Sleep Over For ALL by Lindsey Slavin

 

There are many interesting events happening this week at the fabulous Skydive Art Space as part of Many-Mini Residency, an ambitious week long non-stop project facilitated by Sarrita Hunn and Ryan Thayer that has invited many artists to present experimental works within the realms of performance and unclassifiable art.

Such is the case of SLEEP OVER FOR ALL, and art event

by Lindsey Slavin.

 "Never made a prank call, participated in a massage train or a game of Never Have I Ever? Feel the urge to gush about that cute guy/girl you have a crush on and trust that your secret won't leave the circle? Wear your pajamas, BYOB or alcohol of choice, and get ready for a makeover, because we're going to be best friends after tonight," announces the artist.

Slavin's art event starts tonight at 10pm and it ends tomorrow at 2am, immediately followed by "Home Health Care" by June Woest, another wacky/cool event  that promises to sterilize Q-tips and tongue depressors in a mini-chocolate fondue fountain.

Strange enough for you?

Visit the Many-Mini website for a full schedule

at www.manymini.org 

and for more info about Skydive visit 

theskydive.org

Skydive is located at 2041 Norfolk Street, Houston, Tx 

Oh and dont forget to bring ALCOHOL for Slavin's event, 

but drink responsibly.

Continuum presents Meditation Lounge

Houston's newest Performance Art Group has prepared a meditative oasis at HCC Northline. So if you're feeling a little stressy, take some time to go check it out.

With the desire for creating an oasis for the students of HCC Northeast Campus and for the general public to escape the daily routine, Continuum, a new performance art group in Houston, has developed a series of interactive installations called "Meditation Stations" to be on view and functioning at the campus gallery, which is situated in the first floor, dead center in the middle of the building. Some of the stations feature written and audible instructions, allowing the participants to immerse themselves into a state of deep relaxation and self awareness.

The Meditation Lounge will be open to the public Monday through Thursday 8am to 8pm, from June 20th to July 14th 2011. There will not be an opening reception because such an event would defeat the purpose of this exhibition. However, Continuum will hold a BYOP (Bring Your Own Performance) event in the Lounge, in which they will hold initiation rituals for their new members. If you are interested in witnessing these special occurrences, or performing at the event, please email juliaintherye@aol.com.

Gallery Hours: Monday through Thursday, 8am-8pm,
Curated by Jonatan Lopez
Facilitated by Continuum
Special thanks to Tina Kotrla

Continuum's participating members:

Meghan Carey, Koomah, Jonatan Lopez, Raindawg, Hilary Scullane, Julia Wallace, Sway Youngston.

In “A Cleansing Ritual,” Julia Wallace shares a personal practice that she uses before she enters meditation. At the entrance to the Meditation Lounge, Julia offers special water that has been infused with powerful, positive energy through a group performance. Guests are given suggested directions for using the water ritualistically to prepare themselves to meditate.

"In-TENSE-ity" by Sway Youngston aims to completely relax the subject by tensing each muscle group in the body, recognizing the tension that already exists there, and completely releasing it. The subject will then be guided through mental tension liberation wherein negative emotions are acknowledged and released. “In-TENSE-ity” is a guided meditation delivered via audio recording. Subjects will lie on the cushions provided, put on headphones, and drift away.

Zen of Childhood, by Koomah, is a guided meditation that invites people to see the world through the eyes of a child. Video images include playing in a sandbox, bubbles, and washing hands. Accompanying music guides performers into a meditative relationship with the child-self.

In Tea Bliss, Raindawg employs a collection of teacups, stones, wind, and chimes to invite you on a trip to inner space. When you place a stone in a teacup, the sound of wind and chimes will carry you to a place to which there is no road.

About Continuum:

Continuum is a group of performance artists that came together in a performance art workshop facilitated by Julia Wallace in March and April of 2011. They are connected in the desire to help and encourage each other's self discovery through performance, as well as a desire to give the gift of performative expression to others. Continuum aspires to create an encouraging and safe atmosphere for each other as well as the community to explore and express themselves through the medium of performance art. For more information about Continuum please visit www.continuumperformanceart.blogspot.com

Emily Sloan's Southern Naptist Covention

This Sunday, June 12th! 1:00pm at 14 pews!

The Southern Naptist Convention.

A performance by Emily sloan.

