NM Director Jason Andrew interviewed on Bushwick Daily
by Katarina Hybenova, Bushwick Daily, Brooklyn
Director Jason Andrew discusses the history of Norte Maar, as well as the shows at both the apartment gallery and Storefront with Bushwick Daily editor Katarina Hybenova. The piece ran in conjunction with February 2011′s Beat Nite festivities.
Norte Maar featured on Brooklyn Independent Television
Norte Maar featured alongside Pocket Utopia in a Neighborhood Beat segment exploring art spaces in Bushwick. Founder Jason Andrew was interviewed.
Bushwick On The Mainstream Art Radar
by Jeremy Sapienza, BushwickBK, Brooklyn, NY
Director Jason Andrew is quoted in this bit discussing critics Jerry Saltz and Roberta Smith visit to Norte Maar.
A Festival For All: an interview with Jason Andrew and Julia K. Gleich
by Caroline Kehne
Lake Champlain Weekly, Aug 8, 2007
Jason Andrew and Julia Gleich are two of the driving forces behind the August 16 dance gala, Fete de Danse 2007. Caroline Kehne recently talked with them about the shaping of this unique North Country dance event.
Jason Andrew is a founder of Norte Maar For Collaborative Projects In The Arts, a not-for-profit organization that is the principal organizer of Fete de Danse, as well as numerous other arts projects. Andrew plits his time between his Pratt Street home in Rouses Point and New York City, where he is actively involved in the arts community.
LCW: Norte Maar has a string of successful collaborations with local community organizations, including the Rouses Point Historical Society, the North Country Cultural Center for the Arts, and Evergreen Assisted Living (“Arts At Evergreen”), to name a few. Is it difficult to find and audience for arts here?
JASON ANDREW: It has always been my belief that great art exists everywhere, be it in the rural communities of the North Country or the populated streets of a major city. I am continually surprised by the art and he artists that I encounter in both places. While the audience for arts up here may appear to be thin, it is just as compassionate and sophisticated. It has always been the goal of Norte Maar to collaborate with other arts/cultural entities, elevating the imaginative possibilities in us all.
LCW: Do you have a formula for picking a successful project?
JA: A project and its backer must have passion for the art, dedication to the worthiness of the project and commitment – a willingness to see the project through.
LCW: Norte Maar’s projects seem more edgy than the normal artistic fare one encounters in conservative rural communities. Does that pose a problem?
JA: It can be a struggle at times. I’ve nicknamed it “SRT” (slow response time). After I have committed to a project, there is a period where I gather support, fundraise, and organize volunteers. This can take some convincing. But more often than not we have succeeded in rallying the communities around our unique exhibition and unusual performances. I could not do what we do without the support and equally dedicated communities where we present art. Of course, there is a limit to the fundraising I can do here in the North Country and I use New York City supporters and artists as a resource – I spread it all around.
Fete de Danse is the perfect example of this. Who in their right minds would believe that world-class ballet could come to a hockey rink in the North Country?
LCW: Norte Maar has worked with many dance organizations, including the Albany-Berkshire Ballet, the North Country Ballet Ensemble, and Vermont’s Burklyn Ballet Theatre to name a few. This year, you will have return visits from the Short School of Irish Dancing (Plattsburgh and Montreal) and Andrew J. Nemr with CPD Plus (New York City), as well as new additions to Fete, including the Adirondack Dance Company (Plattsburgh) and Equipe Capoeira Brasileira (Montreal). You clearly seek out an eclectic mix of dance styles – classical and modern. How is that received?
JA: Without question, Fete de Danse has become one the North Country’s great performing art events and audiences travel from all over the Northeast to attend this unique event. The diversity of the performing companies is key. We have local sensations performing on the same bill as an internationally recognized ballet company.
LCW: You’re an advocate and supporter of rural arts projects and yet you had to return to New York City to find financial success working in the museum and gallery world. What do you say to those artists who may want to work and live in the North Country, but may be getting the message that there’s no future here?
JA: It is true that I commute back and forth from New York City. It is there that I have access to a financial base that can support the caliber of arts to which Norte Maar is committed. Access to funds in the North Country is very limited.
