Hanging Out At Fenway, Old School

When I was twenty-two I moved to Boston which is where I discovered both my love of Super-8 film and the Boston Redsox. In the spring of 2000, I was working at a restaurant in Harvard Square and spending all of my free time sneaking away to Fenway Park. I used to go to day games by myself and try too sneak down to the corporate seats behind home plate (these usually stayed empty during day games and it was easy to sneak down without an entourage). This is a Super 8 film that I shot on such a day. Pedro Martinez was on the mound (my favorite in those days) and if memory serves, I think we won the game. Go Sox!

Me and Robin and Harrell Fletcher

Last week at The NY Photo Festival, I had the chance to hear Harrell Fletcher give a talk about his work. Harrell is one of my favorite artists, I first became familiar with his work via his web collaboration "Learning To Love You More" that he made with Miranda July. For those of you not familiar with his work, it is a wonderful blend of art and sociology and I encourage you to look through his site. Harrell was exhibiting in Leslie Martin's exhibition "The Ubiquitous Image" and at the end of his talk, he informed the audience that for his piece in the show, he was asking people to share their wallet photographs with him so that he could scan them, print them and hang them in the exhibition. I just happen to always keep a photograph of Robin in my wallet and was excited to include it in the show.

Two Upcoming Auctions

I will be participating in two upcoming photography auctions, one at The Museum of Contemporary Photography this friday at The Douglas Dawson Gallery here in Chicago and one at The Center for Contemporary Arts Santa Fe on June 7th. Both should be well worth attending, happy shopping!

Corey Arnold

This past weekend, my friend Amy Stein (who by the way won The NY Photo Festival Book Award this past friday) introduced me to the photographer Corey Arnold. I'm a huge fan of The Discovery Channel's "Deadliest Catch" and Corey's photographs examine that same world. He's both a photographer and a fisherman as well as a really nice guy. He'll apparently be in a show at Bucket Rider Gallery next spring here in Chicago where he'll be sharing the walls with one of my favorite Chicago artists, Cody Hudson. Good times . . .

NY Photo Festival

I'll be flying into NY this week for the NY Photo Festival. I will have five pieces on display at The Museum of Contemporary Photography Pavilion from my series, "Items Of Clothing Secretly Hidden By My Girlfriend (So That I Wouldn't Wear Them Anymore)." Please swing by and check it out if you find yourself in town.

The World's Most Stupid Video

I've recently been archiving all of my old VHS tapes and this afternoon I came across this, the most stupid video ever made. During my first year of grad school, I was required to take a 19th Century Photo History course. For our final, we had the option of either writing a paper or creating a piece that addressed 19th century photo history. I've always enjoyed looking at the work of Eadweard Muybridge and found it extremely interesting that he used to manipulate his data to achieve certain results. For my final, I decided to make this movie which uses his technique to evaluate whether or not a break dancer friend of mine was able to do the worm and leave the ground. We manipulated the facts (as did Muybridge) and came up with this, the stupidist video ever made. Enjoy!

Which Famous Photographer Are You?

This morning, one of my students sent me a link where you can take a survey that dares to ask, "which famous photographer are you?" After filling out the survey, I learned that I am Helmut Newton. Which famous photographer are you? Click HERE to find out.

CTA Part 3

Today I went down to the Armitage Station to check out the progress on the installation. They were finishing up with the sealant and should be finished by the end of the week. It looks like the station will definitely open on June 1st and will be featured at some point in June on NPR's "Hello Beautiful".

Opening This Thursday At The Nelson Hancock Gallery

This Thursday, I'll be in NY for an opening of my work at The Nelson Hancock Gallery in Brooklyn. The show will feature four of my artist's books, one video and ten framed photographs. The books that will be included are: "The Scavenger Hunt," "If I Had A Girlfriend," "I Wave in Front Of Every Apartment I've Ever Lived In Except for One" and "The Ballad of Carl Wilson." I will also be showing the film: "I Wave in Front Of Every Apartment I've Ever Lived In Except for One" and ten images from my series, "Dream Job." If you're in town, please come out and say hello. The show opens from 6-8.

