chashama Curriculum Vitae 2007

CURRICULUM VITAE 2007

LATIMES in NYC (December 28 - January 4, 2007)
by Ben Greeley
with: LABTEST, TANK, SKILO, LOKUS, PUNCH, SINER, DUBR
chashama, 112 West 44th Street
LATIMES is an exhibition of new california landscapes by Peter Bill, graffiti art by well known Los Angeles writers such as TANK and LOKUS, and looping HDR video collaborations by LABTEST (www.thelab.us).
www.peterbill.us
www.thelab.us
www.vimeo.com/420750
lanternproductions.com/pbill/paintweb/pnt2.html
www.lanternproductions.com/latimes

peterbill's paint and video landscapes have shown in such diverse venues as The Kitchen (NYC), the Henry Art Gallery (Seattle), FILE Festival (São Paulo, Brazil), and other international venues. He continues in his Oil paintings and video work to weave the painterly with the digital, pixels and paint, indigo and 191970 blue.

Los Angeles graffiti writers have come under unprecedented pressure under police chief bratten, former police chief of NYC under giuliani. These artists have been equated with terrorists and treated as such. They continue to express themselves as american artists, unbowed and unrepentant in creative expression.

LABTEST is an international collaboration of artists currently based on three continents. This group has exhibited around the world and continues its subversive recombining of culture. more

The Dinner Rehearsal (December 19, 2007)
by Ben Greeley
Directed by Theresa Buchheister of Title:Point Productions
chashama, 217 E. 42nd Street
A new pre(conception) staged reading featuring the performing talents of some of New York's most exciting downtown theatre talents: Jessica Jeliffe of Banana Bag and Bodice, Ryan Holsopple of 31 Radio Down, Jesica Avellone of Collaboration Town, Fil Vocasek of Hotel Savant and Title:Point Productions and Samara Naeymi of Title:Point Productions.

nice ass, Alice (December 2 - 22, 2007)
Created by FIFTHhorse partners in crime Laine Rettmer & Deena Selenow
Digital Choreography/ Video Editor, Chris Giarmo
at chashama performance window
266 West 37th Street
(Bet. 7th and 8th Avenues, A/C/E/1/2/3 to 34th Street, N/R/Q/W/7 to Times Square; M16, M34 buses to 8th Ave, M10, M20 to 36th St.)

Created by FIFTHhorse partners in crime Laine Rettmer and Deena Selenow, nice ass, Alice. is a Storybook Diorama Peep Show. By masking the storefront window of chashama's 37th street art space and creating peepholes through which to look, FIFTHhorse encourages passerby to submit to their inner voyeur and dare to sneak a peek.

Inspired by the 1960's drag group The Cockettes, Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and the subversive sexuality present in Walt Disney Animated Films, Laine Rettmer and Deena Selenow intend to explore the line between curiosity and perversity; the leap between innocence and taboo through a diorama peep show retelling of Alice's infamous (mis)adventures. Iconic, comical and slightly naughty, each peephole in the window display will give way to a skewed view of Wonderland through various use of the interior of the space. Playing with distance, perspective and the thrill of the unexpected, FIFTHhorse would like to cordially invite its audience of pedestrians to submit to their inner voyeur and to sneak a peek through our looking glass. about the show

In August of 2007, the performance art duo FIFTHhorse (Laine Rettmer and Deena Selenow) was commissioned by The Gene Frankel Theater to create and perform a devised theatre piece based on the 1960's drag group The Cockettes for NYC's Summer of Love Festival 07. Using a combination of original text and music, iconic phrases coined by the incomparable Cockettes, as well as text straight from Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, FIFTHhorse and Friends created and performed their homage to psychedelics, hyper-sexuality, innocence and the gender bending 1960's through their staging of Cockettes in Wonderland. nice ass, Alice. is the continuation and visual manifestation of that performance. about FIFTHhorse

Deena Selenow is a New York-based multi disciplinary artist specializing in areas of theatrical direction, experimental theatre and the merging of visual art and performance. In 2006, along with collaborators Ryan Frank and Rory Sheridan, she co-founded the multi-arts collective Ad Nauseam Lyceum, an artist run organization dedicated to showcasing the work of emerging artists working in the realms of visual art, installation, new media and performance. Directing credits include: American Psyche, Chess'd!, 365 Plays/365 Days, Apocawhat?!, Rhinoceros, Virtual Reality, Witness, Request Stop, Special Offer . Assistant Directing credits include: The Bacchae (NYC and Warsaw), Drums on the Dam (U.S. premier), 7 Against Thebes (NYTW staged reading). Curation: PAGEANT!, VERNISSAGE!, EXPO! Deena was the recipient of a 2006 Baryshnikov Arts Center Multi Disciplinary Artist Fellowship and holds a B.F.A. in Drama from New York University. nice Ass, Alice. is one of many collaborations between Deena Selenow and Laine Rettmer, the first being Cockettes in Wonderland presented at the Gene Frankel Theater in August 2007. Deena Selenow

Interested in creating work through many mediums, Laine's training and experience reflects the diversity of her passions. She recently graduated magnum cum laude from the Experimental Theater Wing at NYU. She is the recipient of the Corrine Miller Award, the Experimental Theater Wing's Award for Excellence, and a Trustee Scholarship. Her work is primarily performance-based though she has also had paintings shown at the Chicago Institute of the Arts, and at Ad Nauseam Lyceum's group showcase, VERNISSAGE!. Inclined to involvement in all aspects of her pieces, she typically conceives her shows, co-writes them, creates the music, and often performs in her original works. Directing credits include: Flashlights and Knives, her adaptation of Dennis Cooper's novel Period, (flashlightsandknives.com), Cockettes in Wonderland, which she was commissioned with Deena Selenow to create for the Gene Frankel Theater's Summer of Love Festival 07, 365 Plays/365 Days, Pieces from John Cage's Song Books, which was performed at the Kitchen for the John Cage Birthday Festival 07, the short film, The Wedding Party, which is currently in post production, and Tokyo Lolita, a multimedia web-based video project currently under development. Laine is also performing in Witness Relocation's spring show, Cathy Weis's spring show, and is a frequent collaborating artist with Avant Media (avantmedia.org). Laine Rettmer

CHASHAMA / LA SUPERETTE ART SALE (December 1 - 22, 2007)
chashama Times Square, 112 West 44th Street Gallery
SEE ART. BUY ART. LOVE ART.
www.lasuperette.org

For the winter holiday season, chashama and La Superette combined to create CHA HOLIDAY, an alternative to the traditional commercial shopping season with CHA HOLIDAY -- an affordable holiday art sale at chashama's Times Square gallery. Showcasing original, homemade gifts (ranging from $1 - $100; most are between $20-$40), artwork included recycled accessories, homemade clothes, wall art, stocking stuffers & more. Throughout the event, we also hosted live performances and video screenings by some of New York's finest artists at our 44th St. gallery. about cha Holiday

HOURS: chashama: Thurs-Sun from 2PM – 8PM (closed on Mon, Tues & Wed)
La Superette: Thurs-Sun from 12PM – 7PM (closed on Mon, Tues & Wed)
PERFORMANCES:
December 13th at 8-11pm - Loud Objects, Benton Bainbridge + Matty Ostrowski
December 14th at 8-11pm - MV Carbon + Tony Conrad, Nautical Almanac
December 15th at 8-11pm - The And Group, Luke Dubois, James Rouvelle + John Roach
December 16th at 8-11pm - Dan Iglesia, Gerald Marks
December 21st at 2:30 pm - Ari Tabei
at 5:30 pm - Erin Malley
at 7:30 pm - Erin Malley schedule

LA SUPERETTE is an annual art market where artists & craftsmen present & sell their creations to a wide range of visitors. This year will feature an installation by Patrick Meagher. In addition to the sale there will be a series of live video & film projections, as well as music & puppet performances for all ages. For more information email: lasuperette@gmail.com. La Superette

Memory Minister (November 30 - December 22, 2007)
curated by Tracy Candido
Special performance by international superstar PUPPETKABOB on Thursday, December 20th at 9pm.
Explosivo/chashama, 169 Avenue C
www.explosivoartshow.com
featuring: Derek Ayres, Susan Carnahan, Joelle Jensen, Michael Perrone, Andrew Prayzner and Kimi Weart.

"Memory Minister" includes artists that project an uncanny, dream-like, or strange reality by conjuring up personal and/or collective images from their memory. In the late 18th century, France had invented the Phantasmagoria, a precinema projection ghost show which was a modified type of magic lantern, used to project images on walls, smoke, or semi-transparent screens. This lantern- sorcery conjured up images of the dead and began to develop into a kind of art-form.

The artists in "Memory Minister" summon up fragmented memories of their past as they remember them, sometimes intermingling elements of the present to decipher what they may not understand. The works in "Memory Minister" are haunting and dream-like, and evoke notions of romantic poetry, engaging in an energetic imaginative commitment to the restorative powers of memory, especially of childhood and adolescence. about the exhibit

Explosivo/chashama was a temporary platform for contemporary art which followed an interdisciplinary exhibition program curated by Tracy Candido in partnership with chashama. The Explosivo/chashama art space is donated to chashama by the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board. UHAB supports self-help housing and community building in low-income neighborhoods by training, organizing, developing and assisting resident-controlled limited-equity housing cooperatives. about 169 Ave C

Musings of a Man-Bird Recluse & The 24 Hour Performance Spectacular (November 12 - 16, 2007)
Performed by Andrew Gilchrist
Directed by Julie Rossman
with writing by Andrew Gilchrist and Ramsey Prather
chashama Window Performance Stage, 266 West 37th Street
www.ronaldpelican.com

Musings of a Man-Bird Recluse, will run nightly from Monday, November 12th through Thursday, November15th, culminating in a 24-HOUR Performance Spectacular on Friday, November 16th – Saturday, November 17th as part of the chashama Windows Program in the Garment District of NYC (266 West 37th Street).

