The Media Arts Map Blogroll

Silo (2007, 3 minutes, color, sound, 16mm)

A single camera roll shot in time lapse documenting the final night of the arts and performance center, ISSUE Project Room, at their former space inside of a converted silo on the Gowanus Canal, Brooklyn. Accompanying this on the soundtrack is a montage of field recordings from the Gowanus environs.

Teslamania (2007, 6 minutes, color, sound, 16mm)

Two camera rolls shot at the Collective Unconscious during a performance of “Teslamania” featuring Gecko Saccomanno and Tesla Coil Engineer Jamie Mereness. The film’s visual effects, double exposures, and refracted images, were all done in camera, just as we see them here.

On the soundtrack Gecko provides various “Tesla tidbits,” including Tesla’s scheme to provide free electricity transmitted through the air, anecdotes about the Collective’s Tesla Coil performances, “Tesla cooking,” and a list of the inventor Nikola Tesla’s many exotic phobias.

Music by Dorit Chrysler.

Dame Darcy – a film portrait (2007, 5 minutes, b&w, sound, 16mm)

A short and lively 16mm portrait of comic book artist and performer Dame Darcy, seen through a filmic rollercoaster tour of her comic book, “Meat Cake,” and ending with the artist herself. On the soundtrack, a turn-of-the-last-century recording from a 78rpm Victrola record.

Loudmouth Collective / Ugly Duckling Presse (2003, 20 minutes, b&w, sound, 16mm)

A film-portrait of the Loudmouth Collective and Ugly Duckling Presse. These poet-provocateurs are the creators of the infamous “Anti-Reading” series, a carnival-like alternative to the traditional poetry reading. On the film’s soundtrack we hear how the Anti-Readings were started, descriptions of various Anti-Reading activities including the Poetry Fishing Pond, the Typewriter Inferno, Poetry-Poker, Poem Portraits, the smokable poems known as Poetry Cigarettes, the memory tester called “I Forgot,” and the Diary in the shape of a Bunny. The film includes footage shot at Anti-Readings, with time-lapse, double exposures, distorting lenses, and frenetic non-traditional camerawork evocative of the playfully chaotic spirit of the events.

Awarded BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT, Chicago Underground Film Festival, 2004

Moving Images – the Film-Makers Cooperative relocates (2001, 14 minutes, b&w/color, sound, 16mm)voices: Jonas Mekas, MM Serra

Jonas Mekas, one of the Film-Makers’ Cooperative’s founders, and MM Serra, the current executive director, describe the Coop’s beginnings, the organization’s recent struggles, and the difficulties of finding space for the arts, over richly layered images of the Coop’s recent move.

The Film-Makers’ Cooperative, founded in 1962 as a filmmaker-run distribution center, is now the largest archive and distributor of independent and avant-garde films in the world, with over 5,000 films and videos. Since 1967 the Coop had its offices at Lexington and 31st Street, but as documented in this film, it has now relocated to the Clocktower Gallery at 108 Leonard Street, New York City.

Awarded SILVER PLAQUE, Chicago International Film Festival

Joel Schlemowitz has made over forty short experimental films, and numerous film installation pieces. He has received grants from the Jerome Foundation and New York State Council on the Arts. His work has been shown at the Whitney Museum of American Art, MoMA, Anthology Film Archives, Millennium Film Workshop, Berks Filmmakers, and at various festivals including the London Film Festival, the Sydney Film Festival, the Chicago International Film Festival, the Ann Arbor Film Festival, the Denver Film Festival, the New York Underground Film Festival, and elsewhere. His short film Reverie was broadcast on the Sundance Channel in the “Underground Shorts” series. Another short work, Moving Images – the Film-Makers’ Cooperative relocates, received Honorable Mentions from the Thaw02 Film & Video Festival and NY Short Film Expo, and was awarded a silver plaque from the Chicago International Film Festival. He has received Best Short Documentary awards at the Chicago Underground Film Festival in 2004 and 2005. He teaches filmmaking at the New School, and is President of ACT-UAW, Local 7902, union of adjunct and part-time faculty at New School and NYU.

