Abu Bhloggi

What I've Read

2011-06-01T01:43:00.000-07:00

Finally we'll be on our way home late next week. As it is impossible to sum up a year anywhere, I thought for this final post I'd put down what I read this year. As usual, I kind of read whatever comes to hand, but it always fit with something going on in my life. If anyone wants to talk books, that'd be fine.

Passage to India, E.M. Forster

Zeitoun, Dave Eggers

Money, Martin Amis

Freedom, Jonathan Franzen

Exit Ghost, Philip Roth

Princess (life story of a saudi princess)

Disgrace, J.M. Coetzee

The Complete Short Stories of JG Ballard

The Beautiful and the Damned, F. Scott Fitzgerald

It's heating up around here

2011-04-09T13:25:00.000-07:00

This just in:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/uae-detains-dubai-democracy-activist-blogger-who-called-for-elected-parliament-in-gulf-nation/2011/04/08/AF5EwA2C_story.html

more fun quotes

2011-03-21T10:38:00.001-07:00

" You can't make fun of the future."

- Kevin McCoy

Gunboat Diplomacy

2011-03-15T00:44:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E. sent security forces into Bahrain at the request of the ruler.

http://www.thenational.ae/news/worldwide/middle-east/uae-and-saudi-arabia-send-forces-to-bahrain

This is after a month of protests by a very large number of people there for political reforms, including calls for a constitutional monarchy and other economic and political reforms.

I'm a resident of the U.A.E. I live here and am working here. I think it is a big mistake to send in foreign troops. It's a big slap in the face to the legitimate political demands of the people there. I don't think this can end well and I don't want to see the armed forces of the U.A.E. caught up in it.

Already a number of colleagues have come by to discuss the situation, which really is the goal of the sign. We'll see what happens.

eating out in the UAE

2011-03-12T08:19:00.000-08:00

I was just in New York for a few days staying with my dear friend Cindy and going to see art and "get shit done". Well, its done, and I'm back in the UAE dealing with some serious "end game" issues. Cindy pointed out that it is much like the kids on their year abroad who went home for Christmas. They just weren't serious and didn't get immersed the way (we) hardcore study abroad students did. Well, too late now. For a start, certain elements that were annoying but charming have become intolerable to me. Namely, the grocery store. I filled a cart with two items today and then promptly left without buying them. The knot of people over by the turnips was just too much to infiltrate. Couldn't do it. Hopefully, the kids will be happy with sliced cheese and the tin of tuna fish this week...

Also, I've started planning our summer (hooray!) and it looks good. Damn good. Also, I feel that people who are living here longer term (there are few permanent residents) have started to slack off socially. Or maybe we are. I must redouble my efforts there- these are good people to know. They see as short timers though and its easy to think, "why bother?". I know, we will invite them out to dinner!

Anyone want to buy my tickets to Cairo?

2011-02-09T19:33:00.000-08:00

Hello readers.... today is the day we were supposed to leave for Egypt. This trip was a finely crafted Faberge Egg of a trip. 2 days in Cairo, a sleeper train to Aswan, a Nile cruise to Luxor, then the reverse trip.

As disappointed as we all are (particularly my older daughter), it is exciting to be in the middle east at this historic time, speaking to friends from Egypt, Pakistan, Lebanon, and Syria as well as Americans who have had postings in many places throughout the region. Everyone is aghast at the length of Mubarak's regime and hopeful for change. As far as information goes, we have the same BBC and CNN feeds as anyone. I haven't heard any reaction from the rulers of the UAE.... its hard to see when the effects of this might be felt here. There is a much smaller population of citizens than Saudi for example.

So, its hard to see when our dreams of travel to Egypt and even Jordan might come true! We are doing more short trips to the region. Apparently many wealthy Egyptians are now in Dubai hanging out so we will join them. Anyplace else we have thought of has its own issues (floods in Sri Lanka, protests in Thailand, etc). The weather is spectacular here, so we'll stay in the desert for now....

Desert Destinations

2011-02-08T01:15:00.000-08:00

Little Black Dress

2011-02-03T04:11:00.000-08:00

2011-01-15T10:28:00.000-08:00

Please join us for the opening reception this Saturday January 15 6-8 pm of

JENNIFER and KEVIN McCOY
Abu Dhabi Is Love Forever
one step past the airport

January 15 - February 19, 2011

Jennifer and Kevin McCoy, Halal Series 1 (Meat), 2010, paper collage in a gilded frame, 22 x 22 x 3 inches

Postmasters Gallery is pleased to inaugurate the new year with a solo exhibition of Jennifer and Kevin McCoy.

In August of 2010, the McCoys began a temporary relocation to Abu Dhabi, capitol of the oil rich United Arab Emirates. The projects in this, their fifth, solo show at Postmasters gather their first impressions of life in this complex and often contradictory Middle Eastern culture.

Abu Dhabi has been a sovereign country for 39 years. Its landscape is the newly manufactured oasis, the desert, and the sea. Its recent wealth has taken its small population from camels to Ferraris in a generation. This is only one population in Abu Dhabi, however. Far more prevalent are the workers who are building Abu Dhabi’s future. These include legions of, primarily, men who have travelled from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, the Philippines and other countries as well as middle class people of both genders and their families from England, Australia, the USA, and Europe. The former are called immigrants and the latter are called expats. For legal, cultural, and economic reasons, none of either group is likely to stay long. The trend is to come, to do one’s job and to move to the next opportunity. In many ways, this nomadic lifestyle strongly parallels the professional practices of contemporary artists.

In this culture of rapid growth and change, it is most appropriate to record immediate impressions before they morph into their next realities.

Jennifer & Kevin McCoy, Abu Dhabi is Love Forever (Billboard 1), photograph on vinyl, 10 x 30 feet

Abu Dhabi is Love Forever

In the main gallery, the McCoys present an hommage to one of the biggest visual signifiers in the Emirates. In Abu Dhabi there are miles and miles of construction fences covered with an equal expanse of printed images spread across their surface. These surfaces protect and advertise huge scale developments for business, dwelling, and leisure. The ideologies they endeavor to convey are wealth, ease, globalism, and multi-culturalism. Taken at face value, these developments will house Western and Arab populations in settings that are somehow futuristic and pastoral simultaneously. Draped across the desert landscapes, however, they bring up questions about the scope, value and sustainability of our desires. The McCoys have built their own construction fence, a monumental 30 x 18 feet rectangle, covered with a collage of photographs of fences currently in use around Abu Dhabi. Their images however, contain a wider view of the scene, situating the advertising images on the surface within their actual environments of construction equipment, sand, and debris. Like much of the McCoys’ past work, this project moves back and forth from image to object, re-rooting and re-contextualizing the original source of the images.