From Monday through Thursday, Ronald will exhibit a new and different performance nightly; replete with dancing, singing, guessing games, short plays, poetry readings, psychic readings, magic, violent humility, inordinate suffering and comedy. Then, beginning on Friday at 9:00 pm, the window to Ronald’s antechamber will be opened for a complete 24 HOURS straight, during which Ronald will perform a one-hour show every three hours until the window closes once again, for an indefinite period of time, on Saturday, November 17th at 9:00 pm. Voyeurs may come and go to their liking, and bear witness to the antics of this bizarre hybrid-specimen, as he is forced to endlessly entertain, toiling in despair as he burns ad infinitum. more about the show

Musings of a Man-Bird Recluse has previously been seen as The Exquisite Tale of Ronald Pelican at Ars Nova and Bard College in 2006, and at The Gene Frankel Underground in October of 2007. Additionally, Ronald emceed the 24-hour Play Festival at Bard College, the Sticky 10-minute play festival at Galapagos Art Space, was featured in the 2nd Annual New York City Binge Festival, and most recently appeared in the LMCC's One Million Forgotten Moments Festival curated by Yehuda Duenyas. The creative team includes Andrew Gilchrist (writer/performer), Ramsey Prather (writer) and Julie Rossman (director). Visit www.ronaldpelican.com for more information. previously

Phenomenal Growth (November 8 - 18, 2007)
photography, video and other works on paper by Christy Speakman
chashama Gallery Space, 461 West 126th Street
FREE and open to the public.
Opening Reception and Video Screening Thursday, November 8, 2007
For more information visit www.christyspeakman.com

Phenomenal Growth is a series of ink drawings where Speakman draws directly from video stills extracted from her short films. The resulting images function as compressed photographs, drawings of light and layered time. Also included in the exhibition are new photographs from Speakman's Eye-wall series, a body of work she began in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina. Found on the streets of New York City after rainfall, the celestial stains form from oil dropped on pavement by cars in transit. Contradictory to visual resemblances to outer space or satellite imagery of storms approaching landfall, the photographs embrace the micro, momentary, and ephemeral- literally, the ground beneath your feet.

Oil slicks and vapor trails act as contemporary symbols for displacement, not only in a literal sense of evacuation, but may also suggest our cultural displacement from nature itself. Liquid Land (2007), a single channel video installation, takes the viewer to a hardwood forest on the edge of the Mississippi River levee within the city limits of New Orleans. It focuses on the natural world as a fluid and interconnected entity, studying Katrina's effect on the native ecosystem. Fixed landscapes have dissolved into ephemera and groundlessness, suggesting land that is in a constant state of both disappearance and phenomenal growth. about Phenomenal Growth

Christy Speakman was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, and now lives in New York City. Speakman holds a B.A. (2002) from the University of New Orleans and an M.F.A. in Photography (2005) from Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. Her recent work has been supported by artist residencies from A Studio in the Woods at Tulane University (2007), The Santa Fe Art Institute (2006), and The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (2005-2006). Speakman's work has been exhibited nationally and internationally; she is the recipient of an Artist Restoration Grant from Tulane University, and a grant from the Joan Mitchell Foundation. about Christy

Numyism / Survivors (November 5 - 26, 2007)
by Numyi Lee
chashama, 112 West 44th Street Gallery
FREE and open to the public.
Opening Reception: Friday, Nov. 9, 2007, 6-8 pm
numyil@yahoo.com

Numyism is all about survivors: survivors of people, the survival of the artist in her own style. Numyi started the survivors' story from her family-in-law in Iraq in 2007 and expanded her survivors' series to include herself and painting as survivor. She paints the power of survivors and the beauty of colors from nature in her own unique style. Each painting has its own sad story and her paining holds both sadness and beauty simultaneously. about the exhibit

Numyi was born and raised in South Korea. She got her MFA from Queens College in 2003 and a MFA from Pratt institute in 2005. She started the chashama residency program in 2006, and had a solo show "Between Black and White Colors".

9 of Numyi's pieces of drawings were featured in the American Gangster Movie (2007) which will open in theaters this fall. Her paintings and drawings will be also seen in: Phoebe in Wonderland (2009) and Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 (2008). Her works are in several private collections and the Museum of Friends (MOF) in downtown Walsenburg, Colorado.

Currently she is a chashama artist-in-residence program in the 57th Street Studios in Manhattan in New York City. about Numyi

Underneath the Gauzy Netting (October 30 & 31, November 1, 3 & 4, 2007)
Performed & Created by Sari Nordman & Pauliina Silvennoinen
with live musical accompaniment by Corky Has a Band
chashama Window Performance Stage, 266 West 37th Street
FREE and open to the public.
www.myspace.com/sarinordman

This multi-disciplinary extravaganza explores the Kalevala. The Kalevala is a Finnish national epic, a series of poems passed down from an oral tradition, eventually compiled into one grand written volume. Underneath the Gauzy Netting will explore dominant themes and characters from the Kalevala with original choreography and live music incorporating instruments made from found objects by Corky Has a Band. The piece will attempt to link the ancient, mystical world of Kalevala to the modern day. Work by artists from other disciplines may be incorporated into some performances. For a detailed up-to-date performance schedule please go to www.myspace.com/sarinordman. about the show

Sari Nordman is a native of Finland. She came to the US in 1993 to study dance. After receiving her certificate in dance from Nikolais & Louis Dance Lab in 1995, she began presenting her choreography in concerts of her own production, as well as in festivals in the US and Finland. She has presented her own work at the Atlantic Center for the Arts, Dance Theater Hurjaruuth, Dance Conversations, Forum Box-Gallery, Full Moon Dance Festival, Merce Cunningham Studio, New Steps, Zodiak, and The 92nd St. Y. Currently she is working with choreographers Naomi Goldberg Haas, Tymberly Harris and Melinda Ring, and with the Headless Whorse Dance Company. In the past she has worked with Beverly Blossom, Douglas Dunn, and Ann Reinking. She holds an M.F.A. degree in modern dance from NYU/Tisch School of the Arts. She has received generous support from American-Scandinavian and Finlandia Foundations. about Sari Nordman

Pauliina Silvennoinen, originally from Finland, works as a dancer, choreographer and producer. A grant from American-Scandinavian Society has enabled her to continue her work in New York City. She is an artistic director and organizer for series of art events that started in June 26th, 2007. The first chapter "This Single Night of Summer" was a charming combination of bizarre dance, music and multimedia. As a dancer she has worked with David Appel, Philippa Kaye Company and Airelise Dance Company. She also creates her own work with other freelance artists. Pauliina graduated from Turku Art's Academy Dance department in 2005. She has also studied at the Fontys Dance Academy in the Netherlands. In Finland and Sweden, she has worked with AB Dance Theatre, Dance Art Productions and other freelance choreographers. about Pauliina Silvennoinen

Me & the Material Magic (October 26 - November 18, 2007)
curated by: Tracy Candido
chashama/Explosivo Gallery Space, 169 Avenue C
FREE and open to the public.
For more about upcoming exhibitions or Explosivo Art visit www.explosivoartshow.com.
featuring: Paul Butler, Happy Fun, Matthew Lusk.

Tunes in the Terminal (October 22 - December 22, 2007)
a bi-weekly presentation of musical performance in the afternoon curated by Jaime Walden formerly of Arlene's Grocery.
Port Authority @675 8th Avenue
North terminal "Area X" or South terminal ticket platform
Music indoors Mondays & Thursdays
FREE and open to the public.

