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May 7 – June 19, 2010Fourteen AgainCurators: Micaela Martegani and Micaela Giovannotti
Fourteen Again brings together seven artists who, through More Art, partnered with local schools on a series of collaborative art projects. Each artist conducted tailored workshops with students of Chelsea’s Clinton Middle School and Liberty High School, sharing the nature of their artistic practice while creating original works of art together. These collaborations encompassed a wide range of media, involving students on many different levels. The resulting array of works touched upon the themes of adolescence, examining language, place, and the fleeting reality of meaning.
Artist Slater Bradley asked teenagers how the concept of “place” might reflect who they were and who they wanted to become. Answers varied from a swimming pool, seminary or movie theater to Washington Square Park or photographer’s studio. The final photographs were shot with different cameras, emphasizing individual identities. The resulting installation Soundless Pounding of Accelerating Dreams (2007-2010) displayed over a long vitrine, allows visitors to scrutinize the photographs as archival material, underlining the fleeting nature of dreams and aspirations of young people on the cusp of change.
Bridging old and new is a central theme in Anthony Goicolea’s series of black and white turn-of-the-century style portraiture that explores how people shed their sense of individuality to become part of a larger homogenized group. Goicolea digitally composited images of Chelsea neighborhood teens and substituted them for the inhabitants depicted in vintage photos from the archives of Columbia University, and now exhibits them in a poster-like installation that mimics the effect of time.
Tony Oursler’s video project focuses on the hermetic nature of teen’s language, based on acronyms and shortforms, compulsive and frenetic online games, and the improvisational nature of YouTube videos. All these multiform realities, however, live just for the space of a breath; they are strong, poignant, aggressive, and then they are gone.
Challenges of language, translation and how music sheds barriers is addressed in Karen Tam’s videos. NYC teenagers who recently emigrated from a variety of countries translate and then perform the song The Girl from Ipanema in their home languages of Polish, French, Spanish, Indian and Arabic. The shared musical experience becomes a meeting point for the different cultures.
In Justin Berry’s project, students re-created their own spaces – part real, part virtual, part pure fantasy – inspired by their idea of what an art exhibition could be. Visitors are encouraged to explore and wander through the interior of an imaginary art gallery.
Artist Wilfredo Ortega opens a dialogue between students and the Hudson Guild Community Center in Chelsea through a mixed media wall drawing, temporarily enlivening the housing project space. This performative undertaking empowers the kids and shows them how art can also represent a life-changing experience.
Finally, Nancy Drew’s painting addresses what is possibly the strongest and most characteristic emotion of adolescence: love. Love is the most discussed, emotional and dramatic aspect of adolescence, yet it proves to be as transient and shortlived as everything else.
More Art is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization devoted to creating a link between local communities and innovative contemporary artists. By looking beyond traditional art venues, More Art is committed to bringing innovative and dynamic projects to the public as well as fostering an appreciation for the multitude of ways in which art can improve life by making it accessible to all. www.moreart.org You can find us on Facebook.
Please also visit Wilfredo Ortega and Clinton School’s students wall drawing at the Hudson Guild Senior Center starting May 24th, 119 Ninth Avenue @17th Street, New York.
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