The installation will focus on the discrepancy between value and worth, taking into account labor and comfort as intrinsic components of monetary value. The exhibition features a bed, a dollar bill quilt setting, television, sound installation and the smell of money highlighting the creation of the quilt.

Kale Roberts has lived in El Paso, TX and is currently attending graduate school at University of South Florida. With an intense interest in a social and multi-sensory experience, Roberts provides questions focusing on social distraction and the possibility of comfort within a flawed system.

Every dollar is worth 5.3c in gold and costs 6c to manufacture leaving the true value of the dollar to be -.7c. Now the reserves no longer back the bill, and so the value of the dollar is now based on the economic standing of the country which correlates to rates of productivity and global consumption. Money is our verification of labor and identity that in turn becomes the assets we obtain. There are $536.00 in the bedding.

Sand Castles have different connotations for people. It has the sad sweet memories of childhood. Sand castles crumbling one after another resemble human civilizations as well as the temporal aspect of everyday life. As we get older, we forget the early times of play and memory and concentrate on our busy lives. But with all that we do and make, anything we do is nothing more than castles in the sand to be washed away by time and human experience.

We are commenting on the ephemeral quality of human life and civilization. Through this metaphor in installation, we present the repeated efforts and decay of human activities. Using materials that are both fragile and biodegradable, we construct a temporary civilization in the space. Cave houses crawling on the wall are made of recycled newsprint papier mâché. Sand houses on the floor slowly disintegrate under the slow but inexorable pace of time, represented by water.

Like Gulliver among the Lilliputians, we stand and ponder the decay as the crumbling sand parallels the destruction of shifting weather patterns, and the political strife and upheavals across the globe.  Although some structures high on the walls may seem immune, all will eventually succumb to the force of time. Is it only within our will or can we alter the seemingly inevitable march of repeating history and time?

Trees Make Seeds Make Trees is a new series that attempts to articulate my fascination with the seed as an example of possibility, growth and change. The seed is a mysterious enclosure with vast potential, I choose to mystify it and accentuate it's mystery by exaggerating the size and proportion of seed to tree. The trees themselves are new incarnations of trees that have fallen in the woods and have later been collected. The space created by the conjoined branches of the four trees is meant for contemplation and at it’s most successful will be well integrated with the space around it while carving out it’s own little environment to be separately experienced. 

This piece investigates the versatility, appropriateness, and manufacturing of a material.  Can a man made material that has no relation to the natural one, other than the appearance, have the same visceral feeling?

MASS Gallery Presents:
Vortex Brainsaw Massacre
A haunted house event of sorts


On Saturday, October 30 join MASS Gallery at the Vortex Brainsaw Massacre. Come see how MASS does nasty, gory, shocking, confusing, awesome, scary, hairy, D.A.R.E-y, brainy, Halloweeny insanity!!!!

MASS Gallery Presents: An Installation of Drawings by Anthony W. Garza

In this new body of work by Ryan Lauderdale continues the artist’s regressive fascination with shared and personal histories, and the expanding perimeters of these histories within the digital realm. The mostly-analog results stand as frozen portals to explored/excavated spaces on and around an increasingly multi-layered and interconnected platform.

My work aims to create an energy in space. By installing and incorporating handmade ceramic pieces with other mixed media, I create large-scale interactive sculptures. The forms that I use come from objects that we encounter on a daily basis. Some derive from objects that we constantly interact with and use whereas others come from objects which we mostly fail to realize. I have a particular interest in industry: all the things that hover over and around us in order to meet our everyday needs. These are things that are often times not realized by the eye and mind but rather, taken for what they are and eliminated from our daily consciousness. In my installations I attempt to draw the viewer’s attention to these forms while stripping away their original meaning and function. By making these things nameless they become obscure forms that work together to create a unique and energetic space that allows the viewer to pull from their own subconscious associations with shape, form, texture and color.

What the artifice does is create an anxiety over our own place in the scheme of reality. Whether a placeholder, substitution, or perfect copy, a double is a replacement, with its own motives. Sarah Welch, Sarah Crowe, and Graham Austin explore contemporary forms of substitution in “AIN’T NOTHIN LIKE THE REAL THING”, with a scoping range of media, focused upon questions of legitimacy and nostalgia that invariably arise when confronted with the doppelgangers wearing human, linguistic, or environmental form.

When You Say Go Here is a dance/movement piece that deals with proximity and control.  A world of claustrophobia and paranoia dissolves into a cave of solitude; a private moment becomes a public one; the connection between two people flashes from comfortable and intimate to anonymous and disconnected.  The piece is surrounded by an evening of interactive sound and visual aides concocted with old tape decks, photographs, drums and carvings created by fellow performers Nicholas DeCarmine and Matthew Young.

