Balancing The Rocks

The rocks arrived Saturday.

 

After days of struggling with technology it was a welcomed relief to deal with something that didn’t need a computer in order to work. 

 

We were quickly able to get the rocks off the truck and down into the gallery where Louie and Jorge poured them onto the floor and started organizing them inside the installation.

 

It was amazing to experience how the rocks changed the space both visually and energetically.

The 3-tons of marble chips brought a sense of calm with them.  The physical act of moving their weight, handling their cool, wet exterior and smelling their rockness brought us back to our bodies and away from the frenetic world of the computer.

Once the rocks were in place Jorge and I sat for a long time looking out of the installation. What had previously been a frantic, stressful environment for the past few days was now a peaceful, soothing oasis where the imagination could flow freely.  Setting up the projectors and dealing with the computer programs brought us up to our heads.  Installing the rocks brought us down to our feet and the ground.

                                                                         photo by Benedetta Valabrega

This is not to say that I personally privilege working with natural objects over working with the technology.  They are both important for me and I need both in order to explore my ideas fully.  I love the videos and sound in the show. It's been thrilling for me to use the computer to make the 4 videos sync and to manipulate their shape and I am also so glad that we were able to use the computer to create a multi-channel sound environment. Equally, I love the rocks and their innate power and independence from technology.  For me, it's a perfect balance.

The journey begins

My long-term collaborator Jorge and I will have a solo show at the ISE Gallery in lower Manhattan from November 8 – December 31, 2013.  This is our most expansive project to date as well as an extraordinary opportunity and big personal challenge.  At this point, Jorge and I have our concept, have chosen the videos and designed the space, but there are still so many decisions to be made before we are ready for the opening on November 8.  This is a demanding process on many emotional, creative and practical levels and I think this blog will be an interesting space for me to sort out all of these pieces and for you to join me in the creative process.

Ryōan-ji garden, Kyoto 

At the moment, I am working on fundraising for the show through RocketHub, which is a crowdfunding platform.  I never imagined that I would ever try raising money this way, but the project is expensive and it is extremely difficult to get grant money, so I figured I would give it a try. I was very anxious about doing this, so it took ages to shoot and edit the video, write the text and then, most frighteningly, decide what the monetary goal of the project would be. The budget for the installation is close to $11,000, but I didn't think I could ever raise that much money. It’s embarrassing to say, but all I saw was an image of myself sitting alone starring at the computer screen where it said “money raised: $0.00”.  I thought it was going to be a big public humiliation, but I decided to take the risk and do it anyway and set the goal at $3,000 figuring that I could make some anonymous pledges of my own in case things got really desperate. So, I launched the project and the pledges immediately starting coming in and within 2 days Jorge and I raised $3,000.  

Ryōan-ji garden, Kyoto 

This was completely shocking to me and has given me a chance to shift some very old and unhelpful ways I have imagined myself and my relationship to the world. Each time I see a new pledge- no matter how big or small I feel deeply touched.   I feel a form of support, a connection to others as well as a sense of being lifted up by their belief in me and my work. I have always been someone who shied away from money, seeing it as something a bit tainted and negative, but I see now that it can be good thing. There is something very positive in receiving money and in giving money and it is certainly okay to ask! It is an exchange of positive energy and I am thrilled to know that I no longer have to imagine myself sitting alone looking at a big $0.00 sign, but can instead can see myself surrounding by supporters who are cheering me on. 

This makes me think about the installation itself. Essentially Passage is about moving through the stages of life, change, awareness and transformation and that is what I see happening for me during this process.  Once of the main inspirations for the project is a quote by the Buddhist scholar D.T Suzuki and I am going to share it here as I think is beautiful description of this creative process:

“When traveling is made too easy and comfortable, its spiritual meaning is lost. This may be called sentimentalism, but a certain sense of loneliness engendered by traveling leads one to reflect upon the meaning of life, for life is after all a traveling from one unknown to another unknown”. –D.T. Suzuki

So, on that note, I am going to post the link to my RocketHub site and to ask pledge to Passage in any small or big way you can and even if you can.  

http://rkthb.co/25643

Thinking about how we think

One of the greatest tragedies of society is that it privileges one kind of thinking over others.  Being able to articulate oneself in what is considered a logical matter and having the capacity to receive ideas and concepts in that format is essential for survival. The problem is that not everyone’s brain works the same way.

I have always known this on some level although I had an interesting experience the other night at a theatrical performance by Alarm Will Sound  (a 20-member band committed to innovative performances of contemporary music) that made the importance of the constructs of thinking very clear to me. 

