You ART What You Eat, The Plastic Club, 247 South Camac Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19107. Juried group art show September 7th through September 25th, artists reception and awards Sunday, September 7th, 2:00 – 5:00pm. New! Open Gallery Hours Sundays 12:00 – 5:00pm.
You ART What You Eat is a group art show, each artist has one entry, with works based (loosely) on the theme of food. Of course there are still life paintings and drawings, photographs and sculpture but there are Dada-ist twists like flying toast, lacquered mushed food, and a portrait titled, ‘Food for Thought’. Tasty!
“Social practice is a theory within psychology that seeks to determine the link between practice and context within social situations. Emphasized as a commitment to change, social practice occurs in two forms: activity and inquiry. Most often applied within the context of human development, social practice involves knowledge production and the theorization and analysis of both institutional and intervention practices.” – Wikipedia
An artist friend of mine asked, “You’re really into this ice bucket challenge thing. Aren’t you?” Yeah, I am. In June I learned that a friend from college was diagnosed with ALS. Jay Smith is young, smart, creative with a successful business and a beautiful family, the news was unbelievable and incredibly sad. Have you ever wept so hard tears literally shoot out of your eyes? The feeling of helplessness, the unfairness of the diagnosis, the mystery of what had happened was shocking, stultifying and confusing. There is no known cause for ALS and no treatment. Jay needed a miracle.
Then, something miraculous happened. The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge became a social media phenomenon like nothing else before. Within a few weeks people all over the world became aware of this insidious disease through social media platforms like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter with silly, wacky and funny videos of people dumping a bucket of ice water over their heads, donating money and challenging their friends to do the same. The modern miracle of the internet and social media has raised awareness and money to unprecedented levels not since Lou Gehrig, the baseball heart throb, was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in 1939.
The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge is one of the biggest Social Practice art projects the world has ever known. And like other art movements there are enthusiastic early adopters and those who doubt the authenticity of the art form. Even when some of the greatest minds on the planet opt in to dump ice water on their heads and gasp, there are some who are annoyed by the pervasiveness of the project and choose to throw a wet blanket on the idea.
Imagine if you as an artist create an art project that is so successful, so pervasive, so entertaining and popular that critics will pounce on it with lies, fear and distrust from out of nowhere? The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge is like the Jeff Koons of Social Practice art, either you love him and get it or you don’t. Either you delighted in the expressions of support or you doubted. I was kind of shocked when the signs of social media fatigue started to set in, the first complaint I noticed was a popular Philly DJ who’s voice reaches far and wide on the radio and internet. I tried to explain to him that dumping ice water on your head is a metaphor for living with the disease that literally takes your breath away. He decided to double down on his gripe and said he had already donated and was tired of the videos in his facebook newsfeed, with a smily face emogi 🙂
Facebook rage and rants, charity envy, misleading info-graphics, religious interference and science deniers have emerged from the social media troll layer like crazed zombies eating brains. From Pam Anderson placing the life of the poor little mice, worms and fruit flies used in efficacy testing over the lives of suffering humans to supposedly charitable institutions like churches spreading lies about stem cell research the disinformation being spread is stunningly ignorant. I can only imagine the rage in the minds of people trapped inside a non-responsive body while adrenaline surges though their brains listening to uninformed, narcissistic boneheads blabber and mouth off. I’m talking about you Bill Maher. But many ALS patients can’t speak for themselves and their advocates and caregivers don’t have time for this shit from the haters because they are too busy caring for their loved ones.
Now is a time when art, creativity, performance, science and technology have shined a light on what is hard to look at and not shy away. The ugly/beautiful Social Practice art movement called The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge is challenging the people of our world to open their eyes to a very difficult sight to see. Some are wondering what the next gimmick, meme, trick, game or challenge will be? Maybe a cure for cancer, heart disease, autoimmune diseases, autism, Alzheimer’s…? Through Social Practice art we can make real miracles happen in the real world. Suck it ALS!
Ugly Apparel, Local Artist Kelly Meissner Releases Clothing Line with Funding from Local Organization for Innovation in the Arts
Ugly Apparel has an innovative and eclectic fashion collection for those looking to experience the way that tattoos enhance the human form or set off their current ink.
