Franklin Furnace’s Goings On
August 22, 2006
CONTENTS:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1. Arturo Lindsay, FF Alumn, at Colgate University, Hamilton, NY, Sept. 4 – Oct. 22
2. Sarah E. Johnson, FF Alumn, at South Street Seaport, through September
3. Pamela Sneed, FF Alumn, selected as 2006 recipient of BAX10 Award
4. Jay Critchley, FF Alumn, makes new cell phone ring tones available
5. Donna Henes, FF Alumn, at Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn, Sept. 11, 6:30 pm
6. Paul H-O, FF Alumn, new film rough cuts now on www.myspace.com/guestofcs
7. Liliana Porter, FF Member, at Hosfelt Gallery, SF, Sept. 5 – Oct. 14, 2006
8. Rev. Billy, FF Alumn, in the New York Times, the Village Voice, and more
9. Mark Tribe, FF Member, in Central Park, NY, Sept. 16, 5-6 pm
10. Essex Hemphill, Rashaad Newsome, Jack Waters, FF Alumns, at Zero Station, Portland, ME, through Sept. 30
11. Steed Taylor, FF Alumn, in Newburgh NY, Toronto, Central Park, and more
12. Anita Ponton, FF Alumn, at Whitechapel Gallery, London, Sept. 1
13. Ken Butler, Harley Spiller, FF Alumns, in Ripley’s 2007
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
TOP
1. Arturo Lindsay, FF Alumn, at Colgate University, Hamilton, NY, Sept. 4-Oct. 22 TRANSITION
ARTURO LINDSAY
September 4-October 22, 2006
Artist Lecture, September 6, 4:30 pm, Golden Auditorium
Opening Reception immediately following the lecture
Clifford Art Gallery, Little Hall Colgate University, Hamilton, NY
Curator: Carol Ann Lorenz
Arturo Lindsay is internationally known as both an artist and a scholar. He has actively exhibited his work over nearly thirty years, producing paintings as well as installations and performance pieces. He teaches art at Spelman College in Atlanta, and maintains a studio in Portobelo in his native Panamá. In both his art and his scholarly work, he explores African cultural expressions in the Americas. His appreciation of his own African ancestry is clear in Transition, a collection of spiritually and emotionally charged paintings, collages, drawings and installations that highlight the evolution of his work over the last two decades.
CHILDREN OF THE MIDDLE PASSAGE
October 2, 4:15 pm
Golden Auditorium Colgate University, Hamilton, NY
Opal Moore will read her poetry from a collaborative book project that includes drawings by Arturo Lindsay. Moore is Associate Professor of English at Spelman College in Atlanta, where she teaches creative writing, fiction writing workshops, and courses in contemporary African American literature. Prof. Moore is the author of Lot’s Daughters (2004), and her fiction and poetry have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies. This reading constitutes a performance during which Lindsay’s drawings will be projected while the poet reads her work.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
TOP
2. Sarah E. Johnson, FF Alumn, at South Street Seaport, through September
Hi Friends, LAVA is performing (w)HOLE, the (whole) History of Life on Earth, at the Spiegeltent at South Street Seaport throughout September. You can go to www.spiegelworld.com for tickets, directions, etc. Our website, www.lavalove.org also has photos and reviews of (w)HOLE from our run at the Flea Theater in January and February. The tent is quite lovely and is down on the water at a beautiful site and there’s a great beer garden for hanging out at afterwards. Hope to see you down there. Sarah E. Johnson Artistic Director, LAVA
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
TOP
3. Pamela Sneed, FF Alumn, selected as 2006 recipient of BAX10 Award
We are delighted to inform you that Pamela Sneed, FF Alumn, has been selected as a 2006 recipient of the BAX10 Arts & Artists in Progress Award. The ceremony will take place Thursday, November 2, 2006 at the Prospect Park Picnic House in Park Slope, Brooklyn at 8:00 PM, with pre-awards cocktail reception at 7:00 PM for Priority Ticket holders.
BAX is celebrating its 15 th anniversary and this is the sixth year of the BAX10 Awards. It is a particular privilege for us to highlight the extraordinary work of your colleague, Pam Sneed, who has performed original monologues throughout the country, in concerts, clubs, universities and colleges. She is a queer artist of color who navigates the subjects of racism, homophobia, social hierarchies with an expansive heart. Her work infuses other artists and particularly GLBTQ artists with a passion and energy as she inspires audiences as well.
