Wednesday, April 14, 2021

Telephone

The whole game of TLEPHONE, created over the past year by a group of volunteer web developers, artists, and organizers, and involving over 900 artists from 72 countries, is up online at https://phonebook.gallery/

Vermont artists are :

Rage Hezekiah, Poetry, Pownal, Vermont
Janet Van Fleet, Cabot, Vermont
Larry Bowling, Collage, Barre, Vermont
Elizabeth Nelson, Painting, West Glover, Vermont
Kathy Stark, Painting, Craftsbury Common, Vermont
Michael Chinworth, Film, North Bennington, Vermont
Sam Talbot-Kelly, Sculpture, Montpelier, Vermont
Adelaide Murphy Tyrol, Painting, Plainfield, Vermont
Michelle Lesnak, Painting, Montpelier, Vermont

You can search for each of them in the Search area of the site. This is a very cool game, and I recommend giving yourself a good stretch of time to wander through it. Each artist (including filmmakers, dancers, poets, musicians, painters, and sculptors) got one or more artworks created by previous artists, and then made a "translation" of that work (or works) in their own artform. 

For example, here's the "whisper" I got from an artist named Sahar Hakimi:


And here's what I made and said about my "translation"


The grid/window in the piece that was whispered to me suggested space-time and also the liminal zone between inside and outside, past and future, you and me, the human and non-human worlds... Suddenly, I began to see it as an hourglass -- the sand falls down, you turn it over, and then it starts flowing all over again. And the present, where we are in this moment (like the woman in the piece I received), is in the middle, the narrow, transitional space of Now. I have shown that with a narrow neck and three balls of fine golden wire. The piece is 36 x 12 x 9”.

I work with found materials, typically found wood and metal. But they didn’t seem right for this piece, which wanted to be more conceptual and abstract. I am quarantining at home during the pandemic and have some tools with me, but am limited to what I find in my environment. As I wandered about hoping for something to call to me, I came upon a length of black fencing in my barn. It seemed perfect. The final challenge was photographing my piece. My house is made of wood and there are no white walls or a pedestal to position the piece. I was able to go to an empty gallery in the village and photograph it there. The outcome wasn’t optimal, but these are not ideal (or even normal) times.

 

No comments: