Ahhhh how things have a way of coming back around on themselves, and how art has a way of blurring the boundaries of itself, life, and entertainment.

Socrates Sculpture Park opened up their 2010 summer film series, Outdoor Cinema, last week with a screening of the “road movie on a river”, Flood Tide directed by Todd Chandler. The movie was a “remix” in the director’s own words, since it was specially adapted to feature a live score by Dark Dark Dark:

Genius! At times their score was seamless, to the point where I was watching a film and the music started to effect me in such a way that I had to remind myself that it was live, and I had to glance over at Dark Dark Dark on the adjacent stage to confirm that indeed they were playing the music I was hearing. And as always, set against the backdrop of Roosevelt Island and the Upper East Side of Manhattan makes any trip to Outdoor Cinema a blast!

And then this really wonderful moment occurred where one of Swoon’s Switchback Sea boats, floating down the Hudson, was projected onto the blow-up screen and reminded me of 2008 September 7th when I took a similar shot of another boat from that same armada floating down the East River, passing via the same park I was now sitting in – watching a filmic representation of that similar moment! Funny how life does that to you, eh?

I’m not generally a braggard but I am pretty damned happy with myself that I got to see the premier NYC performance by South Africa’s own Die Antwoord. What’s that stand for? The Answer. The answer to what? Whatever man… fuck it!

A ninja, a hooded-masked DJ and a butterfly with the weirdest haircut ever. If that’s their “answer” then you should be even more confused now! And they put on a SICK and RAWKUS show, totally high-octane from start to finish. It’s unfortunate how many people left the room after their first full song, their Enter the Ninja anthem whose catchy chorus combined with wtf-visuals made them an instant YouTube phenom some months back, whose viral numbers now stand at over 2.1 million views. And I’m personally responsible for watching that video on about 3,000 computers. But like I say some people left, maybe they simply couldn’t handle Zef Side. I mean shit got rowdy:

First off there’s the all-day Intel & Vice collabo Creators Project. And by all-day I mean 2pm-2am!

Film screenings, graffiti walls, DIY satellites, Spike Jonze, eyewriters and installations galore, this is the event to be at today… alllllll day! Did I mention that Die Antwoord are playing!? If you don’t know who I’m talking about then check out this ZEF SIDE post I threw up back in February about 4 minutes before they went viral. I mean they went viral to the point where when I saw people the next day or week, we would both start singing that butterfly-samurai chorus, and know what the hell each other were talking about! Meanwhile, anyone around me or us had no clue. So this is a big exciting moment for me to finally get to see The Answer… to what? Fuck it man!

If that’s not your thing but gelatinous molds are, you’re in luck!

Sponsored by some great organizations including MAKE, CRAFT and core77 – don’t forget Jell-O itself! – this annual event is taking place at the superbly awesome Gowanus Studio Space from 6-10pm and will feature a juried panel deciding the most hot-shit jell-o molds based on criteria not purely aesthetic but also structural/sculptural ingenuity and culinary “appeal” – how subjective! Electro-DJs and jell-o shots are also expected.

And if that’s not enough there’s a HAM radio party taking place from 8pm-1am at the new NYC Resistor space:

I haven’t been to the new space yet, and I’m really itching to pay a visit – Die Antwoord go on stage at 10:30pm so I’m trying to think if I can actually leave the Creators Project before 6, see the Jell-O event, bike back to Union Square to see Die Antwoord, then leave for the HAM radio party. … ? ! … !?@)$)O$J#!!! Just another day in the life of…

The Mermaid Day Parade 2010 opened with a bang! A great procession down Surf Ave and then onto the boardwalk featuring last year’s King Neptune and Queen Mermaid, that is Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson respectively. Lou rocked the push-throne with his baseball-cap crown and pink-n-green cape-robe. Brilliant! Freaks to follow:

This was a pretty timid Mermaid Day Parade in my mind though. It was good, don’t get me wrong, but there were a couple points to reckon with:

the BP oil spill theme was a little too much. I mean one or even two costumes dealing with it seems okay, but I counted about a half-dozen if not more, including some entire sections that were just BP-related. Yes, it doesn’t effect NY yet; yes, it will someday; yes, people who live in NYC are from areas effected by the spill; BUT, I think the overt, acute nature of the costumes really doesn’t do any good. Straight up.

not enough Freaks on the whole. Just an observation. Not sure what it means.

per above comment, that means I must get involved next year! even though I’m Normal.

stilt-walkers these days just buy their stilts – not sure how I feel about this.

not enough electro-art costumes – again, I must get involved!

most of the music – save the Hungry March Band – sucked. banging on wooden boxes out of rhythm doesn’t justify your participation in the parade! At least figure out ONE tune and play it well – within 50 feet I can’t hear you so it doesn’t matter if you’re on repeat.

group and collective thematic sections were the HIGHLIGHT: from the sailor booty-bass section to the Flea Circus even to the Coney Island Brewery girls, it was the sections that were driven by a group energy that proved the most exciting for the audience to cheer on!

Please someone tell me you know who this is! I’ve seen her around town before and I want to involve her in some upcoming projects. She’s totally wicked!

And finally for part 1, the Hungry March Band. They rocked, without a doubt, and their gold-n-white theme showed how to unify a section and really drive the energy levels UP! The kids up front were absolutely adorable and the puppet in the rear was a great finishing element!

[full set of images and videos on my Flickr]

Hanging out with Becky Stern yesterday at the FIGMENT NYC festival on Governor’s Island, the boat disembarked and within 50 feet I ran into Doc Advencha and then Ohio Mike aka 0h10m1ke. The rest of the crowd proceeded on when somehow Becky and I were picked out of the crowd to have our 1-minute matchbook portraits drawn!

Simple! and Lovely! a 1-minute contour line-drawing on the inside of a labeled and numbered matchbook. Having passed the 8k mark the day before in this series, Mike says the matchbook project will end with the 10,000th portrait – how soon, where and when is unknown, as Mike walks the streets of New York and attends events like Figment to fulfill his drawing volume dreams!

BIG UPS to Becky Stern and Collin Cunningham for their excellent work on these videos from the Bay Area Maker Faire 2010. These videos will show you just some of the many excellent projects that were taking place at and in some cases being made on-site at the Maker Faire! And even I need to watch these videos to see what I missed! Like the aerial photography pole project – yup, didn’t even know about that until I saw some photos after the event was concluded! With over 670 projects happening simultaneously over two days, me and the pole-guy must have ran laps around each other in Expo Hall! Hah!

Tomorrow is Flux Thursday @ Flux Factory (directions), and it’ll be a special Flux Thursday not only because of the awards ceremony for Flux’s current exhibition The Science Fair (I wonder who will win the award for “BIG VIOLENCE”?!), but especially because I’ll be giving a slideshow by the working title The World’s Longest DIY Slideshow.

Don’t worry it won’t be as painful as it sounds. Since returning from the Bay Area for Maker Faire, a lot of people have asked me how was the trip, what did I see, do, etc. So rather than repeat the same story to a dozen people, I’d rather spit it to many dozen people at the same time – and be merry with drink and eats, Flux Thursday is a potluck event so if you plan on coming bring something for others to enjoy. And I will plan to make it worth your while with my roller coaster slideshow – my plan is 300 images in 30 minutes! 10 a minute or one image every 6 seconds, with explanation! Strap yourself in! It’s gonna be fuuuuuuuuun!

It looks like this. It has 5 stickers on the front, that fit into those rectangular areas; and my name on a sticker on the back. Inside, my contact details, including: POBox, phone, Google Voice, skype, email, web, etc.

SCORE! is a free-stuff popup swap.

I got there early, helped volunteer, busted my balls setting up the books and electronics departments while people were flooding in. I did my best. This was my payback – for the 2 minutes I had my back turned, someone stole my notebook. It was behind the electronics table, in a pile of obviously-personal stuff. It was not an “accident” – it was an obvious quick-pinch. The analogy is like taking off your shoe to remove a rock, setting your shoe down to wipe your foot, and someone stealing your shoe: SCORE! FREE SHOE!

Why would someone do that?

There was clearly a culture of people there who understood the intention of the event: keep waste out of landfills, exchange, dialogue, talk about stuff, the aesthetics of life. And then there were people who were there to simply cart away as much free stuff as they possible could get away with. Sad but true.

This reminds me increasingly of why I’m a “digitalist” – specifically, why I like to keep as much information as possible “in the cloud”. Unfortunately, I hadn’t transcribed all of the information contained within my notebook yet. And most of my notebooks, once they finish just sit on a shelf and collect dust. Unfortunately, this notebook wasn’t supposed to “finish” until the end of September.

School of the Future, Holocenter, Maker Faire, Flux Factory, etc… if I had a meeting with you, if I took notes, they’re gone. Just GONE.

6+ months of notes and ideas, snatched in a single breath.

Gone.

Needless to say I’m pissed, upset, and depressed. Like I say I helped Alpha One Labs setup shop, and volunteered my energies. I barely got to talk or network with anyone because the pace was so hectic. The event organizers seemed plenty nice and there were a number of cute girls there. The lady running the book area was super-cute and there was a barkeep I would have liked chatting up. Now, I’m sitting at home sulking on a sunny Saturday afternoon and frankly I DO NOT WANT TO GO BACK OUTSIDE.

I know at some point I’m going to cry, I just lost so much work and time. And I’ll have to spend double-time the next four months in preparation for World Maker Faire (NYC) recovering or following up with a “sorry” to everybody I was supposed to get in touch with and now… my mind is so overworked and flooded with information, I simply can’t remember everything anymore. I have to write things down. But now it’s like I no longer trust writing it down, or taking a notebook outside that might contain sensitive information if lost. But it wasn’t lost, it was stolen.

I’ve coordinated events before with 2, 4, 900 people. In my home and elsewhere. Always left doors and rooms unlocked because I felt safe for my stuff. Now, now I no longer feel safe. I’m not sure if I trust a free-swap style event anymore. In near-6 years I’ve never had anything in NYC stolen from me.

My information is clearly labeled inside the book. Will someone go out of their way to return it? Please please, I hope so.

Where to begin?

This is one of those megaposts that makes me sad, because it reminds me of how much activity just happened, and how poof, it’s all gone now. I’m still nervous with excitement – okay maybe that’s the late-night coffee talking – and unclear what exactly to say other than if you missed it, you seriously missed it!

It’s incredibly difficult to explain in a blog post what Maker Faire is: what it excites and instills in people, and how it operates. The best way to explain it is to participate in it, to see it live, and to flow through its channels. Maker Faire isn’t a thing that tells its Makers what to do. Instead, Maker Faire is whatever the Makers make of it! There’s a point at which the floodgates open and the crowds come rushing in, sure, but more-so than that there’s a point when the team who put it together kind of give it up, and let the Makers run the show! It’s really remarkable, really incredible, not something you find much of anymore. So much of society elsewhere is “curated”, orchestrated, composed. Maker Faire is LIFE. It’s fluid and organic and sometimes it doesn’t work – and when shit breaks down, you understand it that much better, and you hack it back into place!

And perhaps the most impressive element of Maker Faire was how it natively procured a platform of dialogue that is lost in so many other facilities. You could easily walk up to a complete stranger and ask them a question – be it technical or conceptual – about their project and get a response. They were there to talk, to exchange, and to expand the minds of those attending, to open up new possibilities through language and presentation. Here is this thing, yes, but now I will tell you here is why this thing is here! Ah-hah! That’s when it gets really interesting.

I really want to mention and caption each and every single image with its own essay, but that simply might not be possible. This page will never load and this server will crash if I tried to load all 400+ quality photos I took at this amazing event. Instead I’ll post a couple dozen now, and I hope to mention a couple more choice images and projects in the days ahead; because it’s pretty clear to me that as I twitch and type that I’m completely overwhelmed with the mass of experience I just encountered, I’m looking for a way to unload, and I want you to participate in the tidal wave of awesomeness that Maker Faire has to offer:

this is like one of those centrifugal spinning solar system devices, only GIANT and DIY!

a Make workshop about marketing your hand-made products

I gave the PaperBot one of my blue ribbon Editor’s Choice awards. Here’s a video showing the PaperBot in motion:

Kids having so-much-fun in the Young Makers building

Also, kids and adults alike could learn how to solder for just $1 – and you actually made a blinking LED device!

embedded arduino lilypad in fabric – wearable electronics

giant… cardboard… robot… AWESOME!

Madagascar Institute – from Brooklyn – Invents The Wheel at Maker Faire! I have yet to take this thing for a spin!

a custom bike wheel with embedded LEDs that display images as you cycle! in this case, the Matrix code.

a crafty theatre set for teaching middle schoolers the principles of stage lighting design and sequence-programming (cue calls, basically), driven by a MaxMSP patch with iCamera and servo-lights. Brilliant!

Angus operating the ShopBot… HI Angus!

hi Tramaine… Shouldn’t You Be… (Tramaine was the resident sign-painter and made some lovely hand-painted signs chock-full of info’mation)

lots of crafters at Maker Faire!

glowing boxes of DIY-whats-it-dos!

a solar charging station, reminiscent of gas stations of yore, for you to recharge your mobile devices with sun-ergy

learning basic smithing skills, taught by Oakland’s The Crucible

the Midway fairegrounds. And yes, that’s a rocket in the background. And yes, it’s 40′ tall. And yes, you could go in it. And YES, it’s capable of space exploration, they had all the knobs and dials and viewports to prove it!

Like I say, if you missed out on this you missed out on one of the most exciting events in this country. That’s saying a lot, but it’s also true that there was something for everyone at Maker Faire – from kids to adults to hackers to solar enthusiasts to gardeners to pyro-maniacs to music and performance. And it was all Do-It-Yourself! See you next year – I can’t wait!

More pictures on my full Flickr set!

my first full day in the Bay Area, technically still going as I jot some notes down at the I/O after-party (not to be confused with the “after-after party”). Just notes, because there’s too much going on around me to write any serious synopsis or review.

The day began around 7am, with a splash of water to the face. After that it was a blur. Between there and walking into the main hall at the Google I/O conference there was: a breakfast burrito, a 1/2 mile walk through San Mateo, a Caltrain ride past the city metal scrapyard, a tour past South Park where Wired and other dot-com sites of fame were founded, and then finally the convention center where the conference is being held.

First impression is it’s good to see so many PCs. Sure there are plenty of Macs to be seen here, but Google being Google means they use whatever is available, and in the case of their check-in machines that means classic IBM ThinkPads, and PCs for many of their presentation stations. Basically, they aren’t pompous or pretentious, they just use what works for what they need.

