COME TO THE OPENING of
NOW:HERE:THIS
Jan.16,
2004
6:00 – 9:00 pm
Office of Councilmember Robert Jackson
751 W. 183rd St
(at Ft. Washington Ave. Take the A or 1/9 train to 181 St.)
Welcome
to Now: Here: This, an
international exhibition that explores the idea of artistic community
in an era when artists frequently relocate and boundaries are continually
made less relevant by communications technology and travel.
This project includes invited artists from the
Project Director's artistic community around the world, plus artists
less known or unknown to the Project Director but living in his physical
community in Washington Heights/Inwood. Every Friday, from January -
March, 2004, these artists will create an "art spark" at 15:00
Greenwich Mean Time (11 a.m. EST), each creating work to be exhibited
on this site. This week's exhibit is
below. Each artist also states the most important thing
on his/her mind right now.
The goal is to create a virtual community where
art is the raison d'etre. Artists Unite encourages guests (from
Washington Heights/ Inwood and beyond) to contribute to the project,
making it a meeting place for serious artists locally, city-wide, and
internationally.
Thank you for participating in and viewing Now: Here: This.
-Peter Ferko, Project Director
How to join this project | About the artists | Archived weeks
all work ©2004 by artists named
Now:
Here: This
January 2, 2004, 15:00 Greenwich Mean Time
Tim Folzenlogen, Washington Heights, New York City
Words and Image
The most important thing on my mind right now is this project. I wonder if it will really foster conversation? I find that people who deeply consider and respond to other people are extremely hard to come by. Everyone seems to label and dismiss the other – or at very least not get involved. And then, of course, everyone is so busy - too busy to engage anything new. Yet they have oceans of time to think the same thoughts, over and over and over again, year after year. I want some of that time – the time spent getting from here to there, or waiting in a line, or laying in bed before falling asleep.
Jacie Lee Almira, New York City
Seahorses
About a year ago I had a painful lump in my neck. Tests were taken,
strong drugs were prescribed and after a few months it went away (and
thankfully hasn't returned). Also at that time, my Chinese mother-in-law
made a brew, a hodgepodge of dried creatures and roots boiled for many
hours, which she believed would cure me. Dried seahorse was one of
the ingredients. I was at first repulsed and then completely fascinated. Repulsed
not only by the taste of the thick mélange but also by the superstition
involved, so foreign to the "truth" of science that I believe
in. But the balance of east and west in my life and my conflicting
feelings remain interesting to me today.
Piero Ribelli, New York City
Untitled
as I lie in my bed
I wonder who I am
a Frodo
or
a Sam?
Scott J. Plunkett, New York City
Head
What is the most important thing on my mind? My head. End of a cycle
of migraines, old boring story of mine. The usual heavy-duty drugs
leaving me an exhausted, strung-out, neutered, blank. No reading
or thinking or sleeping. Music, process, but not creation, I can handle.
People, holidays, noise hmmm. Can’t be present, yet I fester when
alone. Manic.
It’s all fake, applied drugs and pain; it will end.
James Huckenpahler, Washington, D.C.
Extreme Closeup [Unidentified Artificial Skin Sample], 2004
Most important stuff on my mind [short list]:
1
D.T. Suzuki and Yoko Ono
2
Putting all my possessions in boxes
3
Extreme close-ups transform portraits into landscapes
4
First use of extreme close-up in cinema?
5
'Descriptio' - textual descriptions of the physical world, considered
more reliable than 'maps'
6
Konrad Miller, German cartographer, 1900's
7
Orosius' description of the world in, "Seven Books Against the Pagans"
8
Itinerary of Imperialism
9
Chinese coordinate system
Peter Ferko, Washington Heights, New York City
'Does Bliss Show?' Portrait #1: Harvesting Holiday Brunch
Once fame and world domination (the goals of princes) have fallen from their role as driving forces, what takes their place and what is the resulting action? Case in point: Why choose to do one thing that sounds appealing over another equally appealing? It seems any object of attention (e.g., subject of artwork) must have the capacity to lead to Truth. But then where does the passion come from? A writer friend said of her student's writing (my rough recollection), "She thinks it's so important, but it's just what all 18-year olds go through." I wondered with her whether it is possible to continue believing in the importance of our own creations the longer we look and the more we experience.
Anya Szykitka, Brooklyn
Southwest South Dakota
Most important thing: The most intimate and unique subjective experience and how to convey it, and whether to try. The infinite nuances of experience of even the simplest things.
