All Entries: October 2012


Gaia in Center City Philadelphia
New Mural Portrait of Edmund Bacon
Goldman Properties and Mural Arts
Tuesday, October 23, 2012 6:52 AM




Gaia takes un-planned advantage of a lift  around the corner from his portrait of Edmund Bacon
Center City Philadephia

 

by Gaia

Gaia New Mural Portrait of Edmund Bacon
Tuesday, October 23, 2012 6:52 AM
From: “gaia art”
Message contains attachments 5 Files (3718KB)


Gaia, A portrait of Edmund Bacon, the Executive Director of the Philadelphia
City Planning Commission from 1949 – 1970

Hello hello again.

I just finished this nice wall with Goldman Properties and Mural Arts in Center City Philadelphia.
And also took advantage of the lift to put up this one piece right around the corner.


Gaia, A portrait of Edmund Bacon, the Executive Director of the Philadelphia
City Planning Commission from 1949 – 1970

“A portrait of Edmund Bacon, the Executive Director of the Philadelphia City Planning Commission from 1949 – 1970 on the last day of work. Under his supervision, Philadelphia became fully adapted to the era of the automobile and struggled to maintain its dwindling middle class. Edmund Bacon’s face is flanked by a model of Society Hill and of Center City with the Vine Street Expressway sketch from his book, The Design of Cities, flows through the entire composition.”

very best

G


Gaia, A portrait of Edmund Bacon, the Executive Director of the Philadelphia
City Planning Commission from 1949 – 1970


Edmund Norwood Bacon (May 2, 1910 – October 14, 2005) was a noted
American urban planner, architect, educator and author


Edmund Norwood Bacon (May 2, 1910 – October 14, 2005) was a noted American urban planner, architect, educator and author. During his tenure as the Executive Director of the Philadelphia City Planning Commission from 1949 to 1970, his visions shaped today’s Philadelphia, the city in which he was born, to the extent that he is sometimes described as “The Father of Modern Philadelphia.” Bacon was the father of six children: two sons, actor Kevin Bacon, musician Michael Bacon, and four daughters, Karin, Elinor, Hilda and Prudence (later Kira). His wife was Ruth Hilda Holmes, a teacher and liberal political activist. His friends included Buckminster Fuller, Steen Eiler Rasmussen, James Rouse, and Konstantinos Apostolos Doxiadis.

Center City, or Downtown Philadelphia includes the central business district and central neighborhoods of the City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. As of 2010, its residential population of over 57,000 made it the third most populous downtown in the United States, after New York City’s and Chicago’s. Center City is home to most of Philadelphia’s tallest buildings, including Philadelphia’s City Hall, the second tallest masonry building in the world and until 1987 the tallest in Philadelphia, as well as the tallest building in the world for seven years. Across the street from City Hall is the Masonic Temple, the headquarters of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, a legacy of the Founding Fathers and signers of the Declaration of Independence, many of whom were Freemasons; such luminaries include George Washington and Benjamin Franklin.

Design of Cities, first published in 1967, is an illustrated account of the development of urban form, written by Edmund Bacon (1910–2005). The work looks at the many aspects that influence city design, including spatial form, interactions between humans, nature and the built environment, perception of favorable environments, color, and perspective. Bacon also explores the growth of cities from early Greek and Roman times to Philadelphia’s design in the 1960s. It is considered a seminal text on urban planning.

The Goldman Properties Company (http://www.goldmanproperties.com/) was founded in 1968 by Tony Goldman, with his daughter Jessica and son Joey. Tony Goldman was a modern American real estate based pioneer of urban revitalization who brought renewal and prosperity to blighted real estate with fresh originality. The Bowery Mural is an outdoor long run temporary mural exhibition space in Manhattan owned by Goldman Properties since 1984. Tony Goldman started the Bowery Mural, at the corner of Houston and Bowery, with Jeffery Deitch. Goldman’s goal was to use the wall to present the top contemporary artists from around the world with an emphasis on artists who work on the streets.