After checking out this video,

you won't want to miss this.

For more information, please contact Emily Sloan at

713-582-1198 or emily@emilysloan.com or visit: www.nappingaffectsperformance.blogspot.com

About Napping Affects Performance: Napping Affects

Performance (NAP) and NAP Church are interactive

performance projects by 14 Pews artist-in-residence

Emily Sloan providing community naps in collaboration

with various performances, including (but not limited to) collaborations with sound, word, touch, and the delivery

of naps to various sites and/or contexts. In May and

June of 2010, NAP operated out of Art League Houston

with six weeks of continuous performances taking place

during Art League’s regular hours of operation. Since

then, followers and napophiles began meeting once a

month for a Sunday naps and naptisms during NAP Church

services.

Napping Affects Performance, Universal NAP Church,

and the Southern Naptist Convention are organizing the

"NAPTURE: Don't be Left Awake!" event to be held in

Houston, October 21, 2011 at 14 Pews. For more

information, please visit:www.nappingaffectsperformance.blogspot.com

About 14 Pews: Located at 800 Aurora St., Houston,

Texas 77009, this Houston landmark is the oldest white

wooden church in the Heights. Built in 1924, it has

housed the Sunset Heights Church of Christ,

Aurora Picture Show, and is now home to 14 Pews.

14 Pews is a non-profit microcinema providing regular

screenings of independent documentaries and feature

films, along with 4 annual film festivals and several

affordable film/video educational classes. For more

information, please visit:www.14pews.org

Artist Profiles: Skippy Cooper

ATTENTION FOLX: We have a new artist in town! And don't worry, she is way cuter in person (I'm not being insulting, I can say that because the picture above is from a series of photographs that deliberately hide her good looks!) Her name is Skippy Cooper. I can't wait to see what she brings to the mix. From the looks of this video, she has the potential to really shake things up.

She was kind enough to answer a few questions for Performance Art Houston, ENJOY!

Tell us a few fun facts about yourself:

Well, in addition to doing art, I also do stand-up comedy, write, and make music (I play the guitar, keyboard, ukulele, and sing). All of that to say that my prized skills are probably my typing speed of 101 wpm, and being able to juggle.

Where are you coming from?

Mostly insecurity, like a lot of people. I have questions about myself in terms of my racial and social identity, and I try to explore those. I'm half Mexican and half white, so I've always had some kind of struggle with my racial identity. Even just being asked what my race is, I'm never sure how to answer. People are always assigning races to me and I'm currently working on a video performance series on the subject. As far as social identity goes, I'm an adult with insecurities, social anxiety, and a vagina so the possibilities are pretty endless in that realm. At the same time, I'm always afraid to fail in life and have been that way since a young age. Normally, if I don't think I'll be just really great at something around the first time, then I won't even try. So I feel that creating characters like Michellie, where almost everything in her life is a failure, is important - and not just for myself, but for a lot of people. Failure is funny and everyone does it at some point, but normally no one wants to laugh about it when it happens to themselves. Michellie is able to kind of brush off the failures and find a silver lining.

What kind of art do you do?

I went to university for photography, but in my last year of school I was introduced to some really great performance and video artists by way of my mentor and professor (Sensei shout out!). I realized that my passions, questions, and ideas were really best suited for time based media. I still do photo projects that I love, such as On Separation and Glamour with a You, but I mostly use performance and video work these days.

Has Houston influenced any of your performance work yet?

I don't think it's influenced me and my work, really. Although, I'm not sure I'd be able to recognize if it were to influence it. I mean, I don't do a ton of location based work. Although, if I were to do that in the future, I would guess that whatever city I reside in would have the possibility to influence those pieces.

Describe a favorite performance art piece that you have done.

As narcissistic as this may sound, I'm actually kind of proud of a few. My first ever performance piece I did after realizing I loved the medium, was called Hug Jobs 1 . It came about, because I am probably the master at giving the awkward, uncomfortable hug. At the opening, I would sporadically hug visitors for at least one minute a piece. I thought it was interesting how this action and symbol of love and friendship could be turned into something uncomfortable and almost threatening.

