Personal Democracy Forum Panel on WikiLeaks, 12/11/10 12 pm

pdfleaks on livestream.com. Broadcast Live Free

Meet yer Maykr: Lauri Lynnxe Murphy

Lauri Lynnxe Murphy has been a staple in the Denver art scene for some twenty years.  She's had her finger as a member/and or founder of a number of artist initiate groups and venues throughout the city.  Lauri is preparing for a change as she is shipping of to Ohio later in the year to embark on the MFA adventure.  In preparation for this pending event, LLM is holding an all out clearing sale this weekend in the wonder emporium she calls a studio.While in Denver last November, I stopped into the Curtis Park garage to pick up her kork advent contribution (Dec 3.) (Previously, in July of last year, LLM cultivated a heretofore unknown life form on the board of
Below are images from my brief studio visit:

 The space is pretty enormous, and although it has been shared among (three people, I think) there's no doubt that LLM's projects take up the bulk of the space.  The density of materiel and the breadth of projects made this joint feel particularly homey for me.

I likes me that herringbone pattern - in whatever form it takes.

I think this is when, overwhelmed, I started getting dizzy.

Several days prior to my studio visit,  LLM had an opening at Plastic Chapel which I was able to take in, accompanied, by chance, by fellow Beacon (and kork) artist, Elia Gurna.  The exhibit consisted of a menage of wall mounted roccoco wormlike tubers that had a very rococco quality.

On Colfax, a walking version of an LLM work in the micro blizzard that greeted us on leaving the show.

Lauri is currently organizing and curating the exhibit Objectophilia which is opening on June 30, 2010 and is part of the Biennial of the Americas being held in Denver during the month of July.

Calls for Artists: The Big Draw + WOMS 2010

First, The Big Draw: a fundraising drawing extravaganza for the Beacon Open Studios 2010.  The Big Draw will be a drawing marathon, party and live auction.  A handful of exquisite corpse drawings created by notable Beaconites will be auctioned off and a broad wide selection of 6"x8" 2D works will be available for $40 each.  Artists will be on hand drawing throughout the evening.
Deadline for submitting 6"x8" works for thee event is May 23.  Artists whose 6x8's are sold will  receive 50% ($20) of the purchase price.
Artists will also be on hand creating drawings throughout the evening.  If you are interested in drawing during the event, or submitting a piece, check out the submission info & form  
This event is not restricted to Beacon artists.  Anyone from anywhere are invited to submit work.

Remember, Beacon Open Studios is taking place on Sept. 25 & 26.  Artists interested in participating can sign up for the low low price of $20 until June 5th at which point the fee will rise.
I can tell you that both members of the maykr household will be participating this year...since one of us will have just finished her MFA, and last year's installment was so successful.

Next, Windows on Main St is coming back for its sixth year.

Deadline for project proposal submissions is July 1.  As I understand it Ty Marshal has handed over his share of the reigns to Katy Peace, but  Melissa Tatge is still involved in the inner workings.  The exhibit will be taking place from August 14 to September 11.

Creative Process Dialogue at the Beacon Institute, April 8, 4pm.

I'll be moderating a talk with artists Erica Hauser and Ian Wickstead tomorrow at 4pm at the Beacon Institute for Rivers and Estuaries.  The talk is part of a series accompanying the exhibit curated by Linda Stewart, Water, Water, Everywhere. 
The Beacon Institute is located at 199 Main St in Beacon.  The next Creative Process Dialogue is scheduled for Sept 18 featuring Peter Brauch & Shawn Snow and will be moderated by Carl Van Brunt.

As the kork turns...

There are yet a few moments left this weekend to engage in a bit of remote viewing of Matthew Hereford's kork project, Highland Path, while it is still on the wall in Poughkeepsie.

Up next on kork:   Unfolding the mind of Robert Lomblad.

Eye Candy Friday: It takes two, baby.

It's been a long while since I posted an ECF post, but this Vernissage TV vid of the opening of this John Wood and Paul Harrison exhibit at Von Bartha Garage in Basel CH tickled me, so rejoice and have a good weekend.