The Mural Arts Program (http://www.muralarts.org/) is currently one of Philadelphia’s largest employers of artists, employing over 300 artists a year. It also hires prosecuted graffiti vandals at a rate of over 100 per year and involves them with the creation of murals around Philadelphia. The Mural Arts Program is an anti-graffiti mural program in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania founded in 1986 and directed by Jane Golden as a division of the Philadelphia Anti-Graffiti Network. The average mural painted by the program is approximately the height of a three-story row house and 35 feet (11 m) wide.

Gaia, a Baltimore-based street artist, whose name stands for Earth Goddess, is known for using animal imagery to convey nature’s voice in urban landscapes, often evoking a sense of mythical feedback as an omen from global warming. Other subjects include portraits of urban developers Nelson Rockefeller, Robert Moses, Henry Flagler, James Rouse, Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe. Gaia recently curated the multi-site mural project Open Walls Baltimore (OWB) which was scheduled to include fellow artists Maya Hayuk, Swoon, Chris Stain, MOMO, Freddy Sam, Jaz, Jetsonorama, Overunder, Vhils, Nanook, Mata Ruda, Specter, Interesni Kaski, Ever, Doodles, John Ahearn and Sten & Lex. “The carrier pigeon perched within a hand is an image that I have revisited many times in the past year. Much like the hybridized creatures I have produced in the past, this gesture displays a moment of domination and submission but also of steward and nature. Pigeons are beautiful creatures and one of the few that can tolerate the city. This print is a celebration of a dying urban sport and of an unsung animal.” – Gaia

http://posterchildprints.com/Carrier-Pigeon/
Purchase Gaia’s limited edition print “Carrier Pigeon.”
Size 22 x 28 inches, Edition Limited Edition of 135, Materials: Three Color Hand Pulled Silk Screen on Coventry Rag, 100% Cotton Archival Paper

http://www.artbma.org/press/documents/Nov_Dec.pdf
Gaia was recently commissioned by the Baltimore Museum Of Art

Open Walls Baltimore is an unparalleled street art project managed by and located in the Station North Arts & Entertainment District and curated by Gaia. The finest and most widely recognized street artists from around the world mounted an outdoor exhibition of extraordinary murals that enliven public spaces, stimulates community revitalization and national dialogue, and attracts visitors and investors to Station North with the installation of over twenty murals.

Map Of Mural Locations
Artists include: Gaia (Baltimore) – 1 W North Ave, Momo (New Orleans) – CIty Arts, 440 E Oliver St, Doodles (Port Townsend, WA) – 1539 N Calvert, Maya Hayuk (New York City) – 1715 N Charles Street, Ever (Buenos Aires, Argentina) – 10 E North Avenue, Overunder (Reno, NV) – 329 E Lafayette Street, John Ahearn (New York City) – Installation at Station North Arts Cafe, Specter (Montreal) – Joe Squared (North Avenue and Howard), Mata Ruda (Baltimore) – 1700 Latrobe, Josh Van Horn (Baltimore) – Guilford and North Avenue, Jessie Unterhalter & Katey Truhn (Baltimore) – St Paul St at Lafayette Ave, Freddy Sam (Capetown, South Africa) – Lafayette Ave at Charles St, Intersni Kazki (Kiev, Ukraine) – Complete (Maryland Ave at North Ave), Gary Kachadourian (Baltimore) – Barclay St at Lanvale Street, St Paul and North Avenue, Chris Stain (New York City) – 1701 Latrobe, Jetsonorama (New York City) – Barclay and Bowen Alley, Swoon (New York City) – Pittman Place, Sten and Lex (Italy) – Barclay and McAllister, Nanook (Baltimore) – Barclay and Lanvale, Jaz (Buenos Aires, Argentina) – Barclay St at E Oliver St, Vhils (Portugal) – 1539 N Calvert St


Documentation: Open Walls In Process, A Walk Through With Gaia, May 4, 2012
Artist Organized Art

 

