Hanged man is a collection of items purchased from the blue hanger and then organized over the course of two years.  All the items belonging to this collection were previously owned by someone the collector has never known.  There are serious variations within the collection, some items feel like an inside joke, while others invite you to remember the terminal nature of a human lifespan.  Some items seem topical while others seem very intimate.  Some items make the collection itself feel inappropriate and distort the idea of ownership.  Hanged man is about intrinsic value and what items we define our lives with in relation to a saturation point in which items that appear as treasures take on the transient life of trash.  The organization of these materials hopes to offer a momentary glance in to the lives of those you don’t know while provoking thoughts about self projection in conjunction with personal ownership and value.

A shed is a structure that provides shelter.

To shed is to remove a layer/skin/surface; discard the old or unwanted; to fall to the ground.

Using “shed” as the archetype and action for this work, home is explored in the space between the body and its (architectural) surroundings. This project begins along the exterior of buildings in Manhattan [1] (the artist’s original home) and moves into the realm of the domestic, away from the pedestrian wanderings of the city into the interiors of a new architectural space. In celebration of her second anniversary in Austin, the artist will use the vernacular of interior (surface) architecture, its articulation, and subsequent decoration, to make herself at home.

Nicole Vlado is an artist, architect/designer and third generation non‐driver from New York City. She creates prints, sculpture, and performance pieces and her work has been exhibited at Anja Hitzenberger’s Changing Room and Medialia Gallery in New York City, as well as Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Tijuana, Mexico. She lives and works in Austin.

1. As the body seeks to create comfort within the city, it engages the surfaces of the city and attempts to transform them into spaces of the home. The city’s inhabitants seek refuge along the surfaces of the city, leaning and resting their bodies on its exterior architecture. Through the continued use of these surfaces: stoops; sidewalks; facades, their infrastructure and decoration become the sites/containers of domestic occupation. Surfaces within the city display evidence of prior use. At times, something quite tangible is left behind: an empty bottle, cigarette butts; at other times, this evidence is nearly invisible and lies mainly within the memory of the occupant within their [re]collection of those places.

Although the occupation of these surfaces is temporary, the body begins to leave its impression throughout the city. While appearing quite durable, these concrete, stone, and metal surfaces undergo transformations through constant use: cracks in the sidewalk, peeling paint, rust, dried chewing gum stains, the smoothing of stone steps; each expresses a pattern of surface habitation.

On the hallowed eve of the day of the dead, Michael Abelmnan presents a beggars banquet of house paint alchemy. If you do not believe, you will be converted. If you cling to the agnostic, you will be freed. If you are in the choir, there will be no preaching. Let the herald devils sing.

Artist Rachel Renee Stewart interprets the unique natural beauty of Central Texas and bridges the gallery space with its surrounding neighborhood.  She develops large scale, impressionistic landscape paintings directly on the existing infrastructure by riding a bicycle as a mode of paint application.  In Stewart’s work action painting becomes activism as she aims to generate a dialog about transportation, urban development, traffic, and the environment.  The audience is encouraged to watch the artist work during the days leading up to painting’s completion, and walk, bike, and drive vehicles over the painting at any stage.

Rachel Renee Stewart originates from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she earned her BFA from Carnegie Mellon University.  In 2006 and 2007 she was a resident artist at Chautauqua Institution in Western New York State.  Since moving to Austin, has volunteered with Bikes Across Borders and is a member of the Whalefall Collective.  She has previously shown with the Austin Figurative Gallery.

www.gratefulrachel.com

How often do we take the measure of a person by what they are wearing, what car they drive, what things they own, and by how they choose to arrange them in their homes?  How often do we imagine what other people might think, when we decide how to arrange our possessions in our homes, or when we choose what clothes to wear?  The hundreds of objects we call our own at any given time in our lives all say something about who we are and how we feel.  These objects may even become extensions or souvenirs of ourselves, to be coveted or possessed by other people.  A work of art by a noted artist and the mug your grandfather owned both have this quality in common.

