"Wash" "Closely" as AiOP 2011 artist , Michael Borowski, shares his festival experience

Michael Borowski

Wash/Closely

Photo provided by Michael Borowski

During the week of Art in Odd Places, exhibiting Wash/Closely, which dealt with rituals of the domestic bathroom, acquired the rituals of daily labor. Each morning I would arrive at Wix lounge at 10am. If I hit rush hour and the trains were packed, I would be late. Not that anyone seemed to mind. The mornings were slow. I think we both hoped for more of an audience. I had only one intentional visit during the week, from a group of dutiful Parsons undergraduates. At noon I would leave for a lunch break. The first day of the exhibition I could barely eat because I was so nervous about the public response to my work. My thoughts were focused on a potentially ambivalent or even aggressive public, or even being asked to leave by the police. I should have been worried about the transportation. Moving the human-sized sculpture, on its four indoor casters, down heavily trafficked sidewalks, and across cracked asphalt streets, was no easy task.

Each day at 1pm I would walk alongside my sculpture, rolling at a snails pace. My eyes were fixed on ground in front of me, looking out for cracks or bumps that might catch my wheels. It was physically exhausting. Once I reached 14th street, I would set up the piece, take a few photographs, and then pass the hours watching people’s interactions. Most people walking past gave it an odd look, doing a double take as they passed. I heard a few people say “What’s a sink doing in the middle of the street?” or “Only in New York!”. But every so often someone would briefly stop to look at him or herself in the mirror. They did it without asking what it was, or to whom it belonged to. It didn’t matter that it was a sculpture, or part of the Art in Odd Places festival. The sink and mirror were familiar enough. These brief moments contained everything I hoped my work would address: people exhibiting a level of vulnerability that comes with fixing your hair in the mirror, and a willingness to perform these subtle, intimate rituals in public.

Konstantin Dimopoulos believes the term "Art in Odd Places" is a misnomer ...

Get to know another Art in Odd Places 2011 artist before we officially kick off the festival later at TheaterLab (see invite information here) . The Art in Odd Places Festival brings artists all over the world. This year, we have Konstantin Dimopoulos hailing from Australia. Learn more about him and check out what he plans to bring to the festival.

Konstantin Dimopoulos, photo provided by artist

AiOP: Tell us about you?
KD: I see myself as a conceptual and a social artist; an artist who believes strongly that art can change the world, that we all have the capacity in us to effect and change our environment through art.

I like the idea of social art - bringing it into the very fabric of society – into the streets. In fact Art in Odd Places is a misnomer in my opinion, because art began outdoors not indoors, scratching on walls, on the ground, in caves and it has returned outdoors through the work of graffiti artists and performance artists. I see galleries and museums as being the Odd places to show art.

I am based in Melbourne, Australia, but I create public artworks around the world. I have 2 streams to my art practice - social art installations; and public sculpture.

AiOP: How  did you hear about Art in Odd Places?
KD: I have always loved the idea of New York. The architecture, the gritty ness, the jazz, the theatre, the arts, it’s a living artwork in itself, always breathing and evolving. And so I have been following various events in the city and feel the idea of Art in Odd Places because in some way I feel that’s where artwork belongs. I hope that other cities globally take note of what you do.

AiOP: Walk us through your thought process in creating your piece for Art in Odd Places.
KD: Ideas flutter around my head constantly and the idea of The Tattooed Tailor, the idea of bringing a bit of the history of my tailoring ancestry to the city that never sleeps – the idea of fabric, of material and looking at it and transferring it onto the streets like a graffiti artist was the crux of how the process began. Threads that come together to make a whole. I am using lace patterns to describe RITUAL because lace is often used in ritual - we see it in ecclesiastic robes, christening gowns, wedding dresses.

Lace on Bench, photo provided by artist

AiOP: How is the preparation coming along?
KD: It's all going really well. What is particularly exciting is that this type of work involves getting on the street and beginning the process right there so that its both experimental and performance. The unknown is something that appeals to me because I may find something on the street to link my idea to something that wasn’t planned, so as I said before, to some degree the work is spontaneous, relevant to the context of its site.

