projectspace--a photoblog by Jason Lazarus

great new photo website:

2010-12-19T23:56:00.003-06:00

http://www.reframingphotography.com/

2010-10-16T22:18:00.002-05:00

http://nofound.tumblr.com

solo exhibition, first installation of TOO HARD TO KEEP

2010-08-31T21:37:00.002-05:00

JASON LAZARUS--TOO HARD TO KEEP

The Riverside Arts Center Freeark Gallery
Too Hard to Keep, September 3—October 9, 2010
Artist Jason Lazarus
Curated by Anne Harris
Reception: Sunday, September 12, 3:00-6:00 pm.

The Riverside Arts Center is pleased to present the inaugural exhibition of
Jason Lazarus’s photo archive "Too Hard to Keep," a repository for
photographs both too painful to keep and too meaningful to destroy. This
on-going and expanding project will be displayed in two parts: an installation
of photographs from the archive and a “drop box.” Anyone can add to the
archive by depositing pictures in this box.

Jason's work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, with solo
exhibitions at such venues as the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Spertus
Institute, Kaune Sudendorf Gallery in Cologne, Germany; Das Weisse Haus,
Austria; and D3 projects, Los Angeles.

http://toohardtokeep.blogspot.com/

Riverside Arts Center
Freeark Gallery
32 E. Quincy Rd, Riverside, IL 60546
708 442-6400
www.RiversideArtsCenter.com
Hours: Tues., Wed., Sat. 1-5 pm, Fri. 4-8 pm

If you have questions regarding the show please contact Anne Harris at
aharri5@artic.edu

If you have questions regarding the Riverside Arts Center please visit
their website or call 708 442 6400.

introducing 200 prints / $50 each

2010-08-12T15:00:00.008-05:00

Print Sale

I am introducing a new piece in an edition of 200 for $50...

I am raising funds for the production of a number of large pieces for exhibitions in the upcoming year. One highlight in particular is a solo exhibition at Illinois State University, with an accompanying catalogue. The program at ISU is remarkable--in the last few years have hosted solo exhibitions from Allan Sekula, Siebren Versteeg, Jim Lutes, Michelle Grabner, Stephanie Brooks, Julia Fish, Oliver Herring, and Tony Tasset among others.

The attached image "Untitled" was made in June, 2010. The photograph is 11x14" (image area 7.2x10" with a white border). The text on the banner is Walter Benjamin quoting Paul Valery at the beginning of his canonical 1935 essay "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction." The banner was originally installed outside for a week at the Harold Residency in Chesterhill, Ohio. This past summer I documented the banner while in residency at Ox-Bow.

A larger version of this piece is attached for closer viewing.

Other work, bio, upcoming exhibitions, and cv information can be found at:
www.jasonlazarus.com

Orders will be taken via paypal
(you do not need to have a paypal account to pay via this service)...

please click below to purchase!

After purchasing, I can send a receipt and an email indicating which edition number(s) you have secured.

Thanks in advance and please pass this along to anyone you feel may be interested.
Best, Jason

ACRE Residency - Materials Wish List

2010-07-04T18:09:00.000-05:00

The following is a wish list of materials for the inaugural year of the ACRE, can you help? If so please email info@acreresidency.org:

KITCHEN:

salad spinner
lemon juicer
cast iron pans
immersion blender
large food processor
kitchen towels
whisk
baking pans (lasagna type)
cookie sheets
large mixing bowls
large tupperwares
big rice cookers
spatula
serving spoons (salad tongs, ladle)
wooden cooking utensils
big soup pots
large frying pans
set of sharp kitchen knives/sharpening stone
peelers
cutting boards
large serving bowls
oven mitt/pot holders
strainer (large)
mesh strainer
can opener
measuring cup (liquid)
measuring cups (solids)
measuring spoons
rolling pin
garlic press
case of mason jars for spices
tin foil/ plastic wrap/tape and sharpie for labels
grater
grill
grilling tools
wooden skewers
Trivets
Wok
Griddle

WOODSHOP

Table saw
Band saw
Planer
Joiner
Stationary sander
Drill press
Bench grinder
Miter saw
Corded and cordless drills
Nail guns
Orbital/belt sanders
Router
Scroll saw
Jig saw
Sawsall
Circular saw
Chainsaw
Angle grinder
Soldering iron
Chisels
Screwdrivers
Staple gun
Hack saw
Wrenches
Pliers
Channel locks
Axe
Tape measures
Work gloves
Scissors
Tin snips
Pipe bender
Wire cutters
Box cutters
Vise grips
Wood glue
Safety glasses
Hardware (nails, screws, etc)
Pipe clamps
Hand clamps
Levels
Horses
Extension cords

STUDIO:

Milk crates
Tables

RECORDING STUDIO

Microphones
Field recorders

OTHER:

Cleaning supplies (mops, brooms, buckets, sponges)
Trash cans / recycling bins
Tarps
First aid kits
Jars

from zoe strauss:

2010-06-30T16:14:00.001-05:00

Dear Friends,

Many things. First and foremost, I am beginning to work on a project
documenting the BP oil spill and I'm fundraising for it because I'm broke.
I would be greatly appreciative if you checked out the project site, "On The
Beach." I would be grateful for any support.

http://projectsite.unitedstatesartists.org/project/on_the_beach

While I'm coming at this environment disaster from a fine art perspective as
opposed to journalism, I think it's imperative to document this
environmental disaster as a historical record of what's happening in the
gulf. Images and representations of this mess matter.

Also, any press people think they can hook me up with a press pass? I would
be forever indebted. I scheduled my BP flight over the spill and then they
told me I needed journalist credentials for when I get down there. What the
hell is that? Some lady from South Philly can't request a flyover, she's
got to be a journalist? Whatever.

I thought I'd take a few months off after I-95 and not rush into anything,
but I have got to record what's happening down there, so I'm back on the
grind, baby.

With Love,
ZS

http://zoestrauss.blogspot.com/

Michael Jackson Memorial Procession, June 25th, 2010

2010-06-29T23:25:00.001-05:00

documentation, Michael Jackson Memorial Procession, June, 25th 2010

On the night of the anniversary of Michael Jackson's death, participants drove in tandem from Michael Jackson's boyhood home in Gary, IN to Chicago. A playlist of MJ music was broadcast from a pirate radio in one car to the others in synchronicity. The procession was an act of harnessing, re-imagining, and memorializing the sonic space created organically around Chicago on the night of MJ's death.

This project was born the night Michael Jackson died, June 25th, 2009 (although I didn't know it at the time). With text messages pouring in and media outlets carving out their own angles on the circumstances of his death, Chicagoans, as I imagined people all across the country did, played his music. They not only played his music, they amplified it--windows down, the most popular songs curated, and their attention to the space around them as they announced their acknowledgment of his passing. The convoluded circumstances of his death in this memorializing act became minimized. For a celebrity who transcended normal categories of gender, race, beauty, and even transcended the normal category of 'pop star,' the music boiled down all the creature-curiosities to the end game of the music.

It's not my expertise to write about how Jackson changed music, but I can say that Thriller was the only album my father and I both had. It's hard to think of another celebrity who dissolved so many marketing niches and demographics. It is this phenomenon that allowed for such a thorough street response...and in this case it was a sonic response. The interesting thing about a sonic response is that the music rarely fit the unique narrative of Jackson's life. The energy is anathema to traditional mourning--it's celebratory, body-moving, infectious pop. The sonic memorial became a bittersweet celebration whose rhythms defer our traditional notions of emotional processing. The communal response to his death formed a temporal tribe...a street meditation. Jackson's too fast for a candle-light vigil...he's airless, it's viral, and buried deep in our cultural consciousness.

Shortly after his death, I had many conversations about the street energy of the night of his death, about the unprecedented, unorganized, self-initiated participation and projection of his music, and the singularity of this death as uniquely capable of driving this kind of response. The Michael Jackson Memorial Procession became a gesture toward tapping the residue of empathy, legacy, and response.

Starting the procession in Gary, IN at Jackson's boyhood home was the idea of a friend, and after resisting at first, I came to understand that the complicated logistics of organizing a performance in the midst of Friday night traffic was worth the symbolism, not to mention participating in the temporary community of memorial events and performances on his block. A few days before the procession, my intern Jasmine and I drove to Gary to see the house and get an idea of how our route would take us toward Chicago. Completely post-industrial, under-utilized, and marginalized, the community of Gary has a natural resource in the Jackson home. The house itself, so modest it's almost inert, completely inverts everything Jackson was to become. There were a dozen or so visitors and residents milling the area around the property. Even in an ordinary afternoon the space felt quietly charged, and it managed to keep a couple handfuls of people around at all times.

Arriving close to 5pm in Gary, the media was everywhere. Signal towers changed the modest skyline of Jackson's block. A performance stage anchored an improvised community of commerce and fans. Most compelling for sale were t-shirts featuring an embellished portrait of Jackson with the words 'fallin' angel' levitating underneath him. The mostly black crowd was sweating in the heat, but committed to each contribution of the many performers--choirs, preachers, young dancing prodigies--there was no impatience--every moment carved out a different contribution to this anniversary.

As we left Gary, the procession became self-reliant. Every car, decorated with an orange flag with the letters MJ screenprinted in black as well as personal homilies made with window-markers, became a moving spectacle. The synchronized audio playlist of Michael Jackson music, curated by my friend
Emily (the biggest MJ fan I know) became secondary on the highway, but the slow-moving, marked, decorated cars created a form, and drivers around us mostly enabled the form keep its purpose.

At 87th and I-94, the procession started on the street-grid. Driving north on 87th our music, broadcasting from my car's pirate radio station to the entire procession on the low end of the radio dial, became the sonic memorial I wanted--creating to the stationary onlooker a two or three minute procession undeniable in its purpose. Most satisfying was the lack of preparation the communities had as we drove through...the event was a happening, one that had instant recognition whether pedestrians cared or not.

Moving north, through Pilsen, then east to Michigan Ave, and finally west to Wicker Park, there were so many moments of celebration, dancing, yelling, honking, fist-raising, and as always the unimpressed urban denizen, I knew every moment I experienced was only a fraction of the responses the procession had as it spread out, reformed, and continued on.

At the moment I have only seen the photo-documentation contributed by each participant, there is video footage and anecdotes to collect. But I keep coming back to the image at the top of this post. The procession itself is held at bay by the edge of the frame, a vignetting of light stages the mother, daughter, and baby. A cross splits the space between mother and daughter. The daughter's body language is respectful, the mother's is uncommitted. We are a happening, a spectacle, a self-organized motorcade hellbent on celebrating and projecting while unprepared onlookers knee-jerk respond with a variety of celebration, respect, indifference, and sometimes pause. A pause that I think is interesting, as it lurks at the edges of any self-important parade. A legacy implicitly involves death--an ending. This photograph adds meaning to the procession, it is more complicated than our street mission. It reminds me that a sonic memorial, as any memorial, evokes deeply complicated feelings at its best, and serves to remind us we are always struggling to respond to our world and its predicament.

toohardtokeep!

