Guy Ben-Ner & Stealing Beauty Trailer

A trailer for Stealing Beauty, Guy Ben-Ner’s family sitcom shot in Ikea during store hours, shown a year ago at Postmasters Gallery. I imagine that the reviewers were right that the full piece is a bit too long and cumbersome, but the trailer is super in my opinion.

Also on view at Postmasters was I’d give it to you if I could but I borrowed it, an amazing work I saw at skulptur projekte münster in Summer 07. One of my favorite pieces from skulptur projekte münster 07, the short video shows Ben-Ner and his two children hobbling together a bicycle from various pieces of readymade sculptures in a museum. The video ends with group taking a ride on the fashioned bicycle.

A direct reference to Münster and its reputation as the bicycle capital of Germany, the video/kinetic sculpture must be powered by the viewer. To see the video, the viewer must mount one of stationary bikes with video screens above the handlebars and pedal to see the narrative. The best part is that the speed and direction of one’s pedaling is correlated to the video, it will move forward in slow motion, normal speed, or fast forward, and also backwards. The work is at once fun, engaging, and accessible, while also providing an interesting critique on the market and use values of revered art objects, and the potential alienation of the museum and white cube.

Here are some images of us from Summer 07 making the video go:

edition iv

edition iv: a commemoration of now!
saturday, may 31, 2008
7:00 to 10:00 pm

Oxford Occasional: edition iv features a site-specific installation in our very own home by photographer Luke Strosnider whose camera-obscura projections will grace our walls. Witness the impermanence of fleeting moments and revel in the act of seeing without recording. Arrive before sunset (8:17 pm) to experience the full glory of the work and stay into the darkness to enjoy drinks, good company and a secret revealed.

Bring a friend and join us!

image credit: installation shot of Now on View: September 8th-30th, 2007
by Luke Strosnider, all rights reserved.

edition iii

edition iii: an action
saturday, april 26, 2008
7:00 – 9:00 pm

The Action

1. make: seed bombs
2. eat: cupcakes (vegan!)
3. drink: wine & beer
4. enjoy: the company of fine friends
5. conspire: to guerrilla garden a patch of dirt near you

image credit: Seed bombing the Raytheon Plant, Santa Barbara, CA, 1992
photo and intervention by Kathryn Miller (image & info from the Green Museum)

edition ii

edition ii: to the Doo-Nanny

March 27 – 30, 2008

For its second edition, Oxford Occasional traveled southward to home of famed outsider artist, Butch Anthony; a lengthy journey to the deep south that required a stop in the trading settlement of Cedar Shoals, Georgia (present-day Athens) to rest our feet, imbibe in good drink, and stock up on necessary provisions for the remainder of the journey. We reached our destination of Seale, Alabama – home of the world-famous “Doo-Nanny” on Saturday morning. We quite enjoyed the Doo-Nanny, a pleasurable event including a film festival, outdoor architecture, the snake-a-torium, a wildly unsafe bonfire, and heavy doses of old-timey music. We hope that some of you did receive word of our travels via the post. We apologize to those who did not – please pass on your mailing address to us so that we can be sure to send you something next time.

Welcome to Alabama

At the Snake-A-Torium

Listening to the Bands

The Solar Shower = Amazing

The Bicycle Sculpture

The Bonfire

More photos from the Doo-Nanny!

photos from edition i

Here are some photos from the inaugural Oxford Occasional.

Oxford Occasional: edition i featured the first Philadelphia screening of Chance, a new video-dance work by Jane Jerardi, a work-in-progress showing of I Am Almost Positive by Ginger Wagg, and an impromptu improvised performance by Jane and Ginger with music by Willie Hoffman.

Thanks to all who came to the first event! We’re excited to further explore the uses of our spare room and hope you enjoyed edition i.

image on the left is an installation shot of Chance; image on the right is Ginger Wagg performing an excerpt from I Am Almost Positive

both of these images are of an impromptu improvised performance by Jane Jerardi & Ginger Wagg (dancing) and Willie Hoffman (music)

edition i

edition i: dance by chance
january 26, 2008
7:00 – 10:00 pm

featuring:

Chance
Jane Jerardi (Wash, DC)

Chance, the latest project by Jane Jerardi—a set of video-dance shorts—premiered in Washington, DC in September 2007, projected on facades and urban architecture throughout the metro area. Contemplating the luck of being in the ‘right place at the right time’ Chance focuses on the everyday coincidences that go mostly unnoticed, but create beautiful relationships between people.
For this screening, Chance will be shown inside rather then outdoors.

I Am Almost Positive
Ginger Wagg (Wash, DC)

I Am Almost Positive, an interactive mini-installation created by Ginger Wagg, will feature a series of images that shift from photograph to postcard to dress to carpet to a souvenir. Drawing from a collection of personal and second-hand mementos, I Am Almost Positive helps piece together a substitute sense of home, loss, and legacy. Witnesses are encouraged to accompany Wagg and help redistribute these leftover items into new configurations and new sites.

image credit: Jane Jerardi, still from Chance, videography by Michael Wichita, all rights reserved.

introducing Oxford Occasional

As an emerging research organization in alternative uses of spare rooms, Oxford Occasional intends to add to the dialogue regarding the relationship which exists between art-makers and art-consumers in order to elucidate the cozy and blithesome use-value of one’s home. Please join us.

Kind regards,
Willie & Angela