can take the form of pounds sterling; in the case of Artforum, caché (and a premium) comes with ads placed in the first 30% of the magazine.

What seems evident to me—though not explicitly referenced in the book—is the anxiety that is the evil twin of validation. For the auction houses, it can come form setting the estimates too high and having work bought in. For gallerists it can come from selecting a stable that isn’t picked for biennials or awards, and from being pushed down the rungs in the art-fair-satellite hierarchy.

While Thornton did speak of this anxiety among collectors, my sense is that in the most opinionated curator or magazine editor is a poker player unsure enough of her hand that she’s forced to play her poker face. If Artfoum sees a risk in putting a younger artist on the cover, then it seems they’re more comfortable seconding than nominating. And if—according to Rhonda Lieberman—Artforum is an amalgam of upscale tastemakers and windbags, the former should obviate the need for bloviators if the makers of taste believed in the own credibility.

There were several “days” missing from Seven Days in the Art World: notably, not-for-profit spaces and Thornton herself. It might bee seen that the Paul Brach Visiting Artist Lecture Series was an attempt by Thornton to insert herself in the CalArts critique machine, and by emerging relatively unscathed, receive her own gold star of validation.

On my way out I stopped to briefly look at the artwork left from Michael Asher’s last class. The piece was the simulacra of a Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) that seemed to describe the hazards of the sheet itself along with the vitrine in which it was encased.

Full circle indeed.

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Of Sponges and Fountains

I’ve been thinking about the differences between the art made by older and younger artists. This has come about partly because of the seemingly abrupt turn Rachel Whiteread’s new work (outlined in my last post), and probably because my birthday yesterday puts me three years away from receiving my AARP card. There are no laws about the kind of work an artist of any age must make, but it might be illuminating to make some gross generalizations based on a handful of cherry picked observations.

If I would give a word to the older and recent work by Whiteread, I’d say there’s been a move from the social to the personal. While her past work might answer questions posed by a sociologist (how do people live, what spaces do they inhabit, etc.), her new stuff seems to answer those questions about her own personal life. But the ‘social’ and ‘personal’ make a poor dichotomy.

Looking at Gauguin, one could see in Jacob’s Fight with the Angel (above) and The Spirit of the Dead Keep Their Watch (below) as a move from the historical depiction of stories heard, to the personal depiction of a nice meaty Tahitian ass where Gauguin probably passed along his Treponema pallidum.


At the same time there are plenty of artists who move back and forth between the personal and historical (Picasso comes to mind) or the personal and the social (now I’m thinking of Cathie Opie). In one way, it can be parsed as shift from the general to the specific. Perhaps some of the difference stems from the idea that a 25 year old is getting their information second hand from words and teachers, while a person twice the age has parallels to the concepts learned that could be drawn from lived experience. The recent art school grad may make political work drawn from the news or history books, while an artist twice that age may have lived and voted through the past four presidential administrations, and incorporate some of that personal history.

Quite often the minds of young children are referred to as sponges. But there eventually comes a point where information flows the other way. Sponges become fountains. For the younger artist, information coming in gets barely masticated, and moist chunks of theory and fact might be recognizable and picked out in the resulting spew. Those of us who are so old we fart dust, the concepts ingested twenty years have now been incorporated on the cellular level. This morning’s toast is moistened by saliva that was last night’s consommé. Eventually it all gets shit out, along with dead cells that are byproducts of body’s regeneration process. For the older artist, the stuff that comes out is seen as a part of the body—the personal—no longer recognizable as the stuff that went in.

I welcome your comments.

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Rachel Whiteread at Gagosian Gallery Beverly Hills

Often, when information is not immediately ascertainable, stories are invented to fill the gap. The Egyptians gave us Nut, the goddess who gave birth to the sun every morning and swallowed it every night. Long before the invention of fMRIs, Freud appropriated stories from Greek myth to give meaning to our cranial matter. In his essay on the Uncanny, Freud fairly warns us of our mind’s ability to ascribe meaning where there is none. In one example, a seemingly random number—62—appears on a room door and a ticket for a coat check.