I caught most of the opening keynote speech. Again, Google being Google means the keynote has a different flavor to it than other tech companies. I’m not going to bother breaking down the speeches that were given, instead just flip through the GoogleDeveloper YouTube channel or watch part 1 of the keynote below, and go from there with related videos:

The seminars were hit-and-miss to be honest. The first one I went to – Bringing Google to Your Site, part of the API column of seminars – was spot-on! In the past two weeks I’ve had several conversations with various individuals, non-profit organizations and for-profit ventures, and some of the ideas we were bouncing around in our conversations were answered by Google at this seminar! Very fortuitous! The third seminar I went to – Fireside Chat with the Google Chrome and Chrome OS Teams – was a bit of a flop though. No one from the Chrome OS team was actually present; and the “chat” wasn’t really a chat but a town hall. Granted, I like town hall meetings, Q&As, and open forums, but I was actually expecting to be presented with a chat. And there weren’t any major Chrome developments to report, so it was a bit banal.

However the HTML5 seminar (about Chrome and Google tools) made up for any shortcomings:

and unfortunately I missed the Ignite seminar because it was completely full-up.

One of the most interesting – and almost easily simple – ideas that Google presented was their Font API, which allows you to print custom fonts to webpages with a single link src call, like this:

…

Then there was the after-party, not to be confused with the after-after party. What can I say, Google likes to party. Actually, there were elements that worked and elements that didn’t. The mini-Maker Faire in the after party, ROCKED, of course. As a preview of what to expect at the Faire this weekend, the very-mini event had a whopping 10 Makers – the Faire this weekend will have over 600! The food, however, sucked. The lines were long and the quality was edible but unexciting. Sort of unexpected. However the DJ and VJ element was pretty good – of course you can thank Google for owning YouTube for that! It made the VJ process very… obvious. Just queue up a YouTube playlist and watch some mash-ups on HD projectors! BAM! But seriously I think the mini-Makers and tech projects stole the show:

the I/O was mostly successful. And this post is relevant to yesterday’s events, I didn’t get to see the conclusion of the I/O today, as I’ve been busy at the San Mateo Expo Center helping with Maker Faire prep, so I haven’t seen what Google announced; there was buzz yesterday that they were saving the “big news” for today: TV, Android 2.2, etc. – I don’t know but I’m sure it’s all very exciting. All the Google engineers and employees I talked to were all very driven by being a part of something that was bigger than them, yet something that they knew they were absolutely contributing to the ethos and longevity of. All in all really strong energy, and a sort of alternative approach to a conference compared with historical big-name hardware and software companies.

Oh yeah, and they gave me a Verizon Droid phone with 1 month free data service – in essence, they bought me! However I can’t use the Droid, and I WANT the Nexus One. So anybody out there want to buy an upgraded Verizon phone for under-market rate and help me achieve my dream?

It only happens once a month, and its more popular than auto-tune songs in the Top 10.

It’s Flux Thursday @ Flux Factory, your and my favorite non-profit arts space in Western Queens (DEFEND IT!). Don’t get the jest of my jibe? Is that even a word?

Either way there’s only one way to find out: c’mon down! There’ll be a meal (hopefully HOT with this textbook Spring weather) but it’s also a potluck, so bring something for your fellow punters. They’ll appreciate it. And there’ll be some art, maybe some theatre, and if you have works-in-progress yourself and want to show-and-tell, now’s your opportunity! See you there.

Sunday, May 9, 2-6pm & Monday, May 10, 5-9pm

721 Broadway, 4th Floor NYC

One of the more diverse and eclectic dorkbot presentations in recent memory (look at what was parked outside versus what you saw inside!), the May 2010 installment – officially labelled the 5g5s^th installment – featured homemade satellites, craft vans, computer-assisted composition and live music, and finally anaglyph audio-visual projections. As always Dorkbot NYC is held at the incredible Location One non-profit gallery and performance space; and big-ups to Levi for running the show!

Song Hojun made a special presentation, in town from South Korea. His project, the Open Source Satellite Initiative seeks to plant a homemade satellite in low-orbit, and talk back via blinking (in morse code) super LEDs:

Nick Didkovsky presented some JMSL-language computer composition software that he wrote, which creates unpredictable scores, some of which were performed live by loudbang:

Julia Vallera is a Parsons MFA candidate and converted a Ford Tuscany van into her current social practice art project Color Wheelz:

and finally Daniel Iglesia is a Columbia Computer Music Center graduate candidate who presented some anaglyph audio-visual projections – he passed out glasses to assist in the viewing and the results were pretty spectacular! The video doesn’t seem to have the same effect when embedded across the internet, but the pictures do capture some of the moment (yes I keep a pair of anaglyph glasses at the ready in my studio to check things like this!):

what do a bike parade, instrument making, a dance floor and a choir of YOU have in common?

Absolutely nothing. That’s what makes contemporary life so exciting! Action-Club artists will be leading a costumed bike parade from north Brooklyn to your and my favorite low-cost salvage surplus building materials supply warehouse: Build It Green – B.i.G.! – at 5pm. Once there I suspect musical instruments will be fabricated from… low-cost salvage surplus building materials. And then at 5:30 a one-song album recording and simultaneous music video and dance floor will ensue!

An anonymous tip suggests the song will be a foot-stompin’ classic.

If you don’t know Swimming Cities then you just don’t know.

And their next project – The Ocean of Blood – will be to float down the Ganges, as in the Indian sub-continent Ganges. On a few of these:

Anyways they’re having a fundraiser on Friday night and you and everyone you know should be there because they really need the funding – me I don’t plan on wearing a costume that way I’m obliged to pay more, actually. Although I am looking forward to any infomercial costumes that might make an appearance – I wonder if anyone will show up as one of those Hawaii Chairs?

Here are the event deets:

Maker Faire New York 2010 Open Call is now… Open!

This has been in the works for a long time now, and I’m really happy – beyond words – to say that I’m a part of it!

If you know me you know I love culture. I love events. I love people and artists and crowds and activities and mobs and spectacles and life. Loving is the easy part though.

The best culture is D.I.Y. culture, and that means for it to happen, we have to make it happen.

WORLD Maker Faire NY is taking place later this year at the New York Hall of Science, and will provide one of the most exciting, dynamic and fruitful make it happen environments that New York City has ever seen – at least in my opinion, and during my near-6 years here.

If you Make something, I want you involved.

If you teach how-to something, I want you involved.

If you instruct-a-thon, I want you involved.

This IS the WORLD’S Largest D.I.Y Festival!!

IF YOU ARE A MAKER THEN NOW IS YOUR TIME TO SHINE!

Do you DIY:

3d printers
circuit bending
wind power
dorkbot
marching band
compost
arduino boards
origami
steampunk
LEDs
beer/wine
mycology
game-makers
telescopes
chocolate
permaculture
rube golberg
MIDI
scrap booking
book-making
silkscreens
photography
kinetic arts
circus
ceramics
beekeeping
radio transmission
CNC milling
model railroads
non-profit arts
hydro power
breadmaking
catapults
solar anything!

If YES to any of the above, then I WANT YOU INVOLVED!

How to submit a proposal? CLICK THIS LINK – It’s a VERY SIMPLE form, not complex or convoluted. It will require you to make an O’Reilly account, that’s just so we can keep track of your data and contact you through our backend if necessary.

Please please submit your proposal sooner than later. The Open Call will stay open for approximately 7-8 weeks but we are tight on resources and will start allocating them as soon as the proposals arrive.

I want to be accessible throughout the success of this project, so if you have any questions, comments, concerns, ideas or general thoughts please feel free to contact me. I’ll publish my details below, or you can access me through various social networks that I’m involved with.

THANK YOU SO MUCH for reading and I really want you to be involved!

CLICK HERE TO SUBMIT A PROPOSAL TO MAKER FAIRE NY 2010

CONTACT:
email: nick [at] geekathon [dot] net
Twitter: @nicknormal
my Facebook profile
my Flickr account

…

Do you want to help spread the word about Maker Faire NY? Great!

Blog about it! Tweet about it! Or send people to this blog to talk with me or use this shortlink to send makers straight to the proposal form:

http://bit.ly/mfny2010

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

to see more of what MAKE culture is all about, visit

MAKEzine
Craftzine

or to see Maker Faire in other cities, including San Francisco and Detroit visit the main

MAKER FAIRE website

Went to the Arch Rival Roller Girls event last night, the Smashinistas vs Stunt Devils. The event opened with the dudes’ match, local Gatekeepers versus some team from Indy. They blew those training-wheel players out of the water, although the play was a little weak at times I was told. I say “I was told” because I really had no idea what I was watching. I could clearly see there was some agenda, but it takes time to read and figure out the position players. Still, it’s really intriguing to watch and there’s definitely lots of good moments to be had.

Most-impressed am I by the fact that almost no one is getting paid. The event barely covers its costs and all the proceeds go back into continuing to sponsor future events. The athletes are simply doing it for the sport, the notoriety, and the fun. It’s almost addictive to watch because at half-time I thought, “That’s it!?” – thankfully there was more to come.

And there are certain elements you simply have to love: the outfits – especially the socks and helmets!; the movements, motions and shifts to be seen in sudden on the track; and of course the names, names like “Polkadot Yr Eyeout”, “Mayor Francis Slayer” (you know if you’re from St. Louis), “Punches Pileup” – some wonderful nomenclatures that hint at what to expect!

I saw a helmet-handoff, only way I know to describe it, similar to a lateral pass in American football; and also a slingshot in the last round of the girls’ match even though the Smashinistas by that point had no chance of winning it was still a pretty sweet move!

It’s almost impossible however to get a “really really good photograph” without some 300mm zoom lens, as all the action is yards away (and I was sitting front row!). But it’s really something to be seen and experienced, like so much of life really!

Oh yeah! Recap! Well the Stunt Devils won which I was (also) told was to be expected (they won by 47 points to be specific); however the Smashinistas were clearly the crowd favorite, as every time their jammer broke through they got a lot more respective applause and jeer from fans and anti-fans alike. And it all hinged on one breakout round early on where the Stunt Devils racked up some good points and pulled away; it was something to do with a 2 and 4 in the pack phenomenon – I saw it happen but didn’t really understand it, but knew once the Stunt Devils took a significant lead it was simply a chase the rest of the evening.

The culture attached to roller derby is pretty remarkable, and includes everyone from local punk rockers to chopper-riding biker gangs, hoosiers and ordinary folk looking for cheap entertainment for the whole family. It’s very inclusive, and very approachable. Again, however, I really knew nothing of what I was watching.

Now the dance floor! That’s a different story! And yes, there was a man in green the whole night!

FULL SET on my Flickr

Tonight is Flux Factory’s end-of-year fundraiser featuring a wonderful collector’s edition box set of multiples by some hot shit artists including yours truly. The entire list of artists is impressive: Brandstifter, Bread & Butter Collective, Andrea Dezso, Kerry Downey, Heather Jones, Aya Kakeda, Miwa Koizumi, Simone Meltesen, Nick Normal, Ward Shelley, and Swoon. That’s not all! There will also be goody bags available with edition works from: Parfyme, Paula Castro, and Georgia Muenster. ALSO! There will be audible entertainments and visual screenings by the following: April March, Adira Amram and Nick Jones, Marie Losier, Nick Yulman, and Sxip Shirey! OH YEAH! And AVE BFF DJs laurendarling and soh luvlee will be spinning throughout the night!

…

AND! there’s an Open Bar and cocktails served all night, care of Campari, Vine wines, and local food distributors (big ups to all of them!).

It’s a $20 suggested donation but with that line-up and hot art available for sale, it’ll definitely be the hottest thing going on between now and tomorrow! See you there, I hope!

Here are some sneak preview shots of our installation currently in progress:

my working prototype for the box set – a facsimile box of JT21/T27 Arrow brand staples

preparing the art for the boxes (seen on floor, right and drawers in back-right area)

Nick Yulman’s computer interface for his solenoid musical devices!

the stage!

the box set to-be! nice install.

Yesterday was day 1 (of 2) for WordCamp NYC 2009. Wow. What a brilliant and wonderful event!

I missed the opening remarks and first few series of workshops, which I ultimately regret but had no control over given my recent workload and absolutely need the night before to get at least 5.5 hours of sleep (yes, when I need sleep I sleep more than 4… I wound up waking at the 5 hour mark but staying in bed until the 6 hour mark – but I digress!).

I wound up arriving at around 11:48am, and as soon as I registered and received my kick-ass tee-shirt and badge, I was standing in the middle of the room glancing over the post-lunch programme when I turned around and suddenly there were over 500 hungry participants standing behind me! FTW! I was the first in line for the vegetarian sandwiches – sweet!

I had a great conversation with Jim of zemanta.com, and met a couple other really wonderful people before the afternoon sessions even began. Which is one thing I’ve always really liked about geek and tech meet-ups and gatherings like this, is generally people are very approachable and friendly. Not to say people in the art world aren’t, but it’s a completely different set of standards, and, well actually people in the art world aren’t as approachable! There, I said it. Yes it is difficult to explain how as an artist I work with WordPress – usually the response is, “so you’re a Designer?” , “no, I make installations” (like holoscape, which is built on WP) – or how I work with NYC-area non-profits and always recommend WordPress as a tool for their projects and missions. But whereas in the art world people usually just don’t care about “code” (or the political ramifications of blog culture and terms or language like Creative Commons, GPL, XML, etc.), at least at these events people are always willing to listen to what you do, or in this case why you do it with WordPress!

I first went to the WP in Education round table. I forget all of the presenters’ names, but that’s Matt Mullenweg on the far left, and two of the other blokes (middle and far right) were from Virginia of all states, which was interesting – and they both had very strong ideas and opinions about how WordPress has pro-actively been used to advance pedagogy and educational enlightenment! A wonderful topic indeed! It’s a shame there was just not enough time for Qs & As because this one in particular could have gone on for another hour.

While I noticed as the day went on that most people went to one room and stayed there all day, I bounced around, probably walking a whole mile inside the building from class to class.

I nipped over to the WordPress for Non-Profits seminar:

This lady Amanda was a hoot, and she had one really great message in particular:

(I only wish I could convince more non-profits of the why!)

Don’t be fooled by this image! The WordCamp was packed, over 700 people were in attendance! These big rooms were definitely a bit intimidating, but I guess better this than a room for 30 and have 80 people show up!

A random encounter in the hallways – Matt Mullenweg must get stopped all the time to be asked a simple question, and the question turns into an informal discussion and seminar! He’s so pleasant and positive about people, and code, and discussing real issues, in this case the topic was canonical plugins and language localizations.

Are they sharing notes? LOL!

My laptop went kaputz less than 48 hours before WordCamp (anybody want to donate to help me get a netbook?), else I totally would be one of these people, and probably would have been drafting this post then.

One of the most interesting seminars I went to, because it’s a hot topic I’m developing for my own intents and purposes right now for another project, this notion of “hyperlocal” and community building with WordPress. This speaker was talking on behalf of InJersey.com which runs on WPMU and BP.

All in all a wonderful day! I wish there were more events like this, which is why I’ll have to follow through on my plans for some hyperlocal-wordpress-for-artists-meet-up-tech-exchange-and-talk thing to do on my own soon!

The boat party was a smashing success.

Thanks to me.