You may be aware that the BAX10 Awards were founded to honor individuals in the arts who have revealed and transformed our creative world honoring arts educators, performing artists, and arts managers. Past awards have gone to local, national and international individuals in the arts including artists Meredith Monk, Obie award winner Peggy Shaw, renowned arts leader Elise Bernhardt, and singer/songwriter Toshi Reagon.
We hope that you will attend the Awards ceremony, and consider giving a donation to the Passing It On Fund. Passing It on Recipients are chosen by the awardees to receive a cash award. This creates a complete cycle where a panel of peers chooses the awardees and the awardees choose someone “up and coming” who demonstrates the same qualities that they, themselves, were chosen for. Your support will be targeted directly towards the Passing It On Fund and help ensure the future of the next generation of artists, arts educators, and arts managers.
Please join us on November 2, and even if you cannot, please consider making a donation to the Passing It On Fund to honor the work of the 2006 BAX10 Recipients. We hope to see you on the night of November 2.
All warm wishes,
Marya Warshaw, Executive Director
Deborah Schwartz, President of the Board
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
TOP
4. Jay Critchley, FF Alumn, makes new cell phone ring tones available
BIG DIG CELL PHONE RING TONES AVAILABLE TO DOWNLOAD FROM JAY CRITCHLEY’S BIG TWIG WEBSITE.
What can the sounds we find and the sounds we make deep inside the earth – inside our buried past – tell us about ourselves and our relationship with the planet?
What does a Canary sound like in Big Dig Tunnel? What is the musical sound of a power saw or human voices 125 feet below Boston? Now these authentic souvenir sounds of the infamous $15 billion Big Dig are available to download onto cell phones as ring tones − to share with friends, family and coworkers. Or to send to politicians or Big Dig officials of choice, and those responsible for the recent, tragic tunnel closures.
Three ring tones from Provincetown artist Jay Critchley’s 2004 CD, Big Twig Tunnel Tapes − recorded live in the Big Dig before it opened to traffic − are available free from his web site, www.jaycritchley.com: Canary, Spider Hole and Bunker Buster. Others to be available soon include: Cooked Books, Crude, Drive-by Polluting, Friendly Fired, and SFV (Sports Futility Vehicle).
On three occasions in 2003, Critchley, Timothy O’Keefe and a small cadre of singers, musicians, photographers, videographers and curios descended into an unfinished tunnel 125 feet below the city to record their voices, song, music making and ambient and sampled sound. The artist was spurned by Big Dig officials to access the underground roadway, but ultimately received the OK with the clout of Governor Romney, Senator Kennedy and US Representative Bill Delahunt.
This random collection of archeological recordings from the subterranean workplace, access ramps and stairwells includes opera, vocals, percussion, viola, various wind instruments, ululation and ambient recordings of the un-trafficked two mile tunnel. The concept for the project is an ecological one, inspired by the tree – like footprint of this monument to the automobile, our gluttonous appetite for petroleum, and our war making to defend it.
Six hours of recorded sounds from the virgin underground expressway were rough cut and sent out to interested producers, mixologists and composers who created unique interpretations from the sounds of the field recordings. From “Tunnel Tones for Cellphones” to the witches of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, from Critchley’s original song “Tunnel Vision”, to electronic dance mixes, experimental sound pieces and Mozart, Big Twig Tunnel Tapes delights in our underappreciated sonic ecology.
The CD was produced at AS220 in Providence, Rhode Island and was partially funded by the LEF Foundation.
Artist and activist Jay Critchley’s visual, conceptual and performance work has traversed the globe, from his patriotic Old Glory Condom Corporation—Worn with pride Country-wide, and the Blessed Virgin Rubber Goddess—Immaculate Protection, to Miss Tampon Liberty and the Nuclear Recycling Consultants. He lives year round in Provincetown, Massachusetts where he founded and directs Theater in the Ground@ Septic Space in his backyard septic tank. He has produced, written and directed two movies: Toilet Treatments, HBO Audience Award at the Provincetown International Film Festival 2002; and, Providence Dirt Newsreel 2002.
The artist has taught at the Museum School of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and has had recent residencies at Harvard University, AS220 in Rhode Island, and Harvestworks Digital Media Arts Center in New York City. He was recently awarded a Special Citation form the Boston Society of Architects for his CapeWind Competition proposal, Martucket Eyeland Resort & Theme Park, which is touring Holland, Germany and England. He runs the annual Provincetown Harbor Swim for Life benefit (set for September 9, 2006). He exhibits his work at artSTRAND in Provincetown.
