BohoBurlBeat

Power to the Poster

2008-11-16T07:30:00.001-08:00

This is a pretty cool poster project: easily accessible (downloadable actually) artwork to make blank walls say something meaningful.

I came across this site, when checking out thirty grunge web designs at Sixrevisions. It brought me back to an interview I did over the summer with Favianna Rodriguez and Josh MacPhee, who had just released the book Reproduce & Revolt, a collection of social art across genres for activists worldwide to use as a reference.

Said MacPhee in that interview:

"We now have access to technology that allows us to easily and inexpensively distribute images around the world. What that has led to is people taking and evolving images and ideas nearly instantaneously. An artist in Buenos Aires will create a stencil against the war and put it up on the street – within twenty-four hours a photo of that is put up on the Internet and someone in Europe pulls it down and makes her own version of it and prints it on a flyer and sends it to a friend in another country and she takes it out and does something else with it. People are making the graphics just like they were a hundred years ago, but now they have the tools to shoot them halfway across the world in an instant."

You can read more and learn more about social art (and how it's changed in the digital age) in the interview here.

Versailles Fashionplate

2008-11-06T18:36:00.001-08:00

So, yes, Marie Antoinette is a symbol of decadence, frivolity and perhaps materialistic compulsion, but she's also the young teen queen of fashion. Two years ago, I was lucky enough to catch the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute's "Dangerous Liaisons: Fashion and Furniture in the 18th Century" showcasing the style Marie sported. (I also saw Coppola's movie, which was really only worth watching for the aesthetics...and shoes).

I was delighted to come across some more gorgeous imagery today via Paris Atelier, who suggests stopping by The Costumes of Marie Antoinette to make you wish you had twenty people dressing you every morning in hoops, hats, feathers, and finery...I love this seal, Marie's, that she highlights:

A perfect image to build a boudoir around?

Change in the Air

2008-11-05T06:51:00.000-08:00

I know it's not just me. From the conversations at my favorite cafe this morning to the celebratory tone of the blogosphere to the cheering of my office mates, we're not only excited about what our new President Barack Obama will do, but how we can be a part of what he will do.

Time to celebrate freedom and change.

Get Out And...

2008-11-04T05:55:00.000-08:00

Vivienne Westwood Does Rugs?

2008-11-01T09:24:00.000-07:00

So I dolled myself up as Vivienne Westwood yesterday to celebrate Halloween. Imagine my surprise when I came across this gem this morning.

Then to add to my designer morning, I came across this lovely set from Missoni. Wouldn't mind enjoying a cup of tea in this vessel.

Hungarian Revolutionary (well, in photography!)

2007-01-19T07:13:00.000-08:00

"The art of Munkacsi lay in what he wanted life to be, and he wanted it to be splendid. And it was." -Richard Avedon-

Perhaps it's because I am Hungarian; perhaps it's because I'm a fashionista. At any rate I'm quite excited about the lastest retrospective of Martin Munkasci's photography. The International Center for Photography presents a retrospective of innovative photographer's work in fashion photography (Martin Munkacsi: Think While You Shoot!; through April 29 at the International Center of Photography, 1133 Avenue of the Americas, at 43rd Street). His introduction of action, movement and vigor to the staid fashion photography at the time, made him an innovator. As The New York Times writes:

"Munkacsi was a stylist, and he made catchy images the only way he knew how, in a modernist mode, which, being an opportunistic form, could serve any master. Shortly after that he left for the United States. On a trip to New York near the end of 1933 he was hired by Carmel Snow for a Harper's Bazaar assignment. His picture of the socialite model Lucile Brokaw running down a Long Island beach in a bathing suit and cape introduced a whole new vocabulary of vigor and action to American fashion." (NYTimes)

*Photos from The New York Times; top, "Operetta Soubrette Rosi Barsony in Her Entrancing Grotesque Dance" (around 1932) by Martin Munkacsi; bottom, "Lucile Brokaw on a Long Island Beach"(1933) by Martin Munkacsi*

"Design Like You Give a Damn"

2007-01-18T13:47:00.000-08:00

"'Everyone else wanted to be Frank Gehry...I was kind of a black sheep' looking for low-cost design solutions." -Cameron Sinclair- (Christian Science Monitor)

In every profession it is important to realize that profession's most basic objectives: in journalism, to communicate information, in law to provide advice that serves the best interests of clients and society, and, in architecture, beyond all the multimillion (and billion) dollar projects, to provide shelter. "Strip away all [of] the ego in architecture and all the design theory, the hype, and the hot magazine articles, all we do is provide shelter. If you can't do that, you can't call yourself an architect," says Cameron Sinclair.

