Ok catching up on Judd stuff. The Donald Judd: Delegated Fabrication Conference is this next Sunday and with Robert Storr, Arata Isozaki, Peter Ballantine and Portland's own Bruce Guenther it should be very exciting. It isn't just a world class event, it's a bleeding edge discussion. Judd's fabrication has never been formally discussed like this and with such detail. There are still a few seats available.

Today, Brian Libby interviews me in Portland Architecture about Judd's relationship to designers and architects.

Also, Thursday there was a nice full page, section lead story in the Portland Tribune. . I can't think of the last time a scholarly conference got such top billing in a generalist publication?

Last but not least there was the Judd Related artist panel discussion which I lead last Saturday at PNCA. It was probably the single most useful artist panel discussion Ive ever had the pleasure to take in. It was long and I feel like everyone got something usesful out of it.

Here is a link to an experiential video/podcast of the event.

If you just can't sit through the difficult production values here is a summary:

Storm Tharp's next show is basically about his experience last year in Marfa. Judd is new to his "top ten" of favorites and he has an interesting love hate relationship to Judd's auteur-like achievement. Storm is attracted to high levels of aesthetic achievement and celebrates his hero's while expressing his own anxieties and insights into their achievement. Storm's account was very personal.

Victor Maldonado, took a sociological stance on Judd. For Victor he's part of this received American history to be contended with and called him a Coyote... an operator who is both wise and dangerous. Judd's decision to locate himself in Marfa near the Mexican border became a somewhat politicized choice.

Laura Fritz, in a dry, somewhat Juddian delivery (that's just her) simply described elements of her work and a key Judd work at the Des Moines Art Center that introduced her to installation art. Interestingly, she felt her the video element of Evident related to Judd's way of straining the perceivable world through manifold space like Judd. She also emphasized the importance of rigorous editing rather than simplicity for its own sake.

Arcy, discussed Judd and the problem of choice and has done a post on his talk last Saturday on the Judd Conference blog. Essentially, Douglass is a systems artist and shares that with Judd, though I believe he's more influenced by Carl Andre than Judd.

Anna Gray and Ryan Paulsen, discussed the way Judd inserted himself into the discourse and the artistic violence of contending with Judd. They are primarily influenced by Judd's writings rather than his systems, aesthetics, sociology or achievement. This somewhat retraces what the next generation of conceptual artists after Judd did but its really interesting that these young artists are still dealing with the the same issues in an updated current way.

I made a point about how the limitless choices and openness Judd's art affords can feel oppressive in their freedom... and that's why artists after Judd often have such a strong reaction. I purposely chose artists who weren't making work that was primarily "about" Judd, pantomiming Judd or telling Judd jokes... which for me is too easy and Judd wasn't about easy.

In another bit of multiplicitous synchronicity 3 of us showed different images of the same 100 Mil Aluminum Judd box at Chinati:


Storm Tharp's photo


My photo


Arcy's photo