AiOP: Where will we see you along 14th street during the festival? 
KD: Again like all ideas they can change on the day but I like the idea of using bus shelters (terminals of exits and entrances) and covering them (around 9th and 10th Avenues) and linking those to a number of shop windows or bags of rubbish found lying out there. I like to create a work that is in effect a living, changing work - surprising people.  It's an evolving, organic process so that when I get to 14th Street something from the street itself may trigger where the work will go. And you might see me at 14th Street Park.

AiOP: What do you hope to bring to the festival?
KD: I see myself as part of a beautiful tapestry and when put together with the other artists this will make sense.
I hope that people see the beauty in both the lace patterns themselves and in the structures the patterns cover. The beauty that is “their” street and when we leave “the street “ will still be there, and then memory will keep our works alive. I like the idea of memory playing a part in the work. Also I am a stranger in NY and whatever I bring I also hope to take back to Melbourne, Australia - the vibrancy and energy of ” the street” back with me.

AiOP: Any message to the people who will be in 14th street during the festival?
KD: I hope people come up and talk to me while I am creating the lace graffiti forms. Interaction with the public is always part of the work I create.  Life is about change and how we cope with it. It’s about the individual rituals that are created to make sense of it all. Often these are invisible because they occur behind closed doors, in churches, in homes. The festival removes these doors for a small period of time, so you can see them. Your environment changes every day but because it's gradual you don’t notice it. The festival is like fast-forwarding time so that for a brief moment the hand of the artist, "the shaman" becomes visible.

AiOP: Where can we reach you 
http://www.kondimopoulos.com
http://www.twitter.com/kondimopoulos

AiOP: Any final words?
KD: "The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed." Albert Einstein (thanks Albert you rock!)

Laurie Breton's pilgrimage for the festival is longer than Holy Week

The festival is coming upon us soon, so it is time to get to know another artist gracing 14th street on October. Allow me to  introduce Laurie LeBreton. For the festival, she promised to bring 300 figures with her. What figure you may ask? Well it has something to do with her journey, thus naming her work "Pilgrimage". Let's just say she hopes each "piece" will bring "peace" to anyone passing by. Yes, that is a lot of peace.

Watch out for these figures  next week. Rumor has it she will collaborate with another Art in Odd Places 2011 artists. For now, get to know Laurie a little more.

Laurie Lebreton, photo provided by artist

Aiop: Tell us about you?
LL: I make installations of sculptures of handmade paper and sound. I often work with
multiples of objects, although the 300 figures in “Pilgrimage” is a record for me. One
important influence in my work is the popular religious art of other cultures – Indian
roadside shrines, Haitian altars, the stands selling religious objects outside Central
American cathedrals. I find my materials everywhere – fabric stores, dollar stores,
grocery stores.

AiOP: How did you hear about Art in Odd Places?
LL: Doug Stapleton, the curator for the State of Illinois Gallery in Chicago, forwarded the
information to me. He thought that “Pilgrimage” would work well in the festival.

AiOP: Walk us through your thought process in creating your piece for Art in Odd Places.
LL: “Pilgrimage” has about 300 figures 14” to 30” tall. I start with simple wire armatures
that I cover with wet handmade paper. As the paper dries and shrinks, the figures
change shape slightly. When they’re dry I ornament them in various ways. No two
figures are alike.

photo provided by artist

I started making the figures after a visit to Laos, where I went on two pilgrimages. One
was to a cave that had 2,000 Buddhas in it; the other was to a small shrine with two
Buddhas on the side of a hill. I was very moved by both pilgrimages and decided to
create my own moveable shrine when I came back.

photo provided by artist

photo provided by artist

My figures aren’t necessarily Buddhas. They’re kind of generic spiritual figures that
viewers interpret in many different ways, as spirits, as ancestors, and as a depiction
of community. I’ve exhibited them in very different settings – a community garden, a
downtown Chicago building and in a public park.

