Protocol Architecture - Design for the Speculative Future

I had fun judging Protocol Architecture's [Recovering Berlin] competition. For more information on the competition and the entries check here: http://protocolarchitecture.wordpress.com/ Also check back soon for the announcement of the winning entries.

Protocol Architecture is a group of researchers, artists and architects based in New York City that investigates potentials for future design through the creation and analysis of hyper-fictional documents. These document sets create evidence for future scenarios that string together a specific history of political, social and technological developments.

A discussion at Columbia University GSAPP with Mark Collins of Proxy, Geoff Manaugh of BLDGBLOG and Ed Keller of aum took place to discuss the [Recovering Berlin] entries and remote responses were posted on the site.

List of Jurors:
Kristen Alvanson, artist
Juan Azulay, Matter Management
David Benjamin, The Living
Mark Collins, Proxy
Eric Ellingsen, Species of Space and Olafur Eliasson Workshop
Bradley Horn, CCNY
Ed Keller, a|Um
Jamie Kruse, smudge studio
Geoff Manaugh, BLDGBLOG
Reza Negarestani, author of Cyclonopedia
Michael Rotondi, RoTo Architects
Roland Snooks, Kokkugia

Images of Spell Chador no. 98 in Repurposes exhibition

Repurposes

One of my Spell Chadors is in Repurposes. Repurposes is an exhibition representing themes of reexamination and reengagement of personal and public convictions. In a time of historic change and challenge—politically, economically, technologically—how do we remake our world and ourselves? The exhibition presents 31 artists working in a variety of media—collage, sculpture, video, web, artist books, graphic design, assemblage, and more—from the U.S., U.K., Italy, Germany, Iran, and Spain. Curated by Kenneth FitzGerald, Associate Professor of Art, Old Dominion University, and Garland Kirkpatrick, Associate Professor of Art, Loyola Marymount University. A joint project of Ephemeral States and Helvetica Jones.
 

 Baron and Ellin Gordon Galleries at Old Dominion University

4509 Monarch Way, Norfolk, VA

Saturday, March 20 through Sunday, April 18, 2010 (Opening reception: Saturday, March 20 7-9pm)

Cosmic Drapery Flag Update

An appliqué from Flag 5 of the Cosmic Drapery Flag project.

To date 109 women from Iran have added their own appliqués to six Cosmic Drapery Flags. For more images and information on this project check here: http://cosmicdraperyflags.blogspot.com/ and http://www.kristenalvanson.com/new/drapery-flags.html.

Collapse VI: Geo/philosophy

The new issue of Collapse is now available. I have a couple photos in the issue which accompany Nicola Masciandaro's 'Becoming Spice: Commentary as Geophilosophy' essay.

Contributors to the volume include: Charles Avery, Angela Detanico and Rafael Lain, Stephen Emmott, Owen Hatherley, F I E L D C L U B, Iain Hamilton Grant, Renée Green, Gilles Grelet, Manabrata Guha, Nicola Masciandaro, Timothy Morton, Greg McInerny, Robin Mackay, Reza Negarestani, Drew Purves, F.W.J. Schelling, Eyal Weizman, Rich Williams.

Following Collapse V's inquiry into the legacy of Copernicus' deposing of Earth from its central position in the cosmos, Collapse VI: Geo/philosophy poses the question: How should we understand the historical and contemporary bond between philosophical thought and its terrestrial support?

Collapse VI: Geo/philosophy begins with the provisional premise that the Earth does not square elements of thought but rather rounds them up into a continuous spatial and geographical horizon. Geophilosophy is thus not necessarily the philosophy of the earth as a round object of thought but rather the philosophy of all that can be rounded as an (or the) earth. But in that case, what is the connection between the empirical earth, the contingent material support of human thinking, and the abstract 'world' that is the condition for a 'whole' of thought?

Urgent contemporary concerns introduce new dimensions to this problem: The complicity of Capitalism and Science concomitant with the nomadic remobilization of global Capital has caused mutations in the field of the territorial, shifting and scrambling the determinations that subtended modern conceptions of the nation-state and territorial formations. And scientific predictions present us with the possibility of a planet contemplating itself without humans, or of an abyssal cosmos that abides without Earth - these are the vectors of relative and absolute deterritorialization which nourish the twenty-first century apocalyptic imagination. Obviously, no geophilosophy can remain oblivious to the unilateral nature of such un-earthing processes. Furthermore, the rise of so-called rogue states which sabotage their own territorial formation in order to militantly withstand the proliferation of global capitalism calls for an extensive renegotiation of geophilosophical concepts in regard to territorializing forces and the State. Can traditions of geophilosophical thought provide an analysis that escapes the often flawed, sentimental or cryptoreligious fashions in which popular discourse casts these catastrophic developments?

