Goings On | 6/5/2006

Franklin Furnace’s Goings On
June 5, 2006

CONTENTS:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1. Rob Andrews, FF Alumn, at Exit Art, June 10
2. China Blue, FF Alumn, at Acoustical Society of America, Providence, June 8, 4-9 pm
3. Alex Komlosi, FF Alumn, at NYU, June 17, 2-5 pm
4. Alison Knowles, FF Alum, at Emily Harvey Archivio, Venice, Italy, June 25
5. Annie Sprinkle, FF Alumn, at CounterPULSE, SF, June 16-18
6. Eddy Falconer, FF Alumn, at Fountain Gallery, NY, opening July 6
7. Gigi Otalvaro-Hormillosa, FF ALumn, at The Lab, SF, June 9-10
8. Kal Spelletich, FF Alumn, at Rx Gallery, SF, opening June 14
9. Galinsky, FF Alumn, at Bowery Poetry Club, TONITE, 5-7 pm
10. Marcus Young, FF Alumn, at Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, thru June 18
11. P eggy Diggs, FF Alumn, at Mass MoCA, North Adams, MA, thru March 2007
12. Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Stacy Makishi, Karen Finley, Coco Fusco, Lois Weaver, FF Alumns, at University of London, England, June 15-18, 2006
13. Nicolas Dumit Estevez, FF Alumn, at MacDowell Colony, TONITE
14. Halona Hilbertz, FF Alumn, at Haven Arts, Bronx, opening June 9, 6-9 pm
15. Judy Malloy, FF Alumn, new concerto in digital anthology coming this fall
16. Susan Leopold, FF Alumn, new installation at Franklin Street Subway station, NY
17. Heidi Arneson, FF Alumn, in Minneapolis, MN, June 9, 7 pm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
TOP

1. Rob Andrews, FF Alumn, at Exit Art, June 10

Friends and Family,

This coming Saturday, June 10 th, Iwill be performing at Exit Art gallery as part of “The
Drop.”

Eleven artists will present performances simultaneously between 7-10pm on both days much like”prayingproject” for those of you who saw it. Please come, not only to see my work — but that of other extraordinary performers who will all be investigating our complicated relationship with water. I will clean the feet of visitors to the gallery.

Exit Art is on 36th Street and 10th Avenue. Take the 2,3,1,9, A, C, E, etc. to Penn and walk west.

Let me know if you have any questions. More info available at http://www.exitart.org

Best,
Rob

P.S. My girlfriend Elizabeth has been talking about the bar up the street Gold Rush for a while, where I will likely end up at 10:02 if all goes well. Chin-chin!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
TOP

2. China Blue, FF Alumn, at Acoustical Society of America, Providence, June 8, 4-9 pm

Acoustical Society of America

presents a multimedia exhibition by
featured artist China Blue
Thursday, June 8th, 2006
Hours: 4:00-9:00pm

At the
Rhode Island Convention Center
#1 Sabin St, Providence, RI
Rooms #550 A-B

RSVP: chinablueart@gmail.com. Note, entry will be managed by a guest list.

China Blue ( http://www.chinablueart.com/) is Acoustical Society of America’s ( http://asa.aip.org/) invited artist for this year’s conference. China Blue is an artist and innovator who makes artworks in a variety of media focusing on sound and how it shapes space. Her current works are based on what she terms “urban bioacoustics,” recording activities from day-to-day life. This exhibition will include two sound pieces. “Skratch” uses spatial recording and post-production processing to capture and manipulate the acoustic elements of a billiards game. The manipulated sound fields will be presented with a 7.1 surround sound system which will segregate the sounds in space.  This creates a highly active sound environment that impresses on the viewer both the physicality and the dynamics of the game in a very primal manner. “Mikey vs. Fabio” is a study of the acoustics of a ping-pong game presented in discrete stereo, mimicking the linearity of the two-player game. It also immerses the listeners in the both the spatialized dynamics of the ball and the human conversations punctuated by the play. She will also display a number of paintings of her visual interpretation of acoustic flow in different environments.

China Blue is an internationally exhibiting artist who has shown in Sweden, Finland, France and the United States. Her work has been reviewed in the New York Times, New York Arts, ArtCritical.com, Art in America and La Bien Republic. She is listed in “Who’s Who In America,” “Who’s Who of American Women,” and “Who’s Who in the World.”

She has lectured at Yale, Reed College and College Arts Association.

