Pointing Fingers

London, Miami and Art in America

London, Miami and Art in America December, 2007 Happy New Year. I end 2007 on a good note, happy to say. My Torture exhibition, which opened at Toomey Tourell Gallery in January 2007, has had a pretty good run so far, and there is still more to come. You'll be pleased to know that I am working on a new body of work (so that I'm not forever associated with Torture) which also includes an amazing billboard project as well as a book, the details of which I will share in my next update. Following a successful and fascinating exhibit at Art Beijing with Michael Petronko Gallery in September, the show went on to London in October, at the invitation of Bridge Art Fair, and finished the year, again with Toomey Tourell at the Bridge Art Fair in Miami during Art Basel. The cherry on top was a great review by the renowned Peter Selz in the December 2007 issue of Art in America. Thanks for all the support and encouragement throughout the year. Have a happy and healthy New Year. Till next year. Clinton

Torture on the Road - Art Beijing - Bridge London - Bridge Art Fair, Miami Most Recent Reviews/Commentary - Art in America: Clinton Fein at Toomey Tourell - Art Basel: Miami 2007, Clinton Fein, and The Abu Ghraib Prison Tortures - Art Basel - Bridge Art Fair Opening - Oh My Ami - Bridge:Chicago fair launches first London edition Pointing Fingers - Twas the Night After Christmas - Kids Who Kill Dogs - My Tenth Anniversary!!! - Unbearable in Sudamn - Rupert and Rudy - Drowning in Hypocrisy The Genius of Genus

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Torture on the Road Art Beijing Beijing Reactions (Detail) 2007 Clinton Fein Arriving in Beijing, where I exhibited the Torture series with Michael Petronko Gallery, I was not sure what to expect. The exhibit was very well received, and if I was to have based success on the amount of people who took photographs of my photos, I would have to say that it was pretty spectacular. While I had no problem predicting responses -- both negative and positive -- in the United Sates and England, I really did not have a clue as to how it would be received or perceived in China. There were two things that really struck me. The first was, as one Chinese woman told me (through a translator), she thought the original Abu Ghraib images were just anti-American propaganda by the Chinese government. Upon seeing my simulated images, it dawned on her that what happened at Abu Ghraib must have been real. The notion of simulations serving to make real what the actual images failed to do was something I never would have occurred to me. The second was that unlike either England or America, the Chinese seemed to have no qualms about allowing their children to study the images, which many did quite intently. >>Art Beijing Photos: Reactions

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Bridge Art Fair, London Trafalgar Hotel, 2007 (Detail) Clinton Fein Bridge Art Fair in London took place at the Trafalgar Hotel on Trafalgar Square. Although the opening night was somewhat disappointing owing to United Airlines managing to "misplace" a 12 ft x 10 ft photograph, it arrived the following day, and did make quite an impression in the lobby/bar of the hotel if I say so myself. It was also great to have the help of fellow artists "manning" my room for me, giving me much-needed breaks, particularly such talents as Monika Lin, Matthew Picton and Mark Paron. >>Bridge London Art Fair

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Bridge Art Fair, Miami Bridge Art Fair Miami, 2007 (Detail) Clinton Fein Bridge Art Fair Miami took place in December during Art Basel, and based on the responses, again, proved a success in both response and sales. I'm sure the Art in America review didn't harm either. The fair took place at the Catalina Hotel and Beach Club, which looks a damn lot better with great art gracing their walls than it does when it isn't. I hope the owners are paying Bridge to host the art fair in their hotel. >>Bridge Art Fair, Miami

