Filed under: ART, DESIGN, INTERVIEWS, WHERE (we) LIVE, WOOD | Tags: 19th, 20th, 21ST, 22, 22nd, BAM, brooklyn, december, funiture, interview, live, magazine, new, prview, the, valencia, victoria, we, where, with, woodworking, york
On Dec 19-22nd So Percussion will combine the wonderfully unique voices of Ain Gordon, Greg Mcmurray, Martin Schmidt, and Emily Johnson with an alternating artistic “performer” each night to creatively explore the idea of a home onstage in Where (we) Live at Brooklyn Academy of Music. Artists will include, Paula Greif (ceramics), Marsha Trattner (blacksmith), Ricardo Vecchio (painter), Victoria Valencia (woodworker.) These performances are part of BAM’s 30th Next Wave Festival.
PREVIEW INTERVIEW WITH VICTORIA VALENCIA
By Nell Whittaker
THE 22: I wondered if you could expand a little on how you treat disused spaces and how you approach the challenge of trying to fill them with something suitable.
VICTORIA VALENCIA: A disused space to me; a space you want more from. Sometimes you want a space to hold a feeling, a purpose. Sometimes that purpose is function. Function of a piece can come in many forms. To be pleasing to the eye, hold a feeling or memory, to sit on, rest and think, have a meal, a drink, or get to work. I make things that fill those spaces. My work holds stories, those of its life before this form, marks from who used them before. The stories of why these trees have fallen.
22: Your designs are like a meeting between the natural and the man-made. If the raw materials you use dictate the shape of your final product (‘ the imperfect intentions of [the] varied sourced material’), what purpose does the man-made serve?
VV: I respect its original form, not trying to make it too different. The raw materials are beautiful in themselves. A slab of tree can tell you why it fell or how fast it grew, marks of age. The raw material is nature’s art. The me-made is my art. Its my compliment to the nature.
22: What affect does Brooklyn have on what you create?
VV: I love this place. I use the wood from old watertowers. I use trees that grew in Brooklyn and fell in Brooklyn. I ride my bike through its streets and find inspiration.My friends and fellow artist in Brooklyn inspire me.
22: What is unique about your creative process – what do you think will make it interesting to an audience who has no familiarity already with your work?
VV: I work backwards sometimes…sometimes, I have the material before the design. I have a stack of wood that I’ve collected and been given. I get inspired and it moves forward. If I design (think too much) nothing happens.
22: On the other hand, do you think the audience or the atmosphere will affect what you are creating on the night itself?
VV: Yes. I have ideas of what I can do on that Saturday night, but no plan. I may just be handplaning the whole time. Working a rough piece towards a finished state.
22: Do you have a clear idea of what it is you will make at the show?
VV: Something with wood since it would be a bit complicated to weld on stage. My clear idea is I want to be comfortable, I want to have fun, I want to play.
22: Do you think that being self-taught has enabled you to work without restrictions?
VV: Its enabled me to be in my process. I learn something and I work at it until I feel I’ve improved. Then I move on to the next skill. I’m learning slow but well. I learn what intrigues me, while bypassing the “shoulds.” I learn from the materials, my peers and my experience.
22: What impact do you think a conventional education in furniture making would have had on your work?
VV: I wouldn’t have had the experiences I’ve had. I wouldn’t have lived in many places and found my passion through my love for challenges. I would have judged myself because I am not a traditional classroom student. I probably would know more design history. I would be been more in debt and felt like I need to make my work rather than want to.
Filed under: ART, INTERVIEWS, MUSIC, WHERE (we) LIVE | Tags: 19, 22, 22nd, brooklyn, Dec, greg, interview, live, magazine, mcmurray, new, Percussion, preview, so, the, we, where, with, york
On Dec 19-22nd So Percussion will combine the wonderfully unique voices of Ain Gordon, Greg Mcmurray, Martin Schmidt, and Emily Johnson with an alternating artistic “performer” each night to creatively explore the idea of a home onstage in Where (we) Live at Brooklyn Academy of Music. Artists will include, Paula Greif (ceramics), Marsha Trattner (blacksmith), Ricardo Vecchio (painter), Victoria Valencia (woodworker.) These performances are part of BAM’s 30th Next Wave Festival.
