Mobius : ABAD Exhibition Boston [22]

Mobius Artists Group exhibited A Book About Death at the South  End Open Studios, 725 Harrison Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts, on September 19 - 20, 2009.  The exhibition set up by artist Jane Wang (#414) - Mobius Artists Group, which she collected at A Book About Death's Opening Night at the Emily Harvey Foundation Gallery in New York City.

From Jane Wang: About the ABAD exhibit at Mobius ( http://www.mobius.org/mobius_events.php?enum=941 )

The current location of Mobius the gallery/performance space is officially and ostensibly part of the South End "Art" district in Boston, MA, USA.   We are located on the outer fringes of this area right across from a hospital which means we do not get much foot traffic and additionally, since we aren't really "selling" objets d'art, during the South End-wide Open Studios, we had several "visitors" who actually just wanted to get into the adjoining "Art Block"  building which only had one artist "representin" and who for some strange reason, didn't bother to put a sign up on their locked front door saying which bell to ring to get in to see his work.  This can be somewhat depressing for our little troupe of experimental artists but fortunately, a few visitors (I had a feeling these might be "real" visitors when I saw the punked out Kool-Aid hair and Goth-like black) actually enthusiastically leaped on the ABAD books which I had so carefully put together and I'm happy to say, they must have looked at every single card and read everything on the cards, even taking copious notes.

When I put together my sixteen books for the ABAD exhibit, I wanted to make sure that both sides of any cards that even just had a little stamp or handwritten text on one of the sides would be visible to the visitors - on the other hand, I wanted to protect each of the cards from too much handling or sticky fingers as the case may be.  It came down to cost and what I felt would look interesting and perhaps even vaguely library/museum-like.  I bought several small Itoya Art Profolio Books (Made in China - oh well what can you do?) and one Recycled Brown Binder, one generic white small binder and one Itoya portfolio large enough to fit the largest card by Jacob Mann as well as several packs of Avery protective sheets.

It was fun to try to come up with some underlying link for each of the books - some were restricted because of size, and I didn't really want to categorize cards by artistic field (partially because I'm somewhat ignorant about this although I probably miscategorized several into two Fluxus-centric books).  I went for my own personal taste in colors and progressions from card to card as one flipped through a book.  Some cards ended up being uncategorizable, so I left them together in a group which in turn perhaps put them ironically in a little grouping together.  And of course, since my own card was part of the collection, I have just enough egomania that I put a lot of thought into which book I wanted my card to be in and which cards would go before and after my card.

The books I came up with which I ended up titling were (several were left untitled although grouped in my mind mentally):
- The Red Book About Death
- The Blue Book About Death
- The Black and White Book About Death
- The Bodily Function and Nude Book About Death
- The Sepia + Black Book About Death
- The Surreal Book About Death
- The Collage and Text Book About Death
- The Fluxus 4x6 Book About Death
- The Fluxus 6x4 and Confused Book About Death *

* this is where my card is between James Thomas Joseph and Ania Gilmore

About Mobius
Mobius (est. 1977) is a non-profit, artist-run organization, whose mission is to generate, shape and test experimental art. The members of the organization believe an effective strategy for supporting this art is to establish grounds that build relationships among fellow artists.  Mobius is committed to structuring environments that foster projects incorporating a wide range of disciplines.  This approach sets in motion situations where the artist's impact can be seen locally, nationally and internationally.  Constructing art initiatives outside accepted frameworks and encouraging animated discourse with the public are fundamental to Mobius.

Founded by Marilyn Arsem in 1977, Mobius is known for incorporating a wide range of the visual, performing, and media arts into innovative live performance, video, installation and intermedia works. Mobius has produced hundreds of original works that have attained critical acclaim in Boston, nationally and internationally. Works created at Mobius have been presented throughout the United States, Canada, Europe and Asia.

Mobius is funded by the Boston Cultural Council, a municipal agency which is supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency; the Oedipus Foundation; by an award for artistic excellence from the Tanne Foundation, and generous private support.

Jane Wang Websites:
http://www.myspace.com/janewangcomposer
http://www.facebook.com/janehsiaochingwang
http://www.mobius.org/mobius_artists.php?id=jane