Sinclair, in defiance of the focus on aesthetics in architecture, is impassioned by a different agenda: socially responsible design. In his book, "Design Like You Give A Damn: Architectural Responses to Humanitarian Crises," he profiles such projects in Afghanistan, Brazil and South Africa. As he explains:

"Actually, the role of the architect is a political one. You make a conscious choice whether you're going to do a project or not do a project. You can say, 'It's really a shame what happened down in the Gulf Coast, but I don't really want to get involved in that.' I actually do an art project once a year, an art project for myself, just to keep my creative juices going...Just as I was coming out of college, I did a project dealing with homelessness in New York. I had located the housing to block the Statue of Liberty, and the idea that when the city took responsibility of its homeless, it'd get it's view of Liberty back, because there was this idea of 'bring us your huddled masses yearning to be free.' And here we are in New York and there were 60,000 people on the streets. So I think you as a designer have the opportunity to come up with a pragmatic and innovative sustainable response..." (Interview with Paul Schmelzer, Eyeteeth)

Take a look at Architecture for Humanity, the organization he co-founded, for more information on sustainable design projects. You can read an excerpt from the book here.

MLK

2007-01-15T07:52:00.000-08:00

"Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial "outside agitator" idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds."
-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.-

*Photo from CNN.com*

Stella McCartney Does Green

2007-01-14T19:25:00.000-08:00

Just goes to show you that you can be a chic Green Mountain girl after all!

Souvenir

2007-01-12T09:17:00.000-08:00

"For centuries, travel has captured our imaginations. From the pyramids of Egypt to the islands of the South Pacific, we continue to find a special kind of romance and excitement in travel. Returning with the evidence of our journeys, we present our carefully chosen objects as mementoes of our trip, proof of our visits to distant places. Come share this spirit of travel and a passion for collecting through an exhibition of souvenirs and trophies representing the diverse places tourists have visited over the centuries. Curated by students from UVM's Museum Anthropology class, this installation of objects from the Fleming's collection provides a passport into the history of tourism. The familiar becomes exotic through such items as a pair of Turkish slippers, a marble fragment purportedly from the Parthenon, an ornate souvenir spoon from Philadelphia, and a Japanese doll. Collected as emblems of prestige or simply as mantelpiece adornments, these souvenirs reflect the global nature of tourism and its continuous and evolving appeal." (from Robert H. Fleming Museum)

This show, entitled "Tourism: Curious Conquests and Unlikely Trophies" opens on January 16, 2007 and runs through June 10, 2007 at the Robert Hull Fleming Museum at the University of Vermont.

*Photo from Fleming Museum; Carved whale tooth, 19th century; Marble architectural fragment; Photograph album, 1892; Photograph album, 1909; Ichimatsu doll, pre-1940, Japan; Postcard album, ca. 1900-1910; Tiger claw dagger, mid-19th century, India.*

Vegan Sexy

2007-01-11T06:50:00.000-08:00

"People are more conscious today of what they're wearing, why they're wearing it and how it affects the environment," said Robert Burke, a fashion retail consultant in New York. To ignore such issues "is not sexy today." (NYTimes)

Whole Foods, Kaight, Linda Loudermilk, MooShoes, NY Artificial, Pangea, Moral Fiber, Real Fake, Novacas and Matt & Nat are just a few of the companies out there garnering the attention the vegan shopper, from the kitchen to the wardrobe. As The New York Times reports, "To their minds, vegan chic, once an oxymoron, is a glossy new marketing handle. Clothes and accessories once shunned for their aura of hair-shirt deprivation have acquired a hint of luxury." And with celebrities such as Stella McCartney, Natalie Portman, Alicia Silverstone, Woody Harrelson and Joaquin Phoenix, the aesthetically pleasing, morally-pleasing trend doesn't conjure the hackneyed image of a Birkenstock-clad, nut n' crunch neo-hippie, but a savvy fashionista with an eye for innovative and socially-conscious design.