I have in the past been motivated to make objects the subject matter of my paintings, in part because objects are such signifiers of people and how they behave.  And yet my paintings could never convey the unseen presence or personality of an object’s owner.  The painting itself, including the image of the object, was a signifier of who I am, but the image of the objects themselves said nothing about anyone else.

Therefore, this installation and collaboration is my attempt to do what I could not do in a painting:  to preserve the touch of the objects’ owners, and to allow these objects to reveal their owners in a manner that is a lot less distorted by my influence.  For I have had no say in the choice of these objects on display, nor any involvement in how they are arranged.

Do you ever feel like going back in time and getting kicked out of school?  It almost worked for Thaddeus Stevens, who, in 1812, used an ax to slaughter a cow on the green at the University of Vermont, as a retaliation toward an invasion by local farmers.  But old Thad did not get expelled, and instead went on to wage a war against what he viewed as a southern aristocracy built on the backs of slaves.  Of course, this at a time when one had to have a personal politics, when everyday life depended on it.

In the 21st century, with the constant evolution of automobiles and the ease and affordability of air travel, we have almost dominated space, but have lost touch with it.  Time has escaped us completely.  We fill the void with consumption, a desire for entertainment, and planning for future security.  What happened?

An ax can create a rupture in time.

“Birth of a Rupture, Ruptured Birth” attempts to take entertainment out of context, break down the structure of cinema, and turn the viewer at any given time into the editor.  It attempts to use a map of one city to discover another, make 40 ounces the base measurement of liquid, and appropriate political speeches, along with the rich literary tradition of Russia.  Above all, it attempts to find a good ax and make mincemeat of time as we know it.

I waited until there were no more ideas and welcomed the creative void. 

Starving for influence from another extreme, I sought out inspiration from the superfluous and inane.

My alter ego is a hermit that recycles all types of garbage so I became intrigued with the subject headings from my electronic junk mail.

Then I challenged myself to translate them into a variety of mediums.

What at first seems vague and impersonal becomes quite the contrary.

Color, shape, and texture combine to express the disconnected messages as they settle in a marriage of my subconscious and frontal lobe.

I found a way to expose the emotion of shapes and words sent forth by strangers by constructing interpretive metaphors.

A brainstorm wedged in between absurdity and apathy.

What happens when we stop running from a mystery and decide to embrace it?

The hermit has left the building and now you are invited to come inside and experience the riddles.

A few new works by Duncan Malashock consist of animated websites as interactive portraits.  Themes include artificiality, motion, and the combination of fluorescence and abstraction with subtlety and personality.

Duncan Malashock is a new media artist in Austin, TX. Born 1982, San Diego, CA.  He is a member of rhizome.org and the community-run MASS Gallery in Austin. http://www.duncanmalashock.com

Artifice
Pattern
Obliteration
Order
Sequence
Consequence

This installation seeks to find harmony in dissonant materials, usage,   misusage, and the interplay of context in an experimental lexicon.  

This installation is not a diagnosis, a cure, a political statement, a warrant, a middle finger, an edict, an accusation against man, a complaint against god, or a wish for the future.  This installation is not about you or your mother.  Well, maybe a little about you… cause it’s always about you, isn’t it? And you bug me a little.

Heather Tolleson is a painter, sculptor, and mixed-media installation artist living and working in Austin, Texas.  She continues to focus on pure formalism while utilizing materials classic to artists for centuries, reused and reinvented for the modern world.

Joy Ride, the BFF’s annual art show, is a visual manifestation of the urban bicycle movement. The show brings together a diverse group of internationally established and emerging artists and members of the bicycling community all who share a passion for bicycles. Artists include: Agathe Snow / Alessandro Zuek Simonetti / Andrew McClintock / Artus de Lavilleon / Austin Bike Zoo / Camilla Candida Donzella / Ed Glazar / Fast Eddie Williams / James Newman / James Jean / Jessica Douglas / Julia Chiang / Kelsey Brookes / Kenzo Minami / Marc Sich / Martha Cooper / Marco Mucig / Mike Giant / Nathaniel Freeman / Sandy Carson / Scott Campbell / Silver Warner / Steve MacDonald / Takuya Sakamoto / Tara Foley

Follow us to the afterparty at Jackelope, 404 East 6th Street, from 10pm-2am.

