Julian Santa-Rita
If y’all will allow me an above-average dose of blog/scene nepotism (is that what it is?):
On May 8, Art Amiss’s 8th installment took place in Fayetteville’s Dickson Theater (info on Art Amiss, the multidisciplinary one-night art show collective/party here). One of my favorite pieces in the show was Inphysiblog, an installation by Fayetteville’s Julian Santa-Rita. The piece is a flexible-scaled series of sewn-together stamp collecting envelopes, filled with images from Julian’s computer, printed pages of a travel journal, and other goodies. Nearby was a semi-old-fashioned scriber tool, which viewers-turned-contributors used to write thoughts for the Inphysiblog. The whole thing was suspended on the wall by computer wires.
Detail shot after the cut (click it to see the full-size file).
I want to talk about this piece, but even more I want to know what Art Amiss is exactly and how it works. Sam or anyone?
The mission statement (etched into all the board members’ brains) is:
“Art Amiss is a Fayetteville-based arts collective with the expressed purpose of providing opportunities for emerging artists living in, working in, or from Arkansas.”
Somewhat confusingly, ‘Art Amiss’ is also the name of its semi-annual group show. The show began as a one-off thing, put together by UA graduate Summer Guthrie (sp?). She took off for NYC not long after, but some of her cohorts decided to keep doing the shows.
Art Amiss Inc has a 13-member board of directors, sponsors individual artists, holds fundraising events, arranges other small events (in addition to the big semi-annual group shows), maintains a website on which artists can display their work, and this year filed for non-profit status.
One of the key words is ’emerging’. Artists who show with Art Amiss cannot have other gallery representation.
PS, the blog-scene-nepotism thing mentioned above is that I’m the Director of Visual Arts.
I think there’s a relationship between this piece and a lot of El Anatsui’s. Here’s a link I got from Matt (which I think he got from Modern Art Notes.)
there is that sort of fascination with how detritus conveys itself into being the emphemera in our lives in an almost pretend-meaningful, token-like way.
this piece reminded me of when i was an undergrad and one of my friends was living in this house with all these scenester kids. and these kids were REALLY into pen-pals. (i am not sure if this was an activity exclusive to these particular scenesters, or if it is more germane to the scenester context at large). they were also all way too cool for school, were musicphiles, and all worked at a record store in Portsmouth NH together. living the dream i guess.
anyway, they would write these elaborate and decorative letters and postcards to their penpals, with pictures, drawings, decorated envelopes and stuff. they were actually really beautiful…things that would be really fun to get in the mail, just for the sake of getting them. not because they were particularly relevant or communicated much of anything very specific.
but, you know, no one really writes letters anymore. i guess it’s become kind of a cult thing.
I’d also throw it in line with Felix Gonzales Torres.
I wouldn’t say this work is pretend-meaningful, or real-meaningful, either. It just is, and you get what you get from it. Also, pretty much all cool things are cult things. Or nerd things.
for sure. i’m a fan.
and pretend might have been a bit of a poor word choice. i more meant that it is interesting how things sort of assume meanings that we attach to them…often because i think we like the idea of stuff being meaningful.
And I do think there’s a significant relationship between my liking this work and it being from my town and physically accessible to me. I’m sure other people do similar work in other parts of the country (not unlike these penpal scene kids you mention, Jen), but I only care about that as something that’s similar/connectable to this thing that’s in my direct experience. It’s apt, especially, considering what blogs are.
What you say is kind of why I like Stan Brakhage so much. I watch his films and I build my own connective, narrative threads while watching them, and I’m very aware of them, that they’re something I put on them–connected, vital, but self-fabricated and personal.
it’s also why i like going to historical museums in foreign countries where the little placards aren’t in english…and making up all my own stories about what the dioramas are depicting.
in comparison, i find that actual history has severely underestimated the drama of it’s own chronology.
i say this in response to my visit to this little museum in bolzano italy, where i went to go see the infamous ‘iceman’ in 2006.
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