Andrew Rogers, Untitled, 2006

The group exhibition Sack of Bones comes from a viewing of Paul Rachman’s 2006 film, American Hardcore, in which Mark Flood appears as an interviewee on the topic of 1980s punk rock. The tone of the film is reverent, to be sure, but more than an ode, the voices in the film present conflicting parts pride, humor, fraternity, anger, bitterness, nostalgia, and what are often doleful mechanisms for dealing with the here-and-now. That Flood was both part of Hardcore as it existed musically (in 1980 his band, Culturcide, put out their first 7-inch: Another Miracle/Consider Museums as Concentration Camps) and has been practicing visual art for over 30 years poses an interesting question: how, if at all, can art be hardcore? By embodying adolescent punk obsession? By miraculous use of irony? By a simple withdrawal from popular territory?

Jonathan Horowitz
Obama ‘08
21 October — 15 November 2008
Gavin Brown’s enterprise

Anna Sew Hoy
look-see
14 November — 20 December 2008
Opening date: Friday, 14 November 6-8pm, Renwick Gallery

Anna Sew Hoy
Wrist Cast, 2008
Fiberglass, cotton
218 × 76 × 40 cm

Renwick Gallery @ Zoo Art Fair
Booth C22
Featuring works by Anna Sew Hoy

17–19 October 12–8pm
20 October 12–5pm

A Puerto Rican man has been granted his wish to remain standing — even in death. A funeral home used a special embalming treatment to keep the corpse of 24-year-old Angel Pantoja Medina standing upright for his three-day wake. Dressed in a Yankees baseball cap and sunglasses, Pantoja was mourned by relatives while propped upright in his mother’s living room. His brother Carlos told the El Nuevo Dia newspaper the victim had long said he wanted to be upright for his own wake: “He wanted to be happy, standing.” The owner of the Marin Funeral Home, Damaris Marin, told The Associated Press the mother asked him to fulfill her dead son’s last wish. Pantoja was found dead Friday underneath a bridge in San Juan and buried Monday. Police are investigating. (AP)

Thanks Ryan