I NEED MORE!!

The tasks have been coming in....slowly........I encourage many many more.

The problem I'm having though, is that I'm not really getting "tasks" as I am "projects". I'm getting a lot submissions that are more ideas for art pieces that I could do with some rules tacked on, which isn't quite what I had in mind. I looked up the definition of "task" online...this may help you in helping me with this project.

task (tsk)
n.
1. A piece of work assigned or done as part of one's duties.
2. A difficult or tedious undertaking.
3. A function to be performed; an objective.
tr.v. tasked, task·ing, tasks
1. To assign a task to or impose a task on.
2. To overburden with labor; tax.
Idiom:
take/call/bring to task
To reprimand or censure.
[Middle English taske, imposed work, tax, from Old North French tasque, from Vulgar Latin *tasca, alteration of *taxa, from Latin taxre, to feel, reproach, reckon; see tax.]

Synonyms: task, job1, chore, stint1, assignment

******These nouns denote a piece of work that one must do. A task is a well-defined responsibility that is usually imposed by another and that may be burdensome: I stayed at work late to finish the task at hand.****




Think completley ridiculous, uncomfortable, tiring, banal, boring, time consuming, physically challenging, completley NON "ART" RELATED. Think tasks that completley challenge the assumed definition of "art".

I'm not discouraging tasks that involve typical art forms, if you think of a task that involves a typical art form like painting, drawing, installation, etc. try and take it out of the context of making a piece of "art". What I'm going for is more emphasis placed on the ACTION....the "process" of the task rather than the end product. For example, I just finished a piece where I used a whole stick of graphite just by making marks. The marks themselves were irrelevant. I wasn't trying to make a visually pleasing art object. The marks were just the result of trying to wear down this stick of graphite until it was all used up. This then becomes a "task", where the effort of pushing through the task to reach the end goal becomes the art, not the end product itself.

So that's just to give you a point of reference. The ones that have come in so far are creative and great, and will definitely be saved and considered, but this follow up is just to give you an idea of what i am looking for in these responses.


I NEED MORE!!! LOTS MORE!!! Tell everyone you know! send mass emails to all your coworkers, just don't get fired. I need tasks from strangers as well! At least, strangers to me. I got one from my Dad's secretary whom I've never met....good enough.


AzoniArt@yahoo.com. send them there.

NEED YOUR PARTICIPATION!!!

Okay...I need as many people to participate in this as possible. This includes family, friends, non-artists, artists....ANYONE.

As some of you may know I've begun to do a lot of task based work, where I come up with a task, and a set of rules and fulfill the task. For example my last piece was to buy a stick of graphite, and simply fill up sheets of 22x30 " canson paper until the whole graphite stick was used up.

Now...here's where you come in. I want to involve the viewers in this process. So what I need is this:

Come up a with a task for me to complete. This can be something like the example I mentioned..for example "draw 2000 circles on one piece of paper", or it can be more performance based that doesn't necessarily involve any traditional "art making" materials. An example of this would be "for a whole day you can't make any right turns. You can only make left turns." These tasks don't' even have to be ones that I have to complete alone. They can involve community such as finding a partner or a group, or even a crowd of people to complete the task.

So your options are pretty wide open. But specifically what I need is for anyone that wants to participate in this to submit the following in writing (typing):

1. An overview of the task to be completed.
2. *important* a list of rules for me to follow . If no rules are submitted, or if any rule is left out, I will assume that part, or all of it is up to me to complete however I want.
3. Your name

So in a sense this will leave the idea up to you-the general public-and the completion of the task up to me, or me and a number of people depending on the rules of the task. The final work will have been a collaboration between viewer and artist. The reason I ask you to include your name is so that if the documentations of the tasks (final drawings, paintings, pictures, videos) get shown, the name of the creator of the task will be credited.

All the submissions will be saved and I will choose which ones to complete, based on which ones seem most feasible at the time, and how comfortable I am with the task.

I REALLY encourage NON-ARTISTS to submit. That would be ideal as it would be coming from a mindset different from my own. Though of course all are encouraged to submit tasks. As many as you want, but try to get me some sooner than later so I have at least a few to think over and plan.

Submissions can either be left as a comment here, or emailed to me at AzoniArt@yahoo.com.


Thanks so much! GET CREATING!!!

Paris Art.

I decided to maybe skip the Rome art scene because I didn't really get much from it. The galleries I tried to go to were all closed when I got there, though I did happen to wonder into a few galleries and find a common thread: Mario Ceroli.


I have the name of this artist, just not with me at the moment. I enjoyed this show though. It was pretty humorous, with these big snowmen everywhere.