Nah I’m kidding y’all were great, everybody who performed or had some act were great. The crowd was great (except for the few who never tipped – I will remember you!). The Bushwick B.oat crew were great (always are). It was great.

Below is a quick slideshow of images from the evening. Unfortunately contrary to my usual mass-snapping of images, I wasn’t able to actually document the event’s spectacle because I was busy working…

And best of all the event was a success for Flux Factory and will help us sustain and survive for a couple more months in this dire economy as we are still learning to tie our metaphorical shoes (i.e. new building: install plumbing, get electricity working, put doors on rooms, buy food, etc.). Life is good:

I’ll be bartending, so bring tips and stimulate my personal economy!

(also this weekend be on the lookout for Mucca Pazza who will be playing at the Knitting Factory (Brooklyn) and the Mercury Lounge (Manhattan))

pretty cool indy comics store on Metropolitan right at the Lorimer L/Metropolitan G stop that I only recently found out about. afterparty will be at some collective living space, details at the door.

Gabrielle Bell + Ariel Schrag
book release party, signing, and slide show
friday, March 27th from 7 to 9 pm
at Desert Island, 540 Metropolitan Ave, Brooklyn NY

the store has a blog too

With the Flux Factory’s recent eviction, starting in early October, I completely boxed up my life and put everything I own into storage, in a shed at an undisclosed location in New Jersey. To be honest even I don’t know the location of said shed; but I would like to incredibly thank my friend Angie for her assistance with my upheaval. I haven’t produced a piece of art in over two months due to the eviction, and I’ve had to spend most of my time consolidating my life, including throwing away a fair number of tools, clothing, raw materials, incomplete artworks, etc. A fitting end to life at Flux Factory.

The month of October also saw me quit my job of 3 years, as I had to make a decision, to continue with life in NYC would require my income and creative control to move up or move on. I made my decision.

This decision was encouraged by some recent family health and grievance issues, which being in NYC I had no control over to either guide or invigorate. Also made problematic that my job didn’t give me much flexibility in terms of vacation, travel for health, time off, etc.

Knowing an eviction was imminent, and my employment would end concurrently, I’ve decided to go nomadic. I’m blogging from a cafe in Flatbush, Brooklyn, currently homeless and crashing on couches throughout the borough. At the end of this calendar week I’ll be travelling by train to my hometown of St. Louis, which I haven’t visited in over two years now (see this link).

But I’m by no means complaining. I’m loving these weeks, these moments with friends, the way in which one survives on coffee.

I’ll go back to about mid-October, when I took a trip upstate to the Farm, and spent some time with the frost, the leaves, and some new family including Pepper and some chickens Americano:

A sign of things to come, the end of Flux Factory’s residence-arm really began with Ian’s departure. He’s on a BMW motorcycle now, somewhere in Georgia or Florida (don’t worry he cast his absentee ballot!) en route out West:

With Ian’s departure, I also become the most-senior member at the Factory. This, I actually didn’t realize until nearly a week after Ian left and someone else pointed this out to me.

Even with an eviction pending, the Flux Factory staff continued to work hard, planning for our final ever party:

Chen works, sans desk, surrounded by boxes and piles of crap:

I love the doors ajar, the box that can’t close, the ad on the floor, the blue fork. Just throw it all away already!

Flux Factory knows how to make trash. We went from this:

To this, on numerous ocassions:

At the same time, we know how to turn a shitty DJ booth:

into a most-awesome DJ booth for one of the most-awesome parties ever:

The Flux Factory’s final party, the End of the End of the End (To Be Continued…) was definitely most-awesome. Props to Shalin for organizing over 50 performances for the evening. Although the true success of any party is when your six – yes, six – kegs run dry and you need a 2am beer run:

Me and Tyler at the Pathmark at 2am.

Flux Factory knows how to party:

White Limo gave a smashing closing performance:

are those Ironclad’s he’s wearing?

Unfortunately our partytude nearly made Seb cry:

and put Daupo to sleep:

it’s a shame I didn’t make a video, but the soundsystem was bumping at this moment.

And my costume, no doubt, was a hit:

me sitting on a couch-costume.

What will come of Flux Factory now? There’s a thought:

So starting this Sunday I’m on the road. Going to St. Louis via DC and Chicago on Amtrak. I’ll be in the Midwest by early next week for at least a month, if not two. My Flux Factory address is dead. Long live Flux Factory.

I’ll be around. My wifi is about to expire. Gotta press publish.

plain and simple, Flux Factory – the non-profit doing innovations in things I’ve long been associated with during my NYC tenure – is coming to an end. The building we’ve occupied for the past six years and the space I’ve lived in for over three is being claimed by the city’s transportation network, the MTA, via eminent domain, to make way for the East Side Access Project.

That’s the major reason I haven’t been posting as proficiently as I used to, as I’ve been busy packing up and preparing to depart the city for two months while I re-align my life and my priorities.

But the most-pressing priority really is this Thursday, two days from now. Flux Factory will be hosting our last-ever party at the current 38-38 43rd Street space in Long Island City. The party will be a performance-blowout, featuring more than five-dozen acts, performers, bands, DJs, happenings, stages, presentations, screenings, talks, poetry slams, etc. It’s chock frickin’ full. The night will breakdown something like so:

Potluck begins at 6pm.
DJs and party begins at 8pm.
Performers begin at 10pm and run until 2-3am.
Party keeps going until 4-6am.
Then we sweep and clean up and the following morning hand the keys over to the Man. seriously.

The evening will include the following performers:

Abigail Ohlheiser presents “Come Get Washed in the Blood”
A drag king and a puppet show
Andy Gilliss
Bright Mares
Brooke McGowen’s “Action for Iraq”
Campfire Stories
Carlos Rigau
Cathy
Cave Bears
Caylie Staples
Children of Terminator X
D.A. Meeks
David Felix Sutcliffe presents “There’s a Gerbil in my Asshole”
The Danger presents “In the Wake of the Serpent’s Tattoo”
Ducktails
Flux Factory Fashion Show
F/M presents “Drone to Dance”
The Genderless Siblings from Yellow Bizarre
Greg and Ted’s Satisfaction Factory
Golden Times / Giggle Town
The Hemlock Society
The Heuristic MC
Igor and Tony Have a Spat
Jeremy Chance
Jeremy Williss
Kate Ferencz
Kitlace/The Stink
Konnichiwa
Lady Firefly feat Wolfgang von Stuermer
Lily Maase
Manburger Surgical Presents “The Final Incompetancy”
Mary Ivy Martin’s “Communidate”
Miss Scarlett
No Sound
The NYC Minutes Confessional Booth
The Oracle of Random Quotes
Peter Bonos
Poetix on Da Rox
The Play Party
Rosa Rugosa
The Spirit of a Century (Junk or chains pressure neglects Rogers-in-cranks) GET LOST
SURPRISE!!!
Soul 45’s from Jonathan Toubin of New York Night Train productions
Taliesin
Tarot
Ted Lee
The Mob
Tiger Mouth, Timothy Hospodar and 0H10M1KE present “Omnium-Gathera”
Unicornholio featuring Sebastien Sanz de Santamaria + Marie Losier
Bernard Losier (dad) and Coco (his wife)
Vardi plays Skyboxx feat. Anne Herzog
The Venn Diagrams
White Limo
The Wonderland Collective
Zebu
Zenith Foundation
and Zuvuya Collective presents “Twilight” and “Ladies Room”

HOLY SHIT that’s a lot of entertainment for one night! It’s $10 to get in, oh, and it’s a HALLOWEEN DANCE PARTY! the Hunter College MFA program are helping us decorate. This is the party you don’t want to miss!

get directions from the Flux Factory website.

forget Dublin or Boston – they’re soooooooo November 2007 – if you happen to be in London on 15 June be sure to swing by the Tate Modern on the south bank of the Thames and see Tony Conrad in conversation, followed by a screening of DreaMinimalist by my friend and artist extraordinaire Marie Losier.

More on the event on the Tate website, more on Marie Losier at marielosier.net

movies, tacos and collage-making party tonight. exhibition later. stay tuned over at Normal Space blog.

Things have definitely slowed down a bit now, and all for the best, I need a little rest. But it’s been a good run the past 15 or so days:

Halloween

I think I might prefer the grounds upon which Guy Fawkes Night is celebrated – coupled with an aversion to the commodity nature of so many American holidays – but of course Halloween is guaranteed to be a pretty fun fucking time! Especially in a city like New York City, where it is that one time of the year where it really seems quite natural to be riding the subway with a zombie or someone with an arrow through their head.

At my home we hosted the Hunter MFA annual dance party for the second year running, and it was a complete blowout!

Me? I followed through with my plans and fabricated an outfit which commented on desires of the male form, inspired by guerilla (text-less glossy posters showing a chiseled male with a notable package) and overt (newspaper back-cover spreads commanding “Meet Clint”) advertising campaigns throughout SoHo and the city at large promoting male underwear. For one night I was Clint Mauro, the Armani Exchange underwear model. Consisting of digital prints mounted on cardboard and fastened with zip ties, my outfit became an exo-skeleton of sorts that also greatly improved my dance moves!

(photos of me by Sarah Glidden – thanks Sarah!)

The morning after it was apparent the party was a complete and utter and total resounding success!!

GTA IV billboard followup

removed.

Performa07 opening

Later that night I attended the Performa07 opening at the Guggenheim with my matey Chen, which launched with a one-night only performance by Francesco Vezzoli. Contrary to what others had to say about the event organizing, not all hope was lost. Sure the line wrapped around the corner and nearly halfway to the next Avenue, and sure there was a fiasco surrounding the ticket issue, but eventually all punters made it inside and got to ‘view’ the performance in one way or another:

While some people got dugout-class chairs in the rotunda, and others got to stand along the signature spiral ramp, I still think I had one of the best seats in the house! Sent to one of the Gugg’s theatres, we didn’t get to see the ‘live’ performance but rather to watch it on two quad-split projection screens, with a model – someone by the name of Cate Blanchett or other – sitting on stage the entire time, who eventually got up and left to close out the performance, being video-tracked as she circled down the entire Guggenheim spiral ramp, to interrupt the scene and ask the cast what do they want, what is the truth?

The screen setup was spectacular, and between eight available screens it routinely switched between an array of around fourteen different shots or angles, constantly putting into question one’s perspective, placement and reading of the characters, their storied environment and interaction with each other. Remarkable!

A Psychic Vacuum

If you missed this one, you might possibly have missed the most important public art exhibition this year, anywhere! I’m referring to Mike Nelson’s Creative Time project that turned a dilapidated warehouse space right smack at the Delancey St and Essex St intersection, we’re talking the foot of the Williamsburg Bridge here, into a total apocalyptic fallout space, where you could only traverse by opening doors and passing through, sometimes getting caught in a labyrinth of similar paths and turns, and one encountered small shrines and references to war in the form of carcasses or the passing – almost absence – of time in the form of some old, old calendars.

The last room, which you had to encounter in order to exit back onto the street, was completely exhilarating. I actually laughed, quite heartily, when I entered: a giant warehouse room filled with tons and tons and tons of sand. I mean shit-tons! How did all this sand get here? This? This is what awaits the end? Oh man, talk about hitting the final nail on the coffin! I still laugh at the thought of that room, full of sand!

(nearly finished)

on the set with Law & Order

Two Mondays ago started early, at 6:30am – like I said, little time to sleep! – on set with the crew of NBC’s Law & Order. Nearly a 16-hour gig, they were doing a shoot at Location One, as their script called for an art gallery, so I was their facilities manager for the day. This was an amazing bunch of people, and the crew totaled easily around 60 people. And they all fit their roles perfectly: the actors were self-involved; the producers made influential decisions on the fly; the electricians were the biggest, nerdiest, thickest-glasses-wearing ones around! I got to see some pretty unique hardware, and it was pretty amazing to see how a shot gets made and furthermore to imagine how it will all be stitched together later for television! And thankfully they did their work when they did, as that night the Writers Guild of America strike went into full-swing, and within a day they were reportedly picketing the Law & Order set (which could have potentially made me a scab for crossing the picket line to open the facility!).

Fat Lipstick and the World Famous Bob

the Fat Lipstick film series opened with the screening of (breathe) Terrifying Girls’ High School: Lynch Law Classroom. Perhaps it rolls off the tongue easier in Japanese: Kyôfu joshikôkô: bôkô rinchi kyôshitsu. A steamy and raunchy film that was probably the perfect touch to welcome in the deep autumn chill of November, involving multiple girl-gangs whose members all had some brilliant cognomens like pipe-crusher or the-boss-with-the-cross; and corrupt politicians and high-school administrators and the multiple parties looking to expose them through blackmail, debauchery and group sex! All the while managing to throw in a comment or two about the American bombing of Japanese port cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I can’t think of a comparable American film to be honest, they definitely have something totally unique with this one!

Oh, and did I mention we were offered an exclusive performance by the World Famous Bob:

A performance you won’t see repeated ever again. As you can assess from the snapshot, if you missed it you missed it!

freeDimensional and Censorship opening

Closing out the run, if you missed the opening for Censorship organized by freeDimensional then you may very well have missed the best opening of the week! If not for the work – which was itself pretty spot-on – then for the party, you missed a great party! Complete with Censored ale, naked people (in that not-so-invasive sort of fashion, but somehow sensible), a raffle and a sound troupe that seemed to follow me from room to room as the evening progressed! And the crowd was really great, supportive and best-of-all willing to dance!

Additional asides:

The Altman Building

let me just say if you get a chance to attend an event at the Altman Building on W 18th Street @ 6th Ave, then go! It’s a gorgeous building. Expansive, open, bricked ceiling, huge riveted beams, a spectacular place for any type of event!

Helicopter chase

Oh and then there was that night that began with some typical NYPD undercover-but-not-so-undercover vehicles creeping up and down our block for some time, before eventually the helicopter showed up and a pursuit of some sort ensued. That was exciting.

Old feet, new shoes

Some new shoes were in order, as my last pair developed a sizable hole on the right sole which I didn’t find out about until I stepped into a puddle of murky water – fun fun. And as it turns out my feet have grown a full shoe size in the past year.

Closing

So all that and then some. I hope this post will keep y’all busy for a while. I know it sure kept me busy.

excerpt from Terrifying Girls’ High School:

IMDB link to film

the World Famous Bob:

Bob’s MySpace profile

ADMISSION IS FREE

complete details and schedule and directions on Flux Factory website

Postcards From the Edge
A Benefit for Visual AIDS

Mark Your Calendars
Three days of events!

