Sunday, March 25, 2012

Field of Flux



It always looks darkest just before it gets totally black"
Charlie Brown


South Florida is much more than glorious beaches and teflon highways. It is also home of the thematic week. Contrived conventions like music week or boat week or art week or wine and food week are promotional events that reduce experience to a novelty that runs contrary to the cultivation of place and purpose. For most it may be nearly impossible to truly understand the swampy world we inhabit, and it sure is a distracting spectacle to watch.


No grand charade is complete without plenty of noise, flashing lights and dust shaking. The circus of modernity will soon be in your neighborhood also.


And with every main event there is a cost that fluctuates... mostly upwards as with this message menu on I-95 luxury fast lane.


Progress is by far the over arching drive. It take a formidable work crew in orange vests and hard hats to move the swamp forward. I can almost say it is affordable and worth it.


Great weather, curious people and progress have a knack for attracting returning visitors to Miami. One such repeat offender is my odd pal Kenny Scharf. He once lived here in a time when Dade was desirable and Broward was a backwater. It was a time before Britto.

Last week Scharf was back in South Florida to put the finishing touches on his whirlwind of projects. I had a chat with Scharf recently, posted here.


Back in 2000 while working in North Miami, Scharf got a call from sharp eye Mindy Shrago director of Young At Arts Children's Museum in Davie asking if we would build an attraction for the Broward County kids. Kenny was flattered to help out so we created the Cosmic Cavern #18 in an old hanger of a strip mall on State Rd. 84. Today the Museum will share an impressive new facility with the public library set to open in May. Along with a slew of new attractions, visitors can enjoy Scharf's Cosmic Cavern #32!


Down in Dade's Wynwood neighborhood, interested gawkers can also enjoy another Scharf Mural, the latest addition to a growing museum of street art courtesy the Miami Arts Awakening visionaries such as Tony Goldman and Brook Dorsch.


Meanwhile in Little Havana the main event awaits. Yankees VS Marlins! the much anticipated first game at the new Marlin Stadium and parking jamboree in what some are calling mega crock-pot on the site of the dear old Orange Bowl.


Forget bottled beer. This place not only has central A/C and sonic flushers, it also has a system of pipes and valves that deliver ice cold beer to a network of dispensers on every level. Truly the light is sweet, and so is the lager.


Nothing sells brands better than bobble-heads. I heard someone say the Marlins have already sold millions in Tshirts, caps and other disposable stuff. But some stuff is not exactly throw-away.


While Red Grooms and Arsham grapple with Art in Public Places for placement of their art in the swampdome, Scharf has wrestled very skillfully with team owner Jeffery Loria for the creation of this outrageous and monumental giant banner i call ode to all things baseball.


In the realm of the Field of Dreams there are three possible outcomes. There is the HomeRun, the one you imagine and long for. Then there is the Bunt and the three strikes.



"There are three things in life that people like to stare at: a flowing stream, a crackling fire and a Zamboni clearing the ice."
Charlie Brown

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Wednesday, March 14, 2012

making Sh*t






NYC Pedicab Celeb Juan Carlos Rodriguez with the keen observer Tschida.

I'm not making this up, Anne Tschida local legend called me a Fabricator on the pages of the Biscayne Times. With a sharp pen and sapphire eyes on Miami's art scene, Tschida hammers it home with this bit of ink on the humble uncle O. A regular visitor to Swampspace Gallery, Anne recognizes the intimate unvarnished sophistication that lurks under the radar of predictable scripted art reporting in South Florida. Our wild wordsmith Tschida...! rhymes with cheetah.

Another regular visitor to swampspace is little Lily of Lil Muse Lily, a place inspired.


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http://www.biscaynetimes.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1110:the-fabricator&catid=38:art-a-culture&Itemid=201

http://lilmuselily.com/2012/03/15/swampspacin-it/

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Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Art In Private Places




is pleased to announce

Failing Upwards
the christening before the launch

A soft opening at our
new deluxe location!

Sunday March 11th 4-10pm


Where the Sidewalk Ends

There is a place where the sidewalk ends
And before the street begins,
And there the grass grows soft and white,
And there the sun burns crimson bright,
And there the moon-bird rests from his flight
To cool in the peppermint wind.

Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black
And the dark street winds and bends.
Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow
We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And watch where the chalk-white arrows go
To the place where the sidewalk ends.

Yes we'll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go,
For the children, they mark, and the children, they know
The place where the sidewalk ends.

shel silverstein

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150 N.E. 41 Street
Miami Design District

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