News
The latest news from the Helen Day Art Center.
News at Helen Day Art Center
Tuesday, 28 October 2008 23:07
Art in the 21st Century Panel, Jackson Pollock Film, Tweet-up Feb 20th
The Hurt Locker (Film) Gunner Palace (Film) and Author Tom Middleton, Saturday February 6th
Art in the 21st Century: Is it Art and Who Decides? Saturday, February 20th from 3:00-5:00pm at Helen Day Art Center
The round table discussion was spurred by the complex work in their current exhibit Wafaa Bilal: Agent Intellect, and the questions it has generated. The exhibit includes site-specific installation, a video game, a live webcast, and the recreation of a performance piece that was primarily web-based. While Newsweek magazine called his work "breathtaking" others have questioned whether it is art, and if so, if it is worthy of display.
Who, then makes these determinations? What qualifies as art? Who decides, and how has some of the artwork produced in the last fifty years influenced institutions, collectors and academia?
Guest panelists Anthony Grudin, Tarrah Krajnak and Stephen Perkins will shed light on these questions. Grudin, an Assistant Professor of Art History at University of Vermont, studies primarily modern and contemporary art. Krajnak is a photographer and a visiting professor at University of Vermont whose work explores constructed identity and gender. Perkins earned a masters degree in American Material Culture at University of Deleware and is the Executive Director of the Bennington Museum.
In 1971 Artist Chris Burden performed "Shoot" wherein he was shot in the arm by an assistant from the distance of five meters. Opinions about the piece differ, but some speculate that it was a reaction to the Vietnam war, a reflection of the second amendment (the right to bear arms) or a statement about personal danger and commitment in artmaking. In any case there is certainly a connection between Wafaa Bilal's "Domestic Tension" where he was under fire for 31 days from internet visitors who controlled a paintball gun in his living space.
In 1983 Sophie Calle, a French Artist, wrote 28 columns for the French paper Liberation titled "Address Book". She had found an address book in the street, copied it and returned it to its owner. She decided to interview the people in the book about the book's owner and publish the results in her columns. All this took place without the knowledge of the owner. Once he found out, the subject - an independent filmmaker- attempted to sue Calle for invasion of privacy.
Are these examples of art? If so, how does one preserve and "collect" them? Is that an important attribute of art?
The discussion is free to the public.
*At 12:30 Helen Day Art Center will screen the film "Who the *$&# is Jackson Pollock?" about Teri Horton, a retired female truck-driver who buys what may be an original Jackson Pollock painting for $5 in a thrift shop. On learning who Pollock is, she attempts to validate the origin of the painting, only to encounter the art world elite and their power over the authentication process.
**The event will be followed by "Tweet-up Stowe!" a networking event with an emphasis on social media from 5:00-8:00pm
The Hurt Locker, nominee for nine academy awards will be screened at Helen Day Art Center this Saturday prior to 'Combat medic, Iraq Veteran and Author Tom Middleton's talk
Saturday, February 6th, 5:00 pmSaturday February 6th: The Hurt Locker (Film) screening 2:15 pm (Free to the Public)
Saturday February 6th: Combat Veteran, Medic and Author Tom Middleton speaks about his experience as a combat medic in Ramadi, Iraq in 2004 5:00-6:30 pm
The Hurt Locker (2008) Directed by Kathryn Bigelow was nominated for nine Academy Awards and is a favorite of critics nationally.
Scott called The Hurt Locker the best American feature film yet made about the war in Iraq: "You may emerge from “The Hurt Locker” shaken, exhilarated and drained, but you will also be thinking... The movie is a viscerally exciting, adrenaline-soaked tour de force of suspense and surprise, full of explosions and hectic scenes of combat, but it blows a hole in the condescending assumption that such effects are just empty spectacle or mindless noise."
Tom Middleton, author of Saber's Edge: A Combat Medic in Ramadi, Iraq
Saber’s Edge is the story of a middle-aged Vermont firefighter called upon to fight in the worst place on earth - Ramadi, Iraq. Saber’s Edge is also the story of the Green Mountain Boys of Task Force Saber: of comradeship and communion amid fierce street-fighting in a crucial theater of the Iraq War (the eventual site of the “Al Anbar Awakening”). The author went from being a suburban dad to a combat medic traveling between platoons, engaged in some of the fiercest fighting of the war.
