DC's

 

Zoh Amba
Michael Cloud Duguay
Glissandro 70
haru matsui
Shane Embury
Nirosta Steel
Fire-Toolz
claire rousay
Cinna Peyghamy
feeble little horse
Primitive Percussion Youth Orchestra

 

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Zoh Amba Eyes Full
‘This is a real guitar record tracked live in Asheville with Kevin Hyland and Jim White. Its loose acoustic blues is threaded with squally feedback and traces of Appalachian folk. The songs circle the working-class small-town lives Amba grew up alongside, like the kid numbed by medication on ‘OCD’, or the old stoner playing hide-and-seek with God on ‘Weed Eating’. They know exactly how thin the line was between themselves and the people in these songs. The live recording captures a quality of presence, of people listening hard to each other in a room, something that overdubs would have erased. It sounds unrehearsed in the best possible way, which is to say it sounds true. The pain in their words is real, but so is the movement, something Eyes Full is not short of, reflecting the mental and physical cost of going from one place to another and never really leaving.’ — God is in the TV

 

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Michael Cloud Duguay Pond 1
‘Kingdom Come, Kingdom Go is a collection of quietly elegiac pieces that doubles as a sort of audio documentary about Newfoundland’s organs and the congregations to which they belong. The music is collaged from recordings that Duguay made on that trip in July 2024, of the organs (which the team documented and will be available as Midi instruments later this summer) but also of church leaders and ordinary congregants talking about their lives, as well as saxophones, flutes and whatever other sounds happened to go by while the tape was rolling. Listening in headphones on a spring day can be mildly hallucinatory: are the bird calls, the rustling wind and the chattering people part of the music or the world outside?’ — Andy Cush

 

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Glissandro 70 Lucky Cloud
‘Glissandro 70 was the exploratory dance-music duo of Craig Dunsmuir and Sandro Perri, both central figures in Toronto’s adventurous underground. The project began in 2003 as an invitation from Chicago’s Muted Tones weblog to collaborate on music that sat between analogue dub, trance, afro-beat and pop abstraction. Their only record includes a 2005 recording of Arthur Russell’s “Lucky Cloud”.’ — RetroFuturista

 

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haru matsui idgaf
‘Артист и продюсер haru matsui, входящий в состав творческого объединения DOOM RUSHAZ, выпустил новый альбом. Пластинка с ярким названием «uranium graveyards» включила в себя 10 треков, в частности — совместные работы с KUDOKUSHI, RX Soulja и другими. Я попал в аварию, стальные яйца, детка, я в дерьмо, ты, зай, не пугайся. У меня есть кэш, но, блять, на мне проклятье, молодой hm, у меня молодой батя.’ –– fastfoodmusic

 

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Shane Embury Taurus
‘Shane Embury has long cemented his legacy as the bassist of Napalm Death, having joined the band in July 1987. His musical journey began even earlier, starting on drums in 1984 before moving to bass and becoming a defining force in the grindcore scene for nearly four decades. Today, he stands as one of the longest serving members in the history of extreme metal. Yet beyond his hardcore punk and death metal foundations, Embury has always carried a deep affection for post punk and alternative rock. His influences range from Killing Joke and Cardiacs to Cocteau Twins, The Mission, The Melvins, and Sonic Youth, Daydream Nation in particular being a major part of his musical DNA. This eclectic palette shapes his debut solo album Bridge to Resolution, a bold leap into electronic soundscapes far removed from the brutality he’s known for.’ — Zachary Nathanson

 

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Nirosta Steel Jovi Song
‘Nirosta Steel is the alias of Steven Hall, a Scottish-born musician who became a close friend and collaborator of experimental music auteur Arthur Russell after moving to New York. The pair worked together on Russell’s disco tracks, including the not-so-subtly dirty “Is It All Over My Face?” After Russell died, Hall began Arthur’s Landing, a tribute project dedicated to his late friend’s musical legacy. MY SKYSCRAPER feels like it comes straight from the source—velvety disco leaking out of Paradise Garage, improvisational ramblings over punk guitar—because much of it does. The album is a collection of forty years’ worth of recordings remixed and reconstructed over time. Though Hall continued to record and reshape the MY SKYSCRAPER material for decades, its songs still feel lived-in and well-worn.’ — Andy Steiner

 