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Most Recent Reviews/Commentary Peter Selz, Art in America Art in America Cover, December 2007 Clinton Fein currently exhibits horrifying high-resolution C-prints depicting (through carefully staged reenactments) the torture of prisoners by the American military at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. For some time Fein's political images have been immersed in controversy and dissent. A native of South Africa, he left that country, with its harsh climate of censorship during apartheid, for the U.S., hoping to find truly free expression. Becoming aware of deep flaws in the application of the First Amendment of the Constitution, he filed suit against Attorney General Janet Reno in 1997, seeking declarative and injunctive relief from the provisions of the Communications Decency Act. The suit made its way to the Supreme Court, and Fein won the case. He insists on the fundamental right to annoy and created a Web site in pursuit of that end, maintaining that indecency is one of the most effective tools to counter public apathy. >>Peter Selz, Art in America, December 2007

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Art Basel: Miami 2007, Clinton Fein, and The Abu Ghraib Prison Tortures Reaction to Rank and Defile 1, Beijing, 2007 (Detail) Clinton Fein Anyway, the piece that really impacted me was located in the Bridge Art Fair at the Catalina Hotel, where all the hotel rooms became galleries. As you would walk from hotel room to hotel room you looked at what each gallery had to offer. With in this labyrinth of art, The Toomey Tourell Gallery showed Clinton Fein's Torture Exhibition [...] [...] I casually saw two huge photographs of Abu Ghraib tortures in the hallway of the hotel, we continued to stroll in to the room where the gallery was showing Clinton Fein's work. As you walked into the room you saw four people talking, but it was as if they were not there because the most eye-catching piece of art was Fein's "Rank and Defile 1." Right after I saw the photograph, I turned around to see the other pieces in the room, but I couldn't keep my eyes off the picture. ...more Patricia Helena Micolta, Eclectic Fusion, January 13, 2007

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Art Basel - Bridge Art Fair Opening Sprinkled through the Collins Avenue hotel's faintly musty halls were Clinton Fein's in-your-face, politically-charged digital depictions of torture that you couldn't pass without a glance or thought, even if you wanted to. On the first floor, a 60-by-45 shot showed a naked model of an Abu Ghraib prisoner with a sack over his head on his knees forced to perform oral sex on another. ...more Miami New Times, December 7, 2007

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Oh My Ami Though in the higher category, the three standouts of the week were works by photographer Clinton Fein (showing at Toomey Tourell who had stands at two fairs). The work, a partial commentary (sort of a brutal homoerotic take) on Abu Ghraib, were striking, visceral and bloodied bodies, masculine, pretty raw stuff. Nothing else quite like it in the fairs. ...more TJ Norris, UnBlogged, December 11, 2007

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Bridge: Chicago fair launches first London edition Clinton Fein in front of self-portrayal in Trophy, 2007 Spread across five floors of the Trafalgar Hotel in the shadow of Nelson's Column, the Bridge Art Fair is offering a range of contemporary work from paintings to video. First launched in Chicago, mainly with local dealers, the fair has expanded with editions in Miami and New York; this year it comes to London for the first time with over 70 dealers, as well as rooms devoted to individual artists' displays. Determined to make an impact, the fair has not shied away from promoting controversial works. [...] [...] In one of the artist's project rooms, Clinton Fein (517) has re-enacted the photographs of US soldiers abusing prisoners in Abu Ghraib in his own high resolution, wall-sized prints. ...more Helen Stoilas and James Knox, The Art Newspaper, October 12, 2007

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Pointing Fingers Twas the Night After Christmas Twas the Night After Christmas, 2007 (detail) Clinton Fein Iraq still a quagmire, he felt a strong urge To tout the success of Petraus' surge If not for the violence and political mess No one could argue the scale of success. So goddamn upsetting he wanted to cry Or break a few laws, maybe eavesdrop or spy On citizens, idiots, who thought they were free Duped by "reporters" who wrote for a fee. The flag waving patriots who've never seen war Were clinging at straws like they had once before Christmas Eve fun for the troops in Iraq Their kids home alone, simply shit out of luck. First Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld then Ashcroft and Meyers Gone were the assholes that started the fires Ridge and Alberto now just ghosts from the past His legacy dead, for the die have been cast. Twas the Night After Christmas: Expanded

