from left: photographer SERGEJ VUTUC, with 2 pals: photographer LARS GREIWE, originally from Germany, now Barcelona-based. and DAVID COULIAU, a French documentary photographer currently working on a project in NYC.
SERGEJ VUTUC was born in Bosnia, lived in Croatia, the area we know as the Balkans, and currently resides in Germany.
LELE (LEON ZUODAR). LELE hails from Slovenia. also part of the Balkans.
also from SLOVENIA: MIHA – LELE’S longtime – painting partner.
at first me and Lars and David – tried to score fish tacos – at the ROCKAWAY FISH TACO joint – but it was too late – but there was still some action . . .
on the ad hoc – skate ‘park’ !!
we finally settled on burgers – on the Rockaway boardwalk steps – looking out towards the ocean !!
DAVID COULIAU and LARS GREIWE – were fun . . . small world I actually meet them on the way over. can you believe – sitting directly opposite to me – on that damn A train. what are the odds on that. I had them pegged for the event, Lars had a skateboard and looked pro. I was determined to remain NYC cool – but when they started talking to each other in heavy accents, (sorry dudes. it’s true, but it was total charming) – I did actually say: are you on the way to ELK ? and, Lordy, the answer was: yes.
so I got to hear so much about their scene . . . LARS had just completed a month long skateboard jaunt across the USA – while David is a cameraman/photog with wonderful tales of Paris, told with the flourish – only a documentary photographer could sketch out. He is currently up in Harlem – working with his brother on a documentary about street basketball culture – in NYC.
David had seen Ondi Timoner’s first Sundance winner – DIG! – while Lars had heard tell of WE LIVE In PUBLIC.
yeah, the venue was the real deal. raw raw and more raw.
JOCKO WEYLAND. writer, curator, zine publisher. and the founder of ELK GALLERY – which started off as a zine-based project. and . . . the driving force behind the Rockaway show.
rock, rock, Rockaway . . .
classic, SERGEJ VUTUC . . .
SERGEJ VUTUC . . .
photos by SERGEJ VUTUC – words not necessary.
though this one seemed really ironic – reason why: don’t know. it just rocks.
SERGEJ VUTUC.
LELE’S corner . . .
LELE . . .
LELE . . .
LELE . . .
LELE . . .
ok, one more. LELE . . .
checking out the show . . .
waiting for the band . . .
which turned out to be the hard driving . . . DIRTY FENCES.
the DIRTY FENCES . . . Ramones inspired.
DIRTY FENCES, frontman JOHN JACKSON DAVES, center with mike . . with Max. Max and Max.
DIRTY FENCES . . .
Max – their drummer and also a singer. DIRTY FENCES.
it was a big guy thing – and, yeah. they got down and rowdy to the music.
up a short flight of stairs – there was a zine wall – of SERGEJ VUTUC publications – to be sampled.
on the left: that’s photographer/zine maker PHIL JACKSON, out of Philly in the cape – who I heard is pretty good. with friend Lee.
see: PHIL JACKSON PHOTOGRAPHY
SERGEJ VUTUC on the right . . nothing like having the author/photog on hand. or what.
skateboard focused zine – by SERGEJ VUTUC.
beautiful. SERGEJ VUTUC . . .
left: NAOMI. on the right: ELANA LANGER.
I saw Elana’s work back in 2005 or so – she did that great great set-up. . . ‘animated’ desk accessories.
at that ‘art at work’ show.
DAVID SELIG of Rockaway Tacos – and one of the reasons why the Rockaways – rock.
AMANDA McDONALD CROWLEY, executive director of Soho’s Eyebeam Gallery & Project space . . .
STEFANI BARDIN, currently an artist-in-residence at Eyebeam . . .
on the long way back. LARS GREIWE . . . on the shuttle bus.
miles and miles of new construction look-alike suburbs all around – really, unbelievable.
we were all wondering: what the hell was there, before ?
I guess Lars hit New Orleans on his month-long U.S.A. skate jaunt . . .
we’ll give him . . . the last word:
LIFE ITSELF IS STILL BEAUTIFUL.
amen.
all in all – a real nice night.
even the traveling – was fun . . . so fun to be a tourist – in your own hometown !!
ALL PHOTOS BY – AND COPYRIGHT OF: NANCY SMITH.
