117 - Walken 2008

[LD]

for a future show I would like the subject of art discussed under the heading of: "Art - mostly pretentious bullshit or not?" I would like to vote yes.

And professional art critics should be tied to an anchor and thrown in the ocean. On film. As a piece of performance art.

[Forest1]

Hey.....Iran.....why don't you stop......with all..........the........nukes?

http://walken2008.ytmnd.com/

edit: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.........I am......devasted

[ThePants]

Chris Walken

[mcd007]

Too bad... I would have voted for him.

[mcd007]

Chris Hackett bomb

http://observer.com/thecity_thetransom.asp

I'm an artist, and I can appreciate all of the different forms of art out there. But for the first time in my life I think I might have to draw the line here. It's a freakin' bomb. Made by a very ameatur bomb maker. With a trigger that is not 100% under his control. How many times has someone accidentally dialed the wrong number and called your cell phone? I wouldn't want to be around when someone accidentally dials the suitcase phone.

How have the cops not gotten all over this guy? Whether he intends to detonate it or not, I can't imagine it's legal to even construct a bomb in NY.

[LD]

but if somebody calls him by accident and sets it off while he's in his pirate cove, then the caller can put the exploded body parts on display as art. It's perfect, an artist blown up by his own art on display as art. He literally would have died for someone else's art.

And if the caller was a doctor, even funnier!

[twistedpickle]

That photo of Chris Hackett looks like somebody through an h-bomb in Ludacris' face and left him to rot with only an eyepatch for support. And they let that fucker build a bomb for a museum? Idiots!!

[mypersonalgetaway]

thanks for reading my email keith

[Simon]

Excuse my ignorance - but is there not some law in America about making bombs. For some reason I would feel a little safer when I visit NY to know that making bombs and placing them in public places is not encouraged.

If it is OK then where do they draw the line.

Just down the road from where I live there is this chap, Osama, who was interested in this and I said I would ask for him. Could he, or just a couple of friends, perhaps pop over make a weapon of mass destruction in their apartment and "display" it somewhere?

As an aside, Osama says that Chris look just like him when he was younger!

[mcd007]

So maybe this bomb isn't exactly what ol' peg-leg wants us to think it is...

LMCC: This Boms is Not A Bomb

http://www.observer.com/thedailytransom

The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council has issued a press statement today after this morning's New York Observer story about Chris Hackett. (The work in question is an operational suitcase bomb.) They say:

"LMCC lost its World Trade Center home and the life of an artist on 9/11. We are very sensitive to the traumas of violence and terrorism. LMCC will not include any work of art in the "A Knock at the Door" exhibition that could in any way endanger the public. There will be no hazardous devices on display. The point of "A Knock at the Door" is to explore the relationships between artists and authority in the post 9/11 world, not to create risk or condone violence."

The Transom thinks that the press people at LMCC have great careers as celebrity publicists ahead of them. They've certainly mastered the language of the official denial. (Also, the whole 9/11 thing is sort of reminiscent of the upcoming Pentagon-sponsored 9/11 and-oh-wait-also Support Our Troops march, no? Establishing a connection through assertion? A wee bit of a canard? A little hiding behind the flag? Yes? No? Hmm?)

From The Transom's interview with curator Seth Cameron last Friday: "And in this case, when I asked [Mr. Hackett] originally, I said it would help my conscience a little bit... to know that you've rigged [the bomb] in some way. To know that there's more precaution there, even if I can't see it. And his position is that he won't tell me yes and he won't tell me no. I'm guessing there's more safety than he's letting on."

Mr. Hackett hopefully hasn't lost his sense of humor. As he put it to The Transom last week, about his cellphone-triggered bomb at the art exhibition's opening, "If there's a long line for the bathroom, I can totally clear the house by saying I have to step outside to make a phone call."