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Kids Who Kill Dogs Not much to say about this loser that hasn't already been said. The new rising star of the Republican presidential hopefuls is a former governor of Arkansas with a few choice attributes that make him the perfect Republican. He equates homosexuality with pedophilia and necrophilia (perhaps an association made by spending too much time in Church), refused to retract his absurd 1992 comment that people with AIDS should be quarantined, and is one of those self-appointed soldiers for Christ, to whom the fringes on the religious right gravitate like flies to feces. As revelation after revelation of the CIA's torture policies under the Bush administration swirl with headline grabbing attention, Mike Huckabee released a Christmas campaign ad in which he states: "What really matters is the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ." ...more Kids Who Kill Dogs: Expanded

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My 10th Anniversary!!! My 10th Anniversary, 2007 (Detail) Clinton Fein Since most people would qualify me as single, I began to think of the ramifications. My choosing to be single is a perfectly legitimate social choice. When I made the decision to refrain from long-term relationships, I forfeited the opportunity for my friends and family to celebrate my choice. There have been no registries, no toasters, no fabulous silverware, or any of the items that are usually given to help sustain a new relationship. As my siblings married, they were given gifts designed to strengthen their bonds, but really just saved them having to go out and buy a bunch of shite for the house. I never received anything, despite my household being just as plagued by bachelorhood, and just as capable of benefiting from many of the same upgrades, simply because I've chosen to avoid contractually binding myself to a long-term, supposedly monogomous nuclear family structure. ...more My 10th Anniversary: Expanded

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Unbearable in Sudamn "She got a very light punishment...Actually, it's not much of a punishment at all. It should be considered a warning that such acts should not be repeated." Thus spake Rabie A. Atti, a Sudanese government spokesman referring to the conviction and sentence of British teacher, Gillian Gibbons, who was sentenced to 15 days in prison and a deportation. She could have spent months in jail and been lashed 40 times, after she allowed her 7-year-old pupils name a class teddy bear Muhammad. Call me multiculturally insensitive, but isn't lashing a woman forty times just slightly more offensive than naming a stupid teddy-bear Muhammed? Unbearable in Sudamn: Expanded

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Rupert and Rudy Rudy Giuliani, 2007 (Detail) Clinton Fein Giuliani's response to the Judith Regan lawsuit, was to dismiss it as sounding like a "gossip column story," and one not worthy of his response. That strategy might have worked for George Bush Senior when asked about his adulterous affair, but Giuliani might not be so lucky. For one, even his Republican opponents are already all over it, and more importantly, it's not only a gossip column story, it's a lawsuit alleging criminal conduct on behalf of News Corp. executives in the name of protecting the presidential ambitions of Rudy Giuliani. It makes sense really. The smutty programming produced and aired by Fox coupled with the smutty lifestyle exemplified by Giuliani is a match made in heaven...or hell. The only thing worse than a world run by George Bush and Dick Cheney, would be one run by Rupert Murdoch and Rudy Giuliani. ...more Rupert and Rudy: Expanded

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Drowning in Hypocrisy Dianne Feinstein, (Detail) 2007 Clinton Fein California's Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein's decision to join Senate Judiciary committee Republicans in approving the nomination of Judge Michael Mukasey for Attorney General is nothing short of disgraceful. Much like her decision to sponsor legislation that would desecrate the constitution by criminalizing flag burning, Feinstein has shown her true colors yet again. Waterboarding, a torture technique that Mukasey refused to state unequivocally was just that, despite calling it "personally repugnant," has been considered a war crime for over a century under the United States and international law. Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, refused to vote in favor of Mukasey, stating that: "The president says we do not torture, but had his lawyers redefine torture down in secret memos in fundamental conflict with American values and law." Drowning in Hypocrisy: Expanded