Remarks by Ron Haviv on Haiti Jan 12, 2010 at Fovea via Adrian Eisenhower

Adrian Eisenhower's short video about Fovea includes a few moments of Ron Haviv's remarks from April 10, 2010 on his experience in Haiti immediately following the earthquake in January. Haviv's Haiti photographs will be on view at Fovea through June 10, 2010.  A limited edition book/box of 16 photos of photos by Haviv has been created to raise funds for relief efforts.

This video, other short documentaries and other projects can be found at Adrian's blog On People, places and process.

The non-archival orifice: panel discussion on Carolee Schneemann, Apr 10, 2010 2-4pm

On a trip to LA back in 2007, we visited took in the Whack! Art and the Feminist Revolution exhibit at MOCA.  I regret not having seen the exhibit when it later traveled to PS1 because my impression of the installation in LA was of an un-congealed mess and I may have had an improved perception of it in another venue.  There was a lot of great work by a range of notable artists which suffered by the wholesale lumping together of it with less successful work, all in the broader interest and exhibit.  Certainly, the purpose of the exhibit was to chronicle of the development of the Feminist movement through works of the time; perhaps more appropriate fodder for a book than an exhibit.  Nontheless, walking through the exhibit was an experience; one that was oddly like that of  visiting the Vietnam Memorial in DC.   Along with us in the galleries were visitors - obvious veterans of the time- walking through the exhibit with the air of making a pilgrimage to remember their comrades and their own experiences from the time of this struggle.  Although I found the exhibit overly nostalgic, I appreciated the programming choice in pairing Whack! with Andrea Zittel: Critical Space, and a MoCA organized exhibit of pre-fab housing at the Pacific Design Center called Some Assembly Required.  The web of domesticity/gender roles/lifemaking issues that ran through the three exhibits was broad, brilliant stroke -BTW, the Zittel show was majorly engrossing.
The one moment that highlighted my experience in Whack! which will stay with me forever is beholding the actual scroll that Carolee Schneemann used in her piece Interior Scroll from 1975.  I have often seen photos documenting the performance piece in which the nude artist reads from a long thin scroll of paper that she pulls from her hoohaa,  but was the first time I had privilege of seeing (and even pondering) this piece of ephemera.  It was impressive.
Narrow, yellowed and brittle looking and, if my recollection serves, with bits of clear tape to join pieces of paper to achieve the length of three to four feet; I was stunned by the decrepit nature of the artifact.  I don't know how long it rested up there inside her body, but the condition of this scroll immediately brought to mind the Dead Sea Scrolls - and they sat in their respective caves for nearly 2000 years and don't look much worse for wear than this holy relic from the 70's, which reveals much about the climatic differences between the vagina and the Dead Sea region.

Carolee Schneeman and her work, which is the subject of a survey exhibition entitled Carolee Schneemann: Within and Beyond the Premises at the Samuel Dorsky Museum in New Paltz, NY will also be the subject of a panel discussion tomorrow afternoon from 2 to 4 pm at the Rosendale Theater in Rosendale NY (408 Main St.)  The panel, which has been organized in connection with the exhibit will be populated by:  Emily Caigan (SUNY New Paltz Women's Studies), Maura Reilly (American Federation of Arts), Brian Wallace (Dorsky Museum), Linda Weintraub (independant scholar), Kenneth White (Stanford University) and moderator Patricia Phillips (RISD).
A screening of select film and video works by the artist will follow the discussion at 5 pm.  Admission is $6, $4 for students.  Call 845.658.8989 for more info.

The Age of Exploration: Up River, April 2-5, 2010

A homemade, two person, tide and paddle powered vessel is scheduled to set off today on the Hudson River at Tivoli, NY and head north to the Troy dam.  On board the vessel will be artist Marie Lorenz and curator Diana Stevenson as a project by Lorenz called Up River and represents Stevenson's thesis which is part of the Spring line up of Bard Curatorial Studies Thesis Exhibitions.  A new round of graduate exhibitions open on Sunday, April 11 from 1-4pm.
Between today and April 5, the pair will be posting photos taken along the exploration on an hourly basis.  One can subscribe to the trips rss feed plugging into one's url:  http://www.marielorenz.com/inprogress/?cat=25&feed=rss2 , into your feed reader.  One may also choose to follow along on the Up River page of the artist's website.  There is also a facebook fan page for the project.
This project is a more subdued and, I expect, precise endeavor than Swoon's Swimming Cities of Switchback Sea which barrelled down the river in 2008.
The duo will give a lecture and slide show on the expedition on May 6, 2010 at 7:30 at the Tivoli Town Hall in Tivoli, NY.

