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The Artist's Zoo [TAZ] - BOS2014 Concept Text

"Thomas Kinkade Self-Portrait" by Shane Kennedy (2011)

The Artist's Zoo [TAZ]
[concept]art by Paul McLean
For the Society for the Prevention of Creative Obsolescence

“I am not an elephant! I am not an animal! I am a human being! I am a man!” - The Elephant Man

NARRATIVE 1:

[SUPPORTING TEXT]

“On Zoos”
By Paul McLean

Zoos, or menageries, are a feature of many important civilizations, appearing in various forms across the globe, often attached to palaces, existing as signs of power [See Wikipedia’s entertaining entry on the subject, from which much of this first paragraph arises. - PJM]. The Romans notoriously pitted exotic captive animals against one another and against humans for entertainment purposes, as spectacle. Obviously, the Roman arena and what we think of the zoo today are not convergent in many respects. However, even a superficial examination of the diverse manifestations of artificially contrived, performative human-nature encounters reveals that each age, place and culture produced and produces their version with particularity. In fact, the most valuable product of the zoo may its mimetic capacity. To put it another way, the zoo reveals much about the perceptual framework of the society and the individual, especially in terms of object and subject, which are dimensional.

I am thinking of nakedness, of Derrida’s cat, and The Animal that Therefore I Am [1]… Seen one way, the zoo is just another penal system, an expression of power-over. The phenomenon, however should not be reduced to just that. Today, most zoos are urban destinations. One must acknowledge that for many who are born, live and die in the city, nature is met at the zoo, in a controlled environment, staged as a kind of animated Natural History Museum (which is where the dead things live). Artificiality is pervasive in all of this. Meeting a large carnivore in the wild, or a tiny but highly poisonous reptile, or a magnificent raptor, is beyond the ken of the city dweller. The e-/affect of media on the phenomenon cannot be overestimated. Nature has its own television channel. National Geographic and a host of other naturalist-adventure outfits trek to all parts of the earth with camera gear and other sophisticated technological tools, usually somewhat war-derived and de-militarized, to create stories and images for the consumption of the curious public. The net is rich in virtual encounters with all manner of nature, which in itself seems a strange contradiction, with all due respect to the actual. Considered through this lens, the ubiquitous web “kitteh” attaches a very different, expansive meaning. A pixel-kitty does not a lion or lioness make. The ether of the network is not a savannah. The bugs are not the same.

How much of the zoo impulse is rooted in compulsion of Nature to human will? How much is rooted in fear, or love, or desire, or mindless revulsion or hate of the monster? How much in the zoo as concept is now rooted in mankind’s loss of the natural as mundane immediacy, how much is indicative of a collective guilt for his waging a relentless war on nature, either as mindless destruction? Or as addiction to consumption, a linked sign-cum-amelioration of humanity’s general, maniacal pursuit extraction/exploitation campaigns for natural resources of all types?

Does the zoo exist as a salve for a common anxiety that Nature may rebel against the decimation inherent in the human ownership regime? Is the zoo a control mechanism, which clearly is insufficient, when weighted against the big picture? Will Nature reject its chains, its bondage, and punish us for uncounted episodes of torture, violation and disregard? What will it look like, when Nature manages or somehow “decides” to shrug off her subjugation? Will man face a vengeful Nature? Will natural revenge play out in a flip-flop of position, as in the Planet of the Apes, or will the endgame manifest as plague, catastrophes such as earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, an Ice Age, or some other horrific event?

It is telling that humanism has affected the zoo culture. Over time, especially in the modern era, the function and mission of the zoo evolved. Scientific study, species conservation, and other analytic enterprises conjoined with the sensational aspects of staged interspecies encounters sited in the zoo. America, and its storied wilderness, made accessible by an extensive highway system in the 20th century, generated another form of zoo: the roadside attraction. Can the animal-centric iteration of the zoo be construed as a well-intentioned effort to right systemic wrongs perpetrated by man against beast? What of the Biblical notions of man in relation to animal, from the Garden, through the Ark? What do we make of our derivation perceptions of beasts like lions, whales, serpents, asses, etc., and has science successfully altered these perceptions (with the help of media, and mediated ecologies, such as those exhibited in or as “the zoo.”)

Is the near-fully mediated, man-dominated world itself a zoo, and we, as humans, distinctive from all the planet’s inhabitants, in that we not only are part of the exhibition, but occupied with its management? Now that our cameras can reach most anywhere, and almost every beast has been captured, documented and/or caged and staged, and this set includes ourselves, whom should we assign the task of zookeeper? Does this state of the world not strike you as unnatural? Are you comfortable with the notion that the zoo model is now fungible, thanks to media? After all, what is Reality TV?

It seems worth noting that exotic people were at times displayed alongside the beasts, that caged animals often suffer horribly, even though cultural perception of such instances of morally problematic scenarios changes over time and from place to place. Awareness of animal welfare among the parties invested in the zoo as complex social-commercial-scientific enterprise is in its current version a very recent development. The aesthetics of zoos and menageries are also worth a look. Thinking about the hyperreal but artificial enclosures at major destination zoos, and also those staged environments that afford the zoo visitor with great proximity to the beasts on display, how willing is man in the 21st century to touch nature? How close are we willing to get, and what happens when we get too close?

Finally, the function of language + image in capturing nature ought to be introduced. We should bring up the bestiary, in its implications. This literary mode is probably a bridge connecting the mythic and the modern, with faith as the span. In any event, the power of the book, as catalog, and as container, even prison, is prodigious. Da Vinci created a bestiary.

I would suggest that the real, the authentic human-beast interactive model is suggested in the caves, like Lascaux and Chauvet, but also in countless other ritual sites across the planet. Modern man is only beginning to come to terms with the scenarios that existed, where man and beast functioned in natural communion. It seems odd that we arrive at understanding of such high-functionality only by study of sites that must be addressed at least to an extent in the domain of conjecture. The habitat of Lascaux, for instance, of early man and cave bear living together amidst dedicated expressive production and representation, has been transformed now and is functional only as a lab with an exclusive visitation regime.