Read more here.

*Photo from the New York Times; top, cotton Stella McCartney sweater, Ecoganik pants, tank made of corn fiber by Moral Fervor, Stella McCartney cotton purse, natural stone pendant by Cole Lopez; bottom, denim dress made of hemp and recycled polyester by NaturevsFuture and a woven cotton and wood bag by Stella McCartney. .*

"Radical Lace & Subversive Knitting"

2007-01-10T11:56:00.000-08:00

And you thought Madame Defarge was the only subversive knitter! Vermont jewelry-maker Barbara Zucker will be featured in the upcoming exhibition "Radical Lace & Subversive Knitting" at the Museum of Arts & Design (MAD) in New York City.

"A provocative and timely exhibition of work by international artists using fiber in unexpected and unorthodox ways, Radical Lace & Subversive Knitting illuminates a field of creative practice that is fresh, surprising, and engaging. Featuring 27 artists from seven countries, this exhibition will exhibit work that ranges from Althea Merback's microknit garments (1:144 scale) to large-scale, site-specific installations. Artists employ a variety of media, from traditional yarns and laces, to found objects and video, and explore contemporary currents in art practice of socially engaged, participatory work." (MAD Website)

Ms. Zucker has developed "Knitted Necklaces," a line of jewelry featuring knitted bands, with a sculptural curved or V-shaped clasp worn in the front with a unique mechanism designed for maximim versatility. Her Knitted Necklaces were featured in the Spring 2004 issue of Vogue Knitting International, also the sponsor of the MAD exhibition.

*Photo from Museum of Art & Design, Yoshiki Hishinuma, Cassablanca, 2005, Machine knitted wool*

El Anatsui at Hood Museum at Dartmouth

2007-01-09T09:58:00.000-08:00

"This inspiring exhibition of metal "tapestries" and other sculptures by El Anatsui, one of Africa's most powerful contemporary artists, celebrates Africa's rich artistic and cultural heritage. El Anatsui uses found objects such as metal liquor bottle wrappings and tin cans to create spectacular metal cloths, including Hovor, which the Hood Museum of Art has acquired, and two recently completed works that will be exhibited for the first time. The works in this exhibition reference broader concerns about the adverse affects of globalization, consumerism, and waste. Organized by the Oriel Mostyn Gallery in New South Wales, this is El Anatsui's first solo exhibition to travel the United States." (from the Museum's website, read the full press release here).

Happy New Year & Happy Birthday...to ME!!!

2007-01-02T19:03:00.000-08:00

Ok...so perhaps it's a bit gratuitous to post about my own birthday, but truly the cake is quite the piece of art...I mean, check it out, the pink shoes fashioned out of fondant...genius! Well, let's raise a glass to a new year of fantastic art....art that pleases, beguiles, questions, answers, challenges, subverts and makes a statement; to exploration, experience and excellence. Cheers!

Revisions

2006-12-21T14:32:00.000-08:00

I'm working on revising this blog...look out for more updates and more art soon...in the meantime, I'm going to go hit the slopes! Though it is winter here in Vermont, there is a lot happening here in the Burlington arts scene. Burlington City Arts has a new exhibition opening on December 31, 2006. Get your art fix in before the 2007 season!

2006-10-25T12:42:00.000-07:00

OK so I haven't been so great about covereing the Vermont Arts scene lately so let's get back on track!

Vermont Arts News

Fashion Forward Vermont Seven Days' articles explores the fashion scene in Vermont....

Arts Preview A preview of what's happening now on the New England arts scene.

In Memoriam A new wing in the Fleming Museum on the University of Vermont campus honors the work of Professor James Peterson, an anthropologist who was killed last year while researching in Brazil -

"The Robert Hull Fleming Museum is pleased to announce the opening of the James B. Petersen Memorial Gallery of Native American Cultures. This newly-installed, long-term exhibition explores the material cultures and artistic traditions of indigenous peoples of North America through art and artifacts from the Museum's collections.

