NEWSgrist - where spin is art

Susan Silas: Found Birds

There's a new project portfolio recently uploaded to flickr by the artist Susan Silas [more info about this artist here and here]; this is what she wrote when I asked her about the "found bird" photographs:

In the fall of 2000, I walked out of my gym, turned the corner and
began up the street when a small brown sparrow fell dead at my feet
on the sidewalk. After staring at it a good long while I continued
on my way. Four times I turned and went back and stood staring at
the bird. I realized that I wanted to photograph it but I feared it
would be gone by the time I returned. Finally, I scooped it up
between some dried leaves and took it home. Thus began an obsession
with photographing "found birds" that has lasted for the past six years.

Susan Silas, Oct 25, 2006 5:08 PM

Link to portfolio.

User's Guide for the 21st Century

New Book:
Worldchanging: A User's Guide for the 21st Century
by Alex Steffen, Al Gore (Foreword), Bruce Sterling (Introduction)
Hardcover: 608 pages
Publisher: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (November 1, 2006) [Link]
ISBN: 0810930951

via Bruce Sterling's Viridian Notes 00477 email:

If you are into cybergreen issues you can't call yourself informed without WORLDCHANGING.  Furthermore, the people involved in this effort are the absolute salt of the earth. They're bright, fluent, capable and they genuinely get it.  They don't merely "get it," they are inventing that which it is necessary to get. These are people you need to know a lot more about.

via Amazon : [links courtesy of ng]

Worldchanging is poised to be the Whole Earth Catalog for this millennium. Written by leading new thinkers who believe that the means for building a better future lie all around us, Worldchanging is packed with the information, resources, reviews, and ideas that give readers the tools they need to make a difference. Brought together by Alex Steffen, co-founder of the popular and award-winning web site Worldchanging.com, this team of top-notch writers includes Cameron Sinclair, founder of Architecture for Humanity, Geekcorps founder Ethan Zuckerman, sustainable food expert Anna Lappé, and many others. Renowned designer Stefan Sagmeister brings his extraordinary talents to Worldchanging, resulting in a book that will challenge readers to personally redefine the conversation about the future.

Tavares Strachan's Arctic Ice Project

via StrangeWeather.info :

Tavares Strachan's Arctic Ice Project

TAVARES STRACHAN
The Distance Between What We Have and What We Want
(Arctic Ice Project), 2004-06
Preview Date: Dec. 5th, 5–8pm
Dec. 6–10, 2006
(11am–8pm, except Sun, 11am–4pm)
2010 North Miami Ave (between 20th / 21st St)

http://www.distancebetween.org
http://www.pierogi2000.com
http://www.feldmangallery.com

via art-agenda:

Pierogi Gallery and Ronald Feldman Fine Arts are pleased to present the exhibition of Tavares Strachan's The Distance Between What We Have and What We Want (Arctic Ice Project) in the Wynnwood section of Miami, FL, opening December 5th, 2006 (5-8pm).
   
In March 2005 Strachan traveled to the Alaskan Arctic in search of a frozen river. Within several days he located one under the Arctic Circle. With the help of a skilled team, he cut into the frozen water to extract a 4.5 ton portion. This block of ice was shipped to Nassau, Bahamas for exhibition in July 2006, an extremely hot summer month in the Bahamas. While on exhibition, the ice sits in a glass freezer, which derives its power from a solar energy system. In effect, the power of the sun keeps this remnant of the Arctic intact, stable, and on view. After the exhibition in Miami the work will travel for further exhibitions.
   
Strachan's work in general, and the Arctic Ice Project in particular, touches on many different issues: environmental, geographical, social, cultural, and historical. Perhaps the most obvious reference is environmental, relating to global warming and the recent recognition (or denial) of current and potential climactic changes—the reality and the politics of global warming. Geographically and culturally, the work references multiple levels of displacement that draw on human experience. Socially, Strachan has been working to involve communities of school children in the Bahamas through lectures, the tradition of oral story telling, and performances. The act of retracing this expedition is a way of imbedding this arctic experience into the imagination of the community. Using phenomena as a vehicle, this project involves systems of myth, and the products of these experiences are the basis for Strachan's new works that will be incorporated into later exhibitions.

Continue reading "Tavares Strachan's Arctic Ice Project" »                       

Posted by 1stpulse at 09:11 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

TAVARES STRACHAN
The Distance Between What We Have and What We Want
(Arctic Ice Project), 2004-06
Preview Date: Dec. 5th, 5–8pm
Dec. 6–10, 2006
(11am–8pm, except Sun, 11am–4pm)
2010 North Miami Ave (between 20th / 21st St)

http://www.distancebetween.org
http://www.pierogi2000.com
http://www.feldmangallery.com

via art-agenda:

Pierogi Gallery and Ronald Feldman Fine Arts are pleased to present the exhibition of Tavares Strachan's The Distance Between What We Have and What We Want (Arctic Ice Project) in the Wynnwood section of Miami, FL, opening December 5th, 2006 (5-8pm).
   
In March 2005 Strachan traveled to the Alaskan Arctic in search of a frozen river. Within several days he located one under the Arctic Circle. With the help of a skilled team, he cut into the frozen water to extract a 4.5 ton portion. This block of ice was shipped to Nassau, Bahamas for exhibition in July 2006, an extremely hot summer month in the Bahamas. While on exhibition, the ice sits in a glass freezer, which derives its power from a solar energy system. In effect, the power of the sun keeps this remnant of the Arctic intact, stable, and on view. After the exhibition in Miami the work will travel for further exhibitions.
   
