Harold Arts presents Sarah Mosk @ MDW Fall Showcase Booth #228

October 21st- 23rd
 at The Geolofts 3636 S Iron St. Chicago, IL

Vernissage: Friday October 21, 8-11pm

Saturday / Sunday Noon to 6pm
$5 admission

The chambers of vintage interiors have been populated by landforms, a section of the floor has been removed to reveal another hidden dimension of the home, while out the window the promise of a distant gem looms like a harvest moon.  The protracted environments of Sarah Mosk seem to both reference mid-century ideas of the progress as manifest in the home, while slyly suggesting the multiplicity of the place, brought on by memory or preoccupations with distant landscapes.  Mosk samples imagery from an extensive archive of collected images to deliver compositions which obfuscate time, successfully questioning the singularity of place through manipulations of its most common representations. Recently, Mosk has utilized collage materials to generate stop animation films which both illuminate her process, as well as expound upon the suggested narratives which run through her two-dimensional works.  For MDW, Harold Arts presents recent collage work by Mosk as well as her latest animation, NO TALISMAN, featuring a soundtrack by French sound artist Felicia Atkinson. Atkinson and Mosk both attended the Harold Classic residency this past summer, where this multimedia collaboration began.

sarahmosk.com   |   feliciaatkinson.be

Trevor Gainer, Provisional Buoy, Chesterhill, Ohio, 2010

Harold Arts presents
Trevor Gainer
at MDW Fair Booth 242
Saturday, April 23rd, 1:00 - 10:00pm
Sunday, April 24th, 1:00 - 5:00pm

http://mdwfair.org/

Read Blocked Escape Routes: Alec Soth's Broken Manual and the Urge to Disappear by Harold Arts' guest critic Karsten Lund here.

Harold Arts and J Ashley Miller present MODERN HEROISM ACT I : AVATAR NINJA
Saturday March 5th 2011 8PM
Secret Location

Compete : $10 (free beer)
Feast : $50 limited seating available

A message from J Ashley Miller :

Under the scrutiny of intelligence, the Hero's Shadow is the primordial villain.

In order to catch some of your Shadow you need three basic things: speed, stealth, and awareness. Each of these gifts are attainable, though the means of their acquisition are usually drab and repetitive. Lucky for us, there is a holistic practice which both cultivates these three skills AND is actually fun. This practice is called Ninja. Now, you may think that a ninja is a hackneyed cultural artifact, a traditional private agent of death and deceit which provided espionage and mercenary service to the feudal Japanese elite. But I am talking about Ninja, a new form of school-yard-style game. Like all truly fantastic games, the rules of Ninja are simple:

•  Only one Ninja may move at a time, clockwise according to the position of the player at the beginning  of the game. An offensive move out of turn calls for disqualification
•  If your hand is touched by another Ninja, you lose 
•  Ninjas must uphold their own Honor

Interpretations of Honor vary from community to community, and player to player.  However, there are a basic set of honorable understandings which most ninjas seem to uphold.

•   At the end of your attack, you should instantly freeze.
•   If you recoil before another Ninja has attacked, you return to your previous position.

Simultaneously physical, poetic, proper, performative, and preposterous, Ninja is poised to be the training tool for a new breed of contemporary hero. For AVATAR NINJA, competitors will play in six distinct styles demonstrated by visiting masters. Ninjas participating in the open tournament will be accompanied by a pit of musical avatars, including Jeff Kimmel, David Moré, Frank Van Duerm and more.

Don’t want to play?  Enjoy a feast courtside.  A portion of your meal ticket goes to feed hungry residents attending Harold Arts’ 2011 Residency Programs. Our chef Sy Barsheshet will be preparing an Olympic feast of festive treats.  

Including:

The tournament's champion will more than likely spring unseen from the masses, and so we call to you, secret champions. Are you a MODERN HERO? You can be. As you have always been. We are all free.  Play Ninja.     

Harold Arts presents: The Trailblazer Mixtape

In July, artists and musicians began arriving for our two 2010 Trailblazer sessions. Engineers and producers Ashley Miller, Brian J Sulpizio, Ben Carver, and Seth Vanek were among the first musicians to work within the new PoolHouse Recording Studio. Highlights from these inaugural sessions are now available on our Trailblazer Mixtape on bandcamp.

The Trailblazer sessions were unique for the number of unexpected collaborations between our musicians, artists and engineers. A Farsi version of the aria from Carmen by Maraal Mofrad features production by Kansas City's J Ashley Miller (SSION). This summer's viral "Double Rainbow" video was recast as a faux improvisation for vibraphone, vocals and guitar by Seth Vanek (Roommate/Love Raid/Tiny Cover Band) Songs made from dust and songs made from games lie next to a song sung by our local karaoke man Milton Roberts, engineered by Brian J Sulpizio (Health&Beauty/Chateau Recordings).  You can stream the entire mixtape for free at haroldarts.bandcamp.com, but please donate, download and share!