9.28.2010
9.27.2010
INDEPENDENT CURATORS INTERNATIONAL present: People's Biennal
People’s Biennial
Curated by Harrell Fletcher and Jens Hoffmann
For this exhibition, five art institutions in the United States will present a biennial of contemporary art consisting of works by five artists in each of the institutions’ local communities, selected by the show’s guest curators, Harrell Fletcher and Jens Hoffmann. The institutions must be in locations that lie outside mainstream art centers, but in places where art nonetheless thrives. Five appropriate, geographically widespread institutions will be selected on a first-come, first-served basis. The curators will visit each community to choose artists and works, and will be available to conduct round-table discussions at each institution during their stay.
Artists
Caleb Belden, Mary Bordeaux, Ally Drozd with Judge Evans and the Portland Community Court, Laura Deutch, Gary Freitas, Jorge Figueroa, Sylvia Gray (with the Elsewhere Collaborative), Jim Grosbach, Nicole Harvieux, Warren Hatch, Jake Herman, Maiza Hixson, David Hoelzinger, Howard Kleger, Cymantha Diaz Liakos, Ellen Lesperance, Jonathan Lindsay, Dennis Newell, Bob Newland, Raymond Mariani, Alan Massey, Jim McMillan, Jennifer McCormick, Beatrice Moore and The Mutant Piñata Show (with piñatas by Mike Maas, Ana Forner, Chris Clark, Tom Cooper, and Koryn Woodward), Joseph Perez, Bernie Peterson, Bruce Price, David Rosenak, JJ Ross, Andrew Sgarlet, Robert Smith-Shabazz, Rudy Speerschneider, Andrea Sweet, James Wallner, Presley H. Ward, Paul Wilson
An interesting research
Mixed Signals: Artists Consider Masculinity in Sports
Curated by Christopher Bedford
Photographer Collier Schorr has said, “I want to show the whole temperature of masculinity because—and I can only approach it as a woman—from the outside, masculinity has been depicted in very black-and-white terms.” Accordingly, the artists selected for this exhibition reject such comfortable “black-and-white” imagery. Catherine Opie focuses on the dramatic spectacle of high school football, zeroing in on a tense moment of anticipation just as the players are ready to spring into action, while Brian Jungen sets up a meditative stack of boxes repeating the mesmerizing stare of legendary basketball star, Michael Jordan. Hank Willis Thomas’s photographs deconstruct the ways in which race and sexuality are exploited to brand and market male athletes; and Joe Sola’s video works assume an outsider’s perspective on football, addressing the social exclusivity of competitive athletics through humor and farce. Matthew Barney’s early sculptural work with Vaseline and weight-training equipment, as well as his body-based performance practice, stress the sexual, sometimes abject dimension of athletic training.
Several artists and theorists have argued convincingly that social identities—including race, gender, and sexuality—are performed, coded, and contingent. However, the male athlete has been overlooked by artists, art historians and curators until fairly recently, because it is only in the past decade that a critical mass of art addressing this subject has grown large enough to allow for such an exploration.
Mixed Signals is an expanded version of Contemporary Projects 11: Hard Targets: Masculinity and American Sports, an exhibition organized by Christopher Bedford for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in fall 2008. The exhibition is accompanied by an illustrated catalogue with texts by Bedford, Julia Bryan-Wilson and Judith Butler.
9.19.2010
Forward Thinking | e.flux TIME/BANK
CONTEMPORY TIME BANKING
There have been other examples of alternative economies in recent history, most notably the "Notgeld" emergency money that appeared in Germany after the hyperinflation of 1923. Notgeld was unofficial "money" issued by cities, boroughs, and even private companies to compensate for a shortage of official coins and bills. As long as Notgeld was accepted, no harm was done, as it was understood to be a valid certificate of debt. Notgeld was actually more stable than real money, since its denomination was often pegged to material goods, such as gold, corn, meat, and so forth. The currency itself was purposefully made to be very pretty to encourage people to save the bills. This way, the debt would never have to be paid. Notgeld was printed on all kinds of material—leather, fabric, porcelain, silk, and tin foil. Since it was not legal tender, the only people who dealt in it were those who wanted to. As a result, it had a stabilizing effect on the official currency, which was still in circulation.
The first successful contemporary time bank was started in 1991 by Paul Glover in Ithaca, New York. Following his idea, people began to exchange time, which led to the creation of a time-based currency—the "Ithaca Hours," which even local businesses began to accept, and which still flourishes. Time banking and service exchange have since developed into a full-fledged movement, usually centered around local communities.
