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Why Is Art Important? : Interview with Lindsay Obermeyer

2/11/2014

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For my interview project with Borderbend, I set out to explore some of the unanswerable questions that have been squirming to escape my mind, and fired them on Chicago artists in search of some marinated wisdom. I ask why art is important in communities, why humans value art, why artists care, and what makes art art. All of their words have helped me on my path as an art student, and a person making sense of this world. Their challenges to survive in the art world of Chicago are inspiring yet devastating, their passions are strong, and their work is meaningful and genuine. Enjoy, and keep your eyes open for any of their upcoming work. Thanks for reading
- Hannah Brookman

Lindsay Obermeyer

Picture


Photo by Samantha Bennett


Why is art important?

“I’m interested in seeing how the arts can reach out to communities that don't generally think of themselves as having access to the arts. I work in the community to create art as a way of trying to connect people together. Because often people don't talk to each other, the work that I do tends to break the ice. With The Red Thread Project, I physically connected them together.”

Lindsay Obermeyer is a textile artist, currently living in St. Louis, Missouri. Her interest in textiles has brought her down many paths. She has published knitting patterns, sewn dance costumes, owned a yarn store, produced ‘craft as fine art’, and most notably, founded The Red Thread Project, a community based performance piece. The project started as a dare from a colleague to connect a university to a town. “I physically connected them together,” said Obermeyer. She hand-knit dozens of hats, and linked them with a knit cord then invited the public to wear them. The closeness and absurdity created by the situation fostered more than simply physical connection; as the troop of hat-bearers paraded through the town, they also created friendships. Obermeyer did the performance multiple times then brought the hats to a homeless shelter to teach the men to sew, before they disconnected the hats and got to keep them. 


“It kept growing. It was affective for a lot of people especially for kids, it was about character education, less about art. Because even trained art educators didn’t get what I was teaching about art. They didn’t understand that yarn is a pliable line, that when knitted creates a shape, that when bent creates form of mass that then can be worn, and it has color and texture. Basic elements of art here! But because they're trying to think of art as painting and drawing and sculpture, and textiles and craft, they couldn't make the connection. So I often came in as a character educator, teaching kids about their community; that even though they're in 4th grade, they have a voice and a connection to everybody around them and that they better darn well start paying attention.”



Though Lindsay has now retired The Red Thread Project, she has not stopped bringing her art into the community. She was recently commissioned by the chamber of commerce of St. Louis to do a performance piece to bring attention to an unpopular neighborhood. “We would roll out astro turf, and sit and knit in the parking space. It was a neighborhood that had a lot of gang activity, and here we were benignly knitting. So it was a political statement; like, ‘you know what, we can have this shit go around us, but were just going to knit.’ We had a lot of kids involved. It was a way of driving interest to a blighted area. I was using the arts to make a neighborhood more palatable. And I got paid to do that!”

Lindsay was paid to create an enjoyable atmosphere in a neighborhood. This is because, “economically, art is a machine,” she explains. “Not that it trickles down to the artists often, but it does drive commerce.” Obermeyer gave me numerous examples of ways cities thrive through art. Paris is her favorite example, but she also recognizes the influence of the arts on Chicago. “When people talk about Chicago, they talk about the Bears and the Cubs, but they also talk about the Art Institute and the Sears tower. And thats art.” She mentioned St. Louis’ efforts to establish a larger arts community, as well as Paducah, Kentucky’s new flourishing art scene. Obermeyer sees that as art becomes more accessible, more people are attracted, and the economy grows.

Lindsay has created a successful career as an artist. As she likes to say, she manages herself as a business, and makes sure she gets paid for her work. She is currently knitting almost 600 skeins of yarn for a 12 x 26 knit bomb piece for the Motorola offices, and will be presenting a paper on the relationship between textile arts and the medical arts at a textile conference in Nebraska at the Textile Society.

“It’s not that hard. It just takes tenacity and a willingness to let go of preconceived notions of high art and low art, and fine art and fine craft, and just make.” - Lindsay Obermeyer

To see more of Lindsay Obermeyer's work, visit her site at
 http://www.lbostudio.com/





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Interview with Damon Short

12/9/2013

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Damon Short is an excellent Chicago-based drummer, bandleader and composer who has been active in the Chicago area for more than 20 years. Here is an interview with Damon. 

Note: This is being revised, check back soon for an updated version...

How did you first get interested in the arts?

Damon Short: I've wanted to play drums for as long as I can remember. When I was around 4 I'd take some Tinkertoy sticks and bang on the empty can in a tile-lined bathroom. Aside from being banished there by my parents because of the noise, it had a great echo effect. There were a few classical records around the house and my older brother was into early jazz when he was pretty young himself, so it was always around.

What is an early memory you have of doing something in the arts?

