Projects - 2013

This page features art projects,

both individual and collaborative, by young artists around the world.

You are welcome to submit a project for publication!
  • ‘Generation Balotelli’
    |   by EAS   

    A photographic ethnography of second generation African-Italian immigrants by EAS artist Sydney Lowe.

    "I was drawn to photography, initially, as a means of documentation. I have always been acutely aware that my reality as an African American woman was not the one reflected in popular movies, in television and photography. Historically, black women have frequently been assigned stereotypical visual repertories around the world, which upon closer inspection do not even begin to touch upon their true dynamic complexity.

    When I was 18, I decided to make my own images, and therefore, my own definitions. I wanted to capture the faces of the women of color who existed so strongly in my world, but were practically unrecorded everywhere else. There is immense power in seeing someone who looks like you reflected in the pages of a magazine or on white museum walls—your existence as a worthy component of the human race is validated. This continues to be one of the main driving forces in much of my work: these women continue to be my muses.

    In the past few years my photographic narratives have expanded beyond American borders. During my six months’ stay in Bologna, Italy in 2012, I began to formally consider blackness internationally. Especially in regards to the highly controversial influx of African immigrants to an overwhelmingly white Italy, I found myself fascinated with a community of second-generation African-Italian immigrant girls. Their very existence as Black Italians challenges an outdated and changing national identity.

    This ongoing photographic project of mine is one which strives to bear witness to their beauty, their identity forming processes and truly unique coming of age experiences. My hope is that my project, based in visual ethnography, will provide powerful, honest and new lenses through which their strength, struggles and character shine."

    Sydney Lowe is a recent graduate of Wesleyan University and currently lives in Brooklyn, New York.

  • How Context Changes the Art Experience
    |   by Jacob Canter   

    Reed College | Portland, Oregon

    Emergent Art Space’s inaugural exhibit, last June in San Francisco, Crossing Borders, put the viewer both in direct physical contact with the art and with fellow viewers. As EAS grows and exhibitions continue, this opportunity for interpersonal interaction and dialogue about the art will become more regular.

    The social sciences help us understand these encounters.[1] The responses are even more predictable in a context, that of the art world, often understood as elitist. When you or I are in a gallery, or a museum, these phenomena will motivate certain discourse and check other.

     Let’s consider how psychological and social phenomenacause discussions to go unspoken.[2] Or, put more plainly, let’s consider how our feelings make us silent. This interests me because EAS provides an alternative social space to view the art—where the social pressures and motivations have a different effect on us. I, of course, am referring to the Internet. This enables, I think, a viewing of art that, at the immediate moment of exposure, is more private than what is available in the gallery. This is the critical moment because, I think, it is when our schematic approach crystallizes. Our framework for understanding the art is determined in this instance. What are the effects on the non-discourse, on the public silence, when we first consider the art in this alternate setting that manifests this alternate schematic approach?

    I have no answer, but I have a guess. Or rather, I have a hope—which probably exists only because I find the elitism and pretension of the art world super lame. When alone in front of the computer screen, our initial schemata for experiencing the art (again, the way we immediately consider the art) will constitute itself differently than when we view the art in a gallery or a museum, together with other people.  A framework for understanding the art will thus manifest that mirrors our framework for understanding other things we see on the Internet.

    Of course, the Internet is also a social setting with its own experiential consequences, but it is perhaps also more welcoming than what is available in the art world. Think about how you react to a YouTube video, compared to how you and your friends react to a painting that hangs in a gallery. Think about what is available for you to react with.

    My independent variables: what the viewer says while initially viewing the artwork in the non-social settings. My dependent variables: what the viewer does not say in the gallery.  This is a hypothesis about (a) the significance of first impressions and schemas, and (b) the disruptive effect of new sites of discourse. It envisions a world where we talk about art, unencumbered.'

    [1] A more developed analysis would enumerate these psycho-social responses. Brevity precludes any decent attempt at justification, but I’m considering, among others: social identity theory, confirmation bias, and theories of social obedience.

    [2] This line of argument is inspired by Michel Foucault’s The History of Sexuality.

    __________________________________

    Jacob Canter is a Social Science student at Reed College, Portland, Oregon. In this piece he explores some of the differences between looking at art in person and looking at art on the Internet. What we see is always affected by the context in which we see it, by the way the “first impressions” become the framework through which we see. When we look at art in a gallery, or museum, Jacob’s claim, the social setting allows certain responses, and precludes others. When we look at art on the Internet, instead, no such social conditioning constrains our responses.

    comments are welcome!

  • Scribble It Down | 2013
    |   by EAS   

    EAS artist Einat Moglad worked with international young artists to initiate a collaborative, digital project. Each artist contributed to a single Photoshop file, producing a final work that displays each of the artist's styles.   

    Curatorial Statement

    Scribble it Down is an experimental project featuring a new and unique collaborative effort between young artists working together although geographically distant.

    Scribble it Down fuses various elements of today's digital capabilities. Technological developments today are changing the ways people engage in dialogue, becoming essential for both information and social contact. The  concept of sharing images and ideas, to gather people around mutual interests, has become relevant to every aspect of the contemporary age.

    The "global village" is now a reality. People find themselves closer to one another with little boundaries in communication and a common frame of mind (technology being the unifying paradigm). "Scribble it Down" merges digital communication trends with traditional art and creation processes. It creates an artistic dialogue via the digital media, connecting and fostering collaboration among artists. It gives an opportunity to ‘scribble down’ our ideas while remaining open minded and receptive to others’ input and contributions.  It uses the strength of the group to grow and allow art to expand.
    The digital era is giving birth to new ways of creating. Computer programs, new file and communication formats, enhanced storage capabilities, and better visual detailing are expanding the visual. It is giving birth to a new type of artist, who takes advantage of these new tools for artistic expression.

    The presentation of this project is an invitation to the viewer to see artists embrace the freedom provided by the digital medium. It is an exploration into how the digital world, with its multitude of memes and imagery folklore, can find coherence and produce provoking works of art.

    Participating Artists :

    Anita RodrĂ­guez | Stratton, Colorado USA

    Brianna Lea Pruett | Placerville, California

    Jason A Katzenstein | Los Angeles, California

    Jon Delgado | London, England

    Gall Yanay Orian | Tel Aviv, Israel

    Dorit Stern | Ramat Gan, Israel

    Inbal Hoffman | Tel Aviv, Israel

    Harel Menacheml | Herzelia, Israel

    Idan Lightman | Tel Aviv, Israel

     

    READ MORE | PROJECT GALLERY

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