2010-06-29T22:03:00.002-05:00

i just set up toohardtokeep@gmail.com for the project for submissions...
i will be updating the blog soon with some great new photos for the repository...

spread the word about the project--i'm in to collecting these for the long haul!
xo, j

seesaw magazine features OCEAN

2010-06-28T14:43:00.000-05:00

http://www.seesawmagazine.com/current_issue.html

opp

2010-06-05T19:53:00.001-05:00

Hello -

I'm reaching out to update you on our 2nd Annual International Photo Competition EXPOSURE. The deadline has been extended to June 7th AND we have DOUBLED our prize! It really would be an honor to include you, your colleagues and students in this opportunity so if you haven't already, please feel free to share the announcement!

The Grand Prize winner will be awarded a Manhattan gallery reception, an international publicity campaign, and will receive both $10,000 in cash AND 1 year living rent-free in a $1.2 million apartment at The Edge in New York City.

NEW DEADLINE:
June 7, 2010 - No Late Entry Fee
Details are at:http://www.artistswanted.org/

This opportunity is open to photographers of all backgrounds and levels. Rewards and benefits will be given to all who participate.

Our panel of judges including Photographer Lauren Greenfield, New York Times Photo Editor Maura Foley, MoMA Curator Nora Lawrence and JPG Founders Derek Powazek & Heather Powazek Champ, will choose one photographer for the Grand Prize:

   * $10,000 cash or 1-year FREE living at a $1.2 million apartment at The Edge in New York City
   * A Manhattan gallery reception
   * Airfare & shipping to and from New York City for the event
   * International publicity

With support from The Edge, JPG Magazine, Etsy, Resource Magazine, Zipcar, 3rd Ward.

Please feel free to contact me should you have any questions.

Thanks for your time, and good luck!

Suzie Ryu

Director of Communications
ArtistsWanted.org
suzie@artistswanted.org

2010-06-02T00:14:00.002-05:00

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1569629484/acre-artist-residency-program

cheap photographs for auction to raise money for the ACRE residency program...
i bought my greg stimac cave photo from them tonight!

'Don't follow your dream, follow your wet dream (Los Angeles, 2010)'

2010-05-25T00:01:00.002-05:00

'Don't follow your dream, follow your wet dream (Los Angeles, 2010)'
archival inkjet 30x40" 2010

new work in a series called MOTIVATION...this piece was made in Griffith Park in Los Angeles in January...each light burst is me popping the flash toward the camera. the exposure was about 3 minutes...thanks to aron gent for assisting me! please consider this jpg a motivational gift for your desktop! email me if the file is too small to make a good background-jasonlazarus.photo@gmail.com

cheers!

http://www.toohardtokeep.blogspot.com/

2010-05-15T16:07:00.000-05:00

http://www.toohardtokeep.blogspot.com/

call for photos!

2010-05-09T18:30:00.000-05:00

I have started an archive of photographs deemed "too hard to keep."

This may include photos or photo albums of ex's, photos of deceased friends/family/pets/etc.

The reason you can't live with the photo or photo album I do not need to know...

I am creating a repository for these images so that they may exist without being destroyed. I can pay shipping costs or pick up the photographs personally (in Chicago).

I am happy to answer any questions and hope this project helps you part with something in a more graceful manner.

Jason Lazarus

810 n Wood, 3f

Chicago, IL 60622

http://www.nocommercialvalue.org/

2010-05-06T18:56:00.000-05:00

http://mjdq.tumblr.com/

2010-05-04T23:36:00.002-05:00

my piece in berlin shows up in this video walk through....it's the video diptych of burning dates, the first is the date thriller was released, the second the day he died...

coming up...

2010-05-04T21:52:00.002-05:00

invitation to apply/participate:
Michael Jackson Memorial Procession
June 25th, 2010

To mark the anniversary of Michael Jackson's death, a coordinated caravan of 50 marked cars (in the spirit of a funeral procession) will begin in the early evening of June 25th, 2010 from the childhood home of Jackson in Gary, IN, and proceed throughout the city of Chicago. Each participating vehicle in the caravan will play the same MJ song at the same time to provide a several block long audio blanket that will travel through most major neighborhoods in Chicago.

I still have about 15 open slots for participants, each of whom will receive a flag for their car and an editioned print. Participants will be asked to document their experience via photos, videos, sound or any other measure to contribute to the project.

Email me to RSVP or for media inquiries: jasonlazarus.photo@gmail.com
Please feel free to copy/paste/spread the news and excitement about this project! Thanks and best, Jason

old friend / new work - michael gumhold

2010-05-04T21:18:00.001-05:00

http://www.galeriewest.nl/site.php?idsub=exhibitions&single=10_01_Michael_Gumhold&show=pics

2010-05-04T20:39:00.002-05:00

Anna Trier04 May 2010 at 21:51

Subject: Indication Clothing

Hello,

Nina Mayer and myself are working on a project together and we are hoping you will be apart of it, or spread the news to those who might be interested. The project is Indication Clothing.

Indication Clothing is a collection of mass-produced articles of clothing that have played active roles in an ephemeral work of art. This line is a collection of residual artifacts, evidence of past artistic actions. Each article is a marker, serving as testimony for art that has traditionally rejected the commercial art world. As such the clothing included in Indication has been transformed into one of a kind articles that values lies not in their construction but in their inherent narrative.

We will be selling this line of clothing (with most of the money going to the artists), and are hoping to feature a rack of it at my BFA show, clothing will be priced based on the artist. We are working with artists to determine prices but there will be reflection more or less of what there work would sell for it they were a painter, sculptor or maker of object based art.

All clothing in the line will be marked with a silk screened tag listing the artist connected to the piece and 2-4 sentence description of the performance that the clothing was apart of.

If you are interesting and can get me work in the next week I would love to have it available at the BFA show, but if not this is an on going project and we are happy to work with you at a letter date.

Thanks,

Anna

http://www.facebook.com/l/d0347;517.281.3530
annatrier@happycollaborationists.com

2010-03-25T23:23:00.003-05:00

Art Fag City is seeking a Curatorial Fellow as part of a new program titled “Young Curators”. AFC is an award-winning New York-based art blog that focuses on art world news, reviews, and culture commentary.
Ideal candidates have a deep knowledge of contemporary art and digital media, possess excellent writing and editing skills, and either a degree in curatorial studies or experience curating. Applicants should also be extremely organized, self-motivated, and detail-oriented. Knowledge of Facebook, Delicious, Flickr, and Twitter is preferred. Interest in New Media is also a plus.
The Curatorial Fellow will work directly with AFC Editor-in-Chief Paddy Johnson on a project-to-project basis. The position offers valuable hands-on experience in the fast growing world of digital media and in-depth insight into a prestigious online publication. This position will give curators the opportunity to attend private tours and panel discussions as well as write original content for the blog.
Duties include:
-Masthead Curation/Featured Artist (Every Two Weeks)
-Gallery and museum preview posts (Seasonal)
-Independent curatorial projects for the blog
-Managing ongoing series
-Project-based research
-Best Link Ever
-Occasional posts
Applicants should expect to make a minimum commitment of 16 hours per week, for 6 months, beginning in April 2010. This position is unpaid, but academic credit may be arranged.
If interested, please e-mail cover letter, resume, and availability to artfagcity@gmail.com, with “Curatorial Fellow” as the subject line.

impossible art idea

2010-03-25T23:21:00.000-05:00

new: Impossible Art Ideas...more on website jasonlazarus.com

2010-03-25T22:49:00.000-05:00

!!!

2010-03-16T22:55:00.000-05:00

Tino Sehgal

2010-02-16T19:50:00.000-06:00

Even though no material relic of Sehgal's work remains after its presentation, in 2008 the Museum of Modern Art acquired his work "Kiss" for $70,000. In accordance with the artist's purist principles, the purchase (completed with an oral agreement and handshake) entails only the right to reproduce the work. No tangible document changed hands.
For those who need a bit of background on why the artist eschews conventional art objects: A student of economics and former dancer and choreographer, Sehgal maintains that the developed world has too much stuff. His favored means of creating art does not diminish Earth's dwindling resources or contribute to the excess of consumer goods. His art exists only transiently and leaves no physical trace. Like Brigadoon blossoming one day each century, Sehgal's art lives during the experience and afterward persists in memory and legend.

jfk and marilyn

2010-02-11T19:40:00.000-06:00

saic visiting artist schedule

2010-02-06T14:19:00.001-06:00

VISITING ARTIST PROGRAM SPRING 2010 SCHEDULE
>
>DOUG AITKEN
>Monday, February 22, 6 p.m.
>Fullerton Hall, The Art Institute of Chicago, 111 S. Michigan Ave.
>FREE Admission
>
>AMY FRANCESCHINI
>Thursday, March 11, 6 p.m.
>SAIC Auditorium, 280 S. Columbus Drive
>
>DORIS SALCEDO
>Monday, March 15, 6 p.m.
>SAIC Auditorium, 280 S. Columbus Drive
>
>This lecture is co-presented by the William Bronson and Grayce Slovet
Mitchell Lectureship in Fiber and Material Studies at SAIC and is part
of the Common Languages Lecture Series.
>
>MATT KEEGAN
>Tuesday, April 6, 6 p.m.
>SAIC Auditorium, 280 S. Columbus Drive
>
>RYAN TRECARTIN
>*Artist Talk: Wednesday, April 14, 6 p.m.
>SAIC Auditorium, 280 S. Columbus Drive
>FREE Admission

Technology/Transformation: Wonder Woman” from 1979

2010-02-04T22:13:00.001-06:00

by Dara Birnbaum (1978-1979)

Video (color, sound), 5:50 min. Original Television Footage: CBS Inc. “Wonder Woman”. Sound: The Wonderland Disco Band

"...a pioneering example of “video sampling”: Dara Birnbaum’s iconic work “Technology/Transformation: Wonder Woman” from 1979 is utilizing footage snatched from broadcasts of the live-action super hero show of the same name...
Dara Birnbaum created one of the first examples of appropriation imagery from mainstream television, something that is now quite common. “Technology/Transformation: Wonder Woman” features, as one might expect, Wonder Woman, the main character of the prime-time television programm of the same name which was based on an action-adventure comic book..."

VERSION 2010 !!!

2010-02-04T14:09:00.002-06:00

CALL FOR PARTICIPATION
VERSION FESTIVAL 10:
Infrastructures and Territories
April 22, May 2, 2010

DEADLINE FOR PROPOSALS:
March 1, 2010.

Version is an annual springtime convergence that brings together hundreds of artists, musicians, and educators from around the world to present some of the most challenging ideas and progressive art initiatives of our day.

This is the ninth edition.

Submit your proposal online:
http://www.lumpen.com/V10/theme.html

Please spread the word to all of your networks.

Thanks.
edmar

call for entries

2010-02-02T13:07:00.001-06:00

50 ALDERMAN/50 ARTISTS: A Group Show

FOR MORE INFO, EMAIL chicagoaldermanproject@gmail.com

How many Chicagoans know what their alderman looks like? How many Chicagoans can tell you who their alderman is, and what they have been doing lately? We're not pollsters, so we don't have any hard data to provide answers to these questions -- but we are artists, and we're interested in using art as a vehicle in depicting and learning more about the 50 elected officials who represent us at City Hall. To this end, we invite other Chicago artists to join us in producing 50 ALDERMEN/50 ARTISTS: A group exhibition of portraits that will enable people to learn more about the 50 aldermen who make up the Chicago City Council and raise awareness of local government. The show takes place Friday, March 16 from 7-11pm at the Johalla Projects Gallery, 1561 N. Milwaukee.

