EM & me . . .
yesterday, May 16 . . was the day Emily died – in 1886, at her home in Amherst.
the Ghost – is in the room !!!!!
besides the current exhibit on Emily Dickinson, ‘I’m Nobody! Who are You?’ at the Morgan Library, up only til the end of the month / don’t miss it.
a feature length film . . on EMILY DICKINSON, titled, ‘A Quiet Passion’ / opened last week, here in NYC.
between the two of them / one can begin begin to feel closer to the austere Emily.
her times, her family and friends, her upbringing, and her life’s work . . with each endeavor, the museum show and the feature length film – dovetailing with the other, to fill in the blanks.
‘A QUIET PASSION’, (2017) . . . a feature film on EMILY DICKINSON,
directed by TERENCE DAVIES & starring CYNTHIA NIXON as Emily Dickinson – is now playing,
at the Quad Cinema . . here in NYC.
unlike the press I saw online just now, I would say, no – it is not a brilliant blockbuster, lordy.
what-ever . . are they thinking ?
it’s really only for . . diehard Dickinson fans; and perhaps some diehard poetry, and early Americana religious & history buffs / or . . . . ,
those with stressed-out jobs in, say . . the fashion world, who are just dying to veg-out on a pretty & yet informative / sensitive & delicately . . spaced-out 2 hour, period docu-drama, with . . good costumes.
speaking of which:
the various, period-correct / hand-tatted lace collars, seem to be authentic museum pieces ?!!!
PASSION ?
did somebody say: passion, albeit . . quiet ?
turns out, at the beating heart of the Emily Dickinson real life drama / lies a most passionate & most illicit, yet apparently hardly hidden . . love affair; that between her brother Austin, and his mistress . . MABEL LOOMIS TODD /
while of course, wouldn’t you know: EMILY and his proper wife, SUSAN . . were best friends.
go figure !!
it gets even more complicated by the evil woman Mabel’s apparent utmost devotion to Emily’s poetry, if not to Emily herself, but who really knows ?
. . turns out, it was MABEL who first edited, preserved and published Emily’s poems, after her death !! and a most interesting facet of the whole tale – and which is more fully addressed in the Morgan Library exhibit.
and, in fact not mentioned here at all. the publishing. the devotion to Emily’s work.
instead, this film’s focus, is to try / to fill us in on, cinematic-ally . . on how hard it was, for the contrarian Emily, so rebellious, and yet in her own way / so very rigid . . to come to terms with her brother’s absolute flaunting of convention / to live and to work . . amidst a very complicated betrayal of her life, on all levels.
it’s a long meandering road, but we do get . . how Emily’s stubborn, questioning & contrary views – the depth of which gave rise to her inward / haunting voice, and which followed closely nevertheless upon the strict & repressed Protestant / Puritanical upbringing she had been raised in; and whose conventional practices she upturns & questions at all turns . .
and which clearly has its own individualist / stubborn yet undeniably ‘passionate’ set of narrow beliefs, . . how that ‘QUESTIONING’ . . . is thrown right back at her, to rationalize and ask her to accept Austin’s deviant behavior.
as in: doesn’t everyone have a right to find their own path, passion, and way / and, most importantly to ber to be . . forgiven ?
there is some gentle alluding – to the fact that the long suffering wife, Susan . . might be lacking in the passion department / or else, ‘why did she resist Austin’s proposals of marriage – so many times ‘?
there’s also some ‘alluding’ to some ‘acceptable’ veneer for the affair; as to the fact that ‘Mabel’s husband might be compromised by . . venerality’/ or, as we say . . std / and in those days, it was quite a devastating situation, re final solution ‘surgery’.
at any rate, unlike the Morgan museum exhibit, which keeps a petty tight pace attuned to the intellectual & ‘literati-life’ / whirl of passion, that complicated Emily’s life, and I guess made her akin to a contemporary reality star – in her own little village, no ?
college town, or not.
‘A Quiet Passion’ . . treats us to a physical, lustful . . . scene of Emily actually walking in on Austin and Mable, getting it on, while innocently on the way to the kitchen – for a midnight snack !!!
oh my !!!!!
you know, and then all that Protestant – faith questioning /comes on-board / so you see them all argue it out – from both sides of the ‘righteous’ ledger / or any side, actually.
back & forth endlessly !!
one thing’s for sure, Mabel does not get kicked out.
but, my question is: is it ever directly addressed in the poems, or in any of the huge correspondence she is supposed to have kept up ? how Emily felt about this affair ?
what was the low-down ?
what’s in the real . . archive / and, what was . . re-imagined by these filmmakers ?
a poem is narrated overhead, after the ‘outing’, to the effect that: ‘why has my world spun out of my control’ ?!!
