Ep.1 - The Inception of ASC
We hosted an Art School Confidential, named after the weird 2006 film of the same title, attempting to recover the valuable feedback and nervous spirit of old art class critiques.
On a Friday in March, we gathered between brick walls and black curtains to hang screens, paintings; position speakers, chairs, projectors, plants, and little bowls caressing colored balls of fragrant marzipan.
As the Person in Charge, I made a poster, a foldable programme detailing everyone’s work, and pinned some freshly printed MASARY pins to them. The “show” itself started with formalities and comfortable small talk. Then the lights dimmed and some crackling texture bloomed onto a round screen in the corner of the room: Samo’s Untitled °•, a form study through video, sound, light, and time began. This single channel video media installation with single channel sound and multi-channel light flowed through visceral glittering, bubbling, flowing forms paired with sharp sounds.
Next, Ryan explored the 4:3, in PR Machine , an environment designed to expose participants to the structural dynamics and relativity of rhythmic beating and the ultimate, resultant pitch harmonies. Through simple exposition of rhythmic elements and adjustment of rate, the work opened the door to polyrhythmic experiences that might not otherwise be apparent to most people. Everyone in our small audience reflected on how PR Machine affected our energy levels: bringing our heart rates up and sinking us down as the rhythm changed.
Jeremy glitched through some of his work, Cyberstasis, a 12 minute sound and video piece. Light scattered on a black background: glittering, dazzling, scratching, and zipping across the screen carried by collected digital sounds. The shape transformed as the sound buzzed; scifi robots wheezing, and a fast paced static noise which, paired with the bright scrambling pixels, could be felt physically circulating through the room.
For a break in media art, Caleb performed a piece during which he donned a wig, and stamped a suctioned device to one side of our wall (a glass wall), stomped to the other side of the room, stuck another suctioned device to the opposite side (a dark window), and strummed the string connecting the room. His piece divided the space while transforming the room into an instrument.
Finally, I presented one of my paintings, “And You’re So Good At Trying.”
Layers of shape and color weave together to depict the limbo between memories. “And You’re So Good At Trying” reflects the places, people, and things I encountered in the months I spent making it and ties them together. The rugs hanging on a line to dry from my first visit to Rhode Island, where I met my girlfriend’s family;“Tongues Untied,” the provocative title of a queer documentary film by Marlon Riggs. Although the film focuses specifically on the black gay male experience, I allude to it in the broader context of being a Queer Person of color. In the painting, half of the couple’s identity remains covered by the plants while pointing fingers surround them.
At the end of the night, we divided the marzipan between our group: edible sculptures as memento.
