Funerary portrait of the artist formerly known as Bibiloni

While this project was roiling in her head, she met Beth Beverly–at a wedding in Georgia. They discovered they had Philadelphia and art in common. Beverly is a taxidermist who recently wore one of her taxidermy hats down to Louisville for a Kentucky Derby hat auction.

Before the artists met, Andria had found a couple of online videos of Puerto Rican gang-banger bikers who, before they died violent deaths, expressed a wish to be buried in their colors on their hogs, stuffed like pheasants. One of the dudes was named Morales. (the scary sting music swells!)

The tricycle in the installation by Morales and Beverly. In the background, the video.

Our Morales, Andria, who was a Tyler MFA in 2008 after graduating from Penn, had another tricked out bike in her artistic history, with boom box and decorations ideal for the Puerto Rico Day Parade. She rode it on the streets of Philadelphia and videotaped her adventure.

When she found Beverly the taxidermist, they went to work together. The end result was a performance/installation this winter at the Rotunda. The program notes say the Rotunda event was a viewing hosted by Beth Beverly of Diamond Tooth Taxidermy–a trade she learned with one other student from a taxidermist giving classes in the Poconos. At the Rotunda viewing, Morales sat still on her bike for two hours straight. Ouch. As good as stuffed!

Morales' colors--the outfit she wore at the Rotunda performance, here a stuffed presence looming in the corner

And now an installation at 40th Street A.I.R. this month shows the funeral arrangements, the bike, the mass cards (with Tupac lyrics on the verso), the floral arrangements, a stuffed version (Beverly stuffed it) of the real suit of clothes Morales performed in, her empty shoes, a portrait of the dear departed, and a taxidermy head of a deer departed, a church candle stand, incense, and the video of the original event. Everything is decorated to the nines in flowers plus stuffed animals, real and faux.

A view of the viewing performance at the Rotunda in March

And then there’s a mix of music that emanates from the sound blaster on the back of the bike (actually a tricycle). The music ranges from classical to hip hop and points in-between, created by Armando Morales, the mister.

On the night I went, a conversation about funerary customs and cultural divides raged through the evening. Morales, once again exploring stereotypes, gender, and expectations, shows she can make something complicated look really simple and Pop. Then you get to take it home with you in your head and find lots of new thoughts you may not have noticed were there.

LAST RIDE: 40th St. AIR SPACE Gallery
4007 Chestnut Street
Philadelphia
Fridays in May 2011 from 4:30-7 pm and by appointment–Andria added in comments below today 5/27: The gallery will be closed today 5/27 for Memorial Day weekend. Please feel free to contact us via our websites to make an appointment, or visit next Friday for the last time!

Andria Bibiloni’s self-portrait as banana-weilding muchacha

My favorite coincidence this month is a pair of images by two very different artists with very different intents, both of them playing off the same kind of pop culture imagery.

On the top we have Nick Paparone‘s rejiggering of a Cindy Crawford poster, merging Carmen Miranda as Chiquita Banana, Cindy Crawford as Cindy Crawford selling Cindy Crawford, her swim suit and her look, and phallic symbols turned rasta hair in case you missed the message.

The image under Nick’s is Andria Bibiloni‘s self-portrait, sporting a threatening banana skin mask and banana heat.

Paparone’s picture is part of his introductory Vox Populi one-man show this month, up until June 1, Cliffs, Bluffs and Steamy Lowlands. And Bibiloni’s was part of her Tyler MFA exhibit of work about popular images of Puerto Rican identity at Temple Gallery. That one’s down already.

Living in the city, we easily forget the basics of survival and the roles of nature and the earth. A swimming pool would seem to be a most unlikely place for a reminder. But Andria Bibiloni’s evocative installation Descend in a North Philadelphia empty pool calls up times and places past, our relationship to rivers, our need for water, and our dependence on the good graces of the earth and its bounty.

The pool in question, still closed for the season, is at The Lighthouse Community Center at 141 Somerset Street (corner of Howard), a block north of the main Lighthouse building on Lehigh–where Pepon Osorio recreated his Badge of Honor Installation last year (Roberta’s post here). The Lighthouse is in the heart of North Philadelphia’s Puerto Rican community, just a block or two away from Taller Puertorriqueno.

I stopped in a Chinese take-out restaurant to ask directions, and the two people there, behind bullet proof glass, had no idea about where the nearby community center was. All they seemed to know was their own address. Their terror was obvious and I rushed away, thinking perhaps I was the cause. Fortunately, a gentleman walking up Somerset was able to help me out.

Once I was in the building, the women at the front desk directed me downstairs. I was rather confused by the warren of rooms and the fact that I had to walk through a lavatory. Again, a man along the way reassured me I was going in the right direction.

The installation, after all that, was especially welcome and appealing, an oasis of light and peace in the dank concrete depths of the building.

Bibiloni, who is a graduating Tyler MFA and has Puerto Rican roots, said that the steps were inspired by a traditional form of access to water. She is a graduating Tyler MFA and has been working as an assistant to Osorio. We’ve mentioned Bibiloni on the blog before. This post has an image of an earlier piece.

