Community: bloggers@brooklynmuseum

When Shelley and I went to visit Cass Bird at her Brooklyn studio last week, we weren’t sure what to expect.  We had known her work via Global Feminisms and our Feminist Art Base and there are some artists that our curators think would be great for the Twitter Art Feed—Cass was one of them. Cass is a photographer, but what we ended up discussing was how photographs and other images (books, advertisements, diagrams, etc), when juxtaposed, can create something really interesting and appealing.

Cass Bird (American, born 1974). I Look Just Like My Daddy, 2004. Chromogenic print, 40 x 30 in. (101.6 x 76.2 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Prints and Photographs Council and the Robert A. Levinson Fund, 2005.40.1.

So this month, Cass will be posting to the feed a variety of things including her own photographs, photographs from other photographers she likes, and various other visual and pop culture images. Though she won’t be “curating” the feed, the end result will be a strong collection of pictures that reflect her personality, her artistic process, and her own work. Like Joseph Kosuth’s month on the feed, we really have no idea what to expect from her. One of the reasons we started the Twitter Art feed was so we could give artists an opportunity to experiment with a few vehicle for their work and, in doing so, give 1stfans access to an artist in a new way. I promise that access to Cass for a month will not be dull!

Just a heads-up: Cass’ own work often contains nudity, and 1stfans should expect that to be the case for other work she posts as well.

We found that 1stfans really enjoyed Nick Fortunato’s project for June’s Twitter Art Feed because of the idea that history could come alive again and be relevant in a social networking age. Trish Mayo, this month’s artist for the Feed, sent in a similar proposal based around the issue of how historical figures would receive twitter if they were alive today.

Trish Mayo. Hot Bird’s Last Stand, 2008. All rights reserved.  Featured in Click! A Crowd-Curated Exhibition.

Trish is a photographer by trade—her work was featured in our Click! exhibition in 2008 and was recently part of an exhibition at the Morris-Jumel Mansion in Washington Heights.  In addition to having her work featured in the New York Times, she has a huge following on Flickr. Trish’s proposal was selected from the open call and we’ve noticed that the proposals we receive via this channel tend to be from artists who use Twitter everyday and have a great understanding of how people interact with the medium in their everyday lives. Here, in Trish’s own words, is her project for October’s Twitter Art Feed:

IF THEY ONLY HAD TWITTER - pity those poor people who lived before twitter was available! I propose to give those twitter-less people a chance to comment on the online social networking phenomenon using their actual words by posting a series of quotes. Taken out of context these quotes can seem to show support, skepticism or trivialize twitter and other social networking sites. Reading these words spoken or written many, even hundreds, of years before the twitter age should make us think not only about what we are saying now, but also about what has been said before and how it resonates through time and space.

Duke Riley has been on our minds a lot over the past month. I’ve received a crash course in his work and the man himself as a result of the Museum’s involvement with his naval battle “Those Who Are About To Die, Salute You,” which played out (in all of its insane, tomato-stained glory) two weeks ago. As I was busy getting pelted with tomatoes from point-blank range, it dawned on me that Duke had created a very “New York” experience. This is the type of spectacle—getting a couple thousand people to wear togas to a mock naval battle fought in a public park in the middle of Queens—that is completely ridiculous and yet seems somewhat unsurprising given what goes on daily here in NYC.

Duke and Squirrel via pixietart on Flickr.  All Rights Reserved.

What we have not done so far in the eight months of the 1stfans Twitter Art Feed is feature someone whose art often involves New York City itself, and that is why we’re pleased to announce that Duke Riley is going to be the Twitter Art Feed artist for September. Like other artists who have participated in the Feed, Duke’s work is in the Museum’s collection. That piece, “The Bright Passage” (2006), depicts the imagined inhabitants of Mill Rock Island, a little-known piece of NYC real estate just north of Roosevelt Island on the East River.