10/22 @ 5:30-6:15 - No Face Atlanta
10/25 @ 5:30-6:15 - Zack Glass
11/01 @ 5:30-6:15 - Left Me Bashful
11/05 @ 4:00-4:45 - Gabo and the Wastrels
11/08 @ 5:30-6:15 - Fiama
11/12 @ 5:30-6:15 - Chris Hughlett
11/15 @ 4:00-4:45 - Late Nite Access
11/19 @ 5:30-6:15 - Fiama
11/22 - no performances - Thanksgiving
11/26 @ 4:00-4:45 - No Skip Ransom (pop/indie quartet) - CANCELLED
11/29 @ 5:30-6:15 - WHR (jam/jazz quartet)
12/03 @ 4:30-5:15 - Marc Alter (vocals & guitar)
12/03 @ 5:30-6:15 - Chantilly (vocals & guitar)
12/06 @ 5:00-5:45 - Sakai (bossa nova)
12/10 @ 4:00-4:45 - Fiama (duo, vocals & guitar)
12/13 @ 4:00-4:45 - Catherine Sikora (saxophone) - CANCELLED
12/17 @ 4:00-4:45 - Allison Weiss (duo, vocals & guitar)
12/20 @ 4:00-4:45 - Jeffrey Young (violin + electric guitar + tuba)
12/20 @ 5:00-5:45 - Filet of Soul (jazz/blues) schedule

The sound system for this series was generously provided by

Samson is proud to support chashama's efforts to give musicians the opportunity to create and perform through Tunes in the Terminal.
With a focus on advanced performance, exceptional design and great value for the working musician, Samson's professional audio products are preferred by performers and recording artists all over the world. Samson Technologies

Port Authority website: www.panynj.gov

3rd annual Fashion District Arts Festival (October 20 & 21, 2007)
hosted by: The Fashion Center Business Improvement District
and featuring art installations by chashama artists: Sarah Anderson, Eve Biddle, Ixa Faolan (Eesha Faylin), The Relationship (Fiona Templeton), Odonata Dance Project, RETTOCAMME, and Victoria Farr.
at seven locations in the Fashion District in New York City

Sarah Anderson
"Culture Shift"
presenting at 209 West 35th Street

Eve Biddle
"Do you want to be here?"
presenting at 242 West 36th Street

Ixa Faolan (Eesha Faylin)
"Secret Garden: Self Portraits in Unlikely Places"
presenting at 307 West 36th Street

Dream Gathering
by The Relationship (Fiona Templeton)
presenting at 212 and 139 West 35th Streets

Odonata Dance Project
"Tethered"
presenting at 208 West 35th Street

RETTOCAMME
"Window Looming"
presenting at 247 West 37th Street

Victoria Farr
"Break Room"
presenting at 306-308 West 36th Street HOVER for list of chashama installations or CLICK for more info.

The Fashion Center Business Improvement District is proud to host the 3rd annual Fashion District Arts Festival, showcasing the artists, crafters, galleries and theaters now making their homes alongside celebrated designers in the heart of America's fashion capital.

Catch a new off-Broadway show or a presentation of avant-garde performance art. See a gallery exhibition, visit artist studios, explore visual, performance, and light installations occurring in district loading bays, or learn more about pottery and printmaking. The Festival calendar features 175 events over the 7-day period (including more than 200 visual artists and 8 performances). Festival events are free, unless otherwise noted. about the festival

"The Fashion District is not only a global center of couture, but it also has emerged as a center of cultural and artistic life," said Barbara Blair Randall, executive director of the Fashion Center BID. "The week-long Festival, which attracts thousands of visitors to the area, celebrates the vibrancy and creativity of the neighborhood. It's an authentic New York experience and it's all right here!". from Barbara Blair Randall, executive director of the Fashion Center BID

For more information please visit their website www.fashioncenter.com/arts, contact festival coordinator Cheryl Hageman at chageman@fashioncenter.com, or pick up materials at the Fashion Center Information Kiosk at the corner of Seventh Avenue and West 39th Street.

presented by chashama in association with The Fashion Center Business Improvement District.

EDEN (October 19 - 29, 2007)
A new play by: Marina Shron
Directed by: Leah Bonvissuto
chashama, 217 E. 42nd Street, New York, NY
featuring: Kaitlin Bailey, Devin Delliquanti, Amy Ewing, & Roger Lirtsman.
Costumes: Cat(herine) Fisher
Lighting: Ryan Meltzer
supported by collectiveP.A.S.T. at chashama

R.I.P. (October 12 - 14, 2007)
by Reconstruct Art
chashama project exhibition space
159 West 119th Street
FREE and open to the public.
Services: Friday October 12, 7p
Viewing: Saturday October 13 & Sunday October 14, 12 - 4p
OFFILIATING CURATORS:
Patrick-Earl Barnes, Terrell Gillespie
ORDER OF SERVICE: Officiant's (ARTISTS)
Lawrence Joyner, Patrick-Earl Barnes, Terrell Gillespie, Phoenix, Jason R. Swaby, Lisa Lopez, Daren Chambers, Jeremiah Drake
"We are glad to inform you that your devious plan of infecting distrust and envy into the hearts and minds of African Slaves has come to an end. We, the people, stand together to bury WILLIE LYNCH..."

Dear Mr. Willie Lynch

We are Sad to inform you that your devious plan of infecting distrust and Envy into the hearts and minds of African Slaves has succeeded. It is the year two thousand eight and they have yet to unite as a people. These people have yet to figure out how to pull their resources together and reclaim their dignity let alone their human rights. They constantly capitalize on themselves to the point of murdering each other. The Entire Planet capitalizes on them because they are nothing more than consumers, feeding on our slop (the reign of selfishness ends).

However, There Are a Few Who have seen the light and are awakening the minds of the people at a rapid pace. They are Reconstructing the minds and spirit of the people to the higher truths of love, unity and godliness. Through art, one focuses on creating rather destroying and the better they become at harnessing creative habits the easier it is to expose negative ones- and let go of them. The Obituary

Reliefs, Drawings (October 11 - 28, 2007)
by Amanda Branson
chashama Gallery Space, 217 East 42nd Street
FREE and open to the public.

Amanda Branson: Reliefs Drawings includes two new bodies of work, focusing on new materials for the artist, as well as reliefs the artist has been exhibiting for more than two years. All of the abstract images and forms in Amanda's work are based on various species of trees native to the northwest corner of Connecticut. Amanda uses a combination of construction and fine art materials. One body of new work, entitled drawing Landscape, consists of ink drawings on painted MDF panels. Another new body of work on view, entitled drawing terrain, is drawings made with pharmaceutical grade beeswax on plexi glass. The reliefs are joint compound on wood panels with latex paint. Amanda graduated from Maine College of Art in 2002 and lives in Connecticut. about the exhibit

The Chrome Warrior (October 11 - 13, 2007)
Written by: Teddy Stevies
Directed by: Matthew Hancock
chashama, 217 E. 42nd Street, New York, NY
myspace.com/thechromewarrior
presented by the Sum of Us Theater Company
Equity approved showcase

To Be Titled - An Interactive Playdate (October 6 - 25, 2007)
by Zhenesse
chashama Time Square @ 112 W.44th Street

To Be Titled is an interactive playdate created by Zhenesse with special guest hosts nightly at chashama's 112 West 44th Street gallery (between Sixth Avenue and Broadway), October 6th – 25th, 2007, Thursday – Monday, 9PM-1AM. Zhenesse plays the role of "Blandie," a living doll housed inside the "Blandie Mansion" – your playground to dress up and manipulate Blandie to your heart's desire. about "To Be Titled"

When Toys R Us closes for the night "Blandie," comes alive in her pink doll box and awaits your arrival. Once inside, the Blandie Mansion Manager will introduce you to your tools of play including the couture closet, prop box, and coiffure line. After you style your Blandie you take her to the fashion shoot photo studio and immortalize her image.

To Be Titled casts the audience in the role of image stylist, and presents a meditation on fashion, still image, personal identity, and role-play. The audience will enter individually or in a group of up to four people. Feel free to bring your own items to the Blandie Mansion to create your ideal image. All images created will be documented. A catalogue of images from the show with their creation documentation will be released in January 2008.

Furthering the growth of an interconnected community of New York City artists, guest hosts join To Be Titled from the worlds of burlesque, multi media arts, street art, music, drag, and more. The guest hosts fill the roles of Door Liaison & Mansion Management. Featured hosts scheduled for playdates are Julie Altas Muz, Tigger, Kate Valentine, Glenn Marla, Geo Wyeth, Sharon Husband, Logan Hardcore, Epiphany, Acid Betty, Grace Les, Edible Dazzle, Machine Dazzle, Neal Medlyn, C. Damage, Celso, Sujin Lee, Lukki, and others to be announced. Full schedule of hosts available by email at me@zhenesse.com. more about the show

Devoted to creating Live Lobby Art environments for the public Zhenesse regularly brings a little bit of downtown to mid- and uptown's unsuspecting audiences. Her artwork blends an interest in the performance of everyday life, community interaction, and pop culture sociology into a form that is firmly rooted in the visual engagement of fine art styles while also physically provoking the audience with the stunning effect of liveness.

Zhenesse has presented interactive performance installations and Live Lobby Art at Galapagos, P.S. 122, The Slipper Room, New York University, CUNY, The Red Room, the Deitch Art Parade, Collective:Unconscious, the Scope Art Fair, and at a number of chashama's friendly venues. Zhenesse is currently the co-curator for the Midnight Art Series #2-Performance. about Zhenesse

Funding for this project has been made possible by the Puffin Foundation.

The Third Annual Harlem Open Artist Studio Tour (October 6 & 7, 2007)
a weekend walking tour of artist studios and galleries in historic Harlem
featuring: Harlem HOAST OPEN STUDIOS & GALLERY461 GROUP EXHIBITION
chashama's gallery @ 461 West 126th Street
12PM - 5PM, FREE and open to the public.