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The Genius of Genus Joby Talbot and Benjamin Wynn (Deru), (Detail) 2007 Clinton Fein Although this has nothing to do with me whatsoever, aside from being a rabid fan, I was privileged to receive a generous invitation to Paris to see Genus, an incredible ballet performed by Paris Opera Ballet at Palais Garnier, which was composed by my friends Joby Talbot and Benjamin Wynn (Deru) who in turn had collaborated with choreographer Wayne McGregor to create (or should I say evolve) an audio visual masterpiece based on Darwin's theory of Evolution. An accompanying video sequence by Ravi Deepres was a great complement. Annoyingly, I missed the world premiere owing to a wildcat strike by technicians over proposed pension revisions (who would have thought, in France?), but the performance I did end up seeing was nothing short of genius. - Joby Talbot - Benjamin Wynn (Deru) - Genus - A small sample of Genus

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Contact Information Crucifiction 2, 2007 (Detail) Clinton Fein Art Beijing MICHAEL PETRONKO GALLERY 646-536-7362 478 West Broadway New York, NY 10012 Michael Petronko michael@michaelpetronkogallery.net GALLERY HOURS: Tuesday - Sunday: 11 a.m. - 6.00 p.m. Monday by appointment

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Bridge London/Miami Clinton Fein on set TOOMEY TOURELL GALLERY 415-989-6444 49 Geary Street San Francisco, CA 94108 Stephen Tourell Nancy Toomey Todd Bennett GALLERY HOURS: Tuesday through Friday: 11:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Saturday: 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

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This is a monthly online newsletter by Clinton Fein. You receive it because we're friends, family, know one another, or you have requested to be on this list in order to keep up with what I am up to. If for any reason, you don't want to receive this, please just hit your reply button and enter the word "Unsubscribe" in the subject line, and your name will automatically be removed from the list. Clinton Fein Email: I try and send out updates about once a month, but am not alway able to be so fastidious. I will respond to all and any emails I get from anyone, so please respond when you can. Feedback is not just welcome, it's encouraged.

Twas the Night After Christmas

Twas the night after Christmas, King George was still pouting
Low approval ratings, and Republicans shouting
His legacy dead, an irrelevant fuck
Like a “Bring Them Home” decal on the back of a truck.

Cheney, the dick, was nowhere to be seen
Punishing corporate entities that dared to be green
Condi incompetent, barely still in one piece
Like a half-hearted effort at Middle East peace.

Iraq still a quagmire, he felt a strong urge
To tout the success of Petraus’s surge
If not for the violence and political mess
No one could argue the scale of success.

So goddamn upsetting he wanted to cry
Or break a few laws, maybe eavesdrop or spy
On citizens, idiots, who thought they were free
Duped by “reporters” who wrote for a fee.

The flag waving patriots who’ve never seen war
Were clinging at straws like they had once before
Christmas Eve fun for the troops in Iraq
Their kids home alone, simply shit out of luck.

First Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld then Ashcroft and Meyers
Gone were the assholes that started the fires
Ridge and Alberto now just ghosts from the past
His legacy dead, for the die have been cast.

The Pope from the Vatican, spat the world is a mess
Clutching his swastika under his dress
Lamenting out loud that the world’s gone astray
From all the atheist wars and the marriages gay.

Alberto Gonzales, alone in his head
Watched reruns of 24 lying in bed
He tortured the dog and then tortured the cat
He couldn’t spread cheer, but he could give them that.

Clandestine prisons, extraordinary rendition
Waterboard heaven, such a perfect condition
Political cronies ensconced where he’d been
The fruit still unripe, damage yet to be seen.

Still King George was lonely, where was Harriet Meiers?
Or Scooter, or Brownie, or the rest of the liars?
Like once proud New Orleans, all he had was once good
Now blacker than the inside of a detainee’s hood.