“…if we come across the number 62 several times in a single day, or if we begin to notice that everything which has a number — addresses, hotel rooms, compartments in railway trains — invariably has the same one, or at all events one which contains the same figures. We do feel this to be uncanny. And unless a man is utterly hardened and proof against the lure of superstition, he will be tempted to ascribe a secret meaning to this obstinate recurrence of a number…”

Rachel Whiteread's Ghost, 1990

In Rachel Whiteread’s obstinate recurrence of interior spaces, viewers scour the void-made-into-object, with their gaze alighting on bits of wallpaper (or soot from the matrix that was a fireplace). Like Freud, we are captivated by a sense of the uncanny, and imagine interiors from visually impenetrable blocks of plaster and concrete. In a way similar to Freud seeing Sophocles in the grey wet folds of the human cortex, viewers are free to assign scenarios and emotional valence to the architectural spaces cast by Whiteread.

In modern brain science, the Id and Ego have their parallels in a limbic system—which generates our emotions, and the prefrontal cortex—which can control and hide our thoughts and feelings from other creatures. When Freud peeled back the skull, he presented us with myth. When Whiteread tore away the outer walls of a row house slated for demolition, the interior is not exposed à la Gordon Matta-Clark, but instead another occluding surface is presented. For Damon Hyldreth, he sees,

“…a reversal of an enclosing, comforting, dwelling, a place of repose and comfort, a symbol of domestic hopes and dreams. What was left was a monument to one’s most private moments but with the privacy stripped bare and petrified. “House” monumentalized the past in a subversive manner, instead of allowing for a connection to and retrieval of the past, “House” subverted the warm cozy memories of home.”

House, 1993

For other viewers, House was brief monument to the losses created by urban renewal and gentrification. Andreas Siekmann more pointedly maps out this process in Trickle Down, showing how public space is gentrified—first using public art and private businesses to lure in foot traffic. Later when private security is brought in for public safety, public space is essentially privatized. House became a de facto monument to what had already been torn town, a cement synecdoche for the rapidly disappearing lower-income housing stock in a mostly ethnic minority London East End community.

But what becomes of the psychodynamic view when Whiteread’s media expands to include translucent polymers? These objects are not visually impenetrable, forcing the viewer to project their own histories and politics onto the surface. In the case of Water Tower (1998) in New York and Untitled Monument (2001) for the empty forth plinth in Trafalgar Square, the object is made inaccessible by the nature of its architectural context. Just as the unconscious can be appraised but remain out of reach, these particular casts appear to float mirage-like; watery apparitions that may be continually approached, but remain forever out of reach.

Water Tower, 1998

The resin casts ask the viewer to contemplate bits of the city’s infrastructure that more often blend into the background (as translucent objects ordinarily would). How does a plinth frame the thing that rests upon it? What do the choices of plinth-objects say about the society that selects them? Untitled Monument's inverted neoclassical form reminds us that myth spun from history wasn't invented by the British Empire.

Untitled Monument, 2001

In the case of the Water Tower, parallels can be drawn to the human body. Without a liver and kidney, humans quickly die of sepsis, poisoned on the cellular level by their own waste. Likewise for the human organisms that animate the brick buildings of Manhattan; the water towers’ ability to hydrate and flush their effluvia into the Atlantic brine, saves the occupants from drowning in their own filth.

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Yet these readings—psychological and social—are not the only ways to interpret Whiteread’s practice. In her current show at Gagosian Gallery, (up through December 20, 2008 in Beverly Hills) Whiteread’s work has taken a turn to the intimate. Working alone—rather than with a bevy of assistants—Whiteread casts the insides of shipping boxes and tubes, transforming them into idiosyncratic shapes, arranged on high shelves.

Drill, 2008

The first impression of Drill (2008) encourages a contextual reading in ways similar to her earlier work. For workers in many quasi-modern institutions built in the last forty years, the structure of David Roland’s 40/4 chair will be a familiar one. While on the surface it represents the modernist aesthetic, its production parallels high modernism’s slide from a Utopic ideal to the capitalist reality of production, storage, and contract furnishings. To underscore this read, the functionality—the seat surfaces—have been removed and replaced by the cardboard tubes ubiquitous to the architect or interior design office. Like the disused stationary bicycle or treadmill that eventually gets repurposed as a valet for dirty clothes, Drill illustrates the crash of modernism's ideals into the hard rock of consumerism.