~SERGEJ VUTUC & LELE LIVE FROM USA/OPENING PIX !! |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | September 18th, 2011, 6:15pm
SERGEJ VUTUC and LELE Live from USA
opening reception: Sat Sept 18, 2011 // 7-10 PM
the show runs Sept 17 – 25, 2011 (so, don’t blink !!)
Hours: 2-9 PM – SEPT 18, 22-25.
ELK GALLERY – 97-01 SHORE FRONT PARKWAY at 97th Street – enter on Parkway side underneath the concessions
Rockaway, Queens, NY
Up on the roof, out on the street , down in the playground the hot concrete. In a bunker maze under the boardwalk permeated by a worn-out post-Soviet Bloc ambience SERGEJ VUTUC and LELE will inaugurate a journey through distant locales, via Vutuc’s black and white photographs of inactivated structures, nighttime blur, and blemishes on bodies of both aged and young, and conversely colorful, raw, and scabrous Slovenian-bred Art Brutesque paintings and drawings by LELE.
Floutas, cukes, cake, and liquor will be upstairs, and the Atlantic Ocean is just fifty yards away.
The subterranean architecture perfectly suits Vutuc’s paradoxically celebratory documentation of somewhere still feeling the repercussions of the fall of communism, with the not-meant-to-be-used seen through a cloudy scrim of abused film. A rounded corner with an inexplicable negative space in the middle, and discarded pieces of wood transformed into jerry-rigged functional sculptural contraptions. From south (and north, west and east) of the Danube these brooding, powerful, mysterious, and sometimes really funny photographs evince an innately strong individual outlook and poignant mood that translates no matter if you skateboard or not or what language you speak.
Displayed in a warren of dank concrete storage rooms, the images exude honesty mixing tattered beauty and morose reality in the service of muddied, distressed, and truthful glory. Counterbalanced by his friend and frequent collaborator (on Art of Asfalt, The Hat cr3w, and Plemplem) Leon Zuodar’s (aka LELE) humorous, rough, and unbridled mixings of text and image dripping with saturated colors, these sons of Doboj and Postojna will harmonize with each other on a very specific beachfront Balkan frequency.
A subtle silver nitrate chiaroscuro take on what’s out there – forlorn trees, vistas, roads, shadows in the shadows – will intermingle with its brotherly antithesis.
With this installation and some actual ad hoc skate structures built on the spot the viewer can chew out a rhythm on their bubble gum, attack a jacked 1/4 pipe, look at the pictures, fall down, get up, dance, and ride the wall.
The sun is out . . . so come get some, at Rockaway Beach.
Performances by the WOES and the Dirty Fences will also happen, as will the serendipitously concurrent celebration of the first full year of legal bee keeping in New York – the Honey Fest !!
~from the ELK press release
see: ELK ZINE GALLERY
see: SERGEJ VUTUC . . . yo dude – don’t miss this link !!
see: Dirty Fences
see: the WOES
see: New York City Honey Fest – buzz, buzz, bees !!
and, yes – it will be sunny !! today’s weather report c/o THE NEW YORK POST:
Today: Partly sunny and pleasant !! High 64 to 70. Tonight: Partly cloudy. Low 51 to 57.
TRAIN:
note: the A train is messed up on the weekends in question – but its not really a problem – if they would only provide some simple instructions – down there. here they are:
WEEKENDS: take the A train – direction Queens – there are 2 A trains, make sure you get on the one that says: FAR ROCKAWAY – as opposed to Lefferts. Ride that straight through till Howard Beach/JFK. get off – its the last stop anyways – & – follow the locals – making sure to get that green free pass/ticket for the shuttle bus – which an MTA agent hands out at the door of that immediate exit. Take the shuttle bus – you want the shuttle that goes to SHOREFRONT PARKWAY – and get off at 98 Street – which is the 2nd stop. sniff the air for the ocean – and walk down. you’ll see the concession building – you can’t miss it – its the only building on the beach !! have fun . . .
From Manhattan:
A train to Far Rockaway. Transfer at Broad Channel to the S (shuttle) train. Stops at 90th, 98th, 105th, and 116th. Get off the train (at 98th for the gallery) and walk 2 blocks up to the boardwalk.
L train to Broadway Junction. Transfer to the A to Far Rockaway. see above.
From Brooklyn:
J or Z train to Broadway Junction. Transfer to the A to Far Rockaway. see above.
