Nicole Awai: Almost Undone

Dates: Saturday, September 17th, 2011 – Saturday, October 29th, 2011

Location: 167 East 73rd Street, New York, NY 10021

Hours: Wednesday – Saturday, Noon – 6pm, or by appointment

Admission: Free

Opening: Friday, September 16th, 2011, 6pm – 9pm (RSVP required)

Press Contact: Anne Schruth; 212.472.2500/anne.schruth@vilcek.org

An artist finds her footing on liminal terrain

Nicole Awai unveils mixed-media installation at the Vilcek Foundation Gallery

Premiering September 17th at the Vilcek Foundation Gallery, in

New York City, is Almost Undone, a new installation by mixed-media artist Nicole Awai.

Featuring drawings from an earlier series by the Trinidadian native, entitled Specimens from

Local Ephemera, the drawings in this new exhibition will serve as visual anchors for emergent

pieces that seem to suspend, exude⎯even escape⎯their wall-bound origins, symbolizing the

transition of Ms. Awai’s work from one dimension into the next.

Local Ephemera, which began as a series of preparatory drawings for a sculpture Ms. Awai

presented at the 2003 Biennial of Ceramic in Contemporary Art in Italy, was later developed by

the artist into a stand-alone series of works. Occupying a liminal space, these drawings depict

various artifacts, both contemporary and historical, to reveal a world constantly in flux⎯the

world of in between and inside out. It’s a dynamic plane of shifting perception, but one framed

within a technical drawing format, thus lending it structure while weaving themes often found

in Ms. Awai’s other work⎯of duality, location, and cultural reprocessing.

In all her works, Ms. Awai draws upon multiple sources for inspiration⎯from popular media and

design to the history of art and a curiosity about the human migratory experience. Almost

Undone is no exception. In this new work, she incorporates materials as varied as cast and

sprayed paper, resin, plastic, nail polish, clay⎯even a telephone pole. The results are bold,

complex three-dimensional structures, which seem to pull, stretch, and tear from the wall, and

the memory of their two-dimensional predecessors.

Of Ms. Awai’s new installation, art historian Courtney J. Martin said, “Employing elements like nail varnish, and by crafting new surfaces, Nicole Awai’s works on paper and sculpture offer a fantastical, yet studied, take on the traditional mediums. This new body of work shows off her instinctual understanding of form and color, adding a thought provoking extension to her practice.”

Ms. Awai earned her Master’s Degree in Multimedia Art from the University of South Florida. She

now lives and works in Brooklyn, New York, and currently serves as Critic at the Yale School of

Art. Her work has been included in several seminal exhibitions, including the first Greater New

York: New Art in New York Now, at P.S. 1/MoMA (2000), the 2008 Busan Biennale in Korea,

Infinite Island: Contemporary Caribbean Art (2007), and Open House: Working in Brooklyn; the

latter two held at the Brooklyn Museum. Ms. Awai was also a featured artist in the 2005 I.P.O.

series at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

The Vilcek Foundation was established in 2000 by Jan and Marica Vilcek, immigrants from the

former Czechoslovakia. The mission of the Foundation, to honor the contributions of foreignborn

scholars and artists living in the United States, was inspired by the couple’s careers in

biomedical science and art history, respectively, as well as their personal experiences and

appreciation for the opportunities they received as newcomers to this country. The Foundation

hosts events to promote the work of immigrants, and awards annual prizes to prominent

immigrant biomedical scientists and artists who make outstanding contributions to American

society.

To learn more about the Vilcek Foundation, visit www.vilcek.org.

9 of 219 by Jamaican Artist Ebony G. Patterson in Alice Yard.

Ebony G. upfront (Rodell Warner)

July 25th, 2011. Alice Yard, Port of Spain, Trinidad.

9 of 219 . This piece had all the fixings of a good ole fashioned wake: from flambeau to candle and a procession of 9 coffins around the portion of the Woodbrook block that is home to Alice Yard Contemporary Artspace and then some. Woodbrook was already abuzz for most the day before the 7pm performance-based work by Patterson.

