Art Action: About Falling

Artist Ehud Darash presented his planned intervention at 16 Beaver last night.

Please join him in making this action happen:

What: About Falling in OWS

Where: The red cube, across from Zuccotti park

When: Sunday, October 30th, 12PM.

Description: We are going to fall, very slowly - from standing to laying down, in the vicinity of Zuccotti Park. It is an artistic action that is adressed *to* OWS, celebrating the diversity of this movement by introducing to it a temporary "otherness" - a different way of being.

We will meet at the red cube for a short teach-in and an explanation of the background of this gesture and practice.

The following is an example of previous renditions of the action:

OCCUPY MUSEUMS [2] TODAY!

This Thursday 10/27/11, Occupy Museums returns to MoMA!

Meet at 2:30 PM, Liberty Square, for an information-sharing assembly (under red sculpture) OR meet at 4:00 PM at MoMA.

We will be joined by the Art Handler’s Union, Teamsters Local 814, who have been locked out of their Sotheby’s union jobs for over three months now. Following Occupy Museums, we will march to the Teamsters’ picket line at the Sotheby’s evening auction, which starts at 6:00 PM on 1334 York Avenue.

Occupy Museums and the Teamsters Local 814 stand together in solidarity!

Please join us and to bring your own manifestos (BYOM), to read in the General Assembly at the doors of the museum! Please keep them short- 3 minutes max so that everyone can participate. For this action
we are moving away from the voice of a sole author to a collective voice. We welcome all to be part of our assembly and let your voices be heard!

What is Occupy Museums?

We are artists, art lovers, and art workers! We live and love art and are committed to its growth. However, we see many museums in their current manifestations as key elements of a larger system whose funding structure and relationship to the market, disempowers artists, and alienates art from the 99%. Value is manufactured by false scarcity, propped up by the cult of celebrity and the parlor game of speculation. This undermines the potential power of art to be a much greater force in our society.

We believe that to Occupy is to claim space for dialog and transparency through the physical presence of our bodies. It is to hold space that was previously inaccessible. As Occupiers, we bring the General Assembly to the doors of the museum, to engage in a dialog about the relationships between the arts and capitalism.
This is only the beginning.

At its core, the Occupy Movement is about imagining and building a just and democratic future. It is generative not destructive. We are shifting collective consciousness. We are here to envision what the museum can be, what art can be, and how we can create a society that works for the 100%.

Schedule:
2:30 -- Informational assembly at Liberty Square
3:15 -- Occupy 4 train to MoMA
4:00 -- General Assembly at MoMA!
5:00 – March or M31 Bus to Sotheby’s at 1334 York Avenue
5:30 -- Stand in Solidarity with Teamsters Local 814

twitter: #occupymuseums

CLICK THE OM LOGO AT THE TOP OF THE POST TO READ THE NEW ARTINFO ESSAY BY BEN DAVIS, "Why I Support the Occupy Museums Protesters, and Why You Should Too."

CLICK THE IMAGE TO GET MORE INFO AT THE OCCUPY MUSEUMS FACEBOOK PAGE.

Occupy Halloween-PLANNING UPDATE!

Occupy Wall St. has been invited to join the largest public halloween parade in the nation!
For more information about OWS's participation the Halloween parade, visit: http://occupyhalloween.typepad.com/occupyhalloween/

If you're interested in paraticipating, there are several meet-ups in the next few days:

For puppet building, please contact Joe or Alma with questions or days and times you're planning on coming by!  Our contact info can be foudn at the bottom of the post.  The studio is in Joe's name and he is the mind behind the puppets we are building. 

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 
Build puppets and paint banners 6pm to midight 
20 Jay Street, Brooklyn (A or F) 

Friday 
Build and paint all day! 
20 Jay Street, Brooklyn (A or F) 

Saturday 
1pm - Battery Park 
Participation and Info Meet Up! 
Come by the park to take a look at the puppets, meet some of the 
people involved and let us know if and how you'd like to participate 
the day of Halloween!  We will have a few choreographers, make up 
artists and others there if you need some assistance organizing and in 
general want to hear your plans for the parade. 

Sunday 
1pm - Battery Park 
Rehearsals and Report Backs! 
People who want to be in the Superheroes v Supervillains morning event 
or want to be in the parade, come to the park so we can settle any 
last minute logistic questions and check in on the various projects 
culminating on Halloween. 

