city-inspired and found object work by 19 artists
Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit
Through June ??, 2007

This year’s permutation of “Urban Alchemy”, “Artifacts Transformed” is just that, artifacts, relics, junk if you will, remade, repurposed, reconstituted, transformed, transmogrified into objects of beauty, of meaning. Those practicing this act of alchemy, this process of transformation, might be characterized with a single word: “Hopeful.”

This common linkage between those assembled is such a Detroit phenomenon – it’s more than simply making use of found materials from the city. It’s that sensitivity to sift through the debris, reach one’s hand down deep and pick up something most would call “junk.” Yet in their hands, through their eyes, they don’t see it as such at all, but instead as something laden with possibilities past and future. It’s work alive with memory, bringing to mind the cliché, “Memory is the power to gather roses in winter.” Here in Detroit’s lingering winter, these artists have constructed beauty from the ruins of its past.

Many work assemblage or three-dimensional collage style, creating composite structures from objects, images, and the like. Vito Valdez almost haphazardly jams together table legs, paint stirrers, and other “scraps” of wood, to make altar pieces, animated creatures, all in which the identity of the parts are subsumed within the new creation. On another end of the spectrum are works like those of Mark Esse – serene, contemplative forms, which carry the former life of the parts into their new existence. An object made from an old fence has the feeling of that structure in its reconfigured form.

With Jean Wilson’s and Jack Summers’ works, parts are collaged together, retaining their distinctiveness, with meaning created through the juxtapositions. Teresa Petersen’s collages applied to found objects develop her own vocabulary, and quite whole imaginary realm. For this show, she even reuses the scraps from what she’s cut her imagery from as stencils to apply silhouettes to objects.

Sandra Cardew fashions found materials in Frankenstein-like fashion, into little anthropomorphic creatures and often as well as the realms that they inhabit. These odd little creations might be at home in the drawings of Edward Gorey – unsettling and delightful all at once.

Anne Fracassa uses found objects as her canvas – capturing through her soulful paintings a feel for this town full of abandoned hulking shells on chunks of brick. As many preserve the old, Gail mally-mack often degrades her materials, letting them weather, age, deteriorate – integrating that whole process of degradation become a part of the work.

Scott Hocking truly uses the found in its purest form – often doing nothing to his finds, but to recast them, recontextualize them as objects of art. To take that most ubiquitous of phrases – “it is what it is,” it’s simply that now we’re looking at it differently. His strength is to take in relics from a new vantage point and help his audience start to see the beauty in decay. Here we see a heavy rusted door, with deep scratches across the painted surface, rust growing through it. This is an aerial view of our earth shaped by weather, the dynamic landscape.

All these artists display a strongly environmentally conscious aspect – both in terms of reusing materials, but often in terms of their subject matter as well. Frank English makes plaster casts from our “disposables” – in this case plastic food containers – and they become surfaces to paint landscapes endangered by these and other products of the encroachment of suburban lifestyle. Environmentally consciousness is a step towards more social consciousness, which is evident in the work of Valdez and lies at the heart of Eric Mesko’s work. Here old boards and doors serve as a kiosk for political posters he’s created from collage – all speaking to art’s role to raise awareness through medium and message.

Mike Richison stands out more than a bit, diverging from the weathered wood and rust materials, as his sculptural assemblages are made of bright primary colored pieces of plastic. These are found objects of a different sort, parts for children’s toy vehicles and the like. At first it seems like an odd inclusion, but perhaps as our construction materials move away from steel and wood, and increasingly more of the world becomes plastic, this is what the found object artists of tomorrow will be working with. We won’t live in the “Rust Belt” but the “plastic loop.” Regardless, the splash of color makes for a nice contrast.

And there are many more to take in here, working in related veins, but all with their distinct signature on the work. There are even functional objects, taking on a new function from their original purpose. As a whole, the works in this show bring to mind the very first piece I wrote when we launched thedetroiter.com, about an exhibition which also occurred in this space (then “detroit contemporary.”) I wrote that it, “epitomizes this spirit of Detroit art: the creativity to transform something derelict, into something living, perhaps even something beautiful.” And furthermore, “art can create change in our environment and our selves. Come be a part of it and watch Detroit bloom.”

Those words ring true as true today as they did then. There’s a lot of hope on display in this house and in the hearts of those who create possibility and beauty out of dereliction and decay. – Nick Sousanis
ws@thedetroiter.com

Zeitgeist Gallery
CURATED by Gilda Snowden
M.Saffell Gardner, Alvaro Jurado, Jocelyn Rainey, Gilda Snowden
through June 16th, 2007

In some ways curating an exhibition has a lot in common with writing. A collection of great works or words do not a great show or essay make. It’s the relationships between the works, the words that hold it all together. Attention to transitory passages between works as between words all help take the viewer, the reader, through the desired journey of discovery. The curator/writer moves his or her audience through the experience by way of signposts, markers, or other wayfinding elements, explicitly or implicitly expressed. In putting together M. Saffell Gardner, Alvaro Jurado, Jocelyn Rainey, alongside herself, Gilda Snowden has created an exhibition of four distinct bodies and passages of work that allows for the viewer to make connections between them and gain a more whole picture of abstraction in the process.

We’ll start our tour with M. Saffell Gardner’s pattern-based highly geometric abstractions, all charged with bright color. Snaking bands of color run like tire treads over splashed wave fronts of concentric circles, intermingled with a saw-toothed series of diamond forms. The work is quite flat, with forms applied in distinct layers. While it’s certainly non-representational, the forms suggest perhaps tree rings, fingerprint sworls, geometric models of DNA, high-tension power lines with electro-magnetic waves emanating from them. To extend the latter analogy further, the work could be a color-enhanced diagram imaging of the fields of electro-magnetism all around us both naturally occurring and manmade. These are visually electric – Gardner creates a great play of movement through his compositions, an energetic dance for the eye to enjoy.

From this dance, we move to the celebratory compositions of curator Snowden. Her work shares some common vocabulary with Gardner in terms of color and the layering of paint, and even a bit of the geometry – circles and triangles abound. But after these similarities, they begin to diverge in more significant ways. Geometry unravels in favor of recognizable symbols – a chair, an eye, flowers – all leaning toward the more pictorial and constructing the hint of a narrative throughout. There are stories unfolding here. Where Gardner’s liveliness is expressed quietly, feeling more internal, Snowden’s are bold, they speak their tales in a loud voice. She achieves this with paint put down thick, viscous, possessing a substantial, physical presence, almost a body, beyond their color and form.

Jocelyn Rainey’s paintings leap still further into the third dimension, nearly approaching the sculptural. While any adherence to the geometric is absent, Rainey’s overall compositions share some of the flow of movement with Gardner, as well as with Snowden. These are the dynamic boundaries between land and water, both elements pushing and pulling on the other – chaotic terrain. Metaphorical imagery perhaps for one’s life – echoed by the elements that make up her surfaces, all discarded tools of painting – containers, rags, scraps of blue jeans, brushes, gloves – strewn about, like a tornado picked them up and dropped them there. It’s a textured, almost mountainous surface upon which she applies fields of pure color. The objects carry meaning and content as Snowden’s symbols do. There’s also the very much Detroit aesthetic in terms of transforming the discarded into the beautiful. Many strong passages, like this one: the impression of a red glove, printed flat in a rumpled area of purple, as if to say even in the midst of this frenetic activity, we can still hold things together enough to put our stamp, our signature on it.

Departing completely from the flat to the sculptural, we come to the final artist Alvaro Jurado. As Rainey reused painting articles, Jurado takes tools, interior architectural elements, relics of times past, recontextualizing them into new objects. Ornate wooden cornices from mantels and the like, signifiers of an era when construction had character and not just drywall, all mingled with the very tools to build them. The works range from smaller wall-mounted pieces and almost altar-like objects, to a few larger, free standing, Modernist sculptures in appearance, (though postmodern in composition of scrap materials.) In a few of the works he preserves the original look of the objects, but primarily he’s repainted them in solid red, silver, or gold – this mask of paint helps to completely subsume the identity of the elements within the composition. They’ve become satisfying, whole objects in their own right, as well as in considering their source elements.

While we’ve seen each of the artists, this does not mean the journey has simply come to an end. It’s not so linear of a trip. The movement of the eye through Jurado’s mash-up objects speaks very much to Gardner’s layered geometric forms. What’s achieved in flatness through multiple colors occurs through physical forms all of a solid color. Similar connections abound throughout the different works, and each new path we take between previously seen material allows for further discovery. It’s a consistent show, with each body of work informing the other, making for an ultimately quite satisfying visual experience.

Zeitgeist should be commended for a strong and quite varied season offering up diverse exhibitions including its stable of “outsider” artists, reaching out to installation work, and now this externally curated show. – Nick Sousanis
ws@thedetroiter.com

by Chris Thompson

The Center for Creative eXchange (CCeX) will be hosting a bike tour May 19 and 20 that will serve as a fundraiser, and according to CCeX founder Phaedra Robinson, promote healthy activity for the self, the community, and the environment. As Robinson says, “Every day is better with biking.” That’s why she chose bike riding as her mode of fundraising, because it’s good for individual health, brings the community together in more intimate fashion, and, of course, it doesn’t produce any environment polluting carbon emissions.

The preliminary tour, which will be followed by a longer tour in August, will begin on Saturday May 19 at 10 am, at the CCeX on Warren Avenue west of Wayne State. Cyclists will travel from there to Burns Park in Ann Arbor, where they’ll meet again at 10 am the following morning and make the return trip back to the CCeX. To participate, riders need not travel the full length or even both days. Even the most minimal support and participation will be appreciated. For cyclists, at least $10 is the suggested registration fee.

Robinson hopes that the bike tour will bring attention to the CCeX and donations she needs of skilled laborers and materials she needs to makes this a true community art space. She intends for the Center to host events, exhibitions, artist installation programs, workshops, and just generally bring together a community of creative people including artists, writers, teachers, filmmakers, architects and many more.

In 2002, Robinson founded the CCeX in a dilapidated building, badly in need of repair, and has since been working with volunteers to transform the place. Over the coming year, she’s looking to officially incorporate it as a non-profit organization, which the funds from the Bike Tour will greatly assist in establishing.

Robinson’s plans for the CCeX are first and foremost for a residency program where writers and artists can stay for a period of four months (up to three at a time), make their work, hold lectures, workshops, and interact with the community. In addition to the residency program, Robinson envisions a book-making and paper arts facility. This would consist of inviting in the neighboring community, especially local children, to paper-making workshops, using plants grown at the facility to make the paper. This paper will then be made into books that visiting artists can use to produce their works – books that will remain in the CCeX’s library for the public and other guests to view. As part of the overall rebuilding project, she’s looking for artists to turn a piece of the CCeX building itself into a work of art. A final, but by no means least potential project is the Home exhibition where “members of the household” will live together and learn from each other for some period of time. Every year, the Home exhibition will be different, depending upon the interpretation of the meaning of ‘home.’ All of these projects are slated to be put into practice when the CCeX’s facilities are completed.

