About Clancco

Clandestine Construction Company International (Clancco), a corporation founded in 1968 and based out of New York, is an interdisciplinary project which explores, investigates, and examines the relationship between art and law through architectural-sculptures, performances, writings, interviews, and an internet website/blog, all made available in different material and digital formats.

Clancco’s project is unique because it operates as a corporation, enabling Clancco to have multiple, diverse, and yet co-existing practices (subsidiaries) across the United States and abroad.

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Radio Red ☼ Black Ink

San Francisco to Criminalize the Harming of Animals

Clancco || 24 July 2008 || (0)

A committee in San Francisco's city government has introduced a bill that would allow misdemeanour or felony criminal charges to be brought against any artist or financial backer who causes "the death, abuse or suffering of an animal" when making a work of art. [...] The bill, which is still in the process of being drafted, must go before the city legislature before it can become law.

We propose making an artwork where dogs harm an artist and present it as animal art. We could start with a pack of pitbulls taking turns on that bozo from Latin America who allegedly chained a dog and starved it to death. Now there's cutting edge work!

This story brought to our attention by Heather Loring (who we should probably hire) via The Art Newspaper.

"Obama is My Slave" T-Shirt Sparks Lawsuit

Clancco || 22 July 2008 || (0)

A t-shirt wearing New Yorker wants to sue a t-shirt designer, claiming it led to her being assaulted. The t-shirt in question, "Obama is my slave," was designed by Israeli-born Apollo Braun, and sells for $69 (about two Euro). Braun of course discounts any fault and claims that what he's selling is simply a commercial reflection of how most "WASPs" and U.S. Americans feel about African-Americans.

"I can't stand Obama," Braun says, adding that it's not because the Illinois senator is black. "That's the only thing I like about him. He opens the door for other minorities. [However], [h]e reminds me of Adolf Hitler," Braun explained.

For those hoping for a Braun defeat they'll have to hope (no pun intended) elsewhere. This suit has the same chance of succeeding as Willie Randolph has of regaining his managerial position with the (now winning) New York Mets. More on the shirt here.

Don't Be An Ass...Go Republican

Clancco || 21 July 2008 || (0)

Some of you may be thinking, "what the hell, this isn't about art," but friends, with the dismal exhibitions out this summer this pretty much qualifies as art (with a very notable exception going to Thomas Hirschhorn's installation at the Carnegie International). Get this...

Continue reading "Don't Be An Ass...Go Republican" »

"If You Can't Beat Em...Sue 'Em!"

Clancco || 21 July 2008 || (0)

If you can't beat 'em sue em! Or so seems to think Facebook. Perhaps they're thinking, "Hey, if some individuals can help themselves to the Brandenburg Gate, why can't we control how Germans fraternize?"

Continue reading ""If You Can't Beat Em...Sue 'Em!"" »

A Weekend of Theft, Recovery and Logic

Clancco || 20 July 2008 || (0)

Last week a group of sticky-finers broke into a Stockholm museum and stole five art works by Warhol and Lichtenstein (that's Roy). They're reportedly not worth much, at least not by today's standards, but still a hefty $500,000 and $670,000. Carina Aberg of the family-run Aberg Museum, was quoted by Reuters as saying: "They knew exactly what they were doing. They had been here and planned the whole thing." Ahhh, yeah genius, who attends a museum exhibition and in a heat of spontaneity decides to steal artwork? More.

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Facebook Image Leads to Prison Term

Clancco || 19 July 2008 || (0)

We've heard reports of job applicants who are not extended employment opportunities due to pictures of the applicants on Myspace and Facebook. You'd think today's youth would have added up this simple math and kept their dirty laundry to themselves. However, we just learned of another added feature to social networking sites--criminal prosecution.

Continue reading "Facebook Image Leads to Prison Term" »

Michael Asher: Circumstance and Perception of Originality

"Intellectual Property: A Chronology Compendium of Intersections between Contemporary Art and Utility Patents," by Robert Thill, was first published in Leonardo: Journal of the International Society for the Arts, Science and Technology 37, no. 2 (2004), pp. 117-124. An expanded, adapted version of it is published here in serial form with the abstract, introduction, and summary extracted. Starting on March 10, 2008, a different project in the compendium will appear biweekly. Please note that each entry is a unique electronic publication and will not be stored in an online archive after the two-week publication period. Below is the tenth entry of this series (published here on July 13, 2008).

Continue reading "Michael Asher: Circumstance and Perception of Originality" »

Sonar

Airborne Structures

On assignment in Mexico City, two Clancco interns (Amada Valencia and Werner Müller) caught this footage earlier today (July 6, 2008) and sent it back for uploading. The timeliness of a passing plane during the performance beautifully brackets historical flying structures.

A bit on what you are about to witness. The Danza de los Voladores de Papantla (Dance of Papantla's flyers) is a ritualistic dance from Mexico performed by Totonac Indians. Five men, each representing the five elements of the world climb atop a rotating pole; one of them stays on the pole playing a flute and dancing while the remaining four descend the pole with a rope tied to one of their feet. The rope unwraps itself 13 times for each of the four flyers, symbolizing the 52 weeks of the year. This dance is thought to be the vestige of a pre-Hispanic volador ritual common not only in ancient Veracruz but in western Mexico as well.

According to legend, a long drought covered the Earth so five men decided to send Xipe Totec, the God of fertility a message, asking them for the rain to return. They went to the forest and looked for the straightest tree, cut it, and took it back to their town. They removed all branches and placed it on the ground, then dressed themselves as feet/birds and descended flying attempting to grab their God's attention.

Inhabiting and Dwelling

Two interesting exhibits coming up in London and New York portending to bridge the fields of architecture and visual art. The Museum of Modern Art’s exhibition, Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling , examines the phenomenon of prefabricated structures through historical documents, full-scale reassemblies, and films. The MoMA exhibition will also feature five full-scale contemporary prefabricated houses, to be constructed in the outdoor space to the west of the main Museum building. The delivery and assembly of these projects functions as a real-time urban event, visible to the general public from the city streets beginning May 22, when the first house arrives for assembly. MoMA has set-up a website dedicated to the documentation of the design, fabrication, and assembly process of these specially commissioned projects.

The Hayward Gallery’s Psycho Buildings: Artists Take on Architecture, is based on the title of a book by Martin Kippenberger. According to their press-release, the “exhibition brings together the work of artists who create habitat-like structures and architectural environments that are mental and perceptual spaces as much as physical ones.

Satellite

Law + Visual Culture

Echoes

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