Drawing of a bear by Leonardo da Vinci [Metropolitan Museum]

∞

[PROBLEM]:

America does not consistently or systematically support the formation and maintenance of programs for organizing grassroots artist communities. Case in point: As far as I can tell, there’s no nationwide listing for open studio tours in the US, much less a framework or infrastructure for fostering these immensely popular, (usually) artist-organized local art platforms.*

Given the frequency, utility and popularity of open studio tours across the country why would a) artist studio tours in America not be funded through federal programs; b) no open studio tour catalog exist; c) no service network exist for rating studio tours, for compiling useful data on participating artists, attendance, etc.; for generating studies examining preferences of populations across regional, urban-rural spectrums; for producing and disseminating guidelines for developing best practices; and d) no joint marketing campaigns exist to support the growth, collaboration potential and commercial success of artist studio tours.

* The logical location for a map of open studio tours is the National Endowment for the Arts website. Another logical location would be Americans for the Arts’ site. I looked at big artist collective sites like wetcanvas.com – nada. A nice lady named Serena Kovalosky, a “sculptor, curator and cultural project developer” who refers to herself as the “artful vagabond” has put together a fine, but very partial listing for the US. The Google produces lots of results for “art studio tours” and “open studio tours.” The Collector’s Guide for New Mexico has a good list of that state’s tours. The domain name openstudios.org belongs to a Boulder-based artist community.

∞

NARRATIVE 2

The Artist's Zoo [TAZ]
[concept]art by Paul McLean
For the Society for the Prevention of Creative Obsolescence

[ARTIST STATEMENT]

1

“Fact is better left to fiction.” – Jerry (The Zoo Story, by Edward Albee)

[I need to record the phases of emergence in the narrative. – PJM]

In 2005, I was a participant in the East Austin (TX) Studio Tour [EAST], at Pump Project/Shady Tree Studios. At some point during the tour weekend I came to the realization that my bad attitude towards studio tours, as a general proposition, derived from a weird, intellectual linkage my brain had forged between two phenomena that most people wouldn't naturally or readily compare in any apples-to-apples way.

My mind had asymmetrically contrived a structural connection between artist studio tours and zoos. I was equating the artist and the zoo animal. I think I still do.

∞

[User #46 comments at Bushwick Manifesto, a Tumblr project]

What is it about the artist that the non-artist finds so alluring, scary and exotic? Is it our proclivities for transgression? Our bohemian lifestyles? Our wild fashion instincts?

I suppose the culturista could compose a list of reasons artists and art studio pique the public, but it would just be anecdotal, because artists are resistant to definition, especially the high kind.

Abject? Check. Precarious? Check. Dark Matter? Check.

Hell, the NEA of recent years has a tough time even defining “art” and “artist.” They can’t even figure out what categorical cage we belong in!

Talk about a crazy artsy nature! In Bushwick, the freewheelin’ artoidz can stiffen the twisted upper lip of the snark dispensing NY Times culture critic, Guy Trebay, which is an impressive feat. Just read his idiotic piece on BOS2013 [“At Every Turn, Another Strange World” (June 6, 2013)]. Trebay sounds like a guy shopping in SOHO who ends up at the Monkey House in the Bronx! Definitely out of his element! ObvEOsLY out his comfort zone!

Go back to PACE! Stop ur haten & drift back to Rohatyn!
But b4 you jet on the L, Ante UP M-Fer!

BTW Whatever happened to the Gorilla Girlz?

4

[Excerpt from interview for podcast (with Milo Santini)]

PJM: Don't get me wrong. EAST was and is a terrific studio tour, one of the best in the country, thanks to the hardworking artist-organizers, the good people at Big Medium, and many others. This year’s EAST will be the 13th, and the event enjoys sustained community and commercial support. Presenter Big Medium gets funding from the City of Austin, Texas Commission on the Arts and private donors.

…

MILO: In truth, most of the studio tours I've encountered are fun and worth the effort. Over the years I have covered, participated in, and attended a fair number of them. I have a few favorites. Studio tours (and visits) are preponderantly pleasant affairs, because most artists are as a class pretty pleasant and social.

PJM: Let's face it. It's such a generous act for the artist to invite the general public to inspect the artist's studio. Doctors don't have anything similar. Neither do attorneys, plumbers, mechanics... Most professions don't put together tours of offices and warehouses and the like, except as highly managed PR affairs, which is hardly what most artist studio tours turn out to be. It's doubtful many people would come to those other types of tours, if the other (less-cool-than-artist) professionals did produce tours.

…

MILO: On top of that, Artist studios are by and large unique. No two are the same, except in the interstices between artist-occupants, in industrial studio buildings, like the ones sprouting up all over the place in Bushwick, during which periods you have an empty, bare room with white walls. Over time, artist studios develop a patina. Think of Francis Bacon's, which is now enshrined in Ireland. I helped move stuff out of Sam Francis' in LA, after he passed away. Sam's couldn't have been more different than Bacon's.

2a

[Extracts from surveillance recording of phone contacts between artist X and artist Y (>12:48-13:12. 05/02/2013. X: 40.6942° N, 73.9186° W; Y: 35.6672° N, 105.9644° W. X =BB FDL0126518, VER XXXXXXXXXXxXX; Y =IP imei:010113005310121 ATT x2558; X+Y =+17/x2,55,98,48,x49,00,2y …)]

There's a macro-narrative, too, here, having to do with imaginary and real economics. Very few art districts in the US contain sufficient numbers of artists capable of sustaining yearly leases, especially expensive ones. In New York City, Los Angeles and other major metro centers with substantial creative class populations, a lot of artist studios aren't artist studios at all. They are studios for filmmakers, ad agencies, pre- and post-production media shops, digital workspaces, small manufacturers and craftspeople of many kinds, and so on. After all, the creatives are the ones who can fork out the rents for the mixed use commercial spaces in desirable or destination points in a city's cultural topography. As for painters and sculptors, in the fungible art world, they occupy a very tenuous ranking in the creativity complex. For those of us who came up in places like 1980s Santa Fe, like I did, hardly anyone BUT painters and sculptors were considered *real* artists. It helped that every other arts discipline's *practitioners* (relatively new terminology) didn't feel the need to identify as an artist to get the respect from anyone. Being a musician or dancer or actor was cool enough in its own right. The middle decades of the 20th Century were tough ones for academic artists, in terms of street cred. Artists didn't usually have to have five professional jobs to survive. Then, unlike now, temporary work between sales or shows - in galleries, foundries, frame shops, art supply stores, museums and schools - could support an artist, even those with families. Some had day jobs. That was before the exploitation racket for unpaid interns caught on. Cheap immigrant labor has also consumed a lot of jobs that used to keep artists from starving in America.

