#experimental-art

#experimental-art

"I didn't change anything, I love it. These cubicles appear to me like remnants of bureaucracy and business models. It feels like we stumbled upon this place and found signs of life."

The nineteenth-century Italian aristocrat Virginia Oldoini, Countess de Castiglione, has been cast in many lights: narcissist, courtesan, spy, exhibitionist. In the photo studio of Mayer & Pierson, she played all these parts and one more-the role of self-portraitist. For decades, Oldoini helped conceptualize and starred in more than four hundred portraits so experimental and expressive that they have drawn comparisons to works by Claude Cahun and Cindy Sherman.

For two days, Red Hook will once again become the center of New York's experimental publishing scene as Pioneer Works hosts its sixth annual "Press Play" fair, an independent celebration of books, music, art and cultural risk-taking. Running Dec. 13-14, the fair has grown into one of the borough's most anticipated year-end events, drawing hundreds of visitors who come not just to browse but to immerse themselves in the spirit of creativity that defines Brooklyn's underground.

Michael Smith's contributions to the history of Southern California art are critically important. He is a key piece in the larger puzzle that is composed of people who cared about ideas and artistic explorations in this community. He is the kind a curator for whom I have admiration and respect, one who took chances instinctively, without reservation, believing in his own opinions and observations, and motivated to share them.

Hubert Crabières and Alexis Etienne, the co-founders of the journal l'idiot utile, pursue several objectives. One of them is to build a "structure of resistance" -to open up a creative space with as few constraints as possible and free from external censorship. They also pursue sincerity in costumes, clothing and disguise whilst detaching these practices from the fashion world. Clothes are, as Hubert puts it: "often unwearable and exist only within the photographic moment".