UCR ARTSblock Live!

UC Riverside/California Museum of Photography, Culver Center of the Arts, and Sweeney Art Gallery present monthly features of music, lectures, interviews and literary readings. Guests featured include Nigerian-born writer Chris Abani, award-winning poet Juan Felipe Herrera, artist Nicole Antebi, novelist Susan Straight, Division 9 Gallery director Cosme Cordova, author Laila Lamami, ethnomusicologist Deborah Wong, filmmakers Chris Metzler and Enid Baxter Blader, writers Ky-Phong Tran and Alex Espinosa, as well as ARTSblock directors Tyler Stallings and Jonathan Green. Hosted by KCET.org Los Angeles (www.artsblock.ucr.edu)

Coming UP: LA Avant-Garde Cinema - Blur + Sharpen

Coming UP: LA Avant-Garde Cinema - Blur + Sharpen

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Theme Shows

This weekend I served as a judge for TOP 40, an annual showcase of new digital art organized by Los Angeles Center for Digital Art.  This exhibit, which will open in LA  later in the month then travel to CMP this summer, still has a raw quality, notwithstanding the high production values. Of the forty images chosen, there are varied genres and hybrids of digital design -- straight documentary photography, op art graphic design, narrative illustration, fractal 3-D, and conceptual collages.  (see website)

Artists include:  Alex and Felix Gertschen, Ariel Marte, Arthur Pinkham, Barbara Kossy, Berndnaut Smilde, Carol Dragon, Christopher Robin Blum, David George, David Molander, Dayvid LeMmon, Frank Mullaney, Gary Wornell, Gerry Millet, Hoon Dong Chung, Hyun Ji Shim, Izumu Ito, J.C. Jaress, J.F. Heurtaux, Jeffrey Burke, John Klof, Jonathan Bagby, Keith Dillon, Kurney Ramsey, Latham Robertson, Marika Krissman Tsircou, Matthew C Lange, Matthew Krueger, Meng'Kok Tan, Ondrej Rudavsky, Ori Bahat, Patty Carroll, Phillip Hua, Rebecca Beard, Robert Hustead, Robin Layton, Rocky Reasoner, Sergio Fasola, Stuart Sperling, Tim Portlock, Trevor Messersmith, and Viktor Sykora.

LACDA is a smallish space with major ambitions, the brainchild of artist and director Rex Bruce who's recent personal exhibit Inversions exemplifies his deep dedication to furthering the dialogue on the digital. Bruce's landscaped canvases of empty skies through streaked and stained bus windows are evocative in themselves, but also for him serve as a performative protest against environmental pollution.  Rex's apocalytic vision was shot with a variety of devices including high-low res digital cameras as well as cellphones. 

UCR ARTSblock photo contests Micro Macro and Extreme Places bring in artists from around the Inland Empire region, while TOP 40 brings in many international artists as well as those in LA urban studios.  See TOP 40 at: www.lacda.com and www.artsblock.ucr.edu.

Early Processes

UCR ARTSblock is joining with other downtown Riverside arts organizations to present First Sunday - Family Fun Days each month. On Sunday, April 5, 1:00-4:00pm, there will be a hands-on activity entitled Kineographs: Flipbook Animations.  Here's the description: "Photographs can exist as more than still, stand-alone images. They can work together as a sequence to create animated scenes. Join us this Sunday as participants create moving picture flipbooks also known as kineographs." This is a project for all ages. Free - UCR California Museum of Photography, 3824 Main Street, Riverside

On Sunday, May 3, 1:00-4:00pm the theme is Sunprints. "Early photographic pioneer William Henry Fox Talbot considered himself a failed artist. He sought a process to fix nature's beauty in a technical way, rather than by drawing.  Join us as participants create light-based drawings or photo-graphs using the sun's rays on chemically-treated paper. Free and open to the public. For info email: digitalstudioinfo@ucr.edu

Tumbleweed

It's that time again already -- Joshua Tree 2009 Photographic Excursion sponsored by UCR ARTSblock. Participant's in this year's photo project will collaborate to produce a mammoth virtual image of the desert's mountains, valleys, hills, vegetation, and wildlife. Photographers should bring or will be supplied with GPS devices to chart their land coordinates in the park. 

