CO-OP at b.j. spoke Gallery [Opening Reception, 9/8 report-back]

Photo Credit: Katherine Criss

Saturday, September 8 marked the opening of CO-OP in Huntington, Long Island at the venerable b.j. spoke gallery. CO-OP is the Occupy with Art experimental collective project to integrate the 99% art economy with the cooperative food economy. Many of the bj spoke artists in the front and back galleries displayed powerful political artworks for the exhibit. True to Occupy form, we started the evening with street protest, thanks to Occupy Huntington. The good people of Occupy Storefront contributed a couple of last minute entries to our exhibition component, which added a lot of color to the array. The food spread and beverages were terrific, shared by the bj spoke artist community, the OwA participants (Chris baked a great pie and tarts) and our generous sponsors, Blind Bat Brewery. We had a terrific crowd for the reception, starting before the door opened at 6pm and continuing well into the evening. At 7pm, I made a performance art, throwing darts at my portrait of Mayor Bloomberg. It was a hit (actually all of them were)! Then, Chris and I gave brief talks about the project and Occupy with Art. Thank you to all who contributed to what was a wonderful evening of sharing art, convivials + passionate resistance and/or creative insistence. Special thanks goes to Marilyn Lavi, bj spoke director, Katherine Criss, and the bjs crews and committees who were vital in the actualization of this worthy collaborative project. Artist-owned and operated co-operative businesses are essential in a healthy arts ecology, and bj spoke is a great example and demonstration of that fact! - PJM

CO-OP at b.j. spoke Gallery [TONIGHT!]

Occupy with Art and B.J. Spoke Gallery in Huntington, Long Island are pleased to announce the launch of CO-OP, an experimental collective art exhibit and exchange, on view from September 5-30, 2012. A reception will be held at the gallery on Saturday, September 8, from 6-8 PM. CO-OP will feature an array of OWS photos by Steve O'Byrne, works on paper by Konstant and Isaac Moylan, and 4D animations, paintings and multimedia pieces by Paul McLean. CO-OP will introduce a model gift-barter of art for food, prototyping the direct integration of the local art and cooperative food networks. 

Konstant

Exhibition: September 5-30, 2012

Opening Reception: Saturday, September 8, 2012 6-9PM

B. J. Spoke Gallery

299 Main St  Huntington, NY 11743

Gallery hours are Tuesday-Sunday 11-5 and Friday 11-9.

Phone: (631) 549-5106

Contact: Marilyn Lavi: manager@bjspokegallery.com

Website: http://www.bjspokegallery.com

Directions: 495 to exit 39N; Glen Cove Rd. north to 25A east; 25a about 14 miles to Huntington Village. Main St. is part of 25A.

Occupy with Art

Website: http://www.occupywithart.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/occupywithart

Co-organizers: Paul McLean [artforhumans@gmail.com + (615)491-7285] & Christopher Moylan [cmoylanc@gmail.com + (347)512-0833]

• Download the CO-OP book HERE.
• Download the CO-OP stencil HERE.
• See the CO-OP photoset HERE.
• Paul McLean's new essay for the Brooklyn Rail, "WTF America!"
• Steve O'Byrne's OWS photos at Flickr.

CO-OP installation view at bj spoke gallery.[EXHIBIT CONCEPT, NARRATIVE and DESCRIPTION]

CO-OP/Occuburbs/Occufest began in December 2011 as an Occupy with Art (OwA) initiative to bridge the apparent divide between Occupy Wall Street and artist-activists living in the suburbs of New York City - specifically, those who make Long Island their home. OwA co-organizers Paul McLean and Christopher Moylan, a Long Island-based educator, artist, poet and Occupier, discussed a range of measures they hoped might activate and unite Occupy with those sympathetic to the movement in Long Island, measures that included community-building cultural events and art exhibitions, in addition to mobilizing or organizing efforts. In so doing McLean and Moylan hoped to model innovative programs for sustainable, alternative art economies for the 99%, and to inspire those who engaged in activism in the past several decades to get involved with OWS actions, now. 

Drawing from Moylan's experience in co-operative food networks, the co-organizers developed the CO-OP concept into an exhibition with an art and food exchange component. Through the CO-OP exchange, OwA is developing a simple template for in-kind or barter-based markets that will help artists become more integrated in communities that lack accessible or available retail infrastructure for affordable art. After a search and inquiry phase, McLean and Moylan, found great partner organizations in Huntington - The Cinema Arts Centre, which hosted an OwA screening program on July 25th featuring the films of Liza Bear, and B.J. Spoke, a member-supported gallery with deep roots in Long Island, dating to the 70s.    

Moylan and McLean have written essays to platform the issues underpinning CO-OP, which have either been published in The Brooklyn Rail or the Occupy with Art blog. These include Moylan's CO-OP/Occuburbs/Occufest series, McLean's "ENOUGH [BASTA]!" and, more generally, McLean's "Soul of Occupy" sequence, which maps the sometimes (for the author) discomfiting parameters and expectations for art situated in the OWS protest movement, in its initial anarchic emergent state. 

