How I Got My Beak

I know the world wants to know and I suppose I owe the world an explanation.  That's actually far from the truth because I just started to think of this as I was putting together one of the many proposals I submit every month to various venues or opportunities for exhibition.  The picture above is a PR shot for my Kali Shadow Theater, a thirteen minute performance involving puppets, drawings, music and two live actors.   My wife and I have had two opportunities to perform this since developing it in 2010. I was hoping to make an expanded version for the Dumbo Arts Festival this fall but didn't make the cut.    So, I'll postpone work on that until either an opportunity presents itself or I have more time...grrrr.

But meanwhile in the time between the proposal and rejection I did have time to ponder the role of the villain and where he came from and how to elaborate that role. I discovered one interesting juxtaposition that I missed in 2010.  First.

The villain in my shadow theater, The Birdman, actually comes from Zen and the Birds of Appetite by Thomas Merton.

In the opening authors notes, Merton begins,

 "Where there is carrion lying, meat-eating birds circle and descend. Life and death are two.  The living attack the dead, to their own profit.  The dead lose nothing by it.  They gain too, by being disposed of.  Or they seem to, if you think in terms of gain and loss."  (emphasis of duality mine)

Merton is actually observing that in the body of Zen there is nothing for the vultures to feast on, there is no body.

As I started to ponder the birds of appetite, what came to mind in relating the story of Kali to our contemporary situation was the notion of "birds" that consume the Commons.  (Perhaps the best description of this is Naomi Kleins' The Shock Doctrine, in which the corporatization of that which we once considered held in common is outlined)
My play has a character that both builds and consumes with no thought to consequence.

 Almost as a precursor to Klein, in Merton's closing remarks he writes this:

"Western industrial culture is in the curious position of having simultaneously reached the climax of an entire totalitarian rationality of organization and of complex absurdity and self-contradiction.  Existentialists and a few others have noticed this absurdity.  But the majority persist in seeing only the rational machinery against which no protest avails: because, after all. it is "rational." and it is "a fact." So, too, is the internal contradiction."

So as I began to seek a personification of the animal instinct for profit and consumption at all cost; that acts in opposition to the natural cycle of birth and death in my production, I needed a simple mask., something that would play well as a shadow.

Plaster carving, 2010 © William Evertson

My first step was to carve a plaster form, a form over which I could shape flexible masks.

Copper mesh mask with acrylic and gold leaf, 2010 © William Evertson

Next, copper mesh screening was folded and pressed onto the mold to form the mask to be used during the shadow theater.  (paint and gold leaf added later for exhibition purposes)

Some rehearsal excerpts showing the mask (ca.2010)

Fast forward to 2013 and I am in the opening pages of Dan Brown's new book, Inferno and there is mention of plague masks.  Which I immediately google and find....

Paulus Furst’s 1656 engraving of Dr. Schnabel ("Beak") of Rome 

wearing protective clothing typical of the plague doctors of Rome at the time.

So, as I ponder my beak and the artist's role in society, I have another theme to pursue as I await the right opportunity to amplify and expand my shadow theater repertoire. 

Today Only

Today Only - artist book - accordion style

The Today Only artist book began in Leuven, Belgium and moved to Paris, France and finally to my studio in Connecticut.  It started with an impromptu series of performance documents by the Seeking Kali Artist Collective (Ria Vanden Eynde, Belgium, Susan Shulman, Canada and myself)  

 

 tests on a variety of papers and press pressures

Beginning with the concept of impermanence, the temporal and the idea that action only happens in the present we produced a series of pictures taken in thirty locations in Leuven, Brussels and Paris. A final ten were selected and matched to short statements and poetry concerning time and the location where each photograph was taken.

photogravure on solarplate

The images were first transferred to acetate positives then to solarplates.  The photo above shows the solarplate hardening in the UV light of the sun. The book unfolds to an approximate length of 20 feet.  Each page is also embellished with blind embossing.  Cloth covers with embossed lettering encases the pages.

detail of blind embossing

acetate, imprint and plate 

studio shot showing prints drying in foreground and potential order of pages on wall 

accordion folds

Video footage showing the inking and printing of a page from Today Only.