Drawing upon the unique breadth and strengths of the Fleming's collections, the exhibition features outstanding examples of Navajo textiles, Plains quillwork and beadwork, carvings from the Northwest Coast, pottery from the Southwest, baskets from California and New England, and lithics from Vermont, among others. Highlights include a stunning Chilkat blanket, examples of both historical and contemporary Abenaki baskets, and the "Colchester Jar," which dates back to ca. 1500 and was unearthed in Colchester in the 1820s. Through objects that date from pre-contact to the present, the installation explores a number of themes, including the continuity of cultural traditions, innovation resulting from exchange between Native American cultural groups, and the impact of contact with peoples of European descent. Moreover, the gallery highlights diverse views and approaches by displaying texts by Native Americans from both local and national tribes alongside those by Museum staff and University of Vermont faculty."

Image(inary) Possession

2006-10-23T17:30:00.000-07:00

The print above is a modern take by Bansky (the artist who redid those Paris Hilton album covers!) on Warhol's famous series on Marilyn Monroe. This time she is replaced by the ubiquitous image of Kate Moss (truly isn't this woman in every designer advertisement? Not only is she the primary model for David Yurman, Dior, Louis Vuitton, Burberry and Versace among others, she was just featured in an editorial in this month's Vogue magazine. Not too bad in light of the critical reaction last year when she made headlines for her party girl lifestyle!).

In an age in which image almost always triumphs over substance and visual imagery permeates our everyday experience questioning our personal identities, Kate Moss serves as the perfect modern Marilyn, a woman marketed for her carefully, and sometimes carelessly, manufactured image. One of the funnier Kate Moss promos is her work for Nikon in which she points a camera toward the viewer. Though Kate is seemingly grabbing her power (in much the same way Olympia claims her sexuality in Manet's famous painting. Although in the case of the traditional interpretation of the camera as phallic symbol, perhaps Kate is also taking the power away from male gaze), the advertiser lays claim on her. The punchline to the ad reads, "And Kate's not so bad either." In the world of promotion, Kate belongs to the public.

Marie Antoinette

2006-10-16T17:22:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the images from VOGUE Magazine:

Marie Antoinette Redux

2006-10-15T11:51:00.000-07:00

Sophia Coppola's latest film, "Marie Antoinette," traces the life of the young, beautiful, reviled, and perhaps misunderstood young Austrian royal who became the Queen of France. Coppola, whose films focus on the private lives of young women (The Virgin Suicides, Lost in Translation), investigates the life of this "teen queen" beyond the decadence, the frills, the fashion, and the gossip that often follows a young celebutante, to use the modern day vernacular.

The film couldn't come into the public realm at a better time. At the same time that it calls into question our own modern decadence and reliance on material aesthetics to bring us happiness, it is also the catalyst for a new slew of aesthetic desires and creations in the fashion world. Coppola's film has set off a new trend - a return to frills and decadence. Whereas last year's fashion trends followed the bohemian stylings of Mary-Kate Olsen, this years trends turn on the reimagined lives of disenchanted royals. VOGUE magazine devoted a good portion of its fall issue to the teen queen, with Kirsten Dunst, her avatar on the cover, with articles inside by the likes of Kennedy Fraser re-examining Marie's life. Books are filling the shelves at bookstores as well.

The cultural phenomenon this film has touched off is amazing to me. I just hope that while enjoying the beauty on the surface, we as viewers follow though for Coppola by critically thinking about Marie Antoinette, no just as a political figure or a symbol of royal hedonism, but as a young woman living in a complex time, thrown into a complex situation at a very young age.

Here are some sites to check out:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/15/books/review/Schillinger.t.html
http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/marieantoinette/index.html
http://www.chateauversailles.fr/en/240_Marie-Antoinette.php

Big Red Barn

2006-10-15T09:57:00.000-07:00

While in Moretown, Vermont took this snap - the blue and red look pretty brilliant.

Art or Convenience?

2006-10-15T09:55:00.000-07:00

Saw this along the recreation path in Stowe, Vermont.

Latte Art

2006-09-13T06:49:00.000-07:00

This New York Times article is pretty funny! The lengths people will go for for THE cup of coffee!

