Skip to main content

What Would We Do With Lynne Tillman?

Once again, my posting is on a 2 month delay... In the past year I have been a part of an Artist Book Club in Milwaukee. This Club was put together by Kate Schaffer- a badass artist who is literally the busiest human I know.

Kate put together this group and we have read some great books and eaten some great food in the last year. One of the books was What Would Lynne Tillman Do? Besides the first chapters on Andy Warhol driving me nuts- this book dug into some serious problems that artists face today. Tillman addressed the artists contemporary plight in domesticity, identity, merit, and research in every chapter. This novel uses interviews and stories from Tillmans own life, and blurrs the line between memory and reality.

As a group, Melissa Dorn, Peter Beck, Lois Bielefeld, Kate Schaffer and myself put together an exhibition at Frank Juarez Gallery that investigated our research into this book and author. This exhibition, What Would We Do With Lynne Tillman?, dug into new domesticity and the spaces between reality, memory and research.

We wrapped up this exhibition with a Skype conversation with Tillman herself. This exhibition echoed a domestic space and the entire space functioned as a typer pf performance for every viewer. Shane McAdams article describes the exhibition and what we are artists learned from the novel and making the work better than I ever could.

Enjoy, and reach out with any comment or questions!

Below are images from the exhibition that were taken the incredible Lois Bielefeld and a link to an article on the exhibition written by Shane McAdams for Shepherd Express.

https://shepherdexpress.com/arts-and-entertainment/visual-art/frank-juarez-and-friends-lynne-tillman/












Comments

Popular posts from this blog

700 Sculptures, 10 Days...

In February, I was privileged to receive a residency at Ronald Reagan Elementary, in New Berlin, WI. With Cindy Hollbrook and Mrs. Burg (RR's art teacher) we used found objects, recycled materials as well as plaster, clay, floral foam, and balsa foam to create abstract sculptures with all 700 students. It was exhausting and magical. Below you will find some photos of my favorite pieces and a short video chronicling our final art show!

Surrogacy.. Surrogate Place

Madison LaVallee, a fellow graduate student in mixed media at SUNY Albany, and I collaborated this last week to create an interactive installation. We called it Surrogate Place.... Make It Your own. The exhibition involved three stages, or sets, designed to operate as domestic interiors. We created specifically three shared spaces of a home; a kitchen, outdoor space, basement, and living room. In perfect Project Runway fashion, we then provided an accessory wall and "domestic directives" for groups and individuals to follow for specific allotted times. The project was design as a research project for us, but also as something the viewer could relate to and take home with them. Why do we place things in the places we do? Where do our things really belong? How does your understanding of an object shape the way it is used or misused? Video and photos of the manipulated spaces to follow!

Looking Back to Haiti...

Per the norm, this post is late and inconsistent. However, this time it is for good reason. As some of my friends and family know, I have gone to Haiti a few times working with an excellent organization called Healing Haiti. In an effort to make sure I am not relegating my work in Haiti to something akin to "poverty porn" I felt I needed some distance from my time in Haiti to make sure my own motives are right when sharing my time in Haiti with you. Healing Haiti is a christian organization, most organizations in Haiti are. I feel like it important to let you know that I have not gone to Haiti as an evangelist, my own motives were focused on art being a resource to people who are in desperate need of confidence, dignity and love. Healing Haiti is an incredible organization that is focused on the heart or Haiti- unemployment. 70% of the population in Haiti is unemployed, with unemployment come poverty, the decay of familial relationships, poor healthcare and nutrition and