Brad Pit “Appearance” (2012)
Walking the rainy streets of Kassel, viewing the art hidden in the bushes, eating in restaurants, and occasionally using various bathrooms was the most highly regarded piece of the show. His thoughtful performance of being thoughtful was par excellence bar-none. The guy who made a pyramid out of beer was written up in Petra magazine for being around or something, but I think Brad totally should have been instead.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnfzwIOkhV8 Ceal Floyer “‘Til I Get it Right” (2005)
In an unadorned offshoot of a ground floor gallery of the Friedrichsplatz emanates a chopped refrain from Tammy Wynette’s song (the one that isn’t “Stand By Your Man”) with perfunctory, yet silky conviction. Listeners file into the small room to hear the deceptively simple line continue past the point of novelty. Sisyphean dimensions have been ascribed to the grinding repetition of Ceal Floyer’s piece, and watching listeners’ faces fall would have you agree that someone somewhere is damned into pushing the same boulder up a hill until they get their social security. {I’m having an anxiety attack, and I like it.} Oh, and Tammy’s voice will totally get stuck in your head, you’ll be singing “I’ll just keep on…’til I get it right” all day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTIQC4HlUm8 Llyn Foulkes “The Machine” (In Kassel Now Live! See The Man!!!)
He’s like that guy you saw one time in the 42nd street Subway station below the Port Authority Bus Terminal who reminded you of Tom Waits, but he’s spotlit on a black box stage and his “Machine” is like all of the xylophones and bicycle horns in the world came together to create a Transformer robot you can sit in. He’ll sing you a song about love and loss that will touch a nerve connected to the sad, sometimes sinister mutation of the American dream and the decaying optimism of the West coast. If this does not sound amazing to you, then there’s some zigzaggy paintings in the next room that are really beautiful.

Seth Price “Collaboration with Tim Hamilton”  (2011)
I like art I can wear even more than i like art I can touch. The suits look super fly, nice cut, the word “Paycheck” emblazoned on the lining makes me laugh, I like laughing. The message is clear, the take away clothes are like envelopes for your body. It’s nice to encounter a work that doesn’t remind me of my own end. Although the prices for the work still made me feel like I should just get a credit card.

Thomas Bayrle “Carmageddon” (2012)
The basement of the Documenta-Halle (where “a number of artworks thinking through what painting is today” reside) opens it’s main show room to a constellation of car parts. Engine pistons churn, and mechanical arms sway, squeak, and pump in a well oiled rhythm to the sound of intact cars revving. Under the layered sounds of working machines a human voice murmurs mostly indistinguishable phrases. I could swear that upon a closer listen, one pair of windshield wipers told me to take some pills. Rather these machines are steadily praying despite the churning of artificial systems. The quiet moment of contemplation can be easily lost in distractions of force and the elegant Porsche designs.

Shinro Ohtake “MON CHERIE: A Self Portrait as a Scrapped Shed” (2012)
A strange dream where one man discovers that he is a bricolage structure in the woods. The heat of media overexposure radiates from a clearing in Karlsaue park, where a small neon enhanced hermitage hums. As viewers advance on the house, a collection of gonging, pinging, whooshing sounds are activated. He’s trying to tell me something. Collected inside is the bulk of a life’s work in scrap booking plastered over metallic innards. This whole scene is watched over by a capsized boat in a nearby tree (is it Freudian?!).

Kasseler Verkehrs-Gesellschaft “Electric Tram” (1897)
Since it’s debut in 1897, the Electric Tram has been performing its predictable motions reluctantly, stopping often for long durrations. Intended as a participatory piece, The Tram has viewers enter its main seating area and look about for a ticket machine, the contents of which you do not need. They purchase a ticket out of habit and societal conditioning, a sign that though there is no physical police presence, they exist in the ether encouraging you to abide by the laws like a Yoko Ono piece encourages you to smile. While aboard The Tram, don’t expect to get anywhere quickly. Watch pedestrians walk by, it’s a key factor of the work which puts you in touch with temporality, mortality, frugality, actuality, and vitality. Also boredom.

Gerard Byrne “A Man and a Woman Make Love” (2012)
There’s no better place in Kassel to install a sex talk video than the Grand City Hotel. The only thing I would have changed was the location; projections could fall across the surfaces of the honeymoon sweet (every hotel has one, right?). An emptied ballroom was plenty fine though, and sitting on a chunk of foam-core in this makeshift theatre felt like a natural place to watch actors recite La Revolution Surrealiste number 11 as dialogue shot by Irish Public Broadcasting television equipment. I think this is the only video I stayed awake for the whole duration.

The Art Collective Deutsche Euro Shop “City Point Kassel” (2002)
I’ve never been to a grocery store inside of a mall before. It really put me in touch with issues of the organic versus inorganic, and the commodification combined with systemization of life and sustenance. There’s a triumph of ingenuity, and a dark side of progress. For a second I thought of these issues while meandering past the yogurt isle, then I purchased some little wafers with maple syrup in them, went back to the digs made possible and available to me by Couchsurfing.org, and had a traditional Pakistani dinner.

Michael Portnoy “27 Gnosis” (2012)
Is it pataphysics to have an imaginary winner to an imaginary game with a thorough imaginary logic? I don’t know, but stepping inside this huge mud mountain to see the best thing I was ever confounded by made me want to brush up on my spelling words. When Mr. Portnoy’s game show began (inside of a huge mud mountain) I knew I was witness to the very special machinations of psychedelic acumen. Thank god there was no definitive end, because maybe I would have drank some Kool-Aid. Maybe that’s love…