Joel Schlemowitz Official Website

Kevin and Jen have been making small-gauge films for over a decade. Using Super-8mm film, they have documented places such as Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, Peru, Bolivia, Greece, Vietnam, Argentina, Bolivia, Southern Florida and the American West. Tonight’s program highlights the use of small-gauge film as ethnographic and documentary practice. The artists introduce their films by discussing how the small-gauge format shapes a documentary subject and why super-8mm is gaining such popularity within the current media landscape. An in-depth discussion with the filmmakers will follow the screening.

Kevin T. Allen is filmmaker and sound artist. He has created sound installation work for the Canadian Centre for Architecture, Third Coast International Audio Festival, Film(less) Festival, and Deep Wireless Festival of Radio Art. Kevin’s films have shown at the Museum of Modern Art, Margaret Mead Film Festival, Ann Arbor Film Festival, and Portland Documentary and Experimental Film Festival. His film KIEU won first prize at the 2006 Black Maria Film Festival and was featured on Michigan Public Broadcasting. Kevin is currently shooting his next project, LUTHIER, a documentary portrait of an aging instrument maker in Patagonia.

Jen Heuson is a filmmaker, scholar, and activist. She has conducted fieldwork in Southeast Asia, South America, and the United States. Jennifer’s works include: Sounds of the Amazon, a sound ethnography of the Peruvian Amazon; Welcome, a documentary about tourism in Asia; and Colors of New York City, an audio-visual exploration of race in New York City. She is currently investigating tourist soundscapes of the Black Hills of South Dakota and shooting an experimental ethnography about cowboys, Indians, family, and the politics of memory.

LANKA: Time Loss in Refrain by Kevin T. Allen
(Sri Lanka/USA, 2005, 6 minutes, Super-8mm/Video)

An experimental portrait of Sri Lanka and the decrepit colonial railway that still weaves its way through the island. A personal film about loss, solitude, and the transience of experience.

***Best Experimental Film, U.S. Super 8 Film Festival, 2006

KIEU by Kevin T. Allen
(Vietnam/USA, 2006, 18 minutes, Super-8mm/Video)
Kieu, loosely translated as “foreign,” is the name given to thousands of Vietnamese refugees and their children who have journeyed “home.” We traverse notions of origin and cultural alienation by way of luscious Kodachrome travel footage. Through an intricate weaving of field recordings and the vivid stories of three Viet-Kieu voices we “return” to Vietnam. Their culturally fragmented narratives pose questions relevant to all those who travel. The camera too becomes a voice in this cinematic journey, a kinesthetic query of being and belonging.
***First-Prize, Black Maria Film Festival, 2007

STILL LIFE WITH HO CHI MINHby Kevin T. Allen
(Vietnam/USA, 2008, 3 minutes, Hand-processed Super-8mm/Video)
An ethnographic encounter with Ho Chi Minh’s personal photographer. Mr. Bay recalls secretly traveling the jungles with Ho Chi Minh during the war against the French and, with great emotion, the day that the Vietnamese flag flew from the U.S. My sister and I met Mr. Bay in Ha Noi, he invited us to his house to show us some of his photographs. This single hand-processed roll of Super-8mm film documents our encounter.

***Documentary Fortnight, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), 2009

Immokalee, My Homeby Kevin T. Allen + Jen Heuson
(USA, 2009, 28 minutes, Hand-processed Super-8mm/Video)

A portrait of life in Immokalee, Florida, the heart of industrial agriculture in the United States and home to its largest population of migrant farm workers. Through visits to carnivals, churches, tomato fields, and workers’ homes, a narrative emerges. The surface story is of one community’s struggle for farm worker rights. Florida farm workers live in slave-like conditions. Some are beaten, not given food or water, or not paid. Yet, they continue to come. This is the deeper tale revealed. Ultimately, it is a tale of migration, of immigration, and of the persistent hope for a better life.
***Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival, 2009

Desamparadosby Kevin T. Allen + Jen Heuson
(Peru/Bolivia/USA, 2010, 11 minutes, Super-8mm/Video)

Desamparados (the forsaken) is the name of an abandoned train station in Lima and the origin of a month-long journey to Machu Picchu. By rail, by foot we encounter the ghosts of colonial relics, from Catholicism to industrialism to a lost Incan fortress. We transport between the bucolic, crestfallen mountaintops and dejected mining towns, tracing the scars of conquest upon the Andean landscape.

