Accumulation

Nothing Here?

2006-10-12T16:16:00.000-07:00

links to current project blogs, websites, etc:

Fort Grunt: www.fortgrunt.com

The Aquarium: www.fgaquarium.com

Fort Grunt blog: fortgrunt.blogspot.com

Fort Grunt myspace: www.myspace.com/fortgrunt

bits of durham

2006-05-21T18:04:00.000-07:00

this is the most southern thing i've found since i've been here.

thank you durham public access.

Old collection article

2006-03-16T18:32:00.000-08:00

article from the wall street journal a few weeks ago...

Who's Going to Want Grandma's Hoard Of Antique Gnomes?

Since Kids Aren't Connecting With Collecting Today, Answer May Be Nobody

By JEFFREY ZASLOW
February 25, 2006; Page A1

In Graytown, Ohio, 51-year-old Doug Martin has amassed a collection of 5,000 pencils, most of them never used. Some date back to the 1800s.

He sometimes wonders what will become of his prized collection when he dies. Will his children stick them in a sharpener and write with them? "It hurts to think about it," he says.

Young people today have little interest in the stamp, coin or knickknack collections of their elders, so an aging America can't help but wonder: What's going to happen to all those boxes in the basement?

Well, here's an idea for Mr. Martin: "His children can glue his pencils together and make a coffin for him," says Harry Rinker, sharply.

A collectibles researcher in Vera Cruz, Pa., Mr. Rinker, 64, himself collects everything from jigsaw puzzles to antique toilet paper. But he thinks sentimental "accumulators" need a reality check. "Old-timers thought the next generation would love their stuff the way they did," he says. "Well guess what -- it's not happening." He advises: Enjoy your collections, die with them, and have no expectations about anything after that.

Collecting things, once a big part of childhood, is now pretty much passé with kids. Preoccupied with MP3 players and computer games, they are rarely found sitting at the kitchen table putting postage stamps into collectors' books or slipping old coins into plastic sleeves. These days, baseball cards and comic books are collected by adults. Of the estimated 37 million Americans who identified themselves as collectors in 2000, just 11% were under the age of 36, according to a study by marketing consultant Unity Marketing Inc. Most were over 50.

Some collectors say they wouldn't mind if their heirs just sold everything on eBay. The Internet keeps alive a market for many objects by making it easy for far-flung collectors to find one another. But people do fear that collections lovingly assembled will be mishandled or trashed by their offspring. That's why collectors groups are now organizing emergency efforts to keep things out of the wrong hands.

The International Sewing Machine Collectors' Society, based in London, gets in touch with families when it hears of a member's death, so the machines can end up with someone who will treasure them. They're often too late. One member recently died and his family sold his old sewing machines to a junk dealer for $200. The machines, some dating to the 1860s, were worth about $65,000, according to Graham Forsdyke, secretary for the 800-member society. He adds: "I don't know of a single collection that's been passed down after a death."

Young people today amass hundreds of songs on their iPods and, decades from now, may very well be collecting "vintage" cellphones or other electronic devices, says Linda Kruger, editor of Collectors News, based in Grundy Center, Iowa. Or it may just be so much junk. There's no way to predict the future value of such things, she adds.

In the meantime, most young people don't connect with their elders' collections. In Goodyear, Ariz., Zita Wessa, 72, says her grandchildren walk past her display cases of gnome figurines "and show no interest at all." Her 45-year-old son, Scott, says he'd be happy to inherit one of the giant cabinets she stores them in, but the gnomes "don't do much for me. If she begged me to take them, I would, because I love my mother. But I don't know what I'd do with them." (His mom says she paid $5,600 over the years for her 160 gnomes, but their current value is uncertain.)

William Adrian, 72, of Plainfield, Ill., collects miniature guns. He says his three children "wouldn't give you a twenty-dollar bill for any of it."

"Collecting is about memory, and young people today have a different memory base," explains Mr. Rinker, who is well known in antiquing circles for his books and personal appearances. He lives in a 14,000-square-foot former elementary school in Vera Cruz, Pa. He uses the classrooms as storage spaces for his 250 different collections. He says he doesn't care what becomes of it all once he's gone, and if his children opt to use his rolls of century-old toilet paper, "that might be the finest honor they can give me."

Mr. Martin, the pencil collector, is unlikely to have his collection stay in the family after he dies. His daughter, Elizabeth Jefferson, 24, says if she inherits the pencils -- which her dad values at $4,500 -- she'd donate them to other collectors or to a museum.

If new generations of collectors don't materialize, the value of items will plummet. That's why marble clubs, to generate enthusiasm, send free marbles to schools. The U.S. Mint has a Web site with cartoons and computer games to entertain kids about the thrills of coin-collecting. Indeed, children have shown considerable interest in the state quarters program.

In West Chester, Pa., Judy Knauer, founder of the 700-member National Toothpick Holder Collectors' Society, gives away toothpick holders to young people. She tells them, "Here's your start." But few get hooked.