Nava Atlas at Abecedarian Gallery in Denver, April 3

The work of New Paltz artist, Nava Atlas is included in a three person traveling exhibit called In Retrospect: Artists' Books and Works on Paper.  The exhibit will open at the Abecedarian Gallery in Denver on April 1 and run through May 8 .  The opening reception will be held on April 3 from 6-8 pm.  Nava will be in Denver to give a presentation at the gallery 5 pm, prior to the opening reception.  The gallery is located at 910 Santa Fe

Nava will also have work included in The Edge of Art: New York State Artist Series at the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse NY from Apr 17- July 11. 

Kork: Matthew Hereford, through April 30, 2010

As if unwilling to relent to the very notion of spring and vivacity it embodies, Mother Nature delayed by several days the installation of Matthew Hereford's installation at kork earlier this month.  "Highland Path" is testament to the coming of a new season. 
The work is a sort of visual onomonopoeia.  It is what it looks like.and it looks like something real.  And it is real; real components are playing themselves as if in a walk on roll in a sitcom in the formation of a fictionalized representation of a view of itself, of nature.
The scale is a little disorienting.  This is a God's POV and  the size relationships between elements and composition engender a frenetic blurring and refocusing of the eye as it works to discern what is in the fore and what is receding.  It's this constrained view finder onto a distant pastoral scene lends the entire kork board a sense of receding.  Even as the work itself is a dimensional and additive amalgam of collaged elements, the work as a whole functions as a negative; a removal of the constructed office interior to reveal that natural scene through or within the wall mounted portal.
 

The components of Highland Path were collected during the many walks Matthew takes in the Hudson Highlands. 
Maybe it's just me, but the more I look at this work, the more I get the sense  of time and space folding in on itself over and over again.

Matthew Hereford's work will remain on view through April 30, 2010.

Diary of an Art Hand....lete?

Here's breakdown of one person's date on the event of the inaugural Art Handling Olympics:

7:45 am - Wake up and check my look in the mirror - I likes what I see.

7:57 am - eat breakfast consisting of pineapple and yogurt, topped with some corn flakes (I pretend they're Wheaties)

8:21 am - I do my morning stretches, 'cause I'm playing old and I'm dealing with some back pain.

8:35 am - Consider shaving my entire body from the neck down. Might make up for time lost due to back pain, but decide I don't have time for another all day project. Settle on just shaving neck.

9:50 am - Meet up with teammate Sara to head to rendevouz with the rest of team rBad

10:51 am - A united rBad convoy is city bound

11:27 am - Potty break pit stop/detour in the wilds of Westchester County.

Descend here all ye with hopes of glory and fame.

12:42 pm - arrive at Ramiken Crucible, official AHO venue.

1:26 pm - rBad's team photo is taken

The Stripped Screws' striped stockings.

2:05 pm - rBad team knuckle tattooing

2:53 pm - Opening remarks and layout of events from AHO organizer Shane Caffrey

The Nitro Lords!

The all LADEES team, Screw 'Em

The Well Hungs Team.  I only just now got the connection between the team's name and the logo of the horse...It takes me a while sometimes.

AHO official blogger, Paddy Johnson of Art Fag City tweeting the event.

3:15-3:20ish pm - The qualifying event "Special Delivery" begins.  rBad is in the second 6 team heat.

 rBad in the home stretch.  Even though all looks copacetic, at least one of us at the very moment is convinced he is dying, his thighs feel like bundles of stretched out bra straps and he wouldn't be surprised if blood started spurting from his eyes.

 A brave bystander rescues the Quick and Dirty team from a surprise attack by another bystander

 This image and the previous one, courtesy of Rachel von Wettberg

3:41 pm - O god, o god,  god, o god o god, o god, o god.

3:52 pm -  The Well Hungs and the Kings of Cleats participate in the first heat of "Hang This."  I've regained my breath from the grinding ordeal of the Special Delivery.