Strachan's work in general, and the Arctic Ice Project in particular, touches on many different issues: environmental, geographical, social, cultural, and historical. Perhaps the most obvious reference is environmental, relating to global warming and the recent recognition (or denial) of current and potential climactic changes—the reality and the politics of global warming. Geographically and culturally, the work references multiple levels of displacement that draw on human experience. Socially, Strachan has been working to involve communities of school children in the Bahamas through lectures, the tradition of oral story telling, and performances. The act of retracing this expedition is a way of imbedding this arctic experience into the imagination of the community. Using phenomena as a vehicle, this project involves systems of myth, and the products of these experiences are the basis for Strachan's new works that will be incorporated into later exhibitions.

Continue reading "Tavares Strachan's Arctic Ice Project" »                       

Posted by 1stpulse at 09:11 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Tavares Strachan's Arctic Ice Project

TAVARES STRACHAN
The Distance Between What We Have and What We Want
(Arctic Ice Project), 2004-06
Preview Date: Dec. 5th, 5–8pm
Dec. 6–10, 2006
(11am–8pm, except Sun, 11am–4pm)
2010 North Miami Ave (between 20th / 21st St)

http://www.distancebetween.org
http://www.pierogi2000.com
http://www.feldmangallery.com

via art-agenda:

Pierogi Gallery and Ronald Feldman Fine Arts are pleased to present the exhibition of Tavares Strachan's The Distance Between What We Have and What We Want (Arctic Ice Project) in the Wynnwood section of Miami, FL, opening December 5th, 2006 (5-8pm).
   
In March 2005 Strachan traveled to the Alaskan Arctic in search of a frozen river. Within several days he located one under the Arctic Circle. With the help of a skilled team, he cut into the frozen water to extract a 4.5 ton portion. This block of ice was shipped to Nassau, Bahamas for exhibition in July 2006, an extremely hot summer month in the Bahamas. While on exhibition, the ice sits in a glass freezer, which derives its power from a solar energy system. In effect, the power of the sun keeps this remnant of the Arctic intact, stable, and on view. After the exhibition in Miami the work will travel for further exhibitions.
   
Strachan's work in general, and the Arctic Ice Project in particular, touches on many different issues: environmental, geographical, social, cultural, and historical. Perhaps the most obvious reference is environmental, relating to global warming and the recent recognition (or denial) of current and potential climactic changes—the reality and the politics of global warming. Geographically and culturally, the work references multiple levels of displacement that draw on human experience. Socially, Strachan has been working to involve communities of school children in the Bahamas through lectures, the tradition of oral story telling, and performances. The act of retracing this expedition is a way of imbedding this arctic experience into the imagination of the community. Using phenomena as a vehicle, this project involves systems of myth, and the products of these experiences are the basis for Strachan's new works that will be incorporated into later exhibitions.

Continue reading "Tavares Strachan's Arctic Ice Project" »                       

Posted by 1stpulse at 09:11 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Metropolitan Museum of Art: Spirits Dance Online

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is now posting video clips from their special exhibition installations on their website:

via GoldwaterLibrary.org :

click image above to play video.
 

via The Metropolitan Museum of Art:

Coaxing the Spirits to Dance: Art of the Papuan Gulf

main page

MORE ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

IMAGES

VIDEO

Each of these two video clips shows a digitized sequence from the original silent film by Frank Hurley entitled Pearls and Savages. Both masked performances were reenacted at Hurley's request. Hurley also made still photographs of the masks, two of which are included in this exhibition.

Continue reading "Coaxing the Spirits to Dance: Art of the Papuan Gulf : images + video clips" »

Dia Abandons Museum-Mall

A rendering of the preliminary design for the High Line by Field Operations and Diller Scofidio + Renfro. Courtesy the City of New York.

via NYTimes:
Dia Art Foundation Calls Off Museum Project
By CAROL VOGEL
Published: October 25, 2006

With no director and a board in flux,  the Dia Art Foundation has scrapped its plans to open a museum at the entrance to the High Line, an abandoned elevated railway line in Manhattan. The area, running from Gansevoort Street to 34th Street, is to become a park with the help of city money.

Nathalie de Gunzburg, Dia's new board chairwoman, informed the city of the decision yesterday in a letter to Kate D. Levin, New York's cultural affairs commissioner. "Dia's board has decided that the organization should take a different course at this time," she said.

Reached by telephone, Ms. Levin said that other cultural organizations had approached the city about the High Line site, but she declined to specify which ones.

Officials familiar with the High Line discussions said that the Whitney Museum of American Art had emerged as a high-profile contender.

Trustees at the Whitney are mulling whether to proceed with an addition designed by the architect Renzo Piano, those officials said. That plan calls for a series of glass bridges to connect the museum’s original 1966 Marcel Breuer building on Madison Avenue at 75th Street to a new nine-story tower. The officials said they did not want to be quoted for fear of being perceived as pre-empting a decision by the Whitney board.

Asked whether the Whitney was considering backing out of the Piano expansion in favor of a site at the High Line, a museum spokeswoman, Jan Rothschild, said yesterday, "The Whitney is keeping its expansion options open," adding, "We are considering several sites for additional space and have had discussions with the city about the Gansevoort/Washington site."

She declined to comment further, but the site abandoned by Dia is at 820 Washington Street, at Gansevoort. [read on...]