Co-Lab Project Space

"nurelogical tangle" : Kollin Baker, March 17th-24th, 2012

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 18:04:34 -0500

“nurelogical tangle” : Kollin Baker

Opening Reception: Saturday, March 17th, 2012, 7-11PM
On view by appointment only through March 24th, 2012

I began this project a couple of years ago, first by visualizing the usage of a common and familiar object. The second part has been the contemplation of the overall layout and design of the parts to create a “whole”.

What congealed the parts into this installation was observing my thoughts and feelings during the process. It occurred to me that visually this reminds me of our neurological pathways.

It is not that a bunch of twigs arranged around a room is that interesting to you or me, its the concepts and thought/s. I realize that is the very essence of being human and an artist. No other organism can do this, that is what differentiates us.

Our thoughts and emotions, brief. The need to express, utterly human.

"Low Lives: Occupy!", March 3rd, 2012

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 18:22:00 -0500

“Low Lives: Occupy!”

Presenting Partner Screening: March, 3rd, 5-9PM CST, 2012

Low Lives launches new program in partnership with Occupy With Art and The Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics.

On March 3rd, 2012, Low Lives: Occupy! an international platform designed to enable artists, audiences, and presenters in alliance with the Occupy movement to support the occupation, will transmit live performances, actions, and happenings online as they occur in real time around the world. Participating artists, artist collectives, Occupy groups, and presenters worldwide will expand the reach and visibility of the Occupy protests by broadcasting to an international community and audiences. The Occupy protests, and the myriad of perspectives and experiences related to this unique moment, will be amplified, explored, and experimented with, through Low Lives’ internet-based creative platform. Low Lives: Occupy! recognizes the powerful opportunity that is the presentation of performances from around the world, and invites artists to open eyes and minds by presenting a radical re-imagining of possible ways of existing and relating.

Over the past 4 years Low Lives has developed a platform that invites and enables artists, audiences, and presenting venues to “plug in and participate” from anywhere an internet connection exists. This technological platform brings a history of supporting artists’ full creative freedom to imagine new worlds and is now offered to artists interested to present work in solidarity with #OWS. Online documentation of the live event will allow Low Lives: Occupy! to inspire online audiences far into the future.

About Low Lives
Founded in 2009, Low Lives is an international platform for live performance-based works transmitted via the internet and projected in real time. Low Lives examines works that critically investigate, challenge, and extend the potential of performance practice presented live through online broadcasting networks. These networks provide a new alternative and efficient medium for presenting, viewing, and archiving performances. Low Lives offers local and global audiences a contextual frame from which to consider live performance in both the physical and virtual space.

The platform celebrates the transmission of ideas beyond geographical and cultural borders, and opens multicultural and intergenerational dialogue through visual language, new technologies, and contemporary expressions. Low Lives is about both the presentation and transmission of performative gestures from a particular place and time. Low Lives produces an annual Networked Performance Festival. www.lowlives.net

About Occupy With Art
Occupy With Art (Formerly Occupennial) is an affinity group of the Arts & Culture working group. We are artists, writers, curators, and art professionals lending our skills to produce art, cultural events and projects, with a particular focus on OWS itself as a social art process. We work with organizations and artists that require a focused team to facilitate their projects. We produce art projects, large-scale events, and exhibitions. Our website, www.occupywithart.com, serves as an information hub for current and past art-related activities in the OWS movement. We are committed to building relationships within OWS and with outside arts organizations.

About Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics
The Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics is a collaborative, multilingual and interdisciplinary network of institutions, artists, scholars, and activists throughout the Americas. Working at the intersection of scholarship, artistic expression and politics, the organization explores embodied practice—performance—as a vehicle for the creation of new meaning and the transmission of cultural values, memory and identity. Anchored in its geographical focus on the Americas (thus “hemispheric”) and in three working languages (English, Spanish and Portuguese), the Institute’s goal is to promote vibrant interactions and collaborations at the level of scholarship, art practice and pedagogy among practitioners interested in the relationship between performance and politics in the hemisphere. www.hemisphericinstitute.org/hemi/

"Above Every Plane and Around Every Circle" : Shawn Camp, March 3rd-10th, 2012

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 16:25:00 -0500

“Above Every Plane and Around Every Circle” : Shawn Camp

Opening Reception: Saturday, March 3rd, 2012, 7-11PM
On view by appointment only through March 10th, 2012

Above Every Plane and Around Every Circle uses light, sound, and paint as a meditation on transmutation and recurrence. The gradually changing environment of the space transforms painted surfaces in the work from opaque to transparent. Each cycle of light to dark is meant to further singularize the dichotomy of the two extremes, of the earth to the heavens, of day into night.