2b

[ibid.]

Anyway, I was talking about studios. During my Arts Management Masters study at the Drucker School, I met the lady – I forget her name - who at the time was in charge of cultural development in Santa Monica. They had generated a really powerful branding campaign for the city, and some stellar programs like the GLOW show. Santa Monica was touting itself as the most creative city per capita in the USA. During one of our classes with her, after listening to her present the data on how vibrantly creative Santa Monica was, I asked her how many artist studios were there. I think the first time I asked there two hundred and change. Over a couple years, that number would shrink substantially. There seemed to a big disconnect between the burgeoning creative population and the existence of the dedicated, actual architecture needed for art production. Santa Monica was really into creating a creative atmosphere, though. I guess I'm thinking about this a lot, after attending a panel discussion at CUNY's Graduate Center called the Politics of the Creative Economy and reading an article in the NY Times titled "Rising Rents Leave New York Artists Out in the Cold. Maybe I've been thinking about this for awhile. People are always talking about studios in Berlin. I think it's fairly easy to secure cheap studio space in Detroit. I built my own studio in Pecos, NM in 1989 or -90. It was 10' x 20' and cost about $800 to construct. Some friends came over to help me with the drywall and roof. I bought the beer. Maybe I should make a list of every studio I've ever occupied.

∞

[MTS #2004790451, 3/14/08, Claremont, CA 9:14AM]

A zoo is a place with a bunch of wild animals put on display in safely secured spectacles of artificial nature. Zoos fabricate non-threatening encounters with beasts as a form of entertainment. At a zoo, you can get pretty close to the non-human mammal, or reptile, or bird, or amphibian, or fish, or insect, minus the worry that the exotic creature will devour you or your children, sting you, maul you, spit on you, throw poop at you, whatever. A zoo is a wunderkammer populated with bodies of fur, fang, scales, wings and claw, not stuffed, but breathing, moving. Like a prison for animals who have committed no crime, except piquing human curiosity, zoos afford the person unused or afraid of nature on its own terms, to existentially grapple with a version of it on civilization's terms (which are not good for captive animals).

∞

[Resolve divergent characteristics, Paul! – MILO]

As you may have noticed, I not only consider artist tours bizarre. I think zoos are clearly oddities of civilization, particularly European and euro-affected civilization, which is responsible for the modern zoo concept. Morally, I think zoos are flat bad, and we should be rid of them. Do we know whether imprisoning animals for whatever purposes habituates us toward imprisonment, say, for people? Is it a slippery slope to butchery, cannibalism or torture? Consider also the hospitality factor. Does incarceration for zoo animals negate hospitality arrangements? Is this why, when a dopey kid falls into the lion’s den, they don’t eat him right away? Or does that happen just because the big cats are very well fed? Also, how do you configure the art school open studio phenom into this? In NYC, as the recent NYT article indicates, when bubble conditions are in effect, academic [BFA, MFA] hosted open studio weekends are feeding frenzy opportunity for speculative art investors and gallerists/brokers/agents, etc., on the prowl for the next big art star [nbas]. Is this scenario at all comparable to what happens at the South Orange Maplewood AST? …Just brainstorming here, on points of convergence, Milo!

1b
[Extract from digital recording (10-23-2012); recorded at Wyckoff-Starr; informal roundtable on TAZ, with Jez, Shane, Konstant, Atchu + Milo]

Yes, I do acknowledge that studio tours are an important tool in local art economies for building community, connecting artists with collectors, making artist life more transparent to non-artists, de-mystifying and democratizing the artist, and de-centralizing art markets that generally exist in urban environments, and so on. Many artists feel much empowered by the studio tour format. Hey, they must work! They're EVERYWHERE! Just ask the Google. Type in "artist studio tours USA" and check the results.

JEZ: Or they’ll check YOU, Lulz!

1c

[CONT’D]

KONSTANT: I suppose what I find objectionable about studio tours is the dynamic that seems common amongst them, which I would characterize as dimensional. I came up at a time and in a scene (Santa Fe, mid-80s), when the studio visit was a serious matter. In some places, like New York City, it often still is. Whether the invitee were another artist, a gallerist, a collector, an art writer, or whatever, the elder artists I knew treated this particular sort of exchange ritualistically, with gravitas. It was a very different scenario than, say, bringing the crew back to the studio after the bar closed, so the party could continue, which was also cool, but, like I say, different. The studio tour mostly obliterates that tradition. Tours only last a few days, so it shouldn't be a big deal, right? Another thing: I am an artist who didn't invite ANYONE to come to studio to visit for the first twelve or thirteen years I was painting. I think I imagined the studio as something like the Bat Cave, or Ali Baba's cave, or some other kind of magical, quasi-dangerous cave, but not like Plato's. A hideout, a lab, an asylum - my studio was this and more. It was the generator, the percolator, the mad den where the alchemy was done. It was a special place, for letting everything hang out, where great dead artists appeared in dope-soaked visions to encourage you, in the middle of the night, as you sobbed over that grand new painting, which by morning would be only another failed, flawed attempt. Finally, I got this vision, after visiting a studio tour, maybe in Dixon, New Mexico, or maybe it was Galisteo's or Pojoaque's or Eldorado's or Madrid's. I saw this kid with her mom and dad, framed like a children's book, pointing at this disheveled, grizzly old vato painter, slouched, miserable, suffering through the indignity of it all, a cigarette in one hand, a paper cup with Tequila in the other, paint all over his clothes, soft hat brim hiding his red eyes. The kid says, "LOOK, MOMMY, THE ARTIST IS SMOKING!!!" The dude just groans.

ATCHU: I realize it's not like that.

SHANE: ~ For most artists… Can we look at the pictures you shot of the last few, Bushwick Open Studios again, Paul? I really want to see the one with the naked girl in the mask and wheelchair, with that nutty mirror-covered dude pushing her down the street. Didn’t he about run you down?

MILO: You won’t see that shit anywhere else.