I don’t think there is much mention, either on paper, in letters or diaries / or at least in ones that haven’t been long burnt (!!) by now . . . because there’s absolutely no portrayal in this film, on how that relationship / the between Emily and her brother’s mistress, Mable – evolved over the years. though it seems it did, re the Morgan exhibit.
and that’s one reason I would like to read the poems – now.
searching for references . . to the ‘goings-on’ / between the . . lines !!
though, that’s where the Morgan Library pipes in again, letting you know how MABLE was a big fan of Emily’s work, and sent her letters, and Emily sent her poems.
in fact, it was red letter ‘Capital A’ MABEL LOOMIS TODD, and not wife/ friend Susan, who was to publish Emily’s poems after her death . .
the Morgan does give us some tantalizing facts, but with very little emotional detailing.
again, I guess none exists on record ?
but still, who knew . .
that under all that carefully crafted, minimalist phrasing, a questioning, troubled emotional ‘storm’, based on a most purple love triangle, though not of her own making / but one sibling step away – was a-brewing,
all along . . confounding & confusing her ????
no wonder, she looked so outward for order – in the world.
but the singular, most important aspect of this film, and one that fills in a big void at the Morgan exhibit, is not an emotional ‘coloring’, of her life, but an actual . . DEMONSTRATION !!
of EMILY, at work on her famous ‘fascicles’ / or hand-sewn tiny packets of poems, small folded paper pages stitched together / or, in other words . . as we would say today, DO-IT-YOURSELF-BOUND !!
at the ‘spine’, or fold.
although the Morgan exhibit speaks of these ‘fascicles’, or ‘packets’ – there are no photos or reproductions, let alone a precious archival one. turns out Mabel, who actually gave the name ‘fascicle’ to these little hand-sewn packages of poems, and the other early editors . . dismantled them !!
oh. no !!!!!!!!
wow, that’s a whole other story, somebody else – has to write.
A quiet passion . . ?
indeed !!!!!!!
CYNTHIA NIXON, as a pretty good, very believable . . EMILY DICKINSON, first stabs a few holes, clear through a few leafs of folded paper, upon which she has scribbled her poems / to ready them for hand-stitched sewn binding, or DIY, as we would term it today !!
and that’s another reason, Dickinson is seeing a sudden revival, & relevance today.
her shaped pages, scraps, collages . . and DIY binding !!
are allowing us to see her / through the magic of modern digital / photographic reproduction, not just the old typeset printing of yore, as the singular poet – artist / she really was !!
the times, they just be a-catching up . . to her.
rebel, outsider. visionary. self-driven.
Emily pulls the thread – through the holes, to hand-bind the tiny books into packets, the easier to store the poems.
or . . what we would call today, self-published ZINES !!!!!!!
a priceless moment in the film . . ‘A Quiet passion’.
EMILY stitches . . a hand-bound – ‘fascicle’.
you can see how good CYNTHIA NIXON is, too.
all 3 images: screen grabs / via a short clip on the @aquietpassion / Instagram page
how strange / funny, well actually sad:
that although, as the Morgan gets it . . Emily is now being seen through new eyes as a poet-artist, and they, the filmmakers . . did make a point of re-creating this well-informed scene of her hand-binding her little books, and it’s produced so well, and so lovingly . . .
the footage doesn’t make the . . commercial trailer ???
I guess they forget, that in the end, probably . . it would be only artists and writers, in effect the scholars . . who know, and are desperate for this kind of historical detail / that would be the ones who would be watching the trailer, and they should have included it.
they should not never have dumb-ed it down, for the masses.
a ‘Hallmark’ film, despite the illicit affair – this is, not.
a cross-over film / this is . . not !!
why not revel in what it – is.
it definitely has its moments.
see: ‘A QUIET PASSION’ – OFFICIAL WEBSITE / TRAILER
~’A QUIET PASSION’ . . EMILY DICKINSON FILM / TERENCE DAVIES |
Posted in Movie Reviews, The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | May 16th, 2017, 1:35pm
UNDERDONK / Bushwick Artist Collective PRESENTS: ‘NIGHTJAR’
OPENING FRI MAY 12 / 7-9 PM
the show runs thru JUNE 18, 2017
UNDERDONK, 1329 Willoughby Ave, Bushwick
HRS: SAT & SUN: 1- 6 PM & by appointment
a group exhibition, curated by . . ASHLEY GARRETT
including . .
SHARON CORE, PRISCILLA FUSCO, VALERIE HAMMOND, RUTH MARTEN, and DEBORAH MASTERS
is this too coarse ?
BUSH-wick / great spark – for an all women show / !!
