Monday, June 15, 2009

Sascha Braunig

Sascha Braunig's "Photo Booth" project transgresses the defined boundaries of self-appearance and glossy print promotions by incorporating the nonsensical union of bedizen fashions with monster make-up and masks. A dynamic field of tension is the result of these "collaborative portraits" since they are at odds with the ordered world and aligned with it.





This trajectory of dismantling the wearily familiar into something stimulatingly different will be continued in her contribution to the Queue. In a harsh outline for the project entitled: "Solutions", Braunig plans to run an active portrait studio that will be flag-shipped by sculptural components of a female head and cosmetics to compliment it. Visitors can be photographed next this eyesore/photographer's prop on July 10th.

Phil Cote and Jonathan Santoro

Speak-easies are true freaks of history. Replacing the regulated sphere of law and self-representation followed by licensed liquor dispensaries with alternative distribution and marketing practices, these social-functional drinking establishments must live in the shadows and exclude themselves from conventional guidebooks. It is my feeling, however, that this disregard for fixed and rigid drinking laws mixed with an indifference towards accessibility could be interpreted as being a way to bridge patrons to a passage of time when we lived under the shadow of prohibitions wave of disturbance. This referential dimension to prohibition can only be completed through social and formal extrapolation, but when a patron steps into one of these establishments he/she is left with the feeling that a beastly form of abandon might possibly still exist.

"Casuals" is a functional bar that will inject the deception, delusion and identity formation of speak-easies into the art-center of P.I.F.A.S. To emulate these anachronistic zones of vice, blowhard performances will mix with theatrical static objects to make a belabored blend that will attempt to resemble a near cinematic experience. During operational hours, for example, performance artists/ actors will play their versions of lionized and voluble bartenders familiar to most. But unique elements will be added to this mainspring of life with the inclusion of collaborative works made Phil Cote and Jonathan Santoro.






Hovering between stage work and sculpture, these works will be functional and included in the resident studio at P.I.F.A.S throughout the month of July.

Alexandra Gorczynski



The fast-flickering imagery of Alexandra Gorczynski’s “Self Love’ leaves viewers in a veritable overdose of technically timed programming. When studied, however, the video’s true focal point is a highly organized non-verbal structure that discerningly signifies personal disintegration that is the result of harrowing change. This disinterest in verbal discourse and need for the classic dialectic between artist and interpretive community will be skillfully injected into Gorczynski’s project for the Queue. In her project: "Tattouille", she will temporarily leave behind the medium of video for the novelty art of temporary tattoos.These tattoos will be designed, printed and applied by the artist on the date of July 10th.

Jesse Greenberg

The posturing of the kiosk can be observed in Greenberg’s “Megabinxes,” which topically hem in its horizontal balconies and tacky lights to display relentlessly multiplied offerings called “Touchables.” These “Touchables” interestingly share an associative aspect with serial commodity objects, but lack the packaging in favor for hand-to-hand communication.





In a rough draft of the conceptual underpinnings for his contribution to The Queue, the artist plans to build an enclosed structure that will resemble a cave/hermitage where visitors can seek a minor form of privacy.

Lindsay A. Howard

In the sterile environments of art and archeological museums, utilitarian objects are often cobbled together to create dense spectacles or present a curator’s personal monologue. Although “unharmed," once these functional items are placed in vitrines they are stripped of their vital purposes. The Museum of Sex in New York plays with these restrictions and prohibitions in their playful exhibition of RealDolls.



Although completed fantasies are technically kept at abeyance, compulsive patrons can feel the articulated genitals of these high-end silicone rubber erotic products through holes cut out of its display case. By standing in for the female Realdoll, Lindsay A. Howard's project "Real-realdoll" will shape itself to the contours of this display to bring this immobile sex object to life as responsive, REALlife RealDoll. This will, consequently, render viewers either voyeurs or participants.

Liz Rywelski

MONEY ME:
“Money Me” is a financial ranking and filing graphic display project, which Liz Rywelski will debut at the Queue. In a shorthand description, this long-term project will present the “financial profiles” presented by volunteers and redistribute this data as a headshot overlaid by a RichText file.




The reason for using this unique way of presenting information to facilitate interaction, in favor of a grid system, is explained by the artist in her mission statement:

“In a RichText File, every code is unique to an image just like a finger print. I am shooting large format/high resolution portraits of people from all income brackets and converting them into RTF’s. The portrait will be a tight cropping of the face, (think passport photo, or Chuck Close portraits). So each portrait will create a unique code, just as each person has a face unique to his own. Than, I will incorporate the subject’s financial profile, Net-Worth, and Debt-to-Income Ratio into the RTF. This augments the file and creates glitches in the image, also unique to ones personal numbers. The final image is a big beautiful and colorful, stressed out and glitched up file that translates into a unique Portrait.”

To participate, contact the artist at: http://www.lizrywelski.com/?page_id=41

Justin Samson

Beyond the tool of nomenclature, Justin Samson’s portal sculpture “The Hyper Dimensional Vagina” will use the external stereotypes of tribal aesthetics and science fiction to imply “new beginnings” and “new discoveries” for the traffic flow entering/ exiting the P.I.F.A.S. Place Project. Standing 8-feet tall and constructed from banal products of commodity, "The Hyper Dimensional Vagina" will also casually address the shifting line between vulgar fetishes and technological ideologies that is at the core of Samson's work.




A performance will accompany "The Hyper Dimensional Vagina" on July 10th. Also, a self-released book entitled: "Inside the Cosmic Motion Picture Projector" will be on sale. This book will include images of work made by Samson for an exhibition of the same name that took place earlier this year. Photographs of this show can be seen at: http://www.johnconnellypresents.com/exhibition/view/1599

Matt Savitsky and Nina Schwanse

Roommates Matt Savitsky and Nina Schwanse plan to exhibit a bifurcated project entitled "Street DJ", which will re-stage and present elements of their street-level environment.



A description of the installation is located below:

"Street DJ was conceived from living in the Italian market, the center of which is based upon an antiquated model of our 'free market' system. The site’s dense multicultural operation relies on what we contribute and demarcate as territory locally without the competition of the corporate agenda. Matt Savitsky and Nina Schwanse have collaborated to construct an off site installation that resembles a man’s street-level living area below their apartment. It is a rugged shelter-cum-fruit stand that houses a television looping several ‘commercials’ where the artists impersonate roles drawn from constructed advertisement models."