Contents for June 22, 2020 (Scroll down for more information):
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1. Rashayla Marie Brown, FF Fund recipient 2020, live online at http://Twitch.tv/rmbstudios June 27
2. Jodie Lyn-Kee-Chow, Clarinda Mac Low, FF Alumns, online thru June 25 at https://www.walkingtheedge.nyc/
3. Dread Scott, FF Alumn, now online in theartnewspaper.com
4. Ishmael Houston-Jones, Xandra Ibarra, M. Lamar, Lorraine O’Grady, Sarah Schulman, FF Alumns, in new publication
5. Alva Rogers, FF Alumn, new song/film online at https://vimeo.com/430190331
6. Clifford Owens, Shaun Leonardo, Dread Scott, FF Alumns, live online June 24
7. Ayana Evans, FF Alumn, now online in The New York Times
8. Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful Espejo, FF Alumn, live online June 25
9. Ken Friedman, FF Alumn, now online at AdamArtGallery.org
10. John Baldessari, FF Alumn, at Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden, thru Oct. 25
11. Danielle Abrams, FF Alumn, receives Boston Foundation grant
12. Jeff McMahon, FF Alumn, live online at dixonplace.org July 6-27
13. Ida Applebroog, Chloë Bass, Dread Scott, Martha Wilson, FF Alumns, Cooper Union School of Art’s 2020 Ida Applebroog Grant
14. George Peck, FF Alumn, now online at https://vimeo.com/430411725
15. Mark Bloch, FF Alumn, now online at brooklynrail.org/2020/06/criticspage/On-the-Make
16. Edward Gómez, FF Alumn, now online at https://bit.ly/2AOg98m
17. R. Sikoryak, FF Alumn, live online at dixonplace.org June 27
18. Paul Zelevansky, FF Alumn, now online at http://vimeo.com/105431747
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Weekly Spotlight: Rachel Kaplan, FF Alumn, now online at
https://franklinfurnace.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p17325coll1/id/12/rec/69
Join us for this Weekly Spotlight on Rachel Kaplan’s “Diaspora: Stories from the City.” In this 50-minute performance from 1995 Kaplan simultaneously recounts short vignettes and explores movements inspired by her words, detailing her past experiences with finding home in herself, in places, in people, and in communities. Her stories of wandering and of the search for home delve into ideas of borders and the intersections of identity by reflecting on class differences, gender conflicts, and much more. (text by Mamou Samaké, FF Intern, June 2020)
Rachel currently works as an eco-somatic healer and educator, continuing to track for home, place and belonging in the personal, social and communal body. Recent studies in permaculture, generative somatics and anti-racist organizing inform her contemporary work. Here are links to websites for her practice in somatic psychotherapy and her 2011 book about urban permaculture and regenerative culture: www.RachelKaplanMFT.net www.urban-homesteading.org
Please visit the Weekly Spotlight here: https://franklinfurnace.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p17325coll1/id/12/rec/69
Thank you.
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1. Rashayla Marie Brown, FF Fund recipient 2020, live online at http://Twitch.tv/rmbstudios June 27
The Court of Public Opinion: A film about Black women’s legal identity rights by Rashayla Marie Brown (RMB)
Hi folks,
We’re rescheduling the screening event due to some unforeseen circumstances/emergencies. Please update your calendars and links with the attached flyer.
We are hosting the event now on Sat June 27th 6pm EST (5pm CST) …The event will be streamed live from http://Twitch.tv/rmbstudios and the FB event page is still https://bit.ly/3hGPwCV
Sending hugs to you all, and hoping you can join on Saturday!
