Special Project - AiOP Festival - 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 center on the theme of RITUAL, including ideas of ceremony, habituation, myth, obsession, superstition and liturgy.

Walker Evans stated that, “New Yorkers are members of every race and nation of the earth. They are of all ages, of all temperaments, of all classes, of almost every imaginable occupation. Each, also, is an individual existence, as matchless as a thumbprint or a snowflake.” Inspired by this great American photographer and in homage to the amazing energy, beauty, and variety of New Yorkers, a special seemetellme series titled Fourteenth Street Saints for AiOP 2011 was created.

For this series hundreds of amazing New Yorkers were clandestinely photographed along 14th Street. Then 500 collages were created, incorporating their portraits into accordion-style “prayer” books, complete with gold paint, “rosary” beads, glitter, found papers and objects. These books were then placed, like relics, inside small clear plastic boxes backed by magnets. 50 of these works will be installed daily along 14th Street on scaffolds, signs, subway stations, and light poles, for passers-by to admire, take, and own.

(See the map of placements below.)

The acquiring of any work of art is a very personal and exciting process. When a one of these works is discovered the collector is asked to comment below or email a note to seemetellme@gmail.com or tweet using the hash tag #seemetellme.

Exhibition - KEDAR STUDIO OF ART - September 16-24, 2011

First gallery exhibition of seemetellme projects
Monsters, Saints and Cool Summer Dresses

KEDAR STUDIO OF ART
585 Broad Street, 2nd fl, Newark, NJ 07102 http://www.kedarstudio.com/
September 16th to 24th. Reception for the artist September 16, 7-11pm

Monsters, Saints, and Cool Summer Dresses showcases three limited edition See Me Tell Me projects - Monsters III, ed. 50; Subway Saints III (mini), ed. 50; and See Me Tell Me Shifts (Graffiti) ed. 25.

The gallery is inviting viewers of the exhibition to participate in this series and acquire these works. Collectors register their acquisitions on the tag replacing each work and comment at the bottom of this page about the new addition to their collection or by emailing their comments to seemetellme@gmail.com .

Inspired by the social connectivity of the Street Art movement, social media, the work of photographer Walker Evans and a desire to free art from its function as commodity, artist Amy Young has conceptualized a series of works nestled in the art of giving and sharing, titled seemetellme. Since June 2010, Young has placed hundreds of tiny seemetellme street art works in New York, London and Paris. Using low-art materials and a strict time limit (an important part of her process); Young creates each piece in less than five minutes. Anonymity is not part of her working concept as Young identifies herself by putting her website address or QR code on each piece before she places it in public view.

The Little Monsters series is based on the Greek, Roman, Romanesque, and Gothic Revival faces and gargoyles you see on buildings all over New York, Paris, London, Rome, Venice, and Athens. A selection of these images was made into Little Monsters by mounting them on the front of clear 2 x 1 x 1 inch plastic boxes and lighting them with LEDs. They are filled with silver beads to reflect the light and to rattle, when shaken.

The Subway Saints series is inspired by an obsession with (and daily immersion in) the subway. They are also inspired by Walker Evans’ great work, Many are Called. In 1938, Walker Evans surreptitiously photographed people on the New York City subway. With his camera hidden in his overcoat he captured the faces of Depression-era riders, each wrapped in their own unguarded private thoughts. Evans’ work represents portraiture in its purest state. Inspired by Evans, 250 clandestine images were shot in the subway. To create a Subway Saint each portrait was printed in color and assembled into an accordion-style book, complete with gold paint, beads, glitter, found papers and objects. Each book is placed in a 2 x 1 x 1 inch clear plastic box.

The See Me Tell Me Shifts are based on the thin, simple, summer dresses worn by fashionable New York women. For the first two series of See Me Tell Me Shifts the little dresses were decorated with patterns found in museums, galleries, and art fairs and heat transferred onto the surface of paper. But the imagery for this newest series is the street art and graffiti seen in London, Paris, Bushwick, Williamsburg, Chelsea and SoHo this spring and summer. The front of each dress is made from Japanese rice paper cut in the shape of a shift or sundress. On the back is a snippet from a shopping bag.