Big Twig CDs available upon request.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
TOP
5. Donna Henes, FF Alumn, at Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn, Sept. 11, 6:30 pm
911 EMERGENCY CALL FOR PEACE
With Mama Donna Henes & Friends
Monday, September 11, 2006
6:30PM
Grand Army Plaza at the Fountain
Free to all
We will create an altar of remembrance and walk along the salty path of our tears. We will send our blessings of peace and healing to all of the souls who died on 9/11 as well as to all those who have died and are still, to this day dying, as a result (or shall I say knee-jerk violent eye-for-an-eye reaction) to the tragic events on that fateful day.
Let us dedicate ourselves to living in peace from this day forth.
Please bring kids, drums, candles, flowers, and boxes of salt.
2/3 train to Grand Army Plaza or B/Q train to 7th Avenue.
Brooklyn, NY
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
TOP
6. Paul H-O, FF Alumn, new film rough cuts now on www.myspace.com/guestofcs
TO YOU MOST BELOVED, UPON BENT KNEE, WE BESEECH , PATIENCE, AND THEN SOME
FILMLIKE
AND
FLIP SIDE FILMS
IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE SUNDANCE CHANNEL
PRESENT
A FEATURE DOCUMENTARY
Guest of Cindy Sherman
DIRECTED BY PAUL H-O AND TOM DONAHUE
PRODUCED BY TOM DONAHUE, ANURA IDUPUGANTI AND PAUL H-O
WE INVITE YOU TO JOIN US ON www.myspace.com/guestofcs
WE INVITE YOU TO VIEW ROUGH CUT SCREENINGS OF GUEST OF CINDY SHERMAN
RECEIVE UPDATED INFORMATION YOUR FEEDBACK IS IMPORTANT TO US
SCREENING DATES TO BE ANNOUNCED
FILMLIKE LLC
GUEST OF CINDY SHERMAN
IS REPRESENTED BY THE FILM SALES COMPANY INC .
Special thanks to: Franklin Furnace Inc., The Center For Ethical Capitalism, Dane Lawing, Andrew Herwitz, Ted Greenberg, Elissa Birke, Christy Ferer, Post Crew: Jane McAteer, Roger Adams, Annalisa Corraglia
FILMLIKE
NINE DESBROSSES STREET
SUITE 520A
NEW YORK, NEW YORK, 10013
212 941-0240
WWW.FIMLIKENYC.COM
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
TOP
7. Liliana Porter, FF Member, at Hosfelt Gallery, SF, Sept. 5 – Oct. 14, 2006
LILIANA PORTER For Instance September 5 – 14 October 14, 2006
Reception: Saturday 9 September, 4-5:30 pm
hosfelt gallery
430 clementina street
san francisco, ca 94103
usa
http://www.hosfeltgallery.com info@hosfeltgallery.com
415.495.5454
tu-sa 11-5:30
Liliana Porter’s work is disarming and dysfunctional. It playfully subverts convention, disrupts time, and messes with reality. In photographs, 3-dimensional prints, and multiples made with fabric and thread, Porter mixes the absurd with the philosophical, creating extraordinary situations which lure us unwittingly into the realm of her strange cast of characters.
Drawing from a vast collection of figurines, knick knacks, toys, and souvenirs, Porter makes photographs and sculptures featuring these characters in unexpected combinations and circumstances. For Instance, an 8 panel photograph, depicts a rally or political protest of sorts, but with dissimilar characters — a Nazi bust, a group of ceramic Maoist Chinese communists, a Mickey Mouse doll, a choir boy candle — representing entirely dissimilar aims. Yet they are united by the peculiar urgency of the situation.
Some of the characters are brought out of the photograph and into three dimensions. Photographs paired with the actual object depicted, though in different form, bend reality and reverse time. Tiny figures on shelves perform enormous tasks, at once pathetic and hilarious. With masterful simplicity and humor, Porter blends the real with the representational in hypothetical yet believable narratives – mini-dramas starring mass-produced, kitsch objects that innocently elicit our compassion and our laughter.
Liliana Porter was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina and lives in New York. Recent solo exhibitions include the Centro Cultural Recoleta, Buenos Aires; the Museo Castagnino, Rosario, Argentina; Palacio Aguirre, Cartagena, Spain; and the Phoenix Art Museum, Arizona. Her work is in numerous museum collections including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Metropolitan Museum, New York; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Smithsonian Museum of American Art; Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego; and major museums in Venezuela, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Brazil, Mexico, Canada, Norway, Poland, Sweden, and Spain.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
TOP
8. Rev. Billy, FF Alumn, in the New York Times, the Village Voice, and more
Exposing Vicki’s Dirty Secret In The Press
(It’s been a busy week at the Church of Stop Shopping. Our Victoria’s Secret action last Sunday led to the New York Times and Village Voice articles below, and an article just released by The Downtown Express a WBAI Cat Radio Café story. Visit http://revbilly.com for details.