Continuing to combine and connect work from different disciplines and perspectives in innovative ways, this new volume of Collapse brings together philosophers, theorists, eco-critics, leading scientific experts in climate change, and artists whose work interrogates the link between philosophical thought, geography and cartography. This multiplicity of engagements makes Collapse VI a philosophically-rich yet accessible examination of the present state of 'planetary thought'.

Visit Collapse's website at www.urbanomic.com to purchase a copy. A PDF preview of the editorial introduction to the volume is also available on the website.

dESIRE Update

dESIRE #003100

Recent sales and a trade bring the price of one unit of desire (100 intangible desires and their photographic representations) up from $200 to $500. The last increase was in October 2008 when the price was raised from $125 to $200 due to global inflation and demand. There are still units available and I can always make more ;)

For more information on the dESIRE Project, please check here:

http://www.kristenalvanson.com/new/market.html

2009 Incheon Women Artists’ Biennale

I participated in the Women Artists’ Archive Project for 2009 Incheon Women Artists’ Biennale, Incheon, Korea in August. For more information about the Biennale, check here: http://iwabiennale.org/2009_new/eng/main/main.php

Or here: http://www.brooklynrail.org/2009/09/artseen/2009-incheon-women-artists-biennale

Vilnius Update

Images from the 5th International Artist’s Book Triennial Vilnius 2009 in Vilnius, Lithuania

The triennial includes 132 works of artists from 34 countries around the world including Jordan, Pakistan, Iran, Mexico, Cuba, Singapore, Iceland, South Africa, Canada and others.

A hand-binded catalogue has been created in an addition of 500 (all catalogues are numbered).

My spell text book

Kestutis Vasiliunas' Pr 32,29 book behind spell book

Wakilur Rahman's book (Bangladesh)

For more information check here: http://www.bernardinai.lt/index.php?url=articles%2F95034

5th International Artist’s Book Triennial Vilnius 2009

Gallery "Arka", Vilnius, Lithuania
April 30 – May 16, 2009 

Opening of the exhibition will take place on April 30th 2009, 6 p.m.

Gallery "Arka", Vilnius
Ausros vartu Str. 7, LT–01129
Vilnius, Lithuania

My Text Spell Book is included in the 5th International Artist's Book Triennial Vilnius 2009, the theme of which is “Text”. The Book Triennial will be on exhibit in multiple countries throughout 2009. The first showing was held at the Leipzig Book Fair in March.

1st International Roaming Biennial of Tehran: BELGRADE

The 1st International Roaming Biennial of Tehran's next stop is Belgrade:

URBAN JEALOUSY IN BELGRADE 

3-10 APRIL 2009 
Urban Jealousy 
the 1st International Roaming Biennial of Tehran
3rd station: Belgrade, 3rd -10th of April 2009
Curated by Serhat Koksal and Amirali Ghasemi 
Belgrade Contact : Isidora Krstic

For more information check here: http://www.biennialtehran.com/

Exhibition in Leipzig Book Fair

My Text Spell Book will be included in the 5th International Artist's Book Triennial Vilnius 2009, the theme of which will be “Text”.

The Book Triennial will be on exhibit in multiple countries throughout 2009. The first exhibition will be launched at:

5th International Artist's Book Triennial Vilnius 2009

Exhibition in Leipzig Book Fair

12-15 of March, 2009

Iakh - Internationale Ausstellung für Künstlerbücher und Handpressendrucke

HALLE 3, H 501

Leipzig, Germany 

Then it continues on to Vilnius, Lithuania in April (more info to follow).

ITCH MAGAZINE

The third issue of ITCH Magazine, addressing and exploring the $ symbol, is now out. Itch is a South African born online/offline periodical. 