Juggle II, 2008

But a different read is pushed forward in much of the work here. Unlike her cast voids around books and libraries, the objects that line the shelves on the wall at Gagosian are visually accessible. Often the cuboid and cylindrical forms (cast in pastel shades of plaster and luminous blocks of resin) are sandwiched between cast bronze bookend-like chunks of polystyrene. On close inspection, the molds are from mass-produced shipping materials. Through the wear and tear of transit, the dents and disfigurations have given identical mass-produced forms their own unique qualities. In a similar way that you are a unique individual (just like everybody else), each component is both singular and a signifier of the many. What Allan McCollum has tried to accomplish by way of mathematics in his SHAPES project, Rachel Whiteread has done through the intrinsic inconsistency of the human hand.

Focus, 2008

The parts that make the whole of the shelf works remind an artist of those first drawing and design classes, when one first stopped and looked with purpose at the light and shadow reflected off some basic shapes. These new objects refocus the viewer’s attention on pure form, and the intimate scale draws the viewer in to see evidence of the artist’s hand. 

Running concurrently with the Gagosian show is Place (Village) at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston  (through January). Over the course of many years, Whiteread has done for antique dollhouse auctions on eBay what Eli Broad has done for Jeff Koons at Sotheby's. The incongruity between the quasi-minimalism and the quasi-kitsch is not dissimilar to discovering Andy Warhol's extensive collections (from Navajo rugs to cookie jars) upon his death. But the two shows are interrelated as mold and matrix—or art to its shipping container; many of the pieces cast were quirky bits of packing used to cushion her purchases. 

Rachel Whiteread and Untitled (Hive), 2007-08

Upstairs at Gagosian is a trio of larger works. Foundation (2007-08) exhibits the cut and crenelated surface that corrugated paperboard would follow as it's wrapped around a tiny house. The other two are resin casts that glow in the natural light, including a lavender dollhouse (cast from a reproduction from one in her collection) and a honey-colored beehive. Like the MRI, Whiteread’s Neutrogena-hued Untitled (Hive) gives us visual access to the form’s interior. The gabled roof and second-story overhang of Hive is reminiscent of New England colonial architecture, and reminds us that anthropomorphizing happens to insects too.

Ghost Ghost, 2008

On the other side of the room, Ghost Ghost (2008) gives form to the interior of a large two-story dollhouse. At a distance, the minuscule bubbles that hardened between each poured layer of the polyurethane give the appearance of ship lap siding. Around the backside, the miniature home’s stairwell is visible as an apparition in a purple haze.

Ghost Ghost, 2008 (detail)

This new work also presents the opportunity to reappraise Whiteread’s earlier practice in more formal ways. By stopping one’s gaze just before the thingness is manifest, Whiteread’s architectural casts can be read as a series of cuboids, cones, and cylinders. In this new work her vocabulary expands with the articulation of organic and irregular shapes, from Styrofoam peanuts to broken scraps of packaging. The arrangement of parts brings the artist’s voice to the syntax of the assembly, rather than her earlier acquiescence to the preexisting order of cubes—as in a London row house.

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A Letter to a Harassed Christian

Nicholas Grider from Here

I came across this post titled Prop 8 Supporters Being Harassed and decided to leave a comment. It wound up much longer than the 3000 character limit, so I decided to post it in full here. Earlier I posted on the California Supreme Court decision and my thoughts about the gay marriage debate, post election. I promise to get back to the regularly scheduled fine art programming here, but after Ed Winkleman was of two minds on the protests, I thought it important to unequivocally express my (our) resentment towards the political supporters of Proposition 8, be they religious or secular. This post was initially addressed to a Christian blog, so I hope it at least touches on some of their thoughts and concerns.

It should be clear that Prop. 8 supporters are not being targeted because of their religious beliefs, but because of their political action. It goes without saying that vandalism is a bad thing, whether you carve "KKK" or "Jesus Loves You" in the paint of a car. In the example of the Klu Klux Klan, an African-American--or enlightened and compassionate person of any other race--have it well within their rights to let folks know that a proprietor of a business is a Klan member, and they should avoid spending money there because it helps subsidize cross burnings and lynchings. Likewise, I can take my business to establishments that support my rights, and I appreciate those who are willing to make public the donors to Prop. 8.

