New Year at Western Bridge

No Soul for Sale at Tate Modern

Anne Mathern — Sat, 29 May 2010 21:58:49 +0000

Western Bridge made the brilliant/exhausting decision to bring Mungo Thomson’s Skyspace Bouncehouse to Tate Modern for No Soul For Sale, a festival of independent and alternative art organizations, in honor of the London museum’s tenth anniversary.

Testament to the brilliance:

Testament to the exhaustion:

Dear Participants of No Soul For Sale,

The Turbine Hall has been visited by 93,000 people during those 3 days, 43,000 only on Saturday: it is the second most attended day since they inaugurated ten years ago. It is really quite an amazing accomplishment and it really was only possible due to your help, support and enthusiasm.

Overview of No Soul for Sale:

Time Out London

Simon Critchley on Heidegger and Time

Eric Fredericksen — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 01:47:31 +0000

Mungo Thomson’s New Year project has us all thinking about Time. In an eight-part series of blog posts last summer on the Guardian Online, New School philosopher Simon Critchley explored Heidegger’s Being and Time. It’s about as clear on Heidegger as you can get, and has the advantage of being much shorter than Hubert Dreyfus’s super-useful podcast of his Berkeley Heidegger lectures. Here’s Critchley on Heidegger and Temporality.

Jen Graves in anticipation of New Year 6: Corin Hewitt

Anne Mathern — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 00:18:50 +0000

“The performance while he is here is not just a way to generate a time capsule; the product is secondary. It is a continuous process of sculpting, making photographs, and making video—all at once, and for an audience.”
Read the full article in the Stranger

Installation Images from New Year 5: Geoffrey Farmer

Jessica Powers — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 22:29:09 +0000

A Fat Hairy Male Gay Witch, a Beautiful Bear, Buried Under a Pile of White Dust. Frozen in Time, Ice Work, Snow Work, Water Work, Hibernation, Shoveling Snow, Breaking Sweat, Frozen Hands, Blood Boils, Bubble, Bubble, Snorting Salt, Dandruff, Shredding Bags, Doing It and then Doing It Again, Hot with a Fever, Pillow Between Legs, Drink a Glass of Water. Take a Bath, Flush the Toilet, Open the Freezer, Walk Past a Monument to Goat. Getting Dark, Wet Spring, Glass of Water, Boil Water, Wash Hands, Cracking Ice Tray, Ice Ice Ice Age, Sing a Song, Kill the Boredom, to Make a Witch, a Fat Hairy Male Witch. A Fat Male Gay Witch, Buried Under an Avalanche of Sleepiness, Laziness and Forgetfulness.
2010, Geoffrey Farmer

This work contains a duvet, pillows, sheets, my socks, glass vases from the kitchen, plastic glass from the kitchen, a poem by Robert Frost titled Fire and Ice, glass ice cubes, a light bulb and a piece of paper.

Dawn Cerny Links

Jessica Powers — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 08:52:22 +0000

Read some things people have to say about current New Year artist Dawn Cerny:

Art Ltd. magazine “Young at Art” 15 under 35” Profile of Dawn Cerny by Suzanne Beal

Interview with Joey Veltkamp

Seattle PI, “Cornish and SAM team up…”, by Adriana Grant

“The Warhorse Henry Art Gallery’s Stealthy Year of Conflict” by Jen Graves

The Seattle Times, “Bigger isn’t necessarily better” by Sheila Farr

The Stranger, “Speaking in Paper”, by Jen Graves

Here are some things Dawn has to say about herself:

http://www.dawncerny.com/

Dawn Cerny: The Irish Wristwatch Feb 25 – March 6

Jessica Powers — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 08:31:59 +0000

Seattle artist Dawn Cerny is the fourth participant in New Year, our new short-run exhibition program. Her installation in the upper gallery at Western Bridge explores how jokes relate to psychological forms. Cerny selected the clips below which painfully illustrate the futility of jokes.

“Flotsam/Jetsam” on view now – Feb. 20

Jessica Powers — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 00:49:51 +0000

Matt Sheridan Smith reanimates an existing piece for “Flotsam/Jetsam” an installation and performance at Western Bridge.

Check out João Ribas and artist Matt Sheridan Smith in conversation: “You Kant Always Get What You Want”, ART LIES, September. More MSS related reading at the links below:

Artinfo, 2010
Art Lies, 2009
Interview Magazine, 2009
Art Cat – Zine, 2009
Artforum, 2008

Welcome

Jessica Powers — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 00:46:47 +0000

New Year is a short-run project series lasting from January 15 2010 to the end of summer. A baker’s dozen of artists from the US and Canada have been commissioned to create new work for the upstairs gallery at Western Bridge. The invitation is to do whatever the artist would like, given the space, time and money available. Each project will run for two weeks.

New Year draws inspiration from a number of recent projects, including curator Anthony Huberman’s ongoing Front Room series at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, and Associates, artist Ryan Gander’s program of 12 artists and 12 shows in 12 months, London, 2006-7. New Year allows Western Bridge to work outside of its collection-based exhibition program; artists will be paid fees for their participation, and will retain ownership of work produced for the series.

New Year will present projects by Michael Drebert (Vancouver), Mark Soo (Vancouver), Matt Sheridan Smith (New York), Dawn Cerny (Seattle), Geoffrey Farmer (Vancouver), Corin Hewitt (New York), Oscar Tuazon and Elias Hansen (Paris and Tacoma), Tauba Auerbach (New York), Allison Hrabluik (Vancouver), Jennifer West (Los Angeles), Josh Faught (Eugene, Ore.), Alex Hubbard (New York), and Mungo Thomson (Los Angeles/Berlin).

Working independently with a template designed by David Reinfurt of Dexter Sinister, the artists will develop contributions to a publication, which will serve as an omnibus compendium of the New Year project, and the only place where the participants will come together in the format of a group exhibition.