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

Reflections on Omi (July 7, 2010) by Robert C. Morgan

Art Omi International Artists Workshop had its initial summer residency eighteen years ago. Since then, its popularity has grown beyond the wildest dreams and expectations of its instigator, New York entrepreneur and art aficionado, Francis Greenburger. At this moment, more than thirty artists – chosen from literally hundreds of applicants – arrive in upstate New York from six continents representing a wide range of aesthetic interests and approaches. The duration of the workshop is three weeks wherein some extraordinary work is made and exhibited on the final Open Day. (This year that day will be July 18th). In addition to the vital presence of the Program Director, Claudia Cannizzaro, each year a critic in resident is elected by members of the Board as the aesthetic overseer of an impressive community of artists. This year’s choice was New York critic Sandra Skuvida, who in addition to her energetic optimism and inspired criticism is an important scholar of late modern and contemporary transglobal art.

As one of the early board members of Art Omi, and its first critic in residence (1992), I was asked to participate this past weekend in a series of critiques with a selection of the new artist residents. Nisrine Boukhari is from Syria and is abstract figurative sculptor who works both with singular forms and within an installation context. Being an artist from the Middle East often involves political as well as aesthetic issues. Ms. Boukhari is working from a woman’s perspective on life in Syria as her three-dimensional figures make clear. There is an expressionist aspect to the work that is both intimate and universal. In her case, the two are not contradictory but exist as complements of one another. In either case, the expressionist force of these figures is undeniable.


Nisrine Boukhari, Them-Me, 2006, video still

Jang Bo-yun is a South Korean artist who works with fictional narratives derived from older found photographs in which she researches people she never knew by going to the exact locations in which the photographs were taken. Ms. Jang’s specific interest is in memories she believes are instilled within these photographs. She will blow-up the original images and alter the correspondence between memory and reality as associated with the photographs. The question is in how Ms. Jang communicates her intention with viewers who encounter her work for the first time. While artists may often be concerned with details and specific points not visible in the work, viewers are more interested in grasping the general idea of the artist and then gradually working into the details once the initial direction of the work becomes clear.


Jang Bo-yun, Unipaired World, 2009. Ink-jet print

In addition I had lengthy and important discussions with Peruvian-born sculptor Ishmael Randall Weeks, who works with the material realities of the underclass based on recent experiences in Lima through a series of brilliantly constructed metaphorical vehicles; Chicago-born artist, Dread Scott, who investigates the significance and history of revolutionary movements from the outset of Modernism through the use of news images and provocative, often beautiful collages; and finally, the large drawings of Mongolian artist, Tuguldur Yondonjamts, whose enormous, actual-size shark with severed fins is transformed into a talisman of man’s tragic relationship to nature. There are other artists, of course, some further along than others, whose commitment is clearly there and, with a few exceptions, avoid conforming to the exterior signs of art market proliferation. In conclusion, one of the striking presences at Omi 2010 is the burgeoning large ink drawings of Takako Azami – focused, controlled, interior, and resonating with intense clarity and energy of mind.


Takako Azami, Trees 0903, 2009. Ink, pigment on hemp paper, 45" x 59"

The Founder Speaks to the Critic

Photo by caraballo-farman

There was nothing to blog about the 4th of July party, but the music. Rather than wax her ears, OhMI decided to consolidate her media monopoly, and asked for an afterparty interview with the host and Omi founder Francis Greenburger. The exclusive and unrestricted interview was graciously granted on the spot, and scheduled for the next day, 5th July.

We met after lunch under the tents. Francis arrived dressed in his usual attire, trim beard, khaki shorts, powder blue polo, and red Mass MoCA basecap (he is on the board there too); his legs are bitten by insects like everybody’s else. First, he sat down for a business meeting with Ruth, while OhMI pretended to be invisible at the nearby table, so she could snoop while furiously typing up her questions:

1. How did OMI come about?

Francis Greenburger had been involved in another artists’ residency first, entitled Triangle Workshop and Residency, which was founded by the British sculptor (Sir) Anthony Caro and a London-based collector and businessman Robert Loder in 1982. Its mission appears to be quite similar to that of Art Omi — to provide artists with studios and community; and yet, despite OhMI’s great worldliness, she did not know about the Triangle, now located in Dumbo, Brooklyn, and therefore she deems it unimportant. Over time, Francis grew uncomfortable with the Triangle’s direction. Coincidentally, he had heard about the barns up for sale, cheap, near his house. He bought the barns, called his loyal friend from the Triangle, the painter Sandy Slone (she was visiting Omi on the day of the interview), and said, let’s start our own artists’ residency.

Francis maintains that it is very important for a non-profit organization to own property, in order to ensure continuity. He implements this real-estate based planning at Omi, which expanded to about 400 acres of surrounding land, as well as at other non-profit organizations where he is on the board of directors, including the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, located in an office condo tower 125 Maiden Lane, developed by Time Equities, from which LMCC purchased its office space with grant money from the September 11 Fund. Among its other programs, LMCC runs a studio program in vacant spaces donated for periods of time by owners, including Francis. Next application deadline is spring 2011; some Omis participated in this studio program — ask Anna; OhMI, too, knows it well and deems it important. (Disclaimer: OhMI does not imply a special access between the two residencies, and does not publicly subscribe to conspiracy theories.)

2. What is your personal relationship to art?

It appears to be personal — Francis’s father was a literary agent, his mother painted, and he purchased his first painting at the age fourteen from his girlfriend’s brother-in-law. The painting now hangs in his NYC office, and he still likes it very much. (OhMI will do her very best to get an image of it for you.) The most recent artwork in the personal collection has been acquired in Paris, from a woman painter who lost her legs and an arm on the subway rails after an attempted suicide caused by post-partum depression. There are also more famous names in the collection, of course (OhMI had heard Franz West is one).

