June 5, 2009

72nd street subway station, NYC

From The Everyday

"Every day thousands upon thousands of women sweep up the dust which has gathered imperceptibly since the previous day. After every meal, too numerous to count, they wash the dishes and saucepans. For times too numerous to count, by hand or in the machine they remove the dirt which has built up bit by bit on sheets and clothes; they stop up the holes the gentle rubbing of heels inevitably makes; they fill emptied cupboards and refrigerators with packets of pasta and kilos of fruit and vegetables... [which explains the definition of everyday life:] The ensemble of activities which of necessity result from the general processes of development: evolution, growth and ageing, of biological or social protection or change, those processes which escape immediate notice and which are only perceptible on their consequences."

pg. 30

Meaning Cleaning at MISC, shot by MISC

I am drawn to sweeping on Wall Street dressed like business women.

Bring out the "DIRT"

as defined by wikipedia:

Corruption is essentially termed as an "impairment of integrity, virtue or moral principle; depravity, decay, and/or an inducement to wrong by improper or unlawful means, a departure from the original or from what is pure or correct, and/or an agency or influence that corrupts."[1]

Corruption, when applied as a technical term, is a general concept describing any organized, interdependent system in which part of the system is either not performing duties it was originally intended to, or performing them in an improper way, to the detriment of the system's original purpose.

Its terminological usage possesses connotations of evil, malignance, sickness, and loss of innocence or purity.


Being the filter of what is generalized into more specifics (via actions and stories), I believe we may create openings and feelings of joy by bringing out the "dirt."

I like collaborations and am so happy that "WE" (all involved in the facilitations) as Meaning Cleaning are able to provide a forum of open discussion and participation. The duties performed are kept within an original intention which is always under scrutiny. What's the original intention? I feel it's when we're taking care of what has been brought to our attention as detri-MENTAL, honestly, and without too much over judgement. Then we begin slowly re-moving the "dirt", therefore, transforming situations. The scenarios are in plenty and am so charged to keep up our creative energy, collaborative efforts, and truthfully (sometimes brutally honest, but never unkind) conversations. I feel we're gearing up, moving with guidance, history, and current information that is both personal and universal in order to translate via action that which is both private and public experience.

Meaning Cleaning critique thoughts

the critique went really well - it was really intense, and brought up a lot of emotions for me.
the next day i was destroyed, and wound up binge eating and not leaving my couch.

As I have begun to pick myself up this week, and after talking with / to Hayley this afternoon, I see things I am attracted to in Meaning Cleaning itself. It's personally interesting for me to put myself in the public, to bring "private" work outside. I really like the interaction, or lack thereof, with passersby.

The action of public cleaning can bring to light damaged systems that allow so much to fall into such disrepair.

The action of public cleaning can also be a mirror to show possibilities of what another structure can look like.

The action of public cleaning can be both reflective and highlighting - just like the back paintings, just like the hand held mirrors.
To provide a space of real communication seems to be interesting both of us - when we retold the group stories that were told to us, we both thought "that's it!" or at least part of it.

Then the act of hidden microphones and recording others' stops being weird and becomes unnecessary.
It's our voices that retell the stories, placing us in the center of our own work.
It's the choice of location, the choice of attire, the choice of practice...

The action of public cleaning also brings out a rage from within me I am afraid to let it out.
I see the macrocosm of how poorly we treat ourselves as human beings, that I often wonder what the point is of what we are doing. But then I hear the most poignant and tragic story by someone who gets completely what we are doing, and understands everything in the three minutes she is with us. Then she's gone and I think our work has made a difference.

It's important I know to distill what it is one is truly interested in.
I have to admit, I wanted the quick fix, the easy solution.
I wanted the group to tell me what to do.
I was tired of making decisions.
But after a few days, I feel like I am able to see more clearly what it is I'm interested in.
Poor Hayley had to listen to me have a complete breakdown/temper tantrum at the cafe today.
She is a very patient person

Photos by Richard Caplan

Critics pan a plan to close the city's main intake center for homeless men and lease it to developers. > By Tram Whitehurst

More can be found at: Citylimits.org
City Limits WEEKLY #640
May 19, 2008

-The former Bellevue Psychiatric Hospital, with this entrance on East 29th Street at First Avenue, is a homeless men's intake center -- but could be redeveloped into a hotel and conference center.