This should also be a cool weekend as its a full moon, great for night photography. Submitted images will be collaged into a mega zoom-able photograph of Joshua Tree, complete with annotations -- accessible byway of the Internet and an on-site California Museum of Photography exhibition. Registration has already begun. Deadline April 1 for workshops, April 15 for joining the project in JT. Orientation sessions will take place in Los Angeles and Riverside during the third week in April. Stay tuned! 

This year there will be three related activities. 

For Images of the Desert Palm Springs photo collector David Knaus will host at his home a private viewing of desert photography from his own collection. Knaus and Colin Westerbeck, Director of UCR CMP, will discuss the prints selected, which range from the 19th century to the present. Friday, May 8, 4pm. Limited to 25. Phone rsvp required.

The Nocturne Photo Workshop allows photographers to get tips on taking shots in the dark. Participants should bring along their film and digital cameras. Friday, May 8, 7pm. Free - Location: TBA

A gathering of artists will meet at the Tumbleweed Photo Gallery in Yucca Valley to celebrate the closing of this 1st Annual Morongo Basin Photographic Show. Saturday, May 9th, 3pm. 57490 Palms Highway, Yucca Valley

For info, download the flyer at www.artsblock.ucr.edu, or call: 951.827.4796  email: digitalstudioinfo@ucr.edu

Extremist

The annual Extreme Places photo contest sponsored by UC Riverside California Museum of Photography's Digital Studio Gallery received 129 amazing entries from 49 emerging and established photographers. For a quick look, see: SmugMug and enter the password - extreme. Works consist of straight documentary photography of exotic and surreal places as well as works manipulated through collage techniques, virtual paint, lens filters and special computer effects.

Entries have come primarily from southern California, but also include works from China and Amsterdam. An exhibition of the selected winners will take place at UCR CMP on Thursday April 2nd, 6:00-7:30pm. For more info email: digitalstudioinfo@ucr.edu or call: 951.827-4796

Escape to Reality Part II

In May 2008, more than sixty photographers set out to capture a 24-hour day in Joshua Tree National Park in Twentynine Palms, CA. Taking inspiration from English photographer Eadweard Muybridge’s important work in motion study, the goal was to capture sequential movements and the passages of time, rather than isolated still-life compositions. Each photographer was assigned a 14-minute time slot that would be assembled together into a complete video. The result, Escape to Reality: 24hrs @ 24fps, an experimental video rendered in a drop-frame style.
To view video < click here >

The 40+ photographers featured in it are: Ami Flori, Carlos Puma, MiKenzie Denholtz, Maxene Denholtz, Mike Denholtz, Brenda Denholtz, Myles Denholtz, Darrin Dikes, Jose Beruvides, Laura Araujo-Salinas, Paul Gachot, Alma Lopez, Reggie Woolery, Rex Bruce, Douglas Buckley, Julia Buckley, Carlos Garcia, Corinne Cardenas, Sergio Pina, Melanie Berry, Elda Carraco, C.R. Steyck III, Ralph Carraco, Yareli Figueroa, Andy Chi, Brian Leatart, David Carter, Jim Belsley, Geoff Shaw, Vicki Williams, Joanne Lehmer, Jacalyn Lopez Garcia, Geno Lopez, Pat May, Rita Medina, Breeane Diaz, Barbara May, Eva Soltes, Brad Shyba, Jason Marquez, Ethan Turpin, Margaret Burnett, Sarah Bay Williams, and Bruce Miller.

Upon viewing the 6,000+ images shot in May, the Digital Studio team set about importing the files into Final Cut Pro. Intern Lauren Hisada, an art student from Washington state, was heavily involved logging the images and making notes about the photographers involved. Multi-talented, Lauren also wrote music for the video using Garage Band. Intern Heather Sten, a UC Riverside visual art undergrad and primary assistant editor on the project, came to us via a Gluck Foundation arts fellowship.

