Posts Tagged ‘Exhibits’



Collaborative Art Santa Fe: Part II

Posted Saturday August 27 2011 by in Art, Changing Gallery Artists, Cultural & Community Events
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Interference, Wasteland Scene

If you caught Currents 2011, you likely remember the video installation Interference: a  rubble-strewn urban wasteland that shifted to lush forest when intersected with human presence. Interactives were a big draw at the Currents exhibition (I had particular fun playing with John Carpenter’s Dandelion Clock.) With Interference, cooperation yielded a greater payback: the more people clustered together, the more forest could be reclaimed.

That bonus-through-alliance was fitting for a piece that was itself a matrix of logistical, technical and professional harmony. The creation of three artists, Brian Bixby, Charles Buckingham and Mike Root, working cooperatively from three far-flung cities –Berlin, Portland, and Santa Fe—Interference is a monument to concord and methodical cooperation.  How the piece came together was nearly as fascinating to me as the result, so I pummeled Mike Root for answers he happily supplied.

What was your intention?

We wanted to make sure the interaction didn’t feel like a game. A lot of the best interactive work I’ve seen is basically a video game mechanic. I love video games but we didn’t want to create one. So we developed this concept of 3 layers in 3D space and began playing with the idea of allowing the audience to move around inside this augmented space of 3 dimensions. Our intention was to create an experience where the viewer’s presence immediately effected the scene, first mysteriously and abstractly, then as the viewer got closer the interaction became more concrete and a message emerged: “You effect your environment.”

How did you pick the team and choose your roles in the project?

The three of us share interests in similar digital art forms, musicians, film directors. We’ve known each other for about 10 years, in which time we’ve worked on video and music projects together, including collaborative work an online ambient video series (Snowflakes) as well as developing web applications, like the website for SITE Santa Fe’s 2010 Biennial, The Dissolve. To realize our idea for this piece was really a matter of matching what we know of each other’s strengths, both technically and creatively, to the tasks at hand.

Tell me about the mechanics of working together over a distance.  How did you communicate ideas and build the installation?

We held bi-monthly Skype meetings…during [which]…we critiqued each other’s work in the context of the direction of the overall piece. Much of the honing of the idea and execution happened during these exchanges… A great asset was the ability to share huge digital files via a shared server.  “Working” files in After Effects, Photoshop and Jitter were easy to view and “demo” once we each had the source footage and photography on our individual computers.

Who did What?

Charles and videographer Eric Macey shot several days of HD footage in scenic spots around Oregon. Charles also did the sound design, which fades between idyllic natural river sounds and haunting urban soundscapes.

The piece exploits infrared data captured by an Xbox Kinect unit.  Charles spent many hours exploring how to best interpret and utilize this three dimensional data to make the installation react in “human” ways to the viewers. He configured a Mac computer to access and control the Xbox Kinect, then created a Jitter patch which took infrared data from the Kinect and used it to manipulate the audio and video components of the installation.

Brian shot high resolution photography of urban rubble and construction sites in Berlin, which he assembled into large scale seamless panoramas in Photoshop.… Through careful and tedious use of effects he transformed the images into a post-apocalyptic scene, eventually adding animation of smoke and rain along with 3D lighting.

I sorted through the extensive Oregon footage, eventually settling on a panorama of a forest, with river foreground. [I then] stitched together a giant-scale video composite from six high definition camera angles, [and] added 3D lighting to bring out certain areas of the scene. Brian and I collaborated on fine-tuning the rain and lighting of the Berlin rubble heap.

I also coordinated and interfaced with Currents curators Frank Ragano and Mariannah Amster who really “got” the piece and afforded a perfect space within the exhibition for the piece.

How did it feel when you saw the installation on site?

What was most gratifying was seeing the people who attended the Currents exhibition react in unexpectedly profound ways with our piece. We witnessed people go through an experiential envelope from curiosity to puzzlement to elation after spending a few minutes interacting with our piece. The “take away” from this experience was a spark of inspiration to re-envision the polluted decay of urban landscape as something you can affect and reclaim.

People commented on it and interpreted it in very positive and inspiring ways. One of the highlights was watching viewers grab other people nearby and create a human wall, which reclaimed the entire scene from ruins to pure nature.

New direction or never again?  

