Everyone’s a Curator

August 16, 2008 at 7:00 pm to 10:00 pm

This evening will feature a screening of YouTube videos curated by its audience. All are invited to select their favorite YouTube clip and submit the corresponding URL address to reserve a timeslot. Entries can be reserved ahead of time via Telic’s website (see below) or in person on the night of the event. There is no limit to the number of selections any one person can make and are strictly on a first come, first served basis to the first 50 entries. (Due to the large number of videos, please try and keep your selections around 3 minutes or less!)

$5 will reserve your timeslot and automatically enters you into a raffle of prizes donated by local businesses. Winners will be announced at the end of the evening. (After you do the Google Checkout thing below, send an email to everyonesacurator -at - telic -dot- info with your selected YouTube URL).

amateur, events, exhibitionism, games, intellectual property, internet | 7 Comments »

Exhibitionism and Architecture

The New York Times ran an interesting article (”Yours for the Peeping” by Penelope Green) about a cultural shift from voyeurism to exhibitionism, a theme that was at the focus of the Showing exhibition with Jordan Crandall last month. The article connects social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook to the use of glass in contemporary urban architecture. Sherry Turkle makes a fantastic point about our anxiety over being alone, amidst all our technological connectedness, and how this compels us to open the window so that others will see us (with all the confirmation that provides). This question didn’t really come up during Jordan’s project, a substantive look at why we’re increasingly putting ourselves on display.

You can read the article below -

Continue reading…

architecture, exhibitionism, internet | No Comments »

Public and Private Stages

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The nude is a notoriously hackneyed art subject, but it was still something of a surprise that several galleries in Chinatown - almost all of which opened on September 8 - had shows featuring naked (or nearly) people. Amy Bessone’s show at David Kordansky has several large paintings, which turn out to be paintings of photographs of nude porcelain figurines from auction catalogues. The press release refers to an interaction between the work and the viewer, who must “weather” a confrontation with naughty bits. Next door to TELIC at Black Dragon Society, Steve Canaday made several colorful, cartoony paintings of women in bikinis with beer, pets, and chubby thighs.

Finally, at TELIC Miguel Angel Reyes solicited audience members to come on stage and pose in a way that was physically revealing. Some spread their legs, others flashed undergarments, and a surprising number just let the flesh all hang out - all in exchange for the drawing of the session made by Reyes. This is Los Angeles, but I have to reiterate a mild astonishment that members of the general public were willing to do this - well, not pose nude so much as do it on a public stage while audience members shot camera phone photos and videos of the spectacle. Interestingly, Amy Bessone (according to Kordansky’s press release) asks what happens as we stop thinking in terms of the “male gaze” and instead turn the gaze upon ourselves?

Jordan Crandall is asking the same question in his exhibition, I think, but in a very different way. Perhaps one of the strangest things about the drawing session was how not awkward it was. It’s not that the publicly stages erotic figure drawings inverted the gaze - the audience members watching and snapping photos refute that I think - but the quotidian feeling of it all make us think about what we (see other people) do online. And so in the back space, Jordan spent the opening interviewing people one-on-one, trying to get them to confess. While the space was private, the session was obviously filmed and the footage was sent in real-time to a television next to the front door of the gallery. In other words, the inversion was there, in the private, but connected back space - the obverse of the public stage.

I won’t go too far into it, but I was also interested in the performative aspect of it all. Both artists, Jordan and Miguel had personal, intimate exchanges with their subjects, producing an experience rather than an object. Footage from the opening will be screening on the television at the front of the space for the duration of Showing.

See also: Continuous and Discontinuous Being by Georges Bataille

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Opening

September 8, 2007 at 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm

Mimi Nguyen and John Paul Ricco

September 22, 2007 at 12:00 pm to 9:00 pm

Noon - 4pm
“Showing Shame: Shameless Showing” screening program curated by Robert Summers (see description below)
4pm
JJ Chinois music video and selections by Mimi Nguyen
5pm
Presentation by Mimi Nguyen (see description below)
7pm
Performance by Eleanor Kaufman and John Paul Ricco
Presentation by John Paul Ricco (see description below)

