AIR Program

Here's the video that I showed at my closing reception at Mass Art on 6/24. What a great evening!

The Berwick is very excited to bring you our two Artists in Research for the 2009 season. The first AIR artist starts April 1st - VERY soon. Keep an eye out for information on the opening.

Bonnie Bastien and Nova Benway
Co-Curators for the AIR Program

April 1st - June 15th
Joshua Pablo Rosenstock
 
Joshua Pablo Rosenstock is a multimedia artist, musician, and educator based in Boston. His work explores the process of remixing via the creation of new instruments, interactive interfaces, and multimedia installations. With the Berwick, Rosenstock will be working on "Shrine to the Funky Drummer", a multimedia installation that will seek to portray a specific instance of media sampling as an archetypal cultural moment and a lens through which to examine a multifaceted story of creative appropriation.  The "Funky Drummer" is a five-second excerpt from a James Brown song that has been used as the foundation of hundreds of other musical compositions and is one of popular music's most famous samples.

During his project, he'll be gathering, creating, and presenting artifacts and "holy relics" that explore the early history of Hip Hop and the creative acts of sampling and remixing.  Rosenstock will be investigating debates about copyright and fair use in relation to Afro-Diasporic musical notions of "versioning," the fetishistic culture of record-digging, and postmodern theoretical questions about authorship in the age of digital (re)production.

Check out his website for more of his work.

July 1st - September 15th
Eve Lynne Essex

Eve Essex is a Providence-based artist whose work suggests that history is as malleable as fiction.  She attempts neutralize the authority of 'proper' history by suggesting a multiplicity of alternatives. In video, sculpture, photography and performance, she explores historical moments and figures as a site for active re-interpretation. With the Berwick she will be working on "How to Improve the World", a project that blurs the roles of artist and anthropologist. Her object of study will be the Marxist composer Cornelius Cardew and his avant-garde musical milieu of the 60s and 70s.  Essex will adopt the political battles waged in Cardew's social and musical life as the subject for a historical archive and library.  

Through video, interviews, writing, and collaborative performances in the guise of "historical reenactments" I will collect and fabricate a range of historical recordings and documents-a body of generated materials that make up the collection of this library.  This factual, albeit highly subjective history will serve a theatrical framework for investigations of the artist's role as public intellectual, and the mythical status of canonical modern artists.

“How to Improve the World” is a project that blurs the roles of artist and anthropologist.

My object of study will be the Marxist composer Cornelius Cardew and his avant-garde musical milieu of the 60s and 70s.  I wish to adopt the political battles waged in Cardew’s social and musical life as the subject for a historical archive and library. 

Through video, interviews, writing, and collaborative performances in the guise of “historical reenactments” I will collect and fabricate a range of historical recordings and documents—a body of generated materials that make up the collection of this library.  This factual, albeit highly subjective history will serve a theatrical framework for investigations of the artist’s role as public intellectual, and the mythical status of canonical modern artists. 

My central focus will be a recreation of Cardew’s “Scratch Orchestra.” Active in the late 60s and early 70s, this Marxist orchestra, made up of musicians, non-musicians, and performance artists, was originally founded not in practice but in print. Their manifesto, “Draft Constitution for a Scratch Orchestra,” will serve as the score for the creation of a new, fully functional ensemble.

Realizing that the reality we live in is a construct of arbitrary norms, I am interested in exploring various modes of existence.  Unlearning the presupposed outcomes that I’ve been taught frees me to navigate and experience the world in a completely fresh manner, responding and adapting to situations with a minimum of bias, and inventing new realities.

Often, my work involves the creation of a ‘character’ that represents a certain belief structure, and around which develops a story.  The subject is outfitted with clothing or structures that are an augmentation or extension of the body, and blend aspects of fashion, packaging and architecture. The character is documented in situations that parody real events, highlighting and exaggerating oddities of human behavior

The backbone of my methodology is a relentless commitment to drawing; on paper, on walls, large or small, this two dimensional aspect of my work functions as both blueprint for more elaborate projects and compositional playgrounds where thoughts overlap and intertwine.  These pieces can stand alone, or more often are reconfigured into sub-components of three-dimensional constructions. 

Responding largely to my immediate surroundings, I look for materials that have been passed over by society, our garbage is the greatest marker of our civilization (or lack of).  My approach to manipulating these materials has taken a decidedly more low-tech approach recently.  For the past year, I have existed as a non-packagitarian  (a lifestyle which avoids the consumption of packaged goods).  The recurrent theme of packaging speaks to a pandemic fear of contamination, detachment from our surroundings, and the containment of our built environs.

I invite the viewer, if only for a brief second, to laugh at ourselves, and the state that humanity finds itself in.  With a lighthearted approach, this work creates lasting impressions that can be appreciated on many levels.  

THE IDEA:

This proposal is for the request of the use of any available existing space at the Berwick Research Institute for the month of May 2003. The intended use for the space is to allow Brendon Wood and the Devil Music Ensemble the time and space to explore the various means of musical expression in a controlled improvisatory atmosphere. The group is currently preparing for a performance of the music of local composers, similar to the performance held December 14th, 2001 at the BRI. The time and space would allow the group to explore and incorporate several aspects of instrumental technique, technology, and musical interpretation into each players musical vocabulary. Through weekly meetings (2-3 times per week) the ensemble will collectively compose a larger body of work based on elements of improvisation as well as organized structure. Potentially, ultimately performed in 5:1 surround sound. As well, this project shall be open to any musician who demonstrates a certain proficiency on his or her instrument.

