Vivant Art Collection 5 Year Anniversary, Hussain Saidi, mixed media on wood panel
Read DoN‘s review of the Vivant Art Collection five year anniversary party at the new DoNArTNeWs Philadelphia Art News Blog.
Written and photographed by DoN Brewer.
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Eva Preston, Judgement Day, mixed media at Stop Slavery Now: A Conversation About Human Trafficking
Bonnie MacAllister and Joanna Fulginiti know each other through the Women’s Caucus for Art and worked together at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Rachel Udell, also a member in the show, worked at the museum as well. Bonnie explained to DoN, “We got into F & N Gallery because we were curated into a show…and we talked to the gallery director and he with a wonderful woman named Jess McCann invited us and donated the space to us, it was this beautiful collaboration. We were able to extend the call beyond our WCA members and got work from as far away as Atlanta, we have a film that was lent to us for the night, and the dolls will be in the window for a week.” Sorry, little DoNSters it’s taken a while to get this story together, this event was April First Friday, the dolls are at http://phila-wca.blogspot.com/2011/08/call-for-art-rag-dolls.html
The Ragdoll Project is meant to create awareness for human trafficking, they invited participants from different workshops, in West Philly through Spiral Q Puppet Theater, Follicle Hair Studio on South Street. Joanna described the production to DoN, “We set up sewing machines, we used donated fabrics and we just made dolls. The dolls will be sold and all the money will go to Dawn’s Place which is a shelter for victims of human trafficking in Philadelphia. Dawn’s Place is the only place in Philadelphia that helps victims of sex trafficking specifically. And they do need money, they need donations, so we’re going to sell all the dolls and donate all the money.”
Rachel Udell, I’m Tired, digital image and Danielle Ferrell, effraye’, screen print at Stop Slavery Now: A Conversation About Human Trafficking
“The dolls were made by the Women’s Caucus for Art and other people that come to our workshops. I get dolls sent to me in the mail everyday from people who heard about it on www.theragdollproject.org That will show you how you can make a doll and donate it, anyone can make a doll and it is a donation, so they won’t get it back but we’ll sell it and the money will go to the victims of trafficking.” Jess McCann, the co-curator of the show is part of the Philadelphia Modern Stop Slavery Group, she and Joanna Fulginiti selected art by women and intended the installation to have an educational aspect. “We have certain statistics or quotes that we felt were very important to capture about the issue that would inform the people something that they might not be familiar with. A lot are quotes from Johns who purchase sex, statistics about who is prosecuted; rarely are the pimps or traffickers prosecuted it’s usually the women, the women themselves. Who are often victims.”
Beth Prusky, This is How It Feels, charcoal and acrylic on archival mylar at Stop Slavery Now: A Conversation About Human Trafficking
“They wind up going in jail, that’s something people need to know about. The violence like this piece by Rachel Udell, this is about the violence women in prostitution face. They have a violent life.” Joanna points out a particular quote, “A study of 475 people in prostitution finds 62% reported having been raped, 73% reported having experienced physical assault and 92% said they wanted to escape prostitution.” Joanna is passionate about the subject, “It’s a violent life and the violence comes from the pimps and the Johns. People have this idea of prostitution like it Julia Roberts, Pretty Woman, glamorous, but it’s not. It’s full of violence. That’s what the first two pieces are about, the inner turmoil.”
Lauretta Paraguassu, Children of the Night, watercolor and ink on paper at Stop Slavery Now: A Conversation About Human Trafficking
Quote from a John, “She gave up her rights when she accepted my money.” Joanna dismisses this myth, “You know, men just kind of doing this like it’s that old boy’s club kind of thing, ‘there’s nothing wrong with this’, ‘this is how you treat women’, like blindly going along with this male idea.”
Megan Kelly, Body Monster, collaged painting on paper at Stop Slavery Now: A Conversation About Human Trafficking
Joanna Fulginiti, Ragdolls, mixed media at Stop Slavery Now: A Conversation About Human Trafficking
Joanna Fulginiti‘s painting started The Ragdoll Project, “I did that piece because these girls are just being treated like rag dolls, they’re not even human beings. They can be tossed away after they’re used and I started that and once we starting thinking of a project we could do to raise money for the victims and someone commented on my piece like, ‘Oh, maybe we can work with rag dolls.’ They’re not hard to make so that’s how we started with this.”
Stop Slavery Now: A Conversation About Human Trafficking
Joanna explained the context of the art, “Most people don’t know that the average age of a prostitute is 13 years old. Which is so scary, this is a children’s issue. Pimps are luring teenagers into this. The average age of entry is thirteen and actually the average lifespan of a girl after she enters prostitution is six years. So it’s stealing their childhood, that’s what these pieces are about. Suicide, homicide, like many of these girls are homeless girls, they may have lived in foster families their whole lives, so it’s not like they even know where they are. Some of these women became prostitutes and no one even came looking for them or cared where they are.”