 * Joy Ride is a component of the Bicycle Film Festival, for more information see below or visit www.bicyclefilmfestival.com

Ninth annual Bicycle Film Festival returns to Austin: August 5th – August 9th

Austin, TX (August 2009) – This summer, The Bicycle Film Festival, presented by 42BELOW, returns to Austin for a second year to present a cultural phenomenon like no other. Originating in New York City, the festival is a voice for the most powerful and culturally relevant movement of the past decade: the urban bike movement. The BFF brings together many creative communities, including fashion, music and art as well as various bicycling communities – including fixed gear, BMX, and road cycling - over a shared passion for bike riding. 

The Austin Bicycle Film Festival kicks off August 5th at 7:30pm with Bikes Rock!, a concert at La Zona Rosa featuring performances by local Austin favorites The Black Angels. La Zona Rosa is located at 612 West 4th Street; the concert will be 21+. Tickets are $15 and can be purchased on the Bicycle Film Festival website – www.bicyclefilmfestival.com.

Joy Ride, opening August 6th (6pm-10 pm), the BFF’s annual art show, is a visual manifestation of the urban bicycle movement. The show brings together a diverse group of internationally established and emerging artists and members of the bicycling community all who share a passion for bicycles. Local Austin artists showing work in Joyride include the Austin Bike Zoo (Sachi Decou and Jeremy Rosen), Sandy Carson and Jessica Douglas. Other artists in the 2009 Joyride art show include Kenny Scharf, Scott Campbell, Chiara Clemente, Steve MacDonald, Mike Giant, Benedict Radcliffe, Artus de Lavilléon, and Cheryl Dunn. The exhibition will be held at Co-Lab (613 Allen Street). Follow us to the afterparty at Jackelope, 404 East 6th Street, from 10pm-2am. 

August 7th-9th, the festival will screen various shorts and feature films – reflecting the diverse experiences of bicyclists. Highlights from this year include Where Are You Go, directed by Benny Zenga and Brian Vernor; I Love My Bicycle: The Story of FBM Bikes directed by Joe Stakun; The Third Wheel directed by Brian Schoenfelder, and Anima D’Accaio directed by Daniel Leeb of Cinecycle. All film screenings will be held at 501 Studios (501 N. IH 35, Studio 114). 

Following the films on Friday night from 9pm-2am, please join us for the after party benefitting Austin’s Yellow Bike Project with Benko, Lick Lick, Super Sonic Uke and more special guests. YBP is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing human-powered transportation for the people of Austin, running a community bike shop and educating kids and adults. The party will be at the Creekside Lounge (606 East 7th Street). To benefit YBP, there will be an $8 charge at the door, $5 with proof of a ticket purchase to a BFF screening Near the film screenings on Saturday, check out the BFF Block Party, featuring fixed gear and BMX competitions, on N. 5th and Brushy from 1pm-7pm. The party continues following the last screening with Goldsprints at the Scoot Inn at 1308 E. 4th Street. Bike Polo and additional screenings continue on Sunday. The Bike Polo tournament will take place from 12pm- 6pm at Metz Park (2407 Canterbury Street). We come back to Jackelope (404 East 6th Street) to close out the 5 days of the festival.

To purchase tickets and see a full list of events in Austin for the Bicycle Film Festival, please visit: 

www.bicyclefilmfestival.com. 

About the Bicycle Film Festival:

In 2001, Brendt Barbur, Founder and Director, was compelled to start the Bicycle Film Festival after being hit by a bus while riding his bike in New York City. Instead of being deterred by this experience, it inspired him to create a festival that celebrates the bicycle through music, art, and film. Now in its ninth year the festival is held in 39 cities worldwide. 250,000 people are expected to attend this year. 