The imagery is taken from topographic maps of the Alberta prairie near where my mother was raised. The elegance of its wintery plains, lakes, and rivers belies a true severity - the vast isolation inherent to the place and denudation from the visual blast of sunlight on snow.

Some of my earliest memories are from here: mental images of stinging, watery eyes in bright morning sun. In those winters the darkness at night blew, biting, past tiny specs of light, like millions of needles had punched through the firmament, leaving miniature keyholes to let slip the snow-blind glare of the heavens above. The paradox of an infinity, just beyond real comprehension but always insistent, is water beneath ice-covered rivers, flowing inconspicuously toward the lower latitudes.

"Waves of Joy – Heat Distortion – The Vague Obelisk" : Eric Timothy Carlson, February 25th, 2012

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500

“Waves of Joy – Heat Distortion – The Vague Obelisk” : Eric Timothy Carlson

Reception: Saturday, February 25th, 2012, 7-11PM

The mural being produced for Co Lab Space, the second iteration of the loosely titled series “Waves of Joy – Heat Distortion – The Vague Obelisk”, is to be an immersing field set to induce a physical and emotional experience through the use of line space and color.

Eric Timothy Carlson is and artist from Brooklyn, New York by way of Minneapolis, Minnesota, using visual physics and a vast lexicon of personal & contemporary symbolism to produce works ranging from expansive series of drawings and artist books to immersive collaborative production and installations.

"Bullshit Detector" : Jamie Panzer, February 18th-25th, 2012

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 14:39:08 -0500

“Bullshit Detector” : Jamie Panzer

Opening Reception: Saturday, February 18th, 2012, 7-11PM
On view by appointment only through February 25th

The schematic for this ancient apparatus was unearthed one day when I was digging for loose coins in the dirt. I’ve reconstructed a prototype using modern materials as best I could.

That such a device existed so long ago, and is only now available to us for use, is a testament to the fact that we have always been surrounded by bullshit. I might add that it arrives in no short order.

It’s monolithic pylons serve as support for the mechanism, forming a tetrahedron, which defines the purest geometric shape in the known universe. Through restistance and impedance, bullshit is attracted, absorbed and disintagrated. Exactly how remains a mystery. Consider it to function in a way that detects bullshit of all manner, including swindles, hog wash, lies, hokum, balderdash, baloney, bilge, flap trap, hooey, poppycock, rubbish, twaddle, chicanery, fraud, malarky, crock, ruse, sham, hucksterism, snake oil, deceit, cons, distortions, dupery, mendacity, prevarication, bunk, hypocrisy, and bluster, et al.

"A Shifting Thought, A Shifting Sea" : Loring Baker, February 4th-11th, 2012

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 13:52:00 -0500

“A Shifting Thought, A Shifting Sea” : Loring Baker

Opening Reception: Saturday, February 4th, 7-11PM
On view by appointment only through February 11th

This body of work is an investigation into my mind as a single mother. I use drawing as my main mode of exploration throughout all the facets of the work. The honest, crunchy, tactility of pencil on paper is something that speaks very clearly to me. I began this work with the idea that I should be able to examine this relationship with my son and explore its interest and beauty from endless different angles. This personal exploration of our relationship can be seen as a metaphor of the larger idea of cognitive flexibility, or our ability as humans to switch our perspective, therefore completely changing the way in which we see something. This body of work ultimately speaks of the existence of innumerable branches of possibility within each initial starting point, and our ability to see these possibilities, if we only take the time to look.

Each drawing is made from one photographic portrait that I took of my son. Seeing this as a way to examine this particular relationship from many different angles, I made drawings from pieces of the photo to create new compositions of his facial features. While drawing I recorded the actual sound of making the drawing, all the scratching, tapping, erasing, etc that my tools made, seeing these sounds as metaphors of creation, destruction, frustration, joy, hard work, while also speaking very literally of drawing. I then edited these sounds by adding small guitar or voice parts, atmospheric sounds I recorded around town, using loops, or by leaving them as is. I then arranged them into soundscapes. Each soundscape has a specific drawing that it is part of, as it is made from the particular sounds of that particular drawing. From here, the animations further explore my interest in relationships, the act of drawing, and transformation.

