low life slow life

When I ventured over to CCA after work tonight to see the newly-opened show Low Life Slow Life: Part 2 artist Paul McCarthy curated for the Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, I had no idea I was going to run into McCarthy himself.  But there he was, grey and grizzled, talking to a small group of black-clad VIP art-types as flashbulbs popped and the disembodied voice emanating from Dennis Oppenheim's Wishing Well competed for attention.  I snuck around to the back of the group just in time to hear McCarthy finish up and say that the artists he chose for the exhibition are ones he feels very strongly about, and as I proceeded to take a look around the galleries I kept an eye out for work that might have influenced McCarthy's own practice.  The show is small but mighty, featuring a magnificent self-portrait by Maria Lassnig as well as Guy Debord's film We Spin Around the Night Consumed by Fire and an installation piece by Rachel Khedoori that references the brutality (and body fluids) of McCarthy's performance-based work.  I also liked Howard Fried's All My Dirty Blue Clothes, pictured above, in which the artist's knotted clothing traces a trail from one room to another accompanied by barely-perceptible patches of paint daubed on the walls above the shirts and ties.  I'm kicking myself for missing the first half of the show that was up last year in which McCarthy covered his early life in Salt Lake City and San Francisco and reportedly threw in everyone from Joseph Beuys to Yoko Ono, Bruce Conner to Stan Brakhage.  But this second installment which is specifically meant to represent his time in LA, where he's lived since the '70s, is plenty fascinating too.  In addition to the gallery show the Wattis is running a series of screenings in conjunction with the exhibition including work by Bruce Nauman and more Guy Debord.  Check the schedule here, and I'll see you there.