JW Mark is a poet living in Sagamore Hills, Ohio. Among the publications to include his work are The Ampersand Review, Eunoia Review, The Midwest Literary Magazine, flashquake, and The North Chicago Review. He is the author of a novel, entitled Artifice, as well as a book of poems entitled Patched Collective. He can be contacted at jwmarkmail@gmail.com
Photographing the Dead: The History of Postmortem Photography from The Burns Collection and Archive Postmortem photography, photographing a deceased person, was a common practice in the 19th and early 20th centuries. These photographs, from the beginning of the practice until now, are special mementos that hold deep meaning for mourners through visually “embalming” the dead. Although postmortem photographs make up the largest group of nineteenth-century American genre photographs, until recent years they were largely unseen and unknown. Dr. Burns recognized the importance of this phenomenon in his early collecting when he bought his first postmortem photographs in 1976. Since that time he has amassed the most comprehensive collection of postmortem photography in the world and has curated several exhibits and published three books on the subject: the Sleeping Beauty series. Tonight, Dr. Burns will speak about the practice of postmortem photography from the 19th century until today and share hundreds of images from his collection.
FIRST BOOK BROOKLYN HOLIDAY PARTY & FUNDRAISER first book–brooklyn is a nonprofit organization dedicated to getting new books to children in need. join us tonight for their first annual holiday party and fundraiser.
SONIC: Sounds of a New Century (ONGOING)
SONiC – Sounds of a New Century – a brand new festival of 21st century music by more than 100 composers age 40 and under, will take over New York from Friday, October 14 through Saturday, October 22, 2011. Events will range from a daylong marathon to a DJ/VJ night, from a free symphony concert at the World Financial Center Winter Garden to collaborations between emerging choreographers and composers. SONiC concerts will take place at ten different venues throughout New York, and will include performances by 16 extraordinary ensembles featuring at least 18 world premieres, eight US premieres, and eight New York premieres. SONiC is co-curated by composer Derek Bermel and pianist Stephen Gosling, and is a production of American Composers Orchestra and The Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University. SONiC is presented in partnership with Carnegie Hall and Miller Theatre at Columbia University. New York Public Radio’s online radio station, Q2, is the media partner and digital venue.
Secret Science Club “Controlled Experiment SPECIAL EVENT: The Secret Science Club is teaming up with the Imagine Science Film Festival for “Controlled Experiment,” a night of science-inspired short films.
Vogt Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of contemporary German drawing, “Eyes Wide Shut,” featuring work by Jonathan Meese, Andy Hope 1930, Ralf Ziervogel, Hansjoerg Dobliar, Marc Brandenburg, Ulla von Brandenburg, Claudia Wieser, Bo Christian Larsson, and Florian Meisenberg. The exhibition brings together some of the most well-known German artists working in drawing today and is guest curated by Birgit Sonna, a Berlin-based writer and curator.
Dario Azzellini, Immanuel Ness & Victor Wallis
Capitalism would have us believe we need our bosses. This volume, edited by Immanuel Ness and Dario Azzellini, reveals the history of workers who dare to disagree. From the dawning of the industrial epoch, wage earners have gone so far as to challenge the very premises of the system by creating institutions of democratic self-management aimed at controlling production without bosses. With specific examples drawn from every corner of the globe and every period of modern history, this new book comprehensively traces this often underappreciated historical tradition.
SEE MORE EVENTS.
Starts at 36th Street & 5th Avenue, ends at Christopher & Greenwich Streets. Download the 2011 Route Map.
Sunday, June 26th, 2011, Steps off at 12 noon
NY Studio Gallery is pleased to present Al Wadzinski’s third solo show in New York. Wadzinski’s False Idols refer to the predominantly Judeo-Christian concept of idolatry, the worship of a physical object as a god. Here these carefully assembled icons are comprised of humanity’s abandoned cast-offs, the remnants of our bloated consumer culture now repurposed as inert fetish objects. The centerpiece of the exhibition revolves around a massive golden calf, referencing the Old Testament story, but this god-proxy’s body is a shopping cart filled with gold-painted bones, its undeniably bovine head an amalgam of odd parts ranging from boots to a Christmas tree stand. (READ MORE.)
LZ Project Space is pleased to present Convergent Evolution, a solo sculpture exhibition by Deborah Simon. Inspired by viewers miscatagorization of Simon’s animal sculptures, she began to group together her pieces along those lines – also known as convergent evolution. This exhibit contains both king penguins and northern fur seals, both animals that have arrived at seemingly alike solutions for locomotion despite coming from different and unrelated ancestries. Simon’s animals float between taxidermy, toy, and art object; their life-sized bodies represent hours of meticulous multi- processed work in the form of sewing, molding, and painting of their almost ethereal clay faces. (READ MORE.)
