DJ Needles describes what he’ll be playing at tomorrow’s sound waves: Hip Hop.

Tomorrow night, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., is our second to last sound waves (the grand finale is on Saturday), and from the buzz so far, I anticipate the KDHX/Pulitzer series heading out with a bang.

sound waves: Hip Hop will feature DJ Needles, known also as James Gates, spinning hip hop and music that has inspired hip hop, illustrating the rich history of the genre.  He has been deejaying for over sixteen years and has opened for national acts, such as De La Soul and the Roots. In accordance with the sound waves twist, his beats tomorrow will interplay with Ann Hamilton’s installation stylus, and he will choose music based on how  it flows with Shahrokh Yadegari’s sound component.

Also especially for Hip Hop night, interdesciplinary artist Stan Chisholm/18andCounting has designed limited edition posters, “remixes” of our original sound waves posters, which were designed and printed by All Along Press.

A recent graduate of the Art Institute of Chicago, Stan has been a heavy-hitter in the St. Louis art and music community, through projects like “MoneyBags” and his own deejaying gigs. As to the reasoning behind the poster, Stan says, “My primary intent was to skew the language normally associated with the art forms and practices we’re most familiar with.” Gallery assistants will be raffling off these posters at the front desk.

For the exhibition stylus–a project by Ann Hamilton–the Pulitzer has invited many different groups to activate the interactive installation: the St. Louis Symphony Chorus, Webster University dancers, Shape Note Singers, librarians , all the musicians and DJs associated with sound waves, to name just a few.  With “stylus” as the exhibition’s title and Hamilton’s history with knitting, it seemed obvious that knitters be added to the list.

The Pulitzer invites all of you knitters to join in the biggest knitting circle St. Louis has ever seen on January 8, 2-5pm, at the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts. Onlookers are welcome too. This event is free and open to the public, and visitors may come and go freely.

Please read about how this event was developed and ties in with Ann Hamilton’s work on 2buildings1blog.

co-directors for Sweet Jesus-Kiersten Torrez, Lauren F. Adams, William Gass, Juan William Chaverz, and Jake Peterson

Thank you, St. Louis, for supporting the Arts on Cherokee Street and for stopping by on opening night and for the Saturday afternoon artist tour. We had over 700 visitors for this two-day exhibit!

Lauren Frances Adams-Don’t Trust Anybody Over Thirty
Wood, paint, bench, strobe lights 2010

I would like to give my fellow co-directors, Lauren F. Adams, William Gass, Jake Peterson and Kiersten Torrez, a 21-gun salute for undertaking an exhibition of such large scale.  Installing an exhibition of 15 artists in the 33,000 sq. ft. space of a historic brewery is no easy feat. Thanks you Lemp Brewery for collaborating and embracing the STL art community.

Laura Fried and Matthew Thompson Guest curated video installation detail-Sonny Liston fight at the St. Louis Arena.

Kiersten Torrez-Paul Raymond’s Revue,Light box and audio installation 2010

Documentation from the exhibition and performance will be coming soon to the Sweet Jesus website. Images will all so be posted on the Sweet Jesus face book page.

Juan William Chavez-Pruitt-Igoe Bee Sanctuary
Bee hives, super 8mm digital transfer.

On view thru November 28, 2010, the exhibition at the Front Room, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, presents an installation of the Belgium-based organization, Agency, alongside a series of photographs by Miriam Böhm.

Agency, the invention of Kobe Matthys, serves as a platform for highly systematic investigations that make formal inquiry into issues of authorship, copyright, and intellectual property. Existing as a compendium amassed and catalogued by Matthys, Agency gathers facts, subjects, objects, collectives, humans and non-humans to perform speculations and conduct Agency’s exhibitions. In this installation, titled Assembly, Agency displays evidence for the copyright infringement of a certain artist’s renderings of Place des Terreaux – Fontaine Bartholdi et Hôtel de Ville, wherein dubious distribution was enacted. “Thing 001408 (Lyone (Rhône)” bears witness in the Front Room, as testament to the problematic events that take place in the realm of artistic property.

