Saturday December 6, 2008: Patrick Cuffe, Ben Godward and Scott Wilson at the Laundromat.

On Saturday, December 6th 2008 the Laundromat featured new work by artists Patrick Cuffe, Ben Godward and Scott Wilson.

Cuffe’s sculptures are made of finely crafted wood, metal, and plastic elements. His work borrows from the  construction, wood working, and metal working trades to create objects that deal with the temporary versus the long-lasting, the hand-made versus the mass-manufactured. His work contemplates the societal shift towards disposable culture while employing a precise and exhaustive craftsmanship.  

Patrick Cuffe 2008. Mahogany, plastic and paint.

Detail.

Wilson’s work reflects a transient studio practice afforded by an unusual work schedule. He creates fantastical mechanical drawings in ink on paper napkins. Because his work in the city allows for odd bits of time throughout the day, though not enough for a round trip to the studio, Wilson explores his ideas with the materials that are handy in coffee shops, diners, and cafes. His drawings suggest the inner workings of a mysterious and complex machine, while the margins of the page are often filled with intricate, sweeping cursive explanations of his imagined designs that call to mind the renaissance pairing of art and science.

Scott Wilson x315. 2008, Ink on napkin.

Scott Wilson x198, Ink on napkin.

Scott Wilson x338, Ink on napkin.

Scott Wilson x138, Ink on napkin.

Scott Wilson x302, Ink on napkin.

Godward employs plastic, rubber, found objects and urethane foam to create large, multi-colored combinations of gesture and form. On the surface, his sculptures resemble colorful abstract expressionistic paintings, but a closer look will reveal underlying themes of pop culture, ravenous consumption, even a suggestion of toxic waste. Godward exploits the viewers attraction to shiny, candy-colored objects, while simultaneously repulsing us with the endless cast-offs of our society.

Ben Godward Night Swimming. 2008, Found objects, urethane foam, plastic, black light, fountain.

Detail.

Detail.

Please visit Bushwick BK to read a review of this show by artist Kevin Regan.

http://bushwickbk.com/archives/778#more-778

Patrick Cuffe is a sculptor based in Utica, NY. His extensive experiences in construction, home renovation and fine wood working are the basis of his practice. He received his M.F.A. in Sculpture from the State University of New York at Albany and won the 2007 Outstanding Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture award from the International Sculpture Center, in Hamilton, NJ. Pat was awarded a residency at Sculpture Space in Utica, NY in 2004. He lives in Utica with his wife, the sculptor Aimee Tarasek, and their dog.

Ben Godward was born in Indianapoils, grew up in the midwest and attended  Alfred University in upstate New York. He joined Kappa Psi Upsilon, and eventually completed his B.F.A., despite a one year hiatus taken at the request of the Art Dept. He spent the time away from Alfred working at Shidoni art foundry in New Mexico. Ben received his M.F.A. in Sculpture from the State University of New York at Albany and won the 2007 Outstanding Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture award from the International Sculpture Center, in Hamilton, NJ. His most recent show in New York was at Moti Hassan Gallery in Chelsea. He lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. For more information on Ben Godward, please visit his website: www.godwardsculpture.com/

Scott Wilson studied painting and art history at the University of Kansas, the state where he grew up. He made his way to New York with his wife Eustacia and they make their home in Astoria, Queens. At work, Scott helps people arrange their art in homes, offices and galleries. His influences include mechanics, physics, mathematics, esoteric science and science fiction.

For more information on Scott Wilson please visit his website: www.clockworkatomics.com

Friday November 14, 2008: Children of Terminator X.

On November 14th Danish artists Brian Ravnholt Jepsen & Kristian Byskov presented an installation and performance, entitled Children of Terminator X, at the Laundromat.

"Children Of Terminator X is a band, a playground, an on-going process, a performance institute of really religious matter and a never-ending installation.

It’s the idea of combining performance with installation and musical events involving different homemade toys/instruments and whatever we find lying around.

Furthermore it is a combination of creating an environment or a certain type of aestethic atmosphere in which we can operate freely. Building installations, use those installations in our music-creating process – sometimes even play on the installation, using it as a homemade instrument.

A playground in other words. A clash of different qualities."

- Brian Ravnholt Jepsen, 31

“Mostly my work has a touch of humor and sometimes involves real animals like an ostrich or pigeons or simple things like tennissocks, wooden shoes, Mich Hucknall and Chewbacca.”

