Zoe Strauss

Back from Chicago last night at 1, leaving for Tucson right now.

First, me and my lady were walking down Michigan Ave in Chicago and we saw GARRY MADDOX and I WAS WEARING THIS SWEATER. While I realize that Garry's just trying to live his life, I still had to show it to him. Garry's wife seemed to love it.



Then we went to a Bulls game and saw this amazing floating Bulls.



Then the Sixers lost, so dreams were crushed.

Then we went to the Frank Lloyd Wright home and studio in Chicago, which was great. Then two people who we saw at the Frank Lloyd Wright house earlier were randomly on our plane to Philadelphia!

But then our plane from Chicago ran into a coyote on the runway and we had to sputter back over Lake Michigan, and I say sputter because the plane sounded messed up despite the pilot's statement of "everything's fine." Nice try, because we were greeted with quite a battalion of fire trucks and ambulances. It was actually fine and wasn't too-nerve wracking, which is probably why I was disappointed we didn't use the slides to get off the plane.

Then we got home and LB just got a 150 dollar gift certificate from United and that's pretty great, so all in all a successful 24 hours.

Thanks to all who came out to the AIC talk. And I'll put some photos up later, but I am ECSTATIC with the show. The lake Michigan image is perfect.

Discussion: Streets of Philadelphia

**THIS THURSDAY** November 12, 6:00pm

Please join us for a special discussion on the Streets of Philadelphia: Photography 1970-1985 led by The Print Center's Curator, John Caperton. The discussion will focus on the legacy of early street photography and the works in the exhibition, the era they represent and their relationship to photography being created today. Guests will include exhibiting artists Paul Cava, David Graham, Tom Gralish, Paul McGuirk and Stephen Perloff, who will be joined by photographers Jeffrey Stockbridge, Sarah Stolfa as well as other special guests. FREE and open to the public.

I still don't know what I'm doing with this.

Welcome, Ms. Marianna Peragallo. Check out her work here.

Among the many themes that have been I've established as the means to get at "everything," the theme of redemption, and the impossibility of redemption, has come to be threaded both through the North/South and the East/West pillars under 95. It wasn't something I had laid out as part of the initial structure, but I've found it to be of great importance to address the hope, fear, disappointment and desire entangled with ideas of redemption as a part of the installation.

In working with ideas of redemption, I'm very conscious to make sure the images that can hint at redemption don't become entangled with anything implying "resurrection." Of course, photos alone talk about resurrection and create these totems of immortality and there's always that lurking about... but I want to make sure the flow is not "brought back to life" but rather "building on and moving forward." There's no coming back, there's just reconstruction of self.


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No-

redemption

1. an act of redeeming or the state of being redeemed.
2. deliverance; rescue.
3. Theology. deliverance from sin; salvation.
4. atonement for guilt.

as related to "resurrection"

1. The act of rising from the dead or returning to life.
2. The state of one who has returned to life.
3. The act of bringing back to practice, notice, or use; revival.




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No-

catharsis

1. relieving of emotional tensions, esp. through certain kinds of art, as tragedy or music.


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Yes-

continuum

1. a continuous extent, succession, or whole, no part of which can be distinguished from neighboring parts except by arbitrary division.


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Yes-

infiniteness, continuity, spectrum, cycle, revolution, loop, lap, orbit.

Thanks to all who came out to the Whitney workshop... I thought it was a rousing success.

Recommended by Zoe Strauss: Roni Horn aka Roni Horn at the Whitney Museum in NY, NY



Pink Tons- Roni Horn

Recommended by Lynn Bloom: John Lennon: The New York City Years Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Annex in NY, NY.

Recommended by Zoe Strauss: For a late night or mid-night snack, try Tums! It's a little bit like a candy and when you're starving you can totally pretend that you "need" to eat them. This is only for people over 30.

Thanks for having me up there, Syracuse.

