Thursday a.m. Idea Post 11/12

Taking into consideration what was said at my last critique, I chose to shoot my next performance in front of a crowd. Going into this performance I was really intimidated and tried to convince myself not to it several times. However, in order to give this series some new speed and momentum, I knew this was an appropriate addition to experiment with. As I was making my way out to the shoot location, I noticed there was a good amount of people out there playing around since it was a nice day outside. Immediately, I became aware of who my audience was and because ¾ of them were under the age of 18 I began to worry about the immaturity level and the snickering that could happen. I pressed play on my Ipod and felt myself constantly turning around and making myself aware of what kind of scene I was making. However, to my surprise my audience had not noticed me; or they were not reacting to a young female dressed in a flowy Hispanic outfit doing specific dances out in the middle of a grassy field in the middle of a neighborhood. As time went by, I became more comfortable doing the performance in front of this oblivious audience that my moves gradually began to be more fluid.
One of the things I thought was interesting about this performance was how my expectations for my audience were clearly exceeded and more. I expected my audience to get in the way of the success of my performance instead they added something unique and quirky. In one of the stills that I feel is quite strong, I am in mid dance while this teenage boy is jumping up in the air to catch a football. What was important to my audience was to carry on with their outdoor activities. I was invisible to them and I am enjoying taking the idea of me acting as other and my audience not even noticing my presence as I am performing as someone else.

Show Entry 11/11/09 VMFA

Digital C-Print 10x8in New York, New York 2009

Digital C-Print 10x8in New York, New York 2009

Digital C-Print 10x8in New York, New York 2009

Digital C-Print 10x8in New York, New York 2009

Digital C-Print 10x8in New York, New York 2009

Digital C-Print 10x8in New York, New York 2009

Digital C-Print 10x8in New York, New York 2009

Digital C-Print 10x8in New York, New York 2009

Shimon Attie Lecture: 11/11/09

"The History of Another: Projections in Rome" 2004

"The Conductor" The Attraction of Onlookers



Shimon Attie received a B.A. in 1980 from the University of California, Berkley, a M.A. from Antioch University, San Francisco in 1982, and a M.F.A in 1991 at the San Francisco State University. He has participated in several solo exhibitions including one at the Jack Shainman Gallery in New York, the National Museum of Wales, the Mediatheque Louis Aragon in Martigues, France, and an exhibit at the Miami Art Museum in Miami, Florida. Originally from California, Attie left the states and headed to Berlin to work on his first assignment focusing on Jewish villages in East Berlin during and after WWII. The title of this assignment is “The Writing on the Wall.” Attie explained it as a low-tech guerilla project that involved four old projectors, a small portable generator, old Kodak camera, and lots of research through old photographic archives about Jewish street life. “Concerned with questions of memory, place, and identity, Shimon Attie gives visual form to both personal and collective memories by introducing histories of marginalized and forgotten communities into the physical landscape of the present. The Writing on the Wall project took place in Berlin’s former Jewish quarter, the Scheunenviertel neighborhood. There Attie projected slides made from pre-Holocaust photographs of the neighborhood’s Jewish residents and shops in the same (or sometimes nearby) locations where the original images were taken.” That is an excerpt from a page on the Museum of Contemporary Photography website about Shimon Attie and his recent work.

One project that I found to be most interesting to me, is titled “Portraits of Exile”, was created in 1995, and installed underwater in a canal in Copenhagen. He created light boxes that were 9feet by 9feet and were placed about 15 feet from the area where the audience is standing. These portraits portrayed both Danish Jews that were rescued by the Swedes in 1943 and now present-day refugees. The water that rushed over these light boxes changed by the minute according to the current and if there was any action in the waterway like boats or any other means of transportation that would pass through. He views the water as a medium for transit, safety, and memory. The light box installation stayed under water for about two months.


