Hector Canonge! Ivy Castellanos! Birgit Larson! Ellen O’Meara! Remote Control Tomato! Meghann Snow!
AND OTHERS!!!
On Saturday, February 11, PERFORMANCY FORUM returns to the series’ fundamental form: back-to-back incendiary performances and copious amounts of Brooklyn beer!
Come sink your claws into the 20th installment of the performance and theory series PERFORMANCY FORUM! This is performance in its natural habitat. It is interdisciplinary, political, passionate, always visceral, not always 'G' rated...
8pm-midnight
$5-$10 sliding scale suggested donation
For this event, we will focus our analytic efforts in the direction of context, text, and other words with ‘x’ in them:
How and why do performance artists use text/words in their performances? What is “subtext” in the context of each of these works? Does text confine/dictate “meaning” and limit the possibilities for multiple interpretations of a performance? Can text be used purely as an aesthetic tool? Asemic vs. literal text vs. musical notation How does the material (Facebook invite, this kind of blurb, etc) affect the context of the work presented? How do artists contextualize their own work through writing? What is an ‘artist’s statement’ and does it belong to us, or to industry? And so on….Please bring your questions/concerns/theories!
Remote Control Tomato: Duo Thomas Bell and Christina deRoos experiment with new ways of combining visual arts disciplines, performance art and music, and new technologies to create dense, self-rupturing clouds of image, concept, and noise that zoom in and out between grand political universality and deeply personal subjective experience. http://www.spreadart.org
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PERFORMANCY FORUM is a clustering, condensing, and critical effort comprising interdisciplinary exhibitions (emphasis on performance art, social practices, and participatory/publicly engaged work), workshops, conferences, actions, events, and more.
PERFORMANCY FORUM began in 2009 as a project of the Panoply Performance Laboratory (PPL) while the collective was in residence at Surreal Estate. It has since become an open project, collaborating with spaces, sites, curatorial collectives, and many others to:
1.) Forge IN-PERSON relationships (including collaborations) between artists from different artistic mediums and micro-communities.
2.) Perform collective research, including drawing of parallels between current performance and social practices and attempts to locate them within historic, economic, socio-political, and aesthetic contexts.
3.) Provide a site (physical or cognitive) for complex and critical thought beyond academic and other institutional parameters, for political and cultural organization amongst artists, and for experimentation with modes, methods, and mediums in conjunction with concrete practice.
4.) Involve publics of 'artists' and 'non-artists' alike in constructive, collective, and critical analysis and debate of artistic operation.
PF is curated by Esther Neff, co-director of the Panoply Performance Laboratory (PPL). More info and proposal guidelines at www.panoplylab.org/performancy.hmtl
The Numbers installation will be on view for the Chashama Film Festival. A collaboration withChristina deRoos, Numbers highlights human costs of the conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan that are rarely reported in mainstream media.See photos of the process of installation as well as the final result here.
The
installation consists of flag draped coffins and numbers stenciled on
paper then covered with bubble wrap. The width and placement give
viewers a choice between walking across and popping bubbles or making a
small but extra effort to jump across and avoid interacting. This
parallels the ability those of us in the United States have to avoid
witnessing the impact of the government policies carried out in our
name. It requires a bit of effort, although not much, to avoid the
messy reality of our ongoing policies in Iraq and Afghanistan.
*****
Numbers used include:
32,907 Weight in tons of bombs dropped by the U.S. Air force in Iraq & Afghanistan through 2007
6129 American and coalition military casualties in Iraq & Afghanistan
120 American military casualties since Obama was inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2009
46% The percentage of air raid casualties that are women are girls
766 The number of journalists and academics that have been killed in Iraq
1395 The number of contractor employee deaths in Iraq
102,083 Documented civilian deaths from violence in Iraq (Estimate is 93,552-102,083)
39% The percentage of air raid casualties that are children
>100 thousand The number of American military wounded
$7500 The amount the U.S. Army paid to two children whose mother was killed inside a taxi
that ran a checkpoint. Both children were also in the taxi, and were
shot and injured.
Thank you to Iraq Body Count, AntiWar, andiCasualties for maintaining databases that make these and many more numbers readily available.
*****
Popping bubble wrap generally evokes enthusiasm from people regardless of age. With Numbers,
the excitement of walking, jumping, or otherwise popping bubbles is
tempered by the reality of stepping on representations of victims of
violence.
Numbers
also presents an opportunity for participants to reflect upon the
myriad impacts of war, including responses to loud or surprising
sounds, such as the pops of bubble wrap. For child and adult survivors of war, loud noises can trigger intrusive memories, nightmares,
hallucinations or flashbacks, sometimes resulting in exaggerated responses. As one Iraq veteran explains, "any little noise and I'd jump out of bed and run around the house with
a gun."
In the same way, the sound of an airplane flying overhead can cause
stress for survivors of aerial bombings, while it is of no consequence
to others.
Lastly, Numbers
is provides a visual reference point for the ongoing violence as the
total number of bubbles in the installation is approximately the same
as the total number of tons of bombs that have been dropped on Iraq and
Afghanistan to date.
Numbers On view Thursday, October 22 - Monday, October 26 Part of the Chashama Film Festival Final Cut Lounge 679 Third Avenue (at 43rd St.) One block from Grand Central Subway: 4,5,6,7
I have quite a few pieces in the Spread Art exhibition at the Brooklyn Artillery show at Castle Braid. Along with my works there are works by Christina deRoos and Heather Garland.
Overall, there are about 20 galleries involved and a lot of great work. Please swing on by and check it out!
See photos of the current Spread Art exhibition here . Visit in person, weekends through October 31st: Castle Braid; 114 Troutman (between Central & Bushwick).
Above (Left to Right):
1) Cessation of Suffering, 48"x48", Acrylic & collage on panel, Thomas Bell, $1000 2) Waiting, 48"x48", Acrylic & collage on panel, Thomas Bell, $1000 3) Pain, 48"x48", Acrylic & collage on panel, Thomas Bell, $1000 4) Hope Remains, 30"x30", Acrylic, fabric, metal on canvas, Christina deRoos, $1200