- Artist, musician, writer & freelance art critic for MetroXpress
- Studied philosophy at The University of Copenhagen 2001-2003
- Last year at the Funen Academy of Fine Arts at Professor Jens Haaning & Michael Baers 2004-2009
- Produces works in all medias
- Works both as independent and in different collaborations and constellations
- Performances and installations that involve the experimentation of sound for the last 3 years involving Children Of Terminator X and other collaborative sound-projects
- Solo, group and juried exhibitions in Denmark, Germany and Belgium
- Former breakdancer with performances many places in Europe and also in China, Hongkong and USA in the period of 1996-2006


- Kristian Byskov Rasmussen, 24

-Artstudent/artist
-Third year at the Art Academy of Copenhagen, w. Professor Nils Norman 2006-2012
-Produces works in all media
- Performances and installations that involves the experimentation of sound for the last 3 years involving Children Of Terminator X and other collaborative sound-projects
-Mostly working in different collaboratives and constellations, involving both production and teaching. Recently an inflatable disco and A Big Eyed Surveillance Temple of Total Order.
-Has done shows and events in Denmark.

Juliane Zelwies: TODAY + TOMORROW. ZAIM Yokohama, August 1 - 3, 2008.

The Laundromat gallery is pleased to present TODAY and TOMORROW featuring new work by Berlin-based artist Juliane Zelwies at the ZAIM Art Center in Yokohama, Japan.

http://za-im.jp/php/

Today and Tomorrow, 2008. Installation views.

Today and Tomorrow. Detail: Projected Love, 2008. 

Today and Tomorrow

When I arrive, it is hot, very hot. The heat and the humidity will continue like this for at least another three months, but back then I did not know about that.

On board I had felt sick. Ginger Ale and aspirin had not helped. Eventually I had felt so miserable that I had to lie down on the floor of the airplane as I could neither sit nor stand any longer without becoming more sick. The flight attendants had forced me to get up again and wanted to call the ambulance to pick me up on arrival.

I. The Scene of Arrival

Philadelphia, August 20th 2005:

The hostel was an old and yellow Victorian house at the dead end of a long road inside a huge park. For hours I didn't see or hear anyone but a striped cat dozing on the front porch. At night I sat quietly on the porch to sip a cup of tea while I watched the other guests eating and preparing their trips for the following day. Later on I would also hear the snorting of horses from the ranch on the other side of the street.

It was hot, very hot. And humid. The crickets were incredibly loud.From the bus station it had been another half-hour walk to get to the hostel. Road signs said "watch turtles", posters pinned on trees warned against a murderer. I felt strange when I found out that the woman, who was raped and murdered six days ago, had stayed at the place where I am now- and when I am told now that the murderer is still not found.

When I arrive on campus a few days later, the faculty is surprised. They were not sure whether I would make it to come. To come where? Shortly after the security service explains how I can contact them if I am in danger. In a role-play I also learn how to say hello to a stranger on the street.

II. First Contacts

Henceforth, I sit every morning in front of the Visitor Center and observe how the tourists start their trips. The employees of the Center wear costumes and speak about the history of the place in well-rehearsed phrases. One of them is dressed like a safari-park ranger and shouts at the visitors to stand in line only from the left side to enter the building. When the line hits a particular point, he wants people to change direction and orders to line up from the right. People follow his orders obediently.

I visit the Visitor Center two times to ask for directions. The first time a black lady behind the counter explains to me patiently how to get to the place I need to go. She ends with: "Do you know that you have wonderful skin?" The next time another lady helps me. When she figures out why I am in the country, she leans back and shrieks: "You must be such a wonderful artist!" Generally speaking, people are very open-minded and friendly to me.

III. Happiness

Last night I went to a bar with three of my male colleagues. They want to get to know me and I appreciate their curiosity. Eventually it turned out that their main interest for the evening was to find out why I don’t have a boyfriend or a husband at home. They seemed to be sorry for me and although I tried to redirect the conversation several times, one of them didn’t let go: "What did your last boy friend look like? Maybe I can find someone for you!“ When I laughed at him and answered that I am not interested in being hooked up, he continued: "I am serious, I want you to be happy while you are here.“

IV. The Party

There were far too many people that I could remember all of them clearly. When I look back, I remember only a few of them:

The police officer, who could not be alone. The woman, who lost everything but did not learn from that. Her husband, who got almost killed in an accident and was eventually murdered – their son, who happened to be a friend of her friend Chris. 

When the party was over I asked Chris if he knows anything in particular about the circumstances of his friend's story. He said he doesn’t know. Instead he described elaborately how he – Chris - gains personal happiness in life, how he is going to be shooting his next movie, why he once thought of joining the army. Like other times before, I was frustrated with the situation. I believed he was lying to me, but I did not dare to let him know.

A few weeks later I came to know that my friend’s friend was a veteran, who became traumatized by his experiences of the war. Since then he has been hospitalized as he needs to be on permanent suicide watch.

V. The Midpoint

When I look to out of one of my windows to the right, I see myself unlocking my bike from that linden tree on the opposite side of the street. I will get on the bike and ride out of sight. When I manage to get fast enough to the other side of my room and look out of the window over there, I will see myself passing.

I don’t feel bad, but I am worried. I have been distracted for months now, unable to focus. It must be the weather, the language and “the others”. I am quite different here, mindless and happy. Especially in the mornings I am often extremely happy. I often wish I could prolong one day into two days – and skip tomorrow.

