Jason Rhoades' Twelve-Wheel Waggon Wheel Chandelier (2004)

After several days in LA and San Francisco I'm blogging from beautiful Ashland Oregon on my way back to Portland, where I will be installing this show in the Pearl District.

It was a trip evenly split between art and architecture, including Neutra (ugh did Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher put that monstrosity up next to the Lovell Health House?). I also saw great examples by Koolhaas, Mayne, Gehry, Frank Lloyd Wright, Herzog & de Meuron etc. The must see shows are Eden's Edge at the Hammer, Sugimoto at the de Young and Cao Fei at OCMA.

Jason Rhoades pretty much outclassed the rest Eden's Edge show... taking Nauman, Eva Hesse and Keinholz and super colliding them in a way that makes Matthew Day Jackson's piece at the last Whitney Bi look like the easy text book joke it was. Rhoades made those aesthetics his own when others merely quote. His work at the Hammer, Twelve-Wheel Waggon Wheel Chandelier, was simply awe inspiring and original in a way pictures dont convey... a talent to be missed, he was maybe the only artist who could challenge or supercede Hirst in ecclesiastically profound profanity. In this show he made Lari Pittman look like a tame decorator by comparison, it's so sad because he was clearly LA's best young gun... maybe the only artist to fully digest the crazy dada aesthetics and lifestyle of LA. Sure Ruscha has more dignity but Rhoades... he channeled the entire Sunset Strip in a way that was less filtered. Ruscha's a master poet, Rhoades was a force of nature and nothing was precious... not even his own life. Sad.

In keeping with the architecture and Hollywood theme Archidose had a nice post comparing Hadid and Linklater's aesthetics. I think Julie Mehretu could also be compared in the mix. Of the 3 Hadid does it best. After visiting LA it was obvious that the best architechts are producing better work than most of the best artists today. I'm probably infuriated by this realization but I have a pittbull giving me the sad eyes and hummingbirds are whizzing above my head as I look out over the valley in Ashland. Maybe the rage will hit me as I drive through Grants Pass?