-And local community groups and residents argue that moving the intake center to Crown Heights will further burden a neighborhood that they say is already oversaturated with social service facilities. An analysis of city and state data by the Crown Heights Revitalization Movement (CHARM) found that Community Board 8, where the Armory is located, houses more residential social service beds per acre than any other Brooklyn community—in fact, more than five times the borough average. The Armory also has had a reputation for poor management, overcrowding and dangerous living conditions among the homeless and those who work with them.

critique

Meaning Cleaning is happy to hostess the next critique - even though it's technically at Angela's house, we would like to discuss and think about our most recent collaboration: video documentation of our October 11 performance on 14th street. We have been collaborating with an amazing video editor, and are looking forward to discuss and critique the work that Meaning Cleaning has done this far - perhaps as well to discuss our concepts for the future.

Some things that have come up for us during the editing process:

Is video documentation of performance work an art form in and of itself?
Is our video too much one or the other - meaning, too artsy or too stark?
Does it communicate clearly what it is we are doing?
Is the video too long or too short?
Where could we exhibit this work to underscore the notions of bringing "private" / domestic work into the public?
Projected guerrilla style? Submitted and shown formally?
(Should we even be thinking about that?)

Also, please note Sunday is the first day of daylight savings time - so 12:30 will feel a little earlier.

MISC

Meaning Cleaning performance at MISC opening - New York Studio Gallery, New York City
December 11, 2008
Documentation courtesy of NYSG

editing
editing
editing

More images from 10/11/08 MC

From my father - in - law

VOS- Peggy Jo Pabustan, Amanda Alfieri, and Alexia Lewis. Yes, We Can Do It? Cock & Bull Video Still 6:00. 2008.


MISC Video & Performance

December 4 - 20, 2008
Reception and Performances: December 10, 7-10pm

NY Studio Gallery is pleased to present the 3rd Annual MISC Video and Performance. A multi-media experience occurring every December at NY Studio Gallery. MISC features a variety of emerging, mid-career and established artists working in diverse genres ranging from video, animation, live performance, audio or video installation. Video loops and installation will be accessible during gallery hours, while performances are scheduled reception night.

Featured Artists: Damali Abrams, Fanny Allié, Arielle Falk, Aaron Bowles, Barbara Bulletti, Kate Burnet & Dan Woerner, Bradley Dever Treadaway, Ira Eduardovna, Kristen Galvin, Basem Hassan, Lynn Herring, Hwy Rachel, Chika Iijima, Marni Kotak, Talice Lee, Roy Menahem Markovich, Meaning Cleaning: Hayley Severns & Angela Rose Voulgarelis Illgen, Emmy Mikelson, Nishri Miri, Jon Monaghan, Hye Yeon Nam, Doris Neidl, Yoonhye Park, Rebecca Potts, Elizabeth Riley, Elise Roedenbeck, Rajkumar Shinge, Joshua Solondz, Natalia Szostak, Ari Tabei, Naho Taruishi, VOS: Peggy Jo Pabustan, Amanda Alfieri & Alexia Lewis, Christy Walsh, JiHyun Yoon.
Reception sponsored in part by Original Sin Cider www.origsin.com

NY Studio Gallery 154 Stanton St. @ Suffolk St. New York, NY 10002
212.627.3276 / info@nystudiogallery.com / www.nystudiogallery.com
Thursday – Saturday, 12 – 6 pm or by appointment

NY Studio Gallery combines exhibition and workspace to create an atmosphere of interaction, collaboration and integration of media, styles and artistic genres for US and international artists.

I love this review from The Brooklyn Rail

Pedestrian
by Hrag Vartanian
Art in Odd Places October 2008

The ghosts of 14th Street must have been happy in October, when Art in Odd Places (AiOP) chose the thoroughfare as the site for its month-long exhibition/intervention/performance/festival—the choice seemed as much symbolic as aesthetic.

"Personal Space" by Illegal Art (Photo Hrag Vartanian)
14th Street has historically delineated midtown from downtown, highbrow from lowbrow, rich from poor; today, those binaries are less evident as the conventional axis of New York has morphed into a checkerboard, with cultural and economic communities mixing with greater ease.

Spanning the breadth of one of Manhattan’s primary east-west thoroughfares, the fourth annual event of AiOP, Pedestrian, stretched from the Hudson almost to the East River, where it was denied a waterfront view by the power plant parked at the edge of Avenue C. Fifteen visual and 21 performance artists took part. Yet unlike other arts festivals, which count on venues to create cohesion, AiOP did almost everything to frustrate the notion of unity, preferring each artist to stand alone.
Tackling the Formless

Refusing to be an art tourist who, map in hand, pinpoints the next destination before proceeding, I came up with my own system to experience the boulevard-based festival. I picked one weekend (October 11-12) and walked down the north side of the street on Saturday and the south side the following day, crossing over if I spotted something that piqued my interest.