If anyone should take the time to read through the California Supreme Court decision on the matter, they would find a reasoned argument disentangled from the religious issue. Most of the rub comes not from "gay marriage" but from the word "definition." It is the nature of language that words have different meanings in different contexts, and for those on both sides of the marriage issue it's about controlling the boundaries of one word.

A point overlooked in the California Supreme Court ruling is that their opinion did not support the granting of gay marriage rights, but was focused on the use of terminology to name the union between two people. In the recent past the beaches in California were segregated. Having "separate but equal" access to surfing did not fly under the equal protection clause, and neither did calling one part of Santa Monica bay "The Inkwell" and set aside for Black people.

According to legal precedent and common sense, no group has the right to restrict the use of language (beyond using brand names for similar products). That's why Catholics, Scientology, and The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster all get to use the word church, and on the secular side, all get to claim tax exempt status. In America, we take pride in our tolerance of difference, and extol it as a virtue.

One other possibility under the California Supreme Court would be to give the name civil unions to all marriages, have it confer the same legal standing as marriage in other states. By threading the needle this way, the equal protection clause is upheld, and religious institutions get to marry people "in the eyes of god".

There are plenty of gay-friendly houses of worship that will join two people together--no matter what their gender--as there are churches and temples that won't. For the brief six months that same-sex couples could get married, what happened at religious institutions did not change. Likewise, if a person is baptized, there is no civil aspect or equal protection requirement to the spiritual prestidigitation.

Unlike other faith-based ceremonies, there are separate fiscal and legal reasons that two people might want to form a union. In California, there are nearly 500 laws that reference and effect marriage in one way or another. On the federal level, there are 1500 more. I hate to generalize--or paint a diverse group with too broad a brush--but most gay men I know fiercely value their independence. For the most part we were born into heterosexual families, and often were forced into self-reliance when the realization (or fear of the same) meant that we wouldn't be receiving the same familiar support or unconditional love as our heterosexual brothers and sisters. Marriage is not something we would enter into with frivolity; there are rights, but there is also responsibilities. On a personal note, my four-year relationship is strong, supportive, loving, and I believe enduring; but even with the opportunity--and with much discussion--breeder-style marriage was not something we were both willing to commit to. Now the conversation is moot.

God knows we've been there for friends and lovers in the past. Through the worst years of the AIDS crisis we fed and wiped the asses of our comrades while we helplessly watched them suffer and die. Whether out of fear, loathing, or institutionalized hate, our friends' straight families had mostly abandoned them. Yet when they were taking their last breaths in a hospital, their absent family had permission to visit but we didn't. I wonder how many gay men died frightened and alone, thinking their gay family had abandoned them too, while in reality a bunch of sad and angry queers were being kept outside by "family values?"

Over the past 150 years, the equal protection clause has been used to break the chains of slavery, give women the right to vote, and allow access to jobs for folks with disabilities. Since the writing of the Constitution, the circle of justice have been spreading, like the ripples from a rock thrown in a pond. For the first time in my life I have seen the equal protection clause rescinded for one specific group of people. In the dark days of the 80's and 90's we weren't asking for Christian compassion, but why should we need the permission of a heterosexual majority to express love for each other?

All faiths have some form of the golden rule. I was raised in the Catholic faith, and was taught about a new covenant with Jesus that focused more on loving and forgiveness than on the old testament's judgement and retribution. One of my reasons for leaving the church was its schizophrenic inability to let go of an agenda of judgement and hate, which it wrapped in a transparent veneer that paid lip service to an all-loving god. Later in life I felt that Buddhism did a better job at promoting the golden rule under its teachings of mindfulness. By putting oneself into "another persons shoes," we can act in a way that leaves other people esteem intact.

So for a moment, I wonder if you can imagine a group you identify with--be it a religious group, your gender, or something else--what it would feel like to have your rights specifically voided by the government? In Nazi Germany it happened to the Gypsies, homosexuals, the disabled, Communists, and the Jews. This speaks to a larger philosophical issue on freedom and rights, and whether they are universal, or if a slim majority gets to pick and choose who to bestow them to.

Over the course of recorded civilization, marriage has taken on different forms and has been defined in different ways. In the Middle Ages, the Christian faith sanctioned unions between same-sex couples, as well as marriages with limited spousal rights, and those without the consent of the betrothed. In the past century some faiths have seen civil marriage as irrelevant or even detrimental to their sacrament, to say nothing of those religious institutions that endorse marriage between a man and multiple teenage girls. I mention these variations only to point out that marriage is a mutable even under religious institutions, and that the form it takes today is a cultural fashion that will keep *ahem* evolving.

