Last Saturday night was the 3rd and I think final installment of
FluxTask at Fluxspace. The project was organized by artist Oliver Herring and involved lots of people, lots of materials, and the open spirit of creativity most people tend to lose at about age 13.
The object was to write a task that could be completed using whatever materials were available without causing damage to property or persons, place it in the TASK box and retrieve a task for yourself to complete. After accomplishing the task you were to write a new task to add to the box and start a new one. This could go on ad finitum. The photo above was near the beginning of the evening while there were still pristine piles of materials- like going into ACMoore and being allowed to use whatever you found to make art on site!
Things started getting a little crazier. Above you can see the pillars wrapped in saran wrap- someone actually was able to use it as a hammock! It eventually became a volleyball net with a blown-up plastic bag as ball.
I turned around and suddenly there was a life-size unicorn behind me! I should have gotten a side view- the whole thing was quite anatomically accurate (don't think dirty, now).
Next thing you know there's an iceberg island in the corner. Or maybe a boat...
The best part was when my usually non-participating husband FINALLY added a task to the box ("Draw a Mermaid") which not one minute later was pulled out of the box by a 5-year-old boy who drew the image above. His mother tore the image off the roll of paper and kept the task paper to take home as a souvenir, creating some magic for my love.
Throughout the evening I created a pipe cleaner car, drew a hopscotch board, ruffled someone's hair, helped build a fairy house, created an invisible dog leash, had my feet traced, and had my legs hugged.
Thanks to Oliver Herring and the people of Fluxspace for creating an unforgettable experience!
some new work to share with you... above is detail of below, a work in progress
All of the objects in these were found as I walked through the city. There's bottle caps, earrings, mirror chunks, washers, Dave and Buster coins, bits of plastic and metal and whatnot.
I tried to keep a map-like feel to these. They're all embroidered onto stitch-resist dyed fabric. Stitching, dyeing, unpicking, restitching, embellishing, the feeling of time adds up.
Here's a current studio view. Thoughts and focus are evolving. Someday I'll finish that Trenton Ave piece!
Here's Lauren Comito in the co-op studio she runs- "the sweatshop". I enjoy the freshness of her painting. One of the great parts about visiting a studio is getting to see the environment that influences the work as well as all the extra sketches and old artwork that never make it to the viewer in a gallery. I especially liked the piece below, an old one with nails dangling down in front of marks on the paper. She said she really got into the act of markmaking/writing. Mark/language but not verbal. Definitely a process piece.
POST continues next weekend with studios West of broad. There's just too many people I love to even start recommendations, so just check out the site and make your own itinerary.
Here are 2 installation shots. My work is in the center of the first one.
Here's a closer view of my work next to my classmate Charlene Melhorn's. I was very pleased to see our work together as we were following similar themes of beauty in decay in the urban environment.
Charlene's piece above is a collection of stacked, burnt, and shellacked paper with a texture that reminded me of matchbooks and the detritus of the streets. Accompanying her assemblage were a pencil drawing of a stand-alone rowhome with electrical or telephone wire and small stacks of burnt and shellacked paper with text.
I also really like the sparse cityscape below by Liza Dolmetsch, my extremely helpful department grad assistant/advisor (I don't really know her exact title).
The show comes down on Monday unfortunately, but I'm sure there will be more interesting things to share in the future.
