The Grand Guignol

Grand Guignol event on Staten Island - April 1, 2 and 3, 2016 was inspired by the theater that was popular in Paris 100 years ago. Doug La Tourette and Kimbra Eberly produced a local version with 5 short plays on themes similar to the original horror plays, featuring study of bleak human behavior with gory special effects and makeup, all written by Staten Island authors. The original theater was considered small with 293 seats but the Hub 17 space where this Grand Guignol took place only accommodated 25 people at one time.

The first night opened with a severed head accomplished with up to date technology. He asked the audience to “turn off your cell phones”. Was hoping he would ask if there was a doctor in the house, but enjoyed the final plea to “vote for me!” The other two dates the head was outside interacting with the audience.

Plays began with a drama based on the Lizzie Borden story. Kimbra Eberly, with a long interest in Borden, had researched the details of the case over the years and created a short drama. A final throat slitting scene drew on the Grand Guignol feature of lurid special effects.

Other plays on the themes of ghost hunting, deals with the devil, zombies and frustrated revenge killing exploited contemporary fears and weaknesses

"Inadmissible" cast - Emma Borden- Mary Campbell, Lizzie Borden- Viv Vassar, interviewer- Margaret Chase and the severed head.

Fireworks Art Exhibit at SIABC

I submitted some of my eye mandalas for this exhibit, taking a chance on an open minded juror. For me fireworks are about the patterns created in the sky, branching out from the center like the mandala patterns. Douglas La Tourette the curator accepted them and put together an interesting assemblage of work at the SIABC Gallery on 73 Wave Street. The show is up June 27 to August 3, 2015.

My favorite piece in the show is a small painting by Tiffany Porcu. The fireworks are painted after their glorious moment, when the leftovers are melting to the ground, looking like hair or multi-fingered hands. I looked up Tiffany Porcu but didn't find much besides her FB page which didn't have any other artwork. Hoping to see more of her paintings in Staten Island exhibits in the future.

SWAN Day 2015 Staten Island

Elaine Mendez-Torres has brought a great event to Staten Island- SWAN Day (Support Women Artists Now)

It is, according to the WomenArts and Chicago’s WITASWAN groups who started it, "an international holiday designed to showcase the power and diversity of women’s creativity." Some of the places this years events were held included Burundi, Bulgaria, Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, Italy, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, Turkey, New Zealand.

Elaine held a SWAN Day event in 2014 and felt it was so very successful that she started organizing for this year the day after.

Her 2015 Staten Island efforts included an exhibit during March, "UPCLOSE", a photo exhibit of present day Staten Island female artists in Hormann Library at Wagner College, for which she also produced an accompanying book.

For the designated SWAN Day- Sat. March 28, Elaine produced an event at the SIABC Main Gallery (73 Wave St.) an afternoon of exhibited work, readings, performance and an open mic for announcing upcoming projects. We were entertained by Christine Dixon performing part of her Harriet Tubman monologue and the Deep Tanks Butoh Dancers.

A raffle was held to start funding next years Staten Island SWAN Day! YES! We need this event to celebrate the accomplishments of our local women artists, and I'm hoping to see even more women participate next year.

Global Art/Local Art

Fall art season is upon us in Staten Island.

Two interesting exhibits are presently up in Snug Harbor Cultural Center.

Hanging in the hallway of Art lab, the premiere art school here, Zeke and Nancy Quinn display their photos and drawings from workshops they presented in Ethiopia. A culture obviously different than our familiar Staten Island, but the art has a similar feeling to childrens drawings in the city, a few which are also shown.

In the Newhouse Galleries next door one of the Sharp Resident artist has built the shack of Milas Mariner a squatter on the Kill Van Kull 100 years ago. The assembled boards were found along the waterway. A performance at the installation will occur on November 8.

the Art of Risk

I was invited to participate in the round table discussion "the Art of Risk" part of the SIArts series Arts Intersect. The other panelist were a photographer, street artist and retail manufacturer. They were all smart and had well thought out answers. Were positive, working hard to achieve their goals.

The format was a conversation directed by moderator Sean Paul Gallegos, who asked a series of questions we had been given to prepare ourselves- our biggest risk, etc. After about an hour of talk Brielle, an organizer of the evening lead us in a word exercise. And then a final open mingling of attendees.

The attendees of this round table were few, and mostly older. Where were all of the younger artists who could have benefitted most from the conversation? Was the $10 fee prohibitive for them? As a young artist it might have been for me. Why does SIArts charge for these events? it seems like they should be free, isn't that their job on SI, what they get funded for, to educate the arts community? I remember a few workshops I attended when I was younger but don't remember if there was a charge or what it was. One was at Cooper Union, a series over several weeks, "Artists Survival" led by Deborah Remington and they covered getting exhibits, promoting your work, artists issues. Another similar series also at the lower east side print shop when it was in the east village.