See you tomorrow, Whitney friends! Kids, this is going to be super fun. Adults, this is going to be super fun.

Zoe Strauss: Photography November 7, 2009

"Zoe Strauss is an award-winning artist who participated in the 2006 Biennial. She turned to photography after receiving a 35mm camera for her thirtieth birthday. In her own work, Zoe often takes photographs in and around her South Philadelphia neighborhood. The artist will lead the group through the exhibition Roni Horn aka Roni Horn, exploring Horn's images through the lens of Zoe's own work and processes. Families will then work with Zoe Strauss to create images of their own, inspired by her work and the exhibition."


We'll be checking out the O'Keeffe exhibit, too.


And thanks to the Whitney for this fancy hotel I'm in right now.

Save the date: MAY 2, 2010.

I-95.10

Actually, save May 1, too.

Hello. If you are opposed to gay marriage I'd like to know why. What's your fucking problem?

Here's a photo of me. If you see me, please feel free to stop me and let me know why you care at all about me marrying my partner of 20 years.



Looking forward to hearing from you jackasses.
-Zoe Strauss

Congratulations to the 2009 National League Champion Phillies! And congratulations to the Yankees on a hard fought win. Next year, my friends!

"The United States ranks 31st in life expectancy (tied with Kuwait and Chile), according to the latest World Health Organization figures. We rank 37th in infant mortality (partly because of many premature births) and 34th in maternal mortality. A child in the United States is two-and-a-half times as likely to die by age 5 as in Singapore or Sweden, and an American woman is 11 times as likely to die in childbirth as a woman in Ireland."

“Polonia and Other Fables” Allan Sekula through Dec 13, 2009

“Barbara Crane: Challenging Vision” through Jan. 10, 2010

Hello, friends. I was recently informed that this blog is occasionally assigned as reading in the hallowed halls of the marble floored and potted palmed academy. Now I will be sure to include more rigorous intellectual writing for those looking to punctum up a good grade by doing a close reading of my online writing and imagery.

As a service to those writing a paper on this blog I have created an outline for a guaranteed A+. See below.


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(Title)
Studium This: The Online Work of Zoe Strauss

(Photo to base the paper on)



Santa Pecker Out
2009
Zoe Strauss

(Use the phrases below to help construct your thesis statement)

Referencing, but moving beyond the post-post modern appropriation art of Richard Prince and Sherrie Levine, provocateur Strauss presents an image taken directly from an internet search for "Santa Pecker" as her own...

...addressing ownership of online imagery... dissemination of information... visual tropes... the lesbian gaze interpreting the construct of the "male" body...

(Include this quote)

"As photographs give people an imaginary possession of a past that is unreal, they also help people to take possession of space in which they are insecure, The photograph is a thin slice of space as well as time. In a world ruled by photographic images, all borders ... seem arbitrary"
-Susan Sontag (On Photography)

YOUR PAPER IS DONE!

I love it.

My friend tells me
a man in my house jumped off the roof
the roof is the eighth floor of this building
the roof door was locked how did he manage?
his girlfriend had said goodbye I'm leaving
he was 22
his mother and father were hurrying
at that very moment
from upstate to help him move out of Brooklyn
they had heard about the girl

the people who usually look up
and call jump jump did not see him
the life savers who creep around the back staircases
and reach the roof's edge just in time
never got their chance he meant it he wanted
only one person to know

did he imagine that she would grieve
all her young life away tell everyone
this boy I kind of lived with last year
he died on account of me

my friend was not interested he said you're always
inventing stuff what I want to know how could he throw
his life away how do these guys do it
just like that and here I am fighting this
ferocious insane vindictive virus day and
night day and night and for what? for only
one thing this life this life

New Year's Day 1:16 AM
and my body is weary beyond
time to withdraw and rest
ample room allowed me in everyone's head
but community calls
right over the threshold
drums beating through the walls
children playing their truck dramas
under the collapsible coatrack
in the narrow hallway outside my room

The TV lounge next door is wide open
it is midnight in Idaho
and the throb easy subtle spin
of the electric slide boogie
step-stepping
around the corner of the parlor
past the sweet clink
of dining room glasses
and the edged aroma of slightly overdone
dutch-apple pie
all laced together
with the rich dark laughter
of Gloria
and her higher-octave sisters

How hard it is to sleep
in the middle of life.

also, Jersey, you're nuts!
also, fuck you Maine homophobes.