CAR:
find yourself on the BQE towards Staten Island/Verrazano Bridge. Follow signs to the Belt Parkway West (veering left). Take exit 11S for Flatbush Ave S towards Rockaways. Merge onto Flatbush and continue onto Marine Pkwy Bridge. Toll to and from is $3.25. Continue straight onto Beach Channel Dr. Continue onto Rockaway Freeway. Take a right at 108th to Shorefront Pkwy.
PHOTO BY SERGEJ VUTUC – COURTESY of ELK GALLERY
PAINTING by LELE – IMAGE COURTESY of ELK GALLERY
NYC HONEY FEST LOGO & IMAGE COURTESY: New York City Honey Festival: get the buzz . . about “everybody’s favorite pollinator” !!
~SERGEJ VUTUC & LELE LIVE FROM USA .. opens to-nite |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | September 17th, 2011, 7:47am
ANDREW GUENTHER – “TALKING TO A FISH AND PARAPHERNALIA”
opens to-nite THURS SEPT 15, 2011 / 6-8 PM
the show runs: SEPT 15 – OCT 22, 2011
FREIGHT+VOLUME – 530 W 24th ST – NEW YORK
“like the bodiless heads you see sometimes in circus sideshows, it is as though I have been surrounded by mirrors of hard, distorting glass. When they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves, or figments of their imagination – indeed, everything and anything except me.” – RALPH ELLISON (Invisible Man).
~from the F+V press release
note: PIX – FROM THE OPENING – POSTING EARLY NEXT – WEEK – !!
~F+V: ANDREW GUENTHER/Talking to a fish .. opens to-nite |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | September 15th, 2011, 9:50am
HR GIGER – ‘Biomechanoid’, 1969
OPENING To-NITE / THURS SEPT 15, 2011 / 6-9 PM
the show runs SEPT 15 – OCT 16, 2011
HARD HAT – 39, rue des Bains, Geneve, Switzerland
Hard Hat is proud to present two historical series by HR GIGER.
Biomechanoid, eight plates from 1969, brings into focus for the first time many of the themes and formal tropes that will define the Swiss artist’s works in the following decades: a fusion between flesh and machine brewing in the concrete entrails of a future necropolis. Infused with a chilling eroticism each plate repeats, permutes and transforms a series of motifs, accounting for the successive states of the gestation of some incredible creature.
Passagen, four photographic silkscreens form 1971, repeat a single motif, printed each time in a different two-color scheme. This nightmarish image – a detail of a garbage truck – stands halfway between a vaginal orifice and the entrance of a forbidding mechanical world.
Made at a time when HR Giger’s work was predominantly shown with in the mainstream field of contemporary art, these neo-Symbolist works display an acute Pop sensibility. Both series were published by BRUNO BISHOPBERGER . . .
~from the HARD HAT press release
~HARD HAT/HR GIGER/opens to-nite |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | September 15th, 2011, 9:27am
FILE UNDER: why so serious ?
I’ve been dying to ask this – all summer ?
LEA MICHELE of GLEE / PHOTO: BEN KING/startraksphoto.com/the possessionista.com
so, did the crew behind Lea Michele’s summer 2011 photo shoot, that’s a vintage jacket apparently, bye the way . . . see Abe Lincoln Jr’s – ”your momma” ?????
I bet, yes !!
PHOTO: NANCY SMITH / PANTHEON WINDOW EXHIBIT, NYC – ‘A HISTORY OF ART FROM THE STREETS OF NYC’, APRIL 2 – 17, 2011.
ABE LINCOLN Jr. – ‘your moms went to chelsea and all you got was a shitty abstract’ !!!
see: Pantheon: art from the streets of nyc/artloversnewyork/archive
~YUK YUK ABE LINCOLN Jr/TAKE III |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | September 15th, 2011, 9:10am
TODD JORDAN JUST SENT THIS ON:
“Souvenir” for C. Chauchat . . .
WATCH: TODD JORDAN, ‘C. CHAUCHAT – FOR THAT ACCESSORY KNOWN AS MAN’/vimeo
DIRECTED BY TODD JORDAN for the tie makers C. Chauchat
VIDEO PRODUCED BY STEVE HALO – CREATIVE DIRECTION & STRATEGY BY DAN MORALES.
