Out of the mouth of babes...

intensification of intensity

As my personal landscapes became unattainable to me, the studio work became offensives in emergency retrieval of memories to prevent their further disappearance.  So I’m counting on photography, video and animation to assist in salvaging bits and pieces of scenes, things and sounds that define these landscapes the most.  There are people like me for whom places possess and emit an intensity that is sensate, emotional, and for some, perhaps philosophical, political.  Implicating media into this studio project is a furious intensification of this intensity.  

11/28 studio shares

It was really nice to participate in today's studio visits and see what everyone is working on. Ken's inner lives of paintings, Katrina's constellations/projections, Vikki's states of change and layers, Marci's story in a jar and peeled landscapes, Nell's grisage, my blackouts. Everyone is working very differently but I think it's really interesting that right now we're all working with ideas of transparency/opaqueness/layers/ghost images. Hmmm...

I'll raise you one...

Over the past weekend I was out in the New York City attempting street photography. I was on my way to China Town when I randomly stumbled onto a building where these people were playing strip poker; hey it is the city after all I thought.

I didn’t notice what was going on but I began snapping photographs of the crowd in front of me. What really attracted me at first were the curious faces of the public. There was a large crowd of people who were all staring into this building. There was a lot of curiosity to what was going on as all of these people were innocent pedestrians. I quickly took advantage of this moment and continued photographing all the reactions of the public crowd.

Each person there had a different reason for staring into these large opened windows. Most of them were plain dumbfounded as to why these men and women were naked while others were there for simple enjoyment. What I loved was the different types of people I saw and their reactions. Since this was New York City, there was a bunch of different types of people. Everyone had something different to say about themselves and what was going on. Even the passing cars driving the road noticed the event beyond these opened windows, some even yelled out their windows.

Among the crowd was Courtenay Finn, who explained to me that she knew these people playing strip poker. She explained to me that this is performance piece by Zefrey Throwell, and Courtenay is the curator. The people who were playing strip poker were friends of Zefrey and Courtenay and they are apart of the exhibition titled I’ll raise you one.

I’ll raise you one is a continuous strip poker game through opened windows. The game is held inside Art in General’s storefront, transforming it into this public absurdity where anyone is allowed to engage with voyeuristic freedom. After each game ends, everyone redresses and another game begins. This ritual is performed through out the workday from 10:30 am to 06:00pm daily. Anyone can view this exhibition through out this week until the 19^th be sure to check it out, I was lucky enough to run into it myself, oh and I saw Jake Gyllenhaal walking about too! Great weekend.

http://www.artingeneral.org/exhibitions/518

I’ll raise you one…

November 12 – November 19
10:30am-6:00pm Daily
Art in General storefront Project Space

79 Walker St. New York City

Photos by Kevin Hau.

Gallery Aferro, Closing Reception and Open Doors

Tonic for Aphasia

I'm afraid of aphasia. The act of listmaking is a tonic, affirming: I can think, I can write. While lists can sum up fears (bills, tasks, cons/pros) the act of writing itself nonetheless always works for me as a more primitive summing up of things: I can think, I can gather my thoughts (sane.)

Running for the hills!

(from left to right)
Emma Wilcox, Evonne Davis, Katrina Bello, Kylie Lefkowitz, Dahlia Elsayed, Marcy Chevali.

This has been a very exciting experience interning for Gallery Aferro. I have been interning for three weeks now and I am happy to say that everything is going well. I have been working with a lot of different artist already, many of which I quickly became friends with.

I first heard about Gallery Aferro through my school at Mason Gross, School of The Arts at Rutgers University in New Brunswick. I didn’t really know what to expect but I felt that Gallery Aferros’ internship in Social Media could really benefit me in my field. I have always appreciated art and over the years I have developed a visual arts background and continued with a concentration in design as a B.F.A undergraduate.

