Emvergeoning

Thu, Feb 19
7:00 pm	to	9:00 pm

UTSA Downtown Campus, Multipurpose Room Frio Street Bldg FS 1.402

Moderated by artist & UTSA Lecturer Justin Boyd, the panel brings together local, national, and international sound and video artists for a conversation about the use of unconventional venues to show and perform non-traditional artwork.

Panelists:
Michele Monseau, artist & Three Walls director
Chris Cogburn, artist & No Idea Festival director
Dan Anderson, artist & Bearded Child Film Fest director
Jason Kahn, artist & ‘cut’ record label director

1 Comment »

Fri, Feb 20
7:00 pm	to	9:00 pm

UTSA Downtown Campus, Frio Street Building, Riklin Auditorium

“At it’s core, the Bearded Child champions bizarre, absurd, and wacky wonders that most festivals wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole. We are much more interested in creativity and innovation over big-budget production and traditional cinematic values. At the same time, we have become a popular destination for “non-wacky” experimental and more personal films, due to the fact that few festivals accept such “oddities.” Basically, we want anything that challenges the norm, whatever the genre. Heart is key.”

No Comments »

Fri, Feb 20
9:30 pm	to	11:30 pm

517 Stieren St

FREE performance by Annette Krebs as part of “Sala Diaz is Open,” an exhibition by John Mata

——————

Annette Krebs has worked extensively in the crossover area between improvisation and composition, exploring the possibilities of the prepared guitar with regard to sound, structure, noise, the mixing of materials, and space. Various preparation methods are used to produce noises and sounds, which are then enlarged through the use of sometimes high levels of amplification. The sound of the amplification and mixing boards, additional tapes, radios and objects are used as musical material.

Krebs was a member of the groundbreaking post-minimalist creative ensemble Phosphor, and has collaborated with Keith Rowe, Sachiko M, Kaffe Matthews, Robin Hayward, Toshimaru Nakamura, Taku Sugimoto, and many others.

“Annette Krebs has propelled herself into the front rank of guitar improvisers.” — Clive Bell, The Wire

“When the guitar, tape, acoustics melt into each other it’s a joyous thing.” — Stylus Magazine review of Annette Krebs’ “Guitar Solo”

[Supported by the Berlin Senate Cultural Affairs Department]

No Comments »

Thu, Feb 19
5:00 pm	to	8:00 pm

Semmes Gallery in the Fine Art Building at the University of the Incarnate Word
4301 Broadway
San Antonio, TX

This show sounds hardcore. One of the best descriptions of a show ever….

Apocalyptic Visions investigates the phenomenon of eschatological Apocalypticism in the context of millennialism. There is a renewed fascination throughout the culture with eschatology and particularly with regards to prophesies as found in the Apocalypse and in the writings of Nostradamus. These portentous writings have for centuries captivated the popular imagination and struck fear in the hearts of their believers. But at particular points in history there tends to be a precipitous rise in interest in eschatology. These periods occurred in the 3rd century, the 11th and again in the 15th and 16th centuries. As the 20th century approached, there was once again a heightened awareness of prophesy and a sense of immanent doom. Throughout the 20th century, as technology progressed, it seemed these end of the world prophesies were more plausible than ever. This century has been consumed with a pervasive sense that the world’s immanent destruction was at least possible, if not likely. As we enter the 21st century, the collective anxiety in the culture seems to be crystallizing once again. In popular culture, the date 2012 has assumed an oracular importantance as many profess their belief that this date marks the end of the world.

With all this apocalyptic anxiety in the zeitgeist, there has been a noticeable impact on popular perception and interpretation of geopolitical events. People’s eschatological concerns have begun to color their judgments of issues like history, terrorism, wars in the Middle East and South Asia, as well as Globalism in all its manifestations. Regardless of the veracity of these prophesies, they tend to be somewhat self-fulfilling if they are widely believed and people and societies are motivated by a sense of fatalism and impending doom.

The artists in this exhibit are not merely playing Chicken Little or necessarily preaching carpe diem. Rather, Alex Rubio and Graham Toms, are taking note of the importance of this iconology and mythology in the contemporary imagination and are using this theme as much more than simple prophetic literary illustration. While based on prophetic texts, the images are deployed as much as a metaphor to examine the phenomenon of millennialism and to critique its impact on the understanding of contemporary political and religious events. The paintings call on us to question our presumptions about the meaning of prophesies and to more self-awarely examine the moral, spiritual and political implications of an oversimplification of eschatological interpretation.

On display will be five large scale canvases by each of the two artists. Alex Rubio’s works are well known around these parts but there will be three pieces of Alex’s that will be debuted at this exhibit, including one painted expressly for this show. Graham Toms, a gifted artist in all medium, has created five large canvases for this exhibit and these are among the first important works in an ever expanding series that Graham is doing on the theme of Apocalypticism. Neither of these artists consulted with each other and each developed their ideas and approaches independently. But they have reached remarkably similar conceptual solutions in distinctly different styles. The paintings are appropriately grandiose, ambitions and fantastic as befits their cataclysmic subjects. The works are conceptually and visually challenging. The Apocalyptic Visions of Alex Rubio and Graham Toms are a feast for the eye, the mind and soul alike.

See you there…

Joseph Bravo
Curator of Apocalyptic Visions
February 19 – March 20, 2009

1 Comment »

Sun, Feb 15
5:30 pm	to	7:30 pm

SCHEDULE

The Walls Symposium is free and open to the public.http://1.salsa.net/peace/walls/
Unless otherwise noted, events will take place at the Holt Conference Center, Trinity University.OPENING CONVERSATION
Sunday, February 15, 5:30 – 7:30 pm.
THEATER ARTS & WALLS performance pieces coordinated Dr. Robert Prestigiacomo of AtticRep and the Trinity University Speech and Drama Department.