In the back gallery, Postmasters presents a short video entitled Prayer is more important than sleep. In this video, the McCoys film the sound and images of the morning call to prayer through their bedroom window on the 37^thfloor of their apartment building. In this call to prayer, called Fajr, usually at around 5 a.m., listeners are advised (and often aided) to begin their day with prayer.

In the 49 minute video, Mussafah, the camera takes a journey through the manufacturing zone of Abu Dhabi. Far from the glittering skyscrapers and beaches, Mussafah is the place in Abu Dhabi to fix motors, to bend aluminum, to produce tangible material goods. It is the "back of the shop", literally the place where the advertising signs are printed. Using a slow tracking shot, the McCoy's video allows the eye to take in the details of this environment with all its complexity. It is a work place, yet there are clothes hanging on clothes lines and chickens in the street. It is Arab, yet multinational logos and English signs abound. Its streets are largely devoid of people, yet it operates on 24 hour work shifts. In previous work, the McCoys fabricated post-apocalyptic miniatures to shoot tracking shots of blown out malls. As they have found in Abu Dhabi, the need to create these landscapes from the imagination was hardly necessary.

The Halal Series

A popular pastime in the UAE is shopping. From the vast and numerous western style malls to the traditional souks to the local grocery stores, there is a constant flow of imported products into the UAE. The McCoys are also showing a series of collage works which take traditional architectural pattern motifs and inscribe them with snack food wrappers, packaging from canned meats, and labels from beauty supplies all taken from the local market. These are presented in ornate gilt frames that are typically used to frame images of the UAE’s rulers or passages from the Koran.

Postmasters Gallery located at 459 West 19th Street between
9 and 10 avenues is open Tuesday through Saturday 11 – 6 pm 
Please contact Magdalena Sawon or Paulina Bebecka with
 questions and image requests: postmasters@thing.net
www.postmastersart.com  

Wang Jackson

2011-01-07T11:03:00.000-08:00

I know I have been, ahem, critical of the music scene in Abu Dhabi, but really I spoke too soon.

We're back in AD after a quick trip to NYC to find posters for someone called Wang Jackson who will be performing at the Zayed Sports Center. He seems to be an MJ impersonator. I think we will go.

more new work....

2010-12-16T02:21:00.000-08:00

these are henna patterns from a book I found at the local craft store...

2010-12-14T21:38:00.000-08:00

sartorial notes

2010-12-14T21:32:00.001-08:00

Two things related to the warm weather.

1. I bought some (devastating!) shoes yesterday and noticed that when you try on shoes they don't give you a stocking, sock, whatever to try them with. Is it because no one wears socks? Aside from the gym, I'm living in a sock free nation. Go sandals!

2. My new friend Ively told me a funny story about her son. She bought him a pirate costume for Halloween with pants, shirt, etc. He tried on the pants and despite all evidence to the contrary, kept insisting the pants were too long. Turns out they did fit, but he thought they were too big because the pants were long! The tyke has worn shorts for his whole pants-memory.

Shore leave beckons! Back in NYC friday night.... see you for fleet week!

is it me and my head or me and my body?

2010-12-11T18:34:00.000-08:00

I haven't gone into much about the music scene here in abu dhabi because there really isn't one that I can find. I'm sure there are many gifted musicians here among the thousands of workers driving cabs and doing all manner of construction, but as for venues to see music, we haven't heard of them.

That said, like other things here, there are imports. Kanye and Prince were here for Formula One weekend as well as Linkin Park and Nelly Furtado. Ok, those sound ok, but were expensive and we passed. This weekend however (sadly we will be away), brings a conundrum.

"Guns and Roses" are playing this weekend. Well at least, Roses. This genre (Kevin is calling it zombie rock) is about resurrecting old bands frozen into the stale performance of their hits of yesterday. Thing is, there is no Slash! Apparently the guitarist wears a top hat just like the real lead guitarist, but its just Axl singing his heart out.

This would be neither here nor there, except the radio stations keep playing that "Sweet Child" riff until I want to blow my brains out.

So is it guns and roses afterall? Can we have guns and roses without Slash? Without Axl even?

I barely care, but dear listeners, thats what I leave you with today....

Christmas in Abu Dhabi

2010-12-09T01:36:00.000-08:00

Although it is warm and sunny, signs of Christmas are everywhere, sort of. Many shops and malls are decorated with Christmas traditional fare. However, lots of decorations seem to be blue and silver. I think its supposed to be kind of Christmas and New Years rolled into one, but it ends up looking like Hannukah.

The girls are having fun with their advent calendar and we're busy making holiday foods and decorations. I think they feel its christmas...

Last night, the "mum's" group gathered at the Intercontinental for dinner. So nice to sit outside and the food was yummy. In the lobby they'd made a life size gingerbread house out of flatbreads decorated with seeds. Impressive!

Brazil!

2010-11-30T22:58:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago, we all thought the NYU students had all been shopping and had hair extensions, but it turned out that a bunch of Brazilian models had moved in to Sama Tower.

Then, a Brazilian professor spoke with them and the story seems to be that they were hired by the government to mix in a the fancy parties and hotels in conjunction with the Formula One race weekend.

I guess giving me and my friends free drinks at the Intercontinental on Mondays wasn't helping enough with the beautiful people quotient!

ear rape

2010-11-30T05:19:00.000-08:00

We have a health club on the 46th floor of the building (basically the roof). They tried to have "ladies hours" which was a concept that we scoffed at a bit as outmoded. It was inconvenient because when we'd both go up to work out, Kevin would be asked to leave and it seemed stupid.

Well, that was until yesterday. Mind you, I need a great deal of encouragement to put on my outfit and go up the elevator, so once I get there I want to actually exercise..... and that was my intention. Until....

