Selected past exhibitions...more images to come.
2010
Of, By, and For: New Work by Daniel Peltz and Paul Notzold
Cambridge Arts Council Gallery, 344 Broadway, Cambridge, MA
September 7 - November 19, 2010
Tuesday, September 7, 6-8 PM: Opening reception. Artist talk by Daniel Peltz @ 7 PM.
October 4 and November 1, 6-8 PM: First Monday receptions, featuring live performances, food & community in the CAC Gallery, 344 Broadway, Cambridge, MA.
November 19, location TBA: TXTual Healing event with Paul Notzold, Cambridge
This exhibition poses questions about what defines a public, a community, and its leaders, and how artists can facilitate the dialogue between these intersecting groups. Of, By, and For presents two models of artistic intervention into urban life that examine city structure, site, and community. Both projects concern ideas of mobility, communication, control, and how authority is made visible in city spaces, but the artists’ working methods are distinct.
Daniel Peltz’ background in anthropology guides his in-depth study of text, language and dialogue. His project for the CAC, Crossing Non Signalized Locations, began with a residency with the Cambridge Department of Traffic, Parking, and Transportation last winter, during which he shadowed workers and interviewed employees in a variety of roles. He drew the title for his project from the City’s parking regulations, which are set forth in 24 articles with hundreds of sections.
As Peltz has noted, a close reading of these regulations reveals a certain poetry and perspective on urban space. The outcome of his residency is a “suite of four gestures” that respond to experiences from his residency with the department and are enacted by Traffic, Parking and Transportation staff. The suite, put into effect on the streets of Cambridge during the first week of September, includes new parking signage; the launch of a fictional parking regulation authorizing “soft-booting,” in which stuffed fabric parking boots will be fabricated at a sewing station in the atrium of the Traffic, Parking and Transportation offices [produced in collaboration with the Swedish conceptual craft artist Sissi Westerberg]; and a redesigned parking ticket envelope, introducing a series of yogic postures for giving and receiving parking citations. Documentation and designs for these objects will be on view in the CAC Gallery along with “10,000 Excuses,” a large-scale drawing, composed from the archive of electronic parking disputes received by the city, transcribed, by hand, by departmental staff and visitors onto the back wall of the gallery.
Paul Notzold aligns himself with street art practices, staging ephemeral, often unsanctioned performances that fall under the category of “urban hacking.” His ongoing project TXTual Healing is an experiment in how mobile technology can transform public action into theater. Using a laptop and projector strapped to a bicycle cart, Notzold projects speech balloons and/or graphics onto buildings, with a phone number to which anyone with a mobile phone can text a response. Typically a private form of communication, in this project text messaging becomes an open, anonymous, and uncensored dialogue; a means to engage, rather than to escape. Notzold views his work as an alternative to advertising: “Projecting in a shared public space gives participants a voice as loud as the corporate and government entities who financially predetermine the information in these spaces.” TXTual Healing generates spontaneous and unpredictable stories, in which the city serves as both frame and surface. Of, By, and For will include a series of documentary photographs from the August 7 event in Cambridge as well as a new interactive piece.
Press photos are available for download at: http://www.cambridgema.gov/gallery/?albumID=397&level=album
Special thanks to the Cambridge Arts Council: Lillian Hsu, Jeremy Gaucher, Jason Weeks, and Mara Littman, and the Cambridge Department of Traffic, Parking, and Transportation: Sue Clippinger and Brad Gerratt.
May 27 - June 26, 2010
Souvenir Stand
Craftland Gallery, Providence, RI
Souvenirs – French for “to remember” – are inherently contradictory. Though they evoke powerful memories for their owners, and may have high sentimental value, these objects are often cheaply and anonymously mass-produced in countries far from their point of sale. As an alternative, the artists in this exhibition share an intent to restore the maker’s biography to the souvenir, creating unique objects that reference both personal history and regional identity.
Artists:
Shannon Buck/ Loaded Hips Press
James Milostan/ Paul Bunyan Fine Art
Reviewed (unceremoniously) by Greg Cook in the Providence Phoenix and here at Sweetie Pie Press.
2007
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Soundmarks: New Work by Zach Poff + NB Aldrich and Amy Stacey Curtis
Art Interactive, Cambridge, MA
“...the general acoustic environment of a society can be read as an indicator of social conditions which produce it and may tell us much about the trending and evolution of that society.” R. Murray Schafer, The Tuning of the World–1977
In the early 1970s, Canadian composer and theorist R. Murray Schafer founded the World Soundscape Project in order to study the relationship between people and their acoustic environments. Along with radical composer and “noisician” John Cage, Schafer argued that the sounds of our daily lives were an overlooked source of information and beauty, and were therefore potential artistic material. Schafer’s classification of the sounds in our environment helped codify a critical alternative to the musical and visual syntax that had previously limited the growth of Sound Art as a genre. “Soundmark,” derived from landmark, is his term for a sound unique to an area, place or community. In the spirit of Schafer’s inquiries, Soundmarks is comprised of site-specific sound and video installations by Amy Stacey Curtis and the team of Zach Poff + NB Aldrich. Employing both new media and traditional audio technologies, these artists experiment with ways in which art can serve as a catalyst for common experience and a site for community exchange.
Reviews:
Ken Johnson, "Critic's Pick," Boston Globe
Jacqueline Houton, Big Red and Shiny, June 13, 2007
Cate McQuaid, Boston Globe, August 2, 2007
2006
Activator
Bates College Museum of Art, Lewiston, ME
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all images Luc Demers
Activator explored the dynamic relationship between viewer, work, and architecture through immersive installations. Featured work by NB Aldrich and Zach Poff, Astrid Bowlby, Amy Stacey Curtis, Eric Hongisto, Nicola Lopez, and Jason Rogenes
Reviewed by Chris Thompson, Boston Phoenix
Read the catalogue essay here.
Off the Coast: A Landscape Chronology
Bates College Museum of Art, Lewiston, ME
There is more to Maine than the rockbound coastline Homer made famous. The unique and varied inland landscape has been a popular, if less visible, subject since the 19th century, and many examples of this interest are found in the Bates College Museum of Art's permanent collection. Off the Coast included work by Marsden Hartley, George Inness, Elke Morris, Neil Welliver, James Fitzgerald, Berenice Abbott, Gary M. Green, Joel Babb, Ellen Lesperance & Jeanine Oleson, Katherine Bradford, Dozier Bell, and others.
Visit exhibition website, built by student intern Michael Williams (Bates College '06)
2005
Robert Indiana: The Hartley Elegies
Bates College Museum of Art, Lewiston, ME
In his distinctive hard-edged style, Robert Indiana unites military insignia and geometric forms with references to Maine, America, war, and historical events in this series of symbolic portraits. The accompanying catalogue reproduces all ten serigraphs together for the first time, and includes essays by Susan E. Ryan and Liz K. Sheehan.
Read the catalogue essay here.
2004
Marsden Hartley: Image and Identity
Bates College Museum of Art, Lewiston, ME
Marsden Hartley’s personal archive at the Bates College Museum of Art not only provides a wealth of information about the artist’s life, relationships, and interests, but demonstrates his attempt to construct both a personal history and a public identity. The exhibition included drawings from Hartley's sketchbooks, his collection of self-portrait photograph postcards, his cameras, business cards, and ephemera.