I have a short photo-text sequence in the issue on what you can buy in Iran for a dollar. You can check it out here:  http://www.itch.co.za/?article=102

New Humanist Issue 124 is now available

My photos accompany an article on Iran entitled ‘Before the Dawn’ by Nasrin Alavi in the current issue of New Humanist (issue 124 Jan/Feb 2009). Issue includes:

Editorial: Fine Lessons

Funny how atheists enjoying themselves can be so threatening to believers

Cover Stories

Power Struggle

For decades, it was the scourge of the environmental movement. But now, discovers Angela Saini, the greens are going nuclear

Features

In the burning house

In 2005 Russian artist Anna Alchuk was publicly vilified and put on trial for her involvement in the Caution:Religion! exhibition. Three years later she drowned herself. Her husband, the philosopherMichail Ryklin, reads her diaries to find out why

Bad Faith Awards 2008

Following a tough campaign and a hard-fought election, we can finally announce last year's most scurrilous enemy of reason

Before the dawn

Thirty years after the revolution consumerism and political apathy dominate Iran. But a new generation may change that, says Nasrin Alavi

Days of atonement

Visiting Israel just weeks before the current Gaza conflict, Sally Feldman found that rising religious bigotry is one of the biggest barriers to peace 

Unsafe havens

The Government is planning tougher penalties for men who use trafficked prostitutes. But who is helping the women themselves? Rahila Gupta uncovers a distributing trend 

True disbelievers

Being faith-less is no excuse for rewriting history, says Theodore Dalrymple

Regulars

Endgame: One track mind

Laurie Taylor hopes he’s not a running joke

Diary: Trump cards

Our religions game seemed to annoy everyone. Result! says Christina Martin 

Culture

Darwin's journey

For poet Ruth Padel the 200th anniversary of the birth of the great scientist is more than a historical milestone, it’s a family celebration 

Book Reviews

The Weight of a Mustard Seed by Wendell Steavenson

Nina Power considers complicity in Iraq 

Three-Letter Plaque by Johnny Steinberg

Andrew Mueller enjoys some journalism with a human touch 

The Strangest Man by Graham Farmelo

James Randerson encounters a strange legend of physics

Teenagers: A Natural History by David Bainbridge

Bill Thompson gets down with the kids 

Once on a Moonless Night by Dai Sijie

Philip Womack barely survives the tedium of a new Chinese novel

The Artist, the Philosopher and the Warrior by Paul Strathern

Brenda Maddox enjoys some Renaissance history

Check out it out here: http://newhumanist.org.uk/1947

FACELESS MUSIC

Artist Jason Sweeney has made a 'silent film' of my flesh photos as part of his Faceless Music project. He is currently collating materials (recorded and/or written stories, sounds, noise, anecdotes, nightmares and confessionals about attempts at living a life online) and reworking them into an audio-museum project. The project is being assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council.

Check out Flesh Film here: http://ifnotforyouthenwho.blip.tv/#1629630

Serial Drapery

Please visit my Cosmic Drapery Flags Blog: http://cosmicdraperyflags.blogspot.com/

Cosmic Drapery Flags is part of a series of inter-connected works in my Cosmic Drapery Project. Cosmic Drapery Flags is a collective project in which numerous women participate in creating hanging flags (each 90 cm wide by 119 cm long) made of heavy black crepe-like fabric on which nomadic fabric is appliquéd on to both sides of the flag by means of stitchery. These appliqués and their emerging stitches turn the black fabric into an ultimate entity of syncretic drapery.

This blog has been created to document the flags' development -- track the flags, show updated embroidery work and profile some of the women who have participated in the project.

 
blütenweiss presents:

ANONYMOUS DRAWINGS #9

December 20 & 21, 2008

Opening: December 19th at 7 pm
Greeting: Sirgid Klebba

Opening hours: 12 - 7 pm
Kunstraum Kreuzberg / BethanienMariannenplatz 210997 Berlin, Germany tel.:0049(0)30/90298-1455U-Bahn Kottbusser Tor
more information:

www.bluetenweiss-berlin.de

1st International Roaming Biennial of Tehran Travels to Berlin

The Roaming Biennial of Tehran is headed to Berlin, check below for information on the various events related to the biennial:

The 1st International Roaming Biennial of Tehran, Berlin
20 Nov.2008 - 7 Dec. 2008
Urban Jealousy in Berlin

Openings and Opening Performances:

20 Nov. WEST GERMANY
Skalitzer Straße 133 10999 Berlin
Exhibition Opening: 7pm (Music performance Starts at 8pm)

SONATA REC ( audiovisual performance )
[-HYPH-] ( live electronics )
ERFAN ABDI ( sound art )
DJ KOSTULAH ( post punk/ussian garage /centralasia electro )
VJ GENTRIFISUAL ( Goodzilla VS Badzilla )
BALLGARD ( Tehrani Free Funk Rock Band )

