The First of the Pics--Live!

Here is a preview of the Open Studio. I ducked out for a second to post a few images:

Long view of Signal Mirror 1

Close-Up

Kaitlin Kostus in Manifest Regalia

Books can be touched!

One Year Down, Two More To Go: Open Studio Event at Columbia College, Chicago

Announcing a very special event to celebrate the end of my first year of graduate school. My peers and I will be showing off the work we have produced over the last two semesters at the:

Interdisciplinary Arts MFA

Open Studios

Columbia College-Chicago

Friday, May 14th, 2010

1pm-3pm

Media

916 South Wabash

Second Floor

Rooms 204 & 205

4pm-7pm

Book & Paper

1104 South Wabash

Second Floor

Papermaking Studio

Featuring the Work Of:

CJ Mace

Victoria Bradford

Jenny Garnett

Kaitlin Kostus

April Llewellyn

Daniel Lubniewski

Haley Nagy

Michael St. John

Daniel Mellis

As you can see by the announcement, there are two buildings of fun.

My print projections and animations, a new body of work for me, will be installed in the papermaking studio of the 1104 S. Wabash on the second floor. I would love to see you, have a conversation, and hear feedback about these new pieces.

Many of you do not live in good ol' Chicago, so if you cannot attend the event, please come back here to Studio High Horse to see pics. They will be posted shortly. The animations and projections will also be posted on my flickr page.

Hope to see you there!

Printervention Pics

Here are some great pics from the Printervention show grabbed from the Lumpen flickr set at
www.flickr.com/photos/versionfest/sets/72157623878543502

You can see my print in the background, second from the right. Much of the work on display was graphic screen prints on commercial paper. I wish there was more time for those contributing to produce work with a slightly difference thrust, but I also like the way that anyone can feel comfortable contributing. I want to get pics of my poster installed outside, as I don't think it is really suited to this venue.

Thanks to all the Printervention crew, who worked so hard to organize and install the show.

Here is a shot of the marquee:

lingerloop(the frenetic fade)

lingerloop(the frenetic fade),
originally uploaded by cjmace.

Opening tonight, at the Chicago Cultural Center:
Printervention // Printing for the Public

Linger., my contribution to this show, is an attempt to engage the WPA poster tradition without making a poster, really, or at least by making a poster you want to touch and that changes over time. My contribution functions both as a single work and as an installation, and will be hung outside around Chicago and Detroit for the 2010 U.S. Social Forum.

Here is a summary of the description of the project:

linger. is a cyanotype under screen print on handmade paper

Though appearing thin and fragile, the paper is very strong, capable of withstanding handling and weathering. The cyanotype image will fade in natural light over time, a chemical reaction characteristic of this photo process, but return if kept in the dark for a while. Additionally, if you look at the fifteen prints of this edition side-by-side, the cyanotype image underneath fades gradually from view, leaving skeletal traces and text. This edition is an animation, really, that questions both the assumption of a static edition and the viewer’s interaction with the installed piece, a printed object that alters itself.

Here is a description of Printervention and a list of participating artists:

Following the success of last years' Version Festival program: the Bridgeport WPA pilot project, we have asked artists from around the country to create works that raise awareness of social and political issues of our day.

Join us for an incredible exhibition of over 70 posters and prints.
Plus a mural by the Montreal based duo Seripop.

