2011 WCA Live Space Conference in New York City
02.10.11 Morning ConfabStarting at 8:30 am, the Hilton Hotel's New York Suite was the location of multiple exciting offerings. We witnessed the formation of a brand new New York Chapter headed by Co-Presidents Marcia Annenberg and Heather Stoltz. Young WCA members handed out pennies and asked us for our thoughts. Central Mass member CM Judge showed FEMLINK videos in a corner. New Hampshire member Suzanne Whattaker kicked off the KISS mail art project. Chapters Council members had an informal introduction meeting. Caitlin Rueter and Suzanne Stroebe, members of the Feminist Tea Party, led off a panel discussion called "Ask Me, I Will Tell," that included the Tea Party, The Brainstormers, Project Space and For the Birds Collective. They discussed their collectives' structure and focus, and how the subject matter of gender is handled among young artists and curatorial collectives. All this, while serving tea and eating cupcakes! The panel was written up in the Huffington Post http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mira-schor/feminist-tea-party_b_821729.html, a big coup for WCA!
02.10.11 Women, Art & Activism PanelModerator CM Judge (Central Mass) led a panel discussion by three established artists, Carolee Schneemann (LTA awardee), Elizabeth Streb and Paula Rendino Zaentz. All three are performance artists who focus on their bodies but who produce vastly different works of art. All three showed videos of their performances to a capacity crowd. WCA members knitted throughout.
02.10.11 Art ReceptionsWhat would a trip to New York be without art, art, art? Mutiple art receptions allowed us to choose from the uptown JWAN Sanctuaries in Time reception at the Kraft Center, and Chelsea galleries' Control reception at Ceres Gallery and Flomenhaft Gallery reception & conversation at the Flomenhaft Gallery called "Be Aware: Women Working." If that wasn't enough, the Young Women's Caucus staged a series of performance art at the Raandesk Gallery.
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02.12.11 Bus Tour + Hidden CitiesAfter a busy morning of JWAN meetings, WCA Video Shorts Festival and other events, WCA members boarded a bus that took them to the Sackler Museum, St. Francis College and 20th Century Artists Gallery for the Hidden Cities reception. WCA sold out on the bus tour and ended up adding a bus at the last minute. It was a small adventure when we got stuck in rush hour traffic the drivers lost the way, but we all made it to our destinations in Brooklyn and Chelsea.
2.12.11 TFAP Panels, LTA & GalaThe day started with a very early morning Chapters Council Meeting at the Hilton. Reps from all over the country shared news about their chapters, as well as the challenges and successes they've had over the last year.The Feminist Art Project moved their "Day of Panels" out of the Hilton and into the Museum of Arts & Design at Columbus Circle. It was standing-room only for the various panels that went from 9:15 am to 5:30 pm. WCA members then rushed back to their rooms to change for the WCA Lifetime Achievement Awards ceremony at the Hilton, that honored Beverly Buchanan, Diane Burko, Ofelia Garcia, Joan Marter, Carolee Schneemann and the late Sylvia Sleigh. President Janice Nesser-Chu also gave a touching tribute to The Point's Maria Torres, who received the first President's Award for Art and Activism. After the ceremony, everyone walked half a block to the American Folk Art Museum for a walkaround dinner and opportunity to schmooze with the LTA honorees and artists.This year's LTA event was heavily attended and the new format of a social mixer rather than a formal sit-down dinner was enthusiastically received.
02.13 & 14.11 Rutgers and Board MeetingCollege Art Association and WCA teamed up to offer a bus tour to Rutgers on Sunday. We toured the Brodsky Center for Innovative Editions, the Institute for Women and Art and the Zimmerli Art Museum. Attendees got to watch paper-making demonstration at the Brodsky and listen to a lecture by Joan Snyder at the Zimmerli.
Most of the WCA members went home on Monday but the National Board met all day at the Kraft Center. Janice kept us moving quickly through a very full agenda and we finished on time! Next year, the conference will take place in Los Angeles. WCA definitely made a mark in New York this year. Leveraging our success, our 2012 theme will be called "Momentum." |
A Sense of Place
May 2-21, 2011
Dates: May 2-21, 2011
Location: Arc Gallery, 1246 Folsom St, San Francisco
Wikipedia defines “a sense of place” as those characteristics that make a place special or unique, as well as those places that foster a sense of authentic human attachment and belonging.
The 2011 NCWCA members' show, "A Sense of Place" concluded successfully on Saturday, May 21 with an artists' talk and reception at Art Gallery.