[ABOUT OCCUPY WITH ART]

The CO-OP production builds on OwA programs and initiatives, such as "Occupy Printed Matter," OwA's collaboration with Yoko Ono entitled "Wish Tree for Zuccotti Park," the Spatial Occupation at Hyperallergic, "Wall Street to Main Street," "Low Lives: Occupy!" and the soon-to-open Occupational Art School Node #1 at Bat Haus in Bushwick, Brooklyn, NYC. Occupy with Art was founded in late September as Occupennial, and until recently existed as an affinity group for the Arts & Culture Working Group of the New York City General Assembly for Occupy Wall Street. Over the past ten months, OwA has operated in constant transition, serving initially as a nexus for communications and documentation of OWS-related arts and culture, then shifting into production and program development. Over its brief life span OwA has generated many opportunities for Occupy artists to share ideas and work, facilitated important discourse on the disposition of art and artists in the Occupation, and presented diverse programming exploring a spectrum of meaningful creative action. 

 

[CO-OP]: @b.j. spoke Gallery [BETA][Draft]

Image by Paul McLeanCO-OP at b.j. spoke gallery
by Paul McLean
Co-organizer, Occupy with Art

1

A half-block from the intersection of Wall Street and Main Street in Huntington, Long Island, you'll find b.j. spoke gallery. Here's its history, from the gallery website:

>>
b. j. spoke gallery, incorporated and not-for-profit, is an artist-run gallery of professional artists with a broad diversification of styles and media.

April 1990 marked the inaugural show of two newly merged Long Island cooperative galleries, Northport Galleries and B. J. Spoke Gallery.

Spoke Gallery began in 1976 at a Port Washington site and later moved to neighboring Sea Cliff, New York. In 1980 Northport Galleries was established in Northport and seven years later moved to Huntington, NY.

Because of the ongoing friendship of the two galleries, the idea of a merger was enthusiastically accepted in 1990 by both memberships.
<<

2

b.j. spoke is divided into three areas. Occupy with Art in September of 2012 will present CO-OP in b.j. spokes' central gallery. Our location within the brackets of the other two galleries, which will show member artists, reflects OwA's desire to support the mission of this important Long Island art organization, which has long advocated partnership between the artist and public as an "essential relationship."

Since the first exhibit OwA facilitated, "Occupy Printed Matter," in 2011, Occupy with Art has sought to establish bridges between Occupy Wall Street's artist activism and the artist activism that has emerged since the 70s in New York, and around the world. In "Wall Street to Main Street," for example, we partnered with renowned curator Geno Rodriquez, founder and former director of the Alternative Museum. OwA worked with Yoko Ono to manifest her project in support of OWS, "Wish Tree for Zuccotti Park." Now, with CO-OP, we are calling attention to the important contributions of artist-operated non-profits like b.j. spoke in providing important venues for underserved artist communities in areas outside major retail art markets. b.j. spoke and galleries like it have done great service to the 99% art world and the people for whom art is more than a luxury item or vehicle for speculation.

3

CO-OP is a dimensional art project. CO-OP is first and foremost a small collective show, an exhibit, as such. It is a template or model for occupational art practice, demonstrating one way that Occupy artists can partner with pre-existing arts organizations as an expression of solidarity. among 99% artists and our communities. CO-OP is a conceptual project, in which we will link co-operative food networks and artists within the medium of gift exchange for mutual aid and benefits.

4

Conceptual art typically requires an explanation for the viewer to engage the artwork or process fully. Concept, or idea art, is often meant to start conversations. OWS, which has started or re-started many important conversations, has itself been described in terms of art. CO-OP is meant to start conversations about sustainable art and artist economies for the 99%. OwA co-organizers are drawing on the successful history of co-operative food networks, as inspiration for propositions about new methods of exchange for art.

To summarize what has been a discussion spanning many months, OwA will partner with the Huntington food co-op (OwA co-organizer and Huntington resident Chris Moylan is one of the owners) to intertwine the exchange of art for co-op members, with the exchange of food for artists (or money, as a default or swap). Our art for food exchange, in this initial attempt, is rudimentary: the values are based on 1 to 1 ratios. An artwork valued at $20 can be exchanged for $20 worth of food. Huntington co-op members will be invited to select art and the artists will select food items for straight barter.

We will consider variations on the exchange (enthusiastically). The paper bags installed in the space with the art work are included primarily as symbols and signs of our micro-economy. CO-OP permits contemporary art to enter the consumer portable sector of the cultural economy, for which the brown paper bag has long been a staple. However, you'll see that our shopping bags are not exactly like those branded types a shopper fills with goods in SOHO, for example.

Gallery visitors are welcome to purchase art exhibited by CO-OP artists at full retail prices. b.j. spoke artists' work will not be included in this iteration of CO-OP, which is being conducted as a test of the process, essentially. CO-OP is also meant to raise awareness of local alternatives to the global art markets of Chelsea, for example, or the international art fair circuits.