Diane Davis
Elaine Defibaugh
Vickie Fremont
Colwyn Griffith
Frank Leslie Hampton

Summer McClinton
Ademola Olugebefola
Tara Parsons
Christopher Reilly
Tim Roda

Sandra Spannan
Christy Speakman
Christopher Trujillo
Richard Wager
Gina Fuentes Walker

artists

artHARLEM is a community based not-for-profit organization that manages H.O.A.S.T. (Harlem Open Artist Studio Tour) and other curatorial events throughout New York City. Their events showcase the works of the artists of Harlem. about artHARLEM

Route 215 (October 3 - 14, 2007)
An interactive performance installation presented by Sang Bin Park
chashama performance window, 266 West 37th Street
FREE and open to the public.
On view: Mon-Sun 10a - 5p; Inside view: Fri-Sun 10a-5p or by appointment
Artist reception: October 3rd, 6-9p
bin1002@gmail.com

The Attendants (October 1 - 6, 2007)
An interactive performance installation presented by T H E N E R V E T A N K, a division of LIVE Theater Company
chashama performance window, 217 E.42nd Street
FREE and open to the public.
www.LIVETheater.4t.com

Concept by Chance D. Muehleck
Direction by Melanie S. Armer
Design by Solomon Weisbard
Featuring: Karen Grenke and Victor Villar-Hauser

The storefront window of chashama 217 becomes the fourth wall of a unique theatrical event. You are invited to look at our cube. Come and go as you please. Send a message to the people inside. See what happens.

Inspired by questions of confinement and virtual connectivity, The Attendants seeks to upend certain conventions and confront the viewer in a different way. As you text messages to the performers using integrated technology, prerecorded voices discuss the nature of theatre. Then there is a song.

The Nerve Tank is the exploratory and developmental wing of LIVE Theater Company. LIVE is an independent theatre based in New York City. We produce new work that engages the present moment, and our projects have been seen at FringeNYC, Theatre for the New City, and the Flux Festival in Pittsburgh. about the event

chashama visual arts open studios (September 29 - 30, 2007)
featuring work by Artists-in-Residence at our 57th Street Studios:
820-838 12th Avenue (between 57th and 58th Streets)
featuring: Kevin Auzenne * Brent Birnbaum * Bibi Calderaro * Kate O'Donovan Cook * Katherine Daniels * Ryan Frank * Jose Landoni * Numyi Lee * Danny Licul * Colin McMullan * Jasmine Murrell * Huong Ngoc Ngo * Linda Nicholas * Sang Bin Park * Alejandro Almanza Pereda * Lauren Portada * Michael Portnoy * Dean Radinovsky * Duke Riley * Christopher Rose * Carolyn Salas * Harriet Salmon * Mio Shirai * Adam Parker Smith * Celso Trevino
FREE and open to the public.
Funding for chashama's Visual Arts program has been made possible, in part, by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Foundation for Contemporary Art, the Lily Auchincloss Foundation, Inc., and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.

META-MAJESTY (September 28 - October 21, 2007)
a group exhibit curated by Tracy Candido
at Explosivo/chashama, 169 Avenue C at 11th Street
www.explosivoartshow.com
featuring: Diane Barcelowsky, Dana Carlson, Kate Clark, Jennifer Coates, William Crump, Leslie Miller, Naomi Reis, Saviour Scraps, Jessie Rose Vala.
FREE and open to the public.
A special event for META-MAJESTY is scheduled for Friday, October 12th at 8pm featuring a live music performance by FOREST FIRE.

Meta-Majesty is supported by chashama, a NYC arts organization whose mission is to support artists of all genres. chashama adopts vacant properties that are donated by their owners and converts them into theaters, galleries, studios, and window performance sites; chashama then regrants this space for free or at heavily subsidized rates. Since 1995, chashama has transformed more than 20 vacant properties and has given more than 5,000 artists access to space.

Explosivo/chashama is a temporary platform for contemporary art which follows an interdisciplinary exhibition program curated by Tracy Candido in partnership with chashama. The Explosivo/chashama art space is donated to chashama by the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board. UHAB supports self-help housing and community building in low-income neighborhoods by training, organizing, developing and assisting resident-controlled limited-equity housing cooperatives. about Explosivo/chashama

The Score (September 18 - 29, 2007)
Choreography and installation by Sera-Kim Huenergard
at chashama performance window
266 West 37th Street
FREE and open to the public.

Sera-Kim Huenergard's The Score employs light and screens to probe the contrast between the known and enigmatic in this hypnotic performance-installation. The piece is a dance in two parts, Prelude and Action, set in a site-specific visual art installation. Prelude's use of light and shadows transforms an empty storefront into an unfamiliar, unexpected private world nestled amidst the frenzy of the street. Screens are then used to reveal Action and the piece moves towards a crescendo before the dancers are engulfed in darkness. For the duration of the performance, audiences will be transported from the street to a world of light and dark, familiar and exotic. about the event

Sera-Kim Huenergard has been creating and performing in New York since 2004. Her choreographic work has been shown at WAXworks, chashama's Oasis Festival, One Night Stand, an ongoing series she co-produces with Josselyn Levinson, and programs in Washington, California and Arizona. Sera's sculptural collaborations with Michael Helland and Daniel Linehan have been seen at Dixon Place's Bodyblends series and most recently in The Dress-up Show at The Chocolate Factory. She is currently dancing with Zvi Gotheiner/ZviDance and Jeanette Stoner and Dancers, and has worked with many other wonderful people including Mark Haim, Andrea Haenggi/AMDaT, Josselyn Levinson and Melinda Lee/tothinkthethoughtperformanceprojex. Sera is from the wilderness of Washington State and holds degrees in Dance and Sculpture from the University of Washington in Seattle. about Sera-Kim

The Australia Project II: Australia Strikes Back (September 13 - 30, 2007)
Eleven Australian playwrights. One island nation.
chashama, 217 E. 42nd Street
(Equity Approved Showcase)

Pinter's Explanation
by Ross Mueller
Directed by Mark Armstrong+
With Mary Cross* & Michael Szeles*

The Melancholy Keeper of the Deep, Deep Green
by Anthony Crowley
Directed by Bridgette Dunlap
With Andrew Lawton, Kevin O'Donnell*, Eleanor Handley & Simon Trevorrov

Goodbye New York, Goodbye Heart
by Lally Katz
Directed by Kara-Lynn Vaeni
With Nicolle Bradford, Ryan King*, Megan McQuillan*, Joe Menino* & Kathy Danzer*

The Port
by Wesley Enoch
Directed by Ari Edelson
With Emma Jackson Week One, 9/13 - 9/16

967 Tuna
by Brendan Cowell
Directed by Mark Armstrong+
With Nick Flint

The Beekeeper
by Emma Vuletic
Directed by Patrick McNulty
With Chandler Vinton* and Lethia Nall*

Syphon
by Tommy Murphy
Directed by Shana Gold
With Todd D'Amour*, Steven Pilkerton, Erin Krakow & Chad Kessler Week Two, 9/20 - 9/23

The Will of the Cockroach
Directed by May Adrales
With Tim Major

All This Beautiful Life
by Veronica Gleeson
Directed by Alexis Poledouris
With Mary Cross*

Beneath Us
by Ben Ellis
Directed by Directed by Mark Armstrong+

Continuing Occupation
by Van Badham
Directed by Jordana Williams
With Erin Maya Darke, Michael Poignand, Nancy Sirianni & Michael Szeles* Week Three, 9/27 - 9/30

Scene Designer Erica Beck Hemminger
Lighting Designer Stacey Boggs
Costume Designers Amy Lyn VanMullekom, Emily K. French, Jessica Gaffney
Sound Designer Ann Warren
Fight Choreographer Bethany Burgess-Smith
Production Manager Mary E. Leach
Stage Managers Lily Perlmutter, Nicole Brodeur
Associate Producer Matt Wolf
Publicist Katie Rosin Production Staff

*Actors appear courtesy of Actors' Equity Association
+Member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, a national independent labor union

Focus: The Art of Service (September 10 - 29, 2007)
an exhibition by the documentary photographer Nancy Konipol
chashama, 112 West 44th Street
Opening Reception: Monday September 10, 6-9pm
FREE and open to the public.
Focus: The Art of Service exhibits Konipol's photographs spanning the last five years which chronicle her work and relationships with New York City's social services community, from the city’s soup kitchens to Holocaust survivors in Brooklyn.

In 2001, Konipol started a nonprofit organization, NYNonProfit.com to combine her two passions - photography and social services. She photo-documented her work with the hopes of one day exhibiting it and promoting awareness of the issues many New Yorkers face day to day.

Nancy Konipol, born in Brooklyn, is a life-long New Yorker. Konipol was educated at Bard College in Hudson County, NY and the International Center of Photography in New York City. The subject of this exhibition is close to her heart – she has received awards for her work with New York City’s nonprofit community. Konipol has exhibited her works in many group exhibitions in New York City including New York on My Mind, women artists celebrating New York City, shown in the Manhattan Borough President’s office. Works by Nancy Konipol are in the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach permanent collection of the NYC Public Library, as part of the September 11 Photo Project and in the hardcover book of the same name. Konipol’s work has also been published in literary journals. about Nancy

Simple Yet Complex (September 7-9 & 13-16, 2007)
mixed media paintings by Elaine R. Defibaugh
chashama, 461 West 126th Street
Opening Reception: September 7, 6-9PM
FREE and open to the public.
Past works & bio on the artists' website: www.elainedefibaugh.com

supported by collectiveP.A.S.T. and chashama, The 24Seven Lab presents:
Odile's Ordeal (September 7, 2007)
by Lucas Hnath, part of the reading series "The 25th Hour".
chashama, 217 East 42nd Street
Directed by Linsay Firman.
Featuring: Sean Dougherty, Edith Freni & Ralph Pochoda.
literary@24sevenlab.com
www.24sevenlab.com

supported by collectiveP.A.S.T. and chashama, The 24Seven Lab presents:
Latham Prince (September 6, 2007)
by Ashlin Halfnight, part of the reading series "The 25th Hour".
chashama, 217 East 42nd Street
Performances ongoing throughout the day between 1-6p, free and open to the public during any portion.
Directed by Rick DesRochers Featuring: Polly Adams, Brian Coffey, Maria Dizzia, Albert Jones, Robert LaVelle & Trevor Long.
literary@24sevenlab.com
www.24sevenlab.com

supported by collectiveP.A.S.T. at chashama
NEW ACQUISITION (September 6-8, 2007)
WHAT: FREE performances in conjunction with the launch of the first issue of New Acquisition.
chashama, 217 East 42nd Street
Performances ongoing throughout the day between 1-6p, free and open to the public during any portion.
Featuring Alexis Clements, writer and playwright; Dyana Kimball, director; Beth Royer, poet; Julia Vallera, artist and illustrator.
You can read more about the project at www.newacquisition.org
also at www.omfm.org
Funding for this project has been made possible by the Puffin Foundation.