Showing Shame: Shameless Showing
curated by Robert Summers
Artists/Videos:
Lee Adams, Porca Miseria (2007)
Hoang Tan Nguyen, Forever Bottom (1999)
Vaginal Davis & Billy MIller, Tom Cruise Loves Women (2005)
SUPERM (Slava Mogutin & Brian Kenny), “TBA” (2007)
(New video by SUPERM will be its US premiere)

The selected videos show various enactments of the artists and/or their friends performing themselves in acts of shame. With regard to “queer” subjectivity and shame, I draw on the work of Eve Sedgwick who argues that shame can be understood in relation to “queer” — as she pointedly states, “queer” is a term that “might usefully be thought of as referring in the first place to [persons who are tied to shame] … those whose sense of identity is for some reason tuned most durably to the note of shame”. But, I argue that even though there is shame there is also the shameless, it is never far behind, which I think is important to examine in relation to “queer/-ness” — which would push Sedgwick’s argument. Indeed, I see no reason to disconnect shame from shameless — after all they are but a suffix apart. All in all, I hope these films show something valuable: I hope they show something shame/less.

MIMI NGUYEN’s presentation will focus on technologies of the self and of
the star (assembling a desirable commodity body), using the work of JJ
Chinois — the transgendered persona of artist Lynne Chan. As an aspirant
to celebrity, JJ Chinois critiques and appropriates the pleasures of pop
stardom in global culture in the early 21st century and does so by sexing
up Bruce Lee’s star image in ways that we haven’t seen before. Overall
Nguyen’s presentation will explore the circuits between star and fan, and
issues of performance, embodiment, and identity.

JOHN PAUL RICCO’s presentation will draw from Jean-Luc Nancy, Gilles
Deleuze, Judith Butler, and Leo Bersani, to focus on “the event of
mutually-shared exposure”: the separating-connecting spacing that exists
between, amongst, and around any one or more bodies, in varying degrees of
intimacy or closeness. He will look at the ethical and political
questions this provokes, involving social bonds formulated through a
“non-identitarian narcissism”: a space, cutting transversally across the
circuit of voyeurism and exhibitionism, in which one performs neither
solely for oneself nor for some objectified other, but for any number of
other ones in the virtual-corporeal networks of distance and connection.

Mimi Thi Nguyen is Assistant Professor of Gender and Women’s Studies and Asian American Studies at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Previously, she was a Mellon Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Rackham School of Graduate Studies and Assistant Professor in Women’s Studies at the University of Michigan. She earned her PhD. in Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, with a Designated Emphasis on Women, Gender, and Sexuality. She is currently completing her first book, Representing Refugees, which examines the historical production and mobilization of refugee affect for varied political and cultural projects (such as commemoration, humanitarianism, consumption and multicultural nationalism).

She continues to situate her work within transnational feminist cultural studies with her next project, focusing on fashion, citizenship and transnationality. She is co-editor with Thuy Linh Tu of Alien Encounters: Pop Culture in Asian America (Duke University Press, 2007) and author of multiple essays on Asian American, queer, and punk subcultures, digital technologies, and Vietnamese diasporic culture, published in academic collections, on-line publications and popular magazines.

John Paul Ricco is a theorist, curator and performance artist, and is Assistant Professor of Contemporary Art, Media Theory, and Criticism at the University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada. He is the author of The Logic of the Lure, and a number of essays on contemporary artists. Currently, he is organizing a three-part exhibition of contemporary queer video, to open at V-Tape in Toronto in January 2008, and working on his next book: The Decision Between Us: aporetic aesthetics and the unbecoming community. For “Showing,” Ricco is premiering a body-based performance installation and artist talk, on narcissism and the space of bare naked exposure.

Eleanor Kaufman is a professor of Comparative Literature at UCLA specializing in twentieth-century French philosophy and literature. She has published on thinkers and writers such as Deleuze, Foucault,
Bataille, Blanchot, Lacan, Derrida and Badiou. She thinks a lot about the relation between poetry, philosophy, and inertia.

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Human Jukebox

July 16, 2007

Human Jukebox
Monday, July 16, 2007
1-4pm and 6-9pm PST

The Royal Academy of Nuts + Bolts performs karaoke on demand, in person at the gallery or streamed live over the internet.

How it works:
1. Look at the song list.
2. Donate $5 per request via the PayPal link below.

What song do you want?

