Currents

Writings by the emerging artist, Jackie Farkas.

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I participated in the Parking Lot Art fair, San Francisco's Rogue Art Happening on Saturday May 2nd, 2015, adjacent to the SF Art Market Fair. Parking Lot Art Fair was a renegade answer to the commercial fair Art Market San Francisco, taking place at the same time inside adjacent Fort Mason. The location was announced on their tumblr blog the night before. The event was organized and promoted by artists Jenny Sharaf and Emily Reynolds. Over 100 artists participated; all were welcome to partake, there was no fee to enter. There is a write up in SF Gate, click here for the article and more information on the details of the happening. The event came recommended by local reviewers at Curiously Direct.

My project was a free-standing 3D painting and scribble circle chair. Both were made from PVC structures, stretchy fabric (think of the artist Ernesto Neto), and acrylic Liquitex spray paints. I wanted to create a way to bring my 2D, flat work into public space and have it stand on its own support system, outside of the standard, white cube gallery architecture. I came up with the materials within a week and had a blast getting my materials together and sharing them the day of. www.jackiefarkas.com

I had a great time participating and mingling with artists at the fair. Next to me was Jacqueline Norheim, a fellow graduate M.F.A. candidate at Mills College receiving. She is primarily a painter, however her piece for this event was sculptural and participatory. She encouraged viewers to look at the sky and describe their experience of looking as a way of revealing the importance of nature and interaction between people. www.jacquelinenorheim.com

Across the way was Matthew Kirkhof. I loved his Keith Haring inspired car-branding project. He used the materials in a way that was graphic, eye-catching, and light-hearted. I had a chance to meet him at the fair, and discovered that he runs a project space in Vallejo called “loss in translation” that needs to be seen. www.matthewkerkhof.com

Simon Pyle shared two pieces, a banner and a performative project.  His banner displayed a photograph of a landscape which was rephotographed off of his iPhone’s screen. These create a half-toned pattern, a layer though which we see the landscape. This reveal barriers that exist as a result of technology. These filters color what we see via these screens, and by making these images, Simon’s work allows us to see connection and barriers to human perception.  

The artist also distributed “official receipts”, similar to the kind one would receive after making a purchase. These receipts he created stated, as witness, that “the holder of this receipt was indeed present.” I loved this project, it was a perfect critique of the art market fair and a reminder of what is truly important. www.simonpyle.com

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Jackie's painting "Pinnacles" will be featured in the 18th Annual New Generations Student Showcase at the de Young Museum. The exhibition is free and open to the public. The opening reception will occur in conjunction with "Friday Nights at the de Young", on April 11, 6-8:45pm. The artwork will be on display from April 11-13, save the date!

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My painting on the SFMOMA blog: http://sfmoma.tumblr.com/post/73635822334/submission-wing-jackie-farkas-oil-painting-on

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Picturesque

Below I've posted thoughts in relation to my own practice, quotes from Lance Wakeling's article from the online Art Journal The Highlights:

“The photographer,” wrote Susan Sontag, “is an armed version of the solitary walker reconnoitering, stalking, cruising the urban inferno, the voyeuristic stroller who discovers the city as a landscape of voluptuous extremes. Adept of the joys of watching, connoisseur of empathy, the flâneur finds the world ‘picturesque.’” There’s a certain pleasure in opening oneself to the fleeting tweaks of vision that transfigure otherwise banal mélanges into aesthetic reveries. Each found sculpture marks the point of multiple convergences, where the trajectories of the city’s detritus cross the photographer’s path. It’s the moment just before the objects recede into the grayness of entropy. In an attempt to record such a heightened aesthetic state, Garnett’s photographs grasp at these moments, but they do not preserve them. The ongoing series continues as an open stream of images, with each new arrival trumping the last, and they end as collections that outline a particular exercise of seeing, one that transforms the everyday into the sublime—if only ironically and beneath a patina of satire.

My own urban inferno shot:

From Joy Garnett's site, videos of her practice: unmonumental is an ongoing social media performance that generates and instantly shares photographs of ephemeral artifacts in the New York City streets. Five years running and comprising over 800 photographs, unmonumental has grown into a project of monumental proportions.

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My Art on Saatchi Online Gallery

http://www.saatchionline.com/jackief

Click to review, purchase a painting, or a print of my artwork

[topicstopicstopics]

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Reblog from my "Topics in Contemporary Art Class" write up assignment, enjoy!

Jackie’s Projections

Art Murmur | Johansson Projects - Friday Night

Last month of Jennie Ottinger's show "Members Only" 

Jennie Ottinger’s paintings illustrate the dynamic Art Murmur environment; Telegraph Ave. was swarming with crowds, these groups of people appear to be engaged with their community, and yet they are disconnected from the reality that surrounds them. The galleries and streets were packed. Over the years, Art Murmur has expanded, mushrooming into a vivid street festival, reminiscent of the worrisome yet vibrant the tones in Ottinger’s hazy, expressive paintings. Because of the popularity of the free, public event, there is not much focus on intimate social interaction or interaction with the art works, but quick glances and brief chance encounters are common. On First Fridays it is very easy to bump into someone you know or used to.