Damon Short: I played a drum set solo in 6th grade at a school event. It'd be funny to hear that now, but they didn't have YouTube back then.

Who are some of your influences?

Damon Short:  I was fortunate to discover the progression of jazz in pretty much chronological order - most people encounter it at one period or another - bebop, the 60s, fusion, 'free' (dumb term), etc. - and work their way in either/both directions if they work their way at all. So I was aware of Gene Krupa & Jo Jones before I 'discovered' Max Roach, for example.  So all of it informs what I do with my own music. Seeing Elvin Jones in person changed my entire approach to drumming; seeing Cecil Taylor changed my approach to music in general.  As a composer... most of my pieces tend to reflect Mingus probably, but I'm certainly 'influenced' by Ellington, Braxton, Shorter, Gil Evans (who's truly a composer even if he's considered an 'arranger'), Harry Partch, Messiaen, Boulez, Bartok, Stravinsky, sometimes even Mahler. 


Picture
photo credit: Kathy Short


What other projects have you been working on? 

Damon Short: I've been doing a trio with trombonist Michael Vlatkovich (LA) and Jonathan Golove (cello). Vlat is a prolific composer and monster player; Jonathan is a terrific 'classical' player and composer in his own right, and a very creative improviser, which is a rare combination. The 'Tryyo' is playing Michael's music but there's plenty of room for each of us to transform the written material. I've also been playing in different groups directed by Paul Hartsaw (when he's not playing in my Quintet). Paul has great ideas and is also a formidable player. I enjoy all of these situations where I can be 'just the drummer'.

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Interview with Meg Duguid

7/12/2012

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Meg Duguid is an artist, performer and curator whose work has been presented at Defibrillator (including Bubbles Plus Bubbles Divided by Traffic), and collaborations with Out of Site. 

Duguid received her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and her MFA from Bard College.  She has performed and exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, the Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago, Macy’s on State Street in Chicago, the DUMBO Arts Festival in Brooklyn, and 667 Shotwell in San Francisco.  She has screened work at Synthetic Zero in New York, Spiderbug in Chicago, and at the Last Supper Festival in Brooklyn.  From 2009 to 2011 she ran Clutch Gallery, a 25 square-inch white cube located in the heart of her purse; since then she has lent my purse to others to curate and carry. She lives and works in Chicago, IL with her husband and three cats.  

Recently Borderbend intern Ellyn Leahy interviewed Meg Duguid about her background, curating Clutch Gallery, and other projects. 

Leahy: What artists most inspire you?

Duguid: Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Marcel Duchamp, Aleksandra Mir, Pina Bausch. 

Leahy: You've been living here in Chicago for a few years now. What is your favorite thing about living and working in Chicago?

Duguid: My favorite thing about living in Chicago is the fact that my husband lives here and all of my stuff is here.  My favorite thing about working in Chicago is the community's ability to entertain anything as art.  It makes the discussion about what art is and how it functions really great.

Leahy: "Recipe Roulette," which you and Catie Olson performed during the 2010 Chicago Calling Arts Festival, was wonderful. What role does humor play in your art?

Duguid: Recipe Roulette was a collaborative piece that Catie Olson and I created where I made chocolate bon bons while Catie hula-hooped.  Every time the hoop would drop, I would drop a bon bon on the floor in solidarity with Catie's motions and also locking her movement into a certain part of the floor as the bon bons built up.  This was a sister work of Jump Jump Pie Pie, that we performed in Brooklyn where we each made an edible mud pie while the other kept pace by jumping rope in high heels. 

above: photos of Meg Duguid and Catie Olson performing Recipe Roulette

Catie and I investigate the create work using an iterative structure; we let our play-on-word conversations lead our projects.  Our collaborative rapport is as important as the final events themselves. During our process the iterative word piles that we create allow our personal and political lives to float to the top as well as let us frame them through our own diverse experiences with different media and mediums. At first glance our work seems fun, but there is more to it than that; on closer inspection you will find that not only are we two women creating humorous work but we tend to reference word play, the body, and food as well.  

Leahy: How did you first get involved with curating, and how does it affect your other work?

Duguid: I have personally curated and organized a few projects over the years.  Usually I put things together because there were a number of folks I wanted to work with or put a show together with.  

Picture
 Beach by Kim Guare, presented by Clutch Gallery
photo credit: Emma Robins

In 2009, I moved back to Chicago and conceived Clutch, which is the longest-running curatorial project I have done.  Clutch Gallery is a 25-square-inch space located in the heart of my purse. This curatorial project was dedicated to exhibiting contemporary art of all media. Clutch opened in December 2009 and was initially intended to maintain regular programming through December 2010, but I continued to carry and program it until the end of 2011 in the belief that it would die a fitting and natural death by wearing out from daily use.  