While the physical structure is still a little ways from being ready, there have been events already – including the annual dinner party, which began last year, and brings together artists so they can share a meal along with some creative works of any type and genre.

But all of this programming and effort could use help to jumpstart it in a big way – which is where the bike tour comes in, both monetarily and in terms of building greater awareness of the project.

In addition to seeking riders and monetary donations to the CCeX, Robinson is asking for support of the cyclists either through donations of equipment or to physically welcome them at the start or the various rest stops. These stops include Detroit, Dearborn, Dearborn Heights, Garden City, Westland, Plymouth, and Ann Arbor, where supporters will help provide refreshments and encouragement. Robinson is also looking for donations of such things as biking equipment, camping equipment, bike technician assistance, food and drinks, custom shirts, and promotional flyers. Volunteering to be on a support team that can help with the planning and the trip is another way to donate to the cause. A majority of these things, such as camping equipment, will be required for the longer tour in August.

For those who do choose to donate money to the cause, Robinson has several attractive packages listed on the website for donations of specific amounts. Robinson should have sponsorship forms online soon as well, but if there aren’t any sponsors by the 19th and 20th, then you can pledge for the August tour. Pledges are either dollars per mile, or one sum of money. Robinson states, though, that all donations, no matter how small, are appreciated. Businesses that donate larger sums of money will receive at least a basket full of organic vegetables every harvest time, along with opportunities for advertisement and free tickets to events at the CCeX. This money will go towards completing the program’s rebuild project, along with allowing it to open its doors to the public. For more information on this, you can look at the website or contact Phaedra Robinson (website and e-mail address listed below). Overall, the goal is to raise $60,000 from both the preliminary tour and the longer bike tour coming in August.

Whereas from Detroit to Ann Arbor and Ann Arbor to Detroit will be a one day trip each way (two days total), the second trip in August from Detroit to Toronto and back – a 500 mile trek! – will take much longer, (in fact, Robinson makes the distinction of calling it a journey, instead of a trip.) This means bikers will have to set up camp along the way, and hence the need for donations of camping gear on this first bike tour.

Both of these trips symbolically represent bringing together the communities of each of the cities. Robinson hopes her first bike tour will bring together Ann Arbor and Detroit, creating a bond for future growth. The second tour will bring together Detroit and Toronto, crossing borders to place importance on expansive communication and international exchange. Robinson hopes her bike tours will reach out to a large, diverse audience and instill a sense of community between people. This won’t just benefit the CCeX, which hopes to build enough support and attention in order to be grow, but also those who come together with the Center to share their artistic ideas and visions.

So go out and have some fun biking in a group from Detroit to Ann Arbor and back again – or just support this worthy community cause. Look for more details in these pages about the first one and the August one – it should be quite a journey.

Anybody who is interested in the biking event or learning more about the Center for Creative eXchange can visit the website at http://www.centerforcreativexchange.org/, or can contact Phaedra Robinson at thisisphaedra@yahoo.com.

The CCeX is located at 1763 W. Warren Ave., Detroit MI

Chris Thompson is thedetroiter.com's tireless intern.

May 4 – June 1, 2007
WORK exhibition space, 306 S. State Street, Ann Arbor

WORK exhibition space offers up an exploration of those dealing with mental illness through imagery and accompanying words – from practicing artists and those using the visual medium as the only means to get something inside of them out into the light. As Laverne, an artist in the show, describes it, “I feel as if art is my only way to express myself without all of my silly gibber gabber.”

It’s a wide range of imagery from the illustrative to more conceptual approaches, all linked by a common need to express and share something too often left unsaid and misunderstood. An artist named Betsy Jo, talks of her dyslexia, which had, “overwhelmed me with my study of anything that involved reading.” She represents this with a wonderful ink drawing depicting ominous book shelves and books flying off of them at a female form huddled and cowered on the floor below. Kristen Hodson’s work is a black and white quilt of two empty chairs, representing the aspects of her life that she was absent from while dealing with her illness.

While many of the images are often strong, it’s the addition of each of the artist’s individual words that make them truly strike home. It’s the honest, courageous, and ultimately very human nature of their words that makes this a completely engaging experience. Through this combination of imagery as a means of expression with words of explanation, a very full picture of the artists, their illness, and that very real struggle begins to emerge. It’s a window into the individual artist’s lives, allowing the viewer to briefly connect with that person and learn from the interaction.

Working quite directly and primitively, Linda Rama’s drumming figure is accompanied by these words: “Having a mental illness can be very frustrating. … I beat wildly on a drum until at last the hundredth beat helps me to cope another day until my life is lived to its fullest.”

The show offers a couple of works where the individuals never were able to cope – tributes to those lost to suicide as a result of mental illness. The terribly sad and very real subject matter heighten the already emotional depths touched by the works, and stress the importance of coming to understand such illnesses and those afflicted in order to offer them help.

Hodson’s (mentioned above) words: “I feel that mental illness is not something that people easily talk about or disclose. … I hope to transform that experience of shame into an affirmation that is public and positive.” Furthermore she writes, “I am not ‘bi-polar,’ I am a person, a woman, a sister, a daughter, a friend, a student, and an artist. I urge you to look past the labels and try to appreciate people for who they really are.”

A line in Neal Stephenson’s “Cryptonomicon,” offers a clever synopsis of this destructive harm of labels and the benefit of using descriptions instead, with a character stating his preference for, “adjectives modifying Bobby Shaftoe, instead of a noun that obliterates Bobby Shaftoe.” This exhibition helps us see the individual behind the label, with all the complexity that makes the individual who he or she is.