I do support local artists living and working in the North Country…I have held many dinners discussing the dilemma surrounding making and seeling art in here. My advice: always return to the essence of making art. Making art is what defines you as a person. Making the art is ten times more important than selling it. Define your success by finishing a new sculpture or painting another picture.
It’s also important to remember that financing art has historically been difficult. Many are discouraged that our nation doesn’t do more to finance its artists and its art organizations. I believe it is the responsibility of the individual and local communities to invest in the art that surrounds them. Attend a dance recital, volunteer as a docent at a museum. Get involved, collaborate.
Julia K Gleich is the founder and artistic director of the London-based Gleich Contemporary Ballet. She is also a member of the board of Norte Maar and has played a major role in Fete de Danse since its beginning four years ago. Her company makes its fourth appearance in Fete de Danse this year; she serves as a choreographer for many of the pieces performed.
LCW: You, along with Norte Maar founder Jason Andrew have been instrumental in shaping Fete de Danse. How did your collaboration begin?
JULIA GLEICH: Jason Andrew and I have known each other for over 15 years and have found great support, enthusiasm and shared creative visiion. Through the years we have danced together and produced evenings of concert dance as well as site-specific works. We have followed each other across the country and now that I live in the U.K., we still manage to find a way to create together. Of course, this is in addition to his other artistic projects for Norte Maar.
I admire Jason’s artistic sensibility and trust his judgment. He is a kind of a Diaghilev for me. He generates terrific ideas, brings artists together to collaborate and brings a historical perspective as well. I consider myself fortunate to be able to be a creative part of Norte Maar.
LCW: Most think of Fete de Danse as one night of ballet; however, that’s only the culmination of several weeks of hard work with dancers. Could you describe that period in the life of a working dancer?
JG: We bring a group of dancers together for only two or three weeks. We have daily technique class Monday through Saturday starting at 9:30 a.m. There are some local students who attend this class as well. It is a nice opportunity for them to see terrific dancers up close and learn from them.
We may have a stretch class, a pointe class, a men’s class, etc. before beginning rehearsals. We rehearse from about 1:00 to 5:00 and then may have an evening run-thru. That’s a total of about six hours of dancing per day. Not all of them rehearse at once, but they will be on call, usually watching and supporting each other. Some of the dancers teach class. This year, Claire Schmid is working with me and the dancers on techniques for improvisation. This helps with the creation of new choreography as well. And then in the evenings we sit around, watch ballet videos and discuss dance from all kinds of perspectives. Sometimes we become a bunch of nerds talking about dance, art, and technique! It can be a kind of a dance think-tank.
LCW: Your pool of talent includes local, regional and international dancers. Could you tell us a little about them and how they come to be a part of Gleich Dances?
JG: We bring up dancers who are intelligent, curious and lovely people. This is very important because we have to spend so much time with them. I ask dancers whom I like and whom I think will enjoy the experience. There are some who come back every year. This is Marc St. Pierre’s third year with us. It is not only the dancing, but also the community and the excitement of the event that grabs us all. Some of the dancers have been my students, some of them I have worked with at Burklyn Ballet Theater in Johnson, Vermont. Two I met in London. I try to bring a diverse group so they can meet new people. This year we have the largest group ever, nine dancers. And the most ambitious ballet, too!
LCW: In addition to Fete de Danse, you also have quirky “sideshows” that such as “Tutus at Wal-Mart” where the mass merchandiser allowed your dancers to perform short dance pieces in the parking lot. The idea was to take ballet away from its traditional setting and make it accessible to non-traditional audiences. Whose idea was that and how was it received?
JG: Jason and I have created many site-specific dances together. One of the first was in a drained pool in NYC. We always have felt that ballet doesn’t get sufficient opportunity to exist off the proscenium stage and so the so-called “WalMart ballets” became an essential part of our mission to share ballet and dance in general.
We often made a kind of pastiche of the historic works we chose for these pieces. In the beginning WalMar tolerated us and then they started to welcome us. Unfortunately we were never able to get financial support for the project.