~from the press release:
“At last we saw water gleaming at a distance, and came to a clear tarn, lined with brown leaves and holding a fair picture in its bosom…what a place for summer, and how one envies the frogs!” ~UNA HAWTHORNE
“UNA HAWTHORNE, NATHANIAL HAWTHORNE’S eldest daughter, describes in a personal letter .. following in the footsteps of THOREAU’S journey through Walden Pond.”
read more: ‘NIGHTJAR’ – GROUP SHOW at UNDERDONK
RUTH MARTEN, ‘#907’, 2015
Watercolor on 19th c. print, 7-3/4 x 8 in.
image via UNDERDONK
~’Nightjar’ . . UNDERDONK, BROOKLYN / opens to-night |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | May 12th, 2017, 2:58pm
Me & EM . . .
as in EMILY !!
DICKINSON . . . both stick postal stamps – into our diaries / journals / notes / & in her case: poems.
NANCY SMITH, detail collage with postal stamp – on my current journal / notes.
the U.S.A. postal stamp is . . FLANNERY O’CONNOR.
the fortune cookie paper slip: ‘Po Says: It is good luck to feed the dragon warrior.”
write that damn journal / scribble them damn poems !!
feed – that . . damn stubborn / contrarian, inner voice.
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH
~NANCY SMITH . . I’m somebody ? me & Em !! |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | May 12th, 2017, 2:52pm
EMILY DICKINSON . . .
TO PARAPHRASE:
IN . . MY MOST HARD-CORE, CONTRARIAN, INDIE, REBEL, STUBBORN . . PROTEST-ANT / HEART.
I REACHED OUT, . . . “BUT THE WORLD DID NOT REACH BACK”.
well, something like that.
It seems to be the season of recognizing – in capital letters, the female outsider geniuses that walked so unassumingly, but stubbornly among us.
though, what a contrast: EMILY DICKINSON vs FLORINE STETTHEIMER.
about the most they have in common, beyond sharing a stubborn faith in their own forward-reaching, somehow . . ‘future’ vision, & a singular, uncharted creative .. drive.
was that they both lived at home for their entire lives, and were generally unrecognized in their own times.
though of course, EMILY DICKINSON (1830-1886) predated FLORINE STETTHEIMER (1871-1944) by a 50 year birth gap, which is such a small generational number in the greater picture, yet seems so far apart seen through the lens / bedrooms / living rooms . . . of their individual life-styles.
while Emily D. shined a stylist poetic flashlight that was so fast forward – we are only just beginning to really catch up, she feels so much of an earlier American / Puritanical time / while Florine S. born to assimilated cosmopolitan Jews who traveled between NYC & Europe on a regular basis . . lived a life that included, MARCEL DuCHAMP. (!!)
maybe another way to put it:
Emily D. lived through the Civil war / Florine S: through WWI & WWII.
while one – Emily D. was a ‘poet /artist’ . . the other – Florine S. was an ‘artist/painter/poet’.
both were ‘consummate’ . . insider-outsiders / involved with stimulating intellectual communities, yet with no ‘consummate’ / translate: intimate relations / translate: romances (at least on record.)
though not internationally ‘cosmopolitan’ in the lavish & wealthy sense that we associate with Florine Stettheimer . . Emily D. did not live in a remote cabin, though she worked from her bedroom. and is generally considered a ‘recluse’. in fact, Emily D. lived within the vibrant society of a ‘college town’, her grandfather having co-founded Amherst College. and she read many leading magazines etc.
and she had to deal with . . scandal !!
major scandal. her married bro & his mistress. some little buzzing garden that was.
you don’t hear that about Florine’s family !!
though you kind of wonder: what really went on with Florine S. and her sisters, behind closed doors – besides high-end couture, with lots of shopping trips to Bendels !!
not too much is revealed on the record, except for some unhappy poems . . Florine was to pen / about scaring away suitors with her bright ‘light’.
so, it’s kind of shocking to find that Emily D. was one step away from her sibling’s full-blown, torrid love triangle, that if it had been 19th Bloomsbury . . might have touched and rocked her world, as well.
one can only imagine.
lucky for us, both had their works, Emily D. her poems, collage poems & hand-stitched ‘booklets’ / Florine S. her artworks, poems, plays, stage sets, etc preserved for us, by immediate family members, who also went on to donate the bulk of these precious estates to museums & libraries. so, they were recognized within their own circles – well, that’s about the best you can hope for, as an ‘outsider’ – isn’t it ?
but mostly, what’s most compelling about both them, these American ‘soul sisters’ – is that their inner worlds propelled . . both of them forward, so far forward / that flash forward 2017: both Emily D. and Florine S. . . are subjects of newly rapt acclaim & . . solo museum shows.
