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There is SO much going on BUT I had to take the time to share a few photos I took during my studio visit with new media artist, Allison Holt. I’m looking forward to settling down and writing a piece about my conversation and visit with Holt. Her re-telling and artworks of the different energies and hybrid realities through her Fulbright research of Javanese culture is not only fascinating but yet another example of how artists can impact a community and engage in dialogue and discourse across cultures. Again, looking forward to posting parts of my interview with Holt as well as some reflection on her work.

I previously posted videos of the Hypercubes here. They’re extremely meditative, which I will get into during my write-up. For now, enjoy the studio visit photos and videos! If you have any burning questions and/or comments, please feel free to share and comment below. 🙂

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I figured I would post a link to the wiki entry for Performance Art.

Not that you, dear reader, have some kind of writing assignment. I’m, certainly, not voluntelling (a word invented at my office) you. You don’t have to read anything but I thought you might like to take a peek at what has been defined as performance art to gain a better understanding of my forthcoming piece involving Guillermo Gómez–Peña‘s performance troupe, La Posta Nostra.

Also, please consider, the documentation (i.e., photography, recordings, etc.) of performance art becomes a part of the artwork itself. The photographs I took (over 280+ of the performance) play a part in showcasing the art. Although you may not have been present, your interest and distance from the experience can still prompt a dialogue. I have yet to go through all the photographs and wanting to select those that best capture the essence of the performances but it’s rather difficult to choose.

In any case, I’m hoping I can do the show justice in my piece. I will try to describe it as best as I can. In the interim, I wanted to give you a visual preview. These are a couple shots I took during the show. Pretty intense stuff. More to follow…

La Postra Nostra - Corpo Ilicito / Photo by: Dorothy Santos
La Postra Nostra - Corpo Ilicito / Photo by: Dorothy Santos

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It’s been a flurry of activity on the art writing front! Although I have not been feeling well lately, I had to punch something out after recuperating from a tough morning. Yet, I was able to produce the write up below for the Critical Sources art writing workshop at The Lab. This is the “before” version.

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Writing offers readers archetypes and projections of the real world whether the writer intends for that or not. Like the curvaceous, long winding Mississippi river with tributaries flowing into the larger body of water; contemporary American life possesses an analogous structure and tendencies. From Allison Smith’s reproduction of historical artifacts serving as a narrative of the Antebellum South to Jason Meadow’s re-appropriating popular culture icons as an interpretation of Huck and Jim’s relationship throughout their journey; the wondrous, confluent effects of literature and visual arts on our perceptions and understanding of a complicated history permeates in the latest Huckleberry Finn exhibition at the Wattis Institute.

The wide-ranging collection inspired by Huck and Jim’s misadventures and voyage down the Mississippi River forge new ways of looking at the story and its portrayal of race relations and how environment can dictate one’s actions and reactions. In Sleeping by the Mississippi, a photographic series by Alex Soth, the river becomes a stage for the mind’s eye provoking the viewer to fathom a version of the tale. On the other end of the spectrum, Kireston Pieroth not only takes the actual story and presents it to the viewer; she preserves it in such a way that is tantamount to an American past time – jam and jelly making. With her presentation of the prose in an unorthodox way, Pieroth shows how the novel has become embedded and preserved in American history and culture.

While the lower gallery introduces us to the text, the upper gallery showcases the intricacies and intersections of racism and how the past affects our present day understanding of the classic prose. The exhibition goes to great lengths to remind patrons that a story not only mirrors what is relevant at a given time but it becomes perennial by its power to touch upon that which is universal – the human desire to understand ourselves through the Other.