Artist Organized Art

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Suzanne Fiol at ISSUE Project Room
Old American Can Factory, Brooklyn, NY

performance at ISSUE Project Room
Old American Can Factory
232 3rd Street, 3rd Floor
Brooklyn, NY 11215

An Interview with media artist, Angie Eng

If you’re projecting video on a wrinkled bed sheet, performing on a door in lieu of a table, carting your own mic and mixer, getting lost in the rain by the Gowanus Canal only to roam in circles around a cylindrical room avoiding its audio hot spots, rest assured you’ve found it. ISSUE Project Room is a place where initiates hack such a pilgrimage to meet, hear and see experimental performers. I love New York for such venues. Recently ISSUE Project Room was awarded a twenty year rent free lease on a beautiful 4800 square foot room in Downtown Brooklyn. I interviewed Suzanne Fiol, Founder and Artistic Director, who elaborates about the venue and its unique culture.

AE: Please give us a detailed profile of a typical loyal ISSUE Project Room (IPR) fan.

SF: ISSUE's fan base is all over the map. We don't have any one typical fan because the kind of work that happens at ISSUE ranges from every type of music from Noise to Chamber music, literature, experimental film and video. What I could say is that the type of person who comes to ISSUE is someone who has a serious connection to the work presented…a person who might be deeply touched by a performance. Possibly a student, possibly a collector, possibly an artist or filmmaker or a pianist.

AE: IPR has been able to not only survive but also thrive in Brooklyn, when just recently many venues could not afford to lose their Manhattan crowd. What are the reasons that set IPR apart from other small experimental music houses?

SF: ISSUE is an artist run organization (though so are Roulette and the Stone which are both fantastic places). Our focus has always been towards the artist, to provide an atmosphere and a safe space where their visions could be realized. Our programming features some of the most accomplished people in their fields, but also emerging artists who are finding their voice. The opportunity for conversations and an informal and warm atmosphere lends itself to new collaborations and new ideas. This kind of energy creates growth and expansion for not just ISSUE Project Room, but for everyone affected by what goes on.

crowds at ISSUE Project Room

AE: IPR was quite a special place on the Gowanus inside the silo. Sound wasn't the best depending upon your seat, but architecture and the surreal placement inside that landscape made up for it. Then it moved to The Old Can Factory, its side-lit austere chapel-like room was also rich in character. And now... what can your faithful crowd expect for the new space?

SF: ISSUE was recently awarded a 20 year rent free lease on a beautiful 4800 square foot room in downtown Brooklyn. Easily accessible by most subways, this former Elk's club room in the old Board of Education Building is going to be the most amazing thing you can imagine. We've been meeting with the acoustical engineering firm, ARUP, who designed the Sydney Opera House and the Beijing Olympic Stadium to name a few projects and they have been interested in helping us take this space and make it sound completely amazing. It's quite an uphill battle trying to get in there and raise the funds to restore and treat the space, but trust me…it will be worth it for a generation of people who care about serious culture in New York and sustaining our artistic legacy as New Yorkers.

ISSUE Project Room's new space at 110 Livingston Street, Brooklyn, NY

AE: Oops, I did a journalist faux pas I just read your mission statement and realized I made the generalization that you were a music club. IPR is renowned for its programming of experimental music, yet its mission statement is much broader. Please explain.

SF: ISSUE is dedicated to all forms of artistic expression, while we do tend to feature music, our programming has included many incredible filmmakers, visual artists, poets, novelists, actors and even dancers. Our Artistic Advisory Board includes the great writers Paul Auster, Jonathan Lethem and Bob Holman as well as filmmakers Julian Schnabel and Jim Jarmusch. We've been profiled by many magazines and newspapers for our great literary series called "Littoral" which I co-curate with Tony Antoniatis. And just recently we presented a week of "Women in Experimental Cinema" which was very successful and a wonderful program. So I thnk our programming definitely crosses a number of genre boundaries.

AE: Artists are usually asked the same questions they dread posed to them. But if they were not asked of them, they are more than willing to address them voluntarily in a more organic fashion. Such as, what are your models or influences in building IPR? Better yet, what are your models to avoid so as not resorting to the bar for income?

SF: I've always been a big fan of Ellen Stewart at La Mama. They have a really fantastic organization and her energy and openness has been a big inspiration. Also we have a very energetic and incredibly supportive board of directors which makes it possible to achieve things that would never be possible through the efforts of one or two people on their own. They've helped us in ways I can't even begin to describe.

AE: You mention collaborating with curators on your site. You have mentioned before that your calendar is based upon thematic months such as 'vocal month', 'percussion month' 'multimedia month'. Can you explain the reason for this type of programming based upon musical instruments? Will this continue or what will a month look like in your new space.

SF: Collaborations are a huge part of ISSUE's mission. Last month we collaborated with Meredith Drum on Women's Experimental Cinema, with Zach Layton and Nick Hallett for a week of classic avant garde music through their "darmstadt" series. Percussion month was hosted by Billy Martin, one of my favorite percussionists. I think these collaborations yield a huge amount of exciting and fresh ideas and that is what ISSUE is all about. In the new space we will continue these programming models and expand them even further.

AE: I'm a young (25 year old) unknown composer/performer and want a gig at IPR. I just arrived in town and cannot say 'I'm a friend of so and so'. Do you answer the email/phone still? What is the process of being invited to the new IPR?

SF: Yes, we try to listen to all of the requests that come in via email and so forth. If someone sends us mail we like to listen to the CDs that are included. We ask that people send us a proposal for what they would be interested in doing at ISSUE and if there is a way to fit them into our calendar that makes sense programmatically then we like to introduce new artists to the community. It's very important to support emerging talent. For instance, ISSUE has an Artist-In-Residence Series that has featured Ashley Paul and Eli Keszler, young and brilliant musicians. They wanted to use their residency as an opportunity to perform with musicians in new york and build alliances. They played incredible sets with Phill Niblock, Aki Onda, David Linton and many other established musicians. Another new talent we're excited to work with next is Duane Pitre. His work is magnificent…he just sent us a CD. I was listening to it in the car and loved it and invited him to perform…his performance just blew us all away. Now he's our next Artist in Residence.

AE: The freefall economy is and will affect everyone for a while. You have a lot of courage to start a more ambitious performance space. Where does that courage come from, can you tell us about the magician/yourself behind it all from when you planted the seed until now?

SF: It has always been with me. Since I was in college I remember telling a friend of mine that I was going to make my life surrounded by art and I remember this feeling that I was going to open up a performance space. I was the gallery director of Brent Sikkema for a while and then came ISSUE and it seemed like destiny. It doesn't necessarily feel like courage, it just feels right. It feels like this is what I'm here for. There's something honest about this place that I think a lot of people feel too and are drawn to and the power and the courage doesn't come from me, it comes from everyone. Remember, this is now the Obama generation.

watch a quicktime video of events at ISSUE Project Room

AE: I am coming from the east village to see a concert/performance. It costs me $2 on the metro, $10(maybe $12 or $15 in the new space?) for a ticket and $16 taxi ride to get home (I am 53 years old). I come home with $28-32 less. Why would I go to IPR and not The Stone, Le Poisson Rouge, Roulette, or Bowery Poetry Club?

SF: ISSUE does offer something that these other clubs don't and they offer something we don't. There are a lot of people living in Brooklyn, now, remember. Many people are being priced out of Manhattan and are coming over here. For many it's actually more convenient to stay here than to go to the Village for a concert. So it's really a balance. The great thing about 110 Livingston is that it is so accessible from Manhattan with almost every subway going right there and is really accessible from Brooklyn too. Besides this, there's only one space in New York with a 15 channel hemispherical sound system…ISSUE.

AE: When Tonic closed many people felt they lost their second home. You have catered to a similar crowd. Does IPR see themselves as 'family' or 'guest'?

SF: Family

AE: Its 12:30am in Paris, I have about 4 hours to go before I know if Obama wins. I believe in the trickle up effect. If he is elected president, how will that affect IPR?

SF: Well, it shows that this country is heading in a new and positive direction. We've felt at times like we were besieged trying to keep expermintal culture alive in the Bush years. Now it's a new situation, Brooklyn was absolutely beautiful Tuesday night, people were hugging and laughing and crying tears of joy. I think ISSUE represents a place that cultivates and sustains culture not denigrates it. The Obama Administration, we hope, will make arts funding a priority. There's a lot of work for him to do, but we need to keep this up there on the list. Since Reagan, the government has been cutting funding for the arts…we need to change this pattern now.