After much discussion, we decided to incorporate a 1937 text by socialite Mabel Dodge Luhan Edge of Taos Desert: An Escape to Reality, which described her transformation from avant-garde art patron and salon organizer to disillusioned proponent of modernism. Mabel would leave New York in 1919 and take up residence in the southwest desert of Taos, New Mexico. Though Mabel Luhan’s recollections about the desert in her memoirs can seem utopian, a response to the violence of World War I, they resonate today due to our own current period of social change and immense turmoil inflected by war, economics, and new technologies.

In addition to the words of Luhan, we excerpted quotes from Rebecca Solnit’s study of the transition from photography to cinema, River of Shadows: Eadweard Muybridge and the Technological Wild West (2003), winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism and of the Mark Lynton History Prize. Solnit takes us through the “annihilation of time and space” ignited by the speed of railroad travel and the invention of photography. We also follow Eadweard Muybridge’s early collaborations with then Governor Leland Stanford in Sacramento and Palo Alto, his first motion studies, as well as his competition and influence on the Lumiere Brothers, Thomas Edison, and Etienne-Jules Marey.

Once a rough cut of images was assembled, we approached the author of Phantom Seed, poet Ruth Nolan to add her vision of Joshua Tree. Ruth, a resident of Palm Desert, became excited about the video project and set about writing and narrating Joshua Tree Imprimature (excerpted below). She also recorded footsteps walking and running through Joshua Tree, a place she had spent many days and nights growing up. While Mabel Luhan’s memoirs, featured in sub-title form are the voice of Escape to Reality, it is Ruth Nolan’s words that are it’s soul. She paints a picture of the desert that is complex, ironic, mysterious, and beautiful.

To complete the project, we were able to acquire the post-modern music tracks “A Place in the Sun” and “Ripcord” from Texas band Friends of Dean Martinez. Their work was featured in the award-winning documentaries Fast Food Nation and Plagues and Pleasures of the Salton Sea directed by Chris Metzler and narrated by John Waters. New York-based group Ranges provided metal core selections “Bust Out” and “Texas Bling”, with drummer Dan Ranges rendering the electronic opening track “Cool Vibes”. The video credits feature an upbeat piece by Lauren Hisada that montages images of the various photographers in the project with the times they were assigned.

Joshua Tree Imprimature (excerpt)

In Joshua Tree
In the land that crowns its needled glories with sand
In the desert made of pavement fallen from the Milky Way
In the desert made of deep holes, carved by grinding stones
In the desert made of gashed canyons, cut straight through stone
In the desert made of walking rain that the eye can far-off see
In the desert made of fan tree palms
In the desert made of cold
In the desert made of Blinding mirage
In the desert made of light so old it whispers like grooved bones
Where the woolly mammoth and rattlesnake cross time and home,
Oceans of time rising and receding, land quaking in their paths
Where the granite batholiths arch their backs
where the red-tailed hawks vault their hunting songs
by Ruth Nolan

About Joshua Tree

Joshua Tree, a land that stretches over 800,000 acres, has over 700 species of vascular plants, whose inhabitants are coyotes, Tarantulas, and lizards. This is a land shaped by strong winds, sudden torrents of rain, and climatic extremes. Rainfall is sparse and unpredictable. Streambeds are usually dry and waterholes are few. The land here may seem to appear defeated and dead, but within its parched environment are intricate living systems.

Viewed from the roadside, the desert only hints at its hidden vitality -- but to the close observer Joshua Tree National Park is an abundance of wildflowers, wildlife, solitude and a place for self-discovery. Two deserts, two large ecosystems primarily determined by elevation, come together in the park. Few areas more vividly illustrate the contrast between “high” and “low” desert. Below 3000 feet (910 m), the Colorado Desert, occupying the eastern half of the park, is dominated by the abundant creosote bush. Adding interest to this arid land are small stands of spidery ocotillo and cholla cactus. Check out the National Park Service website at: http://www.nps.gov/jotr

JOIN US!

