JACK THE PELICAN PRESENTS .............................................................PROJECT IMAGES ................................................................PRESS RELEASE
sebastian,
hope all has been well since our mega email correspondence (quite an enjoyable thing, really, and so rare!). i went to visit the gallery of a friend of mine in williamsburg tonight, and he was telling me that he would either want to close the gallery for july or give the entire space to me to do whatever i wanted. this is an immense brick space, very weird: long, triangular front room, converging into a doorway to a square back room. a warehouse next door was recently demolished, but the new development won't begin until the fall, so there's also access to a multi-thousand square-foot dirt lot, which is truly a thing to behold.
the gallery is called jack the pelican; it's a very seat-of-the-pants affair, but one of the top-four williamsburg galleries and more prone to experimental fare than most (their last show will be reviewed in the summer issue of artforum, so they also attract the right cross-section of critics and curators).
anyways, given my intimate knowledge of i-cabin's practice and your own strengths at trans-national collaboration, i wondered if you wanted to develop a project for the space with me. the show would open quite soon (july 12th?) but i was thinking we could propose something that would be fruitful, durational, action-based, what have you. basically, build the nature of our transnational communication into the project (or, if you wanted, you also could come stateside, take a bed in my parents' house, and collab here). suffice it to say that this could be a great opportunity to play around with a lot of space, and to see if some of the ideas we were bandying about might evolve into something interesting (which i think they could).
anyhow, get back, as time allows, and let me know if there's any interest. i'll be going to the space to take some photographs tomorrow, so will relay those to you asap, to give you an idea. it's a marvellous venue to work with.
tyler x
--
Tyler Coburn
+1 917-270-4026
Hi Tyler,
wow, that sounds like a very very good thing to do. Thanks for considering me, Yes let us certainly work on something there.
I have looked at the website and there doesn't seem to be any pictures of the space, so look forward to seeing some.
I'll be locked up in Europe during July as I have Caleb's show here 4th - 13th and then I'm on a few Spanish Islands with my fiancé 19th - 26th, making it a full month, I won't be able to get over to NY so we'll have to work on it this way as a dialogue. As you say, I seem to be building quite a catalogue of exchanges-represented-in-my-absence, I'm working on another one for Old Gold in Chicago in November. Perhaps I could get out to the end of the show, when would it run until? I will price up flights, but I'm quite happy to work this way. In fact I am very happy.
I'll have a quick review of our recent emails and send you something to follow this.
Skype is very good for this sort of thing I am on sebcraig, do you have a contact? You are 5 hours earlier there than I am here making it 10.40 on thursday your time, I'll be on skype here of around 2 hours from now.
Thanks again, I'm sure this will be an interesting project!
Sebastian
i-cabin, Clarendon Buildings, 11 Ronalds Road, London, N5 1XJ 07813 764 937 / www.i-cabin.co.uk
These topics highlight themselves in relation to our discourse
non-art (music/?)
Margins of Art production
Trans-historical medium (which I actually misread as trans-historical museum before)
walks / architectures
show length
public archive
s.
i-cabin, Clarendon Buildings, 11 Ronalds Road, London, N5 1XJ 07813 764 937 / www.i-cabin.co.uk
hey s,
i'm gonna go take the photos now. i should be back in my studio round 2pm (7pm your time?). anyways, i do have skype - i think you can just find me via my name. i'll log on when i'm back and see if you're about. if not, i'll send you the images and type you up some stuff. we can find another time to discuss.
ok!
excited,
tyler
Great,
just before you send me any images, lets quickly consider whether I need to see the space for us to continue?
probably not actually, for safety lets keep it imagined for now.
s
i-cabin, Clarendon Buildings, 11 Ronalds Road, London, N5 1XJ 07813 764 937 / www.i-cabin.co.uk
yes, i agree. it should be imagined on your end.
i'm back in the studio for the next 3 hours. you around? i'll attempt to skype you.
hey s,
looks like i missed you, so i'll send you some thoughts. give me an idea of when you might be around tomorrow, and perhaps we can set up a time. i should be in the studio from 12pm US time to 6pm US time.
i won't tell you anything more about the space until we determine the best course of action, on this front. on a general level, as with your past long-distance collaborations, i think distance should be built into the project, as should the marked hand of the absent collaborator.
because there's not an extensive amount of time in the lead-up to the exhibition, i also wonder whether our continuing correspondence can manifest itself in a process-based fashion in the exhibition itself. i don't think that i myself should necessarily play a role in the exhibition during gallery hours (i am often skeptical of that overt staging of artist-as-performer) but it might be interesting for me to come in during off-hours and build upon the space, based on your specifications or our discussion.
there's a power relationship built into our communication that i could be interested in developing or exaggerating, particularly if you sustain a wholly imagination-based relationship to the space and the show. you, in a sense, have a certain power over the space by possessing it solely in your imagination - a power that could be teased out in the form of instructions and directives that you provide me, in relation to an exhibition that you only know from my description.
have you ever read any robbe-grillet? the way he builds total architectural spaces through banal, descriptive overload may be relevant here. i like the idea of your never seeing the exhibition throughout the course of its run, but a large part of our correspondence entailing my describing it at length to you, down to the most specific details, and you making directives or modifications based on those descriptions. this text, in turn, could enter, correspondence by correspondence, into the body of the exhibition as well, perhaps in the form of a loose-leaf folder or office binder, to which page upon page is added, in sync to the actual changes in the space, and parallel routes begin to emerge between this text and the exhibition as, in a sense, a narrative or extension of our exchange (an epistolary novel, of sorts).
i was thinking of a title: 'autobiography of an exhibition.' might not end up being what we use, but i am interested in the idea of an exhibition being a narrative, driven by the pleasure of/in the text, as well as in the idea of autobiography as a dynamic and ossifying process. an exhibition built out of our imaginative and practical correspondence could, in a way, become autobiographical: self-generating, insofar as we are so deeply embedded into its process, or in that it as an entity is wholly reliant upon our process.
there's also the case of the gigantic, abandoned dirt lot next door, which feels like an analogous (or parallel universe) space to the exhibition space proper. that space speaks to so much of the history of the neighborhood and the forces overwhelming new york, yet somehow when i walk through it all i can think about is why we build myths, and how this space needs a myth.
when new york was still a very young city, washington irving felt it needed an ancient history and, because it lacked one, he constructed it through fiction and myth: through old knickerbocker and others. in the space between an actual exhibition space and an imagined vision of, at a particularly dynamic moment when history is abandoned for the sake of capitalistic progress, maybe we need to tell a new story; a myth; an alternate account?
ideas: good and bad.
Tsc
ok, more ideas.
i've been thinking about the relationship of the decimated field/architectural ruin to the gallery interior...along the lines of a real/object space to a representational/textual space. how can the terms of one be translated into those of the other and what could be produced in such acts of transliteration?
building upon our discussion of architecture, mapping etc. it could be interesting to actually map the field, perhaps in a process-based way...set up a series of stakes and draw lines of rope between them, thereby dividing the field into a series of sub-units. the divisions could be predetermined (i.e. a grid) or could be entirely subject to the instructions you provide me. based on the laying down of new lines, specific sections of the field become demarcated by lines - certain territories are mapped and isolated from all others, but as new lines are laid every few days, no territory is stable; all are subject to the contingencies of continual remapping.
in the gallery space we install four reading desks with binders. they each begin with only one sheet of paper (documenting the laying of the first line: the first directive). the binders differ in content as follows:
binder one: each page is numbered and has the specific directive, issued by you, for the line that is to be laid down in the field.
binder two: each page is numbered like binder one and has detailed descriptions of the contents of the section of terrain the line crosses. these descriptions should be terribly banal...not lists of items, but paragraphs describing in minute detail the content of these sections of terrain.
binder three: each page is numbered like the other two binders. this binder has some aspect of imaginative production from your end, be it textual description of the field, the gallery, an architectural rendering.
binder four: each page is numbered corresponding to the numbers in the other binders. this is the narrative binder, somehow more than the sum of all the previous information, in which a story is recounted, a myth invented, an inference drawn, a web woven. the language will be obtuse, allusive, mysterious but unpretentious and untheatrical.
there are obviously many other variations to this installation, as well as supplements. things to consider:
1) should the audience have access to the field, where the stakes and rope will be mapping the terrain
2) should there be any actual photo reproduction or object reproductions or sources objects from the field in the gallery space...i incline more towards its description through your imaginary renderings and accounts, as well as my transliteration of its content into text, but i'm very open. i certainly don't want to be mark dion, though.
feel free to shoot down this idea if it doesn't seem productive. i just think the field is super strange and merits consideration as the subject of or an element of our exhibition. the mapping of its space is partly a reference to that situationist architecture group, superstudio, the bulk of whose practice took the form of open spaces mapped with lines, to be walked.
tyler
p.s. i met amanda ross-ho tonight. she says hello!
Hi Mate,
there's going to be some slinging back and forth of ideas here so please forgive me if I don't respond to each and every point below but select instead as a process of editing.
It'll be very important for me to stay focussed on the notional space. (all I have this end is different pieces/types of texts...I don't want to get lost!)
Firstly, attached is my imagined model of the space, which is subject to change as I re-imagine over time! I'll get on and use this model for everything. I totally agree with you: I want us to use the gallery as a notional studio through which to play out architectural ideas in a place for which I have no real codex (my notion of Brooklyn is through a history of hip-hop and graffiti, and a taxi journey around the edge from JFK?) These ideas should be generated by our talks and I'll record them to check back on,
it's a two man show and I'm really glad to be working with you on it. I'm going to avoid instructing you, like you mention below, if possible, because your going to the space after hours to carry out my directions sounds like a grim task for you!! (I'm really sad not to be out there).
Your idea of using this space by separating it is perfect, I have been making these string texts which are stretched across the space making a barrier to climb through (there's one at Old Gold in November) so very topical, for the first dividing I'm happy to throw out a system for you, not a text though, but a drawing.
Yes let the viewers into it, it's a playground afterall, no need to be precious.
Some will grab hold of the built environment we develop for them and interract with it.. open-source urbanism (like that of Yona Friedman)
I can imagine a beautiful exchange of us sending back and forth drawings of the changing layout, in different ways and on different software, you'll have to keep an eye on it, can you get up high enough to take photos..? (I agree with you, I don't think they should be used in the show)
NB some of the things I might suggest through use of the model will probably need some persuasion to fit the real space, which is nice for us both.
The binder system sound to me like it will take a lot of time and be quite closed, both for us and the viewers. By all means do that if you want to, (be sure to let there be some loose ends for it all)...let's think it over for a day or so. What you've written for binder 4 is beautiful, and so is the Washington Irving story. Brooklyn is only a myth to me at the moment, I like the idea of you mythologizing re a city you want to aestheticize mentally, with wanderings, I also want us to operate away from the gallery and the yard, I want to wander round the leafy areas and streets of Williamsburg making art wherever I go!
SUMMING UP - 1 I'll send you over a drawing for you to use to map onto the yard as a starting point.
2 lets chat about things of place, brooklyn, buildings, thoughts...then draw out the things to make plastic/solid/art.
OTHER - I love the phrase 'Design for Communication', it's the term they use in Universities now as the name for the course which used to be called Graphic Design, but I use the term for what I do. Therefore the work is left to communicate in my absence...but what do I want to communicate about...?...the answer is usually art.
S.
x
ps I think the title should be Woah Woah Woah here we go
i-cabin, Clarendon Buildings, 11 Ronalds Road, London, N5 1XJ 07813 764 937 / www.i-cabin.co.uk
17:21
allo?
sebcraig
18:02
hi matey, just sent you an email...did u receive??
Tyler Coburn
18:02
oh, haven't checked. one sec
18:05
lemme take a minute to sift through all this good stuff
sebcraig
18:06
cool cool, no hurry..... i'll be here
Tyler Coburn
18:14
hey i'm back
18:14
that rendering you made is great
18:14
what program did you make it on?
sebcraig
18:15
it's called 'sketchup'...dead easy!
Tyler Coburn
18:15
oh yeah, i know it
18:16
so tell me about these text string works
sebcraig
18:16
hang on i'll send a pic
?
sebcraig posted file OldGoldstring text3email.jpg to members of this chat
18:16
sebcraig
18:17
this is the drawing for old gold
Tyler Coburn
18:18
this is crazy, sebastian
sebcraig
18:18
this particular text says 'derma'
Tyler Coburn
18:18
i was thinking about us doing something VERY similar
sebcraig
18:18
oh?
Tyler Coburn
18:18
and i was playing around with word combinations, alphabet arrays, etc
18:18
my solutions weren't as elegant as this, though
sebcraig
18:19
ha ha, I see!
Tyler Coburn
18:19
the original ideas for the arrays sort of evolved into the idea of staking out the field and drawing pattern with string
18:19
what's the significance of 'derma'
18:19
as a word or combination of letters?
sebcraig
18:20
yes, the pink string I use for the texts is actually builders string for the purpose of marking out buildings on site...hence the high visibility colour
Tyler Coburn
18:20
wow. super appropriate
18:21
i think it could really come into play in this project. how would you envisage it being used?
sebcraig
18:22
(derma is also the title of a film which will accompany the text, the text being the barrier between viewer and artwork, the film being quite personal to me) I would like to stick to drawings here at the moment, feel the texts are to resolved in another direction...
18:23
I don't want to mess with that here!
Tyler Coburn
18:24
ok, sure. it just seems like the builder's tape material, at least, might be an interesting medium for mapping the field, if we chose to bring that element into play: not necessarily mapping it in text, but drawing with it atop the field. not sure if that is of interest to you.
18:25
i do like the idea of beginning things with a drawing exchange, though, as you proposed
sebcraig
18:25
yes, absolutely, be it this string or any other, perhaps a different colour to define a new use (within my work anyway!)
18:26
well the same use on a different plane!
Tyler Coburn
18:26
i think that would be appropriate, given the specific connotation of pink in your work
18:26
that's true too
18:26
if the string came into play, should it be used solely in the field? also in the gallery space?
18:26
should the drawing be process-based or predetermined?
sebcraig
18:27
hmm, i was just doing a drawing to send to you as a little starting point...2seconds
Tyler Coburn
18:27
sure thing
sebcraig
18:29
i think string could be used inside, was hearing from Geogio sadotti of Liam Gillicks string drawings...i never saw/heard of them before, invisage wall drawings! but only aesthetically...which is a bit limp (excuse the visual pun)
Tyler Coburn
18:30
wait, liam gillick's stirng drawings are only aesthetic? or ours should be?
18:30
there are some other artists who do string drawings: carol bove, jonah groeneboer
18:31
in a way, i'm interested in building analogous space, in gallery and field, that are marked by different materials.
18:31
so it might be more interesting if some of the materials we use only occur in one of the spaces
sebcraig
18:31
i mean i like the way the idea of string wall-drawings look in my head but they aren't reasoned out yet as artworks!
Tyler Coburn
18:31
the builder's tape seems particularly apt in the field because it acquires functional, graphic and imaginary meanings
18:32
i see i see
18:33
tell me about yona freeman's open-source urbanism
18:33
i'm not sute if i'm familiar
sebcraig
18:35
he's a wonderful deaf old man, google him, felt tip drawings of his designs, user-manipulated cities/ movable structures...etc...very beautiful man, saw him interviewed by Gillick & Cerith, horrible experience, cerith drunk, gillick too harsh for the old man and friedman couldn't hear a word.
Tyler Coburn
18:35
ha
18:39
(reading up on friedman)
sebcraig
18:39
how's this for a starting point drawing to map onto the yard? I'll try to mock it up onto the digital model, could it need a fair bit of editing, perhaps too fiddly...
Tyler Coburn
18:39
let me take a look
18:39
did you send it?
?
sebcraig posted file brooklyn drawing.jpg to members of this chat
18:40
Tyler Coburn
18:41
this is the overhead?
sebcraig
18:43
whats the overhead? its meant to be Brownstone houses!!!! first image google brings up of brooklyn and reminded me that the Cosby show was set in brooklyn, a far more middle class vision that mine of basketball courts and tennements, but with trees
Tyler Coburn
18:44
yes yes, of course. i get the brownstone element. but, i mean, when this is mapped out on the field, this is what the drawing wood look like from bird's eye perspective?
sebcraig
18:45
ahhh sorry...bloody internet for missunderstandings! yes yes, birdeye view
Tyler Coburn
18:45
got it
18:45
but hypothetically the lines would interconnect more, because the tape will be pulled in one continuous string like in your text piece, right?
18:46
(i can make a drawing to show what i mean, if it helps)
sebcraig
18:47
I don't think it needs to be one length of string here...that (as a rule) would really affect what we can draw.