On Saturday I traveled west to east on the sunny side of the street and didn’t see anything for blocks that remotely resembled art. One pile of garbage looked like a mock-tribute to Joy Garnett’s web-based “Unmonumental” photo series but probably wasn’t, and there was a man lying in the sun on a sofa on the curb. This seemed out of place but I deduced it wasn’t art.

Trying to discern the consciously artful from urban noise became an exercise in frustration. I came across a Duane Reade cordoned off by police tape, an officer by the front door—it appeared to have been robbed. I even spotted three thirtysomethings staring at three broken frames on the sidewalk but I quickly checked my festival map (I cheated, I know), which told me that it wasn’t the art I was looking for.

I was disappointed by my bad luck and I even wondered if I were simply blind to the obvious. Finally, I looked across the street on the block between Seventh and Sixth Avenues and spotted a couple of people snapping pictures of two women cleaning the tiled pavement in front of a vacant storefront. I watched for a few minutes as the women, dressed in black and wearing industrial-strength breathing masks, swept and washed the sidewalk. There was nothing notable about their presence, nothing out of place except their clothing, which lent their actions a theatrical air...nothing, really, worth stopping for. I can only assume that the piece, “Meaning Cleaning,” by Hayley Severns and Angela Rose Voulgarelis Illgen, was a metaphor for the cleanup of the once grungy street. The piece was monotonous and few passersby even noticed; those who did were more intrigued by the three of us standing there with our cameras recording the event than they were by the performing pair.

Further down the street I spotted a pole painted gold in front of Virgin Records on Union Square but was again unsure if it was art or not—turns out it was: one of Kenny Komer & Boris Rasin’s “Midas” artworks. Well into the East Village I ran into one of the artists, Aakash Nihalani, who had just finished one of his characteristic street art pieces comprised of simple box forms of brightly-colored tape. His series for Pedestrian is titled “Landscrapers.” They are bold and crisp while not wholly out of place. A mash-up of construction signage and safety markings, Nihalani’s works are cool and poised.

Deep into the almost pastoral stretch of 14th Street that borders Alphabet City I came across Illegal Art’s “Personal Space” installations. Emergency tape, the same shade of yellow as the police tape I encountered at the freshly-robbed Duane Reade, was printed with the words “personal space.” Wrapped around odd spaces, and even on some displaced shopping carts, they were clever and served to highlight the liquid boundaries of private and public space on the street.

I also spotted Michael Knierim’s “Itinerant Artifacts” across the street, again thanks to a photographer who was busy documenting a man tweezering debris from tree wells. The performer was so well camouflaged into the streetscape that I would never have known he wasn’t a city worker.

This stroll across 14th Street made me acutely aware of how dramatically the boulevard shifts from the industrial chic of the Meatpacking District through the hodgepodge of discount stores hugging Sixth Avenue and chaos of tourists and shoppers at Union Square until terminating in the serenity of Alphabet City.
The next day I reversed my itinerary and began at Avenue C, walking in the shade. Convinced I was overlooking the obvious. I broke down and walked around with my nose in the festival map. I tracked down more of Kenny Komer & Boris Rasin’s gold-painted “Midas” objects: a payphone, a pole, and a “Siamese Connection” sign, among others.

Another work used gold as a medium, “14th Street Gold” by Renny Molenaar, but the target of the artist’s spray can was found garbage. I ran into him painting the contents of a trashcan near the Meatpacking District. The metaphorical use of gold seemed heavy-handed, and by now the difficulty of spotting art on the street started to feel as if I were trapped in a grown–up version of “Where’s Waldo.”

The most successful of the works featured in Pedestrian was Alicia Grullón’s “Revealing New York City: The Disappearance of Others.” Quietly parked beside a blank brick wall between First Avenue and Avenue A, Grullón sat in front of a small white table holding a small basin in which newspaper clippings about the housing changes in the city floated in papier-mâché paste. In front of the basin there was a small sign that read “Gentrification-Free Zone.” A collapsible shopping cart and another small white table, held bags of staples like rice, beans, and wheat tagged with exorbitant prices ($3000, $1000, $5000). From a distance, Grullón looked like any other Latin American merchant selling street food. Only her textured blue and gray papier-mâché mask, covered with cut-up headlines, and her Beefeater-like motionlessness triggered my “art” barometer. While I admit I’m growing increasingly weary of the gentrification binary that artists habitually draw attention to, Grullón’s silent protest drove home its pain, anguish, and poverty in a way that none of the other works approached. It exuded a sense of dignity that didn’t preach loudly (okay, not too loudly), and if the text tended to dumb-down the piece, her performance elevated it.

