FEATURING "THE FROZEN ACADEMY"

This week we are featuring a collaboration between, "The Frozen Academy" (Kenneth G. Hay and Josef Danek) and Czech artist Vojity Horalká. They are together exploring the phenomenon of Tramping.

This is what they say about the work:

Tramping - a popular form of Czech camping in the forest from the 1900s onwards. Horalká has made work about this curious phenomenon, where bands of comrades would dress up in outdoor clothes, take along a guitar, go tenting and sing nostalgic songs, the whole, infused with a kind of melancholy bonhommie. The action, which will include performance, photography and video will take place in the Forêt de Grésigne, Tarn France, and the Galerie La Vieille Poste, 81140 Larroque from 11 - 27 July 2010. There will be a 'networked meal' using Skype and other communication media so that our 'remote operators, who will also be participating in the project in their own locations, can join us for a sing-along and barbeque on the 18th July at 12.00 noon French

You can read more HERE

FEATURING AMY BASSIN

This week we are featuring the artist Amy Bassin and her work "INTERVENTIONS".

In "INTERVENTIONS" Amy takes photos that were taken in one city and places them in another city, exploring what is real and what is perceived.

In this work she is exploring the following questions:

What is contemporary digital art and photography? What is photography? What is real and what is perceived? If we manipulate photographs with digital technology, is it similar or different than 'staging' a scene and photographing it? Is photography that 'documents' the 'world' really a documentation of what exists or is it all in the photographer's manipulation of the tools they are using (the camera and in the developing). Isn't the process completed and the meaning in the eye of the viewer, regardless of the artists intent.

You can read more about the artist HERE.

FEATURING KLAUS MAEHRING

This week we are featuring the artist Klaus Maehring and his work "Nomadic Village". Klaus started off as a photographer, travelling around in a bus that he had equipped to stay on the road forever. Over the years, the bus turned into a centre for nomadic activities. Today, Klaus' work lies between the mediums of photography, photo-performance and the diplomatic mission to create a nomadic network of people.

He says: "On The Road Productions (ORP) exercises an artistic activism, that finds and creates spaces, in which artists can work outside of the walls of existing institutions. ORP fosters projects that aim at finding and expressing independent and original views. Centerpiece is a Steyr-Ikarus bus that has been converted into an atelier-, office- and gallery-space. The Nomadic Village 2009 was an enlarged space of that character, an artist residence with a slight festival character, in which various mobile projects created a microcosm together. The participants brought their own housings, like busses, vans or caravans, that became the structure of the temporary village".

You can read more about Klaus Maehring HERE.

The Nomadic Village 2009 Movie/Compliation will be shown in London, on Saturday 26th of June from 10 - 14 h. Lecture Hall, Free School, Bethnal Green Library

FEATURING ANDREW Y. AMES "MANO A MANO"

This week we are featuring the artist Andrew Y. Ames with the installation: "Mano a Mano". Andrew is a new-media artist and designer working with games. His goal is not only to make entertaining games, but to epitomize the societies that makes them so.

He says about his installation: "Mano a Mano is a regulation-size arm-wrestling table built on massive legs. However, it is not a regular arm-wresting table. The rusty steel top, worn leather elbow rests, sweat-stained pin pads and walnut enclosure, conceal electronics that sense and process the wrestling match. Players discover that the table reacts to the back-and-forth movement of their interlocked grip. The table detects hand and arm location as players exert force and press for victory, and the table responds by playing pre-recorded sounds."

You can read more about the artist HERE.

FEATURING CHRISTOPHE KATRIB

This week we are featuring the artist Christophe Katrib with the installation: "Welcome to my space ship". Christophe made the installation while attending a workshop in Beirut called "Ruin in the City". The work was shown ina a guerrilla exhibition in a large old apartment in Beirut’s Sanayeh district.

"For my project, I spent a few hours everyday for 3 days in an abandoned house in Beirut and the wild garden around it, creating a mini-ritual, trying to listen to it, to observe it, and eventually to capture its unlikely heartbeat and its echo from the city around it, through images and sound," says Christophe. " The resulting work is an installation in a small intimate bathroom chamber in an old Lebanese apartment, a derelict room containing a showerhead, normal tiled floor, half ceramic half concrete walls, and a water heater."

