S+ART

Gearing up for FotoWeekDC

Friday marks the opening of the fifth annual FotoWeekDC festival in Washington, D.C., bringing nine days packed with events, exhibits, workshops, and seminars dedicated to the art of photography.  This year, FotoWeekCentral, the location of ten full-scale exhibits including the winners of the International Awards Competition, Youth Photo Contest Winners, FotoBooks, and more, is centrally-located downtown in the Warner Building at 1299 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW.  In addition to the official FotoWeekDC exhbits and events, many FotoPartners are participating with their own work.  Take a look through the Events Listings to plan your own week-long celebration of photography and discover new work, artists, techniques, skills, and opportunities throughout the city.

-Angela

Hirshhorn Throws Hit Opening Gala for Ai WeiWei Exhibit

Dinner and drinks at the outdoor sculpture garden for the opening of Ai WeiWei’s “According to What?” Photograph by Jen Schiller.

Chinese artist Ai WeiWei’s exhibit “According to What?" opened this weekend at the Hirshhorn. The opening party and after party took place Saturday night, for which I volunteered to greet and sign in attendees and experience the culture of the museum. Guests could also attend a symposium on Sunday to discuss questions of freedom and creativity, a central focus of the artist. Donors and artists from around the world arrived in cocktail attire to enjoy beverages, dinner in the outdoor sculpture garden, and of course get a preview of the politically charged and highly anticipated exhibit. Despite the artist’s strong association with the Smithsonian - it currently holds three of his major works and the Hirshhorn is hosting his exhibit's North American premier - it seemed the only art contributor not in attendance was the artist himself. Unfortunately he is banned from leaving China. The artist’s power resonates, nonetheless, through his many popular exhibits on American soil.

“According to What?” is now open to the public October 7 – February 24, 2013.

-Jen Schiller

Springtime

Stills from Springtime, 2011. Courtesy of the artist.

Jereon Eisinga’s biggest competitor is himself. He often challenges himself to see how far his limit is. In an early work film 40-44-PG, a Volkswagen Beetle rides around in circles in a parking lot as Eisinga walks blindedfolded in circles in the opposite direction. The unsynchronized walking has viewers holding their breaths, wondering if he’ll get hit or not. In his newest film, Springtime, Eisinga is sitting very still at a table as he allows 250,000 bees to swarm his shirtless and shaven body.

Viewers at the Hirshhorn Museum say that the film was unsettling and difficult to watch. Taking into consideration their opinions, I tried to figure out what made them feel so uncomfortable.  People’s main concern was if Eisinga was getting stung or not. That’s when I realized that people see bees as violent insects. Bees swarm when the queen bee leaves her colony to find a new nest. This is the only way to create the “bee beard.” Eisinga had the queen bee captured in a net cage and strapped to his chin. The honeybees then followed the queen bee and swarmed around her. The bees weren’t covering Eisinga because they felt threatened; they took his body to be the new colony. Entomologists use this to show how nice bees are and often will let you try on the bee beard.

It took two years for Eisinga to prepare to be blanketed by bees. He was coached by beekeepers and practiced mental and physical discipline to maintain his composure. Springtime was filmed one time so there was no chance for Eisinga to freak out or mess up; nor was there opportunity for rehearsals. In an interview with Dutch television RTV Eisinga said that during the time, he was thinking about death. (Understandably.)

Still from RTV Interview, 2011. Eisinga post-bee swarm

Despite our instinct to buy cans of insecticide during the summertime, we actually need bees. Cross pollination and reproduction of plants are dependent on bees. Pollination  is required for plants to reproduce. Without bees, we wouldn’t have any fruit or vegetables (or honey).

List of some of the crops pollinated by bees. How many of these do you love to eat?

Kiwi fruit	Oil seed rape	Runner beans
Cranberry	Turnip rape	Lima beans
Blueberry	Sunflowers	Broad beans
Gooseberry	Cotton	Soya bean
Currants	Vetches	Aubergine
Cherry	Lucerne (alfalfa)	Tomato
Pear	Clovers	Peppers
Plum	Lupin	Cucumber
Apple	Buckwheat	Squash
Blackberry		Pumpkin
Orange		Gourds
Lemon		Celery
Melon		coriander
Watermelon		Fennel
Raspberry		Gherkin
Peach		Marrow
Strawberry		Mustard

So while many people were grossed out by Eisinga, what he did was innovative. He enveloped himself in the insect that provides the foods that nourish our bodies.