This piece was the first time for us to work on something interactive as a team, so the resulting work is something new and unexpected for all three of us. We’re applying to other exhibitions with this piece and hope to install it on a larger scale.  We’re curious to see how people in other places respond.

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Interference, River Scene

If you missed Currents 2011, or are nostalgic for a revisit, check out this video documentation. It’s no substitute for the full experience, but it’s a great commercial.

Collaborative Art Santa Fe, Pt. I

Posted Friday August 5 2011 by in Art
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Michael Rohner/Gwen A.P.: Collaboration in Process

Collaborative Art: What springs to mind?  The Dadaists of Cabaret Voltaire? Andy Warhol’s Factory? Jeff Koon’s Studio? (or any number of less famous examples.) I’m used to the idea of collaboration in the workplace, or in improvisational theater, where good work can become great work when spontaneous sharing reigns and egos take a back seat. But co-production of an art piece opens the door to a crowd of questions: Who owns the work? Who’s the author (of particular concern where one talent has the idea which another talent executes)? Where is the work made?  Your place or mine?  Same time or consecutively?

Mark Dunhill and Tamiko O’Brien reflect thoughtfully on issues central to the process of artistic collaboration in their blog Collaborative Arts: Conversations on Collaborative Arts Practise  And truly, there are no static, definitive answers. There is, however, rich potential.  Two outstanding local examples are Meow Wolf’s Due Return, showing through August 21st at the CCA and Interference: an interactive video environment created by Brian Bixby, Charles Buckingham and Mike Root, featured at Currents 2011 in June. Watch for reviews of both productions in upcoming posts.

Bonnaroo Tree, Michael Rohner/Gwen A.P., On Site Collaboration

This weekend, delight yourself with a first hand look at spontaneous co-creation at the 39th Annual Girl’s Inc. Arts and Crafts Show on The Plaza. Look for Booth G-18, near the intersection of Old Santa Fe Trail and San Francisco. Santa Fe Emerging Artist, Mike Rohner will be painting with Gwen AP, of Pittsburg PA. The pair met in Tennessee, at the Bonnaroo music festival. “Our artistic vibes clicked,” says Michael,”and we began immediately collaborating on paintings, taking turns working at the canvas in front of the main stage and thousands of music fans.” After each went home, they started a long-distance venture, where one of them would begin painting a canvas and the other would finish it up. To the right is a sample of what happened in Tennessee, since sold. Below are the fruits of the pair’s long-distance efforts. You’ll have your chance to pick up a Santa Fe spawned collaboration tomorrow and meet the gracious and ever-amiable Rohner in the bargain.

Calvin Tree, Michael Rohner/Gwen A.P., via long distance collaboration

Wee OK: Documentary Photographs of New Orleans

Posted Monday February 28 2011 by in Art, Cultural & Community Events
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Wee OK, by Grace Berge

Sprayed across the door and siding of a home abandoned after Katrina is the message, “Wee OK” plus three names and a phone number. The extra “e” is blurred, perhaps half erased, perhaps just a burp of the spraycan, an unconscious error and unwitting double entrendre. “Wee OK.” Not fully or grandly okay. Just a wee little bit okay, but enough. Don’t worry. Here’s our number. You can call.

Katrina remains New Orleans’ indelible shadow, the top note and backbeat to any discussion of the city. But New Orleans is a city of deep, rich, dimensional culture, and a wellspring of American music. Changing Gallery’s next exhibition offers two photographic perspectives on life in New Orleans: the dark destruction post Katrina and the enveloping joy of the music scene.

Grace Berge’s documentary photographs of post-Katrina devastation will be projected within an installation that mimics the environments in which they were shot.

Marc Malin, photographer, musician and long time contributor to the New Orleans Musicians Clinic (NOMC), will show photographs of musicians and musical events in New Orleans. Malin describes his work as “impressionist documents:” uncontrived, “captured moments” shot documentary style, but using equipment and processing techniques that “[convey] the feeling; and or energy present.” Head to Main’s website to see the astounding gallery of musical talents– Dr. John, Buddy Guy, The Neville Brothers, Toni Bennett, Brownie McGhee and so many more– Malin has captured on film. A portion of proceeds from the sale of prints and cards will be donated to NOMC.