VI. I Am My Model

She is nervous, she is stressed out, she is almost panicked as she suddenly understands something: It is not about finding a solution, it is not about finding an answer to something. 

If you begin with the individual in this way, you will create a type. Your story is about the model. It is about the pursuit. 

Their pursuit of happiness. Beauty is just a fabrication.

Did we shake hands in the end?

The longer he spoke the less she could breathe. She knew he was right, and she knew it was necessary that someone finally spoke about it aloud. She tried to sit upright in order to uncramp her chest, but she could not sustain this position for long. Instead she embraced her knees with her arms. She could not look him in the eye anymore. She looked away.

 
She saw him leaving and he would retell the story of their encounter other times, in different situations, always in the presence of others. From now on it was his story - and his performance.

VII. True Stories

“I finally finished the sculpture that you inspired me to do! The one with the ribbon speaker and the twisting poles. Remember when we got high at the studio last spring and we played with that little crummy proto-type I made? Without you coming over and hanging out, I might never have figured out what to do with that speaker.”

Fog and mist cleared up the morning I agreed that we were all performing, establishing ourselves in front of each other – again and again. Creating both instantly: individual stories and the story of the other. Treasuring these stories for ourselves, but also for the others. 

The individual performer may be sincere or cynical, his only obligation is to believe in the part he is playing. For the audience it is almost impossible to judge as it can only guess what is real and what is not real. 

New York, March 31st 2007:

When I left it was sunny. It was not too cold anymore and not too hot yet.

 
I had kissed my friends quickly and had left the house in the usual rush. Like any other day I would run down Wyckoff Street, make a left on Smith Street, get down to the subway. That day trains did not run in time and I almost missed the airplane. I still don’t remember how I got on board.

On board I felt sad. Ginger Ale and aspirin did not help. Eventually I felt so miserable that I had to lie down on the floor of the airplane as I could neither sit nor stand any longer without becoming more sad.

 
I don’t remember why I had to get back there today. But when I look out of the window, I see myself passing – again and again. Tomorrow I’ll see if it was true or not.

-Juliane Zelwies

Kevin Curran interviews Juliane Zelwies:

Kevin: ZAIM has the feel of an office building or a school. There are linoleum and concrete floors, wide staircases and florescent lighting. Approaching the show you hear the sound of a piano coming from inside. The show announcement posted next to the door is a bubble diagram in English and Japanese, and they are inscribed with phrases such as “scene of arrival”, “happiness”, “the heat”, “my insecurity”, “a projection”, “pretext”, “explanation II.”

Once inside the door there is a video projection to the right. To the left there is a row of thin booklets hanging along from long cords attached at the top of the wall, so they sway back and forth in the light breeze.

Further down that wall are a bunch of framed pictures and texts. They contain bits of love letters as well as pictures of flowers, a man in his regalia of the university, a cat, and a house.

Kevin: The one thing in your installation that I think shades the feeling of the entire piece the most is the music. You told me that this particular song goes back to a personal memory of yours. Your willingness to re-live that moment, that part of your life that you preserve in that bit of music is to me the most personally risky and charged element in your show. The song is so powerful and I wonder how you feel about that, as the artist, ceding so much impact to a song, a feeling provided by someone else. What about the fact that no one who visits your show will have the same feeling of that song that you do?

Juliane: Of course nobody will have the same feeling of that song – as no one will have the same feeling of the photographs or the video either. I have chosen the song because I believe it is powerful even to someone who has never heard it before. No other element in the installation reaches out for the visitor as much as the music does. The photographs, the video, the texts and the letters: All of it has to be examined carefully by the visitor whereas the music provides an immediate and also emotional approach to the piece.

What I was mainly interested in was to figure out how I could tell a story in the given space, how I could use the space as a display for a narration. That is why I arranged miscellaneous elements or “fragments” in the space to possibly become one story in the viewer’s mind.

If you argue that the music was more powerful than any of the other elements, I agree with you. That is the nature of music – and for this reason I rarely use music in my work (last time in 2004 for the installation “Der Brainstorm”) as I am not interested in lulling someone if there is no specific reason for it. For “today and tomorrow” I consciously used the song by Keith Jarrett as a possibility to tie the different parts together through creating a distinct atmosphere- truly nothing but a pitiful trick.

Kevin: Your piece was a collection, so of all the stories, images and artifacts that might be included or excluded, what was essential? In other words, what are the different elements included and how do you decide what is vital for your purpose?

Juliane: I believe that there is no such thing as “one reality” or “a truth” in general. Nonetheless I am constantly searching for it. I always want to find out if my experiences are real, if my emotions are true and if there is a meaning for what I see and hear. When I moved to the USA, a lot of things happened to me that I had never experienced before.