Important Projects - Saturday Night

Important Projects is an artist-run space, located in the well-lit, renovated attic of two SAIC alumni. This opening, I brought my former roommate, Meggie along, who kindly modeled for me in one of the pictures above (refer to the maraschino cherry). I notice the space attractedmany trendy young people, a few CCA graduates I recognized from past events. I personally felt comfortable and more at ease than at Art Murmur because I was with a demographic that hit closer to home—20 somethings hanging out in the setting of a small, casual house party, with a bit of art mixed in. Upon entering the home, Meggie and I were served drinks by one of the artists—the mix was celery juice, gin, and a bit of sweet liquor. After our cocktail, we made our way up the narrow staircase surrounded by chatter and crunchy steps. Once we made it through the cramped passageway, we arrived in an open and brightly illuminated art space. Within this space,  I felt how art is the beginning of a conversation, the lubrication for human connection, understanding, and good times…

Gallery II - Luis Miguel Bendaña

Our first stop was into Gallery II and we were silenced by Miguel’s simple, yet powerful work. The work featured were machine knits stretched over canvas, evoked the sensuousness of ripped tights with sophistication. These knits were warped and manipulated, forming a new dimension of op art patterns.  Each work had the aura of confident vulnerability—other pieces displayed included an enamel painted sculpey sculpture of a maraschino cherry, vivid, life sized, and proudly taking center stage on the gallery’s fireplace mantel. To the left of the cherry, pale pink canvas drooped over the windows of the space, blocking out any natural light.  Adjacent, a piece titled “Despair En Route to the Opera” made from materials acrylic, enamel, and liquid latex on chiffon, displayed the raised traces of opera masks of tragedy and comedy, backed by a light blue layer of acrylic, blocked out by a rectangular black wash. What ties these works together is the tension between the initial essence of the material and the process of covering, blocking, or filtering this information in some way. Whether it be a black wash, a warped knit, or a canvas window covering, it brings about the idea of process in communication and understanding of one another. There are barriers that result in the manufacturing of an image for display, and in communication a prejudice from the receiver can arise, creating darkness rather than illumination. Bendaña’s works reveal these flaws and intriguing features of the nature of perception, illusion, and subjectivity, leaving us yearning for understanding.

Gallery I - Ian Dolton-Thorton

The second, and last encounter with works of art for weekend were Ian Dolton-Thorton’s installation in Gallery I. Ian’s piece traced the corners of the gallery space with colorful, free spirited, and raw paint markings. These vivid, saturated, and simplistic lines stated to me perfection in its imperfection. Thorton’s installation felt like a fulfillment of all the times I planned to finger paint on the walls of my family’s living room as a kid, but mom twarted my fantasy. To me, this piece is a statement of refined freedom, innocence, and play. It’s satisfying to know that this seemingly rebellious and toxic act has found it’s rightful place in this gallery space. The choice of placement in the corner’s of the space help to orient the viewer , make one aware of one’s body, and hint at the possibilities that lie in the in-between spaces. 

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Big, Bright and Bold Collection

My artwork was featured in a collection "Big, Bright, and Bold" through Saatchi Online Gallery, curated by Rebecca Wilson, a director at the Saatchi Gallery in London. Check it out here!

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new paintings, in Worth Ryder Art Gallery till May 11.

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Response to Peter Halley’s Collected Essays

5/5/2013

Peter Halley’s Collected Essays 1981-1987 reviews the histories of art, its developments and influences after the mid-twentieth century. I appreciated the quote “Knowledge may be doubt and doubt may be light, the reality of disillusionment may also offer the possibility of transcendence.”

His text is filled with factual contradictions that are captivating and fascinating, sweeping claims about the past. He relates influences of World War II to the Abstract Expressionist task of inventing meaning and morality, revealing possible actions and decisions a human being stripped of his social role can undertake.

In an essay titled “Crisis in Geometry,” Halley relates this to the crisis of the signified, meaning that this is a crisis questioning, what is geometry’s purpose? Why is it accepted? Why are we obsessed with it? Much of the artist’s own obsession is with Robert Smithson’s drawings, which he relates to as a critique of Michel Foucault’s “Discipline and Punish.” In these renderings, Smithson is “able to transform geometric monuments of enlightenment into sadomasochistic confinement and torture”. I found this to be a sad reality, wherein something intended to be good and protective for society (schools, hospitals, apartments) has turned into something more limiting and even torturous.

He notes that within society there is a desire to create a universe “purged of every threat to the senses, in a state of asepsis and weightlessness...fascinated by the maximization of normas by the mastery of probability” where “nothing will be left to chance.” A fear of death perhaps brings about a state of numbness and perfection. Even further, he discusses the paradoxical desire to transgress these factors via the frozen image of everlasting life in art, recorded music, photography, and film, all parts of society. He discusses the tension in avant-garde activity as the battle for the pursuit of the living moment against the omnipresence of death.

