Slag Mag

A PUBLICATION OF THE OLD FURNACE ARTIST RESIDENCY

SLAG MAG, Issue 1 Š 2013 | PUBLISHED BY JON HENRY EDITED AND DESIGNED BY ELIZABETH YGARTUA A PRODUCTION OF THE OLD FURNACE ARTIST RESIDENCY The Old Furnace Artist Residency is an ongoing artist project curated by Jon Henry. The residency is located in Harrisonburg, Virginia. It is open to all forms of artistry: sculpture, painting, video, sound, conceptual, poetry, fiction writers, critical theorists etc. Special attention is given to practices which are focused on social justice and being socially engaged. Emerging artists are especially encouraged to apply. O.F.A.R. is accepting residents through 2015. Visit oldfurnace.tumblr.com for more information and to apply.

INTRODUCTION

JON HENRY, artist and creator of SLAG MAG & O.F.A.R. Welcome to the first issue of SLAG MAG, the literary component of the Old Furnace Artist Residency. SLAG allows O.F.A.R. to reach new audiences, support more artists, and archive these processes. I am honored to have Elizabeth Ygartua, who I first met in undergrad, as our editor for this edition. For our first issue, we asked artists to submit images and text centered around the theme: Pivot. Submissions map out the participants artistic trajectories around a pivotal moment(s) when their practice finally clicked together or experienced a drastic change. Displaying these pivotal--dare I say eureka--moments will, hopefully, allow the artists an opportunity to reflect on their ongoing creative practice. It allows us to better understand their respective artistic processes and production. I hope this issue inspires readers to meditate on their own pivotal moments, for we cannot move forward without taking an understanding glance backward at the past.

O.F.A.R. and SLAG MAG represent the repercussions of my own pivotal moment. As Elizabeth can attest, I began my artist life as a sculptor who focused on the production of (usually formal) objects that hinted to a personal politic; I kept my own activism outside of the studio and vice versa. True to the stereotype of an aspiring ‘provincial’ artist, I moved to NYC and enrolled in grad school focusing on Arts Politics. There I began to reflect on ways to synthesize my activism and studio practice together. While there I was chosen to participate in the Bay Ridge Storefront Artist Walk exhibition series for 2013. I attempted to develop some connections with businesses as part of the project, yet never could break the cultural, professional, or language barriers. My resulting piece focused on family history, environmentalism, and cartography through installation and performance. This was a very experimental piece for me because previously I had only focused on producing permanent objects. Without the nurturing support of graduate school and the SAW project, I never would have branched out and begun to develop participatory projects. I am no longer met with surprise when I tell people I study and work as an artist. I recently completed an installation for Harrisonburg’s Parklet Program, Sands of Elia, which transformed a parking spot into a sandbox made of glitter, to the joy of children and adults. Consequently, I’m compelled to foster subversive spaces that are open to various communities of various demographics, backgrounds, and practices. O.F.A.R. and SLAG MAG are also examples of the resulting effects of this experience. I hope these forums provide supportive environments for inspiration and experimentation. I remain committed to supporting experimental, emerging, and marginalized artists, activists and thinkers through O.F.A.R. & SLAG MAG. We hope you enjoy this issue of SLAG and follow us on our adventures as a magazine, residency, and community of creative people.

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1 1. Untitled Cycle of an Unending Cosmos; Wasp 2. Template for the Ununderstandable 3. Central Gravity

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“I was making a series of glass works (Untitled Cycle of an Unending Cosmos) in contemplation of the big crunch (reversal of the big bang) wherein I encapsulated flora and fauna in hot clear glass, forcing the material of their bodies to go through a singularity, entering into unrecognizable preservation. During a critique, it was pointed out that I was essentially placing my viewers in a hypothetical position outside the universe in its hypercondensed state. This made me wonder what it would be like to place my viewer outside the universe in other theoretical states. My first response to this thought was Template for the Ununderstandable, representing Western civilization’s four main historical theories on the shape of the universe: flat, euclidean perfection, big bang/big crunch, string theory/ simultaneity. The glass strands in that piece excited me with their potential to stand on their own. The next steps involved surmounting several technical hurdles, eventually manifesting in Central Gravity. In this piece I attempt to show a vision of the electron’s frenetic energy simultaneously with the great webbed strands of galactic density that everything we know of exists within.”