Between Dreams and History Article

Jack Shainman Gallery

Museum of Contemporary Photography Article

Learning the Soulja Boy Dance

Instructional Video

Monday a.m. Artist Post 11/09

Ashrita Furman, but born Keith Furman, is an interesting man that I found while watching an HBO special. He is known for his incredible enthusiasm and dedication to breaking world records while achieving inner peace and solitude. Furman was born in Brooklyn, New York and then moved and grew up in Queens, New York. He attended Jamaica High School and still finds himself practicing on the track and field of his old high school. As a teenager, Furman’s interest in Eastern spirituality heightened and in 1970 he became a follower of the Indian Sri Chinmoy. The Sri Chinmoy’s philosophy centers on self-transcendence. This philosophy has been at the root of all of Furman’s enthusiasm for record breaking. In 1978 he participated in a 24-hour bicycle race in New York City. “It was one of the most profound moments of my life. As I climbed off my bicycle, I realized that it wasn’t my body that had cycled for 24 hours, but my inner spirit. By using meditation I was able to connect with an inexhaustible energy, which we all have but rarely use. At that moment I decided to attempt breaking Guinness records to inspire others to connect with their own indomitable inner strength.”

When I first saw the special on Furman, I solely saw him as a performer. While he prepares, practices, and acts out these challenges he has an audience. There was a woman interviewed during the special on HBO who was one of his neighbors. She described having Furman as her neighbor as being entertaining and fun. She said throughout the weeks her and her kids will either watch Furman practice from the house or they will join him in his backyard in Queens and watch him work towards achieving another record. The idea of him working through all of these tasks as part of a meditation routine is simply fascinating to me. On his website it states, “he has been practicing meditation for more than 30 years and sees his records as a way to demonstrate the benefits of ancient Eastern Art. The name Ashrita is Sanskrit, meaning protected by God...” Furman later on makes a statement saying, “I am not a natural athlete, but my teacher has shown me that if one can be in touch with one’s inner spirit, anything is possible.”

Furman’s first record was set in 1979 and it was for doing 27,000 jumping jacks. Since then he has broken more than 225 records. Some of the records he has set include hula hoping the fasted mile at the Ayers Rock in the Australian bush, pushing a car 17 miles in 24 hours, walking 80 miles with a milk bottle balanced on his head, bouncing a basketball 339 times in a minute, standing on a Swiss Ball for the longest time at Stonehenge in England, balancing a pool cue while walking the longest distance at the Pyramids in Egypt, and bouncing the fastest mile on a kangaroo ball following right along the Great Wall of China. He has set records in more than 30 different countries on all seven continents.

The reason why I chose to research this man even though the kind of work that he does is not necessarily art, is because I found myself really interested in why he chose to spend each of his days pursuing something that was beneficial to himself and the public and not beneficial financially. Furman receives no financial reward for breaking any of the world records, however he is more driven to challenge himself in this area than ever. He runs a health food store on the side to maintain a living but keeps his head focused on meditating and bringing new challenges into his life on a daily basis. After he completes/sets a record, this sort of clarity overcomes Furman and he has moments of realization that have a lasting effect on him. I find myself able to relate to Furman because he performs these acts and challenges and is able to find clarity within himself after completing them. Like artists, he does these things for himself. It is a way of life and is his own piece of happiness.









Furman's Website

Wikipedia Page on Furman

HBO Real Sports Page on Furman

NY Times Article on Furman

Sri Chinmoy's Information Website

Thursday a.m. Idea Post 11/05

These performances that I am focusing on this semester all deal with performing as other; other being the keyword. Other meaning “different or distinct from the one mentioned or implied, different in nature or kind, and being the remaining one of two or more.” I found it interesting that in the definition of other the words different and distinct from were mentioned. When I am performing as other, yes I am very different from the person that I am performing as however, I feel very connected and somewhat similar to that person as well. One thing that I have noticed with these performances is that I feel very comfortable embodying another character while I am tuned into my headphones and line dance music. The headphones are the liaison between the costume and the character and me the performer. The headphones were somewhat of a controversy at my critique a few weeks ago however, I could not disagree more with them being a problem in the image. The wires of the headphones are metaphorical pieces that connect one ear of the performer to one ear of the character. I have been stressing how I want the performance to seem unified and solid and I feel that understanding how these headphones direct the performance is pertinent in my success.

