Release event for SOFT TARGETS with performances

Kalup Linzy performs-

release event for SOFT TARGETS
v.2.1., a handheld journal of poetry, artwork, theory, and fiction, as
well as v.2.2, a 5″ LP. Please join the Front Office for readings and
performances by Kalup Linzy, Gary Lutz, Ariana Reines, and Mick Barr
as Octis.

The Kitchen, NYC
512 West 19th Street
Wednesday, May 30th
7pm, FREE

Posted by Esa | Tuesday, May 29th, 2007 | 0 comments

Drawing Center: Conversation with William Anastasi

William Anastasi: Raw
Artist’s Talk
Thursday May 31, 6:30 PM
William Anastasi will speak about his work in conversation with Jo??o Ribas, Curator, The Drawing Center.
Admission is free

Posted by Esa | Tuesday, May 29th, 2007 | 0 comments

Opening 6/1 Daniel Lopez Show: White Box & Roebling Hall

Opening Reception: Friday, June 1, 6 ‘ 8pm
Exhibition Dates: June 1 ‘ June 30, 2007

White Box is pleased to present the exhibition Daniel Lopez which consists of young Chilean artists who reside in New York and Santiago. Participating artists: M??nica Bengoa, Francisca Ben??tez, Diego Fern??ndez, Nicol??s Grum, Iv??n Navarro, Rodrigo Pereda, Caterina Purdy, Camilo Ya??ez, Hoffman’s House and Instituto Divorciado.

Daniel L??pez was one of the many pseudonyms, used by the now deceased dictator Augusto Pinochet to realize several unlawful transactions at the Riggs Bank in New York , all of which took place from the beginning of his dictatorship up until the mid nineties. Stemming from this fact the exhibition has as its goals to foreground the crumbling economic falsehoods as well as apparent transparency and the systemic covering up of the truth that his most intimate circle was involved in.

White Box
525 West 26th Street
Roebling Hall
606 West 26th Street

Posted by Esa | Tuesday, May 29th, 2007 | 1 comments

Launch of Christian Marclay’s Shuffle

Aperture Foundation, Paula Cooper Gallery, and PERFORMA present:
Christian Marclay: Shuffle

This performance coincides with the publication by Aperture of shuffle, a
musical score comprised of photographs by Christian Marclay. A stellar lineup will interpret the score and bring Shuffle to life for this New York premier:

Anthony Coleman, Okkyung Lee, Peter Evans, Zeena Parkins, Elliott Sharp, Jim Staley and John Zorn

Saturday, June 2, 9:00 p.m.

Roulette
20 Greene Street (btwn. Canal and Grand)
Admission: $10 at the door
For reservations, email: shuffle @ aperture.org
(limited seating)

Posted by Esa | Monday, May 21st, 2007 | 1 comments

Ikue Mori at the Tate Long Weekend

FRIDAY 25 MAY, 9PM
Maya Deren/Ikue Mori
Seven experimental films by legendary avant-garde filmmaker Maya Deren with specially commissioned soundtracks performed live by iconic New York musician Ikue Mori.

UBS OPENINGS: THE LONG WEEKEND
26 - 28 May 2007
Tate Modern
Bankside
London SE1 9TG

Posted by Esa | Friday, May 18th, 2007 | 1 comments

FOREVER RADICAL podcast now available

On top of the Flash Player audio of our NOT FOR SALE: Forever Radical? panel and other panels available here, there is now a podcast available for download here, courtesy of WPS1.

Posted by Lana | Friday, May 11th, 2007 | 0 comments

Dead Already, Last Installment

GUEST BLOGGER: David Everitt Howe

As a fictional artist, a group of artists, and an art space, Reena Spaulings Fine Art is intrinsically experimental, the kind of place that can seemingly only be found very far away from the conventions of Chelsea. To be specific, in an unmarked dump in the heart of Chinatown. But if the ambitious programming at this gallery is any indication, Emily Sundblad and I should be best friends forever.

“Dead Already” purports to dissect an exhibition into distinct categories and time frames, building blocks for micro-exhibitions. There is a pink carpet for dance, a sound system for music, projectors for video, dollies carrying Koether and Gordon’s haphazardly stacked artwork, and wooden barriers for spatial division. The conceptual framework of “Dead Already” was disappointingly weak. The curatorial thesis only held water as a clinical metaphor. Exhibition autopsy, get it? However, the live performances by Ei Arakawa, Alan Licht, Karl Holmqvist, Stefan Tcherepnin, and K8 Hardy were chaotic, intense, and exhilarating.