FASHION & WALLS by the students of the International School of Design and Technology who, in their designs, will illustrate aspects of walls, including peace/war; liberalism/intolerance; unity/anarchy; surrender/hope; freedom/conformity and love/hate. Produced by Jackie Benavides and Rejeana Williams; fashions designed by Ashley Shoemo, Rey Aguillon, Meagan Cantu, Monico Vitela, Taryn Lauber and Biastelie Orosco. On the front path runway, 5:30 – 6:30 pm.

ATRAVÉS, a performance and video exhibit by Ana Carillo Baer and Dr. Susanna Morrow, explores the alienating effects of walls on the basic human need for connection. Using video footage from Mexico and dance/theater performance, the artists will create a textured offering for contemplation on the first night of the Walls symposium. (7 pm.)

RIVERBANK, an assemblage of clothes, plastic bags, and personal items collected from the United States bank of the Rio Grande. The objects, strewn beyond a wall and beneath a skylight, present the muddied attire worn by individuals as they navigated the river’s waters. Shed hastily to avoid detection on American soil, these garments stand as molted shells of unknowns. Guadalajara artist Luz María Sánchez originally produced this installation for Artpace San Antonio, while an International Artist-In-Residence in 2006.

EL OTRO LADO a video installation by Anne Wallace will be shown during the entire opening. “The voices seem to arise like mirages in the desert. They are the voices of the border itself which address the spectator not with the voice of the journalist but with the voice of the artist who communicates with symbols and metaphors.” Gabriel Rodriguez-Nava, RUMBO. In 2004, artist Anne Wallace drove the 2000-mile U.S./Mexico border, crossing back and forth to record interviews, film the dividing line and document nature sounds in wildlife sanctuaries. In the experimental documentary, El otro lado, sounds of the changing landscape track the international boundary from the Rio Grande in the East to the western deserts of Arizona and California. As the eye follows the hypnotic rhythm of a seemingly endless steel wall, voices reveal the controversial border fence as a projection of our fears and desires.

PHOTO EXHIBIT
Photographs by San Diego poet-photographer Maria Teresa Fernández focus on the fence along the U.S.-Mexico border that begins a couple of hundred feet out in the Pacific and ends about 60 miles inland, near El Centro, Calif. Fernández immigrated to the United States from Mexico in 1991, the same year construction of the border fence began. She has documented life and death along its edges since 2001, when work on the physical barrier between the two countries intensified following 9/11. She told the Imperial Valley News, “This border fence has been both the witness and the cause of so many deaths of people filled with ambitions. (It) has become a handkerchief of tears, a canvas where family members, artists and activists paint their emotions and their frustrations. This way, their respect is made evident for all the deceased. Here, at the border fence, they are remembered.” Fernández� photography has been recognized by institutions such as Nikon, Canon, Photographer�s Forum, Red Pl�stica and the magazine Artes de M�xico. (You can read a review of a much larger exhibit of Maria Teresa’s photographs in the LA Times.) A selection of photographs is on display throughout the symposium and all 45 are on display during the rest of February at VIVA! Bookstore and Galleria, 8407 Broadway in San Antonio. Call for hours and driving directions.

WALL VIDEO INTERVIEWS
AtticRep will be videotaping personal stories about walls as background for Borders and Walls, a play that will be created by a group of San Antonio theatre artists, Trinity University students and community members. The piece will be formed and presented in the style of Augusto Boal’s community-based theatre and audience discussion is part of the production on March 12-14, 2009 at the Attic Theater at Trinity University.
Monday, February 16 and Tuesday February 17, noon-3:00 pm., 2nd floor office.

MONDAY & TUESDAY — EDUCATION ANTHROPOLOGY & WALLS:
When Humans Build Walls
Drs. John Donahue, Jennifer Mathews, and Richard Reed, Trinity University.
Walls, be they physical or virtual, are cultural constructions as evidence in state formation (Donahue), Ancient ideology and cosmology (Mathews) or ethnic identity (Reed).
Tuesday, 17 February 2009 at 12 noon, 3rd floor.

ARCHITECTURE & WALLS:
Physical Properties & Their Effects
Gabriel Durand-Hollis, FAIA, Principal with DHR Architects
Starting with a review of what walls do, don’t do, and what they can look like, important properties affect human behavior. Cost, time, endurance, environment, ideas, traffic, transmission — each aspect has literal and figurative implications.
Monday, 16 February 2009 at 9 am., 1st floor.

ART & WALLS I
Sound as Wall
Luz Maria Sanchez, Universidad de Guadalajara
Sound as wall. Words as wall. Silence as wall. Even if sound as an acoustical phenomenon is able to travel through different mediums —solid, liquid or gas—, sound within the social environment, behaves differently. Words (language) as tools for communication are transformed in to the opposite: silence. Within this talk, there will be some examples of artworks using sound as media.
Monday, 16 February 2009 at 12:30 pm, 1st floor

ART & WALLS II:
Wall and Piece
Art of Walls: Walls as a Demonstration of Power
Joseph M. Bravo, and Kristen Alejandra Supik: University of the Incarnate Word
Walls have traditionally been constructed to keep others out but they invariably have the unintended consequence of keeping us in. In fact, they tend to be far more effective at the latter purpose than the former. Wherever walls have been built throughout history they become a canvas for personal and political expression. The very presence of a wall is an open invitation to comment on its existence. Whether in Berlin or Palestine, Rome or on the Texas border graffiti artists are inclined to make their marks. Sometimes these marks are to tag or identify local territory. Other times the graffito is an opportunity for more personal or aesthetic expressions. But perhaps the universal function of painting on walls is as an act of resistance: resistance to confinement, resistance to segregation, resistance to imperialism. The very act of appropriation of the space is itself a form of resistance. This presentation will examine this phenomenon through the works of Banksy, a graffiti artist who has traveled throughout the world making his marks of resistance on walls from London to Palestine. His works are graphic, provocative and quite beautiful and demonstrate how graffiti can transcend its caricature of vandalism and rise to the level of high art and political expression.
Tuesday, 17 February at 11:00 am. 1st floor.