A Sermon on Corporations, Neighborhoods and Loss
By GEORGE HUNKA
The New York Times, August 22, 2006
Reverend Billy — the alter ego of the performance artist Bill Talen, bleach-blond pompadoured and an impressive presence at 6-foot-3 in his pale brown leisure suit — struts, preaches and sings his way across the Spiegeltent stage at the South Street Seaport, bringing his anticorporatist, environmentalist message to the converted via a sermon and several songs, accompanied by the Church of Stop Shopping gospel choir and a seven-piece band.
Reverend Billy, a k a Bill Talen, at the South Street Seaport.
Forum: Theater
The Spiegeltent is an ideal site for several reasons. Reverend Billy takes full advantage of the parodic possibilities, running through all the sacred tropes of the tent revival. But more, the tent is across from a Victoria’s Secret branch, Victoria’s Secret being the Reverend Billy’s particular bête noire this time around.
The company is not alone. Over the years that Reverend Billy has been practicing his brand of guerrilla theater, Starbucks, Nike and the Walt Disney Company have been among his targets. Right now, he is particularly incensed that Victoria’s Secret has claimed countless trees (and accompanying fauna) in the production of its many catalogs.
But before Reverend Billy can be dismissed as yet another prankster-activist with a megaphone, one must note that there is something more here, far more. “Reverend Billy’s Tent Revival,” a 90-minute show running occasional Sundays and on Sept. 11 at the Spiegeltent through Oct. 1, projects an additional note of tragedy and loss: it reminds its audience that when large corporations decide to leave their imprint on local areas, neighborhood identity and self-sovereignty are destroyed.
And while Victoria’s Secret is only one of the chain stores at the seaport, making an example of it in the show is part of a larger point by Reverend Billy: the importance of conserving a noncorporate community spirit based on cooperation rather than consumerism.
That Reverend Billy is accompanied by a stirring choir and fine live band is icing on the cake, of course, but that cake is what nourishes. His politically radical parody of a fundamentalist church service may indeed preach to the converted. But all Sunday services, at every church, do precisely the same thing, though usually without Mr. Talen’s sly, subversive humor.
Reverend Billy may not convert you. But you will think twice about shopping, once the show is over.
“Reverend Billy’s Tent Revival” will be performed this Sunday and Sept. 11, 17, 24 and Oct. 1 at the Spiegeltent, north of Pier 17 at the South Street Seaport, Lower Manhattan, (212) 279-4200, spiegelworld.com.
Rev. Billy Tells Victoria’s Dirty Secrets
http://www.villagevoice.com/blogs/powerplays/archives/002793.php
(Visit the article and leave some comments!)
By Sarah Ferguson | August 14, 2006
It’s not easy being a bunch of holier-than-thou lefties battling the evils of abject consumerism. Especially when the “corptocracy” itself offers you a stage. Such was the dilemma faced by Reverend Billy and his Church of Stop Shopping, when they were invited to do a series of summer shows inside the newly erected Spiegeltent at the South Street Seaport.
Certainly the Spiegeltent–a traveling pavilion built in Belgium in the 1920s and lined with velvet, teak, and beveled mirrors–is a tempting venue. Marlene Dietrich is rumored to have crooned inside the ornate structure, which is now pitched next to a beer garden overlooking the East River.
But it’s also parked in the shadow of the Seaport shopping center, that once grungy piece of waterfront turned tourist mall, packed with generic chain-store fare–Gap, J Crew, Bath and Body Works–as well as one of Reverend Billy’s favorite targets: Victoria’s Secret.
So the good Rev did what any self-respecting, anti-sweatshop crusading lefty would do: Bite the hand that feeds him. He sent out a flurry of e-mails and a press release announcing plans to parade through the Seaport preaching the sins of Victoria’s Secret’s ubiquitous catalogs—which are churned out at a rate of a million a day using primarily virgin timber clear-cut from Canada’s Boreal forest.
The NYPD got wind of the scheme and contacted mall security, who banned Billy and the choir from speechifying inside the mall itself.