THE ENSEMBLE

The ensemble is currently a collective of 24 players. Instruments include violin, viola, violincello, contrebasse, clarinet (Bb/Bass), saxophones (soprano, alto, tenor, baritone), bassoon, baritone horn, french horn, percussion, electric guitars.
Created in 1999, the Devil Music Ensemble is a tool used to explore many of the exciting aspects of music.

SUPPORT

This idea is supported and enthused wholly by Dr. David Patterson/Professor of Theory/Composition at the University of Massachusetts who will also aid in steering this project toward an enlightening, educational and enjoyable experience.

Responding to the role that transportation and urban planning play in the physical, social, and economic conditions of communities, artists Heather Clark (Boston, MA) and Matthew Mazzotta (Burlington, VT) plan to invent, construct and pilot a fully functional 15-20-person "busycle". Once constructed, the busycle will be driven in the city of Boston following a predetermined and socially responsive route and schedule. The route will begin in Dudley Square (home of the Berwick) and will travel to key points determined by residents in the neighborhood.

My two months at the Berwick Research Institute (BRI) followed five months of commuting between a job in New York City and living and working in Boston. The timeliness of being in Lower Manhattan in September 2001 influenced my proposal to be an Artist in Research at the BRI. I needed the space to work alone, but the support of a community. I wanted to work without preconceptions or commitments to an end product. The BRI members responded by dedicating a quarter of their space to constructing a semi-private studio space and helping move my materials, including 80 ten-gallon aquariums, into the studio.

I had become preoccupied with photographs printed in newspapers and the means by which we remember, appropriate, and project meaning on images. The reoccurring photographs of the World Trade Center confirmed and explained what I experienced in Lower Manhattan. Without a recording device to mediate the events, I was forced to cope with the events as they were happening, instead of in the manner with which I had become comfortable. Video and still photographs had assumed the roles of intermediaries for my experiences. Relying on other peopleís photographs and video, I reconciled the images I retained in my memory with the images provided in the newspaper. I cut photos out of the New York Times and Boston Globe and created a wall of images. This motivated my conversations with writer Ken Chang. Ken used one of these images to develop a short story.

Two years after my residency, I created the piece Frames, a descendant of the newspaper images. Using picture frames of different sizes and styles, I framed portraits and snapshots of immediate and extended familyóthe same kind of images families display in their homes. I included empty frames in the collage to stand in for the personal traumas and struggles, the undocumented moments most would prefer not be photographed. I wondered if these moments were recognized through this ritual, if it would allow myself (and my family) to recover from these events with greater ease and, consequently, appreciate their significance in our lives. Ultimately, I posed this question to allow for the dialogue to begin and as a means to acknowledge the process.

During my residency, I was interested in the negotiation of emotional and physical boundaries, to manage experiences and reconcile a world in constant flux. During my residency, I created sculptural works to illustrate spaces with fluid boundaries. I suspended a television monitor from the ceiling, positioning the screen parallel to the floor, and added an apparatus to the innards of the monitor which dripped water into an aquarium positioned below it. The aquarium was also elevated above the floor, allowing viewers to lie directly under the aquarium. The viewer lying below the aquarium and monitor watched the television images through the bottom of the aquarium. As it dripped water, the monitor distorted the same image it projected. Images could be clearly read between water drops, but the clarity never lasted.

I also spread the aquariums out in multiple arrangements, with and without monitors, to build grids and pathways. The aquariums were not attached to one another, only placed next to each other. As their own individual entities, their influence on one another was through the eyes of the viewers. Reflections, atmospheric conditions in each, and water levels or lack of water contributed to the assemblage. These relationships are something I continue to explore.

I am honored to have been the first Berwick Research Institute Artist-in-Research, and grateful for their trust in my process. My BRI residency allowed me to test and research ideas relieved of the pressure of resolution and, instead, concentrate on the process.

Aliza Shapiro and Brent Zeigler form POD LAB, a collaborative design group that finds creative solutions for program needs through research, investigation, experimentation, and practice. POD LAB will spend eight weeks as Research Partners in the Berwick’s Artist in Research Program. They are studying the Berwick’s diverse spatial and programmatic requirements in order to create a design for its exhibition space and office that will delight and deliver to its artists, producers, administrators and audience.

Shapiro, an architectural designer by day and producer (www.truthserum.org), Drag King and rabble-rouser by night is familiar with the Berwick’s unique needs through producing her own shows within its walls. Together with Brent Zeigler, an architectural designer who has designed numerous retail, restaurant, corporate and institutional projects, POD LAB will be working in the AIR studio making models, scribbling on napkins, dreaming up the collapsible and the inflatable to accommodate all ilk of artist and producer.

It’s no small feat to create a space that can contain a community of artists who’s work extends to sound, electronics, variety shows, installation, orchestral compositions, lectures and roller-derbies. POD LAB’s residency culminates in the presentation of a flexible, transformable, multi-functional and aesthetically inspiring design that will encourage the Berwick’s artists, producers, audience and the Berwick staff to work unbound by the constraints of its 4 walls.

Join POD LAB and the Berwick in exploring their creative process during their open studio event. Trace where concepts originated and where they ended up. On display on June 6, the necessary and beautiful detritus of a design lab: early sketch models, spatial and conceptual diagrams, master planning, full sized details, text references, and materials. See how POD LAB conceptualized the Berwick’s needs and created inspired solutions for their unique role in housing all aspects of the arts. Plus POD LAB’s favorite foods, drinks (Aliza is thinking bubble tea+sushi) and music by a surprise guest.

The first Artist in Research Residency of 2009 runs April 1 - June 15

The 2009 residents of the Artist in Research program will be selected and announced by March 15th. The first residency begins April 1st. Hold onto your hats!