RMB
#freeRenty #reparations #blackfathers #Juneteenth #juneteenthaintover
Rashayla Marie Brown
Interdisciplinary Artist & Writer, RMB Studios
http://www.rmbstudios.com
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2. Jodie Lyn-Kee-Chow, Clarinda Mac Low, FF Alumns, online thru June 25 at https://www.walkingtheedge.nyc/
I wanted to share that I will be doing an IG kick-off for Juneteenth during Walking the Edge, a joint project of Culture Push, Works on Water, and the NYC Department of City Planning funded by the Mayor’s Grant for Cultural Initiative, July 19th-25th, 2020. Please visit this link:
https://www.walkingtheedge.nyc/
Thank you
@culturepusher and @works_on_water, and the hashtag #WalkingTheEdgeNYC
Jodie Lyn-Kee-Chow
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3. Dread Scott, FF Alumn, now online in theartnewspaper.com
I wrote an article recently, America God Damn about the protests in response to the police lynching of George Floyd. It was published in the Art Newspaper. The link is here:
https://www.theartnewspaper.com/comment/dread-scott-america-god-damn
Best,
Dread
Info@dreadscott.net
www.dreadscott.net
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4. Ishmael Houston-Jones, Xandra Ibarra, M. Lamar, Lorraine O’Grady, Sarah Schulman, FF Alumns, in new publication
Please visit this link:
https://235bowery.s3.amazonaws.com/pressreleases/220/Saturation_PressRelease_5.26.pdf
Thank you.
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5. Alva Rogers, FF Alumn, new song/film online at https://vimeo.com/430190331
Please visit the film of the song, weeping mary, by Lisa Crafts, at this link:
Best,
Alva Rogers
www.alvasworld.com
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6. Clifford Owens, Shaun Leonardo, Dread Scott, FF Alumns, live online June 24
Dear Colleagues, Family, and Friends:
I hope this finds you safe and well.
Last week, an editor from ArtNet contacted me to write an essay (or transcribe a dialogue with another artist) about the recent protests for black life matters in terms of political performance art.
I requested a public virtual conversation with two artists who boldly embody political performance art practice: Dread Scott and Shaun Leonardo. We will discuss their performance acts of resistance, censorship, “filming the police,” and art institutional responsibility (A transcription of our conversation will be available later.)
For our live Zoom conversation on June 24 at 6pm (EST), I’ve prepared a few questions for both Shaun and Dread, and I’ve asked them to prepare a question for each other. Our editorial host on behalf of ArtNet will ask a final question before a Q&A with the audience.
We hope that you can join us for this conversation. More importantly, we hope that you are fighting for Black Lives Matters!
VOTE!
Best,
Clifford
Artnet Talks: A Conversation With Shaun Leonardo, Dread Scott, and Clifford Owens on Art as an Act of Resistance
Join the free conversation on Zoom on June 24 at 6 p.m.
Artnet News, June 19, 2020
Introducing Artnet Talks from Artnet News, a new series of live conversations between artists, curators, gallerists, and arts professionals that brings an in-depth dimension to our usual coverage of the art world’s biggest stories. Artnet News has always existed to read, write, and report—now, it’s time to talk.
Our first talk, “Art as an Act of Resistance: A Conversation With Shaun Leonardo, Dread Scott, and Clifford Owens,” will be held on Zoom on Wednesday, June 24, at 6 p.m.
As a seemingly endless stream of images of police violence and protest fill our screens, Scott, Leonardo, and Owens have been among the many engaged artists working to address those images, and to contend with the nation’s legacy of racism through their work. During the talk, these three artists will share their views on the intersections of performance art and protest, the effects of images of Black suffering, and the future of social responsibility in the art world. Click the link below to register.
REGISTER NOW:
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_F9Yv12FcRvuuYeCJUZoXXQ
Clifford Owens is a transdisciplinary artist. He makes photographs, performance art, works on paper, videos, installations, and texts. His art has appeared in many solo and group exhibitions, both nationally and internationally. Owens’s solo museum exhibitions include “Anthology” at MoMA PS1, “Better the Rebel You Know at Home” in Manchester, England, and “Perspectives 173: Clifford Owens” at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston; and group exhibitions of his work include “Freestyle,” “Greater New York 2005,” and “Performance Now: The First Decade of the New Century.” His performance-based projects have been widely presented in museums and galleries, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Baltimore Museum of Art, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
Shaun Leonardo is a Brooklyn-based artist from Queens, New York City. He received his MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute, is a recipient of support from Creative Capital, Guggenheim Social Practice, Art for Justice, and A Blade of Grass, and was recently profiled in the New York Times. His work has been featured at the Guggenheim Museum, the High Line, and New Museum, with a recent solo exhibition at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). From fall 2018 through spring 2020, Leonardo enacted socially engaged projects at Pratt Institute’s School of Art as a visiting fellow.
