Art in Odd Places

Even though the link and 2008 exhibition schedule isn't out yet, I couldn't help but link to the AIOP website.
Art in Odd Places 2008 Pedestrian

meeting minutes

Re-con on 14th street yesterday proved VERY useful.
Paperwork and logistics aside, I think it's going to be a very powerful cleaning in October.
We found the perfect intimate spot to clean
Narrowed the breadth of streets down to four to sweep.
Gathering volunteers
Reaching out for donations and sponsors
Documentation addressed

It's interesting how I become so intensely angry when we get into cleaning; just the thought of where we will work on the 11th makes me so mad! I'll use to our benefit.

I'm really looking forward to this,
A

further the discussion

Getting closer to October's performance.
I also think it's important to clean next month, on September 11.
The where is less important than the how.

In terms of practical logistics, I decided to publish the email I sent you last night, below:

There are a few I found, but all hover around the same price. I like the layout of this site, below:

http://www.buybuttonparts.com/shop/500-complete-industry-standard-size-p-902.html

I also want to discuss and resolve the following:
Should we design the buttons this week, order supplies, and then cut and assemble next week?
what kind of brooms are we going to get
how much $$ they are
how much $$ gloves, other supplies will cost (approx): dustpans, etc.
who is going to donate tons of money to us?
when are we going to write to Mierle Ukeles about participating?
who is documenting and how?
Are we going to mic ourselves/the brooms: how, when, and how much $$?
Flyers/postcards/business cards: graphic designer friend anyone?

Paperwork in.
Ideas flowing.
Recon soon..
let's think about and act upon possibilities this weekend for the Autumn.

More volunteers

I heard from friends and friends of friends this week, most of whom are signing up to be volunteers for October!
Very excited; great way to start the morning.

Hayley when we meet next, let's go over what we discussed earlier:
-supplies
-contract
-insurance
-documentation
-dates/times
-walk through schedule time
-accessories

momentum

Already momentum is growing for our October performance...heard back from 7 people yesterday, all of whom want to participate with us for AIOP!
Friends in other places are sending their support, and say they will send our call for participation out to friends and artists in the NYC area.
Let's see what today and this week brings..

Ukeles documentation images

From C

Subject: Meaning cleaning

Hi there Angela!

I'm sorry I won't be able to make it for your performance.

I'm pretty sure I mentioned this last fall, but do you know about Merle Laderman Ukeles' work? You should really check her out...really interesting work. She does cleaning as well, but she mostly cleans museums. HM and MK have both written about her work, both as public art, feminist gestures, and institutional critique. She also became "Artist in Residence" at the New York department of sanitation! She had a performance where she shook the hands of every garbage collector in the city....

Anyway, I'm glad to see you're doing well and performing!

Call for Participation follow up

I just sent the Call for Participation to almost everyone on my email contact list...

Already waiting with bated breath!

I'm excited about our potential, and want to coordinate another cleaning before October to document, share, spread the word, etc.

Meaning Cleaning Call for Participation

Meaning Cleaning Call for Participation

Meaning Cleaning is pleased to announce that their proposal for a collective public cleaning performance has been accepted for this year's cycle of Art In Odd Places, taking place in New York City in October 2008!

Meaning Cleaning is the artistic collaboration organized between Hayley Severns and Angela Rose Voulgarelis Illgen. The two independent artists began working together in 2005 and have since collectively cleaned public spaces in Europe and in the US.
Collaborating and performing together is a way for both artists to document the process of activating public spaces, taking responsibility for shared environments, cleansing spaces of past experiences, and bringing notions of "women's work" into the public sphere.

This is a call for participation

Meaning Cleaning is looking for volunteers who want to participate in their October 2008 Art In Odd Places performance! We hope to have a very substantial amount of participants and need motivated volunteers. We are now asking YOU, man orwoman, to join us!

Meaning Cleaning participants would be dressed professionally and would begin sweeping the sidewalks from both East and West ends of 14th street in Manhattan to meet in the middle at Union Square. Supplied with simple push brooms and rubber kitchen gloves, our aim would be to push the debris from the street in one continuous pile until it reaches the desired meeting location, and then cart the debris away collectively.

As we activate the space, we welcome interaction with the public. We'll also play with some of the expected roles and unsaid rules that come along with the sectioning off of "high brow" and "low brow" partitioning of public spaces. The performance can exist on one day, or may be repeated over the course of the month on weekends. We will send out more specific dates and times to those who are interested once scheduling is confirmed.

To sign up If you are going to be in New York in October 2008 and would like to participate in the upcoming performance(s), please contact either artist via email below for more details:

Hayley Severns: hrseverns@gmail.com

Angela Rose Voulgarelis Illgen: consciousobject@yahoo.com


Please forward this to others who would want to participate in our October performance and help spread the word!