Artwork Deadline
Postmark by Friday, November 9, 2007
If you are an artist and would like to participate in this year’s Postcards from the Edge you must postmark your work by Friday, November 9, 2007. (If you have already sent in your postcard, we thank you.) All artwork should be sent directly to:
Visual AIDS
526 West 26th St. #510
New York, NY 10001

click here for Visual Aids site with more info

in keeping with the Flux Factory event re-blogging theme this week, tonight opens up the first (of 2? it’s so secret I don’t even know!) installment of Secret Clubhouse, albeit the second clubhouse, that is, #2. So it’s the second clubhouse but the first opening. and it’s no longer a secret. except for the first clubhouse, which is still a secret and isn’t opening. which is why it’s #1. eh? okay here are the details:

Secret Clubhouse #2
DATE: Friday, October 19th, 6:00pm
PLACE: LMCC, 125 Maiden Lane, NYC, NY 10038
ADMISSION: Freesecretclubhouse.jpg

The artists in Secret Clubhouse #2 received a key to the LMCC space at 125 Maiden Lane. They alone listened to the phone messages from Secret Clubhouse #1 but never went to that space. Listening to the messages, they created graphical representations of and responses to the descriptions they heard. The events at Secret Clubhouse #1 were thus translated through verbal descriptions to the artists at Secret Clubhouse #2 and now take on a second life on the walls of 125 Maiden Lane. Including works from: Sarah Glidden, Andrea Dezsö, Daupo, David Sandlin, Eun-Ha Paek, Lauren Berke, Fay Ryu

this month’s event should be quite big, and special. There are a good number of folk coming over from other organizations, says the press release:

Arrivals, Departures & Transits, an artist salon at
the Flux Factory @ 8pm on Thursday, Oct 18 featuring:

Ariel Fernandez / Cuba: Havana-born Ariel Fernandez
aka Asho is a Hip Hop historian, journalist, essayist
and event organizer. Ariel has distinguished himself
as a leader and advocate of Cuban youth culture and
social-cultural movements.

Samten Dakpa / Tibet (www.samdak.com/)
Delphine Diallo / France (www.delphinediallo.com)
Katherine Dolgy Ludwig / Canada
(www.katherinedolgyludwig.com/)

Video art by Harout Simonian / Armenia
–
freeDimensional organizes community arts space and
local resources for the support and protection of
individuals who create dialogue on global issues and
inequalities through their art and media.

and of course I’ll be there, so don’t miss this chance of your lifetime!

google map linkage

every Wednesday next month will feature some select movies screened out at Flux Factory, likely in our Lounge (I don’t suspect the weather will stay nice for the Roof), as part of my roomie François’ programme Fat Lipstick. here’s what he has to say:

Here’s the guideline for this one-month long film program: bad taste, saturated levels of color, heavy make-up, cartoonish characters, theatrical violence, domineeringly psychosexual women, larger than life pop art settings, & a healthy disregard for all forms of authority: religious/moral, legal, political, and last but not least, the authority of the established aesthetic tradition! And yes, you can bring your mum: there’ll be make-up for everyone!

I’ll put up reminder posts with more specific info as each event nears but if you want to pencil these in your books now, here’s what will be featured:

Wed. Nov. 7, 2007 at 9pm

Terrifying Girls’ High School: Lynch Law Classroom (1973) by Norifumi Suzuki

Wed. Nov. 14, 07 at 9pm

Female Trouble (1974) by John Waters, Pope of Trash & Prince of Puke

Wed. Nov. 21, 2007 at 9pm

Andy Warhol’s Bad (1977)

Wed. Nov. 28, 2007 at 9pm
Double “Fat” Features Night

Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens (1979) by The Fellini of the sex-industry Russ Meyer

Show Girls (1995) by Paul Verhoeven Worst Director and Worst Picture of The 16th Annual RAZZIE Awards

I’ll be absent from the first screening unfortunately because I will be attending (as in, working) that month’s dorkbot-nyc meeting, but will hopefully be available for all the other screenings. especially looking forward to the closing night double-feature; I’ve never seen Show Girls but it sounds so good by how terrible everybody says it is, and as for Ultravixens, it’s Meyer at his finest and anything with Kitten Natividad is bound to titillate! Especially with François and company!

it says it all really.

opening, tonight from 6-10pm, Box Social, at Secret Project Robot, located at 210 Kent (the old Flux Factory site), with works by underground comics artists and illustrators of various disciplines, including my matey Sarah Glidden.

I don’t really know what to expect, other than a lot of dorks which is great – not your standard Williamsburg hipster crowd hopefully. And as with every project/exhibition/space these days, there’s a blogspot blog with some info and further links.

opening tonight at the Flux Factory

[photoshoot on Flickr]

such has surely been the case these just-over two weeks I have been back since my summer holidays.

my first full 24 hours back home was burdened by a futile attempt to start cleaning our home from a potential (one could say inevitable given the nature of our living setup and lifestyles) bedbug infestation. it appears this past summer that a temporary subletter brought upon us a very permanent problem, something that has recently really been plaguing NYC and tearing homes and living situations apart (NYTimes article from 2005 Nov).

Welcome home!

Additionally, I was burdened both by work and practice: two days later returning to the job to help install and also make work for (see this post) Crater NY.

But the title of this post is not concerned with those politics!

Rather, it’s in reference to the hundred-plus openings from the past week in Chelsea and around the rest of New York City, proving the impossibility of seeing it all, taking it all in (not as if the openings are for the work anyhow). Plus-plus impossible if you are involved with a show yourself, as was the case with Crater NY, and being stuck in your one venue, and away from the mob scene that was likely in Chelsea and other places. Okay so I missed the big night, the 6th, when around 100 exhibitions opened and a couple thousand litres of wine got served, sunk and spewed, so I thought I’d venture out on the 7th after work, and nip in to whatever I saw was open and interesting (going by the crowd there).

So I headed over to Roebling Hall because I like Roebling Hall and think they have consistent shows and they’re not in the thick of Chelsea but off to the side and near that incredible industrial building on 11th Ave (between 26th and 27th, west side of street). it’s been a while but I like to think that I’m walking over there and not over there where everybody else is. Anyhow their opening was a show that sounded interesting but which I really didn’t know what to expect, by David Ersser called Nothing But Heavy Duty (sorry Roebling Hall I have to point to artcal because you use frames in your website, so I can’t link to anything!).

Sure enough, it was interesting:

(Makita? Milwaukee? ain’t no DeWalt that’s for sure!)

(ahh, he’s a quick-release bit kinda guy!)

The approach to the work was a good start, a half-completed stud wall where real screws were needed to hold it all together but included facsimile screw notches of sorts to suggest another anchorage. One wall wasn’t even hung, but merely leaning on the studs. Immediately you knew you would be dealing with something that questioned your sensibilities about ‘what is complete here?’ The room inside the room included power tools like a chopsaw and circular saws, power screwdrivers of various dispositions, makes and models, screw bits, caulking guns, ladders and even the presence of ‘raw wood’ sheets and sawdust suggesting activity but which could have been fabricated itself.

I left rather pleased, but was already mulling over the thought in my head, “What is art supposed to say to me?”

What are artists these days trying to say to the public with their work? What are they trying to accomplish? What is their message? What class do they belong to? etc.

As I walked back towards the throngs of Chelsea that were starting to gather – fashionably late like – I stumbled upon Ersser’s competition: life.

And the difficulty of it.

It was hard to tell what was going on here, and unlike so much art that is what made it interesting. Strange that it was less than a block away from Ersser’s installation, and thinking of Ersser’s show in relation to this space, but here was the real thing: detritus lived, worked and abandoned.

Materials from umbrellas to baby strollers, from luggage cases to Multi-Function Printers, lay strewn about, with several wardrobes thrown around for good measure. Where did all of this stuff come from, and who left it all here? The fence was bent, there was an entryway, someone wanted to get in and out of here. When it wasn’t a parking lot that is, this plot of asphalt that has no doubt seen its real estate value increase ten-fold over the past couple decades.

As I turned to continue walking it was a simple blip. Having just taken in Ersser’s show, and then contemplating that abandoned plot, I simply felt I didn’t need to see anything else, one opening was plenty.

Several of my friends have cringed from thinking about how to take in as many openings as possible, how to schmooze the scene and be in too many places at one time. But me, I’m a little pessimistic this time around. I’m burdened by real troubles to the point that I’m not so certain what it’s all for anymore. My only comfort was the thought of going home and making some art.

[MTAA have a gif showing the overwhelming list of openings last week]
[Hungry Hyaena also mention the list, as daunting]

the next few weeks are a unique situation for me. For the first time ever I have been requested to be a participating artist in an exhibition at the same gallery I am employed at. Fun.

Since returning from abroad I have hit the ground running, the problem is one finds oneself running in opposite directions! On the one hand I need extra hours for the money because, well, I have none. On the other hand I need to make the best work possible for the exhibition because, that’s my practice! As an artist I need studio time to develop my work but as an employee I’m expected to fulfill certain tasks. I handle all the installations at Location One, so that gives me a unique perspective; indeed, one variable of my work has changed just from the process of assisting with the installation, when the artists who schemed up this show mentioned possibly employing certain colour preferences, that set off a spark in my mind. Not sure if that would have happened if I was simply holed up in my studio (which reminds me of the importance of dialogue, discussion and interaction with people as an important process of one’s artistic practice – so simple but so crucial).

I’m in tune with this exhibition, because Crater NY as it’s called, isn’t simply a static visual exploration of the surface of the moon. It’s a lunar drawing contest in which the audience will actually create the show. A handful of artists have been asked to create objects or works for installing on the surface of the moon, restricting themselves to a loose scale. The works will be installed by Ligarano & Reese. But the public are being asked to attend the show and take up either pencil or digital tablet and draw what they see, to interpret this orbiting celestial body, seen right there on the gallery floor! They can focus in on an artist’s work or neglect them completely and concentrate on the surface texture instead; it is their choice really. Their drawings or digital renditions will be displayed on the gallery walls. To conclude the exhibition, after three weeks there will be a judging session in which a panel of judges review all the submitted works and decide a winner. And here’s the punchline.

The winner of the contest will receive a free acre of land on the moon! And the real estate is located inside the Sea of Tranquility, which is truly prized land!

As such, it is not important to me that people attend the opening, because this isn’t a show about the opening. It’s a show about the process and the course of time, and we are requesting people attend to draw, not to view.

You can pop in to see if drawing sessions are available, or call (212.334.3347) or email (info [at] location1 [dot] org) to register for an available timeslot.

I’m not going to tell you what my work is just yet! You’ll have to show up and draw it to find out!

it’s been nearly three years since I’ve been there and this time around I’ll be visiting more countries than I toured in the three years I lived there! Oddly enough, when I lived in London while attending uni, I only visited three countries, the UK (obviously), Germany and Northern Ireland (an occupied territory of the first country anyhow)… well okay maybe four if you count Mansfield in Nottinghamshire as a world unto its own!

I didn’t get around much because 1. I was in college full-time and 2. I was relatively broke most of the time, being an already poor American in a country whose currency strengthened against any dollars I had saved up the day after I moved there (seriously day one was around 1.2$ to 1£ and within about six months it was nearly 1.9 to 1! eek!) – I even remember explaining to one of my tutors why, for the first two months I lived there I strictly made pencil art, was because I couldn’t yet afford anything else other than pencil and paper!

But this time I’m making up for it.

Still, hailing from the working class means it’s taken me nearly the entirety of those three years I’ve been away to save up, and I expect it will go faaaast. Thankfully through my participation in Flux Factory’s BudapestNewYork project at the Sziget Festival this year, about 3/4 of my plane fare is sponsored, and food and accommodation while in Budapest are covered.

I am working up until the day before I depart; I will be dismantling the current exhibition the eve before the eve of departure! I arrive in Budapest – which I might note is where my father’s family is from, on the Buda side of the Danube – the morning of 31 July. Immediately I set to work on the Flux Factory installation. Most of the other members will have already been in Budapest for nearly two weeks, but construction on the island can’t begin until 25 July, so I should arrive just on time to start my installation work (details of that in the near future). After 8 solid days of installation, the Sziget festival opens (8 August). I only plan to stick around for a couple of days, hopefully to see Napalm Death perform, but if they’re not in the first couple of days I will just have to depart. Plans are to get to Croatia for a couple of days, where my friend and fellow artist Olja Stipanovic was born, and visit her at her beach front property! Ahhh the Croatian sun! From there a 3-day stint in Kassel, Germany, for Documenta 12 is in order, and then to places such as northern Italy (least likely but potential), Zurich, Luxembourg, Brussels and Amsterdam. An ambitious list but I’m not thinking more than a day or two in any city, and after Budapest I have 15 days to get to London, where-from my departing flight leaves for NYC on 25 August. I definitely need at least 4-5 days in London, which squeezes the other countries into 10 days; Kassel will need at least 3, which leaves me with 7. Okay maybe Zurich and Italy are out of the question!

Still, an exciting trip, and one desperately needed since I didn’t get out of the USA at all in 2006 or 2005 for that matter.

another ‘four day’ stint without focused commitment to blogging and I found myself staring at the ‘post box’ as it’s called and wondering how to regain my momentum. and oddly enough it’s not a dilemma of not knowing what to say, it’s a dilemma of having too much and trying to remember where to begin again, of how to collect everything I should have said between then and now. i don’t want to ramble but i’m just too excited by it all so hopefully you’ll bear with me.

it was a crazy past-week for openings and shows. and it’s an even crazier week ahead. Don’t forget to sleep.

the 10th (has it really been that long?) was the Project 1981 opening. I did manage to put some photos up on my Flickr account (oh there I gone and done it now! I said my Flickr! egads!) but I never got around to the meat of the show. I got talking with a friend at the opening about the dilemma of openings themselves. I mentioned that somebody else said I missed completely one piece in the show: because of the crowd, I managed to walk around a vitrine – I later went back to view it once the crowd started to breathe a little bit, but the point is that at openings, depending on the size of the crowd and the size of the space, sometimes seeing the work is just not possible. Not seeing it with certain comforts that is, like space, time and the absence of noise. My friend elaborated: I was told that the opening for the show was basically the run of the show. The work might stay up for another few weeks but it would be by appointment only, not ‘open’ per se. I was unaware of this and commented that it’s difficult because you want as many people to gather at the openings as possible, but you also want to see the work (or in the case of one piece to hear it, impossible at openings because of the noise volume of the crowd). As it would turn out the show is up for a couple extra weeks (the website indeed says until the 28th, by appointment), but for shows that really do only last a week, or a couple of days even, the problem of having the space and time to see the work and maximizing attendance is impossible to solve. But now that I think on it that we were even having that conversation, while immersed in the crowd, is the interesting bit – unable to enjoy the work as it should be but still able to exchange ideas.

two days later I returned to work, still sick at the time, and we had less than two days to complete our installation. while the largest group show I have seen installed in our space, the process was pretty chill and most things were dealt with simply as they arose. and while the opening was a success, I still can’t help but reflect back to the process of these installations themselves, which are sometimes easily the most rewarding part of organizing and installing shows:

(and sometimes way cooler than the work you’re meant to be installing!)

moving ahead Thursday night was the ‘My Country’ opening at the Hungarian Cultural Center. The two artists – Andrea Dezso and Miwa Koizumi, both artists I have worked with on other projects before – are highly aesthetically driven. Miwa carried out a performance for the opening where she used paper-shredded ‘wishes’ written down by viewers to create these small geological-esque paper hill formations and other structures; Andrea’s main body of work on display were approximately 40 small embroideries that illustrated things her mother once told her, many of which manage to be simultaneously sinister and fantastical, touching on topics such as sex, semen, aliens, digestive tracts – you get the idea!

