Traci Talasco

Still image from "Sputter."

Traci Talasco is a multidisciplinary artist living in New York City with her husband and their two-month-old baby girl. A graduate of the Tyler School of Art at Temple University, she is inspired by childhood experiences and adult expectations. Talasco was an artist-in-residence at the CUE Art Foundation in 2006, and part of the AIM program at the Bronx Museum of the Arts in 2003.

In our second post by an NSFO artist, Talasco writes:

It’s hard to pin down exactly what medium I work in. I create video works, installations, and sculptures. While the medium changes, there is a common theme dealing with struggling social relationships (in a humorous way). I grew up in a suburban development filled with domestic arguments behind closed doors and fake smiles in public. This experience taught me at an early age that things are not always as they appear, and this dichotomy definitely informs my work today.

I’ve been exploring video as a medium for several years now, and because of the technical nature I always learn something new along the way. Of course, I could say that about everything I do. I also really enjoy the process of working with other people, which is a refreshing change from a sometimes solitary studio practice. For the video showing at Harvestworks, Sputter (2007), I chose to focus on a small detail and use familiar yet annoying everyday sounds to tell a story. I don’t usually use a linear narrative, but often suggest a “situation” of sorts. I had a lot of fun, first creating a soundtrack of noises such as car alarms, engines revving, and truck horns. I then worked with two actors who developed facial expressions to match the sound and we rehearsed several times before shooting. The essence of this piece is a lack of communication. The sounds take on human characteristics and express the frustration of not being able to get your point across to someone.

I don’t ever really feel a piece is “complete” without a viewer. The most exciting part of the process is being able to share what I’ve made with peers and new audiences. [So] I’m excited to be included in the Harvestwork’s video festival.

 

Making Waves, 2008.

I am currently working on an installation titled Making Waves, which is about manufactured problems (and based on the expression that means to cause trouble). I am constructing an ocean out of carpeting and wood, bisecting both the architecture of a room and a dining table with chairs. Unlike a flood, which is a natural disaster, this ["wave"] is completely man-made (literally built with home construction materials) and perhaps even self-inflicted.

Talasco’s video ”Sputter” (pictured above) will screen at Harvestworks on Wednesday, September 24, 2008 between 7-9pm.

Federico Solmi

The Evil Empire.

Federico Solmi is a multidisciplinary artist, based in New York. He began his career in the United States after relocating from Italy in September 1999. Around the year 2002, he became heavily involved in the development of the Brooklyn art scenes of Williamsburg and D.U.M.B.O. A few years later, Solmi took part in his first local gallery exhibitions. His work has been featured in prestigious events dedicated to contemporary art and in many galleries and museums around the world including Drawing Center, New York; Australian Center of Moving Images, Melbourne; Victoria Memorial Museum, Calcutta, India; Contemporary Art Center of Rouboix, France; Palazzo delle Arti, Naples, Italy; Palazzo Delle Esposizioni, Rome, Italy. His video animations have been screened in film and video festivals such as Loop, Barcelona; IndieLisboa, Lisbon; and Impakt festival, Utrecth; as well as in contemporary art fairs, including Pulse Miami and New York; Art Brussels; Maco Mexico; Scope Art Fair, Basel and New York; and Artissima. Flash Art, Tema Celeste, Art Actuelle, Marie Claire, and ArtNet.com are just a few publications that have featured the artist’s work.

Solmi writes for the blog:

The year 2003 marked a crucial point in my career as I built my first drawing-animated video and I became a full-time artist. Since the beginning of my career as a video artist, I fell in love with the [medium] because it gave me the ability to narrate my work–something I always had the desire to do. In the past five years, I have been entirely focused on developing drawing animated videos. Since I immediately felt very comfortable with the medium, I began to construct very ambitious projects. The method I use is extremely innovative and revolutionary. In fact, on a daily basis I work online with my collaborator and friend, Russell Lowe, an Australia-based artist and professor at the South Wales University of Sidney. Russell has the complicated task of animating my storyboard into 3D footage. He typically uses a combination of traditional key-frame animation and real-time animation using computer gaming engines. We discuss the adjustments to the 3D footage online, using Skype software and a microphone. Once we are satisfied, I print out the final footage as a series of frames and from these prints I begin to draw out the sequence. In order to develop a 4-minute video, I need to execute between 1200 to 1500, 8.5 x 11 inch, hand made colored drawings, which, alone, take me approximately 12 to 18 months to create. Once the drawings are complete, I scan each one into the computer and send them back to my collaborator. We then edit the frames and add the audio portion and soundtrack, which is prepared by my wife Jennifer. This method allows my video-animation to have the perspective and special effect of a modern video game, but at the same time maintains the fascinating finish of an ‘ancient’ medium such as drawing.