The camera surveys its surrounding in this program of classic and rarely seen films from the Filmmakers’ Cooperative library. Whether an industrial urban wasteland or a pristine rural landscape, filmmakers have long used the camera to explore, interpret and re-imagine the landscapes they inhabit, transporting us from the familiar to the foreign and back again.  Curated by Scott Nyerges and Ryan Marino.

Atmos Fear Tom DeWitt(USA, 1966, 6 minutes, color, sound, 16mm)

“Things to watch for include: the way DeWitt thinks inside his camera, the use of single-frame techniques to enhance certain images, the lens-integrity in zoom and focusing effects (he borrowed Vanderbeek’s equipment to make this film), and the moderate use of solarization (re-exposed/negative print) and multiple exposure. There is a lot to be learned from ATMOS FEAR.” – David Buehler

Go Go Go Marie Menken

(USA, 1964, color, silent, 12 minutes, 16mm)

Taken from a moving vehicle, for much of the footage. The rest uses stationary frame, stop-motion. In the harbor sequence, I had to wait for the right amount of activity, to show effectively the boats darting about; some sequences took over an hour to shoot, and last perhaps a minute on the screen. The “strength and health” sequence was shot at a body beautiful convention. Various parts of the city of New York, the busy man’s engrossment in his busy-ness, make up the major part of the film … a tour-de-force on man’s activities. – Marie Menken

Silvercup Jim Jennings

(USA, 1998 black and white, silent, 12 minutes, 16m)
“A tender ode to the industrial neighborhood of Long Island City, Queens, strung together with Manhattan across the East River by the Queensborough Bridge and the elevated subway line. “The trains and webs of steel enslave and at the same time bring us together. The past haunts me, and at the same time its memories are precious. Much of the film was edited in the camera. About half of what I shot was discarded, and in the editing room I very slowly removed and arranged what remained after several screenings.” -Jim Jennings

Earth Saga Rosalind Schneider

(USA, 1980, color, sound, 20 minutes, 16mm)

“Based on Icelandic Landscape, Earth Saga reveals the powerful beauty of a land formed by volcanic explosion. From steaming lava ash to moss-covered fields, the film redefines color and black and white images, superimposing abstract and surreal visions of nature. Original shooting was done in both 16mm and super 8mm enabling the filmmaker to alter the inherent texture of the compositions through optical printing techniques of extended sequences, re-framing and superimposing the resulting footage forms new flowing and rhythmic patterns in an illusionistic translation of landscape.”- Rosalind Schneider

Porter Springs 3 Henry Hills

(USA, 1977,  color, silent, 6 minutes, 16mm)

“These beautiful, intricately animated reflections were unfortunately shot in ECO which has proved to be remarkably unstable, turning blue before I had an internegative made. Therefore, this is one of only three prints of this “elegant and serene experience”-Pat O’Neill

Maas Observation Karel Doing & Greg Pope

(USA, 1997, black-and-white, sound, 11 minutes, 16mm)
“In MAAS OBSERVATION Doing and Pope demonstrate their fascination in the bizarre landscape of the port of Rotterdam, a stretch of ‘neo-nature’ with little place for humans, where huge machines seem to move around according to a logic of their own. The film begins with images of windmills on the edge of the Maas plain in a montage sequence based on the steady rhythm of the rotating sails. The focus gradually shifts towards activities on the river further upstream. The montage tempo slows down as the mechanical motion gives way to the play of reflections in the water.”

Dozer Anna Geyer

(USA, 1999, color & black-and-white, sound, 14 minutes, 16mm)
As long as I can remember, I have had an affection for bulldozers — their power and their grandeur. My fascination with them continues to grow as I observe their ceaseless efforts. With this film I explore the awe inspired by such a destructive force. DOZER features the bulldozer as an icon of American culture and examines the continuous reconstruction of our surroundings. An important point of focus is the impact of the automobile and its infrastructure on our society, environment, and general quality of life, as bulldozers exchange natural landscapes for freeways – landscapes of an industrialized society. This film explores how and why the advent of the automobile has reshaped our lives with an emphasis on several questions: what was there before? What has changed due to the car? My grandmother provides voiceover accounts of life during the emergence of the automobile. She perfectly illustrates pivotal moments of history in very human terms. The naively optimistic text of The Prayer of America’s Road Builders adds a subtle irony. Industrial sounds (piledrivers, edgecode printers, trains, the freeway itself, etc.) are manipulated, looped, and layered to function as music. As an aural atmosphere of rhythm, the effects at times create fake sync sound and at others act contrapuntally, contributing to the visual images to form a unique filmic space. The visual aesthetic of DOZER is an exploration of structure and construction as well. I utilize many forms of image layering (multiple projection, optical printing and in-camera effects) which create an even greater distance between subject and viewer.

