Now: Here: This June 3, 2005
(scroll right to walk through the exhibition)
Harold Wallin
Anchorage, Alaska
untitled
digital photograph
I've realized I like to work- not just any work but work that allows me to connect- to other people, to a community, to a history. Working during this Friday art spark, I again feel connected, especially having met some of you at the Gallery 88 opening. And so, now I am filled with a happiness, giddiness, to be making. I've been recalling a line from the Catalan poet Maragall," All seemed a world in flower" (Tot semblava un mon en flor). That is what I've felt all day.
Nick Holliday
Great Barrington, Massacusetts
untitled
collage
Two of my friends graduated tonight. This leaves me thinking about transitions, and I find myself hoping that I will find some new, different way to work. (Otherwise, I will be making the same piece again and again for the next ten years!) Today I found a book called "Anatomy Lessons from the Old Masters;" maybe that will help...
Miriam Leuchter
New York City
untitled
black and white photograph
I've been thinking of the continuity of the past and present -- and trying to envision a future. Sometimes you have to look back at where you were to understand where you are now. But does it tell you where you're headed? You don't know until you get there.
Sky Pape
Inwood, New York City
Airborne
photograph
I woke up really early, got on a plane, fastened my seat belt, stowed
my carry-on luggage beneath the seat in front of me, and located the emergency
exits. I listened to the rhythmic breathing of the sleeping man beside
me,
sipped my complimentary beverage, glanced at my watch, and thought about
making something for this project. The clouds out the window caught me
and I drifted, feeling, at 35,000 feet or so, temporarily relieved of
the obligations and concerns I'd left behind. There's an aspect of traveling
that I connect with freedom, privilege, and adventure. Then there is the
matter of passports, green cards, immigration, security, and one is not
ever supposed to forget terrorism, or the fear of it. If you're a loner,
which artists tend to be, it doesn't matter if you're always a stranger
in another land. It helps you remain objective. You can become a stranger
in your own land too if you leave to follow your dreams elsewhere. Doesn't
the nomad still have an identity? When I was very young, looking at the
atlas, I couldn't understand my mother's explanations of why the countries
were different colours, and why the borders were drawn where they were,
and why we had countries at all. I liked the different colours, but it
seemed it could all be so much simpler. So many lives saved. Now I understand
the complexities and importance of saying you are this or that, or belong
here or there. But still, I am just me, in the clouds or on the ground,
and part of me still believes that there's fantastic truth to be found
in things so much simpler.
Peter Ferko
Washington Heights, New York City
Trainscape (Champagne, France)
Multi-media construction
The most important thing on my mind:
opposites mirroring self-righteousness; the moment where honesty turns violent; the natural dominance of active--creator--over passive--viewer; the inevitable drawing of lines in the sand and the inevitable crossings, the need to be right, the end of dialog, the transcendent resolution...
Anthony Gonzalez
Washington Heights, New York City
untitled
collage
"...I tried to hold on to what I'd heard that day: that loving your enemies was nonnegotiable. It meant trying to respect them, it meant identifying with their humanity and weaknesses. It didn't mean unconditional acceptance of their crazy behavior. They were still accountable for the atrocities they'd perpetrated, as you were accountable for yours. But you worked at doing better, at loving them, for the profoundest spiritual reason: You were trying not to make things worse."
"...when I consider that he is my brother, and I am to love him, I'm reminded of the old Woody Allen line that someday the lion shall lie down with the lamb, but the lamb is not going to get any sleep. So I will pray to stop hating him, and that he will not kill so many people, today."
Anne Lamott - from Plan B, Further Thoughts On Faith
Tim Folzenlogen
Washington Heights, New York City
good guys and bad guys
drawing
"... I overheard a GI saying that he had seen the Syrian at the detention center hanging from the ceiling by his arms and legs like an animal hauled back from the hunt. ... When I asked whether this Syrian, like the Saudi, was cooperating, the interpreter smiled and said, not yet, but he will."
The Salvadorization of Iraq?
NY Times Magazine
May 1 2005
These are the “good” guys who are doing this. They are ex members of Saddam’s secret police, who are now using their skills to root out insurgents.
The article is very well written and balanced. You almost can’t help rooting for these guys - tough guys - doing what they do best. You gotta do what you gotta do.
Saddam’s tactics made sense to him too.
For the general population, living in fear or the late night knock on the door, just because someone said something – there is no difference.
Pamela Flynn
Freehold, New Jersey
let the games begin
mixed media with digital image
I am wondering who wrote the rule book?
Stephen Beveridge
Washington Heights, New York City
anon #123
Location- Withheld
photograph
I am concerned with my subjects anonymity. There is an element of trust in the act of photographing this man which binds me to him. The connection can be transferred to the viewer if they are willing to accept it.
Renee Watabe
Verona, New Jersey
untitled
photograph
Theme Proposal : Recently I had a conversation with a woman whom I had
only just met. We shared a bit about our lives and what we care about.
She made the remark, "I could never see myself in your situation." Her
comment wielded a lot of power. Though it hurt at the time, I thought
later that it was a brilliant expression of what often causes the breakdown
of relationships, or what prevents them from forming to begin with.
I would like to throw the theme out there to fellow NHT folks.
Create a piece that deals with either of the following mindsets:
"I could never see myself in your situation, "
or its antithesis: "Walking a mile in another person's moccasins."
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