Franklin Furnace’s Goings On
October 24, 2005
CONTENTS:
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1. Fiona Templeton, FF Alumn, at The Tramway, Glasgow, December 2-3, 8 pm
2. Linda Sibio, FF Alumn, reviewed by Ron Athey, FF Alumn, in LA Weekly
3. Anna Mosby Coleman, FF Alumn, in NYC Parks, October 25 and 28
4. G.H. Hovagimyan, FF Alumn, now at Tecchia Gallery, NY,
5. Lynn Cazabon, Jane Dickson, Robin Tewes, FF Alumns, at Pace Univ,opening November 5
6. Phillip Warnell, FF Alumn, in London, England, thru January 21, 2006
7. Rae C Wright, FF Alumn, at Access Theater, NY, November 2-18
8. Stanya Kahn, FF Alumn, at White Columns, opening October 28
9. Sarah Schulman, FF Alumn, in the New York Times, and at Playwrights Horizons thru November 20
10. Andrea Fraser, FF Alumn, at Dia Chelsea, October 31, 6:30 pm
11. Micki McGee book release party, NYU, November 4, 5-7 pm
12. Coco Fusco, FF Alumn, at PS1, Long Island City, thru January 9, 2006
13. Judith Sloan, FF Alumn, in Audio Festival, Chicago
14. Lisa Brenneis, Nao Bustamante, Adrienne Jenik, new project now online
15. Harley Spiller, FF Alumn, recipe for Buffalo Wings in the NY Sun
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1. Fiona Templeton, FF Alumn, at The Tramway, Glasgow, December 2-3, 8 pm
The Later Medead
by Fiona Templeton
(parts 4,5,6 of her epic The Medead)
Anna Kohler, Graziella Rossi, Tim Hall, Robert Kya-Hill, Valda Setterfield
and others
at The Tramway, Glasgow, Scotland
December 2 & 3, 2005 8pm
www.tramway.org
+44-(0)141-422-2023
www.fionatempleton.org
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2. Linda Sibio, FF Alumn, reviewed by Ron Athey, FF Alumn, in LA Weekly
Hi Cracked Eggs and Friends-
Yay, we made it in to the LA Weekly! You guys can’t imagine the rocky road the journey of this Pick took and I couldn’t be sure until I saw it in print, but here it is:
http://www.laweekly.com/calendar/picks/index.php#art
I’ll also paste it below. You’ll be able to see it in tomorrow’s edition of the LA Weekly.
What’s really weird, and seems like a mistake, is that if you go to the main Theater page (on the site) you’ll see the Cracked Eggs photo there next to the David Mamet listing (???):
http://www.laweekly.com/theater/
It’s kinda funny. I can’t wait to see the physical paper tomorrow to see if the image did make it in next to our Pick.
Can’t wait to see you all in action on Friday night.
From the Publicist~
:L)
Lynn Hasty from Green Galactic in Hollywood
Performance
LINDA CARMELLA SIBIO AND THE CRACKED EGGS
Linda Carmella Sibio has had a mind-boggling 30-year journey through the arts — the usual high highs and low lows along with the extra burden of schizophrenia. In the late ’90s, following hospitalization for a nervous breakdown, the painter/performance artist decided to focus her work on the relationship between madness and art. She moved from Los Angeles to the high desert and began teaching performance workshops in Morongo and Yucca Valley mental-health centers. In 2001, The Cracked Eggs was born. Members of The Cracked Eggs are mentally disabled adults and teens, ranging in age from 14 to 78, diagnosed with everything from Down syndrome to obsessive-compulsive disorder to self-described “neo”-schizophrenia. In a work called The Prophet of Doom in the Banana Republic, Sibio and Bezerk Productions have moved beyond just giving voice to the disenfranchised. Under Sibio’s direction, the troupe enacts a scenario in which the town of Eureka has been conquered and placed under martial law, creating an evening of live art that includes interactive paintings, abstract sound scapes and butoh-esque movement. Highways Performance Space, 18th Street Arts Center, 1651 18th St., Santa Monica; Fri.-Sat., Oct. 21-22, 8:30 p.m.; Sun., Oct. 23, at 3:30 p.m.; $15. (310) 315-1459.
—Ron Athey, FF Alumn
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3. Anna Mosby Coleman, FF Alumn, in NYC Parks, October 25 and 28
Anna Mosby Coleman, FF Alumn, schedules “dog a day” Social Sculpture,
Tuesday, 10-25-05 and Friday, 10-28-05, New York City:
Weather permitting, from 10am to noon on Tuesday, October 25 and Friday, October 28 (from noon to 2pm); Anna will be taking walks, talking to dogs and dog owners, patting the pooches, and capturing a picture (if agreeable to the dog and owner). Thursday, she will be in the Stuyvesant Park area. Friday she will be walking around Union Square Park.
Anna Mosby Coleman has been performing “dog a day” since October of 1997, and has patted over 1,000 dogs and had more than twice as many conversations with dogs and their owners. It is her prescription for optimum health, and alludes to the proverbial cure, “an apple a day keeps the doctor away”; in the Big Apple let’s acknowledge it takes a little more than an apple. In the interest of tail wagging and a pat, Coleman’s “dog a day” puts forth the notion that it is the interaction of neighbors, our pets, and those daily structures of good will that keep us healthy in the city.
