iliansolis09-blog

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Rachel De Joode

Rachel De Joode a Dutch-born multimedia artist that makes weird and funny things out of random stuff making them 3-dimensional.  She pulls her ideas from a well-worn household items, faux finishes, gags, props and food, leaving us to tease out hidden meanings that don’t always exist. She explores for their material agency, not only their communication with us but with each other and their context.

In her art works, skin plays a central role in ‘The Molten Inner Core’. She has said that the average human adult carries roughly 2kg of dead skin, the surface of which is shedding every two weeks. That layer is therefore useful to De Joode when understanding a physical interaction between things, and investigating when a thing changes form.

She also uses food a lot in her works. She has stated that “Food is omnipresent in human existence, which is what I like about it. It’s a primal and common element, which makes it something that anybody can relate to as a signifier.” (Bullet.com). A chicken for her embodies consumption, globalization and production. De Joode didn’t want to take a political stance with it so she pointed out the oddity and melancholy of humans turning a bird into an inanimate object that’s mass-produced and distributed.

Aside from that her other other works, ‘White Pedestal Thing’ and ‘Sculpted Human Skin in Rock’ explores the co-dependence and understanding of pedestal and sculpture. Each object is acting in a non-hierarchical grouping, a print, the ink, the frame, the floor, a pedestal, a sculpture and even the artist herself retains a potential to become (melt into) another thing.

For her to achieve this look of randomness, De Joode relies on blending sculpture and photography, while arranging, documenting and dismantling her creations. The process reveals a tension between the physical life of an artwork and its afterlife in cyberspace. 

RACHEL DE JOODE    NETHERLANDS

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Bienal De Cuenca

Located in Cuenca, Ecuador, the Bienal de Cuenca first opened more than two decades ago with the intentions of involving a vision of Latin America. The first exhibitions were exclusively paintings but as time progress the exhibition expanded to different types of media and representing the Bienal to the whole country.  With expanding their Bienal, they were able to receive art from around the world and presenting that vision of contemporary art. Now, the Bienal de Cuenca joins the other nearby biennals that exhibit events of Latin America and the Caribbean.

The 12th Bienal de Cuena is exhibiting Ir Para Volver from March 28 through June 27, 2014. This exhibition describes the physical and temporary absence while highlighting the state of movement as the key aspect. They will be showcasing works from 42 artists from 21 countries in 6 different venues; some of the artists participating in this exhibition are Mario Garcia Torres, Francois Bucher, Ximena Garrido-Lecca, Patricia Esquivias and Mauricio Bueno.

Aside from the solo exhibitions of the artists, Ir para Volver will also be hosting special events and performances.

  Ir para Volver will also be hosting an Education Project with three different schools coming in to actively participate in the artworks, which totaled up to 604 students. It was meant to reach out to kids and for them to be being able to connect, understand and reflect with the artwork.

  Another project, ¿Que Se Digo Durante Dialogos? will be a panel of three people discussing three different themes on the world-system, appropriation, media, and the reconstruction of history followed by tactic poems by Edoudard Glissant. 

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Before I Die

Before I die interactive project started, Candy Chang lost someone she really loved and going through depression and grief, she found clarity in contemplating death. To help her cope she got permission to paint on the side of an abandoned house in her neighborhood in New Orleans. She gridded the sentence “Before I die I want to_____”. The next day, the whole wall was filled with the public’s responses and it kept growing, turning into an interactive art piece compiled with the public’s responses and stories. After Candy posted pictures of the wall, she received hundreds of messages from people who wanted to make a “Before I die” wall within their community.

What is unique about this interactive project is that they have a special designated area where the public can come to and share their personal aspirations and reflect on their lives. Each of the location is organized by locals and they get to register their wall onto the Before I Die website with a picture of their wall and a story about it. On the website, they have hundreds of walls registered from around the world and seeing how each one differentiates from one another, whether using the stencil or just writing out the bold sentence at the top.