#permalink posted by Artist Organized Art: 10/23/12 08:40:19 AM


The Arabbers – Gaia In Sandtown
Four Baltimore Generations, Oct 13, 2012



Gaia, 2012, Arabber Full Wall, Baltimore: The Arabbers on Fremont and Laurens in Sandtown
A portrait of four generations, from Manboy the great grandfather to Fruit’s son
Arabbers sell fruit and vegetables from horse drawn carriages city wide
The portraits are set with art from produce boxes

 

by Gaia

photo: M Holden Warren
Janessa Wells

Date: Sat, 13 Oct 2012 08:45:47 -0400
Subject: Gaia Arabber Wall
From: gaia art
To: gaia art

Just finished a very rewarding wall, here is a little background. Attached is a package of the finished documentation and process shots. http://www.flickr.com/photos/gaiastreetart/8023887450/in/photostream

“The Arabbers are a dying Baltimore tradition of horse-drawn fruit vendors that have long been a staple of this remarkable city. I was attracted to this particular stable in the Sandtown neighborhood preparing for a documentary. These men and women define hustle, trotting along both desolate and vibrant landscapes selling their goods and making ends meet. This mural depicts four generations starting with the great grandfather Manboy in the middle and to Fruit’s son on the top right. The arabber portraits are mixed with the logos on the containers in which their produce comes: a global economy meets a fading, tough tradition.”

Just finished a new wall in philadelphia will send shots soon.

Please credit M Holden Warren http://www.mholdenwarren.com/ and Janessa Wells for the photography.

very best
much love
G


Gaia, Arabbers, Horse-Drawn Fruit Vendors, Arabber Wall – Project Detail


Gaia, Junior, Arabber Wall – Detail


Gaia, Frog and Manboy, Arabber Wall – Detail


Gaia, Arabbers, Horse-Drawn Fruit Vendors, Arabber Wall – Project Detail


Gaia, Arabbers, Horse-Drawn Fruit Vendors, Arabber Wall – Project Detail


Gaia, Arabbers, Horse-Drawn Fruit Vendors, Arabber Wall – Project Detail


Gaia, Arabbers, Horse-Drawn Fruit Vendors, Arabber Wall – Project Detail


Gaia, Arabbers, Horse-Drawn Fruit Vendors, Arabber Wall – Project Detail


Gaia On Horse, Fruit and His Son, Right, Arabber Wall – Detail

Sandtown-Winchester is a neighborhood in the West District of Baltimore, Maryland. Known locally as “Sandtown”, the community’s name was derived from the trails of sand that dropped from wagons leaving town after filling up at the local sand and gravel quarry back in the days of horse-drawn wagons. It is located North of West Lafayette Street, West of North Fremont Avenue, South of West North Avenue, and East of North Monroe Street, covering an area of 72 square blocks, patrolled by the Baltimore Police Department’s Western District. Noteable Residents: Cab Calloway, Billie Holiday, Thurgood Marshall, Little Melvin

Gaia, a Baltimore-based street artist, whose name stands for Earth Goddess, is known for using animal imagery to convey nature’s voice in urban landscapes, often evoking a sense of mythical feedback as an omen from global warming. Other subjects include portraits of urban developers Nelson Rockefeller, Robert Moses, Henry Flagler, James Rouse, Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe. Gaia recently curated the multi-site mural project Open Walls Baltimore (OWB) which was scheduled to include fellow artists Maya Hayuk, Swoon, Chris Stain, MOMO, Freddy Sam, Jaz, Jetsonorama, Overunder, Vhils, Nanook, Mata Ruda, Specter, Interesni Kaski, Ever, Doodles, John Ahearn and Sten & Lex. “The carrier pigeon perched within a hand is an image that I have revisited many times in the past year. Much like the hybridized creatures I have produced in the past, this gesture displays a moment of domination and submission but also of steward and nature. Pigeons are beautiful creatures and one of the few that can tolerate the city. This print is a celebration of a dying urban sport and of an unsung animal.” – Gaia

http://posterchildprints.com/Carrier-Pigeon/
Purchase Gaia’s limited edition print “Carrier Pigeon.”
Size 22 x 28 inches, Edition Limited Edition of 135, Materials: Three Color Hand Pulled Silk Screen on Coventry Rag, 100% Cotton Archival Paper

http://www.artbma.org/press/documents/Nov_Dec.pdf
Gaia was recently commissioned by the Baltimore Museum Of Art