- Morgan Chivers

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“To print or not to print, the dilemma of every printmaker at some point during their printing journey. Thus I found myself in the middle of a large project, unable to print anything with a fast approaching deadline. Everytime I inked up a plate, the rich depth of the colors would take my breath away - the way the light passed through the colors and lit them up - it brought them to life. Were I to print though, the life was gone; I had murdered the ink. After a day of experimental inkings, I slid a plate onto a light table and flipped the switch. An inked plate by itself is beautiful, lit from above by softer lights even more so, but with a strong backlight an inked plate is absolutely stunning. After a lot of collaboration with Sandro Del Rosario and classmates, I discovered that these “Inklight” photographs could become kinetic, full of life, when projected onto a mobile. By taking over a room and using a slide projector to allow the audience to control the environment of the mobile I found the beginning of liberation for Inklight. The audience was drawn into my own experience of discovering Inklight by having the opportunity to walk through, under, and into the artwork itself.”

- Emily King

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1. Inklight Predecessor 2. Inklight 3. Inklight Liberation

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1. Belief invents exclusions (for Goya) 2. Then it was over (for Louise Glück) 3

3. do what the clouds do (for Charles Wright)

“The first image entitled, Belief invents exclusions (for Goya), shows a tentative gesture toward putting reflective materials on the floor, in this case Halloween hologram stickers, and having light reflect off the materials to create a pattern of light on the adjacent wall.

While researching and experimenting with new materials, I happened to open my studio door on a bright sunny afternoon. The sunlight burst onto my studio floor and reflected off the new materials in striking and unexpected ways. This moment made me reconsider the carefully controlled method in which I worked. The last piece entitled, do what the clouds do (for Charles Wright), inspired in part by the sunlight in my studio, shows a sense of energy, chaos, and fullness that had not yet entered my earlier work. Even now I continue to experiment and look for these kinds of unexpected gestures that I could not have imagined, but reveal themselves often if I am aware and fully present.”

- Charles Matson Lume

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The Revolution Suite, plus one more for good measure TYLER S. BUGG 1.

The revolution will be cheap.

The revolution will be blind.

The revolution will be sick.

The revolution will be mislabeled.

The revolution will be unfathomable.

The revolution will be monotonous.

The revolution will be whipped.

The revolution will be scarred.

The revolution will be scared.

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The revolution will be tweeted (with fingers that become more agile than voices).

The revolution will be quick (to print itself on a CV).

The revolution will be read (from the shortest chapter in the history textbook).

The revolution will be punctual (as long as the press is, too).

The revolution will be deconstructed (as long as the racists keep out).

The revolution will be performed (but rarely ever applauded).

The revolution will be shared (in private-only messages more often than not).

The revolution will be equitable (until it becomes capitalist).

The revolution will be horizontal (except for when it tilts vertical).

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The revolution will be queer.

The revolution will be multiplied.

The revolution will be infinite.

The revolution will be colorful.

The revolution will be trans-local.

The revolution will be offline.

The revolution will be unlabeled.

The revolution will be uncensored.

The revolution will be sure.

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The revolution will have been, now be, and be ever.

Tyler S. Bugg is an artist, activist, and writer from a river town in central Georgia and who’s based in New York.

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“In late May 2011, I had the most exciting 24 hours of good news in my life. Early in the morning I received an email inviting me to interview for a residency opportunity at the Rijksakademie in June. The next day I found out that I got into graduate school at NYU. I should have bought a lottery ticket. I had one month to prepare. I was asked to bring current work and documentation of other pieces that the jurors had not seen.

A year and half prior to this email, I was moving across the country from California to New York City. The move meant moving out of my studio and putting nine years of artwork into storage.

Being separated from old work is freeing but it also creates this tense feeling when you return to producing pieces. This month reminded me of the importance of editing, deep inquiry, and re-working.

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I was working on some text-based material and was trying to figure out a way to incorporate short hand into my pieces. But it wasn’t working... it felt forced. I realized I need to keep it simple and that my brushstrokes needed to honest and confident.