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Fire-Toolz Balam =^..^= Says IPv09082024 Strawberry Head
‘There’s a simple beauty to the opening organ chords on Lavender Networks, which whir and crackle in the mix like the equipment is breathing and singing by itself. But maybe there’s beauty in the cartoon sounds which follow: the screamo vocals, digitised grindcore and inversions of new age, prog, IDM and everything in between. All sounds which shouldn’t gel, but Fire-Toolz has been doing so with glee for over a decade, enough so that the specific textures and emotions drawn out are as comforting as they are novel or transportive now.’ — Skye Butchard

 

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claire rousay peak chroma
‘claire rousay’s music cascades from a well of documented experience, reflections of the past that compose the present. A prolific multi-instrumentalist, producer, and composer, rousay gracefully crafts boundaryless music. From her frequent and acclaimed collaborations to her film scoring, from her own compositions to her solo pop work, rousay’s music is delicate yet powerful, carefully constructed with casual intimacy. rousay collages a wealth of found sounds and field recordings with earthy strings, stately piano, and processed instrumentation.’ — rotondes.lu

 

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Cinna Peyghamy Mutosy
‘On Music For Tombak & Synth, Paris-based Iranian musician Cinna Peyghamy transforms a technical experiment into something deeply personal. What began as research into contact microphones and live improvisation gradually evolved into a meditation on exile, double identity, and inherited memory. The dialogue between the Persian tombak and modular synthesis — “a piece of wood and skin” confronting a hyper-technological electronic system — becomes both sonic method and autobiographical metaphor.’ — gianmarcodelre

 

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feeble little horse Shady
‘“laptop twee” is exactly what it sounds like: the analog ethos of twee filtered through hyper-online, internet-native production and sensibilities. Often characterized by rapid oscillation between ironic detachment and crushing earnestness (and an obscured boundary between the two), it’s music for genre-ADHD-ridden (or just ADHD-ridden) indoor kids using digital tools of the present and rose-tinted nostalgia to piece together some semblance of a musical future.’ — Grace Robins-Somerville

 

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Primitive Percussion Youth Orchestra the hounds are running
‘Todmorden’s experimental children’s orchestra returns with a warped concept album about a pack of hellhounds terrorising the uncanny valleys of West Yorkshire. Children make weird art. Aside from labyrinthine fantasy fiction experiments or Pollockian attempts at the visual medium, young people tend to produce odd music when given the means. From the spasmodic clanging of The Shoreditch Experimental Music School in the 60s, to the creepy pre-teen junglism of X-Cetra in 2000, there’s a keen history of freaky kids wigging out on wax. Led by former teacher and folklorist, Mark S. Williamson, the Primitive Percussion Youth Orchestra weave eerie compositional webs from homemade string instruments, untuned pianos and tolling percussion to create bleak soundscapes that merge the doom of Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra with the oblique creepiness of Current 93.’ — A.L. Noonan

 

 

