Archive for December, 2010
Nic Wiesinger – Open for Business
Nic Wiesinger
Title – Table Touches
Business – Monti’s La Casa Vieja
Monti’s La Casa Vieja is located in the Hayden house, the oldest continuously inhabited building in the entire Valley, built in 1871 by Charles Trumbull Hayden. It served a hub of activity for Hayden: as his family home, as a boat landing for the ferry crossing the Salt River and site of a general store. The City of Tempe has grown outward from this point. His son Carl Hayden, who was born in the Hayden house, also known as La Casa Vieja or The Old House, served the State of Arizona in the U.S. Senate for 56 years.
During the course of the exhibition, Wiesinger will assume the role of a manager, roaming the restaurant conducting table touches, a standard restaurant practice of brief conversations with guests regarding their evening and dining experience. The artist will be conversing with the guests to understand the deeper history of Monti’s La Casa Vieja, one that goes beyond a physical building and connects on a personal level. Since Leonard Monti purchased the building in 1954, every graduation dinner, anniversary and family gathering adds another layer to its rich history. These imprinted histories will be shared by the artist, through these photographs and texts, one experience at a time.
Saskia Jorda – The Shoe Mill
Peter Bugg with Ryan Peter Miller – ASU Art Museum Store Mary Lucking – Rúla Búla David Tinapple – Cartel Coffee Lab Cyndi Coon – Downtown Tempe Community, Inc. (DTC) Jon Haddock – The Headquarters Tania Katan – The Library Bar & Grill* Adam Murray – Caffe Boa Wendy Furman – BrandX Custom T-Shirts Matthew Mosher – Fascinations Erin V. Sotak – La Bocca Chris Todd – Sucker Punch Sally’s* Jen Urso – The Bicycle Cellar Nic Wiesinger – Monti’s La Casa Vieja Related Links: Nic Wiesinger’s Website Monti’s La Casa Vieja Website Open for Business Printable Map Open for Business
More far-flung curators – Spiak in Miami
Our curator John Spiak was recently in Miami scouting work there during the Art Basel Miami week, which included not just the main fair (representing 250 galleries), but also an additional 27 fairs, museum openings, private collections and organized group shows throughout the area and the local commercial galleries. “There were events every hour of the day,” John reports, “with brunches at the private collections, performances in the evenings and private dinners and parties into the late night/morning.”
One work John was particularly happy to see was this Hummer/horse carriage by artist Jeremy Dean, who has a history with the Museum.
John writes, “In 2004, our 8th annual ASU Art Museum Short Film and Video Festival screened a work by Jeremy Dean titled ‘Vanity’ and actually presented it with a Jurors Choice Award. Here is Jeremy (in the cowboy hat, standing) and his latest project on the streets of Miami in front of the Pulse Fair. I was at the Pulse Fair with the curatorial team from SMoCA; SMoCA curator Claire Carter took this picture.”
Like everyone at the Museum, John’s been busy lately. In October, he served as a juror for a project called SantionedArray, a response to YouTube Play: A Biennial of Creative Video, which was on view at the Guggenheim that same month.
Here’s an explanation of how SanctionedArray worked, taken from its website: “SanctionedArray is an online database of video art conceived in 2010 in response to the restrictions of artists’ submissions to The Guggenheim Museum’s and YouTube’s video biennial, Play. Artists’ submissions to Play were limited by OFAC sanctions – citizens or residents of Belarus, Cote d’Ivoire, Congo, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Myanmar/Burma and Zimbabwe were not eligible to submit their work. In protest to the continuity of such restrictions of virtual exchanges, artists of any origin – including those from the sanctioned countries – were invited to submit their work to SanctionedArray in an open call for video entries. Submission guidelines to SanctionedArray followed online video formats proposed by YouTube and The Guggenheim, except for Eligibility 1.d.
According to the website, the first call for submissions brought in781 entries, from which the international jury selected their top 100, to appear on the SanctionedArray online database. Per the site: “The goal of this project is to assemble an archive of current video art from the specific origins, activate it it via curatorial practice, and generate scholarly discourse on the topic of specificity of art production in transmission of its origins.”
John, who is the man behind the Museum’s annual Short Film and Video Festival every spring, and who curates exhibitions of video artists on a regular basis, had a great time jurying. “The experience provided me the exposure to international video works by both emerging and established artists,” he writes. “There were many individuals I was familiar with who submitted work, but many more whose work I was being introduced to for the first time.”
Perhaps some of that new work will turn up here at the Museum in an exhibition as part of our 15th Annual Short Film and Video Festival, on April 23…
Here are a few more images John took of projects in Miami that inspired him:
1. Jeremy Dean’s Hummer Project at Pulse; 2. John Bankston installation at the Nada Fair; 3-7. The Rubell Family Collection brunch installation, based upon the story of Goldilocks, curated by Jennifer Rubell; 8. Pacific Standard Time: Art in LA 1945-1980 – artist conversation between John Baldessari and Analia Saban at the Rubell Family Collection; 9. Stormtroopers keeping an eye on Collins Avenue in South Beach; 10-15. The Great Vodka River, a mixed-media installation and performance by artist Fyodor Pavlov-Andreevich. 16. Ten Thousand Waves, a nine channel video installation by artist Isaac Julien
Jen Urso – Open for Business
Jen Urso
Title –taking on a different form
Business – The Bicycle Cellar
With The Bicycle Cellar‘s cooperation, artist Jen Urso has been profiling and interviewing some of their members on their biking routes, exploring the concept of time, philosophy of movement and health issues. This information has been compiled into a map showing the bicyclists and the routes they take.
During the process, the artist began to transport herself by bike and by foot, recording her answers to the same questions asked of the participants.
The artist has noticed that the usual reaction she gets from others is the concern for the time it takes to do these things. A fifteen-minute walk is a two-minute drive. People generally seem to be more concerned with the speed in which they can get somewhere than the journey in between. Urso is interested in The Bicycle Cellar because, unlike the typical bike shop, it facilitates the active use of the bicycle as a mode of transportation.
With the resurgence of biking in the city, and places like The Bicycle Cellar, the artist believes there is a desire in many people to seek out an experience that is not the fastest option, but one that is motivated by a different need, the need to compromise speed for a more sensory, direct and fulfilling experience.
Saskia Jorda – The Shoe Mill
Peter Bugg with Ryan Peter Miller – ASU Art Museum Store Mary Lucking – Rúla Búla David Tinapple – Cartel Coffee Lab Cyndi Coon – Downtown Tempe Community, Inc. (DTC) Jon Haddock – The Headquarters Tania Katan – The Library Bar & Grill* Adam Murray – Caffe Boa Wendy Furman – BrandX Custom T-Shirts Matthew Mosher – Fascinations Erin V. Sotak – La Bocca Chris Todd – Sucker Punch Sally’s* Jen Urso – The Bicycle Cellar Nic Wiesinger – Monti’s La Casa Vieja
ASU Art Museum 