And since I asked myself persistently why these things were happening to me, I got very confused. All the sudden I found myself in the position of someone, who was observing the people and subsequently myself as I realized that it was me, who was “the foreigner / the other”. For months I believed that I had to integrate all these newly discovered fragments of the “other world” into my own world.

That was the base I worked from in order to make this installation. If I go back to the question you asked first: I personally was not interested in re-living that moment of confusion again, but I wanted to bring my audience in the position of someone who needs to ask questions in order to keep moving. That was how I set the pattern and that is how I sorted and arranged the material.

If people in the show have asked themselves “Is this the memory of a love story?” or plainly “Does this plant called Zelwieskraut really exist?” I am happy. Beyond that I am still trying to find out how much detective work someone is willing to do in order to unfold the next layer – another reality, which lays behind the original layer.

Sometimes things you once believed in may change into something quite unbelievable. These are the moments in life when situations may appear either tragic or funny. I find it challenging to describe such a situation openly without becoming either banal or cryptic.

Kevin: You included love letters you had received from three different men you met while living in the U.S. Can you tell us more about the letters and other items you received from these people and how you feel these artifacts relate to or build on the other elements in the installation?

Juliane: I received these love letters within a time span of three or four weeks from men I didn’t know at all- one saw me when I was visiting the MET (Metropolitan Museum of Art) in New York City, the other one was a cab driver, who brought me and my friends home in Philadelphia. The third letter was written by someone I had dinner with when I accompanied a mutual friend.

Not only that it seemed quite absurd to me to write a love letter to someone you don’t know, it was quite an overwhelming experience to receive these letters. One of these men had sent not only a love letter of 20 pages, but a whole package of information to promote himself - an audiotape with opera music and Irish folk songs, a collection of articles written by him, postcards of his favorite paintings, photographs of himself, his cat, his house in New Jersey etc.

I decided to show some of these artifacts as a potential back-story. A back-story, which could be imagined or constructed by the viewer if he /she was in need for more information. Though I am sure that it is fun to work out the comical elements of this particular story by showing the artifacts in a different way, I was not willing to break the story down to such a humorous or ironic statement.

Instead I worked with the conflict I found myself confronted with: What happens to you if someone projects his / her emotions on you? How do you change your point of view when it is you personally who is asked to satisfy the wishes of a stranger? All this seemed to be worth an examination and also worth a presentation.

Kevin: Why did you decide to include the flowers and how did you choose which to include?

Juliane: I had chosen photographs of flowers as it seemed to be a possibility to make the visitor believe in a story, which was easy to follow and which had begun with the music. Also, I was looking for a symbolic translation of the texts I was writing.

The more I started to think about the different pieces I was going to show, the more I realized that the work was clearly an examination of stereotypes and clichés. In that sense flowers seemed to be a perfect carrier for “romantic love”.

However, I believe that the chosen photographs do not fulfill the idea of what people may expect when they think e.g. of “romantic love”. Nonetheless I believe that these photographs literally illustrate certain expressions of the love letters included in the show. For example the kiwi-plant looks pretty steamy to me – I can’t help but linking it to the “bursting vitality of the springtime” one of the three men wished to share with me.



Kevin, thanks a lot for inviting me to show at ZAIM in Japan. It was a great pleasure to work with you! I’d also like to thank Thilo Bock, Amy Lincoln, Philipp Hartmann and Markus Ruff for discussing the work in the process of making with me.

Also, here on the web we did not include the dictionary entry “Zelwieskraut”, which may be the key to what you have seen, heard and read beforehand. Instead of having the text on Kevin’s website, please feel free to follow this link.

About the artist:

Born 1976 in Berlin, Germany, the artist studied Sculpture and Media Art at the Berlin University of the Art in Berlin, Germany (M.F.A. in 2004), at Konstfack (College for Arts, Crafts and Design) in Stockholm, Sweden and at Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, USA.

Zelwies has been awarded several grants, prizes and fellowships: From 2007 - 2008 with the NaFöG - grant (research grant by the City Government of Berlin), 2005- 2006 with a grant from the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service), 2005 Laura H.Carnell Scholarship at Tyler School of Art, 2005 special price from the headquarters for political education in Rheinland-Pfalz (Landeszentrale für politische Bildung), Germany, 2004 Lili-price (best student of the year, Berlin University of the Art).

In 2007 she was nominated for the Camera Price Dortmund, in 2005 for the Werkleitz-Project Grant (Germany) and in 2003 / 04 for the EMARE-Program (European Media Artists in Residence Exchange).

Her work has been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions and screenings in Europe (Germany, Austria, Sweden, Bulgaria) and in the USA.

Her video works are represented by the arsenal experimental program (Cinema Arsenal Berlin, Germany).

For more information about Juliane Zelwies please visit her web site:

http://www.juliane.de/

Lauren Carbone: Workin' it Out. May 19, 2008.