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- Ev Lederman

Luncheon of the Boating Party

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919), Luncheon of the Boating Party, 1881, Oil on canvas, 51 ¼ x 69 1/8 inches, Acquired 1923, The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.

 

It often amazes me how often a painting reflects the artist’s relationship with the subject. In Luncheon of the Boating Party, painter Pierre August Renoir includes people he actually knew from ranging social classes from France. There is the art patron, seamstress, restaurant manager, boating manager, actress, art critic, writer, and proprietor’s children. The scene shows how new technology and culture was changing the lives of the middle class. The setting is Maison Fournaise along the Seine River in Chatou, France. Many people think the painting to be a masterpiece of the French Impressionist period because it reflects the industrial revolution and open-minded new middle class.

I find that the most interesting person to focus on is the seamstress, Aline Charigot, in the foreground holding the small dog.  Renoir made her the only member of the party to neither engage in conversation nor distantly flirt. Instead Charigot directs all of her attention to her dog. The viewer cannot help but to look immediately at her. Not only does the painting lead the viewer from the top right to the bottom left accomplished with the help of horizontal and diagonal shadows but she also wears brighter colors than the rest. The more vivid colors were Renoir’s way of expressing how important she was to him. He eventually did marry her (the dog was a package deal.)

Renoir employed Impressionist painting techniques by using individual brushstrokes to build up the landscape, as opposed to one large stroke to create a basic background. Many critics have compared Luncheon of the Boating Party to paintings such as Lunch at the Restaurant Fournaise, Monsieur Fournaise, Le Grenoillere, but nobody has compared it to Sunday Afternoon at La Grand Jatte by George Seurat. The painting holds the repose themes of Impressionisn, but the stiffness in the painting suggests that it is from earlier Impressionism. La Grand Jatte was a place for the upper-middle class to go and it was typically overcrowded on Sundays. Seurat painted it as he thought it should be. Art critics have argued that the park setting at La Grand Jatte was so unnatural because people would go there to be seen, rather than enjoy the natural setting. Unlike Seurat, Renoir had a different understanding of a casual Sunday afternoon. Renoir painted Boating Party in the way he wanted the luncheon to be-- the ideal situation where nobody would flirt with his wife-to-be.  

The two painters had the same idea in mind: To create their perfect Sunday day. However they are also very opposite. Renoir’s Luncheon of the Boating Party is more historical because it shows the advancement of the industrial revolution. The messy table and loose attire definitely makes Boating Party a more leisurely place to be; as oppose to Seurat’s Sunday Afternoon at La Grande Jatte where the people were systematically places with stiff clothing and stiff painting.

 

But to be fair, after a long week, my favorite painting is Sunday Morning at Ev’s Couch.

 

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- Ev L

 

Real-Life Camera Obscura

Back in November, I wrote about photographer Abelardo Morell and his camera obscura work.  Essentially, he turns entire rooms into a reflection of the outside, using the physics of light to combine interesting landscapes with the interior of rooms which overlook them.  This has continued to fascinate me and imagine my surprise when exploring Artomatic, I find a camera obscura on the 11th floor.

While the scenery may not be as dramatic as the Eiffel Tower or the canals of Venice, standing within and experiencing a real-life camera obscura was one of the neatest things I've ever seen.  The installation belongs to Photo Gathering, a group focused on large format and alternative photographic processes, which meets at VisArts in Rockville, Maryland, on the first Thursdays of the month.

With nearly 200 artists on Artomatic's 11th floor, it's easy to miss an exhibit - look for the door with the black fabric in room 274.  Artomatic 2012 closes for good this Saturday so hurry!!  The camera obscura only works during the day and there are many, many more exhibits to see in just four short days.

- Angela

Interview with a Curator

Dalya Luttwak, Alfafa Root at 4.5 Months Old

The Foggy Bottom Association was created in 1955 in an effort to enhance the community’s awareness of what was going on. Today, it has incorporated other mediums to improve the neighborhood’s awareness and its unique role to D.C. The FBA began the Foggy Bottom Outdoor Sculpture Exhibit three years ago to reintroduce sculpture beyond the garden gnome. We always hear interviews of what inspires an artist to make a certain artwork, but people may often forget the work that is required to get the artwork into an exhibit, which is the role of the curator. Below is a phone interview with this year’s FBOSE curator, Laura Roulet.