This guy goes by one name. Bard. like madonna or something.

This was a Joseph Beuys piece at the Centre Pompidou. He took this room and installed sound insallation all over it.




Ornesto Netto in the pantheon.

Tony Cragg installation.



Vija Celmins at the Centre Pompidou. Very good show...click on the images for a larger view. They're kind of hard to see in this format.


That's just barely scratching the surface of the art I saw in Paris, but honestly I don't have the patience for this blogger thing right now.

Pandora dot com.

So I found this really incredible site for finding new music. it's pandora.com.

Say you really like Bob Dylan. So you would go to this website and type in "Bob Dylan" and it will create a radio station consisting of Bob Dylan songs and all these other artists that sound like Bob Dylan. So it's like an instant mix of all these musicians that sound like whatever artist you want to hear. You can type in any musician...they have quite a large database. Then they just create a free radio station for you based on all the other artists that have maybe similar chord progressions, similar harmonies, or overall sound. It's incredible! You can't download them to your computer, but from there you could find a new artist that you really like and then go on another music downloading site like iTunes and download their CD. You can also register on the site for free, and start an account like you would any other site, and they'll save up to 100 "stations" of your favorite artists. So say you're in the mood for rock and roll. you would click on your "The Rolling Stones" station and hear all the bands that sound like "The Rolling Stones".

So it's pretty neat. Right now I'm listening to Steve Goodman, an artist I've never heard of based off typing in Nick Drake. Next up is Neil Young.

Anyway....thought some of you would enjoy that. I just discovered it today.

In other news, I JUST finished my latest project that has taken me several days to complete. I bought a single stick of graphite and simply filled up page after page of 22"x30" paper until the whole stick of graphite was used up. It was pretty labor intensive. the graphite was pretty resilient. At the Vernisage I will display all 10 or so pieces of paper all covered solid in graphite, and buy another stick of graphite for the viewers to do the same thing on blank pieces of paper. When one gets filled up, I'll replace it with a clean one and they can scribble and draw and work towards wearing down the graphite. So I'm pretty satisfied with where my work is going. It turns out that "the birthing" (the piece with the mattress and the paper airplanes) caused quite a controversy here at the studio. A lot of the girls didn't like it because they found it offensive to women. It was even suggested that I didn't put it in the vernisage because of it. To me, it talks nothing of anything having to do with women...it became, to me, more of a take on the end times. I'm glad there were strong feelings about it though. Art should stir things up a little.

Right now I'm drinking this new Beaujolais wine that came out. Every year in france they have a holiday where they release a new bottle of wine, and according to the locals it's usually really bad wine because it's brand new and hasn't been aged at all. The general verdict of the new Beaujolais is that it "tastes like vinegar". And then they make fun of all the tourists who buy it. I bought it just to say that I tried it. It tastes fine to me. Tastes like red wine. I'm still working on my pallete for telling the difference between good and bad wines.

that's all. back to work.

paris

okay so these pictures are all out of order. but I'm too lazy to mess with this blogger thing. So paris was great. I had such a blast with everyone. It was a good mix of hanging out with artsy CAC kids and non-artists. Sometimes I really need a break from the creative types. It was probably the best weekend since being here. I would love to live in paris at least for a few years. I did some sight seeing, but mostly did a lot of museum visiting, and gallery hopping, and shopping. Best of all, it was my 22 birthday and I got to spend it in paris with a bunch of great people that took me out for an enjoyable evening. here are the highlights:


On the last day I was in Paris, I got to walk around by myself and sort of see paris on my own terms which was great. I did some christmas shopping, gallery hopping, and best of all happened upon this really good jazz band called "the wedding band" that was playing on a bridge over the seine river. they were really good.


This was an Ornesto Netto (not sure if I spelled that right) installation at the Pantheon. He hung this massive installation of nylon sewn into these long tubes and webs...and then he filled the tubes with styrofome beads and sand to make them droop from the cieling of the pantheon. Detroit artist Lisa Whiting also works in this vein. They have very similar work. Only hers is on a much smaller scale and she hand-weaves her nylons.

Robert Rauschenberg installation at the Centre Pompidu. An incredible museum if you ever go to paris.

Vija Celmins also had a show at the Centre Pompidu. Click on the image for the larger version....though I will do an art post next. I know I said that last time. I just haven't gotten around to it yet. I still need to post italy art pictures.

My birthday! This was a band that came in and played in the "big band" style with all kinds of horns and such. they were really fun and danced around on the bar and on steps. it was cool.

friends...

more friends...


