Thursday, February 28, 2008

Lost & Found Gallery

Video of the Fiddlesticks exhibition in its first form.

FIDDLESTICKS!!! #1- J. Bruno, B. Chriss, L. Corea

A set of photos from this first incarnation of the Fiddlesticks exhibition at the Lost & Found Gallery, by Lenny Corea, Jamie Bruno, and Bradley Chriss. The show kicked off on Saturday with readings of poems by Chriss and John M. Bennett; photos and video of that event will be posted within a day or two.








Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

FIDDLESTICKS!!! A Post-NeoAbsurdist Perpetual Exhibition Machine

As part of the gearing-up for the Anti-Festival, we are occupying the Lost & Found Gallery, an unofficial space donated by Tsubasa Berg, buried like a cancer in the heart of the Rutgers Visual Art building, for the next two months. Every week or so, a new group of (anti-)artists from New Brunswick and around the world will add their two-cents-worth of art to the space, as it becomes more gloriously cluttered, responded to, detourned, played with and in; and this progressive growth will be celebrated by a series of performances, events, readings, film showings, and who KNOWS what the fuck else, until we are all left panting for the festival wherein we can all come together in person.
The show's kicking off THIS SATURDAY, FEB. 23rd, with artistic interventions by LENNY COREA (New Brunswick, NJ), BRADLEY CHRISS (Washington, D.C.), and JAMIE BRUNO (New Brunwick). These three miscreants have been plotting together and we can only dread the results--


VIM VOM VIM!

AT 8:00 PM, Brad will be up from Washington to perform work from his new book, 'hermaphrodite.'; AAANNNDDD, whomever's there will caress and mangle a set of poems by the legendary John M. Bennett (especially appropriate since the gallery shares the name of his seminal journal, The Lost & Found Times).

Jamie won't be able to attend to attend in person, but her presence will be felt, as we send her periodic updates on the progress of the evening and she calls in to read us some Bennett via cell phone!

For those of you not able to attend in person, NEVER FEAR: there will be a video camera and Tsubasa (and maybe others) will be taking a ton of photos, so the show and performances will both be copiously documented here on the blog.


Each week (taking next weekend off), a new group of artists will move in and rearrange everything, with a series of performances, readings, plays, films, etc etc unfolding alongside. Next weekend we will all be busy with the hellish extravaganza BOSCH ON ICE, a Brute Salon / Aesthletics triptych of fiendish absurdity organized by the indefatigable Tom Russotti which will take place on 1 March. We'll keep you posted as plans as unroll, and lay down documentation in their wake.

Sunday, February 17, 2008

LED project with Reid Bingham

Hey everyone,

Reid Bingham, a local New Brunswick guru of all things circuit bent, has 25 small LED displays that he rounded up when Best Buy was doing some sort of promotion. They are small wallet sized little jobbers that can display up to five, 256 character displays at different speeds in red LEDs. He's proposing that people involved in the festival send him poems, 256 character in length, to be read upside down or horizontally. He'll then program them into the displays and visitors to the festival can then "paint/decorate/mutilate" them during the festival! Electronic-Hand-Held-Visual-Poems...who knew?!

Take that Jenny Holzer!

Historical Influences Night/s?

An idea Warren and I just had for the festival--an evening/afternoon/whatever of performing/reading/ passing around/etc. work that has influenced ours--in my case for instance this might be Dada, Fluxus, Lettrist, stuff, for other people it would be other things which I might not really know much about, or haven't thought of in a productive way, and ought to. We could do one sometime during the month, or could do a smaller one each weekend, etc... Any thoughts? Ways to improve the idea? Scrap it?

fuck your shit doo poo crap turd floater margin of error

taste in the extreme straight from the milkyway the face. taste of the underarm of humanity. a flavour of sensation; distend, absolve, move on.

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Where do they get such wonderful Toys!



A toy by Chi-Kit Kwong for the anti-festival Games and Toy Show!

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

More on Scheduling & the blog

Some more detail on scheduling--

Basically, most of the action will fall on the five weekends in June (May 30-June 1, the 6-8th, the 13-15h, the 20th-21st, and the 27-29th), if for no other reason than that Warren and I, at the least, will be working full-time during the week, as will most of you, probably. You're more than welcome to stay during the week, especially those of you able to take part in more than weekend, but it will probably be more or less down-time. The first weekend we will be moving into the house that will be festival headquarters; Warren has suggested a Fluxus-style 'Moving Event' for the opening volley of the shebang...

So anyone who wants to come can let us know when during the month you can take part, and then work with us and the other people who will be there at the time on what you'd like to do; hopefully this will make the planning flexible and relatively simple. We'll keep you updated about the schedule as it develops via the blog, everyone can post on here what dates you plan on being here, or the weekends available if you have a choice--there's a good chance that most of us might be able to converge on a couple of weekends, so that everyone can meet/reunite/work with as many others as possible. I'd encourage anyone who's able, to try to make it out while the international people are here, since it will be an especially rare opportunity for us all to meet face-to-face.

A number of people have told us that they definitely plan to attend, though of course no precise dates yet; Great Britain, Ohio, Washington, New York, Baltimore, Chicago, and obviously New Jersey should all be represented at the very least. If you definitely plan at least to try to come, let us know and we can at least start posting who is planning on taking part in person.