We hope you enjoy CO-OP. Please don't hesitate to contact us with questions or feedback.

artforhumans [at] gmail [dot] com


CO-OP at B.J. Spoke Gallery [Selected Images]

Isaac Moylan, "Wolves Bite Pig"

Konstant, "UNTITLED"

Paul McLean, "STATE 8"

SAVE THE DATE: CO-OP at B.J. Spoke Gallery [9/5-30/2012][Opening Reception 9/9 from 6-8PM]

CO-OP/Occufest, OCCUPY: "Corporations Can't Cry at CAC"

Crowd on hand for the screening of Liza Bear's "Corporations Can't Cry" at Cinema Arts Centre in Huntington, LI

It was a special evening, thanks to the contributions of many people, and the hospitality of Cinema Arts Centre staff and admin. Chris Moylan, Occupy with Art co-organizer, did much of the heavy lifting in coordinating the events, which included the screening of "Corporations Can't Cry" in the big theater (which was nearly packed), a brief Q&A with filmmaker and longtime artist-activist-filmmaker-writer Liza Bear, followed by a mixer with food, free art, music and poetry, and a roster of activist organizers presenting information on their activities. Special thanks to Dylan, Charlotte, Brian, the Occupy Screenprinters, and all the other good people who made our first CO-OP/Occuburbs festival a memorable one. 

Occufest at the CAC Skyroom, post-screening.Another view of the Occufest audience, as the band plays on at CAC.

CO-OP/Occufest Flyer [b/w]

Free flyer download (8.5" x 11" 300dpi 1.9mb GS) HERE:

• http://artforhumans.com/co-op/occufest-flyer2-bw-op.tif

CO-OP/Occufest Flyer

Download a printable flyer (8.5"x11" 300dpi TIF 18.5mb) HERE.

Occufest, Part II: Spread the News

By Christopher Moylan

The contraction of Occupy Wall Street after the police stormed Liberty Square was to be expected, but with the return of longer days and warmer weather something peculiar happened. The movement remained in a dark chill while everyone else walked about in shorts and short sleeves complaining of the unnatural heat. Activists came back to the streets, the energy at demonstrations returned, yet little of this was reported in the news. For all anyone in the greater world knew, Occupy was dead.

To those who took part in the Million Hoodie March or the demonstration against police brutality, it was obvious that this media silence resulted from the collusion of forces more imposing than those of the editorial staff of Eyewitness News or, for that matter, The New York Times.  The police mobilizations at each protest were too large, the disruptions of traffic and business the protesters caused were too widespread and dramatic, the arrests too violent and arbitrary for all this to be too trivial for comment. If thousands marching down Fifth Avenue on a Tuesday evening rush hour could not draw attention, then what would it take?



Perhaps this is the wrong question. For one thing, it is obvious what it would take to grab the attention of corporate news: mass arrests, violence, smashed shop windows and burning cars. If Occupy activists allow the police and their corporate/political sponsors to write the narrative that would discredit the movement, then the narrative would receive plenty of attention. That could happen, but let’s hope it doesn’t.  So, isn’t this the question; if one could write an Occupy-related lead story for The Times, what would it say? Better yet, if it were possible to hold the attention of one disinterested person for a while—half an hour or an hour—what would one say? What would one hope to accomplish?

Click to read more ...

The Festival of Reason, the art of Common Sense

Graphic by Paul McLean

[NOTE: The following supporting text is the second part of a two-part essay by Chris Moylan for the OwA collab "CO-OP|occuburbs," slated for 2012 in Huntington, NY]; in this project we will be envisioning alternate art economies, inspired by the co-operative food and farm networks. Our point of origination as locus is the suburban (American) community, although we hope the applications can extend beyond that start-point.]

The Festival of Reason, the art of Common Sense

By Christopher Moylan

Plans are underway for an Occupy arts festival in the suburbs: Occufest in the Occuburbs. The initial contacts with different cultural organizations have been promising. People are enthusiastic; there are promises of space and other resources. Over and again, however, certain questions arise; what is this—the festival and Occupy Wall street-- about? What is the connection between Occupy Wall Street and the arts? What point would a festival make? What would it do?

One response is to turn such questions back on the person asking them; what does the Occupy movement mean to you? What kind of connection would you like to see between the arts and the Occupy movement? What point would you want such a festival to make? That kind of exchange tends to go only so far. People are asking for information and background, not for a daily dose of empowerment. To be fair, however, the Occupy movement has received a good deal of publicity and news attention; one would expect that most people would be familiar with the movement and what it is attempting to do. The discussion, then, probably has more to do with expectations based on personal history rather than with social policy or aesthetics.

 The subtext of such questions seems to be something like this; my experience with politics has been disillusioning, will this be any different? And, my experience with art --as in paintings, sculpture, installations, art in galleries--has been disappointing, and puzzling so will this be any better?

By way of attempting a constructive answer, one consistent with an inclusive Occupy spirit, the questions can be reframed to emphasize the central position of the .99 in everything that the movement does and attempts to do.

So, preliminary to discussing what an Occufest might be like, one might ask what does cultural democracy look like? Under what conditions might art for the .99 emerge, and how would we recognize such work if we saw it?

Click to read more ...