AE: Better to end an interview on an even number as they say. Far-sighted analogies can be insightful. If IPR were a plant what would it be?

SF: A weeping willow tree.

Angie Eng, NYC/Paris

ISSUE Project Room has received generous support from the Annenberg Foundation, Brooklyn Arts Council, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, Brooklyn Arts Council, Meet the Composer, The Golden Rule Foundation, The Edwards Foundation Arts Fund, The Puffin Foundation, mediaThe foundation, the Independence Community Foundation, and the Experimental Television Center. BOARD OF DIRECTORS: Marc Zegans, Board Chair, Jo Andres, Steve Buscemi, Suzanne Fiol, Robert Longo, Steve Wax, ART ADVISORY BOARD: Paul Auster, William Basinski, Rhys Chatham, Tony Conrad, David Grubbs, Shahzad Ismaily, Bob Holman, Jim Jarmusch, John Jesurun, Charlotta Kotik, Jonathan Lethem, Evan Lurie, John Lurie, Moby, Rick Moody, Stephan Moore, Lawrence D. Morris, Julian Schnabel, Elliott Sharp, Mark Stewart, Edwin Torres, John Turturro, Kate Valk, Anne Waldman, Hal Willner, Robert Wilson

Angie Eng is a media artist who works in video, installation and time-based performance. Her current work draws inspiration from nomadic cultures. Her work has been performed and exhibited at the Whitney Museum at Philip Morris, Lincoln Center Video Festival, The Kitchen, New Museum of Contemporary Art, Renssalaer Polytechnic Institute, Eyebeam Art and Technology Center, Roulette Intermedium and Experimental Intermedia. Her videos have been included in digital art festivals in local and international venues in Cuba, France, Greece, Japan, Holland, Germany, Former Yugoslavia and Canada. She has received numerous grants and commissions: New Museum of Radio and Performing Arts, Harvestworks, Art In General, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, New York State Council on the Arts, Jerome Foundation and Experimental TV Center.

#permalink posted by Angie Eng : 11/11/2008 08:21:00 AM

Monday, September 29, 2008

Conflux 08

The New Beauty: 2008 Conflux Festival
Challenges Ideas of Public Space

CutUp installation, Center for Architecture photo: Jean Pike

by Jean Pike

Now in its fifth year, the Conflux Festival (Sept 11-14), included works by over 100 artists, geographers, scientists, writers, and architects who were selected from 400 submissions. Conflux is a freewheeling and often ephemeral series of events that are organized around the idea of psychogeography or, as Conflux Co-founder and Director Christina Ray calls it, “finding beauty, surprises and wonder in city spaces.” In opening remarks artist and festival curator Sal Randolph further fleshed this out by quoting Situationist Guy Debord who said “the new beauty can only be a beauty of situations”. Keynote speaker Chris Carlsson, author of Nowtopia: How Pirate Programmers, Outlaw Bicyclists, and Vacant-lot Gardeners are Inventing the Future Today (www.nowtopia.org), put it this way: “when we do these projects it’s the moment when we’re fully engaged…City life has so much that is so possible but is so stunted as far as what could be.”

The dynamic, and sometimes changing schedule coalesced around the festival website at www.Confluxfestival.org and at the Conflux HQ, where lectures, meetings and projects took place, located this year at the Center for Architecture. While zones in the streets of New York were identified for events near the Center for Architecture, many were “off-piste” so to speak, such as those made by Artists Meeting, a group of fourteen artists who made nineteen pieces all over lower Manhattan (www.artistsmeeting.org), or Tango Intervention, organized by artist Ro Lawrence, which gave participants a chance to tango on the Brooklyn Bridge, creating an exciting and different kind of social space for the walkway (www.tangointervention.org).

Tango dancers on Brooklyn Bridge photo: Paula K. Lazsus

In fact, over the weekend lower Manhattan was deluged by a wave of both digital and analog art events, many of which would have been barely perceptible to an unsuspecting public. In a piece called The Pick Up, artists Eleanor Eichenbaum Eubanks and Heather L. Johnson collected personal stories that took place at specific NYC locations, embroidered these memories on over twenty vintage handkerchiefs, and placed the handkerchiefs at the locations where the stories had originally taken place. The idea of making an introduction by way of picking up a handkerchief was resonant in the event. Members of the public are invited to search for these site-specific works and pick them up, using the website map as a guide, but the artists warn, for example, that two handkerchiefs left near the Chelsea Hotel disappeared within a matter of minutes of the drop, making after-the-fact searches potentially futile (www.thepickup.org).

The Pick Up photo courtesy of H.L. Johnson/E.E. Eubanks

The anonymous British artists collective, CutUp, was in town and created two new works on downtown billboards at the corners of Grand and Wooster Streets, and West Broadway and Grand as well as an installation in the lobby of the Center for Architecture. Interested in reordering the urban and mediated landscape, their process for the lobby installation included removing a billboard surface whole, cutting it up into 1500 pieces, then reconfiguring to create a desolate landscape. The final image is then viewed through a television that is connected to a CCTV camera. (www.cutup.org)

Brian House, who works with database driven narratives and their intersection with public space and whose work has been incorporated into the curriculum at Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, created an interactive video piece called Today is OK that could be viewed by anyone in the vicinity of the Center for Architecture with a cell phone that had Bluetooth capability.

The Federation of Students and Nominally or Unemployed Artists - $1k Giveaway, comprised of artists James Bachhuber, Angela Ferraiolo, Sam Freeman, Tamara Gubernat, Steve Lambert, Michael McCanne, Prescila Neri, Kahil Shkymba, Bob Smith, and Hal Weiss, set up a table over the weekend and gave out free artists grants to the public. Funds had been pooled together by the group from individual work activities leading up to the event. Anyone with a good idea for an art project could stand on line, describe it, put in an application and possibly receive instant funding. Soon local venders decided to join in and give things away as well.

1k Giveaway: receiving a grant application photo courtesy of Steve Lambert

1k Giveaway: a grant is awarded photo courtesy of Steve Lambert

Artist Lee Walton (www.leewalton.com) could be found on Saturday afternoon outside the Strand Bookstore where he was holding an “official” book-signing event. He had come prepared with a chair and a black Sharpie, was willing to sign anyone’s book and would stay as long as was necessary. Walton later gave a talk at the Center for Architecture where he explained how the Conflux Festival had influenced his work by introducing him to the notions of psychogeography. His work has since been commissioned by the likes of Art in General, Reykjavik Art Museum, and the Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art, among others. During his Sunday talk Walton passed out about twenty Starbucks Gift Cards explaining that only one of them had money on it which incited a roar of laughter from the audience and a comment from the crowd, “that’s brilliant!” Momentary problems with the internet connection during the talk prompted director and long time friend Christina Ray to call playfully from the back of the room, “That’s part of what we’re throwing at you! It’s called, Your Internet Has Been Dropped!”

Maps and map-making played a big role at Conflux. In a panel discussion that centered around projects that were inspired by the book, Cartography of Protest and Social Change, graphic designer and activist John Emerson, explained that he uses maps to visualize and challenge power and to navigate abstract relationships. He presented the map he created in collaboration with artist/writer Trevor Paglen of the CIA’s secret international flights that transported hostages for rendition. The map was posted on a Santa Monica billboard. Questions such as, “who makes the maps?” and “how do we map ourselves?” were put forward by panel participants as a means of unraveling assumed power structures.

John Emerson presents his map of secret CIA flights
photo: Jean Pike

Artist Lucas Murgida uses the way in which he earns his living, in this case cabinet-making, to make performances and interventions that engage the public and “their notions of service, perception, liberation, and derivations of power”. For this year’s Conflux Festival, in a project called 9/10, referring to the phrase “possession is nine-tenths of the law,” Lucas constructed a cabinet that he then left on a New York City street with himself inside. On Sunday morning, during one of the talks, he was taken. Lucas’ flickr site provided a real time record of his experiences and can be viewed at http://www.flickr.com/photos/lucasmurgida/.