I worry when laws are made to strip away freedoms, because they are often there to protect the sensibilities of the majority. This becomes worrisome when a particular faith's beliefs are used to inform civic and criminal law. I think about a place like Iran, where their religious institutions control their political system, so that homosexuality is punished by death.

That is well within the abilities of a majority to bestow upon the population at large, but it also flies in the face of universal justice. I can imagine the anxiety of being a small minority living under the rules of a majority that has no political incentive to protect one's rights. It's a feeling shared by Falun Gong in China, Women under Sharia law, The white minority in Zimbabwe, and myself, a gay man in California.

Frankly I would rather have my lawn sign ripped out than have the equal protection clause rescinded for me--or any other group.

I have had my house egged, my porch light broken, and my car keyed by homophobes in my neighborhood. I've had a knife held to my throat and been mugged by two men that I later found out from the police were targeting gay men. This I can live with. I would gladly give my home address to any Christian who would like to take their anger, fear, or hatred of the gay community out on my home or car. Please, cast a stone; cast many. But promise me you won't vote to take away my civil rights.

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The Garden Screening Friday

Trailer for The Garden

Talk about a circuitous route: I received an email from a friend Juan Jo Bellido in Bolivia about a movie screening here in Los Angeles. The documentary chronicles the story of the destruction of Los Angeles' South Central Farm. Created from the ashes of the L.A. riots, the South Central Farm was the largest urban farm in the United States until its destruction in 2006. "The Garden" follows the farmers as they organize and launch an impassioned public battle to save the farm. The film documents the farmers' struggle against the city's backroom deals, and exposes the underlying issues of money, power, poverty and racial discord. The film explores the fault lines in American society, raising crucial and challenging questions about liberty, equality, and justice for the poorest and most vulnerable among us.

The Garden
A Film by Scott Hamilton Kennedy
Screening at The Red Nation Film Festival

Friday November 14, 2008, 9pm
Aranti Japan America Theater
244 S. San Pedro, Los Angeles, CA 90012

*Q/A with filmmaker and guests following screening*

Tickets are $12 and are available at the Box office and online. FREE admission for all students (under 25 years of age) with valid I.D. And, to make the festival affordable for all: after this

first 200 paying customers, others will be allowed in on a 'pay what you can' suggested donation.

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You Are Invited...

Pillowcases

I will be participating in a group show at COMA Alternative Space (click for map), with Astri Swendsrud, Nikki Pressley, and Betsy Hunt. The show, Domestic Utensils, is curated by Diana-Sofia Estrada. 

Please join me at the opening on Saturday, November 15 from 7 to 11 pm. 

I have used alcohol excessively. 

I'll be showing work from the MMPI series; the text in these works comes from the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, a test used to suggest the presence of various psychological disorders. In addition to the pillowcase sets pictured above, I've also made a limited edition (12) of the four martini glasses.

I do not like everyone I know.

Make sure you check out the bathroom where I've installed some of the hand-silvered glass mirrors. The text pictured above is actually behind the glass and not on the T-shirt.

I am not afraid of mice.

For those of you who show up to the opening, free condoms from the series will also be available. If you can't make it to the opening, but would like to see the show, the space is open by appointment only. I have a key to the space, so if you send me an email, we can set a time for you to see the show.

Here are the statements for the works in the show:

Pillowcases

Based on your choice of one of the following eight statements, the artist will pick a complementary pair based on his precise estimation of your personality:

• I almost never dream.
  
• I wake up fresh and rested most mornings. 
  
• I'm afraid to be alone in the dark. 
  
• I have often been frightened in the middle of the night. 
  
• I have nightmares every few nights. 
  
• My sleep is fitful and disturbed. 
  
• I can sleep during the day but not at night. 
  
• I have been told that I walk during my sleep. 
  

These dreamy-soft pillowcases will compliment any décor and showcase your style and good taste. Hand embroidered (sweatshop-free) at the Del Amo Indoor Swap Meet. Machine wash cold and line dry (cool iron if–necessary) or dry-clean. 

Martini Glasses

Set of 4 martini glasses etched with the following statements:

• After a bad day, I usually need a few drinks to relax.
  