My thesis work, Even Out of Adoration , is an exploration of self control and assigned behaviours of women. It was born from my history of feelings I had as a child, and still often have, when I would become frustrated or angry. My grandmother has had a huge collection of Swarovsky crystals that I was never aloud to touch ever since I can remember. When I would get enraged, I always wanted to break them and other things, but never could, so I never did. For the piece, I collected glass pieces that resembled precious keepsakes over the course of several months. I then displayed them on shelves before destroying them with an umbrella while wearing a feminine dress and high heels. I found the fact that this violent act is kept beautiful through my fashion choice and demeanor to be interesting and important.

Name some of your performance art heroes. Who has inspired/influenced your performance art? What is your favorite performance art piece EVER by someone else?

I love Jill Pangallo. She does a lot of character and identity work with an air of comedy, too. I also really love Wynne Greenwood's work, especially her Tracy and The Plastics pieces. Even though she's a photographer, Nikki S. Lee is amazing and it definitely influences my pieces, especially the ones that deal with race and stereotypes - her series "Projects" are definitely performances captured through photography; so I don't think she is only a photographer. William Weggman and Reggie Watts are both just hilarious to me. I tend to gravitate toward works that are funny in some way, but also interesting conceptually. They've all influenced me a lot in my performance work, I have to say. I don't know if I have an absolute, end-all-be-all favourite performance piece, though.

Visit Skippy's website at www.SkippyCooper.com

Maybe drop her a line and welcome her to town!

Alter Egos and Other Loves

Hi Sexy Houstonians and Performance Art Lovers. My name is Anita Latinlova, I am from Spain but I love America and I love Performance ART. I am a journalist currently working for The Houston Entertainicle (Your must reliable and honest source of news in Houston) and I was recently invited by artist Julia Wallace to write for this blog, and well... I am just so excited, here goes my first post:

Recently there has been an epidemic of alter egos popping out of the conceptual wombs of performance artists in Houston. Such is the case of super sexy Mr.Overdone (currently living inside artist Jennifer Tyburczy) who has been seducing Houston audiences with his unique gender-bending-neo-burlesque style performances .

Mr. Overdone, Courtesy of Loriana Espinel

Another whimsical alter ego is an irresistible macho man named D.R.E.D. (currently living inside artist MilDRED Gerestant) who enjoys highlighting gender issues through a variety of art forms such as spoken word, monologue and drag just to name a few. With his/her work, D.R.E.D achieves to show us what it means "To be yourself" disregarding what society might think.

D.R.E.D. Courtesy of www.blackgaygossip.com

More recently, an investigative performer named Zarvin Mindler (Currently living inside artist Emily Sloan) has been spotted around town. Art Car lovers reported seeing a mysterious looking Mindler closely examining the comings and goings at The Houston Art Car Parade. Mindler also published a report about the alleged doll abuse happening inside the icy white cube gallery called The Kenmore. (I don't know if this is just a coincidence but Zarvin Mindler sounds very similar to Marvin Zindler , a former Houston Press reporter, how strange).

Zarvin Mindler, Courtesy of Zarvin Mindler

And last but not least, there is me. I live inside an artist named Jonatan Lopez who also goes by (the artist that does not want to be named ) and more recently by, Roscoe Lopez. As of now, I only live inside the internet and in printed media, but one day I would love to see the real world. I heard is a tough world but I am a tough girl and I know I can take it.

Anita Latinlova, Courtesy of Hilary Scullane

D.R.E.D and Mr.Overdone will be performing this Sunday 5th at OTHER LOVES: Celebrating Queer Artists. Their performance entitled "We are Each Other's Lover's in Training" will invite us on a journey of gender transformation and share with us intimate moments of love and connection within, between, and outside the gender binary of "man" and "woman."

My alter ego, Jonatan Lopez, is also part of the show. He will dedicate his performance aptly titled "Other Loves" to the loves that could have been but weren't meant to, as he does unspeakable things to their photographs.

Other participating artists are Stephanie Saint Sanchez, Rob Baker, Stallina Villareal and many more.

Location: Houston Institute for Culture, 708-C Telephone Rd.
Time: Sunday June 5th from 6-8pm
For more info, visit www.vbbarts.org

In conclusion, perhaps that show on the cable net called "The United States of Tara" might have something to do with this alter-ego-gender-bending multiple personality madness. Or perhaps there is something in the water that artists choose to drink that is causing them to act this way. One thing is for sure, Alter-ego-ness is innovative, fun, contagious, and its coming your way.

