SHIFTER15 Released

"Critical Distance" opens at Galerie Vayhinger

Today my exhibition "Critical Distance" opens at Galerie Vayhinger. My images are juxtaposed with works by the German Expressionists Otto Dix and Erich Heckel. Here is the gallery newsletter (in German only) announcing the exhibit:

Liebe Freunde der Galerie,

das Heimat-Thema beschäftigt uns weiterhin und wird unsere Ausstellungen noch viele Monate prägen. Zwischenzeitlich haben wir vielfach nicht nur bei Künstlern nachgefragt, was „Heimat“ den Einzelnen bedeutet. Wir haben Besucher, Mitarbeiter, Freunde, Familie, Politiker usw. um ihre Heimat-Interpretation gebeten. Erstaunliche, höchst ungewöhnliche, heitere, melancholische, ganz präzise und ganz simple statements kamen bis jetzt zusammen.

Wenn es Ihnen nicht zu viel Mühe macht, schicken Sie uns doch bitte eine mail mit Ihrer Definition. Diese Zeit eignet sich doch jetzt besonders, mal kurz durchzuatmen, um über solche Inhalte nachzu- denken. In den nächsten Briefen werden wir Sie über dieses heimatliche Konglomerat informieren.

Mit der letzten Ausstellung in diesem Jahr bleiben wir in „unserer Heimat“, wenn wir uns auf Heimat als Ortsbezug verständigen. Die Arbeiten des in den USA lebenden deutschen Künstlers Daniel Blochwitz haben den Ausschlag zu diesem künstlerischen „Ost-West Dialog“ mit Belegen/ Arbeiten von Otto Dix und Erich Heckel gegeben. Blochwitz, internationaler Künstler und im Osten geboren, lebt in New York; Otto Dix, im Osten geboren, hat sich 1937 am Bodensee niedergelassen und war, obwohl hier wohnhaft, die Hälfte seines Lebens ein Wanderer zwischen zwei Welten, zwischen West- und Ostdeutschland, für ihn galt kein „Eiserner Vorhang“. Erich Heckel, im Osten geboren, Mitbegründer der legendären Brücke-Künstler-Gemeinschaft, kam vor Kriegsende 1944 an den Bodensee und blieb bis zu seinem Tode. Spannend, was sich zum „Heimatbegriff“ in diesem Dialog zwischen dem Osten und dem Westen, zwischen Vergangenheit und Gegenwart für den Rezipient ablesen lässt.

Dix und Heckel sind hinreichend bekannt, deshalb nun zu Daniel Blochwitz; Bei seiner Fotoserie „Critical Distance - a perpetual absence of home“ geht es Blochwitz „grob gesagt um Heimatfindung, bzw. die Unmöglichkeit deren“. Blochwitz schrieb uns weiter: „der Hintergrund (zu dieser Arbeit) ist, dass ich nunmehr schon länger in den Vereinigten Staaten als im vereinigten Deutschland gelebt habe. Das Land meiner Kindheit und Jugend, die DDR, gibt es nun schon seit 20 Jahren nicht mehr – ein ganz wertungsfreier Fakt, mich beschäftigt also die Frage, wo und wie man sich zu Hause fühlt. Und ob Heimatsuche, frei nach Ernst Bloch, einen katalysatorischen Effekt für progressiv-emanzipatorische gesellschaftliche Veränderung haben kann. Ich denk ja“. Sie erinnern sich vielleicht, lieber Leser, dass die Bloch’sche Heimat-Interpretation für uns zu Beginn der Ausstellungsreihe ein wichtiger inhaltlicher Ansatz war und auch noch ist.