TSA: How did you first hear about the Foggy Bottom Outdoor Sculpture Exhibit?

 

LR: This is the third iteration of the exhibit, and the first time I’ve curated. The directors were looking for something new. I wanted to expand concepts of what outdoor sculpture can be, and bring in what I thought were the top outdoor sculptors in the region, and they liked the idea.

TSA: What do you hope the sculpture project will accomplish?

LR: It includes local artists who appreciated the opportunity to exhibit outdoors for 6 months. There aren’t a lot of chances for artists to do that in Washington DC. This exhibit also brings the public to a new part of Washington to see art. Artists like Dalya Luttwak , Barbara Liotta, Foon Sham, Joe and John Dumbacher, who installed site-specific and large pieces, saw this as a chance to get their work out there. Dan Steinhilber did “Cast Angels” as part of a residency for a Washington Project for the Arts’ sponsored residency at Socrates Sculpture Park. Part of the agreement was that whatever was produced there could come back to Washington to display. The WPA hadn’t found a place to show that yet so I offered to show it in Foggy Bottom.

I also wanted to include figurative sculpture that was not bronze statues, so in addition to Steinhilber’s concrete angels, I included Yukiko Nakashima, a New York-based artist, who made the fabric, child-size figures in “Play Residue.”

Yukiko Najashima, Play Residue 

TSA: How did you get permission to use the front yards of people’s homes for the foggy bottom art?

 

LR: The Foggy Bottom Association has built up a network of homeowners who were willing to let us use their private property. The three co-directors of the exhibit were extremely helpful in neighborhood liaison. We did add a few houses this year. I walked around the neighborhood with some of the artists and we talked about how their work would look at different sites. Dalya saw the modern house on 26^th Street and immediately wanted to put her work there. The homeowners had not participated in the past, but the directors called them and they were excited about being included.

The Hughes Mews area had not been used in the past, but part of my intention was to encourage the viewer to seek out work in unexpected places. Eh-Co chose to put his billboard-size poster on a blank wall in the Mews.

 

TSA: How do you decide which art to show?

 

LR: Quality is my top criteria. I’ve worked in Washington for over 15 years so I know a lot of local artists. Every curator has a mental filing cabinet of artists that they’ve worked with and whom they want to work with, so I thought of artists who would be appropriate for this exhibit. The whole theme would be expanding what outdoor sculpture can be. I wanted to include new media; I did an open call to graduate students to draw in new media. The internet-streamed work “Craigslist Unrequited” by Peter Lee and Blake Turner, Pat McGowan’s “Cone Tower #3” and Adam Nelson’s “Atmospheres” came from that call.

 

I consider Lina Vargas de la Hoz’s mobile garden to be new media. The artist has a very social practice, and she had a good proposal for this exhibit, which is intended to unify the neighbors caring for the garden. Linda Hesh’s on-going bench project, “Trust and Doubt” are included in the exhibit, is also a good example of her participatory, socially-based practice.

TSA: How do you pick a theme for each exhibit? Or do you figure it out as you go along?

 

LR:It depends. In this case, I knew that I would be able to include up to 15 works but ended up with 13, because two artist duos are included. The theme kind of emerged but the main idea was to bring new forms of outdoor sculpture

TSA: How as the artwork that you’ve chosen changed over the years?

 

LR: Definitely. I’m always open to new art.  I go to a lot of  exhibits, openings, and am constantly meeting new artists, doing studio visits, and checking out their websites.

TSA: Is there something that you enjoy most about being a curator?

 

LR: I really like working with living artists instead of just objects. You get to know living artists which is always fascinating. I also care about exhibiting and writing about under-recognized artists, which includes Latinos, African-Americans, women, and most artists in Washington.

TSA: Do you also make art?

 

LR: I write about art. I have an art history background. I grew up with collectors, my mother worked at the Cleveland Institution of Art. Art was always a part of my life. I love art history. I just realized that contemporary curators have an important role as interpreters of visual arts. A lot of my job seems to be answering: why is this art? I recognize that most people don’t have visual art training so I try to give them a handle on contemporary art forms. Just some way to understand what they’re seeing and get something out of the experience.