Emily D. at the Morgan Library Museum, while Florine S. is concurrently, beautifully presented at the JEWISH MUSEUM – thru Sept 24, 2017.
see: ‘Florine Stettheimer: Painting Poetry’ – Jewish Museum
‘I’m Nobody! Who are you ?’ – The Life and Poetry of EMILY DICKINSON’
through MAY 28, 2017
THE MORGAN LIBRARY
EMILY DICKINSON, Daguerrotype, ca. 1847. The Emily Dickinson Collection, Amherst College Archives & Special collections. gift of Millicent Todd Bingham, 1956.
PHOTO: via The Morgan Library & Museum
which also has a very good online presentation on the exhibit . . .
see: ‘I’m Nobody, Who are you ? – MORGAN LIBRARY & MUSEUM
and also, the very best cafe food – of all the museums & libraries in NYC – by the way.
though strangely enough, the JEWISH MUSEUM is a very close second, with their authentic Russ & Daughters’ bagels & buttery lox / smoked salmon !!
I have to admit, I knew more about Florine Stettheimer, from living in avant-garde NYC all these years, there were some previous exhibits associated with her, or her circle / than I did about Emily Dickinson – esp being Canadian & thus under-educated in general re American culture. I had a big catching up to do, and maybe that’s what fascinated me.
At any rate, young Emily D. looks just like someone I went to high school with, and even more, she looks she could just step out off the L train, albeit in different garb.
my heart sunk to see her so young & earnest, and to later be so beat down by a repressive culture.
though what else is new for outsiders, anyway ?
even the fabulous Florine, wanted her artwork destroyed upon her death, due to cultural disappointment, to put it politely.
EMILY DICKINSON (1830-1886), ‘A Pang is more conspicuous in Spring’.
Poem, ca. 1881. / Amherst College Archives & Special Collections.
when I saw this ‘shaped’ poem I got it right way, and so will you – why they call Emily Dickinson, . . a poet – artist.
she wrote her poems out in teeny tiny handwritten script, something of which we might be much more curious about today – despite or actually because of . . computers !!
which has ironically resulted in our endless fascination with all things . . graphic design & fonts, but esp DIY hand-script !!
apparently, she also wrote on all kinds of different papers, (texture-wise, etc) not just oddly shaped ones, and left-overs from envelopes, etc.
the effect of which is hard to translate through written language, let alone limited old fashioned typeface / and is much easier to convey today – with our easily accessible, modern means of photographic reproduction.
though I was super disappointed upon reading, in the exhibit texts, about her use of ‘fascicles’ or hand-sewn manuscript booklets, not to find any here.
not even a photograph ?
I guess they are too fragile to travel, but what about an archival photograph ?
did I miss it ?
EMILY DICKINSON, (1830-1886), ‘Alone and in a Circumstance’.
Poem with “George Sand” and “Mauprat” clipped from Harper’s Monthly pasted to sheet, ca. 1870.
“This collage is one of Dickinson’s most enigmatic manuscripts. The two clippings tucked under the postage stamp were cut from the May 1870 issue of Harper’s Monthly Magazine, which included a brief sketch of George Sand (!!).
. . . Interpretations of this poem range widely from playful verse about sitting in the outhouse, to a Freudian meditation on Dickinson’s father, represented by the locomotive on the stamp.” (!!)
~exhibition text
ps: May 1870 !! – that’s like 147 years ago – almost to the day !!
a whole century – and . . a half.
pss: if you came to my workroom / bedroom – you’d see my journals are full of the same kind of tiny stamp collages, maybe I’ll post one or two, next – just to show you how contemporary / out of the box – she was.
EMILY DICKINSON, digitized slideshow of her ‘Herbarium’, an album of pressed botanical specimens – which she began compiling ca 1839, when she was about 8 or 9 years old.
I found it interesting how literary and scientific her family was, and that seemingly, she and her sister, or even mother did no handiwork ? no embroidered samplers ?
no hand-stitched quilts ?
no hand-crocheted collar lace / or shawls ?
MABEL LOOMIS TODD (1856-1932), ‘Indian Pipes’.
oil on card. 1882.
of course, I was totally blown-away by the love triangle, illicit p-a-s-s-i-o-n (!!) repressed, self-righteous Emily’s brother – Austin dropped on the family.
esp because his wife, Susan was Emily’s best friend, and his 20-something years younger mistress, Mabel Loomis Todd, seems to have been quite enamored with Emily, herself, and/or her talent, at the very least. It was she, and not Susan, who ultimately played an important role in getting Emily’s work published !!
I believe ‘Indian Pipes’ must be a kind of American wild flower ?
the drawing is quite beautiful,
and way !!
black & white . . drama queen / DRAMATIC !!!!!!!
“Todd sent this painting of Indian pipes to Emily Dickinson in late summer 1882 while Todd was staying in Washington, DC. . . .