There’s a special place–actually two of them in Philadelphia–where the techno-geek tinkerers and artists find common ground. That’s MakePhilly and The Hactory.

They are the product of a network of people who who have an urge to solve technical problems–from harnessing LEDs to using robotics.

This Sunday’s MakePhilly meeting just might be your cup of tea, when guest speaker Don Miller (aka NO CARRIER), will be sharing DIY info about hacking Nintendo action graphics for your own imagery. Miller’s own schtick is creating fast paced, colorful visuals for live music events and interactive art installations. To do it he hacks 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) consoles, and he’s willing to share the basics of his whizz-bang techniques with others!

The event is participatory, so bring along your own PC laptop if you want to take up the challenge of creating original graphics using software that will emulate the real NES graphics (event specifics at end of post).

I’m wondering if animator Cory Arcangel does something similar!!

As in all Make meetings, after the speaker speaks, the mic goes public for sharing projects–successful and in progress–with the group. This is a crowd that likes to figure stuff out and solve everyone’s technological and mechanical problems.

One night when artist Maggie Van Scoyk rode up to FLUXspace with Roberta and me, she told is a little about Make. She’s a fan, and started talking terms like LED throwies to us. If you check out the Make website, you can find a link to work by artist Chris Vecchio, one of the Philadelphia artists who ruminates on the tongue-in-cheek meanings of technology and reality.

Andria Bibiloni’s Blaster Bike at FLUXspace in November.

When we arrived at FLUXspace, Maggie ran into two others from the Make network, which by the way extends to other cities as well. Joshua Kopel and Vanja Buvac were both admiring a souped-up bike by Tyler student Andria Bibiloni. Bubac and Kopel are involved with The Hactory as well, and they started talking about Arduino network circuits (the DIY technical equivalent of the human networks that these two groups represent). Turns out we knew Vanja from ads he ran on artblog for his LED knowhow and its art applications.

The Hactory runs classes for a relatively low fee, and more than one level of expertise, starting at total beginner.

I had a nice chat with Josh a few days later. He’s a Cranbrook MFA grad in sculpture (metal-smithing) and a self-employed programmer. Here’s some of what he had to say.

Joshua: “Things have gotten sufficiently complicated that they’ve gotten simpler again–hobbyists can do interesting things without understanding what they do.”

L. What are those arduinos that you had been talking about?
Joshua: It’s as if people have been building this thing for the purposes of art interaction. Arduinos are a physical piece of hardware that you can program, building complex systems through a network of components. You can teach yourself to do this. The internet made it possible for anyone to publish their experiments and their results. The arduino team in Italy–You can use that site and can find out how to do stuff. It’s simple enough to get started, and complicated enough to get really interesting.

I was looking at a cellist’s website; he built this little device that lets him make electronic music essentially by tapping on the table top. The arduino recognized where on the table he is tapping, and plays atone!

An arduino is a small circuit board about the size of two business cards put together. It’s a microcontroller. It’s an entire computer system on one small chip. It’s an idea like your computer, with hard drive memory. But it’s slower, and so low power that a 9-volt battery is enough power. It can read information from the outside world like light sensors, sound sensors, push buttons, and then it turns around and controls things–like motors, LEDs and loud speakers.

Microcontrollers not a new thing. They have been around for many years and are in all kinds of manufactured things. When you push buttons on microwaves, your car, refrigerator temperature–they are all based on this idea.

L. What sorts of things have you made? How’d you get into this?
Joshua: I have always attempted to integrate interactivity into my sculpture. That was my motive, but I’ve never done this successfully. It always ends up with the interactivity and the sculpture fighting with eachother– the conceptual side of the sculpture versus the conceptual side of the electronics. I’m fascinated with making toys and having them interact.

L. And why did you form The Hactory?
Joshua: Because people all over the place like to form communities to do this stuff. There’s lots of technology to know. If you have lots of people with their information all together, you can share what you know and they know. It’s a natural for on- and off-line collaboration. We all want the same thing–to show off what we’ve done and find out what others have done.

L. Who else is involved in The Hactory?
Joshua: [he names Harris Romanoff (one of the MakePhilly founders), Jon McKamey and Vanja Buvac] The four of us started thinking about how to make this education program work. Then we met Stan Pokras–who has a non-profit for technical resources. His space and administrative assets where what we needed to get The Hactory going.

L. How is The Hactory different from Make?
Joshua: Almost all the people who come to Hactory meetings come to MakePhiladelphia meetings. The Hactory is a network of people who have gotten together to do things. MakePhiladelphia is a network of people who have gotten together to be together.

L. So one of the things The Hactory does is classes. Anything else?
Joshua: Jon [aka Far McKon] is building a fabrication workshop for The Hactory. The Hactory has three rooms at Non-Profit Technology Resources, where the classes are also held. The workshop is for sharing tools for specialized fabrication of unusual physical objects. …we’re not sure exactly how it will work, but an artist-in-residency program is in the works.

Most of the people involved do not think of themselves as artists, but they are engaged in creative activities.

L. How long have the two groups been around?
Joshua: The Hactory is pretty brand new. …I don’t know that it is what it will be. Nothing is set in concrete as yet.