21 Nov. NEWYORCK IN BETHENIEN
Mariannenplatz 2, 10997 Berlin

Performance by EMANUELE RODO ,MATTEO ROVESCIATO , DARIO FARIELLO ( Words ,Painting ,Sax, improvisation )
In front of bethanien Building at 5pm

Exhibition Opening: 7pm (Music performance Starts at 8pm)
UTKU TAVIL ( Audio Performance )
BIJAN MOUSAVI ( Acoustic rock )
GUDUBIK ( Experimental Dub Band )
KOSTJA PICUNDA 84 ( Cello and Electronics )
2/5 BZ ( Audio-gentrifisual Performance )
ARASH SALEHI aka THE11 ( Intelligent Techno / Bandar Beats )
BALLGARD ( Tehrani funk Rock band )
JUNKTION 'NASDIA' ( Dubstep to Orientalcore Dj Set)

22 nov. GALERIE WALLYWOODS
Kulturhaus Peter Edel, Berliner Allee 125, Weissensee, 13088 Berlin
Opening 6pm (music performance starts at 7pm)

BIJAN MOOSAVI/ARASH SALEHI/ERFAN ABDI (AV Performance )
JAVAD SAFARI / KAVEH KATEB (Electronic Folk ) + ARASH KHAKPOUR and FARID JAFARI (Visuals )
UGLY AMERICANS ( Wallywoods' Punk Funk )
BALLGARD ( Tehran Free Rock Band )
GUDUBIK ( Experimantal Dub Band )
FREE JAM Session with BIENNIAL TEHRAN BAND and Guests

23 nov. ICH ORYA
Oranienstraße 22 - 10999 Berlin
Opening:10 pm

BIENNIAL TEHRAN BAND (SUPRISE ACOUSTIC PERFORMANCE)
DJ NASE ( Kontra Oriental )

For more information on the Biennial check here: http://www.biennialtehran.com/

Umelec Magazine Issue 2/2008

Umelec Magazine has published a review entitled ‘Unfolding the Middle East: Kristen Alvanson’s Nonad’ (by Robin Mackay) on my ‘nonad’ exhibition in their current Issue 2/2008. Umelec is based in the Czech Republic and is published in English, German, Spanish and Czech.

Mackay begins, “In his 1998 book on Leibniz, philosopher Gilles Deleuze proposed the figure of ‘The Fold’ as a way in which a philosophy of immanence might measure the multiplicity of the uni­verse. If Being speaks in one voice, if we invoke no transcendent plane of organisation, then how can difference be articulated? Deleuze’s vision of folds-within-folds, which he discovers to be the reigning principle of the baroque, extends to labyrinthine structures enfolding infinite complexity (or implexity) without yielding to any form of transcendence. Kristen Alvanson, an American artist working in Iran, suggests that we read the Middle East, in all its obscurity, inscrutability and hybridity, in terms of such a topological model, as a fabric folded and refolded into a baffling surface where disparate elements abut unexpectedly and overlap each other in paradoxical fashion. Inversely, her recent work demonstrates how the multiple cultural codes at work in the region can be manifested through the folds of its fabrics…”

For more information on Umelec and where to purchase it check here: Umelec Magazine

For more information on work from my Cosmic Drapery Project, please visit a new section on my website which includes information on Nomadic Fabric Chadors, Spell Chadors, Cosmic Drapery Flags and Abjad-9. http://www.kristenalvanson.com/new/drapery.html

Pharmakon Library

Pharmakon Library
Created + Curated by Christina McPhee
The project is produced in association with Silverman Gallery, San Francisco.
NY Art Book Fair, October 23-26, 2008http://www.nyartbookfair.com

My work ‘Poison In/Poison Out’ will be included in Christina McPhee’s Pharmakon Library. Pharmakon Library is an ongoing series of graphic folios created and curated by Christina McPhee. The folios comprise a series of open works by artists who address, through image and/or text, the principle of critical reversability, or proximity of poison and cure. "Pharmakon" in Greek may mean antidote, recipe, poison, drug, spell, remedy, drug, talisman, gift and paint. Each folio consists of pigment jet archival prints by three artists. Each folio is produced as an edition of three. The scale of each folio images is 13 x 19 inches each (Super B). Print stock is Epson exhibition photographic paper and Niyodo washi; and printed with K13 Ultrachrome Epson pigment inks.