A total heartbreak of a game, except for the heartthrob moment when Lynn Bloom was on TV in the 9th inning!
NY, enjoy your win because Philadelphia has the GREATEST PERSON ON EARTH, MS. LYNN BLOOM, living here and that can't be topped by any World Series win. For real.

Dang! We're down one game now!
Congratulations to NY on a well played game.

Artist’s talk
Syracuse University
Syracuse, NY
November 3, 2:30 p.m.


Whitney Family Program Workshop
Whitney Museum of American Art
New York, NY
November 7


Artist’s talk
Art Institute of Chicago
Chicago, IL
November 12, 6-7 p.m.


Artist’s talk
The Center for Creative Photography
Tucson, AZ
November 17, 5:30 p.m.

The fabulous Ms. Rondell has alerted the world to a competition that I'll be entering next year... "The annual Popeye's Fight Against Obesity and Heart Disease All-You-Can-Eat Chicken and Dumplings Cook Off."

And it's worth mentioning that Popeye's is referred to as "Poop-eye's" in our house because LB worked with someone at Temple who dumped in her pants at a Popeye's.

Tonight I heard both "retard" and "homo" used without irony. Really? Are you fucking kidding me?

I was in Chicago this summer to cook up something for the Art Institute of Chicago and constructed a site-specific installation piece for the photography gallery in the AIC modern wing. In one week I shot a series of photos, edited the photos, printed all the 13x19 inkjet photos that are included in the installation, spec'd the AIC site and created 4 different blueprints for final installations that could shift with budget.

That's right, IN ONE MOTHER FUCKING WEEK, folks. It was kind of nuts, but I'm thrilled with the finished product.

The time constraint was self-imposed. I really wanted to see what the work would be like if it I couldn't edit in my usual endless manner and I wanted to construct something complete from an immediate experience... and I wanted to create something that would fold into my larger body of work, and I also wanted to use the work I made during the week to be exhibited as a complete piece. I've done a few things in the vein of "Week of the Perfect Game" -Pioneer Portrait Studio, a Works in Progress project at Open Satellite and most recently Hola. Como Estas? in Madrid, but Week of the Perfect Game is a little bit different because it's intended as a permanent piece.

Part of the reason that I'm so thrilled with this project is that the time constraint shaped the work in a way that made me think in a different way about the editing and syntax of my photos by working with what was right in front of me, limiting the ability to create work that neatly dovetailed with my expectations. I'm certain I would have produced something different had I given myself even a day more to work on this project. I came to Chicago with an unformed idea about exploring Chicago post Obama election and thought maybe to weave together a series of photos to talk about the inevitable shift that had happened in the city. But I was open to seeing what was going on in Chicago and it led me to something completely different, and somewhat unlike the work I usually make. The finished installation features Lake Michigan, and the order of the photos in the complete installation come at fluidity and isolation, and quietly refer to both limited and limitless opportunities and choices.

So when I got there Kate gave me a tour of the AIC Modern Wing and mentioned that the AIC is actually built on top of Lake Michigan. That night I read that the Art Institute is built on infill, on debris from "the great fire" specifically, and is situated in Lake Michigan proper.

My proposals all had Lake Michigan as the keystone, as the connector for the images that were made that week. The Lake had to be brought into the space in a way that brought the outside in and implied that the building is in/on Lake Michigan.