This year Cordelia Sand from Westport generated choreography for the dance that was performed August 2nd in the Rouses Point train station. She enlivened the space and created an event of movement and energy in the old station… We were glad to bring a local choreographer into the Norte Maar project. Of course, I felt a bit extraneous so I leant enthusiastic energy.
LCW: Since the beginning, proceeds from Fete de Danse have benefited the Rouses Point Historical Society, which hopes to restore the D&H train station on Pratt Street and transform it into a museum. This year, visitors were led by a “conductor” Jason Andrew from Norte Maar headquarters at 20 Pratt Street up the block to the tour station, meet with historical society volunteers, and see improvisational dance in and around the station.
JG: We thought it might be nice to create a piece to celebrate the station. It is a whimsical idea. But we found ourselves visiting the station with the Mayor of Rouses Point [George Rivers] and Geri Favreau, President of the Historical Society. Well, we all got so excited about it. And suddenly it was a reality.
There wasn’t a lot of time to create and sometimes that is fine. I particularly enjoy working quickly and getting inspiration spontaneously. Sometimes the dance is the easy part. I know there was a lot of preparation around the station. Volunteers worked hard. Costuming also takes time. Jason and I have many other ideas – some of them for European locations and some local. But we have to keep that a secret for now.
LCW: This year you are choreographing a work with composer Paul Siskind of the Crane School of Music, who has been a collaborator on past editions of Fete de Danse. The work, the Leger Ballet, will have its world premiere in Rouses Point as part of Fete de Danse 2007 and commemorates the visit of world renowned cubist painter Fernand Leger who summered in Rouses Point in 1943-45. Here is a collaboration between a composer a choreographer and dance company to commemorate a brief period in the life of another artist (Leger). This underscores the connection between arts, culture and history and literally brings them close to home.
JG: The Leger Ballet epitomizes the Norte Maar mission. I am so excited to be making this ballet. It has been on my mind for 10 months. Slowly the ideas take root and shift over time. We came up with a synopsis and took it to Paul, who was eager to tackle the project. So, we have a commissioned score from him.
But there is also Bill Pfaff from Plattsburgh who composed one segment of music and Lola Perrin, a composer from London who also created a segment. The collaboration isn’t just about the choreographer and composer; it is also everyone who inspires and assists with the work. Jason is designing a set for this piece and he has had help from Rouses Point resident Dick Baker. There are people helping to make costumes and helping in ways that support the vision and keep us all going.
It is a labor of love. I dream of expanding this piece and taking to more audiences. The ideas in it are beautiful and the imagery is interesting. I always get nervous about how a piece will be received but this one shoul have something for everyone. I guess I could say that I am proud of it. I hope it does Norte Maar and Rouses Point proud, too.
NYC artists to present paintings, sculpture at Plattsburgh State venue
by Robin Caudell
Press-Republican, Out & About, February 8, 2007
PLATTSBURGH – An exhibition of the contemporary works of painter Hermine Ford and sculptor John Newman opens Saturday at the Plattsburgh State Art Museum.
The New York City artists were brought to the attention of Edward Broehl, museum director, by Jaons Andrew, exhibition curator and co-founder of Norte Maar.
“Ed is always interested in and the museum dedicated to exhibiting the best, unique and alive” Andrew said. “He’s drawn to both artists, who use all kinds of imagery across the board.”
It was fun for Andrew to put the show together but difficult because of the artists’ very different languages.
“There’s a lot of air between them,” Andrew said. “You can look and compare at the same time. I think color is really an important part of the show.”
For the show’s catalogue, Andrew asked Raphael Rubinstein, senior editor at Art in America, to write an essay about the artists. In “Two Mediums, One World” Rubinstein writes:
“Although on is a painter and the other a sculptor, Hermine Ford and John Newman share a great deal of artistic territory.”
Influenced by Africa and ancient Rome, Ford paints on thin linen-covered plywood. Her fragmental shapes appear as magnified cloth assemblages or topographical mosaics.