I was on the treadmill and there were two other guys in the room. One guy was in the same area working out like a normal person. Then, from the other side of a mirrored wall partition, the sound began.... with each, uh, thrust of the barbell, I start hearing sounds like, oooh, ah, UNGH. Blogging really doesn't do do me any favors to express the grunts, sighs, and, well, grunts coming from the other part of the gym. I clocked out at 12 minutes and went home.

more new work

2010-11-28T10:50:00.000-08:00

Possibly the culture is affecting my children....

2010-11-27T23:46:00.000-08:00

found this laying around a few days ago.

American University Beirut

2010-11-22T04:19:00.000-08:00

any art faculty openings???

Intercultural Cooperation

2010-11-22T04:17:00.001-08:00

Clementine style...

Lebanon

2010-11-22T04:06:00.000-08:00

Lebanon, as it turns out is fantastic!

This picture was taken in Byblos, past site of the Phoenicians, the Romans, the French (including Brigitte Bardot in the 1960's) and many others who my historical imagination can't even grasp.

Beirut is now one of my favorite cities of all time. Not completely sure I can articulate it, but here's a partial explanation:

- nothing better than Mediterranean weather

- nothing more beautiful than dilapidated French and mishmash of modern architecture

- very friendly and fun Lebanese people

- hearing both calls to prayer from the mosques and churchbells from the christians

- who needs to obey traffic lights and lane markers? Thats for patsies.

That said, I hope the remarkable renovation and sense of prosperity there continues.... evidence of the civil war and recent troubles with Syria and Israel are everywhere and the fragile balance we saw may not last.

More pics to come...

the eternal present

2010-11-11T04:13:00.001-08:00

Ok, I know that the temperature has dropped (from about 115 to about 90 degrees Fahrenheit). The inferno that was October is over, but this is really good training for why I will never move to Los Angeles. The unchanging sunniness of the weather is driving me nuts.

It seems like one long day since we arrived here. Some days there is more fog in the morning some days less. The other night it was windy with the first thunder lightening (and did it rain?) we've seen. Other than that, sunny. All the time. I am hoping it has also stalled the aging process.

Its really odd. Aside from the fact that the summer clothes I moved here with are now rags, it seems like nothing has changed. Like Captain Kirk's uniform in one long "away"mission.

Bo-ring.

Body Mod Gulf Style

2010-11-09T02:21:00.000-08:00

These are the labels for the 3rd collage in the Halal series we are working on....

the hall

2010-11-04T06:44:00.000-07:00

reverse view

2010-11-04T06:40:00.001-07:00

from left : , Mark Tribe, Michael Mandiberg,David Grubbs,Karen Yasinsky

Installation of our exhibition in Abu Dhabi

2010-11-04T05:17:00.001-07:00

in this view: MTAA (on the wall), Melissa Dubbin and Aaron S. Davidson, Thom Lail (window), Vito Acconci (sound player on table), Jennifer Dalton and Susan Hamburger (shelf), and Jonathan Schipper (briefcase of money on table).

The Sequel

2010-11-01T11:48:00.001-07:00

" I have been told by a Japanese person that I am quite good with chopsticks."

Stupid Shit Kevin Says That Makes Me Laugh

2010-10-31T01:51:00.000-07:00

"I think from now on I will just wear vests".

Tara Fracalossi

2010-10-28T09:48:00.000-07:00

David Grubbs

2010-10-28T09:43:00.001-07:00

Sara Hubbs

2010-10-28T00:45:00.000-07:00

MTAA

2010-10-28T00:39:00.001-07:00

Thomas Lail

2010-10-27T20:49:00.001-07:00

installation pictures coming up!

2010-10-27T20:39:00.000-07:00

No Customs

November 4-27, 2010

opening reception: Thursday Nov 4, 7-9 pm

curated by Jennifer and Kevin McCoy, NYUAD

an exhibition of transmissible ideas with:

Vito Acconci

Jason Robert Bell / Marni Kotak

Torsten Z. Burns

Jennifer Dalton / Susan Hamburger

Anthony Discenza

Melissa Dubbin / Aaron Davidson

Bill Durgin

Tara Fracalossi

David Grubbs

Sara Hubbs

Thomas Lail

Michael Mandiberg

MTAA

Marisa Olson

Jonathan Schipper

Mark Tribe

Karen Yasinsky

A common art-making strategy when one enters into new territory is to listen, to ask, and to wait. As newcomers to Abu Dhabi, we considered this strategy, but then rejected it. Instead of waiting to receive information, we begin our sojourn in the Emirates by making an offer. In curating this show, No Customs, held in our remarkably gallery like living space, we offer the work of artists connected to us from our home community of New York City. When they asked what life is like here, we answered we didn’t yet know. We told them to send what they could send via email, via instructions, via concept. We told them to send it fast. So then, what we have is a show called No Customs. This title is a double entendre. Practically, since no objects have been mailed, we were not slowed by the expense of shipping and the delays of customs. Metaphorically, the show is not about tradition or interpretation, but rather about mapping and transcription. How does form map onto landscape? How does it transform landscape? How do you demarcate space for contemplation, for understanding, for revolution? What happens to the body when its image occupies this demarcated space?

Landscape

First, the approach to a problem. This is what we hear when listening to Vito Acconci’s audio piece, Research Station, Antarctica, For Your Ears Only (2004-2010). How does an artist (here architect) turn a landscape into a series of constraints to be addressed, to create a form? In the photographs of Melissa Dubbin and Aaron Davidson, the long time collaborators use smoke bombs to test the landscape. They create form with weather, wind, light, and clouds. In a site specific project by Thomas Lail, a series of Buckminister Fuller domes are superimposed over the city view of Abu Dhabi, creating another take on the domes of the city and adding to the enormous architectural speculation already here. In another project, a memory sequence of images by Tara Fracalossi offers a counterpoint to the desert with images of most verdant spring and bleakest winter. These images purport to be memory, but their repetition on the wall creates matrices of classifications that map new space. In the end they are more like letters in an alphabet than like stories of particular landscapes.

