WW13: Walk With Me

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                             download press release here

For more information please contact Doris Caçoilo at 973-699-0399, or email at doris@gaiastudio.org

WONDER WOMEN RETELL THE NEWS
New News is Old News exhibition at The Gowanus Studio Space
November 11  – November 25, 2011
166 7th Street, Brooklyn, NY, 11215
Gallery hours: Thursday – Sunday 3pm-8pm and by appointment

Opening Reception: Friday November 11, 2011, 7pm – 10pm

((Brooklyn, 11/11/11): _gaia together with its collaborators in Cyprus: The Cyprus Community Media Centre (CCMC), the European Mediterranean Arts Association (EMAA) and Rooftop Theatre Group present the New News is Old News: A Wonder Women Project at The Gowanus Studio Space.
In January 2011,  _gaia studio invited 10 New York & New Jersey based artists to participate in their residency program Wonder Women, exploring the changing media landscape in a project called ‘New News is Old News.’ The work was completed and exhibited at Gallery Aferro in Newark, NJ. Its curators Doris Caçoilo and Maya Joseph-Goteiner along with three of the artists, Christine DaCruz, Sharon De La Cruz and Lindsey Muscato traveled to Cyprus upon invitation by the Cypriot organizers, Alana Kakoyiannis, on behalf of CCMC, Ozgul Ezgin on behalf of EMAA & Ellada Evangelou, on behalf of Rooftop to stage a similar program with artists in Nicosia and to present the culmination of the week-long process in an exhibition at the Peace Room in Nicosia.

On November 11, 2011 the work from both parts of the residency project will be exhibited at The Gowanus Studio Space. Artists and curators from Cyprus will travel to NYC to join the local artists for this special reunion of Wonder Women.

During the residency, the curators and selected artists: US based Christine DaCruz, Mairikke Dau, Sharon de la Cruz, Melissa MacAlpin, Escobar-Morales, Lindsey Muscato, Larysa Myers, Cristine Posner, Sharone Vendriger, Nicole Wilson and Cyprus based Heleniq Argyrou, Kakia Catselli, Eser Keçeci, Gökçe Keçeci ?ekero?lu, Costantia Manoli, Maria Petrides and Julie Sandor met for critique sessions and discussions related to the media.

In their projects for the exhibition, the artists focus on communication and the content of news in US and Cypriot media, paying particular attention our changing relationship to news. Among the many collaborations and discussions the projects emerged as individual and collective experiments. Christine Da Cruz and Maria Petrides collaborate to collect oral histories and create embroidered portraits of women. Sharon de la Cruz uses the American cultural iconography of Aunt Jemima to present her vision of Crooked Images. Melissa MacAlpin illustrates love stories from the NY Times. Lindsey Muscato considers the physical experience of reading a broadsheet illuminating details from newspaper articles in her drawings of controlled coffee spills. Julie Sandor deconstructs TV media consumption using found video.

All 17 artists will show a selection of the work created in the US and Cyprus residencies in a group exhibition at The Gowanus Studio Space beginning Friday, November 11^th at 7:00PM and will remain open until Friday, November 25^th

The project is made possible through the generous support of the U.S. Embassy’s Bicommunal Support Program (BSP) as well as through a crowd sourcing initiative launched by _gaia studio using Kickstarter and our hosts Gowanus Studio Space.

THE EVENT IS OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.
For further details, please visit:
The Gowanus Studio Space –  http://gowanusstudio.org/

After 8 days of residing in the creative outburts of these wonder(ing) women, any other residence(y) will seem to fall so short of this illuminating experience. It wasn’t only Christine having ‘epiphanic’ experiences (or optical illusions, depending on your position) in church at 7.30am last Sunday. I have, too! The wonderully sharp and far-sighted decision-making curators picked us up from our feet, took us off in a bubble of fantasy, and then focused us into our newly created reality. Like (post)-modern dancers of a classical schooling anticipating to land back on the ground. And we landed rich, ripe and real. To Wonder Women, Lindsey, Maya, and Sharon, your absence is already present!

Experiences like this are so hard to come by… I am completely overwhelmed by all the incredible people that have inspired, motivated and challenged me. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for sharing this journey with me.. here are just a few images of what is now part of my history.

Following the American girls’ experiences, observations and comments has me, i’ll admit, mildly jealous. how lovely to come here, do to this thing and see with new eyes, to be able to talk to people about their experiences to hear with completely fresh ears;  without trying to see/speak/hear behind/beyond/through the years and years of history and politics that drag us ‘locals’ down. it’s all so new and fascinating, not the tired, rehashed stories we hear through our media outlets and people who quite frankly, can’t be bothered to talk about it any more. what a wonderful thing that people do begin to speak freely about who they are and where they are to complete strangers – complete strangers who are not from here. it’s their chance to write the story again from the beginning, to teach, to learn, to re-feel the pride, the sadness, the ups and the downs of sharing. it’s all new news…for us, sadly, it’s all old news… however, when the girls share what has been shared with them – we have the opportunity to get a glimpse of what was once new all over again and that little flicker of something – interest? pride? sadness? frustration? gets reignited once more…

Every night has been a late one since we arrived. And since we’re almost done here, with the exhibition opening tomorrow, I’m sure tonight will be no exception. One mantra  has been running through my mind as I think about the possibilities of the work to come, when I have my full studio at my disposal! Anyway, here’s the mantra: no sleep till Brooklyn

No Sleep Till Brooklyn – Beastie Boys

Yesterday I mentioned our walk, and meeting people and seeing new neighborhoods in the old city. Here are some images of places we stopped, and spoke with locals. The man who owned this cafe did not speak English, but seemed delighted just seeing us pass by. We asked if we could take his picture, and he insisted on giving us refreshments on the house.