A rendition of this piece was used to decorate the covers of all the editions of Dickinson’s poetry and letters edited by Todd and published by Roberts Brothers between 1890 and 1896.”
~exhibition text
so, just how did Emily D. and the mistress . . interact, if only we had got that part of the story, too.
life was so complicated – even for that literary . . minimalist.
Amherst, Bloomsbury . . not ?!!!
I mean, there is not a peep of this, in the poems, right ?
what about in her letters ?
that would have been amazing, I bet they got destroyed pretty fast, if there were any – no matter what they said.
but damn it, color me: C-U-R-I-O-U-S !!!!!
EMILY DICKINSON vs. FLORINE STETTHEIMER ???
now, that’s a strange bird . . up against / another.
and plenty of secrets – to go around !!
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH – UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED
~EMILY DICKINSON . . ‘I’M NOBODY! Who are you?’ / THE MORGAN LIBRARY & MUSEUM / 2 more weeks |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | May 11th, 2017, 2:37pm
IN MY LIVING ROOM . . WITH ALFRED STEIGLITZ & GEORGIA O’KEEFE !!
FLORINE vs GEORGIA / NOW THAT’S A THOUGHT !!!!!
SOMEBODY . . should write a paper on that !!!
LIVING ROOM / GALLERY / SALON !!
PARTY . . ON !!
YOU GO GIRL. INDIE, R-E-B-E-L . . FLORINE !!!!!
‘FLORINE STETTHEIMER: Painting Poetry’
MAY 5 – SEPT 24, 2017
THE JEWISH MUSEUM, New York
FLORINE STETTHEIMER, (1871-1944) . . ‘Family Portrait II’, 1933.
oil on canvas, 46-1/4 x 64-5/8 in.
Museum of Modern Art, New York, Gift of Miss ETTIE STETTHEIMER, 1956
HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY, Y’ALL !!
they were a close-knit family, the 3 sisters and their imposing mama. the father split early on.
& note her life span – covered . . 2 World Wars !!
“BORN to a wealthy Jewish family in Rochester, New York, STETTHEIMER studied at the Art Students League in New York City and then in Europe, where she encountered two profound influences: the SYMOBLIST painters and poets, and the BALLETS RUSSES.
Stettheimer’s return to New York in 1914, as World War I began, was a turning point for the artist, who was then in her mid-40s. She made her New York art debut with a 1916 solo show at the prestigious Knoeldler Gallery, but it proved disappointing, attracting lukewarm press and no sales.
She and her sisters Carrie and Ettie, and their mother, Rosetta, then developed a stratagem for unveiling her new works, characteristic of the period: parties.
Their elite salon attracted many of the leading lights of the artistic vanguard , including her close friend MARCEL DUCHAMP, as well as ALFRED STIEGLITZ, CARL VAN VECHTEN, GEORGIA O’KEEFE . . “(!!)
~press release
her ‘skinny’ brushwork – usually in black, top-painted as embellishment, is a detail that pops up throughout the exhibit – and is a nice re-discovery – re: painting technique.
mama’s fortune telling (?) card game – is another good example of that . . fine, laced & expressive brush work.
of course, she’s drop dead gorgeous with the . . the FLOWERS !!
speaking of . . which !!!!!!!
I wonder, what kind of conversations, FLORINE STETTHEIMER . .
and GEORGIA O’KEEFE – had ?!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I mean, com’on – in many ways she, FLORINE . . is just as an innovative painter as GEORGIA O’KEEFE, but obviously, though ALFRED STEIGLITZ frequentd her parties – he didn’t seem to have championed her seriously, as an artist ???
could it be that same old same old (story) – who ya F..K – gets the CROWN.
and, too damn bad.
YOUR BAD – MR.STEIGLITZ !!!!!
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH
~FLORINE STETTHEIMER . . IN MY LIVING ROOM / JEWISH MUSEUM |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | May 10th, 2017, 10:12am
Her painter’s palette – held the KEY !!
& the Grim reaper . . got the / LAST LAUGH !!
‘FLORINE STETTHEIMER: Painting Poetry’
MAY 5 – SEPT 24, 2017
JEWISH MUSEUM, 1109 FIFTH AVE, NYC
see: FLORINE STETTHEIMER – JEWISH MUSEUM
one of the most delightful surprises . . among a small treasure trove of . . DELIGHTS !!
came early on – in this jewel box of – an exhibit !!
in the introductory table / display case,
‘Twelve hand-painted fortune-telling cards from a set of twenty-five, c. 1885’ – (!!)
Watercolor on card
Florine Stettheimer papers, Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
Columbia University in the City of New York.
“FLORINE . . was fourteen, when she painted these cards, probably for a family pastime.