Duke has spent time in some of New York City’s least-visited (and accessible) spots, so we thought it would be interesting for him to give 1stfans access to the New York city he has come to know. Hence, “Duke Riley’s Map of New York City,” which will be an online map on which Duke will tweet out the locations that relate directly to his work. He’ll tweet out a location and a sentence about what that location means to him every couple days, and then at the end of the month the map will provide insight into how one of New York’s most notable (and notorious) artists working today.

Update 10/1/09 - Now that September is over, we thought it would be nice to share Duke’s map with everyone. Below is Duke Riley’s Map of New York City, which was revealed to 1stfans members via twitter over the last month:

View Duke Riley’s Map of New York City in a larger map

Here at the Brooklyn Museum, we’re never one to shy away from inter-museum competition of all sorts. I’ve blogged before about how art museums and sports have more in common than one might think, and we’ve already seen just how heated the softball games between us and the Metropolitan Museum of Art can get. Now we’re pleased to engage in a competition where we can represent our borough in a museum battle that spans four of five boroughs.

This Thursday, the Brooklyn Museum is taking part in a naval battle hosted by the Queens Museum of Art and Artist Duke Riley, whose work is in our collection. The battle, which Duke has titled “Those About to Die Salute You,” will pit the Queens Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum, Bronx Museum of Art, and El Museo del Barrio against each other in ships that Riley and his team have designed and created. As this Wall Street Journal article points out, this event follows the grand Roman tradition of staging naval battles as a way of entertaining the public and the emperors.  It’s a great chance for public art on a grand scale on a beautiful summer night.

The team we’ve assembled to represent the Museum spans many departments (Technology, Membership, Visitor Services, Education, Conservation, and the Director’s Office, to be exact), and we’ve been preparing in many different ways. I’ve spent the last few evenings brushing up on my von Clausewitz , Shelley has been training at the Red Hook Pool, and the folks from conservation are looking into building a corvus similar to those used during the First Punic War. Needless to say, the excitement is building, as is the trash-talking on twitter.

So if you’re interested in seeing four NYC Museums duke (pun intended) it out on Thursday night, head over to the World’s Fair reflecting pool in Flushing Meadows Corona Park right outside the Queens Museum of Art. The proceedings will start (loosely, we hear) at 6pm, and feel free to wear a toga!

The 1stfans Twitter Art Feed artist for August is Lauren McCarthy, a young artist who has already worn many hats. A self-described “artist/programmer/designer/person,” Lauren’s work explores the intersection of physical and virtual space. She has invented a tent that can re-create the physical and environmental conditions anywhere in the world, installed an interactive exhibit at the U.S. Holocaust Museum, and designed a pair of running shoes that are appropriate for any occasion. Her proposal for the feed isn’t even her first foray into using twitter as art: in June she oversaw an installation in the Gershwin Hotel whereby visitors listened to tweets that were embedded into everyday objects. I could go on, but you’re better served by just taking a look at all of her projects.

Here’s Lauren’s proposal, which will play out on the Twitter Art Feed this month:

For me, the shower is a place for private, intimate reflection and ritual - a time all for myself to focus on my body and my thoughts without interruption. It is a preparation for the day, physically and psychologically. It is a set of routine motions that I can do with little attention to them, leaving my mind free to wander.

I will create a waterproof casing for my phone [more photos of this process may be found in the 1stfans flickr group], and send one tweet via text message per day from inside the shower. The subject of the tweets will be whatever thoughts come to mind as I wash myself. They will mix observations of the physical sensations of cleaning my body with thoughts that arise through the process.

The practice will explore the way twitter/technology is incorporated into daily ritual, and provide a moment for me to focus on the significance and experience of cleaning myself, while engaging simultaneously with my physical body and my mental processes. Others will be able to share in this, as my normally private shower reflection is made public through the twitter broadcast.

Each person has their own personal shower ritual and it is rarely given much thought or discussed. Through this project I would hope to inspire others to take a minute while showering to consciously consider their routines, their bodies, and their ideas.

I also want to explore the effect technology has on the boundary between private and public life. What happens if the most intimate experiences are shared online? How is this sharing different than if it were to occur in physical space? What place do our physical bodies have in our increasingly technologically mediated world?