This October, Anna Mosby Coleman began recording images of the interactions with a small Cybershot camera (with permission of the owner). The images will be part of a site specific installation details TBA in the coming months. If you would like to take part in “dog a day” with a special street appointment, please email Anna at dog_a_day@annamosbycoleman.com.
Announcements of additional specific site walks will be forthcoming throughout the year:
For the location of Stuyvesant Park see Mapquest URL:
http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?formtype=address&searchtype=address&country=US&addtohistory=&1ahXX=&address=Rutherford+Pl+%26+E+16th+St&city=New+York&state=NY&zipcode=10003
Union Square is between 14th and 17th Streets, between Broadway and Park Avenue South.
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4. G.H. Hovagimyan, FF Alumn, now at Tecchia Gallery, NY
Hi,
I’m pleased to announce that my latest work in High Definition videos are on display at Sara Tecchia Gallery ( 529 west 20th street, 2nd floor) in Chelsea. The videos are random select from an HDV database that are played one after another in a seamless playlist. This is a preview for a larger installation of 3 flat screens at Sara Tecchia’s in March. Come by and have a look and let me know what you think.
/gh
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5. Lynn Cazabon, Jane Dickson, Robin Tewes, FF Alumns, at Pace Univ,opening November 5
SYNTHESIS and DISTRIBUTION: Experiments in Collaboration
Pace University Art Galleries
Peter Fingestin Galleries
1 Pace Plaza
New York, NY 10038, (914-773-3473)
http://appserv.pace.edu/execute/page.cfm?doc_id=3535
Opening Nov. 5, 4-7pm through Dec. 16th
Choate House Gallery
861 Bedford Road, Pace University Campus
Pleasantville, NY 10570 (914-773-3473)
http://appserv.pace.edu/execute/page.cfm?doc_id=3535
Opening Nov. 8th, 1-3pm through Dec. 16th
Pace Digital Gallery
163 Williams St.
New York, NY 10038, (917-779-4947)
digitalgallery@pace.edu
Opening Nov. 15th, 6-8pm through Dec. 16th
Drawings/Painting/Scupture/Video: Peter Fingestin Galleries and Choate House Gallery
Robin Hill and Stephen Kaltenbach
Las Hermanas Iglesias
Laura Lisbon and Suzanne Silver
Merijn van der Heijden and Ron Janowich
Mary Carlson and Jenne Silverthorn and Nica de la Torre
Mia Brownell and Martin Kruck
Barbara Ciurej and Lindsay Lochman
Will Pappenheimer &Gregory Ulmer
Aura Rosenberg, Jane Dickson, and “Who am I?” artists
Robin Tewes and Mark Tansey
Art Clay and Günter Heinz
Video:
Angie Drakoupolis and Daniel Hill
Lauren Garber and Tate Bunker and Neill Elliott
Charlie Ahearn and Colette
Kristin Lucas and FACT
Digital Media: Pace Digital Gallery
Lynn Cazabon and Hasan Elahl
John Miller and Takuji Kogo
Michael Mandiberg and Julia Steinmetz
Jillian Mcdonald, Kelty McKinnon and Beckley Roberts
Sal Randolph and Glowlab
Julie Andreyev and VJ Fleet
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6. Phillip Warnell, FF Alumn, in London, England, thru January 21, 2006
SUTURE
ARTWORK WITHOUT ANAESTHETIC
RICHARD SQUIRES . PHILLIP WARNELL
THE OLD OPERATING THEATRE, MUSEUM & HERB GARRET
9a St. Thomas St, London Bridge, London SE1 9RY
22 OCTOBER 2005 – 21 JANUARY 2006
SUTURE is a two-part exhibition, realised to coincide with the temporary move of The Old Operating Theatre Museum into the crypt at St Marks. An intervention of moving image work, SUTURE places video monitors amongst the amputation saws, trepanning tools, pill-making machines and instruments for the surgical removal of human gall bladder stones and diseased limbs.
SUTURE Part One: ‘Exhibition’ and ‘Host’
Squires’ ‘Exhibition’ is an interactive video installation where the viewer can assume a number of different roles – perpetrator, witness, catalyst – but is always implicated in the visceral consequence of the piece. Arising in part from his interest in notions of ‘interplay’ in the relationship between artwork and audience, ‘Exhibition’ is like the momentary exposure of the flasher in the woods. You get everything and nothing.
Warnell’s ‘Host – Guest Plus Host Equals Ghost’ makes use of raw material gathered by the artists ingestion of a miniature camera. The untethered guest auto-documented its passage, sending signal photographic images as it was propelled by the bodies’ muscular, peristaltic contractions. Assembled into four animated sequences, each set within the aperture of the artists’ mouth, they generate a public view of an internal landscape. A fifth screen presents assemblages of material documenting the time spent in
a clinical environment.
‘Host’ was first presented as a performance/installation at The MACRO, Rome (2004) and will be the focus of a symposium in December 2005, organised in conjunction with The Arts Catalyst. The online component of the project, a nine-metre web object, can be found online at www.guestplushostequalsghost.com. Host was produced with financial support from The Arts Council, London and The University of Gloucestershire. Warnell’s recent output includes exhibitions at Matts Gallery (2005), ‘Zero Visibility’, MOMA, Ljubljana (2003-touring).