18:48
with the texts I feel it has a rationale to be one length, ne need here
Tyler Coburn
18:48
well, i do feel like it could be good to challenge explicitly representational content - i think it could complicate/obsure what we draw in an interesting way.moving the representational content in
18:48
oops let me reassemble that
18:49
i do feel like it could be good to challenge explicitly representational content - i think it could complicate/obsure what we draw if we employ parameters for mark-making that push the image into a space between representation and architectural mapping, line drawing and rule-based design
18:50
that doesn't mean it has to be resolved by using one continuous line, of course
18:51
but maybe then the subject-matter shouldn't be as identifiably representation. i don't know.
18:51
think one of the strengths of your drawing for the other project
18:51
was that it towed that line really well
18:51
toed
sebcraig
18:53
rule-based art is a funny one isn't it? artists seem to think that it inherrently validates the work!!
Tyler Coburn
18:53
i do think a lot of very poor conceptual art has justified itself by its set of rules, yes, which accounts for how much thin stuff is out there.
18:54
i've never been that artist. i have too much pleasure in narration to allow parameters to overdetermine
18:55
maybe the words i used were incorrect, for trying to articulate this. i guess i just mean that it would be interesting to figure out a mode of drawing that subtends representation
18:55
which seems possible, given the other connotations of the drawing materials, as well as the location of the drawing
sebcraig
18:55
sure thing
18:56
what about this....
?
sebcraig posted file brooklyn drawing 3.jpg to members of this chat
18:56
Tyler Coburn
18:57
is that graffiti? the walls surrounding the field are covered with that stuff
18:57
very funny
sebcraig
19:01
i spose i'm just really lamely jotting down 'brooklynisms' , nothing more, but the drawing for the Vaasa project was what Barry Sykes called a 'shape-genarating system, but one with an internal logic' in this case we're looking for the same sort of thing...no?
Tyler Coburn
19:01
i think that's right
19:01
how did you and barry come upon your 'shape-generating system?'
19:02
was it integral to the location?
sebcraig
19:04
i generated the system through drawing the place he was in from imagination, the drawing was to be used to define/plot out visually the modifications we would make to the objects we had bought from the prison...
Tyler Coburn
19:05
ah ha
19:05
so it began with an imaginary drawing
19:05
he didn't provide you with any description?
sebcraig
27/06/2008 19:08
yes a really anecdotal one without it having any intention to be used that way, it started with the idea to act as philanthropists somehow, the drawing was initially in the margin, but it became the system as we went along...in this case perhaps i should wait for your robbe-grillet intensity descriptions...that would make my job of drawing a lot more technical...
sebcraig
27/06/2008 19:09
but a drawing of graffiti seems a playful thing which might stand some investigation, it is afterall an architectural and urban device
Tyler Coburn
19:07
because one of the things that i think might be interesting - or at least if of interest to me, as an artist - is to produce analogus but nonidentical relationships between drawing and textual description
19:08
because one of the things that i think might be interesting - or at least if of interest to me, as an artist - is to produce analogus but nonidentical relationships between drawing
19:08
and textual description
19:09
am i losing you?
19:10
(technology-wise)
19:12
i agree
19:12
i mean, an idea of how we could go about it: a drawing could be generated by your choosing a place in the field, the neighborhood, greater Brooklyn and asking me to describe it in great detail. Then a drawing is produced that's mapped into the field - it need not be explicitly representational, but it somehow responds to the condition of my description. Perhaps, in the gallery, a log of these descriptions could also be exhibited (binder or no), without explicit reference to their relationship to given drawings.
19:12
the place you choose could be deliberate, entirely arbitrary
19:13
the description could also yield something that is not a drawing, or that is not a drawing intended for the field
19:13
i'm very open to your thoughts on this
sebcraig
19:17
ha ha, I love this when the internet gets slow...what a mess of possible misunderstandings and connections!!!! I like the sounds of what you suggest, very very much, it is both research for me and mythology for you. Right, I'm going to go home for dinner with my girl, I'll email you a transcript of all this incase we missed anything,,,, think it over, will be here roughly the same time tommorrow or on email....very happy with this so far
Tyler Coburn
19:18
good good. i'll be here round the same time as well, we'll keep going with it
19:18
have a nice din
sebcraig
19:18
thanks, you too
sebastian,
thought this would be good for reference: my proposal to don from the gallery. a lot of condensing was done for the sake of making the proposal succint, and obviously nothing needs to be set in stone at this point. reformulating our ideas were definitely helpful, though, and a read-through might be of use.
until tomorrow,
tyler
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Tyler Coburn < tyler.coburn@gmail.com >
Date: Fri, Jun 27, 2008 at 6:02 PM
Subject: proposal +
To: Donald Carroll < Donald.Carroll@bloomingdales.com >, don@jackthepelicanpresents.com
don,
many thanks for the patience, on your front, in allowing me and sebastian some time to formulate our ideas (an ongoing process, of course). i'm sorry i missed your call; i would have called back, but i realize i don't have your number. please let me know what it is, as time allows.
it's a funny time for this opportunity to arise (and for this adjacent lot to be vacant), because i've spent the past few weeks intensively studying the history of new york, urban development, architectural theory, imaginary cities, etc. etc. etc. of particular interest has been washington irving's fictional history of new york, written from the perspective of one diedrich knickerbocker. i'm fascinated by the fact that new york, being a relatively young city, lacked an extensive history, so irving felt the need to build that history, one myth atop another. because the development impulse has so thoroughly embedded itself into the new york mindset as to seem practically primal, i've begun to wonder about what happens to the stories - real and imagined - tied up in the city's architectural ruins, and whether new myths are needed to explain a city that at times feels utterly foreign to its inhabitants, young and old.
moving along this line of thought, i've developed an extensive correspondence with my good friend sebastian craig from london. sebastian runs a notable project space there, called i-cabin ( http://www.i-cabin.co.uk/ ), which has always impressed me for its playful relationship to the often foot-in-the-grave strategies of institutional critique (you can see an article i wrote about the space, articulating that point more emphatically, here: http://www.i-cabin.co.uk/tylercoburntext.htm
i-cabin straddles the line between being practitioner and curator - what one critic labeled a 'social hub,' for lack of a better term. sebastian's practice follows suit and many of his most interesting projects involved collaborating with friends in a remote location and exploring his entirely imaginary relationship with the location of his correspondent (and the location of the exhibition). the most successful of these was a collaborative project done with a friend in finland ( http://www.i-cabin.co.uk/studiosc15.htm ). the foundation of the exhibition was a drawing sebastian produced, from his imagination, of the city (see attached). furniture from a finnish prison workshop was then sources and cut to correspond to the geometries of sebastian's rendering.
so, getting to the point: the exhibition proposal. the purgatorial state of the adjacent lot is a truly amazing and rare thing, and sebastian and i want to divide the exhibition between it and the gallery space. sebastian has never been to brooklyn - he's been to nyc and has given brooklyn a glancing hello, when he espied it between the peaks of midtown manhattan. brooklyn to him, as he told me, means little more than the cosby show, rows of brownstones, and graffiti.
sebastian has never seen the interior of the gallery or the vacant lot. nor will he see before or during the the show. his relationship to it will be entirely imaginary: this we've agreed.
what sebastian will have is information from me to produce drawings for the lot. before the exhibition (and at various times over the course of it), he will give me a site in brooklyn: a place of interest that he's never been to, or a street name or intersection he has discovered through a relatively arbitrary process. i will go there and describe it meticulously, perhaps borrowing a bit from the way robbe-grillet builds his claustrophobic narrative worlds and inhabited spaces. from these descriptions, sebastian will produce a drawing, perhaps in the fashion of the attached drawing; perhaps not. he will supply instructions of scale. i will hammer a series of stakes into the accompanying lot and run neon orange builder's tape between the stakes, producing a rendering of this drawing.
the builder's tape and stakes are key, of course. the fact that the lot is presently vacant is somewhat exceptional, in this day and age of new york, but it is nonetheless filled with that potentiality that only comes before imminent construction. rerouting that energy into our project, we will map that terrain with these drawings, using materials found on construction sites, but building notional architectures, as opposed to real ones. (see attached image for reference - this is not an actual rendering, but gives an idea).
the gallery space will function as a reading room. there will be two or three nondescript desks and chairs, each with a binder or folder. one folder will have the full records of the descriptions i've given sebastian about the places he has asked me to visit. there won't be any indication as to which description corresponds to which drawing. because the exhibition will have a process-based component (in that drawings will be added/modified as the exhibition progresses), additional descriptions will be inserted into the folder only as new drawings are produced.
the other binder will also gain pages as new drawings are installed. each page will build a myth with reference to the specific place i've visited - working through the history of the site, and using it to build an obtuse, contemporary tale, a la irving.
there may be other objects in the gallery. this is something sebastian and i are still figuring out. for the time being, we do know that we want to make the lot a 'drawing' space and the gallery a place for text, description, reading.
the lot will be accessible to the public during the exhibition. we'll have to fabricate a ramshackle door, as you proposed, to the right of the gallery entrance. there's the question of liability, of course, but perhaps it can be an 'enter at your own risk.' i don't know; let's discuss.
as to the issue of the scale of the exhibition, well, this is what i would say. if you're quite keen on making this a two-exhibition month, i think the inside portion of our exhibition should happen in the back room. that being said, if you really want to go balls-out, well, i think it would be amazing to have a very sparse install on the inside and these strange tape drawings in the adjacent lot. i think this is the sort of exhibition concept that could benefit from this type of minimalism, as well as an exhibition space whose largesse, relative to the quantity of objects on 'display,' would almost emphatically underscore some of the imaginative/potential energy sebastian and i are attempting to channel. so let me know what you think on that front.
i'll be around and on my phone tonight and daytime tomorrow, so give me a ring or shoot me a mail and we'll discuss.
what day were you thinking to open this guy?
best,
tyler
just to give you the condensed summary (because, as you astutely pointed out on wednesday, all shows must be able to be boiled down to a main point):
'a collaborative project in which new yorker tyler coburn attempts to describe brooklyn to englander sebastian craig, and craig (who has never been to brooklyn) imagines, over a series of drawings, a place of rubble, imminent development, construction tape and plywood'
--
Tyler Coburn
+1 917-270-4026
don't open the image attachment i sent to don...has photos of the site. FOR MY EYES ONLY!
--
Tyler Coburn
+1 917-270-4026
hey sebcraig,
great chat.
a version of our chat is attached (mainly your points).
here's a good site for brooklyn listings: http://www.artcal.net/allevents/15
talk soon. i'm off to look into my mobile phone situation.
Tyler
:: sketchup - you can position your drawing on google earth!
SC: what I think I should be getting you to investigate in Brooklyn, in terms of what I'm interested in...I didn't want to make any statements about Brooklyn as a place, because I haven't been there. So I worry as an artist: what's the use of me making a work about Brooklyn? It's not going to add anything to Brooklyn, in that I'm a remote viewer and have no education.
With these sorts of projects, artists always make pseudo-social studies projects based on research, which is really interesting if you do it knowingly. But I was thinking about the sorts of things that would be more useful for me to ask you to describe - it might be things I know more about, or things that are international. One thing is art...so rather than me asking you to describe a crossroads, I would ask you to describe some shows. Does that sound alright?
...
I'm very interested in invisible architectures: architectures that can be built from invisible things. So the architecture that already exists in Brooklyn doesn't necessarily have to influence us. We're really building new architectures from information and the information is going to be generated by you.
...
But the other thing that I'm really interested in is a sort of artistic intention. Something that does something, go somewhere and has an output.
...
Trying to formulate the different languages we can use [for the project]. The first one is the model, then drawings. And maybe we shouldn't be afraid of using photographs in this regard
...
It would be nice to keep this conceptually dense, but retain a certain lightness to it.
...
Maybe we can chuck everything in one binder.
Trying out a bunch of things. Very messy with a considered thread.
Maybe I should go walking first...But art is a logical starting place, in a way to separate this from a social study. This is not a hierarchical social study...
I was chatting with this guy about "history from below"...it just seemed like a really nice phrase. A social-study from below.
It could be people-based at times as well. It would be good for this to be a throwing back-and-forth of information.
The exhibitions should be in Brooklyn.
That's where the fruit of the exchange is. I'll request something of you and you'll interpret them in such a way. I imagine it will be a filmic, narrative explanation of a scenario and I'll be developing them back towards satisfying them as an artist and you'll have to reinterpret them again in translating them back into the exhibition.
In terms of what's in the gallery...I was thinking out loud that possibly I should just let you worry about what's in the gallery and I should worry about what's outside. But I don't know because there's so much scope as to what could be done here. In my head, I sort of wanted it to be done in an imaginary studio, so I sort of liked the idea of using it to experiment with ideas that might relate to Brooklyn and might relate to something else.
I would like to be discussing things in general. I'm interested in dialogues at the moment of what art should do...and I think what we've got going on in terms of the descriptions and the drawings for the space outside is a really great start.
(We agree that people should be able to come into the lot, can interact with the drawings if they want. If someone goes in there and changes it, the new drawing should be documented and the information sent to you, to filter into the project).
July 19 th for 10 days: Sebastian will be in Spain...will need to figure out other means of communication (can send multimedia files via text? Update phone! )
okay,
first description to centre on/start at the Four Walls Project space, 138 Bayard Street at Graham Avenue
I haven't seen or heard anything about it, as our concern is beyond the walls of the space at the moment, start here,
whether its inside, outside, people, work... is entirely at your discretion.
great talking to you,
look forward to reading what you do!
s.
i-cabin, Clarendon Buildings, 11 Ronalds Road, London, N5 1XJ 07813 764 937 / www.i-cabin.co.uk
oh and 4 walls is of course the paradigm of architecture, I used to teach architecture and young people think only in terms of squares,
but contemporary architectures perceived withdrawal from them seems just as childish, what is the interface of rectangles and sphere's etc.? can there be a convincing one?
Will Allsop is a very interesting guy re this, famous really for being financially unsuccessful at the business of running a business.
s.
i-cabin, Clarendon Buildings, 11 Ronalds Road, London, N5 1XJ 07813 764 937 / www.i-cabin.co.uk
thanks for the address, buddy. i'm gonna visit it later today or tomorrow and get cracking.
have you read koolhaas' 'delirious new york' ? you might want to pick yourself up a copy. koolhaas attempts to apply walter benjamin's fragmentary methodology of 'arcades project' to the history of new york, somewhat unsuccessfully, but he does have a real eye for the anecdote and concludes the book with a series of fanciful building projects for nyc (including a 'shadow UN' - an exact replica of the building to float on the east river)...here's one of his drawings, for roosevelt island: http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3ADE%3AI%3A1&page_number=754&template_id=1&sort_order=1
i agree with you about this shift in architecture. ben and i always joke that the problem with architects is that they attempt to produce an identical relationship, in structure, to the theories that are in vogue at any given moment, instead of meaningfully working through and translating the theories into the languages of matter and construction. so, rhizomatic, lateriality, dematerialized, blob give us many of the theoretically overdetermined structures that parasitically sprawl over out city streets.
sphere vs. cube. sphere <--> cube...it's an immense generalization, of course, but spheres, throughout the history of architecture, are always rendered synonymous with the idealistic, utopian, ethereal, imaginary, be it the hallowed domes of cathedrals (only being half-spheres to indicate that the spherical form is reserved for the high heaven, not the earthly; the 1939 world's fair sphere; geodesic spheres; planetariums (esp. the nyc natural history museum one); etc. etc.
the marriage of the sphere and cube...how to imagine? certainly allsop doesn't achieve it. i wonder whether the engagement of this question merely upholds a historical, binary relationship between these forms that needs to be rethought in a non-binary way. perhaps our thinking can be a way of working through this.
i was trying to find these renderings by a quite famous architect (whose name i cant, for the life of me, remember)...i'm not sure if he ever fabricated anything, but his drawings of almost wholly spherical structures have remained quite influential in the discourse (i think he was drawing in the late-19th/early 20th century).
a failed search. but the journey to failure yielded some other, potentially relevant source material:
friedrich kiesler's exhibition, up now at the drawing center: http://www.drawingcenter.org/exh_current.cfm?exh=461&do=vexh
the curved walls of peggy guggenheim's 'art of this century' gallery: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/graphics/2007/03/17/basurreal117.jpg
lebbeus woods' excellent drawings from his terrain project, in which representation and pure graphicality make perfect bedfellows:
this page of models of united architects' world trade center proposals. somehow works better in the virtual realm, in which the models are given equal value in the realm of possible outcomes. the sense of working-through, or multiple, compossible worlds (per leibnitz) comes across, though largely accidentally, by the contingencies of the virtual search interface: http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3ADE%3AI%3A1&page_number=233&template_id=6&sort_order=1
more2 (like a morandi still-life of the utmost archi-political consequence): http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3ADE%3AI%3A1&page_number=237&template_id=6&sort_order=1
sebastian!
had a great conversation with don about the show. he's giving us the whole gallery and seems keen to let us do whatever. i get the sense he's hoping for some visual element in the exhibition space proper, so let's keep that in mind and see how things develop on our end.
the show will open on thursday, july 10th. there's a lot to do, my friend.
on the immediate front, i've made a list of stuff for us to consider:
1) the press release/etc. i'm going to write something up for don to take a look at, along the lines of what we discussed. i will send you a draft first before sending him anything and we can work on it. perhaps expect a draft later this night/early next morn?
