| The Present Tense |

Due to lack of internet and the physical archive being inaccessable, we will have to go on a temporary hiatus. We’ll be back once we have the proper tools to make more blog posts, for now we’ll leave you with a video. See you soon!

2010 began with a sip of Champagne poured from a bottle adorned with purple and pink butterflies, a fitting gift from my boss. 2009 was a year of grandiose change. This archive came to fruition, Meme Gallery made its debut, The Present Tense’s physical headquarters took flight, and on a personal note, my body shape- shifted. As I indulged in my bubbly, I was reminded of one of the most haunting transformations The Present Tense has encountered to date, coincidentally titled “Butterfly”.

In this piece, Jeffrey Byrd, an Iowa-based performance and video artist transforms from Maria Callas to Brittney Spears right before our eyes. He begins with a somber nod to Butoh and moves through a myriad of emotions. By the end, we have experienced Jeffrey’s rendition of Madame Butterfly while watching him expose a deep piece of his imagination that has inspired laughter and a sense of hope. Reminiscing about this piece prompted me to spend some time on Jeffrey’s website. I giggled through Jeff performing household chores dressed as a Stormtrooper and I cheered him on as he attempted to scale walls in a sexy Spiderman suit. My heart melted while watching a video of a Mephisto, a comic book character dancing in his underwear. I fantasized about what it would be like if I made an effort to retain my own creativity at work by tap dancing on my desk like Jeff did in “Tap Desk”. In this exploration, I noticed Jeff had chosen to include a quote from Sebastian Horsley on his site. “We are what we pretend to be”. If only we all could follow Jeff’s lead and spend more time pretending, the powers of our imaginations could truly and genuinely be realized.

This past November, MEME featured an exhibition of work by Boston performance artist Jeff Huckleberry. We’ve known Jeff for a few years now, seen his work many times in many different places, but never in the white cube exhibition format. You can see more photos of the show in the MEME Vault.

Sandrine: Who are you?
Jeff Huckleberry: I am a 40 year old white male living in Boston. I have spent 8 years total in art school, 23 years as a professional bicycle mechanic, 14 years as a father, (so far…If I can just keep him out of that car full of drunk high school friends doing 100mph on Rt. 2) and 15 years as a husband. I have had many cool but hurtin’ cars in my life, the most current is a slowly dying white VW Jetta from 1996. My father in-law collects Buick Roadmasters.

S: Where are you from?
JH: Originally, Loveland Colorado (0-17) though now, Boston. (17-40)

Phil:  How long have you been making performance?
JH: Fall of ’89…wow, 20 years.?

P:  I’ve noticed that in most of your performances/installations you have a similar set of materials that you work with. What brought you to these materials and what compels you to continue working with them?
JH: There are a few materials that really stimulate the brain/body/art/ connection for me: wood (especially saw dust), loud/low/abstract sound, some aggressive liquid that hurts when you pour it on your self, paint and dangerous tools. Those materials have become, over the years, things that I would be very sorry to be without.

I started working with lumber when I was working on my thesis show in 2003. I was exploring some of the “characters” that were/are directly involved with my development as a person, namely my Dad, his father (a master carpenter), and my Scout Master. Sometimes when I see my shadow on the street I get startled and think that my Dad is standing next to me. That shadow is often represented by pieces of lumber, or by the activity of cutting boards, or by the smell of saw dust, or most directly, by the sweat dripping off my nose while bent over some impossible task. The lumber, if it represents anything other than itself, is the hard work of making work. The lumber is also very much a kind of minimalist art project that could be viewed as separate from its possible meanings and interpretations (impossible?). Lumber, in all shapes and sizes has the potential for any number of possible physical relationships. Wood is one of those materials that will accept me no matter how ineptly or masterfully I interact with it. So, I keep using it.

I also often use paint and other authentic “work” and “art” materials in performances. One of my earliest performances in school involved painting myself different colors with acrylic paint, so I have been doing that for a long time. Using paint in performance (usually by painting my body or pouring it over myself) has a twofold utility; on the one hand, it visually joins (big P) Painting with (little p) performance by providing an entry point into a conversation about the location of art making, surface and object. It also has the added and not insignificant effect of feeling really great: this “feeling”, or physical sensation is a primary ingredient in structuring my physical and mental space to accommodate the process of performance. (I also think it looks really cool!)

P: In the last few pieces I’ve seen you perform, black and white paint?has been incorporated in a variety of ways. It seemed to reference some form of duality that you take on in the work, is that even remotely correct?
JH: Yes. And no. It is kind of an attempt to collaborate with myself (splitting myself into two people and then uniting again in the shared task of the performance) and also to have a conversation about grey. With respect to the activity of performance, it visually describes the “liminal” space of performing, though, to be fair, I don’t think it is doing a very good job of that so I am trying to figure something else out. The black and white paint primarily goes with my most recent performances, “broken(a.)” and “broken(b.)” and “Expected Outcomes” which will eventually become one larger performance.