Dread Scott is an interdisciplinary artist whose art encourages viewers to re-examine ideals of American society. In 1989, the US Senate outlawed his artwork and President Bush declared it “disgraceful” because of its transgressive use of the American flag. His work has been exhibited at the Whitney Museum, MoMA PS1, the Walker Art Center, and in galleries and on street corners. He is a 2019 Open Society Foundations Soros Equality Fellow and has received grants from United States Artists and the Creative Capital Foundation. Artnet News highlighted his 2019 performance, Slave Rebellion Reenactment, as one of the most important artworks of the decade.
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7. Ayana Evans, FF Alumn, now online in The New York Times
Please visit this link:
Thank you.
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8. Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful Espejo, FF Alumn, live online June 25
ANNOUNCING DRUMMING WITH AND FOR BENNY
A Continuation of Performing the Bronx
by Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful Espejo
Drumming with and for Benny
Thursday, June 25, 2020, 7:00 PM EST
Casita Maria Center for Arts & Education (https://www.casitamaria.org/) and Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful Espejo present Drumming with and for Benny as part of the South Bronx Culture Trail Festival 2020 (https://docs.google.com/document/u/3/d/e/2PACX-1vRVvid7gYg98Ctjnl5sRgRqgEGLZv4S7NomIC_dRFe19X4AFuixLKG_wLQ72hqbfCZdxMgexxcVTjPH/pub), and as a continuation of Nicolás’ ongoing archival project Performing the Bronx. Benny Bonilla is a percussionist of Latin jazz, Latin R&B, and salsa, best known for the boogaloo sound on renowned classics like “I Like It Like That.” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDJY4OzgTWs) The celebration will take place as a watch party and video premiere on Thursday June 25 at 7 pm. Join us to honor the legendary conguero, highlight his long-term connection to Casita Maria and the Bronx, and thank him for his gifts to the arts and to the borough.
The video, created as part of Drumming for and with Benny, to be launched online, includes testimonials from music luminaries and people related to him: Richie Bonilla, Eddie Palmieri, Eddie Montalvo, Joe Bataan, Elena Martínez, and Bobbie Sanabria. It also includes youth from Casita Maria who, led by Dr. Drum in a percussion workshop, filmed themselves playing drums from each one of their homes to honor the focus of this celebration: Benny! In this video Nicolás engages Benny in a conversation across two neighborhoods in the Bronx: Longwood and Morris Park. Rhina Valentín serves as MC for this piece, sharing her humor and heartfelt presence with guests.
As we remain focused on the call to end systemic racism and end violence towards Black and Brown people in this country, Casita Maria is proud to hold the South Bronx Culture Trail Festival as a celebration of the art, dance, and music that brings us joy and uplifts the resilience, pride, and unity that is ever-present in our community.
Through Performing the Bronx, Estévez Raful Espejo works with iconic Bronxites to co-develop performative actions that focus on the histories that tie them to specific communities and neighborhoods in the borough. These actions are recorded in photography, video and/or writings.
Those who sign up through Zoom will have the opportunity at the end to share thoughts, comments and congratulations, and everyone online will be able to close the evening by dancing from home to the song I Like It Like That.
This project is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and the Bronx Council on the Arts.
Video filmed and edited by Geoffrey Jones
Directed by Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful Espejo
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9. Ken Friedman, FF Alumn, now online at AdamArtGallery.org
Ken Friedman: 92 Events
Adam Art Gallery
Wellington, New Zealand
June 2 – August 16, 2020
Playful but profound scores provide a model for ways to envisage how art can function as a mental game. The imagination roams when our bodies can’t.