The project debut will occur at the New York Art Book Fair October 23-26, 2008, with the release of the initial folios in limited edition.

with invited contributions from artists
Kristen Alvanson, Bertien van Manen, Naeem Mohaiemen, Neal Robinson, Kevin Hamilton, Mickey Smith, Elin Lennox, Dave Iseri, and Christina McPhee.
set one: spell
Elin Lennox, Mickey Smith, Neal Robinson
set two: paint
Naeem Mohaiemen, Dave Iseri
set three: recipe
Bertien van Manen, Kevin Hamilton
set four: antidote
Kristen Alvanson, Christina McPhee

For more information check:pharmakon folio documentation pdf

click-through thumbnail index (images only)

dESIRE Update

dESIRE #003538


Due to global inflation and demand the price of one unit of desires has been increased from $125 to $200. The last increase was in March 2008 when the price was increased from $100 to $125.

For more information on my dESIRE Project, please check here: http://www.kristenalvanson.com/new/market.html

Specialten Magazine issue 22

Specialten the bi-monthly publication, has reprinted my 'Arbor Deformia' article and photography which first appeared in Collapse Vol. 4 in their new Issue 22. Along with my article, the magazine has also printed an interview on Collapse with editor Robin Mackay.

Issue 22 is the third of the hardback editions, contains a DVD disc of interviews, documentaries, art Installations, short films and music videos. This is accompanied by 56 full color pages containing text and photography relevant to the DVD. Each issue also contains a separate Ltd edition print commissioned by an artist. In this issue a Ltd. Edition Print by Irena Zablotska.

Issue 22 includes:
Bruce Webber - Film Interview
Yayoi Kusama - Documentary
Arbor Deformia – Collapse - Article
The Last Shadow Puppets - Film interview
First Place - Short Film
The Notwist - Music Video
Claire De Rouen
meet Micachu - Specialten Session
Ana Begins - Film Interview
Sigur Rós - Music Video
Fear{s} Of The Dark - Film Preview
Cut Copy - Music Video
Bon Iver - Music Video
The Object - Short Film
Blindness Of The Woods - Short Film
Closing Time - Documentary
Puppet Boy - Short Film
Drift - Short Film
and more...

For more information, check here: http://www.specialten.com/issues/22/Arbor_Deforma_Collapse.html.

CYCLONOPEDIA

CYCLONOPEDIA the theory-fiction work of the Iranian philosopher Reza Negarestani has just been released by re.press and is now available in bookstores and online. I have written the opening narration chapter and designed conceptual diagrams for the book. More information below…



"Incomparable. Post-genre horror, apocalypse theology and the philosophy of oil, crossbred into a new and necessary codex." – China Miéville, author of Perdido Street Station

"Reading Negarestani is like being converted to Islam by Salvador Dali." – Graham Harman, author of Guerrilla Metaphysics: Phenomenology and the Carpentry of Things

CYCLONOPEDIA is a theory-fiction by Iranian philosopher and writer Reza Negarestani. Hailed by novelists, philosophers and cinematographers, Negarestani's work is the first horror and science fiction book coming from and written on the Middle East.

"The Middle East is a sentient entity – it is alive!" concludes renegade Iranian archaeologist Dr. Hamid Parsani, before disappearing under mysterious circumstances. The disordered notes he leaves behind testify to an increasingly deranged preoccupation with oil as the lubricant of historical and political narratives.

A young American woman arrives in Istanbul to meet a pseudonymous online acquaintance who never arrives. Discovering a strange manuscript in her hotel room, she follows up its cryptic clues only to discover more plot-holes, and begins to wonder whether her friend was a fictional quantity all along.

Meanwhile, as the War on Terror escalates, the US is dragged into an asymmetrical engagement with occultures whose principles are ancient, obscure, and saturated in oil. It is as if war itself is feeding upon the warmachines, leveling cities into the desert, seducing the aggressors into the dark heart of oil ...

At once a horror fiction, a work of speculative theology, an atlas of demonology, a political samizdat and a philosophic grimoire, CYCLONOPEDIA is work of theory-fiction on the Middle East, where horror is restlessly heaped upon horror. Reza Negarestani bridges the appalling vistas of contemporary world politics and the War on Terror with the archaeologies of the Middle East and the natural history of the Earth itself. CYCLONOPEDIA is a middle-eastern Odyssey, populated by archeologists, jihadis, oil smugglers, Delta Force officers, heresiarchs, corpses of ancient gods and other puppets. The journey to the Underworld begins with petroleum basins and the rotting Sun, continuing along the tentacled pipelines of oil, and at last unfolding in the desert, where monotheism meets the Earth's tarry dreams of insurrection against the Sun.