Both works have been specifically adapted and re-configured for installation in the museum. An accompanying text by Lisa Lefeuvre will be available in a specially commissioned publication designed by the artists.
Phillip Warnell
info@phillipwarnell.com
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7. Rae C Wright, FF Alumn, at Access Theater, NY, November 2-18
Rae C Wright in “Love and Anger” by Canadian playwright, George F. Walker
at: The Access Theater
380 Broadway 4th Floor
(2 blocks below canal, N/R to Canal)
Nov. 2 – Nov. 18 Mon, Wed, Thurs, Fri at 7:30pm
also with Bill Balzac, Ted Hannan, Michael Kuhn*, Cecil MacKinnon*, Jaquita Ta’le and directed by Lee Gundersheimer. ” Walker’s comedy about a ragtag group of would-be activists, hell bent on defeating the corruption caused by a media mogul who runs the town. Their unlikely leader, Petie Maxwell, is a former corporate lawyer who becomes the voice of the underdog. Born-again after suffering a stroke, Maxwell is a social revolutionary with the will to remake the world — one hopeless lawsuit at a time…”
tickets are $15 but $10 tickets are available on Nov 2,4, and 7th if purchased on the smartix site www.smarttix.com or by phone 212.868.4444. the code for these special ‘friends of cast’ tickets (no extra tix fee) is LOVE.
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8. Stanya Kahn, FF Alumn, at White Columns, opening October 28
Stanya Kahn will be in a group show at White Columns opening October 28th
October 28 – December 3, 2005
White Room: The Early Show
In our second White Room we are proud to present “The Early Show” a group exhibition curated by Elysia Borowy-Reeder, Scott Reeder, and Tyson Reeder. “The Early Show” will feature works made by established artists before they had any formal art education, or at a very, very early stage in their education, or careers. A cross-generational exhibition “The Early Show” seeks to privilege these nascent, often tentative creative gestures, whilst considering how such gestures might relate to, or depart from, these artists’ more ‘mature’ or better known work. Artists confirmed for “The Early Show” include: Franz Ackermann, Cory and Jamie Arcangel, David Aron, Brian Belott, Cecily Brown, Gavin Brown, Sara Clendening, Anne Collier, Santiago Cucullu, Harriet Dodge, Peter Doig, Jim Drain, Hannah Fushihara, Mary Heilmann, Chris Johanson, Daniel Johnstone, Stanya Kahn, Rachel Kushner, Frankie Martin, Donald Morgan, Rebecca Morris, JP Munro, Elizabeth Peyton, David Reed, Chris Smith, Francine Spiegel, Spencer Sweeney, Mungo Thomson, Lane Twitchell, and Megan Whitmarsh.
“The Early Show” will be accompanied by a special issue of White Columns’ in-house journal “The W.C.”
Elysia Borowy-Reeder, Scott Reeder, and Tyson Reeder are artists and curators based in Chicago and Milwaukee. Their recent curatorial projects include the celebrated exhibition series “Drunk vs. Stoned,” (organized with Gavin Brown and Corrina Durland) for Gavin Brown’s enterprise, New York (2004 and 2005); and since 2000, they have been prime-movers behind Milwaukee’s famed project space “The General Store.” In 2006, they will organize a new project for The Ulrich Museum of Art in Wichita.
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9. Sarah Schulman, FF Alumn, in the New York Times, and at Playwrights Horizons thru November 20
“I never thought that being out in my work would have the financial consequences that it has had,” says Sarah Schulman
Forum: Theater
Who’s Afraid of Sarah Schulman?
By JESSE GREEN
SEVERAL days a week during the school year, the novelist and playwright Sarah Schulman takes a subway, a ferry and two buses to get from her cramped sixth-floor walkup in the East Village to a cramped classroom at the College of Staten Island, where she is a tenured professor of English. Her students this semester – as many as 40 in each class – include Italian-Americans, African-Americans, Yemenis, Dominicans, Haitians, Lebanese, Azerbaijanis, Bangladeshis, Chinese, Koreans, Russians, Albanians from Albania and Albanians from Kosovo. “Some can barely read out loud, and some know five languages,” Ms. Schulman said. In any case, she learns their names by the second week and also what they mean.
If Ms. Schulman works so hard to reach her students, perhaps that’s in part because the world, as she sees it, has not always done as much for her. She has not, for instance, been as successful as she feels she deserves to be. Oh, she’s been recognized; her seven published novels and two works of nonfiction have won many awards (she was a finalist for the Prix de Rome), while her playwriting has earned her most of the plum residencies and fellowships available. But there is still that sixth-floor walkup and that two-hour-each-way commute and the constant effort to get theaters to mount her work, while some writers she considers her peers struggle far less and have, she says, “more personal choice about which of their plays will be produced.”
Ms. Schulman feels there’s a simple reason she isn’t among them: she’s a lesbian who writes openly about lesbians in an industry largely run by men. “Often, works that reinforce dominant fantasies about oppressed people are inflated beyond their merit,” she explained in an e-mail message, judiciously omitting the names of the works she meant. Whereas works like hers, she said, address oppression from a “more authentic perspective” and are therefore ruthlessly marginalized.
Though her speech is armored with jargon, the effect is often mitigated, in person, by her almost maternal warmth. In private, she has been a loving mentor to many young writers, feeding them encouragement and home-cooked meals. Even during our interview, she occasionally took my hand to emphasize an important point, and spoke in a modest whisper. Still, I found myself repeatedly preparing to flinch as she stalked me for bad motives, tired agendas and prejudices; when she thought she spied one she pounced as if to drag it from behind some trees and let it rot in the sun.
