Erasing the FEAR of American Minstrelsy

Erasing the FEAR of American Minstrelsy
Lecture featuring Aaron White and Jason Christophe White, In Tha Cut Productions
Monday, September 15, 12:30-2:00 p.m.
Wargin Hall 142

Chaffey Community College
5885 Haven Ave., Rancho Cucamonga 91737-3002

Aaron White and Jason Christophe White of In Tha Cut Productions will present this 1-hour lecture exploring the history and legacy of American minstrelsy. Using actual photos, footage and sound bites from real historical performances, this is a perfect preparation for the performance of The Dance: The History of American Minstrelsy, their play that is scheduled the same day in the Chaffey College Theater from 7-9pm (free). In this atmosphere, students, staff and faculty can feel comfortable to confront this atrocity in our American history together and it will provide a platform for dialogues about critical issues surrounding race.


The Dance : The History of American Minstrelsy

Absurd Recreation: Contemporary Art From China

Absurd Recreation
Contemporary Art From China
July 26, 2008 - October 04, 2008

Opening Reception: July 26, 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM

"Absurd Recreation: Contemporary Art from China" is a multi-media group exhibition of artists from China who use playful, humorous, ritualistic imagery, as if they were engaging in an absurdist, leisurely "recreation" that focuses on their interior lives and keeps the external world at an arm’s length. They also have as a common theme the "re-creation" of settings, events, and situations, as if trying to recover scenes from a cultural amnesia, in reaction to the rapidly changing political, social, cultural, economic, and environmental landscapes in China. Artists in the exhibition include Chen Chieh-jen, Chen Wei, Hong Hao, Liu Qinghe, Wang Wei, Xie Xiaoze, Xu Ruotao, Xu Zhen, and Zhao Liang. Support provided by Morono Kiang Gallery, Los Angeles and Falling Leaves Foundation. Organized by UCR Sweeney Art Gallery, and curated by gallery director Tyler Stallings. Catalog available.

Where: UCR Sweeney Art Gallery
3800 Main St.,
Riverside,CA,

Price: Free

Gallery Hours
Tuesday through Saturday: 12-5 PM
First Sunday of every month: 12-5 PM
First Thursday of every month 6-9 PM

chen wei

chen chienh-jen

chen chienh-jen

hong hao

xu zhen

Multiverse Opens September 21st at the Claremont Museum of Art

Multiverse

September 21 - December 28, 2008

Opening Reception Saturday, September 20

Multiverse is a dynamic exhibition featuring photographic installations, mixed media sculptures, video projections, a light box installation, and
sculpture from paper, among other media.

Participating artists include Sebaastian Bremer (New York), Jedediah Caesar (Los Angeles), Emilie Halpern (Los
Angeles), Violet Hopkins (Los Angeles), Emre Hüner (Istanbul, Turkey), Miler Lagos (Bogotá, Colombia),
Nancy Macko (Claremont), Carter Mull (Los Angeles), Diana Thater (Los Angeles), Fred Tomaselli (New York),
and Kerry Tribe (Los Angeles).

Multiverse refers to the hypothesis that all of physical reality actually exists within a set of multiple, parallel
universes, of which our universe is merely one part.The possibility of many universes raises a myriad of
scientific, philosophical and theological questions that have been explored in various branches of theoretical
science, disciplines of thought and fiction. Multiverse will explore these issues artistically. “This exhibition represents the Museum’s interest in ideas that connect the arts and artists to contemporary thinking and points-of-view,” said CMA Director William Moreno.

For more information about Multiverse visit the Claremont museum of art website:

http://www.claremontmuseum.org/future.html




Sebastiaan Bremer



Diane Thater



Fred Tamaselli



Miler Lagos

Voyeur Visits Vexing

I checked out vexing today at the Claremont Museum of Art.
Here are some photos i took of the show. I would have taken more but the curator, Pilar Tompkins, is an art Nazi.



Enjoy!!!

View of the space including the map of 80's L.A. punk rock hot spots and a sweet woman who was also told to put away her camera.





Close up





Patssi Valdez 1987





Patssi Valdez 1987



?????

The Brat


This show ends Sunday. Admission is 3 bucks. It's worth it.

Youthless and the Eastern Pendulum

Youhtless records have come out with their first compilation album!!!!


