Category
other people's work
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Locations & Dislocation, my work, other people's work, video
Gentrification Opening video
The Gentrification of Brooklyn show at MoCADA is up until May 16, with additional special events in the coming weeks. BRIC Community Media (coincidentally the same folks with whom I will soon begin a teaching artist residency) created this news segment at the opening. You can get a taste of the show and see me, other artists, MoCADA director Laurie Cumbo and curator Dexter Wimberly talk about the show. Enjoy!
The Gentrification of Brooklyn
@ MoCADA
80 Hanson Place // Brooklyn, NY
Wednesday-Sunday, 11am-6pm, until May 16Trains:
The 2, 3, 4, 5, B, and Q stop at Atlantic Avenue.
The D, M, N, and R stop at Pacific Avenue.
The C stops at Lafayette Avenue.
The G stops at Fulton Street. -
EYEspeak, events, ima mfa, other people's work
what you should do this weekend
There are two great events in NYC this weekend. Friday night is opening for the annual show for my MFA program at Hunter. I won’t be participating this year as I’m tangled up with the flu, my thesis and preparing for the Center Show (save the date: May 28!), but I am extremely excited to see the work.
On Saturday night it’s the third FEAST (Funding Emerging Art with Sustainable Tactics), a monthly dinner event I have been participating in here in Greenpoint, where we all pool $10-20 contributions, eat a delicious meal and vote for a project to receive a cash grant. This time, my friend Mary Jeys is proposing her new project Brooklyn Torch, a local currency for North Brooklyn.
Hunter College IMA/MFA Spring Show:Medium of Exchange
MFA/IMA Student Group EYEspeak is holding their Annual Showcase of Interdisciplinary and New Media Art from Hunter College’s Integrated Media Arts MFA Program.
PLACE: The Black Box Gallery
Hunter College North Building, 5th floor, Room 544N
695 Park Avenue (enter on 68th Street)
New York, NY 10065
DATES: May 8th–10th 2009
HOURS: Opening Reception, Friday May 8th 6–9 PM
Saturday May 9th and Sunday 10th 12–6 PM
Admission to the IMA Spring Show is free to the public. Light refreshments will be served.
Vote for Brooklyn Torch
@ FEAST!
Church of the Messiah
129 Russell Street, Brooklyn
6-9p; $10-20, no one turned away
Sat, May 9th -
Brooklyn Makes, other people's work
manufacturing projects
03.01.09 | Permalink | 2 CommentsWhile working on my MFA thesis project, an outdoor video installation about Industrial Business Zone between Williamsburg and Greenpoint, Brooklyn, (planned for September 2009), I have come across several great films & projects that engage with commodities, manufacturing, circulation, and labor. Here is a small selection:
I recently watched a great 2006 documentary called Marti Gras: Made in China. Director David Redmond traveled to China to meet the women who make the plastic mardi gras beads for which women in New Orleans famously show their ta-tas. The film engages with the disconnect of the women’s reality, working for two dollars a day in unsafe conditions to make beads that end up in the trash after being part of a celebration the women cannot comprehend. There’s also a great short in the extras about Emen Levy, an artist who make mosaics with beads he collects off the streets of New Orleans.
Jennifer Baichwal’s Manufactured Landscapes, a documentary about renown photographer Edward Burtynsky, who went to China to photograph giant factories,opened my eyes to how many products in Chinese factories are made by hand, rather than machine. This film literally blew my mind and forever transformed my concept of the word “handmade” and the way I look at manufactured objects.The Story of Stuff with Annie Leonard provides a great explanation of modern production and consumption. The narrator bugged me enough that it took twice to get engaged, but the animations a great and the research is solid.
The How Stuff Is Made wiki, a project led by Natalie Jeremijencho at NYU, encourages people to investigate everyday objects and share how they are made on the internet.
Johanna Unzueta, who I discovered through my friend Pilar, is an artist who makes handmade felt sculptures of industrial buildings, part of a body of work on the dignity of labor. The relationship between the handmade movement and manufacturing is something I find both problematic and essential to our understanding of material culture, and Johanna’s projects seem to open up room for dialog.