Seeing Double

2006-09-04T19:33:00.000-07:00

My sister and I went to the last day of the Champlain Valley Fair today to snap some pics....will post with commentary during the week. I hadn't been to the fair since I was ten years old, and even then, I think I only watched the hog races! This was quite a different experience, acting as observer...

Burlington Literary Festival

2006-08-19T17:51:00.000-07:00

Mark your calendar for this: http://www.sevendaysvt.com/bookfest/raquo-schedule.html

Contemplation

2006-08-19T17:44:00.000-07:00

The twin objective in life is to look in while looking out, look out while looking in.

Pop Acrylics

2006-08-08T07:06:00.000-07:00

I saw some fantastic paintings at 1/2 (the tiny, intimate bar nestled into the first block of the Church Street Marketplace). They are gorgeous little slice of life paintings to me. You can almost sense what the subjects are thinking. Though the brushstrokes are quick and denote movement, there is a sense of contemplation taking place as well. This may be a stretch of aesthetic identification, but they made me think of something Liechtenstein would do were he armed with acryclic paints. What do you think??

Material Girl

2006-08-08T06:58:00.000-07:00

Nancy Dwyer's latest show, "Entitled to What," showing at the Firehouse Gallery critiques our contemporary material culture: our desire, urge and need to collect material objects to express our identity. Surely the possession of items codifies our existence, but in an age of such decadent excess in which the gap between those who possess and those who don't is ever-widening, what, as Dwyer questions, are we really entitled to?

The most impressive piece Dwyer offers is a wall of "stuff." Objects are offered to the viewer on multicolored paper plates. One instantly gravitates to those things she identifies with or those things she actually possesses herself (yes I do own a Jane Fonda aerobics video!). My eye was attracted to shoes, a book by Camille Paglia, eyeglasses, treats, a mirror. Once the viewer has latched on to things of personal significance, she starts to question other objects on the wall. Really you could stare at this piece for a lengthy chunk of time and have a lot of fun with it.

Journey to the Past

2006-08-07T20:00:00.000-07:00

Me as a 1950s housewife at the 1950s House at the Shelburne Museum!!

Flower Power

2006-08-05T09:53:00.000-07:00

Fashion & Identity

2006-07-24T09:24:00.000-07:00

What we wear is a manifestation of our cultural identity and cultural practices. Our bodies become canvases that communicate to the rest of the world our occupations, our predilections, our socioeconomic status, and, I suppose in some cases, our level of hygiene.

What we chose to wear to certain events also adheres to a cultural code of dress: at weddings brides from a certain background will wear a white dress, in times of mourning we wear black, at graduation we're forced to wear large black robes and funny hats. These dress codes are so deeply ingrained we hesitate to give them a second thought. We embrace them without question. So it's only when you see the same manner of visual expression manifested in a very different way in a different culture that you realize the most basic idea - we're all the same (hint: I dig Claude Levi-Strauss)

At least that was what I was thinking when I went to see the opening of the new exhibition at the Fleming Museum this past Wednesday. "Colors of the Amazon: Featherworks from the Nalin and Petersen Collections," a collection of body ornaments, headdresses, costumes, baskets, musical instruments and other ceremonial objects from Amerindian tribes of the Amazon basin collected over the past thirty years by Dr. David Nalin and late UVM Professor James Petersen, an anthropologist.

In societies without a written language, these pieces figure prominently in conveying important historical facts, myths and legends, and societal codes. The tribes represented here, the Waiwai, Karajá, Tembé, Ka'apor, Rikbaktsú, Yanomamo, Wayana-Apalai and Tapirapé, used the bright feathers of Amazonian birds such as parrots, toucans and macaws as the raw materials for bodily ornamentation. These objects are symbolic of celebration and social cohesion. It is interesting to note that the birds used are domesticated, not killed, for further use and cultivation of their feathers.

The viewer will be impressed not only by the gorgeous colors - bright and stunning, but the level of workmanship and execution that went into creating these pieces. I know we all watch "Project Runway" and wonder, "how did they create that from nothing?", but the work here is to be truly admired. One particular piece caught my eye, a "Fire Ant Ritual Mitt," an intricately and acutely geometric example of basketry modeled after the shape of a sting ray. The mitt is used in initiation ceremonies among the Wayana-Apalai. A young boy's courage is demonstrated when he sticks his hand into a mitt full of fire ants. Combs, ear decorations and the magnificent headdresses will impress viewers. The exhibit is well curated in that it also gives the viewer the cultural story and importance behind each object.