Some collecting groups have created unstated policies. The 650-member National Milk Glass Collectors Society -- a group devoted to opaque glass -- holds an annual auction. When the rare young person shows up to bid on an item, older collectors lower their hands. "We back off and let the young person buy it. We want them to add to their collections," says Bart Gardner, the group's past president.

In Palo Alto, Calif., Tom Wyman, 78, has about 900 antique slide rules. Mr. Wyman belongs to the 430-member Oughtred Society, named for William Oughtred, who in the 1620s invented an early form of the slide rule. The group hosts lectures to entice youngsters to embrace slide-rule collecting. But Mr. Wyman says such "missionary work" is a hard sell. "It's quite a challenge to give a talk that keeps everybody awake -- both the 80-year-old collectors and the 12-year-olds in the audience."

Mr. Wyman's son, Tom, 41, who doesn't know how to use a slide rule, admires his dad's devotion to preserving the instrument. Still, he appreciates that his father has promised to eventually dispose of the collection. "He has told me, 'I won't saddle you with this,' " says the younger Mr. Wyman. Some of the slide rules are worth just pennies, while others could sell for $2,000.

George Beilke, 61, of Tulsa, Okla., has amassed 35,000 used instant-lottery tickets. His daughter, Sarah, 23, says that when she tells friends about the collection, "they look at me like I'm crazy. It's guilt by association." During her childhood, her dad tried to get her involved. He gave her tickets and assumed she was diligently putting them between the sheet protectors he provided. But she just hid them in her room.

Ms. Beilke is set to inherit the collection and says she'll donate it to the 200-member Global Lottery Collector's Society. She may hold on to a handful of tickets as keepsakes. "It would keep the bond between us," says her dad. "I just hope she puts them in the sheet protectors."

Some collectors now accept that younger people don't want their stuff. Philadelphia Daily News columnist Stu Bykofsky, 64, has collected the last editions of 79 daily newspapers that closed down since 1963. His adult children don't want the old newspapers, which fill a closet. "The only kind of paper my family wants is greenbacks and stock certificates," he says.

He hasn't been able to find a university to take his collection, either. And now he's under the gun to get rid of it. He is about to marry his third wife, who is 27 years old, and in the prenuptial agreement, there's a clause that he must dispose of the collection by Dec. 31. She wants to store her shoes in that closet.

"At least I can wear my shoes," says his fiancée, Jennifer Graham. "He never reads those papers, and besides, he likes how I look in my shoes."

Berlin exhibition, Accumulation #2

2006-01-26T19:48:00.000-08:00

After four days in Berlin (which were mind-blowing, I'll detail those in another post) I met Ancz from KunstOffice and began to install the show. I had heard about this from a colleague from undergrad, Amze Emmons, who knew of them, and somehow we were about to work it out for when I was going to be there. So, the work was installed on Wednesday, the opening was on Friday, from which I left from immediately to fly back home.

The space itself was quite nice- right on the old border between east and west, on the edge of the Mitte area. Ancz and Peter, who opened and run the space, were able to get it from the people who own it very cheaply- the space was previously unused and run-down, so they were happy to let them clean up and use the space, which fir their criteria of having wall space and large windows, so the work could always be seen. They leave the lights on at night (see the bottom two photos) for this reason.

The installation itself went smoothly, though I was glad I had made (and brought) as much as I did. The walls had niches in them that made some pieces, like the case of red and yellow blobs, unworkable- I was okay with cutting some down, particularly the ones that were more all-over patterns like the New Orleand houses, but some couldn't be cut to fit, so they were left out. So with Ancz's help I figured out which ones should butt up against others, which would work best seen from the windows, etc. It took about fours hours, to sort, trim and hang everything, which didn't seem too bad but was kind of stressful- I would have liked to have done it alone, it was a little weird to have an audience to the decision making. Sort of like my thesis show at Indiana, having various people help me out, but I was also busy trying to direct them, but also having to make on-the-spot decisions about things I didn't count on happening.

The opening went okay, a small amount of people were able to make it, which wasn't bad, as their openings are usually on Saturdays and run late, and I had to leave at 7pm.

Dordrecht residency, week four

2006-01-15T15:23:00.000-08:00

The final week, which to be honest took a long time to get there, was also good and productive- I felt I had plenty of work, so I could start working back into older things that I wasn't happy with, experimenting more and loosening up. Looking at it now I don't think I pushed it as far as I could, but work I can definitely build on- I am particularly interesting in working bigger, to having the large brush strokes and graphic elements, but overlaying this imagery in large compositions.

From here I was able to throw out some work and roll everything up into two tubes, with an improvised duct-tape handle and head out to Berlin to meet Michael and put up the show...

Dordrecht residency, week three

2006-01-15T15:21:00.000-08:00

By the third week, I can say I was feeling a little less anxious, not too worried about getting enough work together to show, though I felt I needed to get as much done as I could, so as not to leave me short-handed. As I hadn't been to the space yet I couldn't predict how the show would go together, so I kept the idea of the paintings being pieces of film to be edited on sight as a theme. Some of the drawings were still coming from the sketchs worked up in Venice, while others came from things I was seeing in Holland, including trips to Antwerp, Brussels, Tilberg and Hoge Volve National Park. Obviously other images were coming from television, particular images from the flooding of New Orleans, which tied into concerns about accumulations and piles while feeding some new ideas in current (January 2006) work about ideas of homes and containers.

