Posts tagged ‘Open for Business’
Tales From A Distant, Not-So-Distant World
Click. A photo of desert scenery. Click. Another photo of the desert. Is that the same one? Click. Oh, another! Have I seen this one already? Click. And another? This one’s probably different. Click. Is it? It is. Click.
The slide projector spins the wheel of slides. Each of the 50 some-odd photos are shots of the desert, a part of Miguel Palma’s latest exhibition, “Trajectory.”
The photos are projected onto a white wall by an old-fashioned slide projector set on a timer. The photos roll around, each a different photo of Arizona’s desert scenery.
On the other side of the wall, there is an orange astronaut suit with one noticeable addition: several dozen small, black computer fans attached to the outside of the suit. Palma wore this suit as he traversed the desert, taking photos of the sights and scenery. The black computer fans were used to keep him cool during his expedition.
Click. Drip. Suddenly, I notice a new sound in the exhibit. Drip. Drip. Click. I realize that the sound of the projector isn’t alone. The sound is coming from a piece called “Bypass.”
“Bypass” is a device that Palma created. It takes water from a bucket, runs it up tubing into a chunk of wood, and then drips the water back down into the bucket. The natural and organic element of the wood and the water contrasts with the metal and silicone. There is a pump inside the bucket of water that looks like it was put there to bring water to the tree, but then the tubing and the metal cause the water to bypass the tree and return to the bucket. The manmade apparatus of tubing and silicone is depriving the tree of the water that it needs. The hunk of wood is supported in the air by metal and a hydraulic lift. The manmade system isn’t only depriving the tree of water, but it also supports the tree and holds it up. This brings up a question: is this what we’re doing to the desert? Are we trying our best to uphold it and support it, yet ultimately just depriving it of what it needs to survive? I arrive at more questions than I have answers. I have to move on.
Along the northern and eastern wall, there is an absolute cascade of poster paper full of art and ideas. Each poster contains ideas about the desert and the culture of the people who live in it. Palma uses collages, images, drawings and commentary of our culture to show these ideas. As I walk and read each poster, I see themes connect and I begin to understand the corollaries between them. For example, Palma wrote about swimming pool shapes, and the purpose of each shape. He wrote about L-shaped pools. “The L-shape fits easily into a corner or around a house projection.” I see that phrase written multiple times around swimming pools and even around old desert photos where, presumably, a pool would eventually go. There are stories about the destruction of the desert, and how manmade tools changed the scenery into what we call Phoenix.
I notice one piece called “War Games.” It shows photos of the desert, with yellow dots painted over it. Each dot has a line pointing at a construction truck, many with Xs drawn over them. Palma seems to be trying to show that people are at war with the desert; our weapons are the tools we used to put ourselves into the desert with, like tools of construction, transportation and infrastructure. I have never thought of it like that. Are we at war with the desert?
Palma was a visitor to our desert, but it took me a while to connect the dots. He wasn’t just an explorer of the desert; he is implying that he is like an astronaut exploring unknown worlds with his space suit and his rover vehicle. It all became clear to me. His art is a tale of his exploration of the unknown territory, the Arizona desert. He charted our destruction of the desert as well; we have been using our war tools to build our L-shaped pools and destroy the beauty of the desert around us. Palma researched our history and recorded lives, not just our lives, but also the life of the desert itself.
But what does that make me, a desert-dweller observing Palma’s observations? I suppose I’m the Martian who lives on this strange planet of rock and cacti. I suppose we should all take a better look at the world outside our cities. It’s beautiful.
“Miguel Palma: Trajectory” is on display at the ASU Art Museum until February 9, 2013
–Colton Robertson
ASU Art Museum Intern
Thanks to Sean Deckert and the Desert Initiative for use of their photographs.
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
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
Chris Todd – Open for Business
Chris Todd Title – America’s Toughest Jukebox Business – Sucker Punch Sally’s*America’s Toughest Jukebox “takes requests.” It plays a selection of cover songs performed by Joe Arpaio, whose identity has been fictionally re-cast from controversial sheriff to gruff lounge singer. In this alternate existence, Mr. Arpaio is a versatile crooner whose repertoire includes a number of memorable tunes. America’s Toughest Jukebox affords customers a special opportunity to consider how things might have been if Sheriff Joe had chosen a different “calling” and to contemplate his sociopolitical impact in a poetic, casual and humorous light. The Scopitone, a film-based jukebox popular in Europe in the 1950s and 1960s, provides inspiration for the exterior of America’s Toughest Jukebox.
*Todd’s piece was originally set to appear at the Sucker Punch Sally’s location at Mill Avenue and University Drive before they closed their doors in June of 2010. This jukebox is now available for loan to businesses in downtown Tempe, with certain guidelines. Please contact the ASU Art Museum to make arrangements.
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
Erin V. Sotak – Open for Business
Erin V. Sotak Title – Stowage from the Eternal Optimist Business – La Bocca To most individuals lemons are the symbol for all things sour, however, for the eternal optimist, the lemon is an icon of hope and promise. In Erin Sotak’s invented mythology, it is a prize greater than gold to sailors, a secret misplaced, forgotten hope that is eternally waiting to be found.Stowage is a component of the artist’s larger ongoing quest. The history of the lemon and specifically the Sfusato Amalfitano, a type of lemon unique to the Amalfi coast of Italy, are used by the artist to interweave connections between La Bocca and the ASU Art Museum.
