Over

Say to the people, it's Over. Yet the virtual is ahistorical - the end is the beginning, S to O.

A social experiment in commune building at Omi: communal living, working, talking. Extracted from their contexts and put together in a contained space, individuals engage in an abbreviated reproduction of their preexisting conditions - names and places of origin locked together, substitutes found for what is missing. Projective space reconfigured.

The lack of currency - of a presence, not a place holder of a studio - has been reconstituted through recording and rendering of the same-same circumstance. Commitment, compromise, omission. Cutting words/works. Be kind, rewind.

Virtual configuration - OhMI - glitched to the circumstantial Omi - remains a still of utility, over and over again.

My work is in working with others. Among all the others, there is One who informed this work. Thank you, O.

-OhMI

OHMI, MMWMT & CCC present...

http://www.youtube.com/skurvida

Open Studios: Muore l'ultima speranza (auto); La speranza e'ultima a morire (alt)

Image by Sidhant Bhagchandani, MMWMT

OhMI Media - comprised of Media Manager Who Missed the Train (MMWMT), the Flip, and OhMI herself - attended the Open Studios disguised as Camp Camera Crew (CCC). Their reality show is coming soon, with episodes on each artist's page and Youtube. This prized space, however, is reserved for one and only ours, Benevolent Dictatoress Claudia Cannizzaro.

Hers was the only studio not open that day. You thought her only concern was tight management of your tantrums and Omi well-being? Yes, but not exclusively - she also has a life, even at Omi, in the room with a view upstairs at Ledig, occupied by bookshelves, a writing desk, and a four-poster bed, a thought of which keeps many artists awake at night (in their own beds). Hers is a life of an artist. (OhMI was persuasively persistent to find out.)

Claudia's current projects stem from her previous practice of making time-consuming objects by hand, in the tradition of craftsmanship in painting, writing, and embroidery. These skills have long been intertwined in traditional arts, such as many forms of calligraphy. Calligraphic sign-objects - including rugs, books, and decorated garments - are frequently carried along on journeys for comfort, ritual, or exchange. They are bound to transcend borders. In transit, their signifience is kept and shared, such as her double-layered white muslin kerchiefs, each embroidered in colored thread with a personal "secret" - knots on the surface, stitches inside, the words revealed only against the light.

Personal secrets are similar to state secrets, in that they are both hidden in plain sight. Claudia's application for the USA citizenship initiated a personal working-through the state of America's symbols, such as the flag, bright colors of which have faded into black ink washes, with instructions on handling of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay stitched in-between the black and white stripes.

Objectification of language in symbols and laws also manifests in linguistic idioms, such as proverbs that offer readymade wisdom for every situation - yes, we did receive these whips of words in Italiano frequently at Omi! Claudia's proverbs are pin-pricked on cards and collected into a very large Rolodex which spans her office and her studio, writing and stitching, language and voice, and art and life at Omi.





The last one offered that day: La speranza e'ultima a morire/hope dies last/Muore l'ultima speranza/the last hope has died.

اخير يموت الأمل, Nisrine.


Francisco Goya, The Disasters of War, Plate #79: "Truth Has Died" (1863)

Francisco Goya, The Disasters of War, Plate #80: "Will She Live Again?" (1863)

Francisco Goya, The Disasters of War, Plate #82: "This Is the Truth" (1863)

It Is About, It Is About, It Is About to Rolywholyover

There is an urgency to the morning after Irfan's song; before, during, and after the Open Studios, not to mention the impending end of camp. If consolation is needed, it is offered (if OhMI is inconsolable, shethinks the world is, too):

The Art World Home Companion

Attention artists!

This is the only professional development workshop you will ever need!

Performance by Pablo Helguera with special guests Ryan Hill and Larry Krone

On Saturday, July 17, at 3pm, Pablo Helguera will perform a broadcast of The Art World Home Companion. As Helguera states, "The art world has now a friend, a shoulder to cry on, a companion finally not to compete against or sleep with for convenience but just someone to laugh with, to love, learn and share our eccentricities, fears and desires as members of our little town which is the Art World." His performance may include any of the following: special guests, American folk music, art recipes, site-specific travel tips from the Atlas of Art Commonplaces, strange manifestos, a special appearance by performing artist Larry Krone and the centrally important program The Estheticist, where Helguera and artist Ryan Hill will respond to listeners' burning professional questions about their art careers. Don't miss Helguera's only scheduled participatory performance during the exhibition Condensations of the Social.