After the United States detonated an atomic bomb at Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, the U.S. government restricted the circulation of images of the bomb’s deadly effect. President Truman dispatched some 1,150 military personnel and civilians, including photographers, to record the destruction as part of the United States Strategic Bombing Survey. The goal of the Survey’s Physical Damage Division was to photograph and analyze methodically the impact of the atomic bomb on various building materials surrounding the blast site, the first “Ground Zero.” The haunting, once-classified images of absence and annihilation formed the basis for civil defense architecture in the United States. This exhibition includes approximately 60 contact prints drawn from a unique archive of more than 700 photographs in the collection of the International Center of Photography. The exhibition is organized Erin Barnett, Assistant Curator of Collections. (READ MORE.)
Ducks are sometimes confused with several types of unrelated water birds with similar forms, such as loons or divers, grebes, gallinules, and coots. The word duck (from Anglo-Saxon duce), meaning the bird, came from the verb “to duck” (from Anglo-Saxon supposed *ducan) meaning “to bend down low as if to get under something” or “to dive”, because of the way many species in the dabbling duck group feed by upending (compare Dutch duiken, German tauchen = “to dive”). Duck That were once seen in the same room as Paul Whiteman, although they’d deny it if asked. Angela Sawyer, electronics and game calls, etc… Josh Jefferson, reeds and game calls, etc… Steve Norton, reeds and game calls, etc…
Then Starting at 9, The Super Coda welcomes Yva Lass Vegass, Tooth and Wail, and The Molasses Gospel! They are all touring together. Come Support!
For over a century, Carnegie Hall rented affordable studios to residents like Marlon Brando, Paddy Chayefsky and Isadora Duncan. As a privileged tenant himself, director Astor began to record his neighbors, witnesses to decades of artistic history. But when the landlord served everyone with eviction notices for a conversion to offices, his project became a chronicle of the battle to save the apartments and their rich heritage. (READ MORE.)
The Witch’s Dungeon Cortlandt Hull with figure of his great uncle, Henry Hull, “The Werewolf Of London”
Friday, May 20th may be a dark and stormy night. Brave souls normally catch the coach at midnight from the Borgo Pass to access the lawless and far off lands of Bristol, CT, spoken about in hushed tones as the home of the Witch’s Dungeon. But on this rare occasion the stars have aligned and like the Baba Yaga’s chicken-footed cabin, the Witch’s Dungeon is coming to Observatory! (READ MORE.)
As part of the New York Public Library’s centenary celebration weekend, the Believermagazine will host “QNA: A Roundtable Discussion on the Art of the Interview,” featuring:
DICK CAVETT, legendary host of The Dick Cavett Show, which aired on ABC from 1968 to 1975 and on public television from 1977 to 1982, and author, most recently, of Talk Show: Confrontations, Pointed Commentary, and Off-Screen Secrets.
CLAUDIA DREIFUS, interviewer for the “Conversation with…” column in the Tuesday science section of the New York Times, former Playboy interviewer, and author of two books of interviews. She’s known for her unusual Q-and-A’s with heads of state, Nobel Prize winners, and quirky engineers. She was called by Dan Rather “one of the world’s great interviewers.” Her latest publication, with Andrew Hacker, is Higher Education?
KENNETH GOLDSMITH, editor of I’ll Be Your Mirror: The Selected Andy Warhol Interviews, and author of the underground classic Soliloquy, an unedited, 487-page transcript of every word, um, and yeah that came from his mouth during one week of his life.
LORIN STEIN, new editor of The Paris Review, the beloved source for some of the most in-depth interviews with writers published in the English language since the 1950s, collected in editions such as Writers At Work and The Paris Review Interviews series, he’s also the translator of Gregoire Bouillier’s The Mystery Guest.
There will be a short reading of a self-interview by the author and Saturday Night Live writer SIMON RICH, to be performed by actor PAULO COSTANZO, (of Royal Pains) followed by a presentation of playwright Darren O’Donnell’s relational theater piece, Q+A, in which the audience becomes both the interviewer and interviewee.
The event will be hosted by Believer interviews editors Sheila Heti and Ross Simonini.
This event is free but reservations are recommended. To reserve your spot via ShowClix, visit http://www.showclix.com/event/33344 or call 1.888.71.TICKETS.
Part two is more oriented toward cyclical issues of consumption and spectacle. It can be seen as the crescendo of the exhibition. Here, destruction assumes the more aggressive and dramatic character one might normally associate with it.