ART & WALLS III:
Wall as Arena
Chris Sauter, San Antonio artist
“Wall as Arena” is a presentation about a series of works by the artist Chris Sauter that use architecture as a raw material. In these works, walls are carved to retrieve material needed to build other objects. This action makes literal the metaphoric connection between the architecture and that which is being represented by the wall-constructed object, revealing aspects of their respective natures. Sauter will discuss how these works physically interact with architecture, exploring the literal, metaphorical, and conceptual function of walls.
Tuesday, 17 February 2009 at 5 pm., 1st floor.

CIVIL RIGHTS & WALLS:
From Bull Connor to Border Walls
Dr. David Spener, Trinity University
In 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested in Birmingham , Ala. for protesting segregation and the repression of civil rights activists by the city’s police commissioner, Eugene “Bull” Connor. While in jail, the Rev. King penned his famous letter, in which he laid out a powerful set of moral and sociological arguments against segregation based on race. Today, the United States faces new challenges involving race relations and civil rights related to immigration from Latin America and Asia. David Spener, associate professor of sociology and anthropology, will discuss the ways in which the arguments that the Rev. King made about segregation in Letter from Birmingham Jail are relevant to today’s debate about the status of immigrants in our society.
Monday, 16 February 2009 at 11:45 am., 2nd floor.

COMMUNICATION & WALLS Compassionate and Nonviolent
Phil Schulman
Many walls can’t be seen. Some walls exist inside of us in the form of enemy images, stories and judgements that keep us from being able to connect heart to heart. This workshop is an introduction to “Compassionate Conversations,” based on Marshal Rosenberg’s book “Nonviolent Communication; a Language of Life.” Participants will be introduced to a practice that applies principles of nonviolence to communication in order to encourage empathy and honesty, and relationships based on support and cooperation.
Tuesday, 17 February 2009 at 1:30 pm, 1st floor.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE & WALLS:
Walling, Fear Based Policies & Questions of Justice
Drs. Milo Colton, St. Mary’s University and Michael Gilbert, University of Texas San Antonio
Since ancient times people have built walls around towns and villages or along borders of nations (such as China ) to control entry and provide security for citizenry. This concept of “Walling” as a public safety response carries over to today’s in tangible and intangible ways. We see tangible barriers in gated communities and now along the border between the US and Mexico and between Israel and the Palastinian West Bank and Gaza . Tangible walls are also used to isolate and warehouse undesirables in prisons, jails and mental hospitals. Social barriers of inequality, discrimination, differential treatment and isolation are invisible barriers — walls of injustice. Too often walls of injustice are created or enforced by justice policy and the criminal justice system our of fear to separate “us” from “them”. They separate the law abiding from the criminal, the wealthy from the poor, straight from gay, majority from minority, and citizen from ex-offender. Walling” undercuts the rights, values on which a free democratic society are founded, sows seeds of hatred and violence rather than mutual understanding and peace.
Tuesday, 17 February 2009 at 9:00 am., 3rd floor.

ENVIRONMENT & WALLS
Reconfigurations & New Geographies
Juanita Sundberg, Dept. of Geography, University of British Columbia & Wayne Bartholomew, Frontera Audubon
Walls create sharply defined boundaries between geographical spaces. In contrast to ecological boundaries, which often are characterized by porous transitional areas that promote mobility, walls are impervious, limit movement, and create divisions based on political motivations. Our presentation examines how walls reconfigure environments to create new geographies characterized by opportunities and obstacles for their inhabitants. In particular, we focus on the construction of walls between the United States and Mexico using illustrations based on research experiences in Arizona and Texas.
Tuesday, 17 February 2009 at 3:00 pm, 3rd floor..

FEDERALISM vs STATE CONTROL & WALLS:
A Debate
Dr. Jarrod Atchison, Trinity University
The doctrine of federalism is central to the discussion of walls. This session will involve members of the award-winning Trinity University debate team engaging in a public debate over the power of the federal government to create, protect, and secure walls in the face of state and local opposition.
Monday, 16 February 2009 at 10:00 am., 3rd floor.

FLASH WALL
Human Wall
All the participants of the Walls Symposium are invited to create a human wall that extends from the Magic Stones to the Miller Fountain at Trinity University. The Flash Wall will be initiated at 11:25 AM and it will dissolve five minutes later as the bell tower strikes 11:30 AM. Please convene in front of the Coates Library at 11:20 AM. Don’t know where any of this is? Here’s a map.
Monday, 16 February 2009 at 11:25 am.

FILM & WALLS
Talking Throuugh Walls, a documentary
Discussion facilitated by Narjis Pierre and Sylvia Maddox
Talking Through Walls is an hour-long documentary about the struggles of Vorhees, New Jersey Muslims to build a mosque in a middle class Philadelphia suburb in the wake of 9/11.
Tuesday, February 17 2009 at 9 am., 1st floor.