 Now, 500 “Before I die” walls have been created in over 30 languages in over 65 countries including Japan, Portugal, South Africa, Iraq, Denmark, and more. This wall is seen as a celebration and the stories behind them.

In creating your own wall in your own neighborhood, their website http://beforeidie.cc/site/build-your-own-before-i-die-wall/ has the steps and resources in doing so.

And, there is also a book about this project written by Candy Chang. 

[iliansolis09-blog]

The Global Contemporary. Art Worlds 1989

Global Art and the Museum (GAM) was launched by Peter Weibel and Hans Belting in 2006 at the Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe. Exhibition The Global Contemporary. Art Worlds After 1989 reception dates were from September 17, 2011 to February 5, 2012, it examined the way in which globalization, impacts various spheres of artistic production and reception. An attempt to grasp the process of globalization it is only being displayed by a snap-shot of a momentary condition. This exhibition holds 14 thematic sections that glimpses of a whole and plans to influence everyday day life, making the museum more contemporary and a place for experience. Some of the sections include Room of Histories, Art Spaces, Documents, Mapping, Branding, Transactions, World Time, Boundary Matters, Networks and Systems, Art as Commodity, Lost in Translation and more.

In addition, the exhibition is set up with artist-in- residence program with more than 12 international artists discussing the project and ways it help to improve the exhibition concepts. It is nice to see 12 different perspectives that come from different cultures and being combined all together or seeing a compromise. In this way it seems like this exhibition has a piece of every culture and people from those cultures can relate making this exhibition successful among its viewers.

Along with the exhibition, Global Art and the Museum hold other activities such as ZKM Global studies I, II, ZKM Summer Seminar, GAM Platforms, International Conferences and Publications that were held in the years of 2008-2011. 

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Mary Mattingly: Flock House Project

Mary Mattingly is a New York City-based artist that merges performance, sculpture, architecture and photography that addresses her issue of home, migration, cartography and living systems. Her photographs and sculpture depict future, obscure landscape and ecological installations.

When urban populations were faced with environmental, political and economic instability, dislocation and relocation become increasingly, Mattingly first presented three Flock Houses across New York City during the summer of 2012. Her intention is to choreograph Flock Houses throughout urban centers across the United States. By constructing them, she seeks to enhance community-based interdependence, resourcefulness, learning, curiosity and creative exploration. The Flock House Project will provide area residents and visitors with an opportunity to ponder the future of urban living.

Inspired by patterns of global human migration and pilgrimage, the Flock House Project is a group of mobile, sculptural, public habitats and self-contained ecosystems that are movable, modular, and scalable. It will start off in Omaha on March 13, 2014 through August 16, 2014, with an exhibition of Mattingly’s previous work at the Bemis Center. The display will serve as the artist’s active research hub while she is in residence at the Bemis Center, offering a space where she can engage the local community to develop plans for, and fabricate, new mobile living systems to be installed outdoors at both the Bemis Center and Carver Bank in North Omaha. Omaha artists will then be invited to occupy these living systems in order to promote and implement a broader integration between Omaha’s creative and urban design communities.

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Biennale of Sydney

The Biennale of Sydney is a non-profit organization representing Australia’s largest and most exciting contemporary visual festival. It is held every two years for 3 months. It was the first biennale to be established in the Asia-Pacific region alongside the Venice and São Paulo biennales and documenta, it is one of the longest running exhibitions of its kind. Since 1973, it has showcased international platform for contemporary art, showing work for 1,600 artists from over 100 countries. It is recognized for showcasing the freshest and most provocative art from Australia, and around the world. The next 19th Biennale of Sydney is current (March 21) to June 9, 2014, under artistic director Juliana Engberg. During their 3 month Biennale, they will be having ferry rides and tours from and to the Cockatoo Island, performances, workshops and educational events, special events, films, art galleries of New South Wales. Some things to do and look at that are family friendly are the Biennale Family Sundays, Story time at the Village, Imagination Station, Art Baby and Sydney’s Students speak. Educational events include Access education for Students with Disability, Sydney’s Students Speak, Study Mornings: Unpacking the Biennale and HSC Study Day on Cockatoo Island, which is only offered on May 27 from 10 am to 2 pm. Their events are held at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Artspace, Carriageworks, Cockatoo Island, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia and Around the City. The Biennale is all free to public except for the Ferry rides, which you will have to pay for.

