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SHIFTER6 : SURFACE TENSION
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A further exploration of liminality that was embarked upon in the previous two issues (“On Translation,” “Desire and the Other”).
Surface Tension
n. A property of liquids arising from unbalanced molecular cohesive forces at or near the surface, as a result of which the surface tends to contract and has properties resembling those of a stretched elastic membrane.
Once again I am interested in the idea of a linguistic surface or skin that is constructed to order and define; and liminality as a threshold point where this order can potentially become problematized or disrupted. Mistranslation, erasure, disjunction, amputation.
Participants:
Kristin Anderson
Bethany Wright
David Rothenberg
Shinsuke Aso
Nora Schultz
Kerry Downey
Jean Alexander Frater
Heather Nagami
Dorothy Albertini
Todd Ayoung
Carlos Andrade
Jonathan VanDyke
Dylan Graham
Ana Prvacki
Isaac Payne
Editor:
Sreshta Rit Premnath
David Rothenberg grew up in Orange County, California and now lives and works in New York City. He received a BFA in Photography from Parsons School of Design in 2004 and is currently completing his MFA at Bard College.
Nora Schultz lives and works in Frankfurt, Germany. From 1998 – 2005 she attended Staatliche Hochschule fuer Bildende Kuenste, Frankfurt. In 2000 she participated in exchange studies at Willem de Kooning Akademie, Rotterdam, NL. In 2005 she was Meisterschuelerin of Prof. Mark Leckey and won the Ermenegildo Zegna Scolarship. Since 2005 she is an MFA candidate at Bard College, NY, USA.
Dorothy Albertini lives and works in the Hudson Valley. She works with the Bard Prison Initiative, a college program in two area prisons. She also works with students at the non-prison campus who volunteer as tutors in prison. She’s working on her MFA in writing at Bard College, thinking about form and translation and prison.
Dylan Graham lives and works in Amsterdam. His work has been shown at various galleries in cities including New York, Amsterdam, London, Cologne and Berlin. He has won several awards including theOrange Art Award in 2005, and the NPS Culture Prize in 2000
Jonathan VanDyke is an artist based in Brooklyn, New York. He graduated from Washington and Lee University with a B.A. in Art and Sociology in 1995; in 2004 he received his MFA in sculpture from Bard College. From 1997- 2000 VanDyke served as Executive Director of the Susquehanna Art Museum in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where he curated more than 20 exhibitions. Since 2001 he has pursued his artistic work while based in New York City. He investigates manners of seeing and attentiveness. Projects in 2005 include a room-size installation at the Islip Art Museum and a large-scale outdoor work, “Involuntary House,” at Socrates Sculpture Park in Queens, NY.
Shinsuke Aso was born and grew up in Gumma, Japan. He received a BFA from the School of Visual Arts in 2004. He has worked closely with members of Gumma avant-garde art scene since he was a high school student. It was here that he experienced how contemporary art relates to people’s lives in rural Japan. Aso’s current project SAPC (Shinsuke Aso PostCard)” is a long term performance in which he creates postcards from found papers and cardboards and sells them for 25 cents each.
Kerry Downey lives and works in New York City. She is a mixed media artist and member of Flux Factory, a non-profit arts collective in Queens. Her piece Whitewashed in this issue of Shifter was created for a show entitled Almost Something. By working directly on one of Flux Factory’s gallery walls- already rich in history- she built up new layers of surface through various mediums. Drawing on the integrity of labor of those workers who paint over graffiti and who clean up gallery walls, she painted over her work with that ubiquitous five gallon drum of white latex paint. The painting was almost entirely erased. What has been left becomes a document of history and a lexicon of textural possibilities. Kerry will begin Hunter’s MFA program in painting the Spring semester of 2006.
Todd Ayoung + Carlos Andrade have been collaborating since 2000. This work uses familiar portraits of political figures as a way to engage the moving or stationary spectator in the crisis or clash of empires. This crisis is not foreign or taking place elsewhere but severs our very subjectivity in the place we stand. In their piece “Beheaded” included in this issue heads of political leaders are encased in white metal light boxes and float in a void of whiteness. These heads are digital traces of current media representations that are uncanny because of the distortions caused by overlapping and transparency. One head presents itself as more familiar than another or one head seems to dominate the others. Is this empire-building at work?
Ana Prvacki is an artist and a creative cheerleader living and working in New York and Singapore. She has recently launched her own lifestyle consultancy company Ananatural Production.
Jean Alexander Frater is currently completing her MFA in Sculptural Practices, at the School of Art Institute of Chicago. She received her BA in Philosophy, from University of Dayton. In an effort to find meaning in art and life, Jean extracts elements from everyday objects, in what she defines as poetic experimentation, in an effort to both understand and convey a particular concept. She believes that each object, material, medium and tool add layers of complexity to any form or effort of communication, and it is through exchange – the telling, the understanding, the showing, the hearing – that the richness of human relationships are shaped; and this richness (or simplicity) becomes meaningful through the activation of both maker and viewer.
Heather Nagami’s first book, Hostile, will be published by Chax Press in October 2005. Her poems have appeared in Antennae, Rattle, and Xcp (Cross-Cultural Poetics). Heather received a B.A. in Literature/Creative Writing at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and an M.F.A. at University of Arizona, where she also taught poetry and edited Sonora Review. With her fiancé, Bryan, she runs overhere press, a small press that publishes hand-bound chapbooks with an emphasis on poets of color and other underrepresented peoples.
Isaac Payne was born in Pocatello, ID and raised in Tacoma, WA. He received his BFA in 2003 from The Cleveland Institute of Art and his MFA in 2005 from The City University of New York at Queens College. His recent work consists of large charcoal drawings and mixed-media works on paper that reflect on the landscape as a place of human passage and habitation. He presented his MFA Thesis-Show (solo exhibition) in April 2005 at Queens College in Flushing, NY. His work is included in the private collections of Dan and Linda Silverberg, and Jayne and Robert Zweig.
Bethany Wright is a poet / performance-installation artist living and working in rural Valley Falls, NY. Author of three chapbooks, Indeed, Insist (a mystery) [Ugly Duckling Presse, 2005], Report From Lower Telenasia and Get Him to Swallow (Split/) Places [both self-published, 2002], her work has recently appeared in Swerve, The Brooklyn Rail, Unarmed, Bird Dog and Arson. Wright has collaborated extensively with sound artist Seth Nehil, eventually culminating in a multimedia operatic cycle entitled remote [2004], and with AREA, a performance collective based in Portland, OR. She co-founded and continues to edit FO A RM magazine, a forum for interdisciplinary arts research.
Kristin Anderson is a multidisciplinary conceptual artist based in New York City. Her works have been exhibited internationally including the USF Contemporary Art Museum (FL), Museum of New Art (Detroit, MI), Lancaster Museum of Art (PA), LMCC (NYC), Gigantic Art Space (NYC), Pablo’s Birthday (NY), ~scope New York (NYC), Nextwave Festival (Australia), ArtConcept Festival (Russia), and ISEA (Japan). She is represented by Kasia Kay Art Projects (Chicago) and has recently completed a residency granted by chashama (NY). Anderson is on the Advisory Board of NURTUREart Non-Profit (NY).
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