Joyce Ellen Weinstein, Blind Leading the Blind: Captured, screen print/linoleum block print at Stop Slavery Now: A Conversation About Human Trafficking
“You know I don’t think in the justice system they’re seen as victims. Yet. Certain states are more progressive than others but a lot of times in law enforcement they consider the women the criminals when a lot of them are forced into this. They’re victims. This is about treating girls as criminals. There is hope you know? These women can start over.”
Alison Altergott, Saturday’s Child, mixed media at Stop Slavery Now: A Conversation About Human Trafficking
According to Joanna, “The more you read about a country where it’s legal versus a country where it’s illegal, if you read about what actually happens, it’s very, very clear that legalizing it, increases demand. It normalizes the activity. so, them more people are prone to do it and there’s so much demand they can’t get enough women who want to do this on their own. They have to get, well – if it’s Amsterdam, it’s from Eastern Europe and they have to start trafficking because they just can’t keep up with the demand. If you legalize prostitution, your demand goes up so much that you have to force women into it just to keep up with it…there’s this idea that if you legalize it you can control it and make it safer but it’s almost impossible. It’s so violent. How do you make it safer? When a John beats up a prostitute, how do you stop that? The facts show when you legalize it, it increases demand and you’re putting all these girls at risk for being trafficked.”
Written and photographed by DoN Brewer
Read more at Side Arts Philadelphia Art Blog
Robert J. Brand, Jazz Photographs, Downstairs Gallery at the Plastic Club
The Downstairs Gallery at the Plastic Club usually hosts a group art show, April, Jazz Month, is exhibiting a collection of photographs by Robert J. Brand. DoN asked Bob about the photographs in the one-person show? “The show is photos of jazz musicians in performance and I’m not selling anything. I’m giving away work to friends and my friends all support Obama for President. So, they write a check to Obama for President, then I give them a piece of art.”
Robert J. Brand, Jazz Photographs, Downstairs Gallery at the Plastic Club
DoN noticed that the prices are, shall we say? Affordable. “Well, we’re not going to win this election with the Koch Brothers. It’s going to require people giving money, making phone calls, ringing doorbells, walking streets and turning out the vote. So, making the art affordable is part of getting people involved. Sometime during April, I have a portfolio of twenty-two pictures that I took in Mississippi in 1966. The portfolio is titled It’s Always Been About Voting. And it’s a limited edition, forty boxed sets and all the money from that will go to groups that are fighting for the right to vote. The money’s going against all the anti-voting actions of state governments around the country.”
Robert J. Brand, Jazz Photographs, Downstairs Gallery at the Plastic Club
DoN asked Robert J. Brand when he began taking pictures? “I got my first camera in 1963, around Thanksgiving when I had just started college.” Are you shooting digitally now? “I have gone digital but some of the pictures in this show are silver bromide images but everything I do now is digital and we’re digitizing as fast as we can. The 1966 pieces have all been digitized. In 1965 and 66, I was in Mississippi several times, the pictures in the portfolio all came from the James Meredith march. He set out to march against fear to show people they could register to vote and he was shot the first day of the march.”
“And ten thousand people came from around the United States to finish the march. And, we did. Before that we worked on what became the first integrated Head Start Program in Mississippi which we physically built over Christmas and New Years of ’65, ’66…I guess I was twenty years old, there were over ten thousand people there.”
Plastic Club Art Studio and Gallery, 247 South Camac Street, Philadelphia PA, 19107 215-545-9324
Written and photographed by DoN Brewer
Read more about Jazz Show at The Plastic Club at Side Arts Philadelphia Art Blog
Linda Lee Alter, First Annual Bebe Benoliel Founder’s Award for an Outstanding Arts Collaborator Honoree
March 28th 2012, The Center for Emerging Visual Artists hosted their 10th Annual Benefit Auction at the University of the Arts, a swanky affair with wonderful art and experiences up for auction to generate operating revenue for the non-profit organization dedicated to emeging Philadelphia artists. The grand hall was beautifully decorated with flowers and saffron colored lanterns and umbrellas, the smells of barbecue and mac-n-cheese wafted through the crowd enticing them to eat while browsing the auction items. But before the big auction, artist Linda Lee Alter was presented with the First Annual Bebe Benoliel Founder’s Award for an Outstanding Arts Collaborator and renowned art connoisseur and curator Eileen Tognini presented the award, a lovely equine sculpture by artist Julia Stratton.