After a series of failed experiments, I finally arrived at a piece called Deluge, its composition is meant to evoke the definition of its symbol.

Using outmoded forms of communication like shorthand has carried me through the past few years. Further experiments into language and literature have followed suit. Now I am working on a series whose marks are meant to allude to script and deconstruct text.

3 1. shorthand 2. deluge 3. evoking script

I was not selected to be a resident. They cited criteria for admission and they told me they thought I had potential but I needed more experience. They were right. But that initial email was my pivot, my catalyst. It’s easy to get discouraged after long hours of fruitless studio time or a stream of rejection emails. But when someone is ready to look at your work, they expect to see your best. It’s the “when” that may come as a surprise.”

– Kelsey Knutson

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1. Bacon 2. If A Tree Falls 3

3. Vultures of Fragments Past

“Bacon was a symbolism for slapstick joy I required during my time of loss and sorrow. I repeated creating variety of bacon images, in hopes of others sharing my laughter and joy.

However, there was disconnect between my audience and my work, a gap of understanding that rooted from not sharing a relatable personal story that could be understood in more obvious ways.

In my childhood, Godzilla movie reruns were always on television and it depicted a creature that was always attacked wherever it went. I related to this experience being an immigrant in America and depicted my story of displacement as Godzilla, being lost in wanderlust in various parts of the country, sticking out like a sore thumb, victim racism and stereotype.

Godzilla eventually became a cultural observer instead of being the protagonist of the story. Bearing witness to the horrors of disasters and feeling helpless to the powers of Mother Nature. Here the story continues today, with the techniques of my painting shifting from western acrylic methodologies on canvas to the current homage of Japanese woodblock aesthetics made with gouache paints as the main medium.”

– Jave Yoshimoto

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1. Torn Landscape 2. Coyote Canyon 3. Composition 3

At Night We Wandered JAYNE STRUBLE It was the night after our fourth day in the desert We were standing and waiting to head out Our skin still baked from the day’s sun, shivered from the night’s chill.

A full moon had finished rising over camp Light hit over the bounders and spilled out onto the sand We hiked out of our canyon, certain that the desert had something waiting for us.

The desert shadows slithered as we passed, but our flashlights stayed off We talked about luck, scorpions and silence One behind the other, we walked out into the grey-scale landscape.

Our path became indiscernible; no one had gone this way for some time We stopped when there was nothing ahead and nowhere to go A giant palm tree became the destination we didn’t know we had.

We each grabbed a boulder and shimmied up its side I looked up at the palm and down at my palms, lying against the rock Kicking our legs into the darkness, we stayed until the morning told us to go.

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“The pivotal moment came after my journey across the Atlantic to America. I arrived fresh faced, ready to soak up a visual bombardment of American culture.

My work became shaped vividly by my surroundings. It became the catalyst for the new direction in my work, breaking away from figuration and pushing through towards abstraction. The end product was no longer the essence of my practice, as process became pivotal. In Somewhere between a rock and a hard place, the symbols/imagery give the artwork substance, but in Fools Gold, symbols begin to compete with texture and eventually figuration is abandoned in Untitled (As the Waves change), allowing mark making to become the artistic essence.

My practice continues to evolve, as each experience informs a progression or experimentation in process or production. The influence of physical and societal surroundings, was a key aspect to the enhancement of the conceptual development of my artwork.”

– Houghton Kinsman

1. Somewhere between a rock and a hard place 2. Fools Gold 3

3. Untitled (As the waves change)

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broad run ledges AND OTHER POEMS BY WILL SKINKER test for hidden depths with a pole

an older battle coaxed from the dark by a magnet on a stick

consider how current affects the passage

is a wish without a plan is only a bad dream does

the mill wheel hasn’t spun since we lost the war

pull-ups for each breath in a small fiberglass boat full of mud but floating

some may be able to leap but if others cannot

and the freeway sounds like the loneliest mercy stalled in the same gap

the horizon is a line fallen over is smooth heavy uncertainty

folding pleats rush to the city the bay the sea

falls five feet back onto itself over and again again

fishing is poor in a river after rain and rain

the outside of a bend catches the fastest in a fallen tree

picnic crabs boiled red butter covered newspaper tables

shakes your drift coldly in the mouth a wet wooden grip

he struggles mightily . . . against a flood of clichés . . .