Miriam Böhm, Berlin-based artist, presents a series of recent photographs that, like Agency’s Assembly, demonstrate shifting events of perspective. Böhm’s process begins with photographing marble slabs and faux marble paintings, followed by staging the prints against a textured backdrop, which she then re-photographs – producing a different image altogether. The work emerges, much like the marble slab itself, as a layered tablet of materiality – a compression of pictorial illusion, revealing the limitations of representation.

Image Credits:

Agency & Miriam Böhm, Installation in The Front Room, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, 2010. Photos by Alex Elmestad.

London-based filmmaker John Smith screens Lost Sound at the Front Room today thru December 5, 2010.  From his compendium of over 40 videos, films and installations, which he presents across a variety of platforms including movie theatres, exhibition spaces and televisions, Lost Sound is specific case of film that obscures the roles of representation and abstraction, documentary and fiction.

Developing this specific kind of cinematic language, Lost Sound composes footage taken on the streets of East London: the subjects are pieces of discarded audio tape inhabiting barb wire fences, tree branches, and other miscellaneous locations within the city’s sidelines.  In collaboration with sound artist Graeme Mille, the ambient sound is skillfully mixed with audio data from the remnant music tapes found on-site, which was re-recorded and inserted back into the film’s sound design. Smith and Mille layer image and sound into an elaborate experience for the viewer to de-code, addressing traditional roles of environment and viewer, perception and narrative.

Image Credit:

John Smith, Flag Mountain (Southern Nicosia, looking towards the border with the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus), 2010. HD video, color, sound, seamless loop (8 minutes cycle). Courtesy of the artist and Tanya Leighton Gallery.

SWEET JESUS Friday 11/19/2010 @ 7-10 pm

The event will take place in four locations and over 33,000 square feet of Historic Lemp Brewery in the Cherokee Street neighborhood of Saint Louis. An international pool of over 15 contemporary artists and collaborative groups will be represented.

Opening Event w/ performances by Beacon Projects @ 7:30pm & 9pm

You can Watch a live video feed of the performance at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/im-you-sweet-jesus

Afterparty @ The Stable (across Cherokee St. from Lemp)

Saturday 11/20/2010 @ 1-3 pm: Panel, walking tour, & mimosa sing-along  Featuring: (to be announced)

Saturday 11/20/2010 @ 12-5 pm: Open Hours 12 pm – 5 pm

Web Site http://www.sweetjesusstl.com/about.html

LOCATION: Lemp Brewery‎, 3500 Lemp Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63118-3256

HOW TO GET THERE? CLICK TO VIEW MAP

http://www.sweetjesusstl.com/maps.html

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Directors: Lauren F. Adams, Juan William Chavez, Jake Peterson, Kiersten Torrez and William Joseph Gass

Special Video Curation by: Laura Fried & Matthew Thompson

Participating Artists: Lauren Frances Adams, Beacon Projects, Juan William Chavez, Coble / Riley Projects, William Gass, Sarrita Hunn, Gregg Louis, Tim Ridlen, Mike Schuh, Ryan Thayer, Kiersten Torrez

Sweet Jesus November 19, 2010 – November 20, 2010

Historic Lemp Brewery, St. Louis, MO

Co-directed By: Lauren Frances Adams, Juan William Chavez, Jake  Peterson, & Kiersten Torrez

ST. LOUIS, MO: 19 Contemporary artists from across the United States will be participating in one of the largest independent art events in St. Louis history. 33,000 sq. ft. and four massive, unfinished sections of Historic Lemp Brewery will house this two day event.

Lemp Brewery will open its gates on Friday, November 19^th, at 7pm. This two-day art exhibition features local and national installation, multimedia and performance artists. Sweet Jesus is organized by local cultural workers as a platform for focusing international attention to the unique resources and culture of the St. Louis independent art movement. Drawing its name from the found graffiti of former disenchanted youth that used the expansive brewery as an underground party mecca, Sweet Jesus attempts to recapture this energy in the form of a spontaneous 24 hour art happening. Artwork will be installed on four sections and three floors of the raw industrial space that formerly housed the brewery’s ice house, storage, and processing facilities.