Check out Performances by Continuum at SUMMERFEST!!!

"Bring Towel in case of accidental orgasm!"

Continuum, a new performance art group that recently sprouted in H-Town is bringing to Free Press Summer Fest a series of performances centered around the body and its potential to heat things up.

Continuum's members Julia Wallace and Sway Youngston attempt to unofficially break a world record with their piece "MASSage Orgy." “Let's come together and release each others tensions,” says Youngston. While undermining the validity of the Guiness World Record, the artists will attempt to surpass it's stated record for a Massage Chain of 430 participants.

Roscoe Lopez (a man from another country) is sharing with us the power of Yoga Sutra. “Yoga Sutra is about recognizing how HOT we all are and about achieving unimaginable positions while having The Sex. We are forces of nature and are entitled to act like nature,” says Roscoe. Continuum's members pitched in to pay for Roscoe's plane ticket, so this is an opportunity you cannot miss to "Sexy It Up." (must bring Yoga mat or towel in case of accidental orgasm).

Continnum's special guest Y. E. Torres (ms. YET) will present a super sexy 30 minute class entitled "Belly Yoga." ms. YET has combined the benefits of traditional yoga poses with bellydance drills and postures to create a singular workout designed to increase flexibility, tone muscles, strengthen the body, open up the breath, and enhance your bellydance or yoga practice.

In addition, Continnum will do spontaneous performances amongst the sexy Houston crowd. Look for them on Sunday June 5th as the afternoon cools down and they heat things up at FREE PRESS SUMMER FEST.

Participating members for this event:

Julia Wallace, Jonatan Lopez, Sway Youngston, Bryce Galbraith, Angela Whitford, Kris Smith, Eric Ling, Raindawg, Skippy Cooper, and Meghan Carey.

Continuum's local guest: Multidisciplinary artist and Belly Dancer ms. YET

Continuum's guest from another country: Roscoe Lopez

Special thanks to the coolest music festival in H-Town: FREE PRESS SUMMER FEST

WARNING,Yoga Sutra will cause the following permanent side effects: Falling in love with yourself, having sexy thoughts while at the gym, public displays of affection, involuntary prolonged erections, promiscuity and a strange European accent.

(Above picture: Yoga Sutra practice with Roscoe Lopez and Sway Youngston, Photo Courtesy of Koomah)

Visit our blog at continuumperformanceart.blogspot.com
or follow us at: www.facebook.com/CONTINUUMperformanceART

THE FUTURE IS NOW at Skydive Art Space

This Saturday May 7th, some of Houston's best performance artists will gather at the Skydive House (one of the coolest  art venues in town) to celebrate many versions of  "The Future." The event is a fundraiser for the venue, so by assisting you will not only enjoy great art but you'll be supporting  the Houston art scene.  In addition to performances there will be interactive installations and a silent auction. Many cool artists have donated art including   Ariane Roesch, Chuy Benitez and Man Bartlett, who recently did a fabulous social media based performance entitled #24hClerk at the venue. The show is curated by Nancy Douthey, one of the main facilitators of the highly acclaimed Performance Art Lab, which makes this event "A can't miss."

Get yer tickets here: TICKETS
Preview Action Items here: Bad Ass Auction Items

Live Performance and Installations by:
Michael Brims, Genevieve Buentello, Aisen Caro Chacin, Michelle Chen,
CHIN XAOU TI WON, Jonatan Lopez, Claudia Cruz, Nancy Douthey, Ian Fernandez, Melanie Jamison, Brian and Stevie McCord, Richard Nix, Kelly O’Brien
Britt Ragsdale, Alex Tu and James Ciosek


Silent Auction By:
Chris Akin (Houston), Kim Anno (San Francisco), Man Bartlett (New York), Chuy Benitez (Houston), Sasha Dela (Houston), Nancy Douthey (Houston)
Sarrita Hunn (Saint Louis), Jonatan Lopez (Houston), MANUAL (Houston), Richard Nix (Houston), Rosane Volchan O’Conor (Houston), Melanie Pankau (Milwaukee), Brian Piana (Houston), Dana Harper (Houston), Myke Venable (Houston), Jonathan Leach (Houston), Ariane Roesch (Los Angeles) Kristy Peet (Houston), Leah Rosenberg (San Francisco), Chris Rusak (San Francisco) Anderson Wrangle (Clemson), and more… 
 