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p.s. Hey. ** Fionn, Ah, I remember when cigarette smoke made me feel dizzy, sigh. €20? Wow. Then I should go visit Ireland where I’ve ridiculously never been. I don’t know La Grande-Motte, but I will look at it. Courtesy of that music video probably, Thanks! ** Xavier, Hi, Xavier. That video is terrific, thank you. I’ll go investigate his work in general. Everyone, A late addition to ‘Smokers’ from Xavier, i.e. a short film called ‘Burn’ by Reynolds/Jolley. You want to see this. Here. Yeah, thanks a bunch. ** Dominik, Hi!!! Of course you make your building sound like great haunted house attraction in the making. To choose one unsolved mystery, that’s hard, huh, hold on … I guess I’ll have to choose a personal one: Why, when I looked at the small suitcase of a friend who’d been living in my parents pool house and had committed suicide the day before, did the suitcase suddenly fly about a foot into the air for a second. Most inexplicable thing I ever saw. Now you have to choose one. Love wishing my pal Zac a very happy birthday, G. ** cj, Hi. Welcome. I don’t know those Jason Simon photos. I’ll see if I can find them. Is ‘Moyra’ Moyra Davey? Thanks!! ** DonW, I might love Pavement a wee bit more than I love The Fall, but they’re both way up there in my all-time favorite bands list. Okay, then stick to the Jardin. It’s fun enough. Got your email, emailed you back. ** Don., Hi, Don.! It’s really good to meet you. Thank you for negotiating whatever hurdles it takes to enter this place. Beautiful and true contemplation re: smoking. I just sat here for a moment trying to come up with some pleasure gained from slapping a nicotine patch on my arm or wearing it or peeling it off at the end of a long plane flight, and, yeah, there’s nothing there beyond the pain relief. I don’t think I saw your email. My email is weird, and I’m also pretty bad at keeping up with it. Thank you. And for what you said. How are you du jour? What are you up to? ** Sam F, The vocal minority, nice. Great that the reading landed in the satisfaction category. Congrats on the quitting. If I could snap my fingers and feel like a 100 bucks instantly, I would. Just cigarettes in my case. I quit smoking weed as a teen because I had an extreme LSD freak out and after that weed just triggered its semi-return. The coolest people carry around slim poetry books with them. Or at least said people always intrigue me unusually. Luck with the trailer! ** Bill, I’d like a smoke chair as long as it was actually fog. How interesting: your smoke work. I think or certainly assume that the tech or whatever is much refined and advanced on so on now, so presumably you could now make your masterpiece amongst that body of work maybe. ** _Black_Acrylic, I think it was just weed? But … what do I know. No loss on the no smoking, obviously. ** Uday, Do continue to avoid smoking. Take it from me. My last drugs are cigarettes and caffeine. Once in a rare while I’ll take a few sips of wine or beer at a stressful social gathering. Probably the best thing about smoking is that it gives you an excuse to stop away/outside when things and/or people inside get boring. I’ve been reading about those protests, and there you are right in the middle of them. Wow. I read that they worked, right? Take care of that ankle. Ankles can be incorrigible. Wow. ** Ezra, Not just phenomenal but absolutely so. Congrats! It sounds both, yes, spectacular and like something I’m very glad I wasn’t at. My priority is protecting my brain these days. Anyway, wild, and I hope the lecture enlightened whoever. ** Adem Berbic, Me too: I write so little that’s appropriate to being read aloud. The less readings you do the more special and covetable you’ll seem theoretically. How was Justin Broadrick? Still gloomy and fog-enshrouded, I’m guessing. Isn’t he retiring or something? ** laura w, My friend Zac’s birthday is today, but he’s out of town, so I guess he just gets a festive text from me. Nice if Criterion has ‘4NoaD’. I’ve never owned a single Criterion Blu-ray/DVD. Strange. And there is no Criterion Channel in France. But they’re still the big dog. Spend all the money wisely. Although I’m not sure money can be spent wisely. Huh. My tabac doesn’t close for another week, so I’m okay for now, thank you. I hope you enjoyed whatever got bbq’ed and ended up in your mouth. ** Steve, Ha. Weekend: saw friends, saw art, spent a lot of time drinking coffee in a cafe, and bought tickets for a visiting friend and I to go to the Serge Gainsbourg House/Museum tomorrow, which I’ve alway been vaguely curious to do. Ah, a gig for a gig! Everyone, Whether today’s blog gig is your thing or not, you should try Steve’s concurrent gig aka the new episode of his ‘Radio Not Radio’ show/podcast with, and here I quote, ‘jazz, metal, queer Latin bluegrass and child improvisers. This one features Henry Threadgill, Miles Okazaki, Akusmi, Philip Golub, Ornette Coleman & Prime Time, Bobbi Humphrey, The Afrofuturistics, Kalia Vandever, Deafkids, Pylar, Psycroptic, Devourment, Bolt Thrower, Alkuharmonian Kantaja, Cain Culto, Ray Barretto, Celeste Mendoza, Kenny Vance, D Juno, Bonobo, Kelela, Syd, Primitive Percussion Youth Orchestra and Thomas Mapfumo & The Blacks Unlimited.’ It’s right here. ** Carsten, Cigarettes are good for the brain, I agree. Too bad they’re not good for the rest of the body. Favorite “celebrity” smoker? All I can think of is my least favorite celebrity smoker: the just mentioned Serge Gainsbourg. Even watching videos of him with a perpetual cigarette in his hand or mouth makes me feel nauseous. Cigarettes in Paris are currently 11.50 euros a pack. And, yeah, it’s a commitment. ** politekid, Oh, thank you! Yes, that’s my address. Thank you! Oh, then come. I think Zac and I will still be here in early October before we split to LA for our annual home haunt hunting phase. I described my okay weekend to someone just above. If you don’t scroll up, you’re not missing anything. That’s kind of cool about the Jean Rhys house. As always no dreams for me, or no post-sleep trace left. ** fish, Hi I do know those photos, and I’m flummoxed as to why I didn’t think to include them. Everyone, another ‘Smokers’ add from fish, and it’s a goody: Ed Templeton’s photos of teenagers smoking. Here. Thanks! I’m a big fan of confusion. My motto is ‘confusion is the truth’. But that doesn’t stop it from being painful at times. But, if I’m any indication, confusion does kind of fade out gradually with the aging process, which can really be problem if you want to stay alert and honest. ** HaRpEr //, I quit smoking twice for five years each time, and both times I was in hell for at least eight months. I let characters in my stuff smoke sometimes, but I don’t let them vape. I’m glad Trans Pride was fun. It so nice to see people happy, especially when they actually deserve that. ** Malik, Hey, M! I know Josh Kline’s work a little, but I don’t know that piece. It sounds terrific. I’ll see if it or an excerpt at least is online somewhere. Bugs Bunny and Zac have the same birthday! I’ll have to tell him. I’m so happy to hear that the theater work was a success and that people knew enough to appreciate your performance in it. Wonderful! Do you have future acting gig ideas or possibilities in mind? Happy week ahead, my friend! ** Right. So I made you another gig consisting of some things I’ve been hearing and interested by of late. Same old story. Try it out. See you tomorrow.