Photograpic Excursion 2009: Joshua Tree National Park is scheduled for the full-moon weekend of May 8-10th. Our goal is to have over 100 photographers, artists and writers descend upon the desert to conduct various types of research, teaching, and art-making. To be a part of it, contact the UCR ARTSblock Education office by April 1, 2009. This is a free family-friendly event. In addition to UCR, we encourage you to check out: High Desert Test Sites (HDTS), a multi-site arts-research event initiated by artist Andrea Zittel (www.highdeserttestsites.com). Also, the Riverside Arts Museum has launched residencies for local and international artists, available annually (www.riversideartmuseum.org). Also, there are Joshua Tree Highlands Houses two-month artist residencies. (info@joshuatreehighlandhouse.com) 310.562.0511

Time Lapse

Edge of Taos Desert: An Escape to Reality published in 1937 by New York socialite Mabel Dodge Luhan exemplifies a late modernist disillusionment with "civilized" culture and class. Luhan, who had set up salons of notable writers, artists and authors in Florence, Greenwich Village, and later Taos New Mexico, gave up her prior fictions to re-claim life on the edge.While the image of desert can mean many things to many people, it has been said that easterners in particular conjure primativist notions of an exotic nature and its rural inhabitants.

Such was the case with Mabel Luhan. Yet, her utopian vision did lure D.H. Lawrence and Georgia O'Keeffe to the desert and win her the respect of photographer friend Ansel Adams. The video project "Escape to Reality: 24hrs @ 24fps" borrows narrative elements from Mabel Dodge Luhan's memoirs combining them with the poetry of Palm Desert resident Ruth Nolan, images from Eadweard Muybridge's 1870s Palo Alto motion studies, post-modern music, tourist travelogues taken in New York, California, and Pearl Harbor in 1930s, along with the images of photographers who roamed Joshua Tree National Park for a 24-hour period in May 2008.

Escape to Reality montages time periods and styles marking the transition between East and West, day and night, sophisticated urbanity and isolated desert, class comfort and new realities, war to peace, still camera to cinematic, from analog film to digital device. Join us for a reception and screening, November 6th, 6:00pm www.artsblock.ucr.edu digitalstudioinfo@ucr.edu rsvp at: 951.827-4796

Riverside Here and Now

As part of A Sense of Place: Remembering Riverside's Chinatowns Sweeney Art Gallery hosted an incredible dance performance and presentation at Bre Dance Studios. The space is located on 9th Street & Orange in downtown Riverside, the former site of the 1880s Chinese Quarter. The audience was treated to choreographed hip-hop dance and Chinese traditional dance put together by Clifford Breland and Szu-Ching Chang respectively. Storyteller and singer Karen Wilson followed with a moving narrative tying together the diasporic journeys in America of both Chinese and African immigrants. Afterward, there was a buffet Chinese dinner and street music. On the political front, a Riverside City Council meeting on 10/07/08 will determine the fate of Riverside's second Chinatown site on Tequesquite and Brockton Avenues. Grassroots activists hope to have the land saved for further excavation and a memorial park.


The co-chair of the Riverside Chinatown Cultural Preservation Committee (RCCPC), Dr. Deborah Wong professor of music at UCR talked with Ching-In Chen about the history of Chinese immigrants in Riverside and the on-going controversy surrounding development on the Chinatown site. Check out the podcast interview on KCET.org as part of ARTSblock Live! available throughout the month of October. KCET, also Asian American Riverside.


The next ARTSblock Live! podcast slated for November will feature "desert noir" author Ruth Nolan who is currently leading a series of workshops for the Inlandia Institute focusing on desert region writers. Ruth is also developing narration for an upcoming experimental video on Joshua Tree National Park with images taken as part of the annual Photographic Excursions project sponsored by UCR/CMP. The video is scheduled to premiere during 1st Thursday ARTSwalk on 11/06/08 at 7:00pm. Check out Inlandia!