For the exhibit, 50 artists from across Chicago will be invited to choose one alderman to feature in a 16"x22" portrait, using their media of choice. Participating artists will be required to interview or attempt to interview the alderman they are depicting. All 50 aldermen will be invited to the opening, which will include biographical information and a voter registration table. In addition to the show, we hope to feature the 50 alderman portraits — as well as portraits of Richard M. Daley and Cook County Board President Todd H. Stroger — in a book.

Aldermen serve four-year terms, during which they vote on regulations and rules that affect all of us. And sometimes they participate in the notorious Chicago political machine: Since 1974, 30 aldermen have been convicted of federal crimes ranging from tax evasion to bribery. (A couple of others died before going to trial.) Whether ethical or corrupt, aldermen make our city what it is, and make Chicago's history. 50 ALDERMEN/50 ARTISTS hopes to acknowledge this fact, as well as celebrate the richness of our local political culture.
The kickoff event for 50 ALDERMAN/50 ARTISTS will be Friday, Jan. 15at Debonair Social Club, 1575 N. Milwaukee. This event will be a meet-and-greet for all artists involved, and where artists are matched up with their alderman. This will also be an opportunity to answer any questions artists may have.
In keeping with the spirit of 50 ALDERMAN/50 ARTISTS, a portion of the proceeds will be donated to a nonprofit, non-partisan voter registration organization. Not only do we want to inform people about the aldermen who make a daily impact on our lives, we also want to give people the tools to act on that information. The voter registration group, (tbd), will register voters at the March 16 opening.
www.chicagoaldermenproject.wordpress.com
http://johallaprojects.wordpress.com/

Slemmons, Rod, “Between Language and Perception,” Exit, No. 16-2004, pp.48-49, 132.

2010-02-01T21:03:00.002-06:00

I once observed something on a train in Ireland that has since both haunted and informed me. An extended family of six sat across the aisle, perched on their seats looking intently out of both sides of the train. The children loudly named off objects as they flew by: tree!, house!, bridge!, cross! The older people read signs, any sort of written word in the landscape, again, loudly: Drougheda 28 Kilometers!, Guiness is Good for You!, Smithsen Cartage!, Ian Sharp Wants Hanging! They were impossible to ignore. I was forced to experience the flying land narrated from two different angles. It was a rare experience.
It was, after all, Ireland where the spoken word holds dominion over virtually everything else, so there may not have been anything to marvel at. The family may have been just tuning themselves up for the next normal conversation. At the time, however, it reminded me of those maddening undergraduate philosophy problems involving questions of how our minds engage and translate the world when it is in front of us, and reproduce it when it is not, i.e. when it is stored in memory and language. As the children shouted, the trees, bridges and crosses, disappeared into the mind. As the parents shouted the written words, they became mental images that flashed out across the flowing scenery. This flipping back and forth from one part of the mind to another caused the possibility of a void to open up, a place where neither objects nor words exist. Is that void what we need to fill with meaning? Or is it where experience can exist without meaning?
The memory of these questions (and that wild ride) came up while I worked on three exhibitions in the 1980s and 1990s in Vancouver, BC, Canada, Seattle, Washington, and Tempe, Arizona. They were called Eye of the Mind/Mind of the Eye , Illuminated Manuscript , and Mixed Signals respectively, and all dealt with contemporary artists using photography and text in various kinds of combinations. I wanted to learn more about this convention that had been growing slowly for the previous ten years.
        At that time I talked to many artists and looked at work representing a wide spectrum of the practice of combining text with images. On one end there was the simple caption: words that describe the image. The image created in the mind by the words coincided more or less with the photographic image. It turned out that captions are never quite that simple, however. The caption can exist simultaneously with the creation of the image, or before or after it in time. The caption can lie about the image. The image can give the lie to the caption. Words conjure up images and images conjure up words that can work at total cross-purposes. John Baldessari’s early text/image works are a good example.
        Near the middle of the spectrum of this practice, artists ran permutations on the emotional strength and validity of both the words and the images with combinations that went far beyond simple captioning. The total work became a battleground of verbal and non-verbal communication. Lorna Simpson, one of the best in this mode, taught us that this is not a game of chance.
At the far end of the spectrum, the language/image barrier broke down. The physical words leaked into the images and became formal elements, like not-quite-legible signs in a landscape rushing by the window of a train. Jeff Wolin’s early projects concerning his family history accomplished this by writing directly on the photographic print with hard to read reflective ink.
        At any point on the spectrum, the way the words interacted with the images could be used as a metaphor or analogy for the subject of the art, whatever it happened to be. The process, ideally, supported the idea.
I recently revisited this issue with an exhibition called Conversations: Text and Image at the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Columbia College Chicago. I found my questions and interests alive and well and still thriving. During the past thirty years, combining words and photographs has become a genre of art photography that encompasses a tremendous variety of conceptual experiments. As a practice it is similar to street photography in its inexhaustibility and its possibilities for cultural elucidation
Combining written text with images obviously has a long history in art. Medieval manuscripts in Christian Europe are full of little pictures that exist in a rhetorical relationship with the text to create double and triple meanings, including delightfully salacious verbal/visual puns. William Blake, 18th century British poet, published books of his writing with his own illustrations and quickly learned that the synthesis evoked meanings beyond the power of either the words or pictures to create by themselves. Dadaists and Surrealists in Europe in the 1920s combined fragments of found text with distorted photographic images to open irrational paths of communication they felt were missing from conventional art.
Combining verbal and pictorial narratives at the service of propaganda and cultural commentary matured and flourished in the 1930s with the German weeklies, Life Magazine in the U.S. and Soviet Life in the U.S.S.R. The lead story of the first number of Life Magazine in November of 1936 was about the building of the Fort Peck dam on the Missouri River in Montana, USA. Some of the photographs show a magnificent dam, but most support the written text that is critical of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal projects, claiming that the workers were unskilled incompetents who, in the selected images at least, seemed to be drinking most of the time. Life changed during and after World War II, but the tension between the text and the images remained and became a thorn in the side of photographers like Eugene Smith who preferred to control the synthesis of verbal and visual persuasion. Smith preferred complex truth to simple irony and demanded that he write his own text.
During the 1930s and 40s, influenced by Dada montage, Walker Evans experimentally included signs and fragments of advertisements in his photographs. As a frustrated writer, and friend of important writers like the poet Hart Crane, Evans’ purpose was formal to a certain degree because he simply liked the idea of found rather than constructed montage. But it also was conceptual in that it involved a critique of the increasingly commercial narration of the American landscape with advertisements. But he achieved something else that in retrospect seems much more complicated, and is a good place to start in trying to understand the contemporary synthesis of text and photographic imagery. He explored the conceptual implications of the combination.
First, the signs and other extraneous text in Evans' works force the viewers’ awareness of the two-dimensionality of the paper print, and that it represents a careful decision. It is, after all, a flat field of information chosen for its specific contents by an individual. Because the signs are two dimensional and shot straight on, they pop to the surface and destroy the illusion of depth—of looking through a simple window. It is very much like those amazing moments when an actor in a play turns and talks directly to the audience, snapping the proscenium arch – the frame that divides the world from the art and contains the playwright’s intentions back into place, reestablishing aesthetic and conceptual distance.
Secondly, Evans accepts the words as part of the modern world, for better or worse, and legitimate raw material for art, just like electrical power lines, contemporary cars and machinery, and other awkward, real life details he (along with the Dadaists) liked so much. The Pictorialists, his most prolific photographic contemporaries, went to great lengths to exclude evidence of the contemporary. There are very few Edward Weston and Ansel Adams photographs with signs in them. Evans had seen, during his time in Europe, Russian Constructivist and Dada imagery that had not yet been widely seen in America.
Third, and perhaps most importantly, he requires us to read the text, a mental operation seemingly at odds with absorbing photographic images. This conflict establishes aesthetic indirection: our attention caroms into language and back to sight, the better to triangulate a fix on the intelligence in his photographs. Indirection, the fertile ground of poetic communication, is difficult to achieve with photography. We have so thoroughly equated photography with visual perception that no matter how far the photographic image is distorted to make it not look real, it always retains its right to become a hole in a gallery wall, an opening to some unspecified “truth” beyond. No matter what we do to the negative or the print or our minds before we expose, the illusion of our absence in the process, the illusion of non intervention, remains. The viewer can still say, "There, down there in that corner: the artist had nothing to do with that. That came unhindered by intention, directly from the world in front of the camera." But of course it's not true. There is no difference between the blank piece of paper in front of the poet and unexposed film. Nothing but intervention follows. Evans worked hard to illustrate this idea, and brought photography into the realm of art by making its artifice evident.
Some of the strongest photography of the 1950s through the 1970s is built directly on Evans’ foundation: the New York School—William Klein, Louis Faurer, Garry Winogrand, Robert Frank, and Lee Friedlander. All incorporated found text in their images to poetic and often ironic ends. Interestingly, and this is also important to understanding contemporary practice, they abhorred captions except for simple date and location. They distinguished, however, between their commercial work for magazines, where text was required, and their “personal” work. They felt that words outside the photographs diminished them and pared down opportunities for visual understanding as well as unnecessarily reducing the possibility of multiple meanings. They further established photography as a different kind of expressive art form based on their new confidence in the ability of the photographic image to stand alone, like a painting or a poem. This position, with its almost moral overtones, still prevails among many photographers. Friedlander, however, made a significant step away from it with his book Letters From the People, and beginning in the late 1980s, by inviting people to write about his work.
Meaning goes into pictures and has to be got back out with close observation. It goes into words and must be released by reading. But it is actually more complicated than it seems on the surface. The game of placing words and images in the same perceptual space, either combined in the picture, or side-by-side, is not easy to play, as many have discovered. First, the artist has to keep track of four phenomena, not just the apparent two: 1. The words have accepted, coded meanings and contexts that affect what we see. The same image next to two texts is seen two different ways. 2. The words invoke mental images that might conflict with what we see. Language was invented to abbreviate and explicate the visual world—words enter our brains on the backs of images. 3. All photographs have meanings based on context which may alter our engagement with them. 4. Images invoke words in the mind of the viewer. Images enter the brain on the backs of words. The choreography of image/word/word/image is not easy to score. But the more difficult it is, the more possibilities for qualifying or clarifying the larger world that is their source.
There is an added complication. When we read text we do it by ourselves. The words have to run through us individually in real time, with our own quirky speed and interpretation. The reading of an image, however, is a socially determined, a shared experience. Photographs exist in a continuum that we all share, and they are all judged in relation to a huge bank of photographic uses. Even though we like to think we are interpreting photographic images individually, the largest percentage of our response is collective. We always look at photographs shoulder to shoulder, whether we are alone or not.
Individually, these mental operations can become transparent and disappear. If we must perform them together, however, an oscillation occurs between opacity and transparency and the viewer becomes self-conscious and analytical, and aware of misplaced trust in both words and images to tell the whole truth. Meaning becomes ambiguous and contingent on the viewer’s participatory energy, but the strength of metaphoric possibilities is expanded.
To complicate things further, beginning in the early 1970s, American and French writers discussing photography as an art form began to explore the possibility of thinking of photography as a new kind of language structured very much like verbal language. In "Language Theory and Photographic Praxis" (Afterimage, Rochester, New York, Summer, 1977), Leroy Searle wove an elaborate theoretical system that influenced much of the subsequent examination of this issue. Allan Sekula, Peter Wollheim, Searle, Jean Baudrillard, and others subsequently thoroughly worked over the notion of photography as a language. The study of photographic imagery in terms of a language of signs was loosely gathered under the term semiotics. Canadian photographer Cheryl Sourkes has suggested that semiotics began as an analytic tool for establishing a real critique of photography as an art, and subsequently became the subject of a good deal of photographic art.
Martha Rossler’s The Bowery in Two Inadequate Descriptive Systems, 1974, opened the door to a whole new world and can be thought of as the ancestor of much of contemporary practice. As her title suggests, she was interested in theoretical issues concerning photography as a purveyor of truth, but she also was, and is, equally concerned with the practical matter of distorting or ignoring social truths with simplistic language.
Thinking of photography as a language, a descriptive system, achieved three very important goals for writers and artists. First, it helped to demystify a communication tool that had been too easily cheapened by inclusion in the gallery and museum vortex and to return it to its powerful position as a social, political and philosophical arena for living ideas. Second, it helped to qualify the simplistic idea of photography being a "universal language" left over from the 1955 Family of Man exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. This idea presupposed the purity of photographic description. If dealt with as a language, it could be as rhetorical, twisted, impure and vital as any other language. And third, photo-semiotics was a much-needed reaction against the necromantic notion of the art photograph as an autonomous, arcane emission from a pure artistic being living in a social and cultural void. In this void, anybody can call their work art and nobody can check up on them.
        When we are confronted in the act of analysis with the two "systems of notation", it seems very difficult to structuralize either the images or our response to them, as we may be able to do with the verbal language. On a very simple level, the speed and direction of the entry of words and images into our brains is radically different. Compared to the leaps and bounds of taking in a photographic image, words struggle glacially in a row. But on the other hand, after all the words get in, they can dance in any number of three-dimensional figures, while the photograph freezes in a formal memory.
    All postmodern artists seem required to consider questions of how and why art works. The complex ways that photographic images combine with written text can itself be thought of as a central metaphor for the pondering of these questions. The practice creates an immediate self-consciousness that some might claim contaminates the aesthetic experience. But at this point in art history it is hard to embrace ignorance to achieve visual pleasure.
    In practice, the synthesis of words and text varies widely among contemporary artists, well represented in this issue of Exit. They can be divided into various sub-genre using formal criteria, but it is perhaps more interesting to think of them as genealogies. Those whose interests fall equally between a critique of photography as a medium of documentation and its use as a cultural language generally descend from Martha Rosler. Those who use text as a formal element in the image as well as an extension of the image’s meaning can be thought to descend from Walker Evans. These are not totally clean distinctions, and, because of the tremendous diversity of contemporary practice, there are many artists who fit in neither. But at least this is a place to start. It is also important to keep this kind of analysis secondary or, perhaps, in support of the main task of understanding what the artist is trying to tell us.
    Matt Siber, for example, is clearly descended from but analytical of Evans. By digitally removing the text from ordinary cityscapes, he allows us to see the past as the present. Walker Evans was fond of saying that he photographed to see what the present would look like as the past. Siber then places the text in the same formal relationship to its original location in a print intended as the second half of a diptych. It is not easy to walk down the street at a normal pace after seeing his work.
    As an extension of Rosler’s ideas, Barbara Kruger has combined very simple language, bordering on clichés, with equally clichéd images, borrowed from various media, to create sophisticated feminist statements. Her 1994 exhibit at Mary Boone in New York extended her earlier single images to text and image spread over the entire walls and floor of the gallery space. It was accompanied by a nearly unbearable soundtrack, a parody of a political speech, coupled with canned laughter and applause. She has fine-tuned the synthesis of text and image drawing on effective strategies of advertising and political propaganda but has not lost sight of her original social agenda.
    Shirin Neshat places language directly on her subjects. Our understanding of her work is complicated by the fact that almost none of us in the Western world can read the text, so we have a choice to either enjoy it as a formal curiosity—which, given the details of the rest of the image, we are hesitant to do. Or we can actually take the time to find out what it really means. Or, more importantly for the present world climate, we had better find out exactly what it means.
    Gillian Wearing’s use of spoken and written text in her video and still photographic works is intended to call into question our confidence not only in the “power” of both language and image, but also to confound our view of public interpretation of social descriptions. But, interestingly, her text jumps to the surface of the photograph, as did Evans’, and reinforces our self-consciousness about both the written work and the photographically constructed image.
    Language’s ability to conjure images has around forty thousand years head start on photography’s ability to describe experience, to stand in for perception. We need to be honest about this. In William Faulkner’s 1942 story, The Bear, young Isaac MaCaslin walks into a clearing in the Mississippi Delta where his father and grandfather have been hunting one specific bear, now old, for many years. He suddenly notices that the birds have stopped singing, and then realizes that the bear is observing him unseen—assessing him in terms of his father and grandfather. That moment is unavailable to the camera. But language exults in it.
    Jeffrey Wolin addresses this issue directly with his new Vietnam veteran project. The photographs of the soldiers, now old, cannot compete with the text mounted with them that describes their horrifying experiences, and for good reason. Those are experiences that exists outside of the ability of photography to even partially explain.
    After all is said and done, much of the conceptual appeal of combining words and text for all of these artists is found in the coercive and seductive aesthetic effect of the combination. We cannot as easily look away from written language as we can from pictures. Once we have started to read, we are effectively snared by the skillfully thrown net of the work. The linear rendition of meaning conveyed by the words combines or struggles with the expanding fact of the image to produce thoughts and feelings not generated by either alone. And, returning to that train ride in Ireland, we also must face those mysterious empty spaces between verbal and visual reality. Our knowledge is expanded at the expense of our confidence in categories, analogies, and descriptive representation in general. This tends to keep the art and us in the realm of exploration, and away from closed theoretical symmetry.