Social Aid & Pleasure Club Parade, by Marc Malin

Musicians Marc Malin, Mike Handler, Larry Diaz, Janice Mohr-Nelson, Vin Kelly and Arne Bey –The Country Blues Revue– will play a set. Read more about the band, on the bill for this summer’s Thirsty Ear Festival, at their Facebook page, Marc and Mike’s Country Blues Revue

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As Changing Gallery, real estate agents Malissa Kullberg and Joshua Maes use their listings, where appropriate, to showcase the art, photography and music of local, independent and emerging creative talents.  Artists receive 100% of the proceeds from any sale.

 

 

Phat Trash: the Art of Creative Renewal in the City Different

Posted Friday October 15 2010 by in Art
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Bone Art, by Dan Phillips, founder of Phoenix Commotion

Floors made from wine corks?  Windows of crystal platters? In Huntsville, Texas, a community’s cast offs gain new life under the direction of Dan Phillips, founder of Phoenix Commotion, a company which crafts affordable housing out of durable discards from construction sites, roadside pickings and trash heaps. Read more about this visionary project in the New York Times piece, One Man’s Trash. Or watch this intro video from Going Green.

While homes with license plate roofs can’t happen in Santa Fe’s climate of historic preservation, there are plenty of ways the denizens of the City Different celebrate sustainability and creative recycling. We’re still a few weeks away from the Recycle Santa Fe Art Festival, but you can catch an artistic exultation of trash at the Santa Fe Community Convention Center, located in downtown Santa Fe, at 201 West Marcy Street from 10-5 PM, Monday-Saturday. The 2-and-3-D artworks of Waste/Not incorporate a minimum of 50% recycled materials. Featured pieces inspire reflection on issues related to the generation and management of trash, but check them out for their sheer beauty, wit and creative muscle.  New Mexican artists Michael Freed, Goldie Garcia, Geoffrey Gorman, Marion Martinez, Darlene Olivia McElroy, Joe “Buffalo” Nickels, Sallyann Paschall, Patricia Pearce, Bunny Tobias, Felicia Trujillo and Dee Ann Wagner are among the participants.

Sun/Flower/Seed, by Matthew Chase-Daniel

Starting tomorrow, the gallery-in-a-van that is itself a clever bit of recycling, Axle Contemporary , presents Moving Stills an exhibition of still photography from 18 New Mexico filmmakers and video artists. (Photo by participants Eve Andree Laramee below.) The show runs through October 27th, with an Opening Reception at the CCA next Friday, October 22nd.  Axle’s been busy with other intersections of environmental creativity with Matthew Chase-Daniel’s short run exhibit, Sun/Flower/Seed, pictured here, and last weekend’ s 10/10/10 Day of Climate Action, where Axle members taught participants how to roast their own charcoal and make yucca brushes.

As the aspens turn the Sangres de Cristo mountains to gold, and the fading perfume of roasting green chiles co-mingles with the fragrance from the season’s first pinon and juniper fires, Santa Fe heads for Winter with a sense-satisfying burst of creative energy.  From the burning of Zozobra at Fiestas forward, the spirit of Santa Fe in Fall is a contrarian refusal to go gentle into the night of Winter.  Creativity never stops in the City Different, but Fall hits a delightful high water mark of environmental consciousness and creative expression.

7 x 10" photo, by Eve Andree Laramee

Santa Baby: Santa Fe Hangs its Stockings at Mayor’s Economic Forum

Posted Thursday December 17 2009 by in Local Events
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The Mayor’s Forum on Jobs and Economic Growth was held last Friday morning at the Santa Fe Community Convention Center, in downtown Santa Fe.  The forum, moderated by Santa Fe Reporter columnist Zane Fischer, began with a panel of local economic players followed by community input.  The choice of Fischer, an independent voice from an alternative weekly rag, provided an interesting counterpoint to the more establishment face of the panel.  As moderator, Fischer did a commendable job containing the public’s nervous, angry and diffuse energy into two minute bitstreams, gently “tasering” those who exceeded their time with humor or a touch of tough love.

Jon Hendry, business agent at IATSE local 480, the local union branch of employees in the film and television, caught our attention with compelling numbers and stories of immediate employment opportunities through the film and TV industry. “These are jobs for our young people,” Hendry said, and pitched the urgent need for a studio in the Santa Fe environs. Michael Halsey and Santa Fe Councilor and Mayor Pro Tem, Rebecca Warzburger, both cited the need for affordable housing. For highlights from these and other panel members (Marie Longserre, Fidel Gutierrez–Randy Grissom was present, but not filmed due to a technical glitch) check out Joshua Maes’ video below.