When I google image’d the word other the first few images that came up were somewhat comical and interesting. One that I thought was ironic was an image of several ethnicity boxes that you check on an application. The ones that were listed were African, Asian, Latino, Native American, Other, and Other, Other… I did not pay attention to what this image was involved with or what it was saying I just focused on the idea of someone filling out this form and not even being able to specify who they are. Well maybe they did not want to specify but the bizarre thing is if they wanted to there may not be a box that they can check to characterize or describe their ethnicity.

Monday a.m. Artist Post 11/02

Charles Gute, recipient of the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Fellowship in 2005, Jentel Foundation Residency, MacDowell Colony Visual Artist Residencies, and the Jack K. and Gertrude Murphy Fine Arts Fellowship, works with installation art, performance art, video art, and wall art. A good amount of his work is conceptual based and is focused on time based objects and different ways to show the passing of time. Gute is represented by the Catharine Clark Gallery and has been said to “pay tribute to ground breaking individuals throughout art history who have impacted contemporary art.” He received his MFA from the New Genres Department at San Francisco Art Institute in 1988. His first solo exhibit was in 1990 at The Lab in San Francisco and in 1991 he won the San Francisco Arts Commission’s “Exploration: City Site.” From 1998-2003 the Patricia Sweetow Gallery represented him. In the spring of 2005, Gute was a Visiting Artist in residence at the Art Department of the University of Nevada at Las Vegas.
One of his notable installation pieces that was installed in various different galleries from 1988-2003 was his duct tape piece titled “Duct Tape Funeral March”. This was a time-based installation and it was installed in the Gales Gates Gallery in Brooklyn, New York. There were 13 rolls of duct tape attached at the top of a 16foot wall. All of the rolls of tape were released on opening day and it took them 8 hours to completely unravel. What viewers soon found out was that there was sheet music attached to the rolls. The song that was playing through was “Funeral March” by Beethoven. The slow unraveling of the tape mimicked the somber work of Beethoven’s compositions.
A performance piece that Gute did in honor of artist Joseph Beuys was titled “The Joseph Beuys Memorial Barbecue” and took place in 1985. One his homemade porch install, there was a gallery pedestal that held 30 lbs. of fatty ground beef. Standing close by the large hunk of beef was Gute wearing a white apron with a silk-screened image of the late Beuys on the front of it. The performance was said to function as performance, reception, and a wake in Beuys’ honor. While Gute was performing/cooking, he spoke to the audience about Beuys’ life and work.
Another one of his performances that had more of a sullen approach to it was titled “My Dog Is Tired” and was performed in 1986. The stage is dark and then a spotlight hits the center of the stage to illuminate the dog lying on the middle of the stage floor. From offstage, a red rubber ball rolls onto the stage and stops near the supine dog. The dog does not respond and the audience is left with this site for a few moments until the lights go down the performance is over.
A more recent project of Gute’s was one he just completed at the Socrates Sculpture park in New York. This piece was titled “More Matter In General.” Using wood, enamel, vinyl, steel hardware, and concrete, this large piece is described as “an unlikely crossover between the dry semantics of historical conceptual art and the realm of popular American rural entertainment.”
I enjoyed looking at his work and reading about his conceptual thought for each piece. I have a great admiration for strong conceptual artists and strive to learn from them and their thought processes and writings. Because he also does performance work, I found it interesting to study some of that work and get a sense of the concepts in that work compared to the concepts in his install work or video work.

Artist Website

Catharine Clark Gallery Website