Book Launch Parties for John Russell’s anthology Frozen Tears III

The third volume in the Frozen Tears series presented by John Russell is launching soon, over 900 pages of cutting-edge works by writers and artists including:

Dennis Cooper, Damien Hirst, Stewart Home, Stephen Barber, Paul Buck, Jesse Bransford, Kristen Alvanson, CCRU/Orphan Drift, Reza Negarestani, John Cussans, Patricia McCormack, Enrico David, Andrea Mason, Hillary Raphael, D. Harlan Wilson, Lorenzo De Los Angeles III, Kevin Killian, Cedar Lewisohn, Casey McKinney, Neil Mulholland, Paul Noble, Kenji Siratori, John Espinosa, Jeffrey Vallance and more...

If you happen to be in LONDON, NEW YORK, SAN FRANCISO or DEATH VALLEY(?) don’t miss these book happenings...

LONDON: Thursday May 31st 7-9pm - at Koenig Books, 80 Charing Cross Road – readings/performances by Paul Buck, NO BRA, Stewart Home, Cedar Lewisohn and Andrea Mason.

NEW YORK: 21 June - starting with launch at Dexter Sinister bookshop (38 Ludlow Street) - then moving to the 205 Bar on Lower East Side where Frozen Tears III will be the focus of the first of a series of new monthly events called ‘Vs’ curated by Mark Beasley for Creative Time - http://www.creativetime.org.

SAN FRANCISCO: July (date tba) at SF Camerawork - with readings/performances by Donal Mosher and Kevin Killian.DEATH VALLEY: tba

For more information visit: http://www.frozentears.co.uk/

Immaterial Art and Treasures of Indulgences

SPACE (Juraj Carny, Diana Majdakova and Lydia Pribisova) and Cesare Pietroiusti have created Evolution de l’Art, a gallery for contemporary art which only sells artworks that are immaterial, with no physical residue, and it does not release certificates of authenticity, nor statements or receipts. Evolution de l’Art is representing, on a non-exclusive basis, artists whose artwork is, at least in the case of some specific projects, alien from any physical-material component. There are no other limitations or requisites for represented artists in terms of medium or technique. Purchases can be made at the headquarters of the gallery (Lazaretska 9, Bratislava) or through their website.

The immaterial art I have created to date has included receipts of sorts (dESIRE) and certificates (Dreams) to document the art. So I was interested in the fact that Evolution de l’Art decided not to include a physical ‘item’ associated with the sale of an intangible piece of art. I thought I’d like to create something for the gallery, so I decided to offer my 'Days in Iran for Sale' at $100 per day.
The idea of immaterial art is identical to the medieval history of the Catholic Church and Christian papal theology in regard to indulgences. It was only during this time that Johann Tetzel, the father of intangible art, could embed his outlandish artistic projects with the abstruse foundations of Christian theology and reading of scriptures. Pieces of lands from heaven and post-mortem years of purgatory were sold, documented with the names of buyers and systematically archived. This is this highest state of intangible art – trading and investing in the celestial dominions. Since in Catholic theology the human is a reeking infinity of sins and heaven is a boundless piece of land, the potentiality of artistic creativities of such intangible trades is limitless.
Check the gallery website for more information: Evolution de l’Art

Adding to the Mental Contagion

Mental Contagion is an arts and literature Internet magazine published on a monthly basis fittingly named after Exquisite Corpse— "Le cadavre exquis boira le vin nouveau” — a technique developed during the surrealist movement and is based on a parlor game. Seeing only a small segment of what a previous person draws, collaborators add to a composition in progress to create a strange and often ridiculous image. Preceding these visual "mash-ups" or what some have referred to as "intellectual MadLIbs" was a literary technique, prompting each contributor to add a phrase, seeing only a segment of the previous phrase. Surrealist poet and art historian Nicolas Calas said that the completed work revealed the "unconscious reality in the personality of the group." Often, similar themes and images would appear in the completed compositions, and this is what visual artist Max Ernst referred to as a "Mental Contagion.”

For my addition to mix, you can see May’s issue where they have featured my work in the Exhibitionist section
http://www.mentalcontagion.com/index.html