Please write to The Estheticist!

The Estheticist is a correspondence service that provides free guidance and answers questions about the visual arts profession. Questions may relate to professional dilemmas (how can I approach my curator friend to include me into a show without being pushy?), ethical issues in the art world (should I curate myself into a show?), conflict of interest-scenarios (should I curate my boyfriend into a show?), basic skills questions ( how does one enter into the biennial circuit?) practical matters (should I move to Berlin?) or serious theoretical issues (what is "social practice" and is it good for me?).

Write us with your question to estheticist@aol.com. EVERY SINGLE INQUIRY WILL BE ANSWERED. The answers to all questions will be made available at Smack Mellon on July 17, at 3pm, where Pablo Helguera will answer a selection of these questions at the live presentation of The Art World Home Companion. You will be publicly acknowledged for your question, except if you prefer to remain anonymous.

We see this as an urgent service and platform of communication for emerging artists, curators, arts educators, and art writers. We look forward to your inquiries!

http://smackmellon.org/index.php/exhibitions/current/calendar-condensations/pablo-helguera-condensations/

The exhibition and accoutrements curated by Sarah Riesman, who visited us at Omi.

Black Light, Communal For Now

caraballo-farman extended an invitation to certain people to enter their room and do something to it, then do something else. Invitations have been revoked occasionally (from yours truly, just think of it), then re-extended. This generous fluctuation in direction by c-f is known to drive those who subscribe to it into a state of controlled madness. Up and down the wall. This up and down event launched the night before the Open Studios day, coming up on OhMI bloG! soon.

Following a field trip to MASS MoCA to see the exhibition by Sol LeWitt, you may be interested in an exchange with him:










The story of Sol LeWitt's exchanges with other artists is by now widely known. Though most artists engage in this process at one point or another, LeWitt seemed fully committed to it as an artistic code of conduct, a way of life. Eva Hesse, Robert Mangold, Hanna Darboven, and Robert Ryman are just a few of LeWitt's celebrated contemporaries with whom the artist exchanged works. Such exchanges were not limited to well-known artists, however: LeWitt consistently traded works with admirers whom he did not know but who had nevertheless sent their work to him, as well as amateur artists with whom he interacted in his daily life. LeWitt's exchanges—he responded to every work he received by sending back one of his own—fostered an ongoing form of artistic communion and, in some cases, a source of support and patronage. The Sol LeWitt Private Collection retains all of the works he received, as well as a record of what he offered in return.

For LeWitt, the act of exchange seemed to be not only a personal gesture, but also an integral part of his conceptual practice. In addition to encouraging the circulation of artworks through a gift economy that challenged the art world's dominant economic model, LeWitt's exchanges with strangers have the same qualities of generosity, and risk, that characterized his work in general. This kind of exchange was designed to stage an encounter between two minds, outside the familiar confines of friendship.

If we consider the process of exchange as another of Sol LeWitt's instructional pieces, then the rational (or irrational) thing to do is to continue to exchange work and ideas, if only symbolically, with him.

—This is a call to those who share an affinity with Sol LeWitt's legacy as a conceptual artist, to those who knew him and those who did not—to anyone who has ever wondered, "What would Sol LeWitt like?"

—Guidelines

Your gift to Sol LeWitt can take the form of an image, an object, a piece of music, or a film. Books, ephemera, and other non-perishable items (e.g. wine) are also welcome. Other ideas may be discussed with the curator.

2D contributions should be no larger than 8.5 x 11 inches; 3D contributions should be no larger than 12 x 12 x 12 inches.

All contributions will be exhibited at either Cabinet or MASS MoCA. The curator will notify you of the location of your contribution by 1 December 2010.

Contributions can be dropped off, mailed, emailed, or faxed between September 15th and October 15th:

An Exchange with Sol LeWitt
c/o Cabinet
300 Nevins Street
Brooklyn NY 11217, USA
Fax: + 1 718 222-3700
Email: exchangelewitt@gmail.com

A publication documenting the contributions will accompany the shows and will be presented at the conclusion of the project to all participants.

