Sarah Hromack

Occupation Sketchbook, by David Kearns (Paper Monument)

Was this meteor ordered on E-bay? There was no one to ask; all bodies were in cars or behind the fenced pool, until one small blonde child rode by on her bicycle.

Mary Walling Blackburn’s slideshow, Des Plaines Distuburbance, (a narrative about just that) is now live on Paper Monument’s website—which is all the better for it.

“In a museum, you know you’re being observed.”

Timothy Aubrey’s How to Behave in an Art Museum, published last spring in Paper Monument’s third issue, is making the online rounds. I simply adore this piece. Tim, who is a college professor, openly admits to the overwhelming sense of philistinism that I think most people—including those of us who work in museums and visit museums not-infrequently—actually do feel at some point in their museum going/loving/working careers, perhaps even guiltily so. But it’s true! Sometimes you—OK, I—just feel like skipping the full-floor retrospective altogether in favor of a curatorial assistant’s small, smart project space debut. Or even a room full of obscure objects more readily classified as artifacts, or instruments, or taxidermy than art.

Once, my best friend from art school, Corina, was visiting me here in New York from Olympia, where she lives. We rented bikes, donned obscene amounts of high performance fabrics, and spent the stunningly beautiful spring afternoon pedaling around Central Park, talking about all of the things we only talk about with each other. A break was deemed in order at a certain point, and I suggested that we pop into the Met.* I mean, I “pop into the Met” pretty frequently—it’s like a church to me, honestly, as are several other museums in the world. On that day, however, I just didn’t care and neither did Corina, even though we are of the demographic Who Cares. We skipped the art altogether, in fact, marching right past the guards and the throngs in our black spandex, sweating all over everything and everyone. We hopped the elevator straight to the roof deck, where we drank Snapple—very out of dietary character for both of us, I might add—and took lots of smiley pictures with my iPhone. Now, Mike+Doug Starn’s Big Bambú was indeed installed there at the time. But I would be lying through my teeth if I claimed that we gave a damn beyond a cursory “that would be fun to climb!” See: philistines. Athletic ones, at that.

Corina arrives again tomorrow, in the morning. I took the day off from work. Maybe we’ll behave like the finely-tuned museumgoers we really are, this time around—she’s six months pregnant, after all. Or maybe we’ll just skip the art altogether and go see a rock show instead.

*I should note here that the fact that I don’t have to *pay* to pop into any museum in New York City influences my museum-going behavior significantly. People, there are a few massive privileges small perks to working in non-profit institutions, and as every museum professional knows, the badge—and the reciprocal admission it entitles one to—is primary among them.

Call us when Facebook saves art criticism, though. We’ve been waiting to cash in our stock.  →

+ The Art World Online, 2010 (Paper Monument)

Football as Before  →

More newness from Paper Monument’s online edition. Dushko Petrovich reviews Philippe Parreno’s exhibition at Bard’s CCS gallery, on view through 26 September.

New on Paper Monument, the website: Back to School Special: Seven Cartoons by Pam Lins

I Was Here →

My piece from Paper Monument, Issue 3. Online, because it’s about the Internet.

“I stayed. I took a look at my watch. I thought, I’m going to be the last person left in this room, you little prick, even if this performance goes on for the rest of our fucking lives.”

— From the Editors

The third issue of Paper Monument drops TODAY. Join me and the rest of the lot at The Drawing Center, 35 Wooster Street from 6:30-8:30 pm. Readings will begin at 6:30; wine and socializing to follow. Illustrated, annotated bibliography here. And yes, I know that I already posted on this event. It’s my party, people—the blog, that is.

Paper Monument: Issue Three Preview →

Yes, I am publishing a piece in the upcoming issue of Paper Monument, called “I am Here,” on the strange confluence between gallery sign-in books and the Internet. Also, there’s a new set of capsule reviews on Papermonument.com by Kari Rittenbach, “Wintering the Bay Area (see, I do like to beside the seaside)”.

One understands a city from its opening lines, the first things strangers ask you at a party. In New York it’s “What do you do?” and “Where do you live?” In Kabul it’s “How long have you been here?” and “When are you leaving?

— New online from Paper Monument, issue 2: War Zone Tourism by Gregory Warner

This just in: Paper Monument’s Roger White and Dushko Petrovitch will be on WNYC’s Brian Lehrer show tomorrow morning from 11:25 to 11:45 to discuss manners in the art world, the subject of PM’s new pamphlet, I Like Your Work: art and etiquette.

Tune in!
Call in! 212-433-9692

Coming soon (as in, next Saturday, 1 August):

I LIKE YOUR WORK: art and etiquette

published by Paper Monument. 56 pages, perfect bound. Order here.