Open Walls Baltimore is an unparalleled street art project managed by and located in the Station North Arts & Entertainment District and curated by Gaia. The finest and most widely recognized street artists from around the world mounted an outdoor exhibition of extraordinary murals that enliven public spaces, stimulates community revitalization and national dialogue, and attracts visitors and investors to Station North with the installation of over twenty murals.

Map Of Mural Locations
Artists include: Gaia (Baltimore) – 1 W North Ave, Momo (New Orleans) – CIty Arts, 440 E Oliver St, Doodles (Port Townsend, WA) – 1539 N Calvert, Maya Hayuk (New York City) – 1715 N Charles Street, Ever (Buenos Aires, Argentina) – 10 E North Avenue, Overunder (Reno, NV) – 329 E Lafayette Street, John Ahearn (New York City) – Installation at Station North Arts Cafe, Specter (Montreal) – Joe Squared (North Avenue and Howard), Mata Ruda (Baltimore) – 1700 Latrobe, Josh Van Horn (Baltimore) – Guilford and North Avenue, Jessie Unterhalter & Katey Truhn (Baltimore) – St Paul St at Lafayette Ave, Freddy Sam (Capetown, South Africa) – Lafayette Ave at Charles St, Intersni Kazki (Kiev, Ukraine) – Complete (Maryland Ave at North Ave), Gary Kachadourian (Baltimore) – Barclay St at Lanvale Street, St Paul and North Avenue, Chris Stain (New York City) – 1701 Latrobe, Jetsonorama (New York City) – Barclay and Bowen Alley, Swoon (New York City) – Pittman Place, Sten and Lex (Italy) – Barclay and McAllister, Nanook (Baltimore) – Barclay and Lanvale, Jaz (Buenos Aires, Argentina) – Barclay St at E Oliver St, Vhils (Portugal) – 1539 N Calvert St


Documentation: Open Walls In Process, A Walk Through With Gaia, May 4, 2012
Artist Organized Art

 

#permalink posted by Erika Knerr: 10/15/12 05:59:36 AM


Céleste Boursier‐Mougenot
at UMCA Oct 4 – Dec 2 2012

To Suspend The Question of Meaning
Christoph Cox in Conversation
with Céleste Boursier‐Mougenot

The University Museum of Contemporary Art
(UMCA) at UMass Amherst


 


Cover: 2008 catalogue; itself an adapted work by
Céleste Boursier‐Mougenot, Available through
Paula Cooper Gallery
, extended sound samples: http://www.analogues.fr/indexinprogress


Artist Organized Art

The University Museum of Contemporary Art (UMCA) at UMass Amherst is pleased to present a site-specific sound and video installation by Céleste Boursier‐Mougenot, the internationally acclaimed French artist, from October 4 – December 2, 2012. In conjunction with this exhibition, a catalogue containing an interview conducted between the artist and Christoph Cox, Professor of Philosophy at Hampshire College and a critic and theorist of art and music, will soon be published. The interview is reproduced here with the permission of the UMCA, Céleste Boursier‐Mougenot, and Christoph Cox. https://fac.umass.edu/UMCA/Online/ Acknowledgements: This exhibition has been made possible through generous support from Etant donnés: The French-American Fund for Contemporary Art. Additional support and coordination comes from the Paula Cooper Gallery, New York.

The Entire Interview: (Read It Here)

EXCERPTS:

Christoph Cox: You began your career as a musician and composer. What prompted your move into sound installation and the context of the visual arts?

