October 05, 2003
Ono/McGinness
Dietch Projects overflowed itself once again, with Ryan McGinness and Yoko Ono openings on the same night at the two Soho spaces. Perfect opportunity to run into old friends...
Actually between the crowds was some decent art. Ono pretty much followed a two part formula. 1- if you can't make it good, make it big. 2- pimp John Lennon's shit until she dies. Really it was better then it sounds. "Imagine Peace was the theme, the photos where absolutely enormous, impressive solely on their size, but impressive none the less. The human size animal traps would have been cooler if they actually worked. The blood and rag covered refugee camp was truly disturbing. No idea what the giant shoes where doing in there... Not exactly coherent, but yeah its not as bas as it sounds.
McGinness is more interesting though, walking the graphic design/art border tighter then anyone. As an artist? Well his stuff looks good. Really nice silkscreens, they'd match a lot of couches. Aesthetically its all good. But should they be limited editions or one offs just to up their retail value? If that's what it takes to get paid, sure I guess. But damn why not reproduce? I'm all for artists getting paid big dollars, but the artificial scarcity bit still turns me off. Plus McGinness is a way smarter designer then artist, the creativity shines a lot brighter inside the books.