LGBT & WALLS:
A Panel Discussion Dee Villarrubia, ProSA moderator, along with panelists — Bill Goodman (Probate Attorney), Julia DeGrace (Transgender Activist/Speaker), Roberto Flores (Co-founder/Co-chair Stonewall Democrats, SA), Mick Henson (Pastor MCC)
Walls, borders that define, confine the LGBT Community are conceptual: SOCIAL/LEGAL: Family, mother, spouse, next-of-kin, adoption; PSYCHIATRIC: deviance, perverted; RELIGIOUS: sin, priest, deacon; SEXUAL/GENDER: male/female, masculine/feminine, Gender Dysphoria, etc.
Monday, 16 February 2009 at 11:00 am., 3rd floor.
GEOGRAPHY & WALLS
Breaking Down Walls in Africa
Mark Rockymore, Northwest Vista College
Walls of religion and politics divide us. Physical Walls confront us. The geography of walls is both mental and material. One example of these walls lies in the realm of human spirituality. Christianity as a religion has spread across the world. Aspects of its appeal manifest in world politics and culture. Africa�s movement toward to breaking down and building of walls is a microcosm of the diffusionary aspects of a spiritual system of broad appeal across the world.
Tuesday, February 17 at 1:00 pm, 3rd floor.

HIJAAB & WALLS
Narjis Pierre, Sana Husain & Nazneen Husain
San Antonio Muslim Women’s Association
Hijaab derives from the Arabic word hajaba, to conceal or hide from view. The panel will explore Scriptural meaning of hijaab; discuss the concept of “protection” in societal interactions; and facilitate a cross-cultural discussion on whether hijaab is a separating and oppressing barrier binding women and girls to societal norms of ignorance and servitude, or a liberating emancipation of societal norms defining womanhood according to marketing values.
Monday, 16 February 2009 at 5 pm., 1st floor.

HISTORY & WALLS
Imaginary Walls in the Northern Frontier
Spanish explorers, missionaries, government officials and settlers encountered natural barriers upon the landscape. They usually oercame those barriers, modified them, identified them. Other barriers they respected but did not enter. Such was life in the sixteenth, seventeenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The nineteenth century introduced boundaries, borders and barriers which became inconveniences but did not eliminate migration, legal or otherwise.
Tuesday, 17 February 2009 at 4:00 pm., 2nd floor.

HUMAN RIGHTS & WALLS:
International Migration and Human Rights Dr. Jorge Bustamante, U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants, and Eugene Conley, Professor of sociology at the University of Notre Dame
In his lecture, Dr. Bustamante will discuss the relationship between human rights and international migration. The analytical concept that will guide this examination is that of migrant vulnerability, a concept that Dr. Bustamante has developed in a number of his scholarly publications and that remains one of his principal concerns in his work with the United Nations. The lecture will address migration policies and the treatment of migrants in Mexico, the United States, Spain, and Argentina. It will pay special attention to the question of labor migration and the failure of any major migrant-receiving nation in the world to ratify the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, which was approved by the United Nations nearly two decades ago. The refusal of migrant-receiving nations to ratify this convention, Bustamante will argue, represents a failure on their part to recognize the economic benefits they receive from the labor of migrants.
Tuesday, 17 February 2009 at 7:30 pm, CHAPMAN AUDITORIUM

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS & WALLS
Dr. Larry Hufford, St. Mary’s University
Panel Discussion
Personal/international storytelling to illustrate Walls and their impact on people’s lives.
Monday, 16 February 2009 at 7:30pm., 1st floor.

LAW & WALLS:
Martha McCabe, General Counsel, Alamo Community College District
Description pending
Tuesday, 17 February 2009 at 10:30 am., 3rd floor.

LITERATURE & WALLS:
Tearing Down Walls through Literature for Children & Young Adults
Dr. Patricia Lonchar & Ms Letitia Harding, University of the Incarnate Word
How is it that writers for children & young adults promote justice and peace without being, well, “preachy”? Simply by using words and knowing their audience. This interactive panel of two literature professors and a few of their university students will be exploring how children and young adult authors promote a world without walls through their careful use of words.
Tuesday, 17 February 2009 at 1:30 pm, 3rd floor.

MEDIA & WALLS:
Under, Around and Over
John Kelley, editor, We The People News (Corpus Christi) along with panelists, Mark Rathbun (We The People News), Zanto Peabody (We The People News), and Matt Tedrow (New Texas Radical
Structuring the activist media organization to overcome competitive disadvantages with mainstream media. How to use editorial decision making, marketing and multiple platform technology to break down traditional market barriers to alternative media. A short presentation on barriers faced by alternative media will be followed by a panel discussion with audience participation of methods used to overcome those barriers. The last 30 minutes will be used for networking and establishing continuing cooperative efforts.
Monday, 16 February 2009 at 3:00 pm., 3rd floor.

PHILOSOPHY & WALLS
Undermining walls with service learning Dr. Stephen A. Calogero, St. Mary’s University
This session will begin with an exploration of philosophical and ethical meaning of walls, what they do and what their purpose is. We will then inquire about why walls “come down.” What dynamic explains the undermining of walls? One answer, of course, is that walls are breached by a stronger force, as in the medieval days when siege machines were rolled up to the castle walls and made to hurl boulders at them or again when a crowd of demonstrators marches on a capital and overruns the barricades thrown up by the police. However, another proposal argues that walls come down when those besieged behind the walls encounter those kept outside and in that encounter discover their own obligation to the excluded. Perhaps this second proposal is less plausible, but in service-learning education we find that interpersonal experience can have a powerful educational impact. So the session develops into a discussion of how service-learning works as a component of undergraduate education and what its possibilities are for undermining walls the that divide our own society.
Tuesday, 17 February 2009 at 3:00 pm., 1st floor.

POETICS & WALLS:
Considering US Mexico Borderlands
Dr. Kamala Platt, independent scholar/cultural worker
From Robert Frost to Pink Floyd to Barack Obama to Rachel Corrie, from Berlin to Palestine to China�, the poetics of wall-building are evoked in poetry, song, sermon, email and other genres, and from narratives from many parts of the globe. This is currently the case in the struggle against building a wall (or in Homeland Security parlance, “a border-fence”) in the Texas Mexico Borderland. We will examine a few of those cultural texts and the movement against a border wall in order to better understand the roles and rhetoric of physical barriers and the destruction of land and cultural artifact.
Monday, 16 February 2009 at 10:30 am., 1st floor.