Demarcated space

In answering a call to show work in Abu Dhabi, many artists considered the question of mapping, both graphically and metaphorically. In the work of Michael Mandiberg, the artist asked us to find an Arabic map of the USA in which we recreate the laser cuttings of print media that he is known for. In this work the message and the map collide. The artist duo MTAA and the sculptor Sara Hubbs sent ideas for works that, though they are generated very differently, come up with surprisingly congruent projects. MTAA asked us to find “the most colorful place” in Abu Dhabi. Then they provided software that translated this image into an abstract digital image (referred to as “the aesthetic object”). We could then display this any way we saw fit. In Sara Hubb’s project, an abstract form also results from a behind the scenes process. She photographed decaying areas of New York City and asked us to reproduce the patterns they create in plaster, building up a surface to form decoration from blight.

The projects of Jonathan Schipper and the collaborative team of Jennifer Dalton and Susan Hamburger ask us the audience to participate in the creation of the artwork by zeroing in on our patterns of behavior. In the ambitious project by Schipper, entitled A Million Dollar Walk, attendees of the opening reception will be given the opportunity to carry a briefcase full of money on a prescribed path through the building. Dalton and Hamburger ask participants questions about their behavior in Abu Dhabi, creating a changing sculptural bar graph that measures their assumptions about life in the capitol against actual practice.

Four artists in the exhibition deal with space by creating voids some for the viewer to inhabit speculatively others by creating spaces for lost objects. In her video mixtape project, Marisa Olson casts herself as an outsourced worker and creates a mash-up of Arab covers of American karaoke classics. The singers of course, are us by implication. In The New Revolution (2010), Mark Tribe creates an installation that invites spectators to consider their own ideas about revolution. David Grubbs, a noted musician, sent us instructions to render a beautiful wall drawing whose omissions create open spaces for meaning to drift. In an animation by Karen Yasinsky, You’d Better Be Careful, omitted objects and spaces set interpretation even farther adrift.

Bodies

Several of the artists in the show responded with work implying performative space. In the video Double Face Fantasy by Jason Robert Bell and Marni Kotak this space is a virtual one in that a portrait transforms through a technical gesture. Anthony Discenza’s video, The Future has Already Been Written creates a tour de force collage of science fiction, and we follow the body of Charlton Heston through alternate visions of the future. In the work of Torsten Burns, Resurrectables (Yellow-Mobilers), the artist asked us to curate a selection of performance stills from a huge array of images of costumes, props, and locations. We selected images of vehicles, conveying transmission, speed, and the framing of the body as it moves through space. Finally, the work of photographer Bill Durgin presents work that brings it all together. The body becomes a landscape of skin, finally an abstracted “aesthetic object”.

No Customs is located at Sama Tower, Suite 3708, Abu Dhabi. Sama Tower is at the corner of Airport Rd and Electra Rd., near the NMC (New Medical Center). The exhibition will be open Saturdays from 1-5 through Nov. 27 and by appointment. Please contact Jennifer or Kevin McCoy with questions and image requests: info@mccoyspace.com

http://www.mccoyspace.com/nocustoms

http://www.mteww.com/

http://www.mandiberg.com/

http://www.marktribe.net/

http://www.jenniferdalton.com/

http://www.susanhamburger.net/

http://oppositionart.com/

http://www.acconci.com

http://www.marisaolson.com/

http://www.sarahubbs.com/

http://www.tetragrammatron.com/

http://marnikotak.com/

http://holyokeresearch.blogspot.com/

http://billdurgin.com/

image credits: from left to right, Michael Mandiberg, “Us and Them”, David Grubbs, “Untitled (I Just Want to Say)”, and Karen Yasinsky ”You’d Better Be Careful"

Things I Like about Abu Dhabi

2010-10-25T23:03:00.000-07:00

Now that I have worked my way out of my trough and have a bit of perspective, here are a list of things that I love about our year here (future installments will list the negatives):

- my tennis instructor, Mr. Tallat. He is from Egypt and has been here for 35 years. He has three brothers who are tennis pros in Florida, Switzerland, and Italy.

- taking really cheap taxis everywhere ($3-5 bucks to get almost anywhere on the island)

- my washing machine and dryer are in the kitchen

- babysitters live in our building and can be booked on short notice

- when you go to free events, it is not mobbed with a million other people (have you ever been to the easter egg hunt in Dumbo? Hello?)

- the kids take a bus to school

- school is paid by NYU

- Dim Sum from our local chinese restaurant

- no one is double booked- if you have plans with someone they are yours for the night

- huge quantities of cheap fresh juices, my favorite is the Detox Mojito, a virgin cocktail with mint and lemon, also watermelon juice is great

- wearing baggy clothes outside and not feeling particularly frumpy

- stores that sell only sandals

- calls to prayer

- you can get art framed for 60 dhs (about 16$) and they have it for you in 24hours!

Of course lots of these have a reverse side, but whatever, I am feeling chuffed today.

Al Ababeel delivers! Juice!

2010-10-24T04:07:00.000-07:00

I wonder what's in the one at the top right??

2010-10-20T22:05:00.000-07:00

the new alcoholism

2010-10-16T21:39:00.000-07:00

One would think that developing a drinking habit in a Muslim country might be a bit of a trick, but herein lies another of the contradictions in living in Abu Dhabi. There are many scenes here for drinking and going to clubs, but ironically the one I have landed in is through mothers. There is a group of moms who go out to the ubiquitous "ladies nights" here in the capitol. The drinks are free- not just one or two, but poured freely all evening. They are at beautiful hotel lounges and are listed at different venues every night of the week. I tried one a week ago at the Intercontinental. The women I was with were from Britain, France, and Venezuela. They were all here for their husband's jobs. Some have lived away from "home" for years and years. It sounds like it becomes addictive. I chatted with the ladies for an hour or so, took a cab home, got out of the car and spilled my purse on the sidewalk. The next day was not fun.

Btw, the drink above was not free, misleadingly. It was served at Hakkusan which also has branches in London and Miami Beach. Wonderful food and this very pretty cocktail. We went with Camilla and Richard, our new friends and neighbors who hale from London (actually Camilla is from Samarkand, Uzbekistan).