Show organizer and curator Darren Jorgensen’s piece consists of long shelves of empty pill bottles from the medications he’s used over the years to treat his illness, and a color coded list along the left side (making the entire piece look almost cheerily flag-like) with the name of the drug, usage, effects, and other information written in the colored bars. In his text, he describes his feelings after being diagnosed with Manic-Depressive disease: “My heart sank. Terror rushed over me. My fingers went numb. How could I be sick? How could I be mentally ill? This made no sense. I had always prided myself on my ability to think quickly, to be charming and influential. I had prided myself on my intelligence, and my creativity, and my gift to talk with just about anybody. Sure, I had had scary moments.” From there he proceeds to talk of sleeping on the roof of his building after seeing a man in dark raincoat approach him with a knife in his bedroom, and other similarly scary episodes over the years. “How could I possibly be sick?” … “It took a long time for me to accept that I have a mental illness. … I guess I still struggle with it, but the shame and the fear is slowly dissipating.”

At its heart, art is about communication – of an idea, a feeling, a perspective, a different reality, what it’s like to look through another’s eyes. Here, the art, and the words that accompany it, help remove the labels, the layers of miscommunication that separate us from one another. “Uncle Art” (along with his alter-alter ego “Anti Art”) displays one of his signature playful clock images, split in two to represent the swings of bi-polar disorder. In addressing the nature of the illness head on, the artist also explains the keys to his health: “A happy marriage, two cats, good friends, working with art students, listening to jazz and occasionally making some art have all been extremely helpful.” … “Most people have no patience for what they don’t understand to be an illness.”

In raising their voices to be heard through their images and stories, the artists gathered in this exhibition help us better understand mental illness, raising awareness and acceptance – the beginning of the process of healing. In spending time with them, we can’t help but be touched and changed by the experience. – Nick Sousanis
ws@thedetroiter.com

by David Bartone
paulkotulaprojects
through May 26, 2007

paulkotulaprojects has established for itself a fine reputation of blending a friendly visual aesthetic with well-considered curatorial arrangements. Cut – a word in English that, like run, has dozens of contextual uses – is the current exhibition, featured through May 26.

A five-artist show, the collective arrangement explores a most physical rendering to the various ways a cut can be effectuated on a material: paper, wood, porcelain; by hand, by laser, by saw. While none introduce an entirely new method, the endless possibilities are more than suggested by such a rich sample of sculptural drawings.

[Jill Slosburg-Ackerman, “Framing Drawing #10”]

Jill Slosburg-Ackerman presents a series of “Framing Drawings.” Both treated and natural wood set up the general exterior to each piece. Some, as in Framing Drawing #10, do not create a perfectly enclosed space. Here, there is entry into how seamlessly, yet with subtle imperfection, the matting matches the traditional color and texture of a white cube’s wall. Sumi ink is blotted on the matte board and wood panels, creating at once a leathery appearance and the darkest of emptiness.

The title of the show may suggest want for comparison between how the wood is handled throughout each of her drawings. While it is surely a point of engagement – to press the smooth waves of one against the jagged contours of another, against the simple geometry of the next – the woodcuts seem accentual and behave as emotional indicators for each piece.

Slosburg-Ackerman seems to narrate a profound and ironic commentary on the importance of decorating an artwork’s presentation, using frame as site creation as art in itself. To say the least, her sculptural drawings bring a new and well-deserved meaning to a “museum-quality frame,” challenging our view of traditional contexts of display.

[Kathleen McShane, installation view]

The back wall of the gallery is consumed by Kathleen McShane’s installation of four drawings, graphite and ink on hand-cut paper. A grid-work of tan boxes, subtly shaded light to dark from bottom to top, provides the background.

McShane’s drawings evoke the element of process, as was not uncommon to the 20th century mammoths of grid art (i.e. Agnes Martin, Sol Lewitt). Washed-on brush strokes and capricious squiggles compose the reticulated art; the seriousness of hand-cut, removed negative space defines it. This mix of playfulness and deliberation identifies something personal in the ever-evolving traditions of Minimal and Expressionist Art.

[Heather McGill, “Untitled (edition 5/5)”] (Photo by Tim Thayer)

Heather McGill’s laser cut drawings are featured, iterating, with confidence, why patterning has become essential to her work. Simply put, she arranges graphic icons and uses a laser to exact each cutaway from black paper; really, she displaces the typical comforts of popular, yet dying, symbols of mass-produced culture with a sometimes-grim shadow on the white wall behind.

Surfers, musclemen, muscle cars, flowers, butterflies, paint cans, smokestacks, and so forth are compiled. In talking about McGill’s choice of imagery, Paul Kotula said, “(they) really provide a sense of nostalgia.” However, he acknowledged that, in her work, imagery should not overpower the conceptual prod of patterning and space management. The patterns are varied: sometimes mirrored, sometimes unbalanced. The decision for each format seems driven by an instinct that translates unexplainably well to the viewer.

[Gallery View (front: Scott Klinker, “Spaceframe”)]

Scott Klinker’s benches and sculpture are awarded the task of accomplishing fluidity, both visually and aesthetically, throughout the main gallery. While they each deserve a full-length discourse, it seems most relevant to lavish praises on how well they invigorate a deeper relationship between all the artworks.

His sculpture, Spaceframe, is booming with color and juxtaposed across from McGill’s visually sharp drawings. The vibrancy of his lime green references the opposite, or in-between-ness, of her black/white drawings. His benches, in turn, lock in a cozy fit for Slosburg-Ackerman’s white, wood, and black “Framing Drawings,” while remaining open to a palatable read of McShane’s installation. Herein, Paul Kotula’s wit is only trumped by his curatorial charm.