 Colophon

The entire project is even more special because as an international working group most of our collaboration is necessarily web based as we are rarely together to physically work on projects.

Kali at the Firehouse

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 Photograph of the Seeking Kali Collective by Hrag Vartanian at Hyperallergic's Brooklyn office.

The Seeking Kali Collective’s exhibit at the Second Avenue Firehouse Gallery opens next Saturday.  The Firehouse is located on Long Island in Bay Shore, N.Y and is included in the National Register of Historic Places and described as one of Bay Shore’s architectural gems.

We will be showing our Kali print edition, which marked the beginning of our collaborative experiments.  Occasioned by a Facebook thread concerning iconography associated with the Hindu goddess Kali, our association and explorations have continued since January of 2010. 

As a collective one of our objectives is to explore ways in which to utilize social media as an artistic tool enabling long distance collaboration among artists.   Ria Vanden Eynde works from Belgium, Susan Shulman is in Montreal, Canada and I have my studio in Connecticut.  Through the use of groups in Facebook, Skype and Google+ hangouts we have created a virtual studio where our explorations take place.

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Kali Edition

The print edition was completed in the summer of 2011 and our signing of the nine examples took place at the offices of the Brooklyn based arts blog, Hyperallergic.

 Framed examples of Kali Edition prepared for the Firehouse Exhibit

Over the 18 months that marked the collaborative process of the edition we also embarked on the curation of an online blog that compiled images, video and poetry concerning the Kali goddess.   The results of that archive have been documented on a video that has since been exhibited in Berlin, Germany, Boston, MA and Joliette, Canada.  We will be again exhibiting that compilation as well as our latest curation of images relating to the Medusa archetype edited by Susan Shulman.

The exhibit will also contain other examples of the collective's video works including Kali's Sari which premiered during the Experimental Film Night hosted by the Mobius Artist Group of Boston, MA.  Kali's Sari is based on a Butoh performance with Shizu Homma, Jane Wang and Angela Ferrara's interaction with the handpainted Kali Scroll Sari by William Evertson. The video was edited with Ria Vanden Eynde utilizing Google+ video conference.

Video still from Kali's Sari

The Kali Collective has participated in The Billboard Project in which images are designed for large scale outdoor display in cities throughout the USA.  Giclee prints of several of these images have been prepared for exhibit.  The video archive of images from Richmond, Chicago, Duluth, Salem, Detroit and San Bernardino will be on display.  

Sphinx by Susan Shulman (from San Bernardino billboard display - 40' approx.)

Material from the Collective's series of Kalicorp Art Mysteries mentioned in the last post will also be on display. These graphic novels are a photographic odyssey exploring current art world events constructed in an exquisite corpse fashion.  

Mocking up the display for the graphic novels.

An edition of prints from the Metropolis series, the KaliRay Flip book, masks, puppets and other ephemera round out the exhibition.

We hope you can join us on Saturday August 4th between 6 and 8pm for the opening.  The exhibit is open on Saturdays during August from 12 -4pm.

Directions: The Second Ave. Firehouse is located in Bay Shore at the corner of Mechanicsville & Second Avenue Southern Pkwy to exit 42S (Fifth Avenue South), left on Union Blvd.,right on Second Avenue, proceed to the corner of Mechanicsville & Second Avenue. Firehouse is on the left. 17 Second Avenue

A Year in Comics

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 Kalicorp Art Mysteries #5 (front and back cover)

One of the collaborations that Seeking Kali worked on over the last year is a series of five comic books; the Kalicorp Art Mysteries.  These along with other works will be shown at our summer exhibition in Bayshore, N.Y. at the Firehouse Gallery. Information on this show can be found at the Seeking Kali website.

Graphic novels may seem a strange departure since our previous colabs tended to be a bit more serious.  The fact is that since our collaborations are experiments in long distance art making we are constantly testing new forms that are workable for our group. Ria Vanden Eynde, Susan Shulman and myself have experimented with video,  print editions, performance, net centric work and artist books over the past two plus years. Ideas that are carried forward are reached by discussions on G+ or chats in our Facebook group.