SPONSORS:
DeSantos Gallery, Lone Star Beer, Green House Collective,
Graham Barnes Distilling, Zoe’s Kitchen, Judy Nyquist, Fredericka Hunter and Ian Glennie

Location: 2041 Norfolk
Time: Saturday May 7th, 6-9pm


SEE YOU IN THE NEAR "FUTURE"

Artist Profiles: Ryan Hawk

I met Ryan Hawk a little over a year ago when he performed at DEATHSEX and then he moved away. :( He is one of the most enthusiastic and brave performance artists that I have worked with so far! Now he is off getting an education that i am totally jelzz of. I am constantly amazed at the new work he shares, and I am proud to share this interview with you.

So you are originally from Houston, right? Tell us about where you have ended up!

-Yes, I was born in Pasadena and I moved all around the Houston burbs growing up. I started taking classes at Glassell full time when I turned 17 and lived in the Warehouse District and Montrose for a while. I then transferred to The School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (SMFA or just the Museum School) and I’ll plan on being here until I finish my BFA. I’m living in a town called Jamaica Plain, its pretty awesome; it doesn’t even feel like I’m in a city!

How have your Houston roots contributed to the things you are currently exploring in your work?

-Well, Houston is my home, the place I grew up ya know… So I feel there is definitely a little appropriation there. A lot of my current work is dipping into memories and previous life experiences, which would be entirely different depending on the city I grew up in. There’s also a lot of great, inspiring art folks in Houston, like yourself, that have played a huge role in my aspirations.


Tell us about some of the performance art lessons/workshops you have experienced at your new school.

-My school is one of the few art universities that actually teach performance and the discourse surrounding it… You have to start with a beginning workshop, which covers the scope of the medium and its history, and then you can move into the intermediate courses which change every semester, exploring themes like: Ritual, Activism, Duration, Site-specific (and several more). There’s also an open studios class for self-directed work that I’ll be engaging in this upcoming fall semester.

One of the best experiences I’ve had so far is a class I took called “Visiting Performance Workshop”. The school invited three professional Performance Artist over a semester’s time to come do week long workshops. The exercises varied in genre and were really damn intensive. The artist I worked with included: Guy Benfield (Australian), Wathiq Gzar Al-Ameri and Ali Al-Fatlawi (Afghanistan), and Amanda Coogan (Ireland).

I heard you are currently working in a performance collective, fill us in on all the detailz!!

-I started a student run performance group at SMFA in which we meet every Friday and critique each other’s work, engage in dialogue, and actually do Improvisational/Durational performances. Were slowly forming into a collective and actually had our first gig located inside an art venue May 1st. We limited ourselves to exploring various colors/types of string in a framed space in relation to our bodily identities. It was successful in our eyes. It’s pretty fucking exciting when you start working collaboratively in performance because you start to realize more about yourself individually as an artist. It’s also nice to have a group of artist engaged in such a medium as performance constantly assessable because crits are always needed!

What kind of solo performance art are you currently/recently working on? Where can we see your work in Houston??

My previous work(s) would be viewed as politically challenging or charged, but recently I’ve been moving away from that work and more into a study of the moral body and examinations of the self, although it seems I’ll always be interested in some study of ethics! I recently constructed a large plaster head-like-thing that’s pretty damn heavy and I’ve been wearing it all kinds of places, investigating my body with the head in the different spaces/frames including random streets and the MFA, Boston. It’s been very physiologically charged, masking my identity to investigate an internal construction of the self… I feel it’s headed somewhere cool, but I’m not sure where yet.

Here is a still from Ryan's piece currently showing at Box 13. Click here to visit Emily Sloan's blog for more info about the show!

I have a video piece in Emily Sloan's space located inside Box 13 in Houston. It’s a show celebrating Texas based Bi-sexual artists, I haven’t been in town to check it out yet, but I hear it is wild. You can also check my website, although its terribly outdated, I hope to have it updated by the start of June 2011. http://www.RyanHawk.weebly.com


WHEN ARE YOU COMING BAAACCKKK!??

I come in town often, like a typical college student, to visit fam/friends and what not. I have two more years left of my BFA and I’m not so sure about grad school yet. I DO, however have my eyes on Glassell’s Core Program located in Houston; hopefully I can sink into that in the future!