Jillian Baba, a traveling gallery revered by NY's hip and ava-g, selects Brooklyn for its celebratory, 100th exhibition featuring a local artist. Video candids of gallery goers reveal the true spirit of the event: Art for the spectator's ego. The art turns into a centerpiece for 8 viewers vying for camera time to discuss everything from the gallery's notorious founder, Jillian Baba, to the uber personal. Conflict arises when Jillian's arrival becomes the hot topic of camera conversation. Soon a debate emerges regarding the reason for her tardiness, revealing far too much about the personal motivations of these camera-crazed viewers. Will Jillian show or have the over zealous 8 been stood up?

Lauren Carbone, Facemask After a Breakup, 2008. Installation view.

Facemask after a Breakup

Editing Public Pain: A Formula for Determining the Number of Photographs allowed for Public Display by a Facemasker after a Breakup


Start with longest amount of time Facemasker has ever been in a relationship

EX: 730 days, 104 weeks, 24 months, 2 yrs.

Next determine most pragmatic unit for measuring a Heterosexual-love relationship - The week! (Remember to insert explanation of why a week is the most pragmatic unit for measuring a heterosexual-love relationship, as apposed to a day, month or year)

Establish first numbered unit using most pragmatic unit (wk) for measuring a heterosexual-love relationship and subtract from total number of days in 2 year period to get the new total of days in a two-year period

Ex: 1. 7 days/1 wk = 730 days - 7 days/1week = 723 days

Increase previous numbered unit (Ex: 1. 7 days/1wk) to create next numbered unit by 7 days/ 1 week

Ex: 2. 14 days/2 weeks

Subtract another 7 days/ 1 week from the new total of days in a two-year period

Ex: 2. 14 days/2 weeks = 723 days -7 days = 709 days

Repeat until total number of units in two-year period is 0


Reaching 0: Establishing Tiers

When increasing previous numbered unit by 7 day/ 1 week becomes greater than the new total of days in a two-year period

Ex: 13. 91 days/13 wks/ 3 months & 1wk) = 93 days.

The next numbered unit cannot be increases by 7 days/ 1 week because the new total of days will equal 98 days, which is greater than the last new total of days, 93.

When this occurs, begin with 1 week and add 1 day. Increase week by 1 day and subtract from the new total of days in a two-year period. Repeat.

All numbered units falling above the point when increasing previous numbered unit by 7 days/ 1 week becomes greater than the new total of days in a two-year period constitute Tier 1.

All numbered units falling bellow this point constitute Tier 2.


When increasing previous numbered unit by 1 day is greater then 2 weeks

EX: 20. 15 days (2wk & 1day) = 15

Since the most pragmatic unit for measuring a Heterosexual-love relationship is 7 days / 1 week, begin with 6 days and subtract from the new total number of days.

Repeat, decreasing the previous numbed unit by 1 and subtract from the new total of days in a two-year period.

All numbered units falling bellow the point when increasing previous numbered units by 1 day is greater then 2 weeks constitute Tier 3.

Applying the Formula:

Application A. (Note: Color coding applies to Application B.)


730 days/ 104 weeks/ 24 months/ 2 yrs.

Numbered Units New Total Number of Days
1. 7 days (1 wk) = 723 days
2. 14 days (2 wk) = 709
3. 21 days (3wks) = 688
4. 28 days (4wk – 1 month) = 660
5. 35 days (5 wk – 1 month & 1wk) = 625
6. 42 days (6wk – 1 month & 2wk) = 583
7. 49 days (7wk – 1 month & 3wk) = 534
8. 56 days (8wk – 2 month) = 478
9. 63 days (9wk – 2 month & 1 wk) = 415
10. 70 days (10 wk – 2 month & 2 wk) = 345
11. 77 days (11wk – 2 month & 3wk) = 268
12. 84 days (12wk – 3 month) = 184
13. 91 days (13wk – 3 month & 1wk) = 93
________________________________________Tier 1______
14. 8 days (1wk & 1day) = 85
15. 9 days (1wk & 2days) = 76
16. 10 days (1wk & 3days) = 66
17. 11days (1wk & 4days) = 55
18. 12 days (1wk & 5days) = 43
19. 13 days (1wk & 6 days) = 30
20. 15 days (2wk & 1day) = 15
_________________________________________Tier 2_____
21. 6 days = 9
22. 5 days = 4
23. 4 days = 0
_________________________________________Tier 3____





Combining Numbered Units in Two Year Period to find the Number of Units that will equate the number of photographs for Facemask After a Breakup:

Finding combination of numbered units, physically faithful and combination of numbered units, psychologically faithful, will leave the Non-Combinable numbered units.
The Non- combinable numbered units are equal to the Actual Total Number of Days heterosexual-love relationship should have occurred and Jersey Number of Facemasker's ex.

The total of Numbered Units from each Combination of Numbered Units and Non-Combinable Numbered Units is the number of photographs for Facemask After a Breakup.