Initially a comic seemed like a fun and quirky way to send out a bit of PR to people and to put exhibition information, our web pages and current projects in as advertisements.  We never intended to make more than one until we got to the last page and threw in the “To Be Continued.” 

   

 Kalicorp Art Mysteries #1 last panel detail

We found that they were fun to produce and we could base it on a back story that almost all artists share; What the hell is the art world all about and why is it so damn difficult to get anywhere?  With photography and Photoshop we could easily work out scenes, story-lines and most importantly share files in our virtual studio. Note to new readers...I work in Connecticut, Susan from Montreal and Ria from Belgium.

   Artist Joan Harrison is woven into a scene concerning the Soethby's Art Handler strike.

Along the way we started to include some of our artist friends and art world notables in various roles.   We began our collectives journey after discussing the various iconography surrounding the Hindu goddess Kali. This  led to other historical explorations as well as sparking conversation concerning myth, contemporary art making and cultural mores. We find plenty of art world controversy and drama to weave into each story. So while we are not above a cheap laugh, at the heart of each comic are real issues that effect us as players on the contemporary art stage.

In issue #6 Kalicorp tackles unpaid internships and artspeak.

Examples from the Seeking Kali virtual studio collaborations as well as the comics and art from them will be on display at Long Island's Firehouse Gallery, 17 Second Ave., Bayshore, N.Y.  Opening reception August 4th from 6 - 8pm. Gallery is open Saturdays during August from 12 - 4pm.

Many thanks to our two most recent advertisers, artists Mara Thompson and Bibiana Padilla Maltos for their financial support. 

A Catalog of Works

Two weeks ago, during one of the frequent brainstorming sessions that our collective engages in over G+, we decided what we were missing was a physical archive of works. Between our website and blogs and their various links we could go back and see the various exhibits and pieces  we've created  as Seeking Kali. But, with a couple of face to face meetings coming up with people who could give us a leg up we realized we needed something more than a laptop to present our work.  

Susan Shulman, Ria Vanden Eynde and myself have been in high gear with over a dozen projects squeezed into the past two years and we wanted something physical to show the scope and variety of what we've accomplished with our experiment in social media networking.

early mock up of catalog

This may have been one of those projects that could have been accomplished on one of the self publishing sites but we're particular about every aspect of book making and it's also a good opportunity to show off some skills as well as the art.  So the idea for a small catalog that touched upon all the past two years work was born.  Initially we needed to layout how big this project was and what we wanted to include, so a few trials with printer paper mock ups led us to settle on a 36 page book that contains 3 hand stitched sections.

 cover with the three sections prior to binding

Most of our layout was done in Photoshop and via G+ we screenshared order, layouts, captions, possible photos for inclusion and proofing the final bifolds.  Once settled online the pages were printed in my Connecticut studio on a nine color Epson 3800 using Red River semigloss Zeppelin 45 lb paper.

After folding and collating we made final corrections for spacing and content before printing the first run of 10 copies.  

a stiff open weave cloth is glued to the spine before the cover is attached

screen shot showing a finished book over G+ video conference

From idea to book in two weeks.  We now have examples of our portfolio from the last two years and while the work ranges from performance to video to print editions we also have artist books and the catalog is an nice example to lay into the hands of a few curious curators.  Wish us luck.

More about our artist books can be found on the Seeking Kali website.

The Art World is a Funny Place

So why isn't there a comic book about it?  Well, there is.  The Seeking Kali Collective has been publishing Kalicorp Art Mysteries since November 2011 and judging from readers reactions to our latest issue, we're achieving our desired results. 

I like to think of our comic as a slow motion blog. We publish one every other month and they combine our art lives; the art making, trying to snag exhibition space, getting press, getting grants and making a few dollars with current events and controversy in the larger art world.

Issue #4 Panel detail page 2

For instance, remember Damien Hirst's world wide exhibitions of Spot Paintings?  Issue #4 details our efforts to stop seeing spots.  Or last Fall; the controversy surrounding forged Abstract Expressionist paintings?