She has also published as a co-author in the Acoustical Society Journal and has collaborated on work presented in Acoustical Society meetings.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
TOP

3. Alex Komlosi, FF Alumn, at NYU, June 17, 2-5 pm

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

You are warmly invited to attend a workshop I am leading about the psychophysical discipline I have been studying and teaching at the Academy of the Performing Arts in Prague for the past eight years -‘Acting with the Inner Partner’. The workshop will take place at the Tisch School for the Arts at New York University on Saturday, June 17th from 2-5PM. You are invited to attend to rehearse or simply to watch.

Some background on the discipline and a description of the workshop follows.

Please be so kind as to forward this information to anyone who might be interested.

Thanks!
Regards,
Alexander Komlosi

Acting with the Inner Partner
Studying and practicing the fundamental principles of acting and dramatic play
“…not to stand still as an actor…means not to stand still as a human being…”
Peter Brook, The Empty Space

A Brief Introduction

Acting with the Inner Partner is a training method, a psychophysical discipline for studying and practicing the basic principles of acting and dramatic play. The discipline was initially conceived in the 1960s by celebrated Czech writer, actor, psychologist and educator, Professor Ivan Vyskočil, one of the most important protagonists of the theater of the absurd of the 1960s and a collaborator of many of leading Czech contemporaries like Václav Havel. 

The discipline is open to all people regardless of walk of life, but is especially geared to actors, students of acting, as well as for all people who “act” – do and perform in front of others in their professional or every day lives (i.e., in ‘performance situations’). Acting with the Inner Partner teaches and nurtures the dynamics of creative, disciplined, playful and spontaneous acting. The discipline understands acting in both the artistic sense of the word and in the more general, universal sense as “existing.” The training process develops the psychophysical fitness needed to act creatively in front of others. Acting with the Inner Partner is based on the simple assumption that people can grow to understand their situation better when they let their inner selves (partners) speak, when they let their inner dialogues be heard.

Acting with the Inner Partner is an interdisciplinary approach rooted in acting, psychology, philosophy and education. The training process involves exploring and developing the active and latent potential in each individual’s personality by rehearsing ‘zero-point’ acting. Vyskočil’s idea of zero-point acting – also known as ‘acting without a given theme’ (in contrast to standard acting where the material is given in advance ) – involves the actor (student) playing with the spontaneous impulses his/her inner partners are continually offering up in the present moment while acting on stage. An actor/student who rehearses zero-point acting can, in time, take the skills learned and the psychophysical fitness gained for work in various contexts: from standard, conventional, commercial acting, to authorial performance work, to professional counseling, to teaching, to working with legal clients. Since Acting with the Inner Partner studies and practices acting and dramatic play through fundamentals in an open way, each individual – be it an actor, writer, filmmaker, lawyer, teacher or counselor – ends up finding his/her own unique application from his/her experience with it.

Acting with the Inner Partner is not a technique. It is a holistic, experiential, hands-on approach to studying the basic principles of acting and dramatic play. It is not a search for easy, superficial answers. As Vyskočil states, “Acting with the Inner Partner contains and opens up a number of different fields of research and a number of possible paths and goals. However, it should always remain a genuinely personal and personality-based matter. It depends on an individual’s dispositions (e.g., the type, quality and strength of talent) to determine for what and how it can be and is…”

Classes are typically led by one or two teachers or Professor Vyskočil himself. The rehearsal process is straight-forward: each student takes a turn at rehearsing zero-point acting for a few minutes in front of the group (audience). The class leaders then give reflections – comments as well as suggestions for further rehearsing – after each student’s turn.

The Workshop

A one-day workshop, introducing the discipline to the American public, will be given by Alexander Komlosi at the Tisch School for the Performing Arts, New York University on Saturday, June 17th from 2-5PM, 721 Broadway, 5th floor (room 532), New York, NY. You are invited to attend to rehearse or simply to watch.

The workshop is taking place in cooperation with Czech Theatre Institute in New York and the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. Maggie Siff, a Tisch acting alumna, is coordinating the workshop. The June workshop is meant as calling card for a series of U.S. workshops slated for January, 2007, which will be co-led by Howard Lotker, a fellow Acting with the Inner Partner teacher.

Alexander Komlosi, originally from New York, is an actor, director, author and teacher. He is a doctoral candidate at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague where has been studying the discipline with Professor Vyskočil since 1998 and teaching it since 2001. In addition to teaching at the Academy and working as the Department’s Coordinator for International Relations, he has worked as a professional actor in America, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and France, collaborating with various artists including: William Pope.L, Martha Wilson (U.S.A.); Michal Lázňovský, Přemysl Rut, Frederika Smetanová, Vladimir Javorský (Czech Republic); Zbigniew Horoks, William Mesguisch (France). He has been invited to present a paper on the discipline as a ‘New Scholar’ at International Federation for Theatre Research’s 2006 conference in Helsinki. Mr. Komlosi is currently writing the first exhaustive study of Acting with the Inner Partner, focusing on its applicability to acting and performance. He has been awarded the Franklin Furnace Fund for Performance Art twice, most recently for ‘The Office of the Professional Human Being’. His work has received critical praise in Czech and Parisian press. He is a graduate of Bates College (B.A.) and the Theatre Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (M.F.A. – acting).