At the Church’s debut show on August 6, mall reps became alarmed that Billy and company were encouraging audience members to sneak postcards about the clearcutting campaign into the panty stacks of the Seaport Victoria’s Secret store, located barely 50 feet from the back of the Spiegeltent. Theater director Savitri Durkee was called outside by an irate producer, and the choir missed its cue and began singing in the midst of Billy’s sermon.
Durkee says they were warned to nix their plan to have lingerie-clad drag queens bearing cardboard chainsaws flounce around the beer garden. “So we stopped the show and started a town hall meeting about freedom of expression, supermalls, and how they imitate the communities they take over and ground the life out of them,” says Reverend Billy, a.k.a. performance artist Bill Talen.
Spiegeltent producer Vallejo Gantner, who’s also the new artistic director of P.S. 122, concedes he and his co-producers may have “panicked” a bit, but insists neither they nor the mall folks threatened to curtail the Church’s performances.
“Everyone thinks it’s a great show, we just wish they’d be good neighbors and not attack one of the tenants in the mall,” says Gantner. He confessed to being unaware that Reverend Billy has an ample history of stalking the “bra pushers,” notably at shareholder meetings and at the brand’s 10th anniversary runway show at the Lexington Armory last November.
The Rev, however, says he won’t be censored.
“These people were actually telling us we can’t talk about Victoria’s Secret,” he relates, sounding sincerely shocked. “We’ve been working on this campaign for over a year. It’s so crucial to global warming. The Boreal forest in Canada is full of lakes and very moist, so it literally scrubs the C02 out of the air. This is an emergency. It’s not about trying to be polite to the people who run a supermall. We want them to know you’ve got a tenant who is causing global warming. They’re just ripping into these forests and turning them into landfill.”
Billy says he considered canceling the run. But the choir felt it was worth staying to reach a wider audience. “We weren’t just preaching to the choir. We had some pretty straight people there,” Billy says.
So last Sunday they revived their ” Victoria’s Dirty Secrets Tent Revival” with fervor, while agreeing to confine their preaching to the tent itself. “We’re facing the shopocalypse, folks,” Billy told the crowd gathered inside the Spiegeltent, which, with its velvet-tufted booths and leaded glass windows, feels like a cross between an old circus carousel and a Bennigan’s.
As a choir member held aloft one of the offending glossy catalogs, Billy passed out strips of paper with the names of species native to the Boreal–wolves, warblers, mountain goats–and then asked the audience to imagine themselves being mowed down by ” a giant Heidi Klum marching back and forth with chain saws strapped to her thighs.”
Male and female choir members stripped down to bra and panty sets and were vamping around when the Rev invited everyone to head uptown for an impromptu cash register “exorcism” at Victoria’s Secret’s Soho shop, at Broadway and Prince.
Armed with an oversized bullhorn and a satin pink banner, with requisite videographers in tow, the Rev and his scantily clad flock invaded the salon, then jam-packed with Sunday shoppers. ” Victoria’s Secret is the devil,” Billy shouted, pursued by frantic security guards. ” Victoria’s Secret causes global warming. They’re taking down virgin forest.
“Use protection, people, stay out of Victoria’s Secret. Do the right thing,” he urged. “Boycott this store!”
Most shoppers seemed puzzled or annoyed and continued plundering the piles of “cheeky” hip huggers and “uplifting” demi-cups. Some stopped briefly and snapped photos with their cell phones.
Then a barefoot and toothless homeless woman who’d followed them in got carried away and started menacing the staff.
“Bitches, ho’s, chemicals, and pornography! It all sells sex! Hell, no!” she shouted. Billy and the choir retreated and took over a lane of traffic to preach to passersby. “Stop the catalogs, save the trees!” they chanted. “Fuck you! I’m doing business here,” countered a street vendor hawking headband scarves. He took a roundhouse swing at Durkee, then snatched the pink banner out of her hands and shoved it in the garbage. He also swiped the felt-leaf headdress from another woman posing as a tree.
It didn’t seem to bother the Broadway shoppers, who lined up to purchase his $5 head bands even as he ranted–until a pair of cops finally pushed everyone out of the street.
Billy and Durkee escaped flustered, but pleased. “Even if they kept shopping, any time we go into retail space, it’s a good thing,” Durkee insisted. “People are so hypnotized.”
Rivulets of sweat pouring down his cheeks, the Rev was also undaunted. “We’re finally getting some traction. We might do Victoria’s Secret every week,” he suggested.