Eileen Tognini, Julia Stratton and Linda Lee Alter at First Annual Bebe Benoliel Founder’s Award for an Outstanding Arts Collaborator Honoree presentation.
Eileen Tognini presented the award, she has been an artistic advisor to CFEVA since 2008 and this year was the chair of the Founder’s Award committee. Eileen addressed the audience, “Welcome, it’s so wonderful to see so many friends of CFEVA this evening. Thank you so much. As much as this event is about fund-raising, it’s also about celebrating the community of talented artists, acknowledging those who determine that their legacy is one steeped in supporting the artists journey. Without the passion and dedication, these individuals, to recognize their support of not only artists but also the broader community and it’s beneficiaries. The introduction of the Annual Bebe Benoliel Founder’s Award for an Outstanding Arts Collaborator is seen as a genuine desire to honor an individual who actively supports artists and their careers through a commitment to collecting, exhibiting and philanthropic activities. The award has been established in the spirit of the ideals and mission and her own passion that Bebe set forth when she founded the Creative Artists Network, now CFEVA, nearly thirty years ago”
“Each year a CFEVA alum or current fellow will be selected to create this award through a CFEVA stipend and be recognized at this event alongside our honoree…this First Founder’s Award was created by CFEVA alum Julia Stratton. Julia attended the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, graduating 1994 with honors…”
Center for Emerging Visual Artists 10th Annual Benefit Auction at University of the Arts
“…coincidently, Julia and I are not strangers to one another , yet neither one knew of each other’s participation in this honor, so the magic is even more meaningful. Our honoree, Linda Lee Alter was born and raised in Philadelphia and has been a working artist for over fifty years. Starting her career as a fibers artist creating large scale work. Lee’s artwork is represented in numerous private and public collections throughout the United States and in 2008 the Allentown Art Museum held a retrospective exhibition of Lee’s work.”
“In addition to creating her own work, Lee has made it her mission to help other women artists. In the mid 1980s, she began to collect art by women with the goal of building a collection that would be of interest to museums. Lee’s intention was to donate the collection to an institution that was enthusiastic about increasing it’s representation of art by women. As a way to help women’s art become more visible and recognized, and better appreciated. In 2010, Lee gave the collection to the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. In 1991, Lee started a non-profit foundation to fill a need that she felt was unmet by other local foundations. The Leeway Foundation supported women in art by making grants to individual women artists living in the Philadelphia Region.”
Eileen Tognini concluded, “Today, The Leeway Foundation is a community led foundation supporting women and trans artists, creating social change in the Delaware Valley Region. To be standing here in front of all of you introducing an individual who possesses both vision and passion, it is truly both an inspiration and a sincere honor for me. I would like to present the 2012 First Annual Bebe Benoliel Founder’s Award to Lee Alter.”
After a rousing round of applause, Linda Lee Alter said, “Thank you very much, I admired Bebe very much for her commitment to emerging artists and even more for the kind of person she was. I feel very fortunate to have known her and to have had our lives overlap one another. I knew Bebe a long time ago and she was an inspiration then to me and she continues to inspire me. So, this award has very special meaning. And Julia Stratton‘s sculpture is a beautiful symbol of the Bebe award. I believe that for every happening, every action, everything, is the result of the contribution of a lot of people. I certainly feel that about my own efforts in the arts and it’s in that way that I feel very grateful for this award and I accept it with many thanks. Thank you all vey much.”
Center for Emerging Visual Artists 10th Annual Benefit Auction at University of the Arts
CFEVA 2012 Signature Cocktail: Orange Hurricane
Mix above ingredients; pour over ice into a Hurricane glass. Add a splash of Club Soda. Garnish with Orange Slice and Maraschino Cherry. (Small umbrella optional.)
Heavy Bubble was in the house at 2012 First Annual Bebe Benoliel Founder’s Award and 10th Annual CFEVA Benefit Auction.
Written and photographed by DoN Brewer, DoNArTNeWs Philadelphia Art News Blog
Thread of Thought, Tara O’Brien at CFEVA
“I came to book arts as a librarian’s daughter and my poor father practically had a heart attack when he found out I was applying to grad school to do book arts. ‘Those are those nut jobs that take books and nail them to canvasses and call them art.'” said Tara O’Brien during her artist talk at The Center for Emerging Visual Artists. “A lot of what I was dealing with in Graduate School was making sure that that’s not what I’m doing, I’m not desecrating the Book. In fact, I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what is the future of the book, where is it going? In 2003 we were just getting into a huge tipping point with the Internet and you went there instead of to a book, unless you were my father. A lot of that time was spent thinking, ‘What is a book? What can it be? What’s the conceptual quality of the book?’ And so for the early pieces in the show, these two Thread of Thought and Plenum in the back is what could it be?”