P: In your most recent show at the MEME gallery, you started using color paints in addition to the black and white, why?
JH: They’re colorful! All of the drawings I had made of those little 2×2 frames had color paint in them. I just wanted them to be active and “beautiful”. When I went looking for paint at the art store, I was most attracted to the fluorescents, so I used those, and to that construction orange. Which by the way is the same color for the robes the Buddhist monks in Laos and Cambodia wear. Work = Worship? ?

S: How did the work evolve in “A beautiful Art Show for you”?
JH: It started by just bringing all of the materials I was interested in using down to the space, plus the usual assortment of performance materials I usually bring to events. Then I started to get involved in making a bunch of wood objects that I have had in my sketchbooks over the last couple of years. For some reason, I made a bunch of things that were roughly 2’x 2’. I worked on some video in the space, which I eventually decided did not really make sense with the rest of the show. I knew at some point that I would want to put paintings on the wall that would drip down onto the floor, so I made a bunch of those. I started concentrating on objects that would have some use, or be active while people were at the opening/closing and I worked out a couple of actions that could be used if I decided I needed to do something in the space while people were there. Then I brought that old black and white video camera down thinking that I could have a live feed of some of the boxes projected onto the wall. I think that worked to join some of the ideas I had together, especially the early 70’s style of performance and minimalist sculpture I was experiencing making myself.

S: Who was the Beautiful Art show for?
JH: You. (and me.) And Rose Hill.

S: At the closing, you created a performance that had a “soundtrack,” from the B-movie, “Bucket of Blood”.  How did you arrive at the decision to use this sound for your piece?

JH: I had run through a lot of sound options, and I was listening to some movies that I had recorded the audio from that I have used in sound performances in the past. I was listening to “Bucket of Blood” and laughing to myself about how it was so appropriate, especially considering I was really trying to be a real artist and make sculptures and paintings. So that just sort of happened during the opening/closing, I knew it went with that action.

P: Tell me about one experience that has influenced, inspired or effected your performance work.
JH: Watching my dad (and helping him) work hard on the weekends in the back yard. This is fundamental.

P: What is your favorite performance you’ve ever seen?
JH: Here is a list in no particular order:

• That Grey Wolf (Survival of the Fittest, 2007) performance by Marthe Fortun and Yoonhye Park at Contaminate2

• Julie Andre T. at One Gallery with the tea kettles screaming and her rolling on the floor and the buckets of liquid and all of the awesomeness, or her climbing the carpet up to the ceiling in Beijing, or any performance really.

• Persephone and Hades with Mari Novotny-Jones and David Miller, Directed by Marilyn Arsem, where I fell asleep and woke up thinking I was still dreaming
• A David Miller performance at Mobius in the 90s. (I can’t remember the title)
• “The Painter” video/performance by Paul McCarthy (one of my all time favorite pieces…)

• Some performances by Andre Stitt that I will never see in person, but would really like to.
• Three Ulay and Abramovic performances: where they walk into each other repeatedly, where they move the walls by walking into them, and where they stand naked face to face in the doorway of the gallery.
• A performance by Jamie McMurry that I have only seen on video where he topples three huge plywood pillars onto himself.
• Most bike races, but especially the spring classics.
• A performance by Arti Grabowski where he gets onto a chair and chops the legs out from under himself with an ax. Brilliant!
• Anything Alastair MacLennan does. I just like paying attention to him.
• There are more! I don’t have room and I am leaving people out! Sorry! I’ll make a longer list…Deva Eveland controlling all of us from the trunk of the car in the IBC parking lot. Anaise Nadair destroying that couch at TEST. Paul Waddell in anything he does, Helen Pfann making me scared for her life by crawling across a busy street in the middle of the night in a black plastic bag…And on and on and on…Travis Fuller Ghost Killa! Ahhhh!

P: Favorite death metal band?
JH: Cannibal Corpse, Kataklysm, Amon Amarth, a couple of Agoraphobic Nosebleed “songs”, new Celtic Frost…I tend to like it fast and aggressive. Sorry.

S: Final words/thoughts GO!
JH: WORDS!!!!!!

This weekend in Brooklyn:

(NAOKI IWAKAWA, "EXCAVATION 7 / NEW YORK GHOST," 2009)

http://www.maximumperceptionperformance.com/newsinfo.htm

ENGLISH KILLS ART GALLERY
114 FORREST ST.
BROOKLYN, NY 11206

INFO@ENGLISHKILLSARTGALLERY.COM
WWW.ENGLISHKILLSARTGALLERY.COM

English Kills Art Gallery is pleased to present the inaugural Maximum Perception Performance Festival, December 11-12, 2009 at English Kills Art Gallery in Brooklyn, NY.

Established as a critically acclaimed exhibition in 2008 to survey the Brooklyn performance art scene, the Maximum Perception Performance Festival has evolved to become a yearly showcase for the forefront of performance art practice in New York City and beyond.