1d

[CONT’D]

PJM: (Back to Austin) At that time, my involvement in EAST took the form of an intervention, calling attention to the lack of press coverage for artists and art projects outside the nodes of UT-Austin, The Blanton (which is attached to UT-A), ArtHouse at the Jones Center and the Austin Art Museum (which merged in 2011 as AMOA-Arthouse, and in 2013 re-branded as The Contemporary Austin) and a few other art spaces and organizations. During the tour, I shut my studio door, posted photos and protest statements, etc., on the exterior, and refused attendees access. When a local arts reporter (Rachel Korper) drifted in with a crowd, we staged a photo-op that gave the impression I was berating the writer, while an angry mob cheered me on. The reality was a less rambunctious, coming across as not much more than artsy shenanigans. But our crew acted with discipline. It all happened pretty quick, impressively. Mulvany, the Irishman was perfect. Actually a “friendly;” Rachel kind of went with it in the moment, although she probably wasn’t pleased the next day, when the press blast appeared in her inbox (and the inboxes of Austin daily, weekly and monthly print editors), along with the candid photoset.

Anyway, the concept of "The Artist Zoo" was one of the derivatives of the intervention. The success of the direct action gave the alt.Austin movement some momentum. The subsequent collaborations were thereby invested with some agency and urgency. A stream of successful collective projects followed, like the successful art/exhibition + text collective Cantanker, which published until recently. The whole thing fed a number of other very positive developments in the blossoming Austin art scene, such as Co-Lab, which resonate through the present. Sometimes it just takes a dust mote shifting to start an avalanche.

3

For the 2014 Bushwick Open Studios Tour, I'm envisioning a new iteration of "The Artist's Zoo" [TAZ]. On my website [artforhumans dot com], in the AFH Projects section, I will be periodically posting progress reports on the production, concept ideas and art, models and other goodies. Really, I’m not entirely sure what it will look like, yet. My initial vision entailed staging a hyper- or parallel- or 4D alt.reality scenario and shooting it, then rear-projecting it on a screen at the Jefferson Street location, which would require removing or modifying the door. I also thought about constructing a 1/10 scale model, which would dovetail nicely with the Prop-Art production in the works for later this year. I have a vast database of studio documentation, dating to the early 90s, with a few shots of studios predating Santa Fe. The Statue of Liberty piece in process in the garage at my Beckley, West Virginia home, is a gem. I wish I had more images from Notre Dame. A lot of that has been lost over the years, trashed in transition, disappearing with dead digital drives and so on. Did it really even happen, if there’s not a photograph or video of it? The AFH Anarchives have been relatively assiduously maintained, with great attention paid to establishing a progressive history, a record, over time, from location to location, studio to studio, across the continent, around the globe, to Scotland and Switzerland, to Kauai… Turning fifty this month, I am reflective, searching the past for bits of information to assimilate into a big picture. There are questions. What if I had only had one studio all this time? I know a few artists with that kind of durational relationship with their studios. Only a few though. The laws and rules, the bad game of Property versus People, destroy that potential for almost everyone, including artists. It’s wasteful and stupid, and one big reason why artists in this regime tend to produce mediocre art. The problem is logistical, and the studio problem is a big part of it. In New York City, the worst solution is to rent from another artist. The landlord artist is a special breed of prisoner-guard/regime manager. I’m thinking of Django and Samuel Jackson’s character. Hey! Whatever you gotta do to get by!

∞

Let me just say, in my opinion, BOS2014 is the best I know of, all factors considered. The best in the world, right now. Can you believe it?! Arts in Bushwick is a terrific organization, and the attendees over the past few years I've participated in BOS have been remarkable, to say nothing (but good things) of the diverse and massive group of high-performing artists of every description who will be opening their doors to the world May 30th through June 1.

[1] Nothing can ever rob me of the certainty that what we have here is an existence that refuses to be conceptualized.

And a mortal existence, for from the moment that it has a name, its name survives it. It signs its potential disappearance. Mine also, and that disappearance, from this moment to that, fort/da [here/there, present/absent], is announced each time that, with or without nakedness, one of us leaves the room.”

(Jaques Derrida. The Animal That Therefore I Am. Edited by Marie-Louise Mallet. Translated by David Wills. New York: Fordham UP, 2008.)

øKtuber @GFS

GOOD FAITH SPACE PRESENTS ØKTUBER WEEKEND AT STANDARD TOYKRAFT

PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Release

Art for Humans [AFH] + Standard ToyKraft [STK] are pleased to present øKTuber Weekend at Good Faith Space [GFS], October 26th and 27th, 2013. The shows will include amazing live musical performance, exhibition and screening by NYC artists Wilson Novitzki, Shane Kennedy and Eric Leiser, plus friends. The program will kick off Saturday, October 26, 6-9PM, with the first installment of the GFS music showcase The Maintenance Series, hosted by Wilson Novitzki and featuring special guests, including Matt Nelson on sax. On Sunday, October 27th, 6-9PM, GFS/STK holds an opening reception for "Something About Encryption," Shane Kennedy's iconic wall paintings, in the GFS project room, and, in the STK theater, screens "Elementals," experimental short films and animations by Eric Leiser. Good Faith Space is located at 722 Metropolitan in Williamsburg/Brooklyn, on the 3rd Floor, at Standard ToyKraft.

BY SUBWAY: L Train to Graham Avenue, G to Lorimer Street

CONTACT: AFH/GFS Lead Artist Paul McLean [artforhumans@gmail.com or (c)615.491.7285] or GFS Director Lauren Guardalabene McLean [lguardalabene@hotmail.com or (c)916.206.6564]

URL: www.goodfaithspace.com

∞

MORE INFORMATION

ABOUT THE MAINTENANCE SERIES [TMS] AND WILSON NOVITZKI

Good Faith Space [GFS] is pleased to showcase The Maintenance Series of improvised musical performances. The Series will be recorded and posted to an ongoing collection of improvised music on the Good Faith Space website. Wilson Novitzki is the Lead Artist for The Maintenance Series. Wilson is a guitarist and pianist in Brooklyn, NY. He focuses primarily on improvised music. He currently tours in the band of iconoclastic legend R. Stevie Moore.