Download the exhibition booklet by Stephen Cleland at this URL:
https://www.adamartgallery.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/AAG_A5_8pp-booklet_Friedman_PRINT.pdf
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10. John Baldessari, FF Alumn, at Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden, thru Oct. 25
John Baldessari
March 21–October 25, 2020
Moderna Museet
Skeppsholmen
Exercisplan
SE- Stockholm
Sweden
Hours: Tuesday–Friday 10am–8pm,
Wednesday–Thursday 10am–6pm,
Saturday–Sunday 11am–6pm
T +46 8 520 235 00
info@modernamuseet.se
www.modernamuseet.se
When Moderna Museet in Stockholm re-opens on June 16, we are delighted to finally open an exhibition of the American artist John Baldessari. The show is the first posthumous museum presentation of the artist, and was scheduled to open in March, when the museum closed due to the covid-19 pandemic.
John Baldessari’s influence on the art world spans decades and generations, and the exhibition at Moderna Museet will be the first major presentation of his oeuvre in Sweden.
“I’m not being purposely humorous. I do think the world is absurd.”
–John Baldessari
For over five decades, John Baldessari (1931–2020) probed the relationship between image and text and what arises when the two are brought together. Baldessari was born in National City, California, a city located 15 minutes from the Mexican border. His parents were both immigrants to the USA—his mother from Denmark and his father from Austria. John Baldessari studied to be a teacher and taught art at schools around San Diego before being invited to teach at the newly founded art academy CalArts outside Los Angeles in 1970. In his professional role as teacher, Baldessari had an impact on several generations of artists, and former students includes artists like Mike Kelley, David Salle, and Tony Oursler.
By the mid-1960s, John Baldessari had come to realize that a photographic image or written text could better express his artistic intentions than a representational painting, and his artistic practice developed in a new direction. John Baldessari worked ceaselessly in his investigation of what art is. Inspired by a comment by the abstract painter Al Held that “all Conceptual art is just pointing at things” John Baldessari made the series Commissioned Paintings (1969) in which he asked a friend to literally point at objects or events that he found interesting. The action that had been pointed out was then photographed and a number of amateur painters were commissioned to make copies of the photographs. These reproductions include the text “A painting by,” followed by the respective painter’s name clearly written by a professional sign painter. There are no traces of John Baldessari himself in any of the works in the series—a commentary on Abstract Expressionism’s conception of the artwork as a direct expression of the artist’s emotional life and genius.
In an ad placed in a local newspaper on July 24, 1970, John Baldessari announced that he had had all the artworks in his possession created between May 1953 and March 1966 destroyed at a crematorium. The result was a total of ten boxes of ashes—with some of it collected in book-shaped urns bearing the text “John Anthony Baldessari May 1953–March 1966.” Baldessari described this act as a way of liberating himself from all his accumulated art. The exhibition at Moderna Museet includes the work Cremation Project (1970) with its urn containing the remains of thirteen years of creative work.
In the video work I Am Making Art (1971), that will also be shown in the exhibition, John Baldessari moves stiffly in front of the camera while repeating the sentence “I am making art” emphasizing the words differently every time—a nod at Conceptual Art and the notion that all actions can be art.
In early January, it was sadly reported that John Baldessari had died at the age of 88. Since his debut in 1960 John Baldessari had over two hundred solo exhibitions and participated in some thousand group exhibitions worldwide. The exhibition at Moderna Museet has long been planned and is the first in Sweden to present his body of work on a large scale and includes some 30 works from different chapters of his long and extensive career.
John Baldessari has received a number of awards, including the National Medal of Arts (2014), a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Biennale (2009), the Archives of American Art Medal (2007), and the Lifetime Achievement Award from Americans for the Arts (2005).
“John Baldessari has been of immense importance to Conceptual Art,” says Matilda Olof-Ors, “the exhibition’s curator. With an underlying streak of humor and irony, he time and again challenged the prevailing norms and notions of what art is.”
