Update Opens December 2nd
Posted on | November 28, 2011 | No Comments
Axiom presents Update, a solo exhibition by artist John Slepian, opening on December 2nd, 2011. Update is an earnest exploration of the past, the present, and our aspirations for art.
The show introduces humor into some of the most serious work of 20th Century, exploring ideas about the sublime, artistic truth, and Modernism in the context of our ubiquitously self-centered, “interactive” and ironic present. Each of the pieces in this exhibition is a humorous take on a painting by a well known Mid-Century Modernist.
Two pieces are interactive animated versions of a famous painting projected onto a canvas and controlled by custom software and a Microsoft Xbox Kinect game controller. Another is a piece of software for a vintage Commodore 64 “personal computer” that generates over 32,000 variations on the form of Josef Albers’ famous “Homage to the Square” series.
The exhibition also includes digitally printed miniature versions of classic Mark Rothko paintings, and four mock museum posters, one for each of the artists’ work included in the exhibition, featuring a thumbnail image downloaded from the Internet. Stay tuned for more on this fun, engaging and interactive exhibition! For additional information about John Slepian’s work, please visit http://www.johnslep.net/.
Opening Reception: December 2nd from 6-9 pm.
Show dates: December 2nd – January 28th.
Kaleidoscope Music opens October 6
Posted on | September 19, 2011 | No Comments
Axiom is pleased to present a new exhibition by sound artist Ben Houge, featuring his real-time, six-channel, algorithmic sound installation Kaleidoscope Music, on display from October 6 through November 6. An opening reception for the show will take place on Thursday, October 6, from 6-9 pm.
Kaleidoscope Music takes its inspiration from the idea of a kaleidoscope, a device that refocuses attention on our everyday surroundings, transforming them into something unexpected and beautiful. This real-time, computer-based sound installation manipulates ambient sound from around the Green Street subway stop, layering it and running it through a bank of filters to extract harmonic tones in an ever-changing array of chords and rhythmic patterns. The algorithmic nature of the piece ensures that it never repeats itself; rather it is designed to ebb and flow, evoking the rhythm of natural processes like rainfall and tides. The piece runs continuously, with no beginning or end; visitors are welcome to stay for as long as they like. For more information on the piece, visit Ben’s successful Kickstarter page.
In addition to Kaleidoscope Music, the exhibition will feature digital prints from Ben’s series 29 Giraffes, algorithmic reconfigurations of neon lights from Shanghai’s famous East Nanjing Road.
Ben Houge is a recent transplant to Boston, where he has quickly become embedded in the local new media art community, with presentations of his work at the Boston Cyberarts Festival, MIT, Boston Post-Mortem, Opensound, Outpost 186, and Whitehaus Family Record. Prior to moving to Boston, Ben lived in Shanghai for the past six years, where he was active in the experimental sound and art community, performing and exhibiting widely. Previously, in Seattle, Ben founded the Sound Currents concert series and contributed to the award-winning Seattle School composers’ collective from its inception. Ben currently teaches video game music at the Berklee College of Music and Boston University Center for Digital Imaging Arts, and this fall he is an Artist in Residence at MIT, working on sonification of real-time sensor data. For more information, visit www.benhouge.com.
You Are My Sunshine Opens August 19
Posted on | August 12, 2011 | No Comments
Five artists from the Axiom Group spent five days wilderness camping on Bumpkin Island in Boston Harbor as part of the Bumpkin Island Art Encampment Residency, where they collaboratively worked on individual cross-disciplinary projects. The product of extreme limitations – artists could bring only the materials which they could carry, including five days of camping supplies, food and water – the works ranged from performance to installation to solar sculpture. Works include a border control/processing station for alien invaders to the island, the absurd use of solar power, an installation made of 75 rolls of film shot on the island, text installations integrated into the landscape, and the unsuccessful construction of a winged costume made of burnt campfire wood.