Céleste Boursier‐Mougenot: I’ve always been immersed in the visual arts and aesthetic considerations because my family is very connected to the arts. My great grandfather was a passionate landscape photographer who worked with daguerreotypes. His son, my grandfather, was a painter and illustrator who made some animated films. My father made stained glass for churches, made sculpture and mosaics for public art projects, and later became a sort of garden historian. My parents considered all forms of art and literature to be really important. Their artist and writer friends often visited and stayed with us.

The concept of space (broadly considered) was also a recurrent interest for all of us. One of my brothers, who was interested in mapping, studied engineering and topographical geography. Another brother is a landscape architect. My mother worked as a sociological urbanist. So it’s also quite natural that I’ve considered the notion of space and integrated it into my musical practice.

At home, we listened to all kinds of music (classical, ethnic, rock and pop, experimental, free jazz etc.) and went to musical performances, art exhibitions, and movies every week. I grew up without a TV. When I was about twenty years old and got my own apartment, I bought my first TV. Instead of working on my music projects, I spent so much time watching it at night that I finally threw it away. I kept in the back of my mind that some day I would do a project that would reverse the passivity of TV watching and pull viewers somewhere else, into a space where they have to identify what they are watching. (This eventually resulted in zombiedrones. Many of my works have roots in questions, thoughts, or ideas I had a long time ago. It took me more than 15 years to get the means to start my index piano project.)

CC: When you transpose or transduce one form or media into another, the two forms have to be linked closely enough that the transposition doesn’t seem arbitrary; but they also have to be distant enough so that something surprising or enigmatic is revealed in the process. How do you balance between these two constraints?

CBM: Yes, you’re right, constraint is the master word of my practice. Usually I restrict myself to one material and one process to extract the sound or musical field of the work. The architecture of the presentation space is also an effective constraint by which works can be transformed. The Amherst exhibition is the first to present a set of my works in the same space.

CC: Many of your works are generative structures that establish a situation and then leave it to operate on its own. This makes me think of experimental composers such as Steve Reich (e.g., Come Out) and Alvin Lucier (e.g., I Am Sitting in a Room) who, in the 1960s and 70s, developed an interest in generative music. Are those figures influences for you?

CBM: I’ve been influenced by so many artists’ works that to speak about these ones instead of others seems to me unfair. I think that the domain of influences can remain private. Research into causality or paternity doesn’t really interest me. (I have my own father and am myself the father of four kids!) The feedback effect in my practice in a way tries to disrupt this line of thinking. It seems to me that concrete stories or memories about the works are often more interesting than theoretical references. It’s also that I’ve been disappointed by certain artists who constantly refer to established works, but whose own work is not as interesting as their talk about it. If an art critic or historian sees a correlation, that does not disturb me. But I like it when people can havean aesthetic experience without reference to art history.

CC: The idea that there is music waiting to be revealed everywhere seems to me to connect with a recent artistic and curatorial interest in animism and the life of things.

CBM: I often say that I’m a techno-animist, and that my work is dedicated to the “living.”


Céleste Boursier‐Mougenot, index, v.4, 2005/2009,
Pleyel piano P190 with PianoDisc system,
computer and software,
74.5 x 59.5 x 40.5

Céleste Boursier‐Mougenot is an internationally acclaimed French artist whose innovative work merges the realms of the musical and the visual. A native of Nice, Céleste Boursier‐Mougenot was born in 1961 and currently lives and works in Sète, France. His work has been exhibited in venues such as the capcMusée, Bordeaux, France (1997); the ITT InterCommunication Center, Tokyo (2000); the Herzliya Museum of Art, Israel (2001); Pinacoteca Sao Paulo, Brazil (2009); Musée Chagall, Nice (2009); and the Henry Art Gallery, Seattle (2010);and in the group exhibition Notations: The Cage Effect Today at Hunter College Art Gallery in NYC (2012); Boursier‐Mougenot presented solo exhibitions at the Barbican Center in London, the Queensland Art Gallery in Australia, PS1 (MoMA), NYC, and FRAC Champagne- Ardenne in Reims, France. He recently took part in the 3rd Moscow Biennaleand and was a nominee of the Marcel Duchamp Prize (2010). His work is in major public and private collections around the world, including the Israel Museum, Jerusalem; the San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art, La Jolla, CA; the Centre Pompidou, Paris; the Fonds National d’Art Contemporain, Paris; MONA (Hobart, Tasmania); the Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia; and La Maison Rouge, Paris.

