SYMBIOTAXIPLASM: action as interconnectedness
January 19 - February 16
SS Projects
547 W 27th #210
NYC
January 19 - February 16
SS Projects
547 W 27th #210
NYC
Man Bartlett
Colin Kilian
Anne Arden McDonald
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.
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
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
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
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