It’s almost time for First Fridays again and last month I told you about this cool art/architecture exhibit going up in the CCDC here.
The Design center has some sweet pictures up on their Flickr account now and it looks like it was quite a good time dancing and hanging out amongst the architecture exhibit. The lighting reminds me of Artini. Did we miss the art party of the year?
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Since it’s almost Independence day, I’ve been racking my brain for some examples of art that have to do with July 4th. Then I realized that little pieces of art have been under our noses the entire time. On firecracker labels. Have you ever stopped to look at them? There are some pretty cool illustrations on some. Think I’m kidding? Check out some of the fine examples I found… »Read More
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While we were getting ready for the Festival of the Photograph, in Australia many were up in arms against the photography of artist Bill Henson. His photographs of nude teenagers were confiscated by police and his exhibit shut down before it even opened.
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[”Las Meninas (Self Portrait)”, 1987 by Joel-Peter Watkin]
Second Street Gallery is hosting Joel Peter Witkin for FOTP and you have to stop by and see it. It definitely stands apart from the other two featured photographers; Mary Ellen Park with her Prom-goer Portraits, and James Nachtwey and his war photography. The latter two are very talented photographers but Witkin is in his own genre. They are not merely photographs but fantastic images of sex, death, and religion. A sign on the door warns, “For Mature Audiences”.
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I wanted to share one of the coolest pieces of art I’ve seen recently. The artist who refers to himself as “Blu” paints on public spaces in Argentina and then uses stop action photography to animate his art. It is truly amazing stuff and very original. Blu maintains a very interesting blog that you should read if you want deeper insights into the work. Can we please get Blu to come to Charlottesville?! I would love it. Would you?
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A blugrass concert? Art gallery reception? Opening night for your latest stage production? A little late night jazz jam? Poetry reading? Book signing? Theater workshop? Punk rock show in your basement?
If you’re a local Charlottesville artist and you want our readers to know what it is you’ve got goin’ on, then pop on in to the comments section and let us know where we can find you this week.
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Local Artists: This Space is For You!
Once again here’s our weekly Find Me Here spot. This is the place we provide as a bulletin board of sorts to all local Charlottesville artists from the fields of music, stage, and visual art. This is the place where you can tell our readers where they can find your work or upcoming performances this week. Simply click on the comments, fill in the blank space with the who, what, when, where, and how much, and post it up for all to see. Let us know where we can find you!
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This is our second installment of the FIND ME HERE posts. For those who may not know how this works, essentially what we’re doing is allowing YOU, the local artist, to tell our readers about your upcoming event(s) taking place in and around Charlottesville this week. So whether you’re a visual artist, an actor on a stage, or the bass player in a punk rock band, if you’ve got a gallery showing, a theater performance, or a gig at a local venue drop an announcement in our comments section and let us know where we can FIND YOU.
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I stumbled across an article in the Yale Daily News, titled “For senior, abortion a medium for art, political discourse.” The article, as you may guess, discussed the use of abortion and art to make a statement.
Senior, Aliza Shvarts, shockingly, has documented a 9-month process in which she inseminates herself while taking abortifacient drugs to cause miscarriages. She will display the “exhibit” as video recording of the forced miscarriages as well as collected blood from the process.
The ethical and graphic issues associated with this “exhibit” will certainly catapult Aliza into international notoriety, but, I wonder as an artist or an violator of ethics? Aliza explained that the art is intended to spark a conversation about art and the human body.
The Yale Daily news describes the upcoming exhibit:
The display of Schvarts’ project will feature a large cube suspended from the ceiling of a room in the gallery of Green Hall. Schvarts will wrap hundreds of feet of plastic sheeting around this cube; lined between layers of the sheeting will be the blood from Schvarts’ self-induced miscarriages mixed with Vaseline in order to prevent the blood from drying and to extend the blood throughout the plastic sheeting.
Schvarts will then project recorded videos onto the four sides of the cube. These videos, captured on a VHS camcorder, will show her experiencing miscarriages in her bathrooom tub, she said. Similar videos will be projected onto the walls of the room.
I could only find one of Aliza’s pieces on the internet, but perhaps it sheds a light on the why.
Aliza Shvarts. Disarticulation, 12 in. x 12 in. x 24in. Plaster, vaseline, towels, rubber bands, latex gloves
[credit: Dimensions Magazine]
Has this gone beyond art in order to offend as many people as possible?
Update: Max Bacon points out that this a hoax. From the Yale website:
Ms. Shvarts is engaged in performance art. Her art project includes visual representations, a press release and other narrative materials. She stated to three senior Yale University officials today, including two deans, that she did not impregnate herself and that she did not induce any miscarriages. The entire project is an art piece, a creative fiction designed to draw attention to the ambiguity surrounding form and function of a woman’s body.
She is an artist and has the right to express herself through performance art.
Had these acts been real, they would have violated basic ethical standards and raised serious mental and physical health concerns.
[via Yale Daily News]
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Attention Local Charlottesville artists! In response to a question posed by one of our readers (who also happens to be a local musician) we here at the MUSE have decided to create a space where local artists from any field can post an annoucement about an upcoming show, exhibit, or performance that they’ve got coming up in the week ahead.
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