Tomorrow night the Green Theatre Collective (GCT), a Brooklyn-based theater group that uses minimal resources to perform in natural environments, will hold a benefit for its inaugural season. The benefit will be at Pianos NYC at 158 Ludlow St. in the Lower East Side of Manhattan from 7 to 10 p.m.
Attendees will hear live music from Reuben Chess of the band Quintus, Acoustic Electra and Sara Banleigh, and sample baked goods from Monicakes Bakery. The show will start at 8 p.m.
Suggested donation is $10, which will go to GCT’s production of Shakespeare’s As You Like It, slated for summer 2011. For more information, visit www.greentheatrecollective.org.
The Green Theatre Collective is founded by Windsor Terrace resident Hal Fickett. Read my story about it here.
Six months ago Windsor Terrace resident and actor Hal Fickett (pictured below) founded the Green Theatre Collective (GTC), combining his “love for theater with an interest in the green movement.”
GTC’s mission is to use minimal resources to perform captivating stories in natural environments, he explained. Each show will be performed during the day, outside in a green space, which eliminates the need for electric lighting. The actors’ costumes will be made from reused or recycled materials, and will be reused from production to production, said Fickett. Any music will be produced by instruments the actors play on stage, and all the marketing and promotion for the Green Theatre Collective is done online, through Facebook, Twitter and a blog.
The first production is slated for summer 2011, Shakespeare’s As You Like It, and Fickett hopes for it to be performed in Prospect Park or a community garden.
The choice of play is significant, said Fickett. “The background is in the Forest of Arden; it’s a green and natural background,” he noted. “The play touches upon city life versus country life and the serenity that can come from living in the natural world.”
After Brooklyn, GTC will go on tour, with a definite stop in Newbury Port, Mass., Fickett’s hometown.
Fickett graduated with a bachelor’s degree in acting from Emerson College in 2006. He has acted in nearly a dozen Off-Broadway and Off-Off Broadway productions. So far, Fickett has been joined on his GTC venture by Nidia Medina, who signed on as managing director of the collective, and Melanie Closs.
Right now, the group is working on raising funds to acquire and maintain a web site, apply for grant money to assist in production costs and to cover administrative costs leading up to production. They’ve set up a page on fundraising web site indiegogo.com and have scheduled a fall benefit for Tuesday, Nov. 16, at Pianos NYC in Manhattan, which will be as green as possible.
“The green movement is very relevant to where we’re at. It’s what the Earth needs for the present and the future,” said Fickett. “I wanted to put in my two cents. I’m really doing everything I can to have a green lifestyle.”
I recently interviewed Bed-Stuy artist Chris Spadazzi at his studio at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, who works with styrofoam he collects from the East and Hudson rivers. "For anyone who loves the ocean, or nature for that matter, it's terrible to see how we've irreversibly polluted our environment. The foam pieces are just tangible evidence," he said.
Spadazzi is pictured above with his current project, a piece that is about five feet tall, four-and-a-half feet wide and two feet thick. He says it's the biggest he's worked on thus far.
It’s long been a tradition for Macintosh hobbyists to convert their old, cherished computers into something else — a fish tank, for example. With this idea in mind, Jeff Graber, owner of the Mac Support Store in Gowanus, looked at the pile of obsolete computer equipment in his store and wondered, what could be done with it?
Since the Mac Support Store is part of NYC's Retailer Take-Back Program, the equipment was slated to be recycled. But Graber and Brooklyn curators Michele Jaslow and Spring Hofeldt decided to put out a call for artists to use them to create art pieces.
The result is the show “Programmed,” which opened on Dec. 21 at the Mac Support Store, with a satellite exhibit in the windows of wine shop Red White & Bubbly on Fifth Avenue in Park Slope.
Eight artists contributed 12 pieces to the show, three of whom are Brooklyn-based. “[The artists’] work speaks to the idea of how quickly these electronics become obsolete,” Jaslow said. “What happens to the old, which is relatively not so old.”
The work in the show is diverse; Jaslow described a necklace made out of an iPod and a working lie detector made out of computer parts. Brooklyn artist Noah Fischer created a multimedia installation called “Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish,” (left) named for a commencement speech Steve Jobs gave at Stanford in 2005. The expansive piece comprised of stacks and piles of computer parts with blinking lights set to a soundtrack of Jobs’ speech fills the better part of a room. See the video below.
Brooklyn artist Kimberly Simpson’s work (right), a “video reliquary” dedicated to “Saint Obsoleta.” According to her artist statement, it is inspired by the computer parts and by medieval reliquaries which protect a saintly relic. The patron saint of outmoded objects, Saint Obsoleta encourages humans to adopt new technologies in order to replace the old. She also acts as a guide, directing obsolete technologies and outdated electronic items to their final resting place.
