Lydia Lunch performs, speaking about misogyny and today’s pessimistic world. Photo: Angelica Hill
Last Thursday, artistMartynka Wawrzyniak hosted “A Night of Experimental Jazz & Lydia Lunch” at the Park Church Co-Op (129 Russell Street) to support her McGolrick Park community art installation, Ziemia. Ziemia, when finished, will consist of a large ceramic orb made from soil from across the globe and placed in a carefully cultivated meadow in McGolrick Park, adjacent to Russell Street between Nassau Ave and Driggs Ave.
The Park Church Co-Op was dimly lit, the stage awash with red and blue light. Meditative electronic new-age music played as the image of Jesus on the crucifix centered on the back wall looked over the scene. It may not seem like the most likely venue for a night of experimental jazz, but Pastor Amy Kienzle remarked that this event was part of the church’s larger event series that supports community art. And with Wawrzyniak being such an enthusiastic member of the church she felt it was important to support. She added that the church “believes in art and it being spiritually beneficial.” Continue reading →
Sadly, these days walls, and keeping people out of America, is an all too familiar topic of public discourse. Perhaps no people in the world feel as strongly about walls as Mexicans do, so it is entirely appropriate that Jorge Cruz, a talented local artist from Puebla, Mexico is planning an art installation that not only relates to the physical walls that some want to build across the southern border, but also the larger, and more troubling, spiritual, intellectual and moral walls that divide all people. It is hard to think of a more important topic for a conceptual art installation than these walls the show explores. Continue reading →
Are you and your lover/partner/best bud finding yourself in a rut this Valentine’s Day? Why not embark on a year’s worth of hobbies and projects to stir things up.
Dabbler (a Brooklyn Brainery Project) emails a big secret hobby to your inbox each and every month. From hands-on crafts to esoteric pursuits, you’ll amaze friends, wow enemies with your expanded horizons!
The newsletter goes out on the 15th each and every month, and it’ll run you two dollars a month!
You’ll get several billion notes, book recommendations, background, how-to’s, a million and one links for further study, and anything else we think you’d find half-useful, because, if you’re anything like us, sometimes you need a little nudge in order to learn something new.
I already told you about a great project called PaperJam at Figment NYC, which is happening this weekend on Governors Island. I want to introduce to you another amazing project called The Puzzle Project by an amazing Greenpointer named Tim Kelly.
The Puzzle Installation & Collaborative Project is a huge traveling group art exhibition that continues to grow. It originated at the Monmouth County Arts Council, but the project gained such popularity and momentum among art and community organizations, like our own Greenpoint YMCA, and schools throughout the US and abroad that it’s become Tim’s full-time gig, which is completely self-funded. When you see the scale of this project you will wonder what fuels him.
When you meet Tim you will quickly understand it is his genuine love for art and his passion for sharing that love that gives him the energy to manage this huge endeavor.