ABOUT TMS FEATURED GUEST MUSICIAN MATT NELSON

Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Matt has been playing the saxophone since his days at El Carmelo Elementary School. He left the sunshine of California for the flurries and wintry mix of Northeastern Ohio, where he attended Oberlin College and Consuuhhvatry to study with Gary Bartz and Paul Cohen, among others. After graduating he moved back to the Bay Area and became an active member of the experimental/jazz/noise/whatever scene in Oakland and San Francisco. He's had the pleasure of performing and recording with a lot of different musicians and bands like Timosaurus, Arts & Sciences, Beep!, Graham Connah, Weasel Walter, Peter Evans, Ben Goldberg, genevbaker, 8 Legged Monster, The Jazz Mafia, Zion I, nd tUnE-yArDs. He is now spending a good portion of his time living in Brooklyn, with recurrent trips back to Oakland.

WEBSITE: www.mattnelsonsax.com

ABOUT SHANE KENNEDY

Shane Kennedy is a New York based artist who originally hails from middle Tennessee. Shane is proficient in a wide array of binary, electronic, dimensional and analog media. An active member of The Society for the Prevention of Creative Obsolescence, Shane works hard to keep it real so you don't have to. He is a graduate of The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art and a counselor at the Art for Humans Camp for Young Men.

ABOUT ERIC LEISER

Eric Leiser is an award-winning artist, filmmaker, animator, puppeteer, writer, holographer working in the New York and California. A graduate from CalArt’s Experimental Animation program, he creates animated and live action feature films and shorts as well as works integrating animation, puppetry, painting, holography, live performance and installation. Leiser is interested in how animation transforms perception when it is combined with live action space, creating a fantastical, spiritual and surrealistic quality. His animated/live action films have been shown at the Victoria and Albert Museum, The Istanbul Modern Museum of Art, MoMA, New Museum, The MIT Museum, The Ruben H. Fleet Space Museum, Thessaloniki Contemporary Art Museum, Centro Cultural Ricardo Rojas Museum de Buenos Aires, MASS MoCA,(BFI) British Film Institute, Four-Dimensions Space Art Museum, Beijing, CAFA Beijing, Aster Arts Plaza Hiroshima, Anthology Film Archives, Los Angeles Filmforum, REDCAT, the San Francisco Film Society, Goldsmiths College London, California Institute of the Arts and the School of the Art Institute in Chicago among others. His films have screened at film festivals worldwide such as the Annecy International Film Festival, Hiroshima International Animation Film Festival, The Istanbul International Animated Film Festival, The San Francisco International Animated Film Festival, EXIS Experimental Film Festival, Seoul, Korea, Fringe Festival, Edinburgh, among many others.

He has made 35 short films, eight of which appear in the DVD release Eclectic Shorts by Eric Leiser, and three features: Faustbook, released April 25, 2006 by Vanguard Cinema International, and "Imagination", released theatrically in the US and Internationally in summer 2007 and February 2008 on DVD by Vanguard Cinema International. "Imagination" was featured in the May 2008 issue of Animation Magazine. "Glitch in the Grid" Eric's third live action/animated feature film was released theatrically in the US and Internationally on October 2011 and February 2012 on DVD/VOD through Vanguard Cinema International. The film premiered at the Annecy International Animation Festival in Annecy, France and the Hiroshima International Animation Festival in Hiroshima, Japan, the two most prestigious and respected animation festivals in the world. The film premiered nationally as the opening night film at the San Francisco International Animation Festival and went to win awards at various smaller international and national film festivals. The film has a fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and was reviewed by Variety, The Huffington Post, The New York Times, The San Francisco Chronicle among many others and featured on Apple Trailers and Itunes. He is a founding member of Albino Fawn Productions along with his brother and collaborator musician Jeffrey Leiser. Eric is an alumni of CalArt's Experimental Animation program. For updates www.albinofawn.com

ERIC LEISER: FILMOGRAPHY

Dreamer (2000) Waking a Dream (2000) Autumn (2001) Prelude (2001) Terra Incognita (2002) Psalms (2004) Iceland (2004) Young Faustus (2004) Faustbook (feature) (2005) Lot in Sodom (2005) Ephemera (2005) Beyond the Forest (2006) Imagination (feature) (2007) Forest (2007) Dream One (2007) Earthquake (2008) Town on Skull Rock (2008) Irrational Numbers (2008) Tir Na Nog (2008) Regeneration (2009) Maelstrom (2010) Hastings Conqueror (2010) Glitch in the Grid (feature) (2011) LAND (2011) Norsk Folksang (2011) Into the Forest (2011) The Boy who went after the North Wind (2011) Broken Dream (2012) Living Waters (2012) If i was (2013) Little Band of Sailors (2013) automata (2013) *additional works made for galleries not listed

ABOUT GOOD FAITH SPACE

GOOD FAITH SPACE [GFS] currently inhabits the Project Room of Standard ToyKraft in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NYC. The mission of GFS is to platform Dimensionist Art projects and multidisciplinary collaborations by accomplished and emerging creative practitioners, and to serve as a nexus for 4D discourse in NYC. Paul McLean is Lead artist of GFS. GFS is sponsored by Kellogg LTD.

Voyage of the Hippo 2 [Press Release & E-vite]

PRESS RELEASE

[FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE IN ALL MEDIA]

VOYAGE OF THE HIPPO 2

Art for Humans [AFH] and Good Faith Space [GFS] are pleased to present
Voyage of the Hippo 2 on Sunday, September 22nd, 2013 from 6-9PM at
Standard Toykraft, 722 Metropolitan (3rd Floor). The evening program
will include an artists' reception, an exhibition of documentary
photographs in the GFS Project Room and a compelling presentation
hosted by principle members of the Hippo crew, Clemens Poole and Shane
Kennedy, with additional commentary provided by shipmates and
witnesses.

BY SUBWAY: L Train to Graham Avenue, G to Lorimer Street

CONTACT: Paul McLean [artforhumans@gmail.com or (c)615.491.7285]

PREVIEW PROJECT HIPPO CONTENT: http://schooner-hippo.tumblr.com/

ABOUT THE VOYAGE OF THE HIPPO

The boat is like some kind of leviathan dealing out a strange
emotional justice. - The Captain

Hippo is an 36’ junk rig schooner. Over the past two summers (2012-13)
Clemens Poole and a hardy, international crew of artists and travelers
have navigated the Danube and Black Sea aboard the Hippo and explored
the territories along their shores. Voyage of the Hippo is a chronicle
of that momentous trek. Upon the return of the Hippolytes to the US in
2012, Art for Humans/Occupational Art School hosted an evening
celebrating the successful journey at Bat Haus in Bushwick. In 2013
the VotH event will take place at Good Faith Space in Williamsburg and
feature the multimedia presentation, as well as an installation of
photo documentation. Learn more about the Voyage of the Hippo at the
project Tumblr (schooner-hippo.tumblr.com). The 2013 Voyage was made
possible in part by a Menschel Fellowship.