Three young artists return to their birthplace after spending time in their respective northern megacities. Back to the Southwest with virgin eyes, they examine ideas related to space, visual perspective, scale, and the real/unreal, all specific to the Texas landscape

Culmination Space springs from the definition of culmination as a condition of gathering, accumulation and discovery. 

A consortium of bamboo, cotton and concrete blocks is arranged and in session - projecting future planning concepts and visions displayed in the form of paintings, drawings, assemblages and projections. The exhibition will include works and information related to the installation and will include a presentation of Culmnia (bambusa major multiplex) and the Concept for Urban Living Module.

A spatial rendering comprised of curved screens or “eyelashes” is assembled with bamboo, concrete blocks, paintings and seating made of rolled cotton denim insulation. The bamboo culms arc skyward and exist as organic, inverted telescopes for this integral study of landscape and architecture existing within layered dimensions. A large central panel displays a fusion of elements that inform and reflect the installation as if networking in an optimistic reweaving of the carpet that serves as both a blueprint and reflection of the city of Eudoxia in the novel Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino.

Discussions: Visitors are invited to present a portrait or description of optimal urban living scenarios.

www.artssummit.info 

Concepts for Optimal Urban Living Discussion : Live coverage and updates for the COULD happening will be posted via Tweet-Mic at Artssummit_MMC on Twitter.com

The impetus for this project came from a moment of spontaneous play between friends that we happened to document a couple of years ago. Lauren and Alison were twirling around a cigarette butt that had become entangled in some art materials during a party, when we suddenly became involved in an intense, freeform game of cat’s cradle. Carling took a few photos, and the memory of the experience stuck with all of us. Like anyone else, we were just amusing ourselves by making a little sculpture toy out of the flotsam in our environment. What we have decided to do is elaborate on our experiment by recreating it, shooting photographs of our performance, and then using those images to draw, stitch, stretch, weave and sculpt our ideas into the gallery space.

We have been helping one another to make art for years, and have habitually used our collaboration as a way to alleviate the seriousness of personal art making while also pushing each other to try new approaches to our respective media. We hope to extend that spirit of useful play to the people who come to visit our installation at Co-Lab.

Carling, Lauren and Alison graduated together from Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas with BAs in Studio Art, and are currently living and making art in Austin. Two of us have cats. Visit http://www.flickr.com/photos/myguerrilla/sets/72157619747312206/ to see images of our previous collaborative work.

“Mourning For Landscape” Ritual For Shelter is an experiment between the natural and the electronic.  Through ritualistic process, Jen will create an environment for shelter and memorial.  A narrative will unfold to the viewer as relationships are created through juxtaposition of material and video.   The narrative begins from an unknown catastrophic event, referencing notions of stress, fear, and survival.  This installation is part of a larger series of video works and installations based on a post-apocalyptic need for communication, ritual and preservation.

Jen Frost Smith received her B.F.A from the University of Texas in May 2009.  Over the past two years her focus has been on video installation and sculpture.  In the fall of 2009 she will begin her graduate studies in Photographic and Electronic Media at the Maryland Institute College of Art. www.jenfrostsmith.com

A night of performance and recitation from the Boho Cocos

Limbo, the realm of timeless loss, will be conveyed through various forms of written word: literature, theater, and poetry; and media: video, audio, and light.  See: a man wear a mask; a woman read a poem; a play perform; a typewriter.  Hear: a man recite a monologue; a flashlight click; noise.  All of this will be brought to you by the Boho Cocos, a loose collective of Austin based writers, performers, and zine makers.  Reading: Richard Guerra, Miguel Martinez, Christopher Savage, Erin Vaughan.

bohococo.blogspot.com

I am creating a new mythology based upon my personal history by exploring a manifested past civilization.  Remnants of this civilization are constructed to resemble archaic ruins.  These sites are compiled of personal relics from my past and influences from various cultures such as Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and Lakota Sioux.  These arrangements appear to be antiquated parts of their surroundings as though recently unearthed by archaeologists and revealed to the modern world.  As I continue to engage these relics, I gain a greater insight to myself and other repeating characters central to the development of these “lost worlds”.