http://www.biennaleofsydney.com.au/19bos/

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Projeto Morrinho was created in 1998 by 14 year old Nelcirlan Souza de Oliveira. Oliveira had barely moved to Rio de Janeiro, he was impressed with the architecture and style of life in the city’s favelas that he reproduced the city in his own backyard with bricks and leftover paint. His project caught attention of seven other local youths and became into their reality and routine. They used decorated LEGO avatars and acted out original scenarios that addressed the power imbalance between favela residents and other social issues in Brazil.

In 2001, film directors, Fábio Gavião, Marco Oliveira, and Francisco Franca invited the boys to participate in their work of image captivation. This partnership led to the Morrinho NGO. It is composed of four components: Tourism at Morrinho, TV Morrinho, Expo Morrinho and Morrinho Social.

Open to the public it allows a better understanding of the project and its meaning to the community. In addition productions created specifically for exhibitions around the world, TV Morrinho produced numerous independent videos based on stories that have been developed in Morrinho. Through informal means Morrinho Social developed an area of education and professionalism under the following courses: Audiovisual, Art Education, Youth Leadership, Youth and Citizenship.

In 2008, after seven years chronicling the history of Morrinho and the lives of its creators, filmmakers Fábio Gavião and Markão Oliveira released a full-length documentary titled Morrinho: God Knows Everything But Is No Snitch.

Because this project had drawn international attention, small scales of replicas have been exhibited through Brazil and Europe, including Urban World Forum in Barcelona, Queens College, Point Point Ephémère in Paris, and the Venice Biennale.

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Gerda Meyer Bernstein is an internationally known Chicago-based artist who addresses thorny global issues. Her previous exhibitions include "Witness & Legacy," a traveling museum exhibition; The Alternative Museum in New York City, The Spertus Museum and Cultural Center in Chicago; "Passages" at the Ellis Island Immigration Museum; and at the New Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin, Germany. Her works have been exhibited nationally and internationally.

Through fund raising and political work, she became involved and dedicated to the State of Israel. Having to speak through her art, after she graduated in 1978, her vehicle became an installation art piece that deals with political and social injustices.

The first picture is of Global Chaos a mixed media installation. The second installation is called Marginalized; it focuses on various female figures wrapped in a green dyed cloth, the same as the green parachute laying in a circle, which represents the abuse of women. The third installation, Freedom March is a life affirming march, it is a tribute to the young idealists who led the protests against the war in Vietnam and were committed to the civil rights movement. The final installation is River, a 32 ft. x 20 in. x 20 in. installation. It is made up of a wooden box with 10,000 vials filled with a red substance simulating blood. The overflow of vials, spilling all over the floor represents the uncontrollability of the AIDS epidemic.

global chaos

marginalised

freedom march

river

Gerda Meyer Bernstein

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SALT

Earlier in the winter , the 120-year-old Ottoman bank building in Istanbul reopened as a multimillion-dollar contemporary art space called SALT. The building consist of five floors and 100,000 square feet of carved white marble.

The opening exhibitions featured thousands of old black-and-white photographs taken by a dead Armenian studio photographer, another exhibition of installations by Gulsun Karamustafa, and the other was about archaeology and Europeans looting the Ottoman Empire.

SALT explores critical and timely issues in visual and material culture, and cultivates innovative programs for research and experimental thinking. It aims to challenge, excite, and provoke its visitors.

The institution’s research projects expand beyond linear chronologies, medium-based questions, and the traditional separation of fields of study. SALT assembles archives of recent art, architecture, design, urbanism, and social and economic histories to make them available for research and public use and use these resources in form of exhibitions.

SALT ’s activities are distributed between two landmark buildings. The first building, SALT Beyoglu, opened April 9, 2011 is a program and mostly occupied by exhibitions and event spaces.

