ABAD Opening

A Book About Death Exhibition poster by Matthew Rose

** The A Book about Death exhibition open this Thursday in NYC at the Emily Harvey gallery. The exhibit, organized by artist Matthew Rose, is part homage to the influential mail artist Ray Johnson and tribute to the late Emily Harvey. The exhibition is envisioned as an unbound book with the contributing artists providing the postcard size pages. All contributions concern the many faceted topic of death. The artists contributing to the show have drawn deeply to provide visual exemplars of their personal experiences with a difficult topic. The variety of thought and approach to the topic range from feelings of ones own mortality to examples of personal loss to heroic struggles to philosophical musing on purpose and value.

All artists have provided editions of 500 of their individual page. The pages may be collected to form the book. The pages are free for the taking to anyone attending the exhibition. In keeping with the theme the book will disappear during the course of the exhibition. (Although by the very nature of the distribution there are certainly reincarnation possibilities)

My contribution viewable here as a prior post or on the ABAD blog (artist #38 way back when) contains an enclosed short story entitled Text Messages from the Dead. The 400-word story is viewable for a limited time in the right margin of this blog.

The exhibition opens this Thursday, September 10th from 7:30 to 11pm at Emily Harvey Foundation Gallery at 537 Broadway in NYC.

The press release for the exhibit contains a full listing of the performances that accompany the opening as well as a wealth of background on the concept and innovative organization of this type of project. Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of the project is the viral nature and global reach that found roots in the correspondence work of Ray Johnson.

Everyone is also invited to freely download the ABAD poster art available as high resolution PDFs at http://abookaboutdeath.blogspot.com. Posters by Hoffman, Mars, Touchon, Verde, Rose, Rager and Hertz are featured.

Caterina Verde has also designed a companion website with the art visible as a mosaic wall or individually.

See you there!

By The Way

For those in the central Connecticut area, I'll be participating in an on the green show in Glastonbury, Ct. this weekend. The show (surprisingly titled On the Green) is this Saturday and Sunday from 10am to 5pm.