PSYCHOLOGY & WALLS:
Human Walls as We Feel & Relate
Dr. Brenya Twumasi, MA., JD, Northwest Vista College
Human walls develop as a means of protection and security. Human walls are permeable through active listening and deciphering the culture behind the language. This presentation gives a brief overview of some dynamics related to human walls through the use of deciphering what the presenter has coined as ‘Tatoos on Walls’.
Tuesday, 17 February 2009 at 11:00 am., 2nd floor.

REFUGE & WALLS
Journey Stories of Refugees
Rachel Brownlee, Trinity University Chapter of Amnesty International & Guests
Oftentimes refugees must overcome cultural and social walls in addition to physical and legal boundaries when seeking out and settling in their new homes. Guests will speak about their own journey stories, and all will be invited to discuss both the process of fitting into a new home and ways to welcome neighbors from around the world.
Tuesday, 17 February 2009 at 5:00 pm., 3rd floor.

RELIGION & WALLS:
God Blesses Us on “Our Side of the Wall”
Sr. Martha Ann Kirk, ThD & UIW Arts for Christian Worship Class
Are the Abrahamic religions essentially based on the “we-they” mentality? God is one and we are the ones called by God. Examples of ideas, actions, arts, and story in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam will lead us into reflection. What are the challenges and the opportunities in the revelations of the universal love of the Holy One? Compassion and creativity are the nature of the Divine and the invitations to humanity. “Cum passio,” that is, feeling with the other starts to dismantle the walls. Creativity starts to use the stones to build bridges.
Monday, 16 February 2009 at 3:00 pm., 1st floor.

THEOLOGY & WALLS:
Hindus, Jews, Christians, and Muslims Together
Dr. Norm Beck, Texas Lutheran University
Since Hindus, Jews, Christians, and Muslims believe in one God, ideally they would build bridges and move freely over them to visit one another and joyously to serve God and all of the people in the world. Some are, but the walls formed by their past record of selfishness, arrogance, and greed continue to hinder their efforts. Fortunately, there are signs of hope that in the coming decades their oneness in God will result in a decrease of nationalism and an increase in economic cooperation in major geographical areas of the earth. A panel discussion among inter-faith leaders.
Monday, 16 February 2009 at 7:00 pm., 3rd floor.

URBAN STUDIES & WALLS
The Political Spaces of School Districts
Dr. Christine Drennon, Dir., Urban Studies Program, Trinity University<
Over 160 court cases were filed between 1970 and 2008 arguing that unacceptable and unconstitutional funding disparities exist between school districts in most states. In those arguments, stories, statistics, and maps are used to compare various school districts to prove that conditions are indeed unequal. In fact, both sides (both plaintiff and defendant) use such information to disprove each other�s contentions. In so doing, each assumes that the political spaces of the school districts are absolute, timeless, and independent — that they are, in fact, legitimate walls cordoning groups of students off from one another. Failure to recognize that the spaces (the districts) are not objective and are in fact constitutive of the class and race relations actually being argued and debated in court further legitimates our local geographies of privilege and deprivation.
Tuesday, 17 February 2009, at 9:00 am., 2nd floor..

WOMEN & WALLS:
Care and Crossings
Drs. Martha Ann Kirk & Jessica Kimmel, University of the Incarnate Word
Women have experienced walls in many ways throughout history. Women have also found ways around these walls that are traditionally vested in the female experience: email visits, shared photos via the internet, written stories and plays, sung songs from one side to the other, floated balloons over walls with messages of hope and peace; smuggled in desperately needed medicines and food supplies, stood in silence and solidarity with others, and more! This session will highlight the stories, photographs, and artifacts of some of the women making these crossings.
Monday, 16 February 2009 at 1:30 pm, 3rd floor..

3 Comments »

It’s Oscar time. Just saw the award-winning film “The Reader” and was pleasantly surprised by how good this movie actually is. It’s about inherited guilt of the Holocaust, interpersonal relationships, and as the screenwriter so eloquently put it – “It’s about literature as a powerful means of communication, and at other times as a substitute for communication.” The movie garnered 5 Oscar nominations (including Best Picture) and Kate Winslet is definitely deserving of her front-runner status as Best Actress in her portrayal of an S S guard who seduces a teenage boy.

It’s this portayal, though, that some criticize as being unsympathetic to the Holocaust. The film is immersed in German philosophy and it’s hard for me not to draw references to Hannah Arendt – a German Jew who similarly had an affair with an older Nazi in the form of her teacher Martin Heidegger. In Arendt’s own book on Adolf Eichmann, she coined the term “the banality of evil” when she frighteningly observed how ‘normal’ most Nazis actually were and the need to conform to the social environment, no matter how wrong it might be, is one of the most defining aspects of the human condition. This phenomenon has been shown again and again in subsequent cases like the Stanford prison experiment, the Milgram experiment, the Hofling hospital experiment, the Asch conformity experiments, The Third Wave, Abu Ghraib Prison, as well as in cults everywhere. It’s impossible for a person to step out of their Zeitgeist no matter how hard they try and, indeed, this is the ultimate struggle in the individual (and artist) – between authenticity to him/her own self versus placing him/herself within the social norms of the time.

It’s too easy, though, to sweep Holocaust horrors under the rug by Otherizing historical figures of the past and we need to look at ourselves to find the common denominator in genocide which pervades our history but which still continues to this day. It’s time to stop finger-pointing and go beyond simplistic terms like good and evil. This, however, doesn’t excuse Holocaust deniers in the news today like Bishop Richard Williamson but shows, rather, how very real genocide is. I’m always stunned by how beautiful Hitler’s art actually was and am compelled to refer back to the interesting film ‘Max‘ which poses the question – What would of happened if Hitler’s early career as an artist was accepted by his society?