Lucas Murgida in 9/10
images courtesy of Lucas Murgida

As Christina Ray now steps away from the Conflux Festival after five years as director, participants and supporters are waiting eagerly to hear what will become of the festival. Conflux is currently in its fifth year with no corporate or public funding, running almost entirely on a grassroots, volunteer basis with only some in-kind donations.

At a time when freedom of the use of “public” space within the City is questionable due to big real estate and corporate interests and homeland security, the projects in the Conflux Festival come as a breath of fresh air, nudging at the edges of the control and ownership of communications systems, of our own habitual activities and the way we operate within the City’s systems. In these events we can see what isn’t normally seen, do what isn’t normally done, and learn about our expectations. Then, as Chris Carlsson says, we can “repopulate the technosphere and reappropriate what we do and why we do it”, a very exciting proposition indeed.

#permalink posted by Jean Pike : 9/29/2008 11:22:00 AM

Monday, September 08, 2008

J Mandle Performance
The Drawing Center’s 'The Big Draw'
The World Financial Center, NYC

by artist|architect Jean Pike

The collective, J Mandle Performance, enlivened the outdoor space of the World Financial Center yesterday with a fun but also poignant piece called hopscotch. Dancers created the underlying line structures (spirals) with cast chalk shoes that were later augmented by kids as they chalked pictures of “safe” and “dangerous” spaces, making a map for a more difficult hopping game. The kids didn’t hesitate for a millisecond as they dove into their task as artists.

The dancers wore highly structured gowns with phrases embroidered on them such as “if you see something”, well known to New Yorkers who are familiar with the MTA’s post-9.11 admonition, “if you see something, say something.”

This piece is based on the early French version of hopscotch called Escargot which is played along a spiral path, but Mandle was interested to note that hopscotch originated as a military training exercise in Britain during the Roman Empire and was used to build speed and agility.

About the collective’s work, Mandle says, “I believe in the necessity of public interventions to create small shifts in perception, causing people to turn from one realm of meaning to another.” (interview, artkrush, 09/2007) Hopscotch gave us pause on Saturday.

#permalink posted by Jean Pike : 9/08/2008 09:45:00 PM

Friday, August 29, 2008

Susannah Auferoth at wünderarts
Amherst Massachusetts

GIFT

by correspondent, Richard Lloyd

Susannah Auferoth's exhibition of new paintings opened recently at the wünderarts Gallery in Amherst Massachusetts. wünderarts is a new gallery in Western Mass. They have planted their flag in the ground and are staking out a territory all their own in the Pioneer Valley gallery scene. These new paintings are vigorous and if you live in the area I recommend you make your way to the gallery to see them in real time and place.

In her published statement about the work, Auferoth describes a process of layering thin washes of color one on top of the other. The results are beautiful. Auferoth is a colorist. She mentions Richard Diebenkorn, and Philip Taaffe as touchstones. Here she continues her own exploration of subtle color manipulation on an intimate and delicate plane. The paintings are deceptively simple in appearance. Three luminous bands of color run horizontally and form a foreground, background and a horizon line that bisects the painting in the center. The horizon line is a band unto itself and typically darker and more ominous.

When looking at these works my initial association is: landscape.

But whose landscape? The paintings are windows into the world we share today. What do you see? Is this the Thai beach sunrise for a twenty-something post-grad tourist? Or is it sunset on the killing fields of Darfur? Is it Hadley or Osetia? To my eye the paintings flicker between all these places.

Their size is important. They feel like scrolls that have been placed sideways on the wall. Long and horizontal yet small enough to be seen all at once. The events depicted here are ongoing, they haven't ended and the beginnings are far, far away. Think of what happens to what you see if you are moving fast enough - a smudge of colors all being pushed together in a fat line across your cones and rods; or when you stare at a blade of grass long enough and something similar happens. These paintings are peepshow slots into that world.

In some of the paintings you can see serialized images buried in the ground of the work behind the bands of horizontal color. This sets up an optical back-and-forth that animates the surface. What are these images? - and what are they doing there? Auferoth is dropping hints. It feels as though we are listening to a hushed conversation in the next-door motel room. The walls are thin but the actual words are still indistinct. You will need your intuitive channels opened up and humming.

These works speak to the traveler in us all. They are simultaneously hopeful and foreboding. I kept being thrown back and forth on an emotional Tilt-a-Whirl; one moment staring at the world - post-apocalypse, empty, lifeless and still, and at the next blink standing at the edge of a new world - full of nascent life, on the verge of becoming.

current exhibition through September 7

Susannah Auferoth, who has both a mechanical engineering and fine arts degree from UMASS Amherst, returned with her family to the Valley from New York City in 2001, and lives and works in a historic farmhouse in Hatfield that she and her husband have updated to suit their family's lifestyle. The artist works in her home studio where she creates paintings on paper and wood panel that explore color, form, and meaning. While their horizontal orientation and bands of color evoke more traditional land or waterscapes, the inclusion of repeated images or figures in Auferoth's paintings adds a layer of complexity and mystery while increasing the inherent abstraction of the works.

Richard Lloyd lives and works in Northampton Massachusetts.

wünderarts (wunderarts.com) is located at 383 Main Street in Amherst, Massachusetts, is currently exhibiting GIFT, featuring paintings by Susannah Auferoth and Hillary Milens. The show, also marking the gallery’s one-year anniversary, opens with a reception on Saturday, August 2 from 6-9 p.m. and runs through September 7.

Hillary Milens, a graduate of UMASS’ Fine Arts program, and the Executive Director of the Amherst Community Art Center was born and raised in Burlington, Vermont. After concentrating mainly in sculpture while at UMass, she began experimenting with drawing and painting. An exploration of surface, texture, and color, her paintings are made by building up and breaking down the surface of wood by applying layers of paint, scraping into it and marking the surface with various tools and techniques. An interest in repetition, organic form and the meditative process are present in the paintings.

In addition, works by Italian artist Alberto Mancini based on his concurrent exhibition of paintings - I’ll tell you how the Sun rose - inspired by the poetry of Emily Dickinson, will be on view in the rear of wünderarts for the duration of GIFT. Mancini’s show, on view from August 2 – 10 at the Eli Marsh Gallery at Amherst College, is sponsored by the Emily Dickinson Museum, and includes 29 paintings inspired by Dickinson’s poetry. The exhibition is part of the 20th anniversary of the Emily Dickinson International Society (EDIS), which holds its annual meeting in Amherst on the weekend of August 1. For more information on Mancini and the exhibition, please visit www.emilydickinsonmuseum.org.

#permalink posted by Richard Lloyd : 8/29/2008 05:56:00 PM

Monday, August 25, 2008

CAMOUFLASH - DRESDEN

Curators:
Mariusz Sołtysik, Aurelia Mandziuk and Anja Tabitha Rudolph

Organizator: UNOACTU
co-organizar: PATIO Art Center, Academy of Humanites and Economics in Lodz.

http://www.unoactu.org/en_camouflash.html
http://patio.art.pl/wystawa.php?id=40

SHILPA GUPTA (India), KATHERINE BEHAR (USA), ALLAN HUGHES (Northern Ireland), REINIGUNGSGESELLSCHAFT (Dresden), JANUSZ BALDYGA (Poland), ERIC VAN HOVE (Belgium), HARRO SCHMIDT (Hanover), MARIUSZ OLSZEWSKI (Poland), ULU BRAUN (Berlin), MARKUS HUEMER (Berlin), AKI TARR (Dresden), DANIEL BIESOLD (Berlin), SUZY SUREK (USA), TAKAKO KIMURA (Japan), YOSHIAKI KAIHATSU (Japan), ERIKA KNERR (USA), DANIEL RODE (Dresden), ANDREAS SACHSENMAIER (Berlin), OLGA BERGMANN (Iceland), TATSUYA HIGUCHI (Japan), ARIANNE OLTHAAR (Netherlands), DIETER LUTSCH (Berlin), CHRISTINE MACKEY (Ireland), KRISTAPS GULBIS (Latvia), ANDRÉ MAROSE (Berlin), ANNA MACLEOD (Ireland), BERND IMMINGER (Berlin), JESSICA HIGGINS (USA), MARTIN BRAZINA (Czech Republic), EWA SZCZYREK-POTOCKA (Poland), GABRIELE HORNDASCH (Düsseldorf), MARIUSZ SOLTYSIK (Poland), MIYUKI YOKOMIZO (Japan), TOMASZ WENDLAND (Poland), BOSSE SUDENBURG (Berlin), TOMASZ MATUSZAK (Poland), ADAM KLIMCZAK (Poland), PIA MÜLLER (Düsseldorf), AISLING O´BEIRN (Northern Ireland), TOBIAS HANTMANN (Cologne), GRIT RUHLAND (Wuppertal), CHARLIE CITRON (USA), SARA PFROMMER (Dresden), NÁNDOR ANGSTENBERGER (Berlin)