MakePhilly, we’ve been running meetings for a year of 25 to 30 people a month.

There was a kid at the last meeting with a thing that projects words on the wall using a laser beam. But it looks like it’s built with bubblegum and string and cast-off parts. He had this idea–I want to make words on the wall with a laser beam. it turned into a quest looking for components, and learning more about programing and posting it all on his website. It’s very pure. It’s the best of the art world minus the commercial interest. It’s where someone wants to do something with no other motive than it works for their heart and their mind.

So if you want to attend the MakePhilly event on Nintendo graphics, The event is Sunday, Jan. 20, 3 p.m., University of the Arts, 333 S. Broad Street, Anderson Hall, 4th Floor. $5 donation suggested. But you need to rsvp your first & last name to makephilly@gmail.com

Of the 10 Philadelphia arts organizations receiving a total of $5.3 million from the Wallace Foundation to attract a bigger audience, visual arts, which is red hot in Philadelphia right now, got two of the grants (see article in Philadelphia Inquirer).

To be specific, Fleisher Art Memorial will receive $320,000 over four years, and the Clay Studio will receive $375,000 over four years. Of the other organizations, only the Fringe Festival, at $365,000, received in this relatively low dollar range. Here’s the list of other awards:

Philadelphia Teatre Company, $410,000
Arden Theater Company $425,000
Wilma Theater $480,000
Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia $692,000
Annenberg Center $750,000
Opera Company of Philadelphia $750,000

At the grand opening of Rebekah Templeton Gallery. On the left is Ben Will, who with Sarah Eberle is one of the owners. That’s Maggie Van Scoyk on the right. She came with us to the opening there of Sara Gates’ work.

It’s a reflection of the failure of the city and all players in the arts power structure to take in the importance of what is going on right now in the visual arts in this city. On Thursday, Roberta and I went to four art exhibits off the beaten track in Philadelphia, at four artist-run galleries–Rebekah Templeton, Flux Space (AAMS), Bobo’s on 9th and Padlock. Only one of those galleries has been around for more than a month or two, and one of them just opened that very night. That same night we visited Jenny Jaskey/Tower, which is about a year old and has been professional to the core. We didn’t get to all the gallery spaces at the fabulous Crane Arts Center or to Projects Gallery, Project Basho spaces that also had Second Thursday receptions. There may have been more, but these were on my radar.

These are just a sampling of what’s been going on, with new art spaces–galleries, studios–showing up all over the place, giving their walls over to cutting edge art. Some is great, some is not, but the all-important conversation on what’s got merit that these spaces are participating in gets little coverage in the print media (except for Roberta’s Philadelphia Weekly columns, which provide only limited space). Here on artblog, we try to keep up, but the stream of art making and art showing is so enormous, that we cannot.

Colt Hausmann’s silk-screened paper bracelets–commentary on rubber bracelet fundraisers for various causes, at Bobo’s on 9th.

The heart of the visual arts revolution is not in the non-profit institutions with track records. I am not saying that these institutions don’t deserve the money or don’t play important parts in the city’s cultural life. What I’m saying is the financial powers that be just don’t get the excitement that’s going on here, and because they are weighed down by boards and bean-counter requirements to show “results” that are quantifiable, they are missing the boat on encouraging what is most exciting and potentially fruitful.

To put it another way, foundations are conservative institutions and are therefore unable to capitalize on–and encourage–the local visual art revolution.

In addition, the Wallace Foundation is collaborating with The Philadelphia Foundation and the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance to create a learning network for all Philadelphia arts organizations and to foster arts engagement in Philadelphia. The collaboration, funded by a $1.9 million grant, will inform and support the participation-building work of many arts organizations throughout the city. This will benefit many mid-sized arts organizations not included in the awards listed here.

Jon Olivieri’s painted recreation of an animation he developed on the computer, at Jenny Jaskey/Tower Gallery

Again, while I love all these organizations to death for the good works they do for large and mid-sized non-profit arts organizations, I am lamenting the support for that bubbling up coming from the grass roots.

What is happening here caught more attention in the New York Times than it has in any local print media. Where’s the trend story in the Philadelphia Inquirer? Here on the hoof, what we ourselves see is more and more artists making Philadelphia their home–not second string artists but first rate ones. They are not coming here because of the venerable, funded institutions, but
1) because of the relatively low cost of living compared to New York,
2) the increasingly networked groups of artists who are making things happen here, and
3) the fabulous new spaces where they can show their work at the drop of a hat.

Annette Monnier, detail (foreground) of Portal of History, an installation at Padlock Gallery

They know about this not from the Philadelphia print media but from the word-of-mouth artists network and also from artblog. How is Philadelphia going to capitalize on this–a high quality, low-cost primary art market? A bigger audience is one piece of the picture, but it needs to be a bigger audience for the small locales with big thinker artists. And it needs to be an audience who’s not afraid to collect, locally. (Hey, I don’t get that failure of local collectors to buy in Philadelphia. What’s the risk in investing on art that’s so reasonably priced?) That would build on the sizzle and the talent that’s here right under our noses.