Please note that we cannot return your contribution. You can, however, pick it up at the end of the exhibition if prior arrangements have been made.

For further information, please contact Regine Basha at exchangelewitt@gmail.com.

A two-part exhibition curated by Regine Basha will be presented at

MASS MoCA
22 January – 31 March 2011
87 Marshall Street
North Adams, MA 01247
www.massmoca.org

Cabinet
20 January – 19 February 2011
300 Nevins Street
Brooklyn, NY 11217
www.cabinetmagazine.org

Comments fr Dominique Nahas/independent critic and curator and Art Omi Board member:

Well my Oh-Mii experience last Wednesday and Thursday was just as I expected and wanted it to be: warm (yes it w a s really HOT) and engaging. There is nothing like talking about art (that is life and one’s approaches to the questions that one has about it) with really committed and smart and conscious professionals...particularly in such an Edenic (yes, paradisie--like) setting as ArtOmi. It is as if one is given a 3 week suspension from all earthly woes so as to be in the moment with one’s art! Rapture. Rapture. Rapture. (And no, I wasn’t smoking or ingesting anything but the vibes being produced by high energies...) Does it get better than this? I hardlythink so....Comraderie and high spirits, an openness and good-faith and humor that spreads and inspires and blossoms like wildfire (I think I have used/misused several incompatible metaphors just then...but hay, I mean, hey, it’s summer and words and the livin is easy...). I have to say that I always intend on saying hello to everyone everytime I go to ArtOmi for studio visits...the fact is that everyone is fully within his or her power: everyone here is a mature and highly-developed thinker and feeler; to enter each world reveals a universe of thoughts, passions, interests, vitalities...The dream: I would like to have the opportunity to spend a whole day with each person at ArtOmi...a utopic dream...I inevitably leave without having met the “thickness” of being of each artist. Patrick Bancel, Gudrun Barenbrock, caraballo-farman, Anibal Catalan, Cesar Cornejo, Luciano Di Rosa ( you see I am going down my list of yet-to-sees.) ....Patricia Eustaquio, Matteo Fato, Irfan Hassan, Jang Bo-Yun, Maude Leonard-Contant, Anna Lundh, Eduardo Navarro, Park Sungyeon: each of these artists are going to get a look-see from me on Saturday and Sunday during Open weekend; I promise. ‘Je vous jure...!’ I had engaging talks with a number of artist such as Drabo Alassane from Burkina Faso...spoke to him in French and was amazed to see how he and his colleagues are setting up group encounters with kids who are interested in art; I was amazed at how Drabo sees himself, rightly, as a mentor and a example of autonomy and self-respect to young people who are struggling materialistically but who also are looking for role models such as Drabo... I was so very touched knowing how artists around the world just DO the right thing without thoughts of being compensated with honors or money...they do service of the highest kind and I am so proud to know them and be with them... Other high points were my pointed discussion with Dread Scott (the revolution will not be televised but it will be real...), Ernest DUKU (wow can we talk about someone who is eloquent and lucid...), Eckhard Etzold (let me count the ways he references Walter Benjamin/Baudrillard and Lacan’s reflections on the permutations of the real through his thoughtful paintings). Meera Devidayal and I had a long chat about the current conditions for art making on the part of artists...speed of delivery, speed of address, speed of transmittal...and we talked about her subject matter (the migrant worker) and all of the possible ways that content can be drawn from this phenomenon using the most minimal of signifiers; great stuff. Nancy Friedemann was her usual self: deeply related, conscientious, filled with inner-reflected assurance and doubt...quite terrific flower paintings, ...m’dear..and who knew your French was this perfect!!??...Also had a fine time with the wryly self-deprecating Shahar Marcus and his highly telegenic persona...his videos of everyman in search of self are for the ages... I was taken (and taken aback) by Renata Poljak’s deep insights into questions of national identity through her videos and future projects, Deb Sokolov’s pratfalling narratives related thru the voice of an unreliable...paranoic...narrator are of today...thoughtful and frightening and fun... Also had great tete-a-tetes with Tatako Azami, a magician with sumi ink whose references to trees and leaves and air are mesmerizingly evanescent... Experiencing the work of Shona Wilson from Australia (seeing infinity in a grain of sand excursions into the majesty of it all...her mindset reminded me of Flaubert’s comment “there is not a particle of life that does not bear poetry within it” was really satisfying... Also May Tveit’s deep probings on the spectacular and the interface between private and public spheres...apt terminology as she is committed and impassioned by the inflatable sphere (balloons) inscribed with word play or not: this is the question. TOGO aka Tuguldar Yondonjamts from Mongolia (I had never met anyone from Mongolia let alone a brilliant artist as Togo...so this was enough to put me into outer –space...what a studio visit with a mindful poet whose mind transcends all boundaries... Also terrific to see Ishmael Randall Weeks letting himself roam and roam with pre-judgments...getting into deep mind-space...allowing the suchness of moments and structures be what they are... I am really looking forward to seeing Nisrine Boukhari and having terrific “think-time” with her as I have heard so much about her high energy and mindfulness: Nisrine: you are in my mind...!

