Audrey Chan.

Audrey Chan, Mrs. X, found electrical outlet cover, false eyelashes, electrical tape, 2005

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

_______________________:___________________, A Solo Show

November 29th- December 7th, 2008

Reception: Saturday, November 29th, 8 – 11 PM

Sea and Space is offering every artist we know a solo show in late November. The largest solo show ever will feature the work of 100 artists, who will be able to list this solo show on their resume by entering their name and show title into the blanks in the central title. The show will enhance the careers of all artists, subverting the way art projects are documented and defined.

While there is no limitation on the number of works for this show, artists will be sharing limited space. Work will hang from the walls, ceilings, rolling walls, and pedestals redefining solo show presentation and practice. Work may even be leaning, with care, on someone else’s.

Many of the pieces will roll over into the next show, the holiday raffle. This fundraiser will help Sea and Space Explorations raise the application fees to attain non-profit status.

Sea and Space Explorations
4755 York Blvd, LA, CA 90042
http://www.seaandspace.org
Gallery is open Sundays 1-5 PM and by appointment
Tel.: 323-445-4015. email: info@seaandspace.org

DIRECTIONS from Los Angeles: From the 5, take the 2 north. Take the Verdugo Road exit. Left onto Eagle Rock Boulevard. Right onto York Boulevard (major cross street is Armadale Boulevard).

Chan & Mann hosting Exchange Rate: 2008 on Election Night (with photographer Vivian Babuts). Photo credit: Jean-Paul Leonard

Essay published in …might be good, Issue #109, Bring Your Umbrella, October 31, 2008.

Adrian Piper, Cornered, 1988 (Collection Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Bernice and Kenneth Newberger Fund) © 1988 Adrian Piper

I’m black. Now, let’s deal with the social fact and the fact of my stating it together.
–Adrian Piper, Cornered (1988)

I wrote this essay partly because of a nagging resistance to the idea of Barack Obama as a messiah. I would like the banners of “Hope” and “Change” to be put away soon. They make me nervous. They are too full of potential and of dreams deferred. It makes the moment too fragile. The most important thing that we can ask from a leader is accountability. By focusing primarily on rhetoric, the effective and persuasive use of language and the art of influencing an audience, in the case of Obama and Adrian Piper, my hope is that lessons can be drawn from both of their rhetorical approaches to the subject of race, a subject that is bound to take on new dimensions in the very near future. It will be a struggle that is characterized by a conflict of a generous hope and faith in humanity on the one hand and on the other a deep irony that may be more accurate in describing the situation on the ground.

The 2008 election season is roiling to an explosive finish. Senator Barack Obama, young, gifted, and black, is forecasted to win decisively. We don’t yet know if his campaign will fall victim to the Bradley Effect or rampant voter fraud; we don’t yet know how we will speak about race post-11/4. The language that we currently use to talk about race and racism descends from a history of pain. The verbal trauma of this history is manifested in a rich vocabulary of oppression, slavery, and victimization. Barack Obama presents a new situation that begs the question: what will happen to the conventional power dynamics of racial discourse when the Other assumes the mantle of “Leader of the Free World”?

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In Spring 2007 at CalArts, I was Teaching Assistant to Nancy Buchanan and Sam Durant for their new course, ID 517: Special Topics in Art and Politics: A Not So Simple Case for Torture. Students from the School of Art and School of Film/Video came together to discuss and make work about government sanctioned use of torture in war and interrogation. We investigated primary documents circulated within the Department of Justice that provided the legal justification for the use of torture. The title of the course referenced Martha Rosler’s video, A Simple Case for Torture, or How to Sleep at Night (1983). There were incredible guest speakers (including Martha Rosler, Dev Nathan, Ashley Hunt, and Gabriele Schwab), readings, screenings, and a class exhibition, Sam and Nancy organized a book project published through onestar press. The book is now available for purchase and download.

Download a free .pdf of the book or purchase a copy here:
http://www.onestarpress.com/A-Not-So-Simple-Case-for-Torture

Direct link to .pdf file: http://www.onestarpress.com/IMG/pdf/durant_int_OK-screen.pdf

As my contribution to the book, I wrote an essay about participating in the March 17, 2007 anti-war protest in Hollywood organized by ANSWER LA and reflections on our interaction with the news media, notably the LA Times. Follow the jump to read.

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Mark your calendars for: The triumphant return of CHAN & MANN!

Tuesday November 4, 2008 / 7 – 10pm
At Remy’s on Temple, 2126 W. Temple St., Los Angeles, CA 90026
Recession Special: $5 at the door and cheap drinks!
After party at WILDNESS, 10: 30 pm the Silver Platter, 2700 W. 7th St., LA, CA 90057

Are you PUMPED ?!!

I mean, really, aren’t you?

___
Campaign Trail: The Election in Action
Exchange Rate: 2008 Website Launched

Los Angeles, CA, Aug 04, 2008 - Trade&Row announces the launch of the Exchange Rate: 2008 website. Visit http://www.exchangerate2008.com to learn more about Exchange Rate: 2008, the participants and upcoming events related to the project.