3. Songs will be performed in the order of receipt of request/ donation confirmation.
4. Watch performance here, on the Human Jukebox webpage, or at ustream.tv.

Please note:
* It can take up to 20 minutes for requests to be processed by PayPal.
* Songs requested before live broadcast will be performed when broadcast begins.
* Not all song files work: If the file you choose is corrupt, you will be asked to pick another song (no refunds)
* This is karaoke, not professional: The song will be performed with gusto, but possibly very little skill

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The Fundraising Show

June 21, 2007 8:00 pm to July 21, 2007

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In the 30 days between June 21 and July 21, a different artist (almost) each day will use TELIC’s gallery to make money. This is both an exhibition and a fundraiser - the artists are conceiving installations, performances, lectures, and other schemes; and the money they earn is split 25/75 with TELIC (an inverse of the typical non-profit commission).

Although arts organizations and artists spend a lot of time thinking about money, it is an issue that’s largely absent from our programming, and artistic practice in general. This exhibition, however, will bring private financial concerns to the front, into the aesthetic experience of the gallery space.

Even if you are unable to make it to the show, we hope you’ll consider making a tax-deductible donation at http://2003-2008.telic.info/donate

THU, JUNE 21 - ANNA OXYGEN hosts a Grandma-themed dessert auction
FRI, JUNE 22 - HELEN CAHNG + COURTNEY STRICKLIN install a dollar donation wall
SAT, JUNE 23 - BENJAMIN BRATTON opens a Wii golf range
SUN, JUNE 24 - DAVIS & DAVIS answer questions about Sexology, Ufology, and Parapsychology
THU, JUNE 28 - XARENE ESKANDAR shows and sells her VJ book
FRI, JUNE 29 - PASCUAL SISTO makes video portraits of donors
SAT, JUNE 30 - FERNANDO SANCHEZ + SEAN DOCKRAY sell downloaded art bootlegs
SUN, JULY 1 - FERNANDO SANCHEZ + SEAN DOCKRAY will do it again
THU, JULY 5 - NOT A SPEAKEASY + OSMAN KHAN sell, raffle and baffle you with artist mixCDs and host an afterparty!
FRI, JULY 6 - ERIC LINDLEY + STEPHEN  VAN DYCK hold an instrument building workshop
SAT, JULY 7 - S.E BARNET + HILLARY MUSHKIN sell lemonade (and lemonade stand signs)
SUN, JULY 8 - DUC PHAM, STEVE WONG + LESLIE ITO host a dinner
TUE, JULY 10 - PETER CHO interprets your name as an interactive animation
WED, JULY 11 - ED COOLIDGE designs a new donation box
THU, JULY 12 - HUGO HOPPING makes a special presentation of a limited edition
FRI, JULY 13 - CHI-WANG YANG organizes a quiz night
SAT, JULY 14 - SHANA LUTKER  sells old newspapers
SUN, JULY 15 - MICHAEL SMOLER operates an arts healing center
MON, JULY 16 - THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF NUTS + BOLTS presents “Human Jukebox”
WED, JULY 18 - AMAR RAVVA  gives on-the-spot Vastu consultations
THU, JULY 19 - CASEY REAS + CHANDLER MCWILLIAMS give a lecture and workshop
FRI, JULY 20 - ERIC LINDLEY + STEPHEN VAN DYCK host a concert from the instrument building workshop
SAT, JULY 21 - ANGIE WALLER is to be determined

Later in the summer, TELIC will host a public presentation with the artists to ask how The Fundraising Show worked as a fundraiser and how it worked as an exhibition. AAAARG.ORG will also present a conversation at TELIC about Art & Work, which will take shape at http://aaaarg.org/category/art-and-work.

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Jordan Crandall - SHOWING

SEPTEMBER 8 - OCTOBER 20, 2007

“Showing” is an exhibition by Jordan Crandall that takes its form as a series of events at TELIC Arts Exchange between September 8 and October 20. These events include presentations, screenings, and performances, along with discursive interventions in various formats. TELIC operates as a stage throughout the show, with every event being recorded and then distributed as a catalog series of DVD’s.