Nancy Lunsford, a Park Slope artist and founder of 440 Gallery, contributed pieces based on quilt patterns (top, left). She was surprised when working with the computer parts, she said. “It was much more colorful than I anticipated, much more delicate.”
Using pieces from computers juxtaposed with children’s pacifiers symbolizes how people are “pacified by computers,” Lunsford said.
With her work, Lunsford wanted to emphasize the human-machine connection. “[Computers] are made by human beings, they are used by human beings... they are more human than we think and we are more machine than we think.”
Graber, too, wants viewers to take away from the show a new way to think about their relationship with computers. “I hope it stimulates people to think about and interact with their electronics,” he said, explaining that we spend so much time using the computer when it’s on that “when it’s off, it takes on a whole new meaning.”
What originally inspired Jaslow, she said, is “what happens to these electronics when you’re done with them, [asking] what is their place in our community, what is their place in art... looking at things in a different way.”
But the most important message Graber hopes people take away from “Programmed” is that, “Computers and electronics must be recycled. There are so many toxic elements within computers and electronics.”
“Programmed” features work by Noah Fisher, Liesl Hazelton, Nancy Lunsford, Mario Marchese, Ryan Mcintosh, Patricia Paludanus and Kimberly Simpson. The satellite installation features work by Ryan Seslow.
The show will continue at the Mac Support Store through March 13, with a reception this Friday, Jan. 15, from 6 to 9 p.m., sponsored by Red White & Bubbly, which is open to the public. For more information, click here.
The Gumbo Gallery and Stevie’s Artisans present a multimedia exhibition of “Recycled and Stitched Art: The Ordinary Becomes Extraordinary” at Gumbo, 493 Atlantic Ave. (between Nevins and Third avenues). The exhibition opens with a reception Sunday, Dec 6 from 3 – 5 p.m. and runs through Sunday, Jan. 31.
“Recycled and Stitched Art,” will feature fabric art by Margaret Cusack; zipper jewelry by Kate Cusack (left); pillows and wall hangings by Joyce Daniels; stitched portraits on paper by Marlene Mayerson; mobiles made from recycled wood, metal and poetry fragments by Elizabeth Ortiz; paintings on broken glass and sculpture by Ibou N’doye; spray painted fabric and paper towel construction by Beatrix Piesh (What Do You Do For Love, spray paint on wood, below); mixed media wood boxes by Leslie Rubman; quilts by Teri Scaduto,;and dolls from recycled New York Times bags by Beatrice Weiner Cohen.
During the reception, artisans featured by Stevie’s Artisans will demonstrate their crafts in mini-workshops. Participating artisans are Elizabeth Ortiz, Karen Ahn, Aaron Lazansky and Diana Pucci.
This exhibition complements this year’s theme — “A Green Holiday” — of the holiday window displays of the Atlantic Avenue merchants. Windows will be judged by a distinguished panel of judges and winners will be announced at the Holiday Tree Lighting Ceremony at 6 p.m. on Dec. 3 at the Belarusan Church at Atlantic and Bond.
Green Edge NYC — a social network that connects people with businesses, organizations and the resources they need to build a sustainable future — seeks art submissions focused on one or more element of sustainability: environment, society, economy, lifestyle/individual.
The organization is looking for artists to donate a piece to be displayed and auctioned at its annual fundraiser celebration, this year a third birthday bash.
The event will be held Thursday December 3 at Littlefield performance and art space in Brooklyn. It is expected to draw more than 100 people, and will be a great opportunity for you to present your work to a like-minded crowd. Selected artists will be seen by Green Edge’s large online network, included in email blasts and included in media materials.
Donation of art qualifies the artist for free +1 admission to the event.
All proceeds from the silent auction will go to Green Edge NYC to continue its mission to connect people with the resources they need to live more sustainable lives, and artists can request a documentation for their donation for tax purposes.
Twelve to 16 works will be selected to be featured at this event and auctioned off as part of the silent auction, so email your best sustainable-focused piece to art@GreenEdgeNYC.org. Submissions are due by Wednesday, November 18. Selected artists will be notified by Tuesday, November 24.
GreenEdge Collaborative NYC was founded in 2006 by then-Park Slope resident Carolyn Gilles. She wanted to connect businesses and residents who live sustainably. Since then, GreenEdge has expanded to include a Kentucky chapter, and a San Francisco chapter is in the works. Back to homepage
This past weekend saw the 13th annual D.U.M.B.O Art Under the Bridge Festival, a neighborhood-wide event where art appears indoors and out. Eagle writer Mary Frost attended the festivities and reported on some of its eco-conscious works. Below are some green highlights from her piece, which you can read in its entirety here.
