More Swimming Cities....

The NY Times ran a story yesterday on the Swimming Cities of Switchback Seas, inlcuded with the story online is a slideshow of the final preparations and launch from Troy NY.

I found the following image of the flotilla's stop in Albany along with a very brief critique of the performance at peonysinalbany.blogspot.

via peonysinalbany

Kinetic Steam Works, one of the Swimming Cities collaborative groups, haling from San Francisco has a couple of pre-launch images and abehind the scenes acount on their blog.

You can also check out bluecinema's(Angela Coppola) images of the performance scene on flickr.

Chicken John has been blogging from the perspective of the project's resident mechanic. Here's a video of the crafts in motion:

Swimming Cities of the Switchback Sea from ekai on Vimeo.

Swimming Cities of Switchback Seas lands in Beacon, August 23 24

Brooklyn-based artist SWOON is leading a flotilla of seven structures boats down the Hudson from Troy down around Manhattan and up to Queens. Known as the Swimming Cities of Switchback Seas, this flotilla is part of her upcoming exhibit at Deitch Studios in Queens, SWOON has amassed a collaborative team to pilot the vessels and hold performances at points along the journey.

On this project SWOON collaborates with playwright Lisa D'Amour whose
performance draws up the many possible narratives and myths that might
surround the vessels, the crew and the journey. SWOON also teams up with
circus composer Sxip Shirey, Kinetic Steam Works from San Francisco, the band
Dark Dark Dark (accordian, cello, upright bass, banjo) and Hudson river
advocacy groups as the boats float down the river.

UPDATE:

The performance at Beacon Point is now scheduled for 8pm on Sunday, August 24 (originally publicized as Aug 23). This particular performance in Beacon, NY is presented in partnership with Dia:Beacon and Scenic Hudson.

Other dates still on tap: Aug 20 - Saugerties, Aug 21 - Kingston, Aug 27 - Croton on Hudson, Aug 28 - Nyack. This whole passage will culminate on the evening of Sept. 7 with an opening reception at Deitch Studios at 4-40 44th Drive, Long Island City.

The flotilla consisting of vessels created using reclaimed and recycled materials, and powered with alternative sources of energy. This current project is preceded by a similar adventure in 2006 when SWOON and the Miss Rockaway Armada pushed off with the intent of floating down the length of the Mississippi River. On March 2, 2007, SWOON gave a talk at MoMA discussing her work and her experience with the Miss Rockaway Armada. Downloadable audio is available from MoMA's website.(scroll down about 3/4 of the way for SWOON's talk)

Bring out your old magazines & illustrated books for the sake of art

Chris Jones, Bike, 2007, Images and glue,
97cm X 200cm X 67cm

photo from HVCCA.com

London based artist Chris Jones begins a three month residency at HVCCA this week. I met Jones this evening after the panel discussion held at the museum. He creates sculptural representations of animals, and objects using imagery from magazines, catalogues, illustrated books and the like and he needs to amass a great deal of such items to from which to build his pieces.

If you have any old magazines, or illustrated books you are looking to get rid of, instead of tossing them in the trash, let's see if we can some magic with them. Just email me (info(at)maykr.com) and we'll see if we can get a bunch of material down to him.

Beacon Art Postcard Archive

Maykr.com, in cooperation with bau, is initiating the Beacon Art Postcard Archive.

The printing of postcards has long since become de rigeur in the process of putting together an exhibition, and in away represents a very simple form of self publishing. Taken as a whole, over a period of time these artifacts, which tend to linger in disheveled collections on coffee shop and gallery windowsills well beyond the exhibition dates, create a physical record of the temporal flow of creative activity in a community. The intent of the Art Postcard Archive is to gather these promotional pieces together and create an historical record of the artistic activities in Beacon and Surrounding Areas. The parameters of the archive are a bit fuzzy right now, allowing for flexibility. Essentially, the collection will focus on all art exhibitions and events that have taken place in Beacon, and in the immediate area as well as exhibitions and events in areas further afield that include local artists, and those involved in the creative community in and around Beacon, NY. In addition to postcards, the archive will accept small flyers or similar material.

If you have operated a gallery in Beacon, if you are an artist living, working, showing art in and around Beacon with postcards promoting shows you've had here and elsewhere concurrent to your connection to Beacon, we'd appreciate the donation of a single copy for the archive. The archive will take the form of a box that will initially be housed at the Beacon Artist Union at 161 Main St. with postcards arranged chronologically. We intend the archive to remain an open source record, that, eventually, will be donated to the Beacon Historical Society. Adding current material to the archive is obviously easier than gathering older materials so we are interested in collecting any postcards from previous years and would appreciate any assistance in gathering material from past exhibits. If you'd like more information or if you have questions, contact me at info(at)maykr.com.