EDITING & POST PRODUCTION BY JEREMY JORDAN.
oh, yeah . . . and,
see: TODD JORDAN/Photographs
see: NOW I REMEMBER
see: The Heavy Mental
~TODD JORDAN/FOR THAT ACCESSORY KNOWN AS MAN |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | September 13th, 2011, 3:17pm
‘WE LIVE IN PUBLIC’ – WHERE ARE WE NOW: JOSH HARRIS
JOSH HARRIS – the HEAD HONCHO. JUPITER COMMUNICATIONS.COM, PSEUDO.COM, QUIET the MILLENNIUM PARTY TO END ALL PARTIES, and WE LIVE IN PUBLIC – the first 24/7 wired surveillance live streaming interactive web project that defined a new generation, not to forget . . the still unfolding WIRED CITY . . . ALL HIS BABIES !!
the film ‘WE LIVE IN PUBLIC’ – is his story. as director ONDI TIMONER put it: “this is the story of the greatest internet entrepreneur – you never heard of . . . ”
see: ‘WE LIVE IN PUBLIC’ – the film’s official website . . .
top floor, the old industrial building at the corner of N. 10th and Berry – in WiIliamsburg – was home to JOSH HARRIS for about a year. from pretty much about the time ALFREDO MARTINEZ was rescued from CHINA. by Josh . . . with some (diplomatic) help from writer BYRON HAWES.
see: ALFREDO/ LOST & FOUND
but the Brooklyn gig’s up – and Josh is on the move . . . whereabouts: unknown.
the day before he split, he just managed to intersect with JEFF GOMPERTZ – a close artist associate of his from the Pseudo glory days . . . Jeff had flown in from Bangkok to clear up some business, Josh has packed up and is taking off. . . these are Jeff’s shaped canvas ‘boards’ on the floor . . . m/m encaustic wax-coated – canvas paintings – stretched over sono tubes.
detail: JEFF GOMPERTZ ‘board’.
it was Josh who set up the photo shoot. as anybody who has spent any time hanging around with him, can tell you . . . if he hadn’t been a visionary internet entrepreneur – he would have made for a great magazine creative director . . .
the down side ? the legend goes that hanging out with artists – is what pulled him too far to the other side – he got so distracted . . . he didn’t keep his eye on the color of the ink in the ledger books – to make a long story, short. but the reality is: what Josh claimed all along, while he was being hailed as a web guru and new age tech geek in the mainstream media . . that he was really – an artist. and you know what, he was.
the last NYC sighting: JOSH HARRIS. . . AUGUST 12, 2011.
he said he was off to fish in Connecticut, and then on to URUGUAY, where there were developers who were gonna work on . . . THE WIRED CITY.
then came a cryptic sighting in upstate NY on AUGUST 20th – that placed him in LORDVILLE, a small rural town where Gavin, that’s Gavin Brown to you, has a cabin . . the message:
“gavin’s generator got soaked in the rain . . now all he has is solar power.”
and that was before Hurricane Irene hit !! where Josh is now – is anybody’s guess.
I guess we’re back to that to that old artlovers game – WANTED: $10 for the first new sighting of JOSH HARRIS. or:
WHERE IN THE WORLD – IS – JOSH ?
oh oh . . speak of the devil. lordy, lordy – artlovers on the screen.
RAY’S A LAUGH !!
JEFF was getting some work ready to hang in the KCDC skate shop/gallery around the corner . . .
nice. real nice.
the works had been in storage . . .
long time, no see . . and still had the original provenance tags from Jeff’s earliest forays into the New York City art world: ca. 1989 . . . ANNINA NOSEI GALLERY – 100 PRINCE ST. (!!)
since Annina was Basquiat’s first dealer – Josh seemed to get a big kick out of that.
to Jeff it was: been there done that. don’t remind me.
Jeff had pretty much soured on that scene and forgot about it by the 90’s – when he was swept up by Josh’s dot com $$ bubble – and ended up making that iconic pod hotel for QUIET . . . face it: he was just a little too smart for the art scene per se. alot of the ‘underground’ artists of the 80s and 90s found refuge, not to mention fast-paced thinking – with Josh. Alfredo and me, included.
and that’s why Josh has often been termed the web’s Andy Warhol . . . he had a real boiler room going, funded by his web ventures, big time. oh yeah. those were the dot.com days !!
Pseudo ruled. Josh aka LUVVY was the master of ceremonies. and it was a wild wild time. just flat out wild.
like I said, quelle funny how our hardcore mayhem – paved a trail – spun a web ? – to the ‘social networking’ . . of the very public interconnected dot world – we live in today.
connecting the dots. the digital dots. the very definition of art – in a nutshell.
the book cover says:
“What Chess Can Teach You About BUSINESS Even If You Never Played”.