The second building, SALT Galata, opened on November 22, 2011, is the former Imperial Ottoman Bank headquarters. SALT Galata houses a specialized public library and archive, its dedicated to research, workshops, and an exhibition and conference hall.

Unused since 2002, SALT later repurposed a building and opened as SALT Ulus on April 3, 2013. SALT Ulus is a site for exhibitions and programs, and hosts young researchers for extended periods in two research residency offices.

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In all of Edward’s work, a predominant theme you will see is the how nature is transformed through industry. He divides the contemporary view from stone, to minerals, oil, transportation, silicon, etc. To make his statement with his idea he searches subject rich in detail and scale. He uses the use of recycling yards, mine tailings, quarries and refineries, areas that we don’t acknowledge that we partake in our daily basis.

His images are meant to be metaphors to the dilemma of our modern existence, searching a dialogue between attraction and repulsion, seduction and fear. Drawn by desire we are consciously or unconsciously are aware the world is suffering. The materials we use help materials for our consumption. For Edward, his images reflect the pools of our time.

In his series, China, he worked through diplomatic channels to gain access to photograph many sites undergoing enormous change. He spent over three years capturing the vast scale and details of the monumental transformations of how society has become to be. Factories are the dumping grounds for hand-recycling of world’s e-waste, the millions of migrations of humans towards urban environment, and the ecological Three Gorges Dam, which forced the relocation and threatened the livelihood of more than 1.13 million people. His series contains 26 images of China, 40 by 50 inches each, creating a dizzying effect on the viewer because the detail are needle-sharp focus from the foreground to the distant horizon. These images were also featured in book by Steidl in 2005.

Edward Burtynsky China 2007-2012 "Mass consumerism and the resulting degradation of our environment intrinsic to the process of making things to keep us happy and fulfilled frightens me. I no longer see my world as delineated by countries, with borders, or language, but as 7 billion humans living off a single, finite planet.” - Edward Burtynsky

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Considered one of the father’s of contemporary art and best known for combining expert draftsmanship with a cynical, humorous critique of American culture, Ron English explores brand imagery and advertising. His term POPaganda describes his signature mash-up of high and low culture. He often uses comic book collages for special characters. English involved with street art creating illegal murals and billboards blending political and consumist and surrealist statements, creating visual language of evolution. His works also include Fine Art and products.

Characters carousing through English’s art, in paintings, billboards, and sculpture include three-eyed rabbits, cowgirls and grinning skulls, blending stunning visuals with undertones of America’s Premier Pop Iconoclast. His other iconic characters are MC Supersized, the obese fast-food mascot in the movie “Supersize Me,” and Abraham Obama, the blend of America’s 16th and 44th Presidents. This image was widely discussed in the media impacting the 2008 election.

One of his Fine Art pieces includes, Grade School Guernica,[8] a version of Pablo Picasso’s, Guernica. In 2006, Ron English exhibited this piece at the Station Museum of Contemporary Art in Houston. Grade School Guernica depicts a scene acted by his kids viewed from the stand point of the bomber airplane. It explores the nature of violence from school yard to global carnage commenting on the embedding of propaganda into cultural reference. .

His images have been seen on the street, in museums, in movies, books and television. English will be participating in the Richmond Mural Project 2014 from June 16- June 27, 2014.

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Becoming Animal, Becoming Human

The exhibition Becoming-Animal, Becoming-Human looks at the process of dissolution and becoming animal and human identities, as well as looking at both animals and humans, leaves a unfamiliar trace of a globalized world. This idea was formulated by Deleuze and Guattari in A Thousand Plateaus, which then the curators expanded and reinterpreted the idea.

Becoming-Animal, Becoming-Human includes sculpture and drawings, photography and video installations and performance.The artworks presents the question of “What does becoming animal look like?”. The artwork also includes a focus of addressing becoming-human on the part of the animals and attributing those qualities together. One example is allowing one to experience the transformation from predator to prey within an animal body and another presenting transgenic beings who have left unknown processes of becoming behind them.