That even an apocalypse can be made to seem part of the ordinary horizon of expectation constitutes an unparalleled violence that is being done to our sense of reality, to our humanity. -Susan Sontag

New Acquisition is a series of free literary pamphlets—brief pamphlets filled with writing and art focused on a variety of themes. Design inspiration and themes for each issue are drawn from early and contemporary American religious and political pamphlets.

The theme for its first issue of New Acquisition is Your Own Personal Apocalypse. Inspired by perhaps the most enduring subject of American pamphlets, Your Own Personal Apocalypse considers the peculiar American pastime of worrying that the world as we know it is coming to an end very soon.

In conjunction with the launch of the first issue of New Acquisition the group is mounting a performance and installation from 1:00-6:00 pm from September 6-8 at the 217 East 42nd Street space of Chashama. In addition, excerpts of the performance of Your Own Personal Apocalypse will be featured in the One Million Forgotten Moments project, running twice every evening from September 11-15 at 38 park Row. For more information about this event visit www.omfm.org .

During the performances audience members and passers-by will enter the world of a pamphleteer and amateur chicken-farmer who hopes to prepare all those she meets for the coming of their own personal apocalypse. The performance will feature chickens, video, art, people, and propaganda galore. There will be plenty of opportunities for the audience to be entertained, perplexed and forewarned. more about the event

T h e O r w e l l D o c t r i n e (September 5 - 13, 2007)
chashama performance window, 266 West 37th Street
an installation by Darryl Hell
indoor exhibition open 8:52am to 7pm on Sept 11th
FREE and open to the public
S6K Media
www.s6k.com

On the sixth anniversary of that traumatic day, we have made visible the connective tissue between the writings of George Orwell and their future visions, which we currently inhabit. "Newspeak" and "thought crime," are a complete reality in our "media savvy" culture. By intercutting Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm with 9/11 and "war on terror" footage, we example his vision...and our reality. about the event

Committing that Black on Black Crime Called BLACKFACE:
Shock and Awe with a Political Aftertaste (August 16 - 31, 2007)
Performance by Kanene Holder
Direction by Aixa Kendrick
Multi-Media Montage by Ron Jackson
& Soundscapist Oja (Sunchild Productions/Earthdriver)
chashama performance window, 266 West 37th Street
SITCHAASSDOWN
www.sitchaassdown.com
http://myspace.com/blackfacecrime

"...C.T.B.O.B.C.C.B. pays homage to Buckwheat (BKWT) who is haunted by KFC fried chicken, watermelon, a noose, The Supreme Court's reversal of Brown Vs. Board of Education and flashes of pristine Caucasian enclaves on two 20in screen televisions. These screens flash a motley crew of visual memorabilia and supplanted nostalgic references to "the good ole' days" of minstrel shows then and now..."

Satirist Kanene, writer and performer of solo-show SITCHAASSDOWN© deemed "21 perfect-pitch snapshots of the black experience.", by Ellen Carpenter of New York Magazine, will premiere an interactive, multi-media, performance art installation excerpt called Committing that Black on Black Crime Called Blackface. C.T.B.O.B.C.C.B. pays homage to Buckwheat (BKWT) who is haunted by KFC fried chicken, watermelon, a noose, The Supreme Court's reversal of Brown Vs. Board of Education and flashes of pristine Caucasian enclaves on two 20in screen televisions. These screens flash a motley crew of visual memorabilia and supplanted nostalgic references to "the good ole' days" of minstrel shows then and now. Disney's beloved Uncle Remus and Tar Baby, Amos and Andy and the late great Al Jolson are juxtaposed with Snoop Dogg, Lil' Jon, the Ying Yang Twins and BET's Hot Ghetto Mess and are abruptly interrupted by record scratching and static, creating an amalgamation of farce and socio-political truth. about the event

Inside the Storefront (August 15 & 16, 2007)
an installation by Svetlana Rabey
chashama Project Exhibition Studio @ 159 West 119th Street
Open Studio: Wednesday August 15th 1-5pm; Thursday, August 16th, 2-7pm.

Rabey creates variably scaled fabric installations in response to the shape and feeling of architectural environments. The pieces function as structural shadows, reacting to the dimensions, color, texture and scale of the architecture. Volumes are flattened, multiplied and expanded. It is a systematic process, in which geometry unfolds according to a rhythm that is found in the architecture and ends when all possibilities are exhausted.

With "Inside the storefront", Svetlana Rabey investigates the experience of working in a street-level commercial space at 159 West 119th Street. The dominant architectural element in the Harlem chashama space is the glass floor-to-ceiling storefront door and window. When inside the space, one is compelled to look out onto the street, faced with the incessant traffic of local residents walking by and looking into the space. The window is not just a portal to the outside world, but also a barrier and a mirror. Rabey's felt floor installation reflects the size and shape of the window, expanding throughout the depth of the space like a reflection. Rabey is conscious of activating negative space in her installations. As a result, a new work is created: a new architectural element that arrived naturally from her experience there. about the installation

Svetlana Rabey recently completed a residency at the Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation Space Program in Tribeca. She was born in Moscow and grew up in Philadelphia and New York. Her early training as a dancer informs her interest in space, movement, and architecture. She has also researched movement studies such as Labanotation and often employs these systems in her drawings and installations. She holds a BFA from Parson School of Design and will be entering the Fine Arts MFA program at SVA in the fall of 2007. Recent shows include "Emerging Artists" at Smack Mellon in DUMBO, June 5 - July 22nd. about the artist

Visual Art Exhibition (August 13 - 31, 2007)
Featuring the work of Rusty Zimmerman (who created the Ateh graphic for "Long Distance" see www.ateh.org) plus other artists to be named.
chashama, 217 East 42nd Street
Exhibit hours: Mon-Fri 1-3pm

Becca and Heidi (August 12-15, & 19-22nd, 2007 )
by Sharon Eberhardt
chashama, 217 East 42nd Street
performed by Lindsay Anderson

"Becca and Heidi" by Sharon Eberhardt, performed by Lindsay Anderson, is an adventure-filled monodrama about a woman whose life is being usurped by her alter-ego. A quiet, mousy young nurse named Becca, whose life is otherwise unremarkable, awakens from a series of blackouts to find that she has rescued a mother and baby from a flaming car wreck, saved a hip operation at work, freed animals from a lab experiment and brazenly given a "peak sexual experience" to her best friend's boyfriend, a medical researcher. These deeds have all been the work of "Heidi," who has somehow taken over her body and run amok with her life--like a kinder, gentler Jekyll-and-Hyde. Shocked by her new guts, resourcefulness and sassiness, Becca struggles to take back her life, or at least adjust to her new-found personality. In doing so, she learns that what makes a person good or bad is more complex than she had thought. about the show

Televised Confession (August 10 - 14, 2007)
Created and Performed by Stephanie Vella
chashama Performance Window, 266 West 37th Street
Video installation on view throughout.