The Philadelphia-based company is the quirky brainchild of Kelly Meissner, a University of the Arts graduate and former tattoo artist, who was looking to push the sartorial limits with new design and original techniques. She started with regular T-shirt prints, then decided to experiment with placements and practice, combining her love of inventive design and the personal self-expression found in tattoos. Soon, her T-shirts evolved into a clothing line that combined quirky aesthetic, innovative design, and environmentally friendly materials.
Kelly started designing T-shirt’s for Kotis Design, an apparel decoration company based in Seattle Washington. The more she learned about apparel decoration processes, the more she wanted to push the limits. She began working with printers and manufacturers to expand the limitations of printing on sleeves. Together, they made it possible for her to combine her experience as a tattoo artist with her clothing designs and Ugly Apparel was born.
Since its inception, Ugly Apparel has been involved in local fashion and manufacturing incubator projects that blend street style with ethical fashion creations.
The company recently launched a Kickstarter campaign [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ugly/ugly-apparel-manufacturing] to pursue producing sleeve wraps and tees at quantities that will allow it to sell them at reasonable retail prices. This funding also will allow the new designs to be manufactured in Philadelphia, as well as enable Ugly Apparel to continue its mission of creating sustainable clothing using environmentally friendly materials.
Incentives for contributing to Ugly Apparel’s Kickstarter campaign include sticker packs, exclusive tees, and prototypes from the knitwear and house wears that are in development as incentives for funding the expansion of the line.
8th Annual Naked in New Hope at Sidetracks Art Gallery, 2A Stockton Avenue, New Hope, PA 18938, Ricky Godinez and Paul Murphy / Co-Owners, September 6th through October 25th. Artist Reception September 6th, 6:00 – 9:00pm.
“Now in its 9th year, Sidetracks is New Hope’s most adventurous gallery for vibrant contemporary art, both local Bucks County and national: painting, sculpture, photography, mixed media, works on paper…and more! Home of Naked in New Hope, an annual open submission group show featured every Fall.”
Opening Friday SEPTEMBER 5th through OCTOBER 18 2014, 6:00 – 9:00pm
NEW SIGHT,A JURIED ART EXHIBITION to be held at THREENINETEEN, the street level gallery space at 319 N. 11th Street, in the expanding Callowhill neighborhood of Philadelphia.
Juried and Curated by internationally known visual artists SARAH MCENEANEY and ZOE STRAUSS. The show aims to shed light on the role of the arts in changing communities especially in urban environments, and supports the transformation of the Reading Viaduct/Rail Park. Sarah and Zoe selected a dynamic group of works which without directly referencing the Viaduct Rail Park, collectively speak to decay, re-birth and the materiality of the post industrial world and the personal neighborhoods that we live and work in. Each piece expresses a sense of space and place through varying means such as construction of found objects, watercolor depictions of trash or sculptures honoring what was once discarded. The show carries a message that beauty exists under our feet in places we have passed by many times, and have looked at before but have never really seen. And the show also emphasizes the truth that artists have an essential role in our cities – being most often the ones to see this beauty in the worn and broken first, and to translate that message to the world through their work and the cultivation of their environments.
Most of the artists represented in the show were new to the jurors; reinforcing the fact that the art community in Philadelphia is vital and continually growing. NINE ARTISTS were chosen, including: Katie Dillon Low, EJ Herczyk, Michael Kuetemeyer, Joseph Opshinsky, Gerri Spilka, Sabina, Tichindeleanu, Dot Vile, Joan Wadleigh Curran, and Daniel Petraitis.
A portion of proceeds from sales of the work will go to benefit ‘Friends of the Rail Park’.
ABOUT FRIENDS OF THE RAIL PARK: THE RAIL PARK
Friends of the Rail Park is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded to cultivate visions and advocate for a continuous three-mile linear park and recreation path in Philadelphia, connecting many neighborhoods and cultural institutions to Fairmount Park along the historic elevated Reading Viaduct and City Branch rail cut of the former Philadelphia and Reading Railroad.
ABOUT 319 N. 11TH STREET
THREENINETEENThis new street level creative space will open it’s doors to the public with the premier of the NEW SIGHT exhibition. Located in the same building as VOX Populi and others, the gallery, nurtured by Savery Design, sits directly across from Phase I of the Reading Viaduct in the middle of the Callowhill neighborhood.