"the Development of Actuality" : Robert Jackson Harrington, January 21st-28th, 2012

Sat, 03 Dec 2011 19:05:00 -0500

“the Development of Actuality” : Robert Jackson Harrington

Opening Reception: Saturday, January 21st, 7-11PM
On view by appointment only through January 28

My work centers on the concept of potential. The possibility of what could be as opposed to what is. This concept works as an exercise of the mind. Our thoughts take given information and imagine or project a new state of being for that information. When we consider something’s potential, usually we visualize a greater and idealized outcome. My work resides in these moments of conceptualization.

I create false narratives that attempt to exploit the idea of potential. I aim to lead the viewer to believe that my sculptures somehow “work” or perform some kinetic function or illustrate a scheme of some unknown contraption. However, the arrangements do nothing, they merely act as a stimulus or catalyst. They suggest a situation, or an action that compels the viewer to respond. I feel that the viewers projected ideas of what my work “can be”, or what it “does” is far more interesting than the actual objects themselves.

robertjacksonharrington.com

"I Put You On A Pedestal" : Michael Abelman, December 3rd-10th, 2011

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 12:15:29 -0400

“I Put You On A Pedestal” : Michael Abelman

Opening Reception: Saturday, December 3rd, 7-11PM
On view by appointment only through December 9th
Closing Reception: Saturday, December 10th, 7-11PM

An intimate installation in which the viewer both strolls by and floats over a gathering of ancient and contemporary art forms. Abelman’s pieces are both astral roadmaps and geomantic altars that dig into our collective intuitions that lie buried under the modern psyche.

In this show Abelman takes his popular map paintings and turns them on their side, puts them on a pedestal and invites us into the narrative and formal processes of his two and a half dimensional work presented in a format that is both atelier and oracle site.

"Reality Is Only A Rorschach Ink-Blot, You Know" : Lisa Choinacky, November 19th-26th, 2011

Sat, 17 Sep 2011 16:53:00 -0400

“Reality Is Only A Rorschach Ink-Blot, You Know” : Lisa Choinacky

Opening Reception: Saturday, November 19th, 7-11PM
On view during the EAST Austin Studio Tour Saturday and Sunday, November 19th + 20th, 11AM-6PM and by appointment only through November 26th

All of existence can be understood as a relationship. Alan Watts posited that our physical world is a system of inseparable things where everything exists with everything else. In this system of metasystems, each relationship aggregates with many, giving form to the universe. And within this pattern, even the most seemingly disparate of elements ultimately reveal themselves to be conjoined and interwoven. Is it coincidence that the world is made up of undividable opposites? I seek to examine how this relates to that.

In a life-sized Rorschach-esque diorama. I’ve collaged together mirror images of basketball players in motion, illustrating that when we accept that the universe runs off a blind energy, this can cause a very insular worldview. We form teams and then we form opponents. The opponents occasionally rise to meet each other in pursuit of the same goal, bifurcating and mirroring one another, each existing because of and for the other.

In layering these images/pieces in a space, I aim to work towards total awareness of connectedness and order, while demystifying the idea of the cosmic fluke. I have chosen to identify and explore sites of mirroring and convergence to highlight the relationship points that bind us, and the universe, together.

"Future: Diorama!" : Ink Tank, November 5th-13th, 2011

Sat, 17 Sep 2011 16:50:00 -0400

“Future: Diorama!” : Ink Tank

Opening Reception: Saturday, November 5th, 7-11PM
On view by appointment only through November 11th
Also on view during the EAST Austin Studio Tour Saturday and Sunday, November 12th + 13th, 11AM-6PM
EAST Reception: Saturday, November 12th, 7-11PM

Can you occupy two scales at once?

Scale acts as a mediator to the viewer, controlling the point of view as well as the personal relationship of the viewer to his or her surroundings. However, perceptions and perspectives constantly shift. Therefore, changing your perspective interrupts yet compliments the world in which you exist, and this adjustment allows for both inward and outward reflection. Future: Diorama! is an opportunity to explore the struggle of myriad possibilities, scenarios and outcomes that intrude on one another’s space, vying for attention. It will be difficult for these realities to coexist.