"This summer has been a wonderful experience for me. To showcase what music I have been listening while experiencing freedom from work and school, I have put together a tasteful display of musical art from incredible artists who happen to live in our own backyards. Thank you to everyone who contributed! Thank you for all the energy and support I have received from the people who help make this happen." - youthless







Album Artwork done by Kyanne Pepper



Youthless Compilation 2008 Tracklist

1. The Decline of the West - EXITMUSIC
2. Screaming Trees - Pioneers! Oh Pioneers!
3. Swarm of Bees - Death Ray Cartel
4. Polaroid - Halloween Swim Team
5. B.B. Blues - Duhkha
6. BYOPCP - Narwhal Party
7. My Roots - Momento Mori
8. Sleeping as Black as Beauty - Pegasissy
9. Foreign - Seth and the Swan
10. Madness - Her Land My Land
11. Peter Piper [Pitter Patter] - Lemon Lips
12. December 31st, 2007 [Feb. 4th, 2008] - Brother Mitya
13. Scars and Sores - Honeybody Moonbee
14. Beat Beast - Travisaurus
15. IIII - Celestial Indifference
16. Sounds Outside - Voices Voices
17. Atmen Sie - Ardor

Check out the youthless records myspace.

http://www.myspace.com/youthlessrecords

Juba dis and Juba dat: Serious Sillyness of JUBA!!!

I have interviewed the memebers of experimental ambient industrial musical gathering JUBA!!!

Ador, Frosti, and Bijma have given me an insight into the music making process of this progressive band.

Right to Left: Frosti, Ardor, and Bijma

Ardor:

B:Tell me a little bout Juba.

A: We make sounds for sounding pleasure.

B:What are Juba's musical influences?

A: Black slaves, and bands like Matmos, Mayhem and White House.

B:Where did you get the name "Juba" from?

A:It comes from Pattin Juba. Slaves used their bodies as percussion instruments and sang.

B:One last question. Since most of your influences seem to be serious ones, Where does Juba's silliness come from?

A:Our silliness come from getting drunk and high before recording.

Frosti

B:What influences you when you make music for Juba?

F:My surroundings, my state of mind, Wind chimes on a summers evening night...with a little breeze.

B:Before you joined the band the music was more serious. Since you have joined you have relieved the band of their seriousness. You seem to be the cause of the silliness in the band, we're you aware of that?

F:I was aware and I was embarrassed. I want to take it seriously but I can't right now.

Bijma interviews himself

B:What would you like to say about Juba?

B:Since I am broke the concept behind Juba is dear to my heart. We make music with what we have around us. I also like the gritty sounds Lo-tech recordings make.

B:What does the band name Juba mean to you?

B:Self reliance and minimalist survival.

B:Where do you think Juba's silliness comes from?

B:I take it too seriously to think its funny.


Listen to Juba on their myspace.
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=388680166&MyToken=91910aeb-5d2e-4757-9153-b0789605adb7


This is a popular song performed by African American musicians about the Juba:

"Juba Juba",

"Juba dis and Juba dat,

and Juba kissed da yellow cat,

You sift the meal and ya gimme the husk,

you bake the bread and ya gimme the crust,

you eat the meat and ya gimme the skin,

and that's the way,

my mama's troubles begin"

The Adventurous Photogrpahy of Suzanne Alcasid

Photography by my home girl,chino based artist, Suzanne Alcasid.

CHANGE IS THE ONLY CONSTANT:The dA Center for the Arts

CHANGE IS THE ONLY CONSTANT.....

September 13 through September 27
Press & Community Preview: Thursday, September 11, 5pm to 9pm
Opening Reception: Saturday, September 13, 6pm to 10pm
Closing Reception: Saturday, September 27, 6pm to 10pm

Featuring work by Rick Robinson's, Jonna Lee, Rick Mendoza, and Kathryne Layne Paxton

My favorite is Kathryne Layne Paxton who appropriates family photos. By digitally inserting animals and other surprising ingredients, Kathryne adds the element of shock, wonder, and horror into images that are normally thought of as innocent and nostalgic. Kathyrne is a multimedia artist who lives and works in LA. She has a B.F.A. in photography and Imaging, with a minor in Studio Art and Art History.
She chose a quote by Joseph Campbell to describe her work:

"In the context of a traditional mythology, the symbols are presented in socially maintained rites, through which the individual is required to experience, or will pretend to have experienced, certain insights, sentiments, and commitments. In what I am calling “creative” mythology, on the other hand, this order is reversed: the individual has had an experience of his own-of order, horror, beauty, or even mere exhilaration-which he seeks to communicate through signs; and if his realizations have been of a certain depth and import, his communication will have the value and force of a living myth-for those, that is to say, who receive and respond to it themselves, with recognition, uncoerced. "--Joseph Campbell, The Masks of God IV

MEAGAN BOYD

Mixed media artist Meagan Boyd, from Fontana, has shown me some older needle point pieces she has made in 2006. She is currently working on installations and art performances with her performance group, the Lil' Mysticals.

 

2006 embroidery floss on canvas

2006

2006

The Joy in Forgetting 2006 

Mammygraphs: Mark Steven Greenfield & Trick Baby: Ernest Bryant III

Mammygraphs: Mark Steven Greenfield
Trick Baby: Ernest Arthur Bryant III
August 25 – September 27, 2880

Bryant and Greenfield will speak about their work prior to the artists’ reception on Tuesday, September 2 from 6:00-7:00 p.m. at the Wignall Museum. Immediately following will be an artists’ reception with light refreshments and entertainment featuring dj Trickmilla.


Chaffey College and the Wignall Museum are pleased to present Mammygraphs: Mark Steven Greenfield and Trick Baby: Ernest Arthur Bryant III from August 25– September 27, 2008. Both concurrent exhibitions are free and open to the public.

Mammygraphs features photographs and sculptural works by LA-based artist Mark Steven Greenfield. Greenfield’s work appropriates historic images from the heyday of blackface minstrelsy. With this provocative selection of images and objects, Greenfield prompts the viewer to consider the effect this history has on our culture today. Mammygraphs surveys the work created over the last ten years of Greenfield’s illustrious career as a visual artist and includes work from Greenfield’s Blackatcha, Post Minstrel, Incognegro series, as well as new, never-before exhibited work from Mammygraphs.

In Trick Baby, Minneapolis-based artist Ernest Arthur Bryant III weaves race, politics, pop culture and art history into his mixed-media assemblages. Utilizing found clothing remnants, hand painted portraits, graffiti and sewn elements, Bryant’s loaded works challenge the cultural constructions and coding that we take for granted every day and that shape our social interactions. Borrowing the title from Iceberg Slim’s book Trick Baby, the exhibition includes five of Bryant’s works. This is Bryant’s first California exhibition.

Bryant and Greenfield will speak about their work prior to the artists’ reception on Tuesday, September 2 from 6:00-7:00 p.m. at the Wignall Museum. Immediately following will be an artists’ reception with light refreshments and entertainment featuring dj Trickmilla.


Artwork by Mark Steven Greenfield:






Artwork by Ernest Arthur Bryant III:

Graphic Violence: The Graphic Art of Steven Marquez

Steven Marquez of Fontana California loves eating salads, playing music, and making graphic art.

Humor and violence mingle in these playful graphic pieces. Steven is a man of few words, but these works speak volumes. Enjoy!

TRUTHINESS: Photography as Sculpture

Truthiness: Photography as Sculpture explores how a new generation of artists in California are using photographic prints as the basic medium in the creation of sculptural works, in an effort to expand the use of the media and to examine the nature of the photographic image.

Artists in the exhibition include Elizabeth Bryant, Todd Gray, Katie Grinnan, Brandon Lattu, Srdjan Loncar, Dana Maiden, Tom McGovern, David Meanix, Gina Osterloh, Anthony Pearson, Carter Potter, Christopher Taggart, Mary Younakof, Amir Zaki and Bari Ziperstein.

Photography as Sculpture
July 26, 2008 - October 04, 2008




Mary Younakof
Red Alert
2008




Christopher Taggart
(I'll Rearrange My) Face
2003



Christopher Taggart
(Virtual) Heart (of a Pig)
2001



Thomas McGovern
Working as Fast as I Can
2007


David Meanix
Mrs. Future
2005

The exhibition is presented at the UCR/California Museum of Photography.
Check out their website:
http://www.cmp.ucr.edu/exhibitions/truthiness/