The membership and the Board achieved these results from "A Sense of Place":
42 artists participated in the exhibition
250 people attended the opening reception
50 people attended the Censorship panel
31 people attended the Censorship pop-up show and artists' talk
25 people attended the Sense artists' talk and closing reception
35 artists signed up to volunteer for at least one activity, several signed up for more than one, and every single person showed up to volunteer!
7 artists donated money to pay for a gallery assistant
80 is what our chapter membership stands after the exhibition, up from 40 in January!
What made "A Sense of Place" successful? The community of artists who made it all possible!
For photographs of the exhibition, see below.
Location: Arc Gallery, 1246 Folsom St, San Francisco
Wikipedia defines “a sense of place” as those characteristics that make a place special or unique, as well as those places that foster a sense of authentic human attachment and belonging.
The 2011 NCWCA members' show, "A Sense of Place" concluded successfully on Saturday, May 21 with an artists' talk and reception at Art Gallery.
The membership and the Board achieved these results from "A Sense of Place":
42 artists participated in the exhibition
250 people attended the opening reception
50 people attended the Censorship panel
31 people attended the Censorship pop-up show and artists' talk
25 people attended the Sense artists' talk and closing reception
35 artists signed up to volunteer for at least one activity, several signed up for more than one, and every single person showed up to volunteer!
7 artists donated money to pay for a gallery assistant
80 is what our chapter membership stands after the exhibition, up from 40 in January!
What made "A Sense of Place" successful? The community of artists who made it all possible!
For photographs of the exhibition, see below.
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Opening Reception
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Setting Up, Hanging Works
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Censorship: The Artists' Dialog
In Censorship: The Artists' Dialog, Deborah Mills Thackrey, founder of Axis Gallery, curated works by Della Calfee, Chris Elliman, Richard Gullion, TW Chui, Shawn Paul Gilbert, Francesca Lovecchio, Alexandra Szerlip, Alex Oliva, Deborah Mills Thackrey, Archil Pichkadze, and Tom Thackrey. Subject matter covered included Right to Life freedom of speech, child pornography, use of obscene and profane language and cannibalism. Pop-up Exhibition: May 15 - 21, 2011 Artists' Talk & Reception: Thursday, May 19, 7-9 PM. Moderator: Deborah Mills Thackrey. Speakers: Della Calfee, Richard Gullion, TW Chui, Francesca Lovecchio, and Shawn Paul Gilbert, Alexandra Szerlip. Location: Arc Gallery, 1246 Folsom Street, San Francisco Attendance: 31             |
Censoring Women's Art: Why Should Women Care?
“We are feminists who believe the First Amendment is good for women. National Council Against Censorship The May 15 censorship panel drew more than 50 people to the Arc Gallery to listen to an all-women's panel about censorship. Hanna Regev of the First Amendment Project organized the panel, which consisted of Jan Wurm (moderator); artists Kara Maria, Sylvia Cossich Goodman, Taraneh Hemami; Oakland Museum Director Cherie Newell and attorney Lisa K. Blatt, JD. The panelists discussed ways in which they encountered censorship and how they managed to avert the removal of their work. The audience participated in the dialog, covering the range of topics from self-censorship to sexual content and the effect of media hype. PANEL PARTICIPANTS Moderator: Jan Wurm, practicing artist and art educator. In February, 2011 she moderated the panel, “Censorship in the Arts: A Trend or Just a Passing Fad?” at the Performance Art Institute in San Francisco. Panelists: Lisa K. Blatt, JD, San Francisco-based photographer and video artist. Taraneh Hemami, San Francisco-based interdisciplinary visual artist. Sylvia Cossich Goodman, San Rafael painter Kara Maria, San Francisco-based contemporary artist inspired by current events. Cherie Newell, Director of Professional Services at the Oakland Museum of California. Panel Organizers: Hanna Regev is the curator of “Banned and Recovered” and the upcoming exhibition, “Keeping an Eye on Surveillance.” She serves on the board of the First Amendment Project and was president of the Northern California Council of National Museum of Women in the Arts. Priscilla Otani is a Board Member of the Northern California Women’s Caucus for Art and President-Elect of National Women's Caucus for Art. Sponsoring Organizations: Northern California Women's Caucus for Art Arc Gallery Exhibit Envoy (EE) (formerly CERA – California Exhibition Resource Alliance. EE is the sponsoring organization of the traveling show, Banned and Recovered: Artists Intervention) The First Amendment Project. Location: Arc Gallery, 1246 Folsom Street, San Francisco, CA 94103. Attendance: 50+ people          |
Pescadero Land Art: Sunday, September 11, 2011
On September 11, we made land art on Irma Velasquez's 40-acre coastal property. The land is mostly south facing and has open rolling hills, a glimpse of the Pacific ocean and a few areas of coastal scrub. The night before, Judy Johnson-Williams camped in her van on a hillock and was awakened by Alejandro, the coyote, who asked her who she was and why she was sleeping on his turf. Participating in this project were Elise Cheval, Kim Criswell, Ginger Slonaker, Belinda Chlouber, Judy Johnson-Williams, Priscilla Otani, Pantea and Hamid Karimi, Judy Shintani, and Irma Velasquez. We spent most of the day creating individual pieces, then walked the land to see what we had made.