• Once a week or more I get high or drunk.
  
• I can only express my true feelings when I drink.
  
• I have used alcohol excessively.
  
• Sold in sets of four, an edition of twelve. 
  

Mirrors

In the bathroom: hand-silvered glass with text; framed. Based on your choice of one of the following seven statements, the artist will select a complementary mirror.

• I have been disappointed in love.
  
• I like to talk about sex.
  
• I am more sensitive than most other people.
  
• I always have too little time to get things done.
  
• I do not like everyone I know.
  
• I usually feel better after a good cry.
  
• I am not easily angered.
  

Sold in pairs.

The works in the show make a great gift for the psychologist, hysteric, or like-minded folks on your holiday shopping list, and with nothing over 500, it's an easy way to stimulate the economy!

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Proposition 8: Faith vs Reason

The Triumph of Religion Over the Profane 

from the Borgia Apartments

Over at Dennis Cooper's blog there's been a lively discussion about Proposition 8, and what type of next steps are necessary. Cooper posts a good response today:

I think the anger at, outrage about, and targeting of the religious groups that funded the Yes on Prop 8 campaign via protests and heated statements is both effective and a huge relief. I guess to me, the response to this setback should ideally be multi-pronged, with as much understandable venting as is necessary as well as a more 'level headed' response with a concurrent balanced, refined approach, which I think is already occurring in the quarters that be, and which I imagine will evolve and be strategized into a more pragmatic, broad based, and insinuating line of fire. For me, the hatred currently being unleashed by the so-called LGBT community at organized religion, and at the anti-gay mobilization that has occurred within the particular sects whose money paid for the lies that caused Proposition 8 to pass, is an entirely exhilarating and productive thing that constitutes the sight and sound of the LGBT crowd at large finally being awakened from its very long apolitical, emotionally gentrified slumber and chasing down those who threw the last punch, a mob mentality that I have no problem with at all under the circumstances, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't unashamedly furious at these religious organizations myself. Like I said, I'm too hazy to know whether what I'm saying is in opposition to what you said or completely beside the point or something else, and I suppose I'm speaking mostly from my heart when I say let the most recent if possibly minor religious offenders face the rage they're partially responsible for creating. A measured pro-LGBT diplomacy might be more fair and logical and effective, but I don't see the outrage on display as counter-programming or as shooting oneself in the foot. I think it's fair, and I think it's fuel, and whether the wildly aimed emotionality of the moment is a just riot or the first stone thrown in a revolution, I find its non-strategic approach so unbelievably refreshing.

What I find interesting is that a small minority of the population--one in twenty adults--hasn't been running out in droves for the six months they've had to tie the knot like they have to the protest rallies. So for some folks it's about the right to rather than the desire to get married. Apart from the proposition, I have my own ambivalence about gay marriage that was echoed by Nicholas Grider in his blog:

This leads me back to wonder about whether I’m really queer, not gay, because gay now = upper-middle class white male professionals and is not inclusive the way you would tend to think. Case in point is Prop. 8 in California. It’s a scandal that it was approved, but I don’t think it’s the end of the world. Why: because there are much more vital and pressing Gay Issues to contend with before marriage, which is a straight person’s trifle. Things like human rights, civic rights, not getting the shit beaten out of us, teen suicides, teen runaways/homelessness, disease prevention, workplace rights, the LBT and Q of LGBTQ, and the ongoing problem of race and class and how they triangulate with sexuality.

In ">my earlier post about gay marriage, I looked at the original California Supreme Court decision, which said that equal protection trumped the ban on gay marriage, but more specifically, that the either term--marriage or civil union--should apply equally to unions both gay and straight. 

There are a few of us queers who have trouble buying into the heteronormative practice of marriage, and at the same time don't want laws to specifically limit our rights. 

Likewise, religious groups probably don't want civic interference in their rituals. You don't need a birth certificate to be baptized, so why should a civil union have any overlap with the religious one? If folks want to get hitched in the eyes of their god, go to a house of worship. If there is a legal, financial, or civil reasons for a partnership, then go to the desk at the county clerk's office that issues business licenses. Call one a marriage and the other for what it is: a civil union. If straight people want to file jointly on their tax returns, then--like gay folks--they would apply for a civil union, a document that would confer all the rights and responsibilities formerly known as marriage. For both gay and straight folks who want marriage, there are there are temples and churches that have been joining people together for years. No changes necessary there.