The sound component of “Pilgrimage” – you’ll be able to hear it through Broadcastr
during the festival – is called “A Full Taste of Happiness.” It’s about both my trip to
Laos as well as the pursuit of happiness in all our lives.

photo provided by artist

AiOP: How is the preparation coming along?
LL: It’s coming along really well! I was wondering how I was going to find a spot from
Chicago, but another AIOP artist, Dahlia Elsayed, suggested I contact the 14th Street
Framing Gallery, at 225 W. 14th Street. The space is perfect! My only challenge is
getting all 300 figures into the window.

AiOP: Where will see you along 14th street during the festival?
LL: I’m installing on the 29th. You can visit the figures anytime during the festival.

AiOP:  What do you hope to bring to the festival?
LL: Maybe a sense of peace? A quiet moment on a busy street? I’m always surprised by the many different things that viewers see in the figures, but it’s usually peaceful.

AiOP: Any message to the people who will be in 14th street during the festival?
LL: Yes, of course. I hope you’ll stop for a minute and look Maybe you’ll catch a moment of
peace.

AiOP: Where can we reach you 
LL: Laurie.lebreton@gmail.com

AiOP: Any final words?
LL: Yes – the Miraculous Artist and I will be doing something together at one point during
the festival. We haven’t decided yet what or when, but we anticipate something
spectacular when we combine her power with the power of the figures.

Art in Odd Places Festival Opening Reception: September 30 @ Theater Lab

You are cordially invited to attend the 7th Annual Art in Odd Places Festival Opening Reception happening at Theaterlab on September 30 between 6-9 PM. Come meet our biggest participating artists to date and enjoy performances from Egeman Sanli and enSubtitles, to name a few

Egeman Sanli

enSUBTITLES

Click the invite below to get  more information about the opening

We hope to see you there!