Please contact Alexander Komlosi for a more information and/or to register for the workshop:

email: thephb@seznam.cz Skype: thephb

Voice Mail: 212 696-6732 Czech Republic: +420 776 072 092

There is a suggested donation of $10 for the afternoon workshop.


Additional Information on the Discipline’s Possible Applications

Acting with the Inner Partner is especially useful for training actors and expanding the creative potential of professional actors.  It cultivates the basic skills and virtues an actor must have by developing psychophysical fitness.  Rehearsing Acting with the Inner Partner can develop an actor’s ability to tune into a creative state; maintain a stage presence while retaining a feeling of ease; recognize and attain the appropriate levels of intensity, attention and concentration in “public solitude”; broaden expressive range and plasticity; nurture a sense of form and personal rhythm; foster improvisational skills; increase sensitivity to communicative, authentic (as well as inauthentic) acting; expand an actor’s capacity for listening, empathy and accepting criticism; open up blocked spontaneity; acquaint the actor with the strengths and limitations of his/her talent; and promote an intuitive understanding of the dramatic situation.

In time, actors can expand their creative repertoire by uncovering the character ‘types’ they may only now sense.  As an actor and writer himself, Vyskočil’s emphasizes the importance of discovering personally significant themes.  (His conception of zero-point acting is connected to ‘Authorial Acting’, which he sees as acting nourished by the themes and expressive forces present in each individual’s personality.)  Most fundamentally, Acting with the Inner Partner offers a route for the actor to expand his power of physical imagination and expressivity.

Teachers, social workers, lawyers, politicians – those whose work involves communicating with and in front of others – can also benefit from studying and practicing Acting with the Inner Partner.  It can also foster the maturation of writing skills.  Since it involves the total involvement and development of the personality, it can be considered an approach to personality development as well.  It is potentially and existentially open in how and where it can be applied.  The discipline’s principal and original emphasis is on studying the principles of acting and dramatic play through guided practice.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
TOP

4. Alison Knowles FF Alum, at Emily Harvey Archivio, Venice, Italy, June 25

Alison Knowles’ show Time Samples opens at Emily Harvey Archivio in Venice on June 25 th, 2006

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
TOP

5. Annie Sprinkle, FF Alumn, at CounterPULSE, SF, June 16-18

CounterPULSE and the National Queer Arts Festival present:

Annie Sprinkle and Elizabeth Stephens
In the West Coast Premiere of
EXPOSED:
Experiments in Love, Sex, Death, Art

When: Fri- Sun, June 16-18 at 8pm & Sun. Matinee June 18, 2pm

Where: CounterPULSE, 1310 Mission Street @ 9 th St. in San Francisco

Tickets: $15-20 sliding scale, call 415-435-7552

CounterPULSE, the National Queer Arts Festival, and the Center for Sex and Culture proudly present the West Coast premiere of EXPOSED: Experiments in Love, Sex, Death, Art, a new multi-media performance-art-theater-event by artists Elizabeth Stephens and Annie Sprinkle.

In the grand tradition of artist couples such as John and Yoko, Alice B. and Gertrude, Sonny and Cher, John Cage and Merce Cunningham, Lucy and Ricky, Dale Evens and Roy, Sigfried and Roy, now there’s Beth and Annie!

EXPOSED is a unique love story. It also offers an artistic response to the violence of war, and the anti-gay marriage movement. Become a part of a genuine celebration of the deepest realms of romantic, sexual, and familial love, in order to bring about positive social change and acceptance.

EXPOSED explores lesbian courtship, artificial insemination, queer weddings, breast cancer and more. Audiences will enjoy a live sound-scape, a bevy of enthusiastic lab technicians, and opportunities to be human guinea pigs. They can drink some Love Art Lab Elixer, and great results are virtually guaranteed with no unpleasant side effects. Mixing elements of pleasure, pain, passion, and juice, the “love artists” will stimulate the senses and crack hearts open. Experiment with Beth and Annie and take an adventure into the exotic and unknown.