Mizmah

2010-10-12T02:25:00.000-07:00

Today I went to the studio of Mizmah, a group of artists working together in a collaboration/crit group. There are four Emirati women who form the core of the group. They were all students at an interior design program at a local university who have now graduated. That is misleading though because they receive a lot of training in the fine arts. They work individually as well as collectively and are gearing up for their first solo shows. They've also done collaborative commissions locally. I was very impressed by their work- by the conceptual and even activist stance of most of their projects and by its humor. Many pieces contained references to Emirati culture but had contempary ways of interpreting it. Like young people in most places, they feel distance from some of the old traditions and use their work to bridge the gap, to honor the past, critique its outmoded styles, and to make it their own. The studio they are using is the top floor of one of their grandmother's villas. She has since died and they want to do larger shows and an artists salon at this location.

It was really refreshing to see a vibrant work space with lots of ideas bumping around. They are quite young and the artist who was there was dressed like any art student the world over- black skinny jeans and t-shirt. My first sight of an uncovered local girl! Personally, Mouza was confident and cheerful. I loved the girly touches in the space like giant bowls of candies and snacks everywhere. Although it seemed novel and exciting, I found that the struggles for Mouza were the same as ones I've heard about (right...lived through!) in NYC- balancing work and art, finding an audience who gets it, maintaining an artistic circle, balancing work with marriage and social distractions. Of course all of these institutions have different nuances here.... the marriage may be arranged by family, the audience contains bedouin heritage grandmothers, the social distractions include homes in Paris and London. Overall though, work is work, always a thankless struggle- and finally I found the good stuff.

New Work!

2010-10-10T01:08:00.000-07:00

This is from a new series we've begun called "Halal". Its made of canned meat labels.

Snacks and cookies next.

Its really the least we can do....

2010-10-05T23:16:00.001-07:00

...such a repressive culture...

nobody walks in LA

2010-10-03T09:50:00.000-07:00

Forgive the obscure music reference, its not even that a propos. Really it should be "nobody should ever have to walk here". In a minute, I will refer to the visual aid that I feel is necessary to explain the flow of traffic here in the Emirati capitol. Suffice it to say that the best way to get across the street is to have been born there.

Ok, so look at the map shard below. It looks really normal right, until you see my notes. Those normal, gridded streets are actually not really blocks but kind of highways criss crossing a mess of parking lots. For all you Seattlites out there (hoot!), picture Aurora Blvd. For all the New Yorkers, picture the West Side Highway. Check it out, there are like 11 blocks between those yellow roads (the only streets that have any kind of name). So if you are driving, if you want to go to something on the other side of the street, you have to drive pass it and make a U turn at the massive intersection.

Effectively, this means that something that is 15 minutes walking can be 20-40 minutes to drive there. If you walk (and it is still 100 degrees), you have to cross these streets....
Thank god we don't have a car though, I'd have to be drunk to drive here and of course that would be a huge mistake.

worst. job. ever

2010-10-03T09:34:00.000-07:00

This is our apartment building. You may have to click on the picture to see him, but one man is valiantly trying to clean all the smutty desert crap off our windows. Half of me wants to learn how to start a labor union or OSHA and the other half wonders, 'when will they get to our windows?'
Such is the contradiction of living in the UAE.

worst. article. ever

2010-09-27T23:06:00.000-07:00

The Ultimate Collection: Larry Gagosian

This is the article in The National in support of the show that we wrote about earlier -- RSTW: From the Private Collection of Larry Gagosian.

I usually enjoy reading The National, but this article is terrible. I've posted a comment to it on their website, but I don't know if it will show up, so I'll expand here.

The editorial errors are one thing ('textual abstraction' instead of 'gestural abstraction'), but Anne Baldassari's comments are something else. If you don't know she is the curator of the show and is the director of the Picasso Museum in Paris.

Here is what she says about the curatorial idea for the show:

"Firstly,” she says, “RSTW is part of the Roman alphabetic order and it was a more objective way to start investigation of the Larry Gagosian collection.” Letters from the end of the alphabet were chosen, she says, because Arabic is read from right to left."

Could the idea be any more thin? Shouldn't the show be called "WTSR?"

But here is the paragraph that is really over the top:

As well as their influential role in post-war 20th-century art, all of the artists have links with Gagosian himself. “They are all,” Baldassar says, “like Larry, artists from families who emigrated from Europe. They were not immersed in American culture; they were discovering it through advertising signs, commercial posters and text.”

What a load of crap. As Jenn said, America can't win for losing. It takes a European to really know America. Cue De Tocqueville. And earlier Gagosian was described as Armenian-American, so he counts too.

Here's another gem:

“All of them have been closely linked to the West Coast creation in the US,” she says. “Gagosian is from LA, Rauschenberg has been living in LA for most of his life and Warhol is a kind of Hollywood star. The West Coast was, at the time, in creation – the US was built from east to west in a lateral passage – and this desert and the American creation of the landscape links closely to Abu Dhabi. At the moment Abu Dhabi is also creating a new landscape, so there is a parallel.”

This is laughable, incorrect and provincial. Rauschenberg in L.A.? Not at all. Try New York and Florida. Ruscha is the only one based there. For all of them, Gagosian included, New York is where their careers were made. And the whole bit about the "creation" of the West and her East-to-West trajectory is pure Eurocentrism. It's a throwaway idea that is used to make a facile comparison to Abu Dhabi.

These ideas are coming from the curator of the show, a high-powered artworld professional. It's a disgrace. Don't piss on my shoe and then tell me it's raining.

All of these useless and gauzy falsehoods and platitudes mask any real discussion about the show and its limitations. Its a fine show. Its great to look at those works. I'm glad they're here. But is this the best show to have here now? The problem is that it flows only one way. The rhetoric of the show is that these works are Masterpieces and show is here to train the locals in how to appreciate them.

Here's the new boss, same as the old boss.

call for work

2010-09-27T03:53:00.000-07:00

This is a call for work that went out this morning....hopefully we get some good proposals. I think a reception for this show during the artfair would be extremely well received! If you didn't get the email and are reading this now.... you are invited too.

Dear all,

Hope you are very well. As most of you know, we are living in Abu Dhabi. We arrived last month and will be here until June.

We are hoping expand our role as cultural representatives and are planning a series of exhibitions in improvised spaces here. Our first one will will take place in our rather large white box of a high-rise apartment on the 37th floor:

http://mccoyspace.tumblr.com/post/1155021262/sama-tower-3708-abu-dhabi-uae

We're timing this to coincide with the Abu Dhabi Art Fair in early November when more people are around.