Thank you, Ryan! Can't wait for you to bring back some of the awesome performance art power you are gathering up there. So proud you're out there representing H-town!

HIGHSCHOOLERZ PERFORM AT THE CAMH!

THIS WEDNESDAY, May 4th @ the CAMH from 6-8pm!

Yay! more performance artists being born in Houston!!!

Performance: New Work by HSPVA Visual art students from Houston's High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (HSPVA) will present original performance pieces in conjunction with Perspectives 174: Re: Generation. HSPVA evolved in 1971 from a realization that gifted young artists need highly specialized and rigorous training in the arts to be prepared for the intense competition they will meet in colleges, conservatories, and the professional arts world. The creation of HSPVA represented the first attempt by any public high school in the nation to correlate an academic program with concentrated training in the arts. Ultimately HSPVA became the pilot program for today's magnet school concept.

PAINTING AS PERFORMANCE opening this Friday!

Painting as Performance
March 25 - April 30, 2011
Opening Reception: Friday, March 25, 2011, 6-8pm

Painting as Performance is a group exhibition that frames non-traditional approaches to painting. Featuring artworks by Melanie Jamison, Ayanna Jolivet Mccloud, Erin Joyce, Rebecca Novak, and Damon Smith, artists use the trajectory of painting as a starting point and embed and extend the medium with performative, sculptural, and sonic... elements. The process of making these works often involves a performative aspect. The artworks jump off of the two-dimensional plane to demand more from the artist/ audience, challenging a typical static experience often experienced in painting and in this way become performative.

Melanie Jamison graduated with a BFA in Illustration from Parsons School of Design. During her years in New York, she became involved with the MELA Foundation Dream House, where she became a vocal raga student of La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela. Melanie continues to practice extended vocal techniques in the Houston girl band of rotating fruit names and rotating members. She participates in the multimedia, seemingly multidimensional prank project “Incoming Call” with Aisen Caro Chacin and Al Eckstue. Melanie has collaborated with Ayanna McCloud on exploring sound textures of the physical and visual realms. Her tactile aesthetics are carried over into recently formed noise band VRS with Mary Sharpe and Erika Thrasher. Melanie works in the warehouse district of Houston where industrial influences are prevalent in her work.

Ayanna Jolivet Mccloud is an artist and writer. Her arts practice which manifests itself in different forms draws attention to the unseen, imagined and forgotten. Born in Houston, Texas, she received a BA in Visual and Critical Studies from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She has participated in exhibitions and residencies throughout the U.S., Caribbean, and Latin America. She is founder of labotanica and is currently an Artist-in-Residence at Project Row Houses. http://archipelaga.com/

Erin Joyce is a painter, sculptor, performer, curator and Houston native. She has exhibited in local venues such as labotanica, DiverseWorks, Lawndale Art Center, New Gallery, and Café Brazil. In all her mediums, she creates intimate experiences in which viewers and subjects (and the artist) encounter hidden or suppressed emotions. To add to her self-taught drawing skills and personal sensibility she received a BFA in painting from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2008. Erin has also lived, worked, and exhibited in Providence, RI, St. Petersburg, Russia, New York City, and Santa Fe, NM. http://www.erin-joyce.com/

Rebecca Novak is a sculptor and visual artist who began creative endeavors as a musician, and maintains an interest in cross-disciplinary practices. Her work explores natural phenomenon, ecology, and society’s tenuous relationship to nature, often addressing environment in a broader sense. Ongoing projects include contributing to the greenHouse collective, an artist-based gardening and permaculture project at Project Row Houses; co-curating the film series Science on Screen with 14 Pews micro cinema; and an upcoming debut of her composition Siren Song for the reflection pool at Rothko Chapel for the band currently known as Durian Durian. Rebecca has attended artist residencies at Project Row Houses (2009) and labotanica (School of Latitudes #1, 2010). Her work has been shown at Lawndale Art Center, MFAH Glassell School of Art, Project Row Houses, labotanica, Houston Community College, and the Houston Foundry.