About Ford’s work, Rubinstein writes:
“In fact, they are closely based on the designs of Mbuti pygmy women of the Ituri Forest in Zaire, who are known for their bark-cloth paintings and drawings. The colors Ford uses echo the plant-based mediums employed by the Mbuti. Also pygmy-derived is another set of subsections in which dots and lines create net-like patterns of three-, four- and five-sided shapes, some of which Ford fills in with solid colors.”
Newman’s travels in Europe, Asia and Africa influence his use of disparate materials and techniques in his sculptures. About him, Rubinstein writes:
“Like Baroque sculptors and painters, Newman is constantly looking for ways to torque his forms. Curling in upon themselves or stretching from one part of a sculpture to another, his biomorphic elements twist with a sensual, playful sinuosity.”
In arranging the show, Andrew spontaneously added two fantastic charcoal drawings by Ford placed near Newman’s “crushed and weighted-down turn.” A sculpted stone and a wad of paper balance at the termini of a black-and-mettallic twist.
“It’s amazing,” Andrew said. “The stone at the bottom, John chose. He had these incredible Italian carvers carve that drapery into it. His wife is a fantastic writer. That crumpled piece of paper is reminiscent of a writer’s block. He chose to put that on top. The sculpture combines this cutting edge of technology and a very traditional form of carving in stone.”
Both artists leap adroitly from the primitive to the now.
Rubinstein writes:
“The affirmation by both Ford and Newman of the hybrid character of culture is, simultaneously, a rejection of the fictions of purity and isolation. Their cultural inclusiveness is also of a piece with how they oganize their works: as a self-generating, radically disparate, joyously non-monolithic experiments in sheer form.”
Andrew loved the idea of bringing the two New Yorkers ot a now-where-are-we-going rural environment.
“Everyone comes to New York City to see something of this caliber,” he said. “We can always use more of it to analyze and see what contemporary art is about today. To stretch our minds.”
Breaking Boundaries, Partners in Crime: an Interview with Julia K. Gleich and Jason Andrew
By Keshia Clukey, Contributing Writer
JILL Magazine, Press-Republican, Jun 26, 2006
“I exist in a man’s world,” said Julia Gleich, choreographer and director. “Women dominate at lower levels.” Ballet is a world where men more frequently run the show. However, Gleich does not fit into this role.
“She is a thriving, working woman,” said Norte Maar Director Jason Andrew.
Currently, Gleich maintains the role of ballet lecturer at LABAN, London, UK. Not only is she the Director of Choreography at London Studio Centre, London, UK, but she is also the President of Norte Maar. Gleich also runs her own company, Gleich Dances Contemporary Ballet. She is at the very top in her field.
Gleich has a Mathematics and Arts Administration degree along with a Masters Degree in Ballet from the University of Utah. She also studied at The School of American Ballet.
It was at the University of Utah however, where the true story begins with the start of a beautiful friendship. It was there that Gleich and Andrew first met, Julia as his ballet teacher.
Norte Maar Director Jason Andrew grew up in Utah. He had studied ballet when he was younger, but his father did not approve of it. He had only seen real ballet on TV, and his retired dance teacher had no enthusiasm. He ended up falling into his father’s words, “you can’t live and dance your way through life.”
He stopped dancing, but did excel as a track athlete. He qualified for the Olympics, but an unjury kept him from proceeding. Andrew decided to go to the University of Utah, which was the first university to offer a Master of Fine Arts in ballet.
“It turns out you can live and dance your way through life,” Andrew said smiling.
He and Gleich met at the university. She had not been thrilled with concentuional ballet and had also decided to take a step back and go to college.
What makes a track athlete and ballet dancer come together to form a dynamic duo? Drives and ideas.
From that point Jason moved to New York City and supported Julia with her company. They both continued onward, Gleich with her directing and choreographing, and Andrew as Gallery Director and Archivist.
Through Norte Maar, the two and others like them came together to create a unique learning environment giving individuality to and empowering artists.
Andrew moved up to Rouses Point from New York City, drawn to it by the beauty of the area. It was here that he realized how difficult it is for dancers and artists to move to the next level.
Norte Maar is the answer. They are able to use city connections as well as outside funding to help local artists excel. The Summer Conservatory along with Fete De Danse, and the Wal-Mart Ballet gave both Andrew and Gleich a chance to use their shared ideals.