Dordrecht residency, week two

2005-11-28T15:41:00.000-08:00

I've realized that I didn't address some of my early decisions in the previous post, so I will do that here:

In August I had found out I had an exhibition set up in Berlin, that could actually open while I was in town visiting a friend in town. So, only seeing a map and some pictures from the website, I knew I had a decent amount of running wall space, and that they had a set of large windows that you could see the work from the outside, and that they would keep the lights on all night so the work could be seen even when the gallery was closed. Combining this with know I had a small amount of travelling to do with two suitcases of my things, I decided to work on drawings and paintings that would all be the same height, and would be a visual investigation of relationships between the pile and collections. The local art store in Dordrecht had 150 cm tall rolls of paper, so I decided on 75 cm, so I would be able to bring the work with me relatively easily. Also the studio had a number of random paints and varnishs, along with paint sticks, so I only picked up some brushes and enamel paint at a hardware store. I also ended up buying computer speakers for my walkman so I wouldn't go insane.

After going through these boring tasks I was able to really get working, trying to work on a number of strips at once, using the walls, table and floor to work in different ways, and allow some works to dry and gestate while I works on others. Eventually I found a ladder and was able to work three high. I was working from the prep drawings and photos posted here earlier, and thinking of different ways of layering this imagery, along with new things I was seeing while travelling around Holland and Dordrecht itself.

Here are some more images pulled from the second week, to follow the evolution of some strips, while others that were finished or going nowhere were rolled up to make room for new work.

Dordrecht residency, week one

2005-11-27T00:05:00.000-08:00

Okay, so perhaps now I'll be able to catch up on things... I was also thinking that part of what wasn't working in the way I was approaching this before was trying to write too much on the spot, not reflecting back enough. Perhaps symtommatic of my general way of approaching work, or continuing to work without really thinking things through enough, a weakness brought on during three years of grad school. So, I don't have the luxury of working nonstop, so a refocusing on quality is in order.

The residency in Dordrecht was fine, though in no way was it necessary for me to be in Holland for this. The funny thing about this is that the studio is situated in a large former Catholic grade school, with a number of other studios that are given out by the city government. So, naturally, the studios are full of older artists, while younger artists wait out their deaths, apparently. So the older artists seem mistrustful of the younger artists, while the younger artists resent the older ones for making traditional work. So I was pretty much left to my own devices, which was good in one way but bad in others. Sort of like seeing a movie by yourself, and continuing to do so all day, every day for a month.

The studio itself was really nice, one large room with big walls to work on, and another room off of it, the size of a bedroom, with the shower, kitchen, bed and desk. The bathroom was down the hall, in a sort of creapy hallway. The city was nice enough, good for walking and bike rides, and close to Rotterdam. I did get out for a few trips, which made it worthwhile too, to check out a country I've never been to before.

studio

studio

bedroom

bedroom

I had decided, before I left, that I would work on a series of long drawings, 75cm high and of varying lengths, derived from the imagery of piles and collections I was working on. I was able to get rolls of paper pretty easily in town, and set to work quickly, not really plotting out much, just getting a feel for working.

After this first day or so, I decided to work over these, and starting some new ones on the floor. Part of the idea was to keep it loose but also to try a variety of media (oils and acrylic, spray paint, oil bars, charcoal, washes, varnish) and applications (brush, pour, spray, roller, masking out) and see what quality of surfaces I could get.

I think I was also becoming more interested in color, in more vibrant, annoying colors, which seems to have come and gone in my work in the last ten years, it seems like it gets too annoying and I retreat back into more muted colors, monochromatic work, or to stark black and white. Again, this seemed like a good opportunity to confront this again...

Life is so funny sometimes

2005-11-12T12:12:00.000-08:00

No, this isn't going to be some sort of Garrison Keilor post about that dude who works at the 5 and dime and wouldn't-you-know-it bullshit. Things here in Middletown have just plain blown, and I am in the process of looking to move to Phildelphia. I hope to start catching up on posting, but this is unlikely right now... more soon?

Getting caught up

2005-10-15T01:58:00.000-07:00

So I am back in the US, in Middletown, Delaware. I will be catching up on the project in the next few days, putting up pictures from the progress of the work in Holland and the exhibition in Berlin, with notes and thoughts on the work in progress, and some thoughts from now looking back. Be patient...

Working in Dordrecht

2005-09-20T21:15:00.000-07:00

So no posts for a little while. Sorry.

Anywho, I'm here in Dordrecht, south of Rotterdam, working on the residency. The first thing that I've come to realize here is that I really don't need every hours of every day to finish work. I've become so used to working around various things that to have all day, every day to work seems almost silly. I thought yesterday that maybe I have trained myself to work quickly (and perhaps carelessly) in order to get work and Produce Work. This would definitely be something left over from grad school, so maybe I'm still in transition of moving from quantity of work to quality, I mean, I don't need anymore piles of work to eventually throw out.

