- On the Way to the Alps I See Sand (Continued)The work culminates in the creation of a water environment inside the Portikus that resembles a traditional Thai Water Temple and a modern western water park at the same time, but also talks about the dangers of rising water levels all over the world. But not before discovering the story of Al Pfiffer, a real life version of Hemingway’s main protagonist in Old Man and the Sea. Pfiffer was once a prominent Frankfurt fisherman in the 1900’s who was said to have had the uncanny ability to communicate to river fish by whistling, hence the success of his one man fishing company.
Pictures of the Main River in Frankfurt, the Mekong River in Thailand, and Al "The Fish Whistler" Pfiffer.
- THIS IS THE BREATH...(Guards of the MFA Boston)November 21st, 2016: inside the Media Lab at MIT, 9 museum guards convene to testify against the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and ask for public support for their motion to boycott the institution until working conditions improve. Air is pumped out of the room where the guards are speaking to fill up an inflatable to project and live broadcast their testimonies outside the building. Only silhouettes of their faces are projected to help conceal their identity as protection against future retaliation from the Museum of Fine Arts management.
Guards of the NY MOMA
A photographic site-specific exploration of one of the institutional trademarks of the MoMA, New York, carried out on the first month of the re-opening of the museum in 2005.
Since the Civil Rights Movement, African Americans have been integrated into the operations of America's most prominent Art museums in the role of Museum Guard. The job was seen as a legitimate and respected position in the marginalized black society.
This project asks the question, is there today a community or group of communities that art institutions reach out to for filling this essential role? And what are the new social relationships rising from this institutional practice? Many of the subjects photographed were first generation immigrants from the Dominican Republic, Haiti and other Caribbean nations.
- Keep Something For A Rainy Day project for the Venice Biennale, ArsenaleThis work is conceptually a waterwheel designed to paddle, pump, and disperse fresh water to visitors in its surrounding area. In previous Biennale Exhibitions, blistering sun exposure has tended to cause in visitors heat related illnesses and even deaths via heat stroke. Viewing the vast amounts of art in the exhibit becomes a sort of pilgrimage or marathon and people place their interests in art before their very own health. In Keep Something for A Rainy Day, there is also a system that is dependent on human energy, for it is only active when exhibit visitors induce kinetic motion by giving their physical energy to the project's mechanics (three step-masters). No electricity is involved, only the mechanics of water pumps, so, when a visitor decides to step on the pumps and to share their energy with the artwork, everyone benefits a bit. With the subsequent automatic raising of colorful wind catching curtains, Keep Something's activated form resembles the sails of a wooden ship. The project was commissioned by curator Daniel Birnbaum as a project to address the rise of sustainable energy technology. This project ended employing recycled wood from Frank Gehry’s contribution to the previous Architecture Venice Biennale. Plantattion (Ron Martin) in collaboration w/ @Poomstngon, Durghai K -Architect- and Anton Savov -Public Relations Intern-.
- Dia de los Muertos at ACT
Mask of the Opisthokonta
Thesis presentation at the MIT Media Lab
What if we could speak to a fungus and it could speak back to us?
in this proof of concept prototype, the participant is invited to wear a specially designed mask that uses voice sensors and air extractors to inject CO2 and Microbia into a clear dome that houses a live reishi mushroom mycellieum.
During the two week period when the reishi's fruits begin to bloom and expand, the movement and shape of the reishi fruits will be a factor of how much clean oxygen is available for respiration. the participant is thus able to change the shape of the Reishi fruits (causing them to rise upward) by displacing clean oxygen with co2, the main bi-product of speaking through the mask. in other words, because c02 is heavier than oxygen it will linger at a lower height inside the dome. the reishi's fruit will respond to this stimulus by continually reaching up the more it is spoken to.
the circular dips and rings in the surface surrounding the mushrooms are filled with Agar gel. They are designed to catch the various types of microbes that are also expelled while speaking. Over time, these surfaces along with the Reishi mycellium itself will become visibly inhabited by fungi and bacteria, demonstrating to the naked eye how humans intervene in the often invisible dispute for territory in the microbial world.
- Without
This series of images are the result of several manipulations to make famous historical photographs appear less recognizable by stripping them of their central subjects.
Many important and influential artists have lost their lives to diseases related to the toxicity inherent in their production methods: Yves Klein, Piero Manzoni, Eva Hesse, Nikki de Saint Phalle, Donald Judd and Gordon Matta-Clark.
A great part of the 20th Century was colored by the idea of progress for progress’ sake, growth for growth’s sake. The word tumor in English is also referred to as a growth. Too many times, at the expense of their own health and of those around them modern artists, architects and designers experimented with toxic materials. Pigments, cadmiums, varnishes, photo chemicals, fixatives, plastic polymers and resins; what promoted this negative symbiosis between toxicity and artistic form?
My goal is to bring attention to the fact that there is a diversity of artists whose legacy could inform us how to better understand the road to a future without toxic health risks for arts workers. Art Makes You Sick will begin this mapping by carrying out the first survey and assessment interviews of artist health concerns.
- Art of Mount-MakingPreliminary proposal project for an art residency program at the De Young Museum. Consists of live demo-ing of the craft of archival mount-making and preservation based artifact re-housing.
