Sunday, February 28, 2010

It Ain’t Easy Being Ahead of the Curve



I wonder if Nicolas Baier ever feels this way. The image above is “Canada in the Marsh of a Golf Course in Laval 2007” from the artist’s series Pareidolias. Baier works with damaged mirrors to play with viewers’ ideas of perception. As this article from Artdaily.org says: “Our likeness cannot be seen in the scratches, cracks, holes and other markings of these damaged surfaces, but it is practically impossible not to continue to seek for whatever may constitute an image, be it a hand here, a bear’s head there, the surface of a pond or distant galaxies . . . There is always more to see; the gaze ceaselessly invests these marks with a meaning they do not intrinsically have.”

Ain’t that the truth! Way back in 2007 my book Madonna of the Toast was released, resulting in the start of its eponymous blog – the one you’re reading right now. Since then, I’ve read all over the country and had folks say some really nice things about both the book and blog. The time and effort I’ve devoted to this project have resulted in my thinking about these stories in terms of greater cultural significance. Nicolas Baier and I work in different mediums but mull over the same ideas. The regular readers amongst you know all of this. But, it has been brought to my attention that a new book, Look It’s Jesus, has been released recently.

I have yet to see the actual book but as soon as I read it I’ll be sure to post a response.

Have any of you seen this book? Thoughts?