 

TSA: How is curating different than writing? Is there one you prefer over the other?

 

LR: Usually curating an exhibit involves writing about it too. Both are about bringing contemporary art to public attention, interpreting it for various audiences, and displaying the art to its best possible advantage.

 

TSA: What other kind of work interests you?

 

LR: I work a lot with Latin America art. My husband is Puerto Rican and I lived there for 7.5 years so I got to know a lot of artists there, whom I continue to work with. I worked on the Ana Mendieta retrospective at the Hirshhorn. She is Cuban, which expanded my knowledge of the Caribbean. Since then I’ve organized four exhibits at the Organization of American States (OAS), Art Museum of the Americas. The last one was called “Traveling Light, Five Artists from Chile.” And I just got back from organizing a show in Mexico City, called “Medios y ambientes,” with artists from Mexico, Cuba, Puerto Rico and Venezuela.

 

TSA: Do you have a role model? Where do you find inspiration?

 

LR: I learned so much from working with Olga Viso, the curator who organized the Ana Mendieta retrospective at the Hirshhorn Museum. I learned a lot about rigor, thoroughness and how to accomplish what I wanted as a curator.

 

TSA: Do you have a favorite time period?

 

LR: Now.

Barbara Liotta, Dark Sun

Lina Vargas De La Hoz, Growing Culture

 

Foon Sham, Curve

 

 

Arts in Foggy Bottom is sponsoring a twilight tour of its exhibit Sculpting Outside the Lines, followed by an art-full gathering at the River Inn on Friday, July 6, at 8 pm.  Come see the sculptures in a new light: darkness. Meet at 8:00 pm at the corner of New Hampshire Ave. and I St., NW in Historic Foggy Bottom.  Tour is free, cash bar at the River Inn, 924 25th St, NW.   

 

 

 

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- Ev

 

"Portraits Without People"

Portrait of Dennis Hopper (2006) by Robert Weingarten

 

In art, we have come to understand “portrait” to mean having your face directly reproduced in another medium; however, Robert Weingarten has a different approach to portraits. Like Grenouille in Perfume, he captures a person’s personality, though Weingarten is able to do this without murdering them. Phew! His exhibition, Portraits Without People, includes sixteen photo montages of iconic people. The portraits do not include faces; just a neatly made collage of what we attribute to that person. The portraits include Colin Powell, Chuck Close, Quincy Jones, Hank Aaron and more. Weingarten’s exhibition opens July 2^, 2012 through October 14 at the International Gallery at the S. Dillon Ripley Center.

 

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- Ev

 

 

 

 

 

 

Be a part of the 2012 Folklife Festival

       

Demonstration of Peace Corps mud cloths, Photo from 2011 Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Themes in 2011 Festival included: Colombia, Peace Corps, and Rhythm and Blues.

 

Celebrating 46 years, the annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival is bringing traditional performances, live music, authentic cuisine, crafts, story tellers and more from various communities and cultures to the National Mall (beginning on Wednesday, June 27- Sunday, July 1 and Wednesday, July 4 - Monday, July 8).  

What is this festival, you ask?

The Smithsonian Folklife Festival is a national and international exhibition of living cultural heritage, treasured and celebrated annually on the National Mall, taking place for two weeks every summer. Nearly every festival has drawn more than one million visitors. One great perk of the festival, is the free admission! The festival is typically organized into three focuses, featuring a nation, region, state, or theme. This year’s programs include three diverse ranges of cultural experiences:

Citified: Arts and Creativity East of the Anacostia River:

Presented in partnership with the Smithsonian's Anacostia Community Museum, the program celebrates the art and creativity of schools, churches, community organizations, business and other residential and local venues of the neighborhoods in Anacostia. Identity is expressed through an eclectic range of arts and cultural activities, such as African dancing and drumming, storytellers, hip-hop dancing, comedians, demonstrations of tattoo art and much more!

 

AIDS Memorial Quilt on the National Mall

 

Creativity and Crisis: Unfolding the AIDS Memorial Quilt:

This year marks the 25^th anniversary of The AIDS Memorial Quilt and 30 years of life with AIDS. This year’s program features the unfolding of the 47,000 hand-sewn panels of the AIDS Memorial Quilt, craft demonstrations, dance and musical performances, interactive discussions, and other activities that bring together individual and communities to remember loved ones. The quilt will be on display on the National Mall and at more than 40 other locations from July 21-25.