Thomas A. Middleton is a combat medic with the Vermont Army National Guard who served in Iraq from June 2005 to June 2006, where he fought in the Tameem District of Ramadi and was awarded the Bronze Star for Valor. A 16 veteran year career firefighter and emergency medical technician, he is currently the Assistant Fire Marshal in Burlington Vermont.
He is also a religious man who struggled to reconcile his own beliefs with the practice of war during his tour. He offers a soldier's perspective on the conflict.
Gunner Palace (2004) Directed by Petra Epperlein, Michael Tucker gives a soldier's eye view of the experience of U.S. Combat forces on the ground in Iraq. "Some war stories will never make the nightly news."
NY Times reviewer A.O Scott says: ""Gunner Palace" does not present a clear or coherent point of view of why or how the war has been fought, but this limitation is also a virtue. Clarity and certainty, the movie suggests, are luxuries that come with distance and hindsight. What the soldiers have to deal with from day to day is far more chaotic and changeable, so it makes sense that chaos should be not only the filmmakers' subject but also a crucial aspect of their method."
Haviland Smith, former CIA Station Chief to speak at Helen Day Art Center Wednesday, January 27th 1:30 pm
"U.S. Goals and Policies in the Middle East and our Prospects for Success there"
Haviland Smith
Retired CIA Station Chief and former Chief of the Counterterrorism Staff Haviland Smith will speak Wednesday January 27th, 1:30 pm at Helen Day Art Center as part of the Osher Lamoille County lecture series in conjunction with the Wafaa Bilal: Agent Intellect exhibition.
Smith's topic: "U.S. goals and policies in the Middle East and Our Prospects for Success There" will offer a rare insider's insight into the project in which the U.S. is engaged. The presentation will first examine our national interests in the Middle East and the rivalries that have existed for centuries in the region. Smith will then discuss our goals, national interests and ongoing policies and explore whether or not the policies really serve our interests, and if not, what modifications might be merited.
Smith lives in Williston with his family and remains an active thinker and contributor to the public dialogue on the CIA, the Middle East, and terrorism through his speaking engagements and writings for local and national papers. He retired from the CIA in 1980 after serving in London, Prague, Berlin, Langley, Beirut, Tehran and Washington, DC.
Helen Day Art Center
Wafaa Bilal: Agent Intellect January 21 - April 4, 2010 Press Contact: Odin Cathcart, Exhibitions Director
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While a visiting artist at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Wafaa Bilal's exhibit including the video game "The Night of Bush Capturing: A Virtual Jihadi" was shut down immediately after the exhibit opened and Bilal was barred from the art building by the school's administration. Days later the city of Troy, NY forced the closure of The Sanctuary for Independent Media, who had agreed to show Bilal's piece after it was censored at RPI. The Sanctuary for Independent Media - had been in agreement with the City's code office about the pace and scope of their renovations - until they chose to exhibit Bilal's artwork at which point Bob Mirch, Public Works Commissioner shut down the exhibition for code violations. Mr. Mirch who was also the GOP majority leader in the Rensselaer County Legislature then joined a group of protestors outside the Sanctuary for Independent Media suggesting the piece was a form of terrorism. The New York ACLU is currently suing the city of Troy for violating the first amendment rights of the Sanctuary for Independent Media and Wafaa Bilal. The video game that he appropriated for his artwork is part of the exhibit "Wafaa Bilal: Agent Intellect" which opens Thursday at Helen Day Art Center in Stowe. Curator Odin Cathcart chose to include it along with other work by Bilal "The Night of Bush Capturing: A Virtual Jihadi speaks to our increasing disengagement from our sanctioning of violence outside of our own nation and the shared and contrasting experiences of that violence in the 21st century. In context with Bilal's other work at the Helen Day, the video game piece furthers Bilal's themes of the human condition." Bilal said he created the game in order to "hold up a mirror" to an American society which believes that such a game is perfectly fine when it is an American killing Iraqi's (referring to the