PRESS RELEASE | Art in Odd Places 2011: RITUAL

CONTACT:  Charles Davis • (901) 487-4053  • AiOPpr@gmail.com                    Ed Woodham  •(347) 350-4242 •artinoddplaces@gmail.com ART IN ODD PLACES PRESENTS 2011 FESTIVAL Rob Andrews, Union Square Cleaning, interactive performance (Photo: Ryan McManus; Designer: Dan Ownbey)        RITUAL   OCTOBER 1-10, 2011 on 14th Street, NYC A festival exploring the odd, ordinary,and ingenious in the spectacle of daily life.   OVER 60 ARTISTS TAKE ON 14TH STREET THIS OCTOBER… Press Preview: Thursday, September 22, 1pm at Underline Gallery, 238 W14th StRSVP: AiOPpr@gmail.com NEW YORK, NY (August, 2011) Each year, Art in Odd Places (AiOP) produces a thematic public art festival along 14th Street from Avenue C to the Hudson River in New York City. From October 1-10, the 2011 edition of AiOP will take place along this east-west corridor in Manhattan, and will center on the theme of RITUAL, including ideas of ceremony, habituation, myth, obsession, superstition and liturgy. This year’s guest curators, Trinidad Fombella (El Museo del Barrio) and Kalia Brooks (MoCADA), selected over sixty artists to participate in what has grown to become the largest festival AiOP has organized in its fifteen-year history. The curators reviewed applications from an international open call that responded to the idea of RITUAL. The selected sixty plus projects successfully incorporate elements of the “ritualistic,” exploring the sacred and profane of everyday actions in the particular context of the urban environment. As one of New York City’s major cross-town streets heavily populated by businesses, pedestrians and commuters, 14th Street compelled the arrangement of projects that play with the behaviors of the street’s transient congregation. Alejandro Guzman, El Santero: Seven Days Seven Nights, performance. Courtesy of the artist. In the contemporary moment, the idea of ritual is a highly provocative concept. It is most commonly linked to the set of actions in religious ceremony or cultural celebrations, but the notion is also applicable to the socializing behaviors performed among individuals in the daily engagement with the social environment and civic space. This installment of AiOP seeks to subtly disrupt the procedures of the everyday or emphasize the ritualistic character of small gestures or acts in both religious and secular life, to establish temporary moments of ecstatic contemplation in the public realm. AiOP 2011: RITUAL offers artists the opportunity to make art outside formal spaces by reconfiguring their artistic practice as public actions or urban interventions without the confinement of a gallery or museum space. AiOP 2011: RITUAL will engage passers-by, providing them with a new perspective of an otherwise familiar environment through site-specific installations, social and spatial interventions, video and audio projects, performance, new media, and other inventive practices. In addressing the distinct manifestations of ritual, the festival aims to broaden the public’s outlook on art, city dwelling, and social conventions. Projects include interactive group foot cleansings in Union Square, ceremony of tree kissing, 24-hour endurance performances along 14th Street. Also featured: a video suited public disco announcer, Haikus written on toast, dancing costumed ameba cocoons, rose petal walkways, and ceramic deities placed indeterminately along 14th Street throughout the festival. FACT SHEET for AiOP 2011: RITUAL Who: Sixty + artists' projects from around the world. Guest curators: Kalia Brooks, MoCADA Director of Exhibitions and Trinidad Fombella, El Museo Del Barrio Exhibitions Manager/Assistant Curator. Festival Producer, Lucia Warck Meister. Founder/Director, Ed Woodham. Collaborating Organizations are Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Art (MoCADA), El Museo del Barrio,  Parsons New School for Design, Pratt Manhattan Gallery, Theaterlab, 14 Street Y, Norwood Club, 14th Street Park in Hudson River Park. ARTISTS: Sherry Aliberti, Scott Andresen, Rob Andrews, Nobutaka Aozaki, Julia Barbee, Korhan Basaran, Caitlin Berrigan & Anya Liftig, Tom Bogaert, Michael Borowski, Javier Bosques, Brodigy, Corrine Cappelletti, Seth Caplan, Patricia Cazorla, Joanna Chak, Flora Choi, Missa Coffman, Concerned New Yorkers, Bindi Cole, Andrea Cote & Michael Drisgall, Elizabeth Demaray, Konstantin Dimopoulos, Dahlia Elsayed, Margarita Garcia, Lawrence Graham Brown, Alicia Grullon, Alejandro Guzman, Harvey loves Harvey, Judith Hoffman, Alexa Hoyer, Nova Jiang, Doreen Kennedy, Laura LeBreton, Abigail Levine, Lulu Lolo, Alban Low, Mary Ivy Martin, Maski, Scott Mason, Carolina Mayorga, Park McArthur, Marissa Mickelberg, Andrea Moccio, Felix Morelo, Sheryl Oring, Joaquin Palencia, Julie Puttgen, Edith Raw, Leon Reid IV, Ryan Ringer & Jenny Santos, Jacolby Satterwhite, Gene Schmidt, Leo Selvaggio,  Anne-Katrin Spiess, Liana Strasberg, Sasha Sumner,  Katie Urban, Juha Valkeapää and Geert Vaes, Mary Valverde, Gretchen Vitamvas, Lois Weaver & Lori E. Seid, Caitlin Webb, Genevieve White & Rafael Sanchez,  Jenifer Wightman, Alexandra Wolkowicz, and Amy Young. Visit http://www.flickr.com/photos/artinoddplaces for high res images.   WHAT: Art in Odd Places 2011: RITUAL is the 7th annual NYC festival featuring performances, interventions, visual installations, video, sound and more in public spaces.   For more about the event’s history, visit the website. WHEN: October 1 to October 10, 2010; for schedule, visit www.artinoddplaces.org. Press Preview: Thursday, September 22, 1pm at Underline Gallery, 238 W. 14th St (RSVP AiOPpr@gmail.com). Opening Reception: Friday, September 30, 6-9pm (Theaterlab, 137 W14th Street) featuring many of this year’s festival performers. Special Festival Events GLANDATHON WORKSHOP, Interactive Performative Keynote Address: Linda Mary Montano, Saturday, October 1, 2-4pm. (Parsons New School for Design, 66 Fifth Avenue, Kellen Auditorium) Tour with curators to follow. RSVP AiOPnyc@gmail.com RITUAL IN PUBLIC SPACE, Panel:  Tuesday, October 4, 6pm. (Pratt Manhattan Gallery 144 W 14th St, 2nd Floor).  PSEUDO-PUBLIC SPACE, Public Space Panel:  Saturday, October 8, 6pm. (Parsons New School of Design, 65 W11th Street, 5th Floor, Wollman Hall). Tour with the curators to follow. WHERE: 14th Street, Avenue C to the Hudson River, New York City. Subways: 4, 5, 6, L, N, Q, R, W to Union Square; 1, 2, 3, A, C, E, F, V to 14th Street. L to First Avenue, Third Avenue, Union Square, Sixth Avenue, and Eighth Avenue. Maps are available: Parsons New School for Design’s Shelia Johnson Design Centerlobby, 2 W13th Street and 66 Fifth Avenue; 14th Street Y, 344 E14th Street; Pratt Manhattan Gallery, 144 W14th Street; Rags A GoGo, 218 W14th Street and at many businesses along 14th Street & vicinity. WHY:Art in Odd Places (AiOP)aims to present art that stretches the boundaries of communication in the public realm by presenting artworks in all disciplines outside the confines of traditional public space regulations.  AiOP reminds us that public spaces function as the epicenter for diverse social interactions and the unfettered exchange of ideas. AiOP is a project of GOH Productions. www.gohproductions.com.

