Mail Art Party

I've hosted several Art Parties for local friends over the last couple of years. They are informal affairs where we gather over finger food and art supplies.  The subject matter for the group is emailed to everyone ahead of time and tend to be a bit off beat. Topics like blindfolded painting, paper maché pizzas and masks.  Over the course of an evening we eat, drink, chat and create and everyone leaves with art.  Last Sundays event was mail art and we gathered to support my friend, artist Ria Vanden Eynde, who is gathering mail art as part of her contribution to the F**K the Big C exhibit opening in September. Along with cancer survivors Betty Esperanza of Canada and Branka Djordjević of Luxemburg, they are featured at the Eve N odd Gallery in St. Petersburg, Florida during the month of September. The exhibit features original work from theses 'three sistahs'.  The works are inspirational and the message is that these artists have emerged as stronger women and artists after going through a cancer trajectory, fully determined to Live their Art Life to the fullest. Over the course of the last several months I've worked with Ria to produce small giclée editions of her originals.  A portion of sales from the editions help support My Hope Chest, a Seminole, Florida charity that aids low income women afford breast reconstruction.  The mail art call helps support the American Cancer Society Benjamin Mendick Hope Lodge in Tampa Florida.

Our Art Party focused on Ria's call for artists to submit 4 x 6 examples of mail art to the gallery and during the course of the exhibition visitors may take them home for a donation. The cards are also featured on Ria's mail art blog.  There's still plenty of time to make some art to support Ria, Betty and Branka and cancer charities; there's even time to organize your own Art Party.

F**K the Big C!

 The F**K Cancer show’s title alone is enough to raise some eyebrows, but the art in this three women exhibition is certain to do more than that. This international show features the work of Ria Vanden Eynde (Belgium), Betty Esperanza (Canada) and Branka Djordjević (Luxembourg).  The art practice of each is a heart felt response to the condition of having and battling the big C…cancer.  It serves both as an object lesson and a testament of their courage to persevere and produce their art.

I know all three from their contributions to the A Book About Death exhibits that I’ve contributed to and which continues to expand into many worldwide venues.

One of the women, Ria Vanden Eynde and I have collaborated since 2009 on many artworks and over the last 18 months have teamed with Susan Shulman of Canada into the artist collective Seeking Kali.  Although we live in different countries, through the connectivity of the Internet and Skype, we work in collaboration from virtual studios that seem as close as the next room.  Earlier this spring in preparation for the F**K C show, I told Ria that I would like to do the printing of her pieces for the exhibit.   

Aggressed Body - ©Ria Vanden Eynde

Cancer is something that has effected my family, my friends and many fellow artists and I wanted to be able to find some way to help “the three sistahs” who are exhibiting.  Over the last two months several tubes have crossed the Atlantic to Ria in Belgium.  The tubes contain the trial proofs for the editions and give Ria control over the color differences that can occur when translating an original oil or pastel into a giclée print.

The time has come where the actual prints are being made and we are both very pleased with how true to the originals they look.

Sueno - ©Ria Vanden Eynde

Ria is offering the prints for sale via our Seeking Kali website.  Aside from having a great opportunity to purchase one of Ria’s terrific prints, she is donating $40 from each sale to the Florida based charity My Hope Chest, providing aid for women requiring reconstructive surgeries after mastectomy’s.

There is also another way for you to help.  Ria is organizing a mail art call to coincide with the exhibit.   Pieces received at the gallery by September 8^th will be available for purchase by donation which also benefits My Hope Chest.  Complete details on how to participate on the F**K C mail art call can be found at the tumblr link at the bottom of this post.
F**K Cancer opens September 8^th at Jennifer Kosharek’s eve N odd Gallery, located at 645 Central Avenue, St. Petersburg, FL.  The exhibit opens 9/8/11 and runs through September.

Link to F**K the Big C tumblr blog
 _ contribute your mail art to F**K Cancer

 Seeking Kali and F**K the Big C  
_ pre-order prints

Medusa Gaze

_We draw from deep personal experience in our art...or at least the best of our art. Getting to that point of experience is the most difficult part of an art career.  I've seen my share of art about art and art that needs a mass of explanation to appreciate. Translating an experience into resonance is something we strive for and it never gets easy; it seems to take hours, days even years in the studio to make the occasional breakthrough where an experience is broadly felt and hits that resonant tone with the viewer.  My fellow Seeking Kali collaborators, Susan Shulman, Ria Vanden Eynde and I have a piece like that now.  The Medusa Gaze is a simple piece but it draws on a shared experience.

Susan, Ria and I work from different countries as an artist collective; Susan is in Canada, Ria in Belgium and I'm in the US, yet we make it work via Skype, Facebook and email.  It's almost like we're in adjoining studios and over the last year we've collaborated in several ways: working on separate projects that are exhibited together and "group think" pieces.  The latter is different from the stereotypical artist alone in his or her studio trying to express that lifetime of experience.  More like "cloud" works or a musicians jam session.

