Ginny Lloyd : ABAD at The Jaffe Center For Book Arts at FAU [110]

Artist Ginny Lloyd recently exhibited A Book About Deat at Florida Atlantic University's Jaffe Center for Book Arts.  She writes:  

"When the A Book About Death project and exhibition was announced I knew this was something special that I wanted to be a part of, as an artist participant in all ways. I made immediate plans to attend the opening at the Emily Harvey Gallery in NYC and worked on my submission while I was on vacation. It wasn’t easy, coming up with a concept and executing it remotely, but I made the deadline. [Photo, above, from left to right: Keith Buchholz, Reed Altemus, Bibiana Maltos, Reid Wood, Ginny Lloyd].

"Attending the opening, seeing other artists I had not been in touch with for years and gathering my copy of the original show was an experience. By the time I had stooped over boxes and boxes, increasing the load in my bag as I collected “pages” of the book, I felt I was in an interactive theater experiencing death by book. I joked with a few other artists that Matthew had wanted us to be the unwitting participants of this death theater by placing the boxes in rows on the floor in a hot room.

"Carrying the book back to my hotel room and subsequently organizing it for the flight home I felt I had obtained a treasure. Little did I realize at the time how this project would grow and circulate the world with many variations on the original exhibit.

"This summer when my 80s archive was collected by the curator at the Florida Atlantic University’s Jaffe Center for Book Arts for an impending display of my work and archives titled Carbon Alternative, I showed him my copy of A Book About Death. John immediately loved the concept and wanted to dedicate a case just for the book. The photographs you see document this display.

"Appearing one afternoon during the Carbon Alternative exhibition was the Inter-Florida Fluxus Tour including Keith Buchholz, Bibiana Maltos, Reed Altemus, Reid Wood (and me). All of us were in the original exhibit and also attended the Emily Harvey Gallery opening a year ago. The book brought us to together in NYC and again in Florida. So the cycle continues."

If you would like more information about the Carbon Alternative exhibit, 80s art, or the tour check out the following: Carbon Alternative show July 15th to October 18th at
Inter-Florida Fluxus Tour. 

Information about 80s activities and art at: http://ginnylloyd.blogspot.com.  Image above: Ginny Lloyd's piece for A Book About Death (NYC September 2009).

Ivana Režek's 11 Visions in Paris [109]

A group show of 11 contemporary lady artists on the subject of women and the aspects of femininity Ivana Režek, curator of the ABAD exhibitions in Zagreb and with co-curator with Natasa Stanisic for ABAD Sarajevo, has come to Paris with 11 Visions, a group show featuring 11 women artists from Eastern Europe.

A group show of 11 contemporary lady artists on the subject of women and the aspects of femininity After a successful show in Berlin earlier this year, the new edition of 'the 11 visions' opens on September 24th in Paris. This time, the works deal with even more intimate and personal themes than before, analy... Read more

The exhibition opened September 24 at Galerie Art'est, 96 Rue Quincampoix, Paris, France, 75003

Getting 11 women to detail their intimate and personal stories in paint, collage and photograph is quite a feat, not to mention getting them all to Paris.  The exhibition, conceived by Ivana, previously traveled to Berlin.

The group show covers two small rooms but details quite effectively the world of women: secrets, memories, hidden personalities, childhood fantasies, sometimes stepping into the realms of dreams, fantasy and fairytales, magic, witchcraft, and an identification with archetypal characters like deities, witches, and angels.

Artists: Tajči Čekada, Krešimira Gojanović, Anja Maleć, Marina Paulenka, Ivana Režek, Nataša Stanišić, Vesna Šantak,  Diana Šimek, Bruna Tomšić, Martina Vrbanić, and Gabrijela Rukelj.

Galerie Art'est, 96 rue Quincampoix, 75003 Paris
mail: contact@artest.fr  Tel: 01.71.19.59.14.23 Exhibition from September 24 - October 2 2010

Billie Maciunas: The Eve of Fluxus [108]

Billie Maciunas has graciously contributed a copy of her new book, "The Eve of Fluxus," to the Ray Johnson and A Book About death Permanent Archive. The book is a memoir of Billie's meeting and marrying George Maciunas, founder of the 20th century art group Fluxus. This group influenced Ray Johnson and many of the contributing A Book About Death artists.


Writes author Billie Maciunas: "The Eve of Fluxus: A Fluxmemoir is published by Arbiter Press, an independent press in Orlando, Florida. The book is 131 pages, measures 6-inches x 8-1/4 inches, and includes photos by Hollis Melton of The Flux Wedding and the Black and White Piece that George and I performed for the Flux Cabaret on February 25, 1978.

"Photos include images of Louise Bourgeois, Jackson Mac Low, Alison Knowles, Geoffrey Hendricks, Nam June Paik, and Larry Miller (as maid of honor).

"Art historian Kristine Stiles wrote the Preface; Fluxus artist Geoffrey Hendricks contributed the Introduction, and Fluxus artist Larry Miller wrote the Afterword.

"The book cover and all photos are black and white as an homage to George’s graphic style and the fact that he was color blind. It is primarily a love story as told by an itinerant poet who was profoundly changed by association with and marriage to George. In writing the book I tried to associate George’s personal attributes with those he possessed as an artist. The subtitle, a Fluxmemoir refers to the style of the book, which crosses scholarly, fictional, poetic, and nonfictional genres."

