I really enjoyed the readings this week, on many levels.

On Grayson Earle, I was familiar with his work but hadn't heard him speak before. I became aware of his work with the New Museum/Hans Haacke show hacking. I thought that it was a really brilliant way of subverting dialogue and inviting discourse. I've been curious what Haacke thought of this gesture; I haven't been able to find any record of him addressing it. Earle's hacking seems so congruent with Haacke's work but at the same time, it's a big provocation; as if to say, "you used to interrogate the institutions you are a part of but your efforts are inadequate if you support a union busting museum with arms dealers on its board."

Also, this form of the video essay is something I've been thinking about quite a bit. Along with this talk of Earle's from Pioneerworks, I saw Paul Soulellis give an amazing video essay/talk this weekend at the Art Book Fair. You can view the assets here. Paul's talk also connects around the idea of intervention. Paul was very much questioning the idea of commercial artist's books, and the re-centering the idea of artist driven self publishing as being not a commercial act but rather an act of urgent radicalism. It was fantastic and it felt like a gift to the audience, raising the awareness level of the room. So smart.

Lastly, Art Thoughtz by Jason Musson was so great. I watched a number of these videos, and it's difficult to pick a favorite. His Damian Hirst/Bono burns were timeless. Also, it's striking how relevant his work seems nearly a decade later. Aside from the videos being low resolution to 2021 standards, the content felt absolutely timely.