A lot of the work I do for Gallery Aferro involves the management of their Facebook updates, tweets on Twitter and uploads on YouTube. I occasionally post blog entries too as you can see! I have worked well before with video editing and my experience in design has really helped my work at Gallery Aferro. They seem to react strongly to my work and I appreciate the real world experience they offer me. I have been working really hard to be apart of this world and finally everything is coming together in this internship.

I work along side a man named Danny DeLiberato, who like myself is a Social Media intern at Aferro. Together we tackle all sorts of different projects our superiors want us to push out for their Gallery. He is an incredible asset to Gallery Aferro and a strong person to work with. Our first big project was the closing reception here at Gallery Aferro. Danny was able to put together a LIVE-POD-CAST of the performing art work done by Irvin Morazan.

Irvin Morazan performed an amazing ritualistic performing during the closing ceremony at Gallery Aferro. People all over the world were able to live stream his performance, which everyone was ecstatic about. I don’t want to give away too much in this post since we are working on his footage right now and that in itself will be a whole new post but we really excited with the video and how successful the live stream became. Irvin mentioned that his girl friend, who wasn’t able to make it to his performance that night, actually pulled over at a gas station and watched the live stream through her cell phone!

The night itself was really fun, I been wanting this for a long time and it is only going to get better. I met a ton of interesting people that night, and if I missed anyone you can always contact me! I am always happy to make new friends and look forward into meeting everyone who is interested in the arts.

Definitely keep up with our online channels; we will be pushing out a lot of work during our internship at Gallery Aferro. Many of the new friends I have made are studio residents at Gallery Aferro. I am very interested in interviewing the artist and everyone can get a better grasp of who everyone is soon.

Hope everyone enjoys our future post and video uploads!

My name is Kevin Hau, Facebook me!

Hyperallergic! Born this Way! Actual Artists Seen Within!

Dahlia Elsayed studio, from Hyperallergic


I was at a breakfast yesterday for arts and cultural organizations and Essex County elected officials at the Newark Museum's (awesome) Ballantine Room. I fear, and hate to think that I may have sounded as if I was being sarcastic, but with total and naked sincerity, I invited everyone to come to the gallery tomorrow, Saturday October 22, from 11-6 to meet the resident artists. Actual, living artists, who come in various genders, color, sizes, ages and temperments. Who have bills, jobs, sometimes kids, who drink the same coffee as other folks, drive the same roads...So now I may be being a bit sarcastic, but my point is that while sometimes being an artist means veering wildly off other life trajectories or otherwise being "different", we are not some tribe apart, and that a good place to start arts planning would be talking with some artists about Newark, and their experiences of the city. I mean this with total sincerity. Part of the values behind our education offerings at Aferro such as tours and Identity Blueprint are to demystify "what an artist looks like," and hopefully model that an artist can look like anyone. The residency is urban and open 24/7 to help make it accessible to all kinds of people, all kinds of people who are artists.

As with many issues, many of us begin to care about the arts either because we are artists (duh), or because we have kids who are creative. Many Gallery Aferro supporters have told me that they invest in the arts, volunteer, etc because their kids may end up growing up to be artists. A wonderful NJVLA lawyer who helped Aferro years ago told me that he volunteers his services because his child's drawings are at his desk, reminding him that, um, as they say, you're born this way. Parents the world over have learned that you can discourage the kid, but more often than not, you can't take the desire out of them. They will just keep painting/drawing/etc.

Anyway, please visit the studios tomorrow. The ENTIRE BUILDING will be open from basement to the 4th floor, and there is so much to do and see. And, yes, actual live artists will be there.

Live Stream of Irvin Morazan's Back to Brick City 8 PM Tonight

What are you doing tomorrow? Go to the Closing Reception and Performance by Irvin Morazan

Please join us for the closing reception of Personal Effects, Scabs, Bandages and Skeletons: Caroline Mak, Barbara Wallace: Facts and Figures, and GlassRoots: Collaborations with Matter on October 21, 7-10 PM.

At 8:00PM there will be a special performance , "Back to Brick City" by Irvin Morazan.