After 3 days of making work, I felt a kind of disconnect happening in Chicago and Indiana, a disconnect between my expectations of what I thought I'd find as well as a big chasm between different sections of Chicago. The election was over and despite the vestiges of great pride and excitement floating around, of course, there was no definitive change that had happened. There had been a euphoric moment in Chicago, but people were living their lives as they had been before. Due to the vibe I knew I wanted an absence of narrative with the 13"x19" prints, a series of primarily unrelated images that seem somewhat unconnected, although they are much more connected in a literal sense than most of my work, considering that they're closely connected by time and place.

The portraits are all quiet, and they all needed either wall or sky as the background... no implication of place, and either wide-open or completely closed off.

Two photos that I made on the first day were the basis for the order of the other images.


Detail I-95 (If You Can Dream It, You Can Do It)
For "Week of the Perfect Game"

It's statement that's both completely true and completely false.



Detail I-95 (Robert)
For "Week of the Perfect Game"


Robert is the person to help talk about the duality of "if you can dream it, you can do it." His expression is impassive and direct. He's got nothing behind him but sky. There's no reading that kid.

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The 4 proposals that I cooked up included different configurations of full bleed wall applications of Lake Michigan, with photos hung on top of the Lake images or a screen covering the window with an image of Lake Michigan.


Here's some of the specs...









3 walls full lake image, one west facing out window, the East facing reverse of that wall, 18' long permanent wall, another freestanding 9 ft. wall that faces west.



2 walls east facing wall on 18' long permanent wall and freestanding 9 ft. wall that faces west.




1 wall 9ft west facing wall, with lake image printed on flag or similar material covering window.


Out of these ideas came a variation I hadn't proposed because I thought it would be too much money, but it ended up being the final. THANKS, KATE! I really wanted a transparent lake image to adhere directly to the glass, but because there were a number of mullions I thought it would be a billion dollars. Hello, interior/exterior lake image...


window lake image seen from inside.


window lake image seen from outside.



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final order of small prints








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Photos in "Week of The Perfect Game"

Detail I-95 (Frank and Bev's Bed)
For "Week of the Perfect Game"
Gary, In



Detail I-95 (Shorty)
For "Week of the Perfect Game"
Chicago,IL



Detail I-95 (Week of The Perfect Game)
For "Week of the Perfect Game"
Chicago, IL
White Sox pitcher Mark Buehrle throws perfect game



Detail I-95 (Robert)
For "Week of the Perfect Game"



Detail I-95 (If You Can Dream It, You Can Do It)
For "Week of the Perfect Game"

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Detail I-95 (Gary Football Field)
For "Week of the Perfect Game"
Gary, IN



Detail I-95 (lincoln was a good old man white he jump out the window with his dick in his hand mean manner drives taxs kids prematited company game vs problem all that they mistake)
For "Week of the Perfect Game"
Gary, IN


Detail I-95 (Tiger Lounge)
For "Week of the Perfect Game"
Chicago, IL


Detail I-95 (Rip Isaiah Zeko)
Isaiah is standing in front of Lake Michigan
For "Week of the Perfect Game"
Chicago, IL


Detail I-95 (Beverly's Mother)
For "Week of the Perfect Game"
Gary, IN

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Detail I-95 (Michael Jackson House, Bad Poster)
For "Week of the Perfect Game"
Gary, IN
Michael Jackson Mourned In Gary, Indiana Hometown



Detail I-95 (Puerto Rican Day East Chicago)
For "Week of the Perfect Game"
East Chicago, IN



Detail I-95 (Hemp Lover in Miller Hat)
For "Week of the Perfect Game"
Whiting, IN
Pierogi Fest


Detail I-95 (McDonald's Window)
For "Week of the Perfect Game"
Chicago


Detail I-95 (Yes We Did)
For "Week of the Perfect Game"
Chicago



Detail I-95 (Woman Striker)
For "Week of the Perfect Game"
Chicago
Congress Hotel Strike

More later on all this.

Here's another photo I've been thinking about