Though it's a separate issue, I don't like the idea that millions of LDS and Roman Catholic parishioner dollars can pour in from Utah and places east to influence our elections. We don't let foreign nationals contribute to our presidential campaigns, so why do we let residents of one state influence the laws of another? For the next election, I'd like to see a proposition on the ballot that prohibits campaign funds and organizations in other states from participating in our initiatives.

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Domestic Utensils at COMA Gallery

Left to Right: Betsy Hunt, Nikki Pressley, Astri Swendsrud, Michael Buitron

Domestic Utensils at COMA Gallery

Opening Saturday, November 15th, 2008 

8-11pm

COMA Alternative Space

3503 W. Pico

Los angeles, CA 90019

Curated by Diana-Sofia Estrada, Domestic Utensils presents the work of Michael Buitron, Betsy Hunt, Nikki Pressley, and Astri Swendsrud. These artists address ideas of the home and interior space in ways that both invite and disrupt the viewers expectations. In addition to the artists' overlapping interest in the domestic context, they all approach the topic with a restrained color palette. Using mostly whites with blacks and greys, it makes the viewer aware of subtle changes within the work. In the white-cube conventions of exhibition space, the demarkation between artistic content and context becomes blurred. The impetus of their work--be it personal or historic--deconstructs ideas of home and domesticity. Each artist works within a conceptual framework that undermines a simple interpretation.

Betsy Hunt investigates the everyday through physical actions and movements in video and performance. Conjuring ideas of domesticity and a feminine space, she emphasizes the beauty of everyday movements. Astri Swensdrud explores the limits of human perception and understanding, the tension that exists between the experience of everyday life and the desire--and need--to formulate explanations or conditions by which to understand, control and communicate experience. Michael Buitron works with the constraints of a preexisting set of statements from the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, an instrument used to assess personality and suggest the presence of psychiatric disorders. Nikki Pressley's work examines and dissects systems of thought associated with historical data, in an effort to disrupt the seemingly unfettered connections between the accepted signs and signifiers.

Please join the artists and curator at the opening reception on Saturday, November 15. The show runs through Saturday December 6 at COMA Alternative Space. Located on Pico at Westchester Place, a block east of Arlington Avenue. For those in the mid-Wilshire and Hollywood area, COMA is about a mile east of La Brea at 3503 Pico. The gallery can be reached by the 10 Freeway, from the Arlington exit, just west of Western Avenue. Go north on Arlington to Pico, and make a left. The gallery will be on your right.


information:
ktillustration@yahoo.com
Kiko Thomas
323-652-0596
by appointment only (Saturday is best)

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The Parataxic Distortion of Obama

Project Into the Void

Judith Butler Essay Here

Parataxic distortion is a psychological term coined by Harry Sullivan to describe the misperceptions we can bring to new relationships. For those of us who are lucky enough to have fallen foolishly, immediately, and completely in love know first hand what the experience is like. We may carry in our mind a generalized idea of a perfect friend or lover (or president) and when we stumble upon a person who approximates our model, our idealism and reality get slurried together into an indistinguishable slop. 

This confluence of projection and reality can't hold forever. Eventually the words and actions of the "screen" stray from one's vision, and we become better at seeing what is really before us as the dream melts away. In the early days of Barack Obama's campaign I became turned off by some of his positions, notably, his desire to increase military spending after the the withdrawal from Iraq. It seemed to me that once again, priorities like education, health care, and the environment would take a back seat to the military industrial complex. Other folks running for president held positions that were more in tune with mine, so I voted to give voice (and vote) to my political views. 

Part of my relief from the outcome of the 2008 presidential election came from the end of the Bush era, and having an election that wasn't mired in post-balloting shenanigans. But reading through the reaction in the press, I can't help but think some parataxic distortion is taking place.

Some reactions from the press:

MEXICO: Former Foreign Minister Jorge Castañeda wrote in the Reforma newspaper that the Obama presidency represents a chance for Mexico to remake its relationship with the United States. "Obama's win ... opens to Mexico an extraordinary opportunity to re-position itself in the world because it will be infinitely easier to be a neighbor, ally and friend of the United States."