This exhibition was featured in 2009 coming in three parts shown in contemporary art, international conference, a film series, and two video screenings.

Part 1 of the exhibition, Animal Perspectives, was shown at the Georg-Kolbe-Museum Berlin from May 29th to June 28th 2009. Part 2 of the exhibition, Animal Perspectives took place at Projektraum Souterrain in Berlin from May 20th to May 28th 2009.

The conference of Animal Identities, The Animal in Perspective took place on May 9th and 10th 2009 at the Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst and the Georg-Kolbe-Museum in Berlin. And, The Arsenal Institute for Film and Video Art was showing the related film program with the title "I Went To The Zoo The Other Day" from May 20th to May 28th 2009. The video screening, Becoming Animal, Becoming Human was shown on June 14th 2009 at the Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst in Berlin.

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LaCa Projects

LaCa (Latin American Contemporary Art) Projects, is located in Charlotte, North Carolina. LaCa first gallery dedicated to the presentation, development and promotion of Latin American art and culture within the United States.

It has a three-fold focus: the gallery, artist-specific studios for artist, and a food concept. Together it all becomes a primary resource for Latin American Contemporary culture. The gallery space overall encourages cross-culture dialogue representing a small group of influential, provoking contemporary, mid-career artists and exhibiting a body of work from Master Latin American artists.

LaCa projects aims to advocate for the importance of Latin American contemporary art as a global cultural and interdisciplinary influence.

Their grand opening was on March 21, 2013 with the opening exhibition of Juan Dolhare, Poetics of Erratic Materialism.  

Their current exhibition is Con Relación al Espacio, May 8-June 20, 2014. Puerto Rican Jeannine Marchand’s studio was the inspiration of her artwork. She focused on the architectural openings, and her framed ceramic pieces interpret the windows and doors as points of departure, exploring body and space.

She creates white organic ceramic forms and wall sculptures. Marchand’s concepts are a formal response to her estimation of the moment, resulting in monochromatic works refined to achieve a smooth surface, which is sensitive to illumination. It’s curiosity that invites her to explore memory and emotions, finding a sensual language in lights and shadows of malleable white clay.

Their previous exhibitions of LaCa Projects areCuba: Art of the Fantastic, Rufino Tamayo: Mujeres, Disruption, Color and Form in Latin America, Juan Dolhare: Poetics of Erratic Materialism.

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Focusing on the streets of Barcelona, Spain this documentary trace back to the 1970’s to the influence of American hip-hop culture in the 1990’s and the 80’s influences from the Paris street scene to today’s variegated scene.

Originally a 5 minute documentary, it expanded into an hour long documentary. This film captures the globalization of street art, exploring the history, motivation and politics. Filmed on the streets, shot from the hip, it shows the discovering of a hidden world, a subculture and struggle between an artistic community and painting for freedom of expression and restrictive dogmatic government. The opinions on graffiti go in many different direction-love, hate, and indifference.

The film includes new and old street artists from Zosen, Kenor, Kram, C215, Eludu, Meibol, Btoy, El Arte Es Basura, Fert, Kafre, Dase, SM172, Miss Van, Vinz, Gola, Ogoch, Konair, H101, Mina Hamada, Debens, and Aleix Gordo.

Much of this documentary comes from the view points of these artists, trying to share their developing process and share their story. One of the big problems in Barcelona is only artistic murals are allowed if you have authorization from the local council, a fine would be up to 3,000 Euros. These artists want to create art, breaking the law, because essentially it’s their freedom to do what they want. One can’t even paint their own shutters in their own business because it is considered illegal.

And, because street art is illegal, when the film was released, the producers created an online petition for the government to participate in a conversation with street artists.

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Yarn Bombing

Yarn bombing is a type of street art or graffiti art that displays colorful knitted or crocheted yarn.

Yarnstorming: A more alternative and popular way of saying Yarn Bombing.

