Folded and Beautiful.
Archive for the 'The trolls story' Category
Art is everywhere, it is true, but art in the way we normally think about it is not everywhere. That is because we have been trained to believe that art is only to be seen in formal locals. Bullshit! Art should be all around us and not just the art that is in advertising or in the beautiful design of a door handle or an article of clothing. In this shot one of the parasite prints has taken the place of an ad on the Berlin subway. When I was teaching at Pratt a student who had lived in East Berlin decided that she wanted to take art work and place it in the Berlin subway. She asked people for work and came back with pictures of where the work had ended up. It was a real interesting project that encouraged a lot of other students to think about how the boundaries, that are set for art, can be viewed.
Make art and make it be seen. Art is changing our world!!
I have always believed that painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture and all other forms of visual art were forms of communication. With that being true they all must have a viewer, hopefully multiple viewers, in order to be called art. Until they are viewed and digested by people they are just things without a purpose. Here is the interesting part of the equation I make art for me, to tell a story that I want to tell. I can only hope that when it is viewed it is savored and the viewer leaves feeling. Art can and should create feelings in viewers, it should make them excited in a way that makes them want to come back to see and feel more. This is one of the reasons why I started making objects that were interactive. By combining body and art I add a theatrical aspect to my work that demands attention. By making art that requires a viewer to interact with it in order to fully understand it I go out on a limb. Art is not suppose to be touched. It is suppose to be hanging on a wall or sitting in the middle of a room with red velvet rope around it. In “The sporozoan’s shrine to the mapping of the parasite.” I ask viewers to not only walk around and into the shrine but to open the box and remove its innards. It is not an easy thing for viewers to do, to get beyond what they have learned from years of art viewing – “DON’T TOUCH”. Because much of the work that I make is made with paper and delicate materials damage is inevitable and fixing these damages adds to the history of the objects. The objects change and evolve from one performance and showing to the next.
Art never ends.
The sporebox is a portable art piece. It was the beginning of my interest in performing art work. Because the sporebox is so small when it is closed I can easily carry it around with me in my messenger bag. For a couple months, right after I finished it, I carried it around with me and anytime I saw a place that looked interesting I would pull out sporebox and let it bloom and wither. In this shot I am in a gutted room in a building on Pratt Institutes campus. This particular time I had someone with me to take shots. Most of these performances I did not have anyone with me so many of these performances are just a memory to me and the people who were there to see them. I find this the most interesting part of the sporozoan performances. They are serendipitous experiences for viewers. And because no one knows when or where they might happen the viewers are random, usually people who would not normally go to galleries, look at my work or anyone else’s. My favorite place to perform sporebox was on the F train in NYC. On the train sporebox was able to tell its story many times in one evening as I would ride from station to station performing the bloom and wither.
Art should be part of our daily lives.
Beauty comes in many forms not all of which are pretty. The Tragic beauty book is a collaborative project organized by members of Booklyn and Artichoke Press. I am not sure how many books have been published but in 2005, when I was asked to participate, six books had been published. All participants were given dimensions and fold placements and asked to create 30 pages for the book. The book wishes to examine all that the artists who participate consider that which is beautiful and tragic. I used a design of the sporozoan on one side of the page and on the other I broke up the page into seven stories. I took pictures of death and destruction across NYC. I used the recent vandalism of on of my public sculptures as the center piece and framed it with images of dead animals in the street, dead houses collapsing and homeless people.
The page is a screen print containing around 30 colours. Some of the image is hand drawn and some digital with hand manipulation. It required 19 folds and hours of cutting to finish the piece so that it could be given to the book binder.
Art finds the best in us.
Sometimes the best work is made under the most adverse situations. I had gone to bed at 11:30 and was woken up at 12:30, half an hour later I was well energized and tossing and turning. I can’t really remember why I went out to the studio, it was cold, about 12 degrees, at first I just looked around at the massive amount of stuff I have accumulated over the past two years. The drawing was sitting on the floor, I had cut it into strips weeks before. I started twisting and folding the pieces and found the shapes to be very pleasing. It didn’t take long before my fingers were aching with the cold so I blew some time building a fire in my little stove. For the next two hours I sat on the floor a couple feet away from my stove twisting and weaving this piece in on it self. (I usually have a very hard time translating images that I do on a very large scale to smaller versions but in this case I am very pleased with the outcome. It makes me feel much the same as my large tapestry pieces.) At quarter till five I tacked it to the wall, turned off the lights and went back inside to bed. At 6:30 Izzy woke me up. I went downstairs with her and made coffee. I felt exhilarated.
“Art is why I get up in the morning, but my definition ends there.” Ani D
Sporozoan cavities is a suite of 15 Intaglio prints. I have been working and reworking this image for years now. I thought it was time to document it in a way more fitting than just occasional visual reference. The suite is built around the idea of telling the story of how the sporozoan became such a strong icon in my work. My interest in varying the way a particular image can change based on how it is coloured brought me to the decision of making 25 prints of each image in a la poupee. All of the plates are complete and have been proofed but printing the editions has not happened yet. All 15 images are edition’s of 25, printed on Rives BFK Tan 22×30 (plate size 18×24), and then 25 of each in a la poupee combined with 50 prints of the cover print which is on 30×44 paper with a plate size 24×36 makes for 800 prints. It is no small task and I look forward to completing it.
Making art can change the world.
“The sporozoan’s shrine to the mapping of the parasite.” is a piece I made in 2002 for a large group show. This picture is a detail of the sporozoan’s display box.
traveling_sporozoan2, originally uploaded by printtroll.
The darkness is everpresent and the chill of failure rides strong on the trolls back. He studies the strips and searchs for his future in them. They send no message back except to continue seeing. He feels her close to him her gaze judgemental and always fickle. The bottom feels close and yet his toes still are not touching.