The Medusa Gaze started in Facebook with Ria describing a particularly scary encounter of sexual harassment in a public space outside her library in Belgium. Susan adds her outrage and suggests we blog it and I post a pix of a large scale projection of Ria on a building with the words "I will not be intimidated."


Radio Interview from June 24th, 2011 on CJAD 800 (Canada) featuring Seeking Kali artist Susan Shulman discussing the launch of the Medusa Gaze during the Dr. Laure Betito program "Passions". Medusa Gaze is a collaborative art project by William Evertson, Susan Shulman and Ria Vanden Eynde.

We're doing both. Plus we're collecting stories and pictures of other women for inclusion in our guerrilla projections to end sexual harassment.  Our current artist call is calling for women to submit either a picture or short video segment of their best Medusa Gaze - the face and expression of disapproval. Submissions are included in our guerrilla projections.  Details on how you can participate are available on our tumblr project blog where we document our progress or on our Facebook Events Page.

Unlike silent bystanders or society (men and women) who excuse or overlook this bullying behavior in our public spaces, I refuse to be a token male and strongly feel the need to be involved. Every woman I know has a story similar to Ria's. The fact is our society too often turns a blind eye or worse blames the victim in a never ending feedback loop that ensures second class social status is simply unacceptable.

Susan, Ria and I are artists first rather than activists; as artists we have a vision and tools to make experience visible. Join us.

Hyperallergic Mail Art Show

 

_Preparing the package_

One of my tic tac toe projects surfaced in Brooklyn yesterday at the opening of Presents: Mail Art Show sponsored by the blogazine Hyperallergic.   Who doesn't love getting mail art?  Editor Hrag Vartanian and co-curator Kate Wadkins liked it enough to begin a mail art feature that documented their packages over the course of the last three months. Friday night's exhibition featured 125 works ranging from postcards to art in plastic liter bottles, with over 100 artists represented.  I occasionally send out the little carved seal stamps I make as exchange with other artists for mail art received.  Back in April I carved a couple for the Hyperallergic folks; mostly just because I love their writing, coverage and insight into the art world.

_Crowded opening at the Brooklyn offices of Hyperallergic_

I had a chance to talk with editor/curator Hrag Vartanian about their ongoing feature and the development of mailart in general. Many credit artist Ray Johnson with bringing the practice into widespread recognition as an artform in it's own right, although as Hrag pointed out there have been great examples circulating as long as there has been mail.

_Couple playing with the tic tac toe stamps_

When I got to the opening I found that my piece was actually place on a small table with a couple of chairs available for people to sit and play with the work...just as intended.  In fact from an article Hyperallergic published they had taken the time to review my website and blog for more info about this ongoing project and learned that the actual game play is integral to the work and that I do performance based work with them.

_Shadow Theater still_

I could see from looking over the art at the opening that plenty of research went into the project. Many works included instructions for assembly, performance etc; one referenced a video of the packing of the box that contained the URLof the video.  I included not only the tic tac toe stamps but also references to other ongoing projects such as the Kali projects I collaborate on with Susan Shulman and Ria Vanden Eynde and an "analogue mountain climber" group blog. 

_Susan gets the Blues - from Analogue Narratives_

My last look at the art - (backwards..I knew that ;-)

Shadow Theater at Mobius

As part of the Archetypology Exhibit, curated by Ivana Rezek, the Seeking Kali Shadow Theater will be staged during the opening this Friday. (June 10th. - performance time 8:30)

The Theater combines puppets, hand drawn sets, cut outs and live performers in a 15 minute performance loosely based on traditional Nang puppetry and morality fables.  In this version as the goddess blithely goes about her business of creating a perfect world she finds various demons and forces bedeviling her efforts.  The theater design and characters are by William Evertson with an original musical score by composer Larry Cohen of Canada.

Throughout the opening the submissions from the 2010 Seeking Kali artist call will be shown.  Over 80 international artists are represented in the eight and a half minute looped video.  The call contains a variety of works submitted on the subject of the Hindu goddess Kali.  The call was curated by Susan Shulman, Ria Vanden Eynde and William Evertson during the fall of 2010.

The video and poetry submissions will also be screened throughout the opening.

Mobius is located in Boston at 725 Harrison Avenue. Reception from 7-9 with artist talks and light refreshment.

The Seeking Kali DVD containing this archived material is available via Paypal from our website.

ABAD 23 - The Ties That Bind

_A Seeking Kali poster for the next A Book About Death exhibition_

(Download a free copy of this poster)

Among other art work coming out of the studio this month is a poster design for the next incarnation of ABAD.  The Mathew Rose concept for a group exhibit linked to the father of mail art, Ray Johnson, first premiered at the Emily Harvey Gallery in NYC in September of 2009 and now is in it's 23rd showing.

ABAD - The Ties That Bind is curated by LuAnn Palazzo and will run from July 31st. to September 2nd in Bay Shore, N.Y at the Second Avenue Firehouse Gallery.

Link to the Ties That Bind exhibition blog. 

LuAnn will be hand binding the submissions to this show and the finished volume will be on exhibit along with the individual page submissions.

