My son’s favorite book is called SQUIDS WILL BE SQUIDS. It’s a series of fables with very wry morals. One of the stories (which contains the apparently hilarious-to-a-five-year-old quote, “I have beef lips”) boasts as its moral: “Just because you have a lot of stuff, don’t think you’re special.”
My experience with Layer Tennis, which I'm proud to say goes all the way back to conception, says that's a good lesson for this competition. Layer Tennis rewards wit and simplicity more than it does clutter and flash unless, that is, your flash shows some especially good Kung Fu. (No Flash puns intended.)
This will be even more true today as Layer Tennis is bringing a pair of outstanding illustrators into the studio for the first-ever analog Layer Tennis match. It will be the first time that competitors and commentator will all be in the same room. It will be the first time the competitors will be playing in front of an audience not made up of their own bewildered co-workers. There will be an unprecedented amount of presentness. There will be ink and pencils and video. I'm assuming photos and scans and scissors will come into play. Possibly glue will be used (if not by the artists, certainly by the commentator).
Speaking of squids, Phineas Xavier Jones has something of a thing for them. Squids reappear again and again in his work. Even his non-squid pictures contain memories of squids. His subjects are almost always sensual and organic, like liquid under thin skin. A straight line in a Phineas X Jones drawing always feels to the viewer like a threat--like a knife or a pin or a shard of glass. Every one of Phineas's creations seems to me like something fragile and deadly (and frequently very funny) all at once. I can't promise you will see one literally in the match today, but figuratively at least, there will be squids.
The author of SQUIDS WILL BE SQUIDS is named Jon Scieszca. I thought I knew how to pronounce that until I found out our second competitor, Dan Grzeca, pronounces his name "Jet-sah." You will never get a job teaching English as a Second Language if your name is spelled Grzeca and pronounced "Jet-sah," which is probably why Dan became an illustrator and that's good news for us. You might know Dan from his terrific gig posters and like Phineas his art has surrealist vibe. Dan's however, seems more rooted in American folk art, if American folk art had been more concerned with the complex relationship between nature and civilization, with the intersection of the organic and inorganic, and less concerned with the relationship between grandmas and quilting. His creations are wildly imaginative, metaphorical, and (appropriately for us) layered.
Put some ink in your printers, ladies and gentleman. This might be a match that, like a good book, is best viewed on paper.
Play by play commentary for this match is provided, as it happens, by Kevin Guilfoile.
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Tomorrow we continue our series of live, experimental Layer Tennis Exhibitions with a motion graphics match between Matt Smithson and Daniel Oeffinger. As usual, the action starts at 2pm Chicago time. Check the time in your area. What is unusual is that the match won't finish until next Thursday. We'll be posting two layers per weekday. We've always wondered what would happen if we gave a couple artists a lot more time to do each volley and this week we'll find out. Commentary is by Jason Koxvold, who knows a little something about LYT and mo-graf. Jason's Match Preview has been posted and so has the coin-flip.
Naz and Sam Peeling Back the Layers on last Friday's amazing photographic and musical live Layer Tennis Match. No Tennis this week by the way, we'll be back live on the 19th
Layer 10 is up. And that's a wrap! Big thanks to Sam, Naz, Mark, and all the fans. No voting this week, but be sure to sign up for Season Tickets and be the first to get match info and learn how to play in our qualifying matches. Layer Tennis is taking a week off, we'll see you back here on March 19th for our fourth exhibition match.
The coin-flip and Match Preview are up for today's live Photographic Exhibition Match. We're almost set to go. Tweet your comments and include #lyt and then follow the chatter on our Crowd Page. And if you don't have 'em already, sign up for Free Season Tickets for news, contests and maybe even a chance for you to take the court this season.
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