The book has three covers, “Bubble,” (pictured), “Silo,” and “Bullet,” designed by D. S. H. Watson, Orlando, Fl. You can order the one you like. See: On The Eve of Fluxus site for all information.

Joseph Nechvatal In Paris: Art Retinal Revisité [107]

American artist in Paris, Joseph Nechvatal, opened his exhibition Art Retinal Revisité at Galerie Jean-Luc + Takado Richard, on September 4. Nechvatal, who contributed his film Viral Symphony to the ABAD exhibition at MUBE in Brazil, explores the deterioration of the retinal image through digital works focusing on various human apertures.

The exhibition features some 25 digital works from his ground-breaking digital painting works. 

On Sunday, September 26, the artist invites the Parisian public to attend a performance of his Viral Symphony at the gallery. Click on image above to see the information for the performance.

Visit Joseph Nechvatal's website.

Fluxhibition #4, ABAD Texas & More [106]

Fluxhibition 4, ABAD Texas, the work of Lenny Quarles and Nernia opening October 8.  Through October 30.  

More info here: http://fluxmuseum.org/index.html

Image: Mark Bloch performing at ABAD New York, September, 2009.

Fran Bull: In Flanders Field [105]

Fran Bull one of the formidable and well known artists to have contributed to the ABAD project, opened her full-on installation, In Flanders Field at The Woman Made Gallery in Vermont in January, 2010.

Gallery Assistant, Ruby Thorkelson, just published a piece about the exhibition as well as the fascinating job of installing this massive exhibition.  See Ruby Thorkelson's article, click here (and many many photos). 

An interview/review of the exhibition also recently surfaced on Vermont Artzine that we'd like to share as well. (It's in two parts).  See the Fran Bull interview on Vermont Artzine.

"In Flanders Fields is an epic and elegiac hymn composed of subtle yet powerful notes reminding us of the constant interplay between life and death, not only on the world stage, but in our own day to day lives."   – excerpt from B. Amore review for Art New England Magazine .

"I feel like I am part of it. I can feel the mourn of all the souls that could have died in all the battles that the world has had. It gives many people a vision of sadness and the bad things that hatred can bring upon people." – From the Guestbook at the exhibition.

Image: In Flanders Fields In Situ. Photo: Michael Heeney

Marie Kazalia On Kickstarter [104]

Marie Kazalia, a painter involved with the ABAD project, has just launched a project on Kickstarter to help her complete a series of new paintings.  Take a look, support her project; minimum support begins at $1.  She looks to raise $3000 for this series.

FLUXMUSEUM ABAD TEXAS ART CALL [103]

A Book About Death and Day of the Dead  Call for Works   Deadline for all works: October 1, 2010.

Send Works Of All Kinds To: FLUXMUSEUM/ABAD 2010 
6955 PINON STREET
FORT WORTH, TEXAS 76116 USA

A BOOK ABOUT DEATH was an fantastic exhibition and performance that started in New York City at the Emily Harvey Foundation in September of 2009. Since then it has been traveling around the world and will be exhibited in Fort Worth, Texas this October.

The Fluxmuseum has a complete set of the ‘pages’ of this book. Cecil Touchon and Company will be mounting the A BOOK ABOUT DEATH exhibition at the Fort Worth Community Art Center during the month of October (Oct. 8-30) We will be arranging an evening of performance as well toward the end of the exhibition. Hopefully on Halloween Eve (October 30, 2010)

In addition to the installation of A Book About Death we would like to invite artists to contribute works around the traditions of Day of the Dead and Halloween. We will set up an ofrenda on the floor below the installed book.
 
Research the Day of the Dead, ofrenda, Halloween, death masks, etc. and create works of art that celebrate or refer to this special time of the year. Works can be mementos, antique photos, objects, masks, collages, assemblages, etc.

Please send original works only. All works will be displayed, no jury, no fee, no returns. Contributed works will become a part of the Ontological Museum permanent collection. Please include a deed of gift form. To get the deed of gift form go to: http://ontologicalmuseum.org/exhibitions.html scroll to the bottom of the page to see link.

Take a photo of your contribution and send to info@ontologicalmuseum.org for the blog we will set up for this exhibit.  Images should be around 800 pixels on long side. 

Email Subject line should say: ABAD 2010

In the email include details about the work, yourself and a link you would like to have visitors go to from the blog.  Image above:Dilar Pereira, Lisbon, Portugal.

Incoming works will be posted here: http://abookaboutdeath-fluxmuseum.blogspot.com/

The Art Cure: Call For Works [102]

Tatiana von Tauber, an ABAD artist has written about a new project she's launched, The Art Cure, a silent auction art call for Breast Cancer awareness. 

The Art Cure is a breast cancer awareness art project which invited breast cancer patients and survivors to spend a day this August painting with me, international artist Tatiana von Tauber while I document their experience for a book, “The Art Cure Diaries.”  The artwork produced during this session will be up for a month long silent auction during October 2010.

The call for participants elicited very warm responses from a number of non-local artists who had never had breast cancer, but who wished to donate art to project. After discussion, The Art Cure’s Advisory Board and I decided to invite the international community of artists as well as non-local breast cancer survivors/patients to donate one work of art to The Art Cure.  All proceeds from the silent auction will be divided between Young Survival Coalition Savannah Affiliate and Susan G. Komen for the Cure® Coastal Georgia Affiliate with 50% going to each organization. 

