ingthe boundaries between icon and art, funny and serious, traditional and experimental, public and private"
and "explore
the experience of inhabiting
liminal
Liminal is an English adjective meaning "on the threshold", from Latin ''līmen'', plural ''limina''.
Liminal or Liminality may refer to:
Anthropology and religion
* Liminality, the quality of ambiguity or disorientation that occurs in the middle ...
zones, those architectural spaces, psychological and physical states in which contradictions collide."
Alaeff often approaches his work with a sardonic or dark sense of humor such as in his project ''The Evolution of Despair'' which consists of a series of detailed drawings of animals expressing human thoughts and emotions. His book, ''I'll be Dead by the Time You Read This: The Existential Life of Animals''
is a continuation of that body of work. A sticker campaign was also launched from the original ''Evolution of Despair'' drawings and is featured in the book and exhibition tour, ''Stuck-up Piece of Crap: Stickers: From Punk Rock to Contemporary Art''.
Some of Alaeff's work doesn't employ humor directly but is trained on social, psychological or philosophical observations, such as ''bias in perception'' in his "socially and politically charged," "multicultural, complexly encoded" ''War on the Brain''
series, which consists of "gorgeously revamped Rorschach blots containing references to conflicts from
William Wallace
Sir William Wallace ( gd, Uilleam Uallas, ; Norman French: ; 23 August 1305) was a Scottish knight who became one of the main leaders during the First War of Scottish Independence.
Along with Andrew Moray, Wallace defeated an English army at ...
and All That to the Smell of Napalm in the morning in
Vietnam
Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making it ...
." Other themes include ''choice'' as in ''The Tyranny of Small Decisions'', or in ''Crybaby'', the act of crying as a manipulative device in human discourse as well as in filmmaking.
In this project, Alaeff asked different musicians
such as
Chi2 Strings and
Moby
Richard Melville Hall (born September 11, 1965), known professionally as Moby, is an American musician, songwriter, singer, producer, and animal rights activist. He has sold 20 million records worldwide. AllMusic considers him to be "among the ...
to score the same 4 minute video of a young girl crying (singer Suzanne Santo of ''Honey Honey')'' which was then played in a loop such that each viewer had a different experience of the piece such as "pathos, anxiety, pity and, in our attempt to give meaning to such seemingly unmediated emotion, an imagined internal narrative of heartbreak at the end of summer or an accident on the highway."
As a whole Alaeff's work is meant to be interactive, speaking directly or indirectly to the viewer or allowing one's biases and projections to become part of the work.
The documentary film series, "There's no place like you" (aka "Still Life with You") is a collection of "short stories,"
begun in 1994 and spanning 16 years, which is devoted to his "idiosyncratic, exuberantly complicated relatives."
The series "documents the harmony and discord that typifies family dynamics." Films in the series, "Believe," "Goin' Down to Mexico," "Works Like a Dream," "All is Vanity," and "Once."
Bibliography
''I'll be Dead by the Time You Read This: The Existential Life of Animals''
[ Plume/]Penguin Group
Penguin Group is a British trade book publisher and part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by the German media conglomerate Bertelsmann. The new company was created by a merger that was finalised on 1 July 2013, with Bertelsmann initial ...
, 2011 (
Plume/
Penguin
Penguins ( order Sphenisciformes , family Spheniscidae ) are a group of aquatic flightless birds. They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere: only one species, the Galápagos penguin, is found north of the Equator. Highly adapt ...
Books)
''Stuck-up Piece of Crap: Stickers: From Punk Rock to Contemporary Art''. (
Rizzoli Rizzoli is an Italian surname.
People
*Achilles Rizzoli (1896–1981), an American artist
*Angelo Rizzoli (1889–1970), an Italian publisher
** RCS MediaGroup, formerly "A. Rizzoli & C." and "Rizzoli Editore", a publishing company founded by Angel ...
)
Exhibitions
Alaeff's work has exhibited nationally and internationally and has appealed to a wide range of audiences for both artistic as well as cultural interest. His work was exhibited in the 2001 Biennale in
Lyon
Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of ...
(
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...
), Artists Space (NYC), the
Kunsthal (
Rotterdam
Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...
), the Witte de With in conjunction w/
John Baldessari
John Anthony Baldessari (June 17, 1931 – January 2, 2020) was an American conceptual artist known for his work featuring found photography and appropriated images. He lived and worked in Santa Monica and Venice, California.
Initially a painter, ...
at the
International Film Festival Rotterdam
The International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) is an annual film festival held at the end of January in various locations in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Since its foundation in 1972, it has maintained a focus on independent and experimental f ...
,
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía
The ''Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía'' ("Queen Sofía National Museum Art Centre"; MNCARS) is Spain's national museum of 20th-century art. The museum was officially inaugurated on September 10, 1992, and is named for Queen Sofía. I ...
(
Madrid
Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), an ...
),
Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art (
MACBA,
Barcelona
Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ...
), The
Dallas Museum of Art
The Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) is an art museum located in the Arts District of downtown Dallas, Texas, along Woodall Rodgers Freeway between St. Paul and Harwood. In the 1970s, the museum moved from its previous location in Fair Park to the Art ...
and
Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain
The Fondation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain, known simply as the Fondation Cartier, is a contemporary art museum located at 261 boulevard Raspail in the 14th arrondissement of the French capital, Paris.
History
The Fondation Cartier was creat ...
(
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...
).
His work has found considerable interest with non-art audiences as well and has been included in the curriculum for
Emory University
Emory University is a private research university in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1836 as "Emory College" by the Methodist Episcopal Church and named in honor of Methodist bishop John Emory, Emory is the second-oldest private institution of h ...
’s, ''The Displaced Person, Literature Beyond the Canon'', The
University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...
’s ''American Studies: Religion and Society in American Literature'', and
Georgia State University
Georgia State University (Georgia State, State, or GSU) is a public research university in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1913, it is one of the University System of Georgia's four research universities. It is also the largest institution of hig ...
’s Graduate Educational Psychology Course.
In addition, he has been a guest artist, critic and teacher at the
Rhode Island School of Design
The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD , pronounced "Riz-D") is a private art and design school in Providence, Rhode Island. The school was founded as a coeducational institution in 1877 by Helen Adelia Rowe Metcalf, who sought to increase the ...
,
Brown University,
Pratt Institute
Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York. It has a satellite campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The school was founded in 1887 ...
,
Parsons The New School for Design
Parsons School of Design, known colloquially as Parsons, is a private art and design college located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. Founded in 1896 after a group of progressive artists broke away from established Manhatt ...
,
The University of Georgia
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in ...
and
Georgia State University
Georgia State University (Georgia State, State, or GSU) is a public research university in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1913, it is one of the University System of Georgia's four research universities. It is also the largest institution of hig ...
.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alaeff
Artists from Brooklyn
Living people
Tulane University alumni
Rhode Island School of Design alumni
1970 births