                          still from Song Books                                    

The performance, which reimaged Song Books, a 1970 text by John Cage, was an absurd, disjointed, glorious collage of performance and sound. Just to give you a glimpse into what this looked like: at one point there was a performer on stage writing poetic, abstract thoughts on a chalkboard while another played with an old record player and yet another made contorted sounds with his voice that stretched the limits of what the human ear can hear.  Meanwhile, a performer entered from the rear exit doors wearing a horse-head mask and calmly walked through the audience while an older gentleman strapped on a pair of women’s evening shoes and feather boa in preparation to sit down at an old fashioned typewriter and begin typing.  It sounds a bit crazy, but it didn’t feel that way. It actually made me feel very relaxed.  Review of Song Books. 

Shortly after the performance began I started to imagine objects and movements for a new performance piece.  I didn't have any plans to think about anything in particular during Song Books, but it seemed that my mind just got inspired and took off on its own.  While thinking about this new performance idea, I started imagining a new drawing and then some of the figures from my old drawings began dancing around in my head. After a while, my mind started organizing my syllabi for school. I have a couple of new classes in the fall that had been feeling a little daunting, but as the cacophony of the performance carried on my mind opened up and it all seemed so simple.

  still from Song Books 

I don’t have many experiences in my daily life that can even compare to the Alarm Will Sound performance although as I think about it, Manhattan does have that kind of disjointed, irrational rhythm, which is probably why I like living here. The performance taught me that my environment, who I am with, what I choose to focus my mind on etc, will have a deep impact on my ability to think clearly and creatively.  I am very lucky in the sense that both sides of my brain work pretty well, but I need to remember to nurture the less popular side.   I have a feeling there will always be a forum and audience for words and well structured ideas, but it is important to pay special attention to the less glamorous sibling who sounds like she is speaking gibberish. Truth is, I need both of them all the time, regardless of how distinct or how amorphous the activity, both ways of thinking are essential.

 I will leave you with the last line spoken in Song Books. It is from John Cage's  Mesostics Re and Not Re Duchamp.  I found it very moving and you can also see some of his logic in the way he formatted the text:

"the telegraM/ cAme/ i Read it./ death we expeCt,/ but all wE get/ is Life"  

Excitement on the horizon

proposal for Figment, 2012

I haven’t posted in about a month and I have to admit that I have really missed thinking and writing for this blog. Over the past month I have been dancing like crazy and it has been fun, but it certainly doesn’t take the place of my visual work.  This was a nice thing to discover and now I am happy to be back and excited about a couple of new projects that I would like to share with you.

The first project will be another performance on June 21 at Space on White where Jorge and I performed last month.  I am particularly excited about this upcoming show because aside from having the opportunity to make a new work, I am going to be curating and organizing the evening.  I have chosen 3 other wonderful performers to share the evening with me and I honestly look forward to speaking with each of them about their projects and seeing how our works relate to each other.

The other artists are:

Monika Weiss
http://www.monika-weiss.com/

Marie Christine Katz http://www.mariechristine.com
http://letstakeawalkmc.blogspot.com/

Edith Raw

http://nyclovesnyc.blogspot.com/2011/10/human-rites-interruptive-spectacle-by.html

I think it will be an interesting evening so, save the date! I would love to see you there. More detail will be coming shortly.

The second project will be a public performance as part of Figment, which will take place June 9 & 10 on Governors Island
http://newyork.figmentproject.org/figment-nyc-2012/about-figment-nyc-2012/

For this project I will be wearing an extravagant, long dress and head wrap, which will be covered with an excessive amount of small figures, made of fabric and clay. For the intervention I will ask people to draw a figure or make one out of fabric or clay. As people make their figures I will engage them in conversation, trying to find out about their process and what is driving them to the shapes and forms they are choosing.  Having studied the figure in a wide range cultures throughout history, I am fascinated by how drastically different representations of the human body can be and I am curious to discover the diversity of depictions I can find right here in New York City. When people are done with their figures I will add them to my dress (if it’s okay with them) and I will leave the day wearing the diversity and uniqueness of everyone I met.

If you think you will be coming please let me know so I can tell you were I will be located.

And finally, here are a couple of things I am looking for incase you know someone who would be interested. I do not have a lot of money, but I can pay some kind of stipend:

People I am looking for:

*I have an opportunity for a friendly and creative person who would be interested in helping me with the project at Figment. This will involve helping me carry all the materials, getting the public interested, talking to people, taking photos and/ or video and just keeping an eye on everything.

*I would like to find someone organized who can be a stage manager for the performance evening at Space on White on Thursday, June 21.  This will involve helping set up the space, managing all the different things the performers need like: setting up lights, moving around props and managing other technical details with the project and sound. 

*I am also looking for a talented individual to shoot video of the performances at Space on White.

Feel free to contact me at speaking@hotmail.com

Best wishes,

Michele