Artists Statements
Elise Cheval
Full Circle. This land art installation was created with flour, sieves of various sizes, an old garden hose and bucket. With red tail hawks, vultures and ravens hovering in the warm wind currents above, I imagined I was an aboriginal artist in the beginnings of time as I printed patterns of lace, connecting me to my own Belgian and Cherokee roots, and the flour from whence it came on the ground in Pescadero.
Judy Johnson-Williams
Earth Beads. I wanted to honor the land literally so I used dirt, adobe, really, mixed with natural straw and sun dried. I used the ample gopher tailings and mixed it with water in a bucket and then kneaded it until it wasn't
sticky and could be shaped into flat medallions or other bead shapes. There wasn't enough time for them to fully dry but they were hard enough so that people could take one home as a moment. Some of them I'm going to attempt to pit-fire to see if I can turn them into real ceramic, tho, admittedly low-fire.
Pantea Karimi
Vegetable Garden. 2011, 7x7 feet, plastic materials and chopsticks. I created Vegetable Garden piece to comment on our manipulated environments caused by man-made additions, and altered natural landscapes due to excessive waste and over consuming unnatural materials.
Priscilla Otani
Wind Traveler. Sacs created from calligraphy paper, filled with seeds, pods, snail shells, dried weeds, pebbles. Each strung with stick and waxed linen thread. The pods make a dry, husky sound when the wind blows through them. Their shapes are reminiscent of breast icons strung by women in Tono. The frail membranes will release their contents on the ground and into the air as the Elements dictate. Inscribed on each is Basho's haiku, the last he wrote before his death:
Tabi ni yande Falling sick on a journey
Yume wa kareno o My dreams circle round and around
Kakemeguru In withered fields
Judy Shintani & Kim Criswell
Flower Power. We worked in collaboration with the land inside a pit-like indentation at the top of a hill that people were calling “the volcano”. Taking our cue from existing vegetation at the bottom of the “volcano”, we created a land flower reminiscent of Flower Power stickers that were popular during the 1960s peace movement. At the center of the pit, dark patches of spent poppy plants grew in a pattern that suggested large petals. We emphasized that image by removing clumps of straw-like wild oat and outlining dark petals with white shale rock. We used violet-colored powdered tempera and sweet yellow dandelions to emphasize the center. We intuitively incorporated the healing qualities of these different elements: later research confirmed dandelions’, poppies’, shale's, and the color purple's medicinal usage for stress, liver, transformation, and balancing. We finished the piece with a small performance, inviting those who wished to join to us at the rim of the “volcano” to cast handfuls of flour into the wind, symbolically releasing whatever we wanted to let go of.
Irma Velasquez
Horse. I used the canvass that spoke to me on the side of a hill. I worked from the image that emerged as I moved the vines that were intertwined between the drying stalks of poison hemlock. I used the hay that was on the hill to build on the image of a horse looking toward the open field. The wind gave the sculpture movement and the light from the setting sun gave it definition from afar.
About Land Art
Land Art, Earth Art, Eco-Art; whatever you
want to call it, this art form came out of the 60's and 70's ecology movement.
It utilizes natural materials and landscape, and often, the actual works cannot
be displayed or sold through museums. Early works were site-specific and could
not be moved or removed without lots of heavy earth-moving equipment. Think Robert Smithson's 'Spiral
Jetty' or Nancy Holt's 'Sun Tunnels.'
Sometime later, artists such as Ana Mendieta, Agnes Denes and Maya Lin evolved less intrusive
styles of land art. Other artists are even less intrusive. Examples are Richard Long (who tramps a
path) and Andy Goldsworthy who mostly
uses his own strength, teeth and hands to rearrange natural materials found
on-site. Goldsworthy relishes the temporary nature of his creations and often
documents their decay.