About Exchange Rate: 2008
Exchange Rate: 2008, is an international performance exchange organized by artist Elana Mann in response to the 2008 US presidential elections. A select group of international artists from Australia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Denmark, Ecuador, Israel, Lithuania, Mexico, Nicaragua, Portugal, Scotland, South Korea, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and the United States will produce, exchange and interpret performance directions related to the election campaign. Each performance made for the exchange will be a public act, whether in a gallery space or on a street corner. The project will manifest on the web and in a series of live performances and screenings in Los Angeles and abroad culminating with an elaborate election night bash.

On November 4th, Exchange Rate: 2008, in partnership with Trade&Row’s Campaign Trail: The Election in Action series, will produce an evening full of performative punditry, raucous referendums and live coverage of election night activities world-wide. This series of performances will mirror the pageantry of the international political arena and track attempts to engage and affect this seemingly impenetrable stage.

Participating Artists
Danielle Adair (USA), Karen Atkinson (USA), Luchezar Boyadjiev (BULGARIA), Camlab (Jemima Wyman, AUSTRALIA and Anna Mayer USA), Audrey Chan (USA), Bruce Conkle (USA), Maile Colbert and Rui Costa (PORTUGAL), Dorit Cypis (USA), Zackary Drucker (USA), Ana Fernandez (ECUADOR), Liz Glynn (USA), Lora Ivanova (USA), Kevin Jamieson (UK), Eva Jung (USA/SOUTH KOREA), Soren Thilo Funder & Stine Marie Jacobson (DENMARK), Jason Kunke (USA), Michael Lazar and Marc Lewis (ISRAEL), Jean Pierrer Lapeyre (SCOTLAND), Julie Lequin (CANADA), Eric Lindley (USA), Elana Mann (USA), Emery Martin (USA), Sibyl O’Malley (USA), Adam Overton (USA), Aiste Ptakauske (LITHUANIA), Vincent Ramos (LA), Pablo Rasgado (MEXICO), R.E.P. (UKRAINE), Sara Roberts (LA), Ernesto Salmeson (NICARAGUA), Marssares Selector (BRAZIL), Melissa Wyman (SOUTH KOREA)

Upcoming Exchange Rate: 2008 Events
Aug. 30th-Sept. 4th
Exchange Rate: 2008 will partner up with the Unconvention (http://www.theunconvention.com) for arts events in Minneapolis during the Republican National Convention.

Saturday, Oct. 4th, 8-10pm
Performance evening hosted by Farmlab, 1745 N. Spring St., Los Angeles, CA 90012 (http://www.farmlab.org)

Sunday, Oct. 26th, 6-8pm
Performance evening at Sea and Space Explorations, 4755 York Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90042 (http://www.seaandspace.org), in partnership with the exhibition “The Audacity of Desperation” (http://desperationexhibition.blogspot.com)

About Elana Mann
Elana Mann, the organizer and a participant of Exchange Rate: 2008, is an interdisciplinary artist based in Los Angeles, CA. Mann (MFA Calarts, ’07), has exhibited both nationally and internationally including “From A to B,” (Fellows of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, 2008), “The Collective Body” (Galerie Califia, Czech Republic, 2007), and “Abre-Alas” (A Gentil Carioca, Rio de Janeiro, BR, 2007). From 2004-7 Mann organized “TROCA: Brasil/US” an art exchange between artists from the United States and Brazil. In 2007 Mann co-organized “Exquisite Acts and Everyday Rebellions; 2007 CalArts Feminist Art Project.” Mann’s projects have been reviewed in the Los Angeles Times, NPR, Artweek, O Globo, O Jornal do Brasil and Veja magazine. For more information please visit www.elanamann.com.

About Campaign Trail: The Election in Action
Trade&Row presents Campaign Trail: The Election in Action, a series of performances and work by artists who bring their interpretation of the presidential campaign to a public forum, from July through November 2008.

The series examines many aspects of this year’s election and the political process in general, and explores what will engage American voters to want to reclaim their power in the political process.

For more information, please visit: http://www.tradeandrow.org/campaigntrail/

About Trade&Row
Trade&Row is a nonprofit organization established to raise awareness of current social issues. Our projects are designed to bring people together and facilitate dialogue, and require community participation to be successful. We are focused on developing and producing community-oriented programs and events that are accessible, inclusive and conversational.
For more information, please email: info@tradeandrow.org

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Part 4

The French Blob comics (2002-4) are now online! Click on image to view.

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digital video loop, 23:23 minute total running time, 2006

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Lloyd Hamrol and his sculpture Woven Cone (1973) at California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, California on May 22, 2007. Photo credit: Audrey Chan. (Click image to read interview.)

Last May, Tom Lawson invited me to interview artist and former School of Art faculty Member, Lloyd Hamrol, whose collaborative rope sculpture Woven Cone (1973) was an iconic fixture on the CalArts campus. During my two years at CalArts, I would pass it everyday as I walked to my studio. The sculpture had taken on a fairly legendary status - if decrepit in aspect - as a rumored site of marriage proposal and a totem to animistic pseudo-spiritual rituals. Regardless, it was one of the few pieces of public art on campus and its hippie aesthetic and modest presence hearkened back to the early days of the institution as much as Frank Gehry’s post-cataclysmic concrete fortress architecture. Read more »