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Jeppe Hein Smoke Chair (2002)
‘A large mirror hangs on the wall with a small bench positioned in front of it. Upon taking a seat on the bench, visitors observe their own reflections, only to find themselves enveloped in smoke moments later. A small trigger activates a fog machine within the bench, releasing smoke from small holes that surround the seat. While contemplating their reflections in the mirror, visitors see themselves disappear in a cloud of smoke.’

See it in action here

 

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Johannes Vogl Untitled (Swing) (2010)
‘Steel, car tire, fire’

 

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MARCK Tank (2014)
‘lcd panel, iron, video loop’

 

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Valie Export Smart Export (1970)

 

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Superflex Burning Car (2008)
‘Burning Car is a work by Superflex in which a car is being set on fire. The empty car starts to burn, the cabin is filled with smoke and fire, car-paint is bobbling, tires explodes. Towards the end the car is burned out completely.’

 

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Lorna Simpson Cloudscape (2004)
‘The solitary image of the black male figure whistling and enveloped by smoke appears to be a song of departure from the charnel house of the racial sublime.’

 

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Graham Durward Various (2009)
‘Though Durward’s Untitled paintings appear abstract, they are actually representations of burning incense. Durward chose to paint incense because of its immateriality and association to ritual. These ideas are echoed through his painting style. In Untitled, the billows of smoke are retraced with the artist’s brush, the gestures replicate both what the vapour looks like as well as its ‘real’ properties of non-physicality and movement.’

 

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Amol K Patil BURNING SPEECHES (2025)
‘Burning Speeches (2025) consists of a radio playing a continuous conversation as it dissolves in clouds of smoke – radio was a way to protest censorship in India through the power of underground networks. ‘Dalit artists have this art form called Powada, which they used to perform in public spaces, for protest. Now they can’t, because they can get arrested,’ he says. ‘I use this space to show that people can meet underground and share with each other. A lot of people are part of my projects now: electricians, carpenters – the relationships make the work possible.’’

See it in action here

 

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Tom Wesselmann Smoking Cigarette #1 & Smoker #10 (1980)
Oil on wood and masonite, formica base

 

 

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Rosângela Rennó Experiencing Cinema (2004)
‘In “Experiencing Cinema,” a better use of atmospherics, Brazilian Rosangela Renno revives an early 19th century phantasmagoria practice of projecting still pictures onto veils of smoke. Photographs, gathered from found family albums, cohere briefly on the smoke screen; then both image and screen dissipate, mortality again provocatively aligned with ephemerality.’

 

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Ho Tzu Nyen The Cloud of Unknowing (2011)
‘The Cloud of Unknowing—which the artist created to represent his country at the 2011 Venice Biennale—is set in a deserted, low-income public housing block in Singapore and incorporates eight compartmentalized vignettes, each centered on a character who is met by an unexpected ethereal smoke cloud permeating their immediate surroundings. Additionally, four screens envelop the viewer in a dense, theatrical atmosphere that further enhances the sensorial impact of the installation. The artist even used smoke machines in the 2011 Venice Biennale installation.’