Flambeau and candle

Woodbrook police station was reportedly inundated with calls from concerned neighbours about the goings on at Roberts Street. These “goings on” actually prompted an investigation by a party of officers who responded to calls about “somebody dragging around a coffin on Roberts street, whole day,” and even Port of Spain’s Mayor himself paid a visit, warning us about the Yard’s lack of proper procedure in procuring permission for the performance and that the performance should not by any means take place on the “street”.

Ebony G. and the popo

6 of 9 of 219 coffins Alice Yard, The Lower Annex

Not withstanding all of the various official “visits”, by 8pm it was clear that Patterson’s project was going to happen, and the faithful gathered to bear her representations of fallen brethren: nine cosquel dancehall/bling coffins marking the number of deaths that took place during a few days of Patterson’s residency in Alice Yard. (Patterson’s aesthetic choices in the work form part of her ongoing exploration of Jamaica’s dancehall culture and its grandiose love of bling and flam couture.) Patterson is the first of a number of Caribbean artists that will be visiting the Yard over the next few months to celebrate the art space’s fifth anniversary, entitled Act 5.

Ebony G. Patterson (Jamaica/U.S.A.), Entourage, 2010. Digital print. (courtesy the artist)

As the pallbearers (both men and women, an oddity in the Caribbean where pallbearers are typically men and noted by one onlooker as empowering for women within this context) traversed the Woodbrook streets accompanied by 3 Canal. Patterson and 3 Canal collaborated to create a dirge of culled newspaper recollections/musings of Patterson’s, fused with 3 Canal’s own Pitter Patter riddum. It soon became obvious to everyone, documenters, onlookers, pallbearers et al, that this work had more shared resonance than anyone could have imagined at the beginning of the experiment.

3 of 9 of 219 coffins, Alice Yard, The Box

The Procession clip (Artzpub Videos)

The Procession in Woodbrook

Ebony G. Patterson and Christopher Cozier

Artist Luis Vasquez on crime and Caracas

Patterson, in a later talk about her work, drew similarities to our murder rate and that of Jamaica’s, prompting a lively comparison of safety and securities/ insecurities in our Caribbean environment, and our perceptions of what safety and security really mean. One Venezuelan-born artist commented on the fact that coming from a city of 5000 murders a year with a population of 5 million, to Trinidad, where there’s a murder rate of “only” 300 a year, he felt a sense of safety and security that he clearly didn’t have in Venezuela. Patterson also noted how the work and its development entered into a type of political space that she hadn’t initially foreseen.

Kelvon was a people's person and plenty people liked him because he liked to give jokes. He liked to chant and give freestyles (rap chants). Everybody in the neighbourhood saying it was something that wasn't meant for him.- (Antoinette George on the death of her son Kelvon 16)

Thank you for this...

One member of the procession thanked Patterson for the opportunity to attach a self to the often faceless murders and people reported, to get the chance to know, even if briefly, or rather, have ownership for and a bond maybe, with this representation of a person that on a regular day we may actually avoid, by ducking a newspaper or a crime reportage because we may have had enough. The ‘work’ discussions prompted more side discussions and branches to the exploratory tree than can be mentioned here. However, these are a few: males, the masculinity of crime, our acceptance or desensitization to murder due in part to violence in the media, You Tube etc, the disposal of the dead and what it means, superstitions and beliefs about funerals and their social importance, and so much more.

Some of Patterson’s work has left me speechless, just by its sheer magnificence. 9 of 219 is one of them.

Artists Ebony G., Ashraph and Darren Cheewah (pix by Rodell Warner)

9 of 219: Ebony G. Patterson’s new work at Alice Yard

There are nine coffins in Alice yard. One of them is coated in sparkly blue glitter; one of them is wrapped in gold lace and red plastic doilies, dotted here and there with diamantes. This is new work by Jamaican artist, Ebony G Patterson.

