dustbin of history?

not if i can do anything about it!

summer shade

spring planting is involving a lot of nurturing (for me, collaborators, and the viewer/participant), like a garden would. summer is all about relaxing, lying in a hammock... the process and the final piece should both provide that feeling.

colab

these pics feel so old! i guess it was about nine days ago we installed the show at the chashama chelsea space. i'll be gallery-sitting this saturday, february 21st, from 3pm to 6pm if you want to check out the show. 266 w 37th street, between 7th & 8th avenues.

it's a group show. colab meets once a month, we help each other with our writing, and founder/leader sarah schmerler helps us with our writing. writing about our art.

for this show, we worked together in pairs, writing about each others' art. the writing is displayed alongside the work. there's a lot to see and experience, hope you enjoy it.

pictures from installation day 8th february 2009:

sarah thinks:

































the mid-installation shopping trip:



































view from the sidewalk as we put it together:





































sarah helps annette and joanne with their writing, cynthia writes on the wall beneath hanna's painting, hanna writes on the wall beneath cynthia's piece:




































cynthia and joanne show where cynthia's thread will go:




































james and i observe chris and shannon writing about each others' art:



































sarah writes on the mirror:




































annette writes on the wall beneath an earlier incarnation of joanne's piece:



































group decision-making:



























view of james'-and-my piece in an earlier incarnation:




























something sarah wrote about james'-and-my piece "here today":




































looking in from the outside:


































same scene, different view:




























has been very gratifying to be a part of this process. other things going on, more images to come soon.

this show keeps changing, hope you can make it saturday.

making spring planting

yesterday i got frustrated with how slow photoshop was behaving (the machine i was on, the resolution i was on). started taking pictures of the monitor instead, to crop and enlarge, using the macro feature on the camera. became like stop-motion animation. almost too smooth, thought it might look choppier. going to play more with that technique, really enjoyed it.

traffic cone appreciation

saturday was a lot of fun. just a few people joined for stages (only john and i completed the full walk) for the traffic cone observation and photography tour. haven't had time to add the new images into the piece yet, but if you come to the closing party this friday evening (which i just found out about a couple of hours ago at kendrick's crit), you'll see a changed piece (incorporating new photos, color photos, other people's photos).






































here are the notes from my gallery talk:



"

rarely serve any discernable function

like paintings, primary function is to be looked at

like abstract art, they may be impenetrable. they may not be compelling to everyone.

color jumps out at you, demanding your attention

modern phenomenon

always changing

location in the world and eye-grabbing nature combine to form an extremely low-effort aesthetic experience (vs. going to a concert, for example)

things to look for:

- manufactured characteristics (what kind of cone is it?)

- wear and tear (what has happened to it?)

- location (where is it?)

- relationship to other cones (is it part of a community?)

together the aspects/attributes of traffic cones create visual poetry

for free

for everyone

public art which didn’t exist a hundred years ago

which is changing all the time

which may disappear

which can be documented

and appreciated almost effortlessly

"


also held up a piece of paper to show the difference between orange-projected-onto-orange and orange-projected-onto-white:





























good news for further exploration and awareness-raising of traffic cone aesthetics. got letter a few days ago: "on behalf of the lower manhattan cultural council and new york city department of cultural affairs, it is our pleasure to notify you that your project, how to enjoy traffic cones, has been awarded a 2009 manhattan community arts fund grant. congratulations!"

which means that there will be warm-weather traffic cone viewing tours, among other things. and i really want to involve people in the project. excited.