[Abigail Murray, “99-05 (Home series)”]

In the small gallery, Abigail Murray presents a series of five home-drawings – layered porcelain wall sculptures, each depicting a place she has lived from 1973 to present. Each layer, in turn, is comprised of smaller porcelain tabs, cut to form what can easily be read as literal (a map of the neighborhood; a reconstruction of each room). However, the total effect lends itself to something more intimate (translucence; wafer-thin; perfect cracks).

As Murray defines porcelain as modular, she smooches memory and material together. Her greatest success is having created something so delicate that reciprocates a caress, if only emotionally.

Cut could easily have become little more than a clever theme; but its diversity and un-staggering fluidity yield much more. The ability for paulkotulaprojects to constantly reach beyond the art community’s ever-expanding expectations will surely maintain this as one of Detroit’s most invigorating galleries.

paulkotulaprojects is located at 23255 Woodward Ave, Ferndale and is open Wednesday – Saturday 11-6pm.

David Bartone is a published historian, poet, and short fiction writer. He is Poetry & Fiction Editor for thedetroiter.com. He lives in Pontiac with his cat, Hey Molly.

ARTCITE INC. : ANSWER OUR CALL!

Dearest Artciteurs & friends...

WE INVITE YOU TO HELP US CELEBRATE!! WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU, our colleagues at our sister Artist-run centres, ARTCITEURS OLD AND NEW --
members, friends, volunteers, exhibiting artists, filmmakers and video artists, audio artists, performers, writers, lecturers, funders,
colleagues, collaborators, patrons and visitors-and/or ANY/everyone interested in supporting contemporary art and culture! To help us to get into our year-long party mood, we're asking YOU to send your favourite artist-run centre for the contemporary arts, i.e., ARTCITE INC., a happy 25th anniversary greeting.

Here is a less confounding version of our 25th Anniversary call for entries--please feel free to pass on to any/all who may/should be interested in helping us to mark our 25th!

+++++

We want YOU to submit your well-wishes to be displayed as part of a special, open media, unjuried, group exhibition to help us kick off
our year-long Artcite 25th Anniversary celebrations!

All entries received between May 19 and June 16/07 will be included in our special anniversary 'Greetings' show that will be on display in
Artcite's gallery space from May 25 - June 23/07.

Confused about the entry deadline? Don't be! The show will be added to throughout the month! (The show may open w/ 10 entries, but we're hoping to have 250 'greetings' by our gala closing party on June 23!)

Your well-wishes can be:

* a post card or greeting card (artist-made or pre-fab)
* a fax
* an e-mail
* a piece of art (your own or someone else's)
* a found object
* weirdo found images
* weirdo collages
* artists' multiples
* artists' trading cards
* an audio piece (on CD or DVD)
* a video piece (CD or DVD)
* a snap-shot of an event from Artcite's illustrious past
* or whatever the heck else you want to enter!
(But nothing that contravenes the Cnd Criminal Code or public health and safety regulations, please.)

Your 25th anniversary greeting can reference Artcite, artist-run centres or contemporary art practice-or not!

It's up to you!

Your greeting can be donated to the Artcite cause (in which case we will offer it for sale following the exhibit)-or not! (Please note, however, that this special 25th anniversary show is NOT intended as just another venue for the sale of your art; we will NOT post your personal sales prices.)

Still stuck on what to send/bring in? Think: this show is intended to be kinda fluxus, kinda fun!

Here's some hints if you're second-guessing or stuck on the "art" thing: *
how about a post card listing your 25 favourite things about Artcite? *
your fave Artcite shows from the past 25 years?
* your fave international contemporary artists/
art movements/ causes célèbres/ célèbrer?
* your 25 most embarrassing moments?
* your favourite opening reception foods?
* your exact whereabouts on May 15, 1982--when Artcite first opened its
doors? * a piece of found thrift-store art or particularly tasteful
kitsch?!

Get it? Got it? Good! Get creative!

We'll document all 25th anniversary greetings we
receive and will provide documentation to all.
Sorry-submissions will not be returned unless
accompanied by return postage/shipping.
Windsor/Detroit entries can, of course, be picked
up by the artists following the exhibition run.

Thanks, yous.

??? Contact the friendly Artcite staff (Christine or Leesa) at 519-977-6564.
--
[ 1982-2007 ]

C O N T A C T :
____________________

* ARTCITE INC.
109 University Ave. W.
Windsor, ON
N9A 5P4
Canada

P H / F X :
* +01.519.977.6564
E M A I L S :
* Artcite General Information info@artcite.ca
* Christine Burchnall : Administrative Coordinator xtine@artcite.ca
* Leesa Bringas : Artistic Coordinator info@artcite.ca
* Oona Mosna : Media City Program Director mediacity@artcite.ca
* Jeremy Rigsby : Media City Program Director mediacity@artcite.ca

U R L S :
* Artcite Inc http://www.artcite.ca
* House of Toast / Media City http://www.houseoftoast.ca
G A L L E R Y H O U R S :
* Wed - Sat, 12 - 5 pm

Call for Proposals – Artist Residency – Due June 1, 2007

CAID Announces the Carriage House Gallery

The Carriage House Gallery is a late 18th century carriage house located in the Historic Woodbridge District just blocks from the Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit (CAID). This new facility will enable CAID to provide an exciting new residency program for local artists.