The figures include a mixture of traditional Tarot images (time, death) and some
that suggest the artist’s own future: a young woman and an artist’s palette . . .”
~Jewish Museum display text
I’m thinking: you will take a trip ? / where am – I going . . in life ?
turns out, she lived with her two sisters and their mother – her whole life !!
but they were not hermits – they had an incredible & brilliant salon revolving around them – all the time & they decamped to Europe frequently.
though, she definitely was wondering . . about BOYS !!
but . . that was not to be, or . . the full story – hasn’t been told !!
her painter’s palette . . .
held the key . . to her life !!
the grim reaper !!
the ultimate – outsider !!
but, not always – the last word. nor, the last card.
turn it upside down, and it means: CHANGE !!
I found out, that she – FLORINE !!
asked for her artworks to be burned !! after her death. oh no.
she was so disappointed by the mainstream art world – oh lord, nothing much has changed !!
thankfully, one of her sisters saved the work and dispersed it among several prestigious library & university collections, and thus it has been saved – & – surely, slowly but surely . . . the times have finally caught up with her.
in truth, far from being a “lightweight feminine artist with a whimsical bent” – she was a true AMERICAN VISIONARY.
a magic realist. a symbolist. a surrealist. an observer.
a classic: insider-outsider !! of her time, and yet – way ahead.
this exhibit is a revelation: don’t miss it.
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH
~FLORINE STETTHEIMER . . FORTUNE TELLING CARDS / JEWISH MUSEUM |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | May 5th, 2017, 12:24pm
‘LIKE OXYGEN’ – where cutting edge TECH / info, questions & magic . . MERGE !!
SEEMS LIKE WE ALL NEED TO BREATHE IN – a LITTLE MAGIC, with . . the air / intake.
Magic Realism . . ?
and, I thought it was going to be an . . audio show, oh, yeah.
all I can say is:
LIVING ROOMS, then & now !!!!!
and, what’s a living room gallery – if not a ‘SALON’, anyways ?
‘LIKE OXYGEN’ . . at MOUNTAIN
if you could picture a museum quality show – in a Brooklyn living room, this would be it !!
with serious content, and an ambitious desire to communicate; this was an enticing & exacting (!!) invitation to explore . . the unknown, the archival, and the brand new.
all underground / all art scene . . forward !!
a perfect tiny storm !!
of huge intent !!
there was a lot to listen to, I would say I need to go back and really . . listen.
since artlovers is image-based, here’s a . . snapshot / visual impression.
in truth, I got carried away by the visuals, and even more distracted (!!) chatting up the young artists !!
but, from the snippets I did hear – I would say: definite worth a dedicated trip back, sometime soon.
count me – in: CURIOUS !!
note: you can schedule an appointment by emailing the gallery 24 hrs in advance / mountain.bushwick[at]gmail.com
read: more about the show & watch a video clip from the George Terry film / MOUNTAIN WEBSITE& don’t forget to download / check out the PRESS RELEASE – it has brief, but complete descriptions of all of the varied projects.
the show is up thru . . MAY 21st, 2017.
Pix from the Opening Reception, SAT APRIL 29, 2017 . . .
ALLISON WADE, ‘Crystal Flowers Radio’, 2017.
the show starts off – real low fi / but . . low key, NOT !!
these were the pocket radios . . that held the seance . .
that Allison Wade set up – to communicate with the dead !!
and not just . . any dead !!
we are talking . . FLORINE STETTHEIMER !!
so that’s spooky, esp in light of all the new age tech going on, and not just because Ms. Wade’s West Side apt was supposedly the former home & salon of the fantabulist Florine, and she, Allison . .
held actual seances, shaman and all – to try to contact her or anybody in her glorious circle, recorded here,
but because . .
well, just maybe she – did !!
the FIRST MAJOR U.S. EXHIBIT – DEVOTED to Artist FLORINE STETTHEIMER – in over 20 years !!
OPENS – JUST THIS WEEK !! . . . MAY 5 – SEPT 24, 2017
at the JEWISH MUSEUM, here in NYC !!
see: ‘FLORINE STETTHEIMER: Painting Poetry’ at the JEWISH MUSEUM . . !!
I just caught the advance press preview yesterday / it’s an amazing little capsule exhibit.
which just goes to show, some artists, labelled outsiders, who for whatever reason – fly over everybodies heads – without garnering mainstream appreciation or critical recognition / have a way of coming back and . . biting everybody, & with a good dose of magic usually thrown in, for good measure, too.
decades . . on.
the exhibit, the work – is PURE MAGIC !! ON EVERY LEVEL !! ABSOLUTELY FASCINATING.
& t-o-t-a-l-l-y relevant – to the scene, today . . . LIVING ROOMS – and ALL !!!!!!!!