Among the works that more directly engage the question of consumption can be found Johannes Vogl’s absurd, homemade contraption Untitled (Machine To Produce Jam Breads, 2007) which produces pieces of bread with jam on them and thus addresses questions of overproduction and consequently waste. (READ MORE.)
Morgan Lehman Gallery is pleased to present, UNREST, a solo exhibition of new works by Andrew Schoultz. This is the artist’s third show with Morgan Lehman Gallery.
Andrew Schoultz’s UNREST stems from the artist’s continuing interest in issues of global turmoil and societal angst. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, The Japanese Earthquakes and the BP oil spill all fuel this new body of work. Rather than depict literal narratives of these events, Schoultz captures their essence using an ever-expanding arsenal of pictorial symbols. Billowing clouds of smoke create an “all-over” surface reminiscent of abstract expressionism and Op-art. These stylized clouds both unify the composition and veil the reality of the horrors depicted in the background. The obscuring impact that these clouds has on the images they hide may indicate the frustration Schoultz has with the partisan and misleading journalism the press has in disseminating information to the public. Other oft-repeated symbols include crumbling and exploding brick structures and monuments, the rearing horse, the all-seeing Masonic eye, and a lit candle set against green, yellow and red camouflaged backgrounds. The lit candle – a universal sign of hope and optimism-suggests that even in uncertain times the human spirit is nothing if not optimistic. These recurring symbols function as visual cues for a loose narrative the artist has constructed through previous bodies of work. Out of this narrative, Schoultz forms an historical construct that melds contemporary calamitous events with the broad sweep of Western civilization. (READ MORE.)
I am essentially driven by libidinal and anti-normative desires, coupled with sensitive and concerted attention to materials and to the mechanisms of visual perception. The objects I create both resonate with heroic and cynical strains of object making and seek to undermine these very strains with humility and sincerity.
Each work or series of works is created as a compulsive reaction to the burn of being alive and the spilling over of emotions that accompany the dogged difficulty of managing life. I intend to create visual signs or experiences that approximate the shocks and waves of living.
John McWhinnie at Glenn Horowitz Bookseller is pleased to announce our next exhibition, David Levinthal: Black Again. The show opens with a reception on May 19th, from 6-8pm, and runs through July 2nd, 2011. The exhibition is drawn from David Levinthal’s project Blackface, dating from 1995-1998, featuring blackface Polaroids and the original memorabilia, drawn from the artist’s personal collection, that are the Polaroid’s subject matter.
Levinthal’s collecting of black memorabilia evolved into Blackface, a stimulating and controversial body of work. The title, according to Levinthal, “makes reference to the many facades, poise and physicality of these figures.” The title is also taken from the name of a journal of a black film-making company and is a term referring to both blacks and whites. Traditionally associated with minstrelsy, these images were used to perpetuate negative stereotypes. Levinthal’s work was originally intended to be exhibited at Philadelphia’s ICA in 1997. However, the show was cancelled when it became a cause célèbre as a result of its controversial subject-matter. Subsequently, images from the series were exhibited at the International Center of Photography and at Janet Borden, Inc. in New York. This is the first time that the artist has exhibited this body of work with the original figurines and advertising that inspired the portraits. (READ MORE.)
Destroy All Monsters Sunday, May 22, 2011
12:00 PM to 4:00 PMVideo screening in the first-floor Main Gallery and 3pm book signingwith Cary Loren.In conjunction with the new publication, Destroy All Monsters Magazine 1976-1979, published by Primary Information, MoMA PS1 and D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers present a day-long screening of Shake a Lizard Tail, or Rust Belt Rump, a film created by the band for their 1996 Japanese tour. The film is a collage of horror exploitation videos, Detroit “Dance City” techno dancers, and late night WGPR television commercials of the 1980s. The commercials feature local Detroit landmarks such as Miley and Miley’s Shrimp Shack, the Club Watts Mozambique ladies club, and various funeral homes.
In 1973, the Detroit band Destroy All Monsters was a wild and reckless synthesis of psychedelia, proto-punk, heavy metal, noise and performance art. The collective hailed from Ann Arbor, Michigan, and consisted of Cary Loren, Mike Kelley, Niagara and Jim Shaw (with later members including Ron Asheton of the Stooges, Michael Davis of the MC5 and the Miller brothers of Mission of Burma). (READ MORE.)