The personal collection is separate from the Art Omi collection, which is comprised of works donated by artists following their residencies. These works are displayed at the Company’s offices at 55 Fifth Avenue, as well as the 125 Maiden Lane lobby. Some increased in value tremendously, and can be sold to raise funds for Omi programs, also to lower storage and insurance costs, but in practice, not much has been sold. From OhMI point of view, this strategy is similar to the excellent concept by the late founder of The New Museum, Marcia Tucker, who devised the Changing Collection for her museum — works by emerging artists bought at low prices to be sold when the artists emerge, to buy more works by emerging artists. This way, a collection becomes an income generator for artists rather than a dead asset.

3. Wouldn’t it be beneficial to have more than one critic/curator in residence, along with the artists?

(This question is very h.o.t. for OhMI; as you may remember, she conceived of this interview in order to consolidate her media monopoly and to gain more power.) OhMI can now follow DJ mama’s advise and relax, there seems to be no competition. However, this idea has been put into practice a few years ago, and it did not work — the two critics united, and the artists suffered even more. There got to be only one C.

btw, Francis says that the Critic in Residence is encouraged to do her own work, since everyone comes here on an equal basis. That’s in theory; in practice, great power comes with great responsibility. Yes, Irfan, I am here for you (to worship).

4. What are the aspects of the program that you find successful, and what, in your view, needs improvement or change?

Francis really likes the directors of all Omi programs, staff, and family (so do we); he doesn’t like how the visitor center is working. Everybody else thinks that the smell of tap water and the Internet speed could use some improvement or change. Everybody likes the food!

5. What is in the future of Art Omi?

The land, which is vast, will be turned into earthworks. Organic farming by artists from Brooklyn?

As you see, OhMI turned a bit self-reflective towards the end, since her laptop run out of power, so she thanked Francis and returned to the pool.

-OhMI

Artists at Work

The screening of the film about the artist Alain Kirilis's work on Saturday triggered multiple responses. Kirili is a French sculptor influenced by late ripples of Abstract Expressionism. The film, produced for TV, features "artistic process" as materialization of a thought process via expressive gesture of a making of a sculpture or a drawing, performed for the camera. Hans Namuth's film on Jackson Pollock, entitled "Artist at Work" (1951) comes to mind at once (more on it coming up on Shahar Marcus's page), since this filmed performance is largely responsible for many subsequent mystifications of the artistic process; while on the other hand this particular cinematic image of "action painting" as performance has been force-fed into the discourse on performance art.

The first response to the screening was a simultaneous action - a number of artists, inspired by Kirili's gestures, sneaked out to the nearby Sculpture Shed and proceeded to practice similar gestures on their own piece, which is the Oldsmobile being stripped down for the Crash Derby (see more on Eduardo Navarro's page), while the process was being ably filmed by Ishmael Randall Weeks in the role of Namuth.

After the screening, the entire group assembled at Ledig for a discussion. Among questions raised were by whom such representations of artistic process are made - the artist or producer, and for whom they are intended; another discussion topic focused on the contingencies of representation of the process, in a) process-based art and b) object-based art.

Discussion was followed by a dance performance embodying the previously discussed Untitled ideas.


From left: Deb Sokolow, Alain Kirili, and Matteo Fato, photo by Claudia Cannizzaro

Virtual Studios

Two artists invited to participate in ART OMI this year were not granted US visas: Ahmed el Shaer from Egypt and Vitshois Mwilambwe Bondo from Congo. Ahmed's visa interview took place in Cairo on March 14. He has not been notified yet, though he was told processing time is usually two weeks.(Several calls and emails from the Art Omi administration, the Egyptian culture ministry, which was sponsoring his travel, and the artist himself produced no results.)

I heartily accept the motto, - "That government is best which governs least;" and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. (Henry David Thoreau, "On the Duty of Civil Disobedience," 1849).

We hope Ahmed and Vitshois will join us at Omi, albeit virtually. Nisrin Boukhari's virtual residency in Ramallah set an example (see her page to the left for more info), which we hope to implement at Omi. We are prepared to set up a studio for each artist and collaboratively install their work according to their instructions; the Critic in Residence will be delighted to serve as their relay during the Open Studios weekend. We look forward to communicating via Skype and this blog. The idea of Virtual Studios has been met with enthusiastic support by the Omi community - Robert Morgan pointed to the fact that "artists and critics are capable of circumventing political repression," and Holly Block brought to our attention Luis Gómez's residency at Art in General: http://www.artingeneral.org/projects/212. We look forward to your suggestions - they can be posted below - and your participation in the Virtual Studios.

PERFECT STRANGERS

"Hello, perfect strangers!" is Anna Lundh's 07/27 post on her secret W-ORD blog: www.w-ord.net Although we may have arrived as such, it was a short-lived condition - secrets were revealed and state of strangeness lost with every encounter, thus generating virtualities: after Nisrin Boukhari was released from a five hour hold-up and questioning by INS at JFK, she arrived at OMI with the following message on her screensaver: "I do desire you were a stranger."

Welcome to Art OMI!

Dear Artists, Visitors, and Others related to Art Omi,

We shall spend three weeks in July on the green pastures of Art Omi, in each others' company. As unCritic in Residence in summer 2010, I will be writing this day-to-day record of our proceedings, including studio visits, family feuds, and other local news.

No topic is too (in)significant for the record of the present, recollection of the past, or reading of the future - this public diary is intended to correspond with everyone who ever set a foot to Art Omi!

Yours, for the time being,

Sandra