still is a sudden surprise like hushed rooms absolute ominous

whose voice is that sportscaster voice that no help voice?

underneath the air is yellow bubbling sand

I’m the slipperiest fish with an elbow hooked on a limb

a museum lies on the bottom in jagged holds

I’m the story of the one who remembers all this drowning

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I’ve looked I’ve looked at all the maps and read all the books, had dealings with ice and fire that left me admiring neither, found immaterial treasure on the surface of broken stones; I’ve stayed silent since August but most of the leaves have fallen, I ask myself for directions and get nothing but poems.

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sixteen by sixteen but not square Before it began I thought the Great Dismal Swamp sank into the North Pole and took with it three Inuit hunters some old British dandy and the entire state of Virginia Then I took some advice, it was ‘Don’t Even Try.’ Seemed I’d gotten dust on my lungs but at my age I’m not supposed to like it, like cracked 78’s aren’t to be strung beads on stretched catgut Bank holidays are painful shovels metal on metal if your ring gets caught so quickness made time, you don’t need to dig a hole the punishments are all around you just walk out there, real slow and push them in

Prelude to Buying a Painting of Clouds when legs are possible a tangle of them but symmetry and an hour’s bounce into and out of the sunlight comes from behind high set breaks in the white stones

it’s true that we are mining for the bottom where we heard a lake impossibly but phantom words that mean please bring its depth from the bottom back a cat’s sigh over early dusk

poles off the shallows a gentle bend in this is the only only and the goose’s belly is the softest splash

Will Skinker was born in Virginia. He went to college in Harrisonburg and then to graduate school in San Francisco. His poems have been published in Virginia, Oregon, California, Vermont, Colorado, New York, the internet, the Netherlands, and Germany. His books are called “Mascara” (Auguste Press) and “Feed My Lambs” (Lew Gallery). He works for Counterpath/Field Editorial in Denver, where it is snowing and 13 degrees outside.

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“My previous work has been about line and space. Study of Positive and Negative Relationships is about how a small amount of material is able to activate a larger space, so much that the space becomes more of a material than the medium itself. As I progressed with my explorations of this idea, creating Intrusion helped me to realize that the translucency of glass allows it to fluctuate between being a positive and a negative space.

When the glass is completely clear, it is a positive object that exists within our world, whereas when it contains imagery, that clear glass becomes a negative space for the “world” that exists within. I slowly started to think of glass as a space in which I could create permanent “installations”. Immersion is one of my more recent works based on these ideas.”

- Jean Fernandes

1. Study of Positive and Negative Relationship 1

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2. Intrusion 3. Immersion

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“When I returned home from college, I moved into a space that my mother used as her studio before she had a stroke 14 years ago. Among her forgotten art supplies, I found some of my own from childhood: stamps, crayons, beads, puff paint, and hole punches. Among those things I found forgotten memories. In college I had created a body of work exploring how the stroke had effected my family and how we relate to each other, and how the traumatic experiences of my childhood have influenced who I am today (My Veins, Your Fractures). Now living among my memories, and hers, I’ve found my focus shifting, pivoting, toward the positives of my childhood (My Mother’s Daughter), and my relationship with my mother (Letter from My Mother), instead of the negatives with an earned sense of resignation and acceptance for things unchangeable.

Rengaging with my past in a new way is healing and exciting.”

– Elizabeth Ygartua

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1. My Veins, Your Fractures 2. My Mother’s Daughter 3. Letter From My Mother

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Meet the Artists 1. Morgan Chivers graduated from San Jose State University in 2011 after spending a full decade earning four simultaneously conferred degrees with five associated minors: BA in History, BA in Global Studies, BFA in Photography, and BFA in Spatial Arts, with minors in Anthropology, Music, Religious Studies, German, and Environmental Studies. His approach to the world is inherently cross-disciplinary; the quest for knowledge and context drive his life. His artwork has been exhibited across the continent and has won several awards. He is a current graduate student at the University of Texas at Arlington, pursuing an MFA in Glass & Intermedia.