This was Ms. Schulman in her holy terror mode, scaled down for the diner where we were talking. In public, her attacks and pronouncements have made her a controversial figure. She paints herself as a nearly solitary pioneer in advancing lesbian theater. (“I am trying to achieve something that has never been done before,” she wrote in another e-mail message.) After a discussion among leading gay writers at a national conference, people who were in attendance say, she stood up from the audience and directly challenged the panelists (she says she spoke calmly), demanding to know what they personally were doing about the lack of lesbian plays in production in America. A perfectly reasonable – even important – issue, though antagonizing your allies is not always an effective strategy.
But then, Ms. Schulman apparently doesn’t think gay male writers are necessarily her allies. As for the success that some of their work has found with mainstream audiences, she seems to regard it as almost a point against them: “Quality has never been the determining factor in terms of recognition and rewards,” she said. “Not in any field. When great work is successful, I believe it’s a coincidence.”
Her fearlessness has won her a reputation for difficulty (which she dismisses as mere “rumor”) and may have impeded her progress in the insular and touchy theater world. Certainly her plays – serious reflections on life at the margins, frequently experimental in structure or satirical in tone – have not achieved the acclaim of her fiction. Her novels are published by major houses and reviewed respectfully. (Of her book “Rat Bohemia,” Edmund White wrote, “The force of her indignation is savage and has blown the traditional novel off its hinges.”) Her plays, on the other hand, have until recently been produced at “rat-infested parking lots” or downtown dives with names like University of the Streets and Women’s One World. They have received a few mainstream reviews, ranging from scornful (“a talking poster”) to glowing (“every line will ring true”), but have mostly been ignored.
Because she finds that intolerable – “Respect is my Achilles’ heel,” she said – and because she is very smart, Ms. Schulman set out quite deliberately, around 1994, to beat the system. And now, at 47, after an “an 11-year-crawl,” she finally seems poised for a substantial breakthrough. Her new play, “Manic Flight Reaction,” which is in previews at Playwrights Horizons and opens on Oct. 30, wraps a typically serious Schulman theme (the need to take responsibility for the pain you cause others) in a delightful premise: a young woman discovers that her mother’s ex-lover is now the wife of a Republican presidential candidate. Will she be outed? It’s a surprise to find Ms. Schulman working this comic vein; the set could pass for the living room on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.” But even more so, given Ms. Schulman’s reputation for ideological absolutism, it’s a surprise to see her slyly question the assumptions of all the characters: not just obvious bad guys but also the delightful main character, Marge, a 50-ish lesbian academic described in the stage directions as “struggling to settle – at the last minute – into normalcy, but lovingly.”
That “lovingly” is perhaps emblematic of Ms. Schulman’s new stance. She sees herself as a judicious artist and thoughtful “participant citizen” whose public controversies are behind her – and were, at any rate, provoked. Certainly that was the case when she discovered that a significant part of the story of “Rent,” Jonathan Larson’s 1992 musical, bore a striking resemblance to her 1990 novel, “People in Trouble.” Though a separate plagiarism charge brought by the show’s dramaturge was settled out of court, Ms. Schulman never sued, instead seeking justice in print. In her 1998 book, “Stagestruck: Theater, AIDS and the Marketing of Gay America,” she offered a blistering critique of the musical – and of the elites who lionized it while ignoring her.
If “Stagestruck” tends toward overstatement, it may reflect Ms. Schulman’s days as an early and ardent member of Act Up. And the overstatement does make for enjoyable reading – or did until I discovered myself in its pages, appearing in the minor role of Another Ineffectual Journalist, flapping with fear instead of standing up for truth. Though the particulars are debatable, I had to admit that the scene played well; Ms. Schulman is a natural dramatist. The only really bothersome thing was that, of all the pseudonyms in the world, she had to saddle me with ” Seymour.”
In that, I got off lightly. Though she won’t discuss them, her feuds and pyrotechnic fallings-out are well known. No one I contacted would comment on the record, except to praise her as an artist. (“I wish her nothing but success, she truly deserves it,” the playwright Craig Lucas said.) It’s hard to know how many of these relationships foundered on professional instead of personal shoals; in any case, Ms. Schulman laughed when I told her how much she is feared. Their fear, she said, is actually anger: the anger of privileged people being forced to question the source of their privilege. “Anyway,” she said, making an incredulous face, “what can I do to these people?” Apparently she meant what could she do beyond attacking them in public and alluding to them unflatteringly in her novels and plays. Two of the less likable characters in “Manic Flight Reaction” clearly allude to – or are named for – former friends.
Ms. Schulman says she is merely “bold,” and it’s true that her exploits and self-regard might seem dashing in the story of a male literary lion. It may even be a sign of perverse integrity that she doesn’t tone it down with people who can help her. Tim Sanford, who as artistic director of Playwrights Horizons produced her first uptown play, “Carson McCullers (Historically Inaccurate),” said that Ms. Schulman was “so hungry for encouragement” back then that she would become “combative.” “She is a great scholar, a social analyst,” Mr. Sanford said. “You see it in her plays. It’s wonderful even if it’s a little crazy and provocative. But sometimes she’ll spin something I’ve said to such a degree it’s borderline offensive. Over time I’ve learned to just say: ‘That’s outrageous! Why are you antagonizing me?’ But the thing I love about her is that she’s candid, always. I do love that. Maybe not everyone would.”