(see links to other time banks)
Through Time/Bank, we hope to create an immaterial currency and a parallel micro-economy for the cultural community, one that is not geographically bound, and that will create a sense of worth for many of the exchanges that already take place within our field—particularly those that do not produce commodities and often escape the structures that validate only certain forms of exchange as significant or profitable.
Julieta Aranda and Anton Vidokle e.flux
source http://www.e-flux.com/timebank/about
Something to care about. SAVE THE ARTS.
DAVID SHRIGLEY Video Campaign
sign the petition!
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/save-the-arts.html
sign the petition!
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/save-the-arts.html
Radical cuts to current levels of arts funding will decimate what has been one of the UK's chief success stories over the past 20 years, and will bring an end to the UK's reign as a global capital for culture.
Arts organisations all accept the need to reduce their budgets. But while the arts can possibly sustain a ten percent funding cut, the 25-30% cuts that the government is currently considering would result in the closure of many smaller arts organizations and would also have a crippling effect on the functioning of the country’s leading arts venues.
SIGN THE PETITION NOW.
Arts organisations all accept the need to reduce their budgets. But while the arts can possibly sustain a ten percent funding cut, the 25-30% cuts that the government is currently considering would result in the closure of many smaller arts organizations and would also have a crippling effect on the functioning of the country’s leading arts venues.
SIGN THE PETITION NOW.
9.13.2010
9.06.2010
Things to Look At: Charlie Woolley's Radio Show
I should actually say things to listen to,
but since there is also an art exhibition we will listening while looking.
03 Sep–16 Oct 2010
Charlie Woolley's Radio Show
Throughout his exhibition at SPACE London, Charlie Woolley will be broadcasting his radio show live from the gallery space.
The exhibition is:
NEU! Charlie Woolley - Mysterious Cults
An exhibition of photo and poster collage, textiles and installation work accompanied by the artist’s ongoing Radio Show project and a cycle of broadcasted events.
This will be Charlie Woolley’s second solo exhibition following I Built My House on Sand (2008) at David Risley Gallery, London. RADIO SHOW - LISTEN LIVE
Mysterious Cults is the fourth NEU! exhibition at SPACE. Previous exhibitions include: AMAXAMA by Ben Sansbury (May 2010), colourless green ideas sleep furiously by Adam Thomas (March 2010), What I Believe (a Polemical Collection) by Ruth Beale (November 2009) and PROH-SOH’ PA-PEER by Richard John Jones (September 2009). NEU! is an ongoing cycle of solo exhibitions by emerging artists
Charlie Woolley is represented by David Risley Gallery, Copenhagen
SPACE is a multi disciplinary art venue located in east London.
SPACE provides support and resources to artists to make the great art of our day. We are one of the largest arts organisations in England and have been at the vanguard in promoting the role of artists in society since our inception in 1968.
We provide platforms which enable creative people to experiment, develop and thrive, and for a broad public to engage with this creativity. As a result of our activities we cultivate the growth of individuals, support the arts to flourish and nurture a creative, vibrant society.
http://www.spacestudios.org.uk/space
OYABORA, Kismet Projects an Interview with Deniz Unal
East London, a normal summer evening.
Tuesday, maybe a Wednesday, 7.30 maybe 8 pm.
Can you come Atti? Yes I can.
Please be on time, Oh my God on time, Yes, I’ll try.
But where is that? My house, actually my backyard garden.
Have you ever been Atti?
Yes, I guess so, or maybe not.. Don’t worry I’ll figure it out.
I arrived surprisingly in time, bringing a new friend from New York apparently interested in art.
Where are we going? he asked me. I don’t know I’ve answered him, it is like a performance. Oh wow is that in a gallery? No, it is in my friend house, actually in her garden, should be interesting.
The reality is that is not clear either to me what will happen, but I am curios.
At my arrival the house was already full of a mixed audience of friends, art appreciators and curios neighbours. The garden, the main setting of the spectacle, was prepared with pillows, fabrics and a projector, yellow roses appearing and disappearing while the evening flies where questioning what was going on in that corner of London life.
Suddenly a blonde lady sat down in the center and started to perform a conversation, hard and sexy, violent and provocative. At the shout “ “Hei there are some children leaving here!” she had to stop and the audience will never know what happen to that pervert narrator.
That was the first of 5 performances.
A video installation was set up behind the stairs, various video where showed on the projector while the audience in mortal silence was just enjoying that different setting, that different time, friendly and artistic at the same time, familiar and inspiring like watching a Fellini’s movie for the first time.