When Annie Sprinkle (former porn star and performance artist) and Elizabeth Stephens (professor and experimental artist) fell madly and passionately in love, they decided to make a seven-year commitment to explore, generate, and share their love through art–ultimately aiming to promote peace and equal rights. They named their project the Love Art Laboratory. Each year is based on a theme and a color, and begins with an experimental wedding. The seven-year structure is incorporated into the piece by invitation of artist Linda Montano and inspired by Linda’s, Seven Years of Living Art. Beth and Annie began their seven-year project on December 18, 2004 with a wedding in New York City, where they vowed to become one another’s official “love art collaborators,” as well as committed domestic partners. This theater performance art piece, EXPOSED: Experiments in Love, Sex, Death, Art is a big part of their seven-year long project. The show evolves as their lives together unfold.

EXPOSED is directed by Neon Weiss. Technical design and live sound-scape are by Sheila Malone. Guest appearances are by artist and art professor Tina Takemoto and her four fab laboratory assistants.

Annie M. Sprinkle lives in San Francisco’s Bernal Heights with Elizabeth Stephens. In her former life she was a porn actress, pin-up model, and proud prostitute for twenty years. Then she became a performance artist and toured her one woman-shows about her life around the world. Her show Post Porn Modernist is part of performance art history and is taught in many Universities. Annie is the first porn star to earn a Ph.D. Her new book, Dr. Sprinkle’s Spectacular Sex—Make Over Your Love Life was recently published by Penguin. Additionally, Annie’s groundbreaking and socially significant new DVD, Annie Sprinkle’s Herstory of Porn, will be on sale at CounterPULSE during the run of the show. For more juicy details visit www.anniesprinkle.org.

Elizabeth M. Stephens is an artist and an Associate Professor of Art and Digital Art/New Media at the University of California Santa Cruz. Stephens is an inter-media artist who works in sculpture, video installation, photography, web-based media, and performance art. Her most recent works include the bronze sculptural installation, The Academic/Porn Star Bronzed Panty Collection; the road trip performance piece, Wish You Were Here; the video installation, Kiss. She has exhibited in museums and galleries throughout the United States, Europe, and Russia. See more of her work at www.elizabethstephens.org.

Neon Weiss (Director) has been involved in creating theater, film, and animation for the better part of her life. Among her accomplishments as a director are the films The Pain Game, and Tie Me Up, and pop videos for the band Two Nice Girls. She has created and performed the original productions Dyke Cum Fag, I only Fuck My Friends, and Bitter Sweet Tooth. She has a BFA from NYU in Experimental Theater and an MA in Counseling Psychology. Weiss is a practicing Drama Therapist.

Sheila A. Malone (Media Design and Live Soundscape) –After studying in France and Germany, Sheila A. Malone received her B.A. in Theatre Arts from Virginia Tech University. She was the resident Lighting Designer and Sound Director at the Omaha Theatre Company for seven years. In 1999 she left Nebraska to pursue her M.F.A. in Computer Arts at CADRE Laboratory for New Media at San Jose State University. Recently she collaborated with Annie Sprinkle as co-director on her documentary film Annie Sprinkle’s Amazing World of Orgasm.

www.counterpulse.org
www.queerculturalcenter.org
www.loveartlab.org

For tickets call The CounterPULSE Reservation Line at 415-735-7552. Over 18 only. No one turned away for lack of funds.

Members of the press can contact Stephens and Sprinkle directly for interviews or information at 415-550-7409 between 10:00 am and 9:00 pm.
Or email annie@anniesprinkle.org or emstephens@earthlink.net

High resolution images of Beth and Annie are available free at www.loveartlab.org.
Go to “Press” at the bottom of the webpage, then click on “Images”

EXPOSED is also sponsored by the Center for Sex and Culture.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
TOP

6. Eddy Falconer, FF Alumn, at Fountain Gallery, NY, opening July 6

Eddy Falconer, FF Alumn, will exhibit work as part of the Pieces of Mind group show at Fountain Gallery, 702 Ninth Ave., NY, NY 10019. Show opens July 6, 2006, and runs through Labor Day. This is the second group art show sponsored by The Icarus Project (first was at abcnorio a couple of years ago).