PREVIEW INTERVIEW FROM SO PERCUSSION
By Nell Whittaker
The 22: You have already experimented with industrial sounds in your music and now this project is very much to do with the connection between art/creation and music. What is it about the two which makes them agree with each other so well?
Jason Treuting: I think we think of process very much when we think of this piece. The long process we went through to put it together and the fact that every time it is on stage it looks a bit different because some of the process of creation is real time and different each time are both really important to the core of the piece. It is about making things with people and that interaction is what makes up a community, a home, etc. A different artist will be on stage each night making something new with us or by us or around us and our collaborator Emily Johnson sits on stage each evening and draws different things out of the piece each night by giving us notes to follow. It is a wild experience where much of the creative process is given up to collaborators and guests in the moment. I guess I actually feel like this piece is more about something poetic and less married to the exploration of sound or maybe the exploration of sound is meant to serve a more poetic purpose. In the past, explorations of sound, industrial or otherwise, have been what the whole process was about.
22: How does the city affect your creative process generally?
JT: I definitely have a love hate relationship with this city. t brings energy. It makes me want to work and explore my art. It keeps me moving forward creatively. But…it brings a crazy energy. It makes me work crazy hard and it keeps me moving forward very quickly. Two sides of the same coin, but it is a serious balancing act. In the end, I can’t imagine making art anywhere else right now and I think So owes a lot of its creative energy to the community we are directly and indirectly connected to and this project has been about expanding that community, both to different artists/mediums but also to different geographic communities as well.
22:What selection process did you use to work with the artists involved with the show? What were you looking for?
JT: The process was really organic. We have spent longer creating this project than any of the other evening length projects that we’ve created, like Music for Trains or Imaginary City. The beginning seed was expanding the types of artists we were bringing in to the creative process in hopes that we would be pushed to new places. This meant very informally asking some friends or artists we respected to send video or ideas to contribute.
With Grey Mcmurray, we had played with him lots before. He recorded on Amid the Noise and had sat in on many projects and some of the more improvised forms we started with were easy to bring him in to. But we developed a new relationship with him as a songwriter and that came really slowly. By the end, there are four songs on the record that were co-written in ways that were new for all of us.
With Martin Schmidt, we had collaborated with his duo, Matmos, over a long period of time and are using his video work from that context. He started by sending us videos of him performing in different rooms of his house. These videos were great to write music to and slowly made there way out of the project in favor of shorter art video clips from material gathered in each of our homes. In the end, we found a way to work them in and much of the music transformed through that process as well.
With Emily Johnson, she sent two videos early on that we wrote music to. One was dance in a slightly more traditional sense with two female dancers in a space. The second was from a series she has been working on of face dances—close-ups that deal with facial expressions and instructions to the performers on why/how to make an expression. The idea of the instructions became key and her role evolved into an on stage director of sorts that can give us instructions to inform movement or space or something psychological/emotional.
All of these three collaborators are folks whose work we had respected and loved, but hadn’t worked with them in that way before. And we relied on a new collaborator, Ain Gordon, to kinda pull it all together as a director of this incredibly abstract script.
22: How have you approached this project in comparison to how you’ve approached those in the past which have been solely about the music? What have you had to do differently?
JT: I feel like we have been thinking of things in a larger way for a while now. We always try to think of ways to make the experience about more than just sound, whether that means adding video to moments, getting the audience involved in the performance or just presenting the music on stage in a way that is interesting in a visual way as well. That said, this does feel like the biggest step we have taken to explore all of these elements. Text/words have made their way into the show as a core element along with video and movement and the idea of putting the creative process on display in some way. I think what we did differently was give ourselves time to explore and the freedom to fail—which we did often—and then pushed ourselves through the dead ends to new places. We are proud of what we arrived at. It feels like a collective work that is about all of us and that feels real good.
Where (we) Live Trailer from Eric Bradley Beach on Vimeo.