 

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Unknown Various (?)

 

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Jeroen van Loon An Internet (2015)
‘An Internet by Dutch artist Jeroen van Loon questions how the internet would look if all data were temporary and ephemeral. Visualising the flow of information in the form of glass tubes filled with smoke signals, the installation is based on the complex system of glass fibre internet cables that run across the ocean floors and continents.’

 

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Anthony McCall Split Second (2018)
‘Split Second is among Anthony McCall’s most recent ‘solid-light’ installations, a series of pioneering works begun in 1973, in which a volumetric form composed of projected light slowly evolves in three-dimensional space in a hazefilled room. McCall regards these works as occupying a space between sculpture, cinema, and drawing: sculpture because the projected volumes must be occupied and explored by visitors; cinema because they rely on the filmic image and change over time; and drawing because each work begins as a two-dimensional drawing. Split Second consists of two separate points of light projected at different heights. The two projections – one elliptical, one flat – meet and combine to form a single slowly changing line-drawing. The projections expand to reveal a flat blade and an elliptical cone, which combine in space to create a complex field of rotating, interpenetrating planes. This uniquely atmospheric work inducts the spectator into a three-dimensional field where forms gradually shift and turn over time, creating an active and immersive experience, one in which the spectator truly completes the work.’

 

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Marina Gadonneix Crime Scene (2015)

 

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Richard Friedberg Various (2014-17)
Materials: Aluminum, Aluminum Screening

Fire Storm

Oil Fire

Black Cloud

Explosion

Twin Fires

 

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Wyatt Burns 100 Cigarettes Machine (2014)

 

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Ariella Pahlke Burning Rubber (2009)
‘Burning Rubber is a provocative re-framing of burnouts and rural car culture a filmmakers search for meaning in a disregarded and often maligned form of self-expression. Based primarily in rural Nova Scotia, Burning Rubber weaves a predominantly male car culture together with artists and the curiosity of outsiders, ultimately stimulating larger questions about identity, creativity, gender, freedom, and how we decide what is valued and given meaning as art.’

 

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luzinterruptus 25 Minutes of protest in the smoke (2013)
‘The night of January 31 we took to the street to “perpetrate” an intervention that we’ve wanted to carry out for some time and that night it made more sense than ever. At that time, people had taken to the streets in a spontaneous manner, to protest against the scandalous political corruption that had been uncovered by a national newspaper and which implicated, with names and surnames, the entire leadership of the Spanish government. While the powers that be were entertained, trying to “control” public order at the headquarters of the PP of Madrid, we chose a central street, close to Gran Via, and there we carried out our light/sound, 25 Minutes of protest in the smoke. The action was very simple, only a few completely harmless, small, homemade smoke bombs that are placed under 9 powerful lampposts, in order to totally obscure the most illuminated street in the area, under a dense cloud of smoke. This environment, belonging to a post-conflict zone or of a church during the hours of mass, was inviting to stay and watch as the smoke materialized the beams of light from the lampposts, forming imperfect cones in space, within which the smoke evolved in hypnotic movements. To improve the scene being staged, the smoke managed to activate all the fire alarms on Gran Via which rang for a long time, contributing significantly to the general malaise that reigned on the streets at that time.’

 

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Mark Tennant Various (2016-2018)

 

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teamLab Massless Clouds Between Sculpture and Life (2020)
‘A giant cloud floats between the floor and the ceiling within the confines of the space, as though transcending the concept of mass. Even when people push through the floating cloud and break it, it naturally repairs itself like a living thing. But, as with living things, when the cloud is destroyed beyond what it can repair, it cannot mend itself, and it collapses.’

 

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Ron English Cloud (2009)
‘Billboard liberator and Popagandist, Ron English, was responsible for hiring the skywriting plane that spelled out the word “cloud” five times over the city this morning. In an interview earlier this year, English said “these actual clouds will be for sale,” but there’s still no word on pricing for the artistic condensation.’

 

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Yang Yongliang Cigarette Ash Landscape (2011)

 

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Frederico Surace Explosion for War Film (2017)
‘For this project i create a 3D simulation for Visual Effects Explosion rappresentation.’