The Experience of Green (above) is a gallery-sized installation by Wade Kavanaugh and Stephen B. Nguyen, which will be at DUMBO Arts Center (DAC) through November 29. It represents old growth trees made from massive amounts of red kraft paper. “If you stare at it long enough, you see green,” said Breda Kennedy, DAC executive director. “The artists’ intent is to heighten awareness of the environment.”
At Smack Mellon, Ellen Driscoll’s awe-inspiring work FASTFORWARDFOSSIL: Part 2, which will run until November 8, (above) comments on oil and water consumption. The sculptural installation comprises 2600 #2 water bottles transformed into a 28- foot, time-spanning landscape.
Waste Management (above), a street installation made of discarded cardboard cartons by Ian Trask, “grafts material waste and unused urban space, emphasizing the accumulated magnitude of what we throw away,” according to the artist’s explanation.
New Yorkers send 386 million pounds of textile waste to landfills annually, according to a study conducted by the Department of Sanitation. At the “Green Brooklyn... Green City” fair and symposium, held by the Council on the Environment of New York City (CENYC), this alarming fact will be visualized through a day-long sculpture demonstration conducted by artist Derick Melander.
Melander, with a group of volunteers, will carefully fold and stack 3,615 pounds of recycled clothing into a five- by seven-foot cube over the course of the conference, which runs from noon until 6 p.m. “It will be a race against the clock,” he said.
The figure 3,615 — calculated by CENYC’s Office of Recycling Outreach and Education (OROE) and Brooklyn-based clothing recycling company Wearable Collections — represents the pounds of textile waste New Yorkers create every five minutes, Melander explained. He noted that textile waste comes from the residential waste stream: clothing textiles, non-clothing textiles (towels, carpets, furniture cushions), sneakers and leather goods. It does not include textile waste from the industrial/commercial waste stream.
Wearable Collections is donating the clothes for Melander’s sculpture. Through a partnership with CENYC, Wearable Collections has a presence at several greenmarkets throughout the city. Over its five-year life span, the organization has diverted over one million pounds of New York City’s textile waste from landfills, said founder Adam Baruchowitz.
The sculpture will be made up of four stacks of clothes, with only the weight of the clothes and lateral supports keeping the structure intact, said Melander. Clothing will be divided by color into four categories: blues, warm colors, cool colors, and blacks and grays. “There’s no gluing or sewing and no treatment other than Febreze every once and a while.”
He will set up a large folding table for volunteers, using a template that indicates the dimensions of the fold, which vary depending on the garment. A sweater dictates a smaller size than a cotton shirt, because when stacked it will compress and become wider.
Folded garments will then be passed on to volunteers who, overseen by Melander, will build the sculpture. “It will be Ford Motor car assembly line-style,” he said.
Volunteers (which are still needed) can fold for part of the day or the whole six hours. Those who stay for the duration will receive a free watercolor painting by Melander, he said.
He previously collaborated with CENYC through OROE for a fundraiser to which he donated two small artworks. But Melander has been constructing clothing sculptures for more than seven years.
Having “no natural affinity for clothing,” Melander says the material found him while he was working with found vintage suitcases. “I thought they needed to be up on a pedestal,” he explained. Not wanting to put them on plain white pedestals, he decided to construct bases out of piles of clothes.
“Working with all that clothing, I started to get interested in clothes,” Melander said. He would sometimes find notes in pockets or be able to detect the lingering smell of someone’s cologne on the garments he has used.
“Clothing has this natural connection to the people who wore it,” he said. “I’m making artwork that’s like a collective portrait... it’s a symbolic gesture where I’m compressing the space between people.”
And since the clothes in his sculptures are not attached, just stacked, they can be taken apart and recycled into new pieces.
“I’m eco-conscious as a person,” he said. “It’s part of who I am and naturally ends up having a place in my artwork as well.”
Melander’s demonstration will send a clear message, illustrating how much clothing is sent to landfills. “It’s important that people understand the magnitude of the issue,” Baruchowitz said. “It’s important for people to see it.”
“Green Brooklyn... Green City,” at Brooklyn Borough Hall on September 24, will run from noon to 6 p.m. with opening remarks at 11:30 a.m. To volunteer for the fair, e-mail cshann@cenyc.org. To volunteer for Derick Melander’s sculpture demonstration, e-mail the artist at derick.melander@mindspring.com.
The work in the top photo, called Compression, is constructed of 800 pounds of carefully folded, second hand clothing, crisscrossed around a central spine, and is from the collection of Farshid Assassi. Bottom photo is called The Ocean is the Underlying Basis for Every Wave, 1,859 pounds of folded clothing. Photos courtesy of Derick Melander.
