It's been a beautiful autumn here in the city. Since returning from the Chanorth residency, I've been writing a text on free speech and property. One of the chapters will be published in the Brooklyn Rail's November issue. Good Faith Space is active, with Voyage of the Hippo 2 in September, and three shows planned for October, Including the launch of Wilson Novitzki's musical program, The Maintenance Series, a screening program (no title yet) featuring "Elementals," short films and animations by the amazing Eric Leiser, and another iteration of Shane Kennedy's iconic wall paintings, for the Society for the Prevention of Creative Obsolescence, in an expo called, "Something About Encryption." In November GFS will be participating in the Standard ToyKraft fundraiser gala. In the project room we will be presenting small works by our core Spacers, and introducing some of the outstanding artists we will be showing in 2014, like Jakey Begin and Konstant.
Residency at Chanorth
On September 16, the residency at Chanorth came to an end. It was a wonderful and productive hiatus, yielding more than four dozen ink-on-polyester paintings and a series of prints pulled from paintings in process. The new series is dubbed "Code Duello," inspired initially by a book, Duelling in America, lent me by one of my fellow residents, Jaime Bird. As the series progressed, from small to large works, the scope of the narrative shifted and expanded. Longtime collaborator Shane Kennedy, freshly returned from Voyage of the Hippo 2, at my request joined us in Pine Plains to help with the big pieces. I had an idea to revisit techniques dating to 1986, applied to the Trinidad/Santa Rosa series, techniques which re-emerged during my Content phase (CGU MFA, 2006-7) and the pixel/pull 3D paintings. Essentially, the process involves a pigment pouring on a substrate, to which another similar-sized substrate is pressed. Then, the two substrates, connected temporarily by paint and/or medium, are pried apart again. After the pull-painting dries, it's an option to paint over the abstract painting that results, adding another dimension or dimensions. For Code Duello, Shane and I developed a performative element, alternating turns pouring the ink and directing the subsequent pull. It was great fun, due mostly to our ease working together, an ease developed over the past 13 years on numerous projects.
As for Chanorth, I can share that Josh and Adrianna, the residency admins, were tremendously helpful, great people and doing excellent creative work, too. All the residents shared cooking tasks, and at the end of the month-long residency, we held an informal open studio night, so we could check out each other's new work. Aiyanna, Naro, Luiza and Jaime had used their time to good effect, producing drawings, paintings, sculpture, media works, photos and performance/video. It was a real pleasure seeing the output, which for the most part was new to me, given my studio schedule. The countryside upstate is lovely, and several days each week, weather permitting, I enjoyed the nearby lake. Other residents hiked and biked, and worked on the local farms. We visited neighboring towns, colleges, residencies, historic sites and villages, like Hudson, Olana, Bard, Wassaic, Woodstock and Red Hook, taking in the restaurants, sights, shops and so on. I didn't get a chance this time to visit Catskill, where we produced Wall Street to Main Street in 2012, but it was often in my thoughts, as were friends like Fawn Potash and Sam Truitt.
Below are a selection of the raw studio shots and painting documentation.
Summer 2013
The DIM TIM exhibit at SLAG closed in early July, and along with it, the staging studio/presentation space at Brooklyn Fire Proof (see AFH Projects for more info). Summer in NYC brings hot temperatures, and this years' were record-breakers. Migration to the Hamptons, trips upstate, to the beach and all over are the norm. SLAG owner Irina Protopopescu installed several DIM TIM pieces at a collector's residential art space in an ersatz gallery group show (image above).
AFH/Good Faith Space is hosting monthly exhibitions. This month our project room at STK is presenting Dane Rex's "Nonesuch," the Bushwick-based artist's first solo show. Wilson Novitzki will be producing an audio environment for the event on August 2. The GFS exhibit calendar for the remainder of 2013 is almost full. Expect new expos by Shane Kennedy, who has left for Serbia and Romania for the next stage of Voyage of the Hippo; Bushwick-based photographer Jakey Begin; Eric Leiser, who's busy with new films, paintings and holography; Bold Jez and others. Look for announcements here.
I will be attending a chanorth residency in August/September, to work on large ink on polyester paintings.