2. Emily King, a 22 year old native of Pennsylvania, is currently a junior studying Studio Art at the University of Richmond. Emily began her studies with Monotype and 3D Design classes that have launched her vision of Inklight and future projects. As an artist, she deeply enjoys the freedom of never limiting herself to a single medium, often mixing 2D and 3D elements, believing that art should be allowed to grow on its own. “Art is an experience - it’s not something that’s necessarily meant to be ‘understood’ - I want my audience to stop asking why and simply step into the experience.”

3. Charles Matson Lume is a visual artist whose art has been exhibited at institutions such as: the Irish Museum of Modern Art, (Dublin, Ireland), Babel Kunst (Trondheim, Norway), and Hunter College, (NYC). He has received fellowships from the Bush Foundation, Jerome Foundation, and the Minnesota State Arts Board. Charles has participated in artist residencies such as: Nes Artist Residency, Skagastrond, Iceland; Lademoen Kunstnerverksteder, Trondheim, Norway; the Irish Museum of Modern Art, and the Millay Colony for the Arts. He lives in Saint Paul, MN, and his art can be found online at the White Columns Artist Registry: http://registry.whitecolumns.org/view_artist.php?artist=11863 4. Tyler S. Bugg - See bottom of page 5.

5. Kelsey Knutson is a Brooklyn based painter originally from California who investigates themes of written and artistic culture. She received her BFA from California College of Arts in 2003 and studied abroad in Paris, France. She is an MA Candidate at NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study. Her work has been exhibited in San Francisco, Chicago, New York City and Berlin.

6. Jave Yoshimoto received his BA from UC Santa Barbara, MA in art therapy from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and MFA from Syracuse University. He has worked as an art therapist and art educator and has exhibited his work in 14 states. He believes an artist must make work that is true to their authentic self and beliefs and teaches this philosophy to his students. Yoshimoto currently works as the director and assistant professor of studio arts at Northwestern Oklahoma State University.

7. Jayne Struble is a current candidate of the MFA program at Columbus College of Art & Design. She received her BFA from Kutztown University in Kutztown, Pennsylvania in 2011 with a concentration in Painting. Working predominately in drawing and sculpture

to create physical installations out of construction material that question the contemporary concept of nature. She has exhibited on the East Coast and locally in Columbus, OH. Her thesis exhibition will be in the spring of 2014 and will be exploring the language of gravity in sculpture. Struble teaches as an Adjunct Professor at Columbus College of Art & Design.

8. Houghton Kinsman’s works are an investigation into the relationship between artist and culture experience. Reflecting on a diverse South African upbringing, his works reconstruct narratives examining both personal and foreign heritage. The exportation of culture through painting to a foreign audience remains a cornerstone of his artistic practice as reflected in his My Country series. Houghton Kinsman was born 1990 in Cape Town, South Africa. He graduated from Barry University, Miami Shores, USA with a BFA in Painting and Drawing in 2013. Exhibitions include, A Spring Affair, Art Fusion Galleries, (2011), Love, Little Haiti.

9. Will Skinker - See bottom of page 11 10. Jean Fernandes is an international artist from India, currently living and working in Arlington, Texas. She was first introduced to the glass arts while earning her Bachelor of Arts in Design at San Jose State University in California. She has exhibited nationally and studied at a number of facilities including the Pilchuck Glass School, the Bay Area Glass Institute, and the Pittsburgh Glass Center. Her work has won multiple awards; most notably the DuBois Grant, the Nunez Grant, Pittsburgh Glass Center and Bullseye Conference scholarships. Jean is currently pursuing her MFA in glass at the University of Texas in Arlington.

11. Elizabeth Ygartua graduated from the University of Richmond in 2012 with BA in Studio Art and a minor in Journalism. In college her prints and paintings were exhibited at the Capital One Gallery, the Harnett Museum on campus, and at the Wilton Companies Gallery. Elizabeth was also summer research fellow at Richmond and worked as a studio assistant. In 2012, she received the Bobby Chandler Annual Award in Art from the Kip Kephart Foundation for her collegiate studio work. In 2013, she illustrated her first children’s book My Homework Ate My Dog by Kent Smith. Elizabeth currently lives and works in Dallas as an assistant art director for People Newspapers, an affiliate of D Magazine.

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