Somewhere in the midst of all this activity also, Manami Fujimori paid a visit out to Flux Factory. Manami is an absolute delight! She’s nothing but energy, completely excited to see work and the spaces of artistic production and life. She was writing about Flux Factory and the crossover of artists who also involve themselves within an arts organization. She’s full of interesting questions and I can’t wait to read her thoughts (it’ll also help kick me in the butt and remind me to finally develop a ‘press’ section in the blog already!).

Finally a 3-day weekend!

Saturday night was the Building Show opening at Exit Art. It’s been a while since I’ve managed to get to an Exit Art opening, but as always it was well-crowded and generally up-beat. I got into discussions with several people since the opening and found that some people are more put-off by Exit Art than I ever have been or even thought to be. Their argument was that too much of the work tends to be ‘redundant’ or copied, and they’re not convinced by the progression of shows over the years. On the contrary I look at the space (I’ve only ever been aware of their 10th Ave site) and I’m completely in awe. And I’m not simply talking about the physical space, but the whole package: the space, the work, the location, the crowd, it all works for me. When I consider how much of the rest of the city is clogged with tourist traps and shitty bars, of course I find haven in a place like Exit Art which has consistently made me think and wonder about it’s programme. Maybe it’s more-easy for others to come to finite conclusions about their opinions, but I like to keep my nerves on-end!

Continuing on, I managed to squeeze in a few house parties as well, including one hosted by Stacey Allan, an old acquaintance that I studied with in Chicago and recently ran into again (again again I should say). Twas good to see her and she had a great crowd, including some Canadian friends of hers that I got discussing with about ‘Artist-Run Centres‘, a phrase and organizational structure I was really only recently introduced to – was intriguing to have such a primary conversation conclude so well, and made me want to travel to Canada this year to view and exchange with some ARCs. And thanks to the President’s Day holiday I was able to enjoy a birthday party on Sunday night for Marcela Cussolin whom I recently befriended (oh who am I kidding holiday or not I would have gone and partiiiiieeed wooooo … ahem). Another great crowd, I told another friend of mine that it reminded me of parties in the Midwest, where people are generally warm, relaxed but enjoying themselves, where the kitchen is usually a focus area (after all that’s where the liquor is) and music is of good selection (speaking of one of the hosts, Chris, had one of the largest selections of ‘mash-ups’ I’ve seen, and was the first person I’ve ever seen to actually interface with Front Row on the Macintosh).

Marcela Cussolin with Andy and cake (NOTE the cake was effing delish!)

OHHHHHH otherwise it was the same-ol’ same-ol’. Yeah, right. In other news I finally got cracking on my upcoming lulu book, working from a newly acquired Epson V350 photo scanner. That thing is a beaut! Most-importantly for my own work, and it’s such a simple design feature that really goes far, is the lid can detach and fold back so you can get large items on the flatbed! Wonderful! The other thing heavily weighing on my mind these days is baseball. Spring training games are just about to begin, and I’m about to do something I’ve never done before, which is invest in a major league sport: I plan on purchasing the ‘premium’ package that allows you to listen to/view every game online. I thought of doing this last year but got deterred because of a couple of reasons; but this year I’m committed to it, I want to see specific pitchers pitch, certain batters hit, and follow more games and players. It’s a hefty investment but it’s not about a financial question, it’s a love for the game.

And the week ahead is nothing easy. Is February always this busy? this weekend initiates THE weekend of art fairs around the city, and for the first time I can say that I’m possibly not interested in them. Of course I’ll end up attending one or two, but I won’t be thinking if I don’t see them all then I’ve fallen short, the way I have in the past (oh the guilt!). Truth is there’s always more going on than one can achieve, so one can’t imagine to do it all. Okay okay, you could imagine, but like I’ve said being from the Midwest means practical living and if I can’t do it all then I’ll just do what I like and be happy with that.

See you next time, folks!

Related websites:
Flickr folder for Project1981 opening
Flickr folder for the Building Show opening at Exit Art
Flickr folder for Marcela Cussolin’s 26th Bday party

Charmaine Wheatley will be having a standard opening and book signing for a new comic, but the event is to be followed by a ‘cardboard hot tub party’ – need I say more?

(I mean, I love cardboard, I love hot tubs, and I love speedos – perfect trio combo!)

Either way, here’s a summation of goings ons in the arts the past two+ weeks, with an infusion from everyday life. Enjoy.

When I last left off from the ‘this week in arts’ series I mentioned that my work for the La Superette event got rejected; this is actually the second year in a row (and my second time applying) that my work has been rejected. The first time was, I believe, a mis-communication, because I was told my work was ‘too big’, while the work would have been perfectly suited to the installation and general arrangement (but then again, it’s not like it’s a curated exhibition); this time however I was pretty put off by the evaluation that my work was ‘not functional enough’. The event, a ‘DIY’ art-sale, called for things made by artists for sale, at cheap prices, for holiday gifts. The event was held at Eyebeam, a major ‘art and technology center’. The proposal form called for all submitted works to be delivered ‘in a box’ – I decided to take all of these things into account: the box, the context of geeks buying art gifts, the ‘DIY’ cliché, and present it for sale:

I knew that the notion of ‘function’ was a variable, but I also think that gift-giving shouldn’t always be so serious and that humor should also be a variable, so I set out to make all of my works suggestive of other objects that provide function, while stripping them of any real-world credibility; these objects, made facsimile, suggest function: the USB speakers to retrieve sound from a mini (audio) port; the zonet USB wireless adapter to communicate with WiFi networks; the games (one for PlayStation the other for PC) to provide entertainment; the joke security camera (a dummy already) to provide fake security; the battery to supply power; the ink cartridge to provide printing; the antenna to receive analog television signal; the laser-pointer pen for presentations, and of course the box to carry it all in, in the first place. I guess the organisers of La Superette just didn’t get the joke.

And honestly I probably wouldn’t have taken the rejection so harsh, except that I took nearly a whole day off work with lost-wages and lost lots of sleep over making sure to complete these works; but hey, in the end I got to keep them, which makes my gift-giving this season a heckuva lot easier!

Moving along, but still in early mid-December, I wanted to tell you all about the SVA BFA open studios. I actually didn’t even know of the event, until the evening (Sunday) before, when my friend Cassie Thornton told me about it, and we agreed to meet there at 7pm. She ended up not attending, but as it would turn out I know two people on the course; and I think I can safely say they were also the two best works/artists on display!

Naro Taruishi’s ‘EYE | EYE‘ work, part-sculptures, part-screen (LCD displays inside the viewing boxes), presented viewers with a split-screen animation of various forms – some abstract, some geometric, one that was stellar, like a rising moon – that skewed one’s vision. Inside the viewing boxes a piece of panel came right up to your nose, effectively disrupting your stereo vision. However through optical manipulation, what appeared on the left side also extended to your right eye, while the image on the right side remained in limbo, or provided articulation onto the extension of the image from the left side, creating a new stereo vision. One could only think of how the brain was interpreting this information in the first place; it reminded me of when I used to do medical guinea pig experiments for side-cash, and they sometimes fed split-screen images to study how the brain ’sees’ or determines left from right, and depth of field.

Another female working with split-screen technology, were Chen Yerushalmi’s playful and interactive sitting booths. Two participants each sit in one booth, with one camera in each booth. After some sophisticated layering and joining of these video signals, elsewhere on a projection screen a single collaged ‘face’ is displayed. How many features does one have in common with another; what about the joining of the young and the old – how do features age?; how do similar expressions vary from one person to the next; and the myriad psychological suggestions that arise from having a ‘two-face’ composite. Very intriguing work indeed.

The following afternoon Everett Kane came to talk to the residents of Location One about his practice, which of late is largely drawing-based, which he sees as the foundation of every practice, the gestures of the hand and the act of mark-making on paper; something which I’ve always attributed as having perhaps the most ‘potential’ of all artistic practices, because of its accessibility (pencil and paper is plenty) and therefore its democratic appeal (collage being perhaps the only other medium of this potential: any image, and any other image, or object, or surface, joined together, to create something else, also very accessible). Everett has to be one of the most-prolific artists I know, with the ability to crank out literally hundreds of drawings – all good – every week; don’t fool yourself if you think you make a lot of work because Everett will put you to shame!

Nearly halfway there now. Hey, I told you it’s been a demanding month!

Thursday the 14th was Secret Santa out at Flux Factory. not exactly ’secret’, because somehow the rules got re-written so that each person who received a gift, ended up giving their gift to their random (was that the ’secret’ part?) recipient, with a person chosen at random to start it off. I got a nice selection of ties (one of which I’m currently sporting) and some ‘herbal remedies for men’ (wink wink). The event included a farcical storytelling on ‘the Constitutionality of Christmas’ by the-then highly inebriated (I’m not sure I know him any other way, actually) Dan Mulcare (I believe my mate Sarah got it on camera, maybe someday it’ll show up on YouTube? Oi! Sarah! Get that video on YouTube already! You’ve had two weeks!).

On the final Saturday of the Tatlin exhibition at Flux Factory, Mister Resistor gave us a show.

Then there was that befefit for Hwy Rachel on the 20th which I mentioned earlier.

Skipping ahead right to the holidays, during the day of the 24th I went to the 10th Street Russian and Turkish baths. What an intense place! I never thought taking a dip into 50s-Fahrenheit-degree water then walking into a room designed to be a human oven (Radiant Heat!) could be so invigorating!

That evening I finally got to really sit down and test-out my newly acquired projector. It only seemed appropriate that one of the first sources I test be watching an episode of Futurama!

And how additionally appropriate that the completely random image I snapped off happens to be one of the animated cast watching a large-screen television (albeit receiving ‘interference’, if you know what I mean then you know what I mean! heh).

(Wanting to test the component video inputs on the projector, I also plugged in the house PlayStation2 and played Final Fantasy XII for a while; and within the same 24-hour span, I came across this videoblog post over on Alive in Baghdad, where the interviewee explains his fascination of FFXII – and I realized while we play in different regions of the world, we both play ‘to escape’.)

Into the wee hours of the morning Morgan, Daupo, Jean and myself played a few rounds of petanque in Phunquey’s large, carpeted and eerily empty ex-room, including a devastating first-game win by Morgan and me of 13-1!

Waking the next morning with little sleep, a group of us headed to Tatiana’s in Brighton Beach for a Russian dinner, and the first option to arrive out was an appetizer of Onion Loaf – literally a deep-fried batter of onions shaped into a loaf shape, which oddly sliced as easily as any bread loaf! My meal consisted of a tofu salad with blue cheese dressing, raspberries and blueberries, and a plate of home-fried potatoes with a selection of mushrooms; later, I felt bad that I didn’t share more of the potatoes with mushrooms, but when I was served I was immediately hit with multiple demands for my mushrooms, and went on the defensive! I was told to expect to pay $50 for the evening’s meal; this particular plate cost $27 and I wasn’t exactly offered anything in return, so it just felt like people wanted what I had without reciprocating the exchange!

The evening ended with more rounds of petanque:

(NOTE: just as Daupo throws the petanque, Kerry says, ‘Daupo can’t do anything’, then his petanque rolls right into a floor outlet, or dead-zone, effectively killing his throw! CLASSIC!)

I missed it, mostly because i was put off by what I was told was a potential 2-hour wait in line – not deterred by the cold, just by the time (which later I found out was more like a 4-hour wait!) – this past weekend for the 3-day event of Wooster on Spring, presented by the Wooster Collective.

Like I say I missed the event, so I don’t have much to report. But take a look at the Wooster Collective’s project section for Wooster on Spring and you’ll find some pretty intriguing, insightful and positive expressions: both visually as well as in language; it sounds like if you didn’t go you missed out. And Wooster Collective says this energy is only ‘the tip of the iceberg’ – I can’t help but wonder if this iceberg were to melt and the entire city was blanketed in images such as these (Flickr pool for the event).

HWY Rachel was founded in 2006 by Ashleigh Beyer, Emily Brandt, Lindsay Doleshal, Nancy Kelly, Nicole Lanzilotto and Melissa Shaw. HWY Rachel is a traveling band of theater artists, writers, actors, and educators who believe that art is best when it happens spontaneously. The ladies involved in HWY Rachel are currently attempting to make it manifest all over the country. It is one of HWY Rachel’s goals to travel America in order to bring original theatrical pieces to its nooks and crannies.

Next Tuesday, 19 December, Hwy Rachel are having a benefit fundraiser, I believe to help fund an upcoming theatre-act road trip. I donated a drawing to their Silent Auction; my work is a small drawing, on A5 paper, done in 2005 in response to some then-thoughts about museum expansion.

Here are the rest of the details of the event; hope you can make it.

Will take place on Tuesday December 19th
At 154 Christopher Street (1 block East of the West Side Highway. Take the 1 Train to Christopher Street.)
Epiphany Theater Company – Buzzer #2B
Doors will open at 6:30. Party ’til 10pm.
NO COVER

previously mentioned, there was the Homo Bellicus show on Friday night.

the rest of my activity was on Saturday which included first seeing a really hot collection of posters on view at the main Paula Cooper Gallery on W 21st Street, a benefit for the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, which I previously honestly was not too aware of.

just across the street from this was the La Superette shopping fair – which my work got ‘rejected’ from, more on that later! – and the Holiday Hackshop at Eyebeam which included some workshops and inflatables (the workshops which aligned themselves overwhelmingly more with the craftiness of La Superette, but which still managed to be interesting). while in the vicinity i went gallery hopping with some friends and saw some interesting work, including an umbrella by Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle, which reminded me, given the one object bathed in the light of another work, of the Dan Flavin work I saw just a few days prior; some new paintings by Ellsworth Kelly (those are two canvases, one stacked on top of the other; I was most interested in the layers of shadows such a stacking made – a little too hard to see in this photo sorry!); and some paintings (from across the street originally thought to be photographs) by Jason Brooks that I’m sure sell for exuberantly large sums of dosh (Jason is English y’see).

Sunday was simply spent cleaning my studio and preparing for new work, and visiting friends in Manhattan and Brooklyn for the evening. Oh and did I mention I also work a full-time job? Bleh!

HOMO BELLICUS is an exhibition of 20-odd artists being held at PARISLONDONNEWYORK, 285 Kent Ave btw. S 1st & S 2nd, Williamsburg, Brooklyn; this show will only run from Friday night through Sunday which is very short-lived I know, but if you get a chance you should swing by and see it. The reception on Friday will be from 7pm-?; weekend hours Sat. & Sun. are 12pm-5pm.
The press release of sorts reads:

At the core of any exhibition there is a question and its potential answer – this 3-day exhibition is conceived as a query, seeking to inspire a dialogue about the grounds on which war is currently being discussed. In the hope of avoiding the seemingly jammed rhetoric of the written word we ask in images; our concern is mankind’s disposition for violence, more specifically violence in its institutionalized form – as war.

