Symbiotaxiplasm: action as interconnectedness

SYMBIOTAXIPLASM: action as interconnectedness
January 19 - February 16

SS Projects
547 W 27th #210
NYC

Man Bartlett
Colin Kilian
Anne Arden McDonald
Bradford Reed 
Mary Ann Strandell

Curated by Savannah Spirit

What’s most important right now? The connectedness we have with nature, environment, each other and ourselves. The new century screams out loud for a new type of thinking, a different way of seeing things especially how we relate to one another. In the wake of Facebook and other social media outlets, important facets such as face time and eye contact are lost yet these distractions make it safe to hide behind a cloak of wit, banality and 140 characters max. A deeper sense of self in relation to our circumstances comes with interconnectedness and a desire to feel harmonious while so much chaos and disorder fill us everyday.

There have been many different movements in history which challenged individuals to feel and look beyond what is in front of us while keeping a sense of spiritual connectedness in our lives. Mysticism in religion tells us so. In the current Age of Enlightenment we experience events with a careful eye, a greater awareness of our surroundings and what is happening to ourselves in relation to each other. Transcendentalism and The New Thought Movement rooted in the philosophies and teachings of Immanuel Kant, and forward thinkers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Walt Whitman and William Walker Atkinson called for a revolution in the 19th century. The core beliefs of this movement derive from seeking the truth without the doctrines of traditional religion, only to transcend the individual through their intuition and spiritual path. In 1929, Frigyes Karinthy wrote a short story titled, “Chains” which explained the idea of 6 degrees of separation, rediscovered by Stanley Milgram at Harvard in 1967. Though Milgram was widely criticized for his failure to connect random people for his “Small World Experiment”, now more than ever we have deduced the idea that six degrees of separation is part of our society and culture. Connectedness with all things is part of who we are.

Symbiotaxiplasm draws participants and viewers in by arranging specific interactions with 3 separate pieces by Man Bartlett (interdisciplinary artist), Bradford Reed (composer), plus an aromatic crowd-sourcing experiment to please the nose. The works of Mary Ann Strandell (painter and multi-media artist), Colin Kilian (painter) and Anne Arden McDonald (photographer), represent movement, chaos, order, change and transformation.



MAN BARTLETT


"Place Your less-dominant hand on the wall for 42 seconds. 
If possible, make eye contact with someone you love."  
Performance score, 2012 
 installation photo by Miguel Rodriguez















Peruvian resin, muna, Aqua de Florida, paint can, wall.



MARY ANN STRANDELL

My installation, The Fragonard Room, culminates in a time of fervor, politically and technologically, in an artwrld robust with adversity and opulence. The large ink drawing echoes a period- piece room from the Frick, as the backdrop to the hyperspace worlds of my 3D Lenticular prints. Together they mash into a symbiotaxiplasm experience pausing on various highs and lows of cultural moments, utopic / distopic in what was the age of comfort. The tempo and layering of the lenticular prints offer a lens to my continued interest in East meets West, into the minds’ eye in motion.

The Fragonard Room 
Installation photo by Frantic Femme
 

 Ascension, 3D Lenticular Print on Sintra, 24" x 24", 2010


Emperor Smoke, 3D Lenticular Print on Sintra, 28" x 24", 2010


Candy Mountain, 3D Lenticular Print on Sintra, 10" x 10", 2010

  
Cherry House, 3D Lenticular Print on Sintra, 24" x 24", 2010



ANNE ARDEN MCDONALD

This project is about developing processes by which to make imagery on photographic paper without using a negative, to allow myself to have a dialogue with my materials while still working with light, paper and chemistry. Some of these processes include making contact prints of objects, painting with bleach on blackened photo paper, and building layered piles of glass and eggshells and running around them with a flashlight to make an exposure. I tested 80 medicines, spices and household cleaners and painted them onto photo paper, before running the image through the developer and fix. I also built areas out of glue, and then dug down to the photo paper surface with alternating developers and fix to create an image on the paper. Some of the images were made in the dark and some in daylight, some processes are additive and others are reductive. I have been developing these processes and using them to make this exhibition, which is a series of images about circles and spheres, meant to represent planets and atoms, to visualize the macrocosm and the microcosm of life as we know it.


 Bone, Bleach painting made with sponges, Silver Gelatin photograph, 105" x 50", 2011





Fragility, contact print of layers of glass and eggshells, exposed with flashlight, 
Silver Gelatin photograph, 
126" x 50", 2011



Spirit, contact print of glass, fishing floats and christmas balls, painted with bleach, 
Silver Gelatin photograph, 86" x 42", 2011


Flare, Bleach painting, Silver Gelatin photograph, 108" x 42", 2011

*smaller limited edition digital prints also available




COLIN KILIAN 

The purpose of making this artwork is to develop and express new aesthetic concepts. It is a place to interact with my imagination and with phenomena from higher levels of consciousness and other planes of existence.  My intention as an artist is to make these forms tangible and contribute them to society. I enjoy the direct quality of making paintings and also enjoy giving these ideas higher magnitude through large scale installations. I am interested in the future to fuse my ideas with the developing possibilities of technology to create new kinds of compositional forms.


 Untitled 1, oil on canvas, 42" x 40", 2011

Untitled 2, oil on canvas, 60" x 48", 2011

Untitled 3, oil on canvas, 70" x 40", 2011

Untitled 4, oil on canvas, 48" x 54", 2011



BRADFORD REED

The spontaneously creative soundscaping system in the back of the gallery is designed to be installed in public spaces such as elevators, lobbies, hallways, waiting rooms, etc. It is sonic interior design. The system manipulates its sound library in conjunction with its own generative synthesis techniques in mostly musical ways designed to playfully engage the listener. At times it also incorporates sonic elements of the space its being applied in. You may hear sounds from the preparation of this show including such as phone conversations or wall painting.  If it was custom installed in the elevator of a soap company you might hear bubbles and water being manipulated. It can also be sensitive to environmental factors or time. You could hear crickets in the morning or frogs at night. Its original software running on typical hardware is designed to be highly customized perhaps in collaboration with interior designers, architects, building managers or industrialists. The system was expanded for this show to include a microphone so that a listener may add his or her own voice or play the vertical bars in the room which will be applied to the current soundscape. No two moments of sound it creates are ever the same.


Installation photo by Frantic Femme, 2012


OLFACERE

The connection between scent and memory is always a strong one. In this exhibition participants are asked to smell different scents which evoke the past. Can you guess what they are? Can you connect your own memories to the smells?


 
Installation photo by Frantic Femme



SPIRIT



 A new limited edition fragrance by curator, Savannah Spirit.This scent combines different oils which blend into a light fragrance for women. The fragrance is inspired by the charming, sassy and sexy Jean Harlow; Fresh and light with a hint of musk and spice. The sleek silver bottle is inspired by satin gowns of the 1930's.



FOR PRICES OF ALL WORKS CONTACT
SAVANNAH SPIRIT 
ssnyprojects@gmail.com 

917-332-8237
 


About Me

Manhattan, New York City, NY, United States

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