Though some at Playwrights were leery of taking on “Manic Flight Reaction” after their previous bouts with Ms. Schulman, Mr. Sanford said (and others agreed) that the experience had been entirely positive and had vindicated his faith in her. She made revisions as asked and even cut jokes when the director, Trip Cullman, suggested they weren’t landing. Ms. Schulman attributed the change in tone largely to Mr. Sanford’s willingness to learn from her: “After so much interaction about lesbian representation, he became more open to certain themes, and he was also more willing to let me know what he wanted from me,” she explained. Mr. Sanford pointed to Ms. Schulman’s own education in the realities of theater. “It’s really been her focus as a writer to take on the skill set of a more accessible Off Broadway playwright,” he said. “Basically, to move uptown.”
That skill set is in part technical. Ms. Schulman said that because she had never completed a writing course, let alone a graduate degree, she had little knowledge of the basics. But the political skills needed to maneuver in the uptown theater were even harder to master. “It was a whole new industry that I didn’t know how to operate,” she said. “I didn’t know who was who and I wasn’t used to the way people in that world behaved – which is antisocially.” By which she meant, among other things, that “theaters do not prioritize their responsibility to serve the vast, diverse array of life experiences that take place every day in New York City. I wasted a lot of time figuring it out and making mistakes.”
But that effort, she said, has been worth it. Artistically, she has emerged from the process as “a senior writer with a very wide palette” who can handle, she added, “pretty much anything.” She now has nine plays in various stages of development; it is perhaps most telling that one of them, a 1920’s farce called “The Lady Hamlet,” will have its first reading, starring Kate Burton, on Thursday at the New York Theater Workshop – where the reviled “Rent” originated.
“I had my say and they got their money and life goes on,” she said, shrugging. “What can you do?”
If Ms. Schulman is trying to put her past behind her, it’s a difficult past to dismiss. She has, she said, “suffered from other people a lot.” The outlines of an awful upbringing are easily discernible in some of her novels, and many of her friends died of AIDS. She does not like to discuss any of this, except through her work; as a typically pithy line in “Manic Flight Reaction” has it: “When people find out that something truly horrible has happened to you, they show no mercy.” Nevertheless, she feels optimistic, rather like her character Marge, struggling to settle into normalcy at the last minute.
As all writers must, she denied the autobiographical element, except for the part about Marge having lived for too many years in a sixth-floor walkup. But for anyone who has followed Ms. Schulman’s career or been on the wrong side of her disapproval, “Manic Flight Reaction,” with its handsome production, possible commercial future and almost reconciliatory ending, is a kind of road map and a relief.
“I never thought that being out in my work would have the financial consequences that it has had,” she said. “I thought that the world would evolve in such a way that people would appreciate the boldness of my content, and be able to see clearly my scope of craft and palette. I really never thought that having integrity about the content and perspective of my work would keep people from being able to accept what a good writer I am. My deepest, most optimistic hope is that we are finally at a place where this recognition can happen.”
Well, perhaps it’s not her very deepest wish. Upon reflection she agreed that tops on her list would probably be an elevator.
http://theater2.nytimes.com/gst/theater/tdetails.html?id=1126687815911
Manic Flight Reaction
Off Broadway, Playwrights Horizons
PLOT DESCRIPTION
Faced with the exposure of her past liaison with the wife of the leading presidential candidate, a middle-aged college professor realizes she must confront the demons of her idealistic past. ‘Manic Flight Reaction’ is a razor-edged comedy about abandonment, the intrusion of mass-market media, and the need for faith in goodness, despite the odds. — TheaterSource
SHOWTIMES / VENUE
Playwrights Horizons
416 W. 42nd St.
New York, NY 10036
Previews Start: Oct. 20, 2005
Opening Date: Oct. 30, 2005
Closing Date: Nov. 20, 2005
Ticket Price: $40
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10. Andrea Fraser, FF Alumn, at Dia Chelsea, October 31, 6:30 pm
Official Welcome (2001)
a performance by Andrea Fraser
and book launch for
“Museum Highlights: The Writings of Andrea Fraser”
Monday, October 31, 2005, 6:30 pm
Dia:Chelsea
548 West 22nd Street (between 10th and 11th avenues)
New York NY 10011
212 989 5566 www.diaart.org
Admission is free
Andrea Fraser will launch her new book from MIT Press, Museum Highlights: The Writings of Andrea Fraser, with a performance of Official Welcome (2001). Edited by Alexander Alberro, “Museum Highlights” collects essays and performance scripts written between 1985 and 2003, including Official Welcome.
Since the mid 1980s, Andrea Fraser has produced site-specific performances, videos, installations, and publications for museums and exhibitions in the United States, Europe, and Latin America. A survey of her work was organized by the Kunstverein in Hamburg in 2003 and also presented at the Dunkers Kunsthus in Helsingborg, Sweden in 2004.
Official Welcome was commissioned by and first performed at The MICA Foundation, New York, in 2001.
This event is hosted by Dia Art Foundation, with assistance from The MIT Press. Special thanks to Friedrich Petzel Gallery.