Filed under: ART, CERAMICS, INTERVIEWS, SCULPTURE, WHERE (we) LIVE | Tags: 19-22nd, 2, BAM, BAM next wave festival, brooklyn, Dec, greif, interview, live, magazine, new, paula, preview, we, where, with, york
On Dec 19-22nd So Percussion will combine the wonderfully unique voices of Ain Gordon, Greg Mcmurray, Martin Schmidt, and Emily Johnson with an alternating artistic “performer” each night to creatively explore the idea of a home onstage in Where (we) Live at Brooklyn Academy of Music. Artists will include, Paula Greif (ceramics), Marsha Trattner (blacksmith), Ricardo Vecchio (painter), Victoria Valencia (woodworker.) These performances are part of BAM’s 30th Next Wave Festival.
PREVIEW INTERVIEW WITH PAULA GREIF
By Nell Whittaker
The 22: Do you go into the studio with an idea in mind or do you see what comes to you?
Paula Greif: I work from drawings. I see shapes I like and try to build my versions of them out of clay. My original motivation was to remake everything I had in my kitchen by hand. I took a ceramics class on Columbia street in Red Hook. These are the first things I made. I look at a lot of folk pottery and try to keep things simple and graphic. I was a graphic designer and it is hard for me to go outside the lines.
22: You mention on your website that you listen to the trevor wilkins calypso radio show while you work. do you notice your mood or the music you listen to directly affecting what you create?
PG: I don’t listen to a lot of recorded music but I love DJs like Trevor Wilkins. His obsession with the details and the history are right up my alley. It’s live radio that I love. The Trevor Wilkins show is very emotional and comforting and also quite funny. Its the music of a diaspora. The way he presents the songs and shouts “we’re going home!” It’s a deeply brooklyn kind of show. When I am alone and working, he keeps me company at night and makes me laugh out loud in the studio. I can’t say enough about that show! I also listen to Felix Hernandez Rhythym Review religiously on Saturdays and Sundays when I am working. Felix is another DJ that plays music that always hits me on an emotional level. Every song he plays just knocks me out. Sometimes to the point of distraction! I love his worldview. Something about these guys, these completists, who live their lives around a very specific musical period, their enthusiasm is completely heartwarming and rollicking.
22: What is it that you think makes your artwork work alongside music?
PG: Actually I was shocked to get a call from So Percussion. I’ve been listening to the sounds in my shared ceramic studio like water splashing, dripping, sounds spinning of the wheel, wedging the clay is all very rhythmic…and these sound are general to most makers of things. Workaday stuff really, in the best sense.
22: Equally, do you think opening up your creative process to the audience will affect what you are creating on the night itself? Or do you have a clear idea of what it is you will make?
PG: I’m hoping to make the biggest things I can so the process can be seen and understood. I am planning to throw in sections and build composited pieces and paint with slip and colored oxides. Time is a big part of ceramics…things have to be dry but not too dry. I am trying to figure out what can happen in an hour that feels rhythmic and makes good sounds and looks cool.
22: The idea underlying this project is that of a strong sense of place Brooklyn being home for all the artists involved. Your ceramics however look as if they have been influenced by natural objects (for example, the spoon with the handle that looks like a branch or antlers.) How does the city influence your work?
PG: The natural world does not affect my work at all! I’m an urban potter…my heroes are Lucie Rie and Hans Coper, both Viennese refugees to London during World War ll…but I also look at a lot of useful and simple folk pottery…mostly at the Met and the Brooklyn museum. I’m a brooklyn native, I was born in brighton beach and I took my first art classes at the Brooklyn museum when I was a child. I am attracted to the primitive and basic rather that the natural. Maybe because I’m not that skilled of a potter. I’m really new at it. As a designer i’m always trying to control my environment. I have to let go of the fantasy of better living through design. Better living that comes from soulfulness and humility, not stuff, but I do like the feeling of drinking a glass of wine from a cup I made myself.