4:20 pm - The Quick and Dirty and Dept 13 are in heat two of Hang This. And I insured that the dumplings and whiskey I consumed in Special Delivery would stay down by burying them under a supressive layer of cheese balls.

4:45 pm - rBad is hungry so we pack up gear, and head into Chinatown for dinner.

6:12-6:17 pm - Watching the woman from the restaurant trying to rustle an eel out of the tank.  It's a real contest of wits.

6:35 pm - Walking back from the restaurant, we pass the gallery, considering whether we should rejoin the gathered crowd.  Instead we head to the cars for our long drive home, champions, not of of international art handling primacy, but of our own.......whatever.   Really, the Art Handling Olympics is like the Special Olympics in that everyone is a winner.....any other similarities between the two contests, is for the viewer to decide.

I'm not sure what this posting is for.  I just liked the way it fluttered in the breeze.

In the end, the Kings of Cleats take the day with the Well Hungs and the Quick and Dirty also making to the medals platform.

Here's a video piece on the event by the NY Daily News:

For more info and better pics of the event, check out:
The NY Times article and slide show
Art Fag City's exaustive coverage, including  photos by Marina Galperina.

My City Was Gone|What is ever lost? Mapping Place and "Space with Freespace

Matthew Slaats is not a fellow who is ever wanting for a way to fill his down time.  He concluded the Hyde Park Visual History Project last October with a long awaited interactive projection at the Hyde Park Drive In and now he's fully involved in the Midddle Main Revitalization effort, working to leverage artistic activity to invigorate the cultural and economic life in a stretch of Poughkeepsie's Main St.

Matthew's work is interactive and participatory.  His impulse is toward community building and he engenders that in activities which are engineered to pool the knowledge, experience and creativity of a given community.

His latest project is an online and real world project called Freespace.  The website of Freespace seeks to generate a network of sites of of significance - of personally held significance as opposed to significance on an institutional or national scale.  The nature of the project is open ended and will ultimately be determined by the aggregated character of submissions by the public, and the site will map those locations and experiences and individual's experiences tied to that location.   As stated in the website's About section, the impetus for the project arose out of a visit to the Vanderbilt Mansion in Hyde Park as a way to spur a sort of National Park System that reflects the American experience of the common individual.  The project is a cataloging of the relationships built between people and place.
When Matthew sent the link and an invitation to participate I was reading James Fallows' article How America Can Rise Again in The January 2010 issue of The Atlantic and the pairing felt particularly synchronous.
In the article, Fallows questions several individuals on the state of the nation's well being and tracks the attitude that's been ingrained in the American psyche since its infancy that the society's high point has passed and the downhill slide is underway.  Fallows' inquiry takes stock our current state and indexing the values of today's society against the real and perceived visions of our history.  Freespace is a similar activity, codifying the involuntary habit we all have of staking claims on our surroundings based on our experiences and emotions.  Freespace charts this new territory in land we all already to navigate it with new insight;
it's just one particular approach on remaking the concept of the commons.  Stake a claim, then open it up for your neighbors to enjoy and share.

The Pressure is mounting; more details on the Art Handling Olympics

Paddy Johnson from Art Fag City has an interview with Art Handling Olympics founder Shane Caffrey reveals valuable details of this Sunday's competition, including, the menu that is part of the qualifying event: dumplings and shots of whiskey.
The members of rBad are getting psyched with every passing moment.

Link updates, Artist Talks at the Hessel Museum

I've made a couple additions/updates to the artist links in the right sidebar:  Greg Slick has a new website catelogueing his various works.  Robert Brush's new website is listed in the sidebar.

I've also added a link to Ron English's website.  Juxtapoz.com recently did a two part profile on the artist who moved to Beacon a little over a year ago.

Blogger now has the option of creating pages.  You can see above that I've created two pages for area art venue/resource links, and for web resources.  If you have a link to suggest, shoot me an email or make a comment here,and I'll work on getting it added.

Finally, artist Nicole Eisenman will be giving a talk tomorrow, March 18 at the Hessel Museum as part of the current exhibition project Living Under the Same Roof, curated by the CCS Bard curator in residence Ana Paula Cohen.  The series of talks of which the Eisenman talk is a part is co organized by Judy Pfaff for her course "Art in conversation."  Martha Rosler kicked off the series on March 11.