3D digital frame by Russell Lowe.

My research has developed and I believe my work today has become more socially and politically oriented. Often I use a satirical aesthetic to portray a dystopian vision of our present day society. Right now, I am working on installations in which I will combine different media such as video, drawings, and mechanical sculptures. You can view more samples of my drawings on my website; trailers for my videos here; and footage from the opening of my 2008 solo exhibition at Elga Wimmer PCC /LMAK Projects Gallery NY.

I am very excited to be part of the video art festival at Harvestworks, and to have the opportunity to work closely with the curator, Nicole J Caruth. I will be screening my latest video animation, entitled “The Evil Empire” at the festival. It was created between 2007–8 and is a controversial piece, as it caused a “scandal” in the European press. Personally, I believe it is my strongest work. I have screened my video in different festivals in Europe and the United States. What I found unique about these venues in particular is the atmosphere; they are perfect for cultural exchange and dialog, while it is often very difficult for this exchange to occur in gallery events.

“The Evil Empire” will screen on Wednesday, September 24 between 7-9pm.

Is it September Already?

Since the deadline for submissions in June, I have watched nearly 340 videos. After the long and arduous process of review, selection and programming, I’m excited (and somewhat relieved) to begin blogging about the artists, events and ideas around the video art festival at Harvestworks Digital Media Arts Center. 

Near Sighted-Far Out is only the third such festival to be organized at this grassroots space. The program features an assortment of videos created since the year 2004 that broadly deal with the notion of façade. In this context, “façade” is used as a figure of speech to describe the face that people show others and inversely to indicate artifice and disguise as it might apply to architecture, self and psyche, relationships and dreams. The three-night festival, which runs from September 24-26, 2008, includes animated, silent, documentary, experimental, and other types of work. Most videos are presented as single-channel projections while just a couple will be shown on monitors.

Pictured above is performance artist, Danielle Abrams, who will emcee opening night as her character Uncle Bob. Abrams is an interdisciplinary artist, mostly working in performance and video. She has exhibited and performed widely at spaces such as the Bronx Museum of the Arts, Queens Museum of Art, The Jewish Museum, Arizona State University Art Museum, Institute of American Indian Art, Brooklyn Arts Exchange, WOW Cafe, Dixon Place, The Kitchen, Galapagos, and Ladyfest East. In her performances, she reveals the frolic, toxicity, poignancy, and revolutionary potential that is created at the points of contact between diverse communities. Abrams recently moved to MIchigan to become an Assistant professor in the School of Art and Design at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Don’t miss her at Harvestworks on September 24, from 7-9pm.

Stay tuned for an introductory post by my assistant curator Maya Suess (also a performance artist extraordinaire), and words from participating artists: Elizabeth Axtman, Nina Barnett, Patrick Bergeron, Nanna Debois Buhl, Alan Calpe, Tirtza Evan, Brendan Fernandes, Natalie Frigo, Stephani Hough, Esther Johnson, Amy Lynn Kazymerchyk, Heidi Kumao, Lauren Kelley, Lilly McElroy, Tommy Mintz, Shelley Silver, Kambui Olujimi, Jefferson Pinder, Alexander Reyna, Coral Short, Federico Solmi, Donna Szoke,Traci Talasco, and Mai Yamashita and Naoto Kabayashi among others.

Nicole J. Caruth, Curator

Call for Entries

The main objective of Video Art Festival #003 is to highlight inventive and visually rich video created in the twenty-first century. Though this solicitation is truly broad, we are especially interested in highlighting the following:

1. A theme program exploring the notion of façade (i.e. architecturally or in the sense of superficial appearance or illusion).
2. Videos exploring food, agriculture, and/or the environment.
3. Videos with a strong music or sound component; audiovisual collaborations.
4. Silent video works.
5. Videos made especially for viewing via the Web and/or mobile handheld device.

Visit the Harvestworks web site to review the submission guidelines and to download an application.

First Announcement

Founded by artists in 1977, Harvestworks Digital Media Center (HDMC) has helped a generation of artists create new works using technology. HDMC will soon invite artists to submit videos of all types for a guest curated video art festival. During the month of September, artworks selected from this call or by external invitation will be featured in a series of themed single-channel screenings. Stay tuned for more information!