Patterson has been in Trinidad for nearly two weeks on an Alice Yard artist residency. This body of work, called 9 of 219, literally describes the number of murders that happened in Trinidad during a few days of her time here. It also continues her examination of Jamaican dancehall culture. In this case, the coffins form part of her interpretation of a “Bling Funeral”, in which, as she explains, Jamaicans from inner city communities wear dancehall fashion and bling to funerals.

We’re inviting everyone to come and see the work at Alice Yard (80 Roberts Street) on Monday, July 25th at 7pm. The night will begin with a candlelight vigil, so walk with your candles!

About Ebony G.:

Born a native of Kingston , Jamaica in 1981,Ebony G. Patterson graduated from the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts in 2004, where she received an Honors Diploma in Painting and from Sam Fox College of Art and Design at the Washington University in St. Louis in 2006, with a Masters in Fine Arts in Printmaking and Drawing.

The artist has participated in several group exhibitions in Jamaica and abroad since 2001, her most recent recent exhibits include:, The National Biennial 2008 and 2010, Kingston, Jamaica, Infinite Island: Contemporary Caribbean Art, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY, 2007, Curated by Tumelo Mosaka, Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art Brooklyn Museum, Curator’s Eye III: Ceremony in Space, Time and Sound, National Gallery of Jamaica, Kingston, Jamaica,2008, curated by Keith Morrison, Boys of Summer, Monique Meloche Gallery, Chicago, Illinois, 2008, Art on Paper 2008, Weatherspoon Art Museum, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro ,North Carolina, 2008, New Blue Emerging- First Kentucky Art Biennial, Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft, Louisville, KY,2008,NEXT: The Invitational Exhibition of Emerging Art , Merchandise Mart Chicago , IL, 2008, Looky See, Summer Drawing Exhibit, Otis College of Art , Los Angeles California,2008, Rockstone and Bootheel :Contemporary West Indian Art, Real Artways Hartford, CT, The Ghetto Biennale, Grand- Rue, Port- Au –Prince, Haiti 2009, Young Talent V, National Gallery of Jamaica , Kingston , Jamaica, 2010,curated by Dr. David Boxer and Veerle Poupeye, Shot in Jamaica, Alice Yard, Port- of- Spain , Trinidad, 2010, curated by Christopher Cozier and O’Neil Lawrence and You are here/Vous êtes ici/ Usted esta aqui, The Foundation Clemente, La Francais, Martinique,2010,Gully Godz in Conversations, Monique Meloche Gallery( On the Wall Project ), Chicago, IL ,curator Tumelo Mosaka 2011

About Alice Yard:

This was once the house of Sean Leonard’s great-grandmother. Four generations of children played and imagined in this yard, and now we continue this tradition. Alice Yard is a space for creative experiment, collaboration, and improvisation.

Alice Yard is administered and curated by architect Sean Leonard, artist Christopher Cozier, writer and editor Nicholas Laughlin, and musician Sheldon Holder, with the help of a growing network of creative collaborators.

http://aliceyard.blogspot.com/

DRACONIAN SWITCH ISSUE 16

Curated by Lowery Sims and Leslie King Hammond The GLOBAL AFRICA PROJECT is an unprecedented exhibition exploring the broad spectrum of contemporary African art, design, and craft worldwide, The Global Africa Project premiered at the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) in November 2010 and closed in May 2011. Featuring the work over 100 artists working in Africa, Europe, Asia, the United States, and the Caribbean, The Global Africa Project surveyed the rich pool of new talent emerging from the African continent and its influence on artists around the world.

download your copy of the issue here:

http://www.artzpub.com/content/draconian-switch/issue-16

TORTURE & PLEASURE

courtesy TNT REVIEW

By AKINDELE HICKLING

Twin chairs when yuh want to sit in ah circle and get out of here.