Thank you in advance,

Meaning Cleaning/ Hayley and Angela Rose
www.meaningcleaning.blogspot.com

AIOP follow up

I spoke to the curator of AIOP today, who recommended we "think BIG" for our October performance.

Thinking about sweeping ALL of 14th street, en mass, with up to hundreds of helpers.
He seemed very open and communicated clearly he loved our proposal.
Seemed like a great way to start the day, with that phone call.

So now I'm thinking BIG:
what could that mean?
What is our possibility?
I envision hundreds of helpers all sweeping with us, clad with yellow and orange gloves and push brooms, from 1st to 10th avenues.
Where can this energy go from here?
Where else can we dream?
Where else can this energy go?

I can see it.
I know it can happen.
Praxis...

Now that I'm writing it, it is one step closer to filling out its form.

Meeting together on Thursday at my new "studio" will be helpful.
I really like the idea of formulating with more dedication (admittedly, on my part) our next possibility.
See you then, and for many more cleanings coming up before the weather turns again.
A

Time and day for next Meaning Cleaning?
I get back on Wednesday PM,
A

Kent Ave. (unknown artist)

Gearing up for a welcome back home to the East coast swelter... more works to be done!

Another query

Months ago, upon hearing I was collaboratively cleaning the subway stations of New York as an act of social responsibility and a continuation of feminist art practice, my father asked "What does being a janitor have to do with art?".

This weekend, upon hearing our proposal got accepted by AIOP for October, another family member had a similar query.

I'm glad to have been chosen in this year's AIOP Pedestrian cycle, and at the same time I'm glad to have the questions arise about what my work is "about", and how cleaning public spaces can help broaden views of art and help illustrate other aspects of art history.

I can't wait to get back to New York from the west coast for another collaborative cleaning. I return next week.

Art In Odd Places update

Received via email on Saturday July 12, 2008
From George Spencer, Curator, Art In Odd Places:

"I am pleased to inform you that your project has been selected for inclusion in the Art In Odd Places 2008 show, Pedestrian. Our event in October promises to be exciting with a wide variety of projects and sites on 14th Street in NYC. In the next few weeks I will be contacting you for more information about your project.

I am honored to work with all of the Art In Odd Places project artists and look forward to meeting you soon. Please contact me with any questions or concerns. Congratulations again and I look forward to hearing from you as your project develops."

another list

out out damn spot!
washing the blood off of one's hands
(washing away the guilt)
sanitizing the past
bleached out
"powder fresh"
"let's keep it clean"

I think another Meaning Cleaning is DEFINITELY in order.
Midtown could be great.
Now that the weather is nice, we can start anywhere and clean anything really.

I like the idea of a walking cleaning, or having a starting point and deciding en route where to stop and what to clean.
I remember at the Domestic Departures workshop, we both thought a lot about that enclave before we actually cleaned it together...maybe we can do a similar thing next weekend?

I also like the idea of cleaning vestibules, or the spaces in between outer and inner.
Thinking about your experience in the yard, the past's carelessness of space "because it's a rental", etc.
I like the idea of scrubbing a space until it's spotless, in line with what we accomplished in Santa Ana.

LES vestibules are usually on the ground floor.
East Village as well, but tend to be locked.

Let's discuss and DO next weekend.

Maintenance and Growth

This year I moved into the bottom floor of the brownstone I've been renting and living in. Spending the last two years wondering why no one was taking care of the very fertile land in the backyard, I would fantasize about all that I could plant down there. This year is the year! However, digging up the yard I found all kinds of trash, just under the surface as this yard had not been cared for in years (I guess because it's a rental property.) I quickly realised that I had a lot of cleaning to do before it would ever yield.

Yes, I think I see what you mean about the daily cleaning of self, home, garden or green space, beach, street, and building as somehow like maintaining our composure in a world where consumption and speed are taking precedence. Maintainence is necessary and perhaps therefore, taken forgranted... "who has time for that now?" I suppose it's some psychological thing we do, compartMENTALizing public and private in order to cope with an urban environment. Being creatures of habit, we live almost like we're in seperate worlds even though it's all layers of the same. I wonder how this happens? A bit psychotic, don't you think? Or perhaps it's a lack of a feeling of ownership? Hmmm... then this get's tricky because our thinking spreads into everything; even how we see ourselves, and lack of ownership of self along with lack of connection with environment is enslavement.


Shall we do a street sweep soon? Maybe up in the midtown area?

scrub the floor
do the dishes
wash my hair
wash the stains away
clean the kitchen
sweep
mop
untangle
clean up the mess
keep it together