Thread of Thought, Tara O’Brien at CFEVA
“Plenum, for example, is a term physicists use to describe all of the matter in the universe. So, what is a book, what can it be? It can be anything in the Universe. As I was talking earlier about Plenum the other thing I wanted you to do is approach the book when it was closed and when you open it it reveals a completely different structure inside, a surprise in finding a book. Which is what you get when you approach a novel and find that that stellar writing you kind of think, ‘Oh, they wrote that so beautifully.’ So, how can you combine the two in art and literature? How does a book work physically? How do you read a book page by page and how do you follow the threads of what the author is trying to get through to you? And then you can break it down to how are the symbols on the page giving you this linking. And that’s why I chose crocheting instead of knitting because each chain in a crochet is a link from one to the next one but you can build so much from a crochet chain. Both of these books are a single thread all the way through the entire book, the whole narrative, if you will, from the thread references as a you read a book. Like when you’ve gone fifty pages and and you don’t remember turning a single page because you’ve gotten so caught up in this single thread.”
Thread of Thought, Tara O’Brien at CFEVA, Hyperbolic Space
“Or you get to the point in a book here where you do realize your turning pages faster than you think.” Tara demonstrated how many of the pages pull the others with the thread and pages fly by like a magicians deck of cards. “And finally you almost turn in junior English denouement. So those books lead to thinking metaphysically, ‘What is the future of the book?’ I have no idea. Do I think books are going out of style? No. Not a chance, they just have a chance to evolve now. We’ve got eReaders, they’re here to stay, have fun with them but come back to these. The next group is the little tiny ones they all fall under the title Entelechy, Aristotle’s philosophy that every entity has a force that drives it to self-fulfillment and I just really like that idea. I’d like to know what this force is? What is it made up of? How does it break down? And in making these books I found that opening a page spread in a book is also kind of a metaphor for life.”
Thread of Thought, Tara O’Brien at CFEVA
“If you do these stitches you can see the full spread of a chapter or a moment to a link in your life. For example, as of now, all of February is one page spread for me, I don’t know what’s happening right now in this page spread but I can turn the page back in time and look at what happened in February in my life, and it’s clear now. Whereas in February I had no idea. A little crazy, right? I was really excited about this show because it offered me a chance to do new work. I do a lot of knitting, a lot of crocheting and I’m interested in a lot of things, I’m a library conservator so I get to look at a lot of old stuff, at ancient patterns and I get to look at old cookbooks and all these things that people have been doing forever. How are we going to interpret it?”
“My Winter project this year was to knit a pair of Latvian mittens, in Latvian culture for years and years and years the girls know they will marry at age sixteen and they make these incredibly complex mittens, one pair for every member of the family of her future husband. So, she’s been knitting five hundred pairs of mittens by the time she’s sixteen. They’re complex and double stranded and they start knitting when they’re five years old, it’s part of the culture.”
“Fast forward to 1995, and we have a mathematician from Latvia who finally solves the problem of making a model for hyperbolic space. So, what’s hyperbolic space? Well I’m going to do my best, but, it’s a mathematical thing – continuously negative space. It’s the ruffles on your lettuce, and what she was able to do was disprove Euclid’s theorum, given one straight line and a point off of the line there is only one other parallel line only. But this theorum doesn’t work on a globe but nobody could prove how it didn’t work and why not? In the 50’s they started experimenting with paper models but paper if you cut it, it falls apart.”
“So this person from a knitting culture sat down and said, ‘I know how to do this.’ And so she took these specifically exponentially increased, this one is six to one, you can see these two lines, when you take this continuously negative space and fold it you can bring two lines together and you get a set of parallel lines. As you go on with these, it takes forever to make a row, and then you take another fold and lay it next to that and now you have three parallel lines.
So, this is important for me because it references back to my idea of linking and connecting everything, here’s a woman who just knitted all the time because she was so practiced at it, all of a sudden these higher level ideas were coming out her just regular handwork and solving really massive problems. This book talks about the connection of this handwork from just the regular linking these little moments, these tiny little pearls of brilliant thoughts and made some coherence out of these higher thoughts. I hope that that makes sense.”
Thread of Thought at Center for Emerging Visual Artists through March 23rd.
Written and photographed by DoN Brewer, DoNArTNeWs Philadelphia Art News Blog Google and Wikipedia was used extensively to write this article.
Read more about FiberPhiladelphia2012 at Side Arts with Cassandra Hoo‘s excellent article.
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