2) i need a short bio from you, ASAP. in the style/length of:
Tyler Coburn holds a BA in Comparative Literature from Yale University, and has exhibited with The Centre of Attention, London, Galerie Ben Kaufmann, Berlin, and Gavin Brown's Passerby, New York. His debut New York solo exhibition was held at March Gallery in Spring 2008, and his videos have screened at CRG Gallery, Whitechapel Art Gallery, the Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive, and Ocularis, among others. Coburn is a contributing editor to ArtReview and a staff writer for Rhizome.
3) title of exhibition...gotta be honest that i'm not crazy about 'woah woah woah here we go'...other thoughts? i'm still a little partial to the 'autobiography of an exhibition,' idea, just because of how process-based things will be, but am open.
4) image/graphic to accompany email announcement of exhibition, measuring 600(w) x 400(h). let's discuss what this should be.
5) challenges specific to project (illegality given that lot is private property, what our contingency plan is if the lot is shut down. It seems there is someone who looks after the site à we need to make sure that the opening to the lot is made with the utmost discretion (i.e. perhaps the hinges to our ramshackle dooway could be covered with a fly poster...perhaps we could choose a specific image or graphic, relevant to the project, that i could have made into a fly poster, to cover the entranceway?)
6) I just got a new phone that I think will receive multimedia text messages. Try sending me something: +1.917.270.4026
more soon. i'll be visiting the gallery you gave me tomorrow and producing a text for you tomorrow eve.
tyler x
it needs our bios, but here's a go.
i tried to avoid pretension and build a little bit of narrative interest into it. we can change/modify as you see fit.
in consideration of the illegality of our drawing in the lot, the gallery asked that we not explicitly mention that part of the exhibition, so i've tried to weave it into the press release as a sort of mysterious element of the show. i think it works pretty well, but am open to suggestions.
i'll be around at home before noon tomorrow, if you want to have a little skype update. let me know, if so, and what time i should be around (i can log on as early as 9am U.S. time). that afternoon i'll be going to the first address.
Tyler
6/29/2008
Press Release: "Autobiography of an Exhibition" (Draft 1)
The first collaboration between New Yorker Tyler Coburn and Londoner Sebastian Craig, "Autobiography of an Exhibition" is an imaginary account of Brooklyn narrated in drawing, architecture and prose. Much as Washington Irving invented an extended history for the young Dutch colony, in his novel Knickerbocker's History of New York (1809), so Coburn and Craig consider the need for new myths, woven apace with the city's cycles of destruction and development. Through an ongoing, transatlantic exchange, in which Coburn meticulously describes the art exhibitions and environs particular to Jack the Pelican's borough, Craig envisages a place he has never been - and that, for him, is synonymous with The Cosby Show and brownstones. Craig's ensuing drawings, ideas and instructions are translated by Coburn into the space of the exhibition as objects, texts and propositions, caught halfway between imaginative minimalism and descriptive excess. Theirs is an architecture conceived to occupy a point in the constellation of projects drawn atop the map of the borough, but one which inclines towards the notional: offering hypotheses, not answers.
In Italo Calvino's novel Imaginary Cities (1978), Marco Polo describes to Kublai Khan the many metropolises of his empire with such fanciful language as to suggest that each place may, in fact, be one of infinite outcomes of any given city. Coburn and Craig treat this condition of compossibility as integral to metropolis and exhibition alike and imbue the conventionally static form of the gallery show with ongoing products of their correspondence. "Autobiography of an Exhibiton" thus tells the story of its life, and like a text (and like a city), its account is subject to revision and amendment, obfuscation and revelation.
Like any text and any city, the exhibition has a grain, along or against which it may be read. To read along it is to observe much of what has been described in the paragraphs above. To read against is to discover a hidden side of this story, drawn in construction materials on a site of potential architecture. To read against the grain is also necessarily to discover one's own potential to transgress the limits of the public city, in a performance of aesthetic engagement.
We invite you to read along and against.
also, of course, we don't have to use this title.
more ideas, thinking about how one's imaginary relationship to a given place is partly produced by stock images.
1) stock photos:
http://db2.photoresearchers.com/search?key=brooklyn&submit=search
http://www.gettyimages.com/Search/Search.aspx?src=quick&contractUrl=1&family=images&phrase=brooklyn
note: i'm sceptical to use these images straight-up, particularly as there are some u.s.-based artists (fia backstrom, guthrie lonergan), who have recently made some waves doing so. but i think these images could be used in some fashion, if you wanted, given how they underscore the collective myth of a place. have a think.
2) relevant furniture, thinking about how spatial dividers can come to provide dumb quasi-representational analogues to the architectural issues/locale we're working through:
http://www.straightfromthecrate.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=2770
http://www.straightfromthecrate.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=3021
--
Tyler Coburn
+1 917-270-4026
29th june 08Tyler Coburn
15:55
hey buddy, how's tricks?
sebcraig
15:56
good good thanks, am looking at your emails....you are quite prolific in this field!!!
Tyler Coburn
15:56
yeah, sorry
15:56
i know i have a bad habit
15:56
i've been restraining myself, believe it or not
sebcraig
15:57
ha ha,
Tyler Coburn
15:57
well, i'm around for the next hour and some, so get in touch whenever
sebcraig
15:59
be there in a min...
Tyler Coburn
16:40
still trekking through, my friend?
16:40
i'll prolly need to be off in 30 mins or so, but could come back around 1:30/2pm US time
sebcraig
16:41
yeh, just sending you an email now, seemed easier that way
Tyler Coburn
16:41
sounds good
sebcraig
17:15
email sent...!
right-o,
bio first as it's pressing:
Sebastian Craig is an Artist and the Director of i-cabin, which is a project space, publisher and author.
His practice is concerned with the transferral of information into architecture and the generation of an ongoing dialogue on Artistic intention. Sebastian has an MA in Interdisciplinary Design from Central St. Martins and a BA in Fine Art from Byam Shaw School of Art. Recent shows include La Commune, Serpentine Gallery, London; Satellites, Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York; What is it? Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridge and his solo show Notional Architectures at i-cabin, London.
With regards to the title, I think 'autobiography of an exhibition' leads the viewer down the wrong road. Although the way that we are constructing the exhibition is of integral importance it isn't the main concern, which is more about the construction of a notional site through remote viewing via mythologies and types of text. The point of interest being the relationship between the present and the remote and the similarities in how a sense of authenticity might manifest itself.
So something like 'Ghostwriting Place: Autobiography of Brooklyn' or something?
That our using the site is illegal is both good and bad. By all means I applaud seizing control of the built environment for the right purposes (who decides what they are is the question!), however, if we are removed from the site we can use the digital model, which becomes the real site in any case, and has been all along from my point-of-view.
The stock images is what I was thinking about too when I sent the drawing idea, or stock mental images, but I'm really not interested in commenting on what the Brooklyn clichés are, we all know, I am interested in the graffiti and I'd like very much to push this in the hope of coming up with some kind of original thoughts... again we know the standard psychology of the graffiti critique, and it is all really great stuff of course,
a newer part of it is in relation to writers interacting with the physicality of the built environment like a giant adventure playground is something which makes me excited, as does skateboarding, and to a lesser degree city base jumping and free climbing.
Rem Koolhaus has become the trendy architect in the art world through Hans Ulrich, who is like a sort of super-sponge, and is in some way helping to lead us all away from a serious critique of anything, he is saying far too many things all of which become weightless and are simply saying all the things which are simply givens anyway.
I am very interested in Will Allsop, he's a scruffy man with big ideas, he's fucking active and perceived as a failure, the buildings are exquisite and quite original. Take Koolhaus' serpentine pavilion, a given, didn't need saying!
There's some really bad books out there by architects trying to imagine a "new type of city" using word like 'flux' and 'marketplace' and cuttings from newspapers with drawings over them along the lines of (nigel?) Coates' exctacity. Really bad, but Yona Friedman, buckminster fuller, black mountain...they had ideas, people say utopian like its a bad thing, doesn't it just mean imagining what each of them, as individuals, consider to be a better built environment?
I wonder if the guy you mention is Buckminster Fuller, yeh the sphere/cube thing means not much nor does the blob thing, it doesn't tell us anything about the idea, which is the important thing, or is it the building which is the important thing? I suppose I wanted to say that this sort of thing http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c0/FujiTVStudioOdaiba.jpg is really crappy.
s.
i-cabin, Clarendon Buildings, 11 Ronalds Road, London, N5 1XJ 07813 764 937 / www.i-cabin.co.uk
Tyler Coburn
17:17
i think you're hard on koolhaas. have you actually read 'delirious new york?' he wrote it long before ulrich-obrist was on the art scene, and long before he was an acclaimed architect
sebcraig
17:18
ha ha, no I never read it! goes to show, u gotta be careful what you attach yourself too later on!!
Tyler Coburn
17:19
yeah, i think there is some good thinking in it, but it's fatal flaw is that koolhaas thinks he's being benjamin and he just can't hit that level
sebcraig
17:19
oh yeh I mean Hans Ulrich is a super sponge...etc
Tyler Coburn
17:19
still, i like it better than anything he has ever built
17:19
true that
sebcraig
17:19
the pavilion?
Tyler Coburn
17:19
i'm in total agreement with your thought on ulrich-obrist
17:20
no, i like the book 'delirious new york' more than anything koolhaas ever built
sebcraig
17:21
ohhhh, i love the arcades project, i received it for my birthday a year and a half ago, great bedtime book!
17:21
and acts as a lamp table
Tyler Coburn
17:21
yep. the architect i was thinking of wasn't buckminster fuller - much earlier era - but i will have a think
17:21
it's big enough to be a table, that's for sure
17:21
i like the notion of 'ghostwriting' in relation to what we're doing
17:22
but maybe there's an elegant way to condense the title? it sounds like the title of an academic essay at the moment
17:23
i would be fine with just 'ghostwriting' or 'autobiography of brooklyn'
sebcraig
17:23
was just going to ask about that,
17:23
okay autobiography of brooklyn, it goes without saying that brooklyn didn't write it itself
Tyler Coburn
17:23
yep
sebcraig
17:24
or maybe ghostwriting brooklyn
Tyler Coburn
17:24
but it references 'autobiography of alice b. toklas'...you know, the term has become somewhat pliant
sebcraig
17:24
whadyamean?
Tyler Coburn
17:25
well, gertude stein wrote toklas' 'autobiography' from the third person
sebcraig
17:25
right right
Tyler Coburn
17:25
and the last line of the book acknowledges it
17:25
but i'm fine to scrap that
17:26
what about just 'ghostwriters' ? or something that places us in a position of agency?
17:26
i can't think of an elegant way to get 'brooklyn' in there
sebcraig
17:27
Ghostwriting: Brooklyn
Tyler Coburn
17:27
better
sebcraig
17:27
don't worry about elegance too much
Tyler Coburn
17:27
well, a good title has an effect
sebcraig
17:28
sure
17:28
but again loose ends are what makes a work relevent to the idea of a viewer
Tyler Coburn
17:29
yes yes and i think the exhibition should be filled with loose ends; i'm just not sure the title needs to be.
17:29
anyways, we have a few more days to tighten that up
17:29
i've been reviewing ny penal code
17:29
and am getting a little anxious
17:29
so let's talk contingency plans
sebcraig
17:30
ha ha, we don't want you to get arrested
Tyler Coburn
17:30
well, i could technically be slapped with class a misdemeanor, class b midemeanor and class d felony
17:30
(so i've learned from my initial perusal)
17:30
i think there are really two levels of seriousness here
17:30
sneaking in and making the drawing is ok with me
17:31
but sawing a door into the plywood might get a bit dodgy
17:31
and then having gallery-goers (at their own risk, of course) enter through it
sebcraig
17:31
ahh I see, no the door is a bad idea,
Tyler Coburn
17:32
it formalizes it somehow, doesn't it?
sebcraig
17:32
just sneak in and make the drawing, viewers can do what they think best re it
Tyler Coburn
17:32
that's good
17:32
and i'll document it, of course
17:32
that's more in keeping with the graffiti overtones, anyways
sebcraig
17:33
if you like the drawing can be controlled manifestations occurring just a few times throughout
17:33
the digital model is the studio, this can be shown inside
Tyler Coburn
17:34
i think i'll feel it out and act accordingly. certainly i will produce one for the beginning of the exhibition and, based on the repercussions, we can see
17:34
what is the digital model?
17:34
and how would it be shown?
sebcraig
17:35
I mean the 3d model/animation i sent you, i plan to work onto it throughout
17:36
i feel that it should be visible there
Tyler Coburn
17:36
how would it be shown?
17:36
and will it be developed before we initially exhibit it?
sebcraig
17:37
projcted if poss, or on a screen i would like it to be online. It will be developed throughout by me in order for you to see the drawings i make
Tyler Coburn
17:38
that could be feasible
17:38
there's the issue of a computer hook-up; i'll talk to the gallery as to whether one is available
17:39
if not, i can download and burn new dvds throughout
17:39
from your updates
sebcraig
17:39
brilliant
17:39
brilliant
Tyler Coburn
17:39
now, do you envisage the builders' tape entering into the exhibition space at all?
17:40
i found there is both neon orange and pink
17:40
at my local hardware store
sebcraig
29/06/2008 17:40
cool, i have been using pink for my other works , so orange i think!
sebcraig
29/06/2008 17:43
i did think of having traffic cones with lengths of string between the to allow for viewers to build mini architectures within the space, they'll be able to see the drawings on the model and read your texts, and interact with our architectures (if they dare to trespass) ... we discussed them altering the drawing...not sure, what do you think?
Tyler Coburn
17:44
it strikes me that given the organization of the space, if there were to be any presence of the tape, it could ideally occur in the cube-like back room, the most approximately 'white cube' area of the unsusual ehxibition space
17:45
you mean the drawings outside or inside?
sebcraig
17:48
whatever you think is fine. Our drawing will be outside, and open to be changed if someone decides to. lets leave it at that perhaps, how did you see the string being used inside?
Tyler Coburn
17:49
ok, that sounds good re: outside
17:50
to be honest, i was interested in the idea of how a room-sized string architecture can gradually be built up from the wall of a space (like the cube), over the course of the exhibition, so that by the end, the space itself is practically unenterable
17:51
but that was an earlier idea, so i'm not sure how applicable it is now
17:51
i'm not sure about the traffic cones, i'll be honest. i think they sort of collapse readings.
17:52
unrelatedly, i've also been thinking about fly posting
sebcraig
17:52
it's something I do quite a lot
Tyler Coburn
17:52
and methods of gluing up the component strips of billboards onto urban facades
sebcraig
17:53
you know the cutUp collective?
Tyler Coburn
17:53
oh, i've heard of them
?
sebcraig posted file 28 cutup fresh1.jpg to members of this chat
17:53
?
sebcraig posted file 29 cutup fresh2.jpg to members of this chat
17:54
Tyler Coburn
17:54
yeah, dunno bout this stuff
17:54
seems purely aesthetic
sebcraig
17:55
made from billboard posters cut up and rearranged to make these images
Tyler Coburn
17:56
i guess i was just thinking that it could be interesting, in the event that we use images, that they be put up in a consistent fashion, i.e. like fly posting. not to, you know, theatricalize that (or try to mimic it); more in a subtle, referential way
17:56
more on this in a bit. i have to have lunch with my folks.
17:56
will you be around in 45 mins?
sebcraig
17:56
not sure....try me!!
17:57
if not tommorrow same time ish
Tyler Coburn
17:57
ok will do
sebcraig
17:57
bon apetite
Tyler Coburn
17:57
yep and in the meantime send me thoughts on string, wall displays, your mdoel, etc.
17:57
i've got some more thoughts i'll relay as well
17:57
adios
The press release is fine,
could you change brownstones and the cosby show to 80's hip hop films, images of graffiti and the cosby show
thats more precise.
Could you to tell me about your March Gallery show, what was it all about?
I don't know anything about your films either, so it would be great to have a bit of a rundown of them.
