Wayne Coe working on “Chris Burden in Art Lovers” (2011) and (inset) the finished product after six hours of work (latter image via Loren Munk’s Facebook profile)
Wayne Coe creates one-color sand paintings on the sidewalks and floors of New York. While, like the Buddhist or Navajo tradition of sand painting his creations are ephemeral art works that disappear after people walk all over them or the winds shift the grains, unlike their more spiritual predecessors Coe’s creations are more corporeal and use the language of male porn theater advertising from the 1970s and 1980s to mock up ads for famous contemporary artists.
As part of the Brooklyn Art Now survey, curated by James Kalm (aka Loren Munk), Coe was creating “Chris Burden in Art Lovers” (2011) in the second floor hallway of 111 Front Street. Using black sand and brushes, he worked for six hours yesterday and took some time out of his performance to participate in another guerrilla video interview to explain “art-xploitation,” which he says is “the use of male film hyperbole to sell art.”
Sand painting is also a Navajo tradition and Jackson Pollock acknowledged this Indigenous tradition as a source for his “Drip” technique.
Excellent point. I totally blanked on the Navajo tradition, I’ll add that.