CAMOUFLASH Cinema:

DISORIENTALISM (USA), DONG JOO LEE (South Korea), LUKASZ OGOREK (Poland),
KRZYSZTOF LUKOMSKI (Poland), SARAH BROWNE & GARETH KENNEDY (Ireland), AGNIESZKA CHOJNACKA (Poland), MARINA NAPRUSHKINA (Belarus), HENRIK BUSCH (Dresden), RICHARD THOMAS (Australia), WIKTOR POLAK (Poland), SUSANA PEDROSA (Portugal), CARLOS ALBERTO CARRILHO (Portugal)

Concept/Realisation Entry:
NEULANT VAN EXEL (Berlin)

The group UNOACTU based in Dresden, Germany, in cooperation with the Patio Art Centre Lodz, Poland is presenting the exhibition CAMOUFLASH – DISAPPEARING IN ART to open this friday 29 August, 2008. CAMOUFLASH began as an international artist's meeting that was led by polish artist and curator Marius Soltysik, in Lodz, that I covered in October 2007.

For Dresden Soltysik's concepts were used and the original group from Lodz is all exhibiting here. UNOACTU has broadened the theme that Mariusz began, based on concepts of Baudrillard's theories. They have compared the ideas of other philosophers working in this arena, as well as consciously picked a location right next to the shopping mall across from the central train station in Dresden, which instantly underscores the theme. This project has created an intensive exchange between German and Polish artists.

More than 50 works of contemporary art will be exhibited in the building "Prager Spitze," by artists from Japan, the USA, Australia, India and several European countries.

Many of the artists are arriving now to set up their installations and prepare for the opening. Another artist from New York, Katherine Behar, will begin a performance starting at the former Zentrum Warenhaus down the Prager Straße to the Prager Spitze, an hour before the official opening at 8 pm. Other talks, performances and a concert will follow.

MEDIATIONS Biennale in Poznan (www.mediations.pl) will present a selection of the artworks - about half of the exhibition - in October 2008.

Erika Knerr, New York

Camouflash
The Disappearing in Art

Camouflash generates significant meaning through the combination of the words “camouflage” and “flash” which describes a paradox or convergence of opposites. “Camouflage” means both camouflage and hidden nature, and, “flash,” means a spark – an outstanding moment or message that is visible only for a short moment. This is an allusion to the schizophrenia of modern human beings in the society of media communication and public performance. Their endeavour culminates in competing moments, those of hiding and those enabling them to stand out in the crowd for a short moment – to gain identity for an instant. This topic is presented to the public directly in one of those places - where this schizophrenia is celebrated in a pre-eminent manner – within a shopping centre across from the main station in Dresden.

The subtitle “Disappearing in Art” departs from Baudrillard’s conceptual background. The entrance of the worlds of simulation and a matrix, sounded merely apocalyptic in the philosophy of the 80’s. The disappearing in the arts gives evidence to a process that existed in the past. If it is possible to pause, then options could appear that are yet unknown and altogether different than the proclaimed tendencies leading to an abrupt ending. The double meaning of the subtitle leads us to contradicting possibilities of interpretation. There opens space for associations creating significance. The merging of the dimensions of reality and arts into each other and the entailed reduction of their operation fields and efficiency might be interpreted, as well as simply dealing with this topic in the arts. Whereby the second in particular, enables a sober reflection of the process itself.

MS & ATR

#permalink posted by Erika Knerr : 8/25/2008 06:21:00 PM

Monday, August 04, 2008

ISEA 2008
Singapore
International Symposium on Electronic Arts

By Mina Cheon

ISEA 2008, International Symposium on Electronic Arts, in Singapore is pure elegance.

The artworks are conceptually sound and technically flawless. The conference is dynamic and gathers artists, architects, scientists, and engineers from all around the world with the common interest of new media, electronic arts, and technology. Through the vision of artistic director Gunalan Nadarajan, the scope of the events is diverse and each section presents a very unique perspective on technology experience. The strength of the symposium is the depth and research behind each project and panel discussion that has much to do with social and cultural awareness about the potentials of new media art. The dialogues are rich and complex, and all participants are critically engaging current issues befitting our time. Some of the discussions include the discourse of troubled cyber-identity, ideological structuring within and outside the technological systems, geo-politics and borders created and dismantled through media culture dissemination, bio/nano technologies that raise ethical questions regarding scientific research, and concerns of eco-resource that is essential to sustainability and green technology.

Amongst the varied programs, the main juried exhibition at the National Museum of Singapore is exquisite. Out of over 100 applicants from the world, the selected 16 artist teams worked as residence at the new media and technology labs of the National University of Singapore on their proposed projects. Nadarajan states that the “intention was to create an opportunity for the artist to work closely with leading scientists and researchers in a variety of technologies in order to develop works that creatively expand the potential of these technologies while raising critical questions of aesthetic and socio-cultural value.”

“Exodus” by Metahaven

The monumental installation “Exodus” by Metahaven from Amsterdam and Brussels, hosted by Lab for Media Research, display the output of a programmed visual search engine. It is written that it is a “research engine” that uses “algorithms and visual strategies for searching the Internet, revealing the structural properties of web content and its inherent distribution of influence.” This project comments on the information hierarchy presented by search engine systems, which information is given priority and which is left behind, and questions how that is determined. http://www.metahaven.net

Loitering” by artists Shilpa Phadke, Shilpa Ranade and Sameera Khan

“Gendered Strategies for Loitering” by artists Shilpa Phadke, Shilpa Ranade, and Sameera Khan from India, and in collaboration with University Scholars Programme Cyberarts Studio, traces women loiterers in Mumbai, India. Although it is common for men to loiter and just hang around, the project looks at the stereotype produced when women do it. The differentiation of social connotation when women are loitering demarcates public spaces as gendered spaces. Hence, the piece examines the gendering of space through the conceptual occupancy of loiter, which seems to be an acceptable male’s space. It is written that the “research through Gender and Space project suggests that most women in Mumbai would attempt to avoid the obstacles almost without thinking. Women use multiple strategies, often crossing the street several times, walking briskly and not meeting anyone’s gaze in order to avoid appearing as if they are loitering.” http://www.genderandspace.org

“Smile J, Wear It Like a Costume” by Momoyo Torimitsu

“Smile J, Wear It Like a Costume” by Momoyo Torimitsu from Japan, and in collaboration with NUS Face Group, is an interface that captures the interactor’s face in order to re-make the snap shot of the face with a selectable palette of smiles. The many roles of smiles varies as much as the kind of smiles there are that people ‘put on’ daily. The piece reinforces the artificiality that comes out with the naturalness of smiling as well as how patterns can emerge through the staging of smiles, where facial gestures are the main interface for social communications. http://momoyotorimitsu.com

“The Global Bridge Symphony” by artist Jodi Rose

“The Global Bridge Symphony” by artist Jodi Rose from Australia, and collaborating with Ambient Intelligence lab and Communications Laboratory, display large columns dispersed throughout the gallery that show abstract to representational videos intersecting ideas, visuals, sounds, and text pertaining to the concept of the bridge. Hence, creating a symphony of bridges from all around the world in the exhibition space. One of the texts reads, “The most beautiful bridge in the world. So pure, so resolute, so regular that here, finally, steel architecture seems to laugh. – Le Corbusier.” And, another one states that “The bridge is a location. It allows a space into which earth and heaven, divinities and mortals are admitted. The space allowed by the bridge contains many places variously near or far from the bridge. – Martin Heidegger.” http://www.singingbridges.net

“Sourcing Water” by Shiho Fukuhata

“Sourcing Water” by Shiho Fukuhata from Japan, Georg Tremmel from Austria, with Yousuke Nagao, and hosted by Singapore-Delft Water Alliance (SDWA) deals with eco-resource concerns of water in Singapore. Since most of Singapore’s water is imported from Malaysia, the artists use dowsing rods with GPS and motion sensors to track water sources in Singapore and create visuals and maps of these potential water hotspots. http://bcl.biopresence.org/srch20

