Okay, inspired by reading "Blogging for Bliss" by Tara Frey. Going to start posting some S.I. artworks again. Enjoy! & thanks for looking! Mary

juxtaposition

Wonderful new exhibit at the Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art titled "Iced".
I know not many people would get excited by such a thing, but my heart was beating fast when I saw the Elisa Lendvay "Umbra Mound" and then close by Matt Frieburghaus had a video that worked so good with her sculpture. Those recycled umbrella art pieces impress me anyway. I'll never forget the work of umbrella fabric sewn together like lace in the trees at the Socrates Sculpture Park in Long Island city last year, though don't know the name of the artist who created it. Same thing at Iced, the artists are a secret- no name signage. I had to go on a hunt for the gallery list and was lucky to snag the last one.

Iced through Sept. 4
Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art
1000 Richmond Terrace, SI, NY

Lists

Despite that some people find it repellent I sometimes (often) pick up things off the ground and pocket them. The children across the street recently were aghast (or jealous?) when they saw me going through the garbage that had spilled from the can and collecting doll shoes, a hello kitty pez dispenser and a toy "Wild Rose Princess" cell phone (that still works). My favorite things to find are small toys, pieces of metal and paper with writing or drawing on it. I have found several lists on the ground- grocery and to do lists. They are charming self portraits.

Some of my collection came into use a few months ago when I received Matt Taggerts "String Theory" performance fluxkit, which is a kit of string and label that he asks you to combine with things you have found and then send him a photo which he enters onto his blog. I decided to use the hands and arms that I had collected and strung them incrementally by size.

After viewing "Lists: To-dos, Illustrated Inventories, Collected Thoughts, and Other Artists' Enumerations from the Smithsonian's Archives of American Art"  at the Morgan Library & Museum, I realize I created a 3d list.

The lists in the Morgan Library exhibit, of course by know people, are collections of thoughts- the usual-  things bought, thing to be sold, but also a beautiful list that was a love letter by Eero Saarinen and Ray Johnson's "people who have posed for silhouettes". Philip Evergood made lists by taping new paper notes onto the bottom of the previous notes, creating visually exquisite accumulation pieces.

I had not been to the Morgan Library & Museum for a really long time. There has been a renovation, the exhibit space is wonderful. And my visit allowed me to cross off something from my list- "museums to get to" as there are a number of good shows up right now.

Norman Pate at SHOW Gallery

 So glad I saw the Norman Pate artwork at Show Gallery. Part of the Art By The Ferry weekend, it glowed among the other predictable exhibits. Show Gallery did a great job of installing the work with a wall of collage on wood and wood piece assemblages and a wall of paper works. Since Pate's death there have been so many shows and sales of his tremendous volume of work, it is hard to believe that at this point there are still gems available for sale. Having already collected many of Pate's works through the years I vowed not to purchase any here, but was sorely tempted, especially by this beautiful collage on wood. The color is exquisite.

Show Gallery
156 Stuyvesant St.
Staten Island, NY

Kate Ganina

The painting I purshased from Kate Ganina
who was selling her work (paintings and puppets)
in the Alice Austen House yard today.

Artist Registries

I just stumbled onto the COAHSI artist registry.

 I remember mumblings at some point that this was happening, but never a followup that it was in place. I know alot of artists who are not listed and should be. Get your info out there. Below I also listed a few other NY registeries.

 http://www.statenislandarts.org/artist-registry

http://registry.whitecolumns.org

http://www.drawingcenter.org/viewingprogram















Photo of the remains of "Crystal" Dominic Cloutier's
installation from "Glow" St. George Ball at the S.I. Museum

1001 chairs for Weiwei

 My first expectation of the reenactment of Ai Weiwei’s project Fairytale: 1001 Qing Dynasty Wooden Chairs (call-to-action-1001-chairs-for-ai-weiwei) was that there would be rows of people neatly lined up in a solemn spectacle. I arrived at the scene to find something more like an opening in a gallery with no walls. A bunch of people mingling, many well know artists and critics, some seated, some with signage, next to a group of chanting Chinese activist.

Eventually someone organized the group for a photo op. All people with chairs were requested to line up in rows. And almost as many photographers started snapping. Then it was requested that since the piece was about empty chairs that we leave our chairs and move to the side for that image to be captured. So while not exactly to my original idea, the arts community did end up with an esoteric protest image.

see also- http://bambuser.com/v/1586643

Over the past eight weeks, more than 100 activists in China have disappeared, been detained, or are confined to their homes, including Weiwei's lawyer.  Today's protest was enacted internationally.