#corwin levi

[internationalemeteorologie]

Corwin Levi 

Red Riding Hood Forest

Little Red Cap and Wolves

Rapunzel and the Prince

Snow White in the Forest

Grimm’s Forest

[ryderrichards]

Press ~ "Babel's Bricks: The Power of Play" by Michelle Aldredge

"Babel's Bricks: The Power of Play" by Michelle Aldredge @ gwarlingo.com

Babel’s Bricks: The Power of Play by Michelle Aldredge, gwarlingo.com June 23, 2017 THE DIFFICULTY OF PLAY While North Adam’s MASS MoCA celebrates the grand opening of Building 6 this month, just down the street Gallery 51 embraces its playful side as guest-curator Corwin Levi tackles the most ambitious of art enterprises: participation. The centerpiece of Babel’s Bricks, a block-themed group…

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[eutopiacontemporaryart]

Corwin Levi

Michelle Aldredge on Corwin Levi's "The Unfinding" ~ "embraces mystery over answers"

Corwin Levi The Unfinding VisArts, Rockville, Maryland [link] While some art heightens our sense of reality, Corwin Levi’s latest show “The Unfinding” opens the door to the unknown. Levi eschews horizons in favor of submersion. The effect? We drown in stars, waves, and words. Place and time remain mysterious. These paintings evoke maps and star charts, but there are no legends or grids. There is…

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[theartistandthelibrarian]

Corwin Levi and Michelle Aldredge on 'Mirror Mirrored: A Contemporary Artists' Edition of 25 Grimm's Tales'

Original images for the upcoming Mirror Mirrored publication:   Maid Maleen by Lothar Osterberg, The Goose Girl at the Well by Anne Connell, and El Huseo Cantando/The Singing Bone by Lucho Pozo.

Gwarlingo Press duo, Corwin Levi and Michelle Aldredge, have organized an exciting multi-media publication featuring 27 contemporary artists entitled Mirror Mirrored: A Contemporary Artists' Edition of 25 Grimm's Tales that belongs on your bookshelf. Artists included: Simen Johan, Kiki Smith, Yinka Shonibare MBE, DJ Spooky, Carrie Mae Weems, Wangechi Mutu, Walter Martin & Paloma Muñoz, Amy Cutler, Rachel Perry Welty, Anna Schuleit Haber, Joseph Keckler, Tomokazu Matsuyama, Siona Benjamin, David Packer, John Kelly, Julia Jacquette, Margaret Lanzetta, Lothar Osterburg, Will Rawls, Debra Smith, Agustin Lucho Pozo, Brittany DeNigris, Anne Connell, Angus McCullough, Sarah Fagan, Stephanie J. Williams, and Corwin Levi. Support the project by sharing and contributing to the Mirror Mirrored Kickstarter campaign!

How did the two of you begin working collaboratively to form Gwarlingo Press?

Michelle:  Corwin and I met at Brush Creek Foundation for the Arts, an artist residency in Wyoming. We quickly discovered a shared joy in creative brainstorming, but it took almost a year to find the right project to collaborate on.

A friend, Martha McGeary Snider, was hosting us at her home in Philadelphia when everything clicked. Martha's house was once, in part, the dwelling of the British politician and philosopher Henry St John, Lord Bolingbroke and was moved in pieces to America. On this particular snowy afternoon, Corwin and I were working in the library--a beautiful, wood-paneled room filled with art and books, once used by writers like Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift, and Voltaire. Maybe it was the creative spirits of those great writers rumbling through the panelling, but for whatever reason we settled founding a press by pairing public domain literature with contemporary art.

We have both learned a lot through our work collaboration. I am sort of like the tortoise and Corwin is the hare, but in this race we take turns carrying each other and hope to cross the finish line at the same time.

What inspired your first project, Mirror Mirrored: A Contemporary Artists' Edition of 25 Grimm's Tales?

Corwin: I've always been compelled by the amazing images and stories we have produced that, for whatever reason, have drifted out of our consciousness. I wanted a way to introduce them to a new audience, and Michelle immediately suggested we pair old stories with contemporary artists to reimagine and engage with them anew. And the Grimms' Tales are the perfect place to start because, while we all know the most famous stories, many of us have forgotten the whackiness and truly imaginative happenings in some of the lesser-known adventures.

What was your process in selecting 27 artists to be featured in Mirror Mirrored, many of whom are world renowned? 

Michelle:  Our primary concern when brainstorming the initial list of potential artists was the art work itself. We wanted artists whose vision dovetailed with these memorable fairy tales. We deliberately chose both emerging and established artists for the project. The main question was, "Does this artist's work expand, redefine, or subvert the Grimms' stories in some way?"

Just this week, Daniel Handler's National Book Award debacle and follow-up apology has brought much needed attention to the We Need Diverse Books campaign, an organization that supports non-majority narratives. (The group formed this year after BookCon invited 30 writers to a panel on children's literature, and all of the writers were white.)