Monday - Halloween! 
9am - Superheroes v. Economic Supervillains 
Contact Gan at gangolan@gmail.com, for more details.  We will have 
costumed crusaders, such as the Master of Degrees, there to fight the 
social and political inequities of our system.  Watch for an all out 
battle and contact Gan if you want to participate! 

7:30pm - Parade! 
We will begin meeting for the parade!  Please get in touch for more 
details on where to meet and how the blocs will be arranged. 

Conact info:

General email - powertothepuppets@gmail.com 
Joe - loucrimson@yahoo.com 
Gan - gangolan@gmail.com 
Alma - wafflesushi@gmail.com

Occupy Halloween Flyers

AVAILABLE SOON IN THE OCCUPENNIAL OCCUGANDA DOWNLOADS SECTION

BETA Statement for Review: On the AS/TAS Intervention at 38 Greene St.

We of #OWS Arts and Culture working group are dedicated to the use of non-violent action to express our Constitutionally-assured right to peaceably assemble for the redress of grievances. #OWS Arts and Culture seeks to develop strong community relations with those who also care about the future of the 99%. That community includes arts organizations with long histories of 99%-supporting activities, like those practiced by Artists Space. The individuals who intervened there this weekend acted autonomously, with no connection to, support from, or consensus with #OWS.

NOTE: The above statement is in a BETA version until tomorrow's meeting of the NYCGA Arts and Culture Working Group Meeting (6PM at 60 Wall Street). We invite all to contribute input or feedback for this statement in the COMMENTS field below. Your responses will be added as addenda to the final document arrived at through consensus in the group. This statement was developed through an online discussion thread on the Arts and Culture Google Group, which is organized as a transparent, open membership. Eleven people contributed to the statement's formation over the course of several dozen emails, before the statement's posting for group consideration on the Occupennial Blog here, in advance of full discussion at the meeting tomorrow (October 24).

Occupy Halloween: How to participate

Occupy Wall St. has been invited to join the largest public halloween parade in the nation!

They are going to give us a great spot and support our participation in the parade. Occupation Accomplished!

Last year over 60,000 people showed up and it was widely covered in the media, both in NYC and globally. So it's up to us to show the world what our movement is about. The whole world is watching!

TIME:  5:00 pm Meet-up. Parade begins 6:30. 

LOCATION: Parade begins at Spring St. and 6th Ave. We will meet up nearby to gather our forces before we march. Check back soon for the exact location.

MARCH ORGANIZATION:

In line with our movement's principles, we are asking people to step forward and self-organize their own costume blocs. If you are more than 30 people or so, consider having your own banner. We will all march together in our own #OccupyHalloween section of the parade.

BLOCS

We encourage you to find others doing similar themes and connect, so you can work together as a bloc. You can also contact us at occupyhalloween@gmail.com so we can help support you in this. 

Themed Blocs may include...

Wall St. Zombie Bloc

Corporate Vampire Bloc

Superhero Bloc

V-mask Bloc

Music Blocs (Marching bands, drummers, etcs)

Or whatever you want to do!

FREE FOR ALL SECTION

For those of us who do not have a bloc, we will all be marching together in the giant "Free for All' section. That will probably be most of us. Let's make it huge!

A NOTE ON MESSAGING

This is not only a chance to celebrate (which we deserve!) but also an amazing opportunity to express our message to the larger public, both in NYC and the entire world. So consider taking the following costuming tips in order to maximize your message. 

PARTICIPATE

We still need help building puppets and costumes, as well as with materials and supplies. To join in, go here.

 

For much more information, please visit the Occupy Halloween website

Occupy Sotheby's!

Rally at Sotheby’s Thursday, Oct. 20 @ 1:30pm 1334 York Ave (b/w 71st & 72nd)
6 train to 68th St.-Hunter College
Leave directly from #OccupyWallSt!
Buses depart from Liberty Pl b/w Trinity and Broadway at 1 PM!

Things are peachy for the 1%. Sotheby’s made $680 million in 2010 and gave their CEO a 125% raise—he makes $60,000 a day. 

Not so for the 99%. Sotheby’s demanded concessions from their workers and then locked them out of work. The workers have been locked out for 11 weeks.

Come support the locked-out workers.
Tell the 1%: STOP CORPORATE GREED
Keep in touch with our campaign. Text 917-657-7890 with your email to get added to our mailing list and receive updates on where the campaign is going. 
Sponsored by OWS Labor Committee: owsnyclabor@gmail.com



OCCUPY MUSEUMS!

