Proposal for an Exhibition during BOS'10
Matt Jones
For BOS09 I opened my studio for the first time as a participating
artist. I plastered a wall of the studio in ghost drawings (http://
mj.digitalpropaganda.com/2009-ghosts_miami.html).
The ghost drawings are made in three stages:
1, there’s a photo shoot with a subject (usually someone I know really
well, though not always) during which the subject is shot eight times
making a different expression each time (corresponding to an
expressions prompt sheet; I use this one: http://www.drawfurry.com/images/how-expressions01.jpg)
with three different backgrounds (for a minimum total of 24 images
taken); the shoots are ALWAYS revealing and fun.
2. I run the photos through a few actions in Photoshop.
3. Taking the photoshopped files I draw the subject. They’re called
ghosts because they aren’t there, just the image of them from the
shoot is (I get into some stuff about “many worlds interpretation of
Quantum Mechanics” and some Deluezian ideas about “becoming,” etc.,
too). These drawings are the final result of the process of ghosting
people.
The day before BOS09 began I was looking at the massive wall
installation of the ghost drawings and thought “how can I get people
into this work.” Why should anyone care about these people? Then it
dawned on me that viewers would care instantly if they BECAME one of
these ghosts.
I set up a background (a generic flower pattern I hadn’t used yet)
and asked each person to pick a single expression/emotion from the
expressions prompt sheet. Of the 65 people that stopped by that day
only three people declined having their picture taken (a shot of the
background is used for their participation in the project). I told
every subject that they’d eventually be in a book with an essay
published sometime before the next BOS and they could come to my
studio and buy a copy or I’d send them a link to the publishing site.
I noticed that people ACTUALLY hung around my studio longer than
people had at other open studios I’d participated in. They were
looking at the ghosts wall and guessing which expressions were
represented by various ghosts. People engaged me in lively
conversation, sometimes aggressively critiquing the honest and nature
of the project but never disrespectfully, always thoughtfully and
overall encouraging. It was a beautiful BOS09 weekend and I was
grateful.
Since then I’ve drawn each image and asked one time Bushwick resident
Ethan Nichtern (http://theidproject.org/about/teachers) to write an
essay about Interdependence and Art among other things. The drawings
and essay are being combined in a book to be published by The Atlantic
Conference Press via lulu.com (an inexpensive online print house).
My proposal for BOS10 is to have an exhibition of the small ghost
drawings (called visitors for this project/book) somewhere (a gallery-
like setting) in Bushwick during the BOS weekend. The books would be
on sale with ALL profits going to BOS/AiB. It would be a total thrill
to share the great success of last year’s BOS and give something back
to AiB for all the hard work. I’d leap at the chance to show the
visitors to my studio the drawings made from their shoots and offer
them the resulting book.
Let me know if this idea appeals to you. I’d love to show the works
and give something back to BOS/AiB.
Lots of love,
Matt
My CV here: http://mj.digitalpropaganda.com/cv.html
Ethan Nichtern’s bio here: http://theidproject.org/about/teachers
Matt Jones
the mock-up of the book can be found here: http://mj.digitalpropaganda.com/visitors-draft2.pdf
and would cost about $5 to print per copy which we could charge $7 for
or something like that so we could make BOS/AiB some money.
Chloe Bass
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Chloë Bass
chloe....@gmail.com / ch...@artsinbushwick.org
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