Andrew Demirjian's "Scene from Last Week" is looking at you

"Scene from Last Week" ended its run in Midtown East last Thursday. Unbeknownst to everyone,  another element of this piece was the"surveillance" portion, where the work of art was watching you watch it. How meta indeed! The artist, Andrew, shared a couple of videos seeing people react with his piece. Truly interesting.

In collaboration with Art in Odd Places, "Scene from Last Week"  will move to a new place along 14th street ( 218 and 225 W.14th) starting July 15 to August 8.

Enjoy the video and happy fourth of July!

Andrew Tosiello's matchbook tickets can go up and down. Buy them during the Art in Odd Places Festival and win big

Can you believe the Art in Odd Places Festival is just a few days away? We hope to see you during the Opening Event @ Theater Lab this Friday. If you haven't RSVPd, now is your chance to do it:

http://tinyurl.com/aiop-opening

To keep the excitement going, we are featuring another artist appearing on 14th street  come October. On a previous entry, we mentioned about "bartering" through the works of Heather Hart. This time,  2010 AiOP artists Andrew Tosiello, is encouraging everyone to GAMBLE. With his project called "The Numbers Racket", Andrew will be selling match books tickets at various businesses on 14th Street. What is fascinating about this project is the method of determining the winning number: a formula from the stock prices report. Stock Prices?? Where do you even begin to wrap your head around the idea? You now ask what does the winner get? Well, I encourage you to check the Art in Odd Places website, take a chance and play the game. Andrew's work is definitely not your grade school raffle drawing.

Andrew Tosiello

Aiop:  Tell us about you
AT:  I live in work in San Francisco, CA. My work employs the images, history and tactics of the Italian-American Mafia to consider the work of art. I also work in the trucking industry.
  
Aiop: How did you hear about Art in Odd Places?
AT:  Curator Petrushka Bazin and I both attended the California College of the Arts and she had participated in an earlier version of my numbers racket project.

Aiop:  What made you decide to submit a proposal for the Festival?
AT:  The location and theme of the festival seemed tailor-made for this project.

Aiop: How is the preparation coming along for your piece this October?
AT:  I'm basically all set for the project. Now I just need to get to New York.

Aiop: What's your favorite spot on 14th street?
AT:  I can't really recall any places on 14th Street from previous visits, but I'm sure I'll find a favorite during the festival.

Aiop: Do you have a hidden talent you would like to share?
AT:  No.