The game is up: we see through the pyramid schemes of the temples of cultural elitism controlled by the 1%. No longer will we, the artists of the 99%, allow ourselves to be tricked into accepting a corrupt hierarchical system based on false scarcity and propaganda concerning absurd elevation of one individual genius over another human being for the monetary gain of the elitest of elite. For the past decade and more, artists and art lovers have been the victims of the intense commercialization and co-optation or art. We recognize that art is for everyone, across all classes and cultures and communities. We believe that the Occupy Wall Street Movement will awaken a consciousness that art can bring people together rather than divide them apart as the art world does in our current time…

Let’s be clear. Recently, we have witnessed the absolute equation of art with capital. The members of museum boards mount shows by living or dead artists whom they collect like bundles of packaged debt. Shows mounted by museums are meant to inflate these markets. They are playing with the fire of the art historical cannon while seeing only dancing dollar signs. The wide acceptance of cultural authority of leading museums have made these beloved institutions into corrupt ratings agencies or investment banking houses- stamping their authority and approval on flimsy corporate art and fraudulent deals.

For the last few decades, voices of dissent have been silenced by a fearful survivalist atmosphere and the hush hush of BIG money. To really critique institutions, to raise one’s voice about the disgusting excessive parties and spectacularly out of touch auctions of the art world while the rest of the country suffers and tightens its belt was widely considered to be bitter, angry, uncool. Such a critic was a sore loser. It is time to end that silence not in bitterness, but in strength and love! Because the occupation has already begun and the creativity and power of the people has awoken! The Occupywallstreet Movement will bring forth an era of new art, true experimentation outside the narrow parameters set by the market. Museums, open your mind and your heart! Art is for everyone! The people are at your door!

Dear Occupiers,

Since I posted Occupy Museums yesterday on FB, it's going quite viral on the internet. There is lots of discussion about what it means, whether it's a good idea what museums are doing for the 99% and the 1%.

These discussions, I feel, are really good ones to be having in the context of Occupy Wall Street, because this movement is about changing how we do things in this country from finance to culture- moving away from a culture that mainly benefits the 1%

I'll need help in planning this action tomorrow. Since it was supported by the A & C, I'd like to make sure that this action comes from the heart of our movement. Who would like to be a part of the historic first Occupation of MoMA of 2011?

My idea is that artist and everyone occupies museums together, bringing your artworks as well as OWS signs in protest. I'll bring my coin mask for example. We meet at 3:00 at 60 wall street for a short teach-in, then head over to touch base with the park, maybe doing a people's mic to get more peopleto join us.  Once at the Museums, we'll have a short GA with an opening statement, then people can get on stack and speak out their mind using people's mic.

Here are things we'll need:

-a one page info sheet about how museums generally and the ones we are going to specifically are pyramid schemes of the 1%  Paul- you wrote an email that has lots of info..I have turned it into a shared google Doc called Occupy Museums-someone to handle the twitter feed-OWS press -everyone bring a piece of their art to proudly display

Day 1: Revised  Schedule:

3:00 Meet at Liberty Park

Teach-in about the museums we are going to occupy

4:30 Livestream- read document in front of 5000 viewers.

Occupy the 4 train

5:00 Occupy MoMA

hours: 10:30-5:30

11 W 53^rd street New York, NY

Occupy the M3 Bus

6:00 Occupy Frick Collection

hours: 10:00-6 PM       

1 East 70th Street, New York, NY

Occupy the 6 train

7:00 Occupy New Museum

Thursdays 6-8 free 

235 bowery



Occupy Museums!

On Wed, Oct 12, 2011 at 1:15 PM, Noah Fischer <fischer.noah@gmail.com> wrote:

Occupy Museums!

Let’s dance in front of the Cannons

and tell the cultural pyramids:

You are NOT our MoMA!

I know that many people have been thinking in this direction and I’d like to add my voice.  It just might be time to band together And do some museum hopping! We'll state loud and clear and publically that the game is up: we see through the pyramid schemes that museums have set up whereby the 1% sit on boards and presume to speak with cultural authority while increasing the profit margins of their private collections. They have disempowering the hundreds of thousands of living artists - the 99% through rarified gatekeeping that has directly equated art with Wall Street capital- with all of the same shady business and BS hierarchy!!!  

As long as we accept the authority of these oppressive cannons, I’m not sure we can move forward with new aesthetics and movements:  art that is truly by and for everyone!  Art that isn’t rehashed and boring and pre-packaged and dead on arrival! Art that is alive! Art that is powerful! I think it would be wonderful to give the museums notice of the impending paradigm shift. Some serious truth to power, playfulness, and mockery is in order!