Ink Tank is an evolving artist collective with the expressed purpose of executing creative ideas in all media. Through collaboration and experimentation, the flux of members in the collective creates a space for projects that compliment each other’s abilities and motivations. The individual parts discover a whole within the unity of sharing ideas and offering support.

"MARFITA", October 15th-29th, 2011

Thu, 15 Sep 2011 00:05:00 -0400

“MARFITA”

LARGE SCALE INSTALLATION RE-MAPS MARFA, TX FOCUSING ON APPARITION OF MARY

Opening + Performance: Saturday, October 15, 7-11PM
On view by appointment only October 15 – October 28, 2011
Closing Reception: Saturday, October 29, 7-11PM

MARFITA is the Spanish diminution of the name of Marfa, a town in far west TX, population aprox. 2,200. Founded in the late 1800’s, the town has served as a social center for the many ranches in the area, as home base for generations of migrant farmworkers moving seasonally between Texas and California, as the site of the US Army’s Fort D.A. Russell, and most popularly today as home to canonical American artist Donald Judd’s permanent installation of his works and select others, under the dual guardianship of the Chinati Foundation and the Judd Foundation. The Chinati alone draws over 10,000 visitors a year to what has become a pilgrimage site of sorts for Minimalist, post-modern, and contemporary art lovers from around the globe. Marfa has yet one more attraction however, a pilgrimage site proper, in all the religious and sacred implications that come with the use of the term ‘pilgrimage.’

In 1994, the Virgin Mary appeared to Hector Sanchez, in the backyard of the last residential home one passes before entering the long driveway up to the Chinati’s main office. Less than half a mile from Judd’s famous cement blocks, Sanchez erected an altar to honor the apparition. Complete with hand painted statue of the Virgin overlooking a shallow cement grotto, and housed within an upturned bathtub, this installation is positioned so that Chinati is always in her sights, were she to ever look up from her worshipful gesture. She too draws pilgrims, and these are accounted for in the log kept by Ester Sanchez, the late Hector’s wife. These two groups are largely unknown to one another, though their itinerant paths surely cross frequently at the auspicious, gravelly roundabout that leads one to one or the other.

The installation MARFITA seeks to trouble this relationship, to draw it out and question the dynamics that are shaping perceptions of the town. The four artists involved each have coordinated a main component of the project, interweaving their respective practices into an open conversation to which they will invite the community to join. Alison Kuo will present video made from footage shot during a group “double pilgrimage” to Marfa, motivated by an active interest in both the altar and the artworks by Judd and his associates. In the sequences, the art pilgrims encounter inspirational architectural elements in the West Texas landscape and respond to them with acts of playfulness. They move things, touch objects: sometimes invoking the spirit of Richard Serra’s 1968 filmwork “Hand Catching Lead,” while alternately piecing together their own rasquache altar pieces. Josh T Franco has crafted miniature (approx. 1:12 scale) reproductions of the artillery sheds of Fort D.A. Russell renovated by Judd’s own hand and direction. These will be laid out on the outdoor grounds of Co-Lab according to their siting in Marfa. They will contain miniatures of the 100 untitled works in milled aluminum. Also included will be miniature versions of the iconic cement block groupings arranged by Judd on Chinati’s grounds. The interior of Co-Lab will be transformed by Joshua Saunders into a loose reproduction of the interior of the Sanchez home where altar builder Hector Sanchez lived prior to his untimely death a month after the altar’s completion. Some film and original collaborative works by the artists will be incorporated as well as Saunders’ “live looped” reenactment of Hector’s walk from inside to backyard, beer in hand, on that auspicious night.

Composed of a renovated arbor, film, and found objects, an 8-10 foot enlarged dreproduction of Sanchez’s altar will be situated behind the Co-Lab building beneath a tree, as it is arranged in Marfa. During the first night of its installation at Co-Lab, Natalie Goodnow will lead an interactive procession through the East Austin neighborhood where the space exists, culminating in a ceremonial, participatory prayer at the altar itself.