If you have postcards to add to the archive, feel free to drop them off at bau, or contact me directly. Also, if you have any questions or would like more information shoot me an email.

Settling in

I made it back home this weekend, and I am reacclimating myself after my extended stay out West.



Before I left town, I noticed a for rent sign in the window of Freshman Fine Art. Driving by there yesterday I saw the space is now empty.



Last Weekend's Enjoy section of the POJO included a feature on Open Space's "Limited Run" exhibit of prints and zines.



Alison Moritsugu's exhibit at The Contemporary Museum at First Hawaiian Center is the subject of a write up in the Honolulu Star Bulletin from Dec 9. The story includes several images of exhibition artworks.



If you're interested in hearing more about the recent news that the Dia Foundation is selling its building in Chelsea, Tyler Green of MAN had a brief conversation yesterday with Dia Director Jeffrey Weiss on the subject of the sale, and the fate of the Jorge Pardo piece.



Also, befitting the season of giving, Tyler has highlighted an organization called DonorsChoose.org which allows donors to choose and directly fund small projects posted by public school teachers. Everyday through Christmas, Tyler will feature one project on his blog. Yesterday's project came from a teacher in Fort Wayne, Indiana hoping to build an art book library for her students.

Get into the Spirit. ChopChop.

The Spirit of Beacon Parade is coming up in little more than a week, (Sept 30, in fact) and here's what you need to know, from Jill Reynolds:

The group that brought you "The New Hudson River School" award-winning Spirit of Beacon Day 2004 parade entry, aka the "fish float," invites you to be a part of this year's entry: "Building a Better Beacon." Come as your favorite tool! The choice of tool does not have to be limited to hand tools-- powertools and implements from whatever your trade is are welcome as well, anything that fits in with the idea of "Building a Better Beacon." Kitchen implements, art studio gear, tech gadgets, etc. Also materials would be appropriate, e.g. a brick, a bag of flour, a can/tube of paint, etc. And speaking of materials, anything you want to make it out of is fine. The main thing is that it be recognizable as whatever object you're trying to portray. Differences in scale between tools is okay. This is an open invitation. Please SPREAD THE WORD to whomever youthink might be interested. The more the merrier. Also other floats/marchers are to be enthusiastically encouraged, e.g. there is talk of maybe a tree stump contingent forming (on thetheme of creating a worse Beacon...). Anyone who wants to register a float to be in the parade should call Roy Ciancanelli at 845-831-3027 ASAP. The Spirit of Beacon Day is Sunday Sept 30. The parade is scheduled to begin around 12:30 (based on past experience; will get confirmation on exact time later). Rain date is the following Sunday. Our official "Building a Better Beacon" registration form will be arriving in the mail shortly. For any who are interested, want to jump-start their parade costume, have an idea but are not sure how to go about it, there will be a
TOOL-BUILDING WORKSHOP: SATURDAY SEPT 22 at 10 WILLOW ST. from 1:00-5:00pm
Expertise and free advice on costume-building will be available, as well as free electricity and cheery communal spirit. If you think you might want to participate please call or e-mail (dms.jer@verizon.net) so I have some idea of how many to expect. We will have some tools but please bring whatever tools and materials you have as well, including but not limited to:
CARDBOARD, HOT GLUE GUNS + GLUE STICKS, ELMER'S GLUE, WOOD GLUE, PAINT + BRUSHES, CRAFT MATERIALS like glitter, pom-poms, toothpicks, etc., FABRIC FOAM BOARD, BAMBOO, STRING, UTILITY KNIVES AND BLADES, MEASURING TAPES,
PENCILS, KEEP AN EYE OUT DURING THE WEEK FOR STUFF YOU CAN USE.

Action for low cost health Ins. for Upstate NY artists

Fractured Atlas, an organization, supporting artists is seeking names of artists in upstate NY who are in need of low cost insurance.
Fractured Atlas has programs that provide low cost health insurance for artists in the NYC area, and the organization is in talks with GHI to establish a similar options for upstate. GHI has asked the group to demonstrate a need for such a program by submitting names and zip codes of artists who would take advantage of such an option if it were offered. Fractured Atlas is hoping to gather 2,000-3,000 names, and the more the better.

The collection of names will act as a petition for the purpose of demonstrating the need for low cost health insurance for upstate artists. Neither Fractured Atlas or GHI will contact you.

If you are interested in adding your name to the list, email Mary Ortiz at marie.ortiz@fracturedatlas.org with the subject line reading: "Upstate NY Healthcare Initiative"

Also, if you're reading this, please pass it along to your contacts.