The Pieces of Mind Madifesto:

Defining ourselves outside convention, we see our condition as a dangerous gift to be cultivated and taken care of rather than as a disease or disorder needing to be “cured” or “eliminated.” We have the ability to fly to places of great vision and creativity, but like the mythical boy Icarus, we also have the potential to fly dangerously close to the sun-into realms of delusion and psychosis-and crash in a blaze of fire and confusion. We understand that we are members of a group that has been persecuted throughout history, but has also been responsible for some its most brilliant creations. And we are proud. As a part of our effort to radically alter the way that our world views the mad and madness, this summer The Icarus Project, in partnership with the Fountain Gallery, is excited to present “Pieces of Mind: A Celebration of Dangerous Gifts.” The exhibit will not only feature the works of members of Fountain House and the New York Icarus community, but of Icarus Project participants all across the country and the world. We also hope to use the opening night (July 6th) as a chance to explore other aspects of creative _expression by integrating performance and audio elements. We will also use this event to familiarize the public with The Icarus Project’s past, present, and future. A space will be dedicated within the gallery to showcasing artwork, flyers and literature from our three years of radically re-visioning the world of the mad. We believe that when we learn to take care of ourselves, the intertwined threads of madness and creativity can be tools of inspiration and hope in a repressed and damaged world. The 2006 show is meant to showcase the fruits of inspiration, as well as to encourage others to develop their own dangerous gifts as a part of healing. While we celebrate our beauty, we also aim to deconstruct, debunk, and ultimately destroy mainstream conceptions of what it means to be “mentally ill.” As members of the Icarus Project, we rejoice in the artistic blossoms that emerge from the fertile grounds of our madness. We see art and all other forms of creative _expression as not only a method of healing but also a fundamental means by which we can dismantle the parts of our societies that to us, seem to be truly “insane.” We are often told by those “sane” people around us that our actions, speech, thoughts, or even our identities are inappropriate to the situations in which we find ourselves. Some of our psychiatrists measure our progress by the degree to which we adhere to societal norms of proper behaviour. We at Icarus are tired of being told to get in line, to shape up, to buck up, to get a job, to just find a way to fit in already. To us, what is truly inappropriate is to fall in with the currents of the mainstream when that river has so clearly gone off course, is muddied and choking on the dust of the life unexamined, the life unliberated, the life unexpressed. With this show, and in all of our work, we are attempting to filter out these clouds of oppression, conformity and alienation to reveal our radical visions of what the world could become. And so it is as a part of this process of cultural transformation that we invite you to join us, as we revel in “Pieces of Mind: A Celebration of Dangerous Gifts.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
TOP

7. Gigi Otalvaro-Hormillosa, FF Alumn, at The Lab, SF, June 9-10

Check out the premiere of Gigi Otalvaro-Hormillosa’s video/performance piece, DIMENSION OF IS: A SPECTACULAR FUTURE, in collaboration with many talented Bay Area Artists.  DIMENSION OF IS is an expansive world of science fiction, visual soundscapes, performance and fabric installations in which artists revisit the history of world’s fairs and speculate about the (d)evolution of America as a super power beyond earth.

The Lab presents
(a)eromestiza and SpaceSuperStar in
DIMENSION OF IS: A SPECTACULAR FUTURE
in association with the National Queer Arts Festival and the United States of Asian America View a video clip and details on the website at www.spacesuperstar.com

June 9&10, at 8PM.The Lab is located at 2948 16th Street (@Capp), in San Francisco.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
TOP

8. Kal Spelletich, FF Alumn, at Rx Gallery, SF, opening June 14

Frankenstein Theory and Robotics: A survey of Frankenteinian Robotics, Kinetic Art and New Media Art
Opening Thursday, June 14 6:00pm – 10:00pm

Location:
Rx Gallery
132 Eddy Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
Gallery Phone:
415-474-7973 (RXSF)
Gallery hours:
WED – SAT 2:00pm – 6:00pm
bar opens at 5pm
FRI – SAT from 9:00pm
by appointment by calling (415) 756-8825
monika@rxgallery.comwill@rxgallery.com
http://rxgallery.com/

ARTISTS:
Michael Braida
DOYLE
Jonathan Foote
Justin Gray
Dan Grayber
Heather
Christian Ristow
Michael Shiloh
Kal Spelletich
Christina Sporrong
Shannon Wright

This exhibit explores the concepts of the Frankenstein theory, breathing life into inanimate things, the manmade “beast” turning on….. man.

Like the scientist mixing two chemicals in a test tube and observing a reaction, or the Golem, these artists are taking disparate found objects and making them come alive, move and react to you.
This exhibit has highly elaborate machines and robots that are purposefully non functional. They have turned on consumerism and capitalism. They are tweaking Asimov’s theories for robots, are these artists now the Frankensteins?
Dr. Frankenstein’s original idea was probably altruistic, much like oh, EXON, Walmart or the US government. How and or when do you realize that a system is broke? Is technology serving us or are we serving it? Does man ruin Frankenstein or is he (Frankenstein) inherently evil?