The film that originally inspired my project is a documentary by my boss Isabel Hill from the early 1990s called Made in Brooklyn. The film is simultaneously a fascinating argument about the vital role of urban manufacturing in a city that constantly undermines it and a beautiful tribute to the meaningful work provided by manufacturers on the North Brooklyn waterfront before the rezoning that forced many to close.
And finally, two books I’m in the middle of and can also recommend: The Craftsman by Richard Sennett and Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things by William McDonough and Michael Braungart.
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events, music, other people's work
Sufjan and Strangers
02.26.09 | Permalink | 2 Comments
Those who know me well know that I like projects that get strangers to interact in innovative, unusual yet somehow somewhat safe ways. A favorite is Darren O’Donnell’s Haircuts by Children, where he trains kids to cut adults’ hair, in particular in a gentrifying neighborhood of Toronto where many of the new spaces (galleries, bars, etc.) were not kid-friendly.Thus I was delighted by my experience last night at Hoi Polloi’s Sufjan Stevens Winter Song Exclusive Listening Session. From Alec Duffy:
In the winter of 2007, Sufjan Stevens dreamed up the Sufjan Stevens Xmas Song Xchange Contest. Over 600 people wrote holiday-themed songs and sent them to Sufjan in hopes of exchanging the rights for their song for the rights for a new, unreleased holiday song that Sufjan penned. I was the winner of the contest, with my song “Every Day is Christmas.” Sufjan’s announcement can be found here. You can hear my song here (just click on the box with the musical notes at the top of the page and it’ll bring you to the page with the song).
As promised, I received from Sufjan the exclusive rights to his own winter song of great beauty, called “The Lonely Man of Winter.” No one but Sufjan’s closest friends has heard this recording. Until now.
In an effort to counter the cheapening effects of internet all-availability, and to recapture an era when to get one’s hands on a particular album or song was a real experience, we at Hoi Polloi would like to share this song with Sufjan fans in a special way.
We would like to invite you to our Brooklyn home for an exclusive listening session of this gorgeous song, with hot beverages and cookies provided for your enjoyment. We’ll share some conversation, slip some headphones on you, and press play.
I have to admit I was not particularly moved by the notion that the internet’s openness had somehow demeaned the value of music, but the listening session proved an amazing experience. I drank tea and ate fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies with five really lovely strangers, swapping stories about how we discovered Sufjan’s music, the ways we share music, and what we are about as people. We then listened to the song on headphones twice and concluded by snapping a group picture.
It was a beautiful song. As one attendee put it, “book Sufjan.” I thought that I would feel deprived that I could only hear it twice, but I had no such feelings. Instead, it was a deeply-experienced and clear moment in the middle of a hectic day, in which I dedicated a full ten minutes to listening to music and nothing else.
Alec and Dave are planning to take their show on road, visiting Sufjan fans around the country to share the song in these unique listening sessions, and bringing strangers together in person who may indeed have interacted on a fan forum online, or stood online together at the bathroom at a concert, but would never have had the chance to share cookies and company.
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events, music, other people's work
DWWC at the Living Room
My brother’s band ::Daniel Wright’s World Collective:: will be playing the Living Room on the Lower East Side this Saturday. It’s a rare chance to see the whole gang together since they are currently based in Boston. The music is great, it sells itself. The musicians are incredible and fun to watch for their mind blowing skills and heart fluttering good looks.
Daniel Wright’s World Collective
Saturday Feb. 7 @ 10pm
The Living Room
154 Ludlow Street (between Stanton and Rivington)
New York, NY 10002
212-533-7237
Directions: Take the F or V trains to 2nd Ave
Free.
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events, my work, other people's work
vBrooklyn @ Polytechnic
I will be showing my short documentary FILLMORE PLACE and a two-channel version of our video installation HAVEMEYER STREET (a collaboration with Francisca Caporali, Kym Chapman, Uni Park & Pilar Ortiz) at vBrooklyn on Saturday Dec. 13, 2008 @ 8p.