“Is it really that good down there?” a beautiful stranger and her friend asked in passing, as I sat four inches above the ground on an expansive slab of installation furniture designed by artist cum furniture designer, Dean Arlen. “Actually, it is… and you are welcome to join me; in fact I think it was designed that way.” I replied with a relaxed smile and a delayed understanding that innuendo was suggested, having never been implied.
That experience summarizes the distilled essence of the AlterEgo Project; a collection of teak, mahogany and deceptively hewn, metal-accentuated furniture, currently on exhibition in the lobby of Scrip-J, at the Fernandez Industrial Complex.
The pieces of furniture by Arlen are subversive information-objects with a greater sense of their own understated complexity and much more refinement than one would normally expect to find in simple conversation pieces.

Valerie Taylor in serene surrender. —Photo: AKINDELE HICKLING

The root of the expression itself appears to be discourse. Rooted in this exploration are questions that include but are not limited to: what’s the appropriate angle for comfortable engagement in the act of eating a meal? Or lounging, over drinks, while liming with friends? And do these activities necessarily involve a table at all? These and other post-modern constructs root the AlterEgo Project squarely in this, our Caribbean context.
At first glance the seating objects appear to be a series of rough and unrefined throwbacks to medieval torture apparatus that one would expect to find amidst Gregorian chanting and steamy, sweaty, sessions of somewhat Spanish Inquisition. Yet surprisingly, on engaging with these objects, one is instantly converted from distant notions of the divine. The work presented is shocking and inviting and inexorably pragmatic.

They had supper on a ledge front view.

EXPERIENCE
If there was to be a thesis put forward on the Caribbean cultural experience of furniture, the AlterEgo Project would certainly be a contender; it looks like nothing you have experienced and feels like nothing you want to forget. Unabashed and unwavering, with subtlety and sinew in each gentle caress, effortlessly each piece reveals itself to you; thrusting upon you as a deeper understanding of your own proclivities.
The AlterEgo Project has as its premise, contradiction. On the outset the furniture appears to be stark and disproportionate, acute and unrefined, with defiant angles projecting into space, as if to impale predetermined notions on the flank of the collective subconscious. The feeling of the slippery surfaces, on the contrary, is somewhat disavowed of such solemn notions as the innovative hardwood furniture brings to bear a crashing juxtaposition of disparate propositions: the veritable hot-bed (or seat) of discourse and interaction.

ERGONOMICS
Without a single curve in sight, the obtuse angles tend either toward a hundred and twenty degrees or punctuate at right angles, with a chiseled hammertoe, in the case of “Back up Yu Backing”. Elongated and equipped for the fight, defiant and irregular, one would instantly approach these pieces with a sense of trepidation.
Arlen himself stated that during the development process, strong conversations emerged, wherein fundamental lines were drawn regarding the concept and requisite notions of ergonomics and comfort. The chairs simply look deathly uncomfortable; yet once you experience them, you cannot really look at other chairs in quite the same way.
The low-to-the-ground reclining position, of “Deck Me, Deck Dem” and the comparable “A Funny Looking Aztec Thing”, is infused with post-modern expressions of Caribbean posturing. “The angles, the ergonomics… notions of interaction, of lounging…” Arlen articulated some of the ways in which the pieces of furniture in the AlterEgo Project were specifically designed to “make political statements about the expectations of dining and of social interaction.”
The reinterpretation of coffee-table armchairs—“When Yu Want To Sit in Ah Circle An Get out of Here”—connect the shoulder-line of the deeply seated patron in a natural and gently sweeping arc, veering gracefully towards the wrist in a relaxed yet somewhat aggressive posture; instead of the neatly tucked elbows one would expect to find in otherwise diplomatic, polite-conversations on the molded plastic forebear, adorning the adjacent conference room facilities of the gracious exhibition hosts. The stark reality of our existence has rarely before come so clearly into focus.
One could almost expect to find the iconoclastic pieces from the AlterEgo Project in the lobbies of Ian Schrager upmarket resorts in bustling urban centers, adorned by intermingling cosmopolitan jet-setters; or in bleeding edge museums of contemporary modern art in Paris, Barcelona, New York or LA.