The exhibition is supported by Morgan Stanley
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11. Danielle Abrams, FF Alumn, receives Boston Foundation grant
https://www.tbf.org/nonprofits/grant-making-initiatives/live-arts-boston
Boston’s performing arts and music scene is at the heart of this thriving, innovative city. The Boston Foundation believes that investing in local artists to test ideas, explore collaborations, and build skills in the process of generating new work adds depth and diversity to our cultural landscape. Given the current crises of the coronavirus and anti-Black violence, this work is more urgent than ever. In support of this vision, we are proud to highlight the fourth round of Live Arts Boston (LAB) grantees, in partnership with the Barr Foundation. Performing artists, small performing arts organizations, bands, and groups of artists in the Greater Boston area were invited to apply for up to $15,000 in project-specific funds to create, produce, or present new performing arts work for Greater Boston audiences. In addition to funding, LAB 2020 grantees will receive project documentation, one-on-one advising, peer networking opportunities, and support for other professional development. Funding supports work in dance, theater, music, opera, musical theater, spoken word, performance art, circus arts, traditional and folk performing arts, and any multi-disciplinary combination of the above. In the 2020 cycle, LAB is supporting 60 projects.
Our project: Lincoln Gave Us a Beach, written and performed by Danielle Abrams with scenic and movement design by Mary Ellen Strom, is a performance about the legacy of a segregated beach in New Orleans called Lincoln Beach.
Danielle Abrams speaks more about the project at this link:
Publication: Artistic Fuel (online)
https://www.artisticfuel.com/public-art/artistic-activism-danielle-abrams/
Interview by Kaeley Boyle
An Upclose Look at Artistic Activism:
How art and artists can serve as catalysts for positive change
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12. Jeff McMahon, FF Alumn, live online at dixonplace.org July 6-27
FF Alumn Jeff McMahon will be presenting Social Distances (camera-close): new short works he wrote and directed featuring current and former students, as part of Dixon Place TV, in a series of very short, 10-15 minute broadcasts Mondays in July at 6:30pm EDT
http://dixonplace.org/category/dptv/
I have a fulltime job and a stimulus check. My students have no jobs, no in-person classes, no rehearsals, and need stimulation So I hired my students, current and former, to rehearse my new short pieces, virtually. Mostly monologues with one group piece that zoomed-in as the virus plowed in, mutating into a piece about the virus itself. Other works also spiked outward to fit the circumstances. Just like live TV. But shorter. Like our attention spans, our life expectancy, our patience. But not our hair.
Monday nights at 6:30pm EST in June and July. Each program will feature 1-2 new pieces with total time for the evening 10-15 minutes. You’ll be done by dinnertime.
Social Distances (camera-close) Mondays at 6:30pm EST
July 6. THE WELCOME Our host asks us to pay more than attention to the show. http://dixonplace.org/performances/the-welcome-07-06-20/#
July 13: HAND WASH Frenemies share a fret-over via Zoom
July 20: THEY & HIGH FLYING A woman struggles with a friend’s plural identity. A fellow airline passenger reveals herself
July 27 SAFE ACT & NEW FACES Rights and responsibilities for the new world. Deadly serious.
http://dixonplace.org/category/dptv/
www.jeffmcmahonprojects.net
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13. Ida Applebroog, Chloë Bass, Dread Scott, Martha Wilson, FF Alumns, Cooper Union School of Art’s 2020 Ida Applebroog Grant
Natalie Ball Awarded 2020 Ida Applebroog Grant by The Cooper Union School of Art
The Cooper Union School of Art has announced that the 2020 Ida Applebroog Grant has been awarded to multidisciplinary artist Natalie Ball. The juried $10,000 award is given to an under-recognized artist whose work demonstrates high artistic merit while consistently challenging artistic conventions. Painter Cheyenne Julien received honorable mention.
Natalie Ball uses painted textiles and sculptures to create a visual genealogy to disrupt the mainstream definition of Indian. Through a lens of auto-ethnography, she aims to challenge mainstream ideas of Indigeneity, using her own family history to bring forward legacies, intersections, histories, and experiences that reflect the complexity of Native American lives. A Klamath Tribes citizen, Ball is a descendant of Captain Jack (1837–1873), the leader who led the Modoc people against the United States army in the 1872 Modoc War and who was tried and executed as a war criminal by a jury made of US soldiers. She plans to use the Ida Applebroog grant to further research oral histories, community and museum archives on the colonial history of the execution and display of the criminal body through gibbeting.