Rod Slemmons
Museum of Contemporary Photography
Chicago

GREG STIMAC!!! this sat 4-7pm

2010-02-01T20:04:00.000-06:00

ANDREW RAFACZ is pleased to announce a solo exhibition of new works by Greg Stimac.

Chicago, IL, February 6, 2010 – Andrew Rafacz begins the 2010 season with new works by Greg Stimac in Gallery One. This is the artist’s second exhibition with the gallery and continues through Saturday, March 13, 2010.

heinecken studies press

2010-01-30T12:19:00.000-06:00

http://art.newcity.com/2010/01/25/eye-exam-inspiration-from-cremation/

printing at blackpoint editions

2010-01-11T20:15:00.000-06:00

getting some new Nirvana pieces made for an exhibition this spring...finally got to make this piece, one of my favorite submssions to the Nirvana series...her wingspan hitting the frame makes the picture. reminds me of this nan goldin pic where one of her lovers, topless, is holding on to something high up out of the top of the frame...the merger with the edge creates some nice physical tension...

Isa Genzken

2010-01-10T19:41:00.000-06:00

Isa Genzken

revered and ridiculed for her new-easy or 'grunge' as it's called work, depending on whom you ask...

i love the suitcases!

trent harris

2010-01-02T11:48:00.001-06:00

i just bought the beaver trilogy from trent harris' website. he emailed me a link to his flingading video site. just watched THE HEAVENLY TOE TAPPERS, of which he writes:

This is the happiest video I have ever made, THE HEAVENLY TOE TAPPERS! I shot it in the war torn country of Rwanda. These guys are truly a GODSEND! Merry Christmas everybody!

http://www.billsullivanworks.com

2010-01-01T18:03:00.001-06:00

bill sullivan's site, new stuff...

Joseph del Pesco

2009-12-30T22:14:00.001-06:00

State of the Arts

In the conversation: Amy Balkin, Anthony Discenza, Aaron Gach, Eleanor Hanson, Packard Jennings, Helena Keeffe, Mads Lynnerup, Anthony Marcellini, Christian Maychack, Lee Montgomery, Lucas Murgida, Steve Shearer, Chris Sollars, David Stein, Oliver Wise

Facilitated by the Present Group, State of the Arts is a project about the political and economic conditions that affect artists in the San Francisco Bay Area. The project developed from two informal think-tank style conversations with two groups of artists. During a series of follow-up emails, major points were identified and distilled into arguments, demands, and observations. These statements were then translated into a series of 4 letterpress posters. Two of the posters address the situation in the state of California in general, and the other two speak directly to the SF Bay Area. All four posters were delivered to elected officials in the Bay Area.

the above from his website www.delpesco.com

wade guyton

2009-12-20T19:46:00.002-06:00

in his own words:
Recently I've been using Epson inkjet printers and flatbed scanners as tools to make works that act like drawings, paintings, even sculptures. I spend a lot of time with books and so logically I've ended up using pages from books as material- pages torn from books and fed through an inkjet printer. I've been using a very pared down vocabulary of simple shapes and letters drawn or typed in Microsoft Word, then printed on top of these pages from catalogues, magazines, posters- and even blank canvas. The resulting images aren't exactly what the machines are designed for- slick digital photographs. There is often a struggle between the printer and my material- and the traces of this are left on the surface- snags, drips, streaks, mis-registrations, blurs.

according to 'west london projects' :

Wade Guyton’s paintings reveal themselves as a product of mechanical reproduction, reflecting his practice of making artworks using commercial inkjet printers. The abstraction and physicality arrived at through the printing process communicates a vocabulary of uniqueness with its attendant skips, spurts, drips and smears. A mixture of primary sources, letters and signs as well as drawings and scanned printed matter, are abstracted and made singular by pushing an Epson 9600 inkjet printer to its limits. These representative aspects of the paintings persist as a digital trace of their original selves. The colour gamut offered by the 9600’s Ultrachrome inks provides a resolutely contemporary palette from which these graphic marks and images emerge.

seichii furuya

2009-12-20T18:59:00.000-06:00

saw this book in a color darkroom--it has stayed with me for weeks until i was able to deduce whose work i was struck by--seichii furuya. photographs of his girlfriend/wife/muse who committed suicide after 7 years of being together...the muse-genre thus gains another level of complexity, sadness, and distinctiveness as a contribution to the canon...

does anyone have more recommendations for photographer-muse projects that are above-and-beyond for some reason?

just ordered the book, and relieved i don't have to worry about forgetting this guy's name again!

from photo-eye:

Portrait.
Christine Furuya-Gobler, 1978-1985
Photographs by Seiichi Furuya. Text by Monika Faber.
Fotohof Editions, Salzburg, 2001. 126 pp., 62 black-and-white and color illustrations, 8½x9¾".