Directions:

1) Define and use the Total number of days Facemasker was physically faithful in heterosexual-love relationship. (Insert definition of faithful)

(Ex: Facemasker reports being physically faithful for 1 year = 365 days/ 52 wks/ 12 months).

Next, starting with bottom numbered unit of Tier 1 and moving upward, add numbered units to equate total number of days, weeks, months, years Facemasker was physically faithful in heterosexual-love relationship

(Ex: 1) Combine 13, 12, 11, 10, 5 & 14= 365 days/ 52 wks/ 12 months/ 1 year

When numbered units from Tier 1 can no longer be plugged in to equate total number of days Facemasker was physically faithful in heterosexual-love relationship, start with bottom numbered unit of Tier 2, moving upward. When numbered units from Tier 2 can no longer be plugged in to equate total number of days Facemasker was physically faithful in heterosexual-love relationship, start with bottom numbered unit of Tier 3, moving upward.

2) Find total days facemasker was psychologically faithful in Hetero-love relationship by applying the same formula as above, however, dividing the total number of weeks facemasker was physically faithful in heterosexual-love relationship in half.

(Ex: 1) Combine 13, 12, 11, 10, 5 & 14= 365 days/ 52 wks/ 12 months/ 1 year

To find next numbered unit, take 365 days divided by 2 = 182 days/ 26wks/ 6 months/ .5 year

(EX: 2) Combine 9, 8, 7 & 2 = 182 days/ 26 wks/ 6 months/ .5 year

Do this until the number of days Facemasker was psychologically faithful in heterosexual-love relationship no longer equals a whole day.

(EX: 5) Combine 20, 19 & 2 = 23 days/ .3.25 wks/ .75 months/ .0625 year
23 days divided by 2 = 11.5……STOP

The remaining days from numbered units in two-year period will equate the actual total number of days heterosexual-love relationship should have occurred, as well as the jersey number of facemasker's ex.


Applying the Formula:

Application B (Refer to Application A color-coding via Application B)

Actual number of units Facemasker was faithful in Hetero-love relationship = 52wks; 365 days:

Numbered Units
1) Combine 13, 12, 11, 10, 5 & 14= 365 days/ 52 wks/ 12 months/ 1 year
____________365 days/ 52 wks/ 12 months/ 1 year physically faithful.

2) Combine 9, 8, 7 & 2 = 182 days/ 26 wks/ 6 months/ .5 year
3) Combine 6, 4 & 3 = 91 days/ 13 wks/ 3 months/ .25 year
4) Combine 1, 20, 19, & 17= 46 days/ 6.5 wks/ 1.5 months/ .125 year
5) Combine 20, 19 & 2 = 23 days/ .3.25 wks/ .75 months/ .0625 year
____________346 days/ 49 wks/ 11 months/ 0.947316606 year psychologically faithful

Remaining days from numbered units in two-year period:

6) 10 days
7) 9 days
8) 6 days
9) 5 days
10) 4 days
___________34 days/ 4.85714286 wks/ 1.11706698 months/ 0.093088915 year


Actual Total Number of Days Heterosexual-Love Relationship should have Occurred and Jersey Number of Facemasker's Ex:

34 = 34 days/ 4.85714286 wks/ 1.11706698 months/ 0.093088915 year

Total Number of Photographs allowed for Public Display by Facemasker after a Breakup to Express Pain through Separation = Total Number of Numbered Units in Application B:

10

Lauren Carbone is from Southern California. She has been a competitive figure skater, a Sorority sister, an Art teacher, an NFL cheerleader, a wood shop technician, and an assistant to the director of Trade at the New York Mercantile Exchange. Lauren earned her M.F.A. in Sculpture and New Media at Tyler School of Art, Temple University in Philadelphia, and also studied at the Rome campus. She has a B.A. in Art Studio from the University of California, Davis.

Lauren will be in a group show at the Collision Machine in Brooklyn on April 26th. Recent solo exhibitions include Jillian Baba, Jillian Baba Gallery in Brooklyn, NY and Success, The Barber Shop Gallery in Philadelphia, PA. She currently lives at Envirolution headquarters on the Lower East Side and dreams of one day designing and producing her own lingerie line from recycled clothing.

The Laundromat is grateful to Alex Gamboa, of Envirolution for their support of this exhibition. To find out more about Envirolution's efforts to promote environmental sustainability visit: www.envirolution.org

Jonathan Allmaier & Maria Walker: March 15, 2008 at The Laundromat

Jonathan Allmaier & Maria Walker

View from gallery entrance.

Maria Walker

 First Things First. Acrylic on canvas, 2008.

Jonathan Allmaier

I Did Not Parade the "Colors". Oil on canvas, 2007.

Jonathan Allmaier & Maria Walker

Installation view

Jonathan Allmaier

You Can Try to Have a Nice House, But What Can You Do? Oil on canvas, 2007. 

Maria Walker

Untitled. Acrylic on canvas, 2008.