More photos from our exhibition “Thus Far”, these ones from the closing event. It felt great to get back to our roots and host a night with a just a few performances, and to utilize the MEME Gallery to officially launch the Present Tense archive.

Philip Fryer

Coco Sgaller

Daniel DeLuca

It’s important to note that the artists body was not present in Daniels piece. Instead, the audience was instructed via a series of cryptic text messages and hidden notes to go to various locations and perform various actions. The final part of the project will come on a later post when it is completed.

Joanne’s 2 year long performance came to an end last month, and Sandrine was there to witness it. Check out the article she wrote for Big Red and Shiny, as well as photos from the final action.

Above is a few photos taken of the visual timeline at our exhibition “Thus Far”. We will be screening a selection of videos this Friday night, and will be having a performance event on the 23rd, come out and see the art!

Announcing our new show of past relics, photos and videos from the Present Tense Vault:

A celebration of Boston‘s Performance Art Initiative and release of long-awaited web-based archive. Exhibition of performance art relics and evolving timeline on view at MEME October 9th-23rd

October 9th 8pm
Accumulation screening

October 16th 8 pm
Screening of selected and extended archive footage

October 23, 7 pm
Live Event, featuring the work of:
Coco Segaller (Boston)
Sarah Schoemann (NYC)
Philip Fryer (Boston)
Daniel DeLuca [Boston]

www.memegallery.com

From 2006-2009, The Present Tense operated primarily out of Fort Point and more specifically, Midway Studios. We had access to multiple spaces and were able to organize events without having to pay anything, something we took advantage as much as possible. 9 Events later, the spaces became occupied by companies and are no longer available for what we were using them for.

The first of over 70 performances that took place in midway was Vela Phelan’s “Absolute Repent” at Contaminate I. I didn’t know it at the time because it was the first encounter I had ever had with Vela’s work, but it contained all the elements that make up one of his pieces. Gods/Icons, Digital/Analog, Person/Creature, Order/Chaos. Vela’s work exists simultaneously in two different dimensions. In this realm, Vela is shaking to a strobe light, in another, we are all in a club in Mexico City, our families are there, and everything smells like cereal and charcoal.

3-4 times per year the planet, Mercury, slows down and appears to stop and move backwards. Mercury has been in this state of retrograde since September 7th. Because Mercury rules communication, it is said that retrograde causes all matters of interaction to go bananas until the planet is back on track (September 29th). Some people find that their computers go on the fritz, phones act peculiar, and overall technical difficulties abound.
A recent reminder from my “private witch,” Bradley Benedetti explained that in addition to Mercury being in retro, on the 15th Saturn AND uranus opposed the sun, and Mars is in full swing, an occurrence most astrologers cannot remember the last time this happened. The new moon then enters Virgo at the end of the month, throwing everything off.

I am not an expert in astrology by any means, however I cannot ignore the chain of events that have awarded these claims their validity. I have had difficulty with my email, both my home and work refrigerator have had trouble during this time, and the MEME gallery’s website got hacked this week. The list goes on, but I will get to my point….While my life and the lives around me go haywire, I think that this is the universe’s way of telling us all to pause and shift our own paradigm.
Every time Mercury goes into Retrograde, I am reminded of my own dependence on technology and I try to remember a time without the instant gratification of the internet, cell phones, and other modern devices. I try to remember a time when face to face interaction was the only way to relate to another human being and when decoding the tone of an email or text message was an unfathomable and unnecessary skill.
All of this fondly reminds me of the biggest technical disaster The Present Tense has encountered, to date. In 2007, we invited Rebecca Scheckman, a former Boston artist, to participate in Rough Trade, an artist exchange we organized with Chicago-based artist, Joseph Ravens. Rebecca had prepared an elaborate piece that created a dialogue about intimacy and technology. One by one, the audience would enter a small white cube she created from fabric. They would sit on a comfortable chair, as Rebecca sat facing them with another piece of fabric hanging between the two. On a table next to the audience member there sat a plexi glass box that had a camera inside. Rebecca had one as well. Both Rebecca and the audience member would make out with the camera and the image of the insides of their mouths would be projected on top of each other on the sheet hanging between them. This would create a unique image of “the kiss,” a popular artist’s subject.
Regardless of the hours of set-up and multiple tech checks, Rebecca’s piece fell apart 20 minutes before Rough Trade’s opening. Her computer crashed and there was no reviving it. Rebecca had the potential to surrender to technology’s cruel prank, however, she used a video camera as a vessel to capture her kisses. She walked through the gallery, asked people to kiss her, and the audience was able to view the internal kiss on the LCD screen of the camera. She carried a roll of plastic wrap with her, creating a dental dam to protect the camera lens as she kissed each person.

As I ponder the powers of the zodiac, I remember Rebecca’s ability to think on her toes to save her piece. I am filled with infinite hope that we all will survive the chaos.

In the spirit of this post, these are the only 2 photos that exsist of this piece.