January 27th 2012 and Final Night- Things Not Seen Before 2/4/2012

January 27th 2012- Outer wall of adjacent building to Tempus Projects acts as a screen for the projection of a live feed on the inside of the gallery space. This projection was a part of the 16mm film performance by Robbie Land(http://robbieland.net/) and caught here in the live feed curator Jade Dellinger speaks to artist Christian Marclay as he takes him through the exhibition. Robbie Land's set up can be seen in the upper left of the projection.

Artist/DJ Brian Taylor with Emil Schult and Christian Marclay during the January 27th event.( Image used with the permission of Ann-Eliza Musoke Taylor). Brian Taylor AKA DJ Brian Oblivion also added his signature to the Jan 27th evening with video and good old Disc Jockeying.

On February 4th 2012 the closing for Things Not Seen Before was presented to the public. From 7PM to 9PM performers executed interpretive compositions that focused on the exhibition. This project called "Wall Music" was a collaboration between Tempus Projects and the University of South Florida's School of Music Composition. It also featured a final composition by Ray Villadonga who is a Tampa based composer and the radio host of "Step Outside" (a WMNF weekly broadcast focused on experimental music).

The pieces created by students of music composition began promptly at 7pm with works broadly designed in instrumentation and approach. Some of the music was created with the combination of classical instruments and recorded sounds, some seemed more controlled and some quite cryptic ( like when four people stood in a tight ring with cell phone messages played audibly between each other)
Composers Susanna Hancock, Jeff Jackson, Evan Loyd, Scott Moore, Nate Corder, Armando Ayala, Pat Duke, Ekaterina Capatides/Vincent Euliano/Clayton Prather, Aaron Hutcheson, Marissa DiPronio and Aaron Lepley were the creators of the sound environment that a spectator found themselves in during the first hour and forty minutes of the evening.

Then came the final composition by Ray "rayzilla" Villadonga. This work included some of the most experimental and respected composers/musicians in the Tampa Bay area. Ray enlisted the cooperation of Tampa based composer Robert C. Constable Jr., Tampa based composer Paul Reller, musician James L. Hall, and musician LaRue Nichelson.
Robert C. Constable Jr. Conducts the composition "4X1 for Cage(A Quartet in Homage to John Cage)" with precision and grace!
Paul Reller performs with iPad and some vocals.

James L. Hall on bass trombone
Composer of "4X1 for Cage" Ray Villadonga on electric bass guitar. LaRue Nichelson also contributed electric guitar and some recorded sound.

Things not Seen Before

On January 14th Things Not Seen Before: A Tribute to John Cage opened at Tempus Projects in Tampa-

TAMPA, FL - In celebration of the 2012 centenary of experimental composer John Cage’s birth, Tempus Projects is proud to present “Things Not Seen Before: A Tribute to John Cage” a visual art exhibition organized by Independent Curator Jade Dellinger. Inspired by a line from a letter the curator (as a student – in the late 1980’s) received from the late, great composer concerning the work of Marcel Duchamp, Cage noted: “I am not interested in the names of movements but rather in seeing and making things not seen before.”

Presented in conjunction with “John Cage’s 33-1/3 – Performed by Audience” at the Tampa Museum of Art (also curated by Dellinger), “Things Not Seen Before” at Tempus Projects will premiere several vintage original artworks by John Cage – including a “Strings” series monotype, unique trial proof lithographs from his “Mushroom Book” (like those in the Permanent Collection of MoMA/New York), and mesostic manuscript pages for “Empty Words” that have never been previously exhibited.

Site-specific artworks by prominent local artists Joe Griffith and painter Theo Wujcik (who had the opportunity to photograph John Cage on a rare visit to Tampa) will be included with John Cage-related or –inspired video, sculptural objects, drawings and scores by Fluxus pioneers like Nam June Paik, Philip Corner, Giuseppe Chiari and Milan Knizak. Numerous other Cage collaborators, friends and acquaintances including Performance artist Laurie Anderson, ex-Talking Heads frontman David Byrne, The Art Guys, Christina Kubisch, Stephen Vitiello, Andrew Deutsch, Keith Edmier, Emil Schult of Kraftwerk-fame, filmmaker Roberta Friedman, Sonic Youth’s Lee Ranaldo and winner of the Golden Lion for Best Artist in the 2011 Venice Biennale, Christian Marclay will be featured and/or contributing “things not seen before” for the show at Tempus Projects.

According to Jade Dellinger, “The artworks will be positioned on the gallery walls by utilizing John Cage’s own (rather unorthodox) chance operations-based installation method, and, as several of the works on paper serve a dual-function as ‘graphic scores’, there remains the potential for musical interpretation of the artworks on exhibit. ” As the curator continues, “As his own practice made abundantly clear, I believe John Cage would have appreciated our modest tribute and this potential for 'things not heard before' too.”

Additionally, we are very grateful to Laura Kuhn, Executive Director of The John Cage Trust at Bard College, for her enthusiasm and support of both “Things Not Seen Before: A Tribute to John Cage” at Tempus Projects and “John Cage’s 33-1/3 – Performed by Audience” at the Tampa Museum of Art.

Additional special programing including musical preformances and works from Robbie Land at TEMPUS PROJECTS: TBA

For more information about the exhibition, please contact Jade Dellinger at Artsites@aol.com . For hours, directions or inquiries about Tempus Projects call or email Tracy Midulla Reller at 813.340.9056 or tempusprojects.art@gmail.com .