At the louvre. We took a bunch of goofy pictures. All 12 of us in my program formed a human piramid and had our picture taken. I don't have it on my camera though. It was a very sloppy piramid, but it was fun.

Notre Dame.

Inside the Notre Dame.

The Gallerie Lafayette is this big shopping mall place that had just put up their christmas lights. it was pretty incredible at night. All along that street as well they had these puppet window installations that were pretty interesting. Very christmasy, I guess if you like puppets.


So that's paris in a very small nutshell. Today we have a guest artist coming to speak at our seminar. I can't remember his name, but apparantly he runs this gallery in London. Art post soon to come I promise...for those of you that were hoping for more art on this blog.

Creative Peoples Network.

I got a call from my dad the other day saying that I hadn't updated my blog in almost a week, and he was wondering if I was still alive. I didn't know I was that addicted to the internet..or that he was. So yes, I'm still alive. Here's all that's been going on:

I have some work up in this really great online zine called Creative Peoples Network. It's based out of Detroit, and consists of music, poetry, and visual art. Go to issue 3 to see my work, and while you're at it check out what everyone else has been up to in Detroit in the other issues.

I'm getting ready to leave for Paris on wednesday. I'm pretty excited. I'm going with my program, as well as my art history class. So It'll be a great time with a lot of my friends and we'll be seeing lots of contemporary art while we're there. I'll be back on sunday. The following weekend I'm thinking of going to Berlin to check out what is now the #2 art capitol of the world next to New York. I have heard nothing but great things about Berlin, it's efficiency, low cost of living, and amazing contemporary art scene. So I'm excited to check it out before I leave Europe.

I've taken a dive back into painting. It's nice to back, though I haven't abandoned my other work. This particular painting is being done on a big cafe umbrella sheet that I found in the garbage. so if you can imagine, it's a giant circle with a hole in the middle. In the final showing it will be more conceptual as I will "complete" the painting which is turning out to be a gathering of all kinds of different ideas, moods, marks, and imagery as the days progress. I'm sort of just putting everything onto one canvas...sort of like a progression of inspiration in one piece. And then at the Vernisage (the big art exhibition for my program on Dec. 8) I will allow viewers to paint, draw, do whatever to the painting...so in a sense potentially "completing" it or "ruining" it in my view as there is the potential for them to make marks or draw things or write things that don't represent me or what I would do as an artist. So I'm basicly leaving the painting at the mercy of the viewer.

That's all for now. go check out that webzine and leave some comments!

This took me forever to post.

Well I made it back from Italy, and I had a great time. It was very exhausting and I wouldn't want to travel around by myself for longer than I did. I'm very glad to be "home" and not feel like I have to be on the go all the time and see everything there is to see. Anyway, here are the highlights.

I think I mentioned before about a random italian guy seeing figuring I wasn't from the area and just handed me this guide book of Rome. Well I took a picture because it was quite and act of God.

Above and below is the Piazza di Popolo at sunset. I climbed to the top of this hill that overlooks the Plaza...i managed to catch it right at sunset, not to mention there was a beautiful garden on top of the hill that I think I remember biking around when I was in Italy as a teenager. The Piazza di Popolo/spanish steps area was by far my favorite part of Rome.


I decided to skip the really touristy things that I've already seen before and just sort of breeze by them instead. This is one of them. I went to the Vatican at night, but didn't bother going inside or seeing the vatican museum again. I didn't really have the patience to wait in a huge line, so I opted for just enjoying my surroundings and focusing more on the contemporary art scene. Which I will post pictures of in the next blog entry..dedicated to art in italy.


Also one of my favorite things that I saw in Rome....FREE HUGS!! I saw this and thought it was awesome, and little did I know that this is actually a big craze going around the world where people-inpired by this video- are doing this on their own all across the globe. It really made me happy! I would love to do this in Aix. The people were so cool and it was really funny to watch!



So now I'm in Florence.




These pictures were taken walking through this garden by the modern art gallery, which was hardly modern or exciting and a big waste of 8.50 euro. But the garden made up for it. It was so gorgeous and there were random sculptures sprinkled throughout that were pretty interesting. Some were contemporary some were your typical classical figures.

This was over by the Ufizzi Gallery which I didn't go in because the line was really long and I wasn't really in the mood to wait in line, and I'm pretty sure I've been there before anyway.


I think I mentioned before that my hostel in Florence was a like living in a frat. Here's proof. Though they did treat all the guests to a halloween party complete with free food and drinks. I drank some chianti, and sangria and ate some food but played no part in getting (insert frat boy voice) "TOTALLY WASTED!!!"