Here are the upcoming talks:
April 8 - Stephen Shore
April 15 - Matt Mullican
April 22 - Robert Longo
April 29 - Judy Pfaff

All talks are scheduled at 2pm.

Get It On!: The Art Handling Olympics @ Ramiken Crucible, March 21 3pm

Periodically, I condition my wallet by working as an art handler at a couple of esteemed art institutions in the area, one of them being the CCS Bard|Hessel Museum. The CCS|Hessel installation crew is fielding a team  (rBad) for the first ever Art Handling Olympics which is coming up on Sunday, March 21 at Ramiken Crucible down in the Lower East Side of Manhattan.  The competition kicks off at 3pm with the Official Opening Ceremony.
rBad, along with r support crew will join some fourteen other 4 person teams will be vying for glory via a handful of absurd feats of skill and endurance indigenous to the often absurd world of art handling and installation.
Think of it as MXC with booze, box cutters and measuring tape.

If you're around the LES that day come show your colors and cheer us on to either said glory, orto immediate and inglorious indignation. 

Oh, It's on, alright.  It's on!

Update on the TransArt Institute residency at Dia

I'm waiting on confirmation for the TransArt Institute residency at Dia:Beacon that is scheduled for tomorrow.
As of this morning it was on, but given the conditions brought on by the snow storm and the difficulties that many of the resident hosts are going through, the plan may have to change. I'll update inform
ation as I get it.
If you have any questions or concerns, give me a call 914-844-6515.
One thing that I do know is that the plan to lead artists through the museum blindfolded at 11:30am will not happen.

Update, 11:38am: the program is a go. Visiting artists will be contacting hosts to confirm the possibility of their stay. Some artists will be opting to return to NYC at the end of the day.

Electronic Music: Powered by Girls Workshop at Ann Street Gallery in Newburgh, March 13

On March 13 the Ann St Gallery in Newburgh NY will be hosting a free workshop on creating electronic music for girls aged 13-18.  Suzanne Thorpe and Bonnie Jones, both electronic music artists will conduct the afternoon long workshop called Electronic Music: Powered by Girls (1-5pm) which will be followed by a public concert performed by Thorpe and Jones at 8pm.
You can read the full press release with details of the workshop and the artists here.

Electronic Music: Powered by Girls, contact Bonnie Jones at (443) 858-3494 or bonniejones[at]gmail.com, or Suzanne Thorpe at (212) 206-1505 or suzanne[at]emf.org. For more information regarding the Ann Street Gallery, contact Virginia Walsh, Director, at (845) 562-6940 x. 119, vwalsh[at]safe-harbors.org.

It's a small world after all; a potluck invitation: Spire Studios, Sun, Feb 28, 2010

Some 20 artists from around the world are descending on Beacon on February 28 for a two day residency at Dia:Beacon.  The artists who are all enrolled in the TransArt Institute MFA program are being hosted by Beacon residents in their homes.
Folks are invited to join the group at Dia:Beacon on Sunday at 11:30 am to lead blindfolded artists from the museum entrance through the galleries and to the interior of one of Serra's Torqued Ellipses. The artists will spend two days at the museum working on projects that will respond to Dia's exhibits.
After the museum closes on Sunday, the group will convene at Spire Studios for drinks, conversation and a little potluck dinner.  If you're interested in stopping in an being part of the conversation, feel free to, and bring a little something to munch on.  For more information, contact Angelika .

Angelika is in the final stretch of getting her MFA program through TI.  The program consists of an intensive Summer residency in Berlin with a short Winter residency which starts later this week at the Sideshow Gallery in Brooklyn.  She's organizing this Beacon extension to the Winter session.  Coinciding the Brooklyn residency, TI will be holding its annual open house for anyone interested in learning more about the program.

Stepping Out in Beacon NY on Feb 13, 2010

A few images from stepping out in Beacon on Feb 13, 2010.

Though unrelated, I'm sure, Will Walker's sculpture above at Van Brunt Gallery rhymes nicely with the
hues in the sunset I snapped through the window of Will's studio back in October.

David Rothenberg et fils creating layers of music, digital and live at bau.

Young love burgeoning at the Valentine's show at Spire Studios.