ABOUT GOOD FAITH SPACE

GOOD FAITH SPACE [GFS] currently inhabits the Project Room of Standard
ToyKraft in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NYC. The mission of GFS is to
platform Dimensionist Art projects and multidisciplinary
collaborations by accomplished and emerging creative practitioners,
and to serve as a nexus for 4D discourse in NYC. Paul McLean is Lead
artist of GFS. GFS is sponsored by Kellogg LTD.

Dane Rex/Nonesuch Documentation

Here are a selection of photos chronicling Dane's exhibit "Nonesuch" at Good Faith Space.

[28-9July] Dane Rex / Nonesuch Flyer + Installation (2)

I designed a flyer for local distribution & added some more installation shots... - PJM

Nonesuch: Dane Rex Solo Exhibition at GFS [Opening 2Aug2013]

Good Faith Space [GFS], Art for Humans [AFH] and Kellogg LTD are proud to present NONESUCH, the first solo exhibition for Bushwick-based artist Dane Rex. GFS will host an opening reception for NONESUCH on Friday, August 2nd from 6-8PM. Copies of Dane's second zine, "Jaundice," will be on view and available for purchase at the reception. Good Faith Space is located at 722 Metropolitan in Williamsburg/Brooklyn, on the 3rd Floor, at Standard ToyKraft.

BY SUBWAY: L Train to Graham Avenue, G to Lorimer Street

CONTACT: Paul McLean [artforhumans@gmail.com or (c)615.491.7285]

PREVIEW ZINES: http://danerex.bigcartel.com/

PREVIEW ART [in black & white]: http://instagram.com/nonesuch_

ARTIST STATEMENT

DANE REX

Nonesuch

Making art has always been a release for me. I've always made art. It's just what I did, what I do. I never set out to produce pieces with a specific subject or moral/social/political message. When making art in the beginning I don't think there's much of a thought process. I enjoy the feel of the pen or paintbrush in my hand, cutting up images, playing with the materials and textures, spending hours working on one piece. Upon reflection, I know subconsciously when I'm making my artwork there's more going on than me simply cutting up images and sticking them onto paper. I see patterns in my work. I see that they are visceral and raw and can be perceived as political, socially aggressive, whatever, but I never like to think about it too much, and I don't want to put a label on something when I'm not sure myself what it means - if it means anything at all. If I had to derive meaning from my work I would suggest that I am a product of the world around me. What I create is a symptom of my own experiences growing up and now. My world is my childhood, my parents, Florida, Granada, Long Island... My tiny basement studio. I'm inspired by New York: its crudeness, its aggression, its seemingly unbreakable veneer. I like the abandoned parts, the old factories,the train tracks, the forgotten areas, the uncared for places - hell, the uncared for people. I've always had a fascination with photographs. I like to collect strangers' old photo albums. Sometimes I would find them in the trash, and just thought I should keep them. Other times in junk stores I would find a family portrait and felt I, someone, should have this, do something with this. I suppose its a voyeuristic interest. It's like peeking into someones personal world. My other love is the advertisements from old magazines. The picture-perfect wife, the gleaming children, the delicious food, the sophisticated liquors, the artsy cigarettes... Basically we are being sold the American dream. When looking through modern images the message is the same. We are still being sold this idea of perfection. This is how you should look, dress, eat. This is happiness, and this is the ideal America. This is what we are all striving for. This is making us unhappy, and I reject theses ideals, these pressures. I take this imagery and I re-imagine it. I take the image out of context, I create a new meaning. The images are no longer perfect. You can take whatever you want from it in the end, but at least it is real.

ABOUT GOOD FAITH SPACE

GOOD FAITH SPACE [GFS] currently inhabits the Project Room of Standard ToyKraft in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NYC. The mission of GFS is to platform Dimensionist Art projects and multidisciplinary collaborations by accomplished and emerging creative practitioners, and to serve as a nexus for 4D discourse in NYC. Paul McLean is Lead artist of GFS. GFS is sponsored by Kellogg LTD.

30June @AFHstudioBK [BFP411]

Today at Brooklyn Fire Proof Studio #411, AFH and the Society for the Prevention of Creative Obsolescence are hosting a Cake Social + Art Kill. We are celebrating Shane Kennedy's powerful wall painting array & our exodus from this iteration of AFHstudioBK. A selection of Paul McLean's DIM TIM series [SLAG Overflow] will be on view. The company, art and cake will be great. We will have beverages, but you can bring supplementals. There will be fans, open windows and A/C.

Installation photos for Isham Christie's "Titles R [p]REFORMIST"

We had a really beautiful opening last night at GFS. Before everyone arrived, I had a moment and I took a few photos with the mobile phone cam. More will be forthcoming. Jez did some recording, played the ukulele, and in subtle ways produced a lovely gathering of fellow travelers. The good folks of STK did tremendous work over the past week to improve the center space, which emerged as the beautiful agora for the installation and reception. I added to the wall treatments in the project room, and Isham + Jez did a wonderful job presenting the digital prints and analog pieces. The music, beverages and company (and a few well-positioned fans, open windows and a floor A/C unit) contributed to a memorable evening of discussion about art, revolution, possibility, theory, OWS, representation, organizing and much more. Thank you to all who participated. - PJM

[23June]: Graphics for this week's AFH events

AFH Update 5/2013 [Part1]

ART FOR HUMANS is moving forward on multiple fronts.

AFH and The Society for the Prevention of Creative Obsolescence have been excited to host the wall painting by Shane Kennedy at AFHStudioBK2013 (@Brooklyn Fire Proof). Shane continues through June, refining the painting. A vernissage~closing is in the works [TBA]. We want to do something before the end of the month, when this iteration of AFHSBK is completed. Also, Shane is preparing to venture again on the Hippo - destination Romania - and the departure date is fast approaching.

Will this be the SftPoCO logo?