If so, they’ll be getting the word out at a time when other others seem bent on ignoring the problem. On Monday, the advocacy group Forest Ethics released a report saying that 26 major publications–including Rolling Stone, Spin, Lucky, Marie Claire, Nylon, and USA Today–have declined to run the group’s ad denouncing Victoria’s Secrets for its role in clearcutting forests.
Anthony Hebron, a spokesperson for Victoria’s Secret’s parent corporation, Limited Brands, said the firm had made “great strides” toward reducing its use of virgin timber. He noted that all Victoria’s Secret clearance catalogs are now printed on recycled paper, and said the company was looking to do the same with its other publications. But the clearance catalogs only constitute about 12 percent of Victoria’s Secret’s total output. Currently, the company sends out a new catalog nearly every two weeks, or a whopping 365 million a year.
“We feel we’re setting a standard for other companies to follow,” Hebron claimed. And then some. And The Anti-Gentrification Costume Party Freak-out the final Closing of Zito Studio Gallery
Thursday, August 31, 2006 at 8pm
!!! COSTUMES REQUIRED !!!
Top Secret appearance by an international celebrity auctioning artwork by Zito
performances by
Reverend Billy
Molly Crabapple
Red Bastard
Reid Paley Trio
The Last Man on Earth
Infinity SS
Reverand Jen
Chickenman
Debbie Sassiver
Youngblood
and More!
Come get freaky.
Come get arrested.
see the invite and story at www.zitogallery.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
TOP
9. Mark Tribe, FF Member, in Central Park, NY, Sept. 16, 5-6 pm
Dear friends, artists, and activists,
You are enthusiastically invited to attend and take part in Port Huron Project 1: Until the Last Gun Is Silent, a performance art event based on a speech given by Coretta Scott King at a peace march in Central Park on April 27, 1968. The speech addresses the war in Vietnam, poverty, and the power of women.
This event is the first in a series of remakes of historic protest speeches from 1960s and early ’70s. Inspired by the Port Huron Statement, a visionary manifesto that helped launch the New Left movement in the United States, the Port Huron Project seeks to explore the role of protest speech in progressive movements, and to reanimate historic protest speeches so that they might galvanize a new generation of political activists. Each event will be staged at or near the site of the original speech, and will be documented using a range of older and newer media, from 16mm film to high-definition video. This documentation will then be distributed online as open source media and exhibited in various ways.
Port Huron Project 1: Until the Last Gun Is Silent is presented in conjunction with Conflux http://confluxfestival.org, a festival for contemporary psychogeography. See below for further details and directions to the event. Email porthuronproject@gmail.com if you’d like to get involved.
This project depends on audience participation, so please spread the word, show up for the event, and bring your friends. I hope to see you there!
Sincerely Yours,
Mark Tribe
Free and open to the public
When: Saturday, September 16, 5-6 PM (rain date: Sunday, September 17, 5-6 PM)
Where: Mineral Springs field, just north of Sheep Meadow at W. 69th St. in Central Park.
How to get there: Take the B, C, 1, 2, or 3 subway to W 72nd Street.
Enter the park at W 69th St. and follow the path east. Mineral
Springs field is across West Dr., a paved two-lane road, just north of the Sheep Meadow.
How to get involved: email porthuronproject@gmail.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
TOP
10. Essex Hemphill, Rashaad Newsome, Jack Waters, FF Alumns, at Zero Station, Portland, ME, through Sept. 30
BROTHER TO BROTHER
through September 30th
Ricardo Francis
Jayson Keeling
Ivan Monforte
Rashaad Newsome
Daisy Spurs
Essays and writing for the exhibition by:
Cheryl Clarke
Jack Waters
BROTHER TO BROTHER: A dedication to Essex Hemphill
The Academy of American Poets says…
Poet, editor, and activist Essex Hemphill was born April 16, 1957, in Chicago, Illinois. He was raised in Southeast Washington, DC, and began to write poems at the age of fourteen. He was educated at the University of Maryland.
Hemphill’s first books were the self-published chapbooks Earth Life (1985) and Conditions (1986). He first gained national attention when his work appeared in the anthology In the Life (1986), a seminal collection of writings by Black gay men. In 1989, his poems were featured in the award-winning documentaries Tongues Untied and Looking for Langston .