Simple Rules
We used a few simple guidelines:
1. The sculpture must be temporary and the creation of it must do no harm to the land, flora and fauna.
2. If using plants, don't denude or kill them (unless they are invasive weeds)
3. If moving dirt, digging or stacking, be aware of wildlife which may be disturbed.
4. Use all degradable materials (e.g. jute rope to hold things together) or remove non-degradables after documentation.
Artists Statements
Elise Cheval
Full Circle. This land art installation was created with flour, sieves of various sizes, an old garden hose and bucket. With red tail hawks, vultures and ravens hovering in the warm wind currents above, I imagined I was an aboriginal artist in the beginnings of time as I printed patterns of lace, connecting me to my own Belgian and Cherokee roots, and the flour from whence it came on the ground in Pescadero.
Judy Johnson-Williams
Earth Beads. I wanted to honor the land literally so I used dirt, adobe, really, mixed with natural straw and sun dried. I used the ample gopher tailings and mixed it with water in a bucket and then kneaded it until it wasn't
sticky and could be shaped into flat medallions or other bead shapes. There wasn't enough time for them to fully dry but they were hard enough so that people could take one home as a moment. Some of them I'm going to attempt to pit-fire to see if I can turn them into real ceramic, tho, admittedly low-fire.
Pantea Karimi
Vegetable Garden. 2011, 7x7 feet, plastic materials and chopsticks. I created Vegetable Garden piece to comment on our manipulated environments caused by man-made additions, and altered natural landscapes due to excessive waste and over consuming unnatural materials.
Priscilla Otani
Wind Traveler. Sacs created from calligraphy paper, filled with seeds, pods, snail shells, dried weeds, pebbles. Each strung with stick and waxed linen thread. The pods make a dry, husky sound when the wind blows through them. Their shapes are reminiscent of breast icons strung by women in Tono. The frail membranes will release their contents on the ground and into the air as the Elements dictate. Inscribed on each is Basho's haiku, the last he wrote before his death:
Tabi ni yande Falling sick on a journey
Yume wa kareno o My dreams circle round and around
Kakemeguru In withered fields
Judy Shintani & Kim Criswell
Flower Power. We worked in collaboration with the land inside a pit-like indentation at the top of a hill that people were calling “the volcano”. Taking our cue from existing vegetation at the bottom of the “volcano”, we created a land flower reminiscent of Flower Power stickers that were popular during the 1960s peace movement. At the center of the pit, dark patches of spent poppy plants grew in a pattern that suggested large petals. We emphasized that image by removing clumps of straw-like wild oat and outlining dark petals with white shale rock. We used violet-colored powdered tempera and sweet yellow dandelions to emphasize the center. We intuitively incorporated the healing qualities of these different elements: later research confirmed dandelions’, poppies’, shale's, and the color purple's medicinal usage for stress, liver, transformation, and balancing. We finished the piece with a small performance, inviting those who wished to join to us at the rim of the “volcano” to cast handfuls of flour into the wind, symbolically releasing whatever we wanted to let go of.
Irma Velasquez
Horse. I used the canvass that spoke to me on the side of a hill. I worked from the image that emerged as I moved the vines that were intertwined between the drying stalks of poison hemlock. I used the hay that was on the hill to build on the image of a horse looking toward the open field. The wind gave the sculpture movement and the light from the setting sun gave it definition from afar.
About Land Art
Land Art, Earth Art, Eco-Art; whatever you
want to call it, this art form came out of the 60's and 70's ecology movement.
It utilizes natural materials and landscape, and often, the actual works cannot
be displayed or sold through museums. Early works were site-specific and could
not be moved or removed without lots of heavy earth-moving equipment. Think Robert Smithson's 'Spiral
Jetty' or Nancy Holt's 'Sun Tunnels.'
Sometime later, artists such as Ana Mendieta, Agnes Denes and Maya Lin evolved less intrusive
styles of land art. Other artists are even less intrusive. Examples are Richard Long (who tramps a
path) and Andy Goldsworthy who mostly
uses his own strength, teeth and hands to rearrange natural materials found
on-site. Goldsworthy relishes the temporary nature of his creations and often
documents their decay.
Simple Rules
We used a few simple guidelines:
1. The sculpture must be temporary and the creation of it must do no harm to the land, flora and fauna.
2. If using plants, don't denude or kill them (unless they are invasive weeds)
3. If moving dirt, digging or stacking, be aware of wildlife which may be disturbed.
4. Use all degradable materials (e.g. jute rope to hold things together) or remove non-degradables after documentation.
