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Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Art and Nature


Decor: JaneLaMotte

I went to see the last rehearsal of "The Marriage Bed" at Diversionary Theatre in Normal Heights. Beautiful Dana Hooley and Dré Slaman. A funny, smart, sweet and timely tale about same sex marriage. I enjoyed the pure and simple stage decor, designed by my friend Jane LaMotte, who invited me.

I miss going to the theater, it is so amazing to actually see people performing right in front of us! And in a small theater like the Diversionary, it is even more intense. For years it was difficult
for me to go to the theater, because of the language. And I still have some difficulties sometimes to understand all the nuances. Seeing a movie is a little bit different. Usually I can rent it later and read the subtitles.






Family walk on Pacific Beach.



On the occasion of the closing reception of the show "Women by Women", I participated Saturday night in a "Walk and Talk" at the San Diego Art Department with artists Jocelyn Duke, Jeanne Dunn, Misty Hawkins, Daphne Hill, Maura McHugh, Amy Paul, Ginger Rosser and Therese Rossi. Each artist talked for a few minutes about her piece in the show.

It went very well and was very well attended. Lots of interesting questions. I am very happy that Andrea Chamberlin accepted the proposition to have a talk. I think each time it is possible, it would be nice to organize a talk. People are interested in getting information from the artist(s). It is a way to make a real connection between the work and the person who made it. And it usually creates a good energy.


Jocelyn Duke
Hot Pink Giners (top)
pencil and gouache on paper, 2009

Black Boobs
(bottom)
pencil and gouache on paper, 2009



Jeanne Dunn
Outbond
oil on canvas, 2007



Maura McHugh
It's Just Sex
pen and hot glue on paper, 2009



and me
Fatima (A blanket for Michel)

Woven Blanket (cotton), 50"x60"



Perry Vasquez as Father Bartolomé de las Casas

At 8:00pm, after the talk, I went to Agitprop, to see "Coatlicue mi Amor", an intense one hour show. Readings, sounds, videos, live videos, music, play... It was a really strong experience fitting perfectly right in the strange and tortuous space of Agitprop. The place was packed and people in the public, who were all standing, were moved around by the performers.

Perry Vasquez started working on performances two years ago but this is the first one I see. I think he found a new very interesting way to develop his work.


Perry is drawing on a piece of blood red fuzzy fabric:
sun, heart, god and goddesses, appearing and disappearing..
.

From the press release:
[Incorporating weird combinations of materials, sound, the human body, pop culture artifacts and historical sources, the happening will use the myth of Coatlicue to examine the conflicted relationship between indigenous culture and the legacy of colonialism in the Americas.

../.. "Coatlicue mi Amor" is performed by The Border Corps, a group of five Southern California artists, musicians and performers. The Border Corps members are:
- Endy as Coatlicue, the Aztec Earth Goddess and Mother Superior

- Perry Vasquez as Father Bartolomé de las Casas, Outer Space Alien

- Shondra Dawson as the Visible
Woman who Swallowed the World

- Armando de la Torre as the Oracle of Sight and Sound
- Anthony Vasquez as the Conjurer and Re-enchanter of the Aural Mysteries of Life
]

If I understand it was a "one night only" performance, but I really hope it will happen again for all the people who could not see it that night.

email contact: contact@gitprop.org




Sunday - Family walk in our canyon.

Monday - I took down my piece "Fatima (A blanket for Michel)" at the San Diego Art Department. Went to see "Avatar" again. As visually stunning as the first time.

Friday, February 12, 2010

France: Ko Siu Lan’s installation censored



Ko Siu Lan’s installation
only stayed a few hours on the building of the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux Arts de Paris and was then removed.

On the left of the image one can read: "WORK" "LESS" and on the right "EARN" "MORE".
The 4 words play with a slogan used by the President of France Nicolas Sarkozy when he was campaigning: "Work more, Earn more."

Voici l'article publie dans Liberation (I don't think the link appears correctly in my comment).

Love No Love @ Mixed Media Gallery and Studios

love no love

Love no Love / 2010 Art Show
Opening reception Friday, February 12, from 6:30 to 9:00pm.
Mixed Media Gallery and Studios

4576 Federal Blvd
San Diego CA 92102

Note to the person who made the invitation:

When there are many artists participating in a show, please do not use an image (drawing, painting, photo). It immediately orientates the viewer's perception in one direction. And if the viewer does not like that direction she/he may well not go to the event just for that reason. He also makes artists participating feel uncomfortable.

Use no image.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

VACANCY 2 / Friday, February 5, 2010

It was a great evening with lots of people showing up for that "one night only" show. Excellent mood all along and, I have to say, a lot of excitement in the kitchen where Richard Chaudavis' project (part of the Leftovers project) generated quite an enthusiastic interest!

Here are some photos of the different installations with some notes/statements from the artists participating.

Kitchen:
Lori Lipsman / Leftovers Project


(photo Lori Lipsman)

"As part of Vacancy 2, I got the kitchen as my space.
Kitchen, what could a kitchen have in it?

Food, Leftovers
.
Leftover art?