Gleich was turned off by the devaluing individual identity” that classic ballet usually teaches. The affect of “cloning” one dancer as Andrew put it, is broken away from with these programs.
Gleich is one of the master teachers for the conservatory. “I don’t do syllabus teaching,” said Julia. That is, learning and being tested on over and over again. Julia hopes to bring “twenty-first century values to the dance world.”
Instead of being consumed by the petty things such as having dancers focus on having the “ideal foot”, and physically fitting the mold for ballet otherwise being scorned for not, Julia as well as Jason agree on one thing. Ballet can sometimes “miss the idea that it’s okay to have fun and not be so serious of everything,” said Gleich. “Ballet can be deep but not limited.”
The summer workshop allows access to dancers hat it might not normally be given to. Chances to mix it up with all different kinds of dance styles combined under Gleich’s choreography create a unique experience both liberating and educational.
The fact that there are dancers coming from other countries, including Gleich and her London Dance Company, makes it not only interesting to share differing techniques, but also challenging.
Not letting boundaries keep her down, Julia continues to teach, and thrive as a very driven oman in an industry not usually run by such.
Gleich and Andrew remain friends after 13 years working together. This is Norte Maar’s third year presenting its summer events and it continues to be growing under the vision of its groundbreaking duo.
Fete De Danse Returns July 28
Lake Champlain Weekly – July 20, 2005
ROUSES POINT (NY) – On July 28, 2005 dance returns to the Rouses Point Civic Center. the second annual Fete de Dance, co-sponsored by Norte Maar and the Rouses Point Historical Society, will feature performances by Gleich Dances Contemporary Ballet of London, the Albany Berkshire Ballet, the Burklyn Ballet Theatre, and the Short School of Irish Dancing.
Again, Norte Maar has commissioned renowned choreographer Julia Gleich to produce an original full-length ballet for the event.
“This requires tremendous effort,” explained Norte Maar Director Jason Andrew. ”Most choreographers work months with students and dancers familiar to them to produce a full-length work. Julia is producing one in three weeks with dancers whom she has just met.”
The piece, which remains untitled, will be set to the American Dream Quartet by composer, musicologist and P.D.Q. Bach biographer Peter Schickele.
“The selection is an appropriate piece for Rouses Point,” said Gleich, speaking after a grueling day of working with dancers. “It’s classical, then moves to jazz riffs and in another section breaks into a square dance. It’s an American piece, combining the earthy and the ethereal and the theme of divided desires. Its water motifs fit well into the backdrop of a village on the lake.”
Gleich’s cast of nine dancers come from Canada and across the U.S. and includes four local dancers: Katie Duffy of Rouses Point and Jeannine Kemp, Elissa Krockett and Sierra Boyea, all of Plattsburgh.
This year, Gleich was joined by guest choreographer Molly Faulkner, who filled in when guest choreographer Ernesta Corvino was forced to cancel. Faulkner is on the Faculty of Dance at Palomar College and recently completed her doctoral thesis in dance history.
Objects and Ideas: Emerging artists on display at North Country Cultural Center
by Robin Caudell
Press-Republican, Out & About – January 13-20, 2005
“Metaphor in Structure” features the paintings of James Juron, sculptures of James Ryan and video installation of Ryan J. Wilson at the North Country Cultural Center for the Arts in Plattsburgh.
The show is presented in collaboration with Norte Maar of Rouses Point.
“Plattsburgh has great support for students and young artists and great support for senior and retired people,” said Jason Andrew of Norte Maar.
“As far as emerging artists, I don’t think there is in place an organization that can catch these artists before they fall off.
“Plattsburgh State University is such a fabulous art school. It seems ridiculous that the community doesn’t want to tap into that and hold on to that.”
Norte Maar helps artists such as Juron, Ryan and Wilson to segue from academia to exhibiting and talking about their works at galleries.
“These artists are very passionate about what they are doing and are willing to sacrifice for their arts,” Andrew said.
“And along those same lines, they are not willing to compromise artistically.”
