Integrious Ornate Generosity: 2020 updates
Happy New Decade! Hope you are all well.
I am actually really excited about the 20’s, for some reason. I just think we are due for a positive zeitgeistal rebound. What if we are on the cusp of a Renaissance, where our cultural priorities shift from general hoardsome narcissistic hostility to an era of integrious ornate generosity?!
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Also as the decade comes to a close, I have been reflecting on my art career as I have completed 10 years calling myself an artist. I feel like expected journey of an artist is somewhat a linear road: you develop a style and a statement and narrow your focus, find something that works, align with a gallery, and then make minor variations and repeat and continue, etc. Not that my process has been the opposite of that, but I feel like I started out very much driving down paved road but then pulled off a gravel exit, parked my car, wandered off into an abandoned IHOP and performed a passionate seance devoted to each ancient promotional material I found. Years passed, and when I attempted to walk back to my vehicle, forest had reclaimed the road and cars have been rendered obsolete.
The art world is such a vast matrix these days and the institutions that defined success in the past are beautifully irrelevant. I am not in a hurry to get anywhere specific, and I am really engaged by my immediate life and adventure right in front of me. Which is all to say: my practice is as divergent as it ever has been, and I’m having a harder and harder time summarizing what it is that I do. Somehow that seems very healthy?
Do you feel the same way?
On Saturday, Jan. 11th, I am leading a LARP (Live Action Role Play) as part of a walkshop with The Walk Discourse, and organization based in San Fransisco and New Orleans, that organizes walking exhibitions. Learn more and acquire tickets here
The premise:
Facing bankruptcy and environmental disaster, the United States has sold the city of New Orleans to a foreign private investor group. The sale was executed in private without knowledge of the general public. This walk will be the investors' first experience setting foot in New Orleans after the purchase, and we have no prior understanding of the culture or history of the city. We will discuss our initial impressions of the existing city and ideas to develop or dismantle existing institutions to get the highest return on our investment.
It’s going to be really fun. I’m really excited to try this.
I am in a residency with an app-developer called Scandy.co, which creates volumetric scanning and augmented reality apps. I’m using their software to scan things and create models and 3D print them in color. I’m also working in their shared-office maker-space using the CNC machines and laser engravers. The finished products I am making are kind of grotesque decorative mirrors. It’s definitely art but it’s the closest thing I’ve ever done to a fabrication/design project. It’s been challenging and I’ve earned a lot!
In the spring, I’m going to be working with the Fossil Free Fest again, this time designing the installation for the festival along with artist Hannah Chalew, organized by Imani Jacqueline Brown and Bob Snead presented by Antenna. The last one was really powerful and I’m really excited to be involved again.
I’m still teaching at Tulane University and working at the Joan Mitchell Center as a technician and artist assistant.