Ei Arakawa’s “Two Grahams” breathtakingly manipulated Martha Graham choreography with Dan Graham’s bootleg punk rock music. Martha Graham’s revolutionary choreography is based on the idea of contraction and release, inhale and exhale. Graham manipulates the body with tension, internalizing it until it explodes. Unlike ballet, Graham technique is ugly, honest, and harrowing, with bodies bent over, feet tensed, and lots of floor work and falling. Graham technique is a perfect internalization of punk.

“Two Grahams” created an abstract criticism of art commodification using conventional art packaging props. As soon as the performance began with writhing choreography and a wailing introduction by Jutta Koether, all but three dancers exited the space and began constructing a structure in the plaza outside on East Broadway. A live video feed of the process was projected onto a wall. After the dancers returned, they forced the audience surrounding them to sit down along the wall. The performers stretched glassine-like plastic sheeting from one side of the space to the other, and then staple-gunned the plastic to the wall directly above the viewers’ heads. A plastic sheet was also stretched from floor to ceiling of one end of the space, blocking the exit. The audience was, pun intended, packaged. Beneath the fort of plastic sheeting and wooden divisions aligned across the stage, posed performers were shuttled as art objects from one side of the stage to the other on dollies. For the performance’s conclusion, the plastic was ripped off the wall and discarded, and booklets were stapled together from video documentation and supporting material. Not even the structure outside remained, as it had already been disassembled. Using art handling props for a sort of punk opera, the performance echoed Koether and Gordon’s teasing treatment of the art object for ‘Dead Already’ by devaluing it and assigning value elsewhere, namely to the ephemeral and informal dynamics between performer and audience. ‘

K8 Hardy also flaunted the audience/performer dynamic for her “Live” performance, which was noteworthy for her aggressive barks and howls directed towards the audience, and at times at no one in particular. Dressed in a sort of futuristic warrior costume, she spoke into a microphone and wandered the space as if lost. She seemed to be playing victim of political helplessness, a bystander of tangled debates on queer and feminist rights. Drowned in feedback and synthesizer, she kept repeating, “This is a performance. It’s how we communicate,” followed by the question “Do you hear what I’m saying right now?” addressed several times to viewers. She eventually abandoned talking and instead opted to use the more direct language of thrusting her hips on the floor and blithely licking the carpet. ‘

A frivolous spectacle of eighties amazingness occured as revolutionary experimental musician and composer Alan Licht rose from a cardboard coffin for his performance “Dance” midway through the day, aiming a projection of music videos all around the space and onto the spectators to a thumping soundtrack. Even Arakawa was dancing. ‘

Immediately following Licht was a long, repetitive poetry reading by Karl Holmqvist of his amusing “Horses, Horses.’ Stefan Tcherepnin rounded out the roster, contributing the humble but beautiful performance “Composition For Amplified Piano Sweeping Noise.” He composed a piece for the piano, which was nothing very exceptional until near the conclusion, when the dissonant feedback and piano became complementary notes. It was surprisingly emotional, a perfect summation of this exhibition’s last day.

Posted by Guest Blogger | Friday, May 11th, 2007 | 0 comments

Website Impersonations- performance

The html-movement-library plus Singing Website Wallpaper
Two web-driven installations by Ursula Endlicher
Performance: Saturday, May 12, 8PM at MediaNoche
161 East 106th Streeet, First Floor

Website Impersonations: The Ten Most Visited will be performed by the artist at the end of the exhibition. The performance will be generated by real-time source code from the Web combined with material collected in the show and submitted online.

Posted by Defne | Thursday, May 10th, 2007 | 0 comments

Leaderless: Underground Cassette Culture Now

Leaderless: Underground Cassette Culture Now
Printed Matter
195 Tenth Avenue at 22nd Streets, NYC
Exhibition on view from May 12 through May 26, 2007
Opening Reception: Saturday, May 12 from 5 - 7 PM

Posted by Esa | Wednesday, May 9th, 2007 | 0 comments

NOT FOR SALE: Forever Radical? audio recording now available

The audio recording of our NOT FOR SALE: Forever Radical? panel (from April 12, 2007), as well as recordings of two of our previous NOT FOR SALE discussions, are now available here courtesy of WPS1 Art Radio.

Posted by Lana | Friday, May 4th, 2007 | 0 comments