“The Ida Applebroog Grant will help the progression of my practice with new research and informed materiality,” says Ball. “I will continue to challenge historical discourses that have constructed a limited and inconsistent visual archive that currently misrepresents our past experiences and misinforms current expectations. Mo sepkecha, I am honored for the opportunity to carry the Ida Applebroog Grant on my journey.”
“I’m grateful to our nominators and review panelists for selecting an artist who perfectly exemplifies the criteria of the Ida Applebroog Grant,” says Mike Essl, Dean of The Cooper Union School of Art. “Ball’s work is compelling in form and in its complex engagement with Indigeneity, and The Cooper Union is excited to see Ball receive this recognition and support at this moment of her career.”
Born and raised in Portland, Oregon, Natalie Ball received an M.F.A. in painting and printmaking from Yale School of Art in 2018 and a M.A. in Māori Visual Arts from Massey University in 2010. Ball has held solo gallery shows at in the Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA; PDX Contemporary Art, Portland, OR; EXPO Chicago, Chicgao, IL; Half Gallery, New York, NY; and more. She has received a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, Pollock-Krasner Foundation; Bonnie Bronson Visual Arts Fellowship, Oregon Community Foundation; and The Betty Bowen Award, Seattle Art Museum, among others.
About the Ida Applebroog Grant
Named for artist Ida Applebroog whose work explored gender and sexual identity, politics, and violence, the Ida Applebroog Grant was originally issued by Exit Art. Following Exit Art’s close, The Cooper Union was asked to steward the biennial award which comes with an unrestricted $10,000 that can be used to assist in the development of the selected artist’s practice. This is the first year that the School of Art is issuing the award since Exit Art’s closure. Review committee members included artists and curators Chloë Bass, Pradeep Dalal, Sara Reisman, Dread Scott, and Martha Wilson.
About The Cooper Union School of Art
The mission of The Cooper Union’s School of Art is to educate artists in the broadest sense, both as creative practitioners engaged with a wide range of disciplines in the visual arts and as enlightened citizens of the world who are prepared to question and transform society. The program is structured around an integrated curriculum that fosters connections between disciplines, as well as between traditional and new media. Students may choose to focus their work in one or more areas of specialization and are encouraged to follow an integrated approach.
About The Cooper Union
The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art is a distinguished, private college of art, architecture, and engineering with a world-class faculty of humanities and social sciences. Founded in 1859 by inventor, industrialist, and philanthropist Peter Cooper, the college is dedicated to his radical commitment to diversity and his founding vision that fair access to an inspiring free education and forums for courageous public discourse foster a just and thriving world. With a student body of more than 900 undergraduate and graduate students, The Cooper Union’s curriculum focuses on helping students acquire technical mastery and entrepreneurial skills, enrich their intellects and spark their creativity, and become inspired to address the critical challenges and opportunities of their time. The institution provides close contact with a distinguished, creative faculty and fosters rigorous, humanistic learning that is enhanced by the process of design and augmented by its urban setting in New York’s East Village. For more information, visit http://www.cooper.edu.
CONTACT: Kim Newman 917-885-3670 kim.newman@cooper.edu
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14. George Peck, FF Alumn, now online at https://vimeo.com/430411725
Please watch these three short videos “Imperfect/Perfect: A Very Short Intr
to Painting
Thank you.
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15. Mark Bloch, FF Alumn, now online at brooklynrail.org/2020/06/criticspage/On-the-Make
This is a piece that I recently wrote for the Brooklyn Rail and it is about my writing, and my art writing, and my Communications Art, and my art, and the world, and what I think art is, and what I think art could be. And it is part of a larger series of sixteen essays that include me among many others. I really enjoy reading the other people too. It is collectively called “Critics Page–The Mirror Displaced: Artists Writing on Art” and is edited by Tom McGlynn. It is an honor to be included. Please have a look.