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Thirty-sixth series: Transit Trinkets. Everyone likes to get dressed up - especially our dusty, dirty, smelly metro. I imagine the subway as a rather brash, little bit loud, big-boned, bohemian girl from Brooklyn with a marvelous accent so I fashioned her some nice clunky necklaces and bracelets. Just in case the subway cars get jealous I am making them some bracelets and anklets as well. (Shhh don’t tell the buses and ferries.) This work consists of multicolored plastic beads and/or bells on colored or elastic string. Their clasps are made of magnets. I will be installing this series in the subway stations and on the trains all summer long from mid May to the end of August. You will find them attached to station stanchions or wound about the hand-handholds and poles on the trains.

Did you collect one? Tell me about it.

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Thirty-fifth series: Rock, Paper, Scissors, non-editioned.

Rock, Paper Scissors is a game for two or more people played using the players' hands. The two players each make a fist with one hand and hold the other open, palm upward. Together, they tap their fists in their open palms once, twice, and on the third time form one of three items: a rock, a sheet of paper, or a pair of scissors. The winner of that round depends on the items formed. If the same item is formed, it's a tie. If a rock and scissors are formed, the rock wins, because a rock can smash scissors. If scissors and paper are formed, the scissors win, because scissors can cut paper. If paper and a rock are formed, the paper wins, because a sheet of paper can cover a rock.

These works consist of a 3 ½ x 2 inch poly bag or on a magnet sheet. Inside or on top are photographs of my hands in one of the gestures printed on either cardstock or fine white and colored papers. I have hand colored or embellished each of the images. At the top of the work is the statement “Your Name Here: _________ ." On verso is the seemetellme QR code, three photographs of hands, and the title and web-site address. This is a non- editioned series because it will be done in many medias and in many sizes. It will appear in variations and configurations: either singly for your own personal game against the world (pick your opponents wisely), in doubles as a mini-war, or in a triples as a statement by me of a political or societal statement. I will be placing these works all through the summer in New York city.

Did you see one? Tell me.

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Thirty-fourth series: van Gogh’s Chair inch by inch, set of 16 
When you visit museums abroad you see afresh art works you have been viewing by illustrations for too long. When I was in London last month I saw van Gogh’s Chair at the National Gallery. Amazing! This work was painted when he was working in the company of Gauguin for nine weeks in Arles. The bright yellow ladder-back chair with its cane seat was one of the twelve simple chairs he purchased when he furnished the Yellow House. The chair sits at a three-quarter view and his pipe and tobacco lie on the thatched seat. It stands on a red and orange tiled floor next to a closed turquoise blue door. A box of red onions, bursting from their wrappings, is in the corner. The colors are amazing, the characteristic icing-like impasto wonderful, and the sweet genre scene so personal. I examined the work inch by inch. And so I provide it to you in the same way. These works consist of a 3 ½ x 2 inch poly bag. I printed an image of the work at 8 x 10 inches and cut it up into 1 inch wide strips for the front image, included even finer detailed image in the center, and put a full image on verso. There is one sequin butterfly inside as a prize. I will be placing the works from April 30 and May 1 in New York City.
If you see one tell me.