Artist Bios

Alison Kuo is an installation artist living in Brooklyn, New York. Her current projects include a culture blog called Accidental Chinese Hipsters and a sometimes gallery show space in her apartment, dubbed the Darling House. In March of 2010 she had her first solo show, Nesting, at SOFA gallery in Austin, TX, and later that year she made an installation and collaborative video featured in the group show Dadarrhea at OHWOW in Miami. Dadarrhea made its second stop at Canada Gallery in New York in 2011. Links: www.kuospace.com, www.flickr.com/kuoskies.

Josh T Franco is a PhD student and Clifford D. Clark Fellow in the Art History department at Binghamton University in Binghamton, New York. His writing on MARFITA and the “Toltec methodology” behind it will be published in Spring 2012 as part of an anthology edited by members of the Society for the Study of Gloria Anzaldua. His past performance/fotoescultura work has been shown at the Esperanza Peace & Justice Center in San Antonio, TX and images published last year in the collection, El Mundo Zurdo. His dissertation’s aim is the “decoloniality of vision”. He has contributed to La Voz de Esperanza, The Thing Itself, zingmagazine, and is currently writing the preface for an upcoming book of poetry by Paul DeJong (of the Books). He is also co-editor of 7STOPS, an online monthly magazine.

Joshua Saunders currently lives in Austin and attends the University of Texas where he is completing his BFA. He keeps a studio at Monofonus, but continues to hoard, tinker, cut and paste in his home as well. One finds him on any given day with Exact-o knife in hand, bent over a way professional magnifying device. Saunders has exhibited solo shows at BiRDHOUSE, Big Medium, Domy, Co-Lab, and elsewhere in Austin. His work was shown in alongside Fahama Pecou and Stephen Lapthisophon at Conduit Gallery in Dallas earlier this year.

Natalie Goodnow is a teatrista, teaching artist, and cultural activist from Austin, Texas. She is an Artistic Associate of Theatre Action Project and a member of The Austin Project as well as a recipient of the 2011 Jane Chambers Playwriting Contest, a national competition. Goodnow writes, performs, and directs; she’s been practicing some combination of those forms for seventeen years, and started teaching about and through them 8 years ago. Her favorite thing to do is create original works for the stage, as a solo performer and in collaboration with other performers and playwrights, both youth and adults. Goodnow explores the relationships between people and places, in terms of relationships to community, to the Earth, and to our own bodies. She’s got a crush on performance art. Links: http://www.nataliegoodnow.com, http://makinggoodnow.blogspot.com.

Project Links

Visit Co-Lab’s website.
Keep up with the show: Follow our tumblr, and Like us on facebook.
Read a conversation about Marfa in 7STOPS between Joshua and Alison, introduced by Josh.

"Bacon Wrapped Urban Folk Suppositories" : Chicken Bones Zupp and Vincent Martinez, October 8th, 2011

Tue, 13 Sep 2011 18:53:03 -0400

Chicken Bones Zupp and Vincent Martinez present
“Bacon Wrapped Urban Folk Suppositories”

Art BBQ: Saturday, October 8th, 5-9PM

Disgusting, articulate, thick, juicy, fall off the bone fun. Functional food sculpture by the master of Folk George Zupp, lascivious loitering by the master of ceremonies Vincent (Emcee Eats) Martinez, collaborative paintings by both. Donations accepted to simultaneously get your snack and your art on.

"Chronotope" : Jennifer Caine, October 1st-8th, 2011

Tue, 13 Sep 2011 18:45:00 -0400

“Chronotope” : Jennifer Caine

Opening Reception: Saturday, October 1, 7-11PM
On view by appointment only through October 8th

Chronotope is a literary term used to describe the link between time and space in language. In my cut-paper installation by the same name, I explore the interconnection between time and space in memory. Chronotope looks to my own memory – to some of the most poignant moments in my past, to memories that reside at a preverbal level, retrieved only as fleeting glimpses. Without verbal recall, corroboration by others, or a place in the linear narrative of my life, these memories appear unpredictably in my consciousness. Powerful yet elusive, they seem to fuse past and present, time and space.

To organize marks and construct space in the hanging paper sheets of Chronotope, I turn to these memories. I seek to evoke the emotion and psychological state associated with them and the lucid yet dreamlike awareness that marked the moments in which they were born. Through the progression, repetition, and layering of passages of cut marks, I create spaces that appear to crystallize on the verge of dissolving, suggesting the persistent yet slippery quality of memory.