Trouble is, we don't want anyone to ship anything.....

That said, we've come up with a title that should prove interesting.

No Customs:

an exhibition about globally transmissible ideas

We think the form will inspire some meaty ideas, but we want to see what you can send before we get all press-releasy/ themey.

Work we (think we) can handle:

Photography

- files that can be emailed and printed (large/small, black and white or color -- we have access to large format printers)

Video

- video files that we can project or show on monitors (we can get some projectors and a flat screen or two)

Sound

- we can get audio gear

Installation

- negotiable, if items are readily available, we'll try! (but realize you will be operating in the dark about what is available here)

Drawing

- instruction based drawing (you know, like whatshisname.....)

Software/Net Art

- we have an iMac and laptop and a net connection

If you have an idea or file, can you send us an email with a proposal?? Feel free to forward this to other artists who would be excited about it.

Best,

Jenn and Kevin

art crawl

2010-09-23T03:01:00.000-07:00

Two nights ago, we went to "RTSW' a showing of Larry Gagosian's personal collection of Rauschenburg, Ruscha, Twombly, Serra, Wool, and Warhol (hence the acronymic name). It was held on Sadiyat Island, home to the future Louvre and Guggenheim.

The whole thing was on a level that, as you can imagine, you might see at Miami Basel's opening night. Were there well-heeled people? Check. Was there the murmer of many languages? Check. Were there stunning hors-d'oeuvres? Check. Were there virgin mojito cocktails and watermelon juice cocktails served? Check. Was the entire freeway rebranded with signage for the show? Check. Was each guest given a coffee table book? Check. Was there royalty present? Check. Was it held in an air-conditioned building with valet parking on an otherwise deserted desert island? Check.

Ok, maybe those last were not entirely reminiscent of Miami Beach's excess. Whatever. I think you get the idea. The art, of course, was excellent. I am a sucker for a good Ruscha and there were good ones. A painting of a wrongly leveled bird, one of the famous on fire gas stations, and some gorgeous drawings were the highlights. I also love Twombly, but after going to see the Twombly space at DeMenil in Houston, these didn't do it for me as much (i.e. I wasn't in tears).

Get this though.... our taxi arrived at 6:40 for a scheduled 6-8pm event. We drank our juice, ate some nosh, they opened the gallery proper, the prince and entourage went through, we went through, eavesdropped a bit, exited the gallery proper, ate more nosh, looked up, and the place was almost empty. It was 7:10.

This struck us as somewhat sad, and perhaps even rude. Could we not have all hung out and chatted? Debated something? I would love to hear speculation about this total lack of a "scene" as we in the art world swing it. It felt a bit like an after work happy hour.

I have several theories:

1. no debate is perhaps necessary- the work is very very good, top drawer, best of the bunch of western male work, its art writ large, what is there to say (very macho studio portraits were shown with each bio)

2. maybe people didn't know one another too well, or not socially anyway

3. lack of alcoholic lubrication? Can it be that shallow an answer?

4. deals were being made at a dinner afterward at a top-secret event, maybe even in an underwater sanctuary

Anyway, what do you think?

Lastly, we went outside, took the picture of the venue you see above and realized no taxis were around and we were on a deserted desert island in front of a locked air-conditioned box. Thank god, a wonderful woman offered us a ride back to Abu Dhabi. Props to the lovely lady from the British Museum! Thanks Emma.

Who Wouldn't Like This

2010-09-22T07:22:00.000-07:00

It was parent/teacher conference day, so afterwards I took the kids here. The blue in the background is the bay.

Its about a $3 taxi ride from our apartment (which is the skyscraper on the right

between the two palms in the background). The weather is getting gooood.

Fix Dis!

2010-09-21T01:51:00.000-07:00

A part of setting up a life anywhere is certainly confronting a variety of bureaucratic tasks. That said, many people here note the stultifying complexity and inefficiency of bureaucratic systems here in Abu Dhabi.

Here are a few examples:

- it took me almost two hours to sign up for Ginger's piano lessons. There were several workers, all working furiously on this. I think one was being trained. It was an elaborate process of filling out forms, something being entered onto a computer, other things being entered into an enormous written spreadsheety kind of ledger, things being printed on those computer sheets with the tear-off sides, and, finally, the generation of a written receipt, and a credit card receipt. Thankfully, I have learned to walk around with multiple passport pictures of all of us. When those were requested, I could at least do my bit.

- later the same day (I only did two things on the day in question) I tried to ask a question about how my cell phone works. I just wanted to know how the subscription works.... what in the name of all that is holy is the difference between recharging and renewing? So, we live next door to the headquarters of Etisalat, the main communication company in town. I went up the escalator of their fancy building to the third floor where I took a number. There were many people already waiting, but also many customer service reps, so I settled in to a comfy chair. My number was 677. Then they called 324, but I didn't let this ruffle me because I was just at the NYC DMV and, well, whats a couple hundred numbers. Then they called 929 and I realized there was some other force at work. Anyway, I had to go get kids so I left after an hour and a half. I did stop by the vending machine and decided to "recharge!" and dumped 1oo dhs on the problem ($30?). I would have done 50, but the machine did not give change. So I am recharged, but am not sure for how long.

Social Scene

2010-09-21T01:45:00.000-07:00

I'm getting emails (from parents) asking if we are having any fun at all. I think the posts are too cryptic because I'm trying to focus on the bits of odd that we encounter (many times daily).

Case in point, the previous post. I should have also said that we went to dinner with very fun people (a birthday party!) from NY, Ohio, Scotland, and Bulgaria and that we laughed heartily the whole evening. Especially during Hot Stuff..... :)

Fleet Week!

2010-09-18T22:56:00.000-07:00

We finally got to actually go out on Friday night. Dinner at a hotel (ie we drank wine and ate prosciutto) followed by BlueBay (?), a Filipino bar.

I hesitate to even to try to describe the quality of this band. The picture will certainly help.
Suffice it to say that America has destroyed the world, not with our munitions or thirst for oil, or power grabbing, but with our popular culture.

Case in point- this was the evening's play list:
1. Bon Jovi - "Its My Life"
2. Santana - "Your So Smooth" (give me your heart make it real....)
3. Donna Summers - "Hot Stuff" (pictured above)
4. Black Eyed Peas - "Pump It"
5. some god awful ballad

I can only describe the feeling of this quarter of bars (and there were many) as some sort of alcohol soaked "recreation area". Much like Fleet Week, I think its designed to let us workers let of some steam.