Der bei uns gezeigte Foto-Zyklus wird ein wichtiger Teil des Gesamtprojektes von Daniel Blochwitz sein, denn „Critical Distance“ ist umfangreich auch als Buchprojekt angelegt. Aus dem Essay, das als Einführung dient, hier noch ein kleiner Ausschnitt: „Auf der Suche nach einem passenden Begriff, der meine uneindeutige Beziehung zu einer geografisch, kulturell und gefühlsmäßig definierten Heimat beschreiben könnte, stieß ich auf das niederländische Wort unheimisch. Bei unheimisch muss ich an ‚entwurzelt’ oder ‚nicht zu Hause’ denken, aber die Niederländer haben das Wort aus meiner Muttersprache adaptiert, jedoch fälschlich in Verbindung zu ‚heimisch’, um damit etwas als ‚unheimlich’ zu bezeichnen. Und obwohl unheimisch ein wunderbarer und durchaus nützlicher Begriff wäre, existiert er so leider nicht im deutschen Wortschatz. Es ist ein Wort, das von einer Sprache in eine andere migrierte, ohne je in ersterer zu Hause gewesen zu sein.“

Noch ein paar kurze Anmerkungen zur Vita von Daniel Blochwitz: 1973 geboren und aufgewachsen in Ilmenau. 1989/90 wurden zu einem Schlüsseljahr für Blochwitz, als er aktiv an der Demokratisierungs- bewegung des Wendejahrs teilnahm. 1995 ging er mit Stipendium zum Studium in die USA. Studien- schwerpunkt bildende Kunst und Fotographie mit Abschluss magna cum laude. Zahlreiche Ausstel- lungen präsentieren seine meist projektbezogenen Arbeiten, u.a. 2003 auf der Biennale in Venedig mit der Utopia Station gemeinsam mit den Künstlern Martha Rosler und der Gruppe FLEAS.

Ausstellungseröffnung
Sonntag 13. Dezember um 19.00 Uhr
Daniel Blochwitz - „Critical Distance - a perpetual absence of home“ Fotoarbeiten und Belege von Otto Dix und Erich Heckel

Aussstellung 13. Dezember – 30. Januar 2010

Art Machine at PULSE Art Fair

Artist Meeting Art Machine (AM-AM)

ArtistsMeeting Art Machine @ PULSE, Miami

ArtistsMeeting Art Machine(SM) premiers at PULSE Miami 2009, December 3-6.

PULSE Contemporary Art Fair
The Ice Palace
1400 North Miami Avenue
Miami, FL 33136
Thurs Dec 3 through Sun Dec 6

The ArtistsMeeting Art Machine(SM) is a hacked together custom fine art dispensing device inspired by self-service kiosks, Japanese automats, slot machines, ATM’s, juke boxes, shopping malls and carnival games. The AM Art Machine(SM) creates a fun and accessible means for the public to engage with original 21st century avant-garde artwork and acquire it at recession level pricing. Artist Meeting is able to do this through intentionally undervaluing its products, cutting out the middleman and automating the process of valuation, choice and the art of the sale. AM Art Machine(SM) creates a subtle critique on capitalism and the art world. The Art Machine(SM) changes the art buying experience for the viewer. It is an art market hack.

The Art Machine(SM) will dispense an assortment of custom made objects and drawings via a $20 token operated system of mechanical and digital modules embedded in a 10 x 8 foot transparent plastic wall. The Art Machine(SM) process will randomly alternate between a drawing module and object module dispensing various AM art objects such as AM t-shirts and underwear, DIY intervention kits, AM ‘Zines, photo books, digital prints, and other small artworks and ephemera the member artists have created for this project including over 300 feet of collaborative mixed media drawing.

ArtistsMeeting is an international, semi-anonymous arts collective based in New York City. Begun in 2006, as a research project and experiment in the creative process and collaboration, Artists Meeting has participated in the Conflux and Dumbo Arts Festivals, Dokfest in Kassel Germany, Static 3 in Hereford,UK, and exhibited at Postmasters Gallery in New York. Artists Meeting members have exhibited their work in many major museums around the world including; MoMA, The Whitney Museum, Jeu Du Paume, SF MoMA, Musée D’Art Contemporain de Marseille, The Walker Art Center, Musée D’art Contemporain de Lyon, PS1, The State Hermitage Museum and MCA Chicago.