"Everything I said seemed wrong the second after it came out of my mouth" by Domenick Ammirati

attached are three pages from the manuscript of the novel i'm working on. three is a convenient number, variously, and it's also in homage to claudia's and sandra's reflections on the proper number of critics at art omi.

i chose to submit manuscript pages for a variety of reasons. foremost, after you all were so kind as to let me peek into your studios, it seems only fair to let you turn the tables, and sending you something not yet finalized seemed to be in line with what we in the art world all hold to be good and true these days, viz., that we should put process on equal footing with product, or at least encode it in the end results of what we make. the pages are discontinuous because i like fragments, and a sense of mystery, however cheap. and in fact all of the three pages feature things that might well end up being cut from the novel. whether it's ecological or the result of being raised by parents who remember the great depression, i hate waste. if no one else sees these scraps, you will. and finally, it's a small vanity, but i kind of like the way they look.

thanks again for having me up, keep in touch, and good luck to you all.

--d

(Please click on page images below to enlarge)

OhMI, Be Nice!

Sunday night, presentations by Naomi Beckwith, Assistant Curator at the Studio Museum in Harlem, and Priyanka Mathew, Director at the Aicon Gallery, left a hangover of questions served for breakfast the next morning.

Naomi presented the exhibition she curated at the Museum, entitled 30 Seconds Off an Inch, November 12, 2009 – March 14, 2010. (OhMI had seen the show and wasn’t upset by it.) In her presentation, Naomi framed the exhibition in two ways — first, through the use of material (dematerialization, transformation, readymade) and second, through the art-historical references. The first framing, although pedestrian, didn’t hurt the show or the presentation much. While the second framing, not detectible in the exhibition, raised hairs on OhMI’s skin and curled them into question marks during the presentation. Each section of the exhibition was introduced via the figurehead of one of the mainstream post-war Euro-American art movements, from Joseph Kosuth to Joseph Beuys. Selections of contemporary artists of black descent followed, as if they were adopted children of white fathers, without mothers. There was no attempt to differentiate or mix-up the canon. How about Barkley L. Hendricks single-parenting Mickalene Thomas, Yoko Ono (s)mothering Xaviera Simmons, or Mario Montez wet-nursing toothy Kalup Linzy? Naomi agreed, at least on the first count (Barkley and Micky), but only after this possibility has been politely offered to her during Q&A. She agreed that her framing was wrong politically, but right aesthetically. Kalup sings softly into Naomi’s ear, if it don’t fit… make it look nice.

Priyanka, who runs a gallery in New York devoted to Indian contemporary art, gave us a nice overview of its recent history. She expressed her passion for expanding the gallery’s program into Pakistan (via Omi of course, as last year’s Sana Arjumand just had a solo show there, and this season, we have Irfan to offer). At breakfast, some people, not from India or Pakistan or even MENASA, but from nearby, objected to a gallery program devoted to a specific region, even using the “r-cist” word. These said people maintain that art is not like any other commodity, and should not be branded by its origin, but taken for what it is. These same people, however, took part in shows devoted exclusively to the presentation of their own people to other people, and were OK with it. It seems that in this case, different standards concerning self-determination are applied to different entities of the art world, such as artists, curators, and gallerists. There are many ways to make it right, for example: http://thisishowitshouldbe.blogspot.com/ Francis G. offered a keen observation that there are many more people interested in identity groups than in art, and therefore their interests can be utilized in art marketing to benefit the artists. Comments, anyone, do you read me, OhMI?