I would argue that we need diverse fairy tales too--something more than the white-washed images Disney has created from the Grimm's tales over the years. Artists like Carrie Mae Weems, Siona Benjamin, or Wangechi Mutu can recontextualize these classic stories through this project. They can challenge traditional notions about beauty and identity, as they have always done through their artwork.

There is so much richness in the pairing of contemporary art and fairy tales. Amy Cutler and Julia Jacquette's work explores images of women in our culture. Simen Johan's photographs about climate change give new meaning to the Grimm's tale The Duration of Life, while Yinka Shonibare turns colonialism on its head.

Mirror Mirrored goes beyond conventional illustration. This project reveals the hidden power of both art and stories.

Not all of the 25 Grimm's Tales have been selected by their respectful artist.  With so many Grimm's Tales to choose from, is it up to the artist to pick the tale or have the 25 Grimm's Tales already been narrowed down?  Corwin - What drew you to work with the tale of The Shepard Boy?

Corwin:  The final edition of the Grimm's tales had over 200 tales, so, although artists are welcome to choose any story, I usually whittle that down to nine or ten stories that I hope resonate with the artist before sending them along. That said, we've had at least one artist who was excited enough to go back through and read the entire collection before selecting a story.

As I read The Shepherd Boy, I saw that I was already drawing a scene in the story, and it was a wonderful moment of sharing a connection with someone across the planet hundreds of years ago. Here is the passage that spoke to me:

"The King said, 'The next question is, how many stars are there in the sky?' The shepherd boy said, 'Give me a great sheet of white paper,' and then he made so many fine points on it with a pen that they could scarcely be seen, and it was all but impossible to count them; any one who looked at them would have lost his sight. Then he said, “There are as many stars in the sky as there are points on the paper; just count them.' But no one was able to do it."

QR codes, eBooks, and multimedia artworks will all be included within Mirror Mirrored.  What inspired this approach to pushing beyond the traditional book format?  How do you think this may change book publishing?

Michelle:  I am a book lover and have been since I was young. Libraries and bookstores were essential to my evolution, but I also love technology. Because I travel so much, carrying around a library on my tablet is a wonderful thing.

That said, I still buy traditional books, particularly art books. Books like Mirror Mirrored are tactile pleasures; they feel good in our hands and the act of turning the page is a pleasing experience.

But as Corwin and I began inviting artists to participate, we realized the printed page unecessarily constrained them: interdisciplinary and performance artists like Joseph Keckler, John Kelly, DJ Spooky, the dancer Will Rawls, and the conceptual aritst Brittany DeNigiris are contemplating multimedia works. Restricting our artists to traditional media would not reflect the diverse, interdisciplinary approaches embraced by artists today.

The magic of QR codes will allow readers to view--in addition to the amazing two-and three-dimensional works--performance, dance, and video pieces inspired by Grimms' tales. Our book will give readers a taste of art in the 21st century. Many people never have the chance to see performance or video art, but technology now allows us to deliver a whole range of creative experience across to world to an individual's living room.

What made Kickstarter the ideal venue to launch the project?

Corwin:  We want to experiment with new approaches to art book publishing. Kickstarter seemed like a good palce to start because the artists don't have to make the pieces until they know the project is funded (although some already have), by limiting the first edition to match funding we won't have any excess inventory, and we can directly share any profits we get, so the better we do the better everyone does. Most importantly, it's a vehicle to share not only the books, but original artwork and unique experiences through the Kickstarter rewards system, so that artists and donors join together in the creation of this project.

Many of the Grimm's fairy tales are not as well known. Will the narrative be included or will it focus on the artwork?

Michelle: The narrative will be included and the text is essential. This is a dialogue between narrative and image and each serves the other. There are some ecclectic, lesser-known stories in our collection, and I think readers will be surprised to discover the complex layers that contemporary artwork can reveal when placed beside a timeless folk tale.

How do you feel the project will help protect and share these particular tales with a contemporary audience?

Corwin:  We have so many stories that are timeless and, I would say, don't need protecting as much as an occasional get-together with all the neighbors. In this instance, we have found a fantastic group of visual artists to throw the Grimms' stories one hell of a block party.

What are you most excited about with the project?

Corwin: I am a collaborator by nature, so I am most excited not only by this book but also by the future possibilities for Gwarlingo Press. I want to build an inclusive model that all levels of creators--emerging, established, and in whatever genre--can partake in to achieve a few moments of wonder.

Michelle: I'm tired of artists always getting the short end of the stick. I want our press to put writers and artists first during the publishing process. I'm eager to see if we can make this model work. It's a simple recipe: a unique project, an engaged audience, plus low overhead. If we can all build something together collectively by sharing resources and connections, then I have to believe that amazing things will happen.

[theartistandthelibrarian]

Corwin Levi and Michelle Aldredge of Gwarlingo Press have an amazing Kickstarter project:  https://www.kickstarter.com/…/mirror-mirrored-an-artists-ed.  Pass along to anyone who collects artist books for it will include work by 27 artists including Carrie Mae Weems, Kiki Smith, Yinka Sonibare MBE, and Wangechi Mutu!