In 1991, Hemphill edited Brother to Brother: New Writings by Black Gay Men , which won a Lambda Literary Award. In 1992, he released Ceremonies: Prose and Poetry , which won the National Library Association’s Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual New Author Award. His poems appeared in Obsidian, Black Scholar, Callaloo, Painted Bride Quarterly, Essence , and numerous other newspapers and journals. His work also appeared in numerous anthologies including Gay and Lesbian Poetry in Our Time (1986) and Life Sentences: Writers, Artists and AIDS (1993). He was a visiting scholar at The Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities in 1993. On November 4, 1995, Hempill died from complications relating to AIDS
I say…
Essex Hemphill
this is to you
my brother
teach me snap queen
up awake
late at night
move me through fields
metaphoric light
touching hands
heart
thigh
brother too
the mistakes
along a way
a long
way
to go
shake me
take me
you know
where
Derek Jackson, 2006
2006/2007 Curator-in-Residence
Zero Station
222 Anderson Street
Portland, Maine 04101
207-347-7000
www.zerostation.com
Gallery hours: Wed – Sat., 10 – 6 pm
DIRECTIONS to Zero Station
From 295
Take the Franklin Street exit from either 295 North or South. Make a left onto Marginal Way. Take your last right ( Plowman Street) and then another right onto Anderson Street.
You’ll find us in the 3rd building on the right.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
TOP
11. Steed Taylor, FF Alumn, in Newburgh NY, Toronto, Central Park, and more
Newburgh Sculpture Project 2006
Newburgh , NY
July 29 – November 30, 2006
Maps/Directions: http://www.newburghsculptureproject.org/map.htm
Hidden Circle, 16′ x 80′, high-gloss latex and prayer, Colden Street between Broadway and Washington Street.
This road tattoo is the visible edge of a large circle. Similar to a tattoo covered by clothing that obscures a view of the entire piece, the majority of this circle cannot be seen.It seems to disappear under the grassy hill next to the road. It also alludes to hidden groups of people who share a common interest or social background but remain unnoticed by the majority of the population, much like Newburgh’s current influx of ethnic groups or it’s past with rogue colonial troops turning against the colonies. ?
And
Between Ten
SPIN Gallery, Toronto, Canada, as part of the XVI International AIDS Conference
August, 2006
Stephen Andrews, Joe DeHoyos, Nancer LeMoins, Luna Luis Ortiz, Eric Rhein, Steed Taylor and Albert Winn
Between Ten, curated by Visual AIDS, showcases the work of seven artists bracketing the 10 years since the introduction of HAART (highly active antiretroviral therapy) in 1996. This exhibition provides an insightful look into diverse works by artists who continue to live with HIV/AIDS.
To see a selection of my work in the show:
http://thebody.com/visualaids/web_gallery/2006/visaids/13.html http://thebody.com/visualaids/web_gallery/2006/visaids/14.html
and
STUDIO In the park
Riverside Park, NY
through September 16, 2006
Orly Genger, Robert Greenberg, Elana Herzog, McKendree Key, Mischa Kuball, Emil Lukas, Fabian Marcaccio, Alexis Rockman, Kenny Scharf, Gary Simmons, and Steed Taylor.Although the show closes in September, my piece will remain until next summer.
For a map and to see my piece in the show:
http://www.bravinlee.com/park.html
and
Print Zero/Print Exchange
University of Miami, Rainbow Gallery, Coral Gables, FL
September 1-30, 2006
To see my print in the show:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/printzerostudios/174014105/in/set-72157594176067354/
and
Indigenous
Duke University & Nasher Museum, Durham, NC
September 15 – June 15, 2007
20′ x 225′, high-gloss latex, prayer and names; located on the entrance drive of the Nasher Museum. More information to come.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
TOP
12. Anita Ponton, FF Alumn, at Whitechapel Gallery, London, Sept. 1
hi everyone
I will be making my performance ‘Unspool’ for the upcoming ‘Wormhole Saloon’ at the Whitechapel Gallery, London on Sept 1st. See website for details at
http://www.newtoy.org/wormhole.swf
Hope some of you can make it – it should be a good night!
best
Anita
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
TOP
13. Ken Butler, Harley Spiller, FF Alumns, in Ripley’s 2007.
Ken Butler and Harley Spiller, FF Alumns, are included in the new Ripley’s Believe It Or Not 2007 “Expect the Unexpected” book. Here’s an article from the Ocean County, Observer
Ripley’s talk to cover the wildly unusual museum creator
Posted by the Ocean County Observer on 08/20/06
BY CAROLYNNE VAN HOUTEN, STAFF WRITER
TOMS RIVER — There is a woman in California who creates great works of art — out of lint.
Yes, lint. The kind that collects on the screen inside a clothes dryer and is the bane of many a laundress’ existence when it comes to keeping house. But this artist is so devoted to her handiwork that she actively solicits contributions for her masterpieces from friends and neighbors, even if they fail to appreciate the beauty in remnants of the tumble dry cycle.