Suggestions from the citizenry ranged widely in their usefulness, clarity and relevance. Some sought to create a greater whole by interlinking several sectors of the community.  Others had a more narrow agenda.  And then there were the odd, out there and occasional “dangit, it’s my moment to rant” folks. Indeed the need to vent made me think that perhaps a Truth and Reconciliation Commission style opportunity might be in order as a way to clear the way for dialogue and cooperation.

Many people are frustrated and rightly so.  But as Fischer noted at the outset, what was most needed and most likely to be effective were ideas “that inform policy.”  As it was, good points and suggestions landed like multiple balls on a playing field–usable, but unclear which one to kick towards the goal.

Mayor Coss’ Vision of Santa Fe’s future economy, projected on a screen at the start of the forum, defined an ideal Santa Fe with the following terms: creative center; high wage jobs; strong middle class; vibrant youth culture; leadership in sustainability; innovation center for environmental and other technology, art, cultural and science capital.  Happily, many of these aspirations already apply, although they cry to be expanded.

“Business, banking, and our not-for-profits can very likely make something magic happen here in Santa Fe.  We’ve seen it before; we know we can do it again,”  said Coss in his opening statement.  We, too, believe in Santa Fe’s magic it and look forward to more.  Meantime, we’ll do our parts to swell Santa Fe stockings through our support of local artists, musicians, business owners and other creative and entrepreneurial lights who work to make the City Different such a great place to call home. We hope you’ll do the same.

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This week in Santa Fe’s alt/indie/emerging cultural scene….

A couple of weeks ago, we attended the REAL closing night of MeowWolf’s GEODEcedant exhibition (extended run) at which we met Benjie who gave us a guided tour of the exhibit.  Benjie’s a hurdy gurdy of creative intelligence churning out brilliance, curiosity and buoyant good nature. This coming Saturday, from 5-9 and again Sunday, from 2-7, the boys at Meow Wolf will be spinning another experiential wonder with the opening of OmegaMart. “…bringing quality affordable art product to the citizens of Santa Fe just in time for the 2009 holiday shopping season…” If GEODEcedant is any indication, you will grin like a kid at OmegaMart.  Meow Wolf is raw, catch-it-while-it’s-local-and-affordable talent.

Just discovered Fraction Magazine, “an online venture promoting and exploring emerging photographic artists” conceived in an Albuquerque coffee shop by Joshua Spees and David Bram and sustained by Bram and Melanie McWhorter.  Bram’s blog offers thoughtful words and pics from a photographer, dad and reflective human. Check out Fraction’s recent post on the future of photography books and the Fraction Magazine Holiday Print Sale.

Friday, December 18th, is the last night to catch the musical wave at Annapurna Restaurant on Alameda. Hear Monsoon 6, featuring Dave Decibel, from 6-9 tonight. Steve Brisk writes, “Hopefully a new venue will be found soon.  Lets end this series with a bang!”

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Real estate agents Malissa Kullberg and Joshua Maes, AKA Changing Gallery, use their listings, where appropriate, to showcase the art, photography, sculpture and other creations of emerging and independent talents. Artists receive 100% of the proceeds from any sale. Currently displaying work by Mark Frossard, Laird Hovland, Jonathan Tercero at 133 Sombrio in Casa Solana, downtown Santa Fe. To schedule an appointment, call: 231.7598. For up-to-date market info and full access to the MLS, visit: Santa Fe Real Estate Downtown.

In the Middle: Reflections on the Soul of Photography

Posted Friday March 20 2009 by in Art, Art Galleries, Local Events
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Some concepts are pretty tough to capture in words. Unless you’re talking about the music of Marvin Gaye or the immaterial essence said to survive a body,  the notion of “soul” is a murky, often sentimentalized abstraction; e.g.: soul gaze, soul search, soul nature….

As for using dialogue to describe pictures, do your mighty best and you simply can’t–with words alone–do justice to the visual poetry of a well-executed photo.  So, just to be willing to talk about the “soul” of  image is an act of mad courage.  Kudos to Dan Milnor, who, this past Sunday night, put his fine mind and rich experience to the task.