Carole Greenwood, Washington, D.C.
fragment # 4 from <kickass skate video>
i'm re-reading john berger's And Our Faces, My Heart, Brief as Photos.
some pertinent excerpts---
"All modern artists have thought of their innovations
as offering a closer approach to reality, as a way of making reality more
evident...inspired by the idea of pulling down the screen of cliches,
cliches which have increasingly become unprecedentedly trivial and egotistical.
i'm thinking of absence and presence - conversations on a cell phone, or through a computer, and their disconnection from the reality of speaking with another face to face. Berger romanticizes this,
"According to whether we are in the same place
or separated from the other, I know you twice. There are two of you.
...Partir est mourir un peu...
what changes when you are there before my eyes is that you become unpredictable.
What you are about to do is unknown to me. I follow you. You act..."
This applies to everything.
Love, war, food, family, nature, art.
the memory of a memory-several times removed, remembering the last time
you remembered it.
the virtual world of phones and computers leaves a chasm which structures itself with the memory of presence.
and i'm concerned about how we fit in as artists - in the topsy turvy
inside out political situation - with an undemocratically appointed president
destroying the memory of democracy.
Howard Ziinn has a collection of essays/speeches called "Artists
in Times of War" which has set us on our marching orders -
"Artists can be sly.They can point to things that can take you outside
traditional thinking because you can get away
with it in fiction....But remember what Pablo Picasso said, 'Art is a
lie that makes us realize truth.'
What questions are the voices of authority not asking?
Wendy Newton, Washington Heights, New York City
Bananas for Tess
What’s been on my mind lately is that for a number of years now (maybe decades), I find I can’t locate for myself the line between art and not art. Much of what is called art does not move me, but I am moved in that purely aesthetic way that feels spiritual by things that are not commonly thought of as art. The drive to make images, to image-make in any media – written, spoken, visual – is innate, I think, but as a culture we’re so inundated with images that they seem to have gone dead for us. They are not the living breathing metaphors they once were, when they referred to something that we all, as a culture, understood in that way that societies at their very best can understand. We are so transfixed by the image of a thing, that the thing that it originally referred to is forgotten. Take, for example, my recent trip to the grocery to get some bananas for my friend’s four year old daughter, Tess. I found this image. I also found some edible bananas, but I’ve heard that bananas are in danger of extinction, so that, by the time Tess is able to go to the store by herself, she may only find a cardboard image of a food she can barely remember. Maybe then she’ll write a tale about the mythical banana.
Rosa Naparstek, Washington Heights, New York City
Cummerbund in Three Phases
The Most Important Thing On My Mind: My major concerns are emotional integrity, aesthetic balance, 'happenstance' and the creative process.
I was very excited about the idea of having to "perform" on cue in silent concert with others and a little eager to find out whether I could actually do so. However, as soon as I went into my studio (which is in my home) and looked at the various objects lying on the shelves, desks and floor, I responded to a pink cummerbund and forgot the creative assignment. The strong pink drew me to the pale blue across the room in a photo of a religious figure. I held them both in my hand, wanting to press the colors together, and then hurriedly pinned the ribbon around the glass frame before I could censor myself for it's absurdity. The result was deeply satisfying for no discernible reason__no meaning, no intent, only color. Yet, as I stood there holding it, I began to feel a connection between this ribbon and the wide bows I wore in my hair as a child and the cummerbund, a stricture holding me in while I wanted to soar into the blue background of the icon's light. Here was my piece__10 minutes, finished! Could I just do this? Was I really done? I walked around the room again and picked up a small doll whose colors wanted to climb the same tone of the old step ladder. When I placed her there, I knew that she too had been bound, and tied a string cummerbund around her waist, the color of wood. And then, I understood what I was doing__tying and binding: cat's cradle gone wild and the world gathered in on torn bits of the New York Times. So, this was my piece, the other the prelude till I saw that they were one and placed them together echoing my fear and desire.
Jayme McLellan, Washington, D.C.
Untitled
Gotta get up. Gotta take a photo.
This Week's Guest Artists (How to join this project)
None this week.
Comments (send a comment)
Well, Tim Folzenlogen threw down the gauntlet. Is anyone going to pick it up? I hope so. I see synchronous thought even in this "pleased to meet you" installment of this project. Here's to taking the time to notice each other and say so. It's as the yogis would say: namaste,--the divine in me bows to the divine in you.
Thank you, artists and viewers, for participating in Now: Here: This.
-Peter Ferko
all work ©2004 by artists named