 

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Judy Chicago A Purple Poem for Miami (2019)
‘Chicago began her Atmospheres series at the end of the 1960s but halted its production in 1974. The artist reignited the series in 2012, but on a larger scale. A Purple Poem for Miami is her sixth Atmospheres performance in seven years.’

 

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Joschi Herczeg and Daniele Kaehr Explosions (2011)
‘In these photographs by Joschi Herczeg and Daniele Kaehr, the artistic team captures a single, exciting moment in a mundane, domestic surrounding. For this series Explosion, the team synchronized a camera with a custom-built detonator to snap a photo at the exact moment of explosion.’

 

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The YES! Association SMOKING AREA (2012)
‘We installed a sixty-square-foot Smoking Area inside the Hessel Museum of Art, which shows a possibility for changing, or disrupting, the legal structure within an institution. The floor is painted with solid yellow lines the color of traffic signs and the cordoned-off space (modeled after such areas in train stations and other semi-outside public spaces across Europe) boldly reads SMOKING AREA in large font, complete with graphics of two lit cigarettes. The museum had to reevaluate. “Do you actually intend to have people smoking in there? Or is it just a painting?” There’s no way to really answer that. Visitors are activated; they are asked to make a choice: to smoke or to not smoke. We borrow from Hannah Arendt when we say: There is no doubt that the ability to act is the most dangerous of our abilities and possibilities.’

 

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Eyal Gever Large Scale Smoke Sim (2013)

 

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Kristoffer Myskja Smoking Machine V2 (2016)
‘The fact that the real “smell of fear” was given off by Smoking Machine tends to disprove the most commonly traded trope about fragrance: that reactions to it are purely “subjective” and “personal”. Few people would have reacted to the smell of cigarettes as though it were the very reek of the Antichrist during the Mad Men era – or even the 80s. The aversion is an acquired, cultural reflex.’

 

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Otto Piene Dynamisches Volumen (1961)
Oil, smoke and fire on canvas.

 

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James Benning Twenty Cigarettes (2011)
‘In Benning’s “Screentests” we watch 20 individuals, each of them smoking a cigarette. James Benning is well-known as the structuralist and documentarist who introduced the dimension of cinematic time into the landscape. One take lasts exactly three minutes, or the time it takes for a train to pass through a Californian landscape. This time round it’s people who determine the length of the takes by smoking a cigarette. They stand among walls and shelves and only their movements, which they try to control, and the movement of the smoke, which they can’t control, stipulate the coordinates of the filmic space. Benning makes a screenplay out of this and surprises us by once again creating something entirely new out of little more than smoke.’

 

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simtec CFD simulation of fire and smoke propagation in the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Athens (2012)
‘The health and safety system of the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Athens was studied by SIMTEC, to evaluate the effectiveness of its standard and emergency HVAC systems. The building is a former industrial brewery and many of its art exhibits, were created with flammable materials. The basement, ground and second floor constitute the three major exhibition rooms and were modeled along with the lobby, the restaurant, the museum shop and the escalators. The network of fire sprinklers was modeled at their exact locations on the ceiling and the walls. The risk associated with their failure was estimated, considering three cases of sprinkler water capacity: (a) nominal, (b) partial and (c) empty.’

 

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Daniel Schulze For Those Who See (2010)
‘For Those Who See is a 2010 installation by Berlin-based artist Daniel Schulze that relies on a 7×7 grid of audio speakers to generate rings of fog that shoot upward from the device. The vortices appear for only a second or so, but are distinct enough that Schulze could then translate digital signals into fleeting visual patterns. The installation was a jury recommended work at the 14th Japan Media Arts Festival and won the audience award at the Create10 Student Design Competition.’

 

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Tony Oursler The Influence Machine (2000)
‘The Influence Machine is a multimedia installation which is staged outdoors. The work is comprised of seven video projections, each with its own audio track. The videos are projected onto a building and the trees that surround it. In addition, smoke machines are used to create a mass of smoke, onto which a video of a medium is projected. This medium speaks a garbled set of sentences in which it attempts to contact the technological pioneers Edward Gaspard Robertson and John Logie Baird. The other video projections include a talking light, a chorus singing and a technician’s hand.’