Artist Meeting Art Machine(SM) will be located across from the PULSE VIP lounge. For further information email artmeet(AT)nujus.net or phone 1-646-496-7048.

ARTISTS MEETING - ART MACHINE(SM)

WWW.ARTISTSMEETING.ORG

Diskurs Festival: 25th Anniversary Publication

Published by Diskurs Festival (just released), J. Manzewski and D. Franz (ed.)

SHIFTER15:Will

Dear Friends, we are pleased to announce the release of Shifter 15, which can be downloaded at www.shifter-magazine.com. Please join us for the release of the print edition on Dec. 15 at Ludlow 38.

Editors: Sreshta Rit Premnath, Abhishek Hazra

Avi Alpert, Diana Artus, Lindsay Benedict, Daniel Blochwitz, Brandstifter, Steven Brower, Jon Cotner & Andy Fitch, Mark Cunningham, Chris Curreri, Thom Donovan, Nathan Haenlein, Nina Höchtl, John Houck, Devin Kenny, Richard Kostelanetz & Nick Eve, Matt McAlpin, Jean-Marc Superville Sovak, and Julie Tolentino Wood

RELEASE ON
DEC 15, 6-8 pm at Ludlow 38

(download PDF version here)

Ludlow 38
European Kunsthalle Cologne / Goethe Institut New York
38 Ludlow Street
Between Grand and Hester
New York 10002
Tel. +1 212 228 6848
www.ludlow38.org
info@ludlow38.org

‘Indeed, the truth was not hit by him who shot at it with the word of the “will to existence”: that will does not exist… Only where there is life is there also will: not will to life – thus I teach you – but will to power.’

Friedrich Nietzche, “Thus Spake Zarathustra”

When Will shot Joan he did not mean to. He wanted to shoot the apple balanced on her head. The cactus wine may have put the gun in his hand. The spirit may have provided the reckless confidence. And in the spirit of its will he pointed his gun and squeezed the trigger. It may have been at the moment he squeezed the trigger, or perhaps a split second before, that the world had already begun to rip. Space and time had torn the future into an infinite set of possibilities. The set could be divided into two subsets: He would miss Joan / He would not. But the will of the spirit produced a second pair of possibilities that would not matter in the least – He would hit the apple/ He would not.

If Will was not himself when he constituted this new reality, one without Joan, then who was responsible? Who’s will acted upon reality? His finger’s? The gun’s? The wine’s? Yet, we must not confuse will with intention – maybe this assumption of a causality itself is a mistake. What is known is that it happened.

If will is a potentiality – a vector that opens possibility and cleaves reality – does it precede choice? Are personal wills constituted by hegemonic ideologies (producing pre-inscribed realities), or rather is an individual’s will that space of agency which allows for an opening and aggregates with other individual wills to produce the transformation of the social?

There is a story about a revolutionary who was tortured to reveal the location of a comrade. He lied and gave his interrogators the wrong coordinates. But, when his interrogators arrived there, they found his friend.

Is reality willed into existence?

Installation Shot from "Moolah"

Photo: Arts Guild New Jersey (P. Collura / L. Cappiello)

ArtistsMeeting

ArtistsMeeting (AM), the art collective I am founding member of, has been quite active in recent weeks. And although I haven't contributed my regular share of time and energy, I am still proud to report that AM has hosted our signature YouTube-Triptych Party in the UK and at the recent DokFest in Kassel (Germany). We have also been invited to PULSE Art Fair in Miami, this December, to contribute what AM calls an art machine.