Order a glass of lemonade next time you are at La Bocca to get an edible connection to the mythology.
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
Matthew Mosher – Open for Business
Matthew Mosher Title – weTouch Business – FascinationsweTouch is a pair of networked devices – one located in this exhibition and one at Fascinations on Mill Avenue – that communicate through the sense of touch between two people. Technology has come a long way in bringing people together virtually across vast distances through telephone voice services and, more recently, computer video conferencing. However, these interactions are limited to the visual and aural senses. During a video chat there is a creeping sensation of the other person not really being there; you can see them but cannot touch them, and you can never truly make eye contact. Cell phones lack the quiet presence provided by simply sitting next to another person.
weTouch provides a third means of interaction. Through two internet-enabled handheld devices weTouch recognizes when, in the museum or in Fascinations, a person places their palm on the device. When touched, the device sends a signal across the cloud to its paired device, causing its partner device to heat to body temperature. Should someone in the other location place their hand on the paired device, they will immediately know that someone in the original location is thinking of them. When the paired device is touched it will heat up the original device in response, letting both users have a quiet moment of sensory connection.
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
Wendy Furman – Open for Business
Wendy Furman
Title – Open for Business
Businesses – BrandX Custom T-Shirts
T-Shirt designs include: Karen Atkinson (untitled), Gordy Grundy (Fellowship of Fortuna), Jon Haddock (Zeitgeist), Seth Kaufman (Touching Neighbors), Christiane Robbins (Booby in Lost Hills, I-5_ Stopping Series), Susan Silton (untitled), Joost Van Oss (untitled), Mark Dean Veca (As Cold As They Come, Part III), H.K. Zamani (Stella(r) #8).
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: Wendy Furman’s Website BrandX Custom T-Shirts Website Karen Atkinson Gordy Grundy Jon Haddock Seth Kaufman Christiane Robbins Susan Silton Joost Van Oss Mark Dean Veca H.K. Zamani Open for Business Printable Map Open for Business
Adam Murray – Open for Business
Adam Murray Title – Resonance Business – Caffe Boa Adam Murray believes sonic energy (vibration) is stored over time. He is fascinated with the sound of that energy. The installation in this gallery space is the artist’s own experiment with the idea that sound is absorbed and contained within physical objects. Four objects (a brick, a floorboard, a wine glass and a fork) inspired by objects in Caffe Boa, are suspended from the ceiling where they are set up to potentially receive audio from all sides – recording the history of this space through sound over the course of the exhibition.
Murray’s installation at Caffe Boa is an auditory interpretation of the aural events that fill the restaurant space, projected through speakers every hour on the hour. It emanates into the environment and creates awareness of the physical space and history it contains.
For the closing event of the exhibition, the artist will create a live sound performance in which he attempts to extract the aural events from the four objects, releasing the sounds which have been absorbed.
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
Tania Katan – Open for Business
Tania Katan Recent Living History Tours Presents… Checked Out: The Rise and Fall of The Library Bar & Grill Business – The Library Bar & Grill*Recent Living History Tours sets out to tell the stories of bus boys, waitresses, cobblers, jewelers and others who worked hard to create a sense of identity, purpose and income, only to have their place of employment shut down. Recent Living History Tours is a series of monologue-tours given in public spaces; there is no admission fee, no items sold and very few props used. The tour guide (Pina Sbrocca) tries to inhabit characters that they know very little about because of social, economic and geographical distance. Recent Living History Tours explores what it means to reenact history as it unfolds and how our personal histories and professional personas are much closer than we think.
*The project was originally set to occur in The Library Bar & Grill location on Mill Avenue and 5th Street before they closed their doors in May of 2010. Katan’s original proposal was adjusted with the performance now appearing at the ASU Art Museum.
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: Tania Katan’s Website Information Regarding The Library Bar & Grill Closing Open for Business Printable Map Open for Business
Jon Haddock – Open for Business
Jon Haddock Title – Zeitgeist Business – The Headquarters Partnering with The Headquarters, a headshop on University Drive and Ash Ave, Jon Haddock’s project consists of two images. The first is a photograph installed in the gallery cataloging headshop ephemera collected by the artist from roughly 1972 to 1982 titled 1974; the second, titled 2010, is located in the poster racks at The Headquarters. The image was arrived at through an interview with the owner of The Headquarters regarding his best selling posters, and how the themes have changed over time. As the artist was informed, Bob Marley posters have always been great sellers, but more recently posters portraying bad guys and gangsters have been the trend. The artist set forth to create a contemporary image in line with the trend. The subject of the second piece is Edgar Valdez Villarreal – La Barbie – the American born high-school football star, who is the alleged leader of Los Negros, and until recently fighting for control of the Beltrán-Leyva Cartel.
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: Jon Haddock’s Website The Headquarters Website Open for Business Printable Map Open for Business
ASU Art Museum 