As we begin 2012, take a moment to prepare to participate in democracy. Some have already begun to caucus and many of us will go to polling places in November. If you are a United States citizen, please make sure that your are registered to vote. The coming election will certainly be a important one.
HAIKU MEMO #3
Thankful to people…
artists, lawyers, mothers… who
fought so I could vote.
Signed, Sealed, Delivered: X O
On March 4, 2011, I presented “I Am A Man,” a series of twenty text panels by Hank Willis Thomas, as a “book of stamps.” I imagine them situated among the United States Postal Service Black Heritage Stamp Series featuring “notable Black American” stories. Current forty-four cent stamps in the Black Heritage series include a painting of Barbara Jordan and a stylized portrait Oscar Micheaux; both based on photographs. In 1999, a 33¢ stamp with a photograph of controversial political figure Malcolm X was released. The Willis Thomas text stamps convey collective narratives alongside the USPS portraits.
According to the Smithsonian National Postal Museum, a Cinderella Stamp “looks like a postage stamp, but this imaginary issue is without postal value.” During the 2008 Presidential campaign season, the Shepard Fairey stenciled image of then-Senator Barack Obama, bearing the logo of his Presidential campaign, held great cultural value. The United States Postal Service memorializes figures of the past. A portrait based on a photograph, this iconic blue, red, and white rendition of the Presidential candidate imagined Barack Obama as the history of the future.
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Signed, Sealed, Delivered, X O by M. Liz Andrews, Shepard Fairey, Associated Press, United States Postal Service is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at www.LetterToObama.com.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at www.LetterToObama.com.
November 4, 2008
Three years ago today, the world was tuned in as we waited….
Liberty, of thee I sing…
This issue of the Fo(u)r 4 features images of two performance pieces: Lady Liberty and Twin Towers. Patricia Faolli and Raquel Mavecq embodied the collapse of the iconic Towers on the tenth anniversary, September 11, 2011. Ladies Katrina De Wees and Lily Mengesha stood up as moving, breathing statues of (the concept of) Liberty at the same event, LetterToObama: Live From New York.
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TWIN TOWERS: PATRICIA FAOLLI & RAQUEL MAVECQ
LADY LIBERTY: KATRINA DE WEES & LILY MENGESHA
Photos by JENNY EOM
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CURATOR. STATEMENT.
Performance offers opportunities for people to sculpt bodies into artistic statements. These 44 photographs document the living memorials these four women collaboratively created of themselves.
- M. Liz Andrews
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ABOUT THE ARTISTS
KATRINA DE WEES believes the process of generating performance/art is an intrinsic form of liberation, personal spiritual or otherwise. She likes to move, think, write and travel between spaces where she can feel the her/(his)tories in the walls.
PATRICIA FAOLLI é um pequeno animal selvagem from the Concrete Jungles of Brasil. She believes that creation of art comes with experimenting with the Tempo-Espaço surrounding us. She is excited by living in Nova Iorque and ringing conflito, chaos, and questionamento to its inhabitants.
RAQUEL MAVECQ prefers the noise. In São Paulo, Brazil, she was born with her eyes open under a clear sky winter day. She sees art making as a statement for existence and believes that late night local trains can tell secrets. Motion to move and be moved.
LILY MENGESHA is a neo(n)-native and a post-post-colonial tourist. When she’s not spending her time crafting 5-year-olds into revolutionaries, she fills the rest with sequin portraits and words in motion.
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Liberty of thee I sing… by M. Liz Andrews, Jenny Eom, Katrina De Wees, Patricia Faolli, Raquel Macecq, Lily Mengesha is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at www.LetterToObama.com.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at www.LetterToObama.com.
Fresh
In this issue of the Fo(u)r 4, Ricardo Gamboa uses parody and satire to directly confront specific policies of the administration. His video demonstrates ways in which art can provide an alternate space for democracy.
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THE FRESH PRINCE OF D.C.
RICARDO GAMBOA
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ARTIST. STATEMENT.
You are here. At an intersection. An intersection of people with a stage. It is sacred. We often see politicians or priests take stages. The idea is that they have something to say and a certain implied authority or credibility to which we should listen. You are here. A stage. An opportunity to discuss how we can be here — in this world — together and better.
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ABOUT THE ARTIST
RICARDO GAMBOA is a prolific theatre and visual artist in his native Chicago. An award-winning actor, director, poet, playwright, and visual artist, Gamboa believes art and media are powerful avenues for social change and dialogue. Gamboa’s talents extend beyond his own stage work as one of the Chicago’s most effective, innovative, and reputed youth and young adult theatre educators.
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04 September 2011 by M. Liz Andrews, Ricardo Gamboa is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at www.LetterToObama.com.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at www.LetterToObama.com.
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The Bombs Bursting in Air
This is my third annual 4th of July LetterToObama. It is an invitation.
The piece begins with photographs I composed at the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C. and the Ft. Logan military cemetery in Denver, Colorado. The song is a Spiritual entitled “Stand Still Jordan.”
Then you hear and see text clipped from headlines of the May 18, 2011 New York Times newspaper. I arranged these words to create a poem entitled, “A composer changed the New York music scene. A Call for Revolution? Probably a Typo.”
The pages of this piece are numbered in reverse order to begin thinking about the ways that Memorials can reach beyond space and time. It is an invitation to the second of fo(u)r events presenting “Letters” to the 44th President through art on September 11, 2011 in New York City. It is an invitation to “artistic citizenship.”
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The Bombs Bursting in Air by M. Liz Andrews is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at www.LetterToObama.com.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at www.LetterToObama.com.
Purple Rain
LIVE FROM D.C. was the first of fo(u)r LetterToObama events presenting “Letters” to the 44th President through art. For this issue of the Fo(u)r 4, view selections from this Presidents’ Day event.
Also, Save the Date for the second event, LIVE FROM NEW YORK, September 11, 2011.
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Welcome to America
VOCALIZATION MEMO #2
DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
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ARTIST. STATEMENT.
“Hate is too great a burden to bear…”
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ABOUT THE ARTIST
MARTIN LUTHER KING was an orator who has been referred to as “King of Love.”
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