Blog – BRIAN ULRICH : NOT IF BUT WHEN

Merry Holidays

December 24, 2009

Bennigans, etc, Orlando, FL 2009

Interesting times we live in. May your holiday be shopping-less and full of relaxing!

In the summer of 2008 I was doing some photographing at the Scope Hamptons art fair. It was a pretty chill scene, the calm and luxurious Hamptons is a pretty fun backdrop for an art fair that provides lots of interesting places for after-party events.
While taking a break from the pictures a young muscle bound architect named Ruben Natal-SanMiguel and I began talking. As is often the case when I’m carrying around a 4×5 camera the conversation quickly turned around to photography. It appeared from the get go that Ruben knew a lot about the medium and it’s youngest practitioners. We talked for some time about Ruben’s own work and it’s connection to the tradition of the NY Photo League.
That particular summer I was in-hiding of sorts. I had began work on the Dark Stores, Ghostboxes and Dead Malls project and had truly convinced myself that no one would like that work, (night photos of dramatic empty buildings… flickr, please!). Regardless of that it was actually quite uplifting to simply not care and enjoy making the work.
While speaking with Ruben I mentioned that I too was interesting in social photography and the urban scape and shared some of the recent work on my phone. I believe Ruben was one of the first to see some of that work outside of friends. Ruben’s enthusiasm to it was a welcomed response and it dawned on him and I that we did know each other through his blog, and my work. We’ve stayed in touch since and it seems like I can’t throw a rock in any direction without Ruben’s name coming up. I can honestly say I’ve never met someone with so much energy and enthusiasm to the medium. He’s simply always up to something, whether that be panel discussions, his blog, his own work and more recently curating (Ruben, when do you have time to go to the Gym?!!).

His latest rabbit out of the hat is a group show that opens right after the new year.
Ruben’s premise of this for this show is to combine his interest for emerging artists and established ones in a series of pairings of the two.
Details below:
(ps.There will be a series of artist talks coinciding with the show, so keep an eye out)

January 7 – March 8, 2010
Opening Night January 7- 6:00PM-!0:00 PM

Brian Ulrich Vs. Alex Leme
Mickalene Thomas Vs. Nadine Rovner
Hank Willis Thomas Vs. Cara Phillips
Amy Elkins Vs. Molly Landreth
Matthew Pillsbury Vs. Kris Graves
Phil Toledano Vs. Elizabeth Fleming
Zoe Strauss Vs. Ruben Natal –San Miguel
Jen Davis Vs. Eric Ogden
Michael Wolf Vs. Gina LeVay

Hous Projects
31 howard street, 2nd floor
new york ny 10013
T 212.941.5801
info@housprojects.com

Ghosts of Shopping Past

December 23, 2009

Kentucky Fried Chicken, 2009

A few weeks ago, Nozlee Samadzadeh of the The Morning News posted an interview and some recent work of the ongoing Dark Stores, Ghostboxes and Dead Malls. I’ve been traveling quite a bit, retreating back to Chicago to edit, research and head back out again. It’s been a constructive time and I’m excited that the work is beginning to really take me into some interesting directions (even into sculptures, found objects, etc).
The article on the Morning News website really took off and I couldn’t be more tickled to see it needle its way across the internet and all the while retaining the context with quotes from the interview, in addition to spawning some interesting discussions itself.
Here’s a few of the other sites the article was reposted:

http://www.coolhunting.com/archives/2009/12/ghosts_of_shopp.php

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/12/11/haunting-dead-mall-p.html

http://www.core77.com/blog/object_culture/the_ghosts_of_shopping_past_abandoned_malls_and_big-box_stores_15488.asp

http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/ghosts-of-shopping-past

Even better to see some good intelligent discourse spawned from the original article. My favorite here:

http://archaeopop.blogspot.com/2009/12/eulogy-for-american-mall.html

“If archaeology is about the intersection of space and material culture, then the shopping mall is ground zero for an archaeological understanding of the 20th century in America, a time and place that was pivotal in world history. What Ulrich suggests above is a transformation in the spatial organization of consumption – zoning for quality retail rather than growth at any cost. In other words, he’s suggesting we start a new cultural horizon.”

Coolhunting
Boing Boing
Core 77
Trendhunter

One of my favorite discussions here:
Archaepop

New cultural horizon indeed. Here’s to 2010!

Yule

December 21, 2009

Alec on Larry

December 17, 2009

Was quite saddened to hear the news of the passing of Larry Sultan earlier this week. Luckily for us, his legacy as an artist, teacher and community member will march on.

If anyone can write an epitaph it’s the kind and honest words of Alec Soth. I might argue that you learned a lot more than you think from Mr. Sultan, Alec.

Peace with you, Larry.

Miami, Etc…

December 2, 2009

Tomorrow I head off to the annual Miami art fairs. I never have high hopes for this things which makes for pleasant surprises in work I might find (and no disappointment if I don’t). Moreso it’s a great time to catch up with the many friends and people I usually connect to only over the computer. Making the most of it by spending the following week photographing around central Florida.

You can see some of my recent work at:
Art Miami, Robert Koch Gallery, Booth B9

and at Pulse, Julie Saul Gallery will be showing some of our recent collaboration, a subscription series of small prints from the recent and upcoming Guggenheim trips.

They is already a few previews of the fair from the VIP night last night.
Here on Look Into My Owl.

I’d say see you at the beach but more likely i’ll be in late night parking lots.

Add-Art

November 25, 2009

Buddy Paul Schmelzer (Eyeteeth) curated a selection of work from Dark Stores for the Add-Art website. Add-Art is actually a custom plug-in for the Firefox web browser that enables you to replace the annoying ads on any website and replace it with random selections of artwork from the Add-Art site. Mine is the first in a series of curated web projects for Add Art.

See some screenshots on Paul’s site.

And install Add Art here.

Picture Black Friday 2009

November 25, 2009

H&M, Black Friday, Chicago, 2003

From the beginnings of my project on consumerism I’ve been fascinated with the phenomenon of Black Friday. Originally a derogatory term used to describe the insane holiday shopping traffic mess around Philadelphia, BF is now not only a measure of our nations economy, but a spectacle to question the integrity of our own priorities.

The folks at Adbusters magazine long ago saw this and created the annual protest titled ‘Buy Nothing Day‘, to try and give a better perspective on not spending the day shopping but perhaps refocusing purpose in our lives elsewhere.

In the spirit of the spectacle, photographer John Saponara has created a new call to arms, Picture Black Friday asks photographers to get up early and head for the malls but with a camera in hand rather than wallet. One can interpret this day and its events in anyway they please through some photographic means. Jurors such as John, Amy Stein, Jorg Colberg, Stephen Frailey, Jon Feinstein and myself are hopefully some people you’d like to impress anyway. We can’t promise prizes other than accolades, internet fame and I may even ask you to be my friend on facebook (hint: I will be looking through the submissions for print trades .