CAID is accepting proposals from an artist or team of artists interested in working in and responding to a striking and challenging physical environment. This is an opportunity for sculptors, painters, installation artists, and others interested in working with a unique space over an extended period of time to create a rare aesthetic experience. The space can be used in any way as long as no permanent structural changes are made without prior notice to CAID during the application process. Artists will need to tour the actual space during the open house dates and times as listed below. Artists whose proposals are accepted will be provided the entire space with all utilities paid for the duration of the residency. The period of time for the residency may vary according to the artist’s proposals (e.g., residencies may vary from 24 hours to 6 months in length.). CAID will also provide significant promotional support and a stipend for certain materials and supplies. Proposals may include opening and/or closing receptions, and other events or activities. An education component is strongly encouraged to be included in proposals. Given the value of community involvement to CAID, artists are encouraged to be available to answer questions and engage with the local community during the term of their residency.

Please direct any questions or concerns to info@thecaid.org or (313) 899-CAID.

Open house dates and times (prerequisite for submitting a proposal):

Sunday, May 13 from 12 PM to 2 PM
Monday, May 14 from 4 PM to 6 PM
Saturday, May 19 from 2 PM to 4 PM

Proposals are due June 1, 2007. Guidelines will be available at the open house.

Arghh! Stubby Punches and Fatty Ejecta
Detroit Industrial Projects
Through May 19, 2007

Russell Industrial Center
1610 Clay Avenue
Second Building, Third Floor
Detroit, MI 48211
248 250.0330
strezins@gmail.com

In his final book, Kurt Vonnegut wrote, “We are here on earth to fart around. Don’t let anybody tell you any different.” Vonnegut was referring to paying attention to the little things, the everyday occurrences that make life a delight. It’s this attention to minutia and, umm, flatulence among other things that make up the subject matter of Ryan Standfest’s solo exhibition at Detroit Industrial Projects.

The lasting appeal of fart jokes and plastic poop hinges on the fact that they are common to all of our experience, whether mentioned or not. To reference another literary classic, the Japanese children’s book, “Everybody Poops,” we all do it. We all have to deal with our insides, with discomfort, with sickness, with injury, with the very real existence of being an organic creature whose body is not a divine vessel but a soup of chemicals - that suffers pain of physical and mental nature. Standfest revels in the exploration of what is often only talked about in the lowbrow, but he does so from an intellectual, highly considered viewpoint.

Through drawings, prints, objects, video, and performance, he brings a richly imagined world to life. This means always paying a great attention to detail both to the individual pieces and how all the mediums fit together. Tightly drawn cartoons on index cards with notes scribbled on them to appear as if throwaway quick ideas, are framed elevating their status to art object, and thus asking to be looked at more closely. In them, the chronicles of an almost Homer Simpson like persona is depicted, pushed, squeezed, a little guy (figuratively, kind of portly literally) always getting the shaft and with his share of internal woes to contend with – at times these are laugh out loud funny. Standfest’s training in the printmaking arts is evident everywhere – even going so far as to “dress up” the TVs showing the videos with drawings of an appropriately surreal stage and curtain. He’s created a cast of related characters, all grossly misshapen, odd little creatures. They are funny and sad at the same time. A series of prints portrays an organic internal seeming form, with a silhouette of an object removed from it, and illustrated elsewhere in the composition. There’s so many levels of imagery and thought going on within the single compositions and the show as a whole, that it makes for something to truly be studied at great length to begin to enter Standfest’s thought process.

It all makes for a whole experience – the different bodies of work all feed and inform one another. Even a group of solid, almost Rorschach prints – could be the silhouettes of his figures, intestinal tracks, or something excreted from them – yet beautiful at the same time. (During his performance, Standfest did in fact connect these to the human form.)

The painstaking process that he goes through on his prints and drawings – which demand a high level of technical discipline, is mirrored in the video and performance, which are torturously and quite intentionally slow. At one point in one of his films, he goes so far as to eat dirt, further demonstrating his deep commitment to his work.

Because of its subject matter, the work is in some ways immediately accessible, yet the intellectual aspect demands a lot more patience and effort from the viewer. It can be overwhelming to absorb all that Standfest, through tremendous rigor, has created – but he’s put it all here. It asks us to pay attention, to spend time deciphering it, to enjoy it in the time it takes. In paying attention to the little things, no matter how unpleasant, and perhaps in finding a little humor in them, it makes the discomforts, the “grossness” that comes with being human, all just a little more bearable. – Nick Sousanis
ws@thedetroiter.com

WSU Student Fashion Show
04.28.07
Detroit Artists Market

Review by Tom Carbone

This year’s WSU student fashion show held for the second year in a row at the Detroit Artists Market came off with out a hitch. For those unfamiliar, Wayne’s Fashion Design & Merchandising Organization department is the oldest and most comprehensive fashion program in the city.

On a balmy Saturday evening closing out the month of April patrons waited outside and talked on cell phones until 7:30 when the doors opened. Inside everyone staked out their spot and stuck to it, the food and beverages were hardly touched as we waited. The models mingled nervously with their first outfits on; they were ready to walk! Some twenty-three models were on hand to ply the eighteen different designer’s works.

I got a chance to meet some new people during the run-up to the show thus completing several circles of acquaintances. This is always the other best part of the show, meeting and talking to new people. It’s all about connections and collaborations and you can’t have collaborations without connections. I sat with grad student Leanna Laliberte and photography student Michell Danel during the show. Leanna is in the final days of her Masters degree; some of you may have seen her first place fashion entry at the Grosse Pointe Art Center a few weeks ago. Michell passed effortlessly from back stage to front shooting her way through the show.