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11. Micki McGee book release party, NYU, November 4, 5-7 pm
Please join New York University’s Draper Program
in a celebration of Micki McGee’s new book
SELF-HELP, INC.: Makeover Culture in American Life
Friday, November 4, 5-7 pm
The Great Room
19 University Place @ 8th Street, 1st floor
RSVP to draper.program@nyu.edu or phone 212.998.8070
Micki McGee, Ph.D.
author, Self-Help, Inc.: Makeover Culture in American Life (Oxford UP, 2005)
www.selfhelpinc.com
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12. Coco Fusco, FF Alumn, at PS1, Long Island City, thru Jan 9, 2006
Day Labor
October 23, 2005 – January 9, 2006
(Long Island City, New York – August 16, 2005) P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center is pleased to present Day Labor, a group exhibition featuring works by eighteen international artists, from Croatia, France, Germany, Israel, Mexico, Turkey, the Netherlands and the United States. Using various media, including photography and video, the artists explore the ways in which cultural identity and bodily perception are driven and socially conditioned by the global economy and the media. Day Labor is on view from October 23, 2005 through January 9, 2006.
The exhibition examines society’s obsession with the notion of “becoming,” as well as the libidinal or visceral aspects of the labor trade. From day laborer to pop star, from paramilitary leader to corporate giant, the global economy is continually churning out
labels, brands and archetypes. Many of the artists in Day Labor challenge these social constructs by inserting themselves into the public domain. Some recreate situations in the workforce as a means to comment on the brutality, inequity and the absurdity of the marketplace. In revealing the various aspects of the labor trade and the attendant values placed on race, gender, class, and body type, Day Labor will examine market values and economic barometers, immigration, global tourism, corporate culture and high culture status.
Artists in Day Labor include: Can Altay (b. 1975 Ankara, Turkey, lives and works In Ankara); Alex Bag (b. New York City, lives and works in Jersey City); Tamy Ben-tor (b. 1975 Jerusalem, Israel, lives and works in New York); Daniel Bozhkov (b. 1968 Aytos, Bulgaria, lives and works in New York); Esra Ersen (b. 1970 Ankara, Turkey, lives and works in Istanbul); Jonah Freeman (b. 1975 Santa Fe, New Mexico, lives and works in Brooklyn); Coco Fusco (b. 1960 New York, lives and works in New York); Christy Gast (b. 1976 Coldwater, Ohio, lives and works in Brooklyn); Ignacio Gonzalez-Lang (b. 1975 San Juan, Puerto Rico, lives and works in New York); Matthieu Laurette (b. 1970 Villeneuve St. Georges, France, lives and works in Paris and New York); Daniel Lefcourt (b. 1975, New York City, lives and works in Brooklyn); Will Kwan (b. 1978 Hong Kong, lives and works in Maastricht, The Netherlands and New York); Andreja Kuluncic (b. 1968 Subotica, Yugoslavia, lives and works in Zagreb, Croatia); Yoshua Okon (b. 1970 Mexico City, Mexico, lives and works in Mexico City and Los Angeles); Nira Pereg (b. 1969 Tel Aviv, Israel, lives and works in Tel Aviv and Germany); Mika Rottenberg (b. 1976 Buenos Aires, Argentina, lives and works in New York); Hank Willis Thomas (b. 1976 New York, lives and works in San Francisco); and Aaron Young (b. 1972 San Francisco, California, lives and works in New York).
Day Labor is curated by P.S.1 Curator Amy Smith-Stewart.
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13. Judith Sloan, FF Alumn, in Audio Festival, Chicago
Judith Sloan, FF Alumn, is one of four radio producers and audio artists commissioned to create a new Short Documentary be presented at the The Third Coast International Audio Festival (TCIAF) in Chicago on October 21, 2005.
8:30 AM panel: Moderated by Michele Norris (NPR)
with Blake Eskin (independent producer / writer), Michael Kavanagh
(independent producer), Melissa Robbins (independent producer) and Judith
Sloan (audio artist / Earsay)
The Third Coast International Audio Festival was created by Chicago Public
Radio in 2000 to support producers and other artists creating audio
documentary and feature work of all styles and to bring this fresh and vital
work to audiences throughout the world. Inspired by the popularity of
documentary film festivals in the U.S., and motivated by the lack of
attention given to outstanding audio work, the organizers of the TCIAF
created their own blue-print for a radio festival.
About the ShortDocs (from TCIAF)
Each Spring we commission four ShortDocs, all on the same subject, and in
doing so invite producers and listeners to explore the versatility and
flexibility of the documentary form. Producers, reporters and audio artists
may submit proposals for stories relating to each year’s chosen theme, and
are encouraged to consider stories ranging from literal to metaphorical,
narrative to sound-rich, cultural to political. TCIAF has commissioned four
audio works for a new batch of ShortDocs and this year we asked producers to
submit ideas for stories about games. We received exactly 100 proposals from
the U.S. And far beyond, and chose four that we felt approached the topic
from varied and unusual perspectives.
Tongues Twisting
By Judith Sloan
Clapping games and tongue twisters in multiple languages turn into rich
stories when Judith Sloan records young immigrants in a theatre workshop.