This elderly barber did speak a little English. He repeatedly said, “very good, this is very good,” and was also incredibly charming. The people we have met in Cyprus have been the highlight of the experience, by far.

Here’s the sunset, Maya and I watched it over cups of coffee after getting back to the Hostel from the beach this evening.

ah, Cyprus…

Finishing up this piece has been an adventure. I’ve created a little installation behind the hostel. In this quite corner is where I meet beautiful people like Julie’s kids, who I taught how to spray paint today. It was refreshing to get away from the work and teach. Teaching helped ease the suns rays…

It was a day of slow progress. The truth is, drawing, and thinking, and responding takes time. But all of this has been incredible, and I’m so excited to continue to explore and experiment with the works to come back in New York.

Another participating artist, Julie Sandor, was incredibly kind to allow me to borrow and document an old newspaper she had from November 13, 1967. It is a Greek language publication, and it’s a beautiful thing. I’m not sure what I will do with it yet, but it’s an incredible object, and I’m excited to explore the potential there.

Greek language paper, "13 NOEMBPIOY 1967"

I took a long walk through the old city today, as a breather from the studio time. It was a blistering hot day, but it felt incredible to walk and explore, see the city, photograph, and meet people.

One of the walls we passed had some particularly relevant graffiti to the particular combination of our topics in the residency, as well (politics, and misogyny.) Maya and I both laughed when we saw this:

More to come!

“we give birth to each other…we give it and it is unwritten because it is given”

So this is what I have been working on over the last few days. The idea that history (which was once new news and now is old news) runs through women’s bodies. I had the word “unwritten” flashing in my head the whole time I was painting.  I finished it and it was totally “written”; there was no open space for anything other than what it was – all the detail was in place and ‘correct’. However, I didn’t feel this even began to say anything – so, I went back and “unwrote” it by essentially erasing detail and almost re-sketching it with a paint brush.

It’s been only 4 days since the residency has come together as a group in cyprus, and it feels like these endeavours and cultural exchanges are works-in-progress, which started in ‘some’ distant past. A whiff from a NY past has blended in with a heavy history whose nostalgia transpires on the pavements, sign posts, relics, souvenir shops, on locals’ faces. In this present time i’m writing other’s stories, but also mine in them. Is a story ever a single story? Others crawl into them.

Here comes a dialogue of coffee spills on newspapers; (speaking of Jim Jarmusch’s vignettes over – ‘coffee and cigarettes’) Lindsey likes to fuel coffee and its remains into tipping metaphors; embroidered polaroids of living characters are developing from embroidered NY Times obituaries, for Christine; Sharon’s Aunt Jemima’s oozing over-sweetness promises to ‘teach’ us how to make very ‘simple’ yet transforming pancakes – ‘(b)cake me and you’ll dream’ll come true’. And Percussionist Heleniq reflects on the untold news of our bodies, while Kakia prepares us for an aromatic ceremony of jasmine tea and mirroring head scarfs, welcoming tradition in a new way. Constantia is painting very female parts of our bodies figuring out the colours and textures of the daily news of pregnant days. Eser and Gökçe are reconstructing their grandmother’s long life, who, although passed, continues to influence their own lives. Julie cannot fathom how the news can still be confined to static forms and box-y images. Is a story ever a single story?

The desire to generate thoughtful and meaningful work in response to my experience in Cyprus has left me feeling tongue tied.

I have been really struggling to locate myself here, in a cultural context far from what I know, and in respond to historical, political and social issues I have barely begun to be introduced to.

History is a heavy weight – I have felt aware of that throughout our time here.

(experiements with the coffee spills)

As for Cypriot printed media, it is a stark contrast to The New York Times, which has been my source material throughout the series since the New News is Old News project began. From the quality of the photography, to the textual content, the pickings here feel slim: which is ultimately part of the process, in and of itself.

As Costantia Manoli put it in a conversation today, “there’s nothing new in our news. It’s all history.”

We have been thinking about the way that rhetoric is perpetuated though repetition. And the very predictable tone, structure and deliverance of the news in tradition media can support these repetitious cycles.

Cypriot coffee, with a candied syrupy walnut treat

And then there’s coffee. It’s a whole thing here, surrounded by tradition and ritual. There’s an old practice of fortune telling by turning the cup and reading the grounds. And there are arguments about weather it is Greek coffee or Turkish coffee, or just Cypriot.

coffee grounds, one cup tipped for fortune telling

With more time, back in my studio in New York, I hope to continue to develop to digest and and form responses to the experiences we have had, and everything we have tried to take in.

« Older Entries