Category: Associates

ICI President and Associate Deborah Cullen in Conference

ICI_BLOGdeb_cullen_ljubljana-wInternational Conference
Password: Printmaking, Ljubljana
7 March 2014

The conference, which is an integral part of the European project Password: Printmaking, Travelling Exhibition and Art Residencies (2012–2014) aims to highlight the various theoretical and practical perspectives on some eternally topical issues related to our understanding of printmaking and printed art in the changing environment of contemporary art production in general.

The third and the last part of the Conference will cover the topic of the international exhibitions of graphic arts – biennials, triennials and festivals – and the active role they play for graphic arts. The topic will be covered in part by ICI President, Deborah Cullen, Director & Chief Curator of The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery at Columbia University, and also a curator of the 30th Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts.

LIBRARY DISPLAY: Guen Hors

Geuen Hors

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 On display in the Library and Terri Valli Trotter Study Room September 30 2013 – January 31 2014

 

“Trojan Horse” “Gift-Horse” “Horseplay” “If wishes were horses…” “Straight from the horse’s mouth”

Though they no longer function as an element of day-to-day life for most people, the horse lives on as  a metaphor for everything from free presents to wishful thinking, to hidden invaders, and beyond. Stemming from the realm of double entendre, ‘the trickster,’ and the playfulness of things ‘hidden in plain sight,’ Geuen Hors pays tribute to the many ‘horses’ that have surfaced at the ICI over the last twenty years.

Ranging from large scale installation to miniature painting, items on display include ‘gifted’ works by Mungo Thomson, Pam Posey, Danny Redfern, Arnaldo Morales, Terri Valli Trotter, the Museum of Forgery, Axel Forrester, Martin Gantman, Deborah Paulsen, John Galt, Yolande Macias Mckay, George Herms, and Sophie Calle (among others), as well as a collection of ‘anonymous gifts’ left behind in books, on shelves, under tress, and in the other shadow spaces of the ICI.

A full map of the items on display can be downloaded here.

Searching for Sebald: Reader’s Edition

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The Reader’s Edition includes a softcover trade edition of Searching for Sebald with a free-standing print of Christel Dillbohner’s project for Searching for Sebald. Book and poster are housed  in a silver cardboard sleeve.

 

 

 

Purchase the Reader’s Edition of Searching for Sebald at our gift shop.

Press release

The Ephemera(l) Institution

An Evening with Visualist-in-Residence, Martin Gantman

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January 11, 2014, 7:00 – 9:00 pm

In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is. –Yogi Berra

The Institute of Cultural Inquiry (ICI) presents the Ephemera(l) Institution, a public presentation of Martin Gantman’s practice-based research at the ICI through its Visualist-in-Residence Project. The findings of his “archeological” undertaking will be presented at a public event at the Institute on January 11, 2014 from 7 – 9 pm. The evening will include an artist action in the ICI garden at 8 pm: the permanent interment of Matchboxes-in-another box: testimony, a work completed during his residency. Transformations to physical elements of the Institute that have materialized as a result of Gantman’s tenure will also be on display.

According to Gantman, a long-time Associate of the organization, the ICI is unique in how it co-opts cultural artifacts for use as foils to pierce the veil that constrains contemporary thought. He asks how the method of the Institute contributes to such results? And in the long term, how does the Institute frame itself so that its contributions, and in particular its singular methods, contribute to the production of knowledge after its demise?

Martin Gantman is a Los Angeles based artist and writer who has exhibited throughout the United States and Europe. In 2012, he chaired a panel session entitled: Tracking the Movement of Investigatory Art at the College Art Association Conference in Los Angeles. In trying to address these issues, Gantman brings his interest in investigatory art to service during his residency. Digging into the Institute’s distinct approach to its organizational construct, language, and activities, he has fashioned a commentary on the Institute’s practices and devices. What does it mean to have an Ephemera Kabinett, which has the potential to contain evidence of almost anything? And how is it mobilized in the effort to produce knowledge? These are questions that Gantman has attempted to answer.