When I started researching for the "risk" discussion I thought I wasn't a risk taker, but then as I explored the topic realized that everyone takes risks its just the level or extremity of the risk one takes on, that make some people stand out as labeled risk takers. My risks are always calculated, after stewing on a decision for a long while I figure out the course I want to take. We didn't discuss at all intuition or the subconscious which I believe also plays a big part in the risks you allow yourself.

From my recent work "Take a Chance"48 languages there were many languages in which risk was a part of the expression. My research for the panel showed that society thinks negatively about risk and the definitions are all about facing loss. While for chance it is defined as something that happens to you that you can't control.

JRow a NYC-based artist who creates and leads online community-based art projects, has set up the page "Artists Stories" to "raise awareness about the challenges of living a creative life... Creative people are legitimately at risk for many social issues." Stories are being collected to "increase awareness about what it really means to live a creative life." Looks like you can still submit your story of risks here!

Knock Knock, Whoʼs There?

It's been awhile since an installation at one of the smaller Staten Island venues has looked like more than a vanity showcase. Ron Morosan's “Knock Knock, Whoʼs There?” uses paintings, drawings, and installation constructions to explore his curiosity about the "art world" - the term and theories of the "art world" culture especially it's American institution.

My favorites were the two paintings with small portraits and text- critic Roberta Smith "Opinions are part of the air we breathe." and artist Chuck Close "I don't wait for inspiration." Bold statements.

The Close statement I was able to find the rest of- "if you wait for the clouds to part and to be struck in the head with a bolt of lightening, you're likely to be waiting the rest of your life. But if you simply get going, something will occur to you." I always found this to be true, the "aha" moment seems to come as part of the process. I can't conceive of sitting around, not making all of those mistakes and suddenly "getting it",

The Smith quote I couldn't find online and had never heard. I would imagine for her it is true as a critic, publicly assessing work through a knowledgable lense, with a taste for contemporary issues, yet probably still bombarded with contradictory ideas. But really everyone is constantly being bombarded with opinions not about art- what you eat, wear, vote for, purchase, etc. So yes, I guess it is true, part of the air we breathe...

This is the inaugural event for The Studio at 194 Bay Street.

The show runs- January 11 to February 2, 2014.

Day de Dada "Dream Inscription" at new Staten Island Artist Building

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/13/nyregion/art-on-staten-island.html?smid=fb-share&_r=0

had a small posting on Thursday, Dec. 12, 2013 

for some of the Second Saturday Art events, 

but missed the grand opening of the SIABC 

Staten Island Artist Building with the event I-Land 

(artists, musicians and performers offer self portraits 

that reflect on their relationship to Staten Island) 

curated by Melanie Cohn, Executive Director of SI Arts.

Despite the stormy weather a good crowd showed up.

Day de Dada Performance Art Collective presented 

a new piece "Dream Inscription" in which 

Milenka relaxed people- gave them a spot of "eyebright" tea 

and a dab of Keith Jacobsen's Berryzflow vision oil. 

Then they lay down and closed their eyes, 

Viv de Dada drew out their dreams of Staten Island. 

Words from this were added to a map of Staten Island.

The exhibition will be on display until Jan. 3, 2014. 

And can be viewed Monday-Friday 9am - 5pm 

Ring the bell at 73 Wave Street.

Nevermore Evermore, a Day de Dada Poe event

OutLOUD, a Staten Island group that organizes public reading of literature received a NEA Big Read grant to produce a series of the "Stories and Poems of Edgar Allen Poe". They asked Day de Dada performance art collective to produce one of the events and it occurred Sunday Sept. 29, 2013 at the Unitarian Church of Staten Island in conjunction with the church's Arts Committee programming. 

The event began with the audience entering through the garden gate greeted by Day de Dada artists who read poems, invited them to wear raven wings and create their own mad lib version with sections of the Poe poem "The Raven". A group of Butoh dancers then entered the garden and executed an extremely slow, meditative walk along the path that encircles the memorial garden. Eventually the dancers made their way into the church parish hall and the audience was invited to join them, which many did. A version of another Poe poem "Dreamland" was read at that point and the group then moved into the church sanctuary where "the Raven" poem was recited completely, with the audience invited to say the Nevermore raven lines.

overheardontheferry

 


Lately I've been connecting to new art mostly on the internet, through emails that I get, stuff that pops up on Pinterest and doing random searches of sights. 

One of the first pages I started following when I joined tumblr was overheardontheferry and it never fails me. This is my landscape, my portrait. 

The author was a mystery which I soon was trying to detect. Okay, so here is a cool, creative person who rides the boat the same time as I do and sees the queer and ordinary and just puts it out there. I had finally decided that it must be the girl who had the blue hair at one time (I was jealous because I wanted dark blue hair like hers). I had seen her on the boat with her iphone out all the time and figured she must be taking pictures discreetly. I planned to confront her the next time that I saw her, but our paths have not crossed since then. 