ALLISON WADE, ‘CRYSTAL FLOWERS RADIO’, 2017
so, yeah . . I would say something quite magical, and not just just ‘sounds technical’ . . is going on – here !!
and, that’s also coming through, loud and clear – in this strange, besotted . . sound/sculpture/work !!
ALLISON WADE, detail . . ‘CRYSTAL FLOWERS RADIO’.
see: ALLISON L. WADE – PORTFOLIO WEBSITE
from the gallery description:
“Allison Wade presents a project about communing with the dead. After discovering that her Upper West Side apartment was once the former home and salon of painter/poet FLORINE STETTHEIMER, Wade has hired a shaman to communicate with potential spirits in the space (which based on the salon’s guest list could be anyone from DUCHAMP to O’KEEFE to STEIN). The audio recording of this shaman’s seance (normally broadcast from the artist’s apartment) will temporarily be broadcast via pirate radio from the gallery during the opening & on select days during the run of the exhibit.”
oh my . . . . . . !!
how strangely the art cards – do play out . . . this season.
the other visual stunner . .
was GEORGE TERRY’s short artist interview film: ‘You Can’t Go Home Again (version II)’, 2017.
that’s . . GEORGE TERRY, at center.
looking most . . dada-ist ? symbol-ist ? surreal-ist ?
and, not just . . Brooklyn hipster-ish / just joking (!!)
if, I don’t say so, myself. (!!)
TRUDY BENSON.
yeah – there was even a SMOKE or FOG MACHINE, that initiated each interview / what could be more magical than that ?!!
ADAM PARKER SMITH, sitting on a great quilt, btw.
all the artist interviews took place, in their own homes or studios, but at the exact same cinematic – angle & spatial / inset . . that was really, really good, as a purely visual narrative, never mind the words.
I could just so get / into that . . subtle shallow spatial, but extremely poetic / dynamic.
ESPERANZA MAYOBRE . .
there was this great big old, comfy couch – placed against a wall so you could sit & view the film, which looped.
though the audio was a little hard to hear, in a room full of young artists !!
buzzing like the busy bees – they are !!
but, it was such a richly visual film, words almost didn’t matter.
or: next visit !!
KATRINA FIMMEL.
just watching it go by – was so compelling. it was like a a river, it flowed . . so well.
it seems Mr. GEORGE TERRY – has a real a handle on the camera.
and, indeed: a truly meaningful / focus on . . cinematic s-p-a-c-e.
KENDAL BENNETT.
DAN ESTABROOK.
GABRIELA GALVAN.
GABRIELA SALAZAR.
artist GABRIELA SALAZAR, with filmmaker GEORGE TERRY,
and yes, I do . . want to go back, and hear it !!
GEORGE TERRY: “is a sculptor, video, installation artist & curator. He was born in Lynchburg, VIRGINIA, and grew up in the BLUE RIDGE MOUNTAINS (!!) Terry received his BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University, his MFA from RISD / Rhode Island School of Design . . .
He now lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.”
see: GEORGE TERRY – PORTFOLIO WEBSITE
wow, the BLUE RIDGE MOUNTAINS . .
home of my beloved hand-painted vintage Blue Ridge /Southern pottery, & many a fine & honest early, and vintage, rural Appalachian quilt / fiddle & banjo music roots, too.
that’s got to be some special place, to grow up in / though prob very hard scrabble – for an aspiring contemporary artist.
but obviously, something . . like magic – in that real ‘hillbilly’ mountain water !!
hillbilly, ha. just flying over everybodies heads, as usual.
gotta love that:
FLORINE STETTHEIMER, and . . HILLBILLY – in the same breath / must be . . the OXYGEN !!
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH
~’LIKE OXYGEN’ . . MOUNTAIN, BUSHWICK / PIX FROM THE OPENING / & FLORINE STETTHEIMER opens at the JEWISH MUSEUM – this week !! |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | May 3rd, 2017, 12:06pm
‘LIKE OXYGEN’ – an exhibition about artist interviews . .
OPENS TO-NITE, SAT APRIL 29, 2017 / 7-10 PM
the show runs thru MAY 21, 2017
and features:
Bad at Sports
The Conversation
Like Riding a Bicycle
Sound & Vision
George Terry
Allison Wade
MOUNTAIN, founded in 2016 by MICHAEL FLEMING, is an artist-run apartment / living room / gallery
which is open to the public for opening receptions / special events.
otherwise, HRS are by APPOINTMENT ONLY.
MOUNTAIN, 284 SEIGEL ST, #1B, BUSHWICK, BROOKLYN.
read more: about this show / ‘LIKE OXYGEN’
image via Instagram @mountain.bushwick
‘LIKE OXYGEN’ . .