.

10 Comments »

We have some very sad news to report: Rev Seymour Perkins, San Antonio’s outsider preacher-artist, has passed away. I’ve heard rumors he had cancer, but don’t have all the details. Emvergeoning wrote two long posts on Perkins, first as part of our San Antonio Outsiders series, and then a follow-up visit to document the work inside his home. I think the best place to see his work in person (since his house burned down) is the San Angel Folk Art Gallery.

[hat tip to ]

4 Comments »

Last week I was surprised to learn of the passing of Max Neuhaus, and was a bit dismayed at the lack of coverage. The Houston Chronicle seemed to be the only paper covering the death of this important artist. But this morning I felt a bit better as the New York Times is out with their piece, and it’s a nice overview of his career.

Here, I thought I’d recount my first experience with a Neuhaus installation. I had been in New Hampshire to conduct the marriage of a good friend from college. On the way up, I learned of the death of my friend Alberto Mijangos, whose gallery I was running, and who in many senses had introduced me to art (I had attended his wedding in the Rothko Chapel at the age of five). Now I was headed back to San Antonio, a bit exhausted, trying not to think too much about this looming sadness.

My flight out of Manchester was delayed for hours. By the time it finally left, I had missed my connection in Newark, and the airline said it wasn’t their fault, so no hotel room. I decided not to pay for a hotel, to either sleep in the airport, or get in touch with a friend in the city. The one friend in New York I was able to reach was packing for a trip the next day, and didn’t have time for a visit. She helped me figure out how to get into Times Square, where I had heard there was a Max Neuhaus installation. By the time I made it into Times Square, it was about 11:30, still busy, but not too chaotic. I walked across the pedestrian islands until I heard a low ringing rumble flow up from the grates. As I stood there, transfixed in this invisible oasis, watching people and taxis wash over Broadway, I felt as if I was being enveloped by another world, which was really just an idea about perception. I rocked back and forth, listening as the sounds rippled and creased and rubbed, an infinitesimal percussion. Eventually, I made my way back the airport, and found a place on the floor to rest.

9 Comments »

Sat, Feb 14
7:00 pm	to	10:00 pm

FL!GHT: “Kiss My Crevice”
FL!GHT Gallery (1906 S Flores St), in association with heavy Denim, is proud to present a Valentine’s day freak out by local underground psychedelia legends Crevice. The show is free and open to the public starting at 8:30 pm on Second Saturday, February 14. Beto Gonzales’ Tru Hustla exhibit will be on view. Free copies of Crevice’s most recent album, “Lullabies for Little Albert” will be distributed.

ABOUT CREVICE: Long before their live debut in 1996, Crevice were obsessively toiling away in their studio, abusing their equipment to its limit in search of that perfect headphone trip. One hundred and fifteen instruments were used on their debut CD, Crevice, which has everything from giant Moog-monster insect soundtracks to super-chill acoustic panoramas. Two of the group’s three members were working on outside soundtrack projects at the time, so it’s no surprise that Crevice sounds more influenced by Apocalypse Now, The Shining, 2001, or Forbidden Planet than by any particular rock band. Yet, a rock band they are. The limited edition CD sold surprisingly well for such an odd recording and the band began getting attention from the underground psychedelic press in England, Germany and the U.S. The All Music Guide’s review of “Crevice” was typical in its mixture of puzzlement and satisfaction with the recording: “Crevice’s self-titled debut consists of one 70-minute, untitled track, seamlessly shifting from one slice of strangeness to another. Maybe it was all one take, maybe a series of fragments or performances edited together, but the end result is good stuff indeed.” (Ned Raggett) The original 3-piece Crevice had intended to make their second album another all-studio project. Instead, now doubled in size, Crevice spent the following year playing live at various clubs, boxing rings, art galleries, warehouses, and experimental music festivals. During this period, Crevice’s shows developed a theatricality that verged on performance art. The shows were taped for use on their second album, CREVICE 2. The weirdness is definitely still there. The tripped-out atmospheres, synth-washes, oscillators, theremin, and disembodied voices, now joined by violins, cellos, saxes, flute (and a little help from Barry Manilow) come on like an orchestra from Mars. CREVICE 2 got coverage in the mainstream U.S. music press and the European underground + airplay on several progressive radio stations. Crevice 2 was followed by Think of Pleasant Things, a four part spacerock epic recorded live for the German psychedelic label, Get Happy!! The group also collaborated with the krautrock group S/T for their next Get Happy!! release, Ahtoon Eskaloon (available on vinyl only). Crevice’s last official release was Lullabies for Little Albert in 2002. Crevice members include and have included Bryan Stanchak, Jeff DeCuir, James Sidlo, Phillip Luna, Jessica DeCuir, Robert Jimenez, Greg Nelson, James Cobb, Steven Garcia, Boxcar Sanford, Rena Jones, Terry Stanton, Sunn Thomas, Gavin DeCuir, Mark Semmes and Joe Wallace.

LoneStar Studios: “The DuChampions of the ReadyMade“

The theme for the show is Found Object art.

One9Zero6 Gallery

Mel Feldman: “A Bite of the Big Apple”

(Photograph by Marc Deadrick)

Mito’s Gallery is presenting “Love/Sick 2″ opens 6 to 9 p.m. at the space inside the Gallista Gallery complex, 1913 S. Flores. Artists including Jim Haught, Luis Guerrero, Rob Benavides, Barbara Hand, Bekka Flores, Diane Gonzales, Nicole Gonzales and Melva Ramirez.

Also at Gallista Gallery : “Mujeres De Mi Corazon,” an exhibit of watercolors by Esbelle M. Lopez and a silent auction at L.A. David’s Arte Cosmico Studio.

