Acc03: no news?

For the third installation, I have proposed to the spare room gallery to have an installation using newspapers- piling them in the room, then pulling them out and illustrating a image from that page on the paper, and posting it on the wall.

I think I've moved away from the idea of posting the drawings, and have grown more interested in having the different piles and the changing function and shape of the piles be the focus. So, a pile of newspapers, in stacks. This pile becomes a source for the second pile, which is made by balling up individual sheets in the center of the room. This second pile is the end result of that action, but then becomes the source for the third pile. The third pile would be the organization of the sheets into neat, folded papers- one of A1-A2-etc, one of A3-A4-etc, one of B1-B2-etc and so on. So the focus of the piece wouldn't be the creation of an end product, but it would be focusing on (and documenting) the organization systems and the physical forms the piles take on.

No word yet from the organizer of the space- it's actually a spare room in her home, so I wonder if I could actually be there enough time to do this. I am also curious if she will go for the original proposal, as it seems clear to me that it's kind of weak.

Also, I noticed a show in Philadelphia by Brian Wagner called Accumulations- he's working with piles of things (brooms, measuring sticks, etc) so I imagine it's natural to use the word; I thought I should note it here anyway. Here's the link, it looks like interesting work:

http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/view.php?id=9365

Acc01: Charles and David Koch

For the first project I'm focusing on the Koch brothers, who are the owners of Koch Industries. There are several characteristics of this company that interest me:

1. That it is a privately held company.
2. That it is highly diversified, and difficult to pin down which companies they own at any particular time.
3. That anything the company supports are almost all libertarian or republican free enterprise promoting organizations, which have a philosophic mandate to promote the unchecked ability of individuals to grow more wealthy.

What is difficult at this point is finding anything out about the brothers themselves. David ran for vice-president in 1980 (Ronald Reagan wasn't conservative enough), while Charles seems more active in the various think-tanks their foundations support (Cato Institute, the Institute for Justice, the Reason Foundation, etc.) Charles is also apparently viewed as the pretty one; he's the one in all the company literature, interacting with employees and tutoring orphans.

So this project is not really a stab at a "political piece" but an investigation into the reasons behind the nearly non-stop growth of this company; they've gone as far as changing the entire politcial disourse in the United States, in order to make more money. Is there a reason for this? There are obviously simple answers, like that they just want money, or they are really seeking power in some general sense. I don't think I'll figure this out right away, but of the course of this project I'll revisit this to see how it ties in with other installations.

Acc02: Pile Drawings

Some quick studies for the second project.

Acc12: Collection

Found a pretty interesting article by Edward Rothstein in today's New York Times, about the nature of museums and collecting. He compares the Liberace Museum on Las Vegas with the King's Library in the Britics Museum in London.

"In part, I confess, the comparison is a provocation. But it is just slightly more extreme than comparisons that have become commonplace in recent museum theory. The argument goes something like this: the "traditional museum" has extraordinary authority and prestige. But why should it? Its stature has been achieved primarily through the expenditure of money and the exercise of power. And such dominance must now end."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/25/arts/25conn.html?8hpib

Acc01: Koch Industries

I was just working on this project for Venice, researching information online about Koch (pronounced coke) Industries. I have completed a number of prints using the brother's images, smokestacks, corporate headquarters, and logos of the subsidiary companies, but I was looking for two more projects to tie the images together. Something text based, to make the intent of the piece clear (questioning the unfettered accumulation of wealth by the company, by focusing on the fact that it's a private company, and not required to make a profit for shareholders.) In looking over the information I found, I was thinking of contrasting the statements from the Koch Industries broscure with statements about the company from other people and organiztions, both for and against. What I found is the information in the broscure was banal but memorable- I've listed some of the statements below- while indictments against the company, while blood-boiling, were unwieldy and almost unquotable. Maybe it's something to work with anyway, but being unable to make a clear argument, and the amount of sites with articles about Koch, seems to aid the company's efforts to remain annoymous. Nonetheless, here's a sample of the statements from the broscure (the word "value" was used 47 times.)

Create value. Add value. Live value.

Perhaps the best way to understand Koch Industries is to view it as a collection of “capabilities” continually searching for new ways to create value – for customers, and for the many communities which Koch companies operate in and serve.

It’s all about value…

There is a nice side benefit to hiring good people who want to create value – their passion to make the world better doesn’t stop at creating superior products.

Live values by acting on principle.