So, I've been able to get out and see some interesting cities around here, though I'm tiring of half-assed museums. The De Pont Museum in Tilburg was the one exception, generally quality work and an interesting city too. I will post some of the pictures from here and elsewhere when I get consistant computer access.

The work itself has gone well, I have been working on paintings and drawings on paper, 75 cm high and 1 to 3 meters in length, using the imagery of piles and collections, and mixing to the two along with other things. These will be edited and displayed as one long work in the gallery in Berlin, and reworked into new projects later in the states.

More soon.

Prep Drawings VI

2005-08-23T21:38:00.000-07:00

Prep Drawings V

2005-08-23T21:34:00.000-07:00

Prep Drawings IV

2005-08-18T20:50:00.000-07:00

Prep Drawings III

2005-08-18T18:56:00.000-07:00

Prep Drawings II

2005-08-15T18:33:00.000-07:00

More images to work with...

Prep Drawings I

2005-08-15T18:24:00.000-07:00

I'm putting up some prep drawings I've been working up for the residency in the Netherlands- most of these are from the last few months, working in the studio at home, thinking of incorporating the visual aspects of piles into drawings or paintings. More to follow...

Collection photos

2005-08-13T01:54:00.000-07:00

So, I'm starting to wrap things up here in Venice, and going through more photos and getting ready for the residency in the Netherlands. I think I'll be working on small drawings and larger works on paper, trying to integrate what I've been researching here in Italy, seeing if I can make some connections with the piles and collections, as well as shop windows, and the general arrangement of stuff. Here are some more of the collection photos, there are some ideas I've been thinking of with arrangements of surrogate objects (some sort of random shape I would make and cast) I will get to talking about later.

Temporary pile project

2005-08-10T17:06:00.000-07:00

In the last few weeks I have here, Dan Hlavinka (who also works at the scuola here) and I decided to work on a mural on a temporary wall put in out campo. Part of what interests me about this is that the structure was built because the building being worked on doesn't have any space to store equipment or materials, so they build a temporary structure in a square until the work is done. They are usually built of trashy plywood, so it wasn't hard to get permission to paint them. Hopefully we will have time to bring it along before we leave- it's sort of a battle between the piles and the little men Dan made in his last mural. Here's the progress to date:

The Fresh Wall

Dan working at night (view from our apartment)

One wall Started

One Overzealous Student

Moving stuff

2005-08-09T18:17:00.000-07:00

Some images found from Italian newspapers of piles and moving stuff.

New approach to blog

2005-07-28T11:35:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking about how to work with this blog, ways of making it better, and in turn the project, and one thing that seems strange is that I've been writing drafts for this but never getting around to actually finishing them. At this point it seems pretty stupid not to give myself latitude to think out loud- so, while the interest for other possible viewers/readers is going to be low, I will continue to write and post images in a way that will help me work out ideas faster, and that process for me is inherently messy. For this reason I've also shut off the "allow new comments" function, most responses seem to come in emails anyway, and the emails and comments received have only added to the confusion on my part- sort of like a rambling grad critique, only I'm not in grad school anymore.

So, back to work...

Chris Jordan

2005-07-28T11:04:00.000-07:00

I found an article yesterday in the International Herald Tribune about photographer Chris Jordan, who's work deals with some of the same issues I am working with in this project. He seems to be aiming more for a Gursky-esque patterning, but it is interesting to start with a similar starting point of documentation and figuring out where to go with the material. At this point I think I am more interested in dealing with the piles as is, not so much making something new with materials- the cellphone project in particular seems like it could get sort of new-agey or silly in a swirl. I would also argue that there is much more to cover than just American consumerism, there is lots of stuff everywhere.

Thinking about it more, I think what bothers me more about it is when you look at his website- look where he has images of the work in a gallery, with people next to them. They seem like they should be huge (like Gursky or Struth huge), but are actually kind of small, 4x5 ft or something- they still seem containable, which would seem to undermine what he says he's trying to do. Even small images aranged throughout a room seem like they would have more impact.

In the end, I think this ties into a concern I have about what I'm working with, that the work (to borrow a phrase from Ben) could be to "talkaboutable" in that the work ends up being boring in comparison to how you can talk about it. I mean, good for an article in the New York Times, but I think the results are disappointing on Jordan's part.

Here are some of the links, with some images here of his work. I copied the article, as it most likely will be pay-to-read in a month or so.

http://www.chrisjordan.com/

http://www.bookofjoe.com/2005/07/quantity_has_it.html

A Great Big Beautiful Pile of Junk

By PHILIP GEFTER
Published: July 24, 2005

Tucker, Ga.

CHRIS JORDAN stood on a ladder, gazing down at 3,000 or so used cellphones in a pile on the warehouse floor. His 8 x 10 view camera was perched even higher, on a tripod 12 feet above them. He had spent the morning figuring out how to include every one of the phones in a single photograph, eventually sweeping them into a neat, trapezoidal-shaped mound, the shorter side closer to the camera, or what would be the bottom of the picture frame.