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Thirty-third series: Free Ai Weiwei, ed. 20

When I was in London I went to the Tate Modern and saw he Unilever Series: 
Sunflower Seeds by Ai Weiwei. The conceptual and politically based artist had engaged Chinese craftspeople to create for him 100 million tiny porcelain sunflowers, each handmade, hand painted, no two identical. He filled the entire main floor with these little works of art. The whole art world had been chatting about the work, there were many reviews, and other piles of sunflower seeds were turning up at art fairs. I liked visually how the work filled the huge turbine hall in a gentle sand-like way and loved all the metaphors it set off crackling in my head. Anyway, soon after we got back the artist, boarding a plane to Hong Kong was arrested, disappeared, taken into custody – no one really knows because no one has heard from him. I have signed all the petitions for his release, I attended the sit-in over by the East River, and like the rest of the art world I am watching the news reports to see outcome. Worried. So this series is my reaction to the whole mess. The work consists of a 3 ½ x 2 inch poly bag, color xeroxes of the work in turbine hall printed on fine papers, red string, and a scattering of (real) sunflower seeds. On the back are a couple of QR codes (Quick Response specific matrix barcodes) that hop right to The New York Times articles discussing the issue - this one from April 6, this one from April 11, and this one from April 20.This work will be placed from April 24 through April 30 in New York.

Did you see one? Tell Me.

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Thirty-second series: Looting London (A Mudlark along the Thames), ed. 10
As you know from my tweeting I traveled to London recently. We visited the British Museum with all the great Mesopotamia, Egyptian, Roman works and more. And of course they have the great Parthenon Marbles pillaged from Greece in the 1800s – quite the controversial objects. Well in that spirit I decided to gather a few artifacts of my own. While I was visiting the TATE Modern off the new Millennium Bridge I saw a silver ladder descending to the Thames beach. I went down and began gathering 17th to the 19th century pottery sherds and pipe stems on the shore which I then spirited all back to America. I was feeling rather proud of myself until I discovered that this is called “mudlarking” and just everyone does it. I guess I am no Lord Elgin. This little series consists of a 3 x 3 x ½ inch clear plastic box, sand, a potsherd or pipe stem, a transparent picture of the Millennium Bridge and Saint Paul's in the background and the usual ART sticker and label with the title of series, edition number, and address of the blog. These works, in contrast to the SAINTS or MONSTERS should not be opened as the sand will spill out. They will be placed on April 24 in New York.
Did you see one? Tell me!

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Thirty-first series: Little Monsters II, ed. five series of 50 each.
You know those great 19th and early 20th century Romanesque and Gothic architectural ornaments of faces and gargoyles you see on the buildings all over New York, Paris, London, Rome, Venice, Athens? Love them!! I have been known to climb up to the upper stories of nearby buildings just to get a look. So I shot a selection of these images and made them all into more little monsters. I mounted their images on the front of little clear 2 x 1 x 1 inch 2 x 2 x 1 inch boxes, darkening the backgrounds with gaffer tape and lighting them all up with LEDs. Then I filled them up with silver balls or clear beads to reflect the light and rattle wonderfully. (If you find one of these works and want to reserve the light, open them up and reinsert the tab.) I will be placing these works all through the summer in New York city.
Did you see one? Tell me!

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Thirtieth Series: Subway Saints (mini), edition 50. People riding the subway are in an ethereal acquiescent perfect state. They are waiting with great faith to be taken to their destination and are calm and quiet during their journey – for the most part. While sitting across from them I was inspired to photograph some of the more beatific and make them into art. For this series I took their faces and sewed them into a book of hours accordion style book. This series consists of a 1 3/4 x 1 x 1/2 inch clear plastic box, my printed photographs, cotton paper, beads, glitter, a magnet, and thread. They will be placed from March 4-April 4, 2011 in New York, London, and Paris.

Did you see one? Email Me.

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Twenty-ninth Series: Exhibition Postcards, edition 50.
You know, sometimes you just have to drop back, calm down, check out some Rauschenberg and some Johns and do a few assemblages. Concentration on color, texture, line, and a little humor can straighten up any untoward New York day. So here are 50 little combines for you. They consist of a 3 ½ x 2 inch poly bag, some papers I have collected over the years, thread and sequins, beads, a scattering of found objects and old gallery exhibition or announcement postcards. They will be placed between February 15 and May 31, 2011.
Did you see one? Tell me!