A recycled goods installation by William Hundley

*Cash Only is the investigation of art consumption by exploiting the image, representation, and body of the artist as a religious icon. This performance based show explores the commercial nature of contemporary art and the commoditization of the artist herself. In *Cash Only, Caitlin McCollom aligns herself with Catholic images as she transforms herself into art deity. Like Catholic iconography, she will present her image and name as cheap purchasable commodity, and ultimately offer herself in a participatory performance in which viewers can purchase time and services from her. Caitlin will hear your petitions and provide her services for *Cash Only.

International Networked Performance

In partnership with the 2010 FUSEBOX FESTIVAL and New York City based artist/curator Jorge Rojas Co-Lab presents Low Lives 2 featuring:

A 2010 Streaming Class Portrait
Since 1999 Michael Smith has been taking his students to the Sears Portrait Studio to sit for a group class portrait, a picture that later may become their only memento and reminder  of a semester spent together with Professor Smith. For Smith, it is not only a reminder of time spent with his class it is also and a not so subtle reminder of years passing. When looking over a group of the Sears Class Portraits it’s apparent that the project is a chronicle of aging, the students stay the same age as Smith gets older.
For Low Lives 2, Smith and his performance art students will animate the Sears Sessions and sit together for a live tableau vivant portrait for online viewers. Quiet and still, the sitters will attempt to hold their poses and freeze a moment in time.

About Low Lives:
Now in its second year, Low Lives is a one-night exhibition of live performance-based works transmitted via the internet and projected in real time at numerous venues throughout the U.S.  Low Lives examines works that explore the potential of performance practice presented live through online broadcasting networks. These networks, though seldom utilized for performance art, provide a new alternative and efficient medium for presenting and viewing performances. 

Organized and curated by Brooklyn-based artist and curator, Jorge Rojas, Low Lives embraces works with a lo-fi aesthetic such as low pixel image and sound quality, contributing to a raw, DIY and sometimes voyeuristic quality in the transmission and reception of the work. The international artists and artist collectives participating in this exhibition will transmit their performances from countries including Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, Singapore Trinidad & Tobago and from the following cities in the United States: Austin, TX; Houston, TX; Nashville, TN; NYC, NY; Miami, FL; Fort Lauderdale, FL; Minneapolis, MN; Las Vegas, NV; Gunnison, CO; San Francisco, CA; Chicago, IL and Los Angeles, CA. 

“Low Lives is about not simply the presentation of performative gestures at a particular place and time but also about the transmission of these moments and what gets lost, conveyed, blurred, and reconfigured when utilizing this medium,” states Curator Jorge Rojas. Rojas, whose artwork has increasingly involved performative elements and live video streaming networks, proposed this exhibition to each of the presenting partners because of their commitment to experimental art, performance art, new media and framing local and international art-making.

Artists include: Amelia Winger-Bearskin, Lawrence Graham-Brown, Hector Canonge, Alexis Caputo, Vienne Chan, Osvaldo Cibils, Gabrielle Civil, Marcus Civin, Chris Coy, The Bridge Club, Francesca Fini, Linda Ford, Lynne Heller, Anni Holm, Gigi Otalvaro-Hormillosa AKA Devil Bunny, Las Hermanas Iglesias, Michelle Isava, Tina La Porta, Elizabeth Leister, Luke Munn, Olek, Wanda Ortiz, Jacklyn Soo, Michael Smith, Sam Trubridge with Rob Appierdo & Stuart Foster, Migdalia Luz Barens-Vera, Marcus Vinicius, Martin Zet, Agni Zotis.

As a new addition to this year’s exhibition, presenting partners contributed to the curatorial process and evening’s program by presenting a live performance at their venues. The following artists and venues will present live performances on the night of the event:
Lawrence Graham-Brown-Co-presented by Aljira and El Museo del Barrio
Michael Smith- Co-presented by Co-Lab and Fusebox Festival
Gigi Otalvaro-Hormillosa AKA Devil Bunny-Presented by Galeria de la Raza
Alexis Caputo- Presented by Diaspora Vibe Gallery
Gabrielle Civil-Presented by Obsidian Arts
Marcus Civin- Presented by The Temporary Space

Low Lives 2 will be presented at the following venues:
El Museo del Barrio: 1230 5th Avenue, NYC - 8:00pm – 11:00pm  
Galeria de la Raza: 2857 24th Street, SF - 5:00pm – 8:00pm  
Diaspora Vibe Gallery: 3938 North Miami Ave., Miami – 8:00pm – 11:00pm  
The Temporary Space: 1320 Nance St., Houston - 7:00pm – 10:00pm  
Obsidian Arts: 3501 Chicago Avenue South, Minneapolis - 7:00pm – 10:00pm  
Terminal: APSU- Clarksville - 7:00pm – 10:00pm
Co-Lab: 7:00pm – 10:00pm
Studio 304: 304 Boerum St., Brooklyn - 8:00pm – 11:00pm  
Live Broadcast: www.ustream.tv/channel/low-lives-2 - 8:00 – 11:00pm (EST)

About FUSEBOX:
The Fusebox Festival presents contemporary art and performance that spans form and geography. The festival acts as a catalyst for new ideas, new artistic models, new languages and approaches to help us better fully engage with the issues and questions that define and inspire us as artists and audiences.