Dan spoke for about 40 minutes, addressing the experiences behind some of his photographs and offering a loose road map as to how to arrive at an authentic product.

His central point: that the soul of photography is more a function of what’s going on inside the photographer than what is out there to be shot.  Attitude, approach, interaction–these are the elements that count, not the fancy equipment, spectacular vistas or celebrity subjects.

The key: to be present and yet invisible. “This might sound odd, but when I make pictures, sometimes I feel like I can disappear,” said Dan.  I’ve had many clients say to me, while looking at my images, “I didn’t even see you there, didn’t even know you were there, next to me…..I think the soul of photography relates to the experience or the transition that happens when a photographer shelves every extra detail in his or her life and descends into the project.”

“When I work in the field, or anywhere else for that matter, much of what happens is based on trust, which as we know is harder and harder to come by.  You don’t need to speak the language, or even speak at all, as the idea of who you are and what you do is either accepted or not.You can not only see this when working , you can feel it….”

Back to the folly of pursuing images with a net of speech.  In the case of the good photo, the one that arises from and expresses soul, you may not be able to define or describe it, but like Potter Stewart, you “know it when you see it.” When Dan put the question to his friend, photographer Karen Kuehn, her matter-of-fact response was: “It’s in the middle.”

The middle:  the tension between the photographer’s intention and the parameters of the shoot?  The relationship between photographer and subject?  You tell me.

The Soul of Photography, an exhibit of the work of eight locally affiliated photographers, runs through mid-April at the Bella Donna: seven condominiums located at 111 E. Santa Fe Avenue, listed by Joshua Maes and Malissa Kullberg.  Artists receive 100% of the proceeds. For more information on these listings and full access to the MLS, visit our website at:  SantaFeRealEstateDowntown.com.

Santa Fe Downtown Digs and Doings

Posted Thursday December 11 2008 by in Art, Art Galleries, Local Events, Santa Fe Downtown, Santa Fe Restaurant Reviews
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My first encounter with Santa Fe was in the Spring of 1980, when I flew out to visit a friend. On the shuttle from Albuquerque to Santa Fe, I couldn’t take my eyes off the vast, color-saturated sky and the roughly textured land, an interplay of greens and browns. Back then, there was hardly a car on the road between the airport and the Capitol City. I could as much as set my cruise-control, crawl into the back seat for a nap, and wake up an hour later, safely at my destination.

Santa Fe has changed over the past 28 years, but the land is still vast and magnificent and the city still charming in physical appearance and breadth of cultural offerings. For the third year in a row, the readers of American Style voted Santa Fe the #1 arts destination in the top 25 small cities and towns category. In 2007, Sperling’s Best Places and Business Week awarded Santa Fe second place in The Top 10 places for artists.

Yet the factors that make Santa Fe attractive to artists–a diverse and fairly youthful population, the number and variety of museums, the amount of dance, theater, film, symphony, chamber and choral music, the quality of photographic and Fine Arts education, and other cultural offerings–make it a terrific place for all of us.

Three weeks ago, SantaFe.com held its first Economic Forum whose purpose was, in the words of moderator, Michael French, to examine and address “…how all this turmoil will specifically affect our economy, and what we can do together to survive and even prosper.” Each member of the Panel was chosen to offer a different take on the proverbial elephant. Though hardly definitive, there was a good effort to provide balance and an opening dialogue.

If I see a silver bullet solution to the question of what we can do to survive and prosper in these economically crazy times, it is this: to see, celebrate and support the tremendous creative resources we have in our little town. As someone who grew up immersed in the arts of two, culturally rich Midwestern cities, Minneapolis and Chicago, I believe in power of the creative sector to give a community dignity, cohesion, vitality and internal wealth.

Santa Fe isn’t perfect. Like any place-or any person-there are things to love and things that frustrate. But what impresses me so deeply, what has brought me back time and again and caused me to adopt this place as my hometown, is its spirit: creative, hungry, at times conflictual, but richly resourceful.

So that’s what this blog is going to be about: things, people, places and events that give Santa Fe its special character. We’ll also talk about real estate because that’s our bread and butter and something we know a lot about. Check out our website at: santaferealestatedowntown.com. Thanks for reading.

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