I ♥ John Giorno

Angela Bulloch, Phong Bui, Anne Collier, Verne Dawson, Judith Eisler, John Giorno, Elizabeth Peyton, Billy Sullivan

Angela Bulloch and Anne Collier: Giorno Poetry Systems

A specially curated presentation of the Giorno Poetry Systems (GPS) is presented at White Columns. Launched in 1965 in the context of the ongoing civil rights movement and the Vietnam War, GPS sought to create a new audience and relevance for poetry. The sleeve of the 1972 double album Dial-A-Poem-Poets features a manifesto-like declaration by Giorno: “At this point, with the war and the repression and everything, we thought this was a good way for the Movement to reach people.”

Giorno’s ambition for GPS led to the release of more than fifty recordings on vinyl, cassette, CD and video formats by an extraordinary range of poets, performers and musicians, inspired by his exposure in the early 1960s to the innovative practices of Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns and the members of the Judson Dance Theatre. Reflecting on their influence, Giorno has observed: “The use of modern mass media and technologies by these artists made me realize that poetry was 75 years behind painting and sculpture, dance and music. And I thought, if they can do it, why can’t I do it for poetry?”

Angela Bulloch and Anne Collier were invited by Matthew Higgs to respond to the physical and recorded archives of GPS. Bulloch’s Happy Sacks (1994-2015) create a communal environment where the audience can relax and listen to the entire GPS back-catalogue, which is available to scroll through on iPads. Displayed as a digital slide show on LED screens, Collier has documented the vinyl albums, CDs and videotapes featuring original photography and artwork by artists including Les Levine, Robert Mapplethorpe, Jimmy De Sana, Peter Hujar and Keith Haring that were distributed by GPS between 1972 and 1993.

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Phong Bui, Verne Dawson, Judith Eisler, Billy Sullivan, Elizabeth Peyton: Paintings of John Giorno

A number of portraits of John Giorno are on display at White Columns, exemplifying his influence on several generations of artists. While the works reflect the admiration artists feel for the poet’s work, the portraits also show their interest in his presence. Elizabeth Peyton describes this attraction: “I asked John if he would let me make a portrait of him in 2007… I had been to more than a few of his readings… I think I was really moved to take action after seeing the film Rirkrit made of John reading all of his poetry—it blew my mind… I really wanted to make a picture to contain John’s gentle and radical John-ness…”

These portraits affirm the vital energy of Giorno, which is characterized by two opposing forces: an inexhaustible physical power in his stage performances, and a spiritual wisdom acquired by a meditation practice spanning several decades. Perhaps most poignantly, they reveal Giorno’s relationship to painters from the New York art scene, including Billy Sullivan, Verne Dawson, Elizabeth Peyton, Phong Bui and Judith Eisler.

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John Giorno: T-Shirt Poems

The installation at White Columns also includes a selection of John Giorno’s T-shirt poems from 1965-2016, with phrases ranging from poetic fragments to enigmatic aphorisms related to different projects that Giorno has organized over the years including Giorno Poetry Systems, AIDS Treatment Project, and various exhibitions.

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On the evening of the June 21st summer solstice, Ugo Rondinone: I ♥ John Giorno —the first major U.S. exhibition about the American poet, artist, activist and muse John Giorno—will open simultaneously across 13 locations in New York City. I ♥ John Giorno is a work of art by Giorno’s husband, the Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone. The exhibition is a celebration of the life and work of John Giorno—an artist whose work has influenced generations. Taking place in his chosen hometown, the exhibition affords a unique opportunity for Giorno’s contributions to be recognized within the canons of American poetry and art history, and celebrates the artist’s 80th birthday.

I ♥ John Giorno is an unprecedented collaboration between leading non-profit and alternative spaces across New York, which are joining forces for the first time to mount a multilayered exhibition on a single subject. Partner venues include: Artists Space, High Line Art, Howl! Happening, Hunter College Art Galleries, The Kitchen, New Museum, Red Bull Arts New York, Rubin Museum of Art, Sky Art, Swiss Institute, White Columns, and 80WSE Gallery. Reconfigured as a festival, including installations in galleries and public spaces, as well as a full roster of public programs and events, I ♥ John Giorno is free and open to the public.

Expanding upon the exhibition that took place at Palais de Tokyo in Paris from October 2015 to January 2016, I ♥ John Giorno has been re-conceptualized specifically for New York, highlighting Giorno’s significant relationship with the city, and his singular role in creating and fostering community here. The 18-part exhibition has been divided by Rondinone into chapters reflecting the layers of Giorno’s life and work, his longstanding influence on and dedication to his chosen hometown of New York City, and his relationships with artist friends, lovers and collaborators including: Richard Bosman, Phong Bui, Angela Bulloch, Anne Collier, Verne Dawson, Judith Eisler, John Giorno, Mark Handforth, Matthew Higgs, Pierre Huyghe, Françoise Janicot, Scott King, Elizabeth Peyton, Ugo Rondinone, Erik Satie, Kendall Shaw, Michael Stipe, Billy Sullivan, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Peter Ungerleider, Joan Wallace, and Andy Warhol, whose work will be presented as part of the festival.

The exhibition format echoes the symbiotic relationship between Ugo Rondinone and John Giorno, who have been both partners and collaborators for the past two decades. Rondinone describes the show saying: “I ♥ John Giorno is a kaleidoscopic exhibition about the life and work of American poet and Tibetan Buddhist John Giorno, whose rich and stimulating life has woven many threads of American culture and spirituality. Within the dreamscape of the exhibition, one is invited to wander through the juxtaposed realm of art and poetry where image and language build upon themselves in a layered stream of consciousness driven by the biographical, the conceptual, and the emotional.”

John Giorno (b. 1936, New York City, USA) is an artistic innovator who has been defying conventional definitions of poet, performer, political activist, Tibetan Buddhist, and visual artist since he emerged upon the New York art scene during the late 1950s. In the 1960s, he began producing multi-media, multi-sensory events concurrent with Warhol’s Exploding Plastic Inevitable. He worked with Rauschenberg’s Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T) in 1966, and with Bob Moog in 1967-68. His breakthroughs in this area include Dial-A-Poem, which was first presented in 1968 at the Architectural Society of New York, and was later included in the MoMA’s Information exhibition in 1970. His contributions are significant to many culturally defining moments: the Beat generation, Pop Art, Punk, the Pictures Generation, and the hip-hop era. His work is included in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Musée National d´Art Moderne, Paris; and Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane; among others.

Ugo Rondinone (b. 1964, Brunnen, Switzerland) is a renowned mixed-media artist who lives and works in New York. Recent solo shows include: your age my age and the age of the rainbow, The Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow; let’s start this day again, Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati; every time the sun comes up, Place Vendome, Paris; girono d’oro + notti d’argento, Mercati die Traiano, Rome; becoming soil, Carre d’Art, Nîmes; seven magic mountains, Art Production Fund and Nevada Museum of Art/Desert of Nevada; vocabulary of solitude, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam; I ♥ John Giorno, Palais de Tokyo, Paris; golden days and silver nights, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; and artists and poets, Secession, Vienna. His work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, and the Dallas Museum of Art, among others. Upcoming shows include the world just makes me laugh at Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley; and good evening beautiful blue at Bass Museum of Art, Miami.