Feel free to investigate the exhibits and come enjoy the performance.

Personal Effects:
Personal Effects is a sprawling exhibition presenting the idiosyncratic, street art based collection of photographer Eric Wolfe, and featuring works by more than 65 international artists including SWOON, Banksy, Shepard Fairey, Faile, Bast, Kara Walker, Brian Eno, Claes Oldenburg and Anna Gaskell.

Scabs, Bandages and Skeletons:Caroline Mak:
By performing and enacting a series of repetitive transformative actions – whether it is painstakingly braiding and knotting length of tubing, or tearing and gnawing through slabs of foam – through the physicality of my actions, I bestow upon the material an ability to further decay, multiply or spread beyond its original confines. The systems that emerge in my installations contain references to disciplines ranging from topography, biology and the decorative arts. Natural processes are translated, reflected and re-created in my installations. In the process of construction, systems become apparent in the spaces they are assigned to, each self-contained worlds with their own inherent logic.

Barbara Wallace: Facts and Figures:
Sculptor Barbara Wallace’s spare, confrontational installation in the Liminal Space consists of two large scale sculptures representing the full-sized figures of a man and a woman, and a series of sculpted portrait heads based on the individuals from the artist's inner circle. The works are created in the faux-bronze technique that Wallace has mastered

GlassRoots: Collaborations with Matter:
Gallery Aferro and GlassRoots are proud to unveil an exhibition that includes works created by young artists, teaching artists and artist friends of GlassRoots. The exhibition takes inspiration from the three states of matter. At its most elementary level, matter is anything that takes up space. The states of matter refers to the three classical states that matter can take- gas, liquid and solid. Through a highly collaborative process, the works on exhibit represent the artists’ attempt to interpret and reflect the unique qualities of glass and its ability to be transformed into expressions of themselves in one or more of these states.

If you can't make it to Newark Irvin Morzan's performance will be streamed LIVE at 7:45pm. All you have to do is click the link below and Gallery Aferro will be streaming live on your computer. Don't miss out on any of the Closing Reception!
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/gallery-aferro

New Work/Newark

Jomar Statkun/Nadja Frank

Number two pencils.

Scabs, Bandages and Skeletons by Caroline Mak.

Among her pieces shown, the one titled “Peeled”, which consist of used pencil shavings, ask the reason of why was this done. It shows the previous life of the pencil as if an object had a life but how does an inanimate object have a life?

It is greatly interesting to see the pieces of the pencil shavings being put back together to create the new discombobulated Frankenstein creation of what it once was however. The visual design the line of each layer creates is very textural and snake like in appearance. This was definitely one of my favorite pieces.

I have always enjoyed artwork that is interesting and fundamentally interactive. Caroline’s art work captured me as the viewer in its space. The way everything was set allows me to be physically be immersed within their world.

Each of the pieces shown were set in a way where they were separate functional works of art that made you step around or through them which I highly enjoyed. I have always found that sculpture is not always just meant to be seen from one point of view but the entirety of it. It was great to understand the spatial structure of her work which in corporates the objects around them.

There were a wide variety of different techniques used by Caroline. On top of the series of sculptural objects she recorded a video of her work showing the futility and tediousness of her process. That in-it-self feels more of what she was going after.

“I attempt to show the absurdity and futility of my repair & reconstruction process, but ultimately creating a whimsical and humorous collection of objects that also speaks to the materiality of many of our second hand and discarded objects.” – Carol Mak

I agree perfectly with her description of her work. In an instant I noticed many of her materials used and related them to what I knew. I found a lot of it to be uplifting.

The show is still going on until October 23’rd, be sure to check it out.

-Kevin Hau, Social Media Intern @ Gallery Aferro

X

This is for the perfectly timed X theme...
X performing in Asbury Park, sounding amazing.

the body is our tool/wanting to see it

Ballet dancer Sarah Lamb on Degas. I like how she notices imperfect dance pose but acknowledges the possibility of either a changing art form or a tired dancer.