Christoph Cox is a critic, theorist, and curator of art and music. He is Professor of Philosophy at Hampshire College where he teaches and writes on contemporary European philosophy and contemporary art and music. He is also on the faculty at the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College and is currently at work on a philosophical and historical book about sound art and experimental music.

List of Works Discussed: (Full Interview)

untitled (1997 – ): In an inflatable pool half-filled with water float several dozen pieces of everyday crockery: different sorts of bowls, plates, china, and stemmed glasses. An immersed water pump produces a gentle current that causes the objects to bump into one another, producing sound on contact. To favor the resonance of the objects, the temperature of the water is maintained at around 30 degrees Celsius.

from here to ear (1999 – ): The exhibition space is turned into an aviary filled with live finches. Several electric guitars plugged into amplifiers and placed horizontally on chrome stands serve as perches for the birds, whose movements excite the guitar strings. Viewers are invited to walk through the space amidst the birds, guitars, and guitar cases filled with birdseed and water.

videodrones (2000-2002): Several video cameras placed outside the exhibition space monitor passing vehicles and pedestrians, producing a real-time stream of images projected inside the gallery. The video output of these cameras is fed into an audio amplifier to produce a continuous hum that is modulated by the luminosity of the camera images and the speed and size of the objects that cross their frames.

harmonichaos (2000-2006): Various small diatonic harmonicas are inserted into the nozzles of thirteen vacuum cleaners, which produce sound via suction. Each vacuum cleaner is fitted with a microphone, a guitar tuner, and an on-off switch governed by the tuner. The multiple sound sources confuse the tuners, which turn the vacuum cleaners on and off in unpredictable ways.

flamByframe (2006): This video loop presents a blowtorch flame altered by the camera filming it. To construct the piece, the video image of the flame was converted into an audio signal that was then sent through a subwoofer that excited the air and eventually blew out the flame. The silent video presents the slowed movement of the flame during the minute before it is extinguished.

index and indexes (2006 – ): A piano is played by a software system that, in real time, translates text (or other information) into a musical score. In earlier iterations of the project, the text was supplied by computer keyboards in the vicinity: the typing of museum staff, patrons at an internet café, etc. For the exhibition at UMCA, the piano score will be a translation of stock market data from business news and financial information websites.

recycle (2006): Cameras focused on a tree outside the exhibition space detect the subtle movements of leaves that rustle in the wind. A modulator registers this movement and uses it to direct the action of nine air fans affixed to a wall inside the gallery. A video image of the exterior foliage is visible on a small surveillance monitor placed near the fans.

scanner (2006): Directed by air flowing from a fan placed on the floor, a helium balloon drifts around a gallery space encircled with loudspeakers. Attached to the balloon is a wireless microphone that generates feedback when it approaches one of the speakers. This feedback is transformed in real time by a sound processor that eliminates its stridency and translates it into a form of aleatoric music.

virus (2006): This video loop consists of a continuously morphing image produced by a video feedback system: a video camera placed facing a monitor that reproduces the images filmed by the camera. The largely white image is projected onto a white wall and adjusted to the limit of visibility.

zombiedrones (2008): A plasma screen is placed in front of a leather sofa, encouraging audience members to sit down, watch TV, and change the channels as they like. But this TV encrypts the images, editing them so that only the moving elements of each frame appear on screen, while the non-moving elements disappear. The image is thus emptied of its message, leaving only ghostly figures. The humming soundtrack is the result of a translation of the images into sound.

fisheyedrones (2011): Hundreds of goldfish are placed in a tank in the gallery space. Their movements are filmed and projected onto a screen; and these same movements are registered by a computer program that translates them into sound.


 

#permalink posted by Artist Organized Art: 10/11/12 05:17:18 PM


  



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