Sunday, November 4, 2007

Artpologist Installing Work


Devin picked me up this morning because he has a truck big enough to fit my paintings. Thank you so much Devin for helping me out today. On the way to the Worth Ryder Gallery he played a little Sugar Minot on the car stereo, we drank coffee along the way, and he remarked how he needed to get back before the football game.

Today was the first day to start to install our work for the Out of Time Space project. It was actually really exciting. I was the only one of the Artpologist group to attend because Zhanara was working and the other two artpologists are in Central Asia. Aminatou, the video artist, is in Turkmenistan doing some video classes for the locals and Gaisha is in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Gaisha, the photographer, is doing various things related to her work, and I hope she's getting some time to go out and see the local Almatinski favorite d.j. Rustam Ospanov.

Today I didn't really get a chance to hang the works. I arranged everything and I got some great help from a French curator (I didn't get her name) who is helping out in the project. I did get a chance to view Aminatou's video work. I haven't seen this video work since being in Almaty. Hearing the sounds shocked me a bit. I had a rush of feelings from our Transformation of Space in Almaty project and I almost cried. I really put a lot of work into this project last summer, and it was a very intense year for us. But the sounds from Aminatou's video brought me right back into Central Asia. I could just taste the Shashlyk and Pivo (kebab and beer in Russian).

It was also really nice to see my old friend Lindsay Benedict. She's got to be one of the coolest women I know. She's even vandalized the gallery to scare the shit out of everyone.

Anyhow, there's lots more work to do this week. I have to work a lot turning tables in a fancy organic restaurant in North Berkeley. All that my mind will really think about will be if I did my artpologist group justice by reassembling their work in the best possible way and if I'll be able to say anything interesting this Friday.

On the play list: The House of Leaf and Lime by The High Llamas, a "mega" mix by Grandmaster Flash, and Autumn Leaves by The Cannonball Adderly Quintet

Cheers,

Daniel

2 comments:

Zhanara said...

From Aminatou in Ashkabat:

Zhanara, Daniel, Bravo I am sure you did well! I wish i could be here with you, i just arrived in Ashkabat and the fall is really nice, even if silence is mostly covering this city. Sound is really powerful, it take with him all memories, sometimes it is really physical, i also felt this sensation and i can understand what you felt, it was like a big surprise that you didn t expect, it also represent our intense collective experience of Almaty, and now, this sound of another space meet the light of San Francisco. I can t wait for images of this new installation - and i hope to see some of other works! - And maybe if you could record the sound of this new space it would be great to add to the photos!
Alone to install everything, but full of 4 minds-lives... so hard... I wish to everybody a good exhibit and enjoying this new time...
All the best, Aminatou

. said...

Congratulations to both of you! And thank you for sharing a drink with me over the hanging of work. I look forward to seeing your project/work grow into new mediums. I found the whole concept interesting and appreciated your presentation on the attempts to bring together anthropology and art practice - a transdisciplinary engagement with art.

I wonder, after post-installation, how are you both feeling about the work being up in a new conversation/new environment out of the original context?

-Annie Fukushima-