Jonathan Allmaier & Maria Walker

Installation view

Jonathan Allmaier

You Know There Are Two Distances in Your Distance. Oil on canvas, 2007.

Maria Walker

Untitled. Acrylic on canvas, 2008.

Jonathan Allmaier & Maria Walker

Installation view.

Jonathan Allmaier

AMERICAN: Address the Need For a Culture By Starting the Painting Earlier. Oil on canvas, 2008.

Jonathan Allmaier & Maria Walker

Installation view.

Maria Walker

Untitled. Acrylic on canvas, 2007.

Jonathan Allmaier

One Way is the Amazon River (Dangerous) Behind a Grate, the Other is the Pacific Ocean. Oil on canvas, 2007.

Maria Walker

Untitled. Acrylic on canvas, 2008.

Maria Walker

Sleepwalker. Acrylic on canvas, 2008.

Maria Walker

X. Acrylic on canvas, 2007.

Johnathan Allmaier

Banquet of the Starved. Oil on linen, 2008.

Jonathan  Allmaier

It's Time to Look Past Compositional Style as a Model of History. Oil on canvas, 2008.

Jonathan Allmaier

Be Specific About the Gap Between What and What in the Mind. Oil on canvas, 2008.

Maria Walker

Untitled. Acrylic on canvas, 2007.

Maria Walker

Slo Mo. Acrylic on canvas, 2007.

Jonathan Allmaier & Maria Walker

Installation view.

Jonathan  Allmaier & Maria Walker

Installation view.

Jonathan Allmaier

Vincent, You Stay Away From My Daughter. Oil on canvas, 2008.

Jonathan Allmaier

Round Plus Square (What is the Source of Ritual, What is the Nature of Community). Oil on canvas, 2008.

Maria Walker

Untitled. Acrylic on canvas, 2008.

Jonathan Allmaier

A Man Providing For The Family. Oil on linen, 2007.

At the reception for the artists, March 15, 2008.

Kevin A. Curran interviews Maria Walker and Jonathan Allmaier:

 
KAC: Maria, you did not title many of your pieces, what's up with that? What do you think is the function of the title? What happens when there is no title? I think I am harping on the title issue because that was one of the big contrasts I noticed as I entered the info on the blog. It is interesting to me how much Jon has going on with his titles and you seem reluctant to put words to your work. Can language introduce an artwork? Do you think it is better for the audience to bring their own words to your work? Like: Stretched, Poked, Stained, Drips, Dots, Raw canvas, etc.

MW: I am not reluctant to title my paintings. I am just very careful in deciding on what the title for a painting is, and deciding on a title often takes time for me. Some titles are very clear, and I know what they will be even before the painting is made. Some paintings I know may have a title, but I need to work and wait at figuring out what that title is. And then some paintings just do not have titles.

When I title a painting, I’m looking for a title that engages, but doesn’t impede the experience of looking. I think of the titles like puzzles, and I’m working on solving the right balance between the title and the painting, in which the painting is brought forward as clearly and luminously as possible. There’s a dance and resonance between the two. The titles usually come from the process (rules, logic, order, and surprises in the work), personal associations, or source material. They may come from the experience of what it was like to make the piece.

Titles are tricky, though, and a bad title can shut down a painting. I would rather leave a painting untitled and let it come forward as its own, clear self, than muffle it up with a rushed, bad title. There were some very recent paintings in this show for which I simply still don’t know what the titles are. When I decide to leave a painting untitled, it’s because I feel like it comes forward most clearly without any words in conjunction with it. For these paintings I feel like I can’t think of a title that wouldn’t start to shut down the painting in some way.


KAC: Your pieces point out their structure and their process. So the language I come up with looking at your work is about these actions that distort the canvas and its skeleton. It is physical work.

MW: The making of the paintings works as a series of rules that combine with intuition, creating a puzzle-like process full of risk, instinct, distance, parameters, and analysis. The paintings are not all process, though. The process is a way to get to/ access something a kind of thinking I could not arrive at otherwise. When I paint, I am pushing to arrive at a different kind of relationship to myself and to the painting; this is a point where each opens up in new, unexpected ways.

KAC: How do you select color? How do colors relate to one another and to the canvas? What is color doing in your paintings?

MW: I work from a similar balance between rules/parameters and intuition when thinking about color. With color, I am interested in both how I can mentally work my way through a painting by subjectively making choices about color, and also what happens when I displace where the choices about color are coming from (for example, by setting up some kind of rule system). I find that color works best when it is essentially part of the painting just like any other element of the work—the canvas, the stretcher, the physical substance of the paint. The same goes for the stretchers. I want the paintings to work as singular objects, with each separate element combining to create something at which point the stretcher on its own or the color on its own isn’t more interesting on removable that the whole, singular thing.

KAC: What is boring about a regular stretcher? How do you go about crafting your stretchers?