original basis for Al-Qaeda hacked video game; "Quest for Saddam" created in 2004 by Jesse Petrilla) but finds itself outside the 'comfort zone' when the circumstances are reversed. "We asked Wafaa to come to Stowe in September to present his work to the board of trustees. We knew this was a potentially controversial show and that we needed their support. The conversation about his artwork, this video game and the role of the artist in society has been going strong ever since." said Nathan Suter, Executive Director. "I personally find his perspective fascinating. Wafaa came to the US in 1992 as a refugee from Saddam Hussein's regime. he is now a US citizen and a professor at NYU. Still, he identifies with both America and Iraq. This makes his artwork incredibly powerful in the midst of our conflict in Iraq." "Part of the vision of the Art Center is to bring contemporary artwork to Central Vermont, where our audience might otherwise never have an opportunity to view it. It is our role to show artists who we think are relevant and to do the work of explaining and contextualizing their work for our audience. We create public programs around issues and themes that are present in the work." Suter says. The first of these is this Friday, January 22nd at 5:30pm when the Center hosts a panel discussion on "Art, Audience, Free Speech and Democracy". There will be a brief film screening followed by a discussion with four panelists: The artist, Wafaa Bilal; the editor of the Stowe Reporter and free speech expert, Tom Kearney; a staff attorney from the Vermont ACLU, Dan Barrett; and Art Center Director, Nathan Suter. Kearney is on the Board of the New England First Amendment Coalition and has extensive experience as a reporter, editor and advocate for the public's right-to-know. He was one of five US journalists to participate in the only exchange program with Iranian Journalists in 1999, and has advised foreign journalists and editors in developing democracies how free speech really works. Among them Hamid Karzai, now president of Afganistan. Barrett He holds a J.D. from the Northeastern University School of Law, a Masters in Philosophy from the University of Cambridge, and a B.A. from Cornell University. Prior to coming to the ACLU, Dan served as a law clerk to the Hon. Janet Bond Arterton of the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut. Links: Wafaa Bilal's website here; Bilal's comments regarding Virtual Jihadi here; Details on the Shutdown of Bilal's work at RPI and Sanctuary for Independent Media (Troy, NY) here; 22 minute documentary on the Sanctuary for Independent Media shutdown here; MSNBC Interview with Jesse Petrillo, creator of "Quest for Saddam" video game here; Brian Holmes' blog on Speech in Democracy and Virtual Jihadi here; Chicago Tribune here; NPR interview here; Bilal and Lydersen's book Shoot an Iraqi: Art, Life and Resistance Under the Gun (2008 Citilights Books) here; Gamepolitics site "Most Politically Fascinating Person of the year" here. 5 School Street, Stowe, VT 05672 (802) 253-8358 www.helenday.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
featuring the work of Wafaa Bilal & curated by Odin Cathcart
Art, Audience, Free Speech and Democracy panel at Helen Day Art Center
Friday, January 22nd 5:30 pm Helen Day Art Center
Leveraging his own personal connection and history with Iraq, Wafaa utilizes popular media formats like internet chat rooms and video games to question our virtual relationship to others and our desensitization to violence. His work explores the tension between what he terms the "comfort zone" -safe existence here in the U.S (his and ours)- and the "conflict zone" -in Iraq where his relatives are under constant threat. Trained as a photographer, his work now spans photography, video, installation and performance art. The exhibition will feature two site-specific installations, photography and documentary recreation of Domestic Tension.
ARTitude fundraiser is Saturday
Tania Kratt, head of the decorating team, was painting two of the galleries silver to mimic Andy Warhol’s studio in New York City 1962-68, dubbed “The Factory.”
A photographer from Stowe Mountain Resort stopped by to confirm details of an instant photo booth the resort will be running the evening of the event. Shap Smith and Teri Pyle returned from Topnotch Resort with a truck full of tables and about 40 linens, all loaned by Topnotch catering. Tony Pyle worked the phone coordinating donations from more than 30 restaurants, wholesalers and others who are making the evening possible.
