This Week’s Must-See Art Events: A Week of AIDS Remembrance

In 1989, Visual AIDS organized “A Day Without Art”, a day of mourning. Now they’ve launched a new video program “ALTERNATE ENDINGS” to commemorate the hundreds of thousands of people in the US who were lost and to remind us that AIDS isn’t over. Visual AIDS is partnering with fifty organizations worldwide, which will screen the series this week. Artists include Rhys Ernst, Glen Fogel, Lyle Ashton Harris, Derek Jackson, Tom Kalin, My Barbarian, and Julie Tolentino.

Today, we’ll be going to the New School for a lecture on “The Names Project”, or, the AIDS Memoral Quilt– what Alan Moore describes as the “largest community art project in the world”– a work of protest spanning 1.3 million square feet. Anne Balsamo, the Dean of the School of Media Studies, will tie this into how digital technology might “enhance” this type of project in the 21st century. It’s a reach, but we are intrigued.

Videos will be shown at SVA, BRIC, Hunter College, the New School, the New Museum, the Queens Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, the Studio Museum in Harlem, Annandale-on-Hudson, State University of New York at Buffalo, Real Art Ways in Hartford, LGBT Resource Center in Ithaca, The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, the LGBT Center in Philadelphia

This looks good: in the “Obituary Project”, Hope Tucker has dug up suppressed and underknown footage from decades past, like firsthand footage of Hiroshima after the bomb and inner-military imagery of the Vietnam war. We’re not sure exactly what we’ll be seeing tonight, but the screening lists five titles: Bessie Cohen, Survivor of 1911 Shirtwaist Fire; Vi holder sammen/ We hold together; Noel; The Sea [is still] Around Us and Handful of Dust.

Speaking of film revival, Gina Telaroli takes another look at “I Dood It”, billed as a bizarre schticky-glamorous half-comedy, half-musical 1943 remake of a Buster Keaton film. Once a mash-up of Hollywood tropes; now a novelty item for us hipsters. It sounds great.

$7 at the door; Box Office opens at 7 PM

Charles Atlas, known for his gritty footage of pre-gentrified Manhattan, will appear on Times Square billboards in a collaboration with Antony (of Antony and the Johnsons). At this point, give us anything but Christmas ads.

Bill Daniel’s 30-year documentation of punk and underground bands hits the road for a series of one-night-only pop-up shows. In the spirit of said shows, the events feature “live soundtracks” which we’re guessing means a band. On Tuesday, the show comes to Brooklyn, and Philly next week.

12.02.14 Brooklyn, NY
Brooklyn (Red Hook) / 610 Smith Street (2nd Floor)
Live soundtrack by Ava Mendoza

12.08.14 Philadephia, PA
Space 1026 / 1026 Arch st
Live soundtrack TBA

Kate Gilmore, who’s known for messy, feminist performances in which she pushes, globs, pours, and digs through art materials, will be speaking at SVA. I’m personally on the fence about this work, which seems formulaic after artists like Jeanine Antoni, Carolee Schneeman, Cheryl Donegan, and Jessica Stockholder. That aside, watching somebody obsessively pile and arrange goop is undeniably fascinating.

Learn how to build your own digital archive in this two-part workshop at Eyebeam. Part one is orientation for planning one’s archive, an archive of one’s own. Part two is a hands-on learning session with archiving programs Omeka and CollectiveAccess.
$20 for the first part; $50 for both

Get drinks with the fucking hilarious Jibz Cameron (aka Dynasty Handbag), Clara López Menéndez (curator and art critic) and Frederic Tcheng (filmmaker) and the Queer/Art/Brooklyn crew. They will discuss cross-disciplinary art forms, but mostly art fans get to talk to people.

Kim Gordon, originally of Sonic Youth and venerated by the art world, plays with Loren Connors, guitarist/composer and venerated by the music experts. Gary War opens. Tickets are still available.

We aren’t paid enough: a study. Feminist labor economists Deborah M. Figart, Ellen Mutari, and Catherine Mulder evaluate the state of things and what it means for the future of art. Does not sound promising. Is the world of arts nonprofits doomed?

Filmmaker Signe Baumane will appear in person for a screening of her full length stopmotion and hand-drawn animation “Rocks in My Pockets”. The film is based on “women in her family and their battles with madness”. Go early, and your ticket gets you into the Museum’s galleries, too.

Tickets: $12 ($9 seniors/students, free for members at the Film Lover level and above)

If you’re in Philly, swing by the Fabric Workshop for Joy Sweanley and Paul Swenbeck’s installation “A Hatchet to Kill Old Ugly” inspired by magic and Shakers– “Spirit Drawings”, for example, which Shakers used to record symbols from visions. Through this weekend and next, this will provide the setting for Martha McDonald to perform Shaker songs. Go early to get a ticket.

Saturday and Sunday December 6th and 7th.
12:30, 1:30 and 2:30.
Saturday and Sunday December 13th and 14th.
12:30, 1:30 and 2:30.

This spring, a taste of Gerard & Kelly at The Kitchen only made us want to see more. A moving performance posed a mother and daughter walking in circles, while they recounted their memories going by. In a similarly methodical approach to emotion, this reformatted performance revolves around instructions for a kiss. This will be a public workshop. Free, but tickets are required.