The Art Cure blog (http://theartcure.blogspot.com/) will showcase all artwork available for bidding while the originals are exhibited October 1-29, 2010 at Horizon Gallery, 206 E. Bay Street, Savannah, GA, 31401, 912-324-3232.

The Art Cure opening gala is October 1, 2010 from 5:00-9:00pm.  The public opening will be Sunday, October 3rd from 3-6pm.  The Art Cure closing is October 29th from 5-9 pm where winners and final proceeds will be announced.

For official details of The Art Cure International Artists Call visit http://theartcure.blogspot.com/2010/08/art-cures-international-artists-call.html. Contact Tatiana at theartcure@gmail.com with questions, press requests and other inquiries.

Seeking Kali – An Artist Call [101]

Seeking Kali is an artist call centered on myth, archetype and the manifestations of the Hindu goddess Kali. Full of paradox, Kali is mother and goddess and yet horrific as a symbol of dissolution and destruction. She devours time and slashes ego. 

 

Curated by Ria Vanden Eynde, William Evertson and Susan Shulman, the three began collaboration shortly after meeting in connection with A Book About Death. 

 

Evertson writes: "While producing a portfolio of images of Kali, in wonderful synchronicity, several other artists began to share their images. Because of the inspired responses to achieving a western understanding of Kali, we are first initiating an artist call in which we invite you to freely interpret your vision of Kali to be shared online on the Seeking Kali blog."

 

(Image above by Joan Harrison). Submission details are available at http://seekingkali.blogspot.com/
 

Future plans at Seeking Kali include a print portfolio of Kali images. If you would like to remain informed about future Seeking Kali developments please visit the blog for updates. 

 

Direct link to the artist call is here.

Ray Johnson & A Book About Death : Angela Ferrara Poster [100]

Angela Ferrara produced this beautiful poster for the Ray Johnson And A Book About Death exhibition at CW Post, Long Island University. Works are now being accepted.  Please see: RJAABAD.

Download the poster free here: Angela Ferrara Poster.

Please use the buttons below to blog about this exhibition and artist call.

Cathie Borrie On World Alzheimer's Day At MoMA New York [99]

Cathie Borrie, a contributor (and great helper) for the ABAD exhibition in New York will participate at MoMA's World Alzheimer's Day.

While the program set for September 21, 2010 is free, seating is limited.  So sign up now.

See Cathie's website: http://www.cathieborrie.com/

ABAD OMAHA OPENING PHOTOS [98]

Curators Louise Millmann & Rob Gilmer (owner of RNG Gallery) pose in their wedding best for the opening moments of A Book About Death Omaha at the RNG Gallery on Leavenworth Street in Omaha, Nebraska. The exhibition was supported by neighbor and famed Omaha restaurant, Dixie Quicks.

The opening was seen from around the world via two live feeds. "What a show! What great fun! Who knew death could be so colorful, so exciting...oh, and the food!" said Millmann, who created the special wedding dress for the opening.

See many more photos from the opening and a full catalog of works submitted and posters presented: Click ABAD OMAHA.

ABAD OMAHA LIVE WEB STREAM [97]

Tune in to watch the opening of A Book About Death Omaha live webstream: http://www.livestream.com/abadomaha

The live stream begins on Saturday, July 31, 2010 at 7 PM local, Omaha Time.  That would be CDT.  One hour behind New York, seven hours behind Paris and if you're in Japan or Australia probably just as you're having breakfast.

Ray Johnson : From BMC To NYC [96]

A very large and impressive exhibition of Ray Johnson's work from 1943 to 1967 recently closed at The Black Mountain College in Asheville, North Carolina.  Curated by Sebastian Matthews, the exhibition generated a tremendous amount of interest thanks not only to Matthew's Ray Johnson Show blog about putting the show together, but also by John Dancy-Jones' blog, Raleigh Rambles which covered a good part of the activity.

Frances Beatty, director a Richard Feigen Gallery in New York, and one of the key guardians of The Ray Johnson Estate, gave a talk in May 2010 on the adventure of actually putting up an exhibition with Ray Johnson.  A 48-page catalog was also produced, and is available from Black Mountain College.

From the Black Mountain College site on the exhibition: The Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center (BMCM+AC) will present the exhibition From BMC to NYC: The Tutelary Years of Ray Johnson (1943-1967) beginning February 19th, 2010, and running through June 12th. In addition, we will host related programs, including a guest lecture, a film screening of the popular documentary How to Draw a Bunny, a collage workshop by Washington DC collagist Krista Franklin and an opening-night performance by Graham Hackett and Poetix Lounge. An exhibition catalogue will be available for purchase.

A seminal Pop Art figure, Ray Johnson has been called the most significant "unknown artist" of the post-war period, a "collagist extraordinaire" who influenced Pop artists such as Andy Warhol and Keith Haring, as well as a generation of contemporary artists. Since his death, however, Johnson has emerged not only as a key member of the 1960's generation, but as one of the major artistic innovators of the second-half of the 20th century.