Call for art!! Make a Teeny-Tiny DIORAMA! Anyone can enter, all ages! Contest! Prizes! 

The O.P.E.R.A House collective invites you to participate in a special collaborative art installation. We are creating an indoor ZOO environment made specially to exhibit teeny-tiny dioramas.  Please collaborate with us by helping to fill each area of the zoo with your creations.  Just make a teeny-tiny diorama to bring to Co-lab, deadline Saturday May 23rd at 7pm. Actual size and subject matter of your artwork is entirely open to interpretation. Entry fee is a $3 suggested donation. All entries will be eligible to win a prize!  

adj teeny [ˈtiːni] - (used informally) very small; “a wee tot”

adj.ti·ny  (tn) - Extremely small; minute.

Noun diorama (d-rm, -räm) - a miniature three-dimensional scene, in which models of figures are seen against a background

zoo  (z)

1. A park or an institution in which living animals are kept and usually exhibited to the public. Also called zoological garden.

2. Slang A place or situation marked by confusion or disorder: The bus station is a zoo on Fridays.

Claude van Lingen’s 1000 Years from Now Installation and Collaborative Performance is a reflection on the complex times in which we live and the future that awaits us.

In this incarnation of his 1000 Years from Now theme broadcast TV images will be projected onto the gallery wall and a number of narrow panels on which images from print media have been collaged. These panels will be flanked by slivers of mirror and blank strips in a configuration of approximately 8’ h x 16’ w x 4’ d. Lists, comprised of names of the more than 4000 casualties of the Iraq War will be displayed on the wall opposite this installation. A 3’ x 6’ blank space is to be left within the lists and during the evening Claude and viewers will write names of some of the casualties into this space.

The mass of information that is projected, superimposed, and reflected from the mirrors onto the walls, floor, ceiling, and viewers—combined with the simultaneous writing of the names of casualties—are intended to create a physically, mentally, and emotionally charged environment. On the formal level, Cubist concepts of the fracturing of space and time are brought into the present by the introduction of contemporary media, a nexus that invites the viewer to become engaged on many levels.

www.claudevanlingen.com

The Light Collective is an interactive multimedia collaboration of several artists.  The physical element is a light sculpture that uses fiber optic strands, LEDs, globes and electroluminescent wire that can be manipulated through a series of interactive modules including motion detection, a web interface, and an onsite computer.  The sculpture is a universal expression of collective positive energy generated by participants.

Entertainment provided by musical guest Boone Graham and Spoken Word Artist Anis Mojgani.

‘Incidents at the Two Two Hotel: The Porter’ a performance installation by Wura-Natasha Ogunji: large scale drawings of a future world where inhabitants live in a hotel called the Two Two that consists of two sky-high towers built on an artificial, floating island, the plastic detritus of centuries.  Movement in this landless future is most strongly determined by language proficiency.  This makes knowledge of Shadowlandic—a hybrid form that borrows from many languages—extremely powerful. 

Wura-Natasha Ogunji is a visual and performance artist.  She creates visual narratives with thread, stitching drawings into translucent sheets of architectural sketch and hand-painted paper.  In her performances she uses bundles of threads, measured in fathoms, as she explores connections to body, land and power.   www.wuraogunji.com

Drawing from the collections of Warren Aldrich and Lillian Gerson, comes a frantic onslaught of visual information reminiscent of the cluttered energy of a packed flea market stall or an overcrowded garage sale. Both artists work with a strong collage mentality handling every medium with a process of accumulation, from the paintings composed of minuscule dots and dense layering to the assemblages of found objects. Just as each individual piece is essential to the series, so too is the crowded context crucial to the singular, thus leading the viewer to seriously consider the possibility that quantity can truly dictate quality.