All of the following artists are involved:

Huber.Huber * Jesper Nordahl * Bjoern Weide * Scott Wolfson * Anton Zolotov * Raphael Taylor * Gabriele Giulumetti * Pete Pezzimetti * Nick Normal * Marie-Eve Jetzer * Kerrie Downey * Mickey Barringer * Juliane Eirich * Imri Sandström * Mille Rude * Etosha Terryll * Karen McDermott * Nikko Sedgwick * David Adamo * Pamela Rosenkranz * Gabriel Guerena * Mikala Hyldig Dal * Marie Kølbæk Iversen

La Superette is a great annual DIY arts fair… oh who am i kidding, they say it best on their website:

La Superette is an annual event, an art sale held usually around the holiday season in December. We organize a temporary store where artists sell functional art in multiples at affordable prices. In addition to the sale we usually schedule musical performances as well as puppet shows, and video screenings to run throughout the day.

So swing by Eyebeam, where La Superette is being held this year, for a chance to pick up some of my work. I rarely make or have work that can be sold in this fashion anyhow, so I’m interested to see responses to it. I’ll be there for a good portion of the day, meeting up with several groups of friends. Hope to see you there.

and the work this week has been pretty darned good.

there was the opening at Location One by Leesa & Nicole Abahuni, on Wednesday;

On Thursday night, the MFA program at Parsons had their open studios event. I’ve been looking forward to this event for a few months now, ever since I met Langdon Graves at the Scope Hamptons event earlier this year; she mentioned attending Parsons, where friends of mine Ashley Kesling and Jessica Cannon also attended, and whom Langdon knew, so I was looking forward to seeing Langdon’s work. I was also introduced to her friend and studio-mate Nick Van Woert. Langdon and Nick had, without a doubt, the best work on show! Both of them had a really acute understanding of how to install their work, taking into account the entire space, with Langdon’s being more adjusted to the site, taking into account the partition walls, the supporting columns, etc. I believe they are both final-year students so it’s only a short time until their thesis show, which I’m now eagerly looking forward to!

Langdon’s work had a very feminine touch; Nick’s mucho-masculine. I briefly contemplated if they’ve ever considered a collaboration of sorts, I’d like to see the manifestation of such a combo. Langdon’s work had a very light, plush feel to it, but slightly sinister even: valves, tubes, ball-sacks, transparent plastics, all the parts of which seemed to be scheming with every other, a sort of alien entity adjusting to its surroundings. Nick’s work, multi-materials sculptures, were seemingly ensconced and simultaneously exploding: you may get sucked into its abyss, or conversely be inflicted by its shrapnel. Watch out!

The following evening was the preview for Postcards From the Edge, an annual event that is always a delight; the work on view this year was not only the most-voluminous but I think the best I have seen in the three years I’ve attended the event. Unfortunately this time around I didn’t purchase any works, due to impending financial crunches.

And to top it all off, this week the Tatlin-inspired exhibition at Flux Factory went from grime and sawdust to resounding success. This show is only up for three weeks, which is a shame given its construction-hassle, but there are talks emerging on how to proceed with the show, how to promote it, what activities to host in the installation, etc.; you can read more over on the Tatlin show at Flux blog.

Saturday for myself was mostly a day in the studio, emerging with some new test-works and ideas, and preparing for some mid-December events, namely La Superette.

Today, Sunday, I present you with this chunky blog post! This evening I’ll hopefully be enjoying some pommes frites and belgian beers at a pub-place/enclave in the East Village.

To the pub!

just catching up to 100+ emails, a deluge of RSS feeds (more soon on this topic!) and a host of other tendings to before things really are back in my control. other goings ons ins arts include Hunter’s MFA Open Studios tomorrow evening (and Saturday but the exciting event is tomorrow) from 6-10pm; my friend Kerry Downey is a graduate there, and her work is hot shit, none of that luke warm crap lots of others are churning out, real steamy piping hot art! Unfortunately it’s paintings. But you should still go! It’ll be a hollerin’ good time!

Edit: after a brief exchange of words with Kerry, I should clarify: she is a painter, albeit a painter whom I’ve told that she will go into Hunter showing ‘paintings’ and emerge an artist who applies or uses paint on top of other mediums, which is what she had on display this time around: painting and plaster and other mediums applied to cloth, paper, and the walls themselves, among other work.

My friend Lance Wakeling will be in a one-night screening of works at The Elizabeth Foundation For The Arts (EFA), on Wednesday 15 November at 7pm. EFA’s website doesn’t actually plug the event, although it does list their address, and I promise it will happen! Lance says in his email:

I’d like to invite you to a screening entitled “3 Minutes : 3 Hours�
of new three minute works made in under three hours.

…

premiering 3 x 3 works by artists:

Chris Doyle
Margarida Garcia
Josh Greene
Oliver Kellhammer
Erin Lee
Zachary Mortensen
MTAA
Ruth Ozeki
Michael Portnoy
Robert Ransick
Marcia Scott
Abigail Simon
Elaine Tin Nyo
Lance Wakeling
Josh Weinstein
Marina Zurkow

(+ organized by Marina Zurkow)

Even with a little bit of a break between works, the entire screening shouldn’t take up more than one hour, which is nice.

And speaking of hours, events, and Lance’s email actually, all of this prompted me to start thinking about a calendar, built into the weblog, where I can list these types of events, and make more transparent my activities as an artist (i.e. events I’m going to, etc.). I think something like this on an art blog as well as from an artist would be a truly unique development – a hack a day!

Auctions proper include The Kitchen’s Benefit Art Auction, this time next week, and Swiss Institute’s annual benefit dinner and auction, a little more than a week after The Kitchen’s event. Other events which artists who read this should still feel inclined to contribute to include Artists Space’s annual Night of 1,000 Drawings and my personal favorite, which I’ve previously mentioned, the 2006 Visual AIDS Postcards From the Edge benefit.

The latter being my favorite because it actually focuses on a specific benefit: AIDS awareness and research, and is simply using ‘art’ as a vehicle to drive home these issues.

Of course these events are now starting to become routine, a staple of the annual art market overturn, something more and more cultural locations are picking up on, and so the question then becomes what of them is of interest or original anymore? (maybe for another post, after the fact, eh?)

And let’s face it, money has everything to do with these benefits! That’s what they’re for: raising money. So as an artist it’s a little tough to stomach when both Visual AIDS and Artists Space have this year jacked up the prices of works to purchase (by $25 and $10 respectively). Of course things are still reasonable, a steal even, at around $50 average for works of art; but last year I had to prepare and save money to buy works by fellow artists, whereas this year the time is now and I’m ill-prepared, so I doubt I’ll be picking up more than one work between these two shows. Thankfully they still allow artists free entry, and with the right crowd (i.e. your crowd, or my crowd) can be a lot of fun, talking with each other about the really good crap and the really bad crap on the walls, including your own work! The other events, the auctions proper, I wouldn’t have a clue about. With $150 entry fees (for The Kitchen; S.I. don’t even LIST their door fee!!) and works in the upper hundreds to start, with most going into the thousands, I’d rather sit at home and surf youtube.com for contemporary art than raise a toast to it!

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Thankfully I brought a pen and paper (not planned) with me on today’s excursion, so I could jot some notes as I go along.

I’m at the 59th/Lex Avenue 6 train stop, heading southbound.

I’ve planned to see 4 sites so far; I’ve successfully seen 1!

I started off heading into Times Square to see the MTA subway power substation which was ‘designed to generate power for the NYC subway.’ The OHNY guide/map was unclear: it said take the E train to 50th St. It gave no absolute address; there was a phone number. You call the number and there is a message by someone who works for the NYC Transit Museum – there are NO details about the OHNY event. Frustrated, I call the OHNY number. No one picks up. I call again. No one. Instead a rather lengthy message eventually clarifies: the MTA subsystem tour is completely booked. 50 whole people (in a city of 9 million with 30+ million tourists annually) got to see and experience the subsystem!

EFF THAT!

So I figure I’ll head to the Channel Thirteen facility. Wait! Didn’t the phone message say something about 13 also? Call again. Channel 13 is no longer participating.

Third times a charm, right? Actually, yes. Headed over to PS 260 in the Flatiron district and got some magnificent rooftop views of the surrounding area.

Okay, now I got some time to kill.

OHNY [still] aren’t picking up their phones to book your name on the tours, and I really want to see The Arsenal, an old munitions depot inside Central Park converted into the HQ for the NYC Parks Department. I’m around 5th and 26th, it’s 1:30 – the next Arsenal tour is at 2:30. The weather is gorgeous, I’ll walk.

I hike it all the way up 5th past 59th.

I arrive at the Arsenal at 2:13pm, 17 minutes before the next scheduled tour. I approach the stairs to find the OHNY volunteer telling a couple that there will be no 2:30 tour; when asked why, the volunteer explains that the previous tours ‘took too long’ and therefore the Park Rangers are running out of time. Bollocks.

The volunteer could not do much other than apologize and suggest to write a complaint to OHNY; the lady next to me started to get really irate, demanding access at least into the lobby because she planned her day around this tour.

[the rest of the day was pretty uneventful after this point. I visited the Marble Cemetary, and wanted to visit one more venue, but with people not picking up their phone or without message machines with clear details of the day's events, I didn't want to risk making another trek for nothing. So I went home, pretty exhausted from walking many many miles for two sites, one of which (the last, the cemetary) is open the rest of the year. Way to go, OHNY! Of course, I can't complain much. I was inadvertently part of the day's mishaps of events, also: I live and work at Flux Factory, and we were participants in this year's OHNY. Of course, I was never asked if I wanted to participate in the event. Our Executive Director simply signed us up without ever asking not only if we would be available but if we would even be interested in joining the event. As it turns out, many people weren't interested in joining the event, because we were more-interested in seeing it. Of course, then even she bailed on the event yesterday (I think in order to participate in another event, potentially of more prestige and notoriety) and left us with an open door and no one on the mound. So given the problems I had in the city, I probably should have stayed at Flux Factory. At least then I might have seen something interesting or met somebody. Still, those rooftop views were pretty incredible, eh?]

the Hungarian Cultural Center New York will be screening A Fiery Autumn in the Cold War (in Hungie, with English subs – no word on price) on Friday 6 October at 7pm. The film is a documentary about the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. Attached to the press release is a quote, but it doesn’t say who to attribute these words to; it reads:

Nineteen fifty-six.

It is only eleven years since one of the most destructive wars fought in human history ended. It is already eleven years since human history began to be overshadowed by the most destructive weapons ever known. These days it seems as if the bitter-cold political climate might be warming again. The opposing sides are talking about mutual coexistence, on speakers’ platforms and round negotiating tables. Then in autumn, the world has seemed to jump out of the new order. Grave crises have arisen in the middle of a divided Europe and in the Middle East.

This film coincides with a host of other events happening last and this month at the HCC; 23 October this month will mark the 50th anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution. The press release also states:

Q&A with two Travelling Scholars, Csaba Békés and Attila Szakolczai after the screening

While we’re on the subject of the ‘56 Revolution and the HCC, it should be noted that the HCC have bought a billboard in Times Square (at 50th Street and Broadway), to ‘deliver a message that there was a revolution in Hungary which had a global significance and the country is still proud of this historical occurence.’ I haven’t made my way there yet, but plan to in the coming weeks; the billboard will come down on 1 November.

after work I first headed over to Deitch Projects with my friend Sarah Glidden to see the ‘exhibition of sculpture and creepy pathological little gifts’ for Michel Gondry’s The Science of Sleep. The latter part of that quote is accurate, some of the little gifts were indeed very creepy and definitely pathological! However not so much ’sculpture’, more like set-prop-cum-installation. My ongoing fascination with how some things are built for installations meant that at one point I became much more interested in the fabrication of the table on which Gondry’s cardboard construction tube-city sat, than the work itself. As I kneeled down to view the underside and see where some wires were emerging from, the gallery sitter laughed and complimented me, for being the first person to inspect the underside!

Afterwards Sarah and I walked towards Washington Square and met up with my mates Ashley and Josh. We all then arrived at the George Maciunas opening at the Maya Stendhal Gallery in Chelsea. While Maciunas is perhaps better-known for his more playful, object-oriented work, this was an exhibition of notes, maps, charts: analytical data, a little cold and conceptual; but the vitrines were nice and contained some materials that have been in recent conversations, such as an invoice for a flat on Mercer Street (recently discussed in a conversation about artists and gentrification, areas, etc.).

Still not over!

Moving along, Josh, Ashley and I made our way home to watch Onibaba on the roof, along with other people. The screening is the first in a new ‘microcinema’ to take place at Flux Factory every Thursday evening, being spearheaded by one of our newest flatmates, Mikey Barringer, who brings this event from Ann Arbor where he used to help run the Bluish Barn microcinema (next week the bill will be Project Grizzly – the inspiration for a future exhibition at Flux Factory).

We ended the evening playing video games.

Haven’t checked my mail slot at home in a few days since I’ve been busy with my mates in town, but among the pile was an invitation from Visual AIDS to submit to this year’s Postcards From The Edge benefit. For those that don’t know this is perhaps one of the more exciting and truly benefiting events that have, since 1998, been a staple of the New York art scene. Visual AIDS is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting awareness of the AIDS epidemic through the visual arts and performance, and have been around since 1988.

They are perhaps best known – consciously or not – for their Red Ribbon campaign (TANGENT!: contrary to the Wikipedia article just linked:
*I’m not so sure the ‘popularity’ of the red ribbon has declined, given that the government of Hong Kong has adopted at least the notion of the red ribbon as the logo for their Red Ribbon Centre, a specific agency in the Department of Health researching and providing free public access to HIV/AIDS awareness and resources
*I don’t know what the hell the article author intended by saying the red ribbon became

a politically correct fashion accessory on the lapels of celebrities

I mean what the fuck, how can you be politically correct towards a virus that effects every gender, race and economic class?!

TANGENT END!)

Sooooooooooo, this all goes back to the piece of mail I got! I thought it was nice of Visual AIDS to remind me to submit work. Because of course I will, but with so many other deadlines always looming, it’s nice to have that reminder knocking down your door, even though I’ve submitted work for the past two years and neither year my work has sold! Which is sad, not because I want to sell my work – I could care less probably – but because I would like to donate to Visual AIDS and their cause, and can’t afford actual money as it is, but can afford to donate artwork to them; I can make a piece in less than an hour but can’t give $75, which is what a postcard cost to buy.

(Of course last year I bought several postcards, but I saved up for those over several months beforehand, hoping to buy some works. Which ended up being a major catalyst for the inaugural Normal Space exhibition.)

Point being it would be a good idea for all you other artists to donate to Visual AIDS, so click here to do exactly that!