How do power structures utilize the mass media to turn the intimate act of confessing into a tool of hegemony? Inspired by the use of televised confession by oppressive regimes throughout the world, Televised Confession will explore how the televised image changes our experience of guilt, accountability and social order. On stage, a performer confesses to a crime. Live-feed video and amplified sound carry her mediated image out to the sidewalk and the passerby. The spectator has a choice between the broadcast image and the real person. Utilizing texts and materials from diverse sources such as television transcripts, historical accounts, and religious doctrine, this piece will juxtapose period and medium in unexpected and revealing ways. about the event

Stephanie Vella is a Brooklyn-based artist. She is a recent graduate of Bennington College where she studied performance and social science. While there she directed In the Heart of America by Naomi Wallace and Sophocles' Antigone. Stephanie has worked as an assistant director on Luis Alfaro's Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner directed by Jean Randich, and Olivier Cadiot's A.W.O.L. directed by Marion Schoevaert. Stephanie also served as dramaturg on the US premier of Blasted by Sarah Kane in Seattle, WA. An alumnus of the NTI Moscow Art Theatre program, she has studied with master artists such as Andrei Droznin, Sergei Zemstov, and Anatoly Smeliansky. Stateside, she has performed under the direction of theatre artist Ed Kemp and video artist Laura Parnes. Stephanie is the Associate for Community Development for Subjective Theatre, and appeared in their recent political seminar, Party Discipline. She will be directing a new play for Subjective by Steven Gridley, to be performed September 15th in the (re)Cycle Plays Festival in Queens. about the artist

Long Distance (August 9 - September 1, 2007)
presented The Ateh Theater Group
Based on three stories by Judy Budnitz
Adapted by Bridgette Dunlap
Directed by Bridgette Dunlap and Alexis Grausz
chashama, 217 East 42nd Street

Starring: Diana Lynne Drew*, Kathryn Ekblad, Charley Layton, Madeleine Maby, Sara Montgomery, Elizabeth Neptune, HUGH SCULLY, Jake Thomas, Jesse Wilson.
*performing courtesy of actors equity

Scenic design by Emily French
Costume design by Amy Van Mullekom
Lighting design by Natalie Robin
Sound design by Chris Rummel
Stage Manager: Hannah Miller cast and crew

DISCUSSIONS ON THE U.N. DECLARATION ON THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES (August 9, 2007)
by Rebecca Sommer
Video clips of the Work-In-Progress awareness-raising film. (This is the version as it was screened May 14, 2007 - at the opening day of the 6th session of the PFII, at the United Nations Headquarters.)
chashama, 217 East 42nd Street
To watch Quicktime Video Clips: http://www.rebeccasommer.org/

"DISCUSSIONS ON THE UN DECLARATION ON THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES" is a one-hour work-in-progress on one of the most-discussed pieces of legislation in UN history. For over 20 years, governments and indigenous peoples have been discussing how to apply the universal declaration of Human Rights to the specific situations of indigenous peoples. This desperately needed Declaration, which articulated only the most basic of needs, was nonetheless rejected in November 2006. In this film, governmental and indigenous leaders present their issues of concern and the implications for the future. about the film

Displacement (August 7 - 23, 2007)
a group exhibit curated by John Bowman
chashama, 112 West 44th Street
Opening Reception: Saturday, Aug.11th 6-9PM

Featuring: Hagit Barkai, Nathaniel Booth, Jonah Criswell, Teri Frame, Rich Heeman, James Johnson, Jonathan Kline, Rob Martin, Shannon Ritter, Dorothy Schultz, Emily Silver, Erika Swinson, Stephen St. Amant. exhibit artists

Displacement showcases a group of artists who create work in a variety of media, from the more traditional areas of painting and sculpture to the growing disciplines of performance, video and virtual reality. Each artist deals with the issues of displacement from a unique standpoint, and fashions and individual response to the loss of a sense of place, and the attempt to locate common ground.

These young artists, emerging from different backgrounds, and using varied means, grapple with shifting foundations and evolving identities, to find a recovered sense of place in a new world. They have been deported from the comforts of origin, and have become émigrés from the close and the comfortable. They forge new routes and trajectories, and new manners of association and allegiance. The loss of certainty and security is replaced by a growing habit of discovery and innovation. These refugees from the familiar have created, of necessity, a new creative community that has sustained and nurtured a nascent chorus of responses to the inchoate rhythms of modern culture. Within and between these works, a hybrid harmony begins to emerge. A common theme or thread is the infinite adaptability and mutability of their attitudes toward disciplines and forms. An eagerness to explore, adjust, and reformulate is a shared and valued tendency. about the exhibit

Orpheus and Eurydice (August 2 - 5, 2007)
directed by Kelly Hanson
chashama, 217 East 42nd Street

Cast: Beth Bradford, Alison Taylor Cheeseman, Todd d'Amour*, Tom Delpizzo, Hah Nah Kim*, Jason Dietz Marchant.
*Member, Actor's Equity Association

Set Design: Heather Wolensky
Costume Design: Christal Weatherly
Lighting Design: Jay Scott cast and crew

A new physical theatre work developed and directed by Kelly Hanson, Orpheus and Eurydice explores the story of lovers separated by death that has a permanent hold on our cultural imagination. Created with a remarkable cast that includes actors Han Nah Kim, Todd d'Amour, and Tom Delpizzo, modern dancers Jason Dietz Marchant and Beth Bradford, and opera singer Alison Taylor Cheeseman. Featuring music from the Gluck opera and text from sources including Margaret Atwood, Chuck Mee and Barry Yourgrau. about the work

Bialystok/Brooklyn (July 24 - 26, 2007)
an installation and performance by Jonathan Zalben
chashama gallery @ 112 West 44th Street
www.jonathanzalben.com

Bialystok/Brooklyn, an installation and performance piece with video and music, began two years ago when Jonathan Zalben began recording his grandmothers discussing their immigration from Poland to New York in the 1920s. The project has become a search for identity, what it means to be American, and the implications this search has on our world as a whole.

Six directors were asked to create videos from original and archival footage in response to the themes of immigration and multiculturalism. The directors have cut this footage together to form short vignettes scored to Zalben's original music, which visitors have the opportunity to view and interact with. The performance piece will be a live rendition of the video and music with instruments and real-time video processed by custom computer software. about the event

"America was founded on the concept of bringing together the huddled masses: the tired, the hungry, and the poor. Complete with all our successes and failures as a nation, we have brought people together from varied backgrounds into one culture -- a culture of many. People who come here take on new identities and redefine themselves. People born in this country often try to find what their identity used to be and reincorporate that into their new life in America. This constant interplay between foreigner and native is mimicked throughout the world in different forms."

The installation takes a look at these concepts in our own culture and others.

For more information, please visit http://www.jonathanzalben.com from the artist

Jonathan Zalben explores the intersection between interactive art and music composition. Bringing live instruments and recorded sound into a space, Zalben designs pieces where the audience is the performer and the creator is the architect. Zalben received a BA from Yale, an MA from NYU, and has also studied at Juilliard Pre-College.

Zalben has received grants from ASCAP, NYSCA, LMCC, US Navy, and the National Academy of Sciences. His multimedia work has been presented at the Boston Public Library during Boston Cyberarts, Art Without Walls in Central Park, the Knitting Factory, PS122, HERE, Ontological Theater, and Galapagos. He has been in residence at the Studio for Electro-Instrumental Music (STEIM) and the US Department of Energy.

Zalben is also a member of Compound Pilot, an internet art collaboration with Marshall Jones, that has been shown at galleries in the US, Canada, Korea, Argentina, Australia, England, and Armenia. Compound Pilot's website (http://www.compoundpilot.com) won the "Classic" Award in the 2006 South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive Festival. Zalben's music for film, theater, and television has been shown at the NY International Fringe Festival, LA Film Festival, Tribeca, and Slamdance. Zalben holds a U.S. patent for a muffler design. about the artist

"THE CHALK BOY" (July 18 - 29, 2007)
written and directed by Joshua Conkel
chashama, 217 East 42nd Street
Closing Reception Friday, July 20, 6-8pm
A presentation by collectiveP.A.S.T.@chashama 217 of The Management's premiere of a new play.
Featuring: Mallery Avidon, Mary Catherine Donnelly, Jennifer Harder, and Courtney Sale.
www.managementcompany.org

The Chalk Boy is a deathly black comedy about measuring your own worth by comparing it to everyone else's. Sparks fly when four teenage girls in small town Washington begin to obsess over the mysterious disappearance of the most popular boy in school. Witchcraft, murder, and shopping ensue as the girls draw a ghostly picture of American culture and its values. about the event

Empty Spot (July 17 - 27, 2007)
Choreography and direction by Rachel Bernsen
chashama Performance Window, 266 West 37th Street
Empty Spot combines elements of visual art and performance, as it presents different kinds of live action inside a consciously artificial landscape. The piece examines how the viewer's perception of time is affected by both long periods of stillness and also continual, sometimes methodical movement. In stillness, bodies create an alluring architecture, subtly shifting and relocating. In movement, the performers test the boundaries of their environment, creating obscure yet compelling narratives.

Rachel Bernsen is a dance artist originally from Minneapolis, now based in Brooklyn. Her work has been shown at Dance Theater Workshop, Issue Project Room, Dixon Place, Movement Research at the Judson Church, Aqui the Bushwick, The Brick Theater, and Deitch Projects. She was a 2005/06 Fresh Tracks Artist-in-Residence at Dance Theater Workshop and will be a 2007 Fellow at the Djerassi Resident Artists Program in California. Bernsen has collaborated extensively with composer and performer Taylor Ho Bynum; they have performed regionally throughout New York and New England, and internationally in Antwerp, Belgium and Berlin and Cologne, Germany. Bernsen has also danced with RoseAnne Spradlin, Juliette Mapp, Risa Jaroslow, Urban Bush Women, Stephanie Tack, and Nancy Forshaw-Clapp, among others. From 2002-2006 she performed and toured nationally and internationally with the performance artists/electro-clash group Fischerspooner, and can be seen in their videos "Emerge", "Just Let Go", and "Never Win". In Minneapolis, Bernsen worked with some of the area's most noted choreographers, such as Morgan Thorson, Wynn Fricke, Baraka De Soleil, Djola Branner, and Leah Nelson, and for two years she performed in "Foxy Tann's Superior Lounge", a weekly theatre and cabaret show written and directed by Heather Wilson. She has an MFA in Dance from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and a BA in English Literature from Macalester College. She is currently in training to become an Alexander Teacher at the American Center for the Alexander Technique in NYC. about the artist

