Thursday, June 25, 2009
Fast Forward - Retro
After high school, I was fortunate to spend the years 1978 to 1993 in New York City and surrounding provinces -- moving all the time between new apartments art galleries among friends on subway trains transported through the beats of gospel, jazz, reggae, rap -- and the cultural presence now known as hip hop. Arriving from Motown, I have to admit that Harlem, Brooklyn, the boogie down Bronx, Queens, and (ok) Staten Island's dress, slang, and expressive forms were to new to me -- even queer. Afterall, what was all this braggadocio posturing, graffiti vandalism, and spinning around on the head out in the public space? And most of all, who were these no-name, non-Marvin Gaye crooners rockin' the mike? Ohmygod, wassup? It was funky though. Run DMC, LL, Slick, Lyte, mixed in with some New Jack Swing. Downtown had punk. Uptown had the makings of a form that still lays sway on kids of the kids of the kids of the rap revolution. This month UC Riverside's Sweeney Art Gallery features a po-mo reflection on the legacy of Hip Hop iconography in Uncovered: A Pageant of Hip Hop Masters. This living exhibit at the interstices of performance and painting allows participants to integrate themselves into a new conception of visual memory. The project is the brainchild of Rickerby Hinds, professor of theater at UCR -- local Hip Hop-theater innovator and advocate. Some of the albums being considered for the living tableaux include Queen Latifah, Salt-N-Pepa, Run-DMC and LL Cool J. Check out a clip > here < July 23 - August 1 at UCR SAG www.artsblock.ucr.edu
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Nocturnal Desert
Joshua Tree Photographic Excursion 2009 weekend actually began in Palms Springs with a conversation between Colin Westerbeck, director of UCR/CMP, and photo collector David Knaus at his home, sharing a diverse collection of desert photographs from around the world. After a provocative presentation highlighting formal concerns, the assembled group made its way to Twentynine Palms for a workshop on night photography led by photojournalist Carlos Puma. Participants were able to train their lenses on a brilliant full moon shone over Joshua Tree during the entire three days. Finally, in between forays into the park to snap pictures, photographers gathered at the Tumbleweed Gallery in Morongo Valley for a local photo show.
The final exhibit of classically styled landscapes and abstract floral renderings opened June 1st and will run thru August 30th. Photographers represented in Joshua Tree 2009 include: Alma Lopez, Ami Flori, Andrea Price, Angelique Galvan, Anthony Rosales, Barbara May, Beatriz Mejia-Krumbein, Bruce Miller, CR Stecyk, Carlos Garcia, Carlos Puma, Corinne Cardenas, D’Arcy Curwen, Debera LaFave, Diane Calder, Doug Buckley, Michael J. Elderman, Eszter Delgado-Betz, Geno Lopez, Geoff, Shaw, Isabel Delgado, Jacalyn Lopez Garcia, Jason Ejercito, Jim Belsley, Jose Beruvides, Julia Buckley, Julian Cuevas, Justin Kenward, Katelin Johnson, Laura Araujo, Mary Maurry, Mateo Delgado-Betz, Memo Cuevas, Pat May, Peter Krumbein, Rex Bruce, Reggie Woolery, Rhoda Lewis, Susanne Melanie Berry, and Thom Cameron.
Socal + Global
This year's MyGlobalVillage High School Summer Session has over 60 youth registered for the six weeks of workshops, field trips, and screenings. There are also 12 college students who have come forward to serve as facilitators and production interns. Some of the old and new documentaries to be screened are Underground Undergrads: Undocumented Immigrants Speak Out (US), My Country, My Country (Iraq), Al Otra Lado (Mexico), Born into Brothels (India), Life and Debt (Jamaica), Rize (US), Afghan Star (Afghanistan), Firaaq (India), Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes (US), and a compilation of videos from around the world under the title Youth Producing Change.
MGV, developed by the Digital Studio Program @ UCR ARTSblock, is an interactive educational summer program in which participants screen award-winning documentaries each week focused on social issues affecting young people around the world, co-sponsored by Human Rights Watch Film Festival High School Program. After discussion of documentaries, student create a media-related response, either for the web, the street or the classroom. For more info, email: digitalstudioinfo@ucr.edu or check our website: www.artsblock.ucr.edu
Monday, June 8, 2009
Commercial Modern
Last week, I made it out to the Getty Museum to take in a conversation on the future of museums (rather than the future of art) featuring a fantastic keynote by Ivan Gaskell who holds the title Margaret S. Winthrop Curator of Paintings, Sculpture, and Decorative Arts in the Harvard Art Museum, and Senior Lecturer on History. During lunch, I ran across the work of photographer Paul Outerbridge. Aside from his images' striking resemblance to modernist paintings, Outerbridge's is credited with developing a multi-step color process, which gave his work the "aura of the new" both in his commercial work and art photography. In the exhibition, the lines blur between these two impulses.
To develop interest in Outerbridge, the Getty is organizing a course around the exhibition. The course is titled "Paul Outerbridge: An American Photo Modernist," where curator and photography scholar Graham Howe will look deeper at his work. The course will include a lecture on Outerbridge, plus dedicated tours and discussion of the exhibition Paul Outerbridge: Command Performance, which presents over 100 photographs from all periods of his career. For tickets or detailed information on this event you can call 310/440.7300
If you make it to the Getty, see the show its paired with, Jo Ann Callis: Woman Twirling, for a comparison of modern and post-modern approaches to figures and grounds. Admission to the Getty is always free. Admission for the course Paul Outerbridge: An American Photo Modernist is $20. Parking is $10. J. Paul Getty Trust 1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 403 Los Angeles, CA 90049.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
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)
Monday, May 4, 2009
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.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
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, RiversideOn 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
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
Friday, November 14, 2008
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
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
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
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)