The show also subtlety hints at the intrusion of the modern world into these tribes' existence. We learn that, with the introduction of trade to the region, tribe members used beads and twine from such distance places as Italy and the Czech Republic in their work. The tourist trade demanded featherworks as well for wealthy foreigners and colonialists to use as decoration. For Brazil, as UVM History Professor Ernesto Capillo says, the featherworks became "symbols of national identity complementing the process of modernization." Does that mean that through mass production these works lost meaning? Perhaps not to the people whose cultural history and identity is entwined in them, but this is a question the viewer leaves the exhibition with.

The show runs until November 19, 2006.

Ecovention in Art

2006-07-12T11:47:00.000-07:00

Like his predecessors in the Dada and Found Object Art movements, Robert Rauschenberg believed that art could come from the combination of seemingly incongruous and unheard of materials – of anything. For him, this idea manifested itself in his revolutionary Combines paintings and the use of organic materials in his Nature Paintings and Dirt Painting. Rauschenberg channeled this technique into environmental art, still a burgeoning field in its infancy in the 1950s.

Today, Rauschenberg’s Earthday 1970 poster, created for the first Earth Day celebration, can be looked upon as the catalyzing moment in the field of environmental art, inspiring such contemporary artists as Jackie Brookner and Alan Sonfist, whose work, along with Rauschenberg’s famous poster is on display at the Firehouse Gallery as part of the HUMAN=NATURE show.

Rauschenberg said, “I think a painting is more like the real world if it’s made out of the real world.” For Brookner, whose interests focus on water protection, this aesthetic is taken to the next level: her art is the creation of living ecosystems in situ, blending “ecological revitalization with the conceptual, metaphoric and aesthetic capacities of sculpture,” as curator Victoria Anstead writes. Her work’s purpose is to draw community interest in public art projects that, while they please the eye, also serve the greater purpose of environmental remediation and a call for policy change. Her contribution to this show is Utterances, in which a large moss-covered tongue lords over a self-sufficient ecosystem. The suggestion here is that communication between systems creates mutually beneficial cooperation and coexistence.

Like Brookner, Sonfist takes a similar in situ approach. The artist, whose career spans forty years, is perhaps best known for his Time Landscapes, which visually chronicle the changes throughout the restoration of a natural environment within a man-made environment. In this show, the time landscape is a triptych covering the development of a garden/park nestled on the corner of Houston Street and LaGuardia Place in New York City. What’s most shocking to the viewer here is the stark contrast between the grey cityscape and the tiny vibrant piece of green growing in a seemingly dead space. It calls to mind Eliot’s waste land, or the eyes of T.J. Eckleberg looking out upon that waste land in The Great Gatsby. The pessimistic undertones of those references aside, Sonfist’s work communicates something on a more positive note: that engaging forgotten spaces can revive them.

One only has to step into City Hall Park, right next to the Firehouse Gallery, to realize such potentiality – the park has been revitalized from its former destitute status; the old Firehouse itself was also re-discovered by the City and renovated to its former grandeur, this time as a home for arts. As Rauschenberg said, "You begin with the possibilities of the material."

Flashes of Light & Life

2006-07-11T07:44:00.000-07:00

In his photography, Michael Flomen takes the beauty of nature and abstracts it into large scale black and white works that are somewhat discombobulating to the viewer. What are we looking at? Where are we? The fluctuation between abstract and representational creates stunningly complex images. Using elements of nature, the movement of the wind and the moon for example, he invites the viewer to take a very different look at the natural environment.

As part of the HUMAN=NATURE show at the Firehouse Gallery, a set of five exhibits exploring the relationship between humans and their natural environments, Flomen has contributed Higher Ground, a photographic study of the movement of fireflies. In creating a system in which the fireflies found themselves floating between photosensitive paper and a sheet of glass, Flomen was able to capture the patterns left by their bioluminescence. What is left on the photo paper is, as curator Victoria Anstead writes, “flight patterns…streaks of white, and the insects’ characteristic pulsating [becomes] exploding orbs of light.”