“has dedicated podcast listening stations – with episodes curated by our friends at @badatsports, @artistpodcast (hosted by artist MICHAEL SHAW), and . . .@soundandvisionpodcast.
as well as, these beautifully crafted books . . .
“How Not What” by @hunterbw88, and @katie_hargrave_ aka Like Riding a Bicycle.”
~’LIKE OXYGEN’ . . MOUNTAIN, BUSHWICK / OPENS TO-NITE SAT |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | April 29th, 2017, 10:53am
image via Instagram @dresshopgallery
@dressshopgallery: EXCITED ABOUT THIS ONE!
#glock #sacredheart #leather #metal #art #emanuellimon #mexican #jesus #hellbentheavensent #lucid
also, check out: EMMANUEL LIMON / @awkwardchopper on Instagram
‘SIN COYOTE’ – ‘WITHOUT A GUIDE’
EMMANUEL LIMON . . . “SIN COYOTE”
OPENS TO-NITE, FRI APRIL 28, 2017 / 6 – 9 PM
the show runs thru JUNE 10, 2017
DRESS SHOP GALLERY, 322 TROUTMAN ST, BUSHWICK, BROOKLYN
note: apart from the opening to-nite – gallery hrs are by appointment only
for more info & photos, see: DRESS SHOP GALLERY on Facebook
~EMMANUEL LIMON . . ‘SIN COYOTE’ / DRESS SHOP GALLERY, BUSHWICK – opens to-nite FRI APRIL 28 |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | April 28th, 2017, 8:25am
quelle . . brute !!!!!!
JERRY BLACKMAN: ‘UNDONE YIN YANG’
curated by . . BRIGITTE MULHOLLAND
opened WED APRIL 19, 2017
and runs thru SUN MAY 21, 2017
CUCHIFRITOS, a program of ARTISTS ALLIANCE INC, 120 ESSEXST, NYC
HRS: TUES-SUN / NOON-6PM / or by appointment
read more: JERRY BLACKMAN / Undone Yin Yang – CUCHIFRITOS
PIX FROM – THE OPENING:
JERRY checks his phone, center.
I’ve been following this guy for a long time now, maybe even a decade ?
hard to believe. he’s had his ups & downs, so he’s already a seasoned player, and a determined one – at that.
always very interesting, and . . he’s a great curator, too.
JERRY BLACKMAN presents a new body of work, and I do mean . . body !!
as in concrete & . . brute !!
CUCHIFRITOS . . does deserve some mention here, with regard to unconventional . . POP-UPS !!
they were an early pop-up / that became permanent. innovative & set apart from the pack by locale / the gallery / project space is located smack dab in the midst of a bustling Lower East Side indoor street market, on Essex Street, just off Delancey.
on the Lower East Side.
BRIGITTE MULHOLLAND . . did a great job of curating a show of ‘mean-sized’ works – in this small space, for Jerry.
you can read a little more about her, here: CUCHIFRITOS
LOVE that her MA in Art History from HUNTER cOLLEGE, was on . . ‘Spirituality in the work of JACKSON POLLOCK’. (!!)
RAFAEL ROZENDAAL, and AUSTIN LEE.
AUSTIN LEE . . had that great / pink ghostly / austere / dreamy portrait of a girl’s face – at the sweet, yet cutting edge, ‘DRAWING ISLAND’ survey show at THE JOURNAL GALLERY recently.
I’m not familiar with RAFAEL ROZENDAAL’S work, so it was fun to google him: NewRafael.com
I have to say . . eggalone.com – hit the spot !!
CGI animation – never fails to amaze / see: DOUBLE NEVER – NEW RAFAEL ROZENDAAL
LAUREN SEIDEN, is a friend of Kate’s, and we have posted photos from an early group show / see: SHADOWS THRU A PRISM – NOV 30, 2012
where you will see some (now) familiar faces, incl: NICHOLAS STEINDORF, JAMES MILLER & CHRIS WATTS (!!)
& check out: LAUREN SEIDEN PORTFOLIO WEBSITE
painter HEIDI HAHN
see: HEIDI HAHN portfolio website
JERRY BLACKMAN . . plaster, pigments, latex, steel.
cyclical, yet striking me as, very . . stubborn & contrarian ?
a rough-hewn poem.
JERRY BLACKMAN . . almost painting, ALBEIT WITH . . BRUTE FORCE !!
I really did like these works on paper, there were several sets on view.
JERRY BLACKMAN, Graphite on paper in artist’s frame / made of reclaimed wood.
more black magic, than brute !!
that thin waver of illusion, destroyer of ‘objective’ . . observation / yet a mirror, unto the reflective soul.
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH
~JERRY BLACKMAN . . ‘Undone Yin Yang’ / Cuchifritos |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | April 27th, 2017, 1:00pm