I feel strongly that at the moment there is a really perfect combination of your literary descriptive mythologies generated by being in a place and my spatial works evolving, built on notional architectural ideas. It's as though your work is generating the work that I make here; and my absence is helping to select what you look at. There is a great deal of mileage to be made in this exchange between two artists over a month long show. I feel that it's super important for us to be functioning as two artists in this way rather than one combined artist. I know that we could find tonnes of ground that we are both interested in and agree on but I'd find it more useful as an artist to draw out things we disagree on and develop those differences in the show...
in short: lets find something to argue about! (in a good way!)
s.
i-cabin, Clarendon Buildings, 11 Ronalds Road, London, N5 1XJ 07813 764 937 / www.i-cabin.co.uk
sc,
18:59
excellent email
18:59
i will get on that this afternoon
18:59
i agree: dissonance and consonance are both needed
19:00
in the dynamic of a collaborative exhibition
attached!
a separate email will follow, in a few hours' time, with thoughts, observations, and details on the history of my work.
will make sure to be around tomorrow to chat. anytime after 9am US.
tyler x
just so you know:
1) the text was transcribed from an audio recording made, while at the site. the recording was improvised and little was changed in becoming the text i sent you.
2) i took photos of the site, specific to the way i described each thing, each angle of viewing. just so you know: they exist.
sc,
here are some things for you:
1) the press release i co-wrote for my exhibition with my friend jeff, who is not in the artworld and therefore unburdened by the practical weight of the PR. the release is a work in the show, credited to him, and is an open edition (welcome to my collection, collector!)
2) a long artist statement, outlining some of the overarching conceptual parameters framing the work, with reference to specific pieces (all available on my website) and theorists.
3) a piece-by-piece summary of the works in the MARCH exhibition, including two videos
4) the email announcement i sent when i destroyed the hallways and walls i had built for the MARCH exhibition, two weeks into the exhibition. there is almost no documentation of the second half of the exhibition (without walls) by design, but there are photos of the initial spell of the exhibition on my website. for the second half of the exhibition, i chose to keep the footprint of the walls visible on the floor and did not sweep or mop them. on a general level, this exercise in construction and destruction is indicative of a larger trend in my work: the question of how to build total installations of disparate works and how to integrate architectures that condition and promote certain conditions of spectatorship in, at times, heavy-handed or authoritative fashion.
ok, a lot to sift through. have a look and we'll discuss tomorrow when we're both up and online.
--
Tyler Coburn
hey bucko,
i'm awake and around, so find me on skype whenevs.
tsc
sebcraig
29/06/2008 19:20
hi buddy, doesn't look like i can text you
29/06/2008 19:21
we might need to arrange something for between july 19 - 26 any ideas?
Tyler Coburn
17:17
did you do 001.917.270.4026
17:17
or is it 011.917.270.4026?
sebcraig
17:18
i didn't try the second one, will do now, how are you buddy?
Tyler Coburn
17:18
i'm good. just doing the runaround: trying to get return policies from furniture stores, think about the practicalities,e tc
17:18
so we can do this guy on the cheap
17:19
what about you?
sebcraig
17:21
for real. am good thanks, have been doing some paid work today, have to shoot in a few minutes to the RCA interim sculpture, my close freind is in it. I received the text and will digest it and get on with a drawing responce tomorrow afternoon, sorry not to have time today.
Tyler Coburn
17:21
no problem. you should give me an address for tomorrow to visit, if you want
sebcraig
17:22
secondly I think I have defined a difference for us to chat about... address to come hang on
Tyler Coburn
17:22
and drop me a line tomorrow morn and let me know when might be a good time to discuss during the day
17:22
oh, what's the difference?
sebcraig
17:24
the address is 93 North 6th St., between Berry and Wythe Aves, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Tyler Coburn
17:25
got it
sebcraig
17:26
cool cool cool, i got to run, will chat 2moro, will be here about 2pm my time so 10am ish your time.
17:26
see you then
Tyler Coburn
17:26
ok i'll make sure to be around then. send me anything, thoughts, etc. in the meantime
17:26
if you have time
17:27
maybe let me know what 'the difference' is for me to contemplate
sebcraig
17:27
text still doesn't seem to work
17:27
difference will have to wait....
Tyler Coburn
17:27
ok, shoot. so we'll have to figure somethign else out
17:27
ok!
till soon
hey buddy,
working away over here.
don's going to send out a small image at the top of the e-mailer with the press release.
see a possibility attached. i think it does the job of suggesting that the show will build systems of communication between image, text, modes of representation, etc.
let me know thoughts. mailers start going out thurs.
see you at 2pm your time tomorrow? be timely - i've gotta hit the streets later.
tsc x
did lots of exploring along the strip that could be called tottenham court road of nyc. found some furniture, etc. all possible, some good options for basic desk-y stuff.
two things stuck out and made me think of the idea of 'zoning,' both as it pertains to the city and how it could pertain to the gallery. i wonder if there's a way to not-so-heavyhandedly zone some of the space.
one item that spurred the thought was a clear plastic version of the following, which is shaped to accomodate desk chair and desk:
it's a very strange swathe of floor material, built simply for the purposes of a seating area. i think it might be interesting to consider to accompany the desk area(s).
another occurence: in bed, bath & beyond there was a crude, clear tape pattern over two pieces of tile. the tape was clearly only being used to hold the tiles down, but one tile was bounded with a rectangle of tape, where the other was criss-crossed so many times as to seem decorative. because people have been walking over those tiles for ages, the tape had accumulated dirt at its edges, almost making it like drawing. this seemed another way of demarcating the territory.
more soon for our morning discussion.
tsc x
1st july 08
sebcraig
14:26
hey hey
14:26
mail out image looks nice as pie
14:26
!
Tyler Coburn
14:26
good, i'll show it to don and get the old approval
sebcraig
14:26
forgive the americanism
Tyler Coburn
14:26
no please, this is research for you
14:27
to make art among my people, you must UNDERSTAND my people
sebcraig
14:27
ha ha
14:27
whats new?
Tyler Coburn
14:27
just trying to knock out an article before getting into it. what have you been doing?
sebcraig
14:28
did you see my ad in art monthly yet?
Tyler Coburn
14:28
art monthly or artreview?
sebcraig
14:28
i mean art review
Tyler Coburn
14:28
no, not yet. i should be getting my issues this week
14:29
how's it look?
sebcraig
14:29
pretty i-cabin, it's in a pretty bad place, the next page is a thicker page so you automatically thumb straight past it!!!! very i-cabin!
Tyler Coburn
14:30
haha
14:30
well, i'm sure i'll notice it
sebcraig
14:30
page 121 by the way...
Tyler Coburn
14:30
will keep it in mind!
14:30
are you installing caleb's show now? you must be very busy yourself
sebcraig
14:31
am developing the drawing now, i know what it will be...yes have just got it how I think it should go, very happy with it, very busy yes but okay, i think it is the best show yet actually
Tyler Coburn
14:31
that's great
sebcraig
14:31
i mean caleb's show...
Tyler Coburn
14:31
i know
14:32
i will visit the next site today and get you a text
sebcraig
14:32
the drawing too is interesting for me, i'll put it in an email as there is some thoughts to go with it
Tyler Coburn
14:33
great. i'm looking forward. was the first text ok/engaging/whatever? the format of them can change as well
sebcraig
14:34
yes absolutely great, good work
14:34
must have worn you out a bit?!
Tyler Coburn
14:34
the text? no way. i just went there, improvised for 30 minutes.
14:35
i've been thinking about site performances like that for a while though
sebcraig
14:35
a lot to type up no?
Tyler Coburn
14:35
oh, it took an hour
sebcraig
14:35
ok, not so bad
Tyler Coburn
14:35
that interview i conducted with you a while back yielded 2 hours of audio. THAT was laborious
sebcraig
14:36
ha ha, I can certainly talk when it comes to cabinism...is very hot in the gallery here, have had to black out all the windows on the hottest day of the year and there's a projector pumping out warm air...bad timing!
Tyler Coburn
14:37
it's strange. the more days that go by, the more that vacant lot starts to seem like some imaginary, secret place. the more i feel like i can't return to it (not rationally or practically, of course). i wonder whether a drawing should actually be made on that lot, or whether the lot should be somehow treated as the foundation for the show and the production, but not directly engaged. the drawings occur within the space, the press release announces the hidden side of the exhibition, the gallery invites people to trespass...how is your thinking developing?
sebcraig
14:41
I am more sited in that lot than ever, the gallery feels like a site I am uncomfortable with! I think the drawing must be in the lot, however I'll be drawing in the lot and cannot actually control where you put it, however I would feel that in the gallery the architecture would be false, only in the lot or the street would it be the real architecuture which my work requires... so I think get yourself in there asap and become comfortable there!
Tyler Coburn
14:42
why are you uncomfortable with the gallery site?
sebcraig
14:45
it's a good question, not having been there I am forced to judge it on it's website and name and imagined architecture, the architecture being something I feel excited about; however the name and the website act together in me and makes me uncomfortable, I suppose I invisage this guy 'jack the pelican' (!!!) as the owner of the space! Pelicans are big arrogant ugly birds...
Tyler Coburn
14:47
yes yes, of course. what's amazing about the gallery is its total imperviousness to most thngs. they've shown some very wonderful artists and some incredibly awful ones. they boggle the mind. but most brooklyn galleries establish themselves with a built-in antagonism to an 'idea' of the manhattan art scene, and jack just does what it wants. it's strange, but somehow an ethos i can get behind.
sebcraig
14:48
depends what it wants no....?:)
Tyler Coburn
14:48
well, yes. sometimes it wants what i want, i suppose.
sebcraig
14:48
it looks a lot like the Chicago art scene
Tyler Coburn
14:49
but really it provides the opportunity to collaborate in a space, at a place people will actually visit
14:49
a bit, doesn't it?
14:49
he shows a lot of old yale art school painters
14:49
so much of it is against my taste, but, again, somehow i appreciate that
sebcraig
14:50
yes, I'm really grateful for the opportunity however
14:50
shall i crack on with this drawing and get it over to you? when are you there untill?
Tyler Coburn
14:50
i think part of my growing distance from the lot is just that, practically speaking, i don't think i should break in there until i make the drawing and that means it couldn't be until mid-next week. i just don't want to risk breaking in multiple times and getting caught
14:51
i think that's why it's moving into the abstract
sebcraig
14:54
thats absolutely fine, in that case I have some time to go over my thinking re the drawing, I feel strongly about what I have in mind, it may be the only drawing which gets transferred to the lot, which I think would be a shame for me. is it something which could be done in a park and then left there...or some other derelict site nearby, these options are of interest to me, one drawing per site...
Tyler Coburn
14:55
well, i'm open. i think a lot of it comes down to what happens to the initial drawing - how quickly it is removed, etc.
14:55
i'm open to building these drawings in other locations, barring blatant illegality
14:56
but if we start building drawings in spaces outside the gallery how, in your mind, should they be related to the space within the gallery?
sebcraig
15:00
as long as you can get a snap of it before it goes....or even get a photo of it in part-completion, that will be excellent. The second question is an interesting one: if we are using a selection of sites I will build a selection of digital models to draw onto, each with reference to your texts, the sites I am sending you to have a logic which will/may have already emerged, the gallery is really a route to the outside for me, a visitor-centre for the notional borough we are building through the texts and the drawings
Tyler Coburn
15:02
i'm getting a bit confused. can you just explain that to me via voicechat quickly?
15:02
(so many strata)
sebcraig
15:02
sure...
connections very weak right now sorry, 2 seconds
Tyler Coburn
15:03
was i coming through?
15:04
hullo?
sebcraig
01/07/2008 15:32
internet is playing up, lets think on about the images of the drawings.
sebcraig
15:33
I'm just going to have a coffee with Barry Sykes accross the road, chat in a little while?
Tyler Coburn
15:32
bas connection
15:32
bad
15:34
ok, sounds good. i'm sort of keen on having a binder just for those descriptive texts, so let's think about other ways to incorporate images or documentation or other stuff into the space
15:34
i have some ideas, which i'll send in a little
15:34
think about ideas of zoning the space as well and shoot me a mail
1st July 08.
...in which tyler coburn reveals the self-loathing at the heart of his hipster soul!
sc,
while i'm doing everything on the super-cheap, i do anticipate some costs (printing ink, spray paint, cabs for transporting heavy-duty materials) so wanted to make sure you were aware. all in, i anticipate us both spending no more than 50 quid each...is that cool? i'll let you know the costs more specifically, as the arise and, of course, you get 50% of whatever we sell and will get super press in nyc (timeout ny has informed me that we're a 'critics pick'). i'll also be bringing henriette huldisch, one of the whitney biennial curators, by, as well as loads of other curator types. in short, the exhibition will be worth your while.
tsc x
2nd July
Yes of course mr, just let me know any costs and I'll transfer into your account, and please send me copies of any press mentions etc for me' file!
Wow whitney biennial eh, big boys!
x
so we're going with Ghostwriters Tyler Coburn and Sebastian Craig ? Ghostwriting is slightly nicer in my opinion?
i-cabin, Clarendon Buildings, 11 Ronalds Road, London, N5 1XJ 07813 764 937 / www.i-cabin.co.uk
Address Number three being: 252 Grand Street (b/w Driggs and Roebling) Williamsburg, Brooklyn
i-cabin, Clarendon Buildings, 11 Ronalds Road, London, N5 1XJ 07813 764 937 / www.i-cabin.co.uk
good man. i shall visit it this afternoon.
how are things on your end?
Good good good,
Things are fine over here, I just completed the drawing for you to install next week (number 1) and number 2 is about to be started. I'll send No.1 over early next week so it's nice and fresh to you to install. and Number 2 will follow immediately... Do you think number 2 should be sited elsewhere to leave a break between entering the lot? (I think perhaps it should, then we return to the lot for number 3).
I couldn't open your link re. hardwood tiles??? not sure what you were getting at..
Also not sure what your thinking is about the 'zoning the space' you mentioned. Why zone the space - and to what end? Are you really eager to get something inside there?
I'm feeling that the projection of the animations in one room and the desk including all our conversation, your texts and anything else we generate is a fair chunk of information...
However, if anything was to be explicitly hung I feel that your texts would be perfect printed up as large bill posters (which you mentioned).
It seems very important to emphasize them...if not hung as sound works to accompany the animations perhaps.
thoughts?
s.
hey buddy, find me on skype. let's discuss these things briefly (easier than email back and forth)
sebcraig
02/07/2008 15:59
hey hey
Tyler Coburn
16:00
howdy
16:00
e sec
16:01
i think your idea on drawing order sounds good
16:02
i'm a little hesitant about including our actual correspondence in the show, though, partly because you did it with sykes and partly because the performance/text/prose things i'm generating should, i sort of feel, be the only textual component of the show. i think they speak enough to our communication and imply two parties (i.e. how i move between first and second person)
sebcraig
16:03
cool, in order to do that, give me the name of a Park in the area which is suitable... I'm becoming a remote viewer!
Tyler Coburn
16:03
mccarren park is ace
16:03
there's also one down on kent by the river
sebcraig
16:04
okay
Tyler Coburn
16:04
i'll get you that address one sec
16:13
hold on computer is driving me nuts. another question: how do we give indication of the off-site projects in the gallery space?
16:19
hey there, just sent you addresses
sebcraig
16:19
i understand your thinking on the discussion, there are some points to consider in my mind, about direction and intention, by not including the text we are purposefully reducing the level of transparency of our exchange, this raises a few things for me including- is that increasing the perceived value of the artworks as singular communcators or making the works seem more "art-like" in that art is perceived to contain a certain level of abstraction which the discussion removes. The discussion is an incredibly un-refined piece of work, in fact raw. What I know of your work is that it is (aesthetically/production wise) very refined, but I wonder how you feel about that?
16:21
re: how do we give indication of the off-site projects in the gallery space? it will all be shown in the animations
Tyler Coburn
16:23
i understand your reading and reservation. i think this is one area where we differ as practitioners. i think i'm very interested in building allusive networks of communication between modes of production, in embedding the hand of the practitioner into the methods of production I adopt. but for me, that is never in the service of building singular communicators. i think there's a certain generosity in giving a spectator a constellation of points, them knowing that these points were all arose in a collaboration, and allowing them to sift through the levels of communication and exchange
16:23
this is not to saw that total transparency is ungenerous, of course
16:23
or that, in certain cases, i wouldn't find it appropriate
16:24
but perhaps in this case, because of the strange nature of these texts i'm sending you (which are communications), there is enough
16:25
what i will say is that if you feel strongly about our incorporating our correspondence into the show, i don't think it should go into the same binder as the texts (maybe not even be presented in the same way)
16:36
you still there?
sebcraig
16:37
yes there is certainly some discussion to be had here. I feel very often that what you call allusive networks is, with many artists work, obscurity for the sake of back-patting... There are many artists whose work is deliberately left open to interpretation for the simple fact that they have no direction as artists, by visually referring to more important works of some conceptual quality they think they can cover this up!