Eagle reporter Harold Egeln attended the opening of a new art gallery in Clinton Hill, a 19th century brownstone that was converted into an arts venue. The first exhibit at the gallery is focused on the environment. Comprised of works of art by Jonathan Levy, the solo show entitled "Style of Nature" encourages people to look at the natural world around them and separate themselves from their everyday lives.
Gallery 364 owner and founder Georgine Benvenuto has opened a new art show with the theme, "Recycle, Reused, Rescued," in which artists submitted worked made from recycled and reclaimed materials. Pictured here is "American Flag," by Michael Esposito, made of hundreds of small Americana items from toy plastic trucks to figurines and everyday items.
For more information and photos by Eagle reporter Harold Egeln, who attended the show's opening, click here.
The photography show, Visualizing Climate Change, at DUMBO's Henry Gregg Gallery, has been extended until July 31st. It is a showcase of work from photo agency GHG Photos. For more information go to www.henrygregggallery.com.
Joshua Wolfe, founder of GHG Photos will receive the 2009 Ansel Adams Award. The “award honors an individual who has made superlative use of still photography to further a conservation cause.” Josh will be the third GHG member to win the award. Steve Kazlowski was last year’s recipient and Gary Braasch won in 2006. This is coming on the heels of his recently published book Climate Change: Picturing the Science, that was co-authored with Gavin Schmidt. For more information on the book and reviews go to www.picturingclimatechange.com.
The term “climate change” is used often these days, in conjunction with “global warming” and “extreme weather.” Sure, we know that the earth is hotter today than it has been in the past four hundred years, the polar ice caps are melting and sea levels are rising. But what does it all actually look like? Most of us don’t have the means or ability to see the effects of climate change, we usually just hear about it.
The current photography exhibition at the Henry Gregg Gallery in DUMBO, entitled “Visualizing Climate Change,” brings powerful images from around the world to Brooklyn. Work of photographers Gary Braasch, Ashley Cooper, Benjamin Drummond, Peter Essick, Steve Kazlowski and Joshua Wolfe is on display, with subjects ranging from polar bears, to glaciers, to forest fires.
Brooklyn-based photographer Wolfe explained that, as members of GHG (which stands for greenhouse gas) Photos, these photographers deal with the basic question of: “How do you portray something that’s happening as gradually as climate change?”
“For me, a lot of it is trying to explain through images not just that climate change is all extreme weather all the time and a polar bear,” Wolfe explained. “There’s more depth to it, the issue is more complex, there are a lot of factors going into it.
“Any of us working individually can’t create such a complete or such a nuanced picture of climate change,” he continued. “Our goal is to present people with what’s going on, to give a more complete picture.”
On one wall of the gallery is a photo by Wolfe of an oil pump in the foreground and a group of wind turbines in the background (above). Another by Kazlowski — whom Wolfe calls “the best polar bear photographer in the world” — is a member of the threatened species swimming in the Beaufort Sea in the Arctic Ocean. Yet another by Cooper shows a man knee deep in water in his South Yorkshire kitchen, searching for food after floods in the summer of 2007.
Hanging on another wall of the gallery is a series of before and after photos of glaciers, taken by Wolfe and Braasch, portraying the stark decrease in glacier size over the years.
Using photography as the medium to portray climate change was challenging, says Wolfe. “If you look at photojournalism, we really thrive on an event. We thrive on a conflict. We know how to do wars, we know how to do protests, to a lesser extent, we know how to do celebrities,” he said. “Gradual, decade-long, century-long, year long changes aren’t things that photojournalism is necessarily comfortable with.”
Adding to the difficulty, Wolfe says, is that in some cases it’s hard to tell if something like extreme weather is climate change or not. “With hurricanes or forest fires or droughts, is this just noise in the system or is this definitively climate change?” he asked, which is the reason for pairing before and after photos of glaciers, or juxtaposing a picture of a forest fire in Greece with a satellite image of more fires ravaging the country.
“Each individual show has its own spirit, its own energy,” said Martinez-Reed. “With Visualizing Climate Change, it gives people a chance to experience something that’s going on in the world that probably they wouldn’t normally have an opportunity to experience.”
“We have this unique experience to view a lot of the things going on with climate change that the average person can’t see,” Wolfe said. “We’re changing the way people look at things around them.”
Visualizing Climate Change will be on view at the Henry Gregg Gallery at 111 Front St., Suite 226, in DUMBO through June 21. The exhibit is also on view at the Port Authority building at the corner of 42nd St and 8th Ave in Manhattan. Wolfe will be speaking at this Thursday’s Nerd Nite at Galapagos Art Space in DUMBO about climate change.
Photo above by Joshua Wolfe, courtesy of GHG Photos
