After arriving very late on Thursday night, I have spent a busy few days getting acquainted with Fengersfors and the community. Karl Hallberg, Tom Russotti and I met with members of the Not Quite community, students at the Steneby art school, and even attended the Sweden v. Ukraine UEFA game at the Fengersfors football club.

In an effort to better understand what forms and bridges communities, I am creating Unicorn Union: a participatory project that maps the collective and individual relationship to place. Meeting with members of the local community, we discuss their relationship to Fengersfors: what brought them here, what is special about particular places, what memories they have. Linking these personal experiences to the physical space, I will place markers in the locations identified. A QR code on the marker will point the viewer to the project website where the stories will be captured and shared, creating a virtual community that mirrors the physical one.

I am excited that the project is underway! The first phase involves introducing people to the project, leading to the second phase of working with individuals to identify special locations and record the stories behind those locations over the next few weeks.

http://ateamartistsforchange.wordpress.com/category/sweden-category/

Stay tuned for updates on this social art project over the next few weeks!

http://ateamartistsforchange.wordpress.com/

Calling all artists whose practices are at the intersection of art, craft and digital technologies to be considered for inclusion in a forthcoming article about artist projects employing needlecraft techniques to translate, redefine and recontextualize images and lexicon sourced from digital and virtual culture. No longer reserved for our grandmothers, needlecraft has become a subversive tool of counter-culture, interrogating knowledge and meaning, while encouraging an intimate participation with the digital through a laborious, and social process. Whether it is revealing the underlying relationship between computer coding and embroidery patterns, or documenting the digital landscape through a portrait of cotton cross-stitches, we consider the meaning of “social networks” and participatory production as artists explore collective meaning and ownership in the digital age.

If you are interested in having your work considered for inclusion in the article, please email an artist statement, CV and link to images of your work to: digitalstitching@gmail.com

DEADLINE: JULY 1, 2012

In honor of International Women’s Day 2012, I thought it would be an appropriate time to acknowledge and thank all the women in my life who have made such an impact on me, as well as to tip my hat to the women artists who have influenced my work.

I’ll never forget sitting in one of my seminar classes during grad school when a heated debate erupted about the (ir)relevance of feminism. The debate was sparked by complaints regarding a student-led project in the school’s atrium that featured four male artists setting up “studio” in the communal space. One view was that this kind of project perpetuated the hegemonic ideal of the male artist and the set-up of the project did not allow for other groups to truly enter the conversation. One of the male students leading the project was in my seminar group and was absolutely furious that this view of his project had been taken, and insisted that had four women undertaken this project it would be grossly unfair to criticize it. At this point, our seminar leader entered the debate and simply said (I paraphrase), “The unfortunate reality is that although 80% of the student body is female, in five years after graduation only a small percentage of these women will have opportunities to actively exhibit, to attain the stature of their male counterparts, and to actively influence this art world that is still, in large, dominated by men.” Although I feel the debate around the aforementioned project in the school’s atrium was complex and the male students who put it together certainly had a right to feel they were being made an example, the words of my instructor still ring true in my ears.

Here’s to all of the women artists past, present and future, who have and continue to provide a forum for women to participate, to voice our ideas, and to positively contribute to the art/world around us.

Happy International Women’s Day!

I love coming across projects like this that are inserted into public space and repurpose existing structures!

http://inhabitat.com/nyc/obsolete-nyc-phone-booths-turned-into-free-mini-libraries-by-architect-john-locke/

Check out my photo from the Extending the Friendly Skies series featured in a Post-Bac announcement from SMFA on Art and Education!

http://www.artandeducation.net/announcement/school-of-the-museum-of-fine-arts-bostonsmfa-post-baccalaureate-call-for-applications/

This is a great article on the growing arts scene here in the north of England. Can’t wait to check it out!

 
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2011/dec/30/northern-england-art-scene-thrives

Last week, cartoonist Ronald Searle passed away. While his wife was receiving chemotherapy for cancer, he drew her a picture every day. Thank you to Austin Kleon for posting about this. http://tumblr.austinkleon.com/post/15262065793

I have started work on my own project, that somewhat timely, coincides with spending time with my very ill 91-year old grandfather. I came to the UK in September to visit with him after my mother called saying he isn’t doing well. Already in the process of finishing up MIND THE GAP in Istanbul and preparing to create a base in Europe, it seemed ironic that my return to Europe would coincide with his ailing. With days spent helping my mother take care of him, keeping on top of the never-ending piles of laundry, and generally trying to have some quality time with him, I needed something to help channel all my nervous energy and roller coaster of emotions. My grandmother taught me needlework when I was a child and I used to love spending hours sitting next to her as she knit sweaters in no time flat while I struggled to make a knitted animal somewhat resembling a cat or cross-stitched teddy bears and kittens. Nonetheless, I loved that quiet time with her and felt really special that she was teaching me these skills. Maybe there is something about being back in the UK that has rekindled some of these feelings, but I have taken up another cross-stitch project that I am working on while sitting with my grandad. Instead of doing samplers I am translating popular Internet memes into cross-stitched tapestries. Using the cross-stitch fabric in relation to the pixels that make up the images, I’m drawing upon craft to explore our digital culture. My grandad loves to joke with me and make little quips since he thinks I’m absolutely mad given that my first translation is of Nyan Cat made the size of a 15″ laptop screen. But, there is something really wonderful about the process of spending hours stitching sitting and chatting with him, watching tv with him, creating memories.

Photos to come!

“Socially Engaged” seems to be the buzzword of 2011. New MFA programs specifically dedicated to art that directly engages the public are cropping up left and right. Claire Bishop and Grant Kester’s discussions of the participatory are cropping up again. And of course, the age-long question: “Is Jackass performance art?” Well, it looks like there are a few hot reads out there right now that just might answer that and more!

http://badatsports.com/2012/a-new-years-reading-list/

If the book is anything like the blog post, it is well worth a read! Perhaps I’ll have to make an exception to my “read more fiction” rule for this one.

http://www.austinkleon.com/2011/03/30/how-to-steal-like-an-artist-and-9-other-things-nobody-told-me/

On a side note, this could be an interesting show to check out in Manhattan – closes tomorrow!
http://hyperallergic.com/43775/beauty-contest-austrian-cultural-forum/