Today when I decided to do an Art on Staten Island post for overheardontheferry I checked out the page more closely and found Instagram and Twitter links. Nothing on the Instagram page for clues, but oh no! the heading on the Twitter page was "Born and raised Staten Islander, Associate Director at an advertising agency in Manhattan, and a really cool guy"... a GUY... so my theory of the creator was wrong! Will this change how i see the posts now? Will I still relate to them? My message in a bottle.

Anyway... Tumblr Art

At the Tumblr Art Symposium Christiane Paul, professor of visual arts at The New School, defined Tumblr as platform that many artists share their work through, but the collection of collages, video art, engagements and reblogs are not a united art form. That was my original thought, the authors were curators of what they liked or wanted to communicate, and the pages that were sited as Tumblr art didn't seem much more evolved than that. I was looking too hard for a creative layout or use of images. But i'm starting to see some of the pages as more innovative output, like an artist book or a Fluxus action- record a specific thing daily, etc. Those are the Tumblr art pieces, more subtle so harder to dig up.

What does it all mean?

Steven Lapcevis's "V I R U S" Video Installation.  

"The installation intends to explore the detrimental effects of the excessive consumption of nonessential information through mainstream media outlets and how it ultimately distorts and poisons our views of reality."

Thoughts can be similar to objects in that they 
sometimes bounce off and other times stick to a thing.



So much visual information. (U.S. converted McDonald's flag, Commercial references, Cereal, Guns, Hypnotic rolling of pills, signs, vibrating type) 
So much is happening. (The voice- it doesn't matter what it is saying, Rolling dollar signs, black bodies ejected into the sky at the airport, but the music is hopeful so you know they are headed someplace good, canned laughter.) How can you take your eyes off the big screen to see what's happening on the side? Two smaller screens, mr boulder head and, the floating smoking one eyed puppet.

Lapcevic's old icons were there- pig headed men with chattering teeth, spoiled or angry child. Of course I love the new image - the eye- bounces off the edge of it's lid and all of the other iterations.

Okay, I'm tapping my foot to the jingle the second time through, but the whole audience is getting nervous now- "You will spend money"

Saturday, August 3, 2013, 10:00PM at the Full Cup.

Monica at Staten Island Arts created an infographic from the data that Day de Dada Illuminating Inquizitors collected at Lumen Festival in June.  

Here is a part of it, you can see it all in their blog post- 

statenislandarts.org/who-came-out-to-lumen-festival-2013/#more-5461

Kristopher Johnson photographed people at Lumen andhere is his great photo of the Day de Dada Illuminating Inquizitors.

“XFR STN” at the New Museum

“XFR STN” at the New Museum July 17 - September 8, 2013 has many affiliations with Staten Island.

“XFR STN” initially arose from the need to preserve the Monday/Wednesday/Friday Video Club distribution project. MWF was a co-op “store” of the NYC artists ́ group Colab (Collaborative Projects, Inc.). Directed by Alan Moore and Michael Carter from 1986–2000, MWF showed and sold artists’ and independent films and videos on VHS at consumer prices.

Moore, a former Staten Island resident, directed the distribution service during the 1980's in his NYC East Village apartment. MWF had an open house every Monday evening and you never knew who would show up or what would be playing on the video monitor. The club also presented special video programs throughout Manhattan.

In the 1990's the video club moved to New Brighton, Staten Island and continued programing limited special screenings, but it became primarily an online source. When Moore moved to Madrid in 2010 the video collection went into a Stapleton storage unit.

“XFR STN” at the New Museum will also address the wider need in the community of artists for access to media capture and migration services as a means to preserve creative productions stored in aging and obsolete audiovisual and digital formats.

In keeping with the original policies of the MWF Video Club, “XFR STN” will be open to any artist-originated moving image or born-digital materials whose formats have become obsolete. The exhibition/lab will operate publically, informally exhibiting the material that is transferred, as well as rendering it available online through archive.org, an internet library whose mission includes offering permanent access for researchers, historians, scholars, people with disabilities, and the general public to historical collections that exist in digital format.

“XFR STN” will serve as a collection and dissemination point for artist-produced content, as well as a hub for information about these past projects (including production materials and personal recollections).



Graphics from the MWF video collection designed by Staten Island resident Mary Campbell will be included in the project display.

Also, Staten Island resident Phil Sanders of the experimental East Village art and technology art space RYO will be digitizing videos from the 80’s, including compilations from EVTV and ArtMix ’87.

“XFR STN” is a project by Alan W. Moore with Staten Island resident Taylor Moore, Alexis Bhagat, and the artists of Collaborative Projects, supported by the Solo Foundation. It is organized by Johanna Burton, Keith Haring Director and Curator of Education and Public Engagement, with Ben Fino-Radin, Digital Conservator, Rhizome; Tara Hart, Digital Archivist, New Museum; Jen Song, Associate Director of Education, New Museum; and Ethan Swan, Coordinator, Bowery Artists Tribute.