CTA Installation (part 2)

Today I went back to the installation site to check out the progress since last week. The crew had to take the last day and a half off due to cold temperatures but there were a lot of new tiles none the less. Installation is set to conclude by the start of next week although the opening date for the station has been pushed back until the end of May.

Installation Shots, Day 1

Today was the second day of installation for my public art piece and my first day on the site. I was really nervous to see it come together at full scale (it's very big and very permanent) but was excited when I actually got up close and had a look. The Station (CTA Armitage Brown Line) is scheduled to open on May 1st and installation of the piece should be finished by the end of next week. I'll be back on Monday to take some more pictures and will post them later that day. In the mean time, enjoy the project's website at:
www.chicagoelstories.com

Garbage Can Project Portfolio

Having recently wrapped up my surveillance for The Garbage Can Project, I've now begun to commission a series of hand-made, 12" x 16" portfolio cases. The tricky thing with a web based project is trying to figure out 1) What the physical form is for exhibition and 2) What to sell (it's a hard reality). I've decided to break the project up into a series of portfolios, one for each week. Each portfolio is available in an edition of one and consists of seven photographs and a dvd of the weekly footage (this portfolio is August 12-18, 2007). When someone is interested in acquiring one, they can choose their week and the portfolio will be custom made for them.


The spine of the portfolio has the week contained within and the front of the case is embossed with a line drawing of one of the cans. Inside of the case is a hand bound book that is also embossed with a white garbage can icon.

The first page of the book contains the project statement.
Each page contains that day's image and the date on which it was made. This is from August 12, 2007.

August 13, 2007.
August 14, 2007.
August 15, 2007.
August 16, 2007.
August 17, 2007.
August 18, 2007.
This page lists all of the weekly video activity

There is an envelope on the back cover of the book that contains all of the weekly footage. The menu for the DVD is custom built and divides the footage up into seven short chapters (one for each day).


And so that's it. I'm still trying to figure out ideas for exhibiting this work in a gallery setting, I have some ideas but nothing is set in stone.

You Fucking Fuck!

Yesterday, as I was walking home from the train, I came across this message carved into the concrete square of the sidewalk. When I saw this I chuckled and kept walking. When I got home I bolt locked the door, curled up on the floor and started to cry. Enjoy!

Super 8 Movies

It's been a while since I've posted anything and as usual, I could come up with about a million lame excuses. One of the things I've been up to is archiving my family's Super 8 home movies from the 70's and 80's. There's something special about memories that were captured on film as opposed to video. This clip is one of my favorites: me, my brother and our friends playing Slip & Slide on our front yard circa 1980. The best thing about it has to be the way my father included his hand and the hose on the left hand side of the frame. Oh, the good ol' days . . .

The Iron Git

Me, my brothers and the ex WWF Champion Iron Sheik in a Howard Johnson's hotel, Orlando Florida, August 1986.

Springtime In Chicago (as seen from our back porch)

Two Of My All-Time Favorite Photographers

These are two of my favorite photographs of all time, one by Brian Ulrich and one by Roy Decarava. There's a connection between these two images besides the coat hangers, maybe it's the silent quality that they both have. Brian and the lovely Rachelle spent their sunday today helping to paint our new apartment. After-words, we went to an amazing German restaurant around the corner to eat wurst and to talk over the confusing difficulties of being a mid-western artist in this day and age. Like presumably everyone in our field, I sometimes feel overwhelmed and insecure about trying to navigate the contemporary art world. Brian and Rachelle are two of my best friends and had lots of great advise for me, I'm lucky to have such wonderful friends.

The End Of An Era (Part 3)

November 29, 2006: The infamous rat incident. You learn new things every day watching surveillance footage of your garbage cans. I, for instance, had no idea that rats could be so resourceful when seeking out food. You gotta respect the little bastards ...

The End Of An Era (Part 2)

This is one of my personal favorites: On August 8, 2007, my cat Wally became intrigued with something outside the of window and stuck his head in front of the camera. Look at those cheeks . . .

The End Of An Era (Part 1)

Today marks the start of the last week of filming for The Garbage Can Project. Robin and I will be moving to a new apartment next weekend and so on this, the final week of filming, I've decided to make a daily post featuring one video highlight per day. The above clip is from March 12, 2007 and features one of our cans being stolen in the middle of the night.