However this avant-garde activity in and of itself becomes a media strategy, and a loss of spontaneity occurs, similar to behavior and artworks of Andy Warhol. A fascination occurs--are we all imitating? Halley believes we are all fascinated with commentary, but not on the goals of speech and writing themselves. And in this endless layering of signs, nothing is solid or real.

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This day Surreal/ So Real. Spent the day installing in Worth Ryder Gallery, nicely bookended with undercover hors d'oeuvres and wine tasting, the central focus and edges filled with unexpected camaraderie. uncovered territories? appropriate title. 

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"Knowledge may be doubt and doubt may be light, the reality of disillusionment may also offer the possibility of transcendence." - Peter Halley

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Statement

try to awaken 

the love that is everywhere

strength in intention

sean conrad, 2013

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A Prayer A Friend Shared with me Today

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, The courage to change the things I can, And the wisdom to know the difference.

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Build your own residency

An article on self-motivation posted on our senior project's class blog that I found to be reaffirming. 

http://futurefarmers.com/static/files/cooleywindsortext

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HOLY HOWL

I watched the film "Howl" last night and felt some incredible power from the vulnerability creators channel into art. The film is about Allen Ginsberg's life, poetry, and the controversy that arose out of his publication of the poem "Howl". It was so inspiring to me how vulnerable Ginsberg made himself through his artwork. The sad truth is in life it was nearly impossible for him to do so. During the 1950s it was unacceptable in society to own ones homosexuality. Being gay was equated with being mentally ill. Allen admitted how terribly afraid he was of his parents knowing this about himself.

Allen's poetry gave him a channel of expression where he could release his soul. The publication of "Howl" was unplanned. In the privacy of his personal art, Allen could be his full and most honest self. Incredibly, the poem was eventually published and as expected, controversy ensued because of his utilization of explicit language. The consideration of the work as public obscenity lead to the trial, in which poets, critics, and academics testified, redeeming the social value of "Howl." The case ruled "Howl" as not obscene, and following the trail previously banned books were permitted for publication. The trial is a victory of pure humanity. I think these words encapsulate the essence of the poem best: "Howl is a rage against conformity, inhibition, censorship, puritanism, and everything else that restricts and limits the realization of one's true self. It is both a howl of defeat from a living hell and a howl of defiant laughter." (http://foundsf.org/index.php?title=The_Howl_Obscenity_Trial)

With that, I conclude this summary with "Footnote to Howl" by Allen Ginsberg:

Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy!

The world is holy! The soul is holy! The skin is holy! The nose is holy! The tongue and cock and hand and asshole holy!

Everything is holy! everybody’s holy! everywhere is holy! everyday is in eternity! Everyman’s an angel!

The bum’s as holy as the seraphim! the madman is holy as you my soul are holy!

The typewriter is holy the poem is holy the voice is holy the hearers are holy the ecstasy is holy!

Holy Peter holy Allen holy Solomon holy Lucien holy Kerouac holy Huncke holy Burroughs holy Cassady holy the unknown buggered and suffering beggars holy the hideous human angels!

Holy my mother in the insane asylum! Holy the cocks of the grandfathers of Kansas!

Holy the groaning saxophone! Holy the bop apocalypse! Holy the jazzbands marijuana hipsters peace peyote pipes & drums!

Holy the solitudes of skyscrapers and pavements! Holy the cafeterias filled with the millions! Holy the mysterious rivers of tears under the streets!

Holy the lone juggernaut! Holy the vast lamb of the middleclass! Holy the crazy shepherds of rebellion! Who digs Los Angeles IS Los Angeles!

Holy New York Holy San Francisco Holy Peoria & Seattle Holy Paris Holy Tangiers Holy Moscow Holy Istanbul!

Holy time in eternity holy eternity in time holy the clocks in space holy the fourth dimension holy the fifth International holy the Angel in Moloch!

Holy the sea holy the desert holy the railroad holy the locomotive holy the visions holy the hallucinations holy the miracles holy the eyeball holy the abyss!

Holy forgiveness! mercy! charity! faith! Holy! Ours! bodies! suffering! magnanimity!

Holy the supernatural extra brilliant intelligent kindness of the soul!

                                                                                                                Berkeley 1955

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Ain't this world freaky? Ain't this world filled with contradictions? With stress? Don't it make you want to eat your face and explode?

I am so into this artist, Dana Schutz right now, because right now the world is falling apart. Mercury is in retrograde, folks. Full moon, and helicopters, and heavy rain. Bombs in gaza, storms in Manhattan. Cell phone glitches, too many people coming and going too fast, flashing youtube ads, ads on the radio, ads on top of ads. Nothing I say makes sense. Overwhelmed in turbulent ocean of change, and all I want to do is cry out and stop it all. To do something about this anxiety, to control and make these fears go away. Can hardly do that. Can hardly control myself, can't know what I'm going to do, who and where I will be in 10 years. Can't preserve or hold on to anything, even if you put it in a mason jar. But Dana Schutz gets it. She shoves that feeling right back in your face and makes you freak out and laugh at it all. Once I have accepted the world as this freaky monster, I can see how funny it is relax, and let it go.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHQqqM5sr7g