Featuring work by Meghann Hickson, Heidi Kayser, Georgina Lewis, Alex Reben, Sarah Rushford, and Evan Smith. A limited edition print by Evan Smith will also be given away as part of his piece.
Axiom also says BON VOYAGE to three of our artist members as they go to graduate school and a teaching appointment: a huge thanks and good luck to Nick Marmor, Meghann Hickson and Wayne Madsen! Come celebrate with us at the opening for You Are My Sunshine.
PATTERN RECOGNITION OPENS JUNE 24TH
Posted on | June 19, 2011 | No Comments
Axiom Center for New and Experimental Media is pleased to announce its annual student show, Pattern Recognition. The show features undergraduate, graduate, and recently graduated students working in new media.
Artists were selected from local programs and schools, including the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, MIT, the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, and UMass Boston and Dartmouth. Exploring a variety of media, themes and strategies, Pattern Recognition showcases the next generation of new media artists in Boston.
How is new media defined for emerging artists who have spent much of their lives in the new millennium, immersed in the web and technologically literate? The artists represented here interpret and alter the massive amounts of raw data they encounter every day, creating meaning from the chaos of contemporary life. Artworks range from digitally glitched photographs to microscopic poetry, appropriated pop songs to musical scores based on bird flight.
Opening reception: June 24, 2011, from 6 – 9pm.
Show dates: June 24-July 16, 2011.
Featuring work by Kevin Benisvy, Ashley Bell Clark, Keegan Grandbois, Aimee Harrison, Zuzana Husarova, Fatima Hussain, Dyllan Nguyen, Victoria Shen, Kyle Thiboutot, Matej Vakula & Matt Kushan, and Amber Vistein.
Move Me Opens April 28th
Posted on | April 6, 2011 | 1 Comment
Tom Haney: Dreamtime
Opening Reception and Artist’s Talk:
Thursday, April 28, 2011 | 6-8 pm | Informal Artist’s Talk starts at 7 pm
Move Me, curated by Heidi Kayser, presents the sculpture of Chris Fitch, Arthur Ganson, Tom Haney, Steve Hollinger and Erica von Schilgen. The works explore the intimate, poetic drama created as electricity, clockworks or human interaction physically “moves” kinetic sculpture but also emotionally “moves” an observer. Ranging from the clandestine use of mechanics and electronics to the intentionally obvious revelation of the inner workings, the show explores the relationship created between artwork and viewer when moving sculpture’s narratives unfold in real time.
April 28 – May 28, 2011
Artists + Researchers Redux: Radical Reference Librarians
Posted on | March 11, 2011 | 1 Comment
Artists + Researchers Redux: Radical Reference Librarians Offer Research Assistance in Jamaica Plain
Friday, March 18, 7:30 pm: meet and greet and snacks; 8 p.m., presentation followed by discussion
Co-presented by Artists in Context and Boston Radical Reference Collective
Calling all artists, activists and other engaged practitioners. Overwhelmed by the amount of information on the internet? Unable to find the data you know is out there? Confused about the ethics of research? Boston Radical Reference Collective (BRRC) can help! Radical Reference is a collective of volunteer library workers who believe in social justice and equality. They provide professional research support, education and access to information. Join us for our second Researchers+Artists conversation and walk away ready to find and use the wealth of information available.
BRRC members Alana Kumbier and Heather McCann will discuss freely-available online research resources and ways the BRRC can provide local assistance. After the presentation, we will open up the conversation for questions and discussion of ongoing (or potential) projects.
For artists: This event will be especially relevant to artists those whose work and creative practice engages specific social issues, is in some way community- or locally-oriented, or just requires access to information, data, or research resources beyond one’s area of expertise.
For researchers: You don’t have to be a librarian, or a member of Radical Reference, to participate! We’re hoping to create a space in which all kinds of researchers — librarians, data and GIS specialists, journalists, government document sleuths, grad students and intellectually-curious intrepid investigators — can meet local artists, and each other, and instigate collaborations.