With a runway down the middle the DAM gets narrow so it was standing room only, MC Sarah McCall introduced us to all of the people that made it happen and applause goes out to the large team for a great job.

When the music goes up the show begins, so here we go. Craftsmanship proportion and color are paramount at Wayne. A full range of clothing was offered for men and women. The array was impressive, everything from winter jackets to summer dresses. One of the hallmarks of the FDMO is the tastefulness and marketability of the works frequently shown, by this group. I think that those who graduate from this program do so with a foundation from which any direction is possible.

The group explored knee length skirts and dresses extensively. Stefanie Sintakis used a modern large patterned fabric for her fun entry into this category. Leigh Belovs, Jillian Maloney, and Dana Saoud created skirts for daytime or night clubbing. Tiffany Wong’s little black dress came with a brown hip length jacket that wrapped and tied with a black belt for a form fit sophisticated office look. My favorites were the 40’s inspired pieces by Azra Hajdarevic and Steven Tibaudo. Azra combined over the top color and fine tailoring to make her statement. Steven Tibaudo’s asymmetrical four-button jacket and skirt pairing made of finely a woven fabric is my best in show pick. The skirt is form fitted with panels; each panel is outlined with a cherry color piping. The backside piping finishes at the bottom with pleats that together formed an inverted “V.” Collectively with the hair and make-up it came together perfectly.

As each successive designer’s work came out a hand made poster was placed on the easel at the head of the catwalk, for these multi designer shows this is a must however a digital projection would have been better.

Of all the 40 or so looks that came out, the most interesting were the jacket variations especially the casual capelets like the those by Jon Scarsella and Kia Johnson, shown with simple tops and jeans. Jon’s pale yellow 60’s capelet is sweet with ¾ length sleeves and round collar that partially covers the one big button, great attention to modernist detail; Jackie Kennedy would have been all over this. Stefanie Sintakis showed a nice plaid double-breasted short jacket with full-length sleeves. The Princess form winter coats by Jon and Manan Patel were great too.

One the more prolific students Christine Leichliter came out with many and various works showcasing her talent by picking genres and executing them at will. A 20’s flapper outfit was perfectly proportioned with layered materials that were right on. The piece I especially liked was the bias cut strapless number with a large abstracted floral pattern of various 70’s greens. The high wasted white belt had a round buckle, and this theme carried over to the earrings, bracelets and the sandals. The hair matched the theme perfectly too. Christine brings all of the details together in her works beautifully as if it were easy.

Overall the show was well run, the fashion was great, the music man was good, and everyone had fun. The students and staff at WSU should be proud of their accomplishments, Bravo! Many of us are fond of the idea of a fashion industry in Detroit and programs like this one are the first steps in making that happen.

Tom Carbone is thedetroiter.com’s arts calendar editor. An industrial engineer by day, he’s known to put those skills to quite different use in the world of fashion as well.

Russell Industrial Complex
Saturday & Sunday, April 28, 29, 2007

In 1979 the fledgling Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit (CAID) stirred up the Detroit art scene with a show of installations in the abandoned Jefferson Terminal Warehouse. A group of prominent Detroit artists then and many now, including Charles McGee, Jean Heilbrunn, Rose DeSloover, Barbara Dorchen, Jim Hart, Deanna Sperka, and Lois Teicher worked with the structure of the building – modifying and adding to it in both quite physical and more conceptual ways to create their works. In his introduction to the catalogue, then Eastern Michigan Professor of Art, Marvin Anderson wrote, “The rawness of the Jefferson Terminal Warehouse is an appropriate milieu for Detroit’s artistic sensibility.” “Jefferson Terminal Warehouse is a microcosm of Detroit and industrial culture … a springboard for artists into the mainstream of pertinent matter.”

Nearly 30 years later and at a different equally raw industrial space, a new generation of Detroit art makers (most not even born by then) are putting their own spin on the subject of Detroit and installation. The Russell Industrial Center has a growing reputation as a home for artists’ studios and exhibition space, and with the emergence of Detroit Industrial Projects last fall, has seen a fair share of installation works, most notably “Even Clean Hands Leave Marks and Damage Surfaces.” What Beasly, Cukovic, and Glenn created with minimalism for that exhibition, the crews behind Soft and “_____” do with a little more obvious intervention.

This is art that speaks strongly to its time and this place, in terms of materials, message, and a real understanding of the environment and our place in it. Increasing environmental awareness in younger generations means that the landscape is no longer viewed as something separate, but that we’re all part of an interconnected ecosystem. These shows reflect well then what it means to live and create in Detroit at this point in history. And the folks behind “Theoretically Soft” and “____ & _____” , primarily CCS students with the guidance and coaching of teachers Denise Fanning and Chido Johnson respectively, have made a lot from the rawness that is the Russell Industrial Center.

While they are both installation based, “Theoretically Soft” is a little heavier on the object side than its unnamed sibling. Last fall, Fanning’s students took over the CAID (in its current incarnation), for a surprisingly successful, soft-sculpture installation show. At the Russell, the space is ginormous, which means the artists get to spread out and really play, which can at the same time be more than a little bit overwhelming to the works. There’s far too many works to describe adequately (at a reasonable length) but we can capture a bit of the flavor of what’s spread out through the main room and several addition smaller former office spaces. In all, it’s an exploration of soft materials, of course, from cloths to diaphanous plastics to fur, ranging from the surreal to the whimsical.