Fusebox is an annual contemporary art and performance festival that takes place in Austin, TX each April. This year’s dates are April 21 - May 2.

For Information and Tickets visit www.fuseboxfestival.com

About Michael Smith:
Michael Smith is a video/performance/installation artist known for his eponymous performance persona named Mike, the central figure in an ongoing series of large-scale narrative based projects.  Mike, an innocent who continually falls victim to trends and fashions while traversing an imperfect landscape, allows Smith to create an unsettling mixture of humor and pathos while commenting on discrepancies and absurdities in our culture. 

Smith has shown his work extensively around the US and Europe at a variety of venues including museums, galleries, universities, festivals, nightclubs, on television and in the streets. In New York City he has had solo shows and screenings at The Whitney Museum, The New Museum, The Leo Castelli Gallery, The Christine Burgin Gallery and the Museum of Modern Art.  In 2007-08 Smith’s retrospective “Mike’s World: Solo and Collaborative Works by Michael Smith and Joshua White (& other collaborators)” was exhibited at the Blanton Museum in Austin and at The ICA in Philadelphia. Smith was included in the 2008 Whitney Biennial and “The Pictures Generation: 1974-1984”, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In Fall 2009, he and Mike Kelley presented “A Voyage of Growth and Discovery” at the Sculpture Center in Long Island City, NY. 

Michael Smith received his Bachelor of Arts from The Colorado College and attended the Whitney Museum of American Art Independent Study Program.  He has taught in the Master of Fine Arts programs at Yale, Cranbrook, UCLA, Art Center, Columbia, CalArts and is currently an associate professor in the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Texas at Austin.

He has received numerous awards including fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, The National Endowment for the Arts and most recently from The Center for Advanced Visual Studies at M.I.T, the New York Foundation for the Arts and the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation.

www.mikes-world.org

A salon style gallery exhibition featuring a stimulating patchwork of artists. 

Exhibition and Dirty limerick poetry reading

TEXAS CRUDE will be an offering of artwork that is rude, raunchy and generally explicit. Artists will come from a variety of backgrounds and the artwork will have a range of media and content (as long as that content is vulgar and of a revolting nature).

Anyone is welcome to join in the show. 

There are two ways to participate in TEXAS CRUDE, the first is to send or deliver work to either Co-Lab or the curator Matthew Winters. The deadline for submissions for TEXAS CRUDE is Friday April 23rd, 2010. Any form of two-dimensional work in any media is welcome. Please try not to exceed 3’ x 3’ (36” x 36”). If you are going to deliver work please make email arrangements with the curator or the Co-Lab staff. Make sure to package your artwork competently and include any special instructions so that we can get your work back to you safely. Also make sure to include contact information so that you may get the credit that you deserve. 

The second way to participate in TEXAS CRUDE is to attend one of the four Study Hall sessions that will lead up to the Saturday opening. In these Study Halls I will create a calm and soothing atmosphere full of drawing spaces and materials. While in the Study Hall you should be free from the pressures of everyday life so that you can really let the sleazy and obnoxious ideas flow.

The four Study Halls will Have a theme each night (although the theme does not have to be adhered to, it is recommended for maximum crudeness). The themes are as follows:

Tuesday, April 20, 7-10PM : Butts
Wednesday, April 21, 7-10PM: Boobs
Thursday, April 22, 7-10PM: Boners
Friday April 23, 7-10PM: Political Figures

If you wish to have your drawing for sale in TEXAS CRUDE please let us know. Write the words “I would like to sell this piece” with a price and include it with your artwork. There will be staff on hand to take sales of cash or check. Artists will receive 100% of the sale of their artwork. If the artist does not wish to receive payment for his or her artwork then any profit will be donated to Co-Lab.

24 Hour Performance

Artists Wura-Natasha Ogunji and Jorge Rojas engage in a 24-hour improvisatory exchange using raw materials (paper, thread, wax) and sensory elements (sound, light, mirrors) to experiment with new ways of communicating through space and time.