16:39
In this case however there is a pleasing tangle between the works we are making which may not need making TOO explicit
Tyler Coburn
16:39
i agree
sebcraig
16:39
perhaps the discussion should be made available elswhere...
Tyler Coburn
16:39
i mean, if you as a visitor are presented with a series of texts describing places in the neighborhood (self-consciously directed to a receiving party), 3D models of what are evidently the gallery site and places nearby and direciton to off-site drawings, do you really think that is too allusive?
16:40
i don't think, in this case, we're risking those pitfalls you mentioned (which i agree exist)
16:40
but i like the idea of the discussion being available
16:40
how would you see it being available?
16:40
if it were available elsewhere?
sebcraig
16:41
no neither do I, it's why I would always lean towards the transparrent side as i don't think there is any deficiency to conceal!
16:42
online is a wonderful place for things of this sort
Tyler Coburn
16:42
and one more point. i agree about how allusiveness is used as a cover for many artists, but you have to understand that transparency also becomes a facile mode of criticality. when it enters the gallery space, it does so as a strategy, and so often feels pedantic
16:42
i see this so often with young conceptual artists
16:42
they show all of the production parts, yet the sum only amounts to those parts
sebcraig
16:42
you mention direction to offsite drawings.... you mean a map?
Tyler Coburn
16:42
well, i'm open to discussing possibilities
16:43
i worry that an actual map of williamsburg would make explicit what is existing between us as a largely imagined neighborhood
sebcraig
16:43
do you think they'll be around long enough to send people too, or would we send them to the site which may or may not be empty...?
Tyler Coburn
16:43
i thought about large, stencilled text on one wall: a list of the addresses (keeping it in the realm of text), which i add to as you give me more locations for drawings
16:44
i think the may-or-may-not-be-empty is part of what makes it interesting
16:44
but, practically, if i make very small drawings in remote sections of the park, they may be around
16:45
it all depends on how discreet/small you want me to be
sebcraig
16:46
sure...you last comment is true, I think you refer to those system-based artists who think that having rules validates the outcome of those rules and whose work is entirely cyclical... masturbatory and adds nothing!
Tyler Coburn
16:47
yes, those. but there are a lot of people who call themselves institutional critics who merely highlight the parameters within which they produce, in painstaking detail. just saying, transparency is not a given good, but it can sometimes be used to great ends.
sebcraig
16:47
size is a good question, I have been thinking about these drawings as architectures, this for me means of a scale which can be entered/negotiated by humans...
Tyler Coburn
16:47
yeah, that's what i thought as well
sebcraig
16:47
point taken, is worth remembering
Tyler Coburn
16:48
well, when you send me the drawings (bearing in mind issues of size), specify how i should make them: scale-wise, etc.
sebcraig
16:50
I'll send them shown on a 3d graphic model showing an imagined site, this should indicate an approximate scale, thing is the site may actually be much bigger/smaller than I imagine!! therefore translation will be a difficult and inexact science!!
Tyler Coburn
16:51
ok that's fine
16:51
i like a degree of give in the translation
16:51
into drawings
sebcraig
16:51
Tyler Coburn
16:51
practically speaking, you'll need to specify, maybe by next tuesday, as to how the animations should be assembled for projection
16:52
so just keep that in mind
16:52
i have an idea, building upon the fly poster/billboard visual language
sebcraig
16:52
The translation the other way is also based on the interpretation of the translator
Tyler Coburn
16:52
true that
sebcraig
16:52
an idea for the texts?
Tyler Coburn
16:54
not for texts, but for images. i was thinking about printing out one image from each site in halftone (like billboard printing) and assembling it from printer sheets to make 5-foot x 8-foot images (8-feet being the standard height of the plywood around construction sites). there's a way to roll and flatten the images that really fascinates me: to prop them up against the wall so the size relationship is intact, but for the images to be slivers of their original content...which some viewers might relate to the texts, or not.
16:55
for each image, i would make two of these rolls (same image with slight differences between the two) and stand them up aside one another, with a slight overlap
16:55
so they're images, but there's a strange spatial quality
16:55
as well as the referent to the billboard
16:55
with the halftone printing
sebcraig
16:56
Animation wise: if I email them over one by one would it be easy to put them together as a single film?? I'm not sure, I think i-movie should do it ok, I am very happy to do it here but it may then be far too large to email....will think on
Tyler Coburn
16:56
no, email them one by one and i can do it
16:56
you can also upload them to my website (easier for larger files)
16:56
let me know if you want to do that and i can give you my FTP info
sebcraig
16:56
yes yes, give me the info
Tyler Coburn
16:57
one sec
sebcraig
16:57
these images you refer to..are they pictures of the drawins in situ?
Tyler Coburn
16:57
they could be
16:58
or they could be pictures of the original sites you sent me to
16:58
i sort of thought the images of the drawings in situ would enter the exhibition in a different fashion
16:58
but i'm flexible
16:58
because these images, practically speaking, would be more like big beams of wood
sebcraig
16:58
so images of empty sites?
Tyler Coburn
16:58
8-feet tall, abstract
16:59
the ones you sent me to describe, one for each site?
16:59
here's my ftp, btw. use fetch to log in:
16:59
hostname: tylercoburn.netfirms.com
sebcraig
16:59
ahhhh I see now.
Tyler Coburn
16:59
username: tylercoburn.4
17:00
password: 62649b
17:00
i'm messing around with one of them today, so could send you an image
17:01
they're very strange, though, in a good way. neither wholly images, or sculptures...somewhere in-between. references to the aesthetics of the city without dramatizing it
17:02
i've gotta go soon, but let's talk again about this relationship between off-site and exhibition space, and how to refer visitors to the off-site locations
17:03
what do you think of the idea of on-the-wall text stencils, either with addresses, directions, etc? that we add to as more drawings our made? a wall-based archive of words?
17:03
works?
sebcraig
17:05
sure, I wish that I was there so I could produce further new sculptural works to include. From this distance I can only really produce these virtual models, and drawings which you will install for me, and the discussion based work which I'm happy to host online during the show for those who want access to it.
Tyler Coburn
17:06
i know. this is the benefit and deficit of remote collaboration
17:07
which is why i want to get your thoughts on everything
sebcraig
17:07
A list of places where the drawings exist/ed is a good solution, a map is difficult as it won't respond to my idea of the site, as you mentioned, I have only places/street names to work on
Tyler Coburn
17:07
i know
17:08
and as such, i sort of like the idea that viewers only have that as well
in a sense, we're positioning viewers on both sides of the collaboration
02/07/2008 17:08
i agree
sebcraig
Pending
sure, we all become remote viewers, notionally making expeditions. Some will however actually make them, but you will be the only person who really makes the expeditions, indeed I am remote viewing them through you, hence all the running around you will be doing, while I stay still...
sebcraig
Pending
cause and affect!
hey buddy,
think i lost you again.
i'm going to go make myself a sandwich. will be back in 10 and here till 1pm my time.
i'll work on fabricating one of those images for your to see.
i'll also look into the possibility of wall text. have a think about how you would envisage it presented.
keep me in the loop re: further developments.
tsc x
yeh lost u,
the last few entries were:
Tyler Coburn
17:06
i know. this is the benefit and deficit of remote collaboration
17:07
which is why i want to get your thoughts on everything
sebcraig
17:07
A list of places where the drawings exist/ed is a good solution, a map is difficult as it won't respond to my idea of the site, as you mentioned, I have only places/street names to work on
Tyler Coburn
17:07
i know
17:08
and as such, i sort of like the idea that viewers only have that as well
sebcraig
Pending
sure, we all become remote viewers, notionally making expeditions. Some will however actually make them, but you will be the only person who really makes the expeditions, indeed I am remote viewing them through you, hence all the running around you will be doing, while I stay still...
sebcraig
Pending
cause and affect!
chat soon
x
thanks, sc.
i'm gonna research wall-text options. think about how these locations of off-site projects should be presented:
"McCarren Park"
"780 Lorimer" (address of McCarren Park)
"Lorimer & Bayard" (if we install on specific corner of Park)
"Lorimer & Bayard NW" (more specific - indicates corner of block where drawing is/was)
i'm open to suggestions. just having a feel.
i think the wall text will have a nice reference to graffiti, without making it hammy.
may i refer you? hanne is a great curator, and dexter sinister a great nyc hub.
Sure...
i-cabin, Clarendon Buildings, 11 Ronalds Road, London, N5 1XJ 07813 764 937 / www.i-cabin.co.uk
pass it along, buddy. pass it along.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
GHOSTWRITERS
A Collaboration between Tyler Coburn & Sebastian Craig
July 11 - August 10, 2008
Jack the Pelican Presents
Opening Reception: Thursday, July 10, 7 - 9 PM
Gallery Hours: Friday-Monday, 12 PM - 6 PM
The first collaboration between New Yorker Tyler Coburn and Londoner Sebastian Craig, "Ghostwriters" is an imaginary account of Brooklyn narrated in drawing, architecture and prose. Building upon the work of Robert Smithson and W.G. Sebald, among others, Coburn and Craig will transform Jack the Pelican Presents into a sparse visitor center, populated with an evolving array of objects and interventions, including Craig's projected, 3D models of the gallery space; oversize, folded halftone prints of local buildings; and a binder filled with text documentation of improvisatory performances that Coburn staged, at Craig's request, throughout the neighborhood.
The collaboration is long overdue: Coburn first met Craig in London in 2006 at i-cabin, a project space and publisher the artist oversees. In i-cabin's peripatetic activity and in Craig's work, which has been exhibited at the Serpentine Gallery, London, and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York, Coburn observed refreshing, innovative approaches to institutional critique. So after completing his first New York solo show, this past spring at MARCH Gallery, and rounding out screenings and exhibitions at CRG Gallery and Gavin Brown's passerby, respectively, Coburn invited Craig to collaborate.
Much as Washington Irving invented an extended history for the young Dutch colony, in his novel Knickerbocker's History of New York (1809), so Coburn and Craig consider the need for new myths, woven apace with the city's cycles of destruction and development. Through an ongoing, transatlantic exchange, in which Coburn meticulously describes the environs particular to Jack the Pelican's borough, Craig envisages a place he has never been - and that, for him, is synonymous 80's hip hop films, images of graffiti and The Cosby Show . Craig's ensuing drawings, ideas and instructions are translated by Coburn into the exhibition as objects, texts and propositions, caught halfway between imaginative minimalism and descriptive excess. Theirs is an architecture conceived to occupy a point in the constellation of projects drawn atop the map of the borough, but one which inclines towards the notional: offering hypotheses, not answers.
In Italo Calvino's novel Imaginary Cities (1978), Marco Polo describes to Kublai Khan the many metropolises of his empire with such fanciful language as to suggest that each place may, in fact, be one of infinite outcomes of any given city. Coburn and Craig treat this condition of compossibility as integral to metropolis and exhibition alike and imbue the conventionally static form of the gallery show with ongoing products of their correspondence. "Ghostwriters" thus tells the story of its life, and like a text (and like a city), its account is subject to revision and amendment, obfuscation and revelation.
Like any text and any city, the exhibition has a grain, along or against which it may be read. To read along it is to observe much of what has been described in the paragraphs above. To read against is to discover a hidden side of this story: an array of off-site drawings made, often illegally, throughout the neighborhood. Curious visitors may inquire as to their whereabouts, though seeing them may require those willing to transgress the limits of the public city.
We invite you to read along and against.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Departing from the standard tenants of appropriation, Tyler Coburn approaches his disparate subject-matter as an actor would his script, adopting various competencies of artistic skill in restagings that flatten, toughen and defamiliarize his sources. Tyler holds a BA in Comparative Literature from Yale University and has exhibited with The Centre of Attention, London; Galerie Ben Kaufmann, Berlin; and Gavin Brown's Passerby, New York. His debut New York solo exhibition was held at MARCH Gallery in Spring 2008. Coburn is a contributing editor to ArtReview and a staff writer for Rhizome.
Sebastian Craig is an artist and the director of i-cabin, which is a project space, publisher and author. His practice is concerned with the transferal of information into architecture and the generation of an ongoing dialogue on artistic intention. Sebastian has an MA in Interdisciplinary Design from Central St. Martins and a BA in Fine Art from Byam Shaw School of Art. Recent shows include "La Commune", Serpentine Gallery, London; "Satellites", Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York; "What is it?", Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridge; and his solo show "Notional Architectures" at i-cabin, London.
For more information, please contact info@jackthepelicanpresents.com
Jack the Pelican Presents
487 Driggs Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11211
718-782-0183
www.jackthepelicanpresents.com
hey boy-o,
i'll get that text to you later today (have to sit down and write an article now).
i went to the gallery last night and it got the thoughts going. i think the idea of wall-text is a really good idea...i was even thinking graphite or something.
it turns out we only have the front room in the gallery (we're technically still the 'main' show). this makes projection more difficult. i was thinking about a hanging or freestanding screen...something that blocks the visitor's view down the false-perspective hallway and means the first thing they see, when they enter, is the imagined model of the gallery/sites.
let's talk about this on skype at some point, if you're around. i'll be here for the next few hours.
tsc x
Tyler Coburn
16:43
hey boy-o
sebcraig
16:44
ahh there you are! the mail out looks great, you are obviously more able in the art of email layout than I!! how did you layout like that and imbed the image?
Tyler Coburn
16:44
google docs
16:44
have you ever used?
sebcraig
16:44
?? q'est-ce c'est
Tyler Coburn
16:45
my curator friends from andrew kreps, the kitchen and p.s. 1 have confirmed that they will be at the opening!
16:45
if you have a gmail account
16:45
you can use google docs
sebcraig
16:46
I see, look forward to (not being at) it!!
16:46
ha ha
Tyler Coburn
16:46
well, you'll do well by it, is all i mean
16:46
did you get that email i sent you from my editor at rhizome?
sebcraig
16:46
yes, I look forward to hearing from her, it's something for a blog?
Tyler Coburn
16:47
well, rhizome is a curatorial arm of the new museum
16:47
and they have an online magazine
sebcraig
16:47
right right.
Tyler Coburn
16:47
it's very well read
16:48
anyways, would be cool. i'm sure ceci will email you to arrange
sebcraig
16:48
great, what have you been up to? is a shame we don't have the back space.
Tyler Coburn
16:48
i know
16:48
he just sprung it on me
sebcraig
16:49
what has he got in there?
Tyler Coburn
16:50
he's gonna show some new zealand artist. dan arps. it's very 'what's hot in new york' right now. http://neonparc.com.au/
16:50
the unmonumental stuff
16:50
it will have the positive effect of making our area look more interesting, because it will be so trendy
16:50
(his show, not ours)
sebcraig
16:51
ha, and our drawing will be there in the empty lot? that will fucking rock
Tyler Coburn
16:51
yep
16:51
you know what don said?
16:51
he said that if i make the drawing wednesday night and it disappears
16:51
then right before the opening me and his team of interns can make another one
16:51
and we have access to the roof of his building, which looks over the lot
16:52
which will be amazing for documentation, also for the opening
sebcraig
16:52
that makes me very happy indeed, am gutted to miss, thats life eh?
Tyler Coburn
16:52
yeah, but you will be here in spirit
16:53
so are you up for the idea of one wall with just text? did you get my email about possible ways to list the locations?
16:53
and how many drawings should be in existence for the opening?
sebcraig
16:55
right, I had actually been thinking graphite on the wall for this, we are of the same mind. Use a stencil and write on, I think just the address added as they are drawn, or perhaps the completed address with the next an outline, filled when complete
Tyler Coburn
16:55
ah ha
16:56
i like the outline idea
sebcraig
16:56
so the lot, the park, the lot again, another park?...
Tyler Coburn
16:56
the williamsburg riverside park
sebcraig
16:57
sure, anywhere else? the roof of the gallery sound fun too for one
Tyler Coburn
16:57
the lot drawings will be installed on different sides of the lot, so they will be different addresses, which is nice
16:57
well, we could fabricate one there in time for the opening
16:57
that would be interesting
16:57
avoiding the gallery but installing right on its roof
16:57
liek a strange UFO
sebcraig
16:58
okay, so one in the lot, number 2 on the roof?
Tyler Coburn
16:58
i think so
sebcraig
16:58
three in the park
Tyler Coburn
16:58
yep
16:59
four in the lot (or williamsburg river park)
sebcraig
16:59
yes, 5 back in the lot
Tyler Coburn
16:59
now, when i write the text on the wall, should i have in outline all of the subsuquent addresses? or just the one after the one filled in?
sebcraig
17:00
all
17:00
I have started to build mental models of each so they can be outlines I guess
Tyler Coburn
17:00
ok, but hypothetically there may be future addresses...in which case i should make space for additional ones?
