X INITIATIVE: BRING YOUR OWN ART (BYOA)

Yesterday the one year experiment called the X INITIATIVE ended with a marathon 24 hour art show. BRING YOUR OWN ART (BYOA) began at 11 am on February 3rd and continued, doors open until February 4th officially closing at 11 am with all work left in the building would become trash if not picked up. This process reminded me of the closing event for the Miami space The House. They lost their lease to a group of condo developers and for their closing event everyone was asked to put a piece of art up that would be destroyed with the building.

I arrived at after dinner to put up a handful of my Black Sun Project images with a mini project called "10 Suns for 2010." The space was a busy workshop with a mix of artists friends and viewers all roaming around and enjoying the spectacle. The first floor had a rotating open stage where bands and musicians could sign up for time slots. The second and third floors of the space were reserved for artwork.

I had learned of this event via Jerry Saltz and his popular Facebook page. During the evening the New York Magazine art critic roamed the floors of the gallery offering free on the spot critiques. After I walked through the two floors and installed my images I was able to talk with him. We discussed my work and the event itself. He was very approachable in person and you could tell he was enjoying the interaction and the event.

The diversity of work was amazing. It would have been very hard to curate a show like this but this event was more then sum of the work on its walls. It was a show for the ages. This crowd-sourced art / performance / Relational Aesthetic was an experiential tour-de-force.

I placed my Black Sun pictures in spaces next to work that I thought they worked well with. Take a look at the installation pictures below. Also, if your work is in any of the pictures please let me know and I will make a caption and link to your website.

Here is the aftermath of the event when I picked up my work:

Tonight, Tuesday's Photo Art Tweetchat - What is photography's role in crises like Haiti?

What is photography's role in crises like Haiti?

For tonight's Art Photo Tweet chat will will be joined my photographer and writer Michael David Murphy aka @whileseated2. Recently, he wrote this piece in foto8 Does Haiti's Crisis Call for a New Photojournalism? This started off a great deal of discussion.

These is also a huge post over on the blog Prison Photography Staring at Death: Photographing Haiti.

Another starting point will be Susan Sontag's classic essay: Looking at War, Photography's view of devastation and death. I will be re-reading that before our chat.

We will be having an open ended chat on how photography interacts with disasters and crisis, using These articles as a starting point. Here are some potential points of discussion:

• What are the moral/ethical issues of creating photography in disaster/crisis areas, help the people in front of you or photograph them?
• What contribution does photography play in helping those in distress
• "artistic vampirism" - making money/fame based on the misfortune
• Why do we love to look at decay. Why can't photographers get enough of Detroit?
• Are photographers adding anything to public knowledge/information?
• What's the value of pro photo vs vernacular (Here Is NY vs Meyerowitz vs Abu Grhaib)

Join in tonight at 9 pm EST.

NOTE: we will be making these tweets a biweekly event now. So Todd and I can better prepare. Maybe in the future if momentum builds more we can move it back to a weekly event. If you liked the weekly version please email / tweet us.

These Art Photography Twitter Chats anyone can join in or just read it live by using the hashtag #photoartchat on Twitter. One easier way to transform twitter into a chat room is Tweetchat.com and entering the photoartchat room here: http://tweetchat.com/room/photoartchat.

PS., you should follow OcularOctopus on Twitter, here:http://twitter.com/OcularOctopus and me here: http://twitter.com/harlanerskine

Art Basel Miami Beach 2009, Day 6 - Final Day

The final day of Art Basel I revisited the main show to see what I had missed from the opening night. I love viewing art in person that I have only seen on the internet or in books. One key element to understanding art is seeing the scale and the quality of the production firsthand. Unlike some of the side fairs, the big show in the convention center is filled with consistently well produced art. It is really a pleasure to experience it.

I realize putting 600 pixel wide pictures up here doesn't do them much justice. Hopefully, it serves as a record of what caught my eye. This year's Art Basel was a step up from 2008. As we move toward 2010 I hope this is a positive sign of things to come. Enjoy.

Kehinde Wiley, "Equestrian Portrait of King Philip II," 2009. Oil on canvas: 122.375 x 138.375 inches. at Deitch Projects, New York, NY.

Jon Kessler, "Mob Scene," 2009. Mixed media with motors, cameras and LCD screens. LCD Array: 66.5 x 53 x 24 inches, Mechanism: 84 x 57 x 20 inches. at Deitch Projects, New York, NY.

Kader Attia "Satellite Dishes" 2009. Light Box at Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna, Austria.