CHICAGO TOURISM CENTER GALLERY
72 E. RANDOLPH STREET

Artists include //
Alex Valentine
Andrew Blackley
Andy Luce
Angee Lennard, Spudnik Press
Antonio Pazarán, Instituto Gráfico de Chicago
Bryan Christopher Baker, Stukenborg
Chad Kouri, The Post Family
Christina Vantzou
Cirilo Esquivel, Instituto Gráfico de Chicago
CJ Mace
Clay Hickson, WORKSPACE
Cody Haltom, Public School
Colin Matthes, Justseeds
Cynthia Marris, The Printstitue
Damon Locks
Dan Grzeca
Dan S. Wang
Danimal
Delicious Design League, Billy Baumann and Jason Teegarden-Downs
Derek Dietrich-Muller
Dominic Fortunato
Eric J. Garcia
Gregory Calvert
Ina Weise
Jennifer Farrell, Starshaped Press
Jenny Beorkrem, Ork Posters
Jeremiah Chiu, Plural
Jessica Owings
Jessica Taylor
Jon Resh
Jose L. Gutierrez , Instituto Gráfico de Chicago
Julia V. Hendrickson
Justin Cox, Public School
Katie McCauley, Strangelight
Renata Graw
Keith G. Herzik, Alamo Igloo
Kenton Quatman
Laura Klein
Letterform, Inc, Julie Morelli & Andy Schwegler
Lise Haller Baggesen
Luke Williams
Margot Harrington
Marvin Chan, The Printstitute
Mary Tremonte, Justseeds
Mat Daly, WORKSPACE
Michelle Mashon, Spudnik Press
Nick Adam
Nick Bahr and Janet Webber
Nick Du Pey, Young Monster
Nicolas Lampert
Rand Renfrow
Rebecca Ann Rakstad, Rar Rar Press
Ricardo Serment, Instituto Gráfico de Chicago
Richard Repasky, The Printstitute
Richie Bearden, WORKSPACE
Reuben Kincaid
Ryan Duggan
Salvador Jiménez, Yollocalli Arts Reach
Sanya Glisic, Spudnik Press
Seripop
Shaun Lind, Public School
Sonnenzimmer, Nick Butcher and Nadine Nakanishi
Steve Walters, Screwball Press
SuperKonductor, David R. Head, Jr. and Jen Hazen,
The Little Friends of Printmaking
Thirst, John Pobojewski + Bud Rodecker
Tyler Galloway
Vanessa Sanchez, Instituto Gráfico de Chicago
Veronica Corzo-Duchardt, winterbureau
Will Bryant, Public School

Printervention, organized by Emily Clayton, Chris Roberson and Ed Marszewski, is part of Version Festival 2010, an annual arts festival in Chicago produced by the Public Media Institute that brings together hundreds of artists, musicians and educators from around the world.

www.printervention.org
www.versionfest.org

As always, you can see more example of my work(and more video animations) by clicking on my portfolio in the upper right corner of this page. That will take you to my complete flickr portfolio.

Release Party for a Collaborative Print Project!

What: Artifice Issue #1 Release Party and Show

When: 7:00 pm, Saturday, Feb. 27, 2010

Where: Loft 3A, 3036 N. Lincoln, Chicago, IL

Project Description: The print above is my contribution to a collaboration between the artists and writers listed below for the inaugural issue of a new non-profit literary magazine here in Chicago called Artifice. All the prints were designed by the artists in response to poems or short stories in this first issue, then printed by Angee Lennard at Spudnik Press. I responded to Jessica Bozek's poem, "Sketch for the Fantasist's Tales". There will be special deluxe issues available for purchase that include all the prints, as well as individual and suites of prints. All proceeds from the sales benefit Artifice and Spudnik(both non-profits), then the individual artists once the initial set of prints sell. There will also be other prints on display and sale for your viewing and purchasing pleasure, plus drinks and a DJ.

Participating Artists:

Liz Born

Lilli Carre

Sanya Glisic

Kim Heiney

Angee Lennard

Jeremy Lundquist

CJ Mace

Michelle Mashon

Colin Palombi

Tom Wilder

Participating Authors:

Kelly Haramis

Tim Jones-Yelvington

Jefferson Navicky

Christopher Phelps

Derek Phillips

Kathleen Rooney

Davis Schneiderman

Susan Slaviero

I will also have prints for sale from my own cut, so if you can't come to the event, e-mail me for info!