"Moolah" in New Jersey

MOOLAH – An art exhibit about money…

Nov 13 – Dec 11, 2009

Reception: Nov 15 (Sun.), 1-4 PM

The Arts Guild of New Jersey

1670 Irving Street

Rahway, New Jersey 07065

T: 732-381-7511

Featured Artists: Daniel Blochwitz, Jean Brasile, Ben Colebrook, Joy Drury Cox, Mark DeSantos, Lisa Ficarelli-Halpern, Ben Colebrook, Anne Schiffer, John Kirchner, Marc DosSantos, Tracie Fricasso, Lisa Ficarelli-Halpern, Max Infield, John Kirchner, Steve Lambert, Alex Lockwood, Ann Schiffer, MyYoung Sohn, Adrienne Heath-Stiefel, Kelly Vetter, Hanna Von Goeler, Bill Westheimer, Tammy Wofsey

These days, in one of the most dire economic climates of our lifetimes, one thing on the minds of many people is money – we all have some, many want more, we use it everyday. Probably by the time most of us were three years old we saw, handled and/or spent money. In the United States, one of the richest countries on earth, it is often a topic of discussion and the focus of thousands in their careers – Wall Street, the corporate structure, the major banks, mortgage companies and lenders.

Since just about everyone on the planet has a knowledge of and experience with money, we began to wonder just what artists might have to say on this subject.

MOOLAH brings together artists who have created original artworks on the subject by either creating images based on currency or coin of this and other countries, or by altering or manipulating actual paper currency or coins or including images of actual currency in their work. To broaden our approach we also include work about barter, trade, sales and other transactions or processes which involve our subject.

This exhibit is sponsored by Merck & Co., Inc. and is handicapped accessible.

Gallery Hours are Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 1-4 PM. The exhibit can also be viewed during our regular office hours: 9AM-12 & 1PM-4PM, Monday through Friday. Parking is available behind our building on the Seminary Avenue side.

www.rahwayartsguild.org

Random found text 'collage' ...

Installation Shots from "Critical Distance" in Erfurt

Above you see "Untitled" (2009), left, two digital frames with parallel slide shows (photos taken in the US in the left frame, images from Germany on the right; the image numbers are off by one in order to perpetually change the juxtapositions), and the triptych "What Place?" (2009), a c-print.

Below, the image "Zur Heimat" (2006/2009) and the second triptych "Engineered Desire" (2009). All photos are editions of five (+2 AP); the digital frame diptych is an edition of two (+1 AP). Please contact me via e-mail, if you are interested.

Thüringer Allgemeine, September 28th, 2009

Thüringer Landeszeitung, October 2nd, 2009

Link to a full-page PDF here.

Vernissage für "Critical Distance"

Zur Eröffnung meiner Ausstellung "Critical Distance" in der Galerie des Verbandes Bildender Künstler Thüringen e.V. im Haus zum Bunten Löwen (Krämerbrücke 4, 99084 Erfurt) am Montag, den 28. September 2009 um 18 Uhr laden wir Euch und Eure Freunde recht herzlich ein. Die Ausstellung wird vom 28.9. bis 25.10.2009 zu sehen sein. Die Öffnungszeiten sind von Dienstag bis Freitag, 11-19 Uhr, und am Samstag, 10-14 Uhr.

[For all English speakers who might find themselves in Germany on Monday, September 28th: Please join us at the opening reception to my exhibition "Critical Distance" at the gallery in Haus zum Bunten Löwen (Krämerbrücke 4, 99084 Erfurt) at 6 pm. The exhibition will run from 09/28 to 10/25/2009. Gallery hours are Tuesdays through Fridays, 11am-7pm, and Saturdays from 10am to 2pm.]

