More Poetry
Some of the text that DIDN’T get used in “Swagger & Remorse”
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Unsolicited Reaction from a Bystander
This comment came in an e-mail exchange, regarding viewing our videos from the street.
Swagger & Remorse
Not long ago, I began looking at several on-line “confessional” websites. I sought to use the texts as triggering mechanisms for poems. I found that despite the “unpolished” and “non-literary” quality of the on-line writings, the tone is beautifully colloquial and conversational, brave and unabashed. There is poetry beneath the swagger and remorse.
A Poetry Dialogue: On-line Sourcing
Have you ever picked up a book at random in a library, bookstore or from your own bookshelf, then idly thumb the pages? I am sure you have. Wandering the internet via Google or any on-line search engine or blog serves the same purpose. Therein exists a continuous & what one might call a Browsable Narrative.
Three unrelated thoughts
I liked that the video facades would be silent, which gave me a chance to rant as loudly and as much as I wanted on any subject without danger of having to justify myself. Or further, to try to make myself heard through the silence, like talking extra loud to someone who doesn’t speak your language in hopes they will understand. I’ve done a number of pieces (primarily live performances) which depend upon difficult to impossible systems of communication: trying to address the audience in Klingon, using signaling whistles, magnetic letters, hand written notes, walkie-talkies, and creating word games or questionnaires to filter language. One thing that interested me about this project is all of the different things which are potentially read into silence. If you listen politely to a talkative stranger at a bus stop they may take your occasional nodding for acceptance, disdain, passivity, stupidness, or bestow upon you the qualities of someone else they know. Although despite the silence of my videos, I guess I am really the talkative stranger, blurting out theories and views to whoever is in the area. But I think the silence still functions as a depository for the audiences ideas about what I may be saying as much as for my own words.
Every artwork is attempting to say “Hey look at me I’m brilliant” anyway, so I decided to start there. And then my videos are also in competition with each other. On each screen I appear, I am trying to distract the viewer from the other four next to me.
Maybe this is everyday stuff for artists who normally work large, but I was really surprised by how much the videos change from different vantage points. When making them, I was primarily imagining the exterior view, with all five screens visible at once and seen as a part of the building and the city around it. (I had a photo of this tacked up in my studio while I was working). But looking at the videos from the catwalk is very different, and I think much more tactile. The scale becomes more evident, because you cannot really look at all of the screens at one time. The figures in the video become gauged more in relation to the size of one’s own body. For example, John Bannon’s parade viewers often seem life-sized, and my own face is gigantic, aggressive, and much more authoritarian. From this view I also experienced the desire to run from video to video to see what I was missing on the other screens. People were making shadow puppets in the projection beam, and children were picking the nose of my ranting video projection.
-Deva Eveland
Inside versus Outside
Thinking back to our panel discussion (which turned out to be more of an informal conversation), a good deal of time was spent wondering about how the video façade is experienced. Does it attract a “non-art” or an “in-the-know” crowd? How many people outside actually pass by it? Is it viewed as a billboard or is it obviously a display of fine art? It was also described as a membrane, emphasizing the potential for art institutions that are not so hermetically sealed against the outside world. But there seemed to be a sticking point as to whether “For Public Consumption” actually does what the title suggests.
Whether or how much the show engages new audiences is difficult to measure, but I don’t think we should assume it does not, or that the effort is wasted. If you project images out into a public space where anyone is free to pass by, who sees it? What do they make of it? I actually enjoy the not knowing. In part I guess because some of my own most interesting experiences, (art or otherwise) have happened at random. One minute walking down the street thinking about laundry, and the next being caught up in something completely unexpected. In my own past, these experiences have often been solitary, or briefly shared with a complete stranger without being otherwise registered, counted, tabulated, etc.
Urban Renewal
The Adventurous Type has come to the end of the road, and thus it’s time to deinstall and recycle! The Happy Hydrogen Bomb is no more, and what took a week to put into place is taking….roughly a week to come down. Stinking paint on the floor….
Check out Chris assisting the artists in clearing out the lobby.
Picking through the debris…
It's what we call a teaser...
Any guesses?
A Consuming Challenge -- by Shawnee Barton
I challenge all of you For Public Consumption blog readers to buy a food or beverage from your childhood. Consume it, and share a memory about the food or drink with someone else. If you’d like to share your memory with me, you can leave a comment below.
On my next grocery trip, I’m buying Little Debbie Peanut butter bars and Hi-C Fruit Punch.
About my piece, To Celebrate My Favorite Day --By Shawnee Barton
Many Americans place importance on introspection, self-revelation, and creating a particular self-image to portray to the world. Our enthusiasm for therapists, talk shows, and emotion-regulating medications are all examples of individuals trying to better understand and live with themselves and others.
My work is a manifestation of my own complex relationship with introspection and the creation of a personal identity. I often use written and visual personal narratives to examine sociological tendencies. While openly trying to better understand my world, I also use satire to explore sociological concerns such as dislocation, relationship and group dynamics, class issues, and the ways in which we communicate with each other.
We're on TV!
WGN Morning News stopped by the Art Center to showcase some of our education programs and Speaker Project, Juan Angel Chavez’s exhibition current. In their Around Town segment, students from Canter Middle School demonstrated the work printmaking work they did with Teaching Artist Mary Tepper now on view in Gallery 5 called Exquisite Rivers. WGN also spoke with Juan in Gallery 1 while a band performed inside the speaker. Check out this link on the WGN Morning site. Select ‘Around Town at Hyde Park Art Center’ and see Canter students and Media star Blake Bradford!
Major Sporting Events: For Consumption by the Elite -- by Shawnee Barton
I couldn’t wait to watch the De La Hoya/Mayweather fight last night, but it turned out to be pretty unremarkable. Mayweather and De La Hoya are in such great shape that when final bell rang, both men looked like they were just getting warmed up, like they had jogged around the block instead of battled for the world championship. The fight was so lackluster that I spent the first five or so rounds celebrity spotting. J Lo and Marc Anthony were sitting about six rows back on the right-hand side, John McCain—center, three rows up. Leo DiCaprio (sporting a White Sox cap) and Toby McGuire were cheering from the top left-hand corner of the screen.
Earlier on TV, I spotted the Queen of England standing in the grandstands amongst various famous, wealthy Americans at the Kentucky Derby. I remember watching Nick and Jessica’s trip to the derby a few years back on an episode of “Newlyweds”. During the two hours of live coverage that preceded this year’s two minute horse race, it was easy to forget that the show wasn’t just an equine themed episode of “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous”. For one afternoon, a track where horses run around in mud is transformed into a giant V.I.P. lounge. Seeing all these celebs made me realize that major sporting events aren’t really made for non-elite public consumption anymore.
Stream of Consciousness - John E. Bannon
Hello.
My entry for this exhibition is titled
My entry for this exhibition is titled
Stream of Consciousness. It consists of video footage of crowds attending parades shot from the point of view of a camera mounted on a float. The following is a history and some of my thoughts on the project.
Murray Language Academy Project
HPAC Teaching Artist Jessi Walsh has been working on a project over at Murray Language Academy, and in conjunciton with the project, we’ve displayed some of their work in the Muller Meeting Room (part of 4833 rph) at the Art Center. Swing by to check it out and participate in the project. 100% inteactive! For more info go online and check out the project blog and stories here.