A pairing of older and newer works from Thomas Struth. The left two are from 1978 when Struth was shooting in New York. The top is "115th Street and 2nd Avenue, New York / Harlem, 1978" and the bottom images is "99th Street at 1st Avenue, New York / Harlem, 1978." They both were printed in 2002. The right large piece is "Museo Del Prado 3, Madrid" 2005. C-print. 80 5/8 x 97 5/8 inches at Marian Goodman Gallery, New York, NY.

Andreas Gursky "Dubai World III" 2008 c-print 93 5/16 x 134 13/16 inches (incl. frame) at White Cube, London, UK.

Just around the corner from there was another Andreas Gursky this one I had seen before in a book is called "Copan" 2002. C-print 81 x 103 inches at Matthew Marks Gallery, New York, NY.

Across from Gursky was a Thomas Demand "Fotoecke / Photobooth" 2009 C-print 70 3/4 x 78 inches at Matthew Marks Gallery, New York, NY.

Robert Longo "Untitled (Men in Cities)" Black and White photos, 1976 - 1982 / 2009 at Metro Pictures, New York, NY.

Andrea Robbins and Max Becher, from top: "Black Cowboys:Bill Pickett Rodeo 09 no.1" and "Black Cowboys:Bill Pickett Rodeo 09 no.2" both 1999 archival ink jet prints at Sonnabend Gallery, New York, NY.

Elger Esser, "La Grande Be, France" 2009 C-print 72 1/2 x 78 3/4 inches at Sonnabend Gallery, New York, NY.

Bernd and Hilla Becher, "Winding Towers (Anlagen)" 2007 (photographed from 1968-1997) 9 black and white photographs at Sonnabend Gallery, New York, NY.

Beate Gutschow "S#2" 2005 Light jet print, 57 3/8 x 49 1/2 inches at Sonnabend Gallery, New York, NY.

Mario Garcia Torres "The Improbability of Common Sense" 2009 Acrylicand silkscreen ink on linen.

Kader Attia "Rochers Carres", 2009 at Galeries Christian Nagel, Berlin and Galerie Graesslin, Frankfurt, Germany.

Scott McFarland "Sugar Shack, Caledon Ontario" 2009 Digital C-print 72 x 105 inches at Regen Projects, Los Angeles, CA.

Doug Aitken "Free," 2009 at 303 Gallery, New York, NY.

Florian Maier-Aichen "Untitled (Passo Stelvio) 2009 C-print 70 3/4 x 98 1/4 inches at 303 Gallery, New York, NY.

Yinka Shonibare, MBE "Willy Loman: The Rise and Fall (Paradise)" 2009 C-type print 90 x 70 inches) at Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, UK.

Yoshitomo Nara at Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan.

Mikhael Subotzky at Goodman Gallery, Capetown, South Africa.

Mikhael Subotzky at Goodman Gallery, Capetown, South Africa.

Ernesto Ballesteros from the series "Covered Light Sources" Permanent black marker on photography, at Galeria Nara Roesler, Sao Paulo, Brasil.

Paul Pfeiffer "Fragment of a Crucifiction (after Francis Bacon)" 1999 at carlier | gebauer, Berlin, Germany.

Robin Rhode "8 Ball," 2007, 16 digital prints at carlier | gebauer, Berlin, Germany.

Quite possibly my favorite piece of the day was this Paul Pfeiffer gold chromed TV in the front left of the booth. "Caryatid (Wrestling)" 2009 at carlier | gebauer, Berlin, Germany.

It seemed like everyone in the media mentioned this Roxy Paine piece, "Maelstrom" 2009 at James Cohan Gallery, New York, NY. I had seen a different version of it on the roof at the Met but I still enjoyed it in the indoor environment. Maybe indoors is a better home than the roof where it competes with the sprawling views of central park.

Duane Hanson, "High School Student," 1990 at Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris, France.

Ryan McGinley "Wes (Scarlett Split)," 2009 at Team Gallery, New York, NY.

Caio Reisewitz, "Guanabara," 2009 C-print 70.8 x 90.5 inches at Luciana Brito Galeria, Sao Paulo, Brasil.

Mitch Epstein "Recreation: American Photographs 1973-1988" 2004 Dye Transfer 16 x 20 inches at (?)Sikkema Jenkins and Co., New York, NY.

missing info (please email me)

Rineke Dijkstra from Left, "Amy, Liverpool, England, December 22, 2008," and "Beth, Liverpool, England, December 22, 2008" both Archival inkjet prints 2008 at Marian Goodman Gallery, New York, NY.

Final stop of the night was a big group birthday bash for me and my early Sagittarius friends. Which was caped off with the best group birthday cake ever!!! Thanks to master baker and artist Jen Stark.