"As Alfred Stieglitz portrayed his life partner, Georgia O'Keeffe, in endless photographic images, so did Seiichi Furuya with his wife Christine. The only difference lies within the fact that their deep relationship spanned only seven years before her untimely death. In these desperately intimate portraits, the viewer follows Furuya's growing understanding of the many sides of his deceased wife but also opens a window into understanding himself. As stated by the artist, 'As I see her, take photographs of her, look at her in the pictures, I find myself." An amazing example of the camera's ability to portray the soul of both it's subject and the photographer."-the publisher.

keith arnatt

2009-12-17T21:20:00.000-06:00

"Notes from Jo" (1990 – 94)

roger ballen

2009-12-14T22:18:00.002-06:00

roger ballen is KILLING IT over in south africa!!!!!!!!!!

otis

2009-12-13T12:24:00.003-06:00

Manuel Dominguez, Jr.

to me

show details 12:17 PM (6 minutes ago)

thanks for the poster. it's working already!

otis redding motivational posters about to go out the door

2009-12-03T22:06:00.000-06:00

2009-12-03T21:54:00.002-06:00

www.alfredojaar.net

2009-11-22T19:16:00.000-06:00

Chilean artist Alfredo Jaar made thousands of photographs in the aftermath of the genocide in Rwanda, virtually all of which have remained unpublished. When he decided to exhibit sixty of the images, he first sealed them in black boxes - rendering them invisible. On another occasion he displayed one million duplicates of a single image - a close-up of the eyes of a Rwandan who had witnessed a Hutu death squad massacre.

Jaar's photographic installations constitute an engagement with the ethics and assumptions of photojournalism in the mass media. Ahead of an exhibition opening this autumn in Milan, two books surveying his output offer an opportunity to examine the priorities and strategies of Jaar's work.

2009-11-19T22:15:00.001-06:00

closing reception - tomorrow night

2009-11-19T19:57:00.000-06:00

Northeastern Illinois University Art Gallery Announcement

Press Release

Jason Lazarus: Footnotes
November 2nd-20th, 2009

Closing Reception
Friday November 20th, 6-9pm

An installation conflating the personal and public, Footnotes will trace an arc from inexplicable attachments to simple found photos and objects to sculptures that keep track of the waking hours of currently feared political leaders. The exhibition aims to explore the frenetic intersection of the domestic, the artist studio, and the contemporary cultural/political landscape.

All events are free and open to the public.

Jason Lazarus Website:

To view more of this artist's work go to his website:

http://www.jasonlazarus.com/

About Northeastern Illinois University Art Gallery

The NEIU gallery is located at 5500 N. St. Louis Avenue in building E in the northwest area of the campus. Parking is free in parking lot F the night of the reception only. The Fine Arts Center Gallery is a visual exhibition space committed to showing innovative works of art in all media within a pluralistic, culturally diverse setting. Please call 773-442-4944 for gallery hours and more information.

trevor paglen

2009-11-18T19:55:00.003-06:00

Code Names:
Classified Military Programs Active Between 2001 and 2007

Code Names is a list of words, phrases, and terms that designate active military programs whose existence or purpose is classified. These include classified exercises and units, intelligence programs, information compartments, and Pentagon “Special Access Programs.”

dan attoe

2009-11-16T21:47:00.001-06:00

You Have More Freedom Than You're Using, 2006
Mixed media sculpture - Neon light, wires, transformer

http://www.katharinagrosse.com

2009-11-15T23:15:00.001-06:00

friday, nov 20th, reception for 'Footnotes'

2009-11-15T22:26:00.002-06:00

my solo exhibition, 'Footnotes,' closes with a reception at Northeastern University this Friday, Nov 20th, 6-9pm...

the first time i've ever done an object installation on anything close to this scale...

fun and stress

2009-10-28T22:00:00.001-05:00

upcoming:

Orion Over Baghdad
solo exhibition
opens Oct 31st, 4-7pm, continues through December 5th, 2009
www.andrewrafacz.com

Ground Level Projects
solo exhibition
opens October 28, 2009 — January 17, 2010
www.spertus.edu

Footnotes
solo exhibition
opens Nov 2 - Nov 20, 2009
Northeastern University

Prethunderdome
group exhibition
opens Nov 7 - December 19, 2009
White Flag Projects

*lecture, Spertus Museum, Sunday Nov 1st, 1pm
*lecture, DePaul University, Thursday January 28th at 6:00pm at the DePaul Art Museum

ongoing:

On the Scene
group exhibition
September 19, 2009 - January 24, 2010
Art Institute of Chicago

press - "39 verbs"

2009-10-13T13:00:00.001-05:00

eric wenzel ends his article by sharing the response of the priest to the confession he hates most of the art he sees...

39 verbs review - eric wenzel

"Texting for forgiveness" performance, 2009

2009-10-13T12:56:00.002-05:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Jason Lazarus
Phone: 312.953.2885
Event: Oct 11th, 2009 5-8pm
Venue: Packer Schopf Gallery, 942 w Lake St.

Chicagoland Minister to answer requests for forgiveness via text-message at west loop art opening

Chicago, IL. –Local artist Jason Lazarus has arranged for Father Jef Johnson, an ordained Catholic priest, to answer requests for forgiveness via text-message at an upcoming art opening on October 11th, 2009, from 5:30-7:30pm at Packer Schopf Gallery, 942 w. Lake St. in Chicago.

The artist is inviting anyone with access to a cell phone, for one night only, to text-message Fr. Johnson to ask for forgiveness of sins at 312-415-8989. Fr. Johnson will receive and respond to texts on a cell phone during the two-hour performance. At the end of the performance, the phone’s memory will be cleared by the priest to assure the anonymity and privacy of all participants.

Guests of the exhibition will be able to witness Johnson as he responds to participants, while Lazarus photographs the priest as he texts responses to participants.

Lazarus, a Chicago-based conceptual artist, is represented by Andrew Rafacz Gallery and has exhibited nationally and internationally. This performance will be a part of the exhibition “39 Verbs,” curated by Chicago-based art collaborative Industry of the Ordinary, and will include, among others, Dawoud Bey, Tony Tassett, Jeanne Dunning, Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle, Greg Stimac, and Sabrina Raaf.

More information can be found at:
www.jasonlazarus.com
www.industryoftheordinary.com
www.chicagoweddingminister.us

lecture at the art institute, thurs oct 8th, 6pm

2009-10-06T13:28:00.001-05:00

The Art Institute of Chicago

Open now through January 24 in the Modern Wing's contemporary photography galleries, the third installation of the series On the Scene features the dynamic new work of emerging artists:

Jason Lazarus
Wolfgang Plöger
and Zoe Strauss

Catch these artists discussing their works at upcoming artists' talks.

Lazarus
October 8 at 6:00

Strauss
November 12 at 6:00

Ploger
November 19 at 6:00
Wolfgang Plöger

All lectures take place on Target Free Thursday Evenings in the museum's Price Auditorium.

jj

2009-10-03T18:16:00.002-05:00

here is jesse jackson looking like the f%^&*ing man!

i realized standing in front of him how much people look up to him...he IS gravity...especially at this time when everyone is trying to figure out the brutality of the CPS beating-to-death last week. probably best we didn't get the olympics, although the announcement bid excitement has subsumed the conversation about how we fix safety-in-public schools...

new city reviews 'on the scene' at the art institute

2009-10-01T21:40:00.002-05:00

here it is!

http://thedrawingfactory.blogspot.com/

2009-08-21T16:25:00.005-05:00

brought to you by colin matthes,
performed at the harold residency

http://thedrawingfactory.blogspot.com/

iraq

2009-08-19T18:40:00.001-05:00

found the above while working toward a show at andrew rafacz gallery, opens oct 31st, tentatively called 'Orion over Baghdad'

click on image to read small type...

2009-08-19T18:33:00.001-05:00

from studs terkel interview

2009-08-14T11:04:00.001-05:00

.....

Mamie Mobley

A retired Chicago public school teacher. In 1955 her fourteen-year-old son, Emmett Till, was killed while visiting relatives in Mississippi. He was her only child. Two white men, Roy Bryant and J. W. "Big" Milam, were accused of the murder. Though the evidence against them was overwhelming, they were acquitted by an all-white jury. The case had international repercussions and is still considered a significant prelude to the civil-rights movement. This conversation took place in September of 2000, forty-five years later.

"Emmett just barely got on that train to Mississippi. We could hear the whistle blowing. As he was running up the steps, I said, 'Bo,'—that's what I called him—'you didn't kiss me. How do I know I'll ever see you again?' He turned around and said, 'Oh, Mama.' Gently scolding me. He ran down those steps and gave me a kiss. As he turned to go up the steps again, he pulled his watch off and said, 'Take this, I won't need it.' I said, 'What about your ring?' He was wearing his father's ring for the first time. He said, 'I'm going to show this to my friends.' That's how we were able to identify him, by that ring. I think it was a Mason's ring.

"I got four letters from him in a week's time. My aunt in Mississippi wrote me a long letter in praise of him. How he helped her in her kitchen, with the washing machine, preparing the meals. The way he did things at home. He'd say, 'Mama, if you can go out and make the money, I can take care of the house.' He cleaned, he shopped for groceries, he washed. Do you remember when Tide came out? It was in 1953, two years before he went to Mississippi. He told me about the advertisement: 'Tide's in, dirt's out.' All the neighbors knew him.

"I didn't know what happened to him until the following Sunday.

"I'm a seventy-eight-year-old woman. I have lived all my life being brought up in the church. I feel that I'm a very strong woman. When I lost my son, that's when I found out that I really had two feet and I had to stand on my own feet. I had to stand and be a woman.

"There was nobody around who could really help me. Everybody was so in tears. I had to calm them down. They couldn't help me if they were going to be hollering and screaming. So I found out, in 1955, that I was very capable of getting the job done, even though I couldn't see for the tears.

"I was able to get it done.

"The spirit spoke to me and said, 'Go to school and be a teacher. I have taken one, but I shall give you thousands.' I have to identify that as a spirit being bigger than I am. I was the only one hearing that voice.

"I had ordered Emmett's body brought back to Chicago. It was in three boxes. He was in a box that was in a box that was in a box. Each had the Mississippi seal and a padlock on it. It was the biggest box I'd ever seen in my life.

"I said to the undertaker, 'Give me a hammer. I'm gonna break that seal. I'm gonna go into that box. I don't know what I'm burying. It could be a box full of rocks. It could be cement. It could be dirt. I've got to verify it is my son in that box.'

"They had laid him out on the cooling board. His body was still in the body bag. [She has difficulty, weeps. A long pause.] The undertaker unzipped the bag. And that's when I saw all that lime. They hosed him down. And, oh, my God, I knew what that odor was by then. It was not the lime. That was my son I was smelling.

"I glanced at his head and it was such a mess up there, I just had to turn away. I started at his feet. I knew certain characteristics about him. I knew how his knees looked. I knew how his ankles and feet looked. I made my trip from his feet up to his midsection, identifying what I could.

"And then I saw this long tongue hanging out of his mouth. What on earth? They were looking for me to fall out, and I told them, 'Turn me loose. I've got a job to do.' I said, 'I can't faint now.' I began a real minute examination. I looked at his teeth, and there were only about four of them left. He had such beautiful teeth. I moved on up to the nose. And it looked like somebody had taken a meat cleaver and had just chopped the bridge of his nose. Pieces had fallen out. When I went to look at his eyes, this one was lying on his cheek. But I saw the color of it. I said, 'That's my son's eye.' I looked over at the other and it was as if somebody had taken a nut picker and just picked it out. There was no eye. I went to examine his ears. If you'll notice, my ears are detached from my face and they kind of curl on the end. And his did too. There was no ear. It was gone. I was looking up the side of his face and I could see daylight on the other side. I said, 'Oh, my God.' The tears were falling and I was brushing tears away because I had to see.