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH, all art work by JEFF GOMPERTZ
posted on the 10th anniversary of 9/11, NYC.
~FAR OUT . . . JOSH HARRIS |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | September 12th, 2011, 9:51pm
‘WE LIVE IN PUBLIC’ – WHERE ARE WE NOW: JEFF GOMPERTZ
JEFF GOMPERTZ – ONE OF HIS HIS ART WORKS – BESIDE HIM . . . WILLIAMSBURG, BROOKLYN. NYC. AUGUST 12, 2011.
PHOTO BY NANCY SMITH
JEFF GOMPERTZ is the artist who designed and built the (sleeping) pod hotel, wired for 24/7 surveillance and multi-channel live streaming feedback – sometimes referred to in the press, as “the underground bunker” – for ‘QUIET’ – the JOSH HARRIS/PSEUDO funded year 2000 Millennium week-long party – that is the foundation of ‘WE LIVE IN PUBLIC’.
It was home to 99 artists, resident in-house crew, and associated heavy-duty partiers and hangers-on. including some paid professionals, another story. ok, it got more raunchy by the day. and yes, there was a (completely) open toilet facility and transparent ‘group’ shower at one end, and on the other – a toxic room.
The toxic room – built for ‘the end of the world’ and conceived by AIDAS BAREKIS and AARON BREWER is also a whole other story !! but suffice to say – it was just what you thought, or heard . . . a small tucked-in room full of toxic paint, open cans of chemicals, and god only knows what else. no ventilation. right next door to where 99 people slept, (and played). just another one of the no-holds barred, full-on aspects of the place, and maybe one of Josh’s little inside jokes . . . that gave QUIET, and then ‘WE LIVE IN PUBLIC” – it’s street-cred edge & hard-core reputation – not to mention a good reason for getting it shut down !!
Jeff’s pod hotel, surveillance-wired and camera-accessorized, took the form of a light-weight portable jerry-rigged grid of individual stacked box-like sleeping compartments, quickly termed the ‘pods’ by the QUIET in-house crew.
Originally inspired by traditional way cheapo Japanese journeymen sleeping ‘pod’ hotels – the 99 person transient pod home – became an accidental metaphor for the whole project: i.e. the “matrix”, the social network “grid”, the whole wired world, the wired city – the wired “hub” of the digital future. in short – the “web”.
. . . all this was way before you could even stream live video on the web, never mind FACEBOOK.
and it was way way !! funny for us, the original hard-core crew – who blew the roof off communication/public living norms – as they had been pre-2000 . . . knowing how rocking-wild the scene had been – to see how the film’s director/shaper/interpreter/storyteller: ONDI TIMONER – reduced, perhaps morphed is the better word – Jeff’s minimal, but wired !! pod grid – into the classic ‘social networking’ logo, a blue grid of clean-cut computer users in their pristine ‘preppy’ cubicles – that opens the film.
ha.
see: ‘WE LIVE IN PUBLIC’ – the movie’s official website
KCDC skateshop founder/owner AMY GUNTHER – with JEFF GOMPERTZ . . . and two of his ‘shaped’ surf/skateboard canvases . . . photographed in the on-site skateboard bowl – that animates this Williamsburg, Brooklyn-located store.
now, here’s the funny part . . . catch this:
Jeff G. had just come back to lock in some business, this past August (2011) . . . he has lived and worked out of BANGKOK, THAILAND for the past several years, and was retrieving some of his older, but futuristic forever – !! art work – when Josh, as in Harris of course – who was with him, long story short – went zooming around the corner on Berry – and asked Amy, who shows cutting edge local art in her shop – if she would exhibit some of Jeff’s work.
to her credit, Amy said yes. right away. right on the dime, the gig’s in play. well, speedsters-r-us . . . that’s just how we like to play the game, in Pseudo-land !!
but that’s not the funny part. the funny part is:
the KCDC skateshop is located at 90 N. 11th St – the very location of the ALFREDO MARTINEZ – post 9/11 – ‘WELCOME TO THE PLAYGROUND OF THE FEARLESS’ group show – featured in the previous post. shut up !!
it was Jeff who kept shaking his head – at the irony. yeah, he had had work in that Alfredo show. for sure.
I mean does the truth always go round in circles – or what ?