 

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Olaf Brzeski Something terrible stirs (2009)

 

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Yao Chung-Han Electronic Monster #3 – On the Hour (2017)
‘Electronic Monster #3 – On the Hour combines real time mechanical sounds and music produced by the artist. A mechanical smoke machine has been rigged to trigger every hour, filling the space and creating an image of a beast that changes in scale – an experience designed by the artist to draw attention to architectural framing that holds the image.’

 

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Claes Oldenburg Fagend Study (1975)
Lead and Cor-Ten Steel filled with Polyurethane Foam

 

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Olaf Breuning Smoke Bombs (2012)
‘Swiss visual artist Olaf Breuning places no limits on his medium of choice, expressing his artistic vison through peformance art, sculpture, drawing, photography, installation and film. My favorite of his work are these precisely staged photos of various smoke bombs, fireworks and other colorful objects arranged on a loose framework. The pieces have occasionally been lit as part of a “happening” such as his site-specific smoke installation at Station to Station in New York.’

 

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Laurent Grasso OttO (2018)

 

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Liz Magor Humidors (2004)
polymerised gypsum, tobacco

 

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Gwenessa Lam 368House Fires (Reverse Image Search 2015-16) (2016)
‘Lam’s video loop, 368 House Fires, presents repeated “still” images of a house on fire as flames transform the two-storey structure into a blazing inferno. The fire is advanced enough to be dramatic and reveal the house’s architectural form, but not so far along that the structure is unrecognizable. The animation, composed of 368 flashes of the same image in different sizes, spans less than two minutes and mimics the quick, glancing views of a digital search while simulating the flame’s flickering, burning assault.’

Watch an excerpt here

 

 

