WACK!: Art and the Feminist Revolution

Opening February 17, 2008 through May 12, 2008

P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center presents WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution, the first comprehensive, historical exhibition to examine the international foundations and legacy of feminist art. Organized by MOCA Ahmanson Curatorial Fellow Connie Butler for The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, WACK! focuses on the crucial period of the 1970s, during which the majority of feminist activism and artmaking occurred internationally. Praising the exhibition, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center Director Alanna Heiss notes: “In addition to exploring international occurrences of feminist art, the show emphasizes New York’s role in the movement, as well as its relationship with each artist involved. This is a particularly happy coincidence for P.S.1, as Connie Butler, the curator of WACK! in Los Angeles, has since last year joined the staff at the Museum of Modern Art, and will work on the very special installation of the exhibition with P.S.1 Director of Operations and Exhibitions Design Antoine Guerrero”. This exhibition will be displayed on the entire First and Second Floors, and in the Third Floor Main Gallery from February 17, 2008 through May 12, 2008.

The exhibition spans the period of 1965 to 1980 and includes 120 artists and artist groups from the United States, Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America, Asia, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. WACK! includes work by women who operated within the political structure of feminism as well as women who did not necessarily embrace feminism as part of their practice, but were impacted by the movement. Comprising work in a broad range of media—including painting, sculpture, photography, film, video, and performance art—the exhibition is organized around themes based on media, geography, formal concerns, collective aesthetic, and political impulses. The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue.

A series of performances and panel discussions presented in the Third Floor Main Gallery will connect featured artists with younger generations inspired by feminism.

http://www.ps1.org/ps1_site/content/view/285/102/

WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution is organized by The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.

White Plains, Yellow Rocks from the Ponde-r-rosa Series, 1975
Copyright © Marsie, Emanuelle, Damon and Andrew Scharlatt / VAGA, NY

http://www.usu.edu/artmuseum/press/horwitz.htm

Chung King Project is pleased to present a solo exhibition by Filipino artist Rommelo Yu ( born 1979 in Manilla ).
Raised in the United States and now a long-time resident of Berlin, Rommelo will present a large scale sculptural exploration of the legacy of Sol Lewitt.

Opening Reception on Saturday February 9th
6 to 9 pm

Chung King Project
945 Chung King Road
Los Angeles, CA 90012
USA
+1 213 625 1802
info@chungkingproject.com
www.chungkingproject.com

via http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2008-019

Mission control room at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Engineers at JPL’s mission control initiated a signal telling NASA’s Deep Space Network to send the song into space.

NASA and the Beatles Celebrate Anniversaries by Beaming Song ‘Across the Universe’ Into Deep Space
January 31, 2008

WASHINGTON – For the first time ever, NASA will beam a song – The Beatles “Across the Universe” — directly into deep space at 4 p.m. Pacific Time (7 p.m. Eastern Time) on Monday, Feb. 4.

The transmission over NASA’s Deep Space Network will commemorate the 40th anniversary of the day The Beatles recorded the song, as well as the 50th anniversary of NASA’s founding and the group’s beginnings. Two other anniversaries also are being honored: The launch 50 years ago this week of Explorer 1, the first U.S. satellite, and the founding 45 years ago of the Deep Space Network, an international network of antennas that supports missions to explore the universe.

Technicians at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., where the Deep Space Network is managed, will send the command that will start the transmission.

The transmission is being aimed at the North Star, Polaris, which is located 431 light years away from Earth. The song will travel across the universe at a speed of 186,000 miles per second. Former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney expressed excitement that the tune, which was principally written by fellow Beatle John Lennon, was being beamed into the cosmos.

“Amazing! Well done, NASA!” McCartney said in a message to the space agency. “Send my love to the aliens. All the best, Paul.”

Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono, characterized the song’s transmission as a significant event.

“I see that this is the beginning of the new age in which we will communicate with billions of planets across the universe,” she said.