Though James Juron pays homage to the old masters, particularly Rembrandt and Caravaggio, he brings a 21st-century aesthetic to his many-layered paintings – “The Gate,” “The Cage” and “The Temple,” which are from a series that explores a figure walking through architectural spaces.
“I’m using the look of the old masters but they’re (paintings) not narrative,” said Juron, who majored in art at Plattsburgh State.
“They’re totally ambiguous going against what an old master painting really was with all these points of meaning. I’m much more ambiguous.”
Juron responds visually to certain light and architecture.
In his statement, he writes:
“My work has no fixed meaning or identity. The works neither represent an actual space nor an imagined one. They are a combination of the psychological and observed, operating as a form of primary writing. I do not consider my work to be a language.
As a primary writing the works have the ability to exceed linguistic constraints. There is no relation to the spoken word, no text that they narrate. They activate silence and operate visually within it.”
“Hand Over Hand Climbing Up a Rope On Fire” is one of James Ryan’s sculptural-energized forms.
“There is something happening in the piece as you look at it,” Ryan said.
In Ryan’s works, there is always a condensed force, tension, within.
“Working in this manner, I give myself a problem to solve. I wanted to find a way to harness the energy and bend those beams.”
In the “Blanket of Blind Faith,” an angle-iron arch houses a hand-dyed, dark gray curtain that visually and conceptually divides the space.
“Which is why faith is in the title,” Ryan said.
“It’s a spiritual thing that happens between people and belief. You never see it whatever it is. You never meet someone but they exist kind of thing.”
In his artist statement, Ryan writes:
“The structure of my process explores the nature of my chosen materials and the level of my personal response to their inherent characteristics. The strength of connections, such as that of threads on a bolt, or a weld fastening two pieces of steel together, plays a very important role in the construction of my art.”
Ryan J. Wilson’s “Oil is Blood” video installation is ironically placed in the former Merchant’s Bank walk-in vault inside the center. In 1922, it was the largest vault north of Albany.
“I noticed the vault every time I went in there,” Wilson said.
“It is a perfect place for a video installation. Instantly, I thought of this footage for it, for the unrealistic sense of values… just over the top, imaginary portrayal of this unrealistic world of endless oil supply in America.”
Wilson acquired and deconstructed this mid-20th century film footage, “Oil is Blood” from the National Archives Records Administration in College Park, Md.
“It seems to be an educational film, something they showed in schools,” Wilson said.
“The point of it is America had this wealth of oil supply, and we were ahead of the rest of the world and we were self sufficient.
“What captivated me about it is how extraordinarily ironic it was put in today’s context.”
About the installation, Wilson writes:
“As a result of naturally increasing public knowledge of environmental issues and incredible globalization of international politics, today’s world is one of highly sensitive environmental issues and complex international affairs.
“Oil is a resource of such influential value that suspicions of greed and appropriation accompany any news of the subject.
“It’s a much different world that the early twentieth century, when oil was a miraculous natural resource that promised a better tomorrow with countless uses.”
Metaphor in Structure
by Jason Andrew
Lake Champlain Weekly – January 12, 2005
The great Surrealist’s of the modern era placed, above all, emphasis on two fundamental principles: first, the act of creating art with little or no external influence or control; and second, the premise “beautiful as the chance encounter of a sewing machine and an umbrella on a dissecting table.” André Breton in his First Surrealist Manifesto, (1924) defined Surrealism: “as pure psychic automatism, through which we express the actual functioning of thought.” During this time the use of metaphor became a calculated ingredient necessary to complete the dreamlike works of Miró, Ernst, Delvaux, Magritte, and Dalí. These artists considered themselves representatives of a new frame of mind, and while their ideas were heavily influenced by psychoanalysis, their challenging aesthetic forever affected the way artists made art and the public experienced it.
Today, in the era of modern post-modernism where aesthetics and ‘principals of art’ have been tirelessly confronted and endlessly disputed, it is refreshing to find artists that continue to use metaphor as a way to retain spontaneity and uniqueness.
