CatSynth

From BrotatoChip on YouTube, via Ferrara Brain Pan:

This weekend we are combining Weekend Cat Blogging with the weekly Photo Hunt theme of triangles. It’s been quite a “triangular” week here, including our last wordless wednesday architectural photo. Simple geometry like triangles are often featured in my photos, as well as the interior design at CatSynth HQ, so it’s not hard to find Luna and a triangle together. Indeed, the contrast of Luna’s organic curved form to the angular geometry of of her surroundings has been a regular theme.

This particular glass table, one of our favorites, features multiple triangles (anyone care to count them)?

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We at CatSynth also wish everyone a happy Pesach (Passover) and Easter.

Our friends LB and Breadchick host the Easter edition of Weekend Cat Blogging. No rabbits or resurrections, but plenty of feeling antics by LB and the other participants.

Samantha and Tigger host this week’s Bad Kitty Cats Festival of Chaos at Life from a Cat’s Perspective.

The Carnival of the Cats will be up this Sunday at Artsy Catsy. We are joining them today is sending thoughts for the pets and other animals last week’s earthquake in Italy.

The friday ark is at the modulator. And also check out this week’s photo hunt.

From sushiluv on flickr, we have another picture of Daphne:

Daphne is helping out with some beatz on an Elektron Machinedrum.

This was a rather art-intensive weekend, even by our recent standards at CatSynth., spanning Thursday through Sunday. This article will only touch on a few items.

At an unplanned visit to SFMOMA, I encountered for the first time work of William Kentridge. Kentridge is a South African artist working with stop-motion films, multimedia, dance and theatre. His work spans from whimsical to overtly political, often dealing with themes from both South Africa and the region. My initial impression of Kentridge’s work from the exhibition ads and the first passing glance at the gallery were mixed. The figures in his earlier animations, such as Soho and Felix are caricatures, with squat bodies and exaggerated features, are usually not that inviting to me. But one can quickly see the immense time and skill that went into these works, which are made from a sequence of charcoal drawings. And having seen the craft, I started to notice the art, and able to step away from the figures themselves to see the mixture of film, animation and music at a more abstract level. His later works, such as 7 Fragments for Georges Méliès, Journey to the Moon, and Day for Night, allow for a more abstract viewing, and also introduce his self portraits and self-deprecating sense of humor. Set on six screens, I moved between abstract animations of star and insect movements, and the artist spilling coffee onto his blank paper.

Probably the most interesting was his newest piece, I am not me, the horse is not mine, 2008, loosely based on Nikolai Gogol’s The Nose. There was of course a partly live-acted, partly animated nose as the “star”, but also other elements depicting the demise of the Russian avant-garde under Soviet rule, and elements mixing abstraction and Soviet-style realism, with muted color fields, geometry and text. There was also an interlude of South African choral music for good measure. I wish I had been in town for the performance and lecture last month.

The final works, based on Mozart’s The Magic Flute, were the most elaborate, with video projects based on archival film, animations and stills projected into wooden stages with live mechanized shadow puppets. It was clear that the audience was transfixed in a way I usually don’t see for multimedia and video presentations in an art gallery.

This is probably worth going back to see in more detail. I simply did not have the time to stay and watch every video and animation.

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Also at SFMOMA were some exhibitions I had seen but not written about previously, including the portrait photography exhibit Face of Our Time. I usually don’t go for straight-out portrait work, but these mostly large images worked in the context of the other exhibits at the museum.

I did take note of the abstract and whimsical sculpture of Ranjani Shettar. Her work combines modern technologies and traditional Indian craft techniques, but with none of the nostalgia or adherence to cultural stereotypes that often dominates Indian art, at least as it is presented in this country. Her sculptures do have a very naturalistic quality, reminiscent of much contemporary work in the western U.S.

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Last Thursday was also the First Thursday open galleries in downtown San Francisco for April (this year is going by so fast, isn’t it?). I should first recognize Trevor Paglen, who was showing both at SFMOMA as a SECA Art Award recipient, and at the Altman Siegel Gallery. It is quite a coincidence to see the same artist at two venues in a single week.

Perhaps my favorite show was Ema H Sintamarian at the Jack Fischer Gallery. Her drawings/paintings consisted of surreal, curving architectural elements, with an almost cartoonish quality. Bright colors and shapes against a white background.

The show by South African artist Lyndi Sales was intricate and very meticulous, work digital cuttings of found and printed objects – it was also a poignant tribute to her father’s death in the Hederberg crash.

Portraits seem to sneak their way into many of my experiences this week, with Gao Yuan’s “12 Moons”, a series of photographs with a Chinese take on the “Madonna and Child” theme. She was featured at MOCA Shanghai last year in 2008 (MOCA was of course closed the main weekend I was there).

Susan Grossman presented chalk and pastel drawings of photographs, that quickly revealed themselves to be familiar scenes of San Francisco. The black-and-white coloring and soft edges also serve as a fitting close to an article that begin with the soft charcoal drawings of William Kentridge, even if the subject matter could not be more different.

We at CatSynth are delighted to be hosting the 200th edition of Weekend Cat Blogging. That’s quite a milestone. The first edition was back in 2005, and we started participating in the summer of 2006, and we have met many cats and their humans through this weekly event.

So we’re hoping for a big turnout to come a celebrate with us this weekend. To participate, leave us a comment and we will include you in the round up.

First up, Cheysuli speaks up about the male and why he dislikes him. It’s a strange concept to us at CatSynth, where Luna seems quite fond of her male human.

Far away in Malaysia, Elin receives some awards, but hasn’t much time to post or visit because her human secretary is feeling ill.

From Malaysia we then go to Tennessee, where the old lady cat, Scrappycat, and upstart young kitten, Patchouli, from Sidewalk Shoes are pleased to join us for WCB #200, and we’re of course pleased to have them here.

We have found the source of Elin’s award, it’s from Pinky and Ash, where life is grand this weekend. And judging from the affection in that photo, life does indeed seem grand.

Some cats want affection from the humans in their lives. Others are content just to be fed. Cece was happy to get fed my Mog, without even having to beg. He has her well trained, it seems.

Meanwhile, Mog finds this photo of Meowza sums up her week in one word: dirt.

Butch and his shadow, Vincent are joining us this weekend from Judi’s Mind over Matter, and share this rather affectionate photo with us.

Our friends from The Cat Realm haven’t been part of WCB for a while, but they are joining us this weekend, too, and to help us get caught up they have provided this handy who’s who chart. Hey, they have a Luna there, too!

On to Florida, where our friends Samantha and Tigger discuss stripes. Tigger of course has stripes on his, while Samantha does not.

Arthur may look innocent, but he is a documented killer. Visit Gattina’s “My Cats and Funny Stories” to see Arthur successfully hunt, kill and eat a mouse. (They do have pictures. You have been warned)

We’ll continue to post links as we receive them through Monday, so there’s still plenty of time to participate.

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Other events this weekend include the Carnival of the Cats at No Cats Allowed, and the Bad Kitty Cats Festival of Chaos hosted by The Meezers and Billy.

And of course The Friday Ark is at the modulator.