ARTitude is styled more after a house party than a traditional sitdown-dinner-gala. It’s been more than a decade since the center hosted its on spring gala. One benefit: lower prices. Tickets are $75, down about $50 from past years. The biggest upside of the change was the opportunity to drastically reduce the ticket price.
“Part of our vision is to be open to everyone in the community,” said board member Simone Rueschemeyer. “Obviously, this is our main fundraising event for the year, so we have to charge for the tickets, but we still want to make it affordable. The generous donations from restaurants and volunteer support are making that possible.”
Many artists are also donating work to the event. The art center listed 50 artist-donors, including Altoon Sultan, Coco Dowley, Idoline Duke, James Kochalka, Lisa Forster Beach, Mickey Myers, Nathan Suter, Paige Russell, Peggy Smith, Robert Paul Galleries, Sandra Noble, Shapleigh Smith, Stephen Huneck Gallery, and Vermont Fine Art Gallery.
An amazing list of favorite local restaurants will donate “non-stop hors d’oeuvres, artisan chocolates and dessert”. Wine and beer are included in the ticket price. Creative attire is encouraged.
Helen Day shares its exhibitions with students in the region, welcoming them with transportation scholarships and free docent led tours of the exhibitions. The center also offers scholarships for art classes. All of these programs are aided by funds raised at the benefit. Nathan Suter, Executive Director says “We depend on a great turnout from our community and Art Center’s audience to make this a success. I’m really excited to hold it in our house and to have the support of so many restaurants and businesses who donate to the event and the auction.”
Regarding the auction he adds: “my mouth always waters at the artwork, vacation getaways and merchandise up for bid.” Last year the organization offered over $100,000 worth of donated artwork, gift certificates, items and trips to supporters at the event.
“We believe the arts are essential to our lives… the Annual Art Award honors an individual, business or organization whose efforts have had great impact on the arts in Vermont. We’re happy that Governor Douglas will join us to present the award” Says Suter. This year the HDAC Board of Trustees narrowed the list to two nominees and decided to award both. The recipients will be announced the evening of the event. Past recipients include River Arts of Morrisville in 2007, Chris Curtis (2006), Radio Vermont Group: WDEV, WCVT and WLVB (2005), Vermont Studio Center (2000), Senator Jim Jeffords (1999).
Our sponsors: Black Diamond Barbeque, Blue Moon Café, Cabot Cheese, Café Provence (Brandon, VT), Gracie’s Restaurant, Harrison’s Restaurant, Hen of the Wood, Jamie’s on Main, Laughing Moon Chocolates, Michael’s on the Hill, Norma’s Restaurant, Pie in the Sky, Stowe Seafood, Trattoria La Festa, The Cider Mill, The Green Mountain Inn, The Depot Street Malt Shop, The Rusty Nail, The Shed Restaurant, The Stowe Inn, The Trapp Family Lodge, and more to come…
Sultan unleashes a deep understanding of the technical history of painting - not least the use of traditional egg tempera as media - in her brilliant and intimate studies of the rural mechanical landscape of farm machinery, draped tarpaulins and silage. Her studied compositions are sensual and meditative, hardly what the subject matter suggests.
Sultan is a member of the Society of Tempera Painters, the author of a book on the subject , The Luminous Brush (1999) which has become an indispensable manual for many egg tempera students. Her work is in a number of major collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Yale University Art Gallery, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and the National Museum of Women in the Arts. She has been awarded two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship Grants, and recently received an art award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters for egg tempera paintings exhibited in the annual awards exhibition.
Altoon lives in Northern Vermont and is represented by the Marlborough Gallery in New York City.
Her work will be on exhibit at the Helen Day Art Gallery through March 21st, 2009
Artists unite in place between form and function
For those who associate Vermont only with traditional artisans and crafts, Helen Day Art Center begs to differ. Exhibition Director, Idoline Duke has taken another look and found a remarkable group of Vermont artists whose paths have all converged with the creative results teetering on the edge of sculpture and function. Each artist looks beyond accepted forms and really explores the shape of the thing. Anyone can make a fork, but these artists would make forks that may just threaten the meaning and use of the utensil.