Aiop: Any message to the people who will be in 14th street during the festival?
AT:  Players Win and Winners Play.

Just as he said, Winners are players!  Check the website and the Art in Odd Places twitter feed (@ArtinOddPlaces) to find his performance dates and  location.

Interview with Chris Twomey

Art in Odd places caught up with Chris Twomey, AiOP alum 2005, after her recent successful show ASTRAL FLUFF: Carnal Bodies in Celestial Orbit” at the Creon Gallery.


Who is Chris Twomey?

Chris Twomey is an award winning artist living in New York City. Awards include a Ford Grant, CAPS, the Kitchen Center, Experimental TV grant and American Film Institute Directing Internship. Recent 2009 group exhibitions include BRIDGE ART FAIR - NYC/MIAMI, Broadway Gallery, NYC, Gallery Thomas Jaeckel, NYC, and Creon Gallery, NYC. Other exhibitions in 2010 included ASTRAL FLUFF:Carnal Bodies in Celestial Orbit solo show @ CREON Gallery, Fountain New York (March 4-7) and upcoming Westbeth Gallery (July 10 -August 1).

AIOP: How was your Art in Odd Places experience?
Chris: Great – I installed a stroller in front of the store Enchantment at 9th Street between Second and Avenues.

AiOP:Walk us through your thought process in creating your piece for Art in Odd Places
Chris: I imagined a stroller that had the room of a 16 year old in the space of a two year old, chained up to a railing, unattended. It was an interesting experience.

AiOP: Any words of wisdom for artists who are interested in becoming part of this year's Art in Odd places festival?
Chris: Think out of the box. Don’t go for the usual. Stretch limits.

AiOP: What projects are you currently working on?
Chris:Working on a survey exhibition of my work over the years at WESTBETH Gallery. A catalogue with an essay by Eleanor Heartney will accompany the exhibit. Opens July 10, 2010

AiOP: Any final words?
Chris: Keep up the good work AiOP!

Thanks Chris and we look forward seeing your exhibition this coming July!

Chris was generous enough to share some photos from her most recent work at the Creon Gallery:

Chris Twomey ASTRAL FLUFF INTERVIEW for Routledge’s “Reframing Photography” series by Rebekah Modrak, Bill Anthes

If you can't get enough of Chris' recent work, please visit http://www.creongallery.com/for the reviews/interviews/events she curated for “ASTRAL FLUFF: Carnal Bodies in Celestial Orbit”

Also,

Just a reminder: The Art In Odd Places call for artists submission for AiOP 2010:CHANCE deadline is fast approaching! Visit the website for more details

Visit us next week for more featured AiOP artists.

OPEN CALL FOR ARTIST SUBMISSIONS Art in Odd Places 2010: CHANCE

Art in Odd Places (AIOP) invites artists working across disciplines to propose projects for the festival's sixth installment (October 1 – 10, 2010). Taking place along 14th Street from Avenue C to the Hudson River in New York City, we encourage proposals that explore this location's rich history, configuration, and heterogeneous communities. The forthcoming edition of AiOP is informed by various interpretations of the term CHANCE, including proposition, luck, randomness, risk, and opportunity. Within this context, artists are given the opportunity to apply their practice to an unconventional structure—playing off the idiosyncrasies inherent to the urban plane.

With emerging formats of communication, our culture has become a fertile ground for broad intersections between individuals, ideas and situations. This has resulted in unpredictable exchanges, relinquishment of control, surprise collaborations, and instances of spatial revelation. AiOP 2010: CHANCE intends to provide passersby with a new perspective of an otherwise familiar environment through site-specific installations, social and spatial interventions, video and audio projects, performance, new media, and other inventive practices. In addressing the distinct manifestations of chance, the festival aims to broaden the public’s outlook on art, city dwelling, and social conventions.

2010 guest curators: Yaelle Amir and Petrushka Bazin.

AiOP Founder and Director: Ed Woodham.

Visit http://www.artinoddplaces.org/ for artist application and guidelines.

Application Deadline: May 14, 2010, midnight