All in stuffed cloth, a dining table, with chairs and place settings, (oddly, sans cloth napkins) is wonderfully odd. The cuddliness of a horse is approached in a variety of works: one a multi-headed stuffed toy sprawled unceremoniously on the ground; another consists of two horse-like torsos, hair-covered, one resting on the ground with tethers, the other supported from the ceiling with its reigns; a third is a rocking horse completely covered with finger like rubber nubs – it’s soft and bumpy all at once. A mass of rubber gloves make one installation, while spray can lids (from a graffiti piece on the wall nearby) form surprisingly organic, slightly harder, sculptures. Some are more over the top visually, a conical pylon of brightly colored cloth and tassels, a room of trees and stuffed fictional birds, and more machine-like, interactive works. And then there is the most minimal of pieces, though quite engaging: in loosened yarn of some such black fiber, a spider web-like crack is “drawn” onto the wall. It works as an independent piece and in terms of integration into the building.

Which brings us directly to “_____.” If “Soft” felt like a number of isolated moments, “______” while also achieved by artists working in their own areas of the room, becomes an environment itself, with the landscape shifting between the separate works. It’s hard to know where to start in terms of description. Perhaps that which holds this building up – the support columns have all been painted in bright primaries – a nice reference to something festive and the “greatest show on earth.” Though not in three rings, there’s activity everywhere without ever feeling busy - look up, down, over, under, behind – it never quits. Near the entranceway, a giant wooden beam attached to a pipe in the ceiling, stretches almost to the floor, is free to swing and invites interaction. Up high also are colorful plastic balls on pulleys like balloons, spider webs, spinning lights, and more. One corner hosts a series of doors and doorways, a room with no walls only entrances and exits to nowhere. A concrete short wall is erected in a corner painted green, on its backside a picture of a barking dog is posted. Nearby, a half-pipe curves up a wall, sitting on sod, in front of which and also sitting on the sod, is a small pen complete with pet rabbit, on bricked floor. The center of the room is a construction of sticks, cloth, sand, junk that might be blown in the wind, constructed to make a tower and a section of stick rail road tracks. Four chairs are set up for people to sit and talk, all centered around a tiny diorama mirroring the actual setting. A room of tubes, pipes, and other junk parts integrated into the existing pipes and structure of the room, comes out looking like science-fiction machines dreamed up in a comic book by Jack “the King” Kirby. Next to this frenetic space, is a more spare room filled with plants, leading to a small completely sodded floor – perhaps a vision of suburbia amidst all this other urban decay.

At this point in history, Detroit is still not a place of opportunity in terms of economic viability. But in terms of the realm of ideas – Detroit is the unparalleled land of opportunity. If you can dream it, and get enough hands to get it built – this is the place to do it. As Marvin Anderson wrote of the Jefferson Terminal Warehouse, the Russell too is a microcosm of Detroit.

Both shows are ambitious, offer a lot of engaging works (and to be sure, some that are not quite so strong), and fun. The experience of attending both shows and traveling through the Russell’s mammoth driveways and parking lots is memorable, and overall perhaps one of the more exciting displays of contemporary art in Detroit recently. The kids are making a lot happen, and what they’ve done (and what was done thirty years ago) might offer a lesson to the more established contemporary institutions in terms of their approach towards art that speaks to this place at this time. It would be nice if there were a bit more in terms of documentation, as exists from CAID’s 1979 show. But maybe that’s a bit of the point here. As the show is a microcosm of Detroit, the ephemeral nature of the exhibition is not unlike the rise and fall of cities. They come, flourish, generate a lot of excitement, and then they’re gone. It lives on in our memories, (and with the prevalence of digital cameras, now on our blog and flickr sites.) Much like living in this place, it’s not an experience that can be catalogued, but something felt, and then carried with us where we go next. – Nick Sousanis
ws@thedetroiter.com

Job Description – Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit (CAID)

Title: Executive Director – full time (salary)

Reports to: Board Chair

Job purpose: The Executive Director provides administrative, planning, scheduling, marketing and promotional support to execute exhibitions, concerts, special events and other programs at the Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit (CAID) and its adjunct facilities. The Executive Director must become familiar with the CAID’s facilities and address technical issues that may arise prior to and during an exhibition or event. The Executive Director oversees the scheduling and management of staff and volunteers for exhibitions, concerts and all other programs.

Key responsibilities and accountabilities:

 Ensures that adequate funds are available, through grants and corporate sponsorships, to permit the organization to carry out its mission.
 Maintains the exhibition and event schedule and ensure updates are made to www.thecaid.org.
 Responds to all inquiries pertaining to exhibitions and events at the CAID and including artists, curators, members and general public.
 Develops and implements the annual exhibition and event schedule complete with participating artists, budget, exhibition and event descriptions, etc.
 Maintains and develops existing and new snail mail and e-mail lists.
 Ensures payments to staff, artists, curators and jurors are made and recorded.
 Records all financial revenues and expenses for each exhibition and event.
 Maintains and reports on general exhibition gallery and theatre needs.
 Attends full board meetings necessary to perform duties and aid business and organizational development.
 Orders and purchases general exhibition, concert and office supplies.
 Attends training necessary to develop relevant knowledge and skills.
 Other responsibilities when assigned.
Knowledge/Skills/Abilities:
 Strong communication and leadership skills
 Microsoft Office experience (Word, Outlook, Excel, the Internet, etc).
 Multi-tasking abilities and strong organizational skills.
 Exhibition and event planning and staff management experience.
 Training will be provided

Compensation:
 Commensurate with experience.

Application Deadline: June 30, 2007

Send resume with cover letter to:
CAID (Executive Director Application), 5141 Rosa Parks Blvd, Detroit MI 48208

Inquiries may be directed to info@thecaid.org or 313.899.CAID