From FRANKENSTEIN, by Mary Shelley
It was on a dreary night of November, that I beheld the accomplishment
of my toils. With an anxiety that almost amounted to agony, I collected
the instruments of life around me, that I might infuse a spark of being
into the lifeless thing that lay at my feet. It was already one in the
morning; the rain pattered dismally against the panes, and my candle
was nearly burnt out, when, by the glimmer of the half-extinguished
light, I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open; it breathed
hard, and a convulsive motion agitated its limbs.

Three Laws of Robotics are a set of three laws written by Isaac Asimov.
a. A robot may not harm a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
b. A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
c. A robot must protect its own existence, as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

Kal Spelletich
SEEMEN
institute for the arts , sciences and letters.
since , well, 1980!
http://seemen.org/
http://www.whitehouse.org/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
TOP

9. Galinsky, FF Alumn, at Bowery Poetry Club, TONITE, 5-7 pm

Galinsky, FF alumn, offers Free Entry to Manhattan Monologue Slam Bowery
Poetry Club June 5, 7pm

Simply say the password “Omelette” at the door and you’re in for free.
Galinsky hosts actors along with special guests Lloyd Kaufman founder of
Troma Films and Aaron Harnick Producer of Martin Short’s one man show and
Broadway’s “All Shook Up” this Monday June 5th at Bowery Poetry Club, 7pm,
$6. More info at http://www.MMSlam.com –

thanks!!!
g

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
TOP

10. Marcus Young, FF Alumn, at Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, thru June 18

Dear Friends,

I just wanted to let you know my work is at the Walker Art Center June 1-18 as part of the exhibition OPEN ENDED (the art of engagement). If you happen to be there, please take a look. I am there several hours each day alongside the painting…as part of the engagement…but that’s a bit of a secret. Thank you for your interest and support! marcus

Marcus Young
Untitled Painting 2006
gesso, screenprint ink, masking tape on canvas
Courtesy the artist
Collaborators: Maria Santiago and Joanne Price of the College of Visual Arts, St. Paul, and Arah Bahn

Minneapolis-based Marcus Young’s project Untitled Painting asks spectators to reconsider their relationship to artworks and museums. His black painting inscribed with text was first hung on this wall on June 1. From June 2 through 17, Young is inviting a mixed group of Walker staff members, frequent visitors, and people unfamiliar with the museum to move this piece to unexpected places around the Walker. In each new position, it gently intrudes upon a space and creates new relationships with the surrounding objects and artworks. The painting returns to its original wall on the last day of the exhibition.

This production is partially funded by the Chinese Heritage Foundation of The Minneapolis Foundation.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
TOP

11. Peggy Diggs, FF Alumn, at Mass MoCA, North Adams, MA, thru March 2007

I’m going to have two installations in Mass MoCA’s summer show, AHISTORIC OCCASION.

One project, on view thru Labor Day 2006, RECOLLECTION 2, consists of 300 glass jars, each with one item from someone’s past; significant or insignificant, the label briefly tells of this object’s place in someone’s life. (Ex: “This is some water from the creek near my house which they said that Lillybet drank.”) The majority of the jars is from my father’s house as he was dying and as his house had to be cleared out for sale; but 15 other people contributed to this second version of the project, each revealing very different value systems and concerns.

The second and bigger project, HERE & THEN, is a new interactive piece about North Adams itself. This project is the first to be situated “off campus” in the shopping district of the town, and then move to MASS MOCA for viewing from after Labor Day 2006 until March 2007.  For this, I took photos around the town of public places, some of which were recommended by social workers, residents, and local historians; some photos were contributed by The North Adams Transcript newspaper; and some were culled from the collection of 19th century and early 20th century photos in the collection of Paul Marino of No. Adams. Each photo is bolted to a 10′ high piece of fiberglass screening. The public is asked to look around at the photos of places portrayed and to contribute any experiences they have had at any of these sites; for this, manila shipping tags with strings are provided for writing on. Each contribution is then safety-pinned onto the screening above or below the relevant photo. My aim is to overlay private experience onto public space, and to see those spaces by the end of a summer’s worth of written stories as being the stages we live our lives on, mundane or catastrophic, ordinary or momentous.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
TOP

12. Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Stacy Makishi, Karen Finley, Coco Fusco, Lois Weaver, FF Alumns, at University of London, England, June 15-18, 2006

Queen Mary, University of London, East End Collaborations and the Live Art Development Agency present Performance Studies international (PSi) 12: PERFORMING RIGHTS
Thursday 15 – Saturday June 18 2006

All events take place at Queen Mary, University of London, Mile End Road, London, E1 4NS

Full programme details and bookings www.psi12.qmul.ac.uk < http://www.psi12.qmul.ac.uk>

PERFORMING RIGHTS is a festival of creative dialogues between artists, academics, activists, and audiences investigating relationships between human rights and performance, and reflecting the creative strategies that artists are employing to effect social, cultural and political change.