Black Mountain College—in particular, Johnson’s first teacher, Josef Albers—was a critical factor in Johnson’s development as an artist. Indeed, Johnson’s time at the college can be viewed in retrospect as a platform from which he dove into Manhattan and its vibrant art world. Our exhibition will explore the ways that many of Johnson’s early tutelary influences, both the people and the places, helped create his unique vision. Throughout his career, Johnson always found ways to engage those around him—mentors, friends and strangers alike—in a correspondence “dance” of collage, letter writing and interactive performance art. Following in Marcel Duchamp’s footsteps, Johnson, as one art critic put it, “introduced life into art.”

Through a carefully selected group of paintings, collages and early correspondence, From BMC to NYC: The Tutelary Years of Ray Johnson will explore the early transitions in Johnson’s career—in particular his graduation from high school in Detroit to his three years of serious study at Black Mountain College to his immersion in the Manhattan art scene of the 1950s and 1960s. From BMC to NYC, curated by writer and collage artist Sebastian Matthews, will trace a circle around roughly two decades of Johnson’s early art, creating a spotlight on his explosion from talented painter and master collagist to, by the 1960s, Grand Dean of Dada & Postal Art. The exhibition will provide an interactive, playful presentation of Johnson’s “tutelary” work, highlighting the people and places that influenced Johnson’s creations in order to give the viewer a roadmap of Johnson’s creative process.
The Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center is an exhibition space and resource center in downtown Asheville dedicated to exploring the history and legacy of the world's most acclaimed experimental educational community, Black Mountain College. Over the course of its 24 year history, Black Mountain College attracted and created maverick spirits, some of whom went on to become well-known and extremely influential individuals in the latter half of the 20th century. Even now, decades after its closing in 1957, the powerful influence of BMC continues to reverberate.

Photo: Windows of BMC by Charter Weeks.
Ray Johnson letter to Arthur Secunda, bottom right.
Photo: Interior exhibiton Sebastian Matthew's blog.

Signs of Our Times [95]

Signs of Our Times, a project launched by Jane Hsiaoching Wang and Mobius.org is looking for digital entries.  Please visit the site for all information about the exhibition, and contribute your works.

Poster for the project by Angela Ferrara.

Strange Positioning Systems: Caterina Verde Project On Kickstarter

Artist Caterina Verde launches her global, live streaming performance project, Strange Positioning Systems. SPS is a play on GPS, and the essential concept is live high definition video streams from all over the world that express the global village aspects of our brave new world as seen – and performed – by artists in the project. Caterina Verde is the creator of the Wall for A Book About Death.

For the project to get underway, a Kickstarter page was created.  This enables Caterina Verde to achieve her goals and produce high quality streaming video. She is seeking $8500 to produce the project. Each artist participant in the SPS project offers a view of their work and a bit about the their own SPS concept from their place on the planet – Norway, New York, Paris, Vienna, etc.  (See my page here). Contributions of varying amounts are rewarded with artworks. For example, a $75 contribution to the SPS project will reward the donor with my hand-stenciled signed print of DUMB BUNNY.   See all the rewards here: SPS ART WORKS.

Caterina Verde explains: "Strange Positioning Systems (SPS) is a global real-time live streaming performance project. SPS is projecting performances from one space to another---on the street, in a space, on the mountain, etc.

"A play on GPS tracking technology, Strange Positioning Systems (SPS) looks at the aesthetic, cultural and psychological peculiarities of positioning the self and collective enterprises in a fluid, electronically - dislocated environment.

"We are looking for funding for high end live streaming capabilities as well as for furthering a global network for artists doing live action work and helping artists and curators financially realize the work by creating an action fund. We also want to further develop our website so that it is a live portal for the works for the events.

"Given that this time in history seems to be seminal in terms of the horribly strange positioning systems such as the oil in the gulf, the planetary uncertainties both geo-physical and geo-political, we feel that our global community project is even more imperative.

"SPS, Strange Positioning Systems is evolving as a “strange system” or temporary environment with feeds from various places in the world and led by a different artist(s) or presenter(s). One space overlaps another creating a ternary--triple-based architecture. Plunging into the mix a cross breed of formats, moments and actions inform and reflect the actual strange positioning systems that we must all bear in our culture(s).

"Our first presenter in the U.S for live streaming is the Outpost in Queens, NY.   The Outpost has received a small grant from the Annenberg Foundation for our first presentation but we need additional funding for high end streaming capabilities. We are collaborating with artists and organizations from around the world (Norway, France, Iran, Austria, multiple locations in the U.S. and more) and are looking to expand our network into more remote areas."

Currently the artist line up includes: ALEXANDER VISCIO; PASHA RADETZKI; ANDREA WOLLENSAK; HOPE SANDROW; MATTHEW ROSE; ELISE MARTENS; EBON FISHER; ZOHREH ESKANDARI.

Please consider contributing to this fascinating project, and if you can, place the Kickstarter widget for SPS on your blog or other web pages.

See: http://www.strangepositioningsystems.org

Fluxface in Space [93]

A Book About Death has helped in many ways to bring artists together, and the result has been a number of group projects that span the globe, tapping the enormous number of creative talents for ever new exhibitions. The most recent is Fluxface in Space, organized by artists Gary A. Bibb and Cecil Touchon.

The essentials: Create a work of art about space exploration, photograph yourself with it and upload it to the NASA web site (yes, the government web site), and then submit it to the Fluxface in Space project for exhibition. (Image, top: Angela Ferrara's poster for the event/exhibition).