LEBANON: In a Beirut restaurant, Miriam, 28, said her two brothers, both members of the militant Islamic group Hezbollah, saw Mr. Obama as a leader who was willing to take diplomatic risks to avoid military confrontations. "They think Obama will not damage the Middle East the way Bush did, and they were afraid if [John] McCain made it, the whole region would be in danger."

BRAZIL: In Rio de Janeiro, documentary filmmaker Ryan Steers said Mr. Obama could improve the U.S. image abroad. "Obama is someone the world can trust. That is the most important thing for America right now: regaining its trust in the world community."

KENYA: People danced in the streets in Mr. Obama's ancestral village of Kogelo, and President Mwai Kibaki declared Thursday a national holiday. In Nairobi's Kibera shantytown, carpenter Joseph Ochieng said, "If it were possible for me to get to the United States on my bicycle, I would."

JAPAN: "Americans overcame the racial divide and elected Obama," said Terumi Hino, a photographer and painter in Tokyo. "I think this means the United States can go back to being admired as the country of dreams."

For the first two quotes, I wonder if Obama's support for a Berlin wall along the Mexico border or pro-AIPAC position figure in to their views. More reactions in the LA Times.

It also seems that Medvedev sees a little JFK in Obama (and perhaps a little Kruschev in himself. Could the the Cuban missile crisis of the 60's become the Czech-Polish missile crisis of today (albeit with the roles reversed)? Closer to home, I wonder how many elated folks disagree with Obama's positions against gay marriage, for the death penalty, or his vote for the Patriot Act and the Wall Street bailout?

Even in Judith Butler's remarkable essay, Uncritical Exuberance?" she (hopefully) projects a bit of European-style socialism and multilateralism on Obama:

"...it seems reasonable to assume that we will see a new rationale for economic regulation and for an approach to economics that resembles social democratic forms in Europe; in foreign affairs, we will doubtless see a renewal of multi-lateral relations, the reversal of a fatal trend of destroying multilateral accords that the Bush administration has undertaken..."

Overall, Butler's piece is a must read (click on the link above). but I wonder if Obama's probable appointment of Clinton-era supporters of neo-liberal economic policies and Goldman Sachs cronies (read 7/2 update) will result in fundamental shifts in the way we control the markets, or will it be more tweaks and half-measures? I also wonder if Obama's willingness to act unilaterally against Pakistan jibe with multilateral picture that is painted of him?

Butler suggests that Obama needs to act quickly on issues that are important to liberals so as to avoid disillusionment. But might her proposed liberal acts disillusion the social or fiscal conservatives who also saw Obama as a champion of their agenda? If we are all to avoid post-crush disillusionment, it is better to look at the candidate that got elected, rather than our hopes and dreams. 

For all the divisiveness of the campaign, McCain and Obama held many similar positions as senators. By looking at their similar votes, we can see how much McCain we're getting in Obama:

(HR1268) 

Both voted to fund the military prison in Guantanamo Bay (April 13, 2005)

(HR2663) 

Both voted for a ban on torture (October 5, 2005)

(S1932) 

Both voted to ban drilling in ANWAR (November 3, 2005)

(HR3199) 

Both voted for the Patriot Act (March 2 2006)

(S5) 

Both voted to move class-action lawsuits to federal courts, where corporations have a better chance of winning (February 10, 2005)

(S2611) 

Both voted to tighten U.S. borders, designate English as the national language, and offer undocumented workers a path to citizenship (May 25, 2006)

(SJ Res 1) 

Both voted against a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage (June 7, 2006)

(HR810) 

Both voted for embryonic stem cell research (July 18, 2006)

(HR6061) 

Both voted to fund a 700-mile barrier along the US/Mexico border (September 29, 2006)

(S1348) 

Both voted against a plan to remove a pathway to legal residence from an immigration bill (May 24, 2007)

(S Con Res 70) 

Both voted for a one-year ban on earmarks (March 13, 2008)

Both voted to give retroactive immunity to telecom companies that conducted illegal spying for the government, both voted for legislation to combat global warming, both voted for stricter ethics regulations for the senate, and both voted to allow Americans to import prescription drugs from Canada. 

Neither candidate would have been another George W. Bush, so when you  feel the first twitches of buyer's remorse, remember that your current crush--no matter how flawed and ineffective--is better than your ex.

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