Related websites:
BBC article online about red ribbon

The range of galleries exhibiting in YEAR_06 is refreshing: even though the event is taking place in London, the Keith Talent Gallery (great gallery on Tudor Road I used to live near) and MOOT are the only UK-based galleries; the rest are from afar and include a heavy dose of American (that is, US-based) names. Most of the artists associated with these galleries are unknown to me, like I said: refreshing!

I would appreciate if other artists or bloggers out there would mind passing along word of this, on their blogs or private email lists, and help generate some activity around this screening/exhibition.

There’s no deadline to submit (I assume it won’t be finished for quite some time), but the sooner the better since as soon as 48 hours of video works are compiled the screening will occur. There’s no fee and it’s open to all artists working with video, so it should be pretty fun, and full of a diverse range of artworks.

So let’s break it down!

I drove there with three of my friends, Kerry, Sarah and Jamil. We arrived technically late but apparently right on time; we were ahead of most people as it were, so when we started the crowds were thin. We were on foot, and as we reflected later in the evening ended up walking pretty much the entire town, which was exemplified to us when we took a shuttle bus from the western edge back to the HVCCA and even at 50-in-a-30-zone it still took over 10 minutes of driving! Man we walked a LOT that day!

We started at the HVCCA. Even before then, because as we approached the center we first stumbled upon an installation adjoined to the wall of the center, by Cassie Thornton, a good friend of mine. I love Cassie’s work, I even have some of it in my own collection. This piece was a haphazard construction, a 2″x4″ wood frame wrapped in clear plastic with a slanted roof; inside were maquettes of landscapes and buildings, photos of children and older people. Bricks surrounded the outside foundation, as if to keep everything stable. The piece was titled “Infinite Museum”; the only thing unclear (to me) about Cassie’s work was if the maquettes were her own creation or that of those present in the accompanying documentary photographs. Given the inclusion of ‘museum’ in the title, Cassie’s role is a little bit questionable: is she collector, curator, spokesperson? What saves the work for me is the physical construction and allocation of the work, and it’s play on the micro/macro: included in the Peekskill Project, but a Museum in itself, adjacent to the HVCCA but open all the time, on the street; and of course the scale of the models included in the work.

WHEW!

So we proceeded to the HVCCA, collected our maps, and moved on to the pasta factory across the street. Most of the work here was set in small display rooms, a sort-of gallery sort-of college studio display space, which at times conflicted with the work, but located it in prime real estate across the street from the HVCCA. The most interesting work in this space were the maps and accompanying works by Esther Kokmeijer, which lived well in this space: part archive, part display, locally referential.

We continued on to the city centre, getting a little lost and spending some time at the local flea market! Throughout the town centre, most of the works took on the form of window displays. Some were more critical than others of the context of the work residing in a public space, or mirrored these normal display methods while seeking to heighten them somehow (the watchmaker in the jewelry window is a good example). Meanwhile, some of our favorite displays probably weren’t ‘art’ at all, but we found them so surprising and enjoyable we couldn’t deny them!

Definitely one of the best works in show was Magda Fernandez’s video/banner/book portrait of Kathryn Lapolla, a lifelong resident of Peekskill. In the video, Kathryn details various modes of life in Peekskill (from the senior citizen center to the local library and beyond), an oral history of her experiences spanning many decades. Thank you Kathryn!

Equally as exciting was the placement of Magda’s work, the video and book works were all located inside Bruised Apple Books bookstore, perhaps the most exciting bookstore I’ve ever been inside. We actually had to leave quickly for fear of spending our entire savings accounts! Definitely visit this place if you’re ever in town… I mean city… err in Peekskill!

Quickly moving on, we migrated towards the water where we saw zombie cakes, a Freudian Ego service center, One Hundred Faces of Tom Delay (by Toby Barnes), and a car show that at times mirrored the forms of display especially present in this Project. We tried searching for Jessica Cannon’s work, but were unable to find it. Likewise the video work of Andrew Duggan and others on display near the water did not begin until dusk, and we were parading around during mid-afternoon, so we completely missed those works unfortunately.

We took the shuttle bus (mentioned earlier) back to the HVCCA where there was an opening for their newest show ‘reverence‘, which included many ‘heavy hitters’ as Kerry put it; but perhaps our favorite work was Thomas Hirschhorn’s permanent installation Laundrette (2001).

All in all an excellent day to see art in the public sphere. The weather was gorgeous, the beer was delicious, the drive was short but got us far enough outside of the city that we forgot where we were for the time being. Art operating as an avenue for escape. And a lovely town with lovely architecture and people. See you next year Peekskill.

Related websites:
HVCCA and Peekskill Project
HVCCA’s Peekskill page
Sarah Glidden’s entire Flickr photo set (91 images) of our trip

Aside: all of my images were taken on Sarah’s camera, some by me, most by her; I canNOT believe I forgot my own camera for this trip! Totally un-like me!

the weather was perfect, and as such the vicinity was fucking crawling with people. because of the abundance of people, inevitably there are a number of dealers and collectors abound; as such, galleries and i reckon even artists themselves, were attempting to sell some work right off the walls! strugglin’!!! i barely got to see any work but who cares, i was way more interested in hanging out with my Aussie Amazon sister-friends Alice and Martina.

After this show – the work has been blurred because it doesn’t really matter what we were looking at – we went for dinner on a Chelsea pier where Martina said she first ate six years ago and there were only 20 people there with a few staff. This time there were a couple hundred people and multiple food and drink kiosks. Then we went dancing until the wee hours. Of course I was late for work today.

Thursday September 7

• Natalie Jeremijenko OOZ at Postmasters Gallery,
  459 West 19th Street, 6-8
• Everest Hall “Axis Mundi“, +Project Room, Karen Dow at Bellwether, 134 Tenth Avenue, 6-8
• Frank Magnotta at Cohan & Leslie, 138 10th Avenue, between 18th & 19th streets, 6-8
• Gareth James + David Joselit at Elizabeth Dee

  Gallery, 545 West 20th Street, 6 pm

• Brian Calvin + Jim Lambie at Anton Kern,
  532 West 20th Street, 6-8
• Chris Morris, My America at Hasted Hunt, 529 West 20th Street, 3rd fl., 6-8
• Maximo Gonzalez at Art & Idea, 529 West 20th Street, Floor 7, 6-9
• Köster + Lueders + Wanker, KUNSTLICHT/Artificial Lighting at  at Sara Tecchia Roma New York, 529 West 20th Street, 2nd fl., 6-8 6-8
• Annabel Daou, America at Josee Bienvenu Gallery, 529 West
  20th Street, 2nd fl., 6-8
• Shane McAdams + Mike Miga at Denise Bibro

  Fine Art, 529 West 20th Street, 4th fl., 6-8

• Ron Klein at Howard Scott,
  529 West 20th Street, 7th fl., 6-8
• Sydney Licht at Kathryn
  Markel Fine Arts, 529 West 20th Street, 6W, 6-8
• Kwang-Young Chun at Kim Foster Gallery,
  529 West 20th Street, 6-8
• Osi Audu at Skoto Gallery, 529 West 20 Street, 5th fl., 6-8
• Robert Yasuda at Elizabeth Harris, 529 West 20th Street, 6-8
• Bryan LeBoeuf at 511 Gallery, 529 West 20th Street, 8W 6-8
• Rivane Neuenschwander, Other stories and stories of others, + SATELLITES, w/ Ryan Gander, i-cabin, Ian Kiaer, Simon Popper and Sue Tompkins, curated by Erin Manns and Other Stories and Stories of Others, Rivane Neuenschwander’s first solo exhibition at Tanya Bonakdar

  Gallery + Satellites, work by Ryan Gander, i-cabin, Ian Kiaer, Simon
  Popper and Sue Tompkins, curated by Erin Manns and Francesco Manacorda,
  521 West 21st Street, 6-8

• Just Off Focus at Andrew Kreps Gallery, 525 West 22nd Street, 6-8
• Robert Feintuch at CRG Gallery, 535 West 22rd
  Street, 3rd fl., 6-8
• Esko Mannikko, Cocktails at Yancey Richardson Gallery, 535 West 22nd Street, 3rd fl., 6-8
• Hai Bo at Max Protetch, 511 West 22nd Street, 6-8
• Jean Miotte, Spirit of Defiance at Chelsea Art Museum, 556 West 22nd Street, 6-8
• Joao Onofre at I-20 Gallery, 557 West 23rd Street, grd fl., 6-8
• Greg Bogin- Greetings Earthlings!! at Leo Koenig, Inc., 545 West 23rd Street, 6-8
• Matt Jones, Death By Misadventure at Buia Gallery, 541 West 23rd Street, 6-8
• Nicola Lopez, OverGrowth at Caren Golden Fine
  Art, 539 W 23rd St., grd fl., 6-8
• From A to B & Back Again at Heidi Cho Gallery, 522 West 23rd Street, 6-8
• Isca Greenfield-Sanders, Pinelawn Pools, First exhibition of Greenfield-Sanders paintings in New York in more than four years at Goff + Rosenthal, 537B West 23rd Street, 6-8
• Amy Myers, The Particle Zoo at  Mike Weiss
  Gallery, 520 West 24th Street, 6 pm
• Stuart Hawkins at Zach Feuer, 530 West 24th Street, 6-8

• Castaneda Ireiman at DCKT Contemporary, 552 West 24th Street, 6-8
• Mary Henderson at

  Lyons Wier Ortt Contemporary, 511 West 25th Street, # 205

• Beatrice Riese at A.I.R. Gallery, 511 West 25th Street, 6-8
• Derek Buckner + Ryk Ekedal at George Billis Gallery,
  511 West 25th Street, ground fl., 6-8
• Ken Gonzales-Day + Jim Long at Cue Art Foundation,
  511 West 25th Street, 6-8
• Kathleen Kucka at Brenda Taylor Gallery, 511 West 25th Street, Ste. 401 6-8
• Fran Siegel, Observations of Light and Matter at Margaret Thatcher

  Projects, 511 West 25th Street, #404, 6-8

• Camp at NYSG, 511 West 25th Street, #6-07, 5:30-7:30pm
  
• Laura Sharp Wilson at McKenzie Fine Art, 511 West
  25th Street, 2nd fl., , 6-8
• Sam Easterson, Bird-Cams at Daniel Cooney Fine Art, 511 West 25th Street, Suite 506, 6-8
• Christian Maychack, All The Slow Forces at Jeff Bailey Gallery, 511 West 25th Street, Suite 207, 6-8
• Derek Buckner at George Billis Gallery, 511 West 25th Street, 6-8
• Wallpaper LAB

  collaborates with contemporary artists to produce limited edition
  wallpaper, w/ Douglas Gordon, Gary Simmons, Phoebe Washburn and more at Lennon, Weinberg, Inc., 514 West 25th Street, 6-8

• Nancy Burson, “The Hand of God”, an exhibition of recent photographs by the eminent artist in ClampArt‘s new and significantly larger space at 521-531 West 25th Street, grd fl., 6-8
• Shida Kuo at Nancy Margolis
  Gallery, 523 West 25th Street, grd fl., 6-8
• Alessandra Sanguinetti, On The Sixth Day Yossi Milo Gallery, 525 West 25th Street, 6-8
• Finisage for the closing of The Inner Workings of Cold Contact, serving beer and celebrating the finish of a great show (Xenobia
  Bailey, Graciela Fuentes, Ann Hamilton, Scott Hug, Anna Jóelsdóttir,
  Kosyo, Dean Monogenis, Maceo Montoya, Dennis Oppenheim, Ester Partegàs,
  Ted Riederer, Marc Swanson, Mathilde ter Heijne, Iké Udé, Brina
  Thurston, Michael Timpson, Manabu Yamanaka. Curated by Joshua Altman) at Stux Gallery, 530 West 25th Street, 6-8
• Zaria Forman at Allen Sheppard Gallery,
  530 West 25th Street, 6-8
• Nancy Grilikhes at Prince Street Gallery, 530 West 25th Street, 4th fl., 5-8
• Jeffrey Aaronson at Kashya Hilderbrand, 531 West 25th Street, 6-8
• Megan Bisbee-Durlam & Erika Wastrom at Lohin Geduld Gallery, 531 West 25th Street, 5-7pm
• Michael Goesele & Shuli Sade at Reeves Contemporary, 535 West 25th Street, 2nd fl., 6-8
• Mia Westerlund Roosen at Betty Cuningham Gallery, 541 West 25th Street, 6-8
• Scott Redden, Houses, Clouds & Trees, new paintings at Dillon Gallery, 555 West 25th Street, 6-8
• Fran Siegel at Margaret Thatcher Projects, 511 West 25th Street, Suite 404, 6-8
• Sarah Oppenheimer, 554-5251 at P.P.O.W., 555 West 25th Street, 6-8
• Roger Ackling + Richard Long at Von
  Lintel Gallery, 555 West
  25th Street, 2nd fl., 6-8
• Norito Udagawa + Wayne Herpich at Walter Wickiser

  Gallery, 210 Eleventh Avenue, 6-8

• Alice Dalton Brown at Fischbach Gallery,
  210 Eleventh Avenue, #801, 5-7
• Amy Morken, Backwards Diving at Claire Oliver, 513 West 26th Street, 6-8
  
• Frank Rodick, Arena at Andrea Meislin, 526 West 26th Street, 2nd fl. 6-8
• Janine Iversen, the lights blink on and off + Fox Grimshaw, Out Come at Marvelli Gallery,
  526 West 26th Street, 2nd fl. 6-8
• Millree Hughes, Figure + Cecil Paris, Cocktail at at Michael Steinberg Fine Art, 526 West 26th St., 215, 6-8
• Alessandra Exposito, Greener Pastures at Mixed Greens Gallery,
  531 West 26 Street, 6-8
• Alison Elizabeth Taylor at James Cohan Gallery, 533 West 26th Street, 6-8
• Maki Tamura, The Enlightenment at Lucas Schoormans, 508 West 26th Street #11B, 6-8
• Wes Hempel + Jack Balas at Jenkins Johnson Gallery, 521 West 26th Street, 5th fl., 6-8
• Goldsmiths MFA Survey presented by Cottelston Advisors at White Box, 525 West 26th Street, 6-8 Special performances by Dr. Polly Fiber, Shoot the Moon & ORTHO

• Ghosts & Machines, Michael Bell-Smith, La Vaughn Belle, Jason Hackenwerth, Alejandra Villasmil Closing Reception at Rush Arts Gallery, 526 West 26th Street, Suite 311, 6-8pm
• Alice Konkitz, Two Proud Society Spouses Are Reclining on Contemporary Furniture As A Golden-Eyed Ghost Lady Looks Over The Coffee Tables at Hudson
  Franklin, 508 West 26th Street #318, 6-8
• Walter Niedermayr at Robert Miller Gallery, 524 West 26th Street, 6-8
• Adam McEwen at Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery, 526 West 26th Street, Room 213, 6-8
• Frank Rodick, Arena at Andrea Meislin Gallery, 526 West 26th Street, Suite 214, 6
• Valaire Van Slyck, All Fall Down at Monya Rowe Gallery, 526 West 26th Street 6th fl., 6-8