“The Water Book: An Encyclopedia of Water” by Clea T. Waite

“The Water Book: An Encyclopedia of Water” by Clea T. Waite from US and Germany, and in collaboration with Singapore-Deft Water Alliance (SDWA), creates another water piece that is interactive using text, water, touch sensor, and light. By interacting and touching the water, the viewers can experience sound and images related to the subject of water. The piece states how water” is the key component in the environmental transformation that the planet is now experiencing. It is the most powerful symbol of flow, purity and survival, and plays essential roles in our daily life as well as global geopolitics.” http://clea-t.de

“Aurora Consurgens” by Horia Cosmin Smoila and Marie Christine Driesen

“Aurora Consurgens” by Horia Cosmin Smoila from Romania and Marie Christine Driesen from France, and in collaboration with Mixed Reality Lab, creates visualization of brain waves. It is written, “The installation offers an alternative way to render the different states of consciousness through the exploration of cognitive conglomerates. The observer is invited to explore a paradoxical place of creation where the brain waves articulate the evocations of archetypal constructions…” http://ghostlab.org

Out of the partner exhibitions, Experimenta Play ++: Art for the 21^st Century at the Sculpture Garden is a traveling exhibition, which has come to Singapore. It is an exhibition of Australian media art, curated by Caroline Farmer and Liz Hughes. It is unlike any of the other exhibitions with its playful and fantastical Alice in Wonderland appearance and interaction. http://www.experimenta.org

A very warm reception by “Zizi the Affectionate Couch” (right) by artists Stephen Barrass, Linda Davy, Robert Davy & Kerry Richens. The piece is a furry couch that purrs and vibrates as one sits and cuddles it. The piece combines domesticated pets with comfort furniture as one assemblage.

“Immersion” (left) by Angela Barnett, Andrew Buchanan, Darren Ballingall, Chris MacKellar and Christian Rubino is a floor projection piece that creates 3D animated sea creatures by the interaction of one’s shadows. “The Shy Picture” (right) by Narinda Reeders and David MacLeod comprises of a small monitor on a large white wall where people in the video react based on the viewer’s proximity. The characters literally run away or shut the curtains in front of the interactor. The piece calls attention to the relationship between the viewer, camera, screen, and characters in the most delightful and charming way while intrinsically commenting on filmic issues of voyeurism and exposure.

“Listening Heads” by Kentaro Yamada (left) allows interactors to speak into a microphone which then allows the faces on the screen to react differently according to the voices. This piece is eerie as the faces gestures real listening. This piece is in the exhibition Cloudland: Digital Art from Aotearoa New Zealand which is on view at The Substation. http://www.aotearoadigitalarts.org.nz The Lucid Fields exhibition which displays media artworks by Swiss Artists-in-Labs at the Lasalle college of Arts shows many works that contributed to the debates of scientific research. Out of them, “The Rocket for the Rest of Us” by Roman Keller is the “actual rocket…[that] results from collaboration with scientists in the lab on alternative future energies.”

From the series of panels that are held at the Singapore Management University, Nanyang Technological University, as well as other spaces, “Borders Reckonings: Border Crossings” holds a lively discussion about the concept of borders: from borders that surround Austria, the North/South Korean border, Urban borders, to scattered borders which are everywhere; “Intelligent Architecture” panel presents alternative models of architecture thinking and Paul Thomas speaks about the transsubstantiation possibilities in architecture that can come with transgression devices such as in a non-perspectival method of mapping through GPS systems as a new mode of recording time and space.

“Passing and Peril on the Information Super Highway” (top left) chaired by Kóan Jeff Baysa deals with intense issues of racism, nationalism, and geo-politics in cyberculture. The panelists include: Mina Cheon, who presents Kenkanryu (The Hate Korean Wave) in Japanese Manga; Jiayi Young, who shows cyberculture in China and political blockage / censoring; Judy Sibayan, who publishes the most radical and subversive critical arts journal on-line Ctrl+P, and Roopesh Sitharan who examines bloggers gone politicians in Malaysia. “Locating Cyberfeminism” panel chaired by Irina Aristarkhova (top right) is a forum that voices the possibilities of the other in cyberfeminism and includes herself and Margaret Tan dialoguing about their experience with SubRosa in Singapore in 2003; Mara Tralla who looks at cyberfeminism from Estonia; Boryana Rossa, who sends a presentation from Bulgaria looking at the stereotype of women & machine that is found in popular cultures; and Mina Cheon who presents a paper on three Korean female artists while tracing the issues of displacement, performativity, and subjectivity in cyberfeminist discourse. Lastly, Artist & scientist team Jiayi Young and Shih-Wen Young, in the panel of arts & science intersection, shows their collaboration “Regular Irregularity (RI)” where through chaos theory, the minute change affects the outcome of the entire system. They show their project “Baby Nuna” where they utilize sounds from a nuclear powerplant in France to create a moving image representation as well as their recent piece on converting Chinese calligraphy and construction notes into scribbles of lines. This piece is being exhibited at the Beijing Chinese Biennale 2008, opening August 2^nd and it is the Chinese Character Biennale at the KU Art Center, curated by Kóan Jeff Baysa.

ISEA 2008 is in Singapore from 25 July – 3 August.

Five Main Themes of the Symposium: Locating Media, Reality Jam, Wiki Wiki, Ludic Interfaces, and Border Transmission

Includes: Main Juried Exhibition, Partner Exhibitions, Keynotes, Invited Forums, Panels, Workshops, Media Presentations, Performances, and other events.

Website: http://www.isea2008singapore.org/

And Singapore Now:

Event is “Night Festival,” National Museum of Singapore’s day appearance changes with color projection at night.

“Surrounding David” by Titarubi is at the lobby rotunda of the National Museum of Singapore. It is 8.5 meters tall.

Whose got the best view in Singapore? Korean journalist Yoolim Lee of Bloomberg, view seen from Golden Mile Tower.

Thank you for not smoking here. Smoking Area. These are examples of “scattered borders.” Singapore has the most prohibition notices one can ever see in a country. The country is unique for its commercial openness that comes with legal behavioral regulations.

#permalink posted by Mina Cheon : 8/04/2008 01:05:00 PM

Monday, June 30, 2008

photo: Jean Pike, onsite view Site Santa Fe Biennial 2008

Overlaps and Relocations
New Architecture at the Site Santa Fe Biennial
Lucky No. 7

by NYC Artist Architect, Jean Pike
download the original pdf

Site Santa Fe’s generic warehouse space was transformed for its 7th Biennial into a rich spatial experience by architects Todd Williams and Billie Tsien and unveiled during weekend opening events June 20-22. The architecture that was inserted into the space was an armature for movement and viewing and provides the thread that holds together a show of site-specific work by 25 artists from 16 countries.

Todd Williams and Billie Tsien, who had used ideas about “spatial curiosity” and “approaching” to generate a previous project with curator Lance Fung for the Snow Show in Torino, developed peripatetic ways of moving through the Site exhibition space that offer elevation changes (ramps, steps, balconies and raised walkways) and the possibility to perceive space, art and people from multiple angles, heights and perspectives. Spaces for moving become event spaces: locations for stopping, gathering, looking, listening, sitting, talking, art-making and other random actions.

photo: Megan Fisher McHugh, courtesy of santafelucky7.com

The exhibition space is largely defined by the presence of the surfaces upon which and within which one moves. Vertical walls, where they exist, are sometimes punctured, sometimes partial, allowing for moments of spatial transparency, parallax and specific perspective views. Because of the complex ways of moving and looking at the art one starts to perceive an overlap, an overlapping of spaces, of art, of one artist’s work upon another and of one location upon another, of digital onto analog and vice versa.

photo: Jean Pike, onsite view Site Santa Fe Biennial 2008

The idea of spatial overlap and extension mixes with the content and concepts of the art: paintings of internet images made in Korea and paintings of internet images made in Santa Fe (artist Soun Myung Hong), Mnemonic connections between disparate locations such as that which exist between Studio Azzurro’s interactive video projection, Fourth Ladder, and actual ramps with actual people climbing on them within the exhibition space, work like an alternating montage between digital and analog.