Damon Smith's art practice includes sound, painting, video, graphic and traditional scores, photography, sculpture and drawing. His work had been shown Galleries in the San Francisco bay area, MassMOCA, Vienna, Munich and Denton, TX. An ongoing collaboration with artist Daniel Healey is an important project. He studied double bass with Lisle Ellis and Bertram Turezky. He has worked with dance, theater and film including soundtracks for Werner Herzog's "Grizzly Man" & "Encounters at the end of the World" and an early performance with the Merce Cunningham dance company. He has collaborated with a wide range of musicians including Cecil Taylor, Marshall Allen (of Sun Ra´s Arkestra), Henry Kaiser, Peter Brötzmann and Peter Kowald. He has toured Europe, Israel and North America and worked often in the San Francisco Bay Area Creative Music Community before relocating to Houston in 2010. http://balancepointacoustics.com/damon.php

labotanica is a project space in Houston, Texas. key words: reciprocity, exploration, freedom, magical thinking, open-ended, flexibility, de-center, soulfulness. labotanica is part of Project Row Houses Residency and Incubation program. www.labotanica.org

Photo: artwork by Rebecca Novak

http://projects.labotanica.org/#1037855/Painting-as-Performance

GO TO THE CAMH NOW

So why didn't anyone tell me to get myself to the CAMH already??? I popped in a couple of days ago on a whim, and I left feeling that fabulous kind of INTENSE art jealousy.

You know that feeling: FUCK! I wish, wish, wish, wish I had made that art.

Dear Clifford Owens,

I am sending you vibes of gratefulness for bringing fabulous art out of the collective unconscious and into the physical realm.

I am sending you these vibes in hopes that they counteract all the major art jealous hate vibes I accidentally sent you when I saw how bad ass your art exhibit at the CAMH is.

Sincerely,

Julia Wallace

Clifford Owens gets bunches of people in small rooms and convinces them to do interesting things together, and then he takes these pictures of them and makes you REALLY wish you hadn't missed it.

He also finds really awesome historically significant performance artists and does performance art pieces with them (kinda like Jack White making music with Loretta Lynn). In the show there are pieces that he created with Patty Chang, Joan Jonas, William Pope L., and Carolee Schneemann. Woops, I just sent out more jealousy hate vibes. Sorry, Cliff. (If you ever google yourself and find this, please consider making art an art piece with me, your jealous fan- juliaintherye@aol.com)

Another thing I was happy to see was the Fluxus Lick Piece.

Here is the original-
Here is the Clifford Owens version-

And here is a version that was created for ART LIES in 2005 by 'Participation Art' a class led by Andrea Grover at the University of Houston featuring local performance artists- Emily Sloan, Lindsay B., Patrick Doyle, Nancy Douthey, Sebastian Forray, and ME!!

I felt like this exhibit is very relevant to the performance that has been going on in Houston. I am kind of embarrassed about how positive I am being but, I am just going to say it-

Bill Arning makes cool shit happen in Houston. I like his shows. I am glad he is here.

( To be more specific- No Zoning RULED, and I was a big fan of the Chantal Akerman show that happened at the Blaffer.)

I really should shake my feelings of disbelief that art I like is being shown in big, huge, funded exhibitions and just accept that Houston is way cooler than I thought.

Get over there, the Clifford Owens show is up til April 3!

And I guess I should also mention that there is a pretty rad show upstairs too.

PERFORMANCE ART WORKSHOP IN HOUSTON

Facilitated by Julia Claire Wallace

March 15, 22, 29, April 5

Entire 4 Session Workshop, only $30

email juliaintherye@aol.com to sign up

SPACES ARE FILLING UP QUICK!

Performance art is pretty much the best discovery I have ever made. It has become one of the most valuable tools in my own self discovery. It is also one of the most intense/tangible/powerful means of self expression. It is a tool for personal change as well as social change. I want to encourage the use of performance art in Houston, and I would love to pass on its power to other people. If I can give people even a fraction of what the gift of performance art gave to me, I will be thrillleedddd. With my performance art workshops I plan to facilitate an encouraging and safe atmosphere for growing artists. It will be full of strange and inspiring experiences that should be very educational.

Visit www.juliaclairewallace.blogspot.com for more information on workshops by Julia in Houston

JUMP- Boby Kalloor the performance artist turns ONE!

Boby Kalloor is one of my favorite artists in Houston right now, this event should not be missed by anyone but me (because I have to work at the fabulous diverseworks, as they have the very exciting end-of-show sale for Patricia Hernandez's Parody of Light.)