Taylor Ho Bynum
Amy Crawford
Susan Dunlap
Leonora Epstein
Daneille Foster
Danielle Goldman
Jasmine Joseph-Perez
Luke Mess
Evan O'Reilly
Josh Rosenblum
Vera Tang
Elizabeth Weil artists for Saturday, July 21st show

OASIS 2007 (July 16 - 27, 2007)
a free festival of movement and dance
chashama, 217 East 42nd Street
Monday - Friday at 12-1PM & 5:30-6:30PM
OASIS 2007 schedule

Germaul Barnes; Anne Bassen; Isabella Bruno & Dancers; Luminzcircus w/ Aurora Corsano, Jana Zeller, John DiGeorge; Chloe Dance and special guests; C.Eule Dance; Dana Fisch & Dancers; Andrea Gise & Dancers; Kim Goldman/Larimore Dance; Anne M. Hartung; Shizu Homma and Michael Burke; Paula Hunter; Immersion Dance Co.; compani javedani; Anabella Lenzu / DanceDrama w/ Mayu Inomata, Leslie Berman, Emily Vestch, Ritzuko Sato, Anabella Lenzu; The Poisonous Ladies: Amir Levi Dance; Malleable Dance Theater / Erin Malley; Michelle Mantione; Patrice Miller; Modern Dance Awareness Society; Movement in C w/Salma Allam, Ljuba Castot, Kristin Young & Cathy Richards; Marissa Neilsen-Pincus w/Donna Ahmadi; Polybe + Seats; Red Clay Dance w/Vershawn Sanders; Human Kinetics Movement Arts /Yana Schnitzler; Reena Shah; Kristi Spessard; Mykronesia w/Kron Vollmer; Debra Wanner w/Peter Zummo; Tamara Yadao, Yeonjin Yang. featured artists

"Space Stories" (July 14 - July 20, 2007)
Curated by Hope Hilton
chashama gallery + project space, 112 West 44th Street
Closing Reception Friday, July 20, 6-8pm.
FREE and open to the public.

Space Stories presents work by nine artists who work with photography and video to investigate ideas of space. While space exists ad infinitum, atmosphere, landscape and relationships occupy this exhibition of works that reflect ideas of personal space, surveillance, the space of play and environmental space, as well as the boundaries that proliferate within these spaces.

Artists included in Space Stories: Keliy Anderson-Staley, Christina Dixcy, Meredith Davenport, Anna Lise Jensen, Rebecca Loyche, Cybele Lyle, Lauren Orchowski, Ingrid Roe, Pamela Steinman.

There is a solitude of space
A solitude of sea
A solitude of death,
but these Society
shall be Compared
with that profounder site
That polar privacy
A soul admitted to itself
Finite infinity.

- Emily Dickinson about the event

Both Keliy Anderson-Staley and Anna Lise Jensen's photographs explore ideas of utopian living spaces: Anderson-Staley documents fourteen families living off-the-grid in northern Maine, while Jensen's work explores simultaneous vitality and vulnerability in a Danish Commune. Pamela Steinman's portrait of the space between two people in a suburban living room brings attention to something that seems universal: the space between us. Cybele Lyle's video collages depict queer domestic spaces and ideas of community within these spaces, whereas Meredith Davenport interprets the community and play of men in real-life war reenactments influenced by video games and current events. Lauren Orchowski's images depict sites of cold-war era playgrounds- recreational rockets in public space. And while public and private spaces in the United States are currently being reconfigured, Ingrid Roe photographs the relationships between private selves and public observation using her camera as a tool of surveillance. Rebecca Loyche portrays individuals attending horse races, making portraits that are curiously intense and voyeuristic. Christina Dixcy's vibrant color landscapes of the American West depict wide open spaces with surprising boundaries, making even the most seemingly infinite space seem occupied. more info

Limited Edition (July 12 - July 22, 2007)
by chashama artist-in-residence Tim Roda
at chashama Gallery: 461 West 126th Street (Harlem)
Opening Reception: Thursday July 12, 6-9pm
FREE and open to the public.
Show is Courtesy of Gasser & Grunert, New York. 212.807.9494
The Artist is also represented by Art Agents Gallery, www.artagents.de, Germany, and by Greg Kucera Gallery, www.gregkucera.com/roda.htm, Seattle, Washington.

Tim Roda creates gritty black and white images that are fraught with tension- between individuals and within their public lives and private selves. In his photographs, documentary and fictive impulses don't so much intersect as blur. Using himself and his wife and son as actors and subjects in his elaborately staged work, he positions the family unit–– its mythologies and iconography––as the root of community. It's a seemingly closed circuit with a ripple effect of public implications where private meanings freight all other interactions.

Roda has sited Roy DeCarava as an influence. The Harlem-born photographer lived there through many decades, befriended many of the prominent black artists, musicians and writers active at the time, and chronicled the lives of neighborhood residents. DeCarava began working as a painter and commercial illustrator, and many of his early photographs were meant only as reference for prints. He was drawn to photography by "the directness of the medium". Roda studied ceramics but was also drawn to photography, using clay and sculptural elements in the elaborate and encoded sets for his work. He was inspired by the multiplicity of photography––its directness and the bending of it into ambiguity.

The imagery in Roda's work stages working-class ethics, family traditions, and childhood memories as fragmented narratives. They are rife with mystery, melancholy, and possibility. Some are drawn from moments of personal significance, but all are enacted with universal implication. The rough-hewn and cluttered sets he creates are reflections of places from memory, like many photographs, but his overlay several memories onto one scenario. The multiples embody lineage and multitudes, of seeing different things in the same face and the same thing in different faces. - Nate Lippens – 2007 about the artist

Site-Specific Sundays (July 8 – July 29, 2007)
presented in association with Summer on the Hudson at Riverside Park South
at Red Shade Plaza, Riverside Park South
Closing Reception Friday, July 20, 6-8pm
Performances at 3pm & 5pm All Sundays
FREE and open to the public.

This is chashama's second year presenting Site-Specific Sundays as part of Summer on the Hudson, an annual outdoor festival of cultural and community events presented in Riverside Park South through the City of New York's Parks and Recreation Department (www.nycparks.gov).

Summer on the Hudson is a free summer-long arts festival that presents a diverse mix of music concerts, dance performances, movies under the stars, DJ dance parties, family programs, special events, and wellness activities.

July 8th: A Day Such as Today at the Pavilion, a new work of dance-theater from Dead Genius Productions.

July 15th: Bone Orchard's world premiere of Day Lights the Bone is a meditation on the varying rhythms of New York featuring more than thirty performers.

July 22nd: C. Eule Dance's Flight of Fantasy explores the life-cycle of a butterfly.

July 29th: director Sarah Stern presents Change of Address, a new piece that seeks to evoke the evolution of the Red Shade Plaza site itself. schedule

Portraits (artists working uptown) (July 6 – July 8, 2007)
an installation by Megan Metcalf
at chashama Project Exhibition Studio
159 West 119th Street (at Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard)
Open Studio: Friday July 6, 7-9PM, Saturday July 7, 1-4PM, Sunday July 8, 1-4PM
FREE and open to the public.
www.meganmetcalf.com

Megan Metcalf is mapping minds. She's moved her office uptown and is inviting neighbors, friends, and other artists to show her how they organize the world. They'll tackle an impressive pile of paper and colorful objects, prioritizing them according to their own whims and personalities. Megan is documenting the visits with photos and text, and creating wall guides to accompany the filing systems - which reveal far more compelling things about each guest than the color of his hair or the shape of her eyeglasses.

Portraits inquires about the relationship of "work" to "art" while re-defining the terms: what is the use of a filing system if you don't understand the materials you are organizing? Does doing work necessitate a sensible outcome or purpose? Are people performing tasks in an art gallery working? When is art "work"? The installation's maps and documents expose the office as a constant work in progress, an elaborate intersection of individual impulses. With this project, the choreographer takes a leap into visual art. She hopes to discover performance on a smaller scale, in the mundane activities people do every day. Like her performances, Portraits uses the contributions of friends and strangers in order to simultaneously celebrate and demystify the art-making process. about the exhibit

Megan Metcalf is a performing artist, choreographer, writer, and researcher working in New York City. Her multi-disciplinary work has been seen at venues such as 3LD, Joyce SoHo, University Settlement, Dance New Amsterdam, and the UnionDocs gallery. She has re-staged film choreography in local cafes, tricked audiences into becoming performers, and most recently, invited friends and strangers to dance to their favorite songs for her video camera. These dances became 29 Friends, selected as a highlight of the 2006 American Living Room Festival in New York magazine and the Village Voice Summer Arts Preview.

Since graduating from Columbia, where she studied literature and cultural theory, Megan has continued her studies through The Kitchen's Summer Institute and in residence at Earthdance in Plainfield, MA and the Studio for Electro-Instrumental Music (STEIM) in Amsterdam. As a dancer, Megan has performed in New York City for choreographers such as Stephan Koplowitz, Noemie Lafrance, and Maher Benham, in both site-specific work and at venues including Danspace Project at St. Mark's Church, Symphony Space, and the Neighborhood Playhouse. about Megan

Meat Market (July 5 – July 12, 2007)
by Christina Massey
chashama, 112 West 44th Street
Opening Reception: Friday July 6th 6-8 PM

Viewers are encouraged to walk through the installation, in a sense "mingling" with the works. Air currents and movement through the installation will make the works dance and sway in reaction. This effect gives the "meat" sculptures life, almost creating a dance floor. Though when viewed from a distance when they are still they become their corpse like forms awaiting their fate beyond their death... The title "Meat Market" is a play on words relating the art gallery experience to that of a bar or club, as well as the commerce of the meat industry trade.