Bibb and Touchon write on the Facebook Group Event Page for the project: "Gary A. Bibb in collaboration with Cecil Touchon have conceived an exciting new exhibition project for the Fluxmuseum. Using the Face In Space Program from NASA - we are organizing a 'Fluxface in Space' exhibition to be launched into orbit on the last two Space Shuttles!

"Artists are to create one original postcard sized work of art in any media (preferably collage/ photo-montage) with the themes of Space Exploration & the Arts, the Shuttle Program, Outerspace, Rockets, Astronauts, Astronomy etc . This will be a commemorative project around the fact that the Space Shuttle program is coming to an end after these last two flights."

See the Fluxface in Space Website.

LuAnn Palazzo Poster & Joan Harrison Invitation: Ray Johnson And A Book About Death At CW Post [92]

The series of exhibitions for A Book About Death has generated nearly two dozen posters, some plucked from the original postcard pieces to the New York City exhibition, and others created by talented artists specifically for subsequent shows.

The artists who have designed posters for the show include: Angela Ferrara, Louise Millmann, Robert Gilmer, April Gornick, Julia Hoffmann, Robert Mars, Cecil Touchon, Caterina Verde, Mark Bloch, Joan Harrison, Ben Elmer, Bibiana Maltos, David Rager, Matthew Rose, Rob White, Osiris Hertz, Keith Buchholz, Jean-Pierre Machain and Nadine Bouler.

Each poster is offered free as a downloadable PDF to any and all, and they serve as vivid and historical markers in the global rolling out of the project. 

Co-curator of the CW Post exhibition of Ray Johnson and A Book About Death, LuAnn Palazzo created the first poster for this fall exhibition.

The artist call for CW Post, well underway, is the first that directly involves Ray Johnson's name and refers to his elegant and simple "book" A Book About Death.  Here, a generous handful of Xerox copies made from drawings and texts, were sent through the mails in loose format.  Those pieces will be on view at The SAL Gallery, C. W. Post College, Brookville, New York.  October 31 - November 5, 2010.


Launched by Joan Harrison, artist and friend of Ray Johnson who made dozens of photographs of the late artist, the CW Post exhibition has already attracted enormous local attention.  Ray Johnson frequented the CW Post campus and was very well known to literally thousands of people on Long Island.  Joan Harrison designed the invitation to the exhibition, right, using her photographs of Ray Johnson taken over the years they were neighbors on Long Island. 

Down load LuAnn Palazzo's poster for Ray Johnson and A Book About Death.

Christina Stahr In Prague : LABYRINTH [91]

Christina Stahr, a New York based artist with Czech and German roots and a major supporter in the A Book About Death project, exhibits L A B Y R I N T H, a solo exhibition at the Brooks Gallery, Naplavni 3 Prague 2, Czech Republic.

RAY JOHNSON & A BOOK ABOUT DEATH: CW POST EXHIBITION [90]

 An Open Call to Artists to Contribute to RAY JOHNSON & A BOOK ABOUT DEATH (ABAD)
This new ABAD show will open in the SAL Art Gallery at the CW Post Campus of Long Island University in Brookville, NY, and run October 31 to November 4, 2010. Submit one 4"x 6" artwork in any media on the theme of death/life. 

Please include the words “A BOOK ABOUT DEATH” on the front and your name and your e-mail address/website URL on the back. The work may be sent in an envelope for protection or mailed as a postcard. All submitted work will become part of a permanent Ray Johnson ABAD Archive. It will not be returned.

You must submit both a physical work and a virtual one to be part of the project. Every submitted piece will be posted to theexhibition blog.

Submission Deadline: October 15, 2010

Mail 4" x 6" artwork/card to:
Prof. Joan Harrison
Art Department
C.W. Post Campus, LIU
720 Northern Boulevard
Brookville, NY 11548
United States of America

Submit a 4x6 jpg of the image with your name and e-mail and or web URL to: LuAnn Palazzo at DesignDivaNY@gmail.com

“A BOOK ABOUT DEATH” (ABAD) is an unbound, un-paginated book produced by artists worldwide. The original project was conceived by Matthew Rose who invited artists to contribute 500 identical postcards on any aspect of the theme of death. That show took place at the Emily Harvey Foundation Gallery in NYC in September 2009. The exhibition was a tremendous success, attracting hundreds of visitors to the Soho gallery.

Since then, the ABAD project has taken on a remarkable life. It continues to travel the world, appearing in museums and galleries across the US and in Brazil, Belgium, Croatia, Italy, Sarajevo, and the United Kingdom. A set of cards is also in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art in NYC, the MoMA Wales and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. 

The project includes work from artists as famous as Yoko Ono as well as lesser known talents. The pages are of every kind of design imaginable, from personal and metaphysical to conceptual and abstract. The ABAD project has forged many new friendships among artists across the globe and has even spawned a handmade artists' magazine named Abalcabal.

WHAT IS DIFFERENT ABOUT THIS SHOW?
“RAY JOHNSON AND A BOOK ABOUT DEATH” is a new exhibition that will, for the first time, feature a copy of the original 1955 ABAD project by American artist Ray Johnson (1927-1995)–the inspiration for this entire series of exhibitions. It will set the stage for all 480 cards from the original Emily Harvey Gallery exhibit together with new submissions created especially for this show.