More on this later.....

Lulu Hypermarket

2010-09-16T02:26:00.000-07:00

For the whole hour I was at the super market, the store played a muzak version of "Take My Breath Away" from Top Gun. Doo doo doo doo doo, doo doo, doo doo. I think it was designed to make me crazy.

I bought a fruit I've never seen before.... I'll take a picture of it.

Your overwhelming sense of entitlement is exhausting.

2010-09-15T13:32:00.000-07:00

This was the best sentence of an email to our former subletters in NYC. Goodbye to them!

Spread the word, the mccoy house is available after Dec 1, when the lovely Ela and Randall

Jaynes move to their lovely new home!

My Shopping List for Kevin

2010-09-14T03:29:00.000-07:00

I think we have lost all desire for anything I can get here. All I want is a baguette, cheese, and a bottle of wine... and a rambling conversation with one of you dear readers!

End of Civilization

2010-09-13T05:33:00.000-07:00

Ok, call me crazy, but this looks like five minutes before the world is destroyed. This is the road that runs parallel to the main road near the coast in Dubai (see the skyline on the right?).

I wish I could say that the picture is this color through some lens and dust trick, but it really is this color. Anyone still going to complain to me about Williamsburg over development? (Ok, go ahead and complain.... I do see the point now).

Souk Shots

2010-09-13T05:29:00.000-07:00

a 1970's postcard

2010-09-13T05:20:00.000-07:00

I think its because the lens kind of fogs up when the air hits the lens!

This water was at least 80 degrees.

Here is why we have been out of touch.

We've been at a resort for Eid holiday. This is the Indian Ocean in the mountainous Eastern District of the UAE. Lots of families having vacation. An unlicensed (I assume) Mickey Mouse was even onhand to direct kids to the "kids disco" in the evenings. The clarity of the water on this beach was stunning (and there were crabs all over the beach in the morning!)

Fast, Pray, Work

2010-09-07T01:58:00.000-07:00

Children are Scary 2

2010-09-05T04:34:00.001-07:00

Other Scary Things

I know NYC is the same, but living here I find I am asked to suspend my disbelief and trust engineers and architects to an extent usual only at Disney World.

Things that scare me:

1. this aquarium... is actually a tunnel that you walk through. How much does that water weigh? Apparently, a few months ago there was a leak and they had to evacuate the mall. See?

2. driving across the desert... what really would happen if our taxi had broken down on the 1/2 hour drive across the desert to the beach resort hotel last weekend?

3. living on the 37th floor.... apparently a window popped out of our brand new building about a year ago destroying the car of a dean parked below. See?

4. living on the 37th floor.... the elevators

5. lights in swimming pools. I know its fiction, but what about that scene in that Matt Damon movie about the mid east?

6. 15 hour flights....

thanks for the neurosis dump. Thankfully, this means I have nothing rational to worry about. To all the engineers and architects out there---- good work so far.

Children are Scary

2010-08-31T22:49:00.001-07:00

Here's a picture of us in our apartment, white walls and all.

Its scary how fast the kids are adapting to life here in Abu Dhabi. Don't they miss home? Friends? Family? Didn't they enjoy one freakin' thing about our lives in New York? No... they did, but now they are here and kids are not nostalgic. They live in the moment like cats and dogs.

tall

2010-08-30T23:31:00.001-07:00

yup, tall.

Made hilarious because a 3 year old (not ours) was gesturing at it, saying to no one in particular "Who wouldn't like THIS?"

more later, I have slid into depression....

bathroom

2010-08-30T23:06:00.000-07:00

Last night we went to an Iftar dinner hosted by NYU AD at the Palace Hotel. This is part of the ladies restroom. I finally did eat camel... quite delicious. Like a pot roast but maybe saltier? They had a fantastic dessert table as well. My fave was this whitish custard (like flan) with a crust of carmelized sugar, candied orange, and something spicy (tamarind??). Wow!

In other news, the girls and I tried a nail salon.... which was fun if only because it was my first time to get chatty with the Emirati ladies. I loved how you talk about exactly the same things that you would anywhere.... "how annoying that school starts before Eid (think in nyc....labor day, etc)"?

Fashion report

2010-08-28T02:51:00.001-07:00

We went to Dubai yesterday.... we took a bus 90 minutes across the desert. The tickets were about $5 each. We saw the largest suspended aquarium in the world. Ginger, the aspiring "crab scientist" was pretty impressed.

The Emirati ladies wear gorgeous silk black robes. Their head covering is called a sheyla. This is often accompanied by Jimmy Choo stillettos (more in Dubai then here).

Unlike other arab ladies I have seen, Emirati have a hump at the back of their head. Picture Brigitte Bardot or Anne Margaret in a headscarf, or if you are younger, Betty Draper. I've been wondering what is under there to create the height (which is quite glamorous). Fake hair? A super tall bun? On the way home on the bus, one lady's scarf came off as she was leaving the bus and what it was was an enormous bunch of red and gold silk flowers! Totally stunning.

On the men's side, my favorite look is a dish-dash, the white robes, with a baseball hat. At the swank mall yesterday, the look was complete with a Gucci baseball hat and reflective gradient sunglasses.

Off to try and find maple syrup!

2010-08-28T00:02:00.001-07:00

Art and the Authentic

2010-08-24T21:20:00.000-07:00

provincetown, MA from andrew simonet

Today we began the task of turning our extra bedroom into a studio. We are shuffling extraneous furniture around the apartment to try to create space and I think it will work, but it really is, at best, a white room with a double bed in the corner. Sweetly, Ginger already calls that room, "the studio" even though I said it as a joke. Meanwhile, I got an email from a friend who has a residency in a beach shack in Provincetown, MA which looks much more like what one would expect to be artistically inspiring. This got me thinking about where these expectations come from. I've been trolling Abu Dhabi (by cab because its 110 degrees) looking for the usual suspects for art and culture- the cute cafe, the happening restaurant, the picturesque park. So far, I have to say it just isn't here. Nothing lyrical or romantic in the least. Its the most practical, nose to the grindstone, all-business city I've ever visited.