Campus and Community:

This year’s Folklife Festival celebrates the 150^th anniversary of the founding of land-grant universities and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which partners with communities putting research into action in the areas of agriculture and food, health care, sustainable living, and education. The events featured include hands-on activities, demonstrations, and discussions.

For more general info on the festival and to learn about past festivals go to:

http://www.festival.si.edu/visitor/general.aspx

http://dc.about.com/od/specialevents/a/FolklifeFest.htm

Enjoy!

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 ~Margaret McClung

Pulling my Artomatic Show Together

 
  

Last time, I talked about how to increase your Artomatic presence based on the things I've learned in four previous participations.  Consider that the easy part.  Two weeks have passed since I wrote that post and in that time, I have chosen my space, and tossed around ideas, and, well, that's pretty much all I've done. 

 

It just so happened that my site selection time coinsided with that of a friend, photographer Julie Wolsztynski, and we were able to find a room for the two of us to share.  Due to our schedules last week, we were both unable to begin working on our space until over the weekend.  Imagine my surprise when I went to the building on Sunday to fill holes in the wall to find as many completely finished exhibits as there are.  With only ten available days left to have our room exhibit-ready, to realize that others have already completed theirs is slightly overwhelming.

 

I guess my point is that everyone works at their own pace and sense of urgency, and some just have more time than others.  Last night I spend several hours resizing my photos for printing, although I still need to narrow the list down to a reasonable number, and we picked out a paint color, which we will start to put on the walls tonight.  It helps to be completing this with a partner since the work is shared - this is valuable advice, so if you work well with others, consider partnering up with a friend in the future (I seem to do it each year, except for that first one).  Even if the space isn't shared, having someone in the same mindset to bounce ideas off will help you both, and perhaps some of the work, like printing labels, framing, cutting mats, or painting, can be shared.

 

Anyway, my spot is on the 9th floor so I hope you come by to visit once the show opens.  Where is your space?  How do you prepare?  Are you already finished? (-Would you like to paint my room? just kidding, but not really...)

 

Angela

Last Call for Exhibits

      
 Bradley McCallum and Jacqueline Tarry, "Amelia Boynton" 2008. Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, Museum purchase through the contributions of members of the Contemporary Acquisitions Council and the Joseph H. Hirshhorn Purchase Fund, 2009.

 

As May quickly approaches, we say goodbye to those exhibits coming to an end and welcome the new ones. Be sure to make some time in your schedule to visit these exhibits before it's too late!

National Museum of the American Indian:

Vochol: Huichol Art on Wheels:  Eight Huichol artists converted a 1990 Volkswagen Beetle into a canvas adorned with approx. 2,277,000 glass seed beads. The automobile will be leaving the museum on May 6, 2012, making its way to Denver, Colorado and will be displayed at the Denver International Airport for all to see.

Behind the Scenes: The Real Story of Quileute Wolves investigates the rich history of the original Quileute people (yes, as mentioned in the Twilight Saga films). The exhibit includes hand crafted artifacts, including replicas as seen in the movies, as well as a 12 minute video on the history and traditions of the culture. The show will be closing on May 9, 2012.

Looks like May 13, 2012 is the last day for many exhibits at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden:

Doug Aitken: SONG 1  is a site-specific installation that will be projected on the exterior of the donut shaped building. The 35 minute video loops continuously, beginning on evenings from sunset to midnight.

Suprasensorial: Experiments in Light, Color and Space is a hands on, interactive exhibit that features works of light and audio visual installations by five Latin American artists.

Dark Matters: Selections from the Collection takes a closer look at works in the museum’s permanent collection which indicate several symbols and representations of darkness. The exhibit includes painting, sculpture, and photography.

Black Box: Ali Kazma  presents O.K., 2010, a study of a notary stamping hundreds of documents at a rash and excessive speed. Kazma is interested in the unique intricacies of skilled craftsmanship and hand labor compared to the new advancements of mass manufacturing.

National Archives:

Memories Arrested in Space: a centennial tribute to Jackson Pollock will be on view at the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art till May 15, 2012. The exhibit recognizes and honors the life and art career of American icon, Jackson Pollock through the display of documents donated by his wife, the painter Lee Krasner , his brother Charles, and friends and associates.



See these shows while they last!

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~Margaret McClung