Night Light

Last night, Gudrun Barenbrock turned her projector inside out and threw her videos over the trees at the far end of the barn, with its open doors framing the outdoors like a screen. Moving abstract lines, scrims, and shadows of her landscape-derived imagery were animated by the live backdrop of rustling trees; in turn, the landscape became artificial. Earlier in the afternoon, we talked about how one projects one’s own creations onto what one sees around. Words, when taken literally as objects rather than metaphors, can turn into acts that can change everything.

Instead of the usual soundtrack accompanying Gudrun’s videos, Leonor spun electronic sound, turning the projected trees acid green, as the trusty Dream Machine reliably delivered doses of heightened sensation. Everybody there danced, but not like Abou, who released Snake (c)Harming dance with the sprouting water hose in the projector’s beam. Night moths landed on the black backgrounds of Nancy’s paintings, as Irfan inquired about her qualifications to paint mystical instances. Everything synced in the light of the magic lantern.

Magic or not, artists tend to record it, and OhMI noticed the presence of cameras at the event. If we get the footage, we will show that this was true.

-OhMI

The Director Asks, What the Critic is For?

Claudia Cannizzaro, a.k.a. "the Director" sat down the hard-to-pin-down "Critic," who affectionately and frequently refers to herself as OhMI, and raised the question, which has been hanging in the air for a while now, like a May Tveit's balloon: What the "Critic" (this one, yours truly, in particular) is good for? The balloon popped. Here is the air:


Photo by Ishmael Randall Weeks

This is my third year at Art Omi and now that I can sit comfortably at my desk I have all sort of propositions and ideas swirling in my mind and I want to see what Sandra thinks about some of them.

I had hoped to be good at dutifully typing all of Sandra’s words but in reality I forgot this was supposed to be an “interview” and found myself listening, but not taking notes! Uhm. Well, I am not a journalist, or a writer, so here is the best I can do: relying on what my brain has registered, rather on what my hands have managed to capture…

Sandra (or should I call you Ohmi?), when you were invited to be our 2010 Critic In Residence what was your first reaction to the idea of being here with 30 artists?

Sandra says it is not unusual for her to be with artists; that the number of artists was not an issue, or any different from her usual practice. She is used to be with many artists at any time: it is more a matter of time; the intensity is not very different from what she usually does. She says about her profession: parts we adore, parts we have to do: working with artists is the most pleasant.
Oh yes, that applies to arts administrators, too. Too bad that besides working with artists we have to do fundraising, write reports, file documents and so on and so forth.

Still, I am not sure about our ratio, I am not really sure that 1 critic to 30 artists is wise.
Sandra agrees that this is a problem, though not personal. She prefers to avoid, or circumscribe, hierarchy. My work is collaboration, she says. She does not have a problem being the only critic; the problem is for the artists. Artists benefit most from having different approaches. She draws a great comparison: surgeons! A stomach surgeon cannot operate on the brain. Each critic has their own specialization, while the broadness of practices of the artists in residence at Art Omi represents the widest spectrum of art making possible, I add.

Sandra asked Francis (Greenburger, the founder) about the year we had two critics in residence. The experiment did not work. Sandra points out that having two critics is not of any help, really, as two is not group: you need at least three to make a group, to create diversity. Two is either opposite, or unification. Three is a triangulation, you can move within; there is circulation.

My eyes shines, this is exactly what I came to hear. Wondering if Sandra is reading my mind…
Carried away I spill the beans: open call to critics and curators! Have them send a letter of interest, then meet with them to see if they would really fit into the program.
3 critics for 30 artists, why not. So the critic’s role would be a little less daunting: obligations will be evenly divided by three, and artists would have such great variety of critical perspectives, and practices and methods.

Only pitfall of having three critics is that they take spots usually allotted to artists.

Sandra does feel she has obligations to fulfill: she has to meet with every artist, regardless of her own interests, and her own “specialty”. My own work is not priority here, she says. In fact she is a bit of a liaison between the artists and the organization; the artists and the visitors; the artists and the world out there, at least for these three weeks.