You can read more about the project and the HERE.

FEATURING ABINADI MEZA

This week Wooloo is featuring the artist Abinadi Meza- and his instillation (Silence). Abinadi Meza is a filmmaker with a background in Architecture and Creative Writing. He is currently based in Texas, USA.

Abinadi created the installation Silence while in residence at the Irish Museum of Modern Art. He describes the work in these words:

"This is multichannel sonic architecture exhibited as an installation. Specialized audio equipment was used to record the city's sound scape at frequencies above normal human hearing. The sound was then re-spatialized in the gallery, accompanied by video and text. The floor of the gallery was paved with stones, which evoked the feel and smell of the streets of the city"

Read about the artist and see more of his work HERE.

FEATURING ASPRA MENTE

This week Wooloo is featuring the collective "Aspra mente" - composed of members Eva Cenghiaro, Giulia Gabrielli, Gabriella Giuda and Allessandra Saviotti. Aspra mente works with the idea of "work in progress" intended as the conception of interdisciplinary projects which develop over time.

In their own words, the work which arises is often product of an in depth preliminary research connected to the socio-cultural context of the site in which the project is proposed, aiming at directly involving the public and searching for a type of collective responsibilization which renders the artistic act as participatory as possible.

One example of their work is called "Flower Salad". Flower Salad is an horticultural intervention in a public garden space. The artists says:

"Flower Salad, while referencing the aesthetics of gardening, is produced through the participation of the public, which is turn invited to interact with the flowerbed in order to acquire a more aware attitude with respect to communal resources. This interaction is prompted through visual communication: a logo expressing edibility and various aids guiding the use. A website will collect advice on taking care of the flowerbed and suggestions regarding the possible uses of the flowers."

You can see more of their work HERE.

FEATURING JOSEFINA POSCH "IN MY SECRET LIFE"

This week Wooloo chose to feature the artist Josefina Posch and her Installation called "In My Secret Life – Hibernation". It is a conceptual installation which focuses on what actually is in time and space. Josefina explains her work with these words:

"In My Secret Life – Hibernation" Act I Scene 1-3 The installation in Bergrummet is the first part of Josefina Posch’s newest body of work "In My Secret Life" who lends it’s structure from operas use of multimedia and it’s composition of acts and scenes. In this first act we are confronted by a state of winter hibernation. The space becomes a baroque, surreal, Carrollesk under-world where time is passing but at the same time seems to stand still. An inner spiritual paradox between the dead still of the hibernation, the recovery and the frustration that time is short. The hibernation as a natural reoccurring state or as a necessary but involuntary result from trauma? The focus lays on what actually is in time and space, right now and mixes sound, sculpture, lights and smells to create an illusion of a working machinery. The title "In My Secret Life" comes from the Leonard Cohen song from 2001 with the same name."

She is exhibiting her work now at Roda Sten Art Center in Gothenburg, Sweden 8-29th of May 2010.

You can read more about the artist and see more of her works HERE.

FEATURING MARIANA MADEIRA: "ORGULHOSAMENTE SÓS"

Beginning today, Wooloo will be featuring the work of one of our artist members each week.

As the first, we have chosen Mariana Madeira and her installation "Orgulhosamente Sós". A conceptual installation dealing with the isolation of Portugal during its dictatorship. Mariana explains her installation with these words:

"This installation faces the dark period that Portugal had during 48 years. Until the year 1974 the Portuguese people had to deal with the fascist government, who closed the connection of Portugal to the rest of the Europe. The aim of the politics was to value the work on fields, instead of education of the people. I realized the "wall" that my country had with the rest of the world when my grandfather said that, when he was a young boy, he and his friends thought that the Guadiana River (a portuguese river) was the end of the world, that there was nothing more besides Portugal. This installation took the one of the sentences of the fascist Prime Minister António de Oliveira Salazar that represented well his idea: "Orgulhosamenet Sós" which means "Proudly Alone".

You can read more about the artist and see more of her works here.