During my time with Clutch, I showed 23 artists in 22 shows. I was responsible for each job in my gallery—I was preparator, gallery assistant, director, and marketing director, but most importantly I was a performer. 

With Clutch, my intent was to play on the grand history of artist-run spaces in this city while extending my own practice as a performance artist. Clutch allowed me to create a scenario in which my daily interactions with people could become a performance at any time. 

Clutch had an element of constant duration. The performance was larger than just opening up the piece to someone at any moment or explaining the nature of the work. Essentially as a performer, the duration of the piece was both constant and not at all. The potential energy of just holding the space, maintaining the space, and sitting near the space allowed its performative potentiality to radiate into all things Clutch, and the moment someone approached Clutch's conceptual sphere, the person became a part of it whether the purse was in a state of rest or motion.  During my time with Clutch I performed alone, with shopkeepers, baristas, TSA agents, thieves, the Secret Service, artists, family, and many others. 

Last fall I decided to stop carrying Clutch. So I put it up for others to carry.  Emma Robbins is currently carrying and curating Clutch Gallery. 

above: photos from Meg Duguid's
Sounds like Mustache

Leahy: Why do you often choose to use multiple media in your work -- for example, combining performance art, photography, and drawing in the Episode Series?

Duguid: I believe that documentation is paramount to my art making, and I’m invested in the ways that documentation and art can be integrated in a single practice.  At one point I felt comfortable talking about my work as performance art.  But now I have found that the term performance art no longer encompasses what it is I do.  I am actively seeking to articulate the relationships I am making between the performative and photography, video, sculpture, and drawing. 

Drawing has proved to be a really effective tool for me in a few ways. First, for creating objects that stand in for the real deal. A mustache can suddenly just be a drawing of one held up in front of one’s face, and that’s enough for the viewer to say “Hey, look. A mustache."



Second, drawing is a really nice tool to use in conjunction with photographs of an action. In 2003, I started a series of street performances based in early filmic comedy. These performances derived from the simple question of what happens when you take a comedic moment out of its media context and re-present it in real life. While performing these acts in public, I have found that video cameras become too intrusive and upset the performance, usually contextualizing it as reality television, rather than being a calculated moment.  As a result I switched my format to still photography, which allowed my documenters to remain as unobtrusive as tourists or other passersby.  

When I got the photos back, I began to ask myself, how do I make this more than just documentation? It’s this question that led me to start erasing the performers out of the images and drawing them back in. The result is a photograph of an actual place and time with a comic book performer doing the action. It plays with the idea of what is real and what isn’t, as well as starts to refer to the idea of comic in all its meanings.  


In the autumn of 2007, I staged a 15-person slapstick performance in Battery Park in New York City. The performance consisted of an all-female cast, five photographers, and the backdrop of the Statue of Liberty. I am currently in the process of creating a comic book from it. There are about 200 images in the book, so this piece has taken up various portions of the last five years, and I am finally going to be ready to unveil it by the end of this year.    

Leahy: Last October you had a performance art piece called "Bubbles Plus Bubbles Divided by Traffic," which happened at Defibrillator during Chicago Calling. Would you mind giving us a glimpse into the creative process behind that piece?

above: photos from Bubbles Plus Bubbles
Divided by Traffic


Duguid: This work was twofold for me. I have been thinking about the performative quality of action painting lately, and I am really interested in how a piece of documentation from a previous work can carry over to the next work.  The work in Defibrillator was called Bubbles Plus Bubbles Divided by Traffic, and it took place in the two windows at Defibrillator. This performance consisted of two men wearing Speedos, one in each window, making action paintings by blowing colored bubbles onto paper to a sound piece of traffic over bubble wrap.   

Bubbles Plus Bubbles Divided by Traffic
 utilized a sound piece that was created as a part of Sounds Like Mustache that was performed at the Polish Triangle in August of 2011 as a part of the Out of Site Performance Series.  In that performance  I poured soap into the fountain in the triangle while bubble machines spewed bubbles into the triangle while a three-person mustache, a mustache that is so big two people must carry it so a third can wear it, walked on bubble wrap that was laid down throughout the triangle.  The documentation of this work was the sound work Bubble Wrap Over Traffic.  

Leahy: What are you working on now?

I have some work, including some of the newer parts of the episode series, going to the ZonaMaco Art Fair in Mexico City.  Catie Olson and I are collaborating on a 10-course performance that is going to be performed at Defibrillator in September of 2012.  And I am at the tail end of negotiating the rights to produce a screenplay that I have fallen in love with.  I don't want to say what it is until the ink is dry on the contract, because you just don't know until the signature hits the dotted line, but if it all works out well, this will be the largest project I have ever taken on.

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