MW: I have nothing against a traditional rectangular stretcher, and actually the subtleties of the nuances of a “regular stretcher” are profound. I began painting on these “shaped” kinds of stretchers because their change of structure helped me start painting more freely. Their very physical nature, combined with the kind of rule-based method I had started working with allow me to enter a painting more clearly, and access the kind of displaced thinking I addressed earlier.

When building the stretchers, I focus on thinking about what kind of surface and structure I want to work with. What kind of surface do I want to touch? What kind of questions about materials and painting do I have right now, and what kind of structure/frame/stretcher will best help me explore that? I get very involved in building the stretchers. I have been using scraps from old stretchers, leftover pieces of wood from the saw, etc, etc. This wood has been important to me, since it creates a limitation in and of itself to work with. How the stretchers change and develop often leads one to the next, and I’ll make several at one time. Other times, the idea for the stretcher comes with lots of thinking about a particular painting.

KAC: How do you and Jon decide how to arrange your work together in the same space?

MW: Jon, Amy, and I decided how to hang our work by thinking about what would make the best show. We considered each piece and what it needed, and went from there.

KAC: Jon, how do the titles of your work relate to the image?
JA: There is not generally much of an image, or that’s not how I think of the paintings.
KAC: What do you think is the function of the title? Does the title add something to the image?
JA: The title doesn’t add anything per se, as far as I know, either to the painting or to its image. The title exists parallel to the painting – it is the result of a parallel process to the process of making a painting. Like having a show, the title is an important part of the life of the painting, but it is not made of the same stuff as the painting. Still, not unimportant.
KAC: Can language introduce an artwork?
JA: In the case of painting, I don’t think so. Language and painting are such fundamentally different things, language being so necessarily abstract. Painting can’t be abstract in the same way. It has to have particular physical properties. You could talk about images in terms of language, but not paintings. The one way that painting can be abstract is in the really traditional sense – in the regularity and predictability of the more or less flat thing on the wall. But that is a different type of abstraction that what you get in language. It’s not as purely abstract, but enough to develop a history and a community. Maybe better for developing those things, in some ways, because it’s not as purely abstract.


KAC: How does scale function in your paintings? I mean the scale of the canvas but also that of the color forms and fields and the marks in the image.
JA: I had been doing small paintings for a while because, when you think of a small painting, the space of a small painting is a mental space. The idea of a small painting is a mental idea. That was the kind of idea I was interested in at that point. But the physical properties of the small stretchers I built, and the paint I used, and the fact that the canvas itself stayed pretty present on the small size, meant that the scale of the canvas, forms, and paint was a pretty physical scale. It goes to show that the body is not reducible to gesture, but shapes our thoughts too.
I’m doing big paintings now, trying to think about color very directly, in a very mental or imaginative way, and apply that large physical space to the mind, having learned something from the smaller paintings.
KAC: How do you select color?
JA: In terms of scale. It’s interesting to really try to make color the primary thing, to make the color generate the scale and the drawing. The main things in terms of selection, or a way of starting, are the size and shape of the canvas, and the color. I’m interested in painting where the color is indistinguishable from the scale and the drawing.
KAC: How do colors relate to one another and to the canvas? What is color doing in your paintings?
JA: Not for me to say.
KAC: How do you and Maria decide how to arrange your work together in the same space?
JA: My approach is to pick the painting I want to hang, and then see where that painting ought to go.
KAC: What is boring about using manufactured paint?
JA: Nothing is categorically boring about it. I prefer making my own paint because that way I know what the paint is, in terms of the pigment it comes from and the way that pigment took the oil to become paint. There will always be some kind of mystery waiting for you about your pigment, even if you made it yourself by grinding up tree-bark or bugs, or used dirt. But making the paint makes the mystery a less arbitrary mystery, because the process of making it has to do with how you are going to use it.
KAC: What qualities are you trying to produce in the paints that you craft?
JA: You can’t try to produce any qualities, just try to make the best paint you can (I define that as using as little oil as possible). The pigment is not up to you, it’s a physical object. Of course, my paint would be different from yours, but only because painting is not that purely abstract.
KAC: What is the significance of intimacy with your raw materials?
JA: See above.
KAC: Why do you reveal the stretcher below the surface by letting it become part of the image?
JA: This is mostly because I like thin stretchers. When I make my own stretcher, the most straightforward way to make a good thin stretcher is to leave off the lip. But fancier stretchers will also show themselves sometimes if they are thin. I like a thin stretcher because it is all you need to stretch a canvas, and because it affects the scale of the canvas (and then the paint) in relation to the stretcher, and to the wall. This is a type of scale that tends to keep the painting unified as (necessarily) that particular thing. You could say that canvas itself is thin, and so is paint, and so a stretcher that stays closer to that level of thickness creates a complexity of scale.

Many thanks to Maria and Jon, and to Amy Lincoln for an excellent show.

Kevin A. Curran

March 2008.