Jennifer Caine received a BA cum laude in Studio Art and Mathematics from Dartmouth College in 2000 and an MFA in Painting from Boston University in 2005. Her work includes paintings, prints, drawings, and artist books and has been exhibited nationally and internationally. Recent solo exhibitions were held at Soprafina Gallery, Boston, MA, The Strauss Gallery, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, and Guerilla Arts, Dallas, TX. Other recent exhibition venues include the National Academy Museum, New York, NY; The Painting Center, New York, NY; The Hunstville Museum of Art, Huntsville, AL; 808 Gallery, Boston University, Boston, MA; FPAC Gallery, Boston, MA; Ice Cube Gallery, Denver, CO; Jewett Gallery, Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA; The Carillon Gallery, Tarrant County College, Fort Worth, TX; and ArtSpace, Maynard, MA.

Caine is the recipient of many awards, including the Constantin Alajalov Award at Boston University, the 2008 Dartmouth Alumni Lecture Award, and the Helen Figge Moss Memorial Award. She has been selected for inclusion in the forthcoming book, 100 Boston Painters published by Schiffer Publishing. Caine currently teaches at Dartmouth College where she is the Area Head of Painting and Drawing. Prior to joining the faculty at Dartmouth she taught at Boston University from 2005-2010, and she has been a visiting artist at many colleges including: Providence College, Providence, RI, Lyme Academy College of Art, Old Lyme, CT, and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA.

"Where the Sidewalk" : Hank Waddell, September 17th-24th, 2011

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 17:10:00 -0400

“Where the Sidewalk” : Hank Waddell

Opening Reception: Saturday, September 17th, 7-11PM
On view by appointment only through September 23rd
Closing Reception: Saturday, September 24th, 7-11PM

This installation is an exploration of how curiosity, discovery, reflection and play are necessary elements of our survival in and understanding of the world. Hank Waddell’s work uses these processes to reimagine what is known by manipulating the delicate relationship between nature and industry.

Throughout his life the woods provided strength, comfort and mystery for Waddell - yet the power and possibility of industry,despite its destructive capabilities, has continued to be a seductive force. In this installation materials and processes are coupled in curious ways, transformed through reinvention. Waddell’s work awakens the instinctual process that leads to cooperation and compromise between people and materials - an interactivity that comes through the open-ended process of play.

"9/11 MEMORIAL INSTALLATION" : Claude van Lingen, September 11th, 2011

Sat, 16 Jul 2011 16:51:00 -0400

“9/11 MEMORIAL INSTALLATION” : Claude van Lingen

Installation/Performance: Sunday, September 11, 2011, 7-11PM

Claude van Lingen’s 9/11 Memorial Installation honors those who died on September 11, 2001 in the World Trade Center, Pentagon and Pennsylvania tragedies. These are not the only victims of these events and the installation also pays homage to those who died in the ensuing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The installation centers around of two drawings (each 110” h x 17” w) in which the names of the 2,753 victims of the World Trade Center were written one over the other. These drawings are flanked by 28 lists of the names of the victims printed on paper 55” h x 81/2” w.

The 184 victims of the Pentagon attack, and the 40 victims killed in the Pennsylvania crash were written, one over the other, are represented in two drawings, each 36” h x 72” w. The names of the victims are displayed in printed form next to the respective drawings.

Two drawings, as well as lists of the names of the casualties of the Iraq (over 4000) and Afghanistan (about 2,500) conflicts commemorate those who have died in the wars since October 7, 2001. The names of the latest deaths are regularly updated and written in performance at the openings of 9/11 commemorative exhibitions.

"from the tipi project: the river and meditation experiment" : Christie Blizard, September 3rd, 2011

Fri, 15 Jul 2011 15:16:48 -0400

“from the tipi project: the river and meditation experiment” : Christie Blizard

Installation: Saturday, September 3rd, 2011, 7-11PM

My interest in tipis comes from my childhood growing up in rural, central Indiana. When I was about eight I found an arrowhead in the field behind my parents’ house, and this was a very magical and vivid experience. This field has also become the central focus of many of my recurring dreams for the past two decades. The animation River was filmed on the river bank that lies directly behind this field, a symbol also pivotal in those dreams.