I decided to invite artists to revisit old work. Rework, reinvent, and make it into new work. The concept can be compared to having leftover Thanksgiving turkey and instead of re-heating it, creating turkey tetrazzini.
12 artists participated in the Leftovers Project: Stacie Birky Greene, Richard ChauDavis, Janine Free, Michele Guieu, Molly Lipsher, Lori Lipsman, Guy Lombardo, Michael Maas, Conrad Mecheski, Anna Stump, Maura Vazakas and David White."
Lori Lipsman




Richard ChauDavis / Trash (Leftovers Project)
Here's an excerpt of Richard ChauDavis' Statement:
"When someone leaves (an apartment or life), what is precious becomes trash.
The concept I am exploring for Leftovers is the idea of trash and my life as an artist. My legacy not in terms of preserved works in museums or homes but the very real and too often case of my legacy to the trash can. It is very liberating to take good work and throw it away early. To treat archival works as performances that are not recorded and lost in time.
...
Kitchen Can: For starters, shown and not purchased, extra prints (2 of 3 and 3 of 3), too light or too dark, damaged, unloved, old technology, and/or I liked the way it crumpled.
...
All the individual bits of trash are free for the taking, but please leave me the containers. This includes anything of my work in the trash cans, scattered on the floor, hidden in the sideboard or underneath your feet. The gloves are for effect and fun; it’s all clean… unless someone added their own trash."
Richard ChauDavis


"Work also discarded into the upper cabinet
that was in the ‘Kitchen Can’ and
‘White Kitchen Garbage Bag’ below." R.C.



Rummaging in Richard ChauDavis' closet and trash cans...


...and finding treasures


"Standing over the ‘Small Waste Can’ (hidden)
looking at picture" R.C.


Lori Lipsman


(photo Lori Lipsman)


Left on the wall:
Maura Vazakas
right
on the wall:
Janine Free


(photo Lori Lipsman)

Stacie Birke Greene


(photo Lori Lipsman)

David White (bottom shelf)


(photo Lori Lipsman)

Hall / Michael Ruiz / Contemporary Ruins
"The use of ceramics in these structural paintings helped me solidify both my desire to demonstrate the passage of time and the impact to an object through human interaction. This is an ongoing series that stems from my fascination with antiquities and natural decay."
Michael Ruiz





Bathroom / Richard Gleaves / Hommage à Morris
"Articulating a constrained space."




(photo Lori Lipsman)


(photo Lori Lipsman)

Bedroom / Sam Frazier
"My video installation at the Vacancy 2 show is about loss. Lost innocence, lost dreams, the lost art of the LP record album cover. And all the other chimera in our lives that gets deposited into the metaphorical closet of our minds."
Sam Frazier






(photo Lori Lipsman)



Living Room / Michele Guieu
"Living Room with ghost and no TV" or "Watching the campfire"










(photo Lori Lipsman)



Vacancy 2
February 5, 2010

3666 Villa Terrace

San Diego, CA

Kitchen: Leftovers Project / Lori Lipsman
Bedroom: Sam Frazier

Bathroom: Richard Gleaves

Living room: Michele Guieu
Hall: Michael Ruiz

contact Lori Lipsman: vklips@cox.net

Monday, February 8, 2010

VACANCY 2 / my piece for the living room





I had just a few days to really think about what I would do in the living room for Vacancy 2. I am grateful that Lori Lipsman, who organized and curated the show invited me to participate.

A nice opportunity to work on site, in a vacant apartment. Interesting and challenging.
I used the walls "as is". The left wall had two different tones of green. Some paint came off when a poster was removed, leaving white areas. I decided to work with that.



I made a mural installation - mural, paintings, photos and DVD - on the theme of the "TV room". The object that one always finds in each house's living room. I did not put any furniture in the room, only the TV - one painted and one real screen - is there.

A few weeks ago, I videotaped a campfire in Anza Borrego desert, not knowing how I would use the footage. I do that a lot. The footage I get is mostly nature related: ocean, desert, plants, landscapes...
I made a simple DVD with the campfire on a loop.

I thought that the black of the color of the mural, the black of the screen and the black of the campfire made an interesting combination.

The campfire is what we loved to watch when the family goes camping.





Sprinkled on the walls, are a series of photos taken during dinner time, birthday parties, at family and friends', at moments where the TV is turned off.



The only element symbolic related directly to the news is the image from the road sign "Caution", the family of three illegal immigrants running.



I worked three days on the installation, and the show was only for one night.
Then I painted the walls back to white.



In the next post I'll talk about the night of the event itself.

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Et Voila!



Bad news for San Diego's art community.
Good news for Bergamot Station.
Sigh.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Vacancy 2 - One apartment / One night / 15 artists






Monday, yesterday and today I worked in the vacant apartment (living room) where Vacancy 2 will take place Friday, from 5 to 9pm in North Park. Interesting project, I cannot wait to see how the apartment will look like when everything will be installed.

Quiet place. Happy yard. All the plants going crazy with all the water they've got lately. Listening to the birds. No radio or anything. Working in the living room with the door open.




Working on the walls in the living room

Vacancy 2
Friday, February 5, 2010
from 5 to 9pm
3666 Villa Terrace
San Diego CA 92104

contact Lori Lipsman: vklips@cox.net