Gamelan Dharma Swara w/ Momenta Quartet and Shahzad Ismaily Sun., May 22, 2011 / 7:00 PM
Gamelan Dharma Swara is dedicated to the study, performance and creation of traditional and new works for Balinese gamelan. Through performance and education, we bring Balinese gamelan to the widest audience and participant base possible, and we endeavor to perform with spirit, dedication and gratitude. We are a coalition of master Balinese artists and leading American composers, musicians and dancers. In residence at the Indonesian Consulate in New York, Dharma Swara regularly performs for a wide and multicultural audience in the greater New York City area. We have collaborated with Indonesiaʼs leading artists and have performed in the areaʼs top venues including: Lincoln Center, Asia Society, Japan Society, New York Philharmonic, the Met, Brooklyn Museum, Symphony Space, LaMama, and Columbia, Princeton, NYU and Yale universities. In 2010 the ensemble was invited to perform as the first non-Balinese group in the annual gong kebyar competitions at the Bali Arts Festival. (READ MORE.)
Click here to see an article on Gamelan Dharma Swara from the NYTimes
A green art workshop with artist and Hollow Earth Society co-founder Ethan Gould
Date: Sunday, May 22 Time: 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Admission: $15
Presented by the Hollow Earth Society
Part one of a four-part series
Post-apocalyptic arts & crafts survival skills workshops, you say!? That’s right: Creative-making for the improvisational, post-industrial future (and present). When the apocalypse comes, these definitely won’t be the first things you’ll need to know… but they’ll be on the list! In this workshop series, learn how to make beautiful objects you’ll actually use out of materials that would otherwise go to waste. (READ MORE.)
MORE:
3rd Ward’s Annual Birthday BBQ! SUCKLING PIGS and OLD FASHIONEDS W/EGG AND DART CLUB
with two suckling pigs and assorted accoutrements by Sam Sherman and John Dawson (applewood, Blue Smoke) and variations on the Old Fashioned cocktail paired by Justin Lane Briggs (applewood, barbes, James, Marie Belle) plus a bit of live music from Quince Marcum and local beers for cheap! from 4pm – 10pm just $10 a head. (15 Vanderbilt Ave, Brooklyn) SPECIAL FUNDRAISER FOR CRITICAL RESISTANCE AND THE BRECHT FORUM Some 40 years after uprisings at Attica and her own arrest, Angela Davis comes to Riverside Church in Harlem to build bridges around issues of austerity, prisons and global resistance. She will be joined in conversation by leading intellectual activists Ruthie Gilmore and Vijay Prashad. (READ MORE.) A Conference of Works: MODE, METHOD, MEDIUM @ UNIVERSITY OF THE STREETS GIGANTIC MAGAZINE INDOORS LAUNCH PARTY AT 285 KENT Rally to Save Our Seaport The ships, collection and galleries of the Seaport Museum New York are a valuable and irreplaceable part of our proud maritime heritage as well as a unique educational opportunity for New York City’s youth. They are at now serious risk of being lost, dispersed or destroyed. The museum galleries have been closed since March. The 2011 seasons of the museum’s working vessels have been cancelled. We need your help to ensure these historic resources are protected and continue to be available to the public in New York City. (READ MORE.)
Closed on Valentine’s Day, 2011, after 36 years of operation, Bowne & Co Stationers was a beloved re-creation of a small nineteenth-century printing and stationer’s shop in the South Street Seaport area of Lower Manhattan. Established in honor of one of New York City’s oldest and longest-running businesses, Bowne & Co. was a museum that did not look like a museum. It was a working press that still took custom orders, a destination for researchers and school groups, and a beautiful neighborhood shop that inspired passionate responses from visitors from around the world.
Now, as its parent institution, the Seaport Museum New York, struggles financially, the future of Bowne and its significant collection is uncertain and potentially at risk of disappearing altogether.
Friends of Bowne is a group of individuals who care about what happens to Bowne & Co. It is a public platform for sharing news, ideas, and support, in an effort to ensure Bowne receives the stewardship it deserves. Mainly, it is a way to keep the idea of the shop open, even as its doors are closed, because we believe the survival of Bowne & Co. will help make New York City a richer, more interesting place.
… But don’t just take our word for it! Comment with your own memories and impressions of Bowne on our blog. Tell us why you think it’s important that Bowne survive. Share thoughts, information, as well as feedback! Feedback is very, very welcome. Also feel free to contact the admins “offline,” if you’d rather, by emailing friendsofbowne@gmail.com.
Doug Clouse and Laura Koo Nicholas are the current admins for this blog. Doug was the shop’s master printer since June 2010 and a volunteer for four years before that. Laura began volunteering in November 2010. Both were present at Bowne on the afternoon that the Museum closed the shop.
SONIC: Sounds of a New Century
The 22 Magazine 
