Photography: Holding Its Own

Mid-exhibition run, checked in with TAM's Max Presneill for an assessment of the artists' chain-curated show, Telephone. (Closing June 25.)

The director said he's pleased with how the show turned out. Said, too, that "photography is holding its place," and "being used in a '70s conceptual way."

And said he sees in the show "a re-engagement with craft and technological prowess," noting that the videos, for instance, display high production value.

Also, the show has more drawings than he would have guessed, the artists display a greater ambition, and it would appear that "slacking is gone."

If so, what will become of Bob Dobbs?

Six Twenty Three

Telephone's artists be told: eight foot wide maximum, height can hit ceiling. Just need room for all forty artists.

Social Investment

The current TAM exhibition, Telephone, closing June 25, relied on one artist to select the next artist to select the next artist to select the next artist and so on to appear in the show.

Love, hate, or feel indifferent about the resulting show, putting it together via this conceptual curatorial outsourcing turned out to be a smooth operation, according to TAM's chief, Max Presneill, with works arriving on time and installations including artists assisting one another.

This blog: "That's because of the social contract?"

That man: "The social investment."

The City Seal As Art

This is the official seal of Torrance.

"Torrance," the text reads, "A Balanced City. Industrial, Residential, Commercial."

What would the seal look like if TAM was in charge of re-doing it?

What would the seal look like if artists whose works appear at TAM re-imagined it?

What would the text say if TAM's staff or visiting curators re-wrote it?

Is the blog the only one confused by the official Torrance history of its seal?

Have the past and present seals been created by a trustee and a fireman? What happened to the entries in 1966 by all the children? The current design couldn't possibly be by a kid -- unless the tot is history's most precocious urban planner.

The Rest of This Post Being Written by Feet

This is not the piece by Eric Yahnker that starts TAM's Telephone.

Six Miles By Car

Six miles, by car, from TAM: Freshia Market, home to digi toilets available for sale and the $1.50 tuna croquette.

Closer, still, a refinery.

Even closer, the swimming pool for youth sports.

Time Flies

Forty days ago, this blog wrapped up a string of posts.

We joined the hundreds and hundreds (and hundreds) of others who attended opening night of TAM's Gateway Japan show. We watched the sumo wrestlers performance / sculpture. We bought one of the $50 artworks for sale to benefit the Japanese red cross. We patronized TAM's event sponsor, Bar One.

And of course, we took in the show, doing the best we could to separate the surrounding weeks' sadness, poignancy, and the opening night revelry from the works' themselves.

Forty days later, the show is gone. Forty days later, Japan is all but out of the daily headlines -- replaced by news from Libya, Syria, Yemen, and now most of all, Abbottabad, Pakistan.

Anyone reading this know without looking elsewhere online how many of the Fukushima six nuclear reactors are fully under control now?

Forty days...

TAM runs their shows fast, like a larger venue's project room.

This so-often take-downs and set-ups taxes the institution's skeleton staff -- like flying, it's the takeoffs and landings that matter most.

But it's a boon for the South Bay and visiting public -- getting ten main shows, say, instead of three or four that the institution could get away with running.

The down side -- time be flying. Forty days. The opening seemed like yesterday. How many times did you get back?