Because of the quirky nature of her artistic speciality, she’s earned a spot in the Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Hall of Fame, right along with an albino alligator, a six-legged goat and Etch-A-Sketch artist, George Vlosich III.
For those who find themselves curiously drawn to car wrecks and other accidents of nature, the Toms River branch of the Ocean County Library will have a special 90-minute presentation tomorrow hosted by Tim O’Brien, spokesman for Ripley Entertainment. O’Brien will be bringing along a host of unbelievable specimens to Toms River, and he’ll offer insight into the museum’s originator, Robert Ripley.
“We try to select local entertainment when we travel,” O’Brien said. “So for this trip, we’ve brought Morris Katz from New York City, who is known as the “Instant Artist’ because he can paint an entire landscape within one minute.” Also scheduled to appear are champion pack rat Harley Spiller — a.k.a. “Inspector Collector” — who will unveil just a sampling of the 10,000 Chinese takeout menus in his possession — and magician Paul Carpenter, who in the great tradition of illusionist Uri Geller, will be bending silverware before your very eyes.
The Ripley’s Believe It or Not! tradition dates back to its founder, Robert Leroy Ripley, who traveled the globe in search of odd and astonishing occurrences — which encompasses everything from the overly hirsute to the bereft of height. Ripley’s Believe It or Not! members include the woman who married a dolphin and the man who endured 60 solid minutes in the freezing Moscow River without succumbing to the cold.
And this is but the tip of the iceberg. The most unusual occurrences of all time have been compiled in a new book titled “Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Expect…The Unexpected.” (2006, Ripley Entertainment Inc.) In contrast to the simply illustrated comics of yesteryear, this new book is coffee table-sized, and contains hundreds of full-color photos of some of the most unusual sights to be found on the face of the Earth. And speaking of faces, the book includes a candid photo of the record holder for having concrete blocks broken on his head.
Perhaps influenced by his first job as a gravestone polisher, Ripley, an accomplished illustrator, upgraded his “Champs and Chumps” newspaper submissions into a “Believe It or Not!” sensation.
“Ripley was a celebrity in his day,” O’Brien said. “And he was a very smart marketing person. He realized the interest generated in inviting people to submit their stories of the true oddities that could be found in America. And he rewarded the winners of Believe It or Not! contests with prizes like a free airplane, and trips to Cuba. But what I think is the most amazing part of his legacy is the fact that now there is a whole new generation of Ripley fans.”
O’Brien’s own marketing savvy has resulted in his promotion of the “Dear Mr. Ripley” contest,” wherein contestants are encouraged to send in their submissions to the Ripley’s Believe It or Not! museum. The rules are as follows:
“Dear Mr. Ripley contest hopefuls are encouraged to enter, if: 1) They possess a unique talent, or 2) They own a pet that can perform an amazing stunt or 3) They have made an unbelievable find.”
To enter the contest, visit Ripley’s Web site at www.ripleys.com and click on the “Dear Mr. Ripley” contest to download a contest entry form and obtain the official contest rules and regulations. The grand prize winner will be the recipient of a trip for four to Niagara Falls, and second- and third-prize runners-up will win trips to Panama City Beach, Fla.
O’Brien said that in all of the oddities he has witnessed over the years, he is most impressed with those who have accomplished unusual feats — as opposed to those who were actually born with unusual feet.
“I like the original things people think to do,” he said. “Like the inventor of the full-sized railroad made out of 2 million matchsticks, or the artist who recreated the “Mona Lisa’ in toast. That requires really original thinking.”
So you may want to take a second look at that lint that’s piling up in your dryer. It could be your ticket to fame and fortune.
To register for the presentation, call the library at (732) 349-6200
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
TOP
Goings On is compiled weekly by Harley Spiller
~~end~~
click http://www.franklinfurnace.org/goings_on.html
to visit ‘This Month’s World Wide Events’.
—————————————–
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or for information
send an email to info@franklinfurnace.org
—————————————–
Franklin Furnace Archive, Inc.
80 Arts – The James E. Davis Arts Building
80 Hanson Place #301
Brooklyn NY 11217-1506 U.S.A.
Tel: 718-398-7255
Fax: 718-398-7256
http://www.franklinfurnace.org
mail@franklinfurnace.org
Martha Wilson, Founding Director
Michael Katchen, Senior Archivist
Harley Spiller, Administrator
Dolores Zorreguieta, Program Coordinator