Filed under: ART, INTERVIEWS, PREVIEWS, WHERE (we) LIVE | Tags: 19th, 20th, 21ST, 22, 22nd, BAM, brooklyn, Dec, interview, live, magazine, new, preview, riccardo, the, vecchio, we, where, with, york
On Dec 19-22nd So Percussion will combine the wonderfully unique voices of Ain Gordon, Greg Mcmurray, Martin Schmidt, and Emily Johnson with an alternating artistic “performer” each night to creatively explore the idea of a home onstage in Where (we) Live at Brooklyn Academy of Music. Artists will include, Paula Greif (ceramics), Marsha Trattner (blacksmith), Ricardo Vecchio (painter), Victoria Valencia (woodworker.) These performances are part of BAM’s 30th Next Wave Festival.
PREVIEW INTERVIEW WITH RICCARDO VECCHIO
By Nell Whittaker
The 22: Portrait painting is often thought of as a sort of intimacy between the artist and his subject. How did you initially respond to the idea of opening that up to an audience?
RV: I was terrified. At the same time, because it will be a new experience for me, I am curious to see how it will influence my process. I am sure the company of the musicians will make me feel at ease.
22: What similarities would you draw between your creative process and music? What do you think links visual artwork (in particular, your artwork) to music?
RV: Perhaps because I am also a drummer, and because I frequently paint while listening to music, I find the process very similar. Especially with percussion instruments, I find the ebb and flow of the rhythm analogous to the way I paint. The accumulation of details and contrasting empty spaces in painted surface mimic the acceleration and deceleration of a beat.
22: Do you think the audience or the atmosphere will affect what you are creating on the night itself? Or do you have a clear idea of what it is you will make?
RV: While a part of the painting will be planned out ahead of time, some parts will be blank and left to be finished during the performance. The final result will certainly be affected by the evening’s performance. It will be interesting to deal with the unpredictability of a fairly short performance. It will be crucial to quickly recognize and save “happy painting accidents,” and quickly paint over a mistake which could potentially lessen the final effect.
22: What is it that you think makes your artwork work alongside music?
RV: I think all artwork can work alongside music. If we are talking about my work in particular, I feel there is almost a structural similarity to my paintings and to the way music looks in written form. The disassembled architectural structures I often use in my work remind me of the dance of notes, keys, time signatures, ornaments and clefs on the staff lines.
22: Do you listen to music as you paint? If so, what music helps to put you in the “right” frame of mind for painting?
RV: I frequently listen to music while I work. But depending on the stage of completion of the piece I might vary the music. For example, in the beginning of a piece I might listen to more orchestral music, while at the end stages I’m more likely to gravitate to music with single instruments and no vocals at all. Almost an anachronistic dynamic. The emptier the canvas the louder and richer the music, the richer fuller the canvas the quieter and minimal the music.
Filed under: ART, BOOK REVIEWS, WRITING | Tags: 75, artists, books, chronicle, How, Illustrate, Mysteries, of, science, the, the wondrous, where, why
A rather beautiful art object (and read) from Chronicle books, The Where, Why and How: 75 Artists Illustrate Wondrous Mysteries of Science brings together 75 artists with 75 academics and scientists to contribute short synopses of the mysteries of science including things like, “Are there more than 3 dimensions?” “Why don’t animals atrophy during hibernation?” “Do rogue waves exist?” and more socially prevalent questions like “What Causes Autism?” and “Is Sexual Orientation Innate?” Each image is paired with an illustration or artwork by professional and emerging artists. Though not much variety in artistic styles, the penchant towards illustration was interesting and the design itself, done by ALSO (the designers of The Exquisite Book and Drawn In) is truly impressive. Some of the standout pieces include John Hendrix, Lauren Nassef, Ben Finer, Dave Zackin, and Edie Fake.
Check out some photos below and pick up a copy HERE.
Filed under: THE WEEK/THE WEEKEND | Tags: 2012 Brice, 75, a, A. Getting, Allyson, an, and, artists, Atheist, Beiser, book, Bred Marcin, Britain INTIMATE, brown, by, CD, Chief A, Choir STAR, Cienski Maya, Commander, Conference, david, Doktor, dow, ELSEWHERE Mamie, evening, Fairouz Ukulele, from, Geography, gospel, great, Heavens, HOMUNCULUS The, How, Illustrate, in, It PROJECT, jason, Land Brian, Launch, lisa, Marino, Minch Bruce, Mitchell The, modern, Mohammed, MUSIC Dollshot, Mysteries, new, of, orchestra, poetry, postcard, premiere, quartet, Release Borromeo, REPPERT Selected, Science Armando, Science Miracles, shorts, Strafella ALEX, SYSTEMS Brooklyn, the, Tolle, trio, trombone;, WASTE, where, why, with, Wondrous, works, Yorkshire
LISA 2012 from Blind Escrow Productions on Vimeo.