Total Run time: 80 minutes

The Pacific Northwest, stretching from Oregon to British Columbia, has become a vital home for some of the North America’s most promising film talents. CASCADIAN FACTS AND FICTIONS gives us insight into some of that regions most vibrant non-fiction filmmakers. This program, introduced by Northwest Film Forum program director Adam Sekuler, features films from Webster Crowell, Serge Gregory, Vanessa Renwick, Craig Downing, Sarah Jane Lapp, Larry Kent, and Matt McCormick,  displaying just the tip of the iceberg from the regions wide-ranging talents.

When Herons Dream by Serge Gregory

(Seattle, WA, 2009, 10:34 minutes, DVD)

The film imagines the perspective of a Great Blue Heron as it moves throughout the seasons and Northwest landscape shaped by water. But more than this, “When Herons Dream” is a distilled medative work in black and white shot on real film and utterly beautiful in its simplicity.

Portrait #3: House of Sound by Vanessa Renwick

(Portland, OR, 2009, 11 minutes, DVD)

Radio reminiscences and a photography-driven visit to the neighborhood of record shop “House of Sound” long after the wrecking ball, this film reflects the heart of a pre-digital era of music. Renwick’s latest in her ongoing Portrait series of stories in Portland, Oregon.

This True Story of Dad Club by Craig Downing

(Seattle, WA , 2008, 5 minutes, DVD)

A memoir about the dark distance between a daughter and her dad.

Chronicles of A Professional Eulogist by Sarah Jane Lapp

(Seattle, WA, 2009, 25 minutes, DVD)

DIRECTOR IN ATTENDANCE!

Sarah Jane Lapp is a Seattle-based Renaissance woman, visual artist and filmmaker, who typically takes on abstract and ethnographic subjects in her finely rendered hand-drawn experimental animations. This is her semi-factual, hand-drawn animation (India ink, gouache, and wax) reminiscent of the work of John and Faith Hubley, and scored by Mark Dresser, was made possible by interviews with eulogists galore. The film follows a eulogist-in-training and his encounter with the spaces our communal memories create between mortality and immortality.

Hastings Street by Larry Kent

(Vancouver, BC, 2007, 20 minutes, DVD)

A dramatic portrait of a vulnerable young man set in downtown Vancouver. Filmed in 1963, this monochromatic film is a flashback to a notorious street and a bygone era of Canadian cinema.

It Was A Crushing Defeat by Matt McCormick

(Portland, OR, 2007, 4 minutes, DVD)

In hi-8 night vision, this film features beautiful images of a late night at the Portland Police horse paddock beside Centennial Mills.

Living Circuits by Phillip Stearns

Current VanLier resident Phillip Stearns offers a 5-part educational lecture/workshop series on basic electronics and networked sciences. Lectures will be held on evenings during the week free of charge and be accompanied by an optional hands-on ticketed workshop held on the weekend following. Each lecture will contain a historical overview of a key topic accompanied by demonstrations and animations. The optional workshops will focus on applying the information and knowledge presented in the lecture through hands on-projects led through slide-show, animation, and direct instruction. See complete schedule at www.harvestworks.org

Lectures will be held on evenings during the week free of charge and be accompanied by an optional hands-on ticketed workshop held on the weekend following. The goal of the lectures is to provide a background and context to the contemporary use of electronics, computing, and biology in the development of neural networks. Each lecture will contain a historical overview of a key topic accompanied by demonstrations and animations. The optional workshops will focus on applying the information and knowledge presented in the lecture through hands on-projects led through slide-show, animation, and direct instruction.

bricktheater: Wow, the building behind The Brick collapsed today:… http://bit.ly/d48DfQ

Uruguayan visual artist, film historian, and curator Angela Lòpez Ruiz presents  “Archeology of the Image”, a review of the history of Uruguayan cinema between the 20s and the 70s. Ruiz’s research makes connections between cinema and other artistic disciplines during the modern age, and how these “blank pages” have had their effect on contemporary thinking.  The evenings program will be divided into two parts showcasing Uruguayan experimental cinema; the first looking at historical films and the second contemporary pieces.  Following this will be a panel discussion with Lòpez Ruiz, Bill Brand, and Mark Street.