Behind all this there is a collective called Kismet Project, we interviewed artist and co-founder Deniz Unal to understand a bit more about the idea behind it.
How the idea of Kismet Project started?
The idea originally began when I started organising group crits where a changing group of artists would come together to show and discuss new work. From there I wanted to make a publication which would bring together new work and ideas from artists that was suited to the printed medium.
Who are the people behind it?
I run the project, there are 5 artists on the website which I see more as the core members, they are involved in decision-making process and I will promote on the website but amongst this there are other artists we have worked with. It is very much an open platform to work with other artists and people.
How international is the collective? Events and art works are created collectively or individually? How much London and its multicultural environment influence your work?
I wouldn’t really describe it as a collective, it’s more of an open project, which is flexible and permeable. We work individually as artists but within this we have worked together in various different collaborations, I have collaborated with all the artists that are on the website on different projects and Kirsty and Grace have worked together before. It is International, the artists are from all different places in the world, the Zine we made is currently in an exhibition in La Casa Encendida in Madrid.
What are the collective sources of inspiration? What are your objectives?
I don’t think there are any particular collectivesources of inspiration…hovever I am friends with all the artists and I think we are all influenced by our peers from the clothes we where , the way we speak to the art we make, so it is unavoidable there are similarities between us.
My personal objectives for this project is very simple; to provide an opportunities to make and show new work through varies different platforms; the Internet, publications, exhibitions and events. To create dialogue and collaboration between artists and to promote the artists on the website.
How would you define your practice as an artist? Does your Turkish background influence it?
I find it really difficult to define my practice in words, though making work I try to discover what I'm into and what I'm about, and this constantly changes. This is what I'm using to describe my practice at the moment
Current relevant words:
Legs
The gaze
Claiming the space
Transcending the mundane to the fantastical
Subversion of Islam
Transformation
Repetition
Tits
I wouldn’t say there is specific Turkish influence in my work, I don’t think I have to make work about Turkishness just because I am Turkish but of course our back round and histories have an underlying influence on the work we make and it does come through on different pieces more than others.
OYABORA was a really peculiar event because was set in a charming back yard garden(of your house), can you explain us this choice?-
I think the recession has a part to play in this, I spend a lot of time at home; I work from home, we eat in and hang out at home so it was only natural that we show work in the home as well. The garden in particular worked well for the show as a lot of the work shown had a direct relation to outdoor domestic space, my piece You Just Don’t Know What You Do To Me Part 1 was filmed there. That garden has a magical feel and reminds me of the garden performances we would do as children. By showing in my own space we were not bound to any space or institution and it was completely free!
OYABORA was made by videos, video installation and performances where the main protagonists, artists and practitioners were female with a focus on female sexual experience and attributes. How is important the gender distinction in your practice? Do identify your work with the topics Third wave of Feminism? Do u believe there is still a feminist practice?
I would not identify my work as specifically feminist; I am a female artist, using my body with work that does address sexual politics and therefore it is unavoidable to describe it in terms of issues of femininity.
Feminism has become a dirty word, people often associate it with men hating and bra burning but feminism to me is essentially striving for equality between men and women and all women should want that.
A lot of the thread in the night had work that dealt with constructs of gender and identity, not all the artists we show would describe their work as feminist. All of the artists on the website are female, Its just the way things have turned out I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that, I think its great.
Curiouser and curiouser!Random questions:
* If you would have the possibility to invent something, what would you invent?
Something that could freeze time.
Something to cure major illnesses like AIDs.
Something to get rid of cables between all the gadjets we have everything needs to be wireless and cableless.
When I was little I used to wish that there was a portal in my living room so I could take food over to starving countries, I think I used to watch too much comic relief (aid fundraiser programmes) but a portal would be cool
* if would have the possibility to reborn a random historical time and place, where and when would it be?
I’m really into ancient history, at the moment Ancient Near Eastern history such as Sumerian and Akkadian civilisations that would be interesting to see. Equally interesting would be to living in the late 60’s early 70’s as it seems like an exciting time for changes in art, music and fashion. Or the 20’s just for style I can see myself fitting in there.
* if you could be a contemporary famous artist who would you be? I don’t know but I really admire Louise Bourgeois for her work, longevity and prolificacy
* what affects you most: time or space?
Time time time! I have no sense of time it is one of my biggest problems this is why I am always late, can never meet deadlines, I have no clue why I am running a small organisation and trying to organize events, I guess that is part of the challenge.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)