For more information on the CYCLONOPEDIA, please visit: http://www.re-press.org/content/view/58/38/

KLEBNIKOV CARNAVAL August 17-24 2008 Belgium

There are only two days left to visit Grapes of Art and Vilt's KLEBNIKOV CARNAVAL.

Participating Artists and Writers:
Marko Niemi (Finland) - ZAUMACHINEDidi de Paris - spoken word/performance/voordracht (B)
Herlinda Vekemans (B)
Alain Delmotte (B)
Peter Holvoet-Hanssen (B)
TOX! the new collective consisting ofTine Moniek,(B)
Olaf Risee (NL)Xavier Roelens (B)
Lucas Hüsgen - voordracht (NL)
Maarten Inghels - voordracht (B)
Han van der Vegt - voordracht (NL)
Dirk Vekemans - ha
Helen White (USA)
Philip Meersman - video/audio (B)
A. Andreas - Brahamian Intelligence Service - email Opera/informatieverstrekking/voordracht (NL)
Sonia Dermience (B)
Grapes of Art
Ilse Derden (B)
Arnout Camerlincks (B)Jan Vossen (B) - painting
Angela Genusa
Christina McPhee
Sergio Basbaum
David-Baptiste Chirot (Canada)
Lanny Quarles (USA)
Johannes Gutenberg (CANADA) - prints/ vispo
Rustin Larson (USA)
Erik Rzepka
Kristen Alvanson - video (Iran- USA)
Reza Negarestani- text (Iran)
Yerna Van Den Driessche - optreden/voordracht (B)
Bert Lema - tekstueel (B)
Luc Fierens (B)
David Troch & Sylvie Marie De Koninck (o.v.) (B)SAGE (Saskia van Herwijnen & Gerrit van Schuppen) - video (NL)Fre Widdekind -spoken word/voordracht/(muziek) (B)Jaan Patterson - graphics (Germany)Moabi & Michael - dance/music (Portugal/België)Lexicon Valley - verhalende performance beeld-geluidJJ Pollet - studyrooms/assemblage

For more information check here.

Cabinet Magazine issue 30

My photos of Iranian mannequins accompany Nina Power's article 'Mannequins, Manners, and Mutilation' on Mary Wollstonecraft and the mannequins of Iran in the current issue of Cabinet Magazine. Please seek out a copy. The issue also includes:

Digging up numerous items of interest, including:
- Michael Saler on the London Underground's aesthetic departures
- Sina Najafi interviews Rosalind Williams on the subterranean imagination
- Magnus Bärtås uncovers the temple of Damanhur
- Mark Wasiuta on Ant Farm's plans for missile-silo reclamation
- Alessandro Scafi on the underpinnings of Dante's Inferno
- Joshua Foer interviews Michel Siffre on his six-month sojourn in a cave

And closer to the surface:
- Nina Power on Mary Wollstonecraft and the mannequins of Tehran
- Paul La Farge on Victor Hugo's sainthood in Vietnam
- Michael Taussig on the headier influences of Walter Benjamin and William Burroughs
- Sasha Archibald on Alfred Yarbus's science of visual attention
- Moyra Davey on feeling marooned- D. Graham Burnett explores the commonplace book
- Celeste Olalquiaga on coral polyps and the politics of science
- Josiah McElheny on the curious position of Mies van der Rohe's Glass Skyscraper Project
- Allen S. Weiss on the intoxicating aspects of a Japanese guinomi
- Margaret Wertheim interviews Nancy Knowlton on the vanishing world of coral

Cabinet is on sale in the US at independent bookstores, Barnes & Noble, Tower, Borders, Hudson News, and Universal News. Also available in Canada, the UK, Germany, Belgium, Holland, Sweden, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Turkey, Singapore, New Zealand, and Japan. A partial list of retailers worldwide can be found at http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/information/wheretobuy.php

Urbanomic Studio Event for Under Pressure print exhibition

UNDER PRESSURE
Prints by
Henri Matisse
Edward Bawden
Sara Ogilvie
Simon DaraSam
Bradbury
Kristen Alvanson
Ruth & Robin Mackay

Saturday 19th July, From 6pm at Urbanomic, Falmouth.