"Later, I was reading the Scriptures. And it told how Jesus had been led from judgment hall to judgment hall all night long. How he had been beaten. And so much that no man would ever sustain the horror of his beating. That his face was just in ribbons. And I thought about it and I said, 'Lord, do you mean to tell me that Emmett's beating did not equal the one that was given to Jesus?' And I said, 'My God, what must Jesus have suffered?'

"And then I thought about some of the pictures we see, where he had this neat little crown of thorns and you see a few rivulets of blood coming down. But his face is intact. And according to Scriptures, that is not true. His visage was scarred more than any other man's had ever been or will be.

"And that's when I really was able to assess what Jesus had given for us, the love he had for us.

"And I saw Emmett and his scars. Lord, I saw the stigmata of Jesus. The spirit spoke to me plainly as I'm talking to you now. Jesus had come and died that we might have a right to eternal life or eternal hell or damnation. Emmett had died that men might have freedom here on earth. That we might have a right to life.

"That was my darkest moment, when I realized that that huge box had the remains of my son. I sent a very lovable boy on a vacation. Emmett, who knew everybody in the neighborhood. They'd call him whenever they wanted something done. 'Mom, I gotta go help Mrs. Bailey.' He was the block's messenger boy.

"What might have been? He's never far from my mind. If Jesus Christ died for our sins, Emmett Till bore our prejudices, so ..."

chicago photo happenings this fall/winter

2009-08-11T21:31:00.006-05:00

i made a trace of the major photo-happenings this fall/winter in chicago to use for my various class syllabi...let me know if i'm missing anything...or copy and paste for your own use:

Info for photography related lectures at Columbia College for fall 2009:
Thursday, September 24th @ 6:00
Opening Reception at Museum of Contemporary Photography, 5-7 PM
Ferguson Lecture Hall
OLIVO BARBIERI

Thursday, October 15th @ 6:00
Ferguson Lecture Hall
MARK RUWEDEL

Thursday, November 12th @ 6:00
618 S. Michigan Avenue, 2nd floor
PENELOPE UMBRICO

Museum of Contemporary Photogrphy
MP3 II: Curtis Mann, John Opera, Stacia Yeapanis
July 17 - September 13, 2009
MP3II is an exhibition and subsequent publication of work by three contemporary photographers (Curtis Mann, Stacia Yeapanis, and John Opera) from the museum’s rotating collection, the Midwest Photographers Project.
Opening Reception: Reversed Images, September 24, 2009
a reception celebrating the opening of Reversed Images: Representations of Shanghai and Its Contemporary Material Culture

Art Institute of Chicago’s Photography Gallery in the new Modern Wing
“On the Scene” – a three person show of jason lazarus, zoe strauss, and wolfgang ploger: September 19th 2009 to January of 2010

Edward Steichen and the Photographic Self-Portrait, Price Auditorium, 9/10, 6-7 p.m

Hyde Park Art Center
Jason Salavon: Spigot
September 20, 2009 - January 17, 2010

Museum of Contemporary Art
Elements of Photography
June 13 - October 4, 2009
Elements of Photography presents photographic and video works from the MCA Collection with a focus on elemental materials of nature: light and water. Also the fundamental elements of traditional photography, the works included in the exhibition foreground the inherent relationship between the photographic process and the natural world. With these elements, artists like Hiroshi Sugimoto, Luisa Lambri, Walead Beshty, and Adam Ekberg create ephemeral works that explore the foundation of the photographic image: the play of light through half opened shutters; haunting seascapes reduced to a gradation of elemental material; and luminous circles of light formed by the interplay of sunlight and the camera's lens. Bringing the natural world to near or complete abstraction, these photographs emphasize their own material composition. At the same time, they invite the viewer to reflect on themes inherent to photographic medium, such as the passage of time and the nature of perception

The Renaissance Society
Allan Sekula
Polonia and Other Fables
September 20 – December 13, 2009
In addition to being outstanding documentary photography in its own right, Sekula's work is also a critique of the genre. Sekula's examination of the theory and practice of photography is as important as his inquiry into labor history and economics. Central to his work is an interest in documentation--as pictorial form, method of recording, narrative device, historical memory, and medium f social engagement. Sekula's work poses the rhetorical questions, "Is it possible to discuss photography as a medium separate from the thing being photographed?"

heinecken

2009-08-02T18:41:00.001-05:00

Photographer - Robert Heinecken
"Many pictures turn out to be limp translations of the known world instead of vital objects which create an intrinsic world of their own. There is a vast difference between taking a picture and making a photograph."
Robert Heinecken

photographist

2009-08-02T18:24:00.001-05:00

Heinecken's work has always been concerned with the use and impact of the photographic image, earning him the title of "Photographist". The term, used by Arthur Danto to describe an artist whose concerns include photography in art but not necessarily photography as art, is well placed with Heineken's work. In the tradition of the photographist, then, Heinecken has plotted a course of experimental image and object production that has been innovative and influential. Aligned closely with such California conceptual artists as Edward Ruscha and John Baldessari, Heinecken the artist and teacher (he founded the photography department at UCLA and retired from that institution in 1991) has laid the groundwork for a younger generation of artists dedicated to manipulating and exploring photo-based production.

2009-08-02T16:48:00.001-05:00

The painter Francis Bacon once remarked, "If I go into a butcher's shop I always think it's surprising I wasn't there instead of the animal."

nirvana entry

2009-07-26T15:17:00.003-05:00

here is my best friend from high school, lindsay, with wes in the background at a christian camp in southern oklahoma. lindsay and i met in high school but we met wes at camp. i can't not think about her without thinking of Nirvana. both her parents were alcoholics so if we weren't taking refuge in her room we were driving around smoking pot or going to a local show at the armory in edmond. okc had a pretty good punk scene that i am so thankful for.

on repeat

2009-07-25T14:48:00.014-05:00

“I wanna be startin’ something by Michael Jackson on repeat, for 6 hours, dancing in the woods at night (Chesterhill, OH)”
--dimensions variable installation, 6 hour video and stills, 2009
Jason Lazarus

"We are out of our joy. He is out of his pain. ... He was constantly challenged in the press and all he really wanted to be was the greatest entertainer and he was that."

Politician and civil rights activist the Rev. Jesse Jackson

“MJ, when I was 10, you were a god. Later on, things got complicated. R.I.P.”

Jason Lazarus’ Facebook and New York Times website post, June 25th 2009

When Michael Jackson died, I was sitting at my computer, where I received a text message that seemed like simple text-speak, but didn’t quite make sense. News of a death via text-message seems a bit inappropriate—but in this case I could imagine the news spreading perfectly at light-speed--like an uber-terrorist weapon or a dream marketing campaign for some new product. All somber formalities usually associated death were off the table. Within an hour all cars in Chicago became nodes in a sustainable network of Michael Jackson music that ebbed and flowed within earshot, usually with Thriller as the eulogy of choice.

Ironically, a few months before I was dancing to “Wanna be startin’ something” on repeat in my room after an evening coffee buzz. I had overlooked this song as singular, driving yet meditative. Listening to a song on repeat for a long period of time is obstensibly a solo-activity.

Months later in the woods, with Michael dead, I initiated 30+ residents of the Harold Arts residency to start dancing at 11:30pm—a later start than I anticipated, to MJ's "Wanna be startin' something" on repeat. Initially, I found myself embarrassed—the translation from my bedroom to a group-performative-live-time video piece seemed unnatural. I danced. Others danced. Others watched. Energy spiked and waned. At epic moments of the dancing, 25 participants self-organized into choreographed dance routines and lit fireworks. Other moments found individual dancers having very interior moments enabled by what athletes call a ‘running high.’ Others retreated 20 feet behind the twin recording video cameras to take in the spectacle for hours on end. The near-end of the video is subsumed by rote movements of the handful of participants fatigued into a stupor.

The artfulness of this project does not rest in a Chris Burden-like unbroken physical endurance or a Dan Graham questioning of the relationship between the camera and its subjects. Much of it occurs in the last 40 seconds of the video when we took the video camera off the tripod, after 6 hours of capturing non-stop dancing, said goodbye to Michael, and then turned the camera around to the tree-line to show the viewers the sun was rising.

2009-07-25T12:07:00.000-05:00

uic

2009-07-03T19:05:00.003-05:00

here is an install shot of half of the work i presented at a crit as part of the paraSITE residency program at UIC...this is a 'junior' version of a show i am doing at northeastern in november tentatively titled 'footnotes'

Kim Jong-il

2009-06-30T23:04:00.002-05:00

"Kim Jong-il awake, 6/30/09 (Chicago)"

(lightbox, gelatin filter, cardboard, electrical timer set to daylight hours of Pyongyang, North Korea)

Recordings ("Big Storm" January 30th 1967, mom)

2009-06-29T01:36:00.003-05:00

i made this recordings installation today for a studio visit...these quick jpgs make me glad i documented the piece with a large format camera and strobes.

picture from today's orion over baghdad work...

2009-06-23T00:17:00.000-05:00

Orion over Baghdad

2009-06-21T23:09:00.003-05:00

working on funding...this jpg is a gallery rendering...
each panel 60x90" vertical
thousands of titles from from the title field of flickr accounts of snapshots taken by servicemen and women of their tours of duy in Iraq...

i am working in a grad studio at UIC this summer, more info to come on this...
upcoming show in nyc, info to follow!

ira

2009-05-05T20:22:00.003-05:00

My boyfriend Ira and I at a going away party in the San Fernando valley. He was appalled when i didn't immediately love Nirvana as he did. Later, i'd listen to them more closely as i tried to figure out parts of that always seemed hidden.

how genius happens...thanks david brooks

2009-05-04T17:28:00.002-05:00

Op-Ed Columnist
Genius: The Modern View
By DAVID BROOKS
Published: April 30, 2009

Some people live in romantic ages. They tend to believe that genius is the product of a divine spark. They believe that there have been, throughout the ages, certain paragons of greatness — Dante, Mozart, Einstein — whose talents far exceeded normal comprehension, who had an other-worldly access to transcendent truth, and who are best approached with reverential awe.
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We, of course, live in a scientific age, and modern research pierces hocus-pocus. In the view that is now dominant, even Mozart’s early abilities were not the product of some innate spiritual gift. His early compositions were nothing special. They were pastiches of other people’s work. Mozart was a good musician at an early age, but he would not stand out among today’s top child-performers.

What Mozart had, we now believe, was the same thing Tiger Woods had — the ability to focus for long periods of time and a father intent on improving his skills. Mozart played a lot of piano at a very young age, so he got his 10,000 hours of practice in early and then he built from there.

The latest research suggests a more prosaic, democratic, even puritanical view of the world. The key factor separating geniuses from the merely accomplished is not a divine spark. It’s not I.Q., a generally bad predictor of success, even in realms like chess. Instead, it’s deliberate practice. Top performers spend more hours (many more hours) rigorously practicing their craft.

The recent research has been conducted by people like K. Anders Ericsson, the late Benjamin Bloom and others. It’s been summarized in two enjoyable new books: “The Talent Code” by Daniel Coyle; and “Talent Is Overrated” by Geoff Colvin.