Koch’s trading companies help bring liquidity and efficiency to global commodity and securities markets.

(Our) steadfast commitment to living by a core set of values and principles – integrity, humility, entrepreneurship and respect for others, to name a few.

Every employee is an owner in this process and is held accountable for living by clearly defined principles, foremost of which is conducting all business affairs with integrity.

A company’s value comes solely from the value it creates for others.

Think about success.

The company also produces aromatic solvents, which are required to manufacture adhesives, paints and coatings.

Diverse capabilities, global reach.

The have reduced the potential for fugitive emissions to a level that others should emulate.

Assets add to knowledge.

Leading the way with innovation.

You are the heros of this information revolution.

Enbedded in everyday life.

Discipline above all else.

Koch believes the only real opportunities in the marketplace are those where it sees opportunities to create real value.

To Koch, bigger doesn't always mean better.

Koch companies support a wide variety of non-profit organizations that share our values and market-based philosophy.

A company is only as good as its people and the values they embrace.

Like a society, a company is an economic system with rules, incentives and cultural values.

We believe that the success we’ve had in the past – an any success we will have in the future – is a direct result of our commitment to live by values.

Pile photos II

More images from the pile archives. Most of these were taken in Venice, on the small road between San Basilio and Piazzale Roma. Except the last one (found on the internet)

Pile drawings

Recent drawings- ferric chloride on paper, 100x70cm

Not really based on photos, but a series I've been working on, concentrating more on the bottom-heavy piles. Not exactly what I was looking for with these, so consider them a work in progress.

project update

Proposals for Accumulation #4 (leftovers) and Accumulation #7 (collection) have been submitted to the Center for Land Use Interpretation and the McColl Center for Visual Art, respectively. Proposals will be posted soon.

Proposals for #3 at spare room in baltimore, and #6 at the chinati foundation are still pending.

pile photos

From a series of photos taken around Venice and Italy; this research will be used for the large-scale paintings and drawings to be done for Accumulation #2 in the Netherlands.

Koch images

Images of prints for the first Accumulation project, about William and David Koch, owners of Koch Industries. Check the link on the right, I will write more about this soon...

Project Overview

This work is an investigation into the idea of accumulation- under this ruberic there will be 12 proposed installations and exhibitions in locations around the United States and Europe, with future exhibitions to be determined. Projects will include investigations into American multinational companies, research on piles of used and unused goods (formally, and for use in further paintings and drawings), investigations of land use, and the moral implications of hoarding and accumulatiing. Final projects have ranged from one-time installations to more traditional displays of works on paper, to collaborative efforts and actions.

To date, the project has produced 12 prospective installations:


Accumulation #1 (you know us better than you think)
Venice, Italy: Galleria il Sotoportego June 2005
Focusing on the work of Charles and David Koch, owners of the second largest private company in the United States, I will use their business model/ corporate philosophy as metaphor for our own moments of dishonesty and hoarding. I will contrast images of the Koch brothers and their businesses with images and sculptural elements depicting piles, heaps, etc. Final pieces will be in collograph, silkscreen, drawings, and paintings, all on paper.

Accumulation # 2 (piles)
Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Atelier Toos Neger Sept. 2005
An investigation documenting the physical nature of piles, in particular the stacking and heaping of used and unused goods. Photographs and drawings will be used in conjunction with actual piles within the gallery space. All work will be made during a residency through the month of September and wil be displayed at the end of that month.

Accumulation #3 (no news is good news)
Baltimore, Maryland, USA: Spare Room Gallery Winter 2005-06
I am taking advantage of the domestic setting in this exhibition and focus on the idea of personal consumption, in particular of the news, the bits and fragments absorbed each day. Pending installation time, I would like to gather local newspapers each day and crumple sheets into a pile in the center of the room, eventually reaching the ceiling and leaving a walkway along the outside perimater of the room. As the pile grows, I would pick out a sheet at random and press is flat, pick a story and illustrate it in ink on the sheet. Ideally I would have several weeks of newspapers with which to work, and if possible, enough to begin filling the entire room. (proposal pending)

Accumulation #4 (leftovers)
Wendover, Utah, USA: Center for Land Use Interpretation Spring 2006
Residency and exhibition that will focus on the economic divide between the casino-driven economy of the Nevada side and the depressed Utah side. I will examine the modifications and permutations in the physical use of the land itself, which is constantly moved, shifted, covered, farmed, piled up, dug out, etc, to suit the immediate and economic needs of different groups of people. (proposal pending)