A Programme of performances, interventions, declarations, lectures, presentations, installations, residencies and special events.
A Manifesto Room for debates, presentations, experimentations and screenings.
A Library of Performing Rights housing resources, research facilities, digital and web based interactions.
A Conference bringing together artists, activists, thinkers, curators, policy makers and representatives from international cultural agencies and academic institutions.

Contributors include include Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Roberto Sifuentes, Rabih Mroué, Bobby Baker, Stacy Makishi, Monica Ross, Curious, Gustavo Ciriaco, Luiz De Abreu, Leibniz, Karen Finley, Clod Ensemble, Chumpon Apisuk, Chris Johnston, Coco Fusco, Naeem Mohaiemen, Juan Chin, Yara El-Sherbini, Adrien Sina, Richard Dedomenici, Oreet Ashery, Reem Fadda, John Jordan, The Otolith Group, Wrights & Sites, Wan-Jung Wang, Nicole Wolf, Larry Bogad, irrational.org, Chris Johnson, The Clod Ensemble, Tetine, Shahram Entekhabi , People First, Powerhouse, Lisa Wesley & Andrew Blackwood, James Leadbitter, Milan Kohout, Rising Tide, Graeme Miller, Hilary Ramsden, Lois Weaver, Rebecca Collins, Chris Berry, Aubrey Meyer, David A Bailey, Platform, Ali Zaidi, Nela Milic, Brian Holmes, Almir Koldzic, Aldo Milohnic, The Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination, Paul Heritage, Daniela Labra, David Williams, Karen C Faith, Sara Raza, Adrien Sina, Nayse Lopez, Lia Rodrigues amongst many others.

Register on line now for the PSi12: PERFORMING RIGHTS Conference.
Performance tickets and Day passes will be on sale from 24 May 2006.
Please note: The Manifesto Room, Library of Performing Rights, Conference Plenaries, and all installations and daytime performances are free with a Day Pass or with a conference registration ID. Conference registration and Day Passes do not include performance tickets which must be booked and paid for separately.

Performing Rights is supported by Arts Council, England; LCACE; Queen Mary, University of London; Live Art Development Agency; Crucible; Joy Tomchin.

www.thisisLiveArt.co.uk

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
TOP

13. Nicolas Dumit Estevez, FF Alumn, at MacDowell Colony, TONITE

Anima:

Dress in white. Light a candle at the end of sundown. Just before it gets very dark. Light a second candle when the first one goes out. Carry enough candles to last you through the night. Bring water and matches, or a lighter. Walk from somewhere to anywhere. Do not wear a watch. Avoid talking altogether. Travel uninterruptedly. Remember not to eat. Blow out the last candle at the break of dawn. Find your way back home. Fall asleep in your bed.

In Anima I embark on a journey through the night to a location not defined by a departure or an arrival point, but to an obscure territory, a geography mapped in time.

Anima begins at the sundown of June 5, 2006 at the MacDowell Colony, Peterborough, New Hampshire

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
TOP

14. Halona Hilbertz, FF Alumn, at Haven Arts, Bronx, opening June 9, 6-9 pm

Hi!

I’m back from Dubai. If you have time this Friday, come up to Mott Haven in the South Bronx; I’m showing “Maybe Doll” in a group show there. Haven Arts is a cool little gallery that’s very involved with the South Bronx neighborhood, and is open to all kinds of art & people, but always shows quality. I’d love to see you and forget the NYC rain!

Halona

ART OF THE WORD
June 5 through 30, 2006
OPENING FRIDAY JUNE 9, 6 – 9 pm

HAVEN ARTS
235 East 141st Street
Bronx, NY
Very close to Subways 2,4,5

718-585-5753
info@havenarts.org

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
TOP

15. Judy Malloy, FF Alumn, new concerto in digital anthology coming this fall

Concerto for Narrative Data by Judy Malloy

Concerto for Narrative Data — http://www.well.com/user/jmalloy/concerto/begin.html —
was included in “Ecopoetics” at the FLEFF film festival in Ithaca earlier this spring.
This fall it will be included in a digital anthology in celebration of Spanish poet Carmen
Conde.

About the work

It wasn’t too long after in Revelations of Secret Surveillance —
http://www.well.com/user/jmalloy/gunterandgwen/titlepage.html —
I criticized invasive mind-body control research that I took a very minor fall while cross country skiing and suffered months of pain and a return to crutches. At times the pain was so bad that I imagined that I was being virtually tortured.