Urbanomic
The Old Lemonade Factory
Windsor Mews Studios
Falmouth, UK
TR11 3EX
07977 449416

Collapse Review

Check out Reza Negarestani's review of Collapse IV on Eliminative Culinarism:

http://blog.urbanomic.com/cyclon/archives/2008/06/review_of_colla.html

Live Concept Horror Party: London June 7

UMELEC - Magazine of the Art Dead and COLLAPSE - Journal of Philosophical Research and Development invite you to the post-launch party for Collapse Volume IV* CONCEPT HORROR

*showing original works from COLLAPSE IV by JAKE AND DINOS CHAPMAN, KEITH TILFORD, KRISTEN ALVANSON, CHINA MIEVILLE, TODOSCH, RAFANI, and more...

with live experimental grime noise from the mighty PATRICIDE [horror-customised patricide visuals will feature live+direct viditext shoutouts on 0775 4908051 - get it on speed dial now!]

on SATURDAY 7th JUNE, from 6pm (Noise begins at 8.30).

at Divus Unit 30, Shoreditch.
Unit no. 30
3rd Floor
North Entrance
37 Cremer Street
Shoreditch
London E2 8HD
10 Mins from Old St. Tube0207 7398993

International Roaming Biennial of Tehran

I will be participating in the First International Roaming Biennial of Tehran. The exhibition which is themed 'Urban Jealousy' is curated by Amirali Ghasemi and Serhat Koksal. As the title suggests, the exhibition will be roaming with the first stop and official opening in Istanbul at Hafriyat Karakoy:

First International Roaming Biennial of Tehran
Hafriyat Karakoy
Necatibey Cad. No: 79 Karakoy Istanbul, Turkey
30th May - 6th July 2008

For more information check www.biennialtehran.com.

Azad Gallery Release on nonad

Azad Gallery No. 41, Salmas Sq., Golha Sq. Tehran, Iran +98 21 88008676

Kristen Alvanson
nonad
May 23-28, 2008

Two nomadic fabric chadors - blue (2007) and pewter (2008)


Azad Gallery is pleased to present nonad (of nines and nomads), a solo exhibition by the Iran-based American artist Kristen Alvanson, opening Friday, May 23. In Alvanson's first Tehran exhibition, a western artist reanimates her artistic experiments with an entirely new arsenal of conceptual and material resources.

Since leaving New York, Alvanson has explored the threefold of textiles, women, and the Middle East in all its formations, anomalies, enigmas, political speculations, and aesthetic conjectures. Her new work includes nomadic fabric chador (Persian veil) sculptures, abjad-9 drawings, and an animation from her Cosmic Drapery Project.

For the exhibition, Azad Gallery is transformed into a garden of hanging folds. Nine colorful chadors are hung throughout the gallery. As viewers weave through and interact with the installation, they discover implicit sociopolitical structures of these nomadic fabric sculptures as well as their nomadic persuasions in regard to art and creativity. At 350 cm x 190 cm, each chador contains nine panels, six made of different nomadic fabrics. The rest contain black fabric, the same fabric used for traditional back chadors.

On surrounding walls, the Abjad-9 drawings suggest collective shapes vaguely reminiscent of the patterns of traditional Islamic art. Drawn in Persian ink and calligraphic pen, the drawings reveal the affect space between women in veil or chador, and the forces, folds and movements between them. These elaborately nested structures include half-elliptical shapes, the shape of a Persian veil when fully spread out. These shapes represent women in chador as seen from above.

The animation ninefold is a further visualization of these complex, subterranean relationships and spaces. Like the chadors and the Abjad-9 drawings, it is structured by the number 9, standing for the occluded relations between textiles, women, and the Middle East. In the Middle Eastern occult, nine is the number of unceasing collectivity - worlds created through the hidden bonds of spells and collective tides.

Alvanson’s ongoing Cosmic Drapery Project is an exploration of the enigma of the Middle East through its drapery. It is nurtured by the history of textiles in the Middle East. This history includes clashes and secret dialogues between state and nomad art, their folk beliefs, textiles and modes of creativity.

Alvanson's nomadic fabric chadors explore the interactions between black and nomadic fabrics. These include the differences and compatibilities between patterns, textures, and weight; explicit folding lines; and the distribution of sequins. The potentials inherent in each fabric emerge as islands of alliance or as folds of opposition between state and nomadic art in the Middle East.