Opening 15 January at the North Country Cultural Center for the Arts is an exhibition titled “Metaphor in Structure.” The exhibition, organized by Norte Maar for Collaborative Projects in the Arts features the recent work of three of Plattsburgh’s most promising emerging artists: James Juron, James Ryan, and Ryan J. Wilson.
Not unlike the early surrealist these three local artists, through separate modes of expression, make accessible through their art the realms of the oneiric, the unconscious, irrational, and imaginary: for Juron it is paint, for Ryan it is sculpture, and for Wilson it is video. Each artist in his own way reference symbols, play with allegories, and channel myths to create personal notations–illusions of the world–furthering insight into the human psyche and offering comparisons to the physical world. Their work is representative of unique minds, skilled hands, and experienced eyes, yet each has a similar theme: their allusion to metaphor.
OF THE PSYCHOLGICAL: paintings by James Juron.
Painter James Juron grew up in Troy, NY, and is a recent graduate from the painting school at SUNY Plattsburgh. Juron’s dark paintings elicit an inner light that plays on the psychological depictions of emotional states of being: hope, despair, grace, and absence. Juron paints figures straddled by architecture, and while it may seem at times that the towering walls of a familiar place may over power the composition, Juron’s single figure stands heroic anchored by their physical presence and a dense cast shadow.
“They are a combination of the psychological and the observed,” Juron says of his paintings. “They activate silence and operate visually within it. The works are inscriptions created by a process of symbolic physical gestures that become shapes and forms.”
Juron’s paintings have the technical prowess of that of the masters with compositions built layer upon layer, thin glaze upon thin glaze. However, and more importantly, it is his comparison to the metaphysical works of de Chirico that makes his paintings so successful.
OF THE PHYSICAL: sculpture by James Juron
If Juron’s pictures address the psychological, James Ryan’s sculptures drum in the physical. Ryan is from Massena, NY, and a recent graduate from the sculpture school at SUNY Plattsburgh. This last summer he interned at the Franconia Sculpture Park, Shafer, MN. His sculptures, mostly made of steel, play on our perception of materials, questioning their purpose, their attributes, their abilities, their strengths, and their weaknesses. A gifted sculptor, Ryan has an innate ability to create works that reflect a correlation of elements: a balance of the inner and outer structures, formal and spatial tensions, stability and movement. Not so unlike the architectonic works of the Constructivist Gabo, Tatlin, and Rodchenko, Ryan’s sculptures are sentinels of abstract, rhythmic patterns. Masculine, and at times cold these non-representational works metaphorically portray elements of tension and potential.
“The strongest feelings I have about my work are linked to its reality and sense of urgency,” Ryan states, “Developing ideas through form and process provides a constant challenge to me as an artist. When dealing with weight, mass, tension and assembly there are many basic, but very related elements that must always be considered.”
OF TIME AND PLACE: video by Ryan J. Wilson
Capturing and conveying time and place has been an ongoing pursuit of artists throughout history. As new technologies develop artists have adapted their palettes to incorporate these new forms of expression. One such genre is video art.
The popularization of television in the 1960’s elevated the electronic monitor to a new role of a visual mediator. Artist adopted television and video to transport the viewer to a new level of perception, time, and place.
Video artist Ryan J. Wilson has created a video called “Oil is Blood” that be the focus of his installation located in the security safe at the North Country Cultural Center for the Arts. Wilson studied at Munson Williams Proctor Institute and received a BFA from Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD in 2001. He lived in New York City from 2001 to 2003, and currently lives in his hometown of Peru, NY. Wilson’s videos have been featured at the Brooklyn Underground Film Festival, and most recently Wilson collaborated with Norte Maar and the City of Plattsburgh to create LAN SAT–a public projection on the MacDonough Monument which was featured during the 2004 Mayor’s Cup.
Wilson has made a trait of researching the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) for footage for his videos—a process not so unlike a reclamation by Duchamp (The National Archives provides access to materials that were created using federal funding; therefore, the footage remains free of copyright restrictions and available to all United States citizens). For this project Wilson has reversed his usual process of seamlessly “re-editing” footage and has deconstructed an educational film “Oil is Blood” made in the 1940’s to create a installation that emphasizes the original film’s irrational logic. The footage displays images of a self-sufficient nation with an abundant supply of oil and a promising future. Wilson, using the safe as a catalyst, raises the questions of value and expense.