In these photographs one sees the patterns of life for a small family in the animal kingdom; mating patterns become “elaborate ballets,” patterns of flight become the trail of a dialogue, a moment of movement in nature is frozen forever in a gorgeous tableau. Perhaps what is most tangible here is the memory of human interaction with nature: a childhood memory of warm summer nights spent chasing after fireflies. The large image serves to heighten this experience of childhood wonderment – what are these incredible creatures glowing in the night sky? Incidentally, fireflies are a symbol for nostalgia in Japanese culture, a theme explored in the 2001 film Firefly Dreams. In Flomen's show they serve as a means of exploring this theme.

Flomen’s photographs suggest that we must pay attention to the smallest aspects of nature; that there is beauty in the shortest moments, the slightest movements and importance in the minuscule aspects of our natural environment. We all depend upon one another in this world. His work gives us a novel way to enjoy moments we perhaps have forgotten or did not fully appreciate. To enjoy and reflect upon our interactions with nature, rather than solely the connections to our human developed environments, is suggested with this series. Flomen's show runs through July 30 and is on the second floor of the Firehouse Gallery on Church Street Marketplace.

The Other Side of the Story

2006-07-11T06:52:00.000-07:00

In keeping with yesterday's post, here are some newsbites about new films, fashion and books that tell the other side of the story:

"The Monster Talks" An new opera comes to New York telling Grendel's side of the story (forget Beowulf!).
"The Guys Have It" Tales and designs from the explosive world of menswear fashion.
"18 With a Bullet" A documentary tracks the lives of the members of a gang in San Salvador.
"Voices from the Other America" New literature marks a resurgence in works from writers in South America.

"A Call to Look": Sudanese Refugee Artwork

2006-07-10T08:45:00.000-07:00

Visual art is the tool by which we are able to communicate ideas to a greater public. In an age of mass production and mass communications, the ability to send these images to all crevises and communities in the world (well as long as you have access to a computer, that is) is our modern way of participating in a time-old tradition: telling stories. Sharing stories that shed light on issues we may not have learned of otherwise and expose us to worlds very different from our. Every now and again they can open our minds to an experience outside of ours, motivate us to get involved, challenge us to make a change, however small. That is the motivation behind the exhibit at the Metropolitan Gallery, "Painting Faces on War: Brave Hearts of the Lost Boys and Girls of Sudan," an exhibit comprised of artwork and ethnographic materials.

As Sarah Kariko said in an interview with the Seven Days: "It's a call to look. These paintings give a visual voice to those who have no other representations of their families and villages." Because there is so little photographic documentation of where they came from -- a part of Africa that's routinely ignored by the Western media -- "there's a whole generation of kids in the refugee camps who have not even an indirect experience of traditional life," Kariko notes.

Kariko, a sculptor, worked with artist and Sudanese refugee Atem Thuc Aleu on putting the show together. Aleu started his artistic studies in 1994 at the age of 14 under the tutelage and encouragement of UN aid workers. He soon became the art instructor for nearly 75 rufugees, using art as a tool of therapy and communication. "The year I started painting in Kakuma, I was having dreams of Sudan and of my people every night. Every morning I tried to draw my dream. I would often see people running and being shot."(Seven Days)
In 2001 he was one of the fortunate few to resettle in the United States, in his case, in Utah, where he is currently a student at Brigham Young University. Kariko and Aleu came together when she became involved in the activities of the Sudanese community here in Vermont and Aleu came to teach a course in art to that community. The show was born out their friendship and the art of the refugees.

Of particular poignancy in this exhibit are the ethnographic elements. Next to each photo of a refugee is a placard containing a short biography: where the refugee is from, when they came to the US, what they are doing now, and what they hope to do in the future. Some hint at the violence the individual encountered; others are more graphic, such as that of a young woman who was beaten with the butts of guns. Some talk of small achievements such as garnering a driver's license; others discuss achievements as students at UVM. All of the bios end with each person's desire to return home to find lost family members. The spectator leaves with a note of sadness: how difficult it must be to reconcile oneself with the fortune of resettling in a stable environment while family is still aboard in a hellish environment.