FAKE OUT !!
so, does the principle of YIN YANG rule – because its a round – globe – of a planet – we walk on ?
just that simple.
or is there always some kind of intrinsic beauty in life, as there is in science. in math. art ?
big questions for a skateshop gig, or what.
AMY GUNTHER of KCDC – making the world go round . . . with a JEFF GOMPERTZ ‘board’.
KCDC Skateshop – 90 N. 11th St. Brooklyn, NY 11211/tel: 1-718-387-9906
the store’s ad hoc gallery is on the other side of the bowl . . .
Jeff installing the ‘board’ work . . .
the show was titled ‘FAKE OUT’ – by Josh, I think. and for many reasons. but also as a play of words on one of Jeff’s prize projects – his website: FAKE SHOP !! (more on that, later)
JEFF GOMPERTZ, ‘Listening For Distance’, m/m on canvas, 23 x 68 in.
the shaped ‘boards’ – stretched canvas on sono tubes, m/m – multi-media, as in paint and xerox copies, with appropriated images . . .
all these ‘boards’ date from 1989, and have only gained in perspective – as far as I can see – from the vantage point of time – past. to my mind what really sets them apart, apart from the imagery and shape – and puts them straight-up counter-intuitive to real skate/surf boards – is the mute, if not downright mutant !! matte surface – the result of an encaustic wax layer that coats and permeates the already dull textured canvas, making for one – very un-shiny, very un-slick ‘board’ surface.
un-slick: I so like that. so up against-the-grain and contrarian. so, east coast, Americano.
you can see the concave aspect of the work – better, from an angle.
Jeff’s gone back to Thailand, but the show’s still up, as of Sept 11, 2011.
KCDC Skateshop/ 90 N. 11th just west of Berry.
JEFF GOMPERTZ currently works and lives in BANGKOK, THAILAND – where his most recent studio is a converted storefront . . .
where he runs a project . . . an interactive local community art web-based gig – a very post-modern ‘WE LIVE IN PUBLIC’ – called: CHATROOM – which is dialogued on facebook.
or, as Jeff himself says: “Chatroom is my studio and ‘lab’ in Bangkok, which has presented various collaborations with Bangkok artists, focusing on net and socio-political thematics.”
see: CHATROOM/facebook
and then of course . . .
there is his pet web project: FAKE SHOP
yep, check it out, or be a loser. the future is up to you.
ALL PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH.
EXCEPT FOR THE LAST 2 IMAGES – WHICH ARE SCREENGRABS/COURTESY OF JEFF GOMPERTZ: CHATROOM & FAKESHOP.
posted on the 10th anniversary of 9/11. NYC.
.
~FAKE OUT . . . JEFF GOMPERTZ at KCDC |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | September 11th, 2011, 4:30pm
‘WE LIVE IN PUBLIC’ – WHERE ARE WE NOW: ALFREDO MARTINEZ
this is the card ALFREDO . . . put out for his post 9/11show: ENTROPY / WELCOME TO THE PLAYGROUND OF THE FEARLESS – A Nobody Creative Production – curated by ALFREDO MARTINEZ, NORI JUNG & JAMES FUENTES – with spatial design by John Demas & Sarah Woods. the show ran DEC 14, 2001 – JAN 10, 2002, and was dedicated to JOHN PERRY (NYPD/NYCLU) . . . a personal friend of Alfredo’s . . .
ONWARD. UPWARD.
amen. through personally I feel every building being built there now – is fear-based. in design.
I guess, what can you do. . . in a world rocked by terrorism ? well, I have my thoughts on that – but sending a small plane through somebody’s Middle Eastern brand new skyscraper hotel – might cause the whole world to go up in flames – so I guess I better stick to covering art . . . through the word entropy does come to mind.
‘Entropy’ was one of Alfredo’s favorite words – at the time. if you know Alfredo – then you know what I mean. he catches onto a word like entropy or misanthrope – and there’s no letting go . . . .
the show was held in a big empty ground floor space in Williamsburg – 90 N. 11th ST !!
