21 May 2013 white box spring benefit 2013, nyc, presenting a special Scepter award created by Carolee Schneemann to Barbara Bush aka Martha Wilson.
The Garden-coming up!
The Garden
May 10 – June 14, 2013
Opening Reception & Performance by Katya Grokhovsky:
Friday, May 10, 6 – 8pm
Performance 7-8 pm
Artist Talk & Performance:
Friday, May 31, 7pm
Image Katya Grokhovsky, The Lovers, 2013, post-performance sculptures, found materials, dimensions variable
The NARS Foundation is delighted to present The Garden, a reflection on life’s cycles and our perception of inevitable transformation. The exhibition features selections from the work of the 2013 Season I Residency Artists: Erica Bailey, David Birkin, Katya Grokhovsky, Takeshi Ikeda, Taiyo Kimura, Thessia Machado, and Yoko Shimizu. Their practices encourage possibilities for growth, re-birth and renewal, but this is not Shangri-La. The artists are keenly aware of decay, impermanence and isolation. While they reap a harvest which is abundant and vital, their work simultaneously brushes up against the edge of macabre.
Yoko Shimizu and Taiyo Kimura use materiality that evokes the organic process of growth and decomposition. At once fragile and robust, their work seemingly and literally self-replicates. Thessia Machado embraces objects which have been deemed defunct, giving them a second chance at a life with new purpose. Katya Grokhovsky’s voluptuous sculptures are seedlings of feminine corporeal performances; a relentless search for a sense of place as she plants her feet in two worlds. Erica Bailey’s architectural rendering sinks us even deeper in; conveying an ineffable consternation, she disorients our sense of perspective, asking us to engage with her environment from below the ground, looking up. David Birkin and Takeshi Ikeda play with the implications of light and color, seeking to illuminate sociopolitical moments which remained in shadow. From their pieces, brightness emanates with fury, necessitating ideological, as well as visual, reorientation and restructuring.
The Garden is immersive and non-conclusive, an exploration of permutations, revelation and surrender in relationship to our natural and self-perpetuating systems.
Monday - Friday: 1:00pm - 5:00pm,
or by Appointment
NARS Foundation
88 35th Street, 3rd Floor, Brooklyn, NY 11232
www.narsfoundation.org
Letter From Sol LeWitt to Eva Hesse
Dear Eva,
It will be almost a month since you wrote to me and you have possibly forgotten your state of mind (I doubt it though). You seem the same as always, and being you, hate every minute of it. Don’t! Learn to say “Fuck You” to the world once in a while. You have every right to. Just stop thinking, worrying, looking over your shoulder wondering, doubting, fearing, hurting, hoping for some easy way out, struggling, grasping, confusing, itchin, scratching, mumbling, bumbling, grumbling, humbling, stumbling, numbling, rumbling, gambling, tumbling, scumbling, scrambling, hitching, hatching, bitching, moaning, groaning, honing, boning, horse-shitting, hair-splitting, nit-picking, piss-trickling, nose sticking, ass-gouging, eyeball-poking, finger-pointing, alleyway-sneaking, long waiting, small stepping, evil-eyeing, back-scratching, searching, perching, besmirching, grinding, grinding, grinding away at yourself. Stop it and just DO!
From your description, and from what I know of your previous work and you [sic] ability; the work you are doing sounds very good “Drawing-clean-clear but crazy like machines, larger and bolder… real nonsense.” That sounds fine, wonderful – real nonsense. Do more. More nonsensical, more crazy, more machines, more breasts, penises, cunts, whatever – make them abound with nonsense. Try and tickle something inside you, your “weird humor.” You belong in the most secret part of you. Don’t worry about cool, make your own uncool. Make your own, your own world. If you fear, make it work for you – draw & paint your fear and anxiety. And stop worrying about big, deep things such as “to decide on a purpose and way of life, a consistant [sic] approach to even some impossible end or even an imagined end” You must practice being stupid, dumb, unthinking, empty. Then you will be able to DO!
I have much confidence in you and even though you are tormenting yourself, the work you do is very good. Try to do some BAD work – the worst you can think of and see what happens but mainly relax and let everything go to hell – you are not responsible for the world – you are only responsible for your work – so DO IT. And don’t think that your work has to conform to any preconceived form, idea or flavor. It can be anything you want it to be. But if life would be easier for you if you stopped working – then stop. Don’t punish yourself. However, I think that it is so deeply engrained in you that it would be easier to DO!
It seems I do understand your attitude somewhat, anyway, because I go through a similar process every so often. I have an “Agonizing Reappraisal” of my work and change everything as much as possible = and hate everything I’ve done, and try to do something entirely different and better. Maybe that kind of process is necessary to me, pushing me on and on. The feeling that I can do better than that shit I just did. Maybe you need your agony to accomplish what you do. And maybe it goads you on to do better. But it is very painful I know. It would be better if you had the confidence just to do the stuff and not even think about it. Can’t you leave the “world” and “ART” alone and also quit fondling your ego. I know that you (or anyone) can only work so much and the rest of the time you are left with your thoughts. But when you work or before your work you have to empty you [sic] mind and concentrate on what you are doing. After you do something it is done and that’s that. After a while you can see some are better than others but also you can see what direction you are going. I’m sure you know all that. You also must know that you don’t have to justify your work – not even to yourself. Well, you know I admire your work greatly and can’t understand why you are so bothered by it. But you can see the next ones and I can’t. You also must believe in your ability. I think you do. So try the most outrageous things you can – shock yourself. You have at your power the ability to do anything.
The NARS Foundation is delighted to announce its participation in the New Museum’s Ideas City Festival on Saturday, May 4. Perambulant, a series of live performances and workshops, invites the public to engage in spontaneous and guided interactions throughout the day. Performances by artists Nancy Nowacek, Katya Grokhovsky, twin brothers Alan and Michael Fleming, and choreographer Corinna Brown and the Dean Street FOO Dance will be interspersed with cross-disciplinary movement workshops for children and adults.
I will be performing Slow Dance, 11-1pm, 2-4pm, 5-6pm, Rivington st, NYC, May 4th 2013 11 am -6pm
Methodical Deconstruction, group exhibition, The Franklin, Chicago, curated by Edra Soto, opening May 4th 2013
If you are in Melbourne, Australia April 26-May 25 2013, go to a great exhibition curated by Laura Castagnini @ Margaret Lawrence Gallery @ Victorian College of the Arts, my early feminist performance BFA videos are part of a VCA Video Lounge; an archive of video made by former students during their time at the VCA School of Art, which will be presented within the exhibition BACKFLIP: Feminism and Humor in Contemporary Art. See me drink vodka as a Russian, cut my long hair, put stuff on my face and sit in a cage! Great times!