For more about the 2012 John Cage Centennial celebrations worldwide, please visit the official website of The John Cage Trust at JohnCage.org.

About the CURATOR:

Jade Dellinger is an Independent Curator collaborating regularly with the Contemporary Art Museum at the University of South Florida and the Tampa Museum of Art. In 1994, he invited artist Doug Aitken to present his first site-specific video installation "I'd Die for You" at the Pasco Art Center in Holiday, Florida. He curated Maurizio Cattelan’s U.S. museum debut "Choose Your Destination: How to Get a Museum-Paid Vacation" in 1995, and organized the collaborative "Keith Edmier & Evel Knievel" project in 1997 at the USF CAM. With USF CAM Director Margaret Miller, Dellinger co-curated "[re]mediation: The Digital in Contemporary American Printmaking" (the official U.S. participation in the 22nd International Biennal of Graphic Art in Ljubljana, Slovenia). In the interim, Dellinger has curated major solo museum shows for Allan McCollum, Lucy Orta, Atelier Van Lieshout, Carlos Amorales, Janaina Tschäpe, Keith Haring, Ann Hamilton & Andrew Deutsch, The Art Guys and others. He has contributed to numerous exhibition catalogues and publications including Flash Art International, Art Papers, Art Lies, Guitar Aficionado and Maurizio Cattelan’s Permanent Food, and co-authored the book, Are We Not Men? We Are DEVO! (SAF Publishing Ltd./UK, 2003/2008), which traces the history of the seminal 1980s New Wave band.

So goes the press release. This exhibition represents a small step for Jade Dellinger, who has been thoughtfully collecting/researching objects and art that blur the boundaries between sonic and visual art for years, and one giant leap for Tempus Projects. Here are a few images from the opening of the exhibition with a bit of commentary.

Installation view with Andrew Duetch's video array in the foreground and Christian Marclay's Wind Up Guitar in the background mounted to the wall.

The videos shown here are the same but being played out of sinc. The image is of John Cage reading some of his mesostic scripts with strange drawings/manipulations happening throughout the video. This work was a collaboration between Andrew Duetch and Cage that was first shown in the exhibition "Polyvectral Extentions" at the Florida Gulf Coast University Art Galleries in 2011.

The Wind Up Guitar by Christian Marclay. This is the same instrument (1 of 5 in existence) that was performed with during Marclay's incredible exhibition at The Witney Museum in NY,NY. You can see a youtube clip of Thurston Moore performing on this instrument at - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgBzmXC8wnc

More images of the opening event. The artworks in this exhibition are so varied and historically significant that all I can suggest is that people get to Tempus projects before it comes down. There is programming through the run of the show including an event on January 27th and a closing event on February 4th both nights begin at 7pm.

My contribution to the exhibition is this sculpture and drawing that functions as a game of chance called "The Fungus Garden of Every Possibility" which I will dedicate a blog entry to in coming days.

New Year new sketchbook

2012 has arrived and a new sketchbook has begun. For the last 20 years or more I have kept a sketch journal with meticulous attention to dating every page. The only gap is the sketch book that was stolen from my truck in Houston TX in 2001 after an opening reception at Diverseworks (along with all my tools, my partner's cameras, and even the candy in the coin holder under the dash) Above is an image of a shelf in my "storage studio" showing many of these books. I thought to start out the new year with a few pages from the last sketch book.
Many of the pages are dedicated to experimenting with color overlays for paintings I am currently working on- like the page above.
The book is also filled with poetic imagery like the page above. During my commutes to Orlando this year I decided to keep myself awake while driving by doing blind drawings of faces, buildings and dreams. Below are two examples of such drawings. I really like them in that they have no control- they are sort of like acid drawings.

The last sketch book was a normal lined composition book just like the two sketch books before it ( most of the books are in blank "art" sketchbooks but lately I have been less precious about them) This sketch book also has a few contributions from artist Spanky Hudas done in an Orlando bar while we visited.

Xin Worm T-shirts

Two examples of Xin Worm T-shirts modified for the individuals who purchased them.
These works were done at Tempus Projects Mixed Tape and T's show December 9th, 2011
There will soon be a symbol chart at www.cryptovisual.com so that Xin Worm members can reference the identity shirts.

Tonight! Xin Worm T-shirts customized at Tempus Projects

Tonight 12/9/2011 Xin Worm identity T-shirts will be customized for anyone who purchases one from Tempus Projects from 7pm -10pm. This event is rare and has only happened annually up to this point. T-shirts bear the Xin Worm Identity Logo and are customized with a group of Xin Worm symbols based on the individual's orientation in relation to the "art world". Xin Worm is a superimposed cultural construct ( like a cult ) which focuses on the social activities surrounding visual art events. Xin Worm also places the Xin Worm individual in a meditative position which requires the individual to understand themselves as a parasitic presence in a larger body. Xin has been described by one cultural luminary as "Like Zen only stupider".

Contemplating Satan's Power

Tonight the Mixed Tape Show opens at Tempus Projects in Tampa, Florida.
I have contributed a tape that is a meditation on the nature of evil.
Every dub sold will have an original drawing based on the composition that appears on the displayed tape and the mixed dub with 17 tracks of music and mayhem.


Contemplating Satan's Power- acrylic ink drawing, audio cassette and audio cassette case covered in sulfur.

Found! Toilet sketch from 15 years ago.

This sketch was shoved into a book in my library as a marker. I have decided to post a sketch every so often from a book, found scrap of paper or whatever- just because this one made me smile.