Lòpez Ruiz will also present the 1958 short Color by Lidia García Millán as part of the Orphan Film Symposium’s closing program on Saturday evening, April 10:  Around the World Time Travel Diary (1897 – 2010).

This program is presented with CINEMA TROPICAL.

Historical Uruguayan Experimental Cinema

A selection of prizewinning Uruguayan films at the Festival de Cine Experimental y Documental (Festival of Experimental and Documentary Cinema) organized by CineArte SODRE between the 1950s and the 1970s. It is part of a research project called “Archaeology of Image”, which has its origins in the almost complete loss of the archives of CINEARTE in the fire that took place in the 70s. This fire was a watershed in local film production, since the dictatorship severed the spaces generated by the said festival, thus bringing this unique experience to an end, an experience that subverted the hegemonic values of commercial cinema and turned Montevideo into a ground-breaking city.

“18 de Julio” –Lidia García Millán-1951- 4 minutes-black and white-mute.  Restored copy of original 16mm.                                                             This film was the First Prize in the first competition organized by Cine Universitario, artistic documentary about the principal avenue of the city filmed in 16mm developed with hand-crafted techniques .

“Cariri” – Miguel Castro-1953-3 minutes-black and white-mute.
The camera films the shifting landscape from a train in motion, then begins to descend, showing the moving rails. Guitar music starts to
play. Later the film alternates between different takes of the rails,sleepers and land, which move past from different angles within squares

“Images” -   Miguel Castro-  1955- 4 minutes-black and white-mute

A romantic tale narrated on still photographs.

.“Color” – Lidia García Millán-1955- 4 mins –color

The first color experimental film on Uruguay. The music was improvisated by the Hot Jazz Club of Montevideo on a filmproyection of the film.

“Elíptica” -  Carlos Bayarrés and Horacio Ferreira-1962- 3 mins –animation, black and white  on the restored copy.

Animation Experimental film  aesthetically influenced by Norman McLaren.

“La ciudad de la playa” – Ferruccio Mussitelli-1961- 18 mins,

Artistic documentary awarded a prize by the Ministry of Tourism. Karlovy Vary Festival prize winner.

RUNNING:25 mins (approach)  All the films will be screened from digital copies.

Contemporary Uruguayan Experimental Cinema

This portion connects contemporary film production with historical production. Its aim is to reveal their common factor, the emphasis on the “poetic image”.  These films are a proof of the results arising from a particular conception of the moving image, where the micro is amplified by the light crossing the image, and by using a local dialect, engages in dialogue with global cinema.  The filmmakers use film as a basis for their cinematic discourse, regardless of the ultimate formats their images adopt during exhibition.

Back Home-Federico Veiroj.2001  7 minutes

Four men cruise around the street of Montevideo trying to find their way home.  Experimental Film awarded on the International Festival of Uruguay.

RainMontevideo-Teresa Puppo,2009 1,45 minutes  16mm

Self-referential film based on the evolution of the space around us.

Aai 956-Guillermo Zabaleta,2009 1,10 minutes,35mm

A found footage version of “Gran Torino”. Awarded by “Fotograma09”.

Popping Eyes-Maximiliano Contenti,2008  3 minutes,black and white,-16mm hand crafted development.

“Waking up to the morning light, drinking morning tea, making morning time stop, and popping eyes”

A girl is waking up in her apartment on the city town.Her reflexive mood is described on the cloudy landscape,until she took the tea her interior time stopped the other time.

Elegbé-Guillermo Zabaleta,2008. 3 minutes, black and white, mute – 16 mm hand crafted development

This short has the frame references of a rite of African root (Exú,African deity come to America with the slaves yorubas). The film plays with the look of the elements that integrate this ritual, the gunpowder, the simbology, the combustion, the visions that it provokes, the autorreferencial experience of it.