A team effort hosted by Matthew Winters

www.matthewjwinters.com

RESINTEGRATE  will be the incorporation of various artists, styles,  and materials under one common directive.  Artists from different disciplines will come together to incorporate their ideas into large scale installation portraiture.

Collaborators:
Shannon Crider
Chris Holloway
Christopher Savage
Laura Green
Megan Stroech
Lucy Lenoir
Zach McDonald
Nicole Neeley

Happy memories always have a way of entangling themselves with the memories we wish to forget. Jesus Benavente’s “Easter Huevos” is an attempt to remove negative memories and replace them with childlike happy memories. However, these childlike memories are recreated with the distortion of adulthood and performance art.

Jesus Benavente and his team of Bunny Buddies, in a series of videos, attempt to remove the memories to various degrees of success. These videos cumulate to the biggest attempt at memory replacement (via a large-scale live interactive performance). This performance will allow people to hunt for Easter eggs in the Co-Lab field and exchange them for the physical remains of memories in the Co-Lab space. A gift that people can take home to create new memories while freeing others of its heavy burden.

Please join Co-Lab for Too Much Cake, bringing performance artists from across Texas to this showcase of emerging talent, linking postmodern strategies to street performance and appropriation. Using the mainstays of Conceptualism and Performance art as a starting point, these artists bring the outside world into their work, initiating a dialogue with popular culture. Many works in the show are being exhibited for the first time. Artists in the exhibition include Daniel Adame, Balls Deep, Bunnyphonic, Aisen Chasin, Patrick Doyle, Emcee Eats, Michael Anthony Garcia, Cody Ledvina, Misc. Diskette, Christian Ochoa, Frank Olson, Kelly Quarles, David Waddell, and Julia Wallace. 

On view March 21, 2009, the event is organized by Co-Lab and The American Wandering Club. This event is being held concurrently with EASTSIDE ESCAPE.

Everyone has a reason, and in Texas it’d better be big. In the center of the country a distinct meme has emerged, coupling populism with interdisciplinary art. Indulging in gluttonous capitalism for the past decade, far away from recognition-hungry New York and fame-seeking Los Angeles, the artists of Too Much Cake have freely experimented with the corpse of performance art, eviscerating the ‘need to be present’ inherent in careerist gamesmanship. Creating communities in Austin, San Antonio and Houston, these artists bring their lives into their work and take their art home with them.

Lineup:
1:15 - 1:30      Patrick Doyle
2 - 2:15           Christian Ochoa
2:45 - 3           Cody Ledvina
3:30 - 3:45      Misc. Diskette
4:15 - 4:30      Frank Olson
5 - 5:15           Julia Wallace
5:45 - 6           Aisen Chasin
6:30 - 6:45      Bunnyphonic
7:15 - 7:30      Daniel Adame
8 - 8:15           David Waddell
8:45 - 9           Michael Anthony Garcia
9:30 - 9:45       James beard
10:30 - 11        Balls Deep
11 - 11:30        Emcee Eats

What’s in the Box! Is a mutli-stage touring project, instigated by David Horvitz and Lukas Geronimas, in collaboration with The Black Hole Space and currator Terri C. Smith, and all those that participate in the Box Game. Project stages consist of: 1. An online web location providing event information and project updates 2. A series of box games played at pre-determined as well as impromptu locations throughout North America over the course of one month 3. A statistical analysis of game data, leading to a conclusive theory of what is inside the box 4. A long-term phase of constructing the answer to what’s inside the box 5. An exhibition of the constructed answer along with documentary material and ephemera from the Box Game tour.