Mr. Jordan had flown from Seattle, where he lives, to photograph at CollectiveGood, an electronics recycling center in the Atlanta suburbs. "I want to give a concrete sense of our consumption, with the real quantities," Mr. Jordan said, from his perch on the ladder. Of course, for one image to represent the actual number of annually discarded cellphones - 130 million, according to CollectiveGood - he would have to reproduce the picture he was now getting ready to take about 43,000 times, creating a panorama that would stretch 61 miles if the photos were laid side by side.

The millions of consumers who buy new cellphones each year give no thought to the ones they are discarding, Mr. Jordan suggested. "If they're only thinking about the environmental consequences of their own actions," he said, "they have to change their lifestyles."

Mr. Jordan has certainly changed his. In 2002, at 38, he abandoned a 10-year career as a corporate lawyer. The job had merely been supporting his photography habit: for a long time, he didn't even have a car, and had spent his money on photography equipment, sheet film and processing. When he finally left his job, he went to the trouble of resigning from the bar, intentionally dismantling the safety net that his legal experience would provide should photography not be an adequate livelihood.

"As a lawyer, I represented industry," he said. "I felt I could no longer reconcile representing some of the companies, based on what they were doing."

Mr. Jordan's free fall from law to photography is about to pay off. He is currently preparing for an exhibition of his series of photographs of industrial refuse - his first solo show in New York, in September, at the Yossi Milo Gallery in Chelsea.

Most of his subjects - huge piles of crushed cars, mounds of discarded cellphones, bales of recycled cans and mountains of sawdust - were photographed as he found them at industrial sites. Now, at a cellphone warehouse, he was beginning for the first time to rearrange the objects into a swirling pattern based on drawings he had been making throughout the day, adding an interpretive layer to his formal documentary approach. He wasn't sure if the experiment would yield a successful visual metaphor; it might be too obvious or corny. The shape signified to him the enormity of a galaxy of electronic refuse and also the idea of a whirlpool, as if the cellphones were swirling down a drain.

"Walk on them," he said playfully, urging an observer to follow him as he stepped on the pile. Cellphones crunched under his feet as if he were treading on plastic cockroaches.

By Mr. Jordan's standards, the cellphone recycling center here is a highly controlled and thus luxurious situation in which to photograph: the proprietors are hospitable, the interior environment is air-conditioned and well lighted, and the subject matter is malleable. In contrast, most of the photographs in his series were taken at active industrial sites, where a photographer and his tripod can seem particularly vulnerable.

His image of crushed cars was made at a metal recycling plant in Tacoma, Wash., after he saw a barge float by with cars piled several stories high on their way to the shredder. He drove to the building and obtained permission to photograph there in exchange for pictures to be used on the plant's Web site or in its annual report. He signed a release and was escorted through a menacing industrial maze in which huge cranes hoisted crushed cars above him, and dump trucks unloaded them all around him. He returned to Tacoma five times to get the picture he wanted.

Most facilities, though, were not so accommodating. "Container Yard No. 1, Seattle 2003," was shot at the Port of Seattle. He had seen the containers from an overpass, and when he drove up to ask if he could photograph on the site, he was given a long list of reasons why he couldn't: homeland security issues, OSHA regulations, accident liability considerations. So he returned to shoot the containers on a Sunday when the yard was empty.

"It was unbelievably scary and stressful to be there with my 8 x 10 camera," Mr. Jordan said, adding that the picture of containers was among the first in the series, and one of the few to address the infrastructure of mass production, as opposed to the resulting detritus.

Another early image is called "Recycling Yard No. 1, Seattle 2003," a print 50 inches wide, which he hung on the wall of his studio. Visitors would approach the picture, stare, and say, "Look, Altoids." Also identifiable are Campbell's Soup cans, Slim-Fast containers, Libby's pumpkin pie mix, Hunt's tomato sauce, Rosarita refried beans: a kind of "Where's Waldo?" of consumer refuse.

As Mr. Jordan crawled around on the mound of cellphones, he heard a distinct ring beneath him. Seth Heine, the founder of CollectiveGood, later said that it's not uncommon for people to throw out cellphones that are still active. Then he offered another statistic: If all the cellphones thrown out annually were recycled, they would yield 202,000 ounces of gold (worth about $84.8 million), and keep 65,000 tons of toxic materials- battery components and elements like cadmium - from landfills and incinerators.

The process of making the picture of cellphones at CollectiveGood was more laborious than Mr. Jordan would have liked. The old-fashioned 8 x 10 view camera requires individual film holders; each sheet of film has to be slipped into the holder in total darkness, with the emulsion side set to face the lens. On his first night at the Red Roof Inn, he turned his hotel room into a darkroom, hanging sheets and blankets over the windows, placing towels under the door to block the light from the hallway, and taping a magazine over the light switch itself, which glowed like a night light.