-Explaining Art to a Dead Museum.

-Reading the GA statement or A & C statement or autonomous statements in front of the Frick, using people’s mic.

-etc etc.

-etc. 

There are many museum nights in New York with long lines, which may be fruitful audiences. We can also go inside and play.

So I propose Occupy Museums next week- Thursday afternoon and evening. I’ll bring this up at an A & C meeting beforehand.

A couple Museums to Occupy:

-New Museum: Showcased Dakis Joannou’s personal collection, bumping up auction prices: use and abuse of the whole concept of “public” for personal profits. Dis-gusting!

-Frick Collection: dedicated to a long term PR campaign for the one of the “Worst American CEOs of All time.” Whose draconian policies included murdering workers striking against unhuman working conditions. We say- what the Frick is going on here! 

It’s easy to do research on these museums and who is standing behind them:

http://www.moma.org/about/trustees

Noah



The Skadden Protest - The Beef

Your Name: Jason Flores-Williams
Your Email: Jasonflores_williams@hotmail.com
Subject: The Skadden Protest - The Beef
Message: Hi - I'm seeking artists to help me with visuals on this. Thanks, Jason

I'm closing down the law firm here in Santa Fe for a week and flying out to NYC on Thursday the 13th to sleep five days at Z park and write about Occupy Wall Street for the Brooklyn Rail.

I won't describe the following as a "protest" as much as it is a Personal Beef. But it's got to get done. Basically, we're gonna get it on cuz we don't get along.

The one group that's gotten a free pass in all of this is the corporate lawyers. These bastards made billions of dollars in billable hours off the direct infliction on pain, suffering and humiliation of the middle classes and the working poor. These guys were the true bullies. I saw it day after day in court - these lawyers pounding people into the ground with incompreheinsible motions, arguments, legal tricks without any concern for the ethics, morality or basic human decency. They were arrogant while they took people's homes, destroyed families and ripped apart lives. I wrote an article about it that ran here in SF and in the Rail and in a couple other spots:

http://www.santafenewmexican.com/LocalColumnsViewpoints/My-View--Jason-Flores-Williams-Law-firms-took-advantage-of-hous

And of all the law firms in American who act as the thug enforcers for Wall Street, it is Skadden Arps in Manhattan that is the ne plus ultra of nerd bullydom. I have friends from law school who work there who are nice people one on one, but who in the end are part of a legal machine that destroys human beings and maintains a system of sickening injustice.

I have duked it out with these bastards again and again, trying to keep people from being thrown out onto the streets. But in the end, when BofA is paying these guys $650 an hour to drown the court in paperwork and I'm standing there for free, there's just no way to keep up. It's starting off the game down 55 to nothing.

So, on Friday the 14th at 11:00 am, I am going to the Skadden Arps headquarters in Times Square and let me them know that one little small timer from NM knows how disgusting they are. I'm going to read a variation of that piece, another piece, and then deliver the closing argument that I always wanted to hit them with, but could never get to because they would always win on procedural grounds and summary judgment. I'm going to stand in front of their main doors and let them have it, then get back to Z Park. Here's where they are:

http://www.skadden.com/index.cfm?contentID=49&officeID=1

If you can make it, it's always better to be with people - and we'll go for scones after.

Jason Flores-Williams, Esq.

Nb. I wrote this in the past tense, but the foreclosures and insane debt collections and law suits for attorneys fees are happening with even greater ferocity today.



Update: LAF/#OWS/Occupennial

[From Sally]

...

As far as the Living as Form installation, it is really still in the works and I think a full explanation and images will be more effective after it is activated by the public, which will hopefully happen today and tomorrow.

Basically, yesterday Nicole and I found some of that orange netting we were talking about and installed it on a wall in the exhibition space. We then got a bunch of cardboard and set up a sign making station on the floor in front of the netting on the wall. We could only find some crappy drug-store paint and only painted one sign to encourage others to do so as well. Today a CT intern is going to go purchase some better paint/brushes and also get some larger pieces of cardboard and maybe some sticks to attach to the signs. She is also printing up some images that she has taken down at OWS and is printing them to attach to the orange netting to provide context to the signs.

On Sunday in the space, there will be an event  led by the activist Reverend Billy (http://www.revbilly.com/ ) that (I believe) will conclude in a walk down to OWS. We are going to tell him to encourage people to make signs and to take the ones made in the space today, tomorrow, and sunday with them as well.