The Box Game is a portable event that allows a player to guess or ‘vote’ for what’s inside the box (the process of guessing and voting at the same time is explained later). The Game’s initial run will take place during the months of March and April 2009 at over a dozen pre-determined venues, and just as many impromptu locations. The setup and rules are as follows:

Setup:

The game can be setup quickly anywhere indoors or outside; the Box Game Backdrop (8’ h 6’l  collapsable painting reading WHAT’S IN THE BOX mounted to a resilient framework) is leaned against a support, and the Box (3’h 1.3’w 1.3’l) is placed in front of the Backdrop. A balloting table is placed next to the box. Costumes consisting of sport coat and tie are donned by the hosts (David and Lukas). Once setup is complete, one of the hosts announces that the game has begun, and the other host guides audience members to the balloting table and explains the rules.

Rules:

The rules are simple: using a pen and paper ballot, the player uses his or her imagination to decide what’s in the box. The only information provided by the hosts is that there is art in the box, and that the player’s effort will help determine what it is. Once the player has written down his or her decision, (s)he proceeds to put the piece of paper into the box. Every player’s decision is a guess that counts as a vote that will elect the work of art produced as the answer to what’s in the box. There are no bad or ‘wrong’ guesses.

The collected ballots at each location will be compiled and analyzed both within the entire set of answers from all events, and separately as a local subset of answers. Construction of the final answer (the ‘artwork’) is contingent upon the results of the data once analyzed; the artwork will be produced according to frequency of answers, as best interpreted by the artists involved in the project and panel members selected by the artists. For example, if more players guess that the there is a statue inside the box than a painting, greater weight will be placed on statue when realizing the artwork. Each player will have the chance to receive a printout of the data analysis, concluding statements, and specially made art-works for their participation.

Every stage of the What’s In the Box project is critical - the art that occurs during each interactive event falls within the involved parties’ desire to explore how art as experience creates a reactive space. The space of the Box Game allows all contestants to participate in the distribution of the sensible qualities of an artwork, and it is our hope that this will lead to greater awareness of what kinds of relational theories are under construction in today’s multifarious art world. Also on trial is the effectiveness of objective methods (the survey, and analysis of data) to produce successful artworks - what does democracy do for art? And science?

*The ability to both guess and vote at the same time is a result of the unique project-based timeframe within which the Box Game falls, which works to subvert  conventional linear thinking about cause and effect. The player is guessing on a pre-determined artwork with yet-to-be determined qualities. The artwork is already there, but it’s not really there yet… the Black Hole space provides a suitable, closed environment to allow for this paradox. Linear time is not the essence of this project.

David Horvitz is an artist from the Los Angeles area, currently residing in Brooklyn and studying photography at the Milton Avery School at Bard College. His work finds thoughtful ways to contemplate time and distance, and unconventional methods to distribute and exhibit art.

Lukas Geronimas is an artist from Toronto, who has lived and worked in Vancouver, Tokyo, and New York. His art questions object-hood as a stable state in art, and how artistic narrative can move outside the context of art and into the community-at-large.  He is currently studying sculpture at the Milton Avery School at Bard.

The Black Hole Space is a portable exhibition space resembling a pedestal, constructed by Joshua Clayton and run by curator Terri C. Smith. Artists are invited to submit proposals for the Black Hole Space and evaluated based on the quality and creativity of their proposal.

www.boxgame.org

Pleasure comes in many forms, one of which is through commodities—the material products we often feel we simply cannot do without. My subject in recent videos has been the car.

In light of the general anxiety our culture feels at the threat of having this convenient product removed from middle-class culture, I have been exploring my almost unconscious attachment to my car. Without it how many events, opportunities, and errands would I be unable to attend to with ease? In this recent work I have brought my self-perceived reliance on my car and its effect on my life to a tactile and heightened level.

A Bittersweet Farewell to the Analog Signal

The occasion of yet another technological passing will be celebrated and mourned as Analog TVs are either adapted to accept the new (superior) digital signals or are relegated to the vast landfills of China to leach their toxins into the groundwater (please recycle!). 

But, oh the times we have had to that analog signal!  The wars, assassinations, the moon landings, the game shows, the beauty pageants, the reality shows…

Johanna Heilman and Raphael Umscheid envision a space of transition where dying televisions reflect and accept or reject their new positions.

Sound by Eric Jordan.