LISA Conference 2012
Peter B Lewis Theater: The Guggenheim Museum
Tuesday, October 16, 2012 from 8:00 AM to 11:45 PM
LISA 2012 is the Leaders in Software and Art conference at the Guggenheim in New York City, Tuesday October 16th, 2012. We’ll have keynote speeches from Laurie Anderson, pioneering electronic artist, and Scott Snibbe, creator of Bjork’s Biophilia App, and panels on crowdsourced and social media art and the popular generative art toolkits openFrameworks, Processing, Cinder and Max/MSP. If you work with or care about new media, technology and interactive art, there’s still time to buy a ticket. Come meet and get inspired by some of the top artists and art experts in the field.
Filed under: FILM/VIDEO, VIDEO WEEKEND | Tags: after, alchemy, atom, auger, come, from, hardy, hiraoka, life, Loizeau, masanobu, mato, seiler, things, way, where
Where things come from from Hardy Seiler on Vimeo.
way from masanobu hiraoka on Vimeo.
Life (Alchemy) from Mato Atom on Vimeo.
Afterlife from Auger-Loizeau on Vimeo.
Filed under: POETRY, WRITING | Tags: 1, 22, art, artist, artists, arts, brigando, brooklyn, light, terra, the, was, where, york
By Terra Brigando
In the split second stitching when night greets the dawn, in that
seam, is where the pain resides. Shining white as teeth, this enamel
stutters open the day, creaks open this guilt. We sing as miniature
stuntman, flinging our bodies through the apologies of the afternoon,
the slight off-kilter yawning of space in the blue, blue sky. Sling
madness through evening, dust off that fine linen. The rooms we reside
in now we call home. Through the opening of atoms at nightfall,
splitting off of cells, we create what we do not know in the
moonlight. Tell your lovers to quit forsaking the dawn and your family
to carry forward the dead humbly and with purpose. For it’s our love
basking there in the streetlights; it’s your jaw that’s wishing
forward these words.
Terra Brigando recently received her Masters in English and Creative writing from Mills College. Her previous work can be found or is forthcoming in Fogged Clarity, apt, decomP, FourtyOunceBachelors, Chamber Four, and Word Riot.
Filed under: THE WEEK/THE WEEKEND | Tags: 2, 22, a, artist, artists, arts, been, BOTANICA Simone, brooklyn, Brosnan, bruce, cage, cecilia, Christine, Deaths, dont, Eberhardt, Ellen, evening, experimental, far, forum, from, gift, girl, harvey, has, hear, her, HOU, IGLESIAS, Isabelle, know, lab, ladies, Leigh, lisa, little, LIVES, magazine, Mazzoli, me, Missy, Mouth, MURALism, Museum, music, new, north, now, NUDIST, ny, nyc, occupy, of, part, reading, recent, remember, Run, see, shop, song, the, THULE, tom, Transmitted, tribes, Tyler, ULTIMA, Uproar, VISSERS, Vlahovich, we, week, weekend, where, work, york, you
EDITOR’S PICKS:
Bruce Brosnan: See, hear, remember/Tyler Vlahovich: recent work
http://www.featureinc.com/
02/15/2012-03/18/2012
12pm-6pm
Bruce Brosnan began exhibiting with Feature Inc. in 2000 and See, hear, remember is his fourth one-person exhibition witht he gallery. He lives and works in Brooklyn, has a BFA from Maine College of Art (19915) and an MFA from Hunter College (1998), which is where I first saw his inspired installations. Tyler Vlahovich has a BFA (1989) from California Institute of the Arts and lives and works in Los Angeles. This recent work is his third one-person exhibition with the gallery and coincidentally, we also began working together in 2000.