  It all started in Texas when knitters found ways to use their leftover and unfinished projects, leading to Bill Davenport exhibiting his crochet-covered objects in Houston in the 1990’s. In 2008, Jafagirl’s crochet Knit Knot Tree gained international attention. Since then, yarn bombing’s popularity spread throughout the world.

Born in Polish, Olek’s art is a development that took her away from the industrial-close minded Poland. She explores the idea of sexuality, feminist ideals, and evolution of communication through colors, conceptual exploration and meticulous detail.  Through her art she pushes boundaries, fluidly combining sculptural and fanciful. And using the burst of colors, she masks the political and cultural critiques of woven into her installations. Olek, being a supporter for women’s rights she broadens the appeal to display solidarity by those oppressive laws worldwide. Using her surroundings of public spaces and objects also reflect cultural evolution, mirroring the public response from watching and from those within the art.

Her yarn-bombing have been featured in Russia, Poland, Paris, Canada, London, Spain, around the U.S and many more.

Her most recent exhibition, I haven’t a single Explorer on my Planet was located in New York City in White Walls from February 8 through March 8, 2014.

Now, living in New York Olek intends to create feedback to the economic and social reality in her community. 

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Womanhouse

The Womanhouse is a programme established by feminist artists, Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro in Los Angeles. This performance space only lasted from Janurary 30 to February 28, 1972. It housed temporary installations focused on culturally neglected female experiences and women’s issues. Some of the installations included Chicago’s, Menstruation Bathroom and Sandy Orgel’s Linen Closet. Only women were allowed to view the exhibition on the first day, and during the duration of the exhibition, they received approximately 10, 000 visitors. Womanhouse was meant to help students overcome problems of being a woman. It was thought that by teaching women to use power tools and proper building techniques, they would gain confidence and restructure their personalities with their artistic goals.

Installations ranged from Nurtant Kitchen by Susan Frazier, Vicki Hodgetts, and Robin Weltsch, Aprons in Kitchen by Susan Frazier, Bridal Staircase by Kathy Huberland, Leaf Room by Ann Mills, Red Moon Room by Mira Schor, The Dollhouse Room by Sherry Brody and Miriam Schapiro, Personal Space by Janice Lester, Garden Jungle by Paula Longendyke and more.

Performances were also held in the Womanhouse in the living room, in which women acted out aspects of their lives. Performances included Three Women, Maintenance Pieces: Scrubbing performed by Christine Rush, Cock and Cunt Play performed by Janice Lester and Faith Wilding and written by Judy Chicago, Waiting written by Faith Wilding, and The Birth Trilogy.

Schapiro even arranged a 47 minute documentary film about the Womanhouse programme which was released in the summer of 1972.

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Bermuda Biennial

The Bermuda Biennial is a platform for the contemporary art scene in Bermuda. Started in 1994, the exhibition continues to represent the vitality and creativity of local artists. The date for this Biennial is June 5 through November 21, 2014, and this year’s theme is to address how the physical reality of an island informs one’s identity. The Bermuda Biennial provides an opportunity for local artists to engage in an internationally juried process, which strives to represent the excellence of Bermuda’s contemporary art. Since 1998, Bacardi Limited has generously been the Signature Sponsor. 2014 marks the 11th Anniversary of this important exhibition. This exhibition is open to all artists resident in Bermuda and Bermudian artists overseas. Its key aims are: To showcase a diverse range and high standard of contemporary art; To invite international jurors from respected art institutions who share their experience and knowledge through lectures, workshops, and school visits; To use the exhibition as an educational resource to generate understanding and interest among Bermuda’s youth about fine art; To produce a catalogue that features each artist, and serves as a valuable record of the exhibition as well as a marketing tool, sent to international museums.

Current exhibitions being held are BNG East Exhibition: A sense of Place (Current through May 31, 2014) and BNG Exhibitions (January 24 through May 31).

Events: Scrabble Club (April 12 through June 28)

Education opportunities: 2014 Youth Camera Action Photography Summer Camp Registration (April 11 through August 29) and 2014 Adult Docent Programme (May 2 through June 13).

http://www.bermudanationalgallery.com/