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p.s. Hey. ** Adem Berbic, Hi. Well, I’ll never read the original French ‘Tomb’, but I will stand up for the English version however inappropriate its finessing might be because it’s great as heck. Unfortunately Guyotat’s greatest books are basically untranslatable, so they’ve been translating the more direct, more autobiographical ones like ‘Coma’, which are certainly worthy but not him exploding his genius. Apparently the new, last novel of him just published here is basically impossible to understand clearly even in French. Yum. My thanks to Pierre too. ** Steve, ‘Teenage Sex …’ isn’t here yet, but I assume it will be. Curious indeed if that’s true about ‘Frisk’. I haven’t heard that before. Yes, RT’s distributor is setting up the US streaming for the film right now. It’ll definitely be on at least one of the big, accessible platforms, but I’m not sure which yet. This weekend … seeing some art with visiting pal Bruce Hainley and Zac, Thomas Moore arrives for a visit tomorrow, maybe see a film, not sure which. Looking forward to the ep. ** _Black_Acrylic, Summer has a lot to answer for, that’s for sure. The 22nd will be here before you know it. That’s my look-on-the-bright-side side in high gear. Yes, you and ‘RT’. Keep your ears peeled when you watch the intro video we just recorded yesterday. Good, be our ‘Shards’ on Netflix pioneer and spread the news. ** Dominik, Hi!!! Mm, no, from the ones I’ve visited, Japanese parks tend to be smaller. More packed. I mean excluding the two Disney parks. They’re, of course, giant. So many reasons not to go jogging. That’s beautiful about the new discovered door, wow. Is it also useful? Not that it needs to be to be charismatic. Love making my next lit cigarette a work of art, G. ** Hugo, Hi. Well, my blog is ravenous when it comes to comments. NYC, so soon! Wow! And happy birthday slightly in advance, I’m assuming. 23 is an excellent starting gate. Everyone, Anyone out there have some NYC recommendations for the soon to visiting Hugo? Have a blast if I don’t confer with you before. ** fish, Hi, fish, welcome back! Oh, I have a kind of personal problem with generalisations and that includes collective identity. I mean I’m as gay or queer as you can be, and that certainly has a strong effect on what I choose to write about, but other than that my being queer doesn’t feel overly important to me. It’s just one of the things I am. So that’s what I mean, I guess. I have total respect for people who find value and power in seeing themselves as part of a collective identity. It’s just never worked that way for me personally. Does that help? You doing good in general? ** Thom, I think you won’t regret taking a Guyotat plunge. But nothing is certain in this life of course. Ooh, lovely about incorporating R-G’s writing into your drone piece. The idea is savory. I hope the zine launch goes extremely well. Please let me how that went if you feel so inclined. Otherwise, yeah, rest up. A chill weekend seems to be in the offing on my end. ** Fionn, Hey! Welcome, and thank you for de-lurking. Sherberty is such a good description of ‘EEE’. I’ll quote you the next time that book comes up. I don’t know know ‘La Chatte à deux têtes’. I mostly know Nolot from his acting. Interesting, I’ll see if I can find it. Huh, I had read that the last Cine X in Paris closed, but I just checked and you’re right. There’s one in Clichy. And it’s even been renovated and enlarged. Wild. I’ll go mosey around there. Nice to get to talk with you. Obviously come back and share whatever you want when/if the mood strikes. ** laura w, ‘Eden Eden Eden’ is a lot shorter than ‘2066’ for one thing, thank goodness. ‘Four Nights of a Dreamer’ has finally been restored after ages, but I don’t think it has gotten around very much. It’s among my favorite Bressons. Festivals like to premiere films or at least show films that are both new and seem destined for buzziness amongst the general population, and we don’t qualify anymore. Oh well. Early happy birthday! I hope something special comes up. I guess you have two days to find that. I always do as little as possible on my birthday. Zac’s birthday is next week too. We’re just about at the moment when Parisians empty out and go to their summer homes or whatever for the rest of the summer. So it’s still lively-ish. But next week the stores will start closing for their vacations, and I have to remember to stock up on cigarettes this weekend. Thanks for making me remind myself. ** politekid, Hi! Before I forget, is there any way you could seen me a pdf or its equivalent of your book? The physical book still hasn’t arrived, and I fear that the always unreliable French mail system might have eaten it. Can you? I’m dying to read it. I don’t what a&e means, but I assume it’s not a good place to spend hours. I hope sleep is starting to break your door down. Sucks, sorry, pal. I don’t think ‘Tomb’ is going to get a new translation, and I swear to god it’s totally excellent in its current English form. Come over and go to Parc Asterix with us in October when they do their Halloween makeover. It’s actually really good with haunted houses and everything. I wait anxiously for it every year. I agree that you need to fucking write, so get your life and finances or whatever in order, sir. My weekend should be somewhat solid and nice and maybe not more than that, but that’s just fine. I’m not sure that I’m interested enough in Charli xcx to listen to her when she’s not doing high energy dance/pop music, but I guess I should find out. ** Thomas Moronic, Hi, T! I did see Guyotat do a reading at the Pompidou when I first moved here. It was dreamy. I’m way around and read to hang and do whatever as soon as you’re ready! Safest trip! xo. ** sal, Hi! Oh my god back to you. That’s amazing: those downloadable Guyotats. I think you just saved some lives. Everyone, Rather huge news: Kindly and wonderfully nefarious sal can hook you up with free pdfs of Guyotat’s ‘Tomb …’ and ‘Eden Eden Eden’! Quite possibly the only way you’r going to get to read them unless you already have them or have big bucks to buy the o.o.p editions. Here’s ‘Tomb …’. And here’s ‘Eden Eden Eden’. Grab them, seriously! Thanks a billion, sal. Spectacular weekend to you! ** HaRpEr //, Me too. ‘Tomb …’ is significantly greater than ‘Idiocy’ if you ask me and if you’re setting priorities. I mean teaching the English language. Or that’s the gig my friends have. I’ll ask them or at least one of them as soon as I see them. Enjoy trans pride. Do they celebrate it in the usual way with a parade and speeches and, I don’t know, dancing and stuff? It sounds promising. Have so much fun and empowerment and all those necessary things. ** Ezra, Hey, Ezra. Well, it has a lot of Algeria in it, that’s one thing for sure. I’ve never been to either Morocco or Algeria. Weird. I think I’ll wait until it’s not hot there, if it ever is. Don’t like heat. Wow, that’s quite a party. I hope they don’t trash the place unless you want them to. All the luck winning over the young cokehead’s heart. Sounds worth the old college try. Wow, if you survive, let me know how it went. Your Saturday is definitely going to wipe the floor with mine. ** voskat, Hi! Please tell Laura I miss her too if she isn’t directly reading those words. I’m guessing you were listening to ‘Horse Rotorvator’. My favorite Coil. Sweet. ** Okay. Smoke ’em since you have ’em this weekend. See you on Monday.