Bold, Jez continues to generate a cornucopia of ana-culture. Above is a teaser for a proposed exhibit at Good Faith Space [details TBD]. Here's a quote from the transmission/proposal:

“Reality in Philosophy. The traditional role of Reality in philosophy is to ground knowledge. It is Reality that philosopher have sought to understand, and Reality is what our ideas and concepts attempt to approximate or encapsulate. Insofar as philosophy’s task is the understanding of Reality it is reactionary, passive, and subordinate to the status quo. To be precise, to understand reality, even at its most passive, is to change reality. Heisenberg, Ethnography, and reality television recognize the subjective influence on the object of analysis. In a similar vein, the approximation to an understanding of reality inevitably changes the way in which the individual relates to the world. This level of intervention is most bare and inescapable level that understanding has on human activity. Because such a level of intervention occurs in understanding reality this does not mean that the proper role of philosophy is in such purely descriptive analysis of reality. Marx’s injunction in the 9th Thesis on Feuerbach still holds. The task of philosophy ought to be the active intervention in Reality; the negation of the existing order; the transvaluation of all values.”

— Isham Christie

Here's a sampler of Isham's images:

Perhaps a little art world context would be valuable here. The Venice Biennale, Art Basel, Documenta - the arTroika or arTrifecta - are all on for summer of 2013. Here in Bushwick, BOS2013* earlier in June conclusively proved that at the moment this is the premier production of its type in the world.

To dimensionally situate GFS and SftPoCO in the overarching art-schema is to discern the topology as concurrent macro- and micro-phenomena unfolding IRL. It is to recognize that autonomous quality of artist-borne action relative to institutional flows or currents. It encourages analysis of creative possibility, and/or probability. The qualities of inertia, momentum, as framed in negative or positive terms, can be applied to gauge value of the particular, and the general meaning of contemporary art, as long as we have plenty of data for our assessments. Then, there is the perceptual, and there is the social, which amount to ephemera, conjectures, avoiding concrete determination. Even absent hard facts in the ethereal arena (of ideas, of sense, of feeling, of taste), we must be aware of the legitimizing nature of such markers, as experiential color.

We can see that at points the macro- and micro-worlds converge. The resulting events may be confusing, even violent and seemingly unexpected or unexplainable, within the provisional narratives established directionally (e.g., top-down, or bottom-up) by the players. Dimensional perspective often renders the befuddled reaction moot.

AFH is networked into nodal processes that include production, concept development, research, prototyping, progressive discourse, as a systematic 4D program. Presently, we are engaged in numerous instances of each form of application. GFS, SftPoCO and OAS derive from and build on one another. Sub-programs, such as The Book, our Reading, Performance and Screening Series, Artist Talks, Actions, Expos, Publications (virtual and actual) could be thought of as a continuum. It is not sufficient to characterize the modality of artistic realization we embrace, describe and demo simultaneously as a "practice," to use the stylized term often employed in the domain (incorrectly, in our case). Our methodology is better defined as function+utility, or with an exotic influence, we might call it the 4D Way.

New campaign image for j3p2013 [Bold, Jez]

Given an even more expansive context for collective and individual creative undertaking(s), which in a 4D production must be acknowledged, in order to establish a real platform, we discover an infinite set of content from which to draw. It should be obvious why a dimensional artist like Eric Leiser is so valuable at this stage of our 4D[®]evolution. Holography is probably the best object-based instructional device available to us for illuminating ourselves as a phenomenal occurrence, as such. Where-it-is and where-it-isn't for the purposes of effect hardly matter to the perceptual complex. We can "SEE" a matrix that moves. Virtual means provide some measure of instrumentation along these lines, but until that instrumentality migrates into the material aspect, we have stronger illustrational options.

NOVAD Alex Carvalho in the streets of Brazil, summer 2013

It might seem to a casual viewer or analyst, as though the constellations of phenomena unfold in an irrational movement. Actually, the rational is not enough to comprehend the thing. With apologies for and to Spinoza, linear and finite mathematics are facing their own obsolescence, as the emergence of dimensional number systems (all-directional) materialize in the perceptual complex, in the general awareness. This is what is happening to every such recursive, static and minimal set system, institution, complex, anyway. There is no stopping it, but that won't prevent some from trying. Those with the most to lose in the new arrangements will fight the hardest against the emergence of 4D existence. Those with the least to lose (or most to gain) will be readiest to accept the dimensionally ordered/disordered/reordering world. Neither bunch has the power to control or command it. While it's premature, if not delusional, to declare extraction and exploitation regimes "a thing of the past," technically it's true. Then, one might ask, what's next, and the other one might answer all-at-once.

GFS Opening 6.3 [RAW]

What a beautiful inaugural at Good Faith Space! Thanks to all, especially Jez & Wilson!

BOLD, JEZ BIO/artist statement for NOVAD Library, GFS Branch (NODE Ø1)

sometimes, i still have the lonely feeling of being a solo artist....and yet i am also starting to believe that it isn't exactly true, that the loneliness may be an illusion, especially if the ideal of the Novads -- that #jez3prez is NOT merely an individual, but rather a collective -- is actually real...please you to consider,

#jez3prez told me that, in their own mind, they are a multiple-performer variety act. speaking technically, "The audience az an abstraction [i.e. non-participant] duz not axually eXist in my performance. As with Time in the mind of the Anarchives, every1 iz a spontaneouz performer -- audience included -- since every act of observing is also a performance." they refer to "The Novads" consistently as the proper audience for a #jez3prez performance. at first glace, you may think that both of these artists appear to be more conceptual than real, but i urge you to investigate. You might want to start here: http://hemisphericinstitute.org/hemi/es/e-misferica-91/jez3prezaatchu i am still coming to understand what all this means, but I see the implications being potentially Large, especially as their audience continues to grow, and in so growing, apparently expanding the number of Novads who find themselves revolving around the inner circle of this infinite jest,

initially, it seems highly difficult to believe that #jez3prez is NOT an individual -- personally, i've only ever met one person who called herself thus -- but the possibility of an individual existence that is maintained by the collective is not altogether outlandish, and perhaps we should just assume that #jez3prez is/are Hegelian(s) [i.e. the individual can only be realized and maintained thru a collective spirit or Geist, in which case Novads collectively form the Geist which participate in the individual of #jez3prez]. "I would have died long ago and for eternity, if not for the Novads who continued to believe in me," sez #jez3prez. apparently, at some point in this history, #jez3prez is supposed to actually have died and was re-summoned with the help of the Novads...which implies that the Novad has some of the essential powers of both God and Dr. Frankenstein COMBINED,