ALFREDO was one of Josh’s closest confidantes at Pseudo – regarding the art game and the big Pseudo funded millennium bash: QUIET. Yes, he ran that gun, as in big gun !! AK47 – shooting gallery in the ‘underground bunker’ basement . . . wildly featured in the film: ‘WE LIVE IN PUBLIC’ – and the gun component – helped underscore the end-of-the-world scenario – of the week-long year 2000 par-tay !! which took place downtown, in the very shadow of the Trade Center.
people ask me all the time – if those were real guns, people were shooting in the film. yes, damn straight – they were !! how did Josh and Alfredo – get over on that ?
they rigged the party as a “film production site” – which it was, or was gonnabe – with 24/7 surveillance cameras – and got the appropriate film permits !! – and complied with all the legal red tape – including having the required licensed gun prop masters on site. though they left out the bit about having the site operate simultaneously as a huge party – open to the public 24/7.
oops.
in a sad note: the NYPD, FDNY and FEMA teams that came to shut down QUIET, having nothing better to do millennium week in NYC – took a heavy toll – in the real deal – just under 2 years later.
ALFREDO currently resides in NYC – moving among a group of close pals and some favorite internet cafes, in Chinatown !! he is making gun drawings and selling them – with enough regularity to keep him welcome, fed and happy. if there is any sushi left over for anybody else, on the night he celebrates a sale – let me know.
see: ‘WE LIVE IN PUBLIC’ – the film’s official website
posted on the 10th anniversary of 9/11, NYC.
~PLAYGROUND OF THE FEARLESS . . . ALFREDO MARTINEZ |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | September 9th, 2011, 9:08am
‘WE LIVE IN PUBLIC’ – WHERE ARE WE NOW: NANCY SMITH
NANCY SMITH, RE-PAIRED QUILT & PHOTO.
note: the WORLD TRADE CENTER TOWERS, RIGHT HAND/TOP OF PHOTO.
THIS IS MY HAND-STITCHED & PATIENTLY RE-STORED ca. 1860-80 AMERICAN QUILT. the pattern is called: ‘LIGHTNING STRIKES’ (!!) – PHOTOGRAPHED MID-WAY TOWARDS COMPLETION, ON THE 20th FLOOR TERRACE of MY FDR & GRAND ST APT, NYC. MAY 1998 . . . NANCY SMITH.
I was a resident artist, crew member and one of a handful of JOSH HARRIS key assistants – at ‘QUIET’ – the $1 million dollar+ PSEUDO sponsored/year 2000 Millennium party – wired with 24/7 live streaming surveillance – that became the foundation for – ‘WE LIVE IN PUBLIC’ . . . the Sundance award-winning documentary by ONDI TIMONER.
I founded (2005) – and currently run this website – artloversnewyork.com.
And, yes. I still repair old quilts . . . by hand.
see: ‘WE LIVE IN PUBLIC’ – THE FILM’S – OFFICIAL WEBSITE
this photo gives you a better idea of the terrace set-up. yes, that’s the East River, and the Brooklyn Bridge, in the background. although I photographed a number of my quilts on that terrace railing – this is the only one – where I went out of my way to get the World Trade Center into the composition. funny right, Lightning Strikes and all ?
it was a really shallow terrace on the 20th floor – so I really didn’t have that much room – to get a long distance shot in – unless I made a concerted effort, which I did this one time only – on a whim.
later, when researching the quilt – I found it was based on an old pioneer pattern, called Lightning Strikes, with a specific reference to “domestic fire” threatening one’s home . . . it is also called Zig Zag and Streak of Lightning, and it is a very popular pattern, that survived frontier times and got handed down in many a family – even when the totemic message was lost, mostly because of its striking graphic and dynamic visual appeal.
from: ‘Eight Hands Round – A Patchwork Alphabet’ by ANN WHITFORD PAUL:
“ZIG ZAG – This pattern was sometimes called Streak of Lightning. People who lived on the plains were especially afraid of lightning because during a hot summer, it could set the dry grass on fire. A strong wind could spread the fire, threatening their homes, their animals, and their crops. The whole family helped fight such a fire. They used wet blankets and pails filled with water from a well or a nearby stream. Maybe a woman sewed this pattern so she would not forget (!!) how hard everyone once worked to save her home from a lightning fire.”
posted on the 10th anniversary of 9/11. NYC.
and, yeah I watched the whole thing happen in real time from this very balcony with its bird eye view . . starting from the very moment the first plane slammed into the first tower to actually catching the 2nd plane slowly arc off the East River and head straight for the 2nd tower . . . while all the local TV stations were reporting “some kind of helicopter accident” (!!) – I was calling my kid’s school, to tell them the city was under attack. sure, they thought I was outta left field – but not for long !!
PHOTOS & ART WORK: NANCY SMITH
~LIGHTNING STRIKES . . . NANCY SMITH |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | September 8th, 2011, 10:54am