photos: BayAreaEventPhotography.com

Abduction, a work by Fabian Giraud and Raphaël Siboni also references alternate locations. Their piece, taken from a Santa Fe gallery, was transformed, installed at Site, and is intended to be relocated back to its original gallery after the Biennial closes, having been transformed yet again. Even the materials used for the architectural construction of the exhibition will be dismantled and reused elsewhere at the end of the show. Be it literal or conceptual, the offsite projects are now also overlapped onto the site, and a sort of simultanaeity begins to occur. Work created elsewhere and the sensibilities of artists from elsewhere, an interest in recyclable art-making materials and a spatial experience that, through movement and view, emphasizes montage, are all brought to bear on the site and reverberate back outward beyond its confines.

photo: Jean Pike, onsite view Site Santa Fe Biennial 2008

At the front, the new transparent entrance structure, built with manufactured materials, is a contemporary version of the traditional New Mexican ramada, a trellis-like structure made from wood branches that provides ventilation and shade in the harsh summer months. It’s moving shadows mix with the simulated and static (painted) projection images of Michal Budny and Zbigniew Rogalski’s Slideshow and vibrate with the complexity of here and now and then and somewhere else all at the same time. With the addition of the piece by Rose B. Simpson, Eliza Naranjo Morse and Nora Naranjo Morse snaking through, it makes a great introduction to the show, revealing all the passion and energy of the artists’, architects’ and curators’ work.

Can we, as Christine Boyer asks in reference to postmodern cities, “find the unity of community in this fragmented experience?” At Site we see our stories overlapping into new and exciting configurations that offer the promise of an even greater community, no matter how complex.

Jean Pike is an artist|architect living and working in New York City. She holds a Master of Architecture degree from the Yale School of Architecture. Her work has been shown at Viridian Artists Gallery in NYC, The California College of Arts and Crafts, The University of New Mexico School of Architecture and Planning Gallery, Tao Gallery in Hong Kong and Gallery 61 at The New York Institute of Technology. Her work is about translating between various forms of representation (abstract drawing, video) and three or four dimensional work (sculpture, architecture and installation). Coming from a background in dance, it is often about the physical sense of the body in space and time and how that relates to psychological and emotional states.

Lance M. Fung (fungcollaboratives.org) is the 2008 curator of Site Santa Fe Biennial titled "Lucky Number 7." There are currently 25 artists from 16 countries participating including: Martí Anson, Fabio Cirifino, Paolo Rosa, Stefano Roveda, Leonardo Sangiorgi, Erick Beltrán, Luchezar Boyadjiev, Michal Budny, Ricarda Denzer, Hiroshi Fuji, Fabien Giraud, Piero Golia, Soun Myung Hong, Scott Lyall, Nick Mangan, Eliza Naranjo-Morse, Nora Naranjo-Morse, Ahmet Ögüt, Mandla Reuter, Nadine Robinson Born in 1968 in London, Zbigniew Rogalski, Wael Shawky, Raphaël Siboni, Rose B. Simpson and Shi Qing Born with a curatorial team including: Ferran Barenblit, Iara Boubnova, Gregory Burke, Colin Chinnery, Alexie Glass, Lukasz Gorczyca and Michal Kaczynski, Laura Steward Heon, Barbara Holub, Vasif Kortun, Chus Martinez, Martina Mazzotta, Tsukasa Mori and Yuu Takehisa, Joseph Sanchez, Patrizia Sandretto, Guillermo Santamarina, Hyunjin Shin, Alessandro Vincentelli, Marc-Olivier Wahler, William Wells, William Wells,

SITE Santa Fe was launched in 1995 to organize the only international biennial of contemporary art in the U.S. Conceived to bring the global contemporary art dialogue to the art-rich Southwest, and as a major event on par with such renowned exhibitions as the Whitney Biennial and the Venice Biennale, it has become an integral event for contemporary art aficionados, attracting tens of thousands of visitors from around the world. To date, SITE Santa Fe has successfully held six biennials, each of which has drawn worldwide attention and brought important contemporary art from all over the world to Santa Fe. Past biennial curators have either arrived as or have subsequently become superstars in the world of contemporary art. Following their SITE Santa Fe Biennial guest curatorships, Francesco Bonami (1997), Rosa Martínez (1999) and Robert Storr (2004) were chosen to organize the Venice Biennales in 2003, 2005 and 2007, respectively. Dave Hickey received the coveted MacArthur “Genius Award” after curating SITE’s Biennial in 2001. In 2006, Klaus Ottmann, a New York-based independent curator organized SITE Santa Fe’s Sixth International Biennial, Still Points of the Turning World that ran from July 9, 2006 to January 7, 2007.

Past artists have included: Marina Abramovic, Chema Alvargonzález, Francis Alÿs, Robert Ashley, Rebecca Belmore, Barbara Bloom, Imre Bukta, Carlos Capelán, Thomas Joshua Cooper, Braco Dimitrijevic, Felix Gonzáles-Torres, Ann Hamilton, Gary Hill, Jenny Holzer, Rebecca Horn, Anish Kapoor, Catherine Lord, Chie Matsui, Jakob Battner, Gerald McMaster, Bruce Nauman, Marta María Pérez Bravo, Alison Rossiter, Meridel Rubenstein, Andres Serrano, Lorna Simpson, Valeska Soares, Pierrick Sorin, Trinh T. Minh-ha, Tseng Kwong Chi, Millie Wilson, Massimo Bartolini, Vanessa Beecroft, Maurizio Cattelan, Olafur Eliasson, Giuseppe Gabellone, Kevin Hanley, Noritoshi Hirakawa, Gary Hume, Lukás Jasansky & Martin Polák, KCHO, William Kentridge, Suchan Kinoshita, Udomsak Krisanamis, Sharon Lockhart, Esko Männikkö, Tracey Moffatt, Chris Moore, Elizabeth Peyton, Huang Yong Ping, Tobias Rehberger, Miguel Rio Branco, Rudolf Stingel, SubREAL, Sam Taylor-Wood, Pascale Marthine Tayou, Jaan Toomik, Eulalia Valldosera, Helena Almeida, Ghada Amer, Janine Antoni, Monica Bonvicini, Louise Bourgeois, Tania Bruguera, Cai Guo-Qiang, Lygia Clark, Diller + Scofidio, Dr. Galentin Gatev, Greenpeace, Yolanda Gutiérrez, Mona Hatoum, Carl Michael von Hausswolff, Carsten Höller, Simone Aaberg Kærn, Zwelethu Mthethwa, Nikos Navridis, Shirin Neshat, Rivane Neuenschwander, Gabriel Orozco, Pipilotti Rist, Francisco Ruiz de Infante, Bülent Sangar, Arsen Savadov & Georgy Senchenko, Charlene Teters, Sergio Vega, Miwa Yanagi, Kenneth Anger, Jo Baer, Jeff Burton, James Lee Byars, Pia Fries, Gajin Fujita, Graft Design, Frederick Hammersley, Marine Hugonnier, Jim Isermann, Ellsworth Kelly, Josiah McElheny, Darryl Montana, Sarah Morris, Takashi Murakami, Nic Nicosia, Kermit Oliver, Jorge Pardo, Ken Price, Stephen Prina, Bridget Riley, Ed Ruscha, Alexis Smith, Rafael Soto, Jennifer Steinkamp and Jimmy Johnson, Jessica Stockholder, Jane and Louise Wilson, Ricci Albenda, Louise Bourgeois, Charles Burns, Francesco Clemente, Bruce Conner, R. Crumb, John Currin, Carroll Dunham, James Esber, Inka Essenhigh, Tom Friedman, Ellen Gallagher, Robert Gober, Douglas Gordon, Mark Greenwold, Lyle Ashton Harris, Jörg Immendorff, Jasper Johns, Kim Jones, Mike Kelley, Maria Lassnig, Sherrie Levine, Christian Marclay, Paul McCarthy, Jennifer and Kevin McCoy, Elizabeth Murray, Bruce Nauman, Hermann Nitsch, Jim Nutt, Tony Oursler, Gary Panter, Lamar Peterson, Raymond Pettibon, Lari Pittman, Sigmar Polke, Neo Rauch, Alexander Ross, Susan Rothenberg, Peter Saul, Jenny Saville, Thomas Schütte, Jim Shaw, Cindy Sherman, Laurie Simmons, Fred Tomaselli, Adriana Varejão, Davor Vrankic, Kara Walker, Jeff Wall, John Waters, John Wesley, Franz West, Lisa Yuskavage, Miroslaw Balka, Jennifer Bartlett, Patty Chang, Stephen Dean, Peter Doig, Robert Grosvenor, Cristina Iglesias, Wolfgang Laib, Jonathan Meese, Wangechi Mutu, Carsten Nicolai, Catherine Opie, Thorns Ltd.