Twisted and knotted forms hang in a grouping in the window. They are similar in format to windows full of duck, rabbit, or chicken. Yet these are painted forms that individually do not represent dead meat. Upon stepping inside, a transformation from gallery to meat locker occurs, where larger forms made from paper and canvas hang in rows and columns from the ceiling by stainless steal hooks. about the event

The Bubulinos' Best Bestows 2007 (June 27 – July 1, 2007)
(The BBB by Bubi)
A performance installation written & directed by Roi "Bubi" Escudero
chashama window space @chashama gallery, 112 West 44th Street
Performance daily at 7:30PM; Reception June 30, 7:00PM.
FREE and open to the public.
Bubi's retrospective installation brings together multidimensional poetic imagery using text, music, environmental sound and projections, joined by the theme of 'the ocean':
"The ocean, now and forever, binds each element of our world together. The ocean is a silent but devoted audience to both laugh and scream, embrace and struggle, an impartial eye to sorrow, joy, horror, ecstasy. The ocean is the tireless narrator to all that was, all that we see, and all that will be." - Andy Chmelko

Featuring artists-in–residence at ETdC Projects' Lab: Andy Chmelko, Jennifer Rosa and Antonio Fini. In collaboration with Bubi, James Ewan created the painted background and 3D Aliens for the installation. Original music co-produced by J Scott Music.

Bubi performs with life size puppets characters and created the costumes, props, masks, sound installation and multimedia videos. The performance incorporates drama, commedia improvisation, post modern dance and other movement. Bubi's multidisciplinary method fuses her distinctive dream-like transformation art, the "impromptu" technique of Commedia dell Arte, the gory characters of the Grand Guignol, the shocking awareness of the Theatre of Cruelty, the unpredictability of the Absurd, and the Café Concert's chansons and tableaux vivants. Structures are broken down, reality & fantasy are intermingled, and the audience is invited to join in the process. The retrospective will introduce original songs from the score of Roi "Bubi" Escudero's new performance-art cinema™ psychodrama: Antonin… mon Artaud.

The BBB pays tribute to the artists, sponsors, institutions, companies, friends, volunteers and audience members, who support the ETdC Projects' Lab.

For more information about ETdC Projects please visit: www.etdcprojects.org more about the event

Roi Escudero, known as "Bubi", is a conceptual-performance artist, dramatist, and director of new media theatre and performance art-cinema™, She was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Her French, Italian and Spanish background exposed her to different cultures. Bubi's work is based in multiculturalism, ethics, and aesthetics. Its objective is to provoke thought and to promote cultural and creative integration through the evolution of new media, performance-art, physical theatre and dynamic entertainment. In the USA Bubi conceived, designed and directed more than fifty performance-art pieces, media-theatre concepts and multimedia video installations for museums, art galleries, cultural events for patrons of the arts, educational institutions and theatre festivals, including her virtual-plays: Bubulinos' Dreams Series. Bubi's works appeared at the Contemporary Museum, Baltimore; Los Angeles County Museum Gallery (LACMA), the Fringe-NYC and the MITF. Bubi's plays After Charlie, La Playa and what@trip! appeared at the New York Musical Theater Festival in 2004, 2005, and 2006. Currently, Bubi lives in NYC, and leads ETdC Projects' Performance Art-Cinema™ & New Media-Theatre Experimental Lab. The artist uses her unique method in guiding the performers during its process. The Lab is committed to developing a non-structured new media-art-theatre and video and supports a collaborative production-based learning environment focused on creating inventive, cutting-edge narrative projects. It addresses cultural, environmental, historical, and social issues and exposes the consequences of our behavior and actions in society. The lab projects are considered works-in-progress and are continually evolving with different guest artists and apprentices until presented as a comprehensive production. Bubi's Lab is a proud member of the New York Indie Theater movement. about "Bubi"

Art is Who You Know (June 25 – July 5, 2007)
by Christina Massey
chashama window space @266 W.37th Street
Opening Reception: Friday June 29th, 6-8PM
FREE and open to the public.
Have you ever gotten a job, apartment, or been accepted into a program due to the recommendation of a friend? This interactive installation takes a bold move at defining Art as exactly that, simply who you know.

Attendees be prepared to get a little messy. Depending on your relationship to the artist, visitors are asked to participate in "making their mark" on either of two canvases lied out on the floor. Using footprints as their brush, guests step into paint and walk over the canvases creating paths of prints. These are divided between creation of those the Artist knows, and does not know. Though the outcome of essentially the same, the canvases created by people she knows are given preferential treatment. When finished they are put onto frames and hung on the walls, where as the ones created by those she does not know are tossed aside and ignored.

A humorous and insightful look into the proceedings of the Gallery World, Massey draws a conclusion that networking is often more important that the artwork itself. more about the event

Music (June 18 - 29, 2007)
written and directed by Ben Wood
at chashama, 217 E.42nd St
Open workshop performances June 18th thru the 29th, noon - 6pm Mon thru Fri, (except of Wednesday the 27th).

readings of four new plays (June 18 - 27, 2007)
presented by The Sum Of Us Theatre Company
in association with collectiveP.A.S.T. @chashama
at chashama, 217 E.42nd St
alums by Jordan Lage / Monday, June 18
jem & i by Ron Fitzgerald / Tuesday, June 19
lunchtime by Greg Kotis* / Wednesday, June 20
page one romance by James C. Ferguson & Jason Dobin / Wednesday, June 27
*(author of Urinetown: The Musical!)

Dark of the Moon (June 15 - July 8, 2007)
written by Howard Richardson & William Berney
Directed by Ian Crawford
Supported by collectiveP.A.S.T. @chashama
chashama, 217 E.42nd St
www.thirstyturtle.org

Cast: Adelgiza Chemountd, Renee Delto, Sarah Hayes Donnell, Noah J. Dunham, Adam K. Fujita, Matthew Hadley, Russell Harder, Jessica Howell, Chris Masullo, Brendan Norton, Katey Parker,Amanda Peck, Minna Richardson, Jake Thomas, Dennis Tseng.

Set design: Emily French
Lighting Design: James Bedell
Costume Design: Layla Sogut
Sound Design: Duncan Cutler
Puppet, Postcard Design: Dakota West
Production Stage Manager: Jillian Zeman
Costume Design: Layla Sogut Cast & Crew

Help / Hope / Word / Image (June 8 - 23, 2007)
by Jeanne Marie Wasilik
at 112 West 44th Street
Reception held on Thursday, June 14, 6 – 8 pm
jmw@accesshub.net

chashasma is pleased to present Help / Hope / Word / Image, a solo exhibition of recent work by Jeanne Marie Wasilik.

Wasilik's new work continues her investigation of how represented language might be transcribed, read, and received. Her images include type as well as Braille and Morse code. Wasilik's recent drawings have been pastel rubbings that begin with the construction of a reproducible pattern such as a low relief, an incised template, or a stencil; from these matrices she has made rubbings that explore the intersections of the descriptive and the rhetorical. Her new paintings are also process-oriented. She begins by stenciling a text on fabric, then shapes the fabric into a relief that she mounts on a wall, lights, and paints. In many cases the patterns on the fabric in the illusionistically rendered images reference the grids of classical perspective. The paintings play the "content" of perspective understood as both a descriptive and a rhetorical idiom. about the work

Jeanne Marie Wasilik is a Brooklyn-based artist who has shown regularly in New York, including at Exit Art, the Drawing Center, and Artists Space. She has had solo exhibitions at Queens College, Anthology Film Archives, and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. about Jeanne Marie

TRIFECTA: a festival of new work (June 7 - 10, 2007)
produced by Jennifer Shipp
@ chashama theater, 217 East 42nd Street, free admission.
www.pl115.org
www.sponsoredbynobody.com
www.dramaofworks.com
made possible in part with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts (www.nea.gov)

F E A T U R I N G

Performance Lab 115 Dead Letter Office
Devised by the Company
Conceived and Directed by Meiyin Wang
At the Dead Letter Office, millions of messages lie in limbo. From letters to Santa to the signals of the Voyager Space Probe, messages wait to be united with their rightful recipients. Part theatre, part dance, part sound laboratory, Performance Lab115 presents an intimate discourse on the capacity for hope and the human need for contact. Dead Letter Office

Sponsored by Nobody W.M.D. (just the low points)
Created by the Company
Directed by Kevin Doyle
A piece that launches a large-scale deconstruction of our culture's preoccupations. Structured around a single day, January 8, 2004, W.M.D. (just the low points) uses found texts to investigate America's relationship with media during wartime. W.M.D. (just the low points)

Drama of Works Puppet KafKa
A New Play by B. Walker Sampson
Directed by Gretchen Van Lente
The piece will be a speculation on the work, life and peculiar perspective of Franz Kafka as imagined for performance by puppets. Using the complete text of The Metamorphosis