Ground for Divorce I-Jessie Young , 2007. 1,45 minutes, 16mm

A ten year old girl all dressed up in uniform is wandering by the fields of her school when she runs into a giant chewing gum. After a while she can’t resist the temptations of the unknown wonderful object and she takes a bite…

Ground for Divorce II-Jessie Young, 2008 1,45 minutes, 16mm

Three guys are sitting in a couch staring at nothing. The chewing gum goes from one person to the other like something that empowers them. The juice from each bite increases the dripping from there faces…

RUNNING:25 mins (approach)  All the films will be screened from digital copies.

This program was made possible with the generous support of Fundaciòn de Arte Contemporaneo and the National Image Archive -SODRE-.

However, I was much more impressed by a product from the German company Woehburk, especially their Cristalline, glass projection screen. I thought that it showed a brighter image than the other products, with better contrast and color. Perhaps I was charmed by the small scale, as I wanted to design some kind of suspended ‘chandelier’ type array of small glass projection screens. I really like the way that the image is only visible from one side, which makes it appear quite magically, if you’re just passing by…

In this video I compare three different Woehburk screens and then compare my favorite with an opaque rear projection sample from 3M’s Vicuity range.

Thu April 8 – Sat April 10, 6-10pm daily

Based in Dublin, Ireland since 2007 and supported by Thisisnotashop Gallery, The Writing Workshop has become an open hub for people to explore & develop writing. The Workshop is catalysed by a shared desire to explore the expansive & pervasive possibilities of text & words, particularly when extended through transdisciplinary arts practices.

Core member artists of The Writing Workshop (Jessica Foley, Susan Thomson, Áine Ivers and Jessamyn Fiore) are journeying from Ireland to present their work and host a series of writing workshops at UnionDocs in Williamsberg, Brooklyn and P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center in Long Island City, Queens. This series will include sculptural/film installation, screenings, live readings and participatory workshops that will explore the work and also launch a New York branch of The Writing Workshop.

All Workshops are open to the public- please come along if you are at all interested in text (open to artists, writers, filmmakers… anyone who wishes to explore and play with words & ideas)

Daily 6pm-8pm: Installation

- Jessica Foley’s film/audio installation entiled for one, for all.

Artist Statement: This work has developed in my head mostly, and only of late has become ‘visible’. In November 2008 I visited America for the first time with the resolve to film in Super 8 a personal experience of accompanying my friend to make her vote in what was predicted by many to be ‘an historic’ presidential election for America & the World. The films have only come to light (as in literally projected) in the past number of weeks, and during this time I have attempted to articulate for myself, & for whomever might come across this work, a kind of minor personal inquiry of Democracy, of Vision & of Unity. for one, for all is incomplete, though I hope that it will evolve through it’s exhibiting, through the eyes & voices & ears of those who encounter it…

- Áine Ivers sculptural installation entitled Pattern for moving through an element.

Animals who roam our cities freely in the future…

This installation is an attempt to manifest in New York a pack of wolves, based on a pattern I have been developing over the past few months. A pattern for a wolf that moves over ground, that I can bring anywhere, and build where desired.

Thu Apr 8 at 8pm: Workshop

Jessica Foley will lead a Writing Workshop based on ideas extended from her work for one, for all, exploring the realtionship between writing and democracy.

Fri Apr 9 at 8pm: Screening

Fire Practice Theatre by Susan Thomson. Residing somewhere between fiction and documentary, this two screen film shows firefighters practicing their skills on a tall purpose built house in a fire station. This is depicted as if it were a piece of theatre, a rehearsal or ritual in a theatre where only one play is performed. There are different levels of fiction. A script is performed by actors playing firefighters; lines are swapped, dramatically forgotten and a scene arrives early. The house is unlived-in, sinister, the piece reminiscent of a psyche where trauma and desire are endlessly replayed.

Fire Practice Theatre runs for approx 15 minutes and will be followed by audience discussion with the artist.

Sat Apr 10 at 8pm: Reading

Live readings of members work including a theatrical reading of A Play About Lee Lozano by Jessamyn Fiore followed by audience discussion. A Play About Lee Lozano uses found text (articles/interviews/statement) to explore the mystery of 1960’s New York painter/conceptual performance artist Lee Lozano whose work led her to boycott the art world and women in general. The extremity of her boycott created a void that others have attempted to fill in order to understand her life and work.