Ray Johnson’s unbound book of the same title was mailed to his New York Correspondence School students and included pages in his idiosyncratic style that were funny, sad and ironic “one-page essays” on death.

WHY IS THIS EXHIBIT HAPPENING AT C.W. POST CAMPUS of LIU?
Ray Johnson lived nearby in Locust Valley and was a frequent visitor to Hillwood Art Museum. He was a good friend of many artists who teach and work here and did several performance works on campus.

Several art alumni of Long Island University were contributors to the original New York ABAD project and would like other artists to become part of the rich worldwide art community that has grown up around the project.

RAY JOHNSON & A BOOK ABOUT DEATH: CW POST EXHIBITION ARTIST CALL.

Sigmar Polke 1941-2010 [89]

Sigmar Polke (February 13, 1941 – June 10, 2010).  CLICK TO VIEW NYT Slide Show.

PHOTO : Angelika Platen

Sigmar Polke (mitten in der Luft), Düsseldorf, 1971
Silbergelatineabzug auf Barytpapier auf Aluminium aufgezogen
Rückseitig signiert, datiert beschriftet und nummeriert
120 x 80cm  Exemplar 1/5  Galerie Haasag.

Anki King: Figment, Governor's Island [88]

Anki King, ABAD artist, exhibits at Figment at Governors Island, New York, June 11-13, 2010. Pictured here is her piece, Cradle of War, (H 55" x L 36" x W 30"). 

Cradle of War will be located in Nolan Galleries, Building 10b, 1st floor.  See the map of all FIGMENT events.

FIGMENT is an explosion of creative energy. It’s a free, annual celebration of participatory art and culture where everything is possible. For one weekend each summer, it transforms Governors Island into a large-scale collaborative artwork… and then it’s gone.

Details & Directions

The closest subway stations to the Battery Maritime Building (next to Staten Island Ferry) are as follows:
1 to South Ferry Station
4/5 to Bowling Green Station
W to (weekdays only) Whitehall St. Station; R to Whitehall St. Station

Ferry Schedule to Governors Island: Friday
From Manhattan: First ferry at 10 AM, hourly until 3 PM
From GI: First ferry at 10:30 AM, hourly until 5:30 PM

Saturday/Sunday : From Manhattan: First ferry at 10 AM, every half hour until 5:30 PM
From GI: First ferry at 10:30 AM, hourly until 7:00 PM

Ferry from Pier 6 in Brooklyn Bridge Park
Saturday/Sunday:  From Brooklyn: First ferry at 11 AM, runs continously until 5:20 PM
From GI: First ferry at 11:10 AM, runs continously until 7:00 PM

Website for Figment

The Hankie Project [87]

Six months ago artist and art dealer Julie Barratt invited artists to submit a work on a handkerchief that responded in some way to death and grief.  This soon became known as The Hankie Project, a kind of sister project to A Book About Death.  More than 100 works were submitted from over a dozen countries.  Each work is an actual handkerchief, and often a text travels alongside the submitted piece.  The exhibition opens at Barratt Galleries in Alstonville Australia on June 18.

Many artists who submitted works to A Book About Death (and its subsequent exhibitions), also contributed to Barratt's project. (The project's web site links ABAD's exhibitions).

Katka Adams, a local Australian artist, says about the project, "Grief can often be a very private lonely place, but by  inviting every one in to share their stories and experiences, a common art work is produced; and a healing community is created. I have often felt that our culture and society is now missing a process or way of dealing with our grief. Every one is sort of left to do what ever they feel is right for them, but this can be confusing and difficult. Other cultures have strong traditions and customs which people follow and they feel they have dealt with the death of a loved one honorably and in the right way."

The cover work for the invitation features the work of the youngest participant – four-year old Olli Shearman. (Top image).

To view the online catalog of works as well as accompanying texts, please visit the exhibition blog: http://objectsofthedead.blogspot.com/

ANGELA FERRARA POSTER : A BOOK ABOUT DEATH OMAHA [86]

Angela Ferrara, artist and curator of Um Livro Sobre A Morte, produced this 1930 Soviet-style poster for ABAD Omaha.  Download the poster on the Omaha site.

Louise Bourgeois 1911 - 2010 [85]

PHOTO: Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times

Obituary: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/01/arts/design/01bourgeois.html

VIV MAUDLIN'S ABAD OMAHA POSTER [84]

The project in Omaha is taking off...New poster by YouTube personality, suburban home-maker and Kitsch Queen, Viv Maudlin.

More ABAD OMAH posters and the current catalog of new works here: http://abookaboutdeathomaha.blogspot.com/

A Book About Death Omaha

Mail your SINGLE 4 x 6 postcard to: RNG Gallery 1915 Leavenworth Street Omaha, Nebraska 68102 USA. The deadline is July 20, 2010. 

Send a jpeg of your work to VIVMAUDLIN@YAHOO.COM so it can be added to the online catalog.

A Book About Death: Curated by Gianfranco Maletti, Vimodrone, Villa Torri, Italy [83]

Vimodrone, 8 Maggio 2010
Mostra realizzata durante la Festa di Vimodrone "Santa Croce"
A BOOK ABOUT DEATH.