O’Reilly sat gingerly, falafels he ate
With a war against Christmas still fueling his hate
Rupert was lonely with all in his life
His new news publications, his trophy young wife

Americans were wondering how it all went so wrong
Like a terrible cover of an overplayed song
An election was looming, all the choices were lame
The same old recordings for an unchanging game

Politicians did nothing as it’s what they do best
They reneged on their promises, failed their tests
They postured, and preened and they pointed and blamed
With photo-op sorrow for the dead and the maimed.

Economy was spluttering, Wall Street all aflutter,
Foreclosures, credit, their bread and their butter
Retailers crying, consumption declining
An energy bill, toothless, to stop Big Oil whining

Torture and tax credits to shelter the wealthy
Vetoing bills to keep young children healthy
To Jesus he prayed, as poor soldiers lay dying
God Bless America, he asked, but the asshole was lying.

Kids Who Kill Dogs

Not much to say about this loser that hasn’t already been said. The new rising star of the Republican presidential hopefuls is a former governor of Arkansas with a few choice attributes that make him the perfect Republican.

He equates homosexuality with pedophilia and necrophilia (perhaps an association made by spending too much time in Church), refused to retract his absurd 1992 comment that people with AIDS should be quarantined, and is one of those self-appointed soldiers for Christ, to whom the fringes on the religious right gravitate like flies to feces.

As revelation after revelation of the CIA’s torture policies under the Bush administration swirl with headline grabbing attention, Huckabee released a Christmas campaign ad in which he states: "…what really matters is the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ."

More disturbing are the stories surfacing about his son, demonstrating that his parenting skills are on a par with those of Rudy Giuliani. Aside from an incident in April this year where David Huckabee was arrested at a Little Rock, Arkansas airport after a federal X-ray technician detected a loaded Glock pistol in his carry-on luggage, it appears that Mike Huckabee involved himself in a childhood dog-killing cover-up, the details of which would make Jeffrey Dahmer quiver in delight.

In 1998, David Huckabee was unceremoniously booted out of a Boy Scout camp after, serving as an ideal role model as a counselor, he killed a stray dog that had the terrible fate of wandering onto camp property. So like a good old Southerner, young Huckabee harkened back to his history by literally lynching the dog by hanging it from a tree. Then, for good measure, he slit his throat and stoned him to death. According to Newsweek, the father of another counselor involved in the incident was quoted by the Arkansas Democrat Gazette in August 1998 as saying that his son found the dog "hung over a limb and choking."

Defending his son in an interview with Newsweek, Mike Huckabee responded: "There was a dog that apparently had mange and was absolutely, I guess, emaciated." Food and medicine, apparently did not factor into David Huckabee’s twisted mind. And it’s a small wonder mind you, given his propensity to eat. The Boy Scouts, more concerned in the long run with keeping out the gays, quarantine not being an option, rewarded Huckabee by later promoting him to an Eagle Scout.

Mike Huckabee, who, back in 2004, shed an impressive 105 pounds stated regarding his bad eating and exercise habits: “How could I get up there and say, 'People, we've got to do better,' when I was the poster child for everything that was wrong?"

While David, it appears didn’t get the memo, and looks like he could easily lose 105 pounds himself, Mike Huckabee’s divisive and un-Christian like lack of compassion continues to present him as the poster boy for everything that is wrong.

As President, would he do as fantastic a job for America as he’s done raising his children?

Hopefully we never find out.

My Tenth Anniversary!!!

In the last few months, I’ve been invited to a wedding, an anniversary, a baby shower, a baby naming, a birthday party for a two-year-old, a bat mitzvah, a bar mitzvah and an engagement party.

While these have all been friends and family, and people who I love dearly, I couldn’t help but think back to an old Sex in the City episode, where Carrie Bradshaw faced the same quandary I faced as these occasions arose. Each joyous occasion required a gift, some of them providing registries to make my gift-giving decisions that much easier.

As gay marriage becomes legal in more and more jurisdictions and a variety of methods allow gay people to adopt or procreate their own children, the fundamental issue remains the same. People make choices, and society dictates that those choices are rewarded in the form of lavish gifts being bestowed on the merit of those choices.