"I hate the technical aspect of photography," Mr. Jordan said. "I don't want to stop to think methodically and make calculations, like adjusting the light meter, setting the f-stop, the exposure, remembering to close the lens, seating the film holder properly. I crave to be able to photograph the way a painter paints - in a loose, expressive way. With the view camera, I have to stop and think like an accountant."

Still, when the images are as large as some in his forthcoming show- one picture of small electronic wires called diodes is eight feet long - every step is crucial, from exposure to development to scanning to printing. To make sure that his images are scanned for optimal size, color fidelity and accuracy of detail, he spent six months researching film-scanning operators.

The resulting precision of detail gives Mr. Jordan's large-format photographs a truer-than-life clarity. "What I aspire to is to have the viewer look directly at the subject, as if they're looking through a window at the real thing," he said.

Mr. Jordan said he had been greatly influenced by Andreas Gursky, whose eye-zapping images depict, among other things, our commodity-patterned world. Even the enormous scale of Mr. Gursky's prints is meant to reflect the globalization of capitalist sprawl.

"Gursky's work proved to me that representational photographic art can be cutting-edge relevant, as well as complex and beautiful," Mr. Jordan said. But he added that Mr. Gursky took "the point of view of detached observer, which I started with in my consumerism work and am finding myself no longer comfortable with."

Instead, Mr. Jordan is an openly passionate advocate - or maybe a protester. While he is aiming for visually resolved images as an artist, the point is to heighten awareness about our collective environmental disregard. But art and advocacy can be at odds, the goals of one often canceling out the other. "My goal," he said, "is to try to face the complexity of the issue and honor it."

Mr. Jordan needed one more day at CollectiveGood to get just the exposures he wanted of the cellphones. Once back in Seattle, he sent an e-mail message describing the moment when, after all the planning, the traveling, the setting up of his equipment and the arranging of the cellphones, he felt "something like joy and recognition and excitement, plus some instant anxiety," because he had to get it on film safely or it would be lost forever. He did get it on film, had the film scanned, and spent several days working in Photoshop to blend two different exposures into the single panoramic swirl, "Cellphone No. 2, Atlanta 2005," 7.5 feet long, above. The image shifts between documentary evidence (real cellphones in mass quantity) and metaphor: a vortex evoking the endless flow of consumer detritus.

Project revision

2005-07-03T01:33:00.000-07:00

So, I think it's time to think about scaling back on this project a bit. My original intention was to have these ideas connected to this idea of accumulation but in fact I think I've strayed too far in trying to cover too much. The good people at the Chinati Foundation and the McColl center seem to agree, as well as some of the feedback from this site and emails I've received.

What I would like to do is focus more clearly on the quantity and consumption issues, while also dealing with collections and archives- both addressing the urge to have more things, and the way they are arranged (carefully and museum-like in colelctions, randomly in piles when one is done using something.) That will be the focus of the work in Holland, working on large drawings and paintings in conjunction with sculptural projects using piles and collections.

I will be using this blog as a space to redefine these concerns, while also maintaining it as a space to work problems out- thus it will still be messy and unfocused until I get this together.

Exhibition kits

2005-06-11T23:13:00.000-07:00

I had a new idea for this project today, thought I'd try writing it down here, and think through it.

The idea would be to create "exhibition kits" for each of the projects, either before or after the actual exhibtion. Each kit would consist of A4 sized sheets in black and white, of images, text, etc to correspond to the project. For example, for Accumulation #1, there would be images of all the company logos, the quotes, the portraits, and other prints in the show here in Venice.

These kits would come with a statement, wall labels, and instructions and possibilities for hanging. The recevier of this kit would then photocopy the items, and curate the show as they see fit. (this also raises the possiblity of someone with access to free photocopying to make piles of photocopies...) So, that person could set up a show in their house, or paste them up around town- they could diplay it however them wish, with the only stipulation being that the person must send images of the works in situ.

Kits could be sent out in the mail, or sent as a series of pdf's. This project appeals to me in that the graphic nature of the work lends itself to a simple production value, and as a way to get work out there without relying too heavily on galleries, residencies, etc.

Other ideas to think about:

- breaking down images in a grid, so they can be displayed large
- using this before and after the "official" projects to rethink ideas
- including actions or found object sculptures (re: piles, collections) as part of and installation.
- should be done in a way that wouldn't destroy someone's house- using tape, etc

If anyone has suggestions, send them along. Also, if anyone thinks they would be interested in a kit, email me or post here on the blog.

La Biennale

2005-06-10T21:38:00.000-07:00

Courtesy of Jerome Grand, I've been able to go to the openings for the Biennale here in Venice. I thought I'd get some pictures and post them, though maybe due to the possibility of the heat, there weren't that many arty people dressed to the nines. Oh well. Here's some of the highlights that I've been able to see.

These were from the Austrian pavilion in the Giardini. It's a pretty ugly building, so it seems the artists chose to engulf it in a mountain structure that you had to go around back to enter. The insides consisted of the scaffolding and walkways, along with small doors you could open and stick you heads out of.