Wanting to see it:

I sometimes want to see representations of artists on film, and often am irritated with what I find. As with other subcultures (forgive the use of this term please) I think we sometimes embrace so-so movies because they at least represent us. (I can practically hear John Waters saying, and why should want that from the mainstream anyway???) What most of my students are exposed to are the music biopics, ie Ray, Cash, etc. Going back a bit further, Coal Miner's Daughter is a guilty pleasure. In all, the trajectory is tidied for maximum plot arc.

Specific to my medium, I'm always looking for good depictions of 4x5 photographers. And if for the purpose of this post we exclude both the super obscure and the documentary, where do the large format artists show up in the mainstream? I have to say, at least Jude Law's psychotic photographer character in The Road to Perdition was using his gear correctly.

Can anyone think of depictions of artists on film, dead on, terrible, or otherwise?

1 pm, 9/25/2011

1st group crit by the Fall/Spring 2011-12 Studio Residents

Agnes Martin Letter

This letter is on display at Pace in the Agnes Martin Grey Paintings show.

the text reads:

Dear Arnold:

I have only one worry in the world! It is that my paintings will show downtown and fail there. They will fail because they are non-aggressive – they are not even outgoing – in a competitive environment, with big displays of aggressive artwork.

With the dark paintings it was not bad because they do have some “force.” I did not get one compliment on that show, however!

The competitive environment is made by the huge audience of mostly young (ambitious) painters that are “making” the “scene!”

The “art scene” is really a lot of words put out by journalists. With its changing trends it bears very little relation to ART defined as part of the structure of social human life. I particularly do not want to be on the art scene. If you come on with the scene you go off with the scene. I want to stay away from it. It is downtown with these young artists. They are not like the students who do not yet think of “the market.” They are really wild.

I am deeply concerned about this. What I want is so far from the downtown scene, just a little room, just a few paintings contemplated quietly. Unaggressive paintings* unaggressive showings – just the opposite. It worked well in the past. Hoping you agree with me.

Agnes

PS: * for unaggressive collectors

Fervor

Faith exists in a vacuum. It’s the invisible we see, the nothingness we grasp, the silences that sing to us in all this terrible emptiness. 

The Word became flesh to take on the sins of the world - - -and somehow complicated things a little. Jesus Christ was a ghost in a shell, a human embodiment of the divine. But he also embodied a schism - - - supernatural/natural, body/soul, spirit/flesh. His physicality became the seeable, the graspable, the audible. The corporeal made corporal. And everything made in his image and in his name gains this totemic charge - - -the statuaries and rosaries and holy oils. But it’s not as if Catholicism is riven by all these polarities, more like it feeds off them, it’s faith as talisman and ritual - - - visceral, theatrical, sensory. And tactile - - -there’s this mania for the tactile. Something to touch and be touched by, if you will, manifested in this almost hysteric exuberance, this mad ecstatic frenzy. It’s as if the commune between human and divine had taken on a tinge of the carnal. 

Who knows where devotion ends and hysteria begins - - -and is there a difference between the two? But could there be more than just some pidgin iteration of faith here? More than just blind fealty? Could there be,perhaps, a genuine and deep-seated longing? Touch these facsimiles of divinity and something happens - - - a transfer of energies, a crackle of transcendence, a brush with divinity itself. In their profound hollows exist vacuums, after all. These vacuums that are the muck of insatiable mysteries. Imagine what awaits anyone tapping into them. What invisibilities we’ll see, what nothingness we’ll grasp, what silences will sing to us.

Fervor: A Study of the Black Nazarene, 2009-2011

a collaboration by Katrina Bello (video) and Dodo Dayao (text)

lane cooper: somnibus

in the interests of sharing ...

one of my various projects ...

somnibus

an ongoing anthology of oneiric poetry ...

Hive Culture

This show looks great, and features alumni Anonda Bell.

what they ask

People are always asking artists about real estate. If I start talking about this I'm going to have to talk about Richard Florida, and I'm not up for that today. But I'm happy to share this interview with alumnus Walter Zimmerman.