"Eagle Woman Poems" : Natalie Goodnow, July 30th, 2011

Tue, 28 Jun 2011 19:22:57 -0400

“Eagle Woman Poems” : Natalie Goodnow

Installation/Performance: Saturday, July 30th, 2011
Installation On View 7-11PM, Performance 8PM

Eagle Woman lives in a landfill. It is her job to make sense of the mess. This is what women do. It is what words do. These are the poetics of sifting through the filth.

But is an eagle capable of such a task?

This performance art event will consist of an eagle’s attempts at poetry in time and space.

Based on Goodnow’s collaboration with the Generic Ensemble Company in July 2010: “Eagle Woman Poems: an in-progress showing.”

More about the artist here: www.nataliegoodnow.com

This project is funded and supported in part by the City of Austin through the Cultural Arts Division.

"The Untitled" : Performance work by Caitlin G. McCollom, July 23rd, 2011

Tue, 28 Jun 2011 19:03:00 -0400

“The Untitled” : Performance work by Caitlin G. McCollom

Performance: Saturday, July 23rd, 8PM

The Untitled is a performance exhibition exploring identity. In this work McCollom will question the separation between herself and her surroundings; ultimately disappearing.

www.caitlinmccollom.com

"Geräuschen und Gebäuden [Noises and Buildings]", July 21st, 2011

Mon, 27 Jun 2011 19:24:00 -0400

“Geräuschen und Gebäuden [Noises and Buildings]”

Performance: Thursday, July 21st, 8PM
The performance will last 45 minutes.

The performance explores relationships between sounds and images that have been manipulated, deconstructed and reassembled. The visual component displays light-projected building facades captured by Google Maps satellites, cut into pieces, and re-rectified into a temporal landscape on multiple transparencies. As the images and sound converge, multiple landscapes are layered, erased, and reconstructed on the wall. The sound will include a constant ambient pre-recorded track layering a collage of classical works (by composers such as Schoenberg and Mahler) and the live noise will progressively distort it. After the first fifteen minutes, viewers may participate by projecting and erasing their own images drawn on distributed transparencies.

The images respond to the sound, the sound to the images, leading to an interchange of both audio-visual conversation and parallel abstraction.

Websites:
www.janaecontag.com
www.facebook.com/pages/Isaiah-Putman-Composer
www.facebook.com/gospelchoirofpillows

"1/24" : Christina Sukhgian Houle, July 16th + 17th, 2011

Mon, 20 Jun 2011 19:36:00 -0400

“1/24” : Christina Sukhgian Houle

Installation/Performance: Saturday July 16th + Sunday July 17th, 8-10PM. Performance starts at 8:30

1/24 is the first part of a series currently in development, 12/24/360, in which I collaborate with 12 individuals and document their actions and conversations for 24 hours and then reverse the process and become the subject of their documentation.

The idea for this show developed from feeling unclear about how I constructed and modified my sense of self. I felt that my identity shifted slightly depending upon who was in my presence and that it was through my relationships with friends, relatives and strangers that my sense of self was constructed. I wondered what parts of me consistently presented themselves as components of my identity, regardless of my surroundings, and what parts only appeared in certain circumstances. I also wondered if there was a hierarchy of importance for these different elements of self and/ or if they were not different but in fact collaborative parts of a cohesive whole.

For 1/24 I made contact with a stranger I found on Craiglist, Willem Dunham and, using my camera and tape recorder tracked his actions and interactions for a 24-hour period. Two weeks later he entered my world and did the same for me. My hope was that by witnessing one another’s process of defining self in different contexts we would give validity to all parts of the other’s identity, and perhaps begin to question the permeability of self.

The resulting product of Willem and my work together are the photographs we created, projections of our email correspondence, sound recordings of our conversations and a brief performance, in which the concept of self will be defined, redefined and questioned when using text from interviews we conduct of one another, I will re-embody Wil’s words so that I deliver his text while listening to it through headphones.

Christina Sukhgian Houle is a visual and performance artist working out of central Texas. She has studied and performed comedic improvisation at The Second City (IL), been named by the Austin Chronicle as one of the Top Ten Dance Phenomena of 2008, worked with Creative Time (NY) and was a visiting artist at Spelman College (GA). Her original evening length theater-dance piece “Science of Suggestion” premiered at Frontera Festical and most recently her duration performance “16 Conversations with Escape Bird” was streamed to the Antena Gallery (IL).

More information about her and her work can be seen at her website http://christinasukhgianhoule.weebly.com