This show may be called "A Call to Look" but it's subtext is a call to engagement, to engage in a crisis and rectify it, to engage in the lives of others who simply want a stable existence for their family and friends. The show runs through August 7.

July's Art: Phebe Mott

2006-07-08T07:42:00.000-07:00

Last Friday night was a gorgeous Burlington evening! Sunny with a refreshing breeze in the air (much needed after the humidity and rain we have suffered through). Throughout our tour we saw some amazing art work, from the art of Sudanese refugees resettled in Vermont to encaustic paintings, works in which the artist uses waxes and oil paints to Vogue Magazine worthy jewelry to art for the purposes of ecovention....keep visiting this page to find out more about the art...and what I thought about it.

I won't leave you hanging though....I'll start off with the work I saw at the first gallery we visited: the Amy E. Tarrant Gallery at the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts. "Summer Serendipity" by Phebe Mott opened there last night. Mott uses carefully rendered strokes of acrylic paint to potray intimate moments in everyday life. Here scenes of summer moments grace the walls and jump out of the viewer. The colors are vibrant and deep, the canvases large. As the viewer moves closer toward the painting, she can fully admire Mott's brushwork: up close one can see the subtle layering of colors, a large space of cobalt blue reveals lavendars, pinks, even oranges, peeking out from underneathe. Also apparent is the texturing on the canvases. In one seascape scene it appears as though Mott has placed sea salt or sand on parts of the canvas then painted over that. In another it seems as though the canvas has been cut or altered prior to painting. She uses these elements to communicate aspects of the environment in a tactile way. Sand crystallizes, waves move. I hope you can see those details in the photos I've taken...

Mott's work conveys the theme of intimate moments. She chooses not to potray the faces of her human subjects lending nicely to the theme of universality - these could be scenes fron anyone'e life. In fact a painting of three blonde women sitting on a wicker sofa on a porch immediately reminded me of my two younger sisters and me, chatting away on a summer evening. As the artist herself says, "I feel drawn to the flashes of life that might not get a lot of attention...There are moments that we don't think about and I like to think that I'm giving them some importance." The show runs through September 2. You can find out more about Mott at www.phebemott.com.

Artistic Formulas...

2006-07-07T07:33:00.000-07:00

Here are some topic of interest in today's art news:

"Graffiti = Art?" Interesting article questioning moving graffiti from its environment to galleries....
"Digital Cool + Expressionistic Intensity" New show from Jane Callister in LA - think Jackson Pollock meets the digital age.....
"Surgeon's Skill x 29 Canvasses" Plastic surgery as the impetus for artistic endeavor?? Hard to believe but true...
"Hair + Nail Polish = Art?" A hair design contest draws participants from forty-nine different countries to Russia!

Photo Test

2006-07-06T14:14:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to make sure I could post photos. This is from my visit to the Vatican in Roma, Italy last spring. I'm not a religious person, but that was an amazing experience! This is the hall of maps in one of the many corridors (for lack of a better word) that leads up to the Sistine Chapel. The maps are of the provinces of Italy and they are gorgeous, brightly-colored, detailed and a wonder! This shot is, of course, the ceiling so you can't see the maps, but perhaps it is meant to suggest that what is on earth is beautiful but what is above is even more glorious?? Like I said I'm not religious but I can paraphrase Hamlet when he instructs Horatio that there are more things in heaven and earth than can be dreamt up of in philosophy!

First Friday

2006-07-06T08:50:00.000-07:00

This is my first post! Very exciting. This blog is going to be about the arts scene in Burlington, Vermont. There is a bunch of cool stuff going on here so I'll do my best to post photos and reviews up here to keep you in the loop and let you know what's happening. Like this Friday. As in tomorrow. The Burlington City Arts Center will be holding its First Friday Art Walk. Just drop by the Firehouse Gallery on Church Street in Burlington around 5ish and go on a tour with BCA volunteers to check out the art in the area. There a bunch of gallery spaces, art in salons (such as the Men's Room, which has had some gorgeous photography for the past two months), and jewelry shops, such as the Grannis Gallery (last month they had jewelry rendered out of meteorite rock found in Namibia juxtaposed with diamonds - heaven and earth as the artist touted it!). You should really check it out!