•••

"Auf der Suche nach einem passenden Begriff, der meine uneindeutige Beziehung zu einer geografisch, kulturell und gefühlsmäßig definierten Heimat beschreiben könnte, stieß ich auf das niederländische Wort unheimisch. Bei unheimisch muss ich an ‚entwurzelt’ oder ‚nicht zu Hause’ denken, aber die Niederländer haben das Wort aus meiner Muttersprache adaptiert, jedoch fälschlich in Verbindung zu ‚heimisch’, um damit etwas als ‚unheimlich’ zu bezeichnen. Und obwohl unheimisch ein wunderbarer und durchaus nützlicher Begriff wäre, er existiert so leider nicht im deutschen Wortschatz. Es ist ein Wort, das von einer Sprache in eine andere migrierte, ohne je in ersterer zu Hause gewesen zu sein."

(aus Unheimisch, dem Vorwort meines Buchprojektes Critical Distance – a perpetual absence of home)

Upcoming cover for "parallax"

The upcoming issue of "Parallax", a peer reviewed journal that brings "together outstanding work in cultural studies, critical theory and philosophy", will feature a montage of my images under the title of "Disturbing Spaces" on the cover. The issue will also include a small portfolio of images on the inside pages. It is published by Routledge and should be out and available by November 2009.

Update (12/15/09): You can find the new issue here.

Three weeks in Delhi, India

I just returned from a work-related trip to Delhi (India) where I spend the better part of August. Although I was working during most of my stay, I had a couple days off, at the end, that allowed me to explore the city with open eyes and camera. I'm still trying to digest all the varied impressions and experiences. We will see what might develop out of the resulting photographs and notes. I'll keep you posted.

New prints

I am delighted to introduce two new images of mine from the series "Critical Distance - a perpetual absence of home":

"What Place?" and "Engineered Desire" (both 2009)
Digital c-prints, 37 x 115 cm (~ 14.6 x 45.3 inches)
editions of five (+2 AP)

The images can be seen in Erfurt (Germany) at my small solo exhibition titled after the series opening September 27th, 2009. If you are interested in one or both photographs, or if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at contact@danielblochwitz.com.

***

Just the shortest of a descriptive blurb for each image:

The image above, "What Place?", is a take on utopia in the context of Heimat, or home/land. Every place I have lived in portrayed itself as a "better world" while the reality was/is, of course, far from it. In this triptych, we look down at a poster of Neuschwanstein castle, in the left image, that asks, "what makes utopia so smooth?" while we gaze upwards at "workers & dreamers" in the right-side image (with a bird and fence structure on the roof). And in between, the middle image simply states, "Well, you've come to the wrong place."

The triptych below, "Engineered Desire", is meant as a juxtaposition of darker political ideologies with the sinister flipside of Western neo-liberalism and post-modernism, namely market fundamentalism and excessive consumption, a culture bracketed by nihilism and hedonism, and the search for a sense of home within it all.

(click images to enlarge)

On the streets of New York ...

(click image to enlarge)

This is what my very first camera looked like

I got a camera just like this for my first day at school. I was seven. It was in my "Zuckertüte", a colorful cardboard cone typically filled to the rim with candy and toys.

Another Image from "Critical Distance"

Unheimisch

I'm currently editing the second draft for my preface for "Critical Distance" (expanded edition). I have a hard time to decide what to keep in and what to leave out. I'm trying to create references and associations with the images of the book, and in particular with the cover image. Below is the beginning of the text. If anyone is interested in reading the full draft, please let me know. I would appreciate any feedback and proofreading.

When I was searching for a term to describe my rather ambiguous relationship to a geographically, culturally and emotionally defined home, I came across the Dutch word unheimisch. Unheimisch makes me think of “uprooted” or “not at home”, but the Dutch adapted this word from my native language, mistakenly combining unheimlich (“eerie”) and heimisch (“native”, “domestic”, “[at] home”) to describe something as “uncanny”. And even though unheimisch would be such a beautiful and befitting word, it does not exist within the German vocabulary. It is a word that migrated from one language to another without ever having been at home in the former. [...]

You can't make this stuff up ...

At the YouTube Party ...

More pictures here: AM website.