Halloween party at the hostel.

And these were some kids dressed up in town. I'm not sure if they do trick or treating the same but it seemed the were all gathering around people that were in the streets handing out some candy rather than going door to door.






The above pictures are from Cinque Terre. One of the stretches of footpaths between the 2nd and 3rd village (I can't remember their names) was closed for construction. Apparantly there was a landslide. So we hiked 20 minutes to the second village and took the train to the 3rd and hiked for about 2 hours from there. It was really strenuous...up like 234783798 stairs towards the top of a mountain, then along a narrow footpath on the side of the mountain, down some jagged rocks....etc. It was awesome though. Probably the most gorgeous place I've ever been. All along the side of the mountains are grape vines and olive trees....and these villages are so quaint and isolated on the tops of these hills...though it's pretty much all tourists. It's also the region where pesto originated.

I should probably mention right about here my complete incompetence when it comes to traveling or being present minded in general. I should also mention that it's not the best idea to travel with someone who is equally incompetent and absent minded about traveling. I went with another artist from Wisconsin to Cinque Terre. We got to the train station, figured out what train was ours, and waited in front of our train for literally 20 minutes completely unaware that that was the train we needed to be on. In our defense the sign above said it was going to a different stop, though in small letters said "pisa" where we needed to go to switch trains to Cinque Terre. We figured that meant that Pisa was the next train that was on its way. so the departure time came and went and just as we realized that that was the train we needed to be on, we watched it pull away. So feeling like idiots we walked around the train station in the cold...couldn't find any place to sit and drink coffee in our defeat. So we came back for round 2 to Pisa. This time we got on the train and made it to Riomaggiore, the first village in Cinque Terre. So we do the whole hike thing, and we're tired and ready to go back to the hostel in florence. We buy our tickets, wait for the train...and now on a side note let me just say to make a mistake once is pretty frustrating...but to make the SAME MISTAKE twice is just ridiculous-so the train to back to la Spezia comes and Pat second guesses that that was the train we needed to be on. In the 3 seconds it took us to figure out that, yes, that was the train we needed to be on, the doors shut and it took off. So another hour we waited feeling like idiots once again. By this time we're exhausted and just wanting to get back already. We get on the right train..get our tickets to florence at la spezia, and off we go. Well the train that we were on that the ticket lady told us went all the way to Florence, really only went about halfway to Florence to the last stop at some random train station about 20 minutes past Pisa. So we get off all confused, realize there's no more trains to Florence from that station and decided to go BACK to Pisa in hopes that there would be another train and we wouldn't have to spend the night in a sketchy train station. luckily we get to Pisa and catch the very last train to Florence and make it back. It was by far the best and the worst day of the trip.


Before Cinque Terre though I spent a few hours in Pisa. Pretty much all there is to do there is see the leaning tower and the Duomo and eat food. It's not very exciting. It was also 15 Euro just to climb the tour because they wouldn't let you go up on your own, you had to pay for a guided tour. I didn't feel the need for a tour. It's pretty self explanitory.



The courtyard with the tower and the Duomo was PACKED with Asians. They loooove to take pictures of each other holding the tower up. And I enjoyed taking pictures of them taking pictures of each other.


This picture happens to be one of my all time favorites. My New Zealand friend Charlotte who accompanied me described this an as "orgy of asian tourists" or something along those lines. I couldn't have said it better myself.

I decided to join in on the fun.


So that was my trip in a nutshell.

Now back in France, yesterday a bunch of us from church fasted lunch and instead gave our meals to people in Aix that needed it. It was a frustrating expierience for my friend Amber and I who did this together. We went shopping and made some pretty phenominal sandwiches, complete with a big water bottle and fruit and choclate biscuit things. NOBODY WANTED OUR FOOD!! There are beggers all over the place but half the people who we asked if they were hungry said "uh...not really..." We ended up walking around for about 2 hours before we finally got rid of our food. I hated that it came to the point of "getting rid" of our blessing to these people, but it did and it kinda sucked, but in the end it turned out to be a good experience once I got past my frustration and my bad mood over the situation. It sucks when you have this great idea to do something good for other people and it doesn't quite turn out like you imagine it being. But the best part was us all coming together for a big dinner...so it was sort of a fast, serve, and feast day which ended up being really fun. I'm going to miss all these people when I leave.

And finally, I was told by a french friend of my host mom's tonight that my french has improved a lot. I am starting to comprehend what they say a little easier and I can sometimes say what I want to say without pausing inbetween every word. And also my host mom's mother turned 101 yesterday. I've never seen her, but I'll bet she looks really old.