Storefront Confessionals

There's a story in today's New York Times about two performance artists, Laura Barnett and Sandra Spannan, who last Thursday began a performance piece called "Inside/Out," set in a storefront at 112 West 44th Street in Manhattan.

"The woman, dressed in white like a 19th-century washerwoman, put her fingers to her lips and, with a wooden clothespin, underlined the words stenciled on the glass: 'Air Your Dirty Laundry. 100% Confidential. Anonymous. Free!'"

Found Magazine

Found Magazine "collect(s) FOUND stuff: love letters, birthday cards, kids' homework, to-do lists, ticket stubs, poetry on napkins, telephone bills, doodles - anything that gives a glimpse into someone else's life. Anything goes..." This particular note (found on a downstairs break room door) mysteriously confirms that the work has been done and the bird has been freed. It's rather poetic, actually. Is the freed bird the maintenance personnel's (until now) caged creativity?

Freud's Art Collection

The Freud Museum, housed in Freud's former residence in London, is celebrating its 20th anniversary this month (which also happens to be Freud's 150th birthday) with an exhibition focusing on Freud's huge collection of ancient sculpture. Jonathan Jones of the Guardian has written an intriguing article about the show, and goes on to examine how Freud's interest in art showed up repeatedly in his work, plus how his work in return had a strong influence on artists such as the Surrealists André Breton, Max Ernst and Salvador Dali.