Martin Gantman’s VIR workspace and the materials associated with his residency will remain on display (by appointment only) until January 31, 2014.  For appointments or questions regarding the Visualist-in-Residence project or other ICI events, please contact info@culturalinquiry.org

 

Visualist-in-Residence Project

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Due to space limitations, VIR applications for 2016 are currently not being accepted. This project may resume in 2017.

The VIR residency offers local artists, art theorists, writers, and other culture producers an environment that is oriented towards knowledge production through its well-equipped study and production facilities. Resources include a 3,000-volume library; an Ephemera Kabinett that contains cultural residue from the last 100 years; a collection of arcane visual tools or their handbooks (sometimes both); and a unique physical site with its own collection of phantom histories and secrets. 

Froebel Star Folding

We are looking for adventurous ‘visualists’ to help us ‘theorize the materials’ or ‘materialize the theories’ of the various processes of knowledge production that are ‘visually orchestrated.’ These are activities that interrogate and extend current conceptions of ‘studio-based research’ as they are being extolled in the academy.

Some of the features of the Residency include:

• The VIR laboratory is available for residencies lasting between 1-4 weeks. We can only offer a work space at this time (no live-in) but access is 24/7 to accommodate residents who have a ‘day job’ or other demands on their time during ICI’s normal business hours.

• At the very least, each resident will arrive with a single question to jump-start her or his visual research but, more often, the resident arrives with a project already underway that will benefit from an investigatory period at the ICI.

• The Institute will provide limited manpower and, at time,  financial assistance. We will also facilitate partnerships with a roster of highly skilled ICI Associates and supporters to enrich the VIR residency experience.

•The VIR quarters will be open to the public as part of regularly scheduled ICI tours at least one Saturday per month (depending on the concurrent ICI project) and/or by appointment.

• The Resident will interact with the ICI staff and/or Associates on a regular basis to discuss the Resident’s work, either through meetings or online interactions,

• At the end of the residency, the VIR will be encouraged to summarize their research processes and findings during some type of recorded discussion with ICI staff and/or associates. This exchange might include an interview, a non-verbal demonstration, an exchange on social media, or some other recorded form based on the scope and range of the residency.

• In addition to ‘documenting’ their residency on the ICI’s website, the Resident will also be asked to create a material trace of their tenure to be placed in a special box that will become a part of the ICI repository.

VIR Residents have included:
Julene Paul, Spring 2012
Jared Neilsen, Summer 2012
Greg Cohen, Winter 2012-13
Christel Dillbohner, Spring 2013
Martin Gantman, Winter 2013
Maya Gurantz, Summer 2014
Anna Ayeroff, Summer-Fall 2014
Jaime Knight, Fall 2014
Amy Kaczur, Spring 2015
Christopher Handran, Summer 2015

Find more information about the VIR Project at http://www.culturalinquiry.org/blog/activities/2014-visualist-in-residence-project
or email us at info@culturalinquiry.org

 

 

ICI Associates in Performance

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ICI Associates, Antoinette LaFarge and Robert Allen, will be performing in Far-Flung follows function October 10th, 11th and 12th at the Experimental Media Performance Lab, Claire Trevor School for the Arts, UC Irvine

“Far-Flung follows function is an original performance work that turns a physical space into a crashing computer whose population of finders, daemons, mice, and the like struggle to avert catastrophe. The environment in which they carry out their labors is ruled by shifting weather and time of day data from live internet feeds. Thirty cities around the world take turns choreographing the lights, projections, sound, and performers themselves. As the piece unfolds, typical computer user actions such as mouse management are transformed into playful and sometimes absurd movements, triggering cascades of accidents, errors, and crossed signals. Welcome to the commedia of the motherboard.”

ICI Associates in Collaboration

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4 Hands ( A Suite) #1,
mixed media on paper 22 x 30 inches

Associates Antoinette LaFarge and Christel Dillbohner recently met at the Berkeley chapter of the ICI for an intensive residency called Seeing thru – Durchblicke schaffen.

They split their field research into two halves:

The first half explored possibilities for creating a modular system to generate figures and backgrounds without repetitive drawing. Using ink, paint, and acetate, they developed a variant on cell animation techniques.

The second half was a Gemeinschaftsbilder (collaborative drawing) workshop, during which they created four finished works on paper, one of which is shown here.