To help with the costs associated with the project she has launched a Kickstarter Project fund that is currently running. Several fine givebacks are available for donors.

This is an open call with work being accepted until July 15th.  

Our Seeking Kali collaboration for the Ties That Bind (we wrapped ourselves then Susan brought us together and printed it out)

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

For more information about the history of the A Book About Death series of exhibits visit the ABAD Exhibition Archive.

The Scroll

 

Scroll Sari at the Mobius Artist Group's Wearable Art Runway Show (photo courtesy of Bob Raymond)

The idea of Scroll Sari has it's origin in the ceremonial unrolling of a traditional artwork in the scroll format. These works while often seen in museums fully extended are generally meant to be unrolled a section at a time revealing the narrative often at the heart of the work.  

The images here are based on the ink drawing that form part of the Kali Shadow Theater, an intimate production featuring shadows cast from ink drawings, cut outs, puppets and live actors.

The Scroll Performance


The Scroll Sari premiered at the Mobius Artist Group's Wearable Art Runway Show, May 6th, 2011. The show, curated by Mobius artists Jane Wang, Alison Safford and James Ellis Coleman turned out to be a standing room only affair in Boston's south end.  Master of Ceremonies Tom Evans likened it to Dada events purposely oversold to create an aura of excitement.

A Brief Look at the Entire Lineup of Wearable Art


Scroll Sari - Hand painted fabric 20' x 3.5'
Kali mask - painted plastic with straw. Birdman mask - painted copper mesh with goldleaf.

Special thanks to Seeking Kali collaborators Susan Shulman for the fish motif and Ria Vanden Eynde for the poems used in the design.
Complete information on the artists, designers and  models from the 2011 Wearable Art Runway Show.

Thanks Hrag

The blogazine Hyperalleric gave my work a nice plug this week.  I sent off a few of my mailart pieces as well as a couple of my handstamps to their Brooklyn offices and in return Hrag Vartanian wrote up a nicely researched piece.  Plus, he had to find my website because I didn't include explanations in my package.  I've been involved with A Book About Death, a project originated by Matthew Rose, so a few of those pieces went in. (including one of the originals from the 2009 Emily Harvey Foundation Exhibit that resides deep in the vaults of MoMA).

Some of our Seeking Kali announcements went in as well as an example from the Analogue Narratives project where a group of us are struggling to finish Rene Daumal's Mount Analogue novel.

But my tic tac toe game pieces made the biggest hit. (probably the big H didn't hurt).

The best part? I came across my work while looking at some of their other reviews. Always great arts coverage and insights.

Hyperallergic also publishes a weekly newsletter as well as LABS which explores weekly art themes and their bliptv channel is always worth a look.

Wearable Art

May 6th is the Mobius Wearable Art Runway Show  and Seeking Kali will be featuring a Scroll Sari.  The inspiration for this piece is the oriental scroll art, and in this case a scroll large enough to be worn by two people. The 20' long fabric is hand painted with scenes derived from the Kali Shadow Theater.

Detail of progress on the Seeking Kali Sari

The scenes are an updated take on the traditional myth of the goddess Kali in which she is called forth in a battle against demons throwing the world into chaos.

The piece will be modeled during the show by my wife and myself at opposite ends of the sari; masked as Kali and a demon.


Gyotaku is the ancient Japanese folk art of painting fish. The first Gyotaku were created to preserve the true record and size of species caught by Japanese anglers as far back as 1862.

I'm using this technique along with sumi-e to create the images on the fabric.

The Mobius event blog will be featuring the sari this Friday. (Now Up)

Props to the two other members of Seeking Kali, Ria Vanden Eynde and Susan Shulman for their input and encouragement.

More information on the Seeking Kali artist collective can be found on our website.

Omaggio a Ray Opening

 

-The view from the exhibition hall - Un Libro Sulla Morte Omaggio a Ray Johnson-

The KaliRay Flip Book is a well traveled tome. In light of it's origin as a collaboration, it has trekked from the USA to Belgium to Canada, back to the US and finally on to Treviso, Italy.  Curator Virginia Milici has assembled a collection of over 100 artist books, all hand made volumes to honor the late Ray Johnson. 

The exhibit held in the Comune di Morgano on Piazza Indipendenza while lending a very formal overtone to works dedicated to the often irreverent Johnson, seems a very fitting setting as another edition of the A Book About Death exhibitions.

These exhibits originated as the brainchild of artist Matthew Rose with an initial exhibit in New York City at the Emily Harvey Foundation Gallery in 2009. Almost two years later the concept of these exhibitions remain fresh with new international venues emerging as curators continue to embrace the concept and level of engagement by a diverse and talented pool of artists.

In a departure from soliciting a single page contribution from artists, Milici's omaggio focused on the artist book.  The collaboration with Susan Shulman and Ria Vanden Eynde on the KaliRay expanded to the production of a limited edition of 20 unique hand bound pieces; one of which is to remain in the Italian archive. (purchase details can be found on our website)

The making of the KaliRay Flip Book

Un Libro Sulla Morte Omaggio a Ray Johnson - April 9 -17.