Free and open to the public
COLLISION16:fluid Opens Friday Feb 25
Posted on | February 21, 2011 | 2 Comments
COLLISION16:fluid, the sixteenth COLLISIONcollective group show of new work, explores the concept of the fluid and the changing, in a wide variety of manifestations and interpretations. These works range from a piece in which pixels on screen are programed to act like a liquid, to works that explores the fluid boundaries of our perception, from work that aesthetisizes the “glitch” —an unanticipated or undesired change in the media stream, to a work that uses images projected on ice to explore our changing climate. What these works have in common is that they they express the contingent and the unforeseeable. As technology’s rate of change continues to get faster and faster, it has dramatic consequences for our culture. In order to reflect our would, our art must be able to embody the fluid. The work in COLLISION16:fluid does exactly that.
Co-curated by John Slepian and William Tremblay.
Opening reception: February 25, 2011, from 6 – 9pm.
Show dates: February 25-March 26, 2011.
Work by: Jonathan Bachrach and Jonathan Ward, Kevin Benisvy, W. Benjamin Bray, Chris Fitch, John Craig Freeman, Rob Gonsavles, Giles Hall, Ben Houge, Heidi Kayser, Georgina Lewis, dan paluska, Dan Roe, John Slepian, Mark J. Stock, Wayne Strattman
Identity Element Opening Photos Posted
Posted on | January 18, 2011 | Comments Off
Check out photos from Identity Element: Works from the New Axiom Group opening reception on January 14 2011. A wonderful evening was has by all!
Follow our photostream here.
Identity Element: Works From The New Axiom Group
January 14, 2011 Opening Reception
Identity Element:
Works from the New Axiom Group
Posted on | December 27, 2010 | 1 Comment
Opening Reception: Friday, January 14th, 6-9 pm
Axiom celebrates recent organizational and structural shifts by kicking off 2011 with Identity Element: Works from the New Axiom Group. The first exhibition organized by the new Axiom group, it showcases Axiom’s new identity while maintaining its presence as an arts organization supporting innovative and experimental approaches to art-making.
Identity Element features the diversity of medium, process, and theoretical content present in the creative practices of the Axiom Group members. Derived from a mathematical concept, the title denotes a neutral part in the context of a group, playing with the idea that the identity, voice and vision of Axiom spring directly from the people involved.
The show features work by eleven artists in the new group and one outside artist curated by a group member. The artists’ backgrounds range from art history to traditional painting and sculpture to computer science. Building on their skills and interests, the artists work in animation, video, installation, design, sculpture, photography and hypermedia. Subject matter in the show ranges from conceptualization of the individual body in space to an exploration of free resources in the Boston area, from public access databases to collective unconscious memory.
The Axiom Group is Meghann Hickson, Heidi Kayser, Georgina Lewis, Wayne Madsen, Nick Marmor, Alexander Reben, Allison Rodriguez, Sarah Rushford, Evan Smith, Yuri Stone, Elizabeth Washburn, and Andrea Zampitella. Work by Nicholas DiStefano will also be included, curated by Meghann Hickson.
Readings on Art and Science #2
Posted on | December 1, 2010 | 1 Comment
The second installment of Axiom’s poetry and spoken word night is coming up December 11th at 7pm, sp mark your calendars now! The evening will feature readings and performances from writers whose work addresses the evolving relationship between the humanities and sciences. Is there indeed a schism between art and science?
On Saturday, December 11 writers Thomas Dodson and Nadia Colburn will read. Dodson explains that the piece he has chosen for this night explores “the limits of empirical, causal explanations,” “Our notion of pollution as an inorganic irruption within “nature,” a desire to imagine the space of “nature” as pure and harmonious” and boils it all down to “Obsession and desire, and how these can take over your whole consciousness.”
There will be a question and answer session directly following the readings, offering the audience and the writers an opportunity to discuss the night’s topics.
Saturday, Dec. 11, 7pm
Suggested donation: $8
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