Curated by Gianfranco Maletti, 150 immagini da tutto il mondo sul modo di considerare la morte e celebrarne la memoria…

Villa Torri: Villa del '700, in fase di ristrutturazione.

More photos: Click here.

Gianfranco Maletti website.

Open Art Call For A BOOK ABOUT DEATH : RNG Gallery, Omaha, NE [82]

OPEN CALL FOR A BOOK ABOUT DEATH POST CARD RNG Gallery, Omaha, Nebraska

Single Postcard Work
Size : 4 x 6 inches (10 x 15 cm)
Theme: “A Book About Death”
Deadline: July 19, 2010
Exhibition: Opens July 31, 2010

Mail your postcard to: RNG Gallery
1915 Leavenworth Street
Omaha, Nebraska  68102 USA

Artists Robert Gilmer and Louise Millmann will feature a new exhibition of A Book About Death from the Emily Harvey Foundation Gallery in New York City, along with these new works.

It will be featured as part of their upcoming exhibition entitled "Til’ Death Due Us Part" at the RNG Gallery in Omaha, Nebraska. The exhibition opening will be July 31.

IMPORTANT: Once you've sent your 4 x 6 inch (10 x 15 cm) postcard to the RNG Gallery, please SEND YOUR IMAGES TO vivmaudlin@yahoo.com IN JPEG FORMAT APPROX 900 x 600 PIXELS – OR around 200K. They will be posted on the A Book About Death, OMAHA BLOG http://abookaboutdeathomaha.blogspot.com/

NOTE: The only requirement is the text "A BOOK ABOUT DEATH" must be seen/present somewhere on the postcard. (Any language). All postcards will be exhibited in the RNG Gallery, Omaha Nebraska along with the complete original set of cards from the NYC “A Book About Death" exhibition, curated by Matthew Rose

DEADLINE for submissions: JULY 19, 2010

Postcards will not be returned. They will become part of the "A Book About Death" collection at the RNG Gallery in Omaha, Nebraska.

History of the project so far :
http://abookaboutdeath.blogspot.com/
http://abookaboutdeatharchive.blogspot.com/
http://abookaboutdeath.net/

“A Book About Death” is a collaborative project conceived by American artist Matthew Rose for the Emily Harvey Foundation in New York City, where the original exhibition took place from September 10 – 22, 2009. The Omaha Exhibition is curated by Robert Gilmer and Louise Millmann and assisted by: Honey Millmann and Viv Maudlin. Info: vivmaudlin@yahoo.com

Please spread the word across the planet. Thank you...

Also, exhibitions are in the works for Montreal, Beijing and other cities. If you are an artist involved in this project, or a curator interested in putting together and exhibition, please get in touch.

Exit11 Belgium ABAD Installation [81]

Exit11 Installation of A Book About Death.  See Veronica Bellei's photo album.

MoMA WALES A BOOK ABOUT DEATH [80]

Article, above, from the Cambrian News, Wales, UK. April, 2010.

The launch of A Book About Death at MoMA Wales is a continuing success.  Sonja Benskin Mesher's curatorial stunner, brought together nearly all aspects of previous exhibitions and added several chapters to the "book."

Among other aspects, Sonja installed her late husband's chair in the gallery space and opened the box of cards from the original exhibition at the Emily Harvey Foundation Gallery in a quiet, almost ceremonial fashion.  Then, each artist was listed in a "Book of the Living," which became part of the exhibition. Along with a full installation of the works from the New York exhibition, MoMA Wales included nearly all the posters from previous shows, and several hundred new works sent especially to the exhibition in Wales.  Films are planned, as are discussions through out the exhibition.

See 50-plus installation photos on the FaceBook Group page and Sonja's album here.

A view of the exhibition is also here.

Sonja recounts the opening of the works from New York and the installation of the pieces on one of her blogs: "After 6 months of work, and 5 months of having the box unopened in the house, on that empty chair, the time had come.

Some arrived early, before 10 am needing coffee, duly supplied by MOMA.

By 10 am a group gathered, quiet and waiting. Slowly without direction, friends started to hang the postcards from the new call for work. The staff at MOMA watched in respectful silence.

At about 10.20, I decided time it was to open the box, so I sent a whisper around the room.

Again a gathering, this time by the cabinet where the box had been waiting in the Gallery for two weeks.  After months in the house, the chair looking like an art installation, I had decided it was time for it to go into MOMA's keeping. They installed it on the landing, framed posters of the global exhibitions lining the stair way.

A brief introduction and I turned the key, and took out the parcel. Very emotional I was by then.

The silence was broken by Wilfred, my grandson asking ’What’s inside’ over and over. He and I carried it through into the Gallery space...."   Click here to read the full post.

The exhibition at MoMA Wales continues through 8 May 2010.  For more information on the show, please see: MoMA Wales.  

Sol Lang : ABAD MoMA Wales UK [79]

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

American Jihadist : The Film [78]

Writer, journalist, artist Jody Jenkins and his partner Mark Claywell, produced American Jihadist, a 68-minute documentary about the life of Isa Abdulla Ali, an American Jihadist.  Shown at the Slamdance Film Festival in Park City, Utah this past January (2010), the film earned the top prize for Best Documentary.

