Slog - Comments on Starbucks at the Olympic Sculpture Park

Comment by Big Sven

Big Sven — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 10:07:26 -0800

This is cool. Hipsters bitch about the OSP all the time, but it's good that we have it and I'm happy that they seem to have a sense of humor.

Comment by boxofbirds

boxofbirds — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 10:16:22 -0800

I love these guys.

"Sculpture... with a purpose!"

Hilarious.

Comment by Fnarf

Fnarf — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 10:20:59 -0800

That's brilliant. If I could offer one small criticism, they need to make a better study of land-use and condo-development signs and use the full 4x8 sheet of plywood. It's a fantastic sign; it just needs to be a bit larger. And possibly dirty the site up a bit. There's something just a wee bit precious about it. But the idea of it is wonderful, just wonderful.

Comment by Super Jesse

Super Jesse — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 10:24:44 -0800

When the OSP first opened I was worried that it would end up being just another derelict venue for mediocre "safe" art that would end up being a perfect place to buy crack in five years. They keep proving me wrong. I commend SAM for their sense of adventure and willingness to to allow this type of thing to happen. We need to see more of that.

Comment by beid

beid — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 10:34:09 -0800

SomethingAwful style photoshopping meets chainlink.

Comment by COMTE

COMTE — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 10:51:41 -0800

Wait, you mean I CAN'T order a "Serraccino"?

Damn, that would have given me a reason to actually set foot in a $tarbuck$.

(Although personally, I'd prefer a "Duchampiatto"...)

Comment by blip

blip — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 11:06:46 -0800

I sat near the installation on Sunday morning and enjoyed watching people react to this. There was one girl that was so furious it was hard to contain myself from laughing. Nice work PDL, keep it up.

Comment by rb

rb — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 11:12:49 -0800

What's suprising to me about these installations is how humorless, uptight and reactionary our city has become. An announcement goes up, and instantly the emails and phone calls start to denounce and stop these imaginary projects.

Comment by NG

NG — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 11:38:22 -0800

Actually, OSP already has a sponsored sculpture - the Neukom Vivarium. That entire building is the sculpture itself, not just the nurse log. The artist was involved in the sponsorship-naming process, and is purportedly fine with it.

Comment by FJ

FJ — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 12:48:23 -0800

What began as a parody is now a pastiche (in the Jameson sense).

The fact that they don't recognize this slays me.

Until they move beyond that - and most importantly apply a little self-evaluation/reflexivity to their own practice - nothing truly smart, meaningful and uniquely their own will come of their interventions.

And Ms. Graves: your continual regurgitation of the pablum they keep feeding you diproves your point about them doing this "for nothing but experimentation."

Their constant cries for attention from the press, the press' continued unmediated response and simple
reprinting of their ideas, not to mention repeatedly choosing, and misguidedly executing, shallow, straw man targeted ire at SAM, all add up to a very needy bunch wanting the "art world" to recognize, represent and pay them heed.

These BEFORE and(!) AFTER press releases, although seemingly quite effective with you, are really pathetic. I'd love to see them try and get away with in another art town. If, in fact, the "public" is their work and this "after press release" a summary of whatever "art" happened, they should be a lot, lot better, smarter and deeper than this.

I say this with love and hope. I'm not say that there isn't potential here. They're so close to getting it right it kills me. Humor goes a long way. Dead-pan dumb sum-ups have there place. But to truly operate in the field of institutional and sociatal critique, one needs to move beyond one-liners and pranksterism, understand, articulate and mediate what highly tread upon and codified territory they are exploring, self-reflexivly evaluate their parodic practice, and then bring something all their own to their section of the playground.

Perhaps this referee should be out on this until the full suite of works has been achieved. Perhaps they'll prove me wrong and really bring this project home with some sort of post-game, wrap-up rigor.

I look forward to the ensuing games nonetheless.

Comment by seven

seven — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 22:23:52 -0800

Is it me, or does someone seem to have their tongue right up Greg Lundgren's ass? Are you getting free drinks at the Hideout for this?

Comment by agrees pretty much

agrees pretty much — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 08:52:46 -0800

@10, great comment. this work is sooo 90's but enjoyable, of course! We can all appreciate tricks on your average tourist/ seattleite. We scathe them, don't we? At fishermans warf in san francisco there is this guy who has hiding behind fake-shrubbery and frightening tourists for, like, 20 years. It looks like a bush, then, wham! its some freaky dude! yikes! If he were exploring some line between the urban space (sidewalks) and "nature" objects (trees, bushes) he would be totally awesome. but he is not, just as PDL are not "really" exploring the tricky-ness of corporate sponsorship. Like the bush man, they are having fun! which is totally fine, cause it allows me, the viewer, to go-beyond the fun, and think more seriously about it.

Comment by Static Invasion

Static Invasion — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 22:17:46 -0800

PDL are truly inspiring . I see that there are always a bunch of jealous haters, which supports their validity. It's good to start conversations, even with idiots.

I look forward to future installations.

Comment by Sue Talksaboutart

Sue Talksaboutart — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 09:56:17 -0800

Have to completely agree with 10 and 12. PDL's work seems to be nothing more than an elaborate joke on the uninformed, which isn't really a difficult feat to accomplish in the realm of contemporary art understanding. Also, they may not be "selling" their work in galleries and getting compensated in the traditional way, but isn't the validation that comes with someone like Jen Graves' stamp of approval (and a likely SOIL show in the future; maybe the Henry?) worth FAR MORE? I can't think of many contemporary artists that wouldn't choose the latter.