I am wondering if this is the best format or shall we try to make this a residency for the critic, too. Shall we avoid hierarchy and treat the critic as the artists? Let them apply rather than invite them? Let them do their work and look at what would spontaneously happen? As it is now is the critic more staff than resident?
Artists visit and collaborate with each other, even though they are on equal footing; shall we not imagine the same would happen if we had three critics in residence? That the very nature of their profession would take them to have interesting discussions with the artists, to be curios about their processes, and discuss their work?

Asking one critic to cover such a variety of practices is not realistic, Sandra says, and maybe a little draining, too, I think. In fact the previous critics I have worked with during the previous two sessions agree that is more work than it seems. Sandra says: I don’t have answers for everyone. Are you a mentor figure here? I teasingly ask. Sandra wisely reminds me: mentors are chosen, not given.

Claudia Cannizzaro
Director

Lush Life

This Thursday, 8 July, an exhibition co-curated by the former Art Omi Critic-in-Residence, Omar Lopez-Chahoud with Franklin Evans, and featuring sixty artists, our own Ishmael Randall Weeks among them, opens in nine Lower East Side galleries in NYC. Decamping?

The exhibition is based on the eponymous novel by Richard Price - nine chapters, nine galleries, the story unfolds en route. The novel is set in the contemporary LES and through a murder investigation exposes the dynamically changing neighborhood, which despite its evolution retains a ghostly and vital link to its layered past (not a ghost, just a shell - OhMI).

The galleries host concurrent exhibitions, each referencing one of the nine chapters in the book. The curators selected one artist from each gallery to participate in the exhibition and solicited from each of them one additional artist recommendation of an artist not from one of the nine participating galleries. The curators then supplemented this base group of eighteen artists to complete nine exhibitions, ranging in size from three to twelve artists.

Our friend Kianga Ellis will be "checking in" from the Lower East Side throughout the exhibition. Friends are welcome to meet up and be interviewed about the show for the fellow blog: http://www.lushlifeles.com/

Sue Scott Gallery, 1 Rivington Street, suescottgallery.com
On Stellar Rays, 133 Orchard Street, onstellarrays.com
Invisible-Exports, 14A Orchard Street, invisible-exports.com
Lehmann Maupin, 201 Chrystie Street, lehmannmaupin.com
Y Gallery, 355 A Bowery Street, ygallerynewyork.com
Collette Blanchard Gallery, 26 Clinton Street, colletteblanchard.com - featuring Ishmael Randall Weeks
Salon 94, 1 Freeman Alley, salon94.com
Scaramouche, 52 Orchard Street, scaramoucheart.com
Eleven Rivington, 11 Rivington Street, elevenrivington.com

More upon return...

Upon return, did we get the satisfaction? Yes. Do we have anything (critical) to say? Of course. The distributed exhibition is a very good idea - and fun to follow, to physically connect the points of the (unknown) story in space, in which the story digresses in the way of telling. Yet exhibitions themselves are indistinct from one another except for loose thematic affiliations; gallery space is used in the most conventional way, there are no surprises, finds, or thrillers, but gallery business as usual, or even more so. Too many pieces, motives too repetitive - for instance, Chapter 3: First Bird (A Few Butterflies) at Invisible Exports presents bird after bird after bird, when what really flies is Owl by Xaviera Simmons, which, paired with her Untitled (2) evokes the darkly masked atmosphere of Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut.

Chapter 6: The Devil You Know at Collette Blanchard gallery attempts to recreate the edgy mugginess outside; while kids who stayed behind cling to the doorways, the entry does not deliver the desire. The installation is not crowded and crawling enough to excite. As we move about, I am pointed to the perfect street intersection where to perform the rites for removal of evil eyes that are carried away by 4-way traffic as the devil egg crackles or explodes.

Back in the gallery, certainty softens and crumbles in view of Ishmael's workbench constructed of pulped and recycled New York Times (4 months of it, the title suggests); the same newspaper delivered a review of the exhibition in the morning:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/09/arts/design/09lush.html


Ishmael Randall Weeks, 4 month, 2010. Photo by Sidhant Bhagchandani

Back in the night, afterparty at the White Slab wasn't happening, but the female bouncer was a sweetheart, she accepted the password "Omar" in place of ID's (OhMI and her company are not identifiable). We left and came back.

-OhMI