Memories
of life “back home”, broken families, and thoughts about dual realities are
woven together with rhythm games and performances as the kids reveal the
game of adapting to life in America.
http://www.thirdcoastfestival.org/shortdocs_2005_archive.asp
For more information about Sloan/Lehrer events, projects and performances:
http://www.crossingtheblvd.org
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14. Lisa Brenneis, Nao Bustamante, Adrienne Jenik, new project now online
SPECFLIC 1.0 * Speculative Distributed Cinema
Public Launch October 28th, 2005
Pre-show 8pm, main event 9pm-midnight
Calit2 Courtyard, UCSD Campus
www.specflic.net
Set in 2030, SPECFLIC’s story is not just told, but experienced.Based on cutting edge science and engineering research, SPECFLIC 1.0 reflects the social costs and benefits of accelerated progress.
What type of future do you envision? Come be part of the public launch of this ongoing performative media project!
Bring wireless devices (laptops & cell phones). Dress for 2030.
Emacs!
Directed by Adriene Jenik
Additional text by author Kim Stanley Robinson.
Featuring performances by Allison Janney, Ricardo Dominguez,
Richard Jenik, Lisa Brenneis and Nao Bustamante
Innovative public interaction modules by Neil McCurdy, Andrew Collins,
Robert Twomey, DoEat and Radioactive Radio.
Adriene Jenik
Associate Professor, Computer & Media Arts
Visual Arts Dept., University of California, San Diego
9500 Gilman Dr., La Jolla, CA 92093-0084
tel. 858 822-2059 fax 858 534-7976
http://www.adrienejenik.net
http://www.specflic.net
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15 Harley Spiller, FF Alumn, recipe for Buffalo Wings in the NY Sun
The New York Sun, October 19, 2005 Edition Section: Food and Drink
Wild, Wild Wings by Paul Lukas
October 19, 2005
URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/21713
With a nip in the air and football on television, it it’s time for the quintessential autumn nosh: Buffalo wings.
But it wasn’t always this way. Twenty-five years ago, virtually nobody outside of Buffalo had heard of Buffalo wings. And 25 years before that, chicken wings were primarily thought of as a good base for stock, in and out of Buffalo.
According to lore, that all changed one night in 1964, when some customers arrived at Buffalo’s Anchor Bar and said they were hungry. Bartender Dominic Bellissimo asked his mother, Teressa, if she could whip something up. She took some chicken wings she’d been planning to use for stock, tossed them into the deep-fryer, coated them with a mixture of hot sauce and butter, and served them with a blue cheese dip on the side – and presto, Buffalo wings were born.
The wings were an instant hit. They quickly became a staple, first at the Anchor (which is still going strong, more than 40 years later), then at other Buffalo taverns, then across upstate New York, and, eventually, all over America. Today the term ” Buffalo” implies cayenne-driven spiciness – the Shake Shack in Madison Square Park, for example, serves a ” Buffalo bratwurst” sandwich. I’ve seen Buffalo shrimp, Buffalo potato skins, even Buffalo cheese sticks.
But for Buffalo natives, it’s all about the wings. So I arranged to meet with two Buffalo expatriates who still feel strongly about their home city: Harley Spiller, a 46-year-old teacher and arts administrator, and Leah Archibald, a 40-year-old industrial development consultant and musician. We got together in Ms. Archibald’s Park Slope kitchen to talk wings – and cook them.
“Wings are a point of pride for a city that’s desperately looking for something to talk proud about,” Ms. Archibald said. “The thing is, I don’t think most people even realize ‘Buffalo wings’ refers to the city of Buffalo – they think it’s just this generic term.”
What about the legend of the Anchor Bar? “The Anchor originated the Buffalo wing as we know it,” said Mr. Spiller. “But there’s no simple answer. There was a big black community on Buffalo’s South Side, and they had a place called John White Young’s Wings & Things. I’ve been told they served wings in a spicy sauce, and that may have predated the Anchor.”
As we talked, Mr. Spiller cut up wings he’d purchased at a Chinatown butcher shop called 128 M.S. Trading (123 Mott St., 212-966-0771), which is his favorite. “Their wings are a bit meatier,” he said. “Plus they know me, they’re friendly, and I’ve seen their truck at two of my favorite Chinese restaurants in Queens.”
He’d also brought another Chinatown purchase: Asian celery, which is thinner and less rigid than its American counterpart. “It’s more fragrant, stronger-flavored, and it does a better job of cooling down the fire from the hot sauce,” Mr. Spiller said.
If Mr. Spiller’s ingredients were slightly nontraditional, his cooking method was practically blasphemous: Instead of frying, he pan-browns the wings, then bakes them, and then finishes them in the broiler. “Instead of adding grease, you’re pouring off rendered grease, and it tastes just as good,” he said. “But however you cook them, wings should never be sticky – if you touch one and your finger sticks to it, it’s not done.”
Meanwhile, Ms. Archibald poured peanut oil into a Dutch oven and cut up a batch of supermarket wings, which had been sitting overnight on paper towels in the refrigerator. “It removes the excess moisture,” she explained. “They come out crispy, and you don’t get as much splatter when you fry them.”
While the two Buffalonians – or, ‘lonians, as they call themselves – differed on cooking methods, they agreed that a classic sauce consists primarily of butter and Frank’s Original RedHot Sauce (avoid Frank’s pre-mixed Buffalo Wing Sauce, which is noxious), with the ratio between the two depending on your heat tolerance. In addition, Ms. Archibald likes to add a bit of white vinegar; Mr. Stiller adds hot peppers.