If you wanted to picture how a typical genius might develop, you’d take a girl who possessed a slightly above average verbal ability. It wouldn’t have to be a big talent, just enough so that she might gain some sense of distinction. Then you would want her to meet, say, a novelist, who coincidentally shared some similar biographical traits. Maybe the writer was from the same town, had the same ethnic background, or, shared the same birthday — anything to create a sense of affinity.

This contact would give the girl a vision of her future self. It would, Coyle emphasizes, give her a glimpse of an enchanted circle she might someday join. It would also help if one of her parents died when she was 12, infusing her with a profound sense of insecurity and fueling a desperate need for success.

Armed with this ambition, she would read novels and literary biographies without end. This would give her a core knowledge of her field. She’d be able to chunk Victorian novelists into one group, Magical Realists in another group and Renaissance poets into another. This ability to place information into patterns, or chunks, vastly improves memory skills. She’d be able to see new writing in deeper ways and quickly perceive its inner workings.

Then she would practice writing. Her practice would be slow, painstaking and error-focused. According to Colvin, Ben Franklin would take essays from The Spectator magazine and translate them into verse. Then he’d translate his verse back into prose and examine, sentence by sentence, where his essay was inferior to The Spectator’s original.

Coyle describes a tennis academy in Russia where they enact rallies without a ball. The aim is to focus meticulously on technique. (Try to slow down your golf swing so it takes 90 seconds to finish. See how many errors you detect.)

By practicing in this way, performers delay the automatizing process. The mind wants to turn deliberate, newly learned skills into unconscious, automatically performed skills. But the mind is sloppy and will settle for good enough. By practicing slowly, by breaking skills down into tiny parts and repeating, the strenuous student forces the brain to internalize a better pattern of performance.

Then our young writer would find a mentor who would provide a constant stream of feedback, viewing her performance from the outside, correcting the smallest errors, pushing her to take on tougher challenges. By now she is redoing problems — how do I get characters into a room — dozens and dozens of times. She is ingraining habits of thought she can call upon in order to understand or solve future problems.

The primary trait she possesses is not some mysterious genius. It’s the ability to develop a deliberate, strenuous and boring practice routine.

Coyle and Colvin describe dozens of experiments fleshing out this process. This research takes some of the magic out of great achievement. But it underlines a fact that is often neglected. Public discussion is smitten by genetics and what we’re “hard-wired” to do. And it’s true that genes place a leash on our capacities. But the brain is also phenomenally plastic. We construct ourselves through behavior. As Coyle observes, it’s not who you are, it’s what you do.

thanks afc

2009-04-29T19:45:00.001-05:00

Anything Jerry Saltz Can Do AFC Can Do Better: 33 Outstanding Artists Emerging After 1999, Part One of Three

online auction for Harold Residency program

2009-04-25T17:28:00.005-05:00

The Harold Arts Auction Is Officially Open! The auction will run from April 24 to May 1.

click here to go to the auction

Proceeds go to Harold Arts in order to support our annual summer residency program.
The auction will culminate with an event at Heaven Gallery on May 2 at 6pm. The auction closes at 9pm. Online bidders will be given the option to request a proxy bidder for the final hours of the auction.

Original Artwork by:
Kelly Allen, Caitlin Arnold, Justine Ashbee, Lucas Blair, Jesse Brown, Ed Corle, Scott Cowan, Stephen Eichhorn, Eric Fleischauer, Gabriel Garcia, Aron Gent, Jon Gitelson, Regan Golden, Allison Grant, Michael Hunter, Katy Keefe, Chad Kouri, Jason Lazarus, Jeremy Lundquist, Todd Mattei, Mollie McKinley, Nadine Nakanishi, Brion Nuda Rosch, Rebecca Shoenecker, Montgomery Perry Smith, Greg Stimac, Frank Van Duerm. Other Donations from: LuLu Jewelry, MCA Chicago, Vosges Haut-Chocolate

opening on thursday in berlin...

2009-04-20T15:54:00.003-05:00

May 1 - May 7, 2009
Opening Reception:
Thursday, April 30, 6 – 10 pm

Curated by Mike Ruiz and Ben Aqua
Featured artists:
Martijn Hendriks
Jason Lazarus
Harm van den Dorpel
Tracky Birthday
Chris Buck

We cordially invite you to attend our next exhibit at The Future Gallery, opening Thursday, April 30, 2009.

The Future Gallery is proud to present, Michael Jackson Doesn't Quit: Part 1, the first installment of a two part series of exhibitions featuring works related to the entertainer and social phenomenon, Michael Jackson. His music, performances, and media coverage have had a poignant, bizarre, and fascinating resonance in contemporary society. He is simultaneously hated and worshiped, idolized and demystified. There are few people who haven't been affected by the "King of Pop" in some dimension or form; he is truly an unforgettable character.

Curators Mike Ruiz and Ben Aqua have selected a group of talented, up-and-coming artists to investigate their unique observations and aesthetic decisions surrounding the complex being that is Michael Jackson. The resulting works are insightful and sincere, varying across several mediums -- from works on paper to multimedia installation.

Michael Jackson Doesn't Quit: Part 2 will open May 22, 2009.

The two-part Michael Jackson Doesn't Quit exhibition series is proudly sponsored by OK! FRESH.

THE FUTURE l GALLERY
Hasenheide 56, 10967 Berlin-Kreuzberg, U-bahn Südstern
www.thefuturegallery.org - info@thefuturegallery.org
Saturday - Thursday 12 - 6 pm

Orion Over Baghdad

2009-04-15T21:32:00.003-05:00

above pic is a detail shot of the 'Orion Over Baghdad' archive

so i have a tentative title for a new project:

Orion Over Baghdad
a growing archive of text taken from the title field of US soldier tour-of-duty snapshots posted to flickr

so far there are over 8000 words in the text field. the project title comes from a single title that quietly exists in the archive. some other considerations were:
This is Baghdad!
Unfinished Victory Towers
Last Man Standing
Holding On
which all have their own reach and limitations. what i like about orion over baghdad is that it is implicitly about looking and distance which underscores its potency.

i am still trying to figure out the physical manifestation of this project. i am all ears if you're inspired to communicate with me!

the archive now is on my main website: jasonlazarus.com under Orion Over Baghdad

lost

2009-04-15T19:34:00.001-05:00

i managed to get a color copy replacement of this lost pet flyer in a plastic sheet and re-posted within 30 minutes today in UK village...

Snowstorm, Chicago (April 5th, 2009)

2009-04-05T22:18:00.000-05:00

friday

2009-04-01T21:29:00.008-05:00

i'll be faxing artwork into this technology exhibition live on friday night!

Ill Communication

opens Friday, April 3rd
7-11pm

Harold Arts presents...
ILL COMMUNICATION

a social interstice organized by Joe Jeffers

Ill Communication is an exhibition interrogating the role of technology within notions of community. By emancipating these systems from their prescriptive frameworks or subverting modes of their operation, six artists address the state of social exchange via technological partnership within an input/output spatial model. These projects attempt to calibrate community, examining our collective desires for connectivity, exhibitionism, and instant history.

Interactive works by:
Jon Brumit
http://www.www.jonbrumit.com
Diana Burgoyne
http://www.ecuad.ca/~dburg/main.htm
Rob Duarte
http://www.robduarte.com
Taylor Hokanson
http://taylorhokanson.com
Christy Matson
http://cmatson.com
Todd Mattei
http://toddmattei.com

Field Correspondence with:

Jason Ajemian
Eddie Bauer
Kate Bingaman
Ian Hatcher
Brieanne Hauger
Jason Lazarus
Jeff Kimmel
Michael Merck
David Moré
Jesse Peterson
Robert Snowden
Frank Van Duerm
Arthur Weiss
Isa Wiss
Nick Wylie
and others...

closing reception and
catalog release April 24th

Saturdays 1-5pm
or by appointment
info@haroldarts.org
847.902.7350

haroldarts.org
heavengallery.com

Harold is now accepting applications for its 2009 summer residency program. An application can be found at haroldarts.org under the 'apply' section.
Please email us at info@haroldarts.org to request more detailed information about the program and how you can receive a discount on the residency fee.

new work

2009-03-25T21:33:00.004-05:00

i'm in love with this birding 'life list'. its basically a study of mortality through the filter of the classic birding list...

ps: somehow by changing the template of my blog i lost all my links section, so, sorry to all those folks for now. when i have more time i will re-list all of the wonderful artists who i believe are doing some great things for those who want to poke through the list.

it's growing

2009-03-17T23:36:00.001-05:00

ironically, i just flipped the whole blog to be on a white background a couple days ago!

whoa

2009-03-16T17:16:00.001-05:00

http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/index.php?cl=12514210

blind spot #39

2009-03-15T21:32:00.002-05:00

the new issue of blind spot, edited by taryn simon, features a fantastic entry by philip-lorca dicorcia

image on left is titled: woman, blind from birth
image on right is titled: woman, newscaster

i think this quiet diptych is the best thing he's ever done

artslant.com interview with abraham ritchie

2009-03-15T10:44:00.000-05:00

Interview with Jason Lazarus
by Abraham Ritchie

CHICAGO-- The deadpan images of photographer Jason Lazarus belie their seeming simplicity with investigations into the complexities of American life, frequently with a distinct Chicago accent. Lazarus received his MFA in Photography from Columbia College in 2003 and started exhibiting work immediately. He is represented by Andrew Rafacz Gallery in Chicago and Kaune-Sudendorf in Cologne, Germany. Currently, his work is included in the acclaimed exhibition "Black is, Black ain't" on view at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Detroit, through the end of April.

We met at a restaurant near his house in Chicago's West Loop neighborhood.

Abraham Ritchie: I ride the Brown "El" Line to the Loop everyday when I go to work and right off the train tracks are the Cabrini Green Housing Projects. Over last summer several of the buildings were knocked down, so now I ride past a big green field and the one building that is still standing. The destruction of the housing projects is significant to Chicago and it was interesting to see your photograph of Cabrini Green [Inside Cabrini Green housing projects (before razing), 2007] from the Self Portrait [sic] series. What is the significance of housing projects and the destruction of these places, in particular Cabrini, to you? Especially as a Chicagoan?

Jason Lazarus: I should be clear, I only made one photograph in relation to Cabrini, in all fairness to the people who have put a lot of work into developing a more thorough examination. The way the work from the Self Portrait series has been going is that there are these intersections of things that I'm interested in and have a lot of potential value in imagery. Specifically, I'm sure a lot of people were intrigued by the buildings when they were up, but empty. The windows were blown out, and you could see bright colored walls, remnants of life. That really intrigued me, and I really wanted to go in and see it in person. I have lived here for fifteen years so I felt like, in a way, I had lived with them and they with me for a long time at this point, so the fact that they were going to be taken down was significant.

I think that seeing them slowly disappear is interesting, to see that failure of ideas resonate and actualize in the destruction of failed architecture. That whole program, the idea of housing projects, their density, their segregation, is all part of why they failed as an idea. So it was interesting to see that kind of political band-aid, or whatever you call it, just really self-destruct.

I went with a friend and we kind of broke into one of the buildings one morning. There was a lot of stuff that I saw that was unsurprising, graffiti and stuff lying everywhere. But alongside the graffiti, there were a lot of phone numbers that people left up on the walls so, from what I could perceive, they could be found. Others could contact them later if they wanted. So the building became a yearbook of sorts, kind of the adult version of signing off for the summer because you were signing off on the community itself.