Artists in this group exhibition include: Lauren Frances Adams (St. Louis, MO), Beacon Projects (New York, NY), Juan William Chavez (St. Louis, MO), Coble/Riley Projects (Copenhagen, Denmark and New York, NY), William Gass (St. Louis), Sarrita Hunn (St. Louis), Gregg Louis (New York, NY), Tim Ridlen (New York, NY), Mike Schuh (Chicago, IL), Ryan Thayer (St. Louis, MO), Kiersten Torrez (St. Louis, MO). Video selections by guest curators Laura Fried (St. Louis, MO) and Matthew Thompson (Aspen, CO).

On November 19^th, there will be an opening party from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Performances by Beacon Projects scheduled at 7:30pm and 9:00pm will be broadcast live on the web. Open hours on Saturday, November 20^th will feature a discussion and walking tour with guest panel, inspirational sing-along, and mimosa toast from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.

Sweet Jesus, is organized by Lauren Frances Adams (Founder of Cosign Projects and Assistant Professor of Painting at Washington University), Juan William Chavez (Artist, Cultural Activist and Founder of Boots Contemporary Art Space), Jake Peterson (Assistant Curator of Cosign Projects and Lead Designer at Arsenal Studios), and Kiersten Torrez (Visitor Services Manager at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis). Guest curators include Laura Fried (Associate Curator at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis) and Matthew Thompson (Associate Curator at the Aspen Art Museum). The exhibition is on view Friday, November 19, 2010 7-10pm and Saturday, November 20, 2010 12pm-5pm. Admission is free.

Sweet Jesus is generously supported by Arsenal Studios (http://www.arsenalstudios.com) and Historic Lemp Brewery.

For more information, please visit:

Exhibition website: www.sweetjesusstl.com
Sweet Jesus on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Saint-Louis-MO/SweetJesus/154037334633285

Sweet Jesus on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SweetJesusSTL

The current exhibition at the Front Room announces itself as a domestic space inside the Museum Walls.  The three artists – Zipora Fried, Margarete Jakschik and Sam Windett – contribute individual works that come to collectively resonate impressions of intimacy and domesticity.  Upon entering the Front Room, Fried’s black knit dining room table fills the space with sensations of dinner-table etiquette while its wool covering mystifies the art-object’s connotations.  Margarete Jakschik presents a collection of photographs that evoke the unceremonious but majestic sensibilities of American iconography.  The paintings of Sam Windett display his deep appreciation for the still-life tradition, recalling tropes of Modernism in their small but intense forms.

The exhibition closes October 31, 2010.  Visit www.camstl.org for more information.

The Exhibitions Hair and Sum of Limited Views make for an unusual pairing, however the juxtaposition of such highly particular work present a freeing and refreshing experience.

Elad Lassry, Israeli-born, Los Angeles based artist, exhibits his most recent collection of lacquered-framed photographic prints and 16mm films.  Lassry’s jewel-box sized monographs encapsulate still-life arrangements of objects and images.  These works not only convey Lassry’s nostalgic and highly realistic visual language, but also function as pieces that are not confined to their medium.  Lassry’s photographs pose as sculptures as well as images. The gleaming lacquered frames that hold each monograph print emphasizes each captured image as a singular phenomenon within a three-dimensional world.

Richard Artschwager’s exhibition Hair in the second main gallery, exemplifies, in a much different way, art that is not confined by its medium.  Artschwager’s sculptural oeuvre is familiar to us in its subject matter but unfamiliar in its peculiar process and materials.  Rubberized horsehair, paint, Celotex, and Formica, the materials of a former furniture maker, are transmuted into a medium for Artschwager’s art practice.  Requiring close inspection, the works bring awareness to their textural qualities.  But from a distance, the forms assemble into clean images on the gallery’s white walls, unexpectedly yielding into their two-dimensional forms.

With such formal subversion, Artschwager and Lassry’s works activate an analogous set of visual and sensory responses that challenge classic modes of perception employed when encountering an art object.  They bring to our attention the ways in which art objects are not confined by their mediums.  They can exist in a more transitive state – right before the point of clear perception and lucid familiarity.

MAY 7th 2010 at Boots Contemporary Art Space….more details coming soon!