My brilliant friend & fellow Yalie Jenn Stock will also be doing a video performance that same night and brilliant friend & fellow IMA-er David Watson will be showing a piece on Saturday afternoon. Info below; hope to see you there!
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vBrooklyn documents the evolving state of Brooklyn, NY, through contemporary video-art. The festival showcases video-artists as they build an historical record of the borough through innovative and personal interpretation and documentation.
Friday, December 12, 8pm
Saturday Afternoon, December 13, 2pm-5pm
Saturday Evening, December 13, 8pm (<—night we’re showing)$5 admission each event
Wunsch Hall
Polytechnic University
6 Metrotech Plaza
BrooklynA,C,F to Jay St. / 2,3,4,5 to Borough Hall / M,R to Lawrence St. / Q,B to Dekalb Ave.
Complete schedule, additional information, and more detailed directions at
http://www.vBrooklyn.orgThe festival features IDMI’s 9-channel video system. Over 25 New York City artists will present live and composed multichannel video-performances and screenings focusing on the immense complexity and detail that make Brooklyn a unique city within a city. vBrooklyn subjects include Brooklyn’s waterfront from Floyd Bennett Field to Greenpoint; landmark bridges and architecture; neighborhoods in transition; and the people and experiences that define Brooklyn as a place.
Performances and Screenings by: Gary Acers, Caroline Bouchat, Francisca Caporali, Angeline Su-Ching Chang, Kym Chapman, Chika, Brian Colby, James Daher, Bilge Demirta, Elle Burchill, Richard Garet, Piama Habibullah, Sean Hagerty, Rikayo Horimizu, Adam Kendall, Jared Lamenzo, David Last, Inhye Lee, Richard Lewis, Laura Lou, Phyllis Burkin Lehrer, Pilar Ortiz, Uni Park, Lenin Paulino, Siddartha Mehta, Karl Mendonca, Naval Cassidy, Ganesh Ramanathan, Kimberly Simpson, Catalin Stefanovici, Jennifer Stock, Caspar Stracke, Bruce Tovsky, VisualHornHonkinG & DJ ActivePhaze, VJ Miixxy, vydavy sindikat, David Watson, Sarah Nelson Wright, WvS, Tamara Yadao, Lan Xu, Marina Zamalin
vBrooklyn is supported by: Forward Motion Theater, Polytechnic University’s Integrated Digital Media Institute (IDMI), Harvestworks, the Brooklyn Arts Council, and the Experimental Television Center. The Experimental Television Center’s Presentation Funds program is supported by the New York State Council on the Arts and mediaThe Foundation.
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Locations & Dislocation, my work, other people's work
SESC Sao Paulo wrap up
11.20.08 | Permalink | 2 CommentsIn October, I had the honor of presenting Locations and Dislocation at SESC Mostra de Artes 2008, an art festival in Sao Paulo, Brasil. It was my first time in Brasil and it was amazing! I only wish I had more time to explore. I was at the festival for four days. The curator Cassio Quiterio of SESC invited me after finding the project on the CONFLUX website and Eva Bonfim, my translator, coordinated the project while I was there.
(Me, Eva & Aquino, our favorite driver)SESC is a country-wide institution in Brasil. It is a network of centers that function very much like the 92nd Street Y here in NYC, with public programming, arts spaces, cafes, courses, gyms and recreation. The organization is geared towards service workers, with the idea of providing health and cultural programming in the after work hours, though events are open to the general public.
At night we went to see other artists’ work. There were 80 artists from many different countries, including Noemi LeFranc, the choreographer who did AGORA in the McCarren Park Pool here in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
(LeFranc’s piece MELT at Mostra de Artes in Sao Paulo)I did the project at two different locations. In both places, Eva would interview people in Portuguese and then they would work with me to map their moving history onto a projected map with vinyl tape.
(Eva interviewing)SESC 24 de Maio was a new center in downtown Sao Paulo near my hotel. We projected on a vertical white wall.
(Putting up the tape)
(The results)In this space, I showed across from Heather Arckroyd and Dan Harvey’s large scale photographs of Brazilian immigrants living in London. The negatives were projected on grass seeds, and the grass grew in different colors due the the different light, creating the image. Amazing!