A couple of installations in the old Italian pavilion, Giardini. The top one is a mirror ball hanging with no lights on it, the artist used a router to blow holes in the wall where the light would be. The bottom columns are wood lather cut telephone books, floor to ceiling. There was a lot of video at this venue, way too much to take in with the amount of people there.

Ed Rushcha enduring a press conference. I think the question here was "if you had the mandate, what would you remove from the United States and what would you replace that with? I know this is a bit of a hypothetical question, but..."

Some installation shots from the Arsenale. Again, a little too much to take in, but some more interesting uses of space. I was there today to see John Bock, he was there only for the openings giving performances. Pictures below.

It was facinating to watch the audience while this was going on- in particular parts involving flour, eggs, cereal, etc, rubbed in each others faces, and throw in the air. There was a large number of props, as well as video- the projections from performances run regularly, but stopped during the performace and used only to provide a different view on what was going on, like when a performer was climbing out of a pile of stuffed animals, there was an interior view of the pile.

Lots of things to take in, I'm glad I'll be here a few more months to go back and really look...

Collection images

2005-06-06T06:43:00.000-07:00

Some images from a museum on San Lazzaro. Beginning to work more on the ideas with collection and archives, public display of objects, etc. More soon.

Copyright to work on site

2005-06-05T21:18:00.000-07:00

Just to be clear for those of you wanting to use things on this blog...

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Accumulation #1 (opening)

2005-06-04T22:00:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday was the opening for the first Accumulation, I gave my camera to Dan, the print shop assistant, to get some pictures from the evening. Matilde Dolcetti (the Scuola's director) introduced me and I talked for ten minutes about the project, some of the ideas behind it, and where the project might be going, and then I answered questions. Along with the normal prosecco, acqua frizzante and snacks, there was also strawberries. Thank you Dan.

Aspects of Research

2005-06-04T09:15:00.000-07:00

Art Forum, May 2005 (p.255):

"We live in the informations age, and that explains the growing and probably excessive eagerness of some artists to accumulate data (images, recordings, graphics, and texts) in the course of analyzing a given problematic. Supposedly, gathering such materials will provide a more complete understanding of the intricacies of the topic at hand. This socioligically informed approach has become characteristic of a large number of contemporary art practices, as witnesses in the last two Documentas. It is sometimes difficult to distinguish between a TV documentary and an artist's work. Indeed, some art producers, to use Catherine David's term, do not differentiate between political activism and art." - Juan Vicente Aliaga

Part of what was interesting about this was that this was the intro to a short review of work by Pep Dardanya, and Aliaga never gets around to explaining how this paragraph really connects to the artist's work. I am curious about the "supposedly" he throws in there; I would assume that research could only aid an artist in making work. Perhaps he is hinting at the artist who would hide behind the research in a project, or try to justify a half-assed project by the amount of research put into it. At Documenta 11 (in 2002) I was struck by the amount of the kind of work he's talking about, specifically in that most of it was really, really boring. It seemed like that work needed the art context to justify it, because on strict documentary terms, most failed miserably. It will be interesting to see what is in this Venice Biennale, if there is a recent shift away from the kind of work or not.

Which brings me to the Biennale: I will most likely be slowing down my studio production a bit in the next week or two to see what is going on in town. I will try to get some images of work from the Biennale to post for those of you who can't make it out here, with some writing.

Accumulation #1 (exhibiton and comments)

2005-06-01T23:40:00.000-07:00

Well, the first Accumulation project is up, at the Galleria il Sotoportego in Venice. Seems good to have it done, though the project itself still feels unfinished. I didn't really get it to a point where I feel I have a solid message, which might not be a bad thing, but a failure on my part as that was a goal with this project; I'm still adverse to creating work that is too didactic.

I think this exhibition shows a work in progress, as the Koch brothers and their company are hard to but a finger on, which is completely what they want. So perhaps this is one that would be better served as another kind of project (book, web, etc.) Though I still like the idea of making huge protraits of them...

So here are some of the images with some captions.

The squares around this end of the gallery are collagraphs of the logos of all the companies Koch Industries owns. The stacks on the bottom of the third image are silkscreen protraits of the brothers, intended as a giveaway. The reverse has a quote from each brother.

The black case contains dyed cyanotype portaits of the brothers, and the book on top contains most of the online research I did in the past 8 months on this project.

These are the 36 quotes taken from the website, they are silkscreened in different shades of red on paper, and stacked 12-16 high on the walls and nailed at the top. (They've since curled up each day it's been up, due to the humidity.)

This wall has the Failed Alterpieces and the large potraits. The smokestacks flanking the alterpieces were a last minute decision. I am still not very happy with the alterpieces, again fearing being too didactic or sarcastic. I thought they would provide a counterpoint to the dry silkscreen quotes, in their painterliness and materials (acetone trandsfers, oil paint, ferric chloride and shellac.) Still thinking of working on them this weekend, to push them further, either completely detroying them or attempting to clean them up.

On the left is a collagraph of the white house-esque Koch headquarters, on the right a view of a Koch plant, a carborundum print in three parts.