17:01
i mean, i can always make another column
17:01
it's a huge wall
sebcraig
17:01
absolutely
Tyler Coburn
17:01
it's slightly curved as well. very strange
17:01
ok then. first column will have these five locations (and any others that arise before tuesday, when i make it)
sebcraig
17:02
I'm interested in other public/private spaces.... do you know anyone with a front garden (yard would you say!!
Tyler Coburn
17:02
now, i've been worrying a bit about the link between the places i'm describing and the places where the drawings are actually made...mainly how the viewer will relate these two realms
17:02
i'll have a think
17:02
i might know
sebcraig
17:04
it seems quite clear to me
Tyler Coburn
17:05
how do you mean?
17:05
i mean, how will the viewer know that you are building drawings from my descriptions, but not in other spaces?
sebcraig
17:06
what do you mean?
Tyler Coburn
17:06
well, you know. there are two separate categories of sites: sites i describe and sites where you render drawings.
17:06
for the viewer, how is it apparent how these sites relate?
17:07
or is that even important?
sebcraig
17:09
well, the sites I'm sending you to have a certain logic, my translations put them back as actual architectures in public/private building plots around the borough
Tyler Coburn
17:09
ok i see.
17:09
it's true, it will make more sense once you actually send the models
sebcraig
17:10
the link is translation
Tyler Coburn
17:10
yep
sebcraig
17:10
if that makes sense
Tyler Coburn
17:10
i think it does
17:10
btw, don says that if you host our conversation, he will link to it from the gallery website
17:10
so that might be something to also work on, on your end
sebcraig
17:11
I also admit that we are in some way's bound to using sites which are available to us, ie spaces
Tyler Coburn
17:11
yes, of course
17:11
i think the press release goes some distance to explain what's going on as well
17:11
font for wall text? size? (wall is 10-feet high)
17:11
serif? sans?
sebcraig
17:11
Yes I'll host the text on the front page of the i-cabin website
Tyler Coburn
17:12
great
sebcraig
17:13
hmm, you'll be using a physical stencil purchased from a shop presumeably, make whatever choise is appropriate from the selection available
Tyler Coburn
17:13
either that or i can project the text and draw it in
17:13
that will probably be easier, give greater flexibility and variety
17:13
more accuracy
17:13
for layout
sebcraig
17:14
yes, thats a bit looser though, I have often worked in that way, is like trying to draw around a ghost, appropriately
Tyler Coburn
17:15
ha
17:15
apt
17:15
well, have a think
17:15
we don't need to resolve it now
sebcraig
17:15
I used it here http://www.i-cabin.co.uk/studiosc13.htm
Tyler Coburn
17:16
what project title is that?
17:16
the link didn't work
17:16
oh i found it
17:17
you made those with a projector?
17:17
they look real nice
sebcraig
17:17
From a certain distance! To be honest, I'd rather remove myself as much as possible from that bloody font decision thing as much as humanly possible, it's such a waste of time, so buy a stencil!!
17:18
at least thats my suggestion for it!!
Tyler Coburn
17:18
well, it need not be stressful
17:18
i'm going super simple with font, whatever i do
17:18
so don't worry
17:18
no roccoco frills
sebcraig
17:18
ha ha okay
Tyler Coburn
17:18
no faux-tech-digital stuff
sebcraig
17:18
aww
Tyler Coburn
17:18
whatever looks nice in outline
17:18
and filled
sebcraig
17:18
sure, thats all the reasoning it needs
17:19
one little aesthetic decision in a mass of reasoning!
Tyler Coburn
17:19
so, here's what i'm thinking for projector and desk....i found these small, very basic white desks. immaculate, simple design, don't take up much space or attention. i'm thinking that the binder should be on one with a chair. and i think it might be good to have the projector and dvd player on the other
17:20
i think minimizing the intrusion of different supports (pedestals, stands, etc.) would be a good thing
sebcraig
17:20
sounds absolutely fine
Tyler Coburn
17:20
cool
17:20
you'll like them
17:20
i got a bit flirty with the shopkeep, but nevermind that
sebcraig
17:20
ha ha
17:21
discount?!
Tyler Coburn
17:21
i got a bit too candid about them going into an art exhibition and started to worry he would think i was going to return them
17:21
discount is irrelevant as long as i return them
17:21
so here's hoping no one scuffs 'em
17:21
what about the projection surface issue?
17:21
i know you've done freestanding screen before
sebcraig
17:22
oh yes, I like the freestanding screen a lot, have used it several times. is easy.
Tyler Coburn
17:22
ok i will investigate options
17:23
the lighting issue now arises, because of us only using the front room
sebcraig
17:23
I had imagined a hangi ng screen
17:23
Would rather that if possible
Tyler Coburn
17:23
i've been looking into that options as well
17:23
same with me
sebcraig
17:23
great
Tyler Coburn
17:24
i found this amazing window curtain that might work. it is a hard, translucent material so you see the image on both sides. it is long and thin (maybe 8' high) so it could hang form a beam. and it doesn't look like a curtain: just a screen.
17:24
the 'seeing the image on both sides' particularly recommends it
sebcraig
17:24
yes, have had that debate here and have gone for darkness, the other works lit with small torches, but its a play between size/brightness of course with the projector
Tyler Coburn
17:24
my projector is very good, this i will say
17:25
and worse case scenario, we cover the door with fabric or install the screen/projector deeper into the space
sebcraig
17:25
good news, but the space needs to be light enough to see the billboard cutup images
Tyler Coburn
17:26
yes, i agree
17:26
there's track lighting throughout the gallery as well
sebcraig
17:26
will be a balance for you to work out I'm afraid
Tyler Coburn
17:26
yes
17:26
well, you know i have your best interests in mind
sebcraig
17:26
so the curtain is hard??
Tyler Coburn
17:26
yep
17:27
it's not a curtain
17:27
it's like a blind
17:27
untextured
17:27
white
17:27
looks like a sculpture
17:27
and a screen
sebcraig
17:27
fantastic, could it hang on orange strings? did you buy the orange building cord?
Tyler Coburn
17:27
it's too pristine to be a readymade, somehow
17:27
i did buy it
17:28
i will experiment in my studio with hanging options and send them your way
17:28
cord or tape?
sebcraig
17:28
cord
17:28
well thats what I've used before
Tyler Coburn
17:29
oh, i found this neon orange and neon pink tape (not adhesive tape, but it's like 2" thick)
17:29
that's not it, then?
sebcraig
17:30
oh, I've never seen that, could work I suppose. what's it made from?
Tyler Coburn
17:31
well, it's honestly not ideal for drawing or hanging, which is why i was a bit confused when i bought it. i will go back and find the right stuff
17:31
will be much easier for me, i must say
sebcraig
17:31
splendid splendid, can't remember the name of the big DIY stores in the US...?
Tyler Coburn
17:32
home depot
17:32
10 blocks from me
17:32
i visit it almost every day
sebcraig
17:32
YES thats it...I bought it there
Tyler Coburn
17:32
cool
sebcraig
17:32
amazing places
Tyler Coburn
17:32
anything else at the moment to discuss? i think things are coming along
17:32
i will send you the third text later today. all about desire.
sebcraig
17:33
hang on
?
sebcraig posted file Photo 1.jpg to members of this chat
17:33
Tyler Coburn
17:34
hahaha
17:34
what a photo
17:34
yep, i'll find that
17:34
(not what i have)
17:34
ONE THING to keep thinking about: how, if at all, will photo documentation of the drawings enter the exhibition?
sebcraig
17:35
Yes coming along great, I'll do the second drawing now then as I know the site, you can install both for the opening, what about one in the park by then also??
Tyler Coburn
17:35
could be done, certainly. but it all depends on the complexity of the drawings
17:35
i'll have to figure out what supplementary materials i will need to make them
17:36
so it might be a good idea to get one of more to me by the end of the weekend
sebcraig
17:36
tent pegs or similar, first 2 are reasonably simple 3 more complex
Tyler Coburn
17:36
first two for lot and roof
17:37
ok. will things be going up high into the space (i..e will cords need to be run off walls?)
sebcraig
17:37
no all floor based
Tyler Coburn
17:37
ok no prob them
17:37
then
sebcraig
17:38
the documentation issue keeps recurring to me to, I feel they sould be in the show but let me think it over
Tyler Coburn
17:38
ok i will too
17:38
i think the wall text is really good for pointing to them
17:38
but i also am still racking my brains about the documentation issue
sebcraig
17:38
me too, a simple solution
Tyler Coburn
17:39
if anything else goes into that text binder, perhaps it would be that
17:39
or perhaps there would be two binders on that desk
17:39
somehow taping images up on the wall seems a disservice to them, against what we're doing
sebcraig
17:39
Part of me feels that the pictures could be hosted here with the discussion, what did you have in mind for linking to the website?
Tyler Coburn
17:40
within the exhibition itself?
17:40
it could be put in the press release
sebcraig
17:40
I think that's a good idea
17:40
lets think on...
Tyler Coburn
17:40
ALSO, quickly: send me your CV and anything else you want to go in the exhibition binder: past press, images of past work (if you want)
17:41
i think i'm just going to submit a bio and past press, not images of past work
sebcraig
17:41
really? CV's in the binder?
Tyler Coburn
17:41
but you can do whatever you want on that front
17:41
it's a proper show, my friend
17:41
unless you don't want to
17:42
not in the text binder, of course
17:42
but in the gallery bidner
17:42
binder
sebcraig
17:42
No no, I'll send a cv. I don't have neat press cuttings though
Tyler Coburn
17:42
ok, well i'll put in whatever you do, no more.
17:42
if you have a list of past press, incorporate it into your cv maybe
sebcraig
17:42
yes it's on there already
Tyler Coburn
17:42
this isn't pressing (maybe by beginning of next week), but keep it in mind
17:43
cool, easy
sebcraig
17:43
will send it over today
Tyler Coburn
17:43
good good
17:43
anything else at the moment?
sebcraig
17:43
nope
Tyler Coburn
17:44
cool. well, let me know if anything arises. i'll send you text 3 later, have a think about other installation spots
17:44
for drawinfgs
sebcraig
17:44
don't want to look on a map, suggest some names if u have a mo
Tyler Coburn
17:44
ok will do
sebcraig
17:45
ta
Tyler Coburn
17:45
i'm going to replay my walks through greenpoint (better for drawings, more discreet, desolate). there will mos def be some lots and the like
17:45
adios for now
sebcraig
17:46
see you
4th july 2008
cv attached
x
i-cabin, Clarendon Buildings, 11 Ronalds Road, London, N5 1XJ 07813 764 937 / www.i-cabin.co.uk
actually there was a mistake (the date of your article in plan B!!!)
this is corrected cv
i-cabin, Clarendon Buildings, 11 Ronalds Road, London, N5 1XJ 07813 764 937 / www.i-cabin.co.uk
one block from my studio ? |
||
From: |
Tyler Coburn (tyler.coburn@gmail.com) |
|
Sent: |
04 July 2008 13:57:09 |
|
To: |
i-cabin works (i-cabin@hotmail.co.uk) |
|
calyer and mcguinness
--
Tyler Coburn
+1 917-270-4026
Happy independence day my brother. Freedom is great!
address 4 is :817 Metropolitan Avenue
The drawings are going 1:the lot, 2:mccarren Park, 3:the roof, 4:riverside park...
Whats cayler and mcguinnes? a drawing place..?
x
i-cabin, Clarendon Buildings, 11 Ronalds Road, London, N5 1XJ 07813 764 937 / www.i-cabin.co.uk
thanks, buddy.
think i found us another abandoned lot...will send details.
calyer and mcguinness is a very good drawing place indeed.
>
> i'm going to scout around mccarren park and riverside park today, to find good locations. i'll let you know what i find and assess, on the scale of possible long-term installation.
>
> checking with don about the roof. i don't think the space would be able to be open to the public except at the opening. is that ok, or should we bag it?
>
> tsc
Thats fine, it's open to the public as it's viewable from the air (a public space), it may also be overlooked by other buildings.
happy scouting
i-cabin, Clarendon Buildings, 11 Ronalds Road, London, N5 1XJ 07813 764 937 / www.i-cabin.co.uk
what a well-designed CV, if i may say so!
Thank-you very much indeed, thats a lovely thing to hear.
s
Hey T.
I have three drawings ready to send you.
I didn't want to send them too soon because I didn't want them to influence what you have been writing for me, or the way you have been writing, which, by the way, is very beautiful and does the job of sparking my visualisation perfectly. They have, also, been changing steadily, which is very enjoyable to watch.
Number 3 is for the roof of the gallery, which, I suppose could be installed sooner than the others as it will be safe, that would give you time on wednesday for the other two, sorry to give you a hard days string drawing.
Number four is a more leisurely affair.
I will send you all three tomorrow.
How is everything going with organising the desk, chair, screen, projector, binder, finding the string and making your large images!!
What a list, we like to keep you busy.
s.
sc,
this sounds good. send me three tomorrow - you have my FTP info, right? i would download a free version of fetch and upload them via it.
it will be good to have them so i can start assembling them into a dvd.
how many drawings do you think should be done for the opening? i think three could be a good number, but am open.
like i said, i will make new dvds with additional animations as you make them.
i don't think the drawings will have any effect on my writing, so don't worry about that.
the planning stuff is going well. i've assembled the bits for one of the large images and am about to go work on the second (very time consuming, lots of cutting and taping). will let you know when i have something to show.
i'm gonna buy/transport the desks this weekend, which will be easy, and will make the fourth text for you then.
gonna find the builder's cord this afternoon.
going to studio tonight to play around with projector and font options.
i have a binder in mind: just a simple, slim black thing.
not sure what else, but will let you know.
tsc x
lot at calyer and mcguinness
it's really perfect. anything we make there would not be torn down...perhaps ever.
not sure if you want to adjust the order, but it might be an ideal place for the 3rd drawing.
fireworks going off!
tsc x
great great, drawing 3 is pretty specific to the roof, but drawing 2 could be moved there from the park.
Lets think...
ok. it's your call. i think it has a much higher chance of sticking around in this grassy lot...but, presumably, we'll be making more drawings during the course of the show.
when do you think you could send me the three drawings? i wanted to scout the locations with them in hand, maybe in 2-3 hours.
tsc
give me half an hour, I'll send 3 emails, explaining each one.
1
Drawing 1.
Perhaps you can see why I decided to keep this one back so as not to influence the way you were describing to me, I didn't want you to think that I was going to transfer your poetic detail into glib simplicity, which I would not.
I did feel a strong need to perform an action of simplicity and directness and intent, in order to cut through the ocean of words which our exchange is manifest in here in England.
This drawing is a real architecture which creates three interiors and many thresholds. It, secondarily, communicates. A simple and honest gesture of communication, it seeks to be peripheral to our exchange of reference and justification, and to carefully avoid the opportunity to voice an opinion either on the histories of the social culture of Brooklyn or the history of Painting.
I felt saddened by your description and the treatment of the scene, and those people and other 'things' appearing within it as material components; recognizing your being compelled to hide something from a group of young people by whom you felt threatened and describe a lady changing bottles, but flattered and compelled by your addressing me personally within the text. Hopefully the architecture which results from this drawing can fit somewhere between the two ends of that.
Seb
i-cabin, Clarendon Buildings, 11 Ronalds Road, London, N5 1XJ
07813 764 937 / www.i-cabin.co.uk
2
Drawing 2.
I understand entirely if the scale is prohibitive, I originally designed it as a pavilion, under which viewers could walk, which would be wonderfull if possible although the architecture functions differently and perhaps more appropriately on the ground level, or just slightly above it.
(By the way, these structures do need to be just above ground level! I'm envisaging your using tent pegs, or similar, try to get the string as high up the peg as possible! Thanks)
So the image is a type of 'generic-ish' flag motif, there are 9 flags that it could be but the first two in my mind are France and Ireland. Of course, every country has some kind of history with every other country. History, naturally, including everything, some things going less heavily documented.
This drawing continues certain strands of my On the Physical Implications of the Applications of Visual Information work (http://www.i-cabin.co.uk/studiosc4.htm), my feeling here being that the visual motif of the flag stands as a banner for different, and most importantly, changing cultural and political decisions/preferences. The changes happen on both ends of the exchange, so that changes in the socio-political preferences of the viewer affect his lean towards or away from the banner of a subject whose politics may have stayed the same.
These descriptions you are sending me are really incredible.
This drawing may move to the other site.
Seb
i-cabin, Clarendon Buildings, 11 Ronalds Road, London, N5 1XJ
07813 764 937 / www.i-cabin.co.uk
3
Drawing 3.
This one was a feeling out of the dualities throughout these texts you are sending. This is a more straightforward drawing of the place which is being built for me, but viewed in terms of the narrator and who he is, what his interests are and his cultural position, which is also, in my mind, somewhat written into the texts, my previous knowledge and set in a context completely constructed on my assumptions.