Another ArtistsMeeting YouTube Party

Triptych Party ll: A-List Cannibal Cage-match
In collaboration with You3b.com

May 16th, 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. (ONE NITE ONLY)

Postmasters Gallery , 459 West 19th Street, New York City, NY 10011

Today anyone can be a star. The famous, the infamous and the everyday Vlog webstars are here today and possibly gone tomorrow. Andy’s 15 minutes of fame now barely last 30 seconds and the YouTube phenomena creates instant fame to be quickly replaced by the next lunchtime sensation or overnight international viral hit by a 5 year old kid from Nebraska named Fred.

Through a process of performative appropriation and the over-sized projection of three simultaneous video streams on the gallery wall, Artists Meeting spins YouTube videos into triptychs using the unique features of You3b.com and the process of “digital wandering” or “drifting” through the parallel universe of public online video. While formally simple, the effect of presenting videos normally consumed privately by individuals in this public setting creates an uncanny, unsettling and sometimes hilarious effect on the viewers through the looping sequences, overlapping sounds and beautifully awkward combinations of artworks created by amateur and professional video makers.

Artists Meeting is a New York based artists collective whose members come from a range of eclectic backgrounds. Since its official start in 2006, the collective has participated in the Conflux Art Festival in New York, the Dumbo Arts Festival in Brooklyn and a number of YouTube based Performance events at Postmasters Gallery and Monkeytown. http://www.artistsmeeting.org

You3b is a tool that allows users to make triptychs out of YouTube videos. An Eyebeam project conceived by Jeff Crouse, produced by Jeff Crouse and Andrew Mahon and designed and coded by Andrew Mahon. http://www.you3b.com.

Complimentary drinks will be served. Feel free to BYBO.
Press inquiries please contact: Edita Zulic: editaz@gmail.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , Lee Wells: lee@leewells.orgThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
James Andrews: james@thing.netThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Artists Meeting – Leesa and Nicole Abahuni, James Andrews, Daniel Blochwitz, Chris Borkowski, Bethany Fancher, Eliza Fernbach, G.H. Hovagimyan, Thomas Hutchison, Jaime Jackson, Jerome Joy, Olga Lysenko, Lara Star Martini, Christina McPhee, Alan Moore, Mayuko Nakatsuka, Maria Joao Salema, Raphaele Shirley, Lee Wells, Edita Zulic

Max Dorner and my images on German TV (ZDF)

On April 29th, Max Dorner was on the morning program "Volle Kanne" at the German tv station ZDF to promote his book "Lame Duck in New York". They talked about multiple sclerosis, his challenging trip to New York, and the city's pragmatic approaches to difference. They also mentioned my images and talked about Max' favorite photo in particular. Nice.

Recent photo ... timely "public" discussion

Max Dorner and my Images on German TV

The German TV station ZDF (Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen) will have Max Dorner on the program "Volle Kanne" as their so-called 8-minute guest. As part of this, they will include some of my photographs of Max in New York from last summer.

Wednesday, April 29th, 2009 at 9:05-10am: "Volle Kanne", ZDF

ArtistsMeeting in DigiMag41

The Triptych YouTube Party hosted at Postmasters Gallery by ArtistsMeeting was recently reviewed by Monica Ponzini in DigiMag41. Here is the link to the English version: YouTube and the Accidental Video Art.

Promotional Images of Dorner in German Press

Just a brief update on editorial photo news: Besides a number of images I took in in the context of Max Dorner's new book which were recently featured along a book excerpt in Das Magazin, a German monthly cultural magazine, there have been reproductions of my images for promotional purposes in the German press, like Focus Online or the Munich newspaper Die Abendzeitung.