The Writing Workshop is generously supported by Culture Ireland.

For more information please visit www.thisisnotashop.com

If you have any specific questions about workshops or events please email jessamyn@thisisnotashop.com

at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center Sat April 3 & Sat April 10, 2-4pm

Jessica Foley

Statement

Jessica Foley’s work involves writing, image making, both visual & sonic, and collaborative activities. Her research interests draw upon pedagogical methodologies, philosophy, history and narratives of science & art.

Through writing Foley responds to actual and imagined environments & situations, weaving narratives & thoughts, often through a kind of poetry, or through site specific installations or workshops, in an effort to explore time & experience, systems & technologies. Her writing is an attempt to build meaningful connections, or to identify significant dissonnances between the actual and the imaginary, truths, fictions & metafictions between people & their environment.

Foley’s writings & installations variously draw connections between her subjective experiences, contemporary art practices, scientific developments & histories, concepts of discourse and pedagogical methodologies.

Jessica Foley holds a Masters (Art in the Contemporary World) from NCAD and is currently lecturing in Visual Art Education at MIC, Limerick, Ireland. She has written for such publications as CIRCA and Variant, and works closely with artists on various writing projects.

For more information visit www.jessicadfoley.com or you can contact Jessica at jessica.dylan.foley@gmail.com

Susan Thomson

Biography

Susan Thomson is an artist and writer who has performed and exhibited her work at venues in Europe and beyond including the UK National Review of Live Art, the International Video Art festivals of Alcoi and Valencia, Spain and X Initiative, New York. She has written for many books and publications including Circa, The Times and Women’s News. She holds an M.A. in Visual Arts Practices at DLIADT, Dublin, a degree in Modern Languages from Trinity Hall, Cambridge University and a Masters in European Literature from Magdalen College, Oxford University. She has received a number of Visual Arts bursaries, including an Arts Council New Work Award (2008), a South Dublin County Council Award (2003) and Culture Ireland Award (2009).

Artist statement

My practice is fundamentally grounded in writing, but unfolds into the visual and conceptual, video and film work. I am particularly interested in the area where visual art and literature meet, whether that be in text based art, conceptual literature or in film.

This could mean that the word count has a symbolic importance or that words literally and digitally turn into other words (thus extending through technology the ‘polyglot’ literature of Joyce, Cixous etc) or creating stories which predict their own endings. I am influenced by ‘Oulipo’, Workshop for Potential Literature, as well as by contemporary video art and film.

The psychoanalytic and autobiographical play a large role in my work, which explores themes of trauma and desire, the theatrical (and tragedy in particular), choreography and translation.

Áine Ivers

Áine Ivers is a visual artist. Her art practice has at its core an ongoing investigation into panic. This investigation materializes in many ways; weaves through media such as drawing, writing, sculpture, installation, craft, teaching, facilitation and participation; incorporates tangential thoughts and ideas, manifests through sustained solo studio practice and through collaborations across disciplines. She is currently looking at ecological narratives and thinking a lot about the presence of animals in the human psyche.
She has worked extensively in Ireland and Finland, Russia and Estonia. She is currently based in Dublin, Ireland.
www.aineivers.org

Jessamyn Fiore – About the Artist

Jessamyn Fiore was raised in the New York City art world and attended Sarah Lawrence College where she focused on playwriting and international peace and conflict studies. After graduating in 2002 she moved to Ireland and founded The Road Show Theatre for which she wrote two productions, The Mysterious World of Birds (2003) and SANDWICH (2005). Her plays have been produced in Galway, Dublin, London, Edinburgh, Prague, and New York City.

In March 2007 she became co-director of Thisisnotashop Gallery. She founded the Writing Workshop at Thisisnotashop with Jessica Foley in July 2007. Working with Aideen Darcy to curate the overall gallery program, she has also curated three major exhibitions for the gallery- Gordon Matta-Clark FOOD (DEC 2007), Fluxus with Larry Miller (MAY 2009) and Thisisnotashop @ No Soul For Sale, X Initiative in New York City (JUN 2009). Jessamyn became the sole Director of Thisisnotashop in June, 2009. She completed an MA in Art in the Contemporary World at the National College of Art & Design, Dublin, Ireland, in 2009.

For more information email jessamyn@thisisnotashop.com