How do you plan to actually construct this one, as you can't peg it out can you? Perhaps use bricks on their ends.
The other question was, are your descriptions going in the binder? And, if yes, at the moment I think the documentary pictures of the drawings should be in this binder too.
What do you think?
s.
i-cabin, Clarendon Buildings, 11 Ronalds Road, London, N5 1XJ
07813 764 937 / www.i-cabin.co.uk
sebcraig
16:05
hey there
Tyler Coburn
16:05
hey sir
16:05
they look good
16:05
real good
16:06
i particularly like how video 1 moves from the first site to the second
sebcraig
16:06
are they what you were expecting?
Tyler Coburn
16:06
well, i'd say the third one was closest to what i was expecting
16:06
but i tried not to expect
sebcraig
16:07
I plan to move more towards architectural drawings as we go along, not set in stone though
Tyler Coburn
16:08
sure. i think it should evolve based on my texts, your interests, etc
16:08
now as to the flag drawing...it could be perfect for that grassy lot
16:08
the lot is surrounded by chicken wire, so it could also be installed high
16:08
the drawing is the dimension of the lot
16:08
tied to the wire
16:08
it's your call
sebcraig
16:09
wow, that sounds more than excellent
16:09
I call yes
Tyler Coburn
16:09
ok. i might be able to get that pavilion feel you want
16:09
(i found orange builder's cord, btw)
sebcraig
16:10
will make another drawing for it but go right ahead, yes above head height (just above)
Tyler Coburn
16:10
ok will do my best on that front
16:10
i think you're right as well: documentation images should go in the bidner
sebcraig
16:11
thanks, the chicken wire is an unexpected convenience
Tyler Coburn
16:11
i like the idea of there being a text, then a single image of a drawing (not explicitly relating to the text), then another text
sebcraig
16:11
that is what I envisaged
Tyler Coburn
16:11
yeah, well, it's not exactly chicken wire. like trellis thatch pattern: wood beams.
16:11
sturdy
sebcraig
16:11
great
Tyler Coburn
16:12
so the scale for the second drawing will be somewhat different than your animation. is that a problem? should the animation change?
sebcraig
16:13
I'll reanimate how I picture the new destination with the drawing in, it'll be animation 2 Part 2.
Tyler Coburn
16:14
ok
sebcraig
16:14
how do you think you will install the roof one?
Tyler Coburn
16:14
now, i don't know how possible this is, but is there any way to produce a seamless movie of al three drawings, zooming into, out of and then over to the next drawings? the transition between drawing one and two was so dynamic, which is why i ask
16:14
i am going to take a look at the roof today and decide
16:15
but bricks could work
16:15
will see and let you know
sebcraig
16:18
yes I could easily animate one long movie, but then we're left with a single fim, whereas the selection of films seems more appropriate, however, I'll animate another film to show all the drawings, plus the other parts of the model. This could run after the other films which, if possible, should be sparated by a second or two of black...
Tyler Coburn
16:18
ok that sounds good
16:19
or even if there are just separate small animations, maybe if each could begin at the site of the previous drawing and move to the next, to show the spatial relation you're envisaging, that would carry the thread
sebcraig
16:20
each of them will show their location to the others anyway, 3 doesn't as it's back at the site of the first, but I should add something to the start of it, good thinking...
Tyler Coburn
16:20
yeah, i think that would help
16:21
if each begins at the site of the previous drawing, i don't think there would be a need to make a long movie as well.
16:21
they story would be told
16:21
and then we could just add more animations using the same basic format
sebcraig
16:21
great... any other news, hows life!
Tyler Coburn
16:22
phew. i'm tired, man. i have to play ramsey clark in a one-night performance about the life of saddam hussein tomorrow night. not good timing, i tell you.
sebcraig
16:22
ha I certainly didn't expect you to say that!
16:23
break a leg
Tyler Coburn
16:24
no, certainly not. it's the brainchild of my artist friend rachel mason. she has some interesting approaches to politics in her art practice. beatrix ruf just flew her out to the kunsthalle zurich to perform, where i believe she hung from a noose and recited the last poem of saddam
16:24
weird, weird. i haven't told anyone about my being in it. don't want to distract from the more important affair: our show
sebcraig
16:24
well quite!
Tyler Coburn
16:25
so who is this fiance of yours, then?
16:25
i've been meaning to ask!
sebcraig
16:25
Miss Laura Gill ! A truly unique individual.
Tyler Coburn
16:26
wonderful
16:26
is a marriage date set?
sebcraig
16:26
not at all, we haven't managed to plan an engagement party yet, after several months!
Tyler Coburn
16:27
well, best to take time and enjoy it
sebcraig
16:28
absolutely. Are you currently attached?
Tyler Coburn
16:29
no. my english lad and i decided long-distance with no end in sight was too difficult, but we keep on like we're involved. he's a tough one to top, i have to say
16:29
and i'm not one to date an immense amount anyway
sebcraig
16:30
yeh, what took you back to the states? and no plans to return then?
Tyler Coburn
16:31
visa ran out. i could've got back for art school, i suppose, but it's much easier and cheaper for me to be an artist in nyc, because here i can live with my parents, afford a nice studio and work less.
16:32
and the past 12 months, since i left the uk, have really confirmed that it was the right choice
sebcraig
16:33
yes. new york is the more energetic city, london is a little sour.
16:33
these days
Tyler Coburn
16:33
really
16:33
also, my personality lends itself better to the ny art scene, i have to say
sebcraig
16:33
thats an interesting thing to say...how so?
Tyler Coburn
16:34
oh, i don't know. i feel like londoners have mastered the art of the downplay
16:34
sometime i feel like american extroversion comes across as gauche, enterprising, etc
16:34
(and friends have at times indicated as much)
16:35
like, you don't go to the pub after work and talk about how great your new promotion is. you downplay it.
16:36
not a bad thing, at all. just doesn't always jibe with my persona.
sebcraig
16:37
ha ha, yes i suppose you're right in a way, but don't let the londoners fool you, they are enterprising but bitter too!
Tyler Coburn
16:37
but i will say that the time i spent there has made me much more sensitive to these things, subtler, a better listener
16:37
oh, i know
16:37
just enterprising in a different way
sebcraig
16:37
everyones in a bad mood!!!
Tyler Coburn
16:37
complain culture
16:38
not as bad as the french complain culture, though
16:38
but comparable
sebcraig
16:38
the americans have always been better at doing business
Tyler Coburn
16:38
it's that service mentality
sebcraig
16:38
openly
16:38
right
Tyler Coburn
16:39
yeah, but that also extends out into our own social shortcomings as well
16:39
ah me. i've gotta go down to the basement and start cutting some paper!
16:39
big day ahead of me
16:40
thanks for the drawings. they look great
sebcraig
16:40
sure, send me a pic of how they're coming along
Tyler Coburn
16:40
i was going to last night, but the camera batts ran out
16:40
will do so later otday
16:40
today
sebcraig
16:40
brilliant
hey buddy,
late night here. acid house one-man rave party, while cutting up things.
i'm gonna buy our desks tomorrow.
you'll upload hi-res animations on monday, yes?
i walked by the grassy lot (calyer and mcguinness) adjacent to my studio at 10pm tonight. its's gonna be a dream to make something there. chicken wire AND wood trellis. i pulled out my measuring tape...exact dimensions to the map.
do you think your animations should begin with the rendering of the gallery you originally made? (which you sent me a while back)? just to ground it? lemme know.
ok. all for now. i've made a facebook event for our opening and a lot of very good eggs are coming!
tsc x
s,
would you be able to send me overhead images from the drawings you sent? i already have one for the roof image, but it would be helpful, in regards to the other two, in pre-measuring the site out.
tsc
Sure thing buddy,
meanwhile, here is the new animation for drawing 2b.
I've been experimenting with making the films larger and the quality of the line suffers, so I'm going to leave you with the ones
I have sent, I may just increase the number of frames in each.
looking forward to receiving description 4...!
s.
i-cabin, Clarendon Buildings, 11 Ronalds Road, London, N5 1XJ 07813 764 937 / www.i-cabin.co.uk
I'm very aware that the drawings will differ from the designs I sent,
this has allowed me a certain freedom in the design process, so don't struggle too much with exact dimensions off the plans!
here are the images and the newest version of the original animation of the space, to set the scene, as you said.
Did I mention that ideally the animations would fade to a second or two of black to separate them.
How's the projection situation? See how they look, the size may cause us a problem, I don't want them to appear too crude. Tell me what you think about showing them quite small on a monitor instead? I hadn't foreseen the problem enlarging them.
s.
i-cabin, Clarendon Buildings, 11 Ronalds Road, London, N5 1XJ 07813 764 937 / www.i-cabin.co.uk
hey s,
many many thanks for these.
yes yes, i've been experimenting with piecing the animations together and have even tested projection distances...the low-res animations don't look bad at all, in fact, so we should be fine to work from them.
i bought and transported the desks yesterday, made measurements on the roof, which has an amazing view onto the lot. the lot also faces a newish condo building, so people can wake up every morning to face a gigantic 'HI'...i love it.
i'm beginning install today, so will try to visit location 4 tonight, but it might not end up happening for a day or two, based on how time-intensive the install is.
i've tested fonts and wall-drawing technique and have settled on century gothic.
the big photo rolls are complete for the first three sites. i'll also test them in the gallery today and get back to you.
my saddam performance went surprisingly well. apparently i channeled his southern defense attorney well (or so that defense attorney, who was in the audience, told me!).
how are things on your end?
tyler
ha ha thats excellent, well done, perhaps another new sideline career acting?!
I'm very glad that the animations look okay, was rather vexed late into the night trying multiple export combinations, which all decreased rather than increased the quality!
Century golthic sounds like an excellent choice, thanks.
so do they read:
the lot address
mcarren park/new lot address
jack the pelican
riverside park
it's hard to know what will be next, mcarren park perhaps, or back to the original lot or a new site.
What we talked about was adding the outline when a new drawing was being conceived, then filling it in when installed, right?
Do you think addresses or names? I feel names are more useful for a notional stroll around the area (that may be because I'm not familiar with the streets there)
I'm looking forward to seeing the other work you have been making, they are the dark-horses of the show!
Here everything is going very well, is hard to understand how fast time passes when there is so much to be done, am building onto the digital model day-by-day, so my notional site is growing. In other news I am up in Birmingham at my 'other studio' (ie the print room of my fathers architecture office!) producing the i-cabin(texts) publication by Barry Sykes and I, to be ready and bound by Publish and be Damned next month which is very enjoyable. Am also trying to shoot images for the Derma film for Old Gold, but with no success thanks to bad weather.
Sorry not to be there to help with the logistics, I am really so grateful for all the work you are doing,
thank-you.
s.
i-cabin, Clarendon Buildings, 11 Ronalds Road, London, N5 1XJ 07813 764 937 / www.i-cabin.co.uk
sc,
yes, let's figure out how the text should appear on the walls today, so i can draw it tomorrow.
here's the list, as it stands and in the order of drawings produced (i haven't included mccarren park, because after taking a stroll through it yesterday, i'm less convinced that there would be an ideal spot there);
495 Driggs Ave
McGuinness Blvd & Calyer St NE
487 Driggs Ave
225 N 9th St
so, hypothetically, by the time of the exhibition, 3 of the 4 drawings will be complete (so the text '225 N 9th St,' the second lot address, will only be in outline).
as a new yorker, i often find addresses are helpful, but i'm open to presenting the text in other fashions. i also sort of love the idea of someone passing 221 N 9th (the site of a gay club) and finding, instead of 225 N 9th, a huge, unmarked wall of plywood with a discreet entrance.
i don't know. what do you think?
once i have time (later in the week), i will do some more location scouting around the neighborhood (have some sites in mind, but need to take walks to confirm). based on what i find, we can agree on more locations and i can add them to the wall in outline.
ok! the gallery intern is coming over in a sec to help me move stuff.
tsc x
There is only three at the moment because we moved drawing 2 (the flag) from Mccarren park to lot two (mcguinnes and Cayler) right.
So there's HI next to the gallery, the flag at mcguinnes, the one on the roof of the gallery,
so the address in Mccarren park will remain an outline always, correct? Is that what you are saying?
If so sounds great!
The addresses sound fine to me if thats how you think, as a new yorker, you will be my adviser on that.
Good on you for getting the table sorted, and the string is orange?
s.
oh yes, and I've put up the discussion so far on the website,
It links from the front page (i-cabin.co.uk), if Don would link to it from Jack the Pelican, that would be very useful.
An open link in the gallery itself would be very good, does this sound possible?
s.
x
sc,
i know there are only three drawings at the moment, so i should have the address of the to-be-drawn 4th drawing (the second area of the vacant lot) listed in outline, right?
i did find that orange string, yes indeed!
tsc
sc,
i will get don on this. a great idea.
there's also an unused computer in the gallery. i will see whether it's possible to establish an open link.
Hey,
brilliant, I'd have the address in the park (the first address for the flag destination) as an outline which never gets filled in,
(so this far we have 4 addresses but only 3 drawings to install!)
I didn't know there was another area of the vacant lot?
(which lot, mcguinnes or pelican?)
s.
sc,
yeah, i think i told you in a past email that there was another entrance to the pelican lot (opposite end of the block) that is not visible from the main entrance, as there is a lone building (housing gay club sugarland) in the way.
that would be a great place for another pelican lot drawing.
i like the mccarren idea. so it would be:
495 Driggs Ave
McCarren Park (never filled in)
McGuinness Blvd & Calyer St NE
487 Driggs Ave
225 N 9th St (second pelican lot location, not filled in by time of opening)
does that sound right?
ok, one more thing. because we also talked about the williamsburg river park (though it's not definite that it will be a good place for a drawing to happen), should we ALSO add that to the list, in the order at which it was discussed? so:
495 Driggs Ave
McCarren Park (never filled in)
East River State Park (not filled in by time of opening)
McGuinness Blvd & Calyer St NE
487 Driggs Ave
225 N 9th St (second pelican lot location, not filled in by time of opening)
495 Driggs Ave
McCarren Park (never filled in)
487 Driggs Ave
McGuinness Blvd & Calyer St NE
East River State Park (not filled in by time of opening)
225 N 9th St (second pelican lot location, not filled in by time of opening)
That's the order I conceived them. Not to be pedantic...
Good day today?
x
ok sir. sorry to get them mixed.
install has gone well. i'm gonna take some photos, will send them to you later tonight w/ notes.
ha ha, good! apology accepted!!
really look forward to seeing some pics, how far did you get?
s.
installed everything but the wall text! (and the off-site drawings)
tsc x
Bloody good work mr.
s.
hey bucko,
so, images from day 1 of install. we're cheating a bit here, because now you get to see the space (i won't tell if you won't). there are 2 emails worth of images, so make sure to check the next one for more.
first, i'm investigating the computer scenario in the gallery. it looks like there may be one, in which case we would set it up near the gallery desk in the back.
i had an idea for how to install the works, but it immediately became clear that there was a better way to do it, based on the nature of our communication. when visitors enter the space they confront one white desk with the binder on it (chair to come). an identical white desk, with projector and dvd player, is further down into the triangle of the space. between them is the hanging screen. the images don't really show it well, but you can see the projected image on either side of the screen, and when you sit at the desk, you can look up and see the projected image and see a small ball of light in the center of the image (which is the projector lens on the far side). as an installation strategy, i think this really elegantly stages the sequential and back-and-forth nature of our exchange: the identical desks facing one another, separated/unified by the screen; beginning the exhibition with text and putting the reader into a position where, while reading, they look up to the model manifestations of the texts (and then having, in that same binder, the actual documentation of the drawings). anyways, as far as finding a way of activating the space, while keeping with our call-and-response, collaborative overtone, i think it works really well.
i experimented with using builder's cord to hang the screen, but clear wire looks much better, to be honest.
i'm starting to think that the text should go on the long, white wall (one side of the triangle, on the left of the desks/screen). and that instead of an up/down list, the addresses should be listed next to one another, so they side-scroll across the length of the wall. more rows can be added, as addresses accumulate, but i think this would be a really strong way of representing the text, within the unique/(frustrating?) architectural constraints of the space.
the rolled images are on the left wall. they're each about 7-feet high, so quite overpowering. they're halftone prints and, when installed, look like rolled up billboards. obviously i'm going to change the lighting around, etc. each set of two images is not identical (there are slight hue differences between the two - one redder, one greener). each set corresponds, pretty explicitly, to something mentioned in one of the texts, but i've tried to construct them so they remain somewhat opaque, if you haven't read the texts; and so that they hover between being images, sculptures, building beams/columns.
so that's where things are for now. thoughts?
tsc x
obviously the boxes/backpack in one of the shots won't be there.
and the desk with the projector/dvd player will be much cleaner. i hadn't yet burned the dvd, so was projecting the image off my computer. the computer won't actually be there for the show.
tsc x
Hey captain,
my thoughts are that it looks excellent, far more dry and neat than I imagined as the space is much smaller than I assumed, my seeing it won't matter at all as there's no drawings to be done in there so we're in the clear.
