I Have My Pistol....

...and I have my whistle and when I say NON I mean it. The 20 year old gendarme didn't look old enough to shave but he had the aggressive bearing that meant I was not going to be able to take a photograph of the breech of a 16th century cannon bearing a casting of a Medusa head, despite signs indicating that photography was allowed. 

Les Invalides - Copyright (c) 2003 David Monniaux

Perhaps because it was Labor Day in France and the laborers filled the Paris streets in full protest and police were on high alert because both Francois Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy were both in town.   Military and police were making a show of force and the wail of sirens filled the city as I walked the streets with my wife, Karen and fellow artist and collaborator Ria Vanden Eynde of Belgium, in search of inspiration (and Medusa heads to compliment our current artist call on the Seeking Kali blog).

 Classic French cannon ornamentation from circa 1666 - 1764 

As we toured the courtyard of Les Invalides, the home and hospital for aged and injured soldiers initiated by Louis XIV in 1670 and now also home to a museum dedicated to French military history, I became fascinated by the rich ornamentation of the cannons and further learned that each caliber had its distinguishing mythological or antique motif cast into the breech.  The 24 caliber bearing the Nemean lion, the head of a cock on the 12 and that the 16 caliber was the head of Medusa.  

Cannon breech with the Medusa head.

The signs indicated that surviving examples of all caliber of cannon were on display and I began my search for Medusa; no small quest given the 100's of cannons on display in the enormous complex and surrounding grounds.  After a fruitless search lasting over an hour we left the complex but over to one side was one last  row of cannons.  Unfortunately these were draped with a rope, although seen from the side was the Medusa casting on the breech of one of the group.

 Medusa in profile - second from bottom

Unfortunately to get a shot of it from the rear would involve stepping over the knee high rope protecting this particular group.  Even more unfortunate was deciding to ask permission from the nearby lad with the pistol and whistle who first indicated that it was ok to photograph until I put a foot over the rope and leaned in to get the shot who then changed his mind.  No explanation or S'il vous plait was going to change his mind, plus now even trying to get another angled shot from behind the rope was off limits.  He claimed that something could fall off the building and hit us although I suspect that boredom or the fact that instead of wearing body armor and chasing protesters he was stuck with tourists that day was the real reason.

What was it about this particular group that caused it be be roped off? ... French military secrets still classified from the 17th century?  

As it turned out we passed by on another day and this time a much more reasonable female gendarme gave us the ok for a quick photo op.  

Breech casting of Medusa head

It probably helped that the second time around that our other Seeking Kali collaborator, Susan Shulman was helping with the charm.

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.

Self Fulfilling Prophecy

Handing off Issue #4 of Kalicorp Art Mysteries to Hennessy Youngman (aka Jayson Musson)

Sure enough our Kalicorp Art Mysteries is in that big fancy Artworld show thanks to Jayson's YouTube call out for works to fill the new Family Business Gallery in Chelsea.  The tiny 125 s.f. Family Business gallery is a walled off  section of Anna Kustera at 520 W. 21st. recently opened by Maurizio Cattelan (retired?) and New Museum curator Massimiliano Gioni.

Jayson in his Hennessy Youngman persona invited the world wide web to drop off art for his show.  As fans of his video observations on Artworld and in part because our Kalicorp Art Mysteries is about this kind of high drama we wrote him into the story line and brought a comic for the show.

We even got it there in just in time because Jayson was receiving a ton of art and 125 s.f. of space is...well...tiny.  The shutters were coming down for a regrouping but the comic is in. (see top photo)  and despite being just a little distracted he did mention he was a comic fan.

But for anyone not lucky enough to get in, there was some consolation.

Hennessy Youngman's Itsa Small Small World open April 3 and runs through the 16th at Family Business.

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.

A Forgotten Memory

I wanted to share a wonder story written by a lovely Poetess and friend from India, Abha Iyengar. Depending on your privacy settings Facebook notifies friends of upcoming birthdays. Mine recently passed and I had changed my profile picture to a grainy black and white photo of myself from 1958 as a six year old sitting at home staring at a cake.

The artist at six - Moravia, New York 1958

Abha, who has created several poems for the Seeking Kali blog that I co-curate, saw the photograph and asked if she could write a story based on the image. I thought "what serendipity" because I have no memory of what I might have been thinking or wishing for with my eyes closed and about to blow out the candles.

This is the story of my forgotten memory by Abha Iyengar 

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Cakes, Candles and A Bird Story

Bill looked at the candles and the cake and he smiled. He was smiling because he was thinking about the bird story. What bird story?

 The one his grandmother told him the night before his birthday. Of how when he turned six, which was in a few hours time, the big bird would come down from the mountians so very far away and flap its wings in front of Bill.

And?

And ask Bill to sit on its back and take a ride far far away, into the land of dreams.

“This only happens to some children, the few chosen ones, the ones who listen carefully to grandmother’s stories.”

Bill had understood.

“I have informed the big bird about your seriousness regarding stories. Perhaps he will come.”

Bill had looked at his grandmother and given her the sweetest of smiles. He had been unable to sleep, the excitement had been too much for him.

He was wide awake now, sittting in front of the cake and wondering whether he could blow the candles, eat the cake, ride on the big bird, go to the land of dreams and still be back for school?

Grandmother had not told him anything more in the night. He would just have to wait and find out.

He sat there watching the candles and waiting for his mother and grandmother to come with the plates from the kitchen and wished for something that he really wanted.

He heard the doorbell ring. Birds did not ring doorbells, did they?

He sat quietly, not breathing, not moving.

From the corner of his eye he saw someone walk in. He recognized a pair of shoes. He must be dreaming. He closed his eyes, and there it was, the big bird in front of his eyes. It was flapping its wings.

When Bill opened his eyes, his father stood there, his arms open for him to run into them. They were big and wide, just like a bird’s wings.

Since then, Bill knows grandmother stories are all that the world needs to believe in. He was a special boy at six, the one who believed and still does.

*****

© Abha Iyengar, March 2012

A birthday gift to Bill

 More of Abha Iyengar's poetry and short stories can be found at:

http://abhaencounter.blogspot.com/

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.