Peter Sodann Library

I have been in touch with the founding association of the "Peter Sodann Library", because I believe this is an important and worthy project. So, I recently translated the concept for the "Association for the Support, Preservation and Expansion of a Collection of Literature published in the East of Germany between 1945 and 1990 (Peter Sodann Library)” for broader distribution and can provide interested people with a PDF of the German and/or English version. The association can use all the support and help it can get. In particular, they are still looking for a place to house the collection of (currently) 200,000 books - at the moment, they are stored in cardboard boxes in an unused school gym in Merseburg (see photo). I also opened a facebook group called "The Friends of the Peter Sodann Library". If you would like to become a member of the association, provide other assistance, or donate books and/or money, please contact me or Eberhard Richter, head of the association's board.

The association and library see their role in providing access to the public and interested scholars to, at least, a basic inventory of 300,000 books published in the former GDR, and thus guarantee a continued open and critical debate regarding the culture of East Germany and its legacy. The time post-1990 experienced -- despite the agreements in the German Unification Treaty -- a systematic liquidation of the "Literary Nation GDR". Of 78 publishing houses and 17,000 libraries only a small fraction survived and their book inventories ended up mostly in landfills, while many authors were -- often unjustifiably so -- defamed. Germany has a complicated history with books, to say the least, and we should start to learn from that history.

(Photo: © Punctum/Alexander Schmidt)

Contemporary Flânerie: Reconfiguring Cities

an international art exhibit curated by Vagner M. Whitehead

In Modernity, the flâneur, while strolling around his streets, participated in the depiction of a changing city, playing simultaneously active and detached roles. The flâneur and his city maintained a symbiotic relationship, where one helped (re)define the other. In view of current trends in globalization, immigration and technology (i.e., Web 2.0), one's positioning is more fluid than ever before.

With such mobility, one must experience any given place as both a tourist and potential resident. With this in mind, what roles do contemporary flâneur and flâneuse play? How do they reconfigure/re-inscribe their urban experiences? How does flânerie in art relate to GPS systems, virtual reality, surveillance, mapping, MMPORGs, and social networking? This exhibition, with special focus on photography, video and computer-based art, seeks to explore these notions.

A full-color catalogue, featuring all participating artists and related essays, will accompany this event. Artist and scholar presentations will be scheduled during the run of this exhibition.

Featuring: Daniel Blochwitz, Christophe Boete, Eirini Boukla, Penelope Cain, Sean Capone, Antonia Carrara, Claude Chuzel, George Drivas, Jeremy Drummond, Jörn Ebner, Flore Gardner, Lutz Gregor, Henry Gwiazda, Claire Hodge, Leon Johnson, Masayo Kajimura, Cyriaco Lopes & Terri Witek, Richard Metzgar, Richard O'Sullivan, Valeska Maria Populoh, Glynnis Reed, Alexander Reyna, Ryan Roa, Stephen Schulz, Olja Stipanovic, Sylvia Winkler & Stephan Koeperl, Jody Zellen

March 7 - April 12, 2009

Opening Reception: Saturday, March 7, 6 - 8:00PM
Curator's Talk: Sunday, March 8, 2:00PM

Oakland University • Art Gallery • 2200 North Squirrel Road • Rochester, MI 48309-4401 • (248) 370-3005 • www.oakland.edu/ouag

All events free and open to the public.

The catalog page with my two works included in the exhibit.

Das Magazin

Finally, Das Magazin plans to feature Max Dorner's text along with my images on a multi-page spread in their next issue (March). I just received a preliminary layout and think it looks pretty good. So, if you are in Germany, keep an eye open for the magazine when it hits news stands later this month. I'll keep you posted. Max Dorner's book, Lahme Ente in New York, was just published by Piper Verlag/Malik (February 2009). A video of one of Max's readings can be found here.

Successful Opening: "On the Prairie"

The group show "On the Prairie" (see entry below) had a well-attended opening reception on Friday, February 6th, "a steady stream of serious lookers and talkers" as my friend and one of the exhibiting artists, Margaret Tolbert, expressed it. If you are in the area and haven't seen it yet, make sure you'll stop by before February 28th.

