David Given Schwarm

Married, Father, United

Tag: Review

  • Mary Heilmann: To Be Someone

    This is a massive show! For the first time since I have been going to this art space I am totally blown away. I did not know who Mary Heilmann was, but her stuff totally rules.

    This Go Ask Alice piece is a lot like here later stuff, but all of her periods are super great. The first stuff, when she was in art school, is clever and art-schooly. Her early work is all serious and high arty. After this she starts really killing it with these large series on a theme.

    The art is all very new wave cool, but it still really emotionally connected with me–largely because she titled the works after rock albums in a lot of cases (which is something I can really relate to), but also because she just seems to be having so much damn fun.

  • Mr Brooks

    I went to a late show to see this with Thomas and Robert. I was not feeling well when we got to the theater.

    The movie was really good. I have been spending my time on the evolution of the murder weapon–hatchet, shovel, scissors–in some way this appears to be a domestication of murder or something along those lines.

    I also really like the notion that the killer was a clean freak, into ceramics, and was all about control.

    This was a good movie and a fun experience.

  • 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl

    This book has some really really good stuff. Unfortunately, it breaks down with Pinchbeck’s sexist explorations of his base sexual desires.

    All the tripped out crop circle, calendar prophecy, and other weirdness get caught up in this kind of personal moping about a failed relationship and his criticism of modern relationships–something that he knows nothing about–he comments as a desperate observer, unlike his writing on psychedelics in which he writes with precision, meaning, and clarity.

    I did really enjoy this book, but only in parts–it read like a guru in his adolescent phase–Buddha learning the art of love at the hand of a courtesan, or something like that–his next book will be a monster!

  • Imaging + Imagining California

    This is a kick ass collection of art which covers like a lot of the history of art in orange county.

    One of my favorite pictures is the top of the Flour building all washed out. It really feels like my childhood.


    I spent most of my time sitting in some op-art space with a ring casting spheres on the wall–very cool (Robert Irwin Untitled (#2220), 1969. I could hear some Magic Carpet ride Steppenwolf song coming from some other art, but the space still felt very cold quiet and arty.

  • Kutlug Ataman: Paradise

    There are all these video screen with people talking. Large new widescreen tv’s. There are cube chairs to sit on, one in front of each screen. There are headphones connected to each tv sitting on the cube chair. the monitors are set up in two concentric circles–there must be 30 of them.

    I started at 3:00 position when you come in from the other gallery. I watched one monitor for about 15 minutes.

    The monitor was a monolog by an Israeli women about teaching babies sign language, about her thoughts on diversity, and about her thoughts on LA. She was cool & I almost cried when she got all excited about her daughters first use of sign language.

    The video looped after about 15 minutes & there was no indication about the start and stop which I think was part of the point. The women commented on the guy filming her several times which was interesting.

    Getting through all of these videos will take a long time, but I will try going around and see if my thoughts on this project change. And it really does feel a lot more like a project then like an art piece.

  • Chris Burden: A Tale of Two Cities


    Chris Burden sets up a giant battle scene with toy soldiers, Japanese robots, and other childhood toys. He also builds a large mound of dirt in the middle of the gallery space to arrange all this stuff. There are binoculars on the wall so you can feel like a real general and look in. There are planes hanging from string. There are missles in the wall and bombastic explosions in the dirt and around the water skirmishes.

    I am really not sure what it is all supposed to represent or imply.

    Before you enter the neatly swept space there is this entry way with a bench. It is a wooden bench and very comfortable to sit and think. You cannot really see the art from this location & I am not really sure why it is there, but it is my favorite part of the installation because I could sit and read.

  • Spider Man 3

    I went and saw this with Gloves and Bobblehead–I liked it a lot. Medium Popcorn with way to much butter, great seats in the middle of the theater, and fantastic cross talk.

    The special effects were insane, the suffering of Peter Parker was great, and the death of Hobgobblin could not have happened soon enought. I look foreward to the next installment of this series.

  • Pacific Symphony Orchestra–Space

    Another great show for the young kids–an amazing opening with Also Sprach Zarathustra! Actually, there was a 20 minute bank ad before this which was very Spinal Tap, but the music started strong–then muddied around in the plants for a little to long until ending super strong with Star Wars.

    It was a lot of fun, Andrew & Susan came–we had a great lunch after & played in the California Scenario for a long time!

  • Cole Nobody Knows

    An absolutely amazing documentary about Freddy Cole–great jazz performances, lots of nice interviews, a seriously strong artistic biography.

    Sam and I thought that this was by far the best film of the four we saw & the film maker could clearly do more stunning work in this genre.

  • Fridays at the Farm

    A very cool movie in which all the images are time lapse digital photos–a very cool idea! This movie was very serious & the narrators lack of distance really hurt the movie. I think abruptly changing the narration style during the film would have really helped.