[i wonder how many times has the dream has already died? at least as many as #OccupyWallStreet. but how does it keep getting resurrected...and why?]

so, despite the fact that the Novads are a collective of autonomous individuals, and often acting in wayz that appear to be individual, it also appears to support each one thru some kind of assumed solidarity, despite what is sometimes a lack of evidence due to their failures to manifest in regular get-togethers in physical time-space or hangouts in one of their virtual worlds. maybe it is that the Novads, as a Spirit, is always potentially real, and the individuals who participate in it are only ever acknowledged as what they were after the fact,

thus, #jez3prez sez "the Archive demands regular evidence to confirm a presence in Reality...but in the Anarchives, the Novads' mutual support is always assumed." this seems to mean that the Novads' are always potentially out there in a thousand different realities that may be in view or beyond our cognition, but realizable, and being realized, whether or not we have set our intentions upon it,

so i just mean to say that perhaps, as we already recognize some of our own collective failings to manifest as a solid persistent group with an identity impinging on Others, on World news, and continuously on ourselves, YET we need not altogether admit defeat, recognizing that potential futures still have some basis in reality, and re-cognize that believing in the possibility of realizing impossibilities still has the potential to make them real. yes, it might turn out to be After the End of the World after all, but that doesn't mean we can't enjoy ourselves NOW does it?

sincerely,

Wilson Novitzki BIO/artist statement for "RELIABILITY" at GFS

For the gallery wall.

GFS OPENING 6.3.2013: RELIABILITY + NOVAD LIBRARY (Installation Photos)

Batch of raw photos documenting the Good Faith Space before tonight's opening/artist reception.

BOS2013 Weekend!

BOS2013 rocked! The weekend ended for us with the block party at Troutman and Scott, but the good memories from this year's Bushwick studio tour will roll on through the year, no doubt. The Society for the Prevention of Creative Obsolescence debuted at the 411 Brooklyn Fire Proof studio. Shane's wall painting was a game changer. I got to spend a couple hours there on Sunday, and the walk-thru traffic was consistent and strong, the crowds diverse and friendly. Most of the time I was situated at SLAG, which was swamped with guests both days. The timing of BOS2013 was perfect, relative to the "DIM TIM" exhibition. Many folks, like Eric Leiser, who weren't able to make the opening last weekend, visited during the tour. BOLD JEZ successfully launched the Novad Library at the entrance to Good Faith Space/STK (722 Metropolitan) on Saturday afternoon. Wilson Novitzki, whose "RELIABILITY" opens Monday, 6-3, dropped by to finish installing his photo exhibit, but took a little time to play a tune on BOLD JEZ's famed ukelele, while enjoying beautiful Williamsburg. The great company & fun at Pickthorn barely stopped all weekend. The out-of-this-world delish frozen, chocolate-covered bananas Rebecca Thom was peddling were just magic, and a great treat at day's end... - PJM

BOLD JEZ [NOVAD] * NYC Spring / Summer Tour 2013

BOLD JEZ, the infamous NOVAD anarchivist is launching a massive BIG APPLE intervention, the NYC TOUR SPRING / SUMMER 2013. Art for Humans, Occupational Art School and Good Faith Space (& the vast Novadic network) will be providing support for BOLD's dimensionist enterprises when- and wherever possible. The launch date is May 30, 2013, sites and types of happenings to be determined. The text that follows includes the most recent transmissions from BOLD JEZ:

"Hail to the Ukulele player, Bard of the Modern Era!" -- Jeff Mach (The Geeky Kink Event, The Steampunk World's Fair, Wicked Faire)

"D'uh." -- DIM TIM (Time Criminal)

"YES!!!" -- Katherine Ramos

"Fucking brilliant." -- Paul McLean

EMERGENT ITINERARY:

Tomorrow (Thursday, 5-30) only, appearing @ the occupation of Cooper Union, wherever that is
Saturday (6-1), Good Faith Space & over the weekend at locations TBD in the vicinity of Bushwick Open Studios 2013

>

[Compilation of Transmissions from BOLD JEZ > 5-30}:

"FREE" BOOKS: a People's Library at the "Good Faith Space" [@STANDARD TOYKRAFT, 722 METROPOLITAN, 3RD FLOOR, GRAHAM AVE. L STOP]

Street distribution of books, to consist of individualz handing out books from the People's Library of the Occupational Art School.

See the Anarchivist(s) at Play! Everything must GrO!

(Academics Beware: You will want to hoard Awl of the Thingz!)

~==CALLing @ll NOVADz==~

Would you like to help me bring some cool & mathy & philosophic & mysterioush & decades-ancient books from Harlem to Bushwick on Thursday &/or help distribute distribute them like people's library-style during Bushwick Open Studios over the coming dayz?!? :DDDD (teh Answer iz obv Y.....E..............S....)

Paul & I will be confirming details with the "good faith space," but text me to let me know if you are interested in helping move some books. Bold Jezzzz: 701-527-1501

WoRD.

P.S. not every idea I have iz GREAT, but thiz one iz GENIEOUZ.

>

We are founding the NoVadic Library! It is happening. We're taking All streetZ & giving it to the people who c(A)re! We are starting in Bushwick and taking it to the 5 Boroughs.

Let us bring our dead OWS propaganda.

I'm preliminarily denouncing an appearance at Bowling Green for @Recoccupy.

*THX 2x!*

@ Sharon Geeta Singh =4 Donating these decades ancient-tomes U r the Prime Mover for this Epic Heartwarming Saga!

@ Paul McLean aka artforhumans@gmail.com =4 planting the seeds of this Realizable Project at my fingertips & his continuous votes of confidence. U r node Ø now!

@gmachado if u can tweet to request for spaces out of which we could host our people's library distribution that would like to host a #freebookfair, or just offer us space in which to do people's staged performances of poetry, stand up comedy, and personal life stories See my initial email to find a draft press release.

@Liesbeth Could you take a look at my PR shtuff so far & see

#NeedsoftheNovads

Requesting aid in locating other zones for spontaneous, autonomous creativity.

And It's filled with MYSTERIES! The Anarchives is a #literarymystery, investigating why we would need to do create the Anarchives: an infinite series of objects circulating in the World that are available for common & proper use a.k.a. "the Recovered world." These books are part of now part of our common Novad property that we wish to share with all of the Others.