Carlos Roque at Forever & today

Forever & today is a small artspace in Chinatown. Run by Ingrid Chu & Savannah Gorton. Small; I mean tiny, really small. Think the of size of shops where they sell belts & fake perfume on Canalstreet. They invite an artist to stay there for a few weeks and do a presentation during a weekend. Yesterday was my friend Carlos Roque. Carlos made a sound installation with different drones; the sound of a fan over a flying V-guitar. The sound of a handpainted golden record, all mixed together by a painting that is also a soundmixer. All individual pieces that are coming together in drone and image.
The great thing about NY is that tiny initiatives like these get lots of recognition and are taken seriously. Well, they also do a great program; They've been invited to participate in Nada, the artfair every hot new gallery wants to be in. And they will be part of the great biennal Performa festival in november. That is something that would not happen in a European town; In NY if your good & serious things go fast. I love it.

Carlos Roque plays his golden record

Davidians in brooklyn

Yesterday was the opening of the Victor Houteff religious-propaganda drawings at the CABINET magazine artspace.

Unfortunately I didn't had my camera. 11 drawings are on view, all from 1933 and explaining the whereabouts of Shepherd’s Rod Seventh-day Adventists. The drawings are in fact hand colored prints on banquets. It is very possible that he had someone else draw these for him.
They are quiet sensational. And reminded me a bit of old circus posters like these;


They all have wild animals,danger, globes & stars

This drawing is from the Davidians website (click to get a better view)

But then this is not to entertain you but to scare you a bit so you'll join their church.
It's a bit creepy when you know how this ended years later with Waco,Texas.
I was surprised to hear the church still exist , still in Texas. They even send more info to Cabinet m for the show.
This is their website (go to 'charts' if you want to see more of these weird circus drawings)

Victor Houteff, a Bulgarian immigrant to the United States, was running a hotel in the Midwest when, in 1918, he attended a tent meeting of a Seventh-day Adventist group. He joined the church, and in the late 1920s began teaching doctrines that eventually resulted in his expulsion from the Seventh-day Adventist church in Los Angeles, where he had relocated. Despite his ousting, Houteff continued to preach his message. He and his followers, now known as the “Shepherd’s Rod Seventh-day Adventists,” finally moved to Mount Carmel, Texas, on the outskirts of Waco, where the group changed its name to the “Davidian Seventh-day Adventists.” After Houteff’s death in 1955, numerous factions broke-off—the largest was led by Benjamin Roden, who named his congregation the “Branch Davidians.” In 1983, Vernon Wayne Howell, later to change his name to David Koresh, joined the Branch Davidians.

meteorite car

in 1992 the car of lllan Langheinrich from Peekskill was struck by this meteorite

the car has a website now.

back in Peekskill

Yesterday I had to do a little presentation to members of the Peekskill townhall.
My piece will be installed for a year , on a popular spot where the community likes to sit on a bench and look over the wide river.
So it was important to makethe politicians of Peekskill happy with the idea. It's a small town and if people don't like it, they will go see there representative. So, everybody needs to be well informed
Job Koelewijn and another local dutch artist , Daan Levin will also have pieces here. It's a great spot near the train station (people (on their way to DIA-Beacon? (10min form here) can see it from the train).
8 representatives where sitting behind 8 laptops by a rectangular table. 2 fancy camera's where filming from two angels everything. This was all in a very small room; around 8x7 meter. Facing the townhall people where other people with presentations. And besides me, two people from the museum. It went all very smoothly and people seemed to be interested. There was also some local press. Earlier that day, the sheriff came visit me in the parking lot of the museum to look at my piece. He looked like a sheriff should look like (but without a hat) and really liked it.
In a small town so close to NY, they are very happy when something is happening in their community. Especially because it's a poor town in a very rich county Westchester ( in villages very close by live celebrities such as Keith Richards, Glenn Close and the Clintons)

dutch artbooks in Brooklyn

in the centre; opa by paul de reus

I went to this very nice bookstore Spoonbill & Sugartown on hipster Bedfordavenue in Williamsburg. It's the perfect bookstore; not too big, for US standard it would be a small bookstore; secondhand , new and magazines. It's all about the selection; Very good. They do well; My old Amsterdam-upstairs-neighbor-moved-to-NY, Viv, self published a novel and it's a bestseller here. That is extremely difficult without a publisher, PR , agent etc,etc. I asked and to my joy heard they sold many copies of my drawings on writing
It's great to see so many books by people I know. Most from Holland; Melanie Bonajo, Saskia Jansen, Paul de Reus,Hendrik Gerritzen and more; all on display.
Not because these are famous artist in NY. No, just because these are really great books. I had never seen the Saskia Jansen book in Holland. (the magazine selection carries FOAM magazine, Butt (they sell that everywhere now, even in Pakistani runned news-paper stands) and Volume.)
It's a strange thought; but with no real art bookstore in Amsterdam; Do you have to go to Brooklyn to buy dutch art books?
I bought a great book I was looking for since a long time;


Heavenly Visions: Shaker Gift Drawings and Gift Songs.

Peekskill

Nuclear power plant for NYC

this is where my piece will be installed.


The last few feet of the original 'yellow brick road'.
The Wizard of Oz was written by Frank Baum while he was in Peekskill

a sculpture on a empty lot....it's

Ab Lincoln in Peekskill.
Also the first black major of the USA was installed here, in 1984.

20.ooo people live here.

Great movietheater!
(saw Sheraphine there. Good movie)
Mel Gibson and Stanley Tucci where born here.
Abel Ferrara born in the bronx, raised in Peekskill

(The making of) Double Dutch in Peekskill

This year is Hudson year. Henry Hudson was a Brit working for the dutch VOC. 400 years ago he 'discovered' this wide beautiful river going all the way up to Albany, the state capital.
All this will be celebrated this year with lots of activities. One of them being this exhibition of contemporary holland related artists at Hudson Valley Cultural Centre in Peekskill .
With Alon Levin, Marc Bijl, Job Koelewijn, Erik van Lieshout, Lara Schnitger, Guido van der Werve ,Martha Colburn and some more. So, I am one of them.
I'm making my second big outdoor piece (one year after Sonsbeek). It's a complicated piece with 13 kaleidoscopes that will be installed for the duration of the exhibition (1 year!) on the shores of the Hudson. I'm excited. This is going to be good, I think. It's really a great (private) museum.
Will be working very hard on it coming 10 days and thinking about it, so I can't show pictures of it yet. Showing a art piece under construction is extremely private;

But I can show a drawing of the piece.

and my studio-box.
The show only opens in a month, but already lots of activities here.
I will do more posts on this town coming days. It's a nice town.