#permalink posted by Jean Pike : 6/30/2008 07:04:00 PM

Friday, June 20, 2008

Harvard Nashawannuck Remix
Nashawannuck Gallery Easthampton Massachusetts Meets
Harvard University's Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology

left: Ryan Red Corn, Wazhazhi-Pod, REMIX,
Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, Harvard University
right: Dan Loudfoot, Everyone Wants To Be An Indian,
Nashawannuck Gallery, Easthampton, Mass

by artist Nayana Glazier

From April 1st through the 30th at Nashawannuck Gallery located at 40 Cottage St. in Easthampton MA (nashawannuckgallery.com) hosted “Untold Stories & Native Voices.” Participating artists were Dan Loudfoot, based in Brooklyn, NY with the tribal affiliation of Pequot. Courtney Leonard, based in Providence RI with the tribal affiliation of Shinnecock. Peter McLean based in Connecticut with no tribal affiliation and myself, Nayana Glazier, based in Massachusetts and affiliated with the Ojibwe and Potwatami of the Wikwemikong first nation.

left to right: Courtney Leonard, Peter McLean, Dan Loudfoot, Nayana Glazier
Untold Stories & Native Voices
Nashawannuck Gallery

Our media, styles and works are unique and could have stood on their own, however together they made a statement about the history, present and future of native people.

At the reception held on the second Saturday of the month each of the three attending artists (McLean, Leonard and myself) spoke about the work on display and answered questions from attendees. McLean, professor Emeritus of Fine Arts at the Hartford Art School/University of Hartford in West Hartford Connecticut, spoke first (http://www.petermcleanfinearts.com/) and his years of teaching were evident as he discussed the sources of his large and impressive charcoal drawings. Each has its own life and history using historical events and native pop culture icons to suggest the Americanization and de-culturization of native peoples through pop culture and the historical canon. His “Disney Pox”, a 52”x 46” suspended charcoal drawing, uses images of Pocahontas with red pock marks and classic images of explorers with Americanized natives, comparing Disney to Small Pox in its negative effect on native life, or the perception of native life in modern culture.

I then spoke on my work and the work of Dan Loudfoot. Dan’s work uses images from his interactive project "I lost My Language And My Tribe" about which Dan says:

“This work is a performance that deals with issues of colonization that I go through on a daily basis and this dis-connect I feel from living in present day American Society. I am a Pequot (Native American) artist. I am a direct result of what colonization has done to a people and the cultural disconnect that we face as a people. These words that I am writing and these words that I speak are not my own, my language was eradicated from my relatives mouths and I now speak English. This performance involves walking down the streets of Brooklyn, NY with my mouth covered with a piece of paper over my mouth with the words, "I lost my Language I lost my Tribe." -Dan Loudfoot

Also included are pieces from his project of making paper dolls of himself and his loved ones in traditional regalia. He then takes those pieces to the Metropolitan Museum of Art where he uses some creative placement and a digital camera to place the figures as Christ-like in the museum’s religious depictions.

Dan had this to say about this project:

“My recent work has taken me to the Metropolitan Museum of Art here in New York City conducting performances in the Religious Icon Art galleries that explore various modes of hybridity. I use paper caricatures of my wife and myself in our traditional regalia and hold them at a distance from actual paintings; after taking digital photos of the caricatures that I am holding they create an illusion that they are actually in the painting. In this performance I am bringing “Native Americans” to a Holy Iconic form, a form that does not exist in American Mass Media today. Creating a voice of authenticity while bring light to these issues is core to my practice. This series of performances has opened up an ongoing dialogue with the public. This work stems from memories of my childhood spent in Catholic school after troubling experiences at the local public school. A non-Catholic, being an outsider forced to sit alone in the pews while the other children received their daily bread and wine. In St. Patrick’s church, I looked up at that man nailed to a cross and asked myself, “Where is MY creator?” ...” -Dan Loudfoot

The last piece he included is “Everyone Wants to Be and Indian”. Dan had this to say about the piece:

“This is an interactive project where the audience is able to participate in my art making and revive early childhood memories. I have drawn a Halo with Bingo Paint (my casino Indian media) on construction paper in this work I am trying to bring Native Americans to the holy Iconic form that we rarely reach. This work stems from my memories in grade school around the times of Thanksgiving and having to wear construction paper headbands with feathers in them. This work also deals with the actual painting becoming a figure similarly to art in museums, galleries and public spaces. When people stand next to or in front of artwork and take their pictures. With my project “Now Everyone Can Be an Indian” the audience is invited to do so.” -Dan Loudfoot

My own work is always difficult to speak about. The work itself does come from reflection on my experiences and ideas. My earlier work dealt very clearly with being native in modern society and feeling out of place, showing brightly colored native peoples feeling out of place in a monochromatic cityscape. But my more recent work investigates the existential and the challenge of remaining entirely human.

Nayana Galzier, Untitled, Acrylic, Nashawannuck Gallery, 2008

Courtney Leonard then spoke on her work, its construction, where she came from and its purpose. What struck me was her candid nature in addressing the show’s concept. “Untold Stories & Native Voices”, Leonard Stated that by her experience these stories were not untold. Perhaps not heard, but certainly not untold. Her work calls on the skills she learned at RISD, her experiences traveling to different regions and missing her home on the Shinnecock reserve in Long Island. Though being native and an artist were part of her they were no more or less than her other history and experiences, her work spoke less to being native and more to being herself. Viewing native ceramic objects one might expect the traditional. Her work is more a representation of herself, her feelings, her experiences than the history of ceramics or a statement on modern art by native artists.

This got me thinking. My own work is now bypassing heritage to focus on humanity over label, individual sovereignty artist or not, native or not etc. Courtney had expressed similar ideas to me and so I set out to see if other artists from some of these exhibitions also engaged these issues.

Courtney mentioned the now famous Harvard show REMIX Indigenous Identities in the 21st Century at The Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, Harvard University (April 5 - August 31, 2008.) REMIX features work by Doug Miles (San Carlos Apache), Ryan Red Corn (Osage), Courtney Leonard (Shinnecock), and an artist I’ve mentioned extensively on Artist Organized Art, Bunky Echo-Hawk (Pawnee and Yakama) also included is rapper Quese IMC. In REMIX, these artists transform traditional materials, ideas and iconography into contemporary art. The exhibition is curated by Kelsey Leonard, Tanner Amdur-Clark, LeRenzo Tolbert-Malcom, and Caitlin Young, members of Native Americans at Harvard College on behalf of the Ivy Native Council.

left: Douglas Miles with famed Hip-Hop photographer Ernie Paniciolli,
his film The Other SIde Of Hip-Hop was shown at REMIX Harvard
right: Douglas Miles, LOVE

That the show was presented at The Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology spoke volumes. Why are Native cultures, among the most heavily studied groups of different peoples under the same umbrella ever assembled in North American history, stuck in a time freeze. A view perpetually studied in the past tense, so much so that even virtually self organized contemporary art which, by global standards, is practiced by very contemporary artists, would still only find venue at the enlightened authority, Harvard University, through an archaeological and ethnological spin.

Archaeology – noun 1. The scientific study of historic or prehistoric peoples and their cultures by analysis of their artifacts, inscriptions, monuments, and other such remains, esp. those that have been excavated. 2. Rare. ancient history; the study of antiquity. -www.dictionary.com

What is the function of such an alienating, analytical and clinical form as to be “studied.” Some of the works in the exhibition were only created months before the show was hung, yet they are observed in the same respect that works are studied in a museum of natural history. The overwhelming consensus among the artists I have spoken to is the desire to be seen as artists, to have their work appreciated on its own regardless of the artist’s ethnic affiliations or any other factors than the merit of the work itself.

left: The Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, Harvard University
right: Nashawannuck Gallery, Easthampton Massachusetts

I was fortunate to interview Douglas Miles briefly and get his perspectives on things.