Auf Wiedersehen

Riversiders took part in “Project Runway" (IE style) through a portrait studio set up by local photographer Michael J. Elderman at UCR California Museum of Photography on 10/05/08. Elderman dug out his old Hasselblad 2 1/4 camera along with a digital SLR to capture the runway action. This 1st Sunday arts event aimed to highlight the 10/25 opening of Leicas and Hasselblads curated by Jonathan Green at UCR/CMP, featuring cameras from the David J. Hearst Foundation Collection. Over 100 fashion backward folks showed for the mod 60s and 70s theme shoot, styled by upcoming designer Michele Woolery. Participants received a free CD of their shoot afterwards. Michael J. Elderman has been a freelance commercial photographer and a photographic artist since the mid-1970’s exhibiting his work throughout the United States and Canada. His assistant during the shoot was Michael Papavero of Redlands.


The next 1st Sunday event will take place on 11/02/08. Day of the Dead (El Dia de Los Muertos) is a Mexican celebration that pays homage to loved ones who have died, yet are still remembered. The celebration is sponsored by the Riverside Cultural Consortium and organized by Division 9 director Cosme Cordova. As a run up to the event, local photographer Carlos Puma will hold a digi-photo workshop at UCR/CMP on Thursday evening 10/23 for those interested in working the Museum's Dead Portrait studio located among the festivities on Mission Inn Avenue. Selected images from the Day of the Dead photo shoots will be featured in the Digital Studio Gallery during 1st Thursday ARTSwalk 11/6 between 6-9pm. For more info, contact the UCR ARTSblock Ed office at: digitalstudioinfo@ucr.edu or call (951) 827-4796. www.artsblock.ucr.edu

Forest 4 the Trees

Winners of the recent Micro Macro photo contest sponsored by UC Riverside California Museum of Photography hail from beaches of SoCal to the mountains of New Zealand. Curators were impressed by the diversity of images that met the theme's premise of a world seemingly both near and far. Works include conceptual scenes, fictional renderings, loving snapshots, and microscopic discoveries -- uniquely capturing the irony and intimacy of daily life.

Photographers: Catherine Pinal, Cheryl Orndorf, Corrine Cardenas, Dalton Tarver, Diane Bush, Domenico Foschi, Heather Sten, Jami Hofstee, Kenny James, Mike O'Brien, Otana Jakpor, Sakiko Tsukamoto, Sandy Flores Winston, Sasha Venola, Ted Norton, Twila Stofer, and Ralph Ansel. Click here > to preview exhibit<

An opening reception for Micro Macro will take place at UCR/CMP on Thursday September 4th from 6:00 - 8:00pm. The show will run from September 3rd - November 5th in the Digital Studio Gallery, 3rd Floor. UCR ARTSblock, 3800 Main Street and University, downtown Riverside (951) 827-4796 Check out the website at: www.artsblock.ucr.edu

72hrs @ 24fps in LA

Selected images from "24hrs @ 24fps Over Joshua Tree" photo shoot will be featured at the Spring Arts Collective Gallery as part of DigitalArt.LA, sponsored by Los Angeles Center for Digital Art taking place August 14-16 in downtown LA.

Among the amateur and professional photographers featured are Ami Flori, Carlos Puma, miKenzie Denholtz, Maxene Denholtz, Mike Denholtz, Brenda Denholtz, Darrin Dikes, Myles Denholtz, Jose Beruvides, Laura Araujo-Salinas, Paul Gachot, Sarah Bay Williams, Alma Lopez, Rex Bruce, Reggie Woolery, Douglas Buckley, Julia Buckley, Carlos Garcia, Corrine Cardenas, Sergio Pina, Melanie Berry, Elda Carraco, Yareli Figueroa, Andy Chi, Brian Leatart, Jim Belsley, Grace Bagwell, Geoff Shaw, Vicki Williams, Joanne Lehmer, Jacalyn Garcia Lopez, Geno Lopez, Pat May, Rita Medina, Breeane Diaz, Margaret Burnett, C.R. Stecyk, Eva Soltes, Brad Shyba, Jason Marquez, Barbara May, and Ethan Turpin. For info, see: digitalart.la