Should mention too we'll be sending out invites to be blog contributors over the next week or so, if you'd like to post anything before then, email us and we can send you an invite asap.

Over the next few days we'll be adding links, more info, some work (look out tomorrow for a new toy by Chi-Kit Kwong, hopefully), etc. We're working full time (or school in Tom's case), trying to arrange shows this spring, and trying to get a mOnocle-Lash webpage up in the next week or so so it's mighty busy here in New Jersey! Sorry to the 40 or so of you who've sent emails I need to respond to, I'm getting through it---

Anti-Cheers, Olchar

Monday, February 11, 2008

FESTIVAL EXHIBITIONS

The Anti-Festival will include at least two exhibitions: a comprehensive Post-Neo show and an anti-exhibition of Post-Neo toys and games which will be enjoyed by all of us throughout the festival. There's been some rumination on the latter idea within the Post-Neo community for some time, including the possibility of it traveling on to Post-Neo groups in other cities after the festival. 

Work for both of these shows could be mailed, brought along when you arrive, or sent along with other visitors. This blog could also be a format for work that can't make it in person. Get in touch with us.

For the comprehensive show, we can supplement the work you give us with stuff from our archives here.

IT'S AN ANTI-FESTIVAL !!!!!

LOOK BAR VIM BLAT ANTI HARD NUEHT BARR VOM [n] BLIT KAMOG ITNA KUH TRYIN' !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Furthermore, for the less absurdly-inclined, a transliteration follows:


Post-NeoAbsurdism is LOoOoOoOoNG overdue for an INTERNATIONAL ANTI-FESTIVAL, and the New Brunswick, New Jersey itnA-sect is pleased to announce it's jumped the gun, unless you can kick your own off by June 1st! WE WIN !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! In your FACE, the rest of Post-Neo !!!!!!!!!!!!

YOU TOOL-SHEDS !!!!!

No month-long victory party/festival/insane-getaway would be complete without all of you losers to taste our wine of triumph with us! Post-Neos from across the Americas and Europe will shout-break-poeticize-eat-do-laugh-show-see-tell-share-exorcize-perambulate-behold-salivate-drink-prognosticate-film-filch-stomp-orate-write-smoke-hurl-paint-ignite-play-impregnate-slather-cook-sleep-dialogue, and be generally merry! For the first-time, Post-Neos known to each other only through rumour, myth, and publications will be confronted by the sublime splendour of each others' corporeal existence.

For one month--JUNE 2008--the New Jersey Post-Neo HQ will become an exquisitely absurd hostel/itnA-gallery/perform-a-drome/thieves' den/cinematec/guild-house/speakeasy open to all anti-comers! It will be fucking grand!

Still interested? Holy shit! Keep reading, chumps, for even less absurd transliteration:


PARTICIPATING
In the tradition of the Neoist Apartment Festivals, the various events of the anti-festival will be organised in and around our shared living space in New Brunswick, NJ. In keeping with the DIY strategies characteristic of much Post-Neo activity, we have not sought sponsorship from governmental or corporate-funded bodies; in order to foster an environment of sustained communal exchange, we are eager to offer you our home, though unfortunately we cannot provide transportation. Guests can participate for as much or as little of the time as they are able to afford and/or can get away. The schedule of the festival will develop gradually as we work out with our guests when they will be able to come. The event will be shaped as much by the condition of sleeping, eating, and working together as by what, individually, each of us shares.

For those of you traveling (or potentially traveling) internationally, we will put together some more detailed information to help you out ASAP.


NEW BRUNSWICK
This festival will bring together an international and a local community, to act as a flashpoint for future collaboration. All participants, whether visiting or from the local area, will take an active role in exploring the way in which an international and a local community can interact and intersect. The anti-festival is being held in a community where a number of us heavily involved with Post-Neo live and work, New Brunswick, New Jersey. New Brunswick is home to a network of extra-institutional creative communities that are particularly self-aware. This consciousness is articulated through an ingrained tradition of house and basement shows, street actions, and interventions stretching back at least to the flurry of Fluxus activity here 40 years ago. These strategies are maintained through a culture of enthusiastic collaboration and uninhibited participation, often resulting in events and manifestations which occur for themselves alone, simultaneously created and observed by everyone present. These qualities are as essential to this local community as to the international Post-Neo community, but differently articulated; the anti-festival will exemplify the threading together of these strategic and tactical registers.


BLOG
During the build-up to the anti-festival this blog will be the main forum for planning and communication among everyone involved. The entire Post-Neo community is invited to participate in this planning through this blog. Whether or not you can make it out to New Jersey, you're encouraged to post to the blog to participate in planning, foster collaborations, share work and ideas, and generally get to know each other better before the event itself. Those of us hosting the festival will regularly update the blog to keep everyone informed about planning and scheduling as it develops.

During the festival, the blog can serve as a way for those who have left, have yet to come, or who can't be here in person to remain involved in what is developing. Over the course of the festival, we will keep the blog constantly updated with photos, documents, descriptions, and other communiques; those of you following the blog from afar can participate by offering us images, texts, or pieces for us to perform. Everything posted to the blog will be archived.