Jody and Mark contributed a piece for A Book About Death, and they say that in many ways, "the film is about death. The film is about someone who fought  and died – Isa was declared clinically dead – for his religion." This phenomenon – an American Jihadist – is placed directly in the face of the viewer.  Web site: http://www.americanjihadist.com/

Kim Triedman: Accomodations [77]

Kim Triedman, a novelist, poet and artist in the project, A Book About Death, will read from her new collection Accomodations on May 20 at The Atomic Bean Cafe in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  The reading is part of the well-attended Text-in-Between series. Admission is free.

Triedman's most recent book is bathe in it or sleep, published by Main Street Rag (2009). Kim won the 2008 Main Street Rag Chapbook Contest.

Accomodations is the name of her newest collection which she describes as "a sharp slice at the domestic front."

The author also recently organized and read at Poets For Haiti, a collaborative reading to benefit the Partners in Health organization and the people of Haiti that took place on February 23, 2010 in Boston. (Link to the Forum reading here).

Visual art by Matthew Rose and Sophie Oldsman will accompany Triedman's reading at The Atomic Bean Cafe.  If you are in the Boston-Cambridge area in May, please attend and/or send this link to others who would be interested.

Amy Bassin : The Queen's Sky [76]

Amy Bassin, an artist based in Long Island City, Queens, New York, writes that the work she prepared for the exhibition at The Emily Harvey Foundation was never sent because she was overcome with the emotions surrounding the loss of her father.  However, she did contribute the piece to the exhibition at MuBE in São Paulo, Um Livro Sobre A Morte and sent this note to explain the work and its genesis.

The death of a parent is a major, life-altering event for most of us – no matter what age we are and no matter what age the parent is, we are changed.

After I lost my dad, about an year ago, I found our culture intolerant of grief, after the one week period allotted for it. I discovered the New York City rat race has little or no time for death, and your loss beyond the circle of family and friends is too often slighted, ignored and quickly forgotten. "Life goes on," I was told again and again, but my dad was no longer around for me to spend time with and it seemed as if life wasn't moving for me and my confusion mounted.

Confronted with questions – "What is death? Where do we go when we die? Where is his body, his soul....Where is my dad and when is he coming home?" – I found no satisfactory answers, and perhaps never will.

I made a 'postcard' for him and was going to send it to "The Book About Death" show sponsored by the Emily Harvey Foundation Gallery in NYC, 2009. I didn't send it as my emotions were still so raw.  And my postcard was just for him, I wasn't sure I wanted to share it.

But as the project continued to move around the world, my thinking evolved. I decided to send it to "Um Livro Sobre A Morte" at MuBe, in São Paulo, Brazil and then to the exhibition at MoMA Wales. I take some solace to know my small work in the form of a postcard is traveling the world, and that that wherever my dad may be, perhaps he will see it.

My "Book About Death" postcard,  conceptual in nature, is titled: "The Queen's Sky."  I live in Long Island City, Queens, and my dad had his office in Queens.  "The Queen's Sky" is a series of digitally altered photos of the sky in this borough of New York, taken through a hole in a roof of a building near me.  The blue geometric shapes are "the sky," and the brown geometric shapes, "the roof."  I took the geometric art and placed it in a photo of a billboard, with a glaring ray of sunlight shining off the metal structure. To me the work is essentially "a ray of hope!"

This project has warranted so much attention and participation because we don't know how to deal with our grief, and across the world, artists and viewers have found a way to confront themselves and the subject of death in many different ways for many different reasons. It is nearly a year since my father died and I'm slowly beginning to see the sky again – his sky.

Amy Bassin Website.

Francesco Conz (1935 - 2010) [75]

Francesco Conz (1935 - 2010)

Visit Archivio Francesco Conz.

Sarajevo: A Book About Death [74]

Artist Ivana Rezek organized a second exhibition in the old Yugoslavia, this one in Sarajevo, a city that has known an enormous amount of death over the last few decades.  Below is the text in Serbo-Croatian about the exhibition from a local magazine.

Svjetska izložba razglednica

U sarajevskoj ASA Art galeriji preksinoć je otvorena svjetska izložba razglednica "A book about death."

U sarajevskoj ASA Art galeriji preksinoć je otvorena svjetska izložba razglednica "A book about death" vlasnika Fondacije "Emily Harvey".

Izložbu, na kojoj se nalazi 500 razglednica iz cijeloga svijeta s temom smrti, otvorile su koordinatorice Ivana Režak i Nataša Stanišić.

- Takozvani mail art je specifičan po tome što obezbjeđuje neposredan kontakt između publike, umjetnika i kritičara. Tema mi je zanimljiva jer autori na razglednice stavljaju svoj stav i viđenje smrti - istakla je Stanišić.

Kolaže, koji se nalaze na razglednicama, potpisuju i poznati svjetski umjetnici, među kojima su i Kit Buholc (Keith Buchholz), Metju Rouz (Matthew Rose), Reed Altemus (Reed Altemus), Mark Bloh (Mark Bloch) i Joko Ono (Yoko).

The link: http://www.dnevniavaz.ba/dogadjaji/kultura/svjetska-izlozba-razglednica

Nataša Stanišić is the main organizer for the project in Sarajevo (see her mail-art blog Universal Language http://universalartlanguage.blogspot.com/.

Ivana Rezek and everyone involved in the project A Book About Death would also like to thank the ASA Gallery for letting us use their space for the exhibition.