Johnny Swing, a feature of the show, may present a rough and tumble image -–he is a professional welder and a veteran of 'Junkyard wars'-– but his innovative repurposing of materials into 'domestic' objects belies a sophisticated history of experimentation and refinement. To call his Nickel Couch 'domestic' or his Lightwing chandelier a "light" for that matter, is stretching the term. Lightwing, an organically twisted series of trusses that leap skyward to inverted satellite dishes is a cool, almost predatory shape warmed finally by the glow of light bulbs beneath each dish. It reveals itself to be the most aggressive –and beautiful– standing lamp you've ever seen.
Swing has settled in rural Putney yet he retains his edgy, urban sensibility from time spent studying and working in New York. His designs call to mind Eero Saarinen, Charles Eames and Isamu Noguchi whose Bauhaus influenced organic forms defined much of mid 20th century design. What he doesn't share with this school is the modernist impulse toward mass production. Each piece is a one-off and the prices reflect the fact. A Nickel Couch will set you back $100,000, but at least you would be –literally– sitting on money.
Form defines the exhibition…
All of the work exhibited in The Shape of Things manipulates form to extremes with some retaining a tenuous hold on function. Laurie Peters, a fine metals artist, mates so many geometric shapes in some of her jewelry pieces that it takes a daring and careful person to wear them in public, but to dramatic effect. Glass artist, John Chiles makes vases, bottles and other vessels that invert the thrust of their stoppers and the form is so sensuous, that you probably would never consider displaying flowers in them. The fine glass design is its own reward.
The Shape of Things doesn't constrain itself to the domestic, at least not in the way you would think. Duke has included two prominent Architects in the group: David Sellers, instructor at Yestermorrow Design and Build School, named one of the foremost architects in the world by Architectural Digest, and a singular revolutionary in the sustainable design movement is here with details of his Gesundheit Institute Project in West Virginia, a two decade work-in-progress with doctor and humanitarian, Patch Adams. Also adding architectural weight to the show are brothers, Kevin and Jon Racek of Stew Design who contribute concepts like a sustainable community built over an abandoned water-filled quarry and a concept model of a sculptural tower built to harvest both solar and wind energy.
The Shape of Things exhibit runs from January 23rd through March 21st.
Public programs include a sustainable design charrette on February 21st and a 3D paper-sculpting workshop on March 7th.
Admission to the exhibition is $5 for adults, $3 for students and seniors.
Artists:
Johnny Swing - furniture
Paige Russell – Ceramics
Stew Design – Architecture and wind energy technology
David Sellers – Architecture and sustainable design
Laurie Peters – Fine Metals
John Chiles – Glass
Studio Glow (Riki Moss and Robert Ostermeyer) – Illuminated sculpture
In February of this year Bob Russell – one of Canada’s top designers—joined the Board of Trustees of Helen Day Art Center in Stowe. Today helenday.com has a new look thanks to his vision and design. Working together with Ryan Meravi and Nick LaRow of Power Shift Russell has implemented the new design in just three weeks time.
The new site launches today (Thursday, October 30th) and features a clean, contemporary look, and straight-forward navigation. Russell’s mantra throughout the process centered on simple messages about the core activities at the art center. “We want to encourage people to visit, volunteer, become members and support the organization” says Russell. “As a non-profit we are always seeking to do more with less, the website should help us use less postage, less paper and inspire more people.” Russell, a US citizen, worked in Toronto for years, building a reputation as one of Canada’s best authorities on branding for businesses. He is the driving force behind Russell Branding.
The site allows visitors to sign-up for email newsletters, join as members, donate, register for classes, buy tickets to events and Helen Day’s and First Class Cultural Tours – all with the click of a mouse.
“The team at Power Shift has been very efficient and responsive.” Says Nathan Suter, Director of the art center. “They have built a state of the art site that will allow our staff to keep the site up-to-date and connect us directly with our audience. We will communicate more quickly and also recognize supporters and business partners more fully. This is the value for us.”
Power Shift offered their site construction services at a discount to Helen Day Art Center as a way to support the community art center.