Accumulation #5 (scars)
Youngstown, Ohio, USA: McDonough Museum of Art 2006
Returning to my hometown, I would like to focus on the 25 miles of unusable land where the steel mills were located, mills that made the town and have also rendered the city unable to create new industry and which has been in decline since. Exhibition would be based on research focused on the physicalness of the decay, with interviews with current and former residents of the city. Final, physical form of the exhibtion would likely include a new body of paintings and drawings along with text elements and source photography. Possibly linked to a project with the CLUI, re: Accumulation #4, and a final book project. (no proposal submitted as of April)

Accumulation #6 (reflecting spaces)
Marfa, Texas, USA: Chinati Foundation Summer-Fall 2006
Relate it in some way to the past history of the project, by this point a self-history, and minimal art as piles, perhaps hinting at the ease at which a number of objects can create visual stimulation. (proposal pending)

Accumulation #7 (collection)
Charlotte, North Carolina, USA: McColl Center for the Arts, Fall 2006-Spring 2007
An exploration into the dynamics of the private collection- I want to exhibit objects from each memeber of my family that have collected something- my father (stamps), my mother (bells, trolls) my sister (giraffes), myself (baseball cards, coins from vacation), and also have a research component with the brothers who just donated their comics to Duke University. Contrast with images of these objects in groups. (proposal pending)

Accumulation #8 (excavation)
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA: Mattress Factory 2006-07
City as a pile? Still thinking this one through...

Accumulation #9 (hub)
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA: Soap Factory May-Oct. 2006
The focus for this exhibition will be the idea of the transprtation of stuff- of information, goods, garbage, people, etc. In particular, I want to deal with then idea of Minneapolis as a hub, as the main metropolitan area in Minnesota and the upper midwest (no proposal submitted as of April)

Accumulation #10 (cheese)
Rochester, New York, USA: Visual Studies Workshop 2006-07
Something with kodak, or just about the proliferation of random photographs of stuff- can it be an open call, to a number of people, to submit a minimum of 10 and a maximum of whatever of printed images? Maybe collaborate with Mary, as a contact point in the city? Making collection points in good spots in the city and outside of it- coming up with some sort of system to catalogue the photos. Maybe have access to the web in the exhibition space, or some sort of way of cataloging them on the web, becoming more in the scanning or photographing of the photos. Exchange of photos- eveyrone i can think of sends in 10 or 20, then i return to them a random 10 or 20. (no proposal submitted as of April)

Accumulation #11 (moving)
York, Alabama, USA; Municipal Workshop 2007
Perhaps a colleborative effort to solve a problem identified by the workshop, in the storage and moving of accumulated stuff, bringing the information and images and what practical knowledge I have to their endeavor. (no proposal submitted as of April)

Accumulation #12 (archive)
Rome, Italy; the American Acedemy in Rome 2007-08
This will be an exploration into the dynamics of public collections, in libraries, museums, archives, etc. This will include information from research conducted throughout the first 10 accumulations, and intended to be displayed as a collection of this information, including textual, printed, visual and aural information. (exhibitions as accumulations?) (no proposal submitted as of April)

For successive exhibitons, an archive will be kept and made available. This can include images formed into a catalog, along with explanatory text. The final project (in this case, Accumulation #12) would be a book containing images and text of the book, and also made available on the website.

Each proposal for each location is specifc to that location and if rejected by the supporting institution, will not be reassigned to another place. These projects are related serially and variations may appear within each. As the first exhibition has yet to take place, there is a limit to how far ahead I can plan- however, I intend to stick as closely to proposals as I can.

testing, testing...

So here I go. I've been going back and forth about using a blog, mostly because it seems a little strange, not in a "do I have to have a computer to do, um, blogs?" sort of way, but the (possible) public aspect to it. Or the assumption that I'm writing something important enough to have published in some way. I don't think those sort of things are relevant anymore, but I guess I wanted to get that out of the way.

I thought the main reason to start this was because people (all 4 or 5 of you) want to know what I've been working on over here and I'm been a little too lazy or busy to email individually. And, I've been endlessly writing and re-writing about this in notebooks, maybe it's time to get some feedback- so fire away, I can definitely trim some of the fat...

I will have this updated soon with images and parts of proposals; I will probably go off-topic with things abut music, what I'm reading, and links to article and other websites.

until then,

lou