• Changha Hwang at Massimo Audiello, 526 West 26th Street, 5th fl., 6-8

• Fabienne Lasserre, The Others (II) at Virgil de Voldere Gallery, 526 West 26th Street, rm. 416, 6-9
• Dona Nelson, Brain Stain at Thomas Erben Gallery, 526 West 26th Street, 4th fl., 6-8

• Rebecca Morales at BravinLee, 526 West 26th Street, #211, 6-8
  

• Woong Kim: Recent Paintings at 2 x 13 Gallery, 531 West 26th Street, 4th fl.,6-8
• Stefano Arienti at Lehmann Maupin, 540 West 26th Street, 6-8
• Erik Benson, Elsewhere, “Elsewhere,” (paintings
  describe, through both narrative and formal means, a psychogeography of
  placelessness that is as irremediably American as the strip mall, as
  expressively sober as the paintings of Edward Hopper, and as
  vertiginously drawn toward the Thanatos below the veneer of American
  optimism as the latest newspaper headline) at Roebling Hall, 606 West
  26th Street, 6-8
• Wendy White at Sixtyseven, 547 West 27th Street, 6-8
• Ester Partegas, Saturated Fat at Foxy Production, 547 West 27th Street, FL 6, 6-8
• Jade Townsend, and the days fly by on their own, a Site-Specific Installation at Priska Juschka Fine Art, 547 West 27th Street, 2nd fl., 6-8
• Love and War: The Weaponized Woman at The Museum at FIT, 7th Ave and 27th Street, 6-8
• Gerald Davis, 1986 at John Connelly Presents, 625 West 27th Street, 5-7
• Carolyn Swiszcz, Shelf Life + Mickey Kerr, Aftermath, Sept. 14 at MY Art Prospects Gallery, 547 West 27th Street, 2nd fl. 6-9
• Lola Alvarez Bravo at Aperture, 547 West 27th Street, 4th Fl, 6-8
  
• Hollis Hildebrand-Mills + Minako Ito at Ceres, 547 West 27th Street,
  2nd fl., 6-8
• Mike Geary, Brainbow at PH Gallery, 547 West 27th Street, 2nd fl. 6-8
• Walead Beshty, The Maker and The Model at Wallspace, 547 West 27th
  Street, grd fl., 6-8
• Street Poets & Visionaries, Selections from the UbuWeb Collection, in
  the tradition of Jim Shaw’s “Thrift Shop Paintings,” this collection of
  street posters, mad scribblings, political screeds, religious rants,
  and paranoid raves expands our notion of the Outsider arts to include
  the written word. Formally striking, emotionally charged, and bizarre
  beyond belief, these graphical works dovetail with the historic
  traditions of concrete poetry and art brut. Seamlessly melding text and
  image, their obsessive quality evokes Adolf Wölfli and Henry Darger’s
  visionary works at Oliver Kamm/5BE, 621 West 27th Street, grd fl., 6-8
• Jennifer Dalton, Would You Rather Be a Loser or a Pig? at Winkleman/Plus Ultra, 637 West 27th Street, Suite A, 6-8
• Jesse Bercowetz & Matt Bua, Things Got Legs at Derek Eller Gallery, 615 West 27th Street, 6-8

• Taylor McKimens, The Drips at Clementine, 623 West 27th Street, 6-8

• Came to Believe at Monkdogz Urban Art, 547 West 27 Street, 5th fl., 6-8
• 
  Janice Caswell, Lay of the Land  at Schroeder Romero, 637 West 27 Street, 6-8
• Amelia Biewald and Alejandro Almanza Pereda Wicked Sisters at Magnan Projects, 317 10th Ave, betw 28th and 29th, 6-8
• Art vs Real Life at Morgan Lehman Gallery, 317 Tenth Avenue (betw 28th & 29th), 6-8
• Julian Montague’s The Stray Shopping Cart Identification System, solo show – over 40 photographs from his ongoing series of works that document and classify stray shopping at Black & White Gallery, 636 West 28th Street, Ground fl., 6-8
• Walead Beshty at Wallspace, 619 West 27th Street, 6-8
• Our Gang at Flomenhaft Gallery finally at the 

  Flomenhaft Gallery, LLC, 547 West 27th Street, rm.s 308 & 528, 5-8

• Mark Innerst at Paul Kasmin Gallery,
  293 Tenth Avenue at 27th Street, 6-8

• Chuck Agro, Cheeseburger in my big, fat, greasy American hands, presents a cast of familiar characters in this loose, graphic series
  of paintings and and drawings. Like Picasso and Lautrec, Chuck Agro
  observes and records the people of his life, thereby recording his life
  of friendships, desires and failures, building a community of
  experience. His people reveal the emotional gravitas of a human life,
  the frailty and complexity of a unique personality. They are candidly
  portrayed as sensitive, complicated, awkward or anxious. While Agro
  evokes the viewers’ empathy with his quirky crew, his wry caricature of
  them reinforces his own subjective appreciation for his “embarrassing,
  beautiful friends” + Megan O’Connor +
  Millree Hughes, Figure 3 at Cynthia
  Broan Gallery, 546 W. 29th St., 6-9

• Su-Mei Tse, Proposition de detour, a unique 29 ft. wool carpet the takes the form of a fabulous labyrinth found at Chartres Cathedral at Peter Blum Chelsea, 526 West 29th Street, 6-8
• Contemporary Art From the Ukraine, Ukrainian Institute of America, 2 East 79th Street, 6-8

• Adventura:
  photography of unexpected places w/ Shuli Hallak, Emily Keegin, Eric
  Klemm, Anna Shteynshleyger, Alix Smith, Barry Stone and Foster Wittat
  Moti Hasson, 330 West 38th Street, Suite 211, 6-9

• “Abuse of Power, Abu Ghraib“, drawings by Susan Crile, a body of work inspired by prison scandal at Hunter College Art Galleries, 695 Park Avenue, 6-8
• Mark Podwal, Kabbalisitics at Forum Gallery, 745 Fifth Avenue, 6-8

• John Bjerkkie, Dreams & Delusions: Do Not Be Afraid at The Phatory,
  618 East 9th Street, betw B and C, 7-9

• 
  Guillermina Baiguera & Julian Gatto, taza taza at Little Cakes Little Gallery, 6 East 6th Street, 6-7
• 
  Doodle at Broadway Gallery, 473 Broadway, 7th fl. 6-8
• Art In Odd Places at Art in Odd Places, 174 Ludlow Street, 6-8
• Aaron Young, 1% at Harris Lieberman, 89 Vandam Street, 7-9
• Gus Heinze at Bernarducci Meisel, 724 Fifth Avenue, 57th Street, 6th fl., 5-7
• Alexi Worth, Couples at DC Moore, 724
  Fifth Avenue, 8th fl., 6-7:30
• John Beerman + Donald Evans at Tibor de Nagy,
  724 Fifth Avenue, 12th fl., 5-7
• Mark Podwal at Forum Gallery, 745
  Fifth Avenue, at 57th, 5th fl., 5:30-7:30
• Annette Messager & Yang Fudong at Marian Goodman Gallery, 24 West 57th Street, 4th fl., 6-8

• William Christenberry at Pace/MacGill, 32 East 57 St, 9th fl., 6-8

• Long Island Abstraction: 1950’s to the Present at Spanierman Gallery, LLC, 45 East 58 St., 6-8
• Ancient Egyptian Religion & Mythology Illustrated Lecture at Dahesh Museum, 580 Madison Avenue, 6:30-9pm
• Andy’s Maos at L&M Arts, 45 East 78 Street, no opening
• Carl Fredrik Schultz at Trygve Lie Gallery, 317 East 52nd Street, 6-8
• Teresa Grau & George Nobl at Chashama, 112 West 44th Street, between 6th Avenue & Broadway, 6-8
• Bartel + Haroutunian at Ezair Gallery, 905 Madison Avenue, btw. 72nd & 73rd, 6-8
• Tim Lewis at Flowers, 1000
  Madison Avenue, btw 77th & 78th Street, 2nd fl., 6-8
• Ines Raiteri + Augusto Zanela at Praxis International Art,
  25 East 73th Street, 4th fl., 6-8
• Joe Coleman at Jack Tilton, 8 East 76 Street, 6-8
• Daniel Novela (South Africa) at Sankarankai Gallery, 111 Front Street, Brooklyn, 6-9pm
• The Good Life: New Public Spaces For Recreation
  curated by Zoë Ryan at Hudson River Park’s Pier 40, West Street at West
  Houston, 6:30-9pm, invite
• Dash Snow at Rivington Arms, 4 E 2nd St, 1st Fl, betw Bowery and 2nd, 7-9
• John Bjerklie at The Phatory, 618 E 9th St, betw Ave B and Ave C, 7-9
  

pinched without permission from DKS List

this exhibition was an eye-opener, and in a lot of ways still is: it’s still a lot of work. i’m still handling emails from artists, now i’m getting 2-3 invites a week from artists who were in the show, and there’s still lots of paperwork to follow up with.

most troubling has been the notion of perception about the show. Flux Factory is a not-for-profit, completely volunteer ran. Yes we get grant funding and have access to other 501(c)(3) resources, but it’s not like we get paid, or can even buy meals for ourselves, much less our materials and countless exhausting hours putting on some of the best exhibitions in town. Some artists have this perception that we are there to serve them, or that we have a billion-dollar benefactor and should be able to afford to do all the work that needs to be done.

on the contrary: most of us work full-time jobs outside of our initiatives at Flux Factory. and in NYC, most people know that ‘part-time’ usually equates to ‘30 to 40′ hours a week. on top of that, most of us are practicing artists, also. We have families and health problems and get stuck on the train, just like y’all. Seven weeks after the closing of the show might seem like a long time, especially when you compare it to the three-week invasion-occupation of Iraq in 2003, but I think it’s pretty reasonable. You can rest assured we will eventually get the work done, because we want to do the work, but it all takes time. Had we a form-letter ready right after the closing, and sent it out, I wouldn’t be pleased with that. That would be hyper-institutional. Instead, we got on with our lives and did the work at our earliest collective availability, and wrote the letter in the context of the show.

most satisfactory has been the joy of communication revolving around this show. I got to contact so many people, look at so many websites, get to flip through so many resumés, and then finally meet and greet so many artists on the night of the opening. like i mentioned before, lots of artists are still getting in touch with me, which is both a blessing and a burden. ultimately, it’s a blessing. if it wasn’t, i wouldn’t be planning my next project.

only just realized i didn’t take any pictures yet of the event proper, the booths and whatnot. i should get back to work!

I’m eating a deli sandwich that I bought from some deli near Penn Station (my departure point). Lady at the luncheon cash register tells me I’m ’smart’ for doing so (the sandwich wraps here are $11). Not so smart though, eh? I mean what’s the perfect accompaniment to a deli sandwich? Soda and a bag of crisps. And I just paid $3 and $2 for those, respectively. Bleh.

The copies of Daily Constitutional look great. I found them near the Silent Auction, on the magazine table. I thought D.C. would have a booth of sorts, but they don’t. This fair is arranged a little bit differently than most. Still, I hope to track down these geezers and offer them a drink.

Around this time last week I decided to start planning my trip out to the Scope Hamptons art fair out on Long Island. My friend and fellow artist Richard Zimmerman was also interested in going; he has a vehicle and we thought that we would be able to go together. Unfortunately he couldn’t get off work, and he works allllllll the time, so I had to find another route. Since very few people in NYC, and especially even fewer of my friends, have vehicles (even though my boss offered me her truck), I turned to public transport. LIRR have a train direct to the Hamptons.

That’s where I woke up. The weather the past few days has been inclement at best, but this morning I woke up and the sun was absolutely stunning. A trip was in order.

I’m on the train right now, with just under 2 hours left in the journey. I’m sitting next to a lady Lori and her daughter Phoebe whom I befriended on the first train out to Jamaica where one changes to get the Montauk-bound train.

Lori earlier commented on my eyeglasses, and when I showed how they were actually pretty damaged (not that I needed to point out the 4oz. of hot glue holding my frames together), she told me of a friend of hers in California who deals with vintage eyeglasses, and showed me the frames she bought for her daughter, which are pretty spectacular. So I can’t wait to find out more about acquiring some new frames from this acquaintance.

Oh! And the Hamptons!

Can’t wait to get out there. It’s only for the day, but I always love to see the ocean (if i have time, I even brought my speedo trunks with me!), and I’m looking forward to the fair, honestly. I know these fairs are often excused as a playground for the rich, but I’m still interested in them, I still like to see crowds looking at art, no matter how consumptive the setting.

And the main highlight of my journey is to meet John Henry Blatter and the folks from Daily Constitutional, which is a pretty darned good art zine.

The journey itself is pretty mad: I left from Penn Station on the 11am train, I will arrive at the fair sometime between 2-3pm; the fair closes tonight at 8pm, and there’s an 11pm train back into the city. I might stay overnight if I can find the means, but either way I have to head back in to attend a wedding tomorrow night, on a boat “cruising the Hudson” for my friend and fellow artist Ashley Kesling.

Work ends at 6pm and then I will be heading to LUXE Gallery (no website, no linky) for the opening of Magic Box, a collaborative piece by two of my friends and fellow artists Marie Losier (Whitney Biennial 2006) and Sebastien Sanz de Santamaria.

I believe the following text is from the press release (I snagged it from another website):

The Magic Box is part of an on-going series of proposals made by Nathalie Angles for the Luxe Project Space.

Magic Box is a collaborative project by filmmaker Marie Losier and artist Sebastien Sanz de Santamaria. The viewer is invited to look through an aperture and rotate a crank to view a series of moving images of Losier’s film Flying Saucey!, frame by frame. Magic Box’s singular mechanism refers to precursors of the modern motion picture such as the mutoscope (in which the successive phases of a scene are printed on paper and mounted on a wheel that rotates).

Then I’ll be heading out to Queens for the Opolis opening at Flux Factory in LIC. Unfortunately the 7 train has no service b/w Times Sq. and Queensboro Plaza so it’s anybody’s guess how to get out there. The R train is notoriously unreliable on weekends, even for a Saturday evening. It might be faster to bicycle… backwards.

Related websites:
http://marielosier.net/
http://sebastiensanzdesantamaria.net/
http://www.fluxfactory.org/

I got a sneak preview of Lance’s piece for the show this time last week when I went to his studio (bedroom) in Williamsburg last week, to drop off a work of my own, for his project artMarket Mini (originally ‘2005′, now ‘definitely by 2010′).

Lance’s piece for the show (image attached) reminds me of my own obsessiveness with how information is handled, in its various manifestations these days. keyloggers, while potentially tiny and ultra-discreet, are also capable of storing 40,000, 50,000, or more characters of typed personal data. an insight to how one navigates the space of the computer and the keyboard.