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.

Site Work

-The new Seeking Kali website is up.  After several weeks of collecting files testing templates, writing, photographing and updating, our artist group finally has a nice clean site to show for our efforts.  I'm part of the artist group Seeking Kali which began in early 2010 over some Facebook conversation.

From our splash page:

Seeking Kali began as a response to the eternal Facebook "What's on your mind?" query.  William typed in the thought, "the manifestations of Kali",  Ria Vanden Eynde responded with her thoughts, Susan Shulman joined the thread and we were off. To Where? We had no idea as we exchanged comments on goddess iconography, indigenous belief systems, concepts of time, western perceptions, travels and sources.

That day, I was staring at a tangka, hanging in my studio that depicts the wheel of time being devoured by Kali.  This was one of my first art purchases. I was in my first year of college, lucky to be there by virtue of a scholarship and yet I went and spent some of the meager funds on art. I don't quite know why to this day my younger self, fresh from rural mid New York state, thought to buy that art.  I had never been exposed to Eastern art of any type; yet somehow was drawn to the piece.  I have always had it hanging where ever I've had a studio as a reminder of the beginning of a journey.

So, that day in the studio as I glanced at it once again I was struck with the fact that I'd never really researched the rich iconography or the origins of the image. One of those insightful moments when you realize how little you really know.

I typed "The manifestations of Kali" onto my facebook page and within minutes I was immersed in a conversation with two artist friends, Ria Vanden Eynde and Susan Shulman, that over time has led us to curating an artist call, collaboration on many works and inclusion in several international exhibitions.

I have learned from this collaboration, especially as our portfolio of images relating to Kali is coming closer to completion, that we are incorporating some of those manifestations to bring our work beyond artistic interpretation of the Kali myth.
As we began to think of ourselves as a collective, we find that submerging our individual egos and combining our many arms of differing skills is very fruitful and enlightening, not only to works we create in concert but to our personal work as well.

So welcome to the Seeking Kali website an archive and record of our collaborative efforts.  Seeking Kali is William Evertson, Susan Shulman and Ria Vanden Eynde.

New Website

-My new website is finally done and published- 

http://www.williamevertson.net/

The hardest part is deciding where to stop; but I am quite pleased that I finally got to it. I focused mainly on the last two or so years with just a bit of history. Only as good as your last work?

Only problem - this blog was completely ignored lately.  Next - update the upcoming exhibitions.

Analogue Narratives

-View of Mount Analogue from the Isle of Stability - William Evertson-

One of the projects I'm currently involved with is Analogue Narratives. A loose collaboration with several artists adding to the unfinished novel by French author René Daumal. At the time of his death in 1944 Daumal's book Mount Analogue: A Novel of Symbolically Authentic Non-Euclidean Adventures in Mountain Climbing, remained unfinished.
Analogue Narratives is a web based work and ongoing with new art and chapters added every week or so as story-lines are pushed forward  by our contributors.

Daumal's original book is an allegorical tale concerning the adventure of climbing a mountain in which he uses alpinism as a foil to describe spiritual journeys and on occasion art.

"Alpinism is the art of climbing mountains by confronting the greatest dangers with the greatest prudence. Art is used here to mean the accomplishment of knowledge in action. You cannot always stay on the summits. You have to come down again... So what’s the point? Only this: what is above knows what is below, what is below does not know what is above. While climbing, take note of all the difficulties along your path. During the descent, you will no longer see them, but you will know that they are there if you have observed carefully. There is an art to finding your way in the lower regions by the memory of what you have seen when you were higher up. When you can no longer see, you can at least still know"

A spontaneous decision to continue Daumal's trek began in October of 2010 by a small group of artists who had been discussing the work on Facebook. Indeed this story continues to unfold as an example of Exquisite Corpse written on a Facebook thread.  The commentary and narratives as well as the pictures, sounds and links form our version of possible endings for Daumal's classic tale of searching.

California artist Mara Thompson suggested the reading and after a few weeks of on again off again fragmented posts, Ria Vanden Eynde, my Belgian Seeking Kali collaborator suggested we take the plunge of finishing the classic.

Several months later we are fourteen chapters in with no great insights but instead our writing style or lack of style has led us on many tangents that serve well for our collage, drawings and video work.  In fact the writing serves to challenge each of the contributors to come up with ways of illustrating improbable happenings.


Click to view Analogue Narratives. 

Top: Mara Thompson, William Evertson, Susan Shulman, Ria Vanden Eynde, Lee Goldberg, Cathy Nolan Vincevic
Bottom: Kathleen Hughes, Bibiana Padilla Maltos, Mark Bloch, angela Ferrara, Jane Wang, Christopher Reynolds

Visit Analogue Narratives for links to individual artists.