February 26, 2011 marks the one year anniversary of Boby Kalloor's debut as a performance artist!

Please come join us as we jump off the 13+ foot roof of The Jenner House over and over!

YOU can jump too!

We will provide a soft surface to land on and capes!

THIS EVENT IS HAPPENING AT THE JENNER HOUSE FROM 12-6 THIS SATURDAY.

THE BRAYER ROOM, a new Houston gallery and performance art piece

YES! More people in Houston are making their good ideas into reality.

The Brayer Room (click here to see their site!)is a moving gallery. Each show is in a new spot. I have been dying to see stuff like this happen in Houston ever since I heard that Paul Horn once held a show at Al's Quick Stop (that place next to Rudz with the amazing gyros.).

The next Brayer Room show is scheduled for this Friday, February 12th from 7:30 to 10:30 at 214 Fairview.


Since owner/director Esther Gustein described the moving gallery as a performance art piece, I quickly asked her if she would share some things for the blog!

How does Houston effect your art?
Houston has effected my art in the spaces that it provides for a platform for hosting my shows. The whole of the city is very unique, with no absolute "artist" district.

Who are your performance art heroes?
Yves Klein, Jackson Pollock, Marcel Duchamp, to name a few.

Will you ever include performance art in your shows or have you already?
My are shows are performance art shows. The space I have will always host as a studio well before the actual show takes place, creating an artistic energy in a dormant space. I guess that the kind of performance that I hope to achieve is not one for the audience, but for the artists and the community. Showing how they can mutually benefit each other. The artists in that they can create anywhere, and for the community that any space can be a space for discovery and expression.

Thanks for making something new happen in our town, Esther!! Can't wait to see where The Brayer Room pops up next.

Boby Kalloor's lunch project

One of the best performance artists in Houston is doing a project you can be a part of!

Here is the blog (click click!).

Here is the info:

Houston Performance Art in Germany

Last year Galerie KUB, in Leipzig, Germany contacted me about having Houston Performance Artists come to perform at their Performance Art Festival entitled Blauverschiebung No. 3. So in September John Zambrano and I hopped on a flight to Germany. It ended up being one of the best experiences of my life! We got to meet some amazing artists, some inspiring organizers, and some REALLY awesome bartenders.

Leipzig, Germany is a wonderful city, it is actually Houston's sister city. It was amazing to see how much their government and their businesses support the arts. JEALOUS!!! They hooked us up with flight money, food and a hotel room.

The festival was fascinating. Although Performance Art is definitely still considered a bit strange to the normal folk in the same way it is here, the audience seemed to me to be much more open to the time consumingness and strangeness that is so often performance. It was refreshing to be with a decent sized group of people who didn't seem to think twice about watching someone twitch on stage for 30 minutes or rub raw meat on their naked body. It definitely inspired me to push towards more of this acceptance from my audiences.

LOS TORREZNOS from Madrid did one of my favorite performances, they reminded me of our very own Art Guys.

Los Torreznos / Madrid Blauverschiebung No3 / die naTo / 2010 Leipzig from galerie KUB on Vimeo.

They were super nice too!


Here is the piece that I created for the festival.

Julia Claire Wallace / Houston Blauverschiebung No3 2010 Leipzig from galerie KUB on Vimeo.

And here is John Zambrano's piece:

John Zambrano / Houston Blauverschiebung No3 2010 Leipzig from galerie KUB on Vimeo.

The two artists that reminded me the most of what is going on here is Marcel Spurman (check out his blog!) and Elizabeth Wurst.
Does this remind you of anything HOUSTON?

Ohne Titel, Videoperformance, HD, 20 Min, 2010 from Elizabeth Wurst Performance on Vimeo.

And this artist reminded me alot of our Smitty Regula. This was definitely the most exciting performance of the festival-

Jan Rieve, Elias Macke, Harri Heine / Leipzig Blauverschiebung No3 2010 Leipzig from galerie KUB on Vimeo.

Check out videos from the entire festival HERE. There are some really amazing performances!

And if anyone has any desire to try and create a Performance Art Festival here in Houston, let me know! I am so down.

The Galerie KUB was AWESOME, if anyone is passing through Germany any time soon, make sure and stop by.