No Comments »

Over the past 6 months I have been increasingly receiving more and more strange and unaccountable spam on my website for the FL!GHT Gallery, www.turnitoff.tv.  It comes in from my contact form on the site, and goes straight into my inbox, disguised as a message from the FL!GHT site.  After months of deleting the messages that seemingly pile up 10-15 at a time in one conversation thread, per day… I’ve started to take note of the first line in every one of them, seeing them as daily fortune cookies in my email.  Here is what I have received in the last 12 hours.

• Cleverness is serviceable for everything, sufficient for nothing.
• Tastes like chicken.
• A chance meeting opens new doors to success and friendship.
• Success is in the details.
• From listening comes wisdom and from speaking repentance.
• You will come to realizations in your life that change you forever.
• Everyone agrees you are the best.
• Reconcile with an old friend. All has been forgotten.
• Home is where your heart is.
• You will always possess a charm and sense of humor that attracts others.
• You may attend a party where strange customs prevail.
• Many new friends will be attracted to your friendly and charming ways.
• Passionate new romance appears in your life when you least expect it.
• Win as if you were used to it, lose as if you enjoyed it for a change.
• Many a false step is made by standing still.
• You are never bitter, deceptive, or petty.
• Passionate new romance appears in your life when you least expect it.
• You will make a friendship with a very surprising person.
• A surprise announcement will free you.

The rest of the emails tend to be a uniform paragraph of  html gibberish with links to old blogs, and odd products.  It never seems very targeted to sell anything and the html, when viewed properly or interpreted, is really just a bunch of unusable tags..

7 Comments »

2 Comments »

Randomly found a reception last night for a film festival that’s going on this weekend at the Guadalupe Theater. Here’s their website if you’re down for chillin’ out with some movies. Might be 1 or 2 celebrities.

2 Comments »

Wed, Feb 11
5:00 pm	to	7:30 pm

Parchman Stremmel Galleries 110 W. Olmos Drive, . “The Exotic Table” contemporary ceramics by members of the San Antonio Potters Guild. 5-7:30 p.m. opening reception.

1 Comment »

Tue, Feb 17
7:00 pm	to	9:00 pm

“Just Suppose: Jerry Uelsmann and Maggie Taylor”

Photographers Jerry Uelsmann and Maggie Taylor will give a lecture at Ruth Taylor Recital Hall on Trinity campus. Uelsmann’s photos might seem a little commercial by today’s Photoshop standards but he did his surreal images before Adobe Systems was even founded. Hopefully he’ll give some insight on his darkroom process and Maggie Taylor on her Photoshop work. Followed by a discussion and an exhibition opening reception for “Dreaming Realities” artwork by Uelsmann & Taylor curated by Trinity Gallery Practicum Students at 8:00 p.m. in the Art Gallery, Dicke Art Building, Trinity University.

1 Comment »

Fri, Feb 13
6:00 pm	to	9:00 pm

On and Off Fredericksburg Rd. Studio Tour
Bihl Haus Arts
February 13 – February 15, 2009

The On and Off Fredericksburg Rd. Studio Tour weekend kicks off at Bihl Haus Arts on Friday with an exhibit of works from each of the 50+ artists on the tour. Spend the rest of the weekend meandering through artists’ studios and area galleries. “From reclaimed former neighborhood grocery stores to intimate backyard sanctuaries, the studios on the tour provide the environments in which artists create a variety of works, such as large-scale ceramic sculptures, metalwork, one-of-a-kind light fixtures, art photography, beadwork and embroidery, and painting in a variety of styles. Demonstrations, hospitality, and opportunities to purchase art—a perfect way to celebrate Valentine’s Day—are all part of the On and Off Fred experience.” Click here for a map and all the details.

No Comments »

Wed, Feb 11
7:00 pm	to	8:40 pm

I went to last week’s movie. It was good and there wasn’t many people there so it was nice.

Northrup Hall Room 040 – Trinity Campus

From Wikipedia -

Under the bombs is a 2007 Lebanese film by the Lebanese director Philippe Aractingi. The film was presented as part of the Giornate degli Autori – Venice days, a parallel section of the Venice film festival where it got two awards: the EIUC Human Rights Award and the ARCA Prize for Youths. The film will also be representing Lebanon at the 49th Thessaloniki International Film Festival, which this year is dedicating its Spotlight section to the Cinema of the Middle East.

2 Comments »

Thu, Feb 12
6:30 pm	to	8:00 pm

On Screen at Artpace: Guillermina Zabala
The second in a trio of films selected and presented by artist Guillermina Zabala. Masculin féminin, 1966. This film summarizes Jean-Luc Godard’s ethnographic take on the social and political climate of sixties France, where anti-Vietnam protestors clash with pop culture consumerism. 105 mins. Free admission.

IMBd

1 Comment »

This “full” transcript of the Christian Bale rant, sans profanity, is like watching The Big Lebowski on basic cable: confusing and pointless.

3 Comments »

There are a couple of Henry Rayburn events happening this weekend, so I thought I’d post them here to help you keep track. Sarah Fisch also has a nice article on Henry in the Current today, in case you missed it.

• Henry Rayburn Memorial at Say Sí: Saturday, February 7, 6pm — Attendees are encouraged to bring either an original artwork by Rayburn, or an object that reminds them of Henry or that “recalls Henry’s kindness,” at 5 p.m., to be placed in an ofrenda for viewing during the service.
• “Threads,” a 2003 piece by Henry Rayburn is being exhibited at the Linda Pace Foundation at the CAMPsite gallery space on Friday, February 6, 4-6pm (the gallery is located on the ground floor of Linda’s Camp Street lofts, at S. Flores and Camp).

