Kathleen McHugh

Posters by Matthew Rose and
Julia Hoffmann:

David Rager Poster:

 

 

 

 
A BOOK ABOUT DEATH : ARTISTS CONTRIBUTE 500 POST CARDS EACH TO CREATE AN UNBOUND BOOK ABOUT DEATH. AN HOMAGE TO RAY JOHNSON, A CELEBRATION OF EMILY HARVEY, A GLOBAL EXPLORATION OF DEATH.

EXHIBITION AT THE EMILY HARVEY FOUNDATION GALLERY IN NEW YORK CITY. OPENING: THURSDAY 10 SEPTEMBER 2009. EXHIBITION: 10 - 22 SEPTEMBER 2009. OPENING : 7:30 - 11 PM.

http://abookaboutdeath.blogspot.com/

                                                               The Archive : A Book About Death

 Queens Museum of Art

Some views of the installation of A Book About Death, curated by Louise Weinberg. (November 1 - 15, 2009). Louise Weinberg dedicated this chapter in A Book About Death to the memory of Moki Cherry, Minnie Weinberg and Nancy Spero. Here, in this space, we would like to add Rebecca Lipkin, who was a great friend, a bright light and who left us way too early.

Artist Mara Thompson takes A Book About Death to Los Angeles this month with an interactive re-make of A Book About Death, at The Otis College of Art and Design. The ongoing exhibition opens on October 11 and runs through October 31 (or until all the post cards have been taken).

A large shipment of nearly 50 of each of the artists works was sent and delivered to the Otis School of Art &  Design in Los Angeles, a project spearheaded by Thompson.  These works will be featured in an exhibition at the art and design school, and students and others in the Los Angeles area will be invited to attend and collect the works.

Mobius Artists Group exhibited A Book About Death at the South  End Open Studios, 725 Harrison Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts, on September 19 - 20, 2009.  The exhibition set up by artist Jane Wang (#414) - Mobius Artists Group, which she collected at A Book About Death's Opening Night at the Emily Harvey Foundation Gallery in New York City.

"Those Who Pay The Fee"

From the series : Charon's Crossing

Artist Statement - Kathleen McHugh

There is an unseen circulatory system that connects people to each other and to communities. When death comes to an elderly family member or beloved pet, other people in the system reach out to help and console. It is different when death comes through violence or disease as an unjust surprise to an unsuspecting victim. The life flow of the system withdraws and shuts down. Every act of kindness towards the survivors is experienced as an extraordinary gesture. The aftermath of the event is handled by professional death managers, IE., grief counselors, prescription writing doctors, psychologists, and trauma specialists who talk about finding "the new normal". Faith communities are expected to be the providers of "meaning" for the deceased, survivors, and greater society. Death isn't contagious. Every living creature has a birthdate and a deathdate. Yet, death separates and silences us. We ignore it, deny it, spiritualize it, and somehow think that it "happens to other people and won't happen to us if we only associate with the living". We don't know how to "be around" grieving survivors. With concern, we ask them if "they are seeing someone" and when they think they will be "ready to move on". I believe that the project, "A Book About Death" serves as an existential living document that pumps the lifeflow back into areas of the circulatory system which have been severed due to silence. It had been noted that 9/11 imagery is absent from the work and a question was raised as to whether 9/11 subject matter is taboo. I personally don't think that artists are avoiding subject matter, such as 9/11, because it is taboo, but rather, are including those who are living in the aftermath of violence such as 9/11, the murder of Neda Soltan, and all other unjust surprise deaths that touch the lives of countless people in the circulatory system of the intended audience for "A Book About Death."

Poster by Cecil Touchon

Video of Opening by

Grace Graupe Pillard

click on photo

click on wall:

The Emily Harvey Foundation - 537 Broadway, 2nd Floor, New York City, NY 10012

The Emily Harvey Foundation - San Polo 322, 30125 Venezia, Italia

www.emilyharveyfoundation.org/

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE :

A BOOK ABOUT DEATH : AN UNBOUND BOOK ON THE SUBJECT OF DEATH

OPENING: September 10, 2009 - 7 PM - 10 PM

EXHIBITION: September 10 - 22, 2009; Tuesday - Saturday, 1PM - 7PM

THE BLOG & ARTIST WORKS, INFO: abookaboutdeath.blogspot.com

THE WALL : abookaboutdeath.net [Designed by Caterina Verde].

LIVE WEBCAST: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/abookaboutdeath

FOR ALL INFORMATION, INTERVIEWS, IMAGES PLEASE CONTACT:

CHRISTIAN XATREC, Director, EHF NYC : 1 917 331 2960 E : xatrec@gmail.com

MATTHEW ROSE : 1 561 414 6805 E: MATTHEW.ROSE.PARIS@GMAIL.COM

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK A Book About Death, a sprawling, collaborative unbound "book" on the subject of death at the Emily Harvey Foundation Gallery in New York. The opening, on Thursday, September 10, 2009, one day shy of 9/11, brings together hundreds of artists in a global exhibition that honors the late artist Ray Johnson (1927-1995), whose own work inspired this exhibition; Emily Harvey (1941-2004); and the artists themselves, who have presented their unique visions of the subject through combinations of art, photography, and text.

Conceived and organized by Matthew Rose, a Paris-based American artist, A Book About Death is comprised of artists' postcards from original art created specifically for the exhibit. These pieces collectively form the pages of the "book." While many of the artists involved in the exhibition are internationally known

"Ray Johnson is part of the history and spirit of The Emily Harvey Gallery, now The Emily Harvey Foundation," explains Christian Xatrec, EHF NYC director. "Taking the title from Ray Johnson, Matthew Rose's A Book About Death project refers to Ray

"Understanding death in any complete sense, doesn't seem at all possible if you're alive, but these artists have fleshed out many hundreds of approaches," says Matthew Rose. The artist pays tribute to his own mother, Doris, who died during the project, with a photograph of her taken on her wedding day, January 18, 1948. "I'm pleasantly astonished at the intellectual breadth and high humor of the works, and I think both Ray and Emily

RAY JOHNSON

"Between March 1963 and early 1965, Ray Johnson sent out an unbound 'book' in the mail one page at a time," explains Mark Bloch, one 13 speakers and performers for the opening night. "It was a largely unnoticed milestone in the history of books. To make things even more interesting, like much of Johnson's art, it took as its subject

"I think it's going to be a real 1960s-style Happening for the new millennium," adds Bloch. That "happening" will also be webcast live

"This project has been compelling for its sheer openness on a topic that is universal," says Caterina Verde, artist and website designer of the "wall" style site for A Book About Death. "To see the images submitted from around the world and the cultural permutations of the subject, the variations of temperament, thoughts, aesthetics --- is as we observe ourselves walking through life : Ordinary and extraordinary."

"The distribution of art and ideas was very much Ray Johnson's thing," says Denver-based photographer Mark Sink, who contributed a photograph of his mother, a three-time cancer survivor, to the exhibition. "It's very exciting to see him and the concept honored in this exhibition." Sink noted that when first confronted with the project, he drew a blank on death. Then, with some time, the ideas came rushing in. "Life is all about death -- Freud's dissertation of the human drive

Verde, for one, is "surprised to see that there are no images

"A Book About Death has become a book about life," adds Joan Harrison, artist, writer. "I have the strangest sense I can hear Ray (Johnson) chuckling over my shoulder every time I work on anything involved with this project!"

OPENING PROGRAM

An opening program is set with Carolee Schneemann, David Shapiro, Colette Copeland, Michael Andre, Mark Bloch, Colleen Nika, Hens Breet, Jac Charlesworth, Cecil Touchon and Keith Buchholz, Simon Critchley, Brabdstufte and Dr. Phil Shinn. A live webcast of the opening will be available not only for those artists who have contributed from all corners of the globe, but for anyone interested to see the work up close and the performers and speakers. A videotape will be produced afterwards from the many videos taken during the opening

Posters especially produced for the exhibition by designers Julia Hoffmann, Robert Mars, Cecil Touchon, Caterina Verde, Matthew Rose, David Rager and Osiris Hertz have been offered free as high-resolution PDFs on the web site: http://abookaboutdeath.blogspot.com/. Visitors to the site are encouraged to download the posters and print them at home.

SOCIAL VIRAL ARTWORLD

The project has taken off in a viral way via FaceBook, e-mail, Twitter and word of mouth in artist communities from Spain and Belgium to Australia and Brooklyn. FaceBook was a particularly powerful organizing medium: a group was formed and an event page was created. Artists began to network, talk to each other and collaborate on performances, posters and, of course getting feedback on their works. Very much Ray Johnson-envisioned, this exhibition is a collage of people, some living some dead, all very much a part of this very special happening.

With projects like A Book About Death, a collaborative work involving creative acts from all directions, the Emily Harvey Foundation concerns itself with supporting ideas resistant to boundaries of easy legibility," explains Xatrec. "Our emphasis is on giving voice, and momentary material form, to discursive and process-based practices," he says. "Show by show, we aim to move within the vicissitudes of collaborative and cross-disciplinary approaches, generating alternatives to other more solid frameworks for contemporary practice."

For more details, please see the links for the live webcast, sponsors, posters the opening program, and other information, as well as the "wall" of all the art works on both http://abookaboutdeath.blogspot.com/ and http://abookaboutdeath.net/

FOR ALL INFORMATION, INTERVIEWS, IMAGES PLEASE CONTACT :

CHRISTIAN XATREC, Director, EHF NYC : 1 917 331 2960 E : xatrec@gmail.com

MATTHEW ROSE : 1 561 414 6805 E: MATTHEW.ROSE.PARIS@GMAIL.COM

http://abookaboutdeath.blogspot.com/

http://abookaboutdeath.net/