"The challenges, I think, arise not from the locale, but from larger cultural biases, prejudices and misconceptions about art and art-making. I call it the Van Gogh model — the idea that artists are unstable and that their art is a product of that instability. To the contrary, I think art is a manifestation of great mental and physical vigor and coordination, and I find making art to be a grounding, sanity-saving activity."

HANDS

My father worked in the logging industry when I was a child. He was one of eleven children from a Catholic family in rural New York. In some ways my father was a difficult man, in other ways he was kind and light hearted. My father had large, hard hands. The deep calluses and meaty fingers frightened me, I did not want my hands to look as worn as his. Of course in retrospect those hands were the result of the hard work he performed and loved. Now that he is gone I think about his hands often in the studio when I am working with tools he left me. His hands and his laugh, mostly his hands.

HANDS - last call

She's A Talker

continuing the spread of this piece by Neil Goldberg

mark making

Mark making is something I care about, as a reader and artist.

New Australian passports allow a third gender option, which is "X". My initial reaction to this was pleasure that at least one country in the world is doing something progressive. But my mind kept wandering to X as "blank" somehow conceptually. I also was thinking about X as a substitute, as in signing with an X, and leaving it as a variable. Evonne pointed out the X is the unknown.

On a humanistic and practical level, I'm thrilled about this new development and the only people whose opinion really matters, I think, are the bearers of such passports. But in honor of this news item I'm suggesting X as a totally open ended blog topic for the next month.

"Australians have been given a third choice when describing their gender on passport applications, under new guidelines aimed at removing discrimination.

Transgender people and those of ambiguous sex will be able to list their gender as indeterminate, which will be shown on passports as an X.

People whose gender was different from that of their birth were previously required to have reassignment surgery before they could change their passport to their preferred sex.

An Australian senator, Louise Pratt - whose partner was born female and is now identified as a man - said the reform was a huge step forward.

"There have been very many cases of people being detained at airports by immigration in foreign countries simply because their passports don't reflect what they look like," she told Australian radio.

"It's very distressing, highly inconvenient and frankly sometimes dangerous."

Governors Island Art Fair

Every Friday, Saturday & Sunday in September, 4heads present

The Governors Island Art Fair

Friday - 11 AM to 4 PM

Saturday & Sunday - 11 AM to 6 PM

Run by artists, for artists, The Governors Island Art Fair enters its 4th year this fall as 4heads rally an exciting and diverse selection of artists from around the world. Well over 100 independent artists are selected entirely on the merit of their work and, once chosen, each is given a room of their own in which to create an exhibition environment of their own design. A selection of galleries are exhibiting in the Fair as well and, this summer for the first time, 4heads are also offering art workshops and artists' studio residencies beginning in June. For more information visit www.4heads.org.

 Naomi Campbell created a beautiful arch of fans.  The imagery on the fans revealed itself to me after a few minutes of standing amongst them.  Her installation is even more dramatic in person than in the photograph.

 Andrew Harrison referenced the history of the area.  The shapes were collected during a walking tour of Manhattan.  You'll have to visit to hear the sound component!

Einet Imber created a beautiful cave drawing that you can view from inside or outside.

Although Molly Sawyer's sculptures are rather simple shapes, they are able to capture so much emotion.  She uses a lot of natural materials, sheep wool, wood, moss, I love her pedestals.  Her studio is in Jersey City so be sure to check it out during open studios while you're visiting Aferro!

Here are some images from my attic space.  The buildings on Governors Island haven't been used in years and as a result, paint is peeling, there are stains and some rooms have torn up floor boards.  I was particularly pleased with the character of my three little rooms.  I wonder how the salt and the thread will change over the coarse of the month.

While you're enjoying Governors Island, stop by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council gallery http://www.lmcc.net/spaces/building_110_on_governors_island and Gallery Ell http://galleryell.com/home.html in Nolan Park.