“Due to years of being the greatest consumers in the world, Americans collectively have come to believe in limitless supply and personally have lost a realistic sense of worth,” Wilson explains. “With this installation I hope to raise questions in the minds of viewers, creating more thought toward the effect of personal habits on the collective image of a nation, particularly when dealing with value, expense and consumption.”
ART THAT CHALLENGES:
There is no greater responsibility of that of an artist than to create work that challenges. Juron, Ryan, and Wilson are well-informed artists each attuned to his individual voice. Their work, like all great artists, poses questions ever so relevant to our time: Juron challenges us psychologically to find hope in a desperate world; Ryan challenges us physically to relate to posed tensions and stretched potential; and for Wilson, time and place take on a new interpretation as images that were once perceived as truth are readdressed.
Metaphor in Structure, January 15 –February 5 at North Country Cultural Center for the Arts, 30 Brinkerhoff Street, Plattsburgh. Exhibition opens with a reception for the artist January 15, 5:00-7:00 pm. An informal talk with the artists will begin at 4:00 pm. Call (518) 563-1604 for more information or visit www,nortemaar.org.
Press-Republican, December 2nd, 2004
By Robin Caudell
ROUSES POINT — “Nureyev; The Ropes of Time” is a timeless exhibition of the great Russian-born ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev.
Norte Maar for the Collaborative Projects in the Arts presents 24 black-and-white photographs featuring Nureyev performing as “The Traveler,” his starring role in the ballet expressly choreographed for him by Rudy van Dantzig, artistic director of the Dutch National Ballet.
London’s Royal Ballet premiered “The Ropes of Time” on March 2, 1970 at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
The Norte Maar exhibition images were taken by photographers Leslie E. Spatt, Fredericka Davis, Edward Griffiths and Louis Peres.
They were all invited to the same dress rehearsal by the Royal Ballet to photograph Nureyev and the cast of “Life” (Diana Vere) and “Death” (Monica Mason) and a corps of dancers.
“The images come from different sources,” said Jason Andrew of the Rouses Point-based Norte Maar.
“They are press photographs.”
The reverse of some of the images have notes and photographers’ stamps. Andrew purchased two images in a portfolio sold to him on a New York city street for $5.
“The main purpose of the exhibition is education,” Andrew said.
“I was able to put together a cohesive of this one singular ballet that was made for Nureyev. It’s taken awhile to put all these photographs together, maybe 15 years. Four are from a collection in London. Six are from a collection in New York City. I have 14.”
Besides being the first full-scale ballet choreographed for Nureyev, it was the first Royal Ballet production with an electronic-music score by composer Gyorgi Ligeti. Toer van Schayk designed the costumes and futuristic set.
The exhibition features an original program on loan from LABAN Library and Archives in London.
The program contains this quote by English dance critic Richard Buckle:
“Every journey we make is an adventure into the unknown; each arrival a birth and each departure a death.”
An October opening gala was held to benefit the AIDS Council of Northeastern New York. Those in attendance included many who had the chance to see Nureyev dance before he died of AIDS in 1993.
“Of all the ballet dancers classically trained, Nureyev was able to show emotion in so many ways,” Andrew said.
“He would simply open his mouth. He’s famous for flaring his nostrils. Classical purists found that sort of expression grotesque. It doesn’t really fit the aesthetics.”
Long after “The Ropes of Time” images were first snapped, Nureyev emotes uncertainty, hope, joy and despair.
“I never got the chance to see him dance. I’ve seen a lot of the footage. It’s nice to have those images.”
Besides the prints, the exhibition features a blue-and-red lithograph of Nureyev by Andy Warhol.
Lester Persky hosted a party at Warhol’s factory for the 50 “Most Beautiful Poeple” in the spring of 1965.
The most beautiful who showed up included Nureyev, William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Tennessee Williams and Judy Garland.
“The lithographs are very indicative of Andy Warhol’s period of working at the factory and his quest to photograph and capture images of superstars, as he called them,” Andrew said.
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