Issue #2 Panel detail page 1

Since  my two collaborators, Susan Shulman (Canada) and Ria Vanden Eynde (Belgium) and I live  live too far apart for hands on collaboration the fast pace of putting out a timely graphic novel suits the nature of our "virtual studios".  We can work independently on different panels or the story line itself and assemble the comic over the web.  The actual printing is done from my studio in Connecticut on an Epson 3800 with pigment inks.

Putting the story line together does present problems, we'll often wake to a request for a off the wall picture or pose to help move the story...everything stops and scavenger hunts for a wheelbarrow, limo, bicycle built for two etc ensue.

Issue #2 Panel detail page 5

During the MOCA gala fundraiser Marina Abramovic's human centerpieces raised eyebrows in the art world.

Naturally we worked it into our story line.



We use many of our friends in cameo appearances and although their artist personalities are usually not the same as portrayed in the comic, they all are significant artists and our readers can find links to their web portfolios on the back cover of each issue.


Issue #2 Panel detail page 6



Even as the information age reaches overload the Art World remains largely an impenetrable confusing mystery that Kalicorp is dedicated to shed light on. 

Issue #4 Panel detail page 12

As Ria says. "pack your bags"...we're in for a long journey.

More information on the Kalicorp Art Mysteries and other projects by the Seeking Kali Arist Collective can be found on our website, seeking kali.com (where they are also available for purchase)

Thanks also to new advertiser Bibiana Padilla Maltos for support and to artist Keith Buchholz for placing our graphic novel in the archives of The Art Institute of Chicago, The Getty, Yale and MoMA.

Kalicorp Art Mysteries is also now carried Down Under at Sticky Institute.

Kali Down Under

The Seeking Kali Collective's limited edition "Kali" at the State Library of Victoria.

Des Crowley - Manager of Rare Printed Collections, Susan Shulman of Seeking Kali, Robert Heather - Manager of Collection Interpretation

The Kali Edition has a new home in Australia.  Seeking Kali Collective member Susan Shulman is pictured in the beautiful State Library of Victoria, located in Melbourne, Australia, presenting a copy of the limited edition to curators Des Crowley and Robert Heather.

The self titled "Kali" Edition was hand produced in a limited edition of 9 numbered copies with 3 additional Artist Proofs (AP).  The edition contains six works each by Susan Shulman (Canada), William Evertson (USA) and Ria Vanden Eynde (Belgium). The clamshell case is also handmade and lettered in goldleaf.

The Kali Collective began in 2010 as an experiment in the use of social media to produce collaborative work without the need for a defined home base. The social media platforms and blogs have been used to invite other artists into as virtual collaborative spaces and have resulted in several international projects exhibited in cities around the world.

Bringing our work to the already vibrant Melbourne art scene furthers our explorations in the artist uses of social media collaboration.  

Susan also presented the first two issues of the Kalicorp Art Mysteries graphic novel series and a copy of the KaliRay Flip Book.

Susan Shulman and Des Crowley examine the individual prints.

The State Library of Victoria is a major cultural resource of Australia and while its material that relates to Australia is second to none, the collection is international in scope.

"International in scope, the collection represents important schools, movements and genres across all of its subjects. Popular culture is strongly represented in areas such as local and international rock and popular music, film studies, photography, graphic novels and comic books from the 1920s to the present.

The international branch of the collection is built on a strong tradition of Western culture across all of the main subjects, with strengths in European and American material. This has been broadened in recent years to increase the profile of other cultures, most notably those of the Asia–Pacific region."  (From the State Library of Victoria website)

Several editions are still available through our Canadian representative The Book Collectors Library.
More information on this edition is on the Seeking Kali website.

Mobius Movie Night (2)

Video works by the Seeking Kali Collective will be screened in Cambridge this Saturday, January 28th at Mobius (55 Norfolk St.)

 Link To Movie Night Event on Mobius website

Movie Night (2) is curated by Mobius Artist Group member EL Putnam.  We'll be exhibiting three works.  While it would be great if everyone came to Boston to see them, I'm going to assume that some who follow the Kali Collective's work won't make it so I'll post some links and descriptions.

The first is called Transmission, a short piece made as a tribute to a glitchy day trying to work out connectivity problems on Skype.

