Kentridge Opera

Last night I saw Berg’s LULU, produced by William Kentridge. It was quite amazing, I am still letting it all sink in. Images of ink drawings were projected onto a set, both of which were designed like expressionist woodcuts and drawings. The atonal music, itself fragmented and hard to interpret, fit with the fragmented drawings of Lulu- each man desired a different one of her many faces. I’m glad I brought binoculars, so I could see some close ups- but the set itself was a character you did not want to miss, so reading subtitles or using a lens meant you risked missing something somewhere else. I also had a nice conversation with the gentleman next to me, who was a materials engineer.

RAIR proposal

I think I have developed a pretty good draft for my proposal to the Recycle Artist in Residence program at Revolutionary Recovery in Philly. I will just be filling out the rest of the application, and submitting before the end of this month. I toured the grounds and the guides (who also are the founders of the program) Billy and Lucia were wonderful. They were super informative, and just give a very good vibe about where their priorities lie (with the artist, always). They want you to use their expertise and resources to find ways to complete a proposal you may not know exactly how to approach. I will post more about my proposal after submission.

Chelsea

I walked around Chelsea the other day. My recommendations- Mary Reid Kelley- Frederichs and Freiser, Claus Oldenburg (forget), Brice Marden – Matthew Marks

Art Handling

I did a couple art handling jobs to supplement the part time work at the upholstery shop. Highlights of this were meeting the artist Nadja Frank, a sculptor originally from Germany, now in New York, and in residence at LMCC. She is a joy to be around and chat with, and has amazing sculptures based on geological forms.

I will also begin doing some freelance painting this week, working again with Federico Solmi

Jodorowsky

Katie Hector has been lending me lots of Jodorowsky films to dig into. My favorite so far is still Fando y Lis, which I partially based the proposal to RAIR on.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x195v7_fando-y-lis-1_news

Well. I have returned. A rant of highlights, in the order of memory not of sequence-

Befriending some FAMU Audiovisual students, seeing their screenings and live VJ performances, and just hanging out in cafes/bars. Getting free wine for playing the piano. Going to music museums and the fleamarket with music students from Hamburg and finding a mandolin. Seeing great puppet performances in Plzen, and hanging out with some german engineers to see the brewery and medieval underground. Talking to the attendant at Skolska28 for hours about art and books and the horrors of social media. Going to Berlin and staying with a wonderful architect family friend who brought me around with his VIP pass to Berlin’s art week- we saw installations in bunkers and pavilions, art fairs, museum openings, etc. Seeing the Sedlec Ossuary in Kutna Hora- a church made of bones. Visiting Olomouc and meeting with the performance artist Vladimir Havlik and his Phd students- who run PAF, the animation festival there. Traveling to Opava for my hosts sound piece radio broadcast in a gallery. Ostrava and its industrial steel landscape, Vitkovice. The layover in Dublin, where I went out into the city and played mandolin with Dubliners all night- and met some of the friends I made on my last visit by chance.

Anyway, Now I am back. And the latest news is that this weekend I will be performing in a piece by my former teacher Patricia Brace at Public address. The installation was created by her collaborator Rita Leduc, and I will be one of 9 other performers that will join Patricia to “play” the walls of this interactive space. It will be streamed online as well!

https://www.facebook.com/events/1501131193538503/1502225580095731/

UPDATE- here is the video of Push Pull II

I also just got tickets to see William Kentridge’s opera, Lulu, in November.

Finally, my photogravure “The Snowyard” will be in a Print Festival at the IPCNY Oct 16-17, with a reception at 6pm on the 17th.

The next thing I am putting on my plate is to write a project proposal for RAIR, a residency at the recycling plant in Philly. The artist Abigail DeVille collaborates with them often-