Whee, living in a dark, alternate dimension sure is fun! So let me get this right, we have three candidates for president who do not believe in the “theory” of evolution (Huckabee, Brownback, and Tancredo) and the Creation Museum is about to open up on the ‘Nati-Kentucky border (right near my beloved Bobbie Mackey’s which will no doubt raise the price of the ghost tour in the basement- thanks creation freaks!). This is from the Museum’s website: “and they will discover how science actually confirms biblical history.” Oh Holly, we gotsta get back to our own time. DAMN SLEESTAKS!

On May 20 & 21, the Hammer is hosting the first two events of the Southern California Consortium of Art Schools (phew) symposium, Black Sphinx: On the Comedic in Modern Art. Sunday is an all day event (10am – 5:30pm) with funny art legends, John Baldessari, Michael Smith, Andrea Fraser, David Robbins, and more. Then on Monday night at 8pm (w/ a pre-show happy hour at 6:30), we give you Live Sphinx: An Evening of Stand Up, hosted by Murray Hill, with Michelle Biloon, Al Madrigal, Jessi Klein, and the one and only Patton Oswalt (pictured here, ready for a conference).

ART REVIEW; The Artist’s Tale
By BENJAMIN GENOCCHIO
Published: April 10, 2005

A RAINBOW has settled over regional museums and art centers. It may just be a byproduct of the economic storm they have weathered the last couple years, or it may be a sign that positive changes are afoot. I think it is the latter.

One good development is a new camaraderie among regional institutions. In New Jersey, for instance, the Princeton University Art Museum recently lent artworks to the Montclair Art Museum’s Edward Weston exhibition, while, more ambitiously, the plucky Shore Institute of the Contemporary Arts in Long Branch and the Silvermine Guild Arts Center in New Canaan, Conn., are collaborating on ”Characters,” on view at both sites until later this month.

Regional museums can achieve much by working together. Collaboration cuts costs, permits loans of expensive equipment (like video projectors) and increases access to collections. And it helps open these institutions to different kinds of audiences.

”Characters,” organized by Helianthe Bourdeaux-Maurin, an independent curator, explores the role of storytelling in contemporary art. Narrative has been the backbone of visual art since Paleolithic artists scrawled roaming bison, horses and deer pursued by matchstick figures on the walls of the Lascaux caves. But in the 20th century, this style retreated to the periphery, replaced by more formal, abstract, minimal and conceptual art forms. It was really only with Pop that narrative-based art returned to museum walls. (It was, of course, always popular in the art market.)

”Characters” endeavors to flesh out this thesis, mustering examples of the work of about two dozen well-known and emerging artists from the United States, Asia and Europe. The show offers only a snapshot of its theme, but the curator has nonetheless found works worthy of attention for their individual aesthetic merits and for their ability to illustrate the wider point.

The show is divided between the sites, with each artist represented by a few works in both places (except for Cindy Sherman, who is showing only at Silvermine after some crucial loans fell through). This creates a sense of two complementary if occasionally overlapping exhibitions; the videos, for example, are the same in both spaces.

But you will not have seen the complete exhibition unless you visit both sites.

The essence of a good story is character, and both shows abound with imagery of real and imaginary characters. Various artists fuse their life experience with characters from history and mythology to create fantasy characters, while others engage popular stereotypes. Still others play with archetypes, or mine fairy tales, comic or children’s books, film characters and cartoons.

There is a preponderance of diligent, colorful and often funny graphic work. Many of the artists also resort to a naïve, childlike drawing style to beguile the viewer. This at times results in superficial work that is too cute, say, in Yoshitomo Nara’s pastel lithographs of bratty guitar-playing girls, or everything by Takashi Murakami.

But all is not so wholesome. There is a sado-erotic streak to quite a bit of the imagery, like Kyung Jeon’s kinky fusion of characters from old Korean children’s books and the Kama Sutra, or Chitra Ganesh’s dynamic drawings of figures with multiple heads, arms and orifices.

Jeremy Bronson’s short animated video ”Timekeepers” (2005), a fantasy narrative, is an exhibition highlight. For this piece, he used hand-crafted and painted sets and models (made with wire, foam, latex and found objects) to create a narrative-based stop-motion animation picture show.

James Bewley is one of the artists who take their own lives as a starting point. His gouaches depict a character in a bat suit whose bumbling adventures are based loosely on his life. He places his antihero in ridiculous situations, like trying to chat up women, smoking a cigar or riding a motorcycle to church.

Then there are the video artists, like Shannon Plumb and Julian Stark, who not only use their lives for inspiration, but also perform in their works. To some extent, the sculptor Nina Levy also does this. A merry prankster, Ms. Levy is showing life-size versions of her naked torso at each site. At Silvermine, the work is ”Spectator,” representing the viewer, I guess, busy puzzling out the rest of the exhibition.

”Characters: Scene I” is at Shore Institute of the Contemporary Arts, 20 Third Avenue, Long Branch, through April 26. Information: www.sica.org or (732)263-1121. ”Characters: Scene II” is at Silvermine Guild Arts Center, 1037 Silvermine Road, New Canaan, Conn., through April 21. Information: www.silvermineart.org or (203)966-9700.

“When it comes to Flash-animated comedy, does the scenario of a depressed Swedish playwright and a happy lil’ blob of lighter-than-air gas come to mind? If so, then have we got the cartoon for you: Strindberg and Helium.

Creators Eun-Ha Paek (artist/animator) and James Bewley (who voices Strindberg) met in San Francisco and decided to collaborate. Thus came Strindberg and Helium, which James says utilizes “pretty basic comedy building blocks – the odd couple.”

And, yes, they certainly are odd, which is what makes the cartoon singularly funny. As Strindberg rants about his depressed state, Helium manages to burble out half-formed words with oblivious joy. And what, exactly, is Helium?

“I’m sure everybody has their own take, but for me he’s an emissary of a spiritual force of happiness,” said James.There you go!

You can decide for yourself at www.strindbergandhelium.com.

Also, visit http://milkyelephant.com while you’re at it.”

So just when you think LA doesn’t have anything else twisted and wrong to throw at you…Kellie worked today as a stand-in for the dead body of Anna Nicole Smith for an all new True Hollywood Story on E! Yep. Read it again. It won’t make it any better.

In another strange twist of fate, Strindberg and Helium just helped organize a program at the Hammer. Amanda Palmer of the Dresden Dolls (pictured) is using a clip from Sulfur and Iron in the new album she’s making with Ben Folds. When she asked us about permission, I asked if she’d consider doing a Hammer Conversation this summer. She agreed and suggested Henry Rollins, who accepted the invitation to sit down with Amanda on July 7. So I have August Strindberg to thank for meeting Robert Redford and now Henry Rollins. Internet=Weird.