“…It is tiring and somewhat demeaning (to artists / natives) in a certain cense. Because even though it is meant to serve an educational purpose it also serves to commodify and cleanly categorize a whole “people” in nice little dioramas, placards or booklets without respect to very real complexities…This is not to disrespect staff or “experts” in those fields, however why do we have to show in an “Anthropological (Archaeological) Museum?” Are we not artists with valid points of view like any other artists from any other background?….all artists should endeavor to let their ART speak for itself without regard for the ethnicity of its maker.” -Douglas Miles

Nayana Glazier(NG): Knowing that you question the idea of the native themed exhibition based solely on the fact that the work was produced by native artists, and considering that all of us at our core would prefer to be known as artists and not specifically native artists...would you continue to participate in native themed shows in the future?

Douglas Miles(DM): It's not that I question the purpose or reasons for showing. It’s time for a new paradigm. The places we show(Anthropology Museums and Museums of Natural History etc...) seem to already dictate how our art is to be viewed, taken and is/isn't accepted. That is why new venues need to be discovered challenged, sought out or hi-jacked because time is short. I will support any show, curator, museum, gallery or collector(s) who does not try to label, categorize, define or pigeonhole what we (as artists) do.

The Harvard REMIX is/was revolutionary in that students (Youth) came up with the concept, felt these artists are significant voices of change, and requested us there. They basically hi-jacked some Museum space at Harvard and allowed us freedom to create. In "Native Art" that is almost unheard of with the exception of my projects like www.thenativeagents.com or www.apacheskateboards.com which not only include art but skateboarding, poetry, film, photography, sculpture, performance, music and whatever else we want to make. Major museums are now trying to emulate the concepts we built. Some are even opting to dis-include us from their discourse as they attempt to replicate our innovation. However what Apache Skateboards, The Native Agents and myself have done is well documented. It is art for the people.

Douglas Miles, Art For The People, apacheskateboards.com, 2008
with Kelsey Long in photo

NG: Would you try to gear your career more toward shows about art and not the cultural backgrounds of the artists or the cultural themes in the work?

DM: My art takes on a life and direction of its own. Though I am the composer, like a jazz musician, I've learned to improvise , embrace new styles, and work in various settings. It is almost impossible in the Native Art field to create a show concept that is not about your tribal background. However more and more I am being asked to participate in non-Native themed shows. I am not trying to "gear" my art in any direction. Nor am I trying to "cross-over." When an artist begins to understand the power of their own voice, develops a style apart from the norm and learns to walk blindly yet boldly into opportunity, their work can go anywhere. Good work can and should transcend any real or imagined boundaries. If I'm geared up for anything its to have fun with my work and work with others who share similar goals. It (the art) is taking me where it wants and needs to go. It is leading me into clothing/product design, the street art movement, underground galleries, film work, photography, performance, poetry, media, magazines, books, and a longer list of projects in the works. My job is to listen to my art and allow it to breathe and exist in the fields alleys, hallways, theatres, back streets or wherever and with whomever wants to see and be part of it.

NG: Do you feel that this theme of show which is sprouting up around the country will eventually pigeon hole many of the artists involved? Or do you think that some or most of the artists will be able to define themselves as artists and humans first and native artists second?

DM: The Harvard REMIX is unique in the sense that students not " Native Art Experts" curate the show. I would hope that this type of guerrilla art show becomes the norm. It allows access to artists who do not get any. Meaning access (to venues) is usually defined by who has the longest curriculum vitae or who has sold the most art or who has befriended the coolest curator/collector etc. All artists should try to be as human as possible. I hope I'm doing a good job. Artists need to be as creative as possible and as true to their current "here and now" as possible.

My current work is not romantic. It is dirty/gritty and not easy to look at. This is how our communities affect us. I am part of a community and a tribe. It will always inform the work that I do. However it does no artists any favor to constantly refer to their ethnic background as some kind of relevance. Especially if their art is mediocre. An artist’s work must always do the talking. Eventually critics, writers, patrons will figure out that the artist is from somewhere. Artists (Native) really need to begin to look for ways to be as freely creative as possible without the demands of a "market". It may be awhile before that occurs yet it is necessary in order for art to flourish.

Keeping everything in mind that I have learned through this experience I can only speak from my own experiences and perspectives on what will happen with these kinds of exhibitions in the future. To be honest I think none of us can deny the allure of the exhibition regardless of theme or label that might be attached to it and subsequently us as individual artists. But when it comes to the idea of a native themed show with a grouping of artists who are brought together solely because they share a set of genealogical traits is one that is unavoidable for anyone. Who we are, weather we try or not, is directly reflected in whatever art we as artists individually make and as such our heritage comes though. It might be the feeling of a lack of heritage or the abundance of it that shines through behind the indistinguishable that makes us stand out as native artists but it is there. It would be foolish for any of us to deny it or try to stay away from it, it is who we are as much as anything else. Presenting us together as separate artists under the same umbrella can both be to our benefit and detriment depending on the audience and the location. In some respects being categorized as an ancient civilization has leant itself very well to opening the discussion on that very subject. Surely seeing modern art in an archaeological context is a different sort of education and experience for the students at Harvard studying our modern day historical artifacts. So long as these ideas are presented along side the work, that the body of combined artists and styles are presented as such different people from different backgrounds, brought together on one basis only…their ethnic heritage, their differences being the educator to those attending, to bring their concepts and understanding of indigenous cultures to the same stand point that they would think of people of other ethnic backgrounds and possibly take one small step closer to earning ourselves a spot as an easily recognized modern people. As complex, modern and Americanized as anyone else.

Personally I will continue to support and participate in these exhibitions whenever possible in the hopes that soon they will move past the historical stage and into the modern art world so that each artist can have their work seen on its own for what it is and not just what label they fit under.

#permalink posted by Nayana : 6/20/2008 12:32:00 PM

Thursday, June 05, 2008

Théâtre de la Cité Internationale, Paris, France
Scenes Ouvertes à L’Insolite

covered by artist Angie Eng

Théâtre de la Marionnette
Théâtre de la Cité Internationale, Paris, France
15-25 May 2008
http://www.theatredelamarionnette.com/scenesouvertes.html

In a country rich with history, how does one approach innovation? Experimental Tradition seems to be all too common in the Art Festival de Paris. For three weeks in May, Le Théâtre de la Marionnette presented ‘Scènes Ouvertes à L’insolite’ (Open Stage For The Unusual) This umbrella program of cross-genre theatre included: theatre of manipulated objects, puppetry, video, shadow play, circus, spoken word, magic show, contemporary dance/movement, actors, tap dancers, improvisational music, poets, ‘clowns’, mimes, did I forget anyone, anything? From the description of sub-genres the public is immediately informed to not expect the Muppet show. The closest might be Daisy/Violet, the ½ human ½ puppet Siamese twin strippers of "Me Too, A Sideshow," a performance ode to "Freaks" that merges the roles of object and manipulator.

What we do realize after viewing a few performances, in my case 7 of the 14 presentations, is each collective remains faithful to the exploration of reality through the discovery of the make-believe. In other words, facing death by rebirth. As with a magic show, suspense is the key emotion to unravel the cycle of personal development. Like the art student exploring a canvas by copying the masters, the actor/manipulator reveals how the mind confronts existence. In "Desirée," we are thrown into the cellar with a suffering abused girl who survives by recreating a dialogue between self, object and an imaginary persona. In coping with fear she displaces all emotion into gestural scenarios. Here is a production that presents ‘playing dolls’’ in a most dramatic, intense one-person drama, grâce à the performance of Coco Bernardis. And an honorable mention to the improvisational musician, Antoine Arlot who truly played visual sound.

"Mr. H" (an adaptation of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde) is also a whirlwind in connecting the self with its multiple attempts and failures to illustrate life is a process. Visually dazzling as if watching a circus on acid, the three actors and one puppet move on, off, behind, sideways while playing tap dancing apes, reproducing via overhead projector "Journey to the Center of the Earth" mad scientist, syncing lights and alarms à la Richard Foreman, mocking Hollywood shadow dance and borrowing Film Noir in their mystic hysterics. Well, ‘I-can’t-remember-how-it-ended-but-I-liked-it-anyway’ was my reaction. It takes courage to cross the border.