1 Comment »

Had your eye on a hot gallery, but not quite sure how to approach it? Got your foot in the door, but you’re worried about making the right impression on your first studio visit? Just can’t find the right gallery for your work? Not even sure you should be in a gallery right now? Thought you loved your gallery, but it’s just not working out and you need to move on? Trying to figure out how to deal with that jealous gallerist who won’t even let you set foot in another gallery?

Get all the advice you need in Edward Winkleman’s handy round-up of artist-gallery relationship advice. FREE if you click now!

5 Comments »

Wed, Feb 4
4:00 pm	to	6:00 pm

Gallery100 at Palo Alto College

1400 West Villaret

San Antonio, TX 78224

No Comments »

Barry Hoggard posted a photo of a modified Aakash Nihalani piece in Williamsburg to his Flickr account yesterday:

When I saw this, I realized that street art is the original Creative Commons. Put something in a public space and it just begs for “collaboration,” resisting any claim to copyright. (Yes, I know that Creative Commons is not intended to do away with copyright but to make it more flexible, and that street art is more like a perpetual public domain).

1 Comment »

Wed, Feb 18
6:00 pm	to	8:00 pm

UTHSCSA Auditorium, 7703 Floyd Curl Dr., San Antonio, TX

Reading: 6 – 7 PM / Reception and Signing: 7 – 8 PM

“Abraham Verghese, MD, will read from his most recent book and first novel, Cutting for Stone, an epic story that brings alive the land of his birth, Ethiopia, through the eye of a keen observer with a deep love for this vast and beautiful country. Through his human and very fallible characters in vastly different medical environments across two continents, Verghese tells a vivid saga of healing and heartbreak in a love story that drives every event in the book. His first book, My Own Country, about AIDS in rural Tennessee, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for 1994 and was made into a movie. His second book, The Tennis Partner, was a New York Times Notable Book and a national bestseller that has just been reissued.

Dr. Verghese, who made Texas his home for 16 years, is Senior Associate Chair and Professor for the Theory and Practice of Medicine, Department of Medicine, at Stanford University. He is also an adjunct professor at UT Health Science Center San Antonio. He has published extensively in the medical literature, and his essays and short stories have appeared in The New Yorker, Sports Illustrated, The Atlantic, Esquire, Granta, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.”

This will probably be very well-attended, so arrive early to ensure your seating.

No Comments »

Sat, Feb 7
6:00 pm	to	9:00 pm

A Celebration of Henry Rayburn’s Love of Life

Henry’s family (all of his siblings, nieces, nephews) and closest friends have organized a celebratory gathering at Say Si, one of Henry’s favorite arts organizations. If you have a piece created by Henry and want to add it to the assemblage ofrenda which will be on view at Say Si, please come by at least one hour before (5 pm) so it can be added. All treasures will be returned to their owners that evening.
There will be a reception at Say Si following the Celebration.
Please spread the word!!
p.s. The family has asked that donations in Henry’s memory be made to Say Si or to the Artist Foundation of San Antonio

Date:	Saturday, February 7, 2009
Time:	6:00pm – 9:00pm
Location:	Say Si
Street:	1518 S. Alamo
City/Town:	San Antonio, TX

No Comments »

Fri, Feb 6
5:00 pm	to	9:00 pm

First Friday

Henry Rayburn “Threads, 2003″ 8 drawers with silk threads

LINDAPACEFOUNDATION
CAMPsite Space 114 Camp, San Antonio TX 78204
Please join us at CAMPsite space to remember Henry Rayburn and view his work titled, “Threads” on Friday February 6th from 4 – 6pm. The Linda Pace Foundation is proud to display Henry’s work through May 31, 2009. If you are not able to make it for the reception you can make an appointment to see the work. Please call X 4 or email .

Existence is Fertile: Losing Millennium A Presentation by Randy Wallace

A presentation by Randy Wallace

Location: Sala Diaz, 517 Stieren, San Antonio, TX
Date: First Friday, February 6
Duration: one night only

Context: Within, among and integrated into John Mata’s current installation “Your Black
Majesty: My Facade Says A lot About Who I’m Not”.
Mr. Mata has invited Randy Wallace to present a project-in-tandem within the confines of
his multi-media exhibition and joint venture with 180 Grams proprieter, Jesse Garcia.
”Wallace’s “Losing Millennium” project will employ a variety of the inferior arts –
object in situ, performance and audiovisual presentation.

“Existence is Fertile” is an accumulating narrative in which pasts and futures collide.
The characters that are introduced or implied navigate fictional realms like phantoms.
The subject is life itself, human life, and conflicts that ensue.
The individual works, such as “Losing Millennium”, function as chapters or asides within
an expanding directive.

This particular chapter expliots the topic of metaphorical journeys and questioning out of
sync with immediate stimuli.

Randy Wallace is an artist working in the vernacular of sculpture.
His current trajectory is true to the path which is to say “off course”

Date:	Friday, February 6, 2009
Time:	7:00pm – 11:00pm
Location:	Sala Diaz Gallery
Street:	517 Stieren
City/Town:	San Antonio, TX

Cheryl Childress: … That’s All We Know
Cactus Bra Gallery
February 6 – February 21, 2009

St. Louis-based artist Cheryl Childress’ photographs of staged events question the difference between fantasy and delusion, and we’re intrigued by the results. This is her first solo show, and its definitely worth a look!

Cactus Bra Gallery

http://www.cactusbraspace.com/index.html

106C Blue Star

San Antonio, TX 78247    Hearts On .4.You San Angel Folk Art February 6 – February 22, 2009 San Angel presents the work of Jeri Moe, Nicholas Herrera, Demetrio Garcia Aguilar, and Bernadette Marquez, who have each created pieces centered around Valentines, the holiday of love. San Angel Folk Art http://www.sanangelfolkart.com/ 110 Blue Star San Antonio, TX 78204

1 Comment »