Presentations by: Julie Albright (on self-transformation, makeover, and the management of attraction); Scott Bukatman (on attraction, spectacle, and the cult of the amateur); Gary Dauphin and Josephina Ayerza (on the “pose” as a marker of identity and social standing); Mimi Nguyen (on the circuits between star and fan); Susanna Paasonen (on sexuality, pornography, and affect); John Paul Ricco (on narcissism and the space of exposure), and Theresa Senft (on webcamming, micro-celebrity, and performance in everyday life). “Watch Me Get Watched” program organized by Glenn Phillips and Catherine Taft. “Showing for All” program organized by Dylan Wilcox.

Note: schedule subject to change. For an up-to-date, detailed schedule of screenings, presentations, and performances see http://2003-2008.telic.info/catalogs/showing.

Sat 9.8
6-9pm
Screening of Jordan Crandall, Homefront (2006)
Taping and screening of private/public “confessional” interviews
Erotic drawing session by Miguel Angel Reyes

Fri 9.14
12-6pm
“To Be is to Be Perceived” screening program, including Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1973); Effi Briest (1974); Fox and His Friends (1974); and Mother Kusters Goes to Heaven (1975)

Sat 9.15
12-3pm
Screenings of Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Querelle (1982) and Claire Denis, Beau Travail (1999)
3-6pm
Photo session by Jeff Compasso

Fri 9.21
12-6pm
“Identity Masquerades” screening program, including clips from Busby Berkeley, Gold Diggers of 1933 and 42nd St (1933); Kenneth Anger, Puce Moment (1949) and Kustom Kar Kommandos (1965); Alan Calpe, Perfidia (2006); Jack Smith, Flaming Creatures (1963); and Paul Morrissey/Andy Warhol, Flesh (1968)

Sat 9.22
12-2pm
Acting classes following the Ivana Chubbuck “Act to Win” method
2pm
Queer performance screenings selected by Robert Summers
3pm
“Sex is so Abstract” screening program organized by John Paul Ricco
4pm
JJ Chinois music video and selections by Mimi Nguyen
5pm
Presentation by Mimi Nguyen
7pm
Performance and presentation by John Paul Ricco

Fri 9.28
12-6pm
“Public Showing” screening program curated by Dylan Wilcox, including Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970); All That Jazz (1979); Basic Instinct (1992); American Psycho (2000)

Sat 9.29
12-2pm
Self-portraiture workshop
2-4pm
“Watch Me Get Watched” video art screening program, curated by Glenn Phillips and Catherine Taft, with live introduction
5pm
Screening of Hotghettomess and videos selected by Gary Dauphin
7pm
Presentation by Gary Dauphin

Fri 10.5
12-5 pm
“On the History of Attractions” screening program, beginning with Abel Gance, La Roue (Wheels of Fate) (1922), through Arthur Penn, Bonnie and Clyde (1967) and Stanley Kubrick, Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
5pm
Fashion shows from Fashion TV and Dior Homme; screening of Beyonce ft. Shakira video “Beautiful Liar” and Black Eyed Peas, “My Humps”

Sat 10.6
12pm
DIY nutritional supplements demo
1-6pm
“On the Shift from the Cult of the Expert to the Cult Of The Amateur” screening program, selected by Scott Bukatman, including clips from French Chef and Young People’s Concerts with Lenny Bernstein; Simple Life and Top Chef. Also: Nobody’s Watching (youtube); Albert Brooks, Real Life
6pm
Presentation by Scott Bukatman

Fri 10.12
12-5pm
Webcam workshop; DIY porn; experiments in social nudity
5pm
Presentation of random youtube videos with keyword “show off”

Sat 10.13
12-5pm
“Lifecasting” channels (justin.tv; ustream.tv)
5pm
Video of performance by Felipe Zuniga
6pm
Presentation by Susanna Paasonen

Fri 10.19
12-6pm
Beauty and fitness intensive: dietary guidance according to Dr. Jeannette Graf in Stop Aging, Start Living; self-help guidance according to Tony Robbins; makeover session; exercise session

Sat 10.20
12pm
Cosmetic surgery demonstration with videos by Brooke Kellaway
1pm
“Lifecoaching” sessions, supplemented with “Lifelisting” sessions (43things.com)
3pm
Performance by Nina Waisman
5pm
Presentation by Julie Albright
7pm
Presentation by Terri Senft

This exhibition is made possible in part with the support of The Peter Norton
Family Foundation and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.

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