I am very very pleased. The face to face arrangement is perfect.
One question is the 'fan' folds in the projection screen...? Is this because it's been rolled up and squashed a little and is there a way of getting it straight?
The materiality of it seems great, so too the arrangement, but I think it needs to be flat and uncreased.
I'm heading home now, is 4.15 where you are I think so i'll text you about it.
x
i-cabin, Clarendon Buildings, 11 Ronalds Road, London, N5 1XJ 07813 764 937 / www.i-cabin.co.uk
perhaps simply hang some weight on the bottom to straighten it as far as possible,
looking closer I think it is a blind no? sorry I can't recall exactly how you described it.
If it can't be done then don't worry but the fold seems a little strange!!
x
i-cabin, Clarendon Buildings, 11 Ronalds Road, London, N5 1XJ 07813 764 937 / www.i-cabin.co.uk
hey boy-o,
yes yes, i've been hanging clamps to the bottom to lengthen the screen and it seems to be working fine...after a few hours, it lengthens right out. when i took those install photos, it had recently come back out of the box. it's much much better now.
more soon. going to test the roof scenario, then need to run home and get some cables (i came all the way here and forgot the most essential thing! aye me)
tsc x
Hey...cool. Wish I could help out.
I wondered if the viewers would have access to the roof of Jack the Pelican throughout the show or just the opening?
and
it just struck me that we should perhaps write the locations onto the wall with the string, nails in the wall to form the letters...
what do you think? Is late and I am tired and cannot decide whether it's a great idea or an awful one.
I like your plan for a horizontal list on that wall, good choice.
ay ay
s.
i-cabin, Clarendon Buildings, 11 Ronalds Road, London, N5 1XJ 07813 764 937 / www.i-cabin.co.uk
well, boy, it took 8 hours, but i did it...and it looks really good, i have to say.
images are attached. the text is really level and looks amazing shooting down that hyper-perspective wall.
the outline text is so subtle that form the distance you don't even see it, but when you get close it becomes apparent.
making the text made me wonder: perhaps we should limit the number of sites, for the course of the exhibition, to the six that i've written out along this one row of wall. it's an interesting idea to have the structure of the exhibition (the number of sites/texts/drawings to occur) laid out by the wall in advance, while so many other elements of the exhibition seem open or to-be-determined.
just a thought.
ok! i'm off to make a dvd of your video and edit my texts.
well well well mr coburn sir,
what a stunning job.
beautiful work, I commend you fully on it, good shooting.
I totally agree, 6 destinations, 6 texts, 6 drawings, that is quite enough for any exhibition.
I will have 2 more places for you to write about ready and waiting for you.
s.
i-cabin, Clarendon Buildings, 11 Ronalds Road, London, N5 1XJ 07813 764 937 / www.i-cabin.co.uk
another issue...
works list in gallery:
i'm thinking that the 2 desks and screen are a single work.
the wall text is a single work.
the rolled image sets are individual.
maybe the discussion will be listed, with website given?
as far as titles:
could be very straightforward...
each rolled image set named after the address where the image was taken
the wall text title is just the list of names written on the wall
the 2 desks and screen could be untitled; could be called 'ghostwriters'
the off-site drawings are not titled?
--
Tyler Coburn
+1 917-270-4026
Okay, now this element is , in my mind, very different to the way you list it below.
I feel quite strongly that,
your six texts and my 6 string drawings combine to make the project, (is that a joint exhibition or a joint artwork?). So the Ghostwriters project is the binder, the string drawings, the wall text, and the online appendix.
[The binder is our place to show the texts and drawings side by side and attempt to hint at the volume of our exchange through these works and the system we have generated together, but it will only be the tip of the iceberg, alongside it is the transcript of the discussion on www.i-cabin.co.uk]
The film is one completely separate work as it is more about my mental model of Brooklyn and notionally interacting with it.
Your 6 rolls are a completely separate work between you and the sites.
So to sum up:
Ghostwriters, a collaboration between T.Coburn and S. Craig, 2008.
6 texts (T.Coburn, 2008)
6 drawings in string at various sites around Brooklyn (S.Craig, 2008)
1 wall drawing in graphite
1 appendix (including a transcript of the discussion between the two artists) held at www.i-cabin.co.uk/brooklyn.htm
then:
"..............", T. Coburn, 2008, (rolled prints)
"..............", S. Craig, 2008, (dvd)
I fully agree that the structural nature of the (excellent!) hang beautifully doubles the reading, and implies a unity of the 3 elements as one work, but I'd be really troubled about considering it that way. What we have done is both bring to the table a pre-conceived but unrealized work each, (the wondering trans-historical mythologizing which you proposed to i-cabin, and the architectures masquerading as texts which I proposed to Old Gold), what we have done is jointly develop a system to generate, critique, deconstruct and challenge our works. Aside from this we have both been further developing other strands of our own work to be shown in this specific context.
The outcome being a rather difficult selection of works, beautifully overlaid/inlaid.
?
s.
i-cabin, Clarendon Buildings, 11 Ronalds Road, London, N5 1XJ 07813 764 937 / www.i-cabin.co.uk
sc,
i'm running out to the gallery, so will respond to this in a bit, but i'm in line with your thinking.
tsc x
sc,
hey buddy, i've gotta run to make those off-site drawings, but we can finalize the titling/listing overnight and print up the lists before the opening tomorrow. i think for certain pieces we should both be credited, and for others given distinct credits, as you'll see below. building upon your lists...(and proposing some titles that you're welcome to edit/shoot down):
"Ongoing Notional Model of Brooklyn (via Architectural Experiments)", video, S. Craig, 2008
"6 performances", text documentation and desk, T. Coburn, 2008
"TITLE?", 6 Architectures in string at various sites around Brooklyn, S.Craig, 2008
"Appendix", T. Coburn and S. Craig, 2008, www.i-cabin.co.uk/brooklyn.htm
(TO-BE-TITLED), inket prints, T. Coburn, 2008
"495 Driggs Ave McCarren Park 487 Driggs Ave McGuinness Blvd & Calyer St NE East River State Park 225 N 9th St," wall drawing in graphite, T. Coburn and S. Craig, 2008
maybe these two should go together like:
"6 performances", text documentation and desk, T. Coburn, 2008
"6 places", architectures in string at various sites around Brooklyn, S.Craig, 2008
(then)
"495 Driggs Ave McCarren Park 487 Driggs Ave McGuinness Blvd & Calyer St NE East River State Park 225 N 9th St," wall drawing in graphite, T. Coburn and S. Craig, 2008
"Appendix", T. Coburn and S. Craig, 2008, www.i-cabin.co.uk/brooklyn.htm
(TO-BE-TITLED), inket prints, T. Coburn, 2008
"Ongoing Notional Model of Brooklyn (via Architectural Experiments)", video, S. Craig, 2008
whadyathink???
i-cabin, Clarendon Buildings, 11 Ronalds Road, London, N5 1XJ 07813 764 937 / www.i-cabin.co.uk
yea, i like that idea. like it a lot.
sc,
here's a link to a zipped file with 60 or so images - documentation from the roof and the lot drawings:
http://www.tylercoburn.com/craig.zip
if you're using a mac and can't download directly from the link, try right-clicking it and selecting 'save link as' or 'download linked file as'
lemme know how that goes.
as you can see, due to the scale of the images and issues of visibility, it was tough to get a full image of either. i think i could piece one together from the roof images (indeed, i deliberately photographed it in sections from a consistent distance, so this could be possible).
it will be more difficult with the lot drawing, given that it's almost invisible. the ground ended up being much tougher than expected, so i couldn't drive the dowels very deep (even with a power drill and tools). that being said, i think the resulting drawing is almost more in keeping with the project. it's huge (70-feet long), so you can only ever take in a section of it with your eyes and when you look to its far side, it disappears amidst all the visual interference in the field - so the visuality of the drawing itself is totally tenuous, and the drawing, in a way, is most perfectly realized (or visible) in your digital model.
i'm thinking, for the reason that it is impossible to select a 'representative shot' of the lot model, that i go with a shot that highlights enough of the relation of strings to suggest its larger, structural form. what do you think?
off to make the grassy lot drawing...need to do it at night to be discreet, so expect some flashy nighttime images!
tsc x
--
Tyler Coburn
+1 917-270-4026
sc,
there were some bums sleeping in the lot tonight, and a coupla shady kids breaking beer bottles.
so i made myself small on one side and, while safety still seemed on my side, began a provisional drawing of the flag.
i took a photo.
i think i will return and build it, piecemeal, taking new photos each time and replacing the ones in the binders.
if the scenario arises whereby i can realize a full drawing in the lot, i will certainly take it. but for now, i think this is an interesting solution that acknowledges the transfer from model to urban practice.
tsc x
--
Tyler Coburn
+1 917-270-4026
ha ha ha,
they are absolutely brilliant, really loose and unstructured!
I actually burst out laughing, well done.
I really like the very first image (5879) but 5918 is probably clearer, and yes one close up too.
Whatever you think for the HI drawing is also fine by me, it's these kind of things which excite me, failures!
I can't see anything in the grassy lot image! and you be sure to stay safe out there mr, we don't want any wallets stolen during the art making process!
Am very happy, and amused, I like that the installations are real, with real problems of construction and social inclusion, and a general foil to the tightness in the gallery and in our thinking over the last month, really fresh!
Looking forward to the images of hi and flag developments. I'll chuck a selection onto the images part of the appendix too, so let me know which ones you use.
I also realised that if we're using only the 6 locations in the wall drawing then there are only 2 more to do, as one drawing/text used 2 locations. So it'll be 5 texts, 5 architectures, 6 locations, 6 drawings.
Therefore, do we change the titles to "5 performances" and "5 pavilions"
(Oh yes I've altered the title from 'PLACES' to 'PAVILIONS'...much better/accurate)
OR
do we re-use the macarren park location for another text/drawing to it's back up to 6??
s.
i-cabin, Clarendon Buildings, 11 Ronalds Road, London, N5 1XJ 07813 764 937 / www.i-cabin.co.uk
So then captain,
I'm knocking off for the day, I can't think of anything we haven't sorted out, but any emergencies hit me up by phone or by text.
Here's the list complete with my change of title:
"6 performances", text documentation and desk, T. Coburn, 2008
"6 pavilions", architectures in string at various sites around Brooklyn, S.Craig, 2008
"495 Driggs Ave McCarren Park 487 Driggs Ave McGuinness Blvd & Calyer St NE East River State Park 225 N 9th St," wall drawing in graphite, T. Coburn and S. Craig, 2008
"Appendix", T. Coburn and S. Craig, 2008, www.i-cabin.co.uk/brooklyn.htm
(TO-BE-TITLED), inket prints, T. Coburn, 2008
"Ongoing Notional Model of Brooklyn (via Architectural Experiments)", video, S. Craig, 2008
Anything you decide with regards to images in the binder, or any other last minute hitches is fine by me, I trust your judgement implicitly.
Hope the opening goes well, grab a few snaps if possible, would be nice to see it,
and thanks for representing me in my absence, and for all your hard work
but we're neither of us off the hook yet, as we have at least 2 more texts and pavilions to do, and they must get stronger and stronger!
Chat tomorrow, (or later)
sc
x
i-cabin, Clarendon Buildings, 11 Ronalds Road, London, N5 1XJ 07813 764 937 / www.i-cabin.co.uk
sc,
good idea - 5879 is a much more interesting image.
i've attached another angle of the grassy lot, which shows the string more clearly - as you (hopefully) can see, i've just laid the perimeter of the flag (and the bisecting line). i will go back and fill it in, either all at once or in fits and starts, based on what seems safest, and will document those updates.
based on how illegible the Hi drawing is, do you think it should be modified? in a way i suppose it's appropriate, given that it's so large it's intended for a plane or a UFO, not a person in the actual field (though, of course, the string is so small that not even its intended viewers would in all likelihood be able to see it).
i'll make the title changes, but i think we should stick to 6/6/6. perhaps, as our thinking develops and based on the practicalities and looseness of these drawings, i can realize the original flag drawing in mccarren park in some form. don't know. all i know is that i think this drawing style gives us a greater realm of flexibility than i had imagined, which is super cool.
--
Tyler Coburn
+1 917-270-4026
very good, my friend. the titles look ace.
yes yes, more to be done! i will probably record the next performance over the weekend.
more soon. will let you know how it goes.
tsc x
Nah I don't see any need to modify it, just a few images needed, of the lot overview then a close-up to show there's something there...
the combination of austere plans and stringy images on the appendix is really great. Much more to follow re this.
much love,
sc
i-cabin, Clarendon Buildings, 11 Ronalds Road, London, N5 1XJ 07813 764 937 / www.i-cabin.co.uk
sc,
went super well! lots of good people showed up, i ended up taking about 60 into the lot, over the course of the eve. my friend from timeout ny will list our show as one of the 5 best of the week in the next issue! enthusiasm from curator friends and critics. hopefully something will come of all of this.
more soon. rest calls,
tsc x x
--
Tyler Coburn
+1 917-270-4026
hey buddy,
just wanted to let you know that the link is up on the gallery website: http://jackthepelicanpresents.com/ghostwriters.html
i'm going to go make proper documentation of the show tomorrow morn for timeout ny (and us). will relay.
tsc x
--
Tyler Coburn
+1 917-270-4026
among the things that came up in the last day or at the opening... ?
1) this project by mark bradford: http://www.steveturnercontemporary.com/artists/markbradford/helpus/
2) this sebald post about our show and the one forthcoming at new museum (dumb that i had never made the link): http://sebald.wordpress.com/2008/07/09/after-sebald-art-in-new-york-summer-2008/
3) this hysterical blog post (our first 'review,' if you could call it that) which confirms every way art-critical blogging can (not always) be the graveyard of thoughtfulness and depth: http://hragvartanian.com/2008/07/11/tyler-coburn-sebastian-craig-jackpelican/
i love it!
4) the request, by several people, that i announce the days/times of my street performances, so they can attend...wha?!?
--
Tyler Coburn
+1 917-270-4026
sc,
documented the show the other day (will probably do so throughout, as we build to it).
here are some of the finished images (more to come)...i have these in super hi-res as well, of course.
looks nice, no? one of these will run in timeout ny in a week's time.
how are you? i've been crazed and busy, but will make that 4th text for you by wednesday of this week. apologies for the delay.
tsc x
oops, one more
attached!
--
Tyler Coburn
+1 917-270-4026
Hey buddy,
yeh looks really great. Can you pick up a copy of the time out for me please? And any other press stuff.
Also send me over the images of the HI drawing, the images you are getting are really rather exceptional, thank-you.
Don't forget I'm off on holiday on Saturday for one week, hopefully we can squeeze in one more text/drawing before I go,
then the others when I get back, I should give you the last 2 addresses before I leave.
Am tired and busy too, feverishly producing books for the i-cabin(texts) stand at 'Publish and be Damned', lots of fun, am very happy.
chat soon
x
i-cabin, Clarendon Buildings, 11 Ronalds Road, London, N5 1XJ 07813 764 937 / www.i-cabin.co.uk
sc,
attached! let's get this guy out before you depart.
when are you back from spain? do you think we can get one more address down before you're off? (i could get you a text on thursday...). lemme know.
more to come, but i'm running out the door. the images of 'HI' were in the .zip file i sent you - they're the lot ones. like i said, it was too large to get a god shot, and everything from the roof didn't come out, but i can go back and try again.
tsc x
Hi T,
next address is: 58 Grand Street
I get back on saturday 26th.
Oh I didn't realise the HI ones were there, maybe get a few close-ups of the string against the surface and the dowels etc...(unless you already did and I just missed them).
Will get you this drawing before I go, easy,
send me the 58 Grand st text as soon as you have it but I have a solution if there's no time to draw before I leave.
s.
x
i-cabin, Clarendon Buildings, 11 Ronalds Road, London, N5 1XJ 07813 764 937 / www.i-cabin.co.uk
Hi Tyler,
sorry I have looked again and seen all the images of the HI drawing which are absolutly perfect! Exactly what I hoped for, thanks.
Can't imagine how I missed them, sorry.
If you want to get a head-start on me the final address I have for you is: 101 N 3rd St., Suite 2B, Williamsburg
That's number 6.
speak very soon
s.
i-cabin, Clarendon Buildings, 11 Ronalds Road, London, N5 1XJ 07813 764 937 / www.i-cabin.co.uk