The artwork ended up focusing on that. Someone had gone through the trouble of scrawling this prose on the ceiling. From my photo you can't tell that it's ceiling.

AR: Yes, it looks like it's on a wall.

JL: Exactly. It is on a ceiling and that's the reason that it has so much negative space around it, because someone took the time and effort to get up there and write. That's why the piece has a lot of photographic presence, because of the negative space, because whoever wrote that went through extraordinary lengths to get up there and write and ensure its legibility and maybe its durability too. I was struck by that, as well as what it says; it's a kind of poetic testament of being attached to that place for many years and taking the experiences of that place to the new place, with a bittersweet aspect in doing so.

It was basically a poem that someone had inscribed into the architecture and it was really wonderful to walk into a room and see that. For my practice, the subjectivity of a single moment out of an experience really resonates, rather than trying to create authorship and impose a view over a community that I don't know very well and haven't ever lived with. It's really the idea of an encounter, and it was only one morning, but that was the apex of the encounter and the one that I wanted to share with the viewer.

AR: So then did you have other images that you produced but didn't publish or show?

JL: I did have some other images, but I didn't want to use those images. There was no profundity.

AR: In other words, that was the strongest image?

JL: Yes. It was just stuff that I wasn't interested in memorializing in the way I did. Strangely, when I saw some of those building come down since I shot, it's not exciting but it's satisfying to know that, although photographs aren't necessarily truthful, I did get to preserve something from that building.

Once that ceiling was gone, it was just gone. [The photograph] is a cropped version of one way of looking at that room, putting a frame over that entire architecture and all the ideas behind it. For me, it was really satisfying to have been able to personally experience that building, but also experience something inside myself, to meditate on later, about when I did have that encounter.

AR: You bring up truth in photography, which by now is a pretty outdated notion, but your style is very straight. You can tell there has not been much manipulation in your photos, sometimes they're almost documentary. So do you expect people to take these images at face value? How do you create a complexity behind your deadpan images?

JL: The version of truth that I'm trying to capture is a kind of visual resonance with how I feel and what I get from an experience. Like I mentioned, a lot of what I saw that day at Cabrini was neither here nor there. What I chose to create a platform for isn't indicative of a whole experience. But it was indicative of the fact that someone was self-aware, reflective and wanted to communicate their thoughts to the wider world about the place they had lived and so was compelled to write on the ceiling. In that, the complexity was in removing everything else from the image.

For me, it is most important to remain true to my own interests and not feign that a photograph can accomplish more than it can. A photograph doesn't necessarily save anyone or help anyone, there are a lot more active things that I could do if I wanted to serve the community in that way. But I think that I am acting as a conduit between a community like that and a larger public. Seeing the photograph in the "Made in Chicago" exhibition [at the Chicago Cultural Center, October 2008- January 2009] felt satisfying because it's this idea of inviting people into places where they wouldn't go if they were in an office all day. Part of my responsibility to myself and the viewer is to go out and discover these things, for my own examination and so that others can too. That's part of the responsibility of the artist, to play in the sandbox and make things happen.

Jason Lazarus. Standing at the grave of Emmet Till, day of exhumation, June 1st, 2005, (Alsip, IL). 2005. Archival inkjet print. 43" x 56". Courtesy of the artist and Andrew Rafacz Gallery.

AR: Is that responsibility to take someone to that place that you are investigating extend over into a work like Standing at the grave of Emmet Till, day of exhumation, June 1st, 2005 (Alsip, IL)? I think I saw that piece without the title, but once you know that element it draws you in and gives the scene new historical weight and significance. Do you see yourself as an artist having a moral or social responsibility?

JL: Not fully, maybe as I have gotten older. My work from four years ago was more about the idea of art institutions and deconstructing those institutions and questioning some values.

I'm interested in making political work because these are things I think about a lot. The camera will often pull me to something I don't understand and I am curious about. The Emmet Till photo and experience was so instinctive and under informed. When I think about all the things I have thought about and wrestled with since making that photo, all the conversations, the research on the history. . . I think, at this time of my life, political and social complexities and problems are really interesting to me. But only to the extent that there's also humor, and other moments that draw you in. In the Self Portrait series, I wanted to create a body of work that, in some ways, mirrors the complexities of living.

Living is as hilarious, confusing and varied as fixing the drain in a bathtub, to being at a significant, historic event. Our experiences range from the banal to the profound constantly. I love imaging those moments and the ones in between. The Emmet Till photograph makes other less political photographs work better and vice versa, for me. I like trying to figure out the place where the artwork coalesces, the idea of having a journey as confusing and sad as people's lives are day-to-day. That's what I like to structurally mirror in my images, in the subject matter, the way that all these things bounce off of each other.

--Abraham Ritchie

piero manzoni

2009-03-14T20:57:00.001-05:00

click this image

zine #2

2009-03-11T22:10:00.003-05:00

zine #2 is out...this zine is a proposal for a future installation.

containing text only, the zine features the titles of images posted on flickr of soldier snapshots from their tours-of-duty. the cover is a detail of a much larger text field.

there is no easy way to collect the titles, i simply plow through hundreds of images one at a time and lift the titles into a word doc. later, i lift that text into photoshop and play with font, weight, leading, kerning, etc until i have made mock large text fields that start to speak to the volume and mass of this project. this text-collecting-labor has been an important part of the project, as i have been systematically combing the soldiers own mediation not only of war, but everything banal that can dot that experience. the continuum is wide, and the titles slowly reveal this. for me, the project is located at the intersection of the snapshot, war-photography, and flickr, among other things. i'm really excited about this project and am seeking an institution to partner with me to physically materialize this project the right way...(haha, don't we all want this :))

btw, one of my favorite titles i've found is 'orion over baghdad' wow!!!

zines are 10 bucks signed, open edition. i have been distributing the first 130 to friends, contacts, and to visitors to the volta art fair in nyc last weekend.
you can paypal money to jasonlazarus.photo@gmail.com and i'll send one over to you within the lower 48...

holy sherman!

2009-03-11T21:27:00.002-05:00

just scanned the first half of this book for a lecture tomorrow...this early cindy sherman work, a series called 'bus riders' is really rich. you see the cable release, it's minimal, the construct is underwhelming, focusing all of the attention on the costuming/body/persona/staging...hopefully soon i can scan and share some of the second half of this book: Murder Mystery People

dance party fundraiser this saturday

2009-03-11T18:14:00.002-05:00

The Emperor is Dead! Long Live the Emperor!
Ides of March
Dance Party
to benefit the
Harold Arts Summer Residency Program

Saturday, March 14th
9p-3a

The Hills
128 N. Campbell Ave
(2 blocks from the intersection of Lake and Western)
Green Line (California stop) and Western bus #49 (Lake Ave stop)

DJs spinning soul, 80s and 90s

$5 at the door
suggested donation
$2 beers
$3 March mixed drinks
(the Emperor and Empress)

Haroldarts.org

Ides of March Poster blue by you.

Come get in the mood for Spring and dance your ass off!

Ring in the anniversary of the death of Julius Ceasar!
Celebrate the more recent re-birth of Hope!

Help support Harold Arts programming in Chicago !!!
Dance!

haroldarts.org

best emerging photographer -- art fag city

2009-03-10T19:15:00.000-05:00

phew!

2009-03-01T22:50:00.004-06:00

tomorrow morning i am going to reed college in portland, oregon, where i'll be exhibiting the Nirvana project and soliciting new entries for the ongoing collection...more info at:

http://web.reed.edu/raw/2009/home.html

then on thursday on to the volta art fair in NYC:
http://www.voltashow.com/
where i will be exhibiting with andrew rafacz gallery...besides showing a selection of new photographs (including a new photogram--the first time i went to a real color darkroom in like 5 years--bumping into everything, but luckily i remembered everything), i will be debuting a new zine as well that i will post more on here later...

if all goes well i'll also get to proof a new poster that i'll be publishing through nyc's very own www.springbreakpublishing.com and also have a drink with mr snowden

in other news haroldarts.org is accepting apps for their summer residency program...begins july 9th and 3 sessions follow...more info on their website.

also, i saw the exhibition women get fucked at alagon gallery this weekend--GREAT! i found some new artists to watch there...
and i recommend paul chan's show down at the renaissance society...i really enjoyed his 'keyboard sculpture' and his artist-talk was a bit livelier than the norm...maybe cause he was sipping bourbon the whole time. you can download some quirky translating fonts of his on the renaissance society website...

it's gonna be 55 degrees in portland tomorrow!

darkroom

2009-02-18T23:15:00.002-06:00

i went into the color DARKROOM for the first time in YEARS and made a new piece...
"Untitled (2009)" 11x14" photogram/Cprint
text reads "come wait out this storm with me"
text white on light gray field

otis motivational poster posted at saic litho dept

2009-02-18T16:53:00.001-06:00

yes! new nirvana entry-

2009-02-14T16:14:00.002-06:00

katy keefe out of nowhere hands me this gem at a party and says, "jason, this is the guy who introduced me to nirvana"

i love it, thanks katy!

on the back she had already wrote:
this is my friend bob who introduced me to nirvana. we used to smoke weed in his basement through blow tubes. soon after he started a band called chronic persuasion and got kicked out a month later.

lavina's clippings

2009-01-29T22:29:00.004-06:00

(click image to enlarge)

when i was home during the xmas holiday, i noticed my grandmother, lavina, has old clippings taped everywhere, many inside the doors of her white 50's style kitchen cabinets hidden from view. others on a couple bulletin boards. the clippings i thought made a really interesting portrait of her, so i decided to take the clippings to the local wal mart and have them scanned.

the image above is the first one i'm posting of more to come...this clipping is actually instructions on the cleaning and care of the cabinets themselves. i may feature these in a future zine...

newest addition to art collection

2009-01-29T19:09:00.002-06:00

i just bought this on ebay today!

Patricia Blagojevich portrait, 2009
courtesy of Andrew Mass through ebay
outsider artist

help a brother-in-law out????

2009-01-28T10:05:00.000-06:00

my friends brother-in-law, Tim from City Farm, is in the running for White House organic farmer. He's a long shot, but we still have a few days left. I'd be eternally grateful.

http://whitehousefarmer.com/

more info about him:

http://whitehousefarmer.com/?p=101

speaking on monday 1/26 at University of Chicago

2009-01-23T17:45:00.002-06:00

i'm speaking at university of chicago's contemporary art workshop at 6pm on monday, january 26th. caw is in cobb hall (same building as Renaissance Society
and side facing the quadrangles) in workshop room 202. it's free and in beautiful hyde park!

here is some info on CAW...

CAW

The Contemporary Art Workshop provides a context for the consideration of history as an indispensable component of work on contemporary art. As a meeting place for artists, art historians, curators, and critics from within the University of Chicago and without, CAW provides a forum for sustained analysis and debate bringing theory and practice into the discussion of contemporary art.

The group is primarily comprised of graduate students and faculty members from the Univerisity of Chicago, specifically from the departments of Visual Arts and Art History, as well as other departments within the humanities.

The CAW meets regularly throughout the academic year, typically every other Monday at Cobb Hall Room 203 at 6PM unless otherwise specified.

Faculty Sponsors: Darby English, Matthew Jesse Jackson and Marty Ward

Student Coordinators: Anna Lee and Marilyn Volkman