On the other side of the railroad tracks, behind the house where I grew up in Massachusetts, was the Aberjona River, the same river that, polluted by WR Grace company in neighboring Woburn, figures in A Civil Action.

The mood of Concerto for Narrative Data was intensified by my finding of a memo from Nazi Chemist Otto Ambros, who, despite being convicted of war crimes, was hired as a consultant by WR Grace company and the US Army Chemical Corps. In the memo, Ambros orders that concentration camp inmates be flogged out of sight of free workers. I saw it as a metaphor for the use of covert strategies and technologies to hurt people in ways that could not be witnessed.

In the fictional voices of six artists and writers, Concerto for Narrative Data — a web work that could also be performed — postulates a relationship between interference — in the lives
of artists, activists, athletes, soldiers, and leaders — and covert technologies developed by the Department of Defense and intelligence agency-funded researchers. Written for a fictional ensemble or concertare, it is interfaced with a contrapuntal score in which the speakers’ words parallel each other and the user’s coactive choices determine the flow of the narrative information.

The work can be thought of as a work of hyperpoetry or as a score in the fluxus tradition
such as a John Cage score, where, if performed, interpretation is partially determined
by the performers.

Judy Malloy — http://www.well.com/user/jmalloy/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
TOP

16. Susan Leopold, FF Alumn, new installation at Franklin Street Subway station, NY

Announcing a New Installation by Susan Leopold
Alleyways, 2006
Location: Franklin Street Subway Station, Tribeca
Downtown Platform (1 and 9 trains)
MTA – Metropolitan Transit Authority-Arts for Transit

Alleyways is a mixed-media construction depicting a labyrinthine view of the back streets of Tribeca seen through two large windows on the subway platform.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
TOP

17. Heidi Arneson, FF Alumn, in Minneapolis, MN, June 9, 7 pm

Friday Night Performances at Amazon: Heidi Arneson
Friday, June 9, 7 p.m.
Ms. Arneson will read from her novella-in-progress, The Flying Boy, a thriller set in a small Midwestern town- A woman in search of her own childhood inadvertently unravels the mystery of a decades-old abduction.

Dear Friends,

Good News: This spring I received the 2006 Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative Grant to support the research and writing of a prose piece, The Flying BoyThe Flying Boy explores the magical details of childhood, the wound a community faces when it looses a child, and ways to initiate the healing process.

The Flying Boy
Friday, June 9, 7pm
Amazon Bookstore Cooperative
4755 Chicago Avenue South, Mpls 55407
www.amazonfembks.com
612.821.9630

This event is free and open.
Please join me June 9 at 7pm.
Health and Happiness,

Heidi Arneson,
Director, Direct Action Workshop
www.directactionworkshop.org
612.333.6816

“We all have stories, of joy, pain, love, loss, adventure and redemption.
When we share our stories, we heal, transform and connect.”
 -Heidi

Heidi Arneson is a multidisciplinary artist renowned for her plays about childhood, sexuality and family, who uses personal storytelling as a means for social transformation. She has performed her plays across the country, and at nearly every venue in the Twin Cities. She is a recipient of the 2006 Minnesota State Arts Board Grant, the Bush Artist Fellowship, Franklin Furnace Emerging Artist Performance Artist Award and Core Alumna of The Playwrights’ Center. She currently teaches Direct Action, her Writing/Performance Workshop for prison inmates. In Direct Action Workshop, inmates create performances based on their own life stories and perform their work for fellow inmates, as a means to improve self-awareness and communication skills, and build understanding between diverse cultures. She is also teaching her Direct Action Workshop for the Project for Pride in Living PPL Train-to-Work Program and for the children of Shegitu Kebede’s Going Home Program for the Minnesota African Immigrant Community.

“I have never seen a more moving example of the power of art to change lives.”
—Dean J. Seal, Chaplain Resident, United Hospitals, St Paul,
Producer Emeritus, Minnesota Fringe Festival

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
TOP

Goings On is compiled weekly by Harley Spiller

~~end~~

click http://www.franklinfurnace.org/goings_on.html
to visit ‘This Month’s World Wide Events’.
—————————————–
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or for information
send an email to info@franklinfurnace.org
—————————————–
Franklin Furnace Archive, Inc.
80 Arts – The James E. Davis Arts Building
80 Hanson Place #301
Brooklyn NY 11217-1506 U.S.A.
Tel: 718-398-7255
Fax: 718-398-7256
http://www.franklinfurnace.org
mail@franklinfurnace.org

Martha Wilson, Founding Director
Michael Katchen, Senior Archivist
Harley Spiller, Administrator
Dolores Zorreguieta, Program Coordinator