So that is where things are at at LAF. I am hoping today the installation will get activated, and good images and a more cohesive blurb will follow. I think it is important to see how it is functioning in the space before we really write or document anything.

Also, we can really print any images or articles about OWS and attach them to the netting. Is there anything that you all think needs to be on there for sure? Do we want any thing specifically about the occupenial and how to get involved represented in any way? Again, this installation is not meant to take activity that should be happening down at Liberty Plaza away from the movement. Hopefully it will encourage more people who are not already there to get involved, create signs, and physically bring them (and themselves!) down to liberty plaza to put their messages into action. 

Ok, more soon!

#OWS/occupennial @Living As Form Exhibit Now

The "Living As Form" site is HERE, if you need more information (directions, etc) on how to get to and what's going on at the Essex Street expo.

From "A Curator"

Sotheby's has locked out workers in the context of immense corporate profits. Details can be gleaned elsewhere.

I find myself working with Sothebys in my job, and am disturbed to know I am doing business with an anti-labor organization.

I would respond favorably to a challenge to propgressive sellers of art (collectors, museums and galleries) to insist that a portion of the premiums Sotheby's collects in auctions be redirected to the Teamsters or AFL/CIO. This can be insisted upon in giving consignments. If an entity usually pays 5% sellers premium, they can now insist that 2% of the 5% goes to AFLCIO. Or they can negotiate a lower premium and send the difference themselves. Given that Christies will usually match Sotheby's negotiated terms  in order to get
consignments, Sotheby's will lose consignments, or lose cash.

I am not in a position to PROPOSE this idea, but I am in a position to RESPOND to it if some individual or group can begin it.

Contacting high-level collectors might result in a much better response than you imagine. Many of them are real progressives....

Performance Opportunity for Monday, October 10

[From Chris]

Monday Morning Perp Walk

People are needed for a street theater performance & march on Monday morning. I am hoping to get people who could pass for bankers.

*If you can't pass for a banker it will not be as effective* although everyone is welcome, men, women, people of color, LBGT, non-gender identified, etc.

Hopefully you have a dress shirt that is either blue or white and a tie of any color. The point is to march a group of Wall Street types around like they have been arrested. Please contact me for details as this performance is meant to address VERY SPECIFIC issues about our lack of clear messages.

 

chris cobb

413-652-8250

#OccupyWallStreet at Creative Time's "Living As Form" Exhibit

On Thursday, October 5, Occupy Wall Street will participate in the Living As Form expo at its Essex Street location. More details TBA.

Nato Thompson of Creative Time posted this essay, "The Occupation of Wall Street Across Time and Space" at the European Institute for Progressive Cultural Studies website. He writes:

The occupation of Wall Street continues with vast alacrity and momentum. What began as an AdBusters’ call to accountability has captured a reservoir of frustration and inequity moving across the United States and beyond. Here in New York City, this particular moment defies easy categorization or analysis as it continues to move in directions that defy previous expectations and critiques. The occupation is ever in flux. Nonetheless, as the occupation (and numerous planned and spontaneous marches) heads into its three weeks amidst a fairly extensive media blackout in the United States, the movement is clearly heading into a different organizational and theoretical manifestation.

On his Dark Matter blog, Greg Sholette interviewed Nato, and the convergence of Living As Form and OWS was one of the topics they discussed:

Greg: And just one quick follow up Nato, as you know the Wall Street occupation emerged simultaneously with Living as Form and I see you and others involved in the art event made it a point to go down to Liberty Plaza and get directly involved in it. Perhaps its too soon to ask this, but do you see this as another link to the Summit and the exhibition, or as something more integral to their spirit, and therefore capable of playing a transformative role of some sort for social practice art going forwards?

Nato: I wouldn’t want to place too much emphasis on the spontaneous walk down to the occupation as frankly, it was the only reasonable thing to do. Participating in existing social movements is critical for anyone alive today let alone socially engaged artists. I mean, lets face it, having this occupation at the same time of the exhibition and summit was something that is hard to ignore. It has been an extremely poetic convergence and I am glad that even a hand full of folks have gathered down there and are now working to add what they can to the movement. That said, we could certainly use more help. If you are interested in joining the ranks down there, this is your invitation (I am speaking to the readers). Just walk down to Liberty Plaza, go to the info desk and ask how you can plug in. The more, the merrier.