Select Impressions @ Highpoint Center for Printmaking

Thanks to everyone who came out to the show in Minneapolis at my old studio, in its new gorgeous space. The show was stacked with good work by young, local printmakers:

Roberta Allen Todd Bridigum Sam Brown Alisha Campbell Pamela Carberry Laura Corcoran Jessica Driscoll Stella Ebner Ruthann Godollei Fred Hagstrom Brian Hartley Sago Morgan Hiscocks KimyiBo Donald Krumpo Jeremy Lundquist Jeanne McGee Jon Neuse Joshua Norton Drew Peterson Robert D. Peterson Jenny Schmid Jeremy Schock Patricia Scott Katherine Shannon Tonja Torgerson Anna Tsantir Brad Widness Johanna Winters

My piece was hung without glass and in an unusual way compared to other shows I've seen at Highpoint, making it more approachable, which is always a goal of mine. Twist is a screen print and woodcut that is meant to be a modular print, both editioned and flexible enough to be hung in almost any space. Over the course of an exhibition, it has the potential to grow and change over the length of an installation. Because the portfolio review for this show was last summer, the project has grown considerably and will have a different iteration in future shows.

With three new galleries in which to hang work, the bar has been raised at Highpoint to have a cycle of intriguing shows of both local and national artists, so I am excited to see how they respond to the challenge.

Thanks, too, to both the staff at Highpoint and the three curators who helped make the show a success:

Darsie Alexander, Chief Curator at the Walker Art Center

Dennis Jon, Associate Curator of Prints and Drawings at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts

Diane Mullin, Associate Curator at the Weisman Art Museum

Cuts, Corn, and Copyrights

I moved to Chicago about two weeks ago for graduate school at Columbia College and have been unpacking like crazy, trying to feather the nest before classes start, if you will. I am working on getting my studio set up, which involves a lot of organizing of tiny objects, nuts and bolts, parts, etc. To pass the time, I have been watching documentaries. Tonight has been a night of connections made, kind of like when you read a bunch of books and the topics seem to align though you chose titles randomly. I would definitely suggest checking out these three media links to see if you see the connections I do:

1) The work of Laura Anderson Barbata (see pic above and below), a multimedia, installation artist who will be showing at Columbia in the near future, particularly the piece called Epitome or easy method of learning the Nahuatl Language (detail), 1996:

Yep, people, look closely. Those are real teeth!! Notice that this work is older and was made well before the debates about intellectual property and the patenting of human life really had exposure in the media. Also, it was made before American GMO corn started popping up in the native plots of indigenous, corn-oriented cultures like Mexico and before the "CornCrisis of 2007".

2) The documentary, The Future of Food. This movie was released in 2007, and I should have watched it a long time ago. If you weren't already concerned about where your food is coming from (and about the power of a few large corporations like Monsanto to "lobby" and dictate federal policy), you will be after watching this. See the following books also: Stolen Harvest, by Vandana Shiva, The Cost of Living, by Arundhati Roy, and All Our Relations, by Winona LaDuke.

3) Another documentary, RiP! A Remix Manifesto, which you can download for yourself at the website or watch on hulu.com here. Released earlier in 2009, this is a great film because instead of coming off as a paranoid rant, it succeeds at troubling the dichotomy of private property vs. commons and empowers we artists to creatively resist censorship thoughtfully and strategically. It places our work into a larger social context. While Rip! is focused on the consolidation of media and the hijacking of intellectual commons, this film makes interesting connections to the patenting of living creatures. Whether it be farming knowledge(which seed saving is the physical manifestation of farming knowledge stored from year to year) or music mixing, pre-lawsuit Napster and SeedSavers are sides of the same concept coin.

After watching both films, can you also see the parallels to be made between Monsanto and Disney here? See also the contrast between our own current healthcare debate and Brazil's refusal to honor patents on AIDs medications and restrict the medications' production for its people. The patented genetic engineering funded by those very same pharmaceutical companies lobbying Congress to stop socialized healthcare and restrict our access also helped enable many of the recent developments in the "Green Revolution", i.e. Monsanto's Round-Up Ready, GMO corn. Are BigPharm and BigAg holding hands under the lobbying table? There are connections that are almost too mind blowing and disturbing to digest in one sitting. So, start digesting!