At the end of my trek I found Michael Knierim’s “Itinerant Artifacts,” small display cases attached to a tree between Ninth and Tenth Avenues containing a condom wrapper, a cigarette paper package, bottle caps and some other refuse. It was a little disappointing.


Art in Impossibly Odd Places

Then there were the works I couldn’t find even with the map, no matter how hard I tried. The missing works were: Terry S. Hardy’s “Glitz,” which promised to use one thousand mirror tiles at 14th Street & Ninth Avenue as a “homage to an area of 14th Street known for its speakeasies, dance clubs, and a seedier side of life”; L. Mylott Manning’s “Road Kill Stuffed Animals” which was supposed to be “mutilated stuffed animals soaked in dirty water”; Margot Spindelman’s “The Street Sees You,” comprised of “postcards from participating businesses along 14th Street: one side of the card has a picture of an unusual object to find on 14th Street”; and Elena Stojanova’s “Frame the Pedestrian,” which utilized “paper picture frames placed around everyday objects [to] construct an atmosphere and establish a context for understanding and interpreting the artistic nature of an object.”
A little perplexed and miffed by what I saw at Pedestrian, I contacted AiOP founder and one of this year’s curators, Ed Woodham, to make sense out of what I saw. I asked him how he would prefer people to experience the festival. He replied, “The unexpected encounter is my favorite. It’s an ongoing experiment in communication. I like it best these days when it just happens by accident. When a pedestrian is on full throttle daily automatic course from point A to point B, something is not quite the same and the course is thwarted by a visual. Then the ordinary corner becomes fresh at least for a moment.”

Unlike earlier AiOP festivals, which followed all the rules, Woodham said the organizers this year asked artists not to seek permits for their works: “One of the major missions of AiOP is to find different options for what is considered public space and the presentation of art in public spaces—looking for the loopholes in policies. Challenge the boundaries.”

If I was frustrated by Pedestrian, Woodham seems to say, then that’s the point.

Destined

Wall Street... a destination, a symbol, a threat, an abyss; a headquarters of capitalism, dreams, and deceptions...

Lots to think about for sure. However, am very excited to go and clean a portion. Can see us with this image as our backdrop for a next cleaning. Including the statue and buildings... this area has also been a site for protests in the past when ever there's been crisises sourced from there.

To think on some of the proposed questions...

Do we change with our context?
I think that we are affected by our environs indefinitely. However, I do feel that our concept is strong enough to carry us through. It's our intention that will come clearly though our actions as we select and move through different spaces.

Does documentation matter?
I'd say yes! Because we may track our ephemeral movements and bring into a collage format our actions, compile them, and have the past move us forward as the project evolves. I can see us making composites of our many different cleanings with similar actions but in different environs over time. I also like making concepts in video format that go with the performances (such as the split screen and building projection ideas in conjuction with live actions as well.)

Who are we doing the work for?
I think that it will be good for us to meet at the next destination soon and talk through a good amount of these issues (especially a topic as this!) However, I think that we do the work not only for ourselves, but also for making contributions and facilitating real forums for discussion about necessarry topics. As far as comprimising "self"... this is another interesting question that I'm looking forward to addressing with you and our participants. The "Self" is very interesting in thinking within Meaning Cleaning... looking forward to it! (Want to draft a "statement" of sorts soon? I think it could be a good time to do this...)

As far as if "NO ONE SHOWS"... what if???? I'm not worried. We got it girl! We're taking the responsibility for making sure the project is functioning and that the ideas go forward! If the vision is shared and fits into schedules for those who care to join... GREAT! If not, there will be more growth and opportunities in the future and our vision will not be compromised even if it's just the two of us sweeping/cleaning in an environ. I love having the focused force of numerous participants, however, I feel that this is best if our peoples are engaged and able to perform with clarity, unity, and individual discipline. Again, I think of the word REPETITION and our bits of discussion involving it. The power of the legs and brooms of just the two of us will be just as great as any number. I love our flexibility for many different situations as they may occurr! Feeling that this weekend will be great for a next sweep and I would like to explore Wall Street.... What are your thoughts? Let's keep talking!

xo

(PS: also please leave comments if you are interested in participating or have participated with Meaning Cleaning... we do apprecieate your thoughts and imput and this is a place for us to meet and discuss too!)

cavernous

Meaning Cleaning October 11 performance stills