As one of the lucky invitees, I have been excoriated for missing certain occasions, and been forced to humbly apologize for failing to make an adequate effort to drop everything I’m doing in my life to attend and share in the celebrations of others.

I haven’t been in a long-term relationship, by design, for the last ten years. Since I generally believe that the best relationships last somewhere between four and eight hours, I couldn’t possibly count how many I’ve had, but suffice to say, I enjoy these relationships at least three or four times a week. The break-ups are relatively drama-free, and are usually on good terms, so much so that now and again, there are even repeats.

Unfortunately, this four hour rule doesn’t allow for the appropriate well wishing. There are no engagement parties, no weddings, no children and no anniversaries. Given the numbers, it would be horribly unfair on all my friends and relatives if I was to expect reinforcement in the way of gifts every time I began one of these relationships.

Since most people would qualify me as single, I began to think of the ramifications. My choosing to be single is a perfectly legitimate social choice. When I made the decision to refrain from long-term relationships, I forfeited the opportunity for my friends and family to celebrate my choice. There have been no registries, no toasters, no fabulous silverware, or any of the items that are usually given to help sustain a new relationship. As my siblings married, they were given gifts designed to strengthen their bonds, but really just saved them having to go out and buy a bunch of shite for the house. I never received anything, despite my household being just as plagued by bachelorhood, and just as capable of benefiting from many of the same upgrades, simply because I've chosen to avoid contractually binding myself to a long-term, supposedly monogomous nuclear family structure.

About fifteen years ago, I helped out my sister who had recently purchased a puppy, but was thwarted from giving it the appropriate attention owing to her work schedule. I ended up looking after the dog, and falling in love with her. She brought me more joy and happiness than I ever could have dreamed at the time, up until her passing earlier this year. However, she had needs, from babysitting to medical needs.

Through the years there were veterinary bills, grooming bills, (and her separation anxiety, which kept me at home far more often that I might have been otherwise). But when she turned twelve, there was no batmitzvah celebration (although admittedly, she wasn’t raised as a Jewish dog).

Whether this was the original intent, bat and bar mitzvahs, like confirmations and sweet sixteen parties, are designed to provide the youngsters with nest eggs for their futures. My sweet little dog, despite her sometimes naughty and reckless behavior, made it to twelve, and although there would be medical issues in her later years, she didn’t receive anything to celebrate her passage into adulthood, or provide her (or me) with security for what lay ahead.

My decision to remain unmarried and to not have children so far has had a significant impact on the environment. I haven’t contributed to diapers in landfills, nor consumed unimaginable quantities of detergents, water and energy had I used cotton instead. Because I haven’t had to drive my kids to school and extramural activities, I have reduced my carbon footprint, and have played a small part in reducing over-population.

As I’ve watched people who were, and remain, ill-equipped to rear children receive positive reinforcement for their decisions, from celebratory toasts to receiving deeds on houses, I have received woefully inadequate reinforcement, if not outright discouragement, for my decisions and choices.

In my failure to marry and rear children, I have pursued a career as an artist and photographer. My exhibitions have required insane amounts of preparation and are usually exorbitant in terms of production costs. They have taken me from San Francisco to Beijing, from New York to Miami. Yet the importance of these milestones in my life is no match for a child is turning three, or a couple who have remained in a boring, loveless relationship for fifteen years. How dare I expect anyone to drop what they’re doing in their mundane lives to attend the opening of an exhibition, when they’re preparing for their son’s baby-naming, for which I dare not fail to show up, or at least send a gift?

I have decided this year, to celebrate my tenth anniversary of being uninvolved in a long-term relationship, and for neither creating nor adopting children. I will be inviting family members and friends, across the globe, to join in the celebration, and will be registering at my favorite stores all the items that will make my life easier based on the choices I’ve made.

I’ve made it. Ten years on my own. My choice. And now I demand my rewards!