Images from Lois Dodd at Swarthmore College

Alex and I recently went over to Swarthmore College to see the show Windows and Reflections, a solo show of Lois Dodd's work.  List Gallery has such a strong line up of shows, they never disappoint.  Here are a few images of some of my favorite works from the show.  They span about 40 years of her career and as usual should be seen in person for the full experience.  The show is up through December 15th and the campus is beautiful in the fall.

          detail of image at left

Miserably Timely 114 Year Old Film "A Trip to the Moon"

In trying to dig myself out of the heavy depression that set on since Tuesday November 8th election, I decided the best course of action was two part.  The first is to voice resistance, agitate, petition and donate.  The second is a more self-preserving action; to witness more exquisite human creation, stay in touch with human empathy through art.  In the last few days I went to see Lois Dodd's show at Swarthmore College, a concert at a local venue Boot and Saddle, started back on reading On Beauty by Zadie Smith, all in all feeling better about being a human being.  

It gave me the momentum to deny myself more wallowing in nytimes, cnn etc and seek out a film instead.  I found this short little film on Netflix called "A Trip to the Moon", it was produced in 1902 and each frame is hand painted.  And as beautiful as some of the sets are, I have been haunted by this thing.  It's awful in its message and exacting in its relevance.

The premise is this group of explorers take a rocket to the moon.  Of course, only men can actually go in the ship, the women just wear the same strange outfits to assist them into the rocket and send it off into space, (sick of women getting no credit for these menial tasks.)  

 When the group gets to the moon, which is illustrated as a blinding ketchup bottle to the eye (ominous of the mucking up humans are about to do) they find alien life there.

These inhabitants of their own planet curiously look on at the newcomers and do little dances on a log.  Which prompts the group of Rocket Men to start detonating puffs of pink and green gas from their umbrellas to kill the inhabitants.

Somehow they are invited into the capital, brought by the inhabitants.  The Rocket Men pretend to look around innocently and then as the king is welcoming them, the leader goes up, grabs him and smashes him into the ground in a puff of gas.  

The group goes back to Earth to celebrate in a town gathering where a statue depicting the Rocket Man with his foot crushing the moon's head is erected to commemorate what they have done.  

Fuck.  It's 1902 in America.

Baked Goods Installation

Installation Shots of Baked Goods, University City Arts League, Philadelphia, Pa November 2016:

From left: Polina Barskaya, Jennifer Coates, Mike Geno, Owen Ahern-Browning, Polina Barskaya

 From left: Jennifer Coates, Mike Geno, Holly Coulis, Trina Turturici

 From left: Emilie Selden, John Bokor, Mike Geno, Polina Barskaya, Tiffany Tate

Owen Ahearn-Browning, Jimmy Bellew

Jimmy Bellew

Joshua Marsh

On Wall: Jennifer Coates, Owen Ahearn-Browning, Sculpture: CJ Stahl

 Mickayel Thurin                         On wall: Trina Turturici Sculpture: Brandon Spicer-Crawley

 from left: Jimmy Bellew, Emilie Selden, John Bokor, Mike Geno, Polina Barskaya

 Mike Geno, Polina Barskaya

 from left: Polina Barskaya, Jennifer Coates, Mike Geno

Opening Night October 21st 2016:

           My Guston cake!                                       And our eating experiment for visitors:  

'17th cuisine commonly called for a plethora of options on the table, up to 25 dishes per course. However, you were not supposed to eat every plate but rather choose two or three as a personalized meal that fit with your 'constitution' and kept you healthy.

For example a melancholic temperament was believed to be cold and dry and required a diet of hot and wet foods such as strong red wine and lamb to maintain balance. A choleric temperament was thought to be hot and dry which meant a cold and wet diet was best, melons and cucumbers.'

We brought in and made foods that were present in the visual work so people could eat what they were seeing.  Strawberry cake, Philly soft pretzels, hard cheese, waffles, rigatoni pie, apple jacks and the list goes on.  The opening was a full sensory experience.  

We also had two performance installations, one by Tiffany Tate which offered visitors herbal tea hand collected on a residency in the mid-west. The other was by Marie Manski who stood in the gallery making 'Sarraf Splits'.  She grew up in Latrobe, PA, the town where banana splits were invented.  For this work she made her own take on the dessert, infusing her family's Syrian heritage, particularly her grandfather, Sarraf, of spices and bold flavor into the project in an attempt to raise awareness of place, identity and race as they relate to foods.  

 The beginning of the night                                      Marie Manski making 'Sarraf Splits'

Overall it was a beautiful night.  The space was packed with a couple hundred people making it out to celebrate.  It felt really good to see an idea that had been floating around in my head for years take the shape it did and see the hours of work we put in paid off.  People from all over the community came and met and it felt like what great meals and good shows do, bring people into a space where conversations and ideas that wouldn't otherwise happen, might.

Co-curators! Me and Adam Lovitz -- such a good collaboration.  Felt like the universe gave back for all the times I had a shitty group project as a kid in school.  The show wouldn't have gotten to the place it did without the ability to bounce ideas off each other (and that fabulous hair).