This performance is presented with 2412 (a series of performances that take place over a 24-hour period) and will be live broadcast from Friday, April 9 at 8pm(CST) to Saturday, April 10 at 8pm (CST): http://www.ustream.tv/channel/2412-riff

Sunday, April 11, 2pm: Artist Talk: artists Nicole Vlado, Senalka McDonald, Jorge Rojas and Wura-Natasha Ogunji discuss their experiences performing for 24-hours and the significance of this experience to their artistic practices.

Wura-Natasha Ogunji is a visual artist and performer.  Her work investigates the connections between physical actions of the body, memory, history and power.  Her performance works include videos in which she engages her own body in explorations of movement and mark-making across land, water and air.  www.wuraogunji.com

Jorge Rojas is a multidisciplinary artist whose work centers on the creation and processes involved in artistic production. Rojas uses both traditional and new media as well as performative elements to investigate communication systems and the effect of technology on artistic production, social structures and communities.  www.jorgerojasart.com

2412 is a series of twelve performances that take place over a 24-hour period.

http://perform2412.wordpress.com/

Time is not Linear

Everything in existence is moving in a cyclical pattern. Growth and decay, life and death, boom and bust.  This circular force is something that no one or no thing could ever hope to over come. Never the less we humans cannot stop ourselves from trying. We insist that if we cannot stop the cycle we can at least slow it down or disguise it, anything to make it easier to ignore.  We create beautiful replicas and preservations of life’s most fleeting things and surround ourselves with them so eventually they are all we can see. But no matter how beautiful these screens may be they can never stop our journey through the cycle of life and death.

This phenomenon of mass unconscious self-delusion is the focus of my recent work. I often compare this work to the Dutch still life painting of the 17th and 18th century. At first glance these enticing paintings seem almost to be flashy advertisements for indulgence.  When in actuality their crisp detail and luscious colors are subtle warning signs meant to be a reminder that as beautiful as life adornments may be they are equally as evanescent.  However do not think me a depressing fatalist.  Although my work in many ways serves as a reminder that all things must fade it also is a reminder that spring is always around the corner.

Featuring six artists on four outdoor printing stations “Impressive Four Arms” is an interactive printing experience. Participants can customize T-Shirts by choosing from the many designs available at each station. Austin’s up and coming designers Down Deep, Future Perfect, Holloway Art, GAT 5, Speakerbang, and Twin Villain will also have works and merchandise on display inside.

$5 recommended donation gets you a hand-printed poster

$10 donation gets you a hand-printed poster + a blank T-Shirt for customization

FREE ticket to Austin Museum of Art’s current exhibition HATCH SHOW PRINT with $10 donation! (limited to the first 100 donors)

Music provided by Dj Orion + Nathan Gt.

Photo-booth provided by Danielle Dawley (D’Monstrative Studios)

Food provided by mmmpanadas, gourmet empanadas

Oh, the craziness of love. Oh, the love of craziness.

"The Mellow Drama of the Love K/nots" is a celebration of the beauty as well as the absurdity I see in love, but it will be a beautiful mess, an obsessive compulsive, patterned collection of oddities. It will explore the fantasies and fallacies of love and loneliness.

We are all looking for love, and happiness… right? Sometimes the “love” we see and experience manifests as bad habits, addictive relationships and unhealthy ways of thinking. In movies like Twilight, codependency is seen as a truer version of love. With tabloids following celebrity couples, our culture is obsessed with relationships, scandal and drama. There are countless amounts of books explaining how to catch a guy, how to keep him, how to be happy in a relationship, how to stay married, how to be single. I will read all the relationship counseling books I can find between now and the show, without filtering, and analyze myself while I am planning this show. It’s a self indulgent, obsessive experiment, to compliment the indulgent, obsessive way our culture focuses on love and relationships.

Musical Act/Performance Art: “The Mellow Drama of the Love Knots”

(Experiment with Clare Scallon and Linky Dickson)

Aron Taylor will make use of Co-Lab to develop and exhibit work that involves satanic sculpture and box cutters. Over the course of a week the space will be transformed into an installation of terracotta-like totems made from cardboard, wheat paste, a Xerox machine, and various blades. Visitors are welcome to observe the process, but are encouraged to build with the artist, and to contribute copied images of their own bodies - adding to the materials that are mutilated and resurrected into a horrific combination of ourselves, organic material, and mass product.

The resulting sculptures are the evil twin of perfection. They are a dark, ritualistic celebration and destruction of ego. In trying to manifest oneness or completeness into a physical form, they look abject, visceral, and approaching entropy. They are the solid brown lumps that a child makes when she mixes all her food on a plate that is all going the same place anyway. They are constructed with a compulsive obsession for seeing the obscene. Yet that obsession becomes playful and satisfying when we watch our creative origins bubble to the surface for a moment before dissolving into itself.