(photo by freshqueezedart: curator Summer Zickefoose, right, and co-curator Kelly Cobbs, left, in front of my work "On the Prairie: Off the Beaten Map", 2009)

"On the Prairie" at Warphaus Gallery

Press Release

The Warphaus Gallery will be hosting the exhibition, "On the Prairie", from February 6th through February 27th. Originally conceived as an homage to the regional Payne's Prairie in Northern Florida (near Gainesville), the work in this exhibition generally seeks to understand and present ideas about this and other prairies. The exhibition has been curated by Summer Zickefoose, with assistance from Kelly Cobb. Artists in the exhibition include Daniel Blochwitz, Kelly Cobb, Sarah Detweiler, Joe D'Uva, Jamie Kotewa Niess, Rob Millard-Mendez, Nancy Raen-Mendez, Danica Oudeans-Coale, Margaret Ross Tolbert, Merijn Van Der Heijden, Bill van Werden, and Summer Zickefoose, with media ranging from photography, drawing, printmaking, painting, sound, and sculpture. The opening will be held Friday, February 6 from 6 – 8pm, 818 NW 1st Avenue in Gainesville, FL.

My Artist Statement (excerpt):

My work for this show, “On the Prairie: Off the Beaten Map” (2009), see image above, takes it’s cues from my recent bodies of work Heim | Fern | Weh (2004) and mixed messages (2006-07). It assembles image grids from photographs of found texts, poetic allusions, the everyday, and semantic juxtapositions in an effort to add an inquiring political dimension. The prairie is a mythological place in the collective consciousness of the United States, charged to the brim with historical and geopolitical narratives and contestations. Westward conquests across the plains foreshadowed coming eras of expansion, pioneering, militarism, ethnic cleansing, entitlement, mobility, opportunity, exploitation, ecocide, racism, zoning, and standardization. The prairie is, in other words, one of the places where the American Dream and this country’s nightmares are folded into one.

Just a new picture ... a teaser of sorts

Call for Proposals & Visuals (ArtistsMeeting)

As the "Art World" -- as we knew it for the past 15 years -- unravels in the midst of world-wide recessions and economic crises, the question of who/what will survive and how has become prevalent in discussions amongst art critics, art fair attendees, dealers, art students, museum goers, gallery visitors, collectors, curators, and, of course, artists themselves. However, it is also a chance (especially) for the latter to imagine, implement and defend new parameters for art production and circulation. The question is what should these models look like, what direction should they take, and how would they fit into the world at large? The artist group ArtistsMeeting (AM) plans to publish an edited sampling of theories, proposals and opinions, as well as diagrams, graphics and images in hope to jump-start a critical debate. Therefore, we call for image and text contributions from across the current "art world". Please e-mail your responses to: artistsmeeting@yahoo.com. The deadline is January 31st, 2009.

ArtistsMeeting's Triptych Party

The art collective ArtistsMeeting presented an evening of video curiosities: found, outsider and accidental video art, culled from YouTube, and spun into triptychs using You3b.com.

Video triptychs involve three simultaneous video loops projected side by side on the gallery wall. While formally simple, the effect of the looping sequences, overlapping sounds and awkward juxtapositions is uncanny and unsettling. This is due to the slippery dis-harmonization of clip lengths, and the conceptual layering of the elements within the videos.

For this 2nd YouTube video show at Postmasters Gallery, the curators Thomas Hutchison, Maria Joao Salema and James Andrews have selected dozens of examples of original U3B triptychs created by members of Artists Meeting.

Artists Meeting is an New York based artists collective of eclectic backgrounds, since it's official start in 2006, they have had public art projects in Conflux 2008 Art Festival and the Dumbo Arts Festival 2007.

You3b is a tool that allows users to make triptychs out of YouTube videos. An Eyebeam project conceived by Jeff Crouse, produced by Jeff Crouse and Andrew Mahon and designed and coded by Andrew Mahon.