BOTANICA
http://thisisbotanica.com/
02/22/2012-02/25/2012
8pm-9:30pm
BOTANICA is a creepy futuristic black comedy that examines our complicated relationship to plant life. Sealed in a human terrarium, two unorthodox botanists and a caretaker with a penchant for erotic literature unleash a flood of unusual findings and overturn the constraints of science and social norms. Riotously lush” and “a perverse kick.” -New York Times “Sex, drugs, and
botany? Plants will never seem the same after Jim Findlay’s BOTANICA, an original, mesmerizing, and disturbing piece of experimental insanity.” Flavorpill “If you’ve had your fill of tame/lame Broadway shows, are a fan of Sci-Fi, and happen to have dendrophilia, this show is perfect for you.” Papermag “If you’re into what’s probably the most expertly sculpted piece of weirdness in town, then I assure you, BOTANICA’s got the goods.” NYtheatre.com
Opening Party
facebook.com/uncannnyvalleynyc
02/24/2012-02/25/2012
7:30 pm -1:00 am
UNCANNY VALLEY OPENING PARTY February 24, 7:30 p- 1:00a// $10 …In which we open up the floodgates. Join us to celebrate the official opening of Uncanny Valley as a public venue! This is a fundraiser for the space, to ensure that we are warm and well-lit in throughout the winter! Uncanny Valley, our new performance and art project space, will open with a party to benefit and celebrate the space. The party will feature performances from partners and residents, including a glimpse of “The Golden Veil”, the new show from The National Theater of the United States of America, new songs from Balkan no-wave band The Drunkard’s Wife, a play from Williamsburg’s Dome Theater, Lisa Ludwig’s Art Neighborhood installation, and much more! The event takes place at 26-09 Jackson Avenue (at 44th road, near the Court Square station) from 7:30 pm to 1:00 am on Friday, February 24, 2012. HERE IS A MAP: http://g.co/maps/k5p84
Filed under: MUSIC, REVIEWS | Tags: 22, a, andasol, art, artist, artists, arts, ash, black buffao., brooklyn, Choctaw, clarke, Darkturnofmind, factory, gallery, Greatness, in, it, knitting, magazine, Misery's, Murph, new, Nightlife, ny, Pasture, Pilgrim's, Pleases, records, Slut, Strikes, Sun, surf, surreal, Tennessee, the, Tulsa, walk, where, york
A town. A disturbing West. A repeated chime. A running flute motif.
(To soothe the incredibly strange journey?)
LISTEN TO “GO’ WAY OLD GHOSTS.”
I began my exploration of Andasol via a Twin Peaks marathon and a nasty cold but three weeks later (cough syrup and owl references aside) the album itself seems an attempt to document the story of a mythology, prominent and haunting, which (on some level) should avoid any comparison to Badalamenti save for perhaps, “Heron Lake.”
There have been discussions and debates about the origins of the tunes, a cryptic reference in the liner notes led me on a month long search for a (to be determined) Southwestern mystic, but then, I watched the documentary Jay contributed music to, Marwencol…and things became clear.
Filed under: ART | Tags: 2011, 22, 6, Alan, are, art, artist, artists, arts, august 6th, brooklyn, cavern, gallery, installation, living, magazine, michael, neon. kenny's cosmic, new, ny, nyc, painting, performance, surreal, the, things, where, wild, york
Filed under: ART, SUPPORT THIS PROJECT! | Tags: 22, and, art, artists, brooklyn, gallery, heart, home, is, london, magazine, martyn, new, ny, nyc, painting, photographer, photography, Sensual, surreal, syndeny, the, thompson, where, york
I’ll be devoting some of this week and the next to showcasing some of the amazing artists that make up The Secret City . They need funding for the new season and I’m pretty convinced once you see what’s in store, you’ll want to give it to them. Donate if you can and enjoy!
About Martyn Thompson:
Martyn Thompson is a groundbreaking photographer of still-life’s and interiors.
Born in London and raised in Sydney, Thompson studied fine art and literature at Sydney University. After finishing school in 1982, he visited New York City, and this trip made a lasting impression: the music, the clubs, but mostly, the city and its people.
