A look at Chris Burden's video art piece made from the surviving Super8 footage of having himself shot with a rifle. 

One of the most powerful works on display at the deYoung Museum, The Spine and Tooth of Santo Guerro is a piece that exposes what guns, religion, and fictionalized martyrs all have in common.

Perhaps no other Neri I've seen has brought Giaciometti to mind so thoroughly. These two works seem to say something very different from other Neris I've encountered, and maybe that is what's made all the difference. 

A sculpture by Manuel Neri (and a better image of it is coming soon!) 

A look at one of the centerpieces of the phenomenal exhibition of Manuel Neri currently up at the Anderson Collection at Stanford! 

hI am 100% certain that there is great depth to this piece, that it is making many statements about meaning within the context of artistry, about only understanding a portion of anything that is in front of you because unless you look deeper, you're only getting a tiny fraction, about the inpermanence of what we see as opposed to the mass that is hidden from us. I am sure all these things exist, but for the most part, I do not experience them through this one. 

Because it is too calming. 

Perhaps it is the transluscence of the blue, of the calming aspect of the shape, but staring at this, as I often have, no matter how ragged I may feel going towards it, leaving it behind, I am smoother, softer, less harried. 

How does one piece of art alter how you look at all the rest? Listen and find out! 
We're coming towards the end of the series, so if you've got ideas for work we should cover, or even if you' like to do an interview, lemme know - johnnyeponymous@gmail.com

There are many people in the history of art whose works I adore, but the one work of their's I have access to is not my fave. Martin Puryear is an artist who I have been a fan of since I came across his stuff at the MoMA years ago. Just about the only piece there that I did not connect with was Dumb Luck. The whole Dumb Objects thing is weird to me, and here the name seems to refer to the shape of the piece, roughly lock-like, but at the same time, calling to mind a shoe. Or a coffee cup. Or a pacifier. But it's none of those. It's a dumb object; it's of a form that is useless, dumb, functionless, like all art, right?

The problem for me here, and not with at least passingly similar works by the likes of Ruth Asawa, is that it has nothing beyond that. Yes, I get that it's kinda the point here, but there is making that point with something like Asawa's hanging 'baskets' that creates something in the space where it is exhibited, while this, this is just there, not just a dumb object, but an object that draws you in with the promise of 0% payoff. 

And that's what Puryear is really good at! He draws, he leaves breadcrumbs for you to follow, but in his other work (and the 2008 MoMA exhibit demonstrates it beautifully), you don't feel like you've been led into a field and left alone. Here, that's what I feel, and it's annoying more than thoughtful. 

A look at a piece in the Anderson that I completely over-looked... I mean saw beneath...

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