Keri McLennon gets down to work. —Photo: AKINDELE HICKLING

ASSEMBLAGE
Arlen describes the works, assembled in collaboration with Richard Taylor and David Blake, as inspired by Japanese aesthetics and sensibilities: interlocking and democratic. The joints are all composed without a single nail or screw, and wherever a screw presents, it is a textured appliqué used to underplay the sophistication of the finished joinery. Even the pieces of furniture that appear to be rough and unrefined are all smoothly sanded with no perceivable flaws.
Completing this masking effect of intrigue and “mis-under-estimation”, the spot-welded metal finish joints are also smooth to the touch and free of imperfection. They present to the unsuspecting public, the appearance of the anticipated standard of poor workmanship. The detailing and joinery, from assembly to finish, were thoughtfully considered and impeccably applied.
“Mas, ah see yu!”

COMMENTARY
In passing, a few of the patrons at the launch of the exhibition, first expressed perplexity and dis-interest in engaging with the seemingly foreign objects; stating generally that the pieces looked heavy, inarticulate and somewhat unrefined.
As the evening progressed, other patrons commented that although the furniture was engaging, the venue restricted the full appreciation of such expressive objects. Presented from this perspective, it is easy to understand that one may find it difficult to get a full appreciation of the AlterEgo Project without simply sitting down to experience the distinct works in the series.
Most intriguing to experience and observe were the experiences between the patrons and the objects themselves; invariably the response would be… “Oh Goooooood… this is lovely… the good part is the sliding in… This is nice boy!” followed more often than not by “Dean, you are a genius boy!”
Consistently, the intrigue and trepidation was dispelled by the first experience of the salubrious surfaces. Cautiously and gently, “I just have to slide into it… “ returned a nervous and particularly attractive young lady, rendered speechless by the experience… accentuated only by “oh woooooow!”
And then along came a noteworthy designer, clearly presenting a widely held position on the quizzical “Deck Me, Deck Dem” by stating simply: “Oh no! At 46 and fabulous, we don’t go that low.” Within a few minutes however, he too was a convert. On emerging from the experience, a Freudian slip put the experience clearly into perspective: It looks conceiving… I mean deceiving.
The overarching response from those who experienced the AlterEgo Project was that the pieces of furniture were each in their own unique ways, “all surprisingly comfortable”. The AlterEgo Project is a refreshing alternative to customarily feigned highbrow social commentary. It gets you where it counts: in your imagination.
Towards the end of the evening, an older, much more conservative lady was overheard remarking, quite in passing, “this is built with men in mind;” a reference made to the aptly titled, asymmetrically composed “When Ah Want to Skin Up and Let De Breez Cool Dem Dong”.

FINAL WORDS
The key to understanding the objects, Arlen concluded, was evident in the observation of a child in the distance exploring the deep inner recesses of his imagination in interactions with the pieces: “If he plays long enough, to him it can become a spaceship;” a statement in part that underscores the significance of liberating one’s own perspectives to engage in renewable discourse.
Arlen outlined initiatives for a continuation of the discourse with artists and artisans across the twin island Republic, and presents the AlterEgo Project as a successful case study in a series of wider initiatives to engage with communities-like one such in Aripo-carving out innovative models for creative and cultural industries development and authentic social engagement across the society at the intra-community level: encouraging the making of objects in keeping with our identity, presence and experience.
If the Alter Ego Project is any indication of design capabilities emerging from this, our Caribbean, then imported notions of design excellence may have quite a bit to contend with in the wake of this phenomenal display.
The core capabilities that identify Trinidad and Tobago as a design epicenter of the Caribbean have presented themselves most auspiciously with Dean Arlen’s AlterEgo Project.
The ultimate goal emerging from the AlterEgo Project and related initiatives by Arlen, is to establish community-based Design Labs to fuel the creative capacity of grassroots innovators, most commonly referred to in the work of Lloyd Best as “maroon firms”.
The question most readily asked by Arlen through the AlterEgo Project-once you get past the shock factor and high-value design proposition is-how can community-based grassroots-design- nitiatives, similar to and including the AlterEgo Project, be brought to the fore of national and regional agendas, as priorities at the cornerstone of sustainable social and economic development?