new blog.

I've moved my blog over to Tumblr.

http://heathermobrien.tumblr.com/

persistence of vision: recombinant nostalgias

 

All images © Heather M. O'Brien

My work in progress, My Pictures Describe Me Correctly, is up at the Badcat Mobile 1 gallery at 223 West 10th Street in New York City.  The exhibition will be up through next Tuesday, July 27, 2010.

More information about the show:

At the same moment that Photography itself has been declared "dead" and "dying", its dismembered and dematerialized corpse is mysteriously reappearing in the central nervous system, the structural body and the re-animating spirit of other practices. In Persistence of Vision, curated and organized by Abigail Simon, three distinct emergent threads in the discourse take shape.

The first episode, Recombinant Nostalgias, will have an opening reception on Tuesday July 20, from 6 to 9pm. The exhibition presents the work of the following artists: Eva Davidova, Ed Doty, Wayne Liu, Heather M. O'Brien, Liz Sales, Felisia Tandiono, and Paula Winograd.

These artists intervene in the traditional practices of what is considered Photographic, to create visceral, visual poems that effect cognitive transformations so forceful they verge on violence. They refuse the politesse of order, of materials, they deny the reality of time. These artists are effecting a transmogrifying leap, with spiritual and magical powers. They defy the rational, the real. They reject the narrative of the world as a zone of solids, and they reject the role of the photographic as the bearer of truth and objective real.

wpc open house. june 5 & 6, 2010.

© work progress collective 

Work Progress Collective (WPC) is a hybrid identity, equal parts artist, journalist, political activist, archivist, and curious observer. WPC acknowledges the contemporary condition of art making; looking beyond the traditional artistic boundaries that place participants inside or outside, the model considers an active, implicated audience, performing collectively. 

In its current incarnation, WPC is a working agency, referential of a modern day Farm Security Administration documentation initiative. The WPC headquarters on Governors Island currently houses its three founders, Erica Leone, Heather M. O’Brien, and Felisia Tandiono; three artists with diverse national, educational, and professional backgrounds who seek to evoke a collective experience, a conduit of curiosity and learning that can be shared with others. 

WPC recently participated in the 2010 Creative Time/PS1 Open Door Program. During the LMCC SwingSpace residency the collective has engaged in and observed image-making during the current economic recession, including conducting focus groups, interviews, research outings, and producing cultural data through video, audio, and photographic means. WPC's office headquarters installation on Governors Island presented agency findings and engaged participants in dialogue about present day image-making and consumption. Future projects include visual literacy educational platforms and an online journal of findings; two timely grassroots alternatives to formal institutions in the current financial climate.

we are working for you.

please join me for an island adventure this weekend at the work progress collective headquarters.

my pictures describe me correctly.

 

all images © heather m. o'brien

stop the clock.

Qui le croirait! on dit,

qu’irrités contre l’heure

De nouveaux Josués

au pied de chaque tour,

Tiraient sur les cadrans

pour arrêter le jour.

[Who would've thought! As though

Angered by time’s way

The new Joshuas

Beneath each tower, they say

Fired at the dials

To stop the day.]

keep on working.

© work progress collective

the historical and the lived.

© heather m. o'brien

the notion of the familial and the people who are connected to a particular space they call home, "a mixture of nature and culture, the historical and the lived, the individual and the social, the real and the unreal, the place of transitions, of meetings, interactions and conflicts, in short a level of reality." - henri lefebvre, clearing the ground, 1961.

ms. morley on the mic.

  

© heather m. obrien

the world is material for the camera.

all images © heather m. obrien

"photography does not simply reproduce the real, it recycles it––a key procedure of a modern society.  in the form of photographic images, things and events are put to new uses, assigned new meanings, which go beyond the distinctions between the beautiful and the ugly, the true and the false, the useful and the useless, good taste and bad.  photography is one of the chief means for producing that quality ascribed to things and situations which erases these distinctions: 'the interesting.'  what makes something interesting is that is can be seen to be like, or analogous to, something else ... the photographic recycling makes clichés out of unique objects, distinctive and vivid artifacts out of cliches. images of real things are interlayered with images of images."

-susan sontag

firefox start.

© heather m. o'brien

cold gurnee.

 

 

 all images © heather m. o'brien

weather reports you.

      

   

all images © heather m. o'brien

"maybe this was partly sympathy as we stood outside in the weather, looking for a conversation about something seemingly so close to nothing."

                             - oddny eir evarsdottir from roni horn's Weather Reports You

creative time / ps1 application with feli t.

 

  

© work progress collective 

Studio LLC.

