"Because I am the Artist. Because I Say So."

Can a garbage truck with mirrors on both sides reflecting the community it rids of thousands of pounds of trash each day be considered art?  Or can art be an installation of maintenance workers' gloves hung ever so intricately in a garbage station? What about the choreography of sanitation workers performing a "work ballet" in a parade with dancing garbage trucks?

Who determines what art really is?  

Artist Mierle Laderman Ukeles, 70,  whose creative works are mentioned above, says she has the power to decide.  "Because I am the artist. Because I say so," she explained as she spoke to a room full of fascinated listeners at the Ronald Feldman Gallery on Wednesday night. 

Ukeles, who holds a M.A. degree in Inter-related Arts from NYU, became interested in the art of maintenance after becoming a full time mother.  The redundant and offending question of "Do you do anything?" from so many people frustrated Ukeles.  But as many artists do, she let that frustration fuel her.  Ukeles said to herself, "I am here to create something new in the world." 

And that she did.  Ukeles interviewed and researched maintenance workers and then used her findings to create installations about real people- important people.  She published "Manifesto for Maintenance Art" in 1969.  Her work led her to the New York City Department of Sanitation in 1977 where she became the unsalaried artist-in-residence, a position she still holds to this day.  Ukeles spent nearly a year visiting each garbage station in New York City collecting data about the issues surrounding the city's vast amount of trash and getting to know garbage men and their daily struggles.  Her research then morphed into several installations, exhibits and performances which profoundly impacted people's perception of trash men, waste, and environmental issues.

One significant performance work in 1984, "Cleansing the Bad Names," displayed the horrible names that sanitization workers said they had been called by the public in spray paint on a giant exterior wall. The work required members of the community to wash away the negative names.

Ukeles is currently working on a proposal for a project that will involve 1 million New Yorkers contributing items to be displayed in giant clear cubes around the city in one phase, and in another, transform the items into artwork that will hopefully reside in a park that is currently a fresh kills area for the city's waste.

So who can say that her work is not art, for it is the type of art that not only hangs on museum or gallery walls, but art that contributes to social transformation.  

Click here to read Ukeles' bio and here to visit the Ronald Feldman Gallery for more information.

(Image borrowed from FeldmanGallery.)

Bill T. Jones' "Fondly Do We Hope … Fervently Do We Pray"

I can hardly wait for Bill T. Jone's new work, "Fondly Do We 

Hope … Fervently Do We Pray," to come to New York City 

next summer.  This dance, which includes multimedia 

aspects and is interdisciplinary, was commissioned by 

the Ravina Festival and recently premiered there. The 

Amie Zane Dance company performed this new work of 

art which was created in honor of Abraham Lincoln's birth

200 years ago.

As of now, video snippets of the development of the show 

and the rehearsal process are available online. You can also 

visit Bill T. Jones' website to learn more. I do not doubt for 

one moment that this work will deeply impact those who 

are blessed to see it.

Arts for the people

According to John D. Rockerfeller III, "the arts are not for the privileged few, but for the many. Their place is not on the periphery of daily life, but at it's center."

Visit me on my website, and Youtube to see everyday people experiencing the arts.

War in Bosnia Continues to Stir People through Film

Imagine having to leave everything you own behind, taking only one backpack of memories, to avoid constant shellings that are attacking your community.  Imagine traveling at night, through tunnels and arriving safely at your grandparents country home just to be attacked attacked and abducted by the same soliders you'd thought you'd escaped. Imagine being taken to a concentration camp where you were raped day after day until your attackers were sure you were pregnant.  All while you were still a teenager.

"Children of Warfare," a Hallmark series abandoned after 911, explored children's plights in various wars around the wold from the genocide in Rawanda to the rape warfare in Bosnia.  Writer and former Syracuse University Professor, Beverly Allen, wrote a screen play for the series after receiving testimonies from Muslim women who had endured rape warfare after the Christians had taken over Bosnia and other surrounding lands.  

Allen first wrote a book with the information she'd received, which helped influence the UN, and later converted the project into a screen play in hopes of bringing more attention to the issue of rape warfare.

The film, which featured native Bosnian actors, was so gripping that its emotional pull distracted viewers from the antiquated footage as the film was created prior to 2002.  It starts off with a young girl and boy running through a war zone, risking their lives, just to get a couple of gallons of clean water for their families.  One is Christian and one is Muslim so although they love each other they could never be together and the war continues to destory their dreams of the future.  After her family is murdered, the young girl has a bleak outlook on life and relies on the encouragement of the other prisoners.  Ultimately, the boy she once loved becomes her prison guard and she the innocent inmate but he still loves her.  He dies in an attempt to protect her from the other guards and she is left to fend for herself. 

Like many other young, pretty, fertile girls, she was able to survive but lives with the horror of her past and the death of her family everyday. This young girl's experience was a mixture of several muslim women's testimonies and tells the story they cannot.

Allen's film bridges the gap between activism and creativity transforming society through art.

Visual Arts Grant Drives CNY Artists to the Finish Line

Written November 14, 2008

Most people find it difficult to get things done without a to do list.  Award winning artists have the same problem. Light Work, a non-profit visual arts organization, serves the community by giving Central New York artists that extra push.  Light Work premiered  its 34th  Light Work Grants Photography exhibit featuring three artists who were awarded $2,000 grants.  The recipients were Kathy Morris, Paul Pearce and Nancy Keefe Rhodes.

"The Light Works Grant is such a wonderful tradition in upstate New York," visual artist Morris said.  "It's the only one of its kind. It's valuable on a lot of levels."

Morris, who also won the award previously in 1986, said the grant encouraged her to complete her most recent project  on pain, surgery and healing.

"I have a very active, creative life so I start something and get interested in something else," Morris said.

Morris works as a wedding photographer, photo journalist and yoga instructor but won the award for her fine arts photography.

"The grant is keeping me focused on this project," Morris said. "And of course when you stay focused you go deeper and then you can realize it more on different levels."

Since completing this exhibit, Morris is now closer to self-publishing a book on her series topic of Spiral Diary she said.  She had been contemplating the idea for three years before she received the grant she said.

"The idea could've gone on for ten years," Morris said.  "Now, I have an obligation to Light Work to finish it."

CFAC Offers Syracuse Caribbean Tour

Written November 5, 2008

The Community Folk Art Center hosted its 5th annual Caribbean Cinematic Film Festival that highlighted islands films and their directors.

CFAC "is committed to the promotion and development of artists of the African Diaspora," according to its Web site.

Quiana Williams, director of education at CFAC, organized the festival, was directed by Andrew Millington. Set in Barbados, the film followed a boy sent to spend the summer in the country with his grandparents.  His grandfather owned a construction company that many islanders despised because of the negative effects commercialization would have on the island.

Although the film ended prematurely due to technical glitches, Williams encouraged viewers to participate in a talk back with the director. The topic of gentrification took center stage.

"It seemed to be a very rich discussion," Williams said.  "One that a lot of people and communities need and engage in."  Especially when you are talking about communities of color that have been displaced , and in this film is the focus of that."

Other films featured during the festival were "Zora's Dream" by Millington, "Sistagood" directed by Yao Ramesar, "! Yo Soy Boriqua, Pa'Que Tu Lo Sepas!" (I'm Boriqua Just So You Know) and several Caribe animated short films.

"It, [the festival], runs the whole gamut of ethnic groups who are not featured in the mainstream media," Williams said, "so that's our focus when we do this."