Then there’s the matter of saucing technique. Ms. Archibald puts her wings in a large metal bowl, ladles on some sauce, and then tosses and shimmies the bowl until the wings are coated. Mr. Spiller puts the wings and sauce in a covered container and then shakes them together to achieve a thorough saucing, because “mere shimmying will not achieve that total saturation.”
Despite the different prep styles, the two batches were similarly addictive, with each ‘lonian pronouncing the other’s wings to be suitably authentic. “I wish there were restaurants here in the city that made them properly, but I can’t find any,” Mr. Spiller said. “The closest is the Old Town (45 E. 18th St., 212-529-6732), but when you ask for ‘hot,’ they wreck ’em with lots of extra sauce but no extra heat.”
“Nobody does them right outside of Buffalo,” agreed Ms. Archibald, indulging in a bit of good-natured Buffalo snobbery. “I never order them anywhere else – with the sole exception of Bonnie’s.” That would be Bonnie’s Grill ( 278 5th Ave., Brooklyn; 718-369-9527),the Park Slope cafe whose owner and chef both hail from Buffalo. “Bonnie’s wings are better than a lot of the wings back home,” said Ms. Archibald. “In Buffalo, everyone makes wings, but some pimply 18-year-old at the fryer isn’t going to do it right. At Bonnie’s, they care, and it shows.”
A recent visit to the Old Town revealed that their wings are indeed near perfect, if perhaps a tad too salty. (Salted butter may be the culprit.) The sauce at Bonnie’s is much hotter, but there’s less of it. I liked both, but if forced to choose, I’d take the Old Town’s version.
As for chicken wings’ nationwide ubiquity, the ‘lonians viewed it with a measure of bemusement. “Back home, we just call them ‘wings,’ so I didn’t even realize they were a Buffalo thing until I left Buffalo,” Ms. Archibald said. “But I didn’t realize men were thin until then, either.”
LEAH ARCHIBALD’S BUFFALO CHICKEN WINGS
FOR THE BLUE CHEESE DIP
1 cup mayonnaise
6 ounces blue cheese, crumbled
6 ounces plain nonfat yogurt
1/4 cup buttermilk
3 tablespoons seasoned rice wine or white wine vinegar
Whisk mayonnaise, yogurt, buttermilk, vinegar, and half of the blue cheese until smooth. Stir in remaining blue cheese and freshly ground black pepper to taste.
FOR THE WINGS
5 lbs. chicken wings, separated into drumette and bow sections (save tips for soup), dried overnight on paper towels in the refrigerator
3/4 cup Frank’s Original RedHot Sauce
1 stick unsalted butter
2 capfuls of white vinegar
Peanut oil for frying
a Use aluminum foil to create a “collar” on a Dutch oven to prevent splattering. Add peanut oil to a depth of about 4 inches and place over high heat until oil registers 375 degrees on a deep-fat thermometer. Working in batches, place wings in hot oil, stirring frequently with a slotted spoon, being careful not to overcrowd the pot. Cook until wings are golden brown, anywhere from 8 to 15 minutes. Drain on paper towels.
b Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, melt butter and mix in Frank’s sauce and vinegar for medium-spicy wings. Add more butter to lower spiciness, more sauce to raise spiciness.
c Place cooked wings in a large bowl, ladle sauce over wings, and toss to coat. Serve hot with blue cheese dip, celery, and carrot sticks.
HARLEY SPILLER’S BUFFALO CHICKEN WINGS
FOR THE BLUE CHEESE DIP
1 cup mayonnaise
1 cup sour cream
Juice and pulp of one large lemon
1 cup loosely packed chopped parsley with stem
1 cup loosely packed chopped cilantro, with stem
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 cup crumbled Danish or Maytag blue cheese
1 tablespoon crushed Vietnamese black peppercorns (available at Asian markets)
Combine all ingredients, stir well, and refrigerate for at least one hour before stirring again and serving cold.
FOR THE WINGS
Olive oil
5 pounds fresh chicken wings, separated into drumettes and bows
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter
1 12-ounce bottle Frank’s Original RedHot Sauce Fresh and dried hot red pepper to taste
1 tablespoon crushed Vietnamese black peppercorns
a Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Using a large cast-iron skillet (or several skillets, if necessary), add just enough olive oil to coat the skillet bottom(s) and place over medium heat. Add wings and cook, stirring and turning occasionally, until wings are browned, about 3 or 4 minutes. Transfer skillet(s) to oven and cook, pouring off any rendered fat and turning wings every 15 minutes, until wings are not sticky to the touch, about 45 minutes total. Transfer skillet(s) to broiler for a final browning, about 3 minutes.
b Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan, cook thin slices of hot red pepper and crushed pepper over medium-high heat, stirring regularly, until peppers are toasted, about 2 minutes. Add butter and Frank’s sauce and cook until just boiling. Reduce heat to low and keep sauce simmering.
c Place wings in bowl, ladle on sauce, cover tightly, and shake for about 20 seconds to coat. Serve with blue cheese dip, celery sticks, and Asian celery stalks (available at Asian markets).
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~~end~~
Goings On are compiled weekly by Harley Spiller
Click http://www.franklinfurnace.org/goings_on.html
to visit ‘This Month’s World Wide Events’.
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