Jan 29, 2010: Opening Reception of Harry Roseman's Hole in the Wall at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center at Vassar

Harry Roseman gave a talk on Friday evening at Vassar on the occasion of the official opening of his installation, Hole in the Wall in the atrium of the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center at the college.
Roseman's talk, along with a screening of a video documenting his Woven Walls installation at the Kleinert Art Center in Woodstock in 2008 preceeded the opening.  The main lecture hall was filled to capacity, so a second hall was enlisted, offering a projection of a live online stream of the talk. 

Unfortunately, the webstream had some form of buffering issue and we weren't able to see the entire talk.  A recording of the talk is available for viewing here.
The upside to this technical glitch was that those of us in the second hall were able to go in and view the work before the crush of people filled the space...and fill the space they did.  It got claustrophobic quickly, so I bailed out prior to the performance by Adrienne Elisha of a composition she created which was inspired by the installation. 

It had been too long since I last visited the Loeb.  There's really no better place in the area in which to casually stop in and indulge in morsels sized portions of great work.  The small size of the temporary exhibition and permanent collection galleries offer a remarkable opportunity to get a fix without needing to devote a great chunk of time. 

Anthony Easton's pilgrimage to Poughkeepsie - and kork

kork's current offering is a collection of snapshots by Toronto based artist Anthony Easton (his blog).  I met up with Anthony and his friend Pat at Dia Beacon on Jan 17.  The two had conceived a multitasking road trip, the first portion of which focused on visiting religious pilgrimage sites in upstate NY, like the Sacred Grove in Palmyra where Joseph Smith received the revelation that gave form to the Book of Mormon and the Mormon church.  The trip culminated in the installation of Anthony's work on the kork board in Poughkeepsie.

Anthony Easton placing photographs on the board of kork.

Anthony's project on kork consists of the photographic documentation of his vacation/research trip in upstate NY. 
In his statement, Anthony cites the recognizeable experience of suffering through a viewing someone else's vacation photos.  This curse of living vicariously through representations of other's experiences has only been magnified through proliferating technology and the annointment of all as producers of content, banal though that content may be. Anthony invokes the traditional banality of this form of vacation documentation, and gives it the pride of place that any individual gives to the relics of their fondly held memories.  These photos are the very same vestiges of leisure time that find their way into office cubicles on on to desks as rememberences of places visited and things during those non-work times spent away from the workplace.  They're emblems of experience and of the personal flown as flags of home in the pseudo home of the office. 

My contact with Anthony had been limited to short email exchanges until we rendezvoused at Dia the day before installation.
His endeavor of vacation as form of pilgrimage strikes a chord with one of the underlying tenets of kork:  how do we experience art?  Can a bulletin board in an accounting office become a cultural destination?  For me, the nature of pilgrimage and primary experiences plays a role in the broader implication of this work in this office in Poughkeepsie.  Would someone venture to POK to view the expression of an artist on a bulletin board in an office? Does the percieved value of such a site warrant such a trip? Is it sufficient to simply experience it remotely?  Is it enough to know that something is going on somewhere, and get the gist of it rather than making the effort of getting there?  Maybe, and yes - sometimes no.  Folks are more than welcome to stop into the office and check out the artworks.  They are equally welcome to feel satisfied that what they see online gives them some form of full experience.
The kork project as a whole partially rests on the calculation of reward divided by effort exerted - both in the creation of the works and the viewing of them. In this case the artist tested that calculation for himself.  
I'll admit to some anxiety when Anthony contacted me last year, interested in creating a project, and willing to travel to POK from Canada, and making that travel part of the piece.  I felt, but restrained, the need to inform him fully of the informality of the project and  he might not want to knock himself out over it.  But his coming is the realization of the kind of primacy of the primary experience that is self rewarding and not dependent on a climax resolution for validation.  I respect that attitude.  I know I'm projecting here, but I read it as an imperviousness to futility. It's a key to living, and making art; to dig a hole, not to retrieve something, nor to deposit something, and if something is found, to feel free to leave it in place, then fill in the hole once again and take something away from the whole endeavor.

This array of office implements and corresponding newsclippings is the most naturally sculptural and consistently enjoyable vision I behold whenever visiting the office of Bailey Browne CPA & Assoc.