(About 10 feet tall)At SESC-Itaquera — the second location, in a national park on the outskirts of Sao Paulo — I did the project in a community computer technology room, projected on the floor.
(Working on floor projections at SESC-Itaquera)
(The results)The two settings were different but both unique — at 24 de Maio, the crowd had come to see art and the scale of the wall was great.
(With volunteers Dilson & Caroline, Eva, and the tech specialist Roberto)At Itaquera, people were passing through to use the room for computer access and happened upon the project. The scale was smaller but the interactions were more intimate.
(The whole family got involved)Over 60 participants created their maps with me. I am now up to my ears with making postcards in Portuguese for them (sorry to people from [ ESC ] & CONFLUX who didn’t get theirs yet!). Many of the new postcards are quite beautiful and I will post some them as soon as I figure out a good way to photograph them. I have not been satisfied with my previous experiments with documentation; if anyone has any suggestions, send them my way.
Here are some jpgs of the raw files — in Portuguese! — as a preview:
You can see more pictures of my trip on flickr.
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events, music, other people's work
Daniel & Ethan at Pete’s Candy Store
My brother Daniel Wright & his friend and colleague Ethan Glazer will be playing an acoustic show at Pete’s Candy Store in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, an ideal spot to listen to this duo.
DANIEL WRIGHT & ETHAN GLAZER
Friday, Oct. 3 @ 10pm
PETE’S CANDY STORE
709 Lorimer Street – Williamsburg, Brooklyn 11211You can check out their music on myspace: Daniel & Ethan. Daniel’s album is available on iTunes.
For those who are interested in the recording process, you should check out the blog for 1088 Boylston, where Mateo Lugo, Daniel & others are documenting their artistic process.
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events, other people's work
Positioning the City
I will be videotaping this talk put on by the Center for Urban Pedagogy, where I had my collaborative residency last spring. It should be quite great. Miriam Greenberg is also coincidentally my neighbor and I have heard only amazing things about her book. It should be especially interesting for artists, urban planners and people living in gentrifying neighborhoods. Be sure to RSVP & bring an ID.People and Buildings: Positioning the City
CUP is pleased to present an evening on New York City branding campaigns of past and present. Miriam Greenberg, author of Branding New York City: How a City in Crisis was Sold to the World, will be interviewing Willy Wong, senior vice president and executive creative director at NYC & Company, the City of New York’s official marketing, tourism, and partnerships organization. They will look into the politics of urban representation and the role of branding in urban redevelopment.
Thursday, September 25, 2008 at 7 pm
Manhattan Comprehensive Night and Day School
240 Second Avenue (between 14th and 15th St.)
New York, NY
L to First or Third Avenue, N/Q/R/W/4/5/6 to Union SquareFree and open to the public. Seating is limited, RSVP to info (at) anothercupdevelopment.org
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EYEspeak, events, ima mfa, my work, other people's work
IMAterial success
05.05.08 | Permalink | 2 CommentsThe IMAterial show turned out beautifully. It was really miraculous to see the way the Black Box, originally a gymnasium, transformed into a dynamic gallery. I was very happy with Havemeyer Street, the two-channel video installation I made with Francisca Caporali, Kym Chapman, Pilar Ortiz & Uni Park about gentrification in Williamsburg. I’ll be uploading documentation in the coming weeks.
We had the honor of guest artist critiques with Mendi + Keith Obadike and Jennifer McCoy. I got some great feedback on my Comment Williamsburg site and got to see Colonial Glass projected on a giant screen. As usual, working with the gang was pretty amazing, especially considering we do the work of 30 people with just a few of us. Below are pictures from Laura Chipley, you can see more of hers here. More documentation forthcoming.
Havemeyer Street (our installation)
Wear and Tear (Suyin Looui, Samara Smith & AE Souzis)
Urban Homesteading Project (Francisca Caporali, Laura Chipley & Pilar Ortiz) and Varnish on (Mike Schuwerk & Cristina Gil Donaire)
IMAterial art
