Tag Archive "marginal-utility"

Machete and Possible Press – zine publishers talk about why and how

Our series sponsor is Fleisher Art Memorial. Two new print publications expand the writing about art in Philadelphia. We talk with Rachel and Trevor Reese of Possible Press, a zine of writing and projects by artists; and David Dempewolf and Yuka Yokayama of Machete, a critical commentary publication.  The two couples, who have not met each other before, find out that they all use the same printer in Long Island City, Linco. Both couples also run project spaces where they show edgy interesting art.  Rachel and Trevor run Possible Projects and David and Yuka run Marginal Utility. Below is a ... More » »

No Soul For Sale: 2 Articles, both alike in dignity

In May of 2010 the Tate Modern staged No Soul For Sale, billed as a ‘Festival of Independents’ that was ‘neither a fair or an exhibition, [but] a convention of individuals and groups who devote their energies to art they believe in, beyond the limits of the market and other logistical constraints’(1). NSFS brought 70 artist collectives to Turbine Hall who exhibited alongside one another without partitions or walls. The organization of the non-fair was purportedly modeled after the set of Lars von Trier’s film Dogville(2), meaning that the non-exhibition space for each invited party was marked out on the ... More » »

First Friday: We kvetch, we look, we clap

First Friday was hotter than Hell in the galleries, and we complained a lot. Every person who asked us how our summer was going got the same answer–shitty, hot.  But beyond weather, we have to say the art was hotter than we expected for the usually dead month of August.  Performance and installation art was what we saw at Vox Populi, Bodega, Grizzly Grizzly, Tigers Strikes Asteroid and Marginal Utility.

Rachel Mason’s The Deaths of Hamilton Fish at Marginal Utility

On January 16, 1936 the Peekskill Evening Star newspaper ran two unrelated stories on the front page. One about a man being put to death in the electric chair, and the other about a wealthy man who had died; both were named Hamilton Fish. That is the germ of The Deaths of Hamilton Fish, an art installation, song cycle and film series created by Rachel Mason and now on display at Marginal Utility. Mason uses lighting and décor to create an eerie atmosphere that contains a sense of nostalgia and melancholy echoed in the songs and films about Hamilton Fish ... More » »

2009, A Space Odyssey–Ronnie Bass at Marginal Utility

The multitalented Brooklyn-based artist Ronnie Bass has brought his video/installation The Astronomer, Part 1: Departure From Shed, to Marginal Utility–the newest gallery to open at 319A N. 11th St. aka the Vox Building  (mercifully, Marginal Utitlity turned out to be quite useful–it is on the second floor, giving a nice respite as we climbed toward 3 and 4).

Weekly Update – November First Friday on the mind

This week’s Weekly has my first Friday roundup.  Below is the copy with pictures. Big news this First Friday: A new gallery, Marginal Utility , is opening in the Vox building. The six-story former factory building already houses Vox Populi , Copy , AHN/VHS , Progressive Sharing , Jeffrey Stockbridge Fine Art and Tiger Strikes Asteroid . With the addition of Marginal Utility on the second floor, the alternative art scene truly has a new center of gravity.