It is not the first time Beatles music has been used by NASA; in November 2005, McCartney performed the song “Good Day Sunshine” during a concert that was transmitted to the International Space Station. “Here Comes the Sun,” “Ticket to Ride” and “A Hard Day’s Night” are among other Beatles’ songs that have been played to wake astronaut crews in orbit.

Feb. 4 has been declared “Across The Universe Day” by Beatles fans to commemorate the anniversaries. As part of the celebration, the public around the world has been invited to participate in the event by simultaneously playing the song at the same time it is transmitted by NASA. Many of the senior NASA scientists and engineers involved in the effort are among the group’s biggest fans.

“I’ve been a Beatles fan for 45 years – as long as the Deep Space Network has been around,” said Barry Geldzahler, the network’s program executive at NASA Headquarters, Washington. “What a joy, especially considering that ‘Across the Universe’ is my personal favorite Beatles song.”

JPL built the Explorer 1 satellite and is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its launch. JPL also operates NASA’s Deep Space Network. For information about the Deep Space Network, go to:

Media contacts: Michael Cabbage 202-358-1600
Headquarters, Washington
mcabbage@nasa.gov

Veronica McGregor 818-354-5011
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Ca.
veronica.mcgregor@jpl.nasa.gov

Martin Lewis 323-972-7755
Springtime!
martin@martinlewis.com

Diane Landry’s installation École d’aviation (Flying School), 2000, comprises twenty-four umbrellas—none by any stretch of the imagination elegant or even monochromatic—ranging in pattern from bookish bears and polychromatic flowers to two-tone blue tartan and colorful confectionary. Lit from below and mounted on steel tubes outfitted with a tape measure, these umbrellas open and close mournfully in concert with a wistful fugue generated by small, motor-driven accordions and electronic harmonicas that double as pedestals for the ready-made totems. A mildly concave white sheet suspended from the ceiling captures the steady expansion and retraction of the umbrellas as dark, shape-shifting fractals, creating a panoramic, kaleidoscopic effect. Though this assemblage of sound, movement, and form is unwieldy, ultimately the elements cohere and cooperate. The kinetic mechanism, though rather ad hoc and completely undisguised, does not detract from the poignant melody, nor does the combined effect of sound and motion distract attention from the silhouettes that play across the sheet above. While some works of visual art that metaphorize, derive from, or are inspired by sound or music fail as visual phenomena precisely because they mean to approximate unique sensations derived from auditory stimulus, with this installation, Landry has designed a way to render the visual musical and vice versa. École d’aviation is an epically untidy but ultimately hypnotic synthesis of visual, kinetic, and auditory concerns—a playful Gesamtkunstwerk in which each element retains complete, discrete integrity while contributing to an immersive multimedia experience.

—Christopher Bedford

Copyright 2008 © Artforum International Magazine, New York, NY

February 1, 2008, pg.E33

AROUND THE GALLERIES
By Holly Myers, Special to the Times

Meditation led by a peaceful Landry

The recent rains were a fitting accompaniment to Quebec artist Diane Landry’s “École d’aviation” (Flying School) at SolwayJones, a charming installation devoted to what you might call the inner life of the umbrella.

The installation consists of two dozen multicolored umbrellas mounted at different heights on small mechanized stands. Engines raise each umbrella up and down, opening and closing it at varying intervals, while simultaneously pumping a handmade bellows that’s been fitted with a harmonica reed to produce a droning two-note sound. Spotlights mounted to the base of each stand project shifting, snowflake-like shadows on a scrim overhead as the canopies flare and retract.

The movement — slow, rhythmic and wonderfully soothing — is synchronized into a 30-minute loop that culminates in a joyful crescendo of luminescence. The impression is that of a living organism, characterized by interweaving cycles of breath that gradually come to encompass a viewer’s own breathing and induce a meditative participation.
Copyright 2008 Los Angeles Times