I admit, though, that more of us produce art in these make-shift, constructed environments than in leafy studios like mine at home or light filled lofts, or even more 19th century, paint scabbed ateliers. I say bring it on. I don't think this search for "authenticity" makes any sense anymore anyway. Its all layers of encrusted ideas about what the authentic should look like.... its turtles all the way down. Except maybe for Paris.

Anyhoo, I heard there is, crazily, a "Pain Quotidienne" near our daughter's school. I'll go there and write. I bet its just like Paris.

my studio

Two worlds

2010-08-24T20:55:00.001-07:00

Street Corner

2010-08-24T20:53:00.001-07:00

Cultural dissonance

2010-08-24T10:50:00.001-07:00

On the bus

2010-08-24T04:28:00.001-07:00

Jenn and the girls on a public bus back from the mall. The yellow sign on the window says "Ladies Only". I should note, that people didn't really heed the designation.

Arabic FedEx

2010-08-24T04:15:00.000-07:00

This is what the FedEx logo looks like in Arabic.

Location:Sheikh Zayed The Second St,Abu Dhabi,United Arab Emirates

Beach Rotana ceiling

2010-08-22T09:25:00.000-07:00

Nice ceiling right? Its all gold up there and the whole place is quite beautiful. All the hotels here (well lots of them) have like nine restaurants. Also when you ask for directions, most employees will walk you to your destination. Which is good because these places are labyrinths...

Medical Clearance

2010-08-22T01:50:00.000-07:00

I just returned from my required medical testing. Sorry, no pictures allowed of this government facility. Blood sample taken (for Hep. A/B and HIV testing) and chest x-ray for tuberculosis. This goes with my two eye retinal scans and upcoming 10-finger print session. This is my first encounter with mandatory biometrics, and frankly it sucks....

Al Safa

2010-08-21T11:01:00.000-07:00

This is a shot Kevin took of our closest grocery store. Just out of this framing, I found whole bags of MSG! I thought we were all avoiding it, but here you can just buy it bulk. They have a very large selection of canned meats, which I suppose ship well, so comment here if you'd like some. Carrefour is the big grocery store that we have also been to. They have sausages made from beef which are very odd looking. Both stores have stunning arrays of spices for very very cheap. We also love this bread which is called milk bread, made "especially for children".

Madinat Zayed Shopping Center

2010-08-20T09:20:00.000-07:00

I took this picture before getting in a cab for our first evening out. It is just across from our building. I took it for reference in case I needed to show it to the taxi driver in order to get back. There are no street addresses in Abu Dhabi. Mail is delivered through P.O. boxes and everything else is located by references to landmarks -- like the shopping center. I have since refined our points of reference, now when getting in a cab its "Sama Tower, between the Etisalat building and the New Medical Center." The drivers all pause for a second, then say "OK."

view from the living room on the 37th floor

2010-08-20T09:18:00.000-07:00

1st drawings of the trip

2010-08-20T08:35:00.000-07:00

7500 mile flight -- hour 12

2010-08-19T22:06:00.000-07:00

Ode to Wellington Fan

2010-08-19T20:58:00.001-07:00

Kids are all the Same

2010-08-19T03:39:00.000-07:00

In the pharmacy the other night, I sat next to a fully veiled woman and her 6 year old or so daughter. Her daughter was examining a blister made by a worn out pair of pink sandals. The lady turned to me and said, "she has other shoes, she just won't wear them".

Space Camp Schedule

2010-08-19T03:33:00.000-07:00

Due to the heat and to the wacky Ramadan schedule (stores open from 10am-3pm and then again from 7pm- midnight), I have taken to not leaving the apartment until night. We have been here for three days and I haven't left the compound during the day. Very vampire.

Flight and Arrival

2010-08-19T03:12:00.000-07:00

We are finally here and settling in, safe and sound in our apartment (or, as I think of it, "the apartment more in need of something on the walls than any apartment in the history of the world".

The flight was bumpy over Ireland, but otherwise fantastic. Sitting in coach is just sad, I'm afraid, compared to this. Lots of naps, food on demand, hot towels. My personal favorite though, was a commercial you sat through whenever a new movie starts.... a Matthew Barney Cremaster like ad for a product called "Pocari Sweat". I think its like Gatorade, but a really unfortunate name.

http://www.pocarisweat.com.ph/

The airplane had cameras that look down at the ground that you can access through the entertainment system. Loved it. I saw the Tigris below us. Actually, it would be cool to drive from here to Istanbul, but I think you'd go straight through Iraq. I have the bug though.

When we landed we met a passel of NYU people. A fellow traveler had the right idea. He stopped at Duty Free in the Abu Dhabi airport and loaded up on scotch. I will not forget this step!

Our apartment is spacious and comfortable and the view is amazing from the 37th floor. I wish we faced the Gulf, but we have a city view. All the furniture looks like it came from that Bombay furniture company that used to be at all the malls. It has no time period or character of any kind. We have a few oriental carpets as well. There is an "affordable art show" at one of the two local galleries. We may go make some purchases, though from the pictures the work looks either gloppy or trippy (or both).

The city seems quiet and hot. We are in Ramadan, so things are still. There is a mosque we can see from our window and at sunset the men rolled out long cloths and had water and juice while the call to prayer sounded from the minarets. Incidentally many minarets have embedded green neon tubes, so if you like Dan Flavin's work, its reminiscent. Tonight we went to an Ishtar (breaking the fast at sunset) at a fancy hotel. The food was unbelievable. I loved everything, although tonight the Ouzi (roasted meat) was lamb ratherthan baby camel which was a disappointment. There is this pink juice called Rosemary Water, but its actually rose water. Oznots in brooklyn used to make a martini with it, but I haven't had it since. I also loved the Arabic coffee, which wasn't sludgy like Turkish coffee but rather tasted like regular coffee overrun with cardamom.

All in all everyone is super nice. A common question is "how long have you lived here?" For the taxi driver it was 2 years, for the nyu guy in the elevator, it was 2 weeks. People are wearing everything. The asian women seem to wear jeans and t-shirts. Some ladies are in very silky niquabs (covering the whole face), but honestly since the men's dishdash (the white robes) are not exactly Abercrombie & Fitch sexy, it looks kind of balanced.