Transmission - Evertson/Vanden Eynde

We're also showing our animated audio work called Laments and Hope, an animated sound piece inspired by status messages from social networks. Short messages of frustration, hope or desires are recorded and layered similar to a musical round.

Laments and Hope - Evertson/Shulman/Vanden Eynde

The final piece is Kali's Sari.  A Butoh performance by Shizu Homma, Jane Wang and Angela Ferrara with a hand painted sari featuring scenes from the Kali Shadow Theater is set to a score by Ian Evertson. The performance was recorded in NYC in May of 2011 and edited by Ria Vanden Eynde and William Evertson for the Seeking Kali Collective.

Kali's Sari - Vanden Eynde/Evertson

Seeking Kali is William Evertson, Susan Shulman and Ria Vanden Eynde.
 

Seeking Kali Website

Number 2

 Kalicorp #2 cover by William Evertson ©2011

Our second comic is now in the mail.  Kalicorp Art Mysteries started as a "one of" project, meant to highlight some of our current projects in the 'advertising'.  It turned out to be a lot of fun to produce a comic look at the mysteries of trying to navigate the Art World. We're artists....We all want to exhibit our work...we want to sell a few pieces...we want that damn grant!  So, we soldier along putting in the studio time and filling the grant applications, networking and all the rest.  Plus looking at a lot of art and wondering, "how the hell is THAT getting shown." So to take our frustrations to a new level we're working on a limited run comic that explains the Mysteries of the Art World.

Kalicorp Meeting ©2011

Take all three of us at Kalicorp, (William Evertson Susan Shulman and Ria Vanden Eynde) and after an evening of exploring our research, we've come to the conclusion that.....well....can't just spoil the fun but we throw everything we've got into explaining the Art World to the layperson.

Susan's Research ©2011

And a word about our "guest villains" - They're actually some of the nicest and most talented artists out there. We include links to their websites and art, be sure to check them out.

if you don't find Kalicorp at your local newsstand you can always get an issue by emailing us at seekingkali @ yahoo.com

So stay safe out there because the Art world is a dangerous place.

Art Mysteries

Cover of Issue # 1 ©2011-Seeking Kali

Who doesn't love a good who-done-it? In our first issue we arrive at Art World hi jinks in mid action. The issue ends with some intriguing questions to address in issue 2 and beyond.

Of course the biggest mystery is why is Seeking Kali taking studio time to make limited run hand made comic books instead of working on our more serious works. After all, recent works have dealt with the Occupy movement and women's rights.  Why not.  Our collaborations over the past two years have run the gamut of print editions, artist books, theater, curating artist calls, video and animation. The Seeking Kali Collective continues to evolve ways of thinking about art process and especially the nature of collaborative efforts.

One way in which we work is to use the Google+ hangouts to discuss potential projects, progress on projects or opportunities to exhibit. The video conferencing is a form of virtual studio space that ideas great and small are discussed, discarded, debated or worked on. In the course of hashing out strategies we often bump up against the usual artists dilemmas; time, money and opportunity. (actually mostly lack of)
Our Kalicorp Art Mysteries is our way of taking a tongue in cheek look see into the problems that vex artists.
Fellow artist/ writer Philip Hartigan received our first issue and wrote a wonderfully thoughtful piece on the Seeking Kali Collective. He actually explains us better than we do. Philip is a Chicago based artist and his blog Praeterita covers not only his own work but many other visual artist that use narrative in their work.

Issue #2 is coming sometime in early January.  There are still a few copies of #1 - contact me with your address.

Grievance Torrent

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New video animation from the Seeking Kali Artist Collective.  As we’ve seen the news coverage (or lack of) concerning the Occupy Wall Street movement there has been an endless stream of  reporters seemingly baffled as to it’s purpose.  After my first visit in early October the message seemed clear enough and despite there being many manifestations of the outrage, one problem seems all too clear. Corporate greed and influence has to end.   

This video/ animation simply takes a variety of audio samples either personally recorded or from publicly posted video clips and begins to stack them in the manner of a vocal “round”.

Produced for Storefront for Art and Architecture's Strategies for Public Occupation.

The Seeking Kali Artist Collective is William Evertson, Susan Shulman and Ria Vanden Eynde.