I think that might be the next step with this project, something being clear about the things Koch has definitely done (stealing oil from tribal and federal lands, bankrolling several conservative think tanks, giving money to republican candidates, environmental laws broken, etc) and try to be a clear as possible, combining that with strong imagery to make something memorable, something people who have written about Koch have failed to do, and something Koch themselves encourages.

Newer stuff

2005-06-01T21:29:00.000-07:00

pile03a
Originally uploaded by Lou Joseph.

I was working with Illustrator today to try some different ways of rendering piles, but without the sketchiness I usually resort to. I'll probably keep working on this for the next week or too, to see if I can work this back into some drawings or whatever-

Also, check out www.piles.com. Not the piles I've been working with, but worth a look...

Exhibition images to be posted soon.

Project adjustments?

2005-05-31T21:55:00.000-07:00

Today I received a second rejection letter, from the Center for Land Use Interpretation, for Accumulation #4. It seems important to the overall project to include these rejections, but I am rethinking the idea of not reproposing or redoing projects. For example, I have 4 applications out: if I get accepted to one I should be pretty happy, but then I have three failures that seem a bit glaring.

Part of the idea of tying these projects together was that they would help support each other in terms giving weight to individual projects. This might be a little misguided. So, should I retry rejected proposals elsewhere, under the same number, or under a new one? Either way it seems important to really think and write these proposals better, and maybe don't get too overzealous in trying to apply to too many things. Also, try not to put all my eggs in one basket, that basket being residencies and programs where others decide if I can do them- perhaps a book project or a web project are in order...

Good news too: Accumulation #1 is up! Images to be posted tomorrow.

Update, and pile photos

2005-05-14T21:10:00.000-07:00

Still working to complete work for Accumulation #1, which is scheduled to go up May 29, 2005, here in Venice. I'll be writing more soon, until then, here is an image from the studio and some photos of piles in Rovereto.

Accumulation definition

2005-05-05T22:52:00.000-07:00

n. (1) The act of gathering or amassing, as into a heap or pile. (2) The process of growing into a large amount or heap. (3) The amount that has accumulated or been accumulated. (4) An increase by natural growth of addition (accretion.) (5) several things grouped together or considered as a whole (collection, aggregation, assemblage.) (6) The purchase of a particular security throughout a period of time. For example, the accumulation of a substantial quantity of stock by a portfolio manager may take place over a period of several weeks or months in order to avoid driving up the price of the stock. (7) Increase or growth by addition especially when continuous or repeated. (8) An increase in the amount of a fund or property by the continuous addition to it of the income or interest it generates - to treat a stock dividend as principal when local law classifies it as incoem my be deemed an accumulation.

Pile Definitions

2005-05-05T22:37:00.000-07:00

n. (1) A quantity of objects stacked or thrown together in a heap. (syn. heap) (2) A large accumulation or quantity. (3) A funeral pyre. (4) A very parge building or complex of buildings.

v. (1) To place or lay in or as if in a pile or heap. (2) To heap something in abundance. (3) To form a heap or pile. (4) To load (something) with a heap or pile. (5) To move in, out, or forward in a disorderly mass or group (pile into a bus; pile out of a car.)

n. A heavy beam of timber, concrete or steel, driven into the earth as a foundation or support for a structure.

n. A collection of objects laid on top of each other (heap, mound, cumulus)

syn. batch, mass, mess, muckle, slew, stack, wad, heap.

Acc03: no news IS good news

2005-05-03T12:29:00.000-07:00

Rejection letter from Spare Room in Baltimore received today. I will have to rethink if I want to try this somewhere else, or develop the idea better, it was pretty weak.

Re: production v. consumption

2005-05-02T20:59:00.000-07:00

From Meaghan Morris' "Banality in Cultural Studies"

Among [Mica Nava's] enabling theses–and they have been enabling–are these: consumers are not "cultural dopes," but active, critical users of mass culture; consumption practices cannot be derived from or reduced to a mirror of production; consumer practice is "far more than just economic activity: it is also about dreams and consolation, communication and confrontation, image and identity. Like sexuality, it consists of a multiplicity of fragmented and contradictory discourses."

I'm not now concerned to contest these theses. For the moment, I'll buy the whole lot. What I'm interested in is firstly, the sheer proliferation of the restatements, and secondly, the emergence in some of them of a restrictive definition of the ideal knowing subject of cultural studies."

Acc03: no news?

2005-04-30T22:10:00.000-07:00

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

2005-04-28T21:30:00.000-07:00

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

2005-04-28T21:12:00.000-07:00

Some quick studies for the second project.

Acc12: Collection

2005-04-25T21:55:00.000-07:00

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

2005-04-23T18:06:00.000-07:00

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

2005-04-21T21:37:00.000-07:00

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

2005-04-21T20:55:00.000-07:00

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

2005-04-19T19:11:00.000-07:00

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

2005-04-19T07:19:00.000-07:00

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

2005-04-19T00:17:00.000-07:00

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

2005-04-18T21:27:00.000-07:00

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...

2005-04-18T05:41:00.000-07:00

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