phone books and a new mayor

6pm walk home from work, in the cold, interventions

phone books that have been stacked outside our apartment door for 3 weeks now - placed on the poles of an ad hoc fence

Chicago 2011 mayoral election posters and tape - on two posts in a vacant lot

reseach and sketching

sketch for Feed Forms - part of the collaborative project proposal (between myself, Madeleine Bailey, Erik Peterson, & Alexander Stewart) for the forthcoming ACRE exhibition at Columbia College's A & D Gallery

sketch for Duck It - part of the collaborative project proposal (between myself, Madeleine Bailey, Erik Peterson, & Alexander Stewart) for the forthcoming ACRE exhibition at Columbia College's A & D Gallery

sketch for Duck It - part of the collaborative project proposal (between myself, Madeleine Bailey, Erik Peterson, & Alexander Stewart) for the forthcoming ACRE exhibition at Columbia College's A & D Gallery

test for a drawing - lines made by fingers on a fleece blanket

a snow face, found on a big metal ball (sculpture?) on the U of C campus

more every day

got ↑ late
so slow falling snow
acapella sinatra
jelly buttered bread
17°

winding-sheet

shroud; noun

1 (obsolete) shelter, protection
2 something that covers, screens, or guards
3 burial garment
4 a: one of the ropes leading usually in pairs from a ship's mastheads to give lateral support to the masts
b: one of the cords that suspend the harness of a parachute from the canopy

hands/stars/maps

In the form of a visual essay, these are research images (found, scanned, googled) for a project and grant proposal.

This proposed project will consist of 100 photographs printed through traditional black and white processing techniques. The use of light in printing seems crucial to the content of this project - light shining down from space onto babies being born. Each photograph document the given participant's hands on a black background with a representation of her/his astrological star map drawn on them. The photographs will be 12" x 12" each. Each participants will be demarcated only through the Universal Time of her/his birth and latitude/longitude of her/his birth place. As a working title I'm calling this The Stars We're Born Under - which is very related to the few earlier pieces that use the name of The Stars I was Born Under [1] [2].

Some things I've been considering are : romance in telling who you are - what you're born with - the individuality of each of our finger/palm prints - hand signs as a way of communicating something about you - what is passed to you from the cosmos.

palm print

palm reading diagram

foot reflexology diagram

hand reflexology diagram

hand reflexology glove

sign language, letters & numbers

gang signs

5-pointed star gang sign

Michigan's Lower peninsula

Yumi Janairo Roth - Meta Map (in collaboration with Andrew Blackstock and Casey McGuire, Pilsen, Czech Republic) 2007

Adriana Varejão - Contingente (Contingent) (from an edition of 100 unframed photographs) 1998-2000

Jeannie Thib - Tabula 3 (linocut print on paper) 1993

hand as example of how a topographical map works from The Boyscout Handbook, Tenth Edition, 1990 (these 2 pages, in the book I used while in Boy Scouts, are a major part of the genesis of my project)

Annette Messager - Mes trophées (acrylic, charcoal, and pastel on two gelatin silver prints) 1987

Annette Messager - Mes trophées (acrylic, charcoal, and pastel on two gelatin silver prints) 1987

Shirin Neshat - Unveiling (ink on photographs) 1993

cover of From Here to There by Kris Harzinski

planetary hand map from a 1964 Scientific American magazine via airform archives

stars tattooed on a hand (branding?)

Jane Hammond - Happiest on Your Hands (detail) (oil and mixed media on canvas) 2003 - at the Oak Park Public Library

Lakota Indian Hidatsa Constellation (The Hand Constellation)

UICA : Beacons

Yesterday, after braving an early 3 hour drive through snow and high wind, Michael Sirianni and I installed our work for the Beacons exhibition at the Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts in Grand Rapids, MI. I brought Conduit (and installed it next to the concession stand), and Micheal installed 3 pieces. Here is the exhibition info:

BEACONS: AN EXHIBITION OF LUMINOUS ART
January 14–February 13
Opening Reception: January 14, 6–9 PM

Winter in West Michigan is a season of shortened days, grey skies and long, dark nights. This exhibition embraces winter's darkness and showcases the light that artists can bring to bear upon this often bleak time of year. Featuring over 30 artists, Beacons’ luminous artwork showcases film and video projections, light installations, sound installations, images and objects.

Artists include: Michelle Acuff, Dave Beck, Benjamin Bellas, Collin Bradford, Tiffany Carbonneau, Kia Carscallen, Hunter Cole, Annica Cuppetelli, Yi Joanna Dai, Mary Rachel Fanning, Adam Farcus, Tannaz Farsi, Laura Foster, Mahlon Huston, Louise Kames, Marina Kelly, Geoffrey Krawczyk, Richard Krueger, Robin Mandel, Evan Mann, Cristobal Mendoza, Daniel Olsen, Brian Peters, Nicole Pietrantoni, Randy Polumbo, Meghan Reynard, Alex Schlegel, Michael Sirianni, Ben Skinner, Scott Stibich, Annie Strader, Briana Trudell, Renee van der Stelt, and Jessica Westbrook.

Adam Farcus - Conduit (outlet, conduit box, conduit, LED lights, wire, and power source) 2010

Conduit (detail)

Conduit (detail)

Michael Sirianni - [left to right] Tell (neon) 2010; A Sign (exit sign: glass, acrylic, metal, fluorescent lights) 2010; Lasso (neon) 2010

Olympic National Park, WA

Marymere Falls

Rock|atoms of water|fir trunk,
pitched out as upside-down cigarette smoke.
(faces appear,
fortune tellers tell)
Then the buck of a
sheer lichened press
creates a white silk sheet.
Now sliding from the bed, splashes
down into the Coke-bottle mirror below.