https://brooklynrail.org/2020/06/criticspage/On-the-Make
An excerpt:
“I consider Marcel Duchamp the most important artist of the second half of the 20th century and Ray Johnson the most important artist of this century, one he didn’t live to see. Duchamp convinced me to eschew all art objects and my friend Ray taught me to chew up the art market to embrace the moment. This has put me in a lousy position as a career artist. Sometimes I catch myself and think, ‘Oh shit, I forgot to make the art.’ ”
“My own practice as an artist originally gravitated to “mail art,” because it was a perfect strategy for giving one’s work away. I liked the ephemeral look and gift- economy-potlatch-philosophy of mail art, which seemed to walk the walk of egalitarian, democratic ideals I claimed to care about. I stayed for its networking and community aspects—a lifestyle or permanent performance art piece—not just a way to crank out tchotchkes. I switched to online activity in 1989 for the same reason. There, in that text-only world of teleconferencing, I like to think I found my voice via trial and error interactions with other people, some with similar interests, some different. In those days there were more scientists online than artists.”
“I didn’t develop a love of Dada or the underground or the politics I have because I was a mail artist, it worked the other way around. Duchamp referred to some artists in his time as “stupid as a painter.” Though I’ve never actually seen anyone use this term in print, I still take Duchamp’s word for it that this was an expression, or as he clarified it: “in love with the smell of turpentine.” I always thought the art most people were making was sophisticatedly stupid and deceptively simple-minded, reinforcing my disbelief about the public reception to Duchamp a century earlier. Few seemed willing to change their approach. Sure, they quoted Duchamp, but they kept making crap. And by crap I mean they kept making anything at all. “
thanks
Mark Bloch
PO Box 1500
NY NY 10009 USA
cell 212 982 8454
www.panmodern.com
bloch@panix.com
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16. Edward Gómez, FF Alumn, now online at https://bit.ly/2AOg98m
Dear art lovers and media colleagues:
My article about the hauntingly beautiful photographs of Tokyo at night that the young, female photographer Kana HASHIMOTO has been taking and posting on Instagram (as “himu1017”) are the subject of my just-published article in HYPERALLERGIC’s “Weekend” edition.
It was quite unexpectedly that, recently, I discovered Hashimoto’s richly atmospheric photographs of the Japanese capital at night on Instagram. For me, her unusual, dreamy images have captured, with intensity and a sophisticated touch, the peculiar ambience of suspended time that has come to characterize the emotionally charged, endless waiting of this coronavirus crisis moment.
From my brief essay:
“[Hashimoto’s] photos strike a resonant chord — a long, sustained, muffled one — of eeriness, free-floating anxiety, and keep-your-distance fear. Their evocation of suspended time is simultaneously unsettling and strangely soothing.”
These photographs “unwittingly capture the odd feeling of time itself as the coronavirus pandemic drags on.”
Hashimoto, who regards herself as an amateur photographer, told me that she goes out late at night armed with a simple digital camera. She has photographed passing trains, the alleyways surrounding suburban train stations, and otherworldly-looking, big apartment buildings long after the vast metropolis has gone to sleep.
You can find my new magazine article here:
I hope you’ll enjoy reading this piece.
With best wishes…
EDWARD M. GÓMEZ
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17. R. Sikoryak, FF Alumn, live online at dixonplace.org June 27
Dixon Place presents
Carousel: Quarantined
The comics performance series is online for the first time!
With cartoonists and graphic novelists reading their work alongside their drawings.
Hosted by R. Sikoryak.
Featuring:
Joel Christian Gill
Carolita Johnson
Sanika Phawde
Brian Michael Weaver
Bianca Xunise
A DP TV Program
Sat June 27, 2020 At 8:00 PM (EDT) On Zoom & Facebook Live
Links:
http://dixonplace.org/performances/carousel-quarantined-06-27-20/
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18. Paul Zelevansky, FF Alumn, now online at http://vimeo.com/105431747
TO THE GREAT BLANKNESS MAILING LIST:
“Imagination is funny,
it makes a cloudy day sunny.
Makes a bee think of honey,
just as I think of you.”
STAY SAFE AND WELL.
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Goings On is compiled weekly by Harley Spiller