 

I was recently accepted into an artist fellowship program at the Jamaica Center for Arts in Queens called Studio LLC. I'm honored to be chosen and truly respect director Heng-Gil Han's dedication to supporting emerging artists in New York City.  The program is similar to the Artists in the Marketplace (AIM) program at the Bronx museum; it is committed to providing professional development opportunities to visual artists in NYC.  Throughout the ten month program Studio LLC will host seminars on studio practices, grant writing, etc. The seminars will be held in the historic Queens Registry of Titles and Deeds building; the program culminates with a group exhibition and publication.

More about JALC

Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning (JCAL) is a non-profit organization that offers visual, performing and literary arts, arts education and artists’ programs to encourage participation in the arts and to contribute to the cultural enrichment of Queens and the Greater Metropolitan area. JCAL was founded in 1972 as part of a large-scale effort to revitalize the declining Jamaica business district. Downtown Jamaica, like many neighborhoods across the United States, experienced a long period of decline in the 1960s. In 1967, local artists, business leaders and community members came together to restore the decaying commercial corridor along Jamaica Avenue. They acquired the abandoned Queens Register of Titles and Deeds Building – a New York landmark listed on the National Register of Historic Places – and transformed it into an urban cultural center that would serve as a symbol of Jamaica’s reawakening and act as a magnet for businesses, shoppers, and residents returning to the downtown area.

consume.

 

   

all images © heather m. o'brien

each facet of quotidian from anonymity.

© heather m. o'brien  

work progress collective.

© work progress collective

As mentioned previously, I am part of a new collective with two other artists (Erica Leone & Felisia Tandiono) called the Work Progress Collective (WPC).  We have recently been hard at work preparing for our upcoming LMCC residency program.  Conversations, brainstorming, ideas, readings, and exhibition field trips are in full swing.  I look forward to the next few months and all of the work we will produce. 

man must labour or perish.

 © heather m. o'brien

see, there.

 all images © heather m. o'brien

catch the sky by hooks and lungs.

© heather m. o'brien 

blue christmas.

© heather m. o'brien

a prayer for the wild at heart, kept in cages.

© heather m. o'brien

what is it that you want?

 all images © heather m. obrien

lmcc residency program.

i've always respected the lower manhattan cultural council (LMCC) so i was thrilled when i found out i was accepted into LMCC's 2010 swing space residency program. swing space is a space grant program that connects artists with vacant commercial space to use as studio and exhibition space. the program will take place march through july of next year and i will be working on a collaborative project with fellow artists and icp grads felisia tandiono and erica leone.  we will be among the first group of artists who will have studio space on governors island.  the studio will be in building 110 on the island’s north shore and when the program opens, it will mark the first time that people will come to work on governors island who do not directly work for the island itself.  LMCC and swing space will host various exhibitions, studio open houses, and performances, which will take place when governors island is open to the public from may to october.

here is a link to a ny times article which has more information about the program:

lower manhattan cultural council to run artists’ space on governors island

about building 110
in late 2008, lmcc was selected by the governers island preservation and education corporation, to operate an art residency in 14,000 square feet of building 110 on the island.  built in 1873, building 110 was most recently used as coast guard administrative offices.  the two-story building is adjacent to the island's ferry landing and main point of access, making it a prominent landmark, directly visible to visitors as they disembark the GIPEC-operated ferry at soissons dock.  dramatic views of the skylines of lower manhattan, brooklyn, and jersey city can be enjoyed from the site.

about lmcc
lower manhattan cultural council (LMCC), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, has been a leading voice for arts and culture downtown and throughout new york city for 35 years, producing cultural events and promoting the visual arts through residencies, grants, services, advocacy, and development programs.

full service island. video installation.

 

 

all images © heather m. o'brien

  

on wednesday night i photographed a video installation at the highline for the art in odd places festival, curated by erin donnelly and radhika subramania.  the project, titled full service island, is a collaboration piece between artists beth dary and christy speakman.  the imagery in the piece  "explores impervious surfaces, urban runoff, and the force of water in a city of overload.  projected onto the glass of the oil change room and car wash detail shop, the installation is a participatory exploration of urban details.  water, gasoline, and soap fluidly converge in a neighborhood slated for massive change." 

i really enjoyed photographing the work and meeting beth and christy, who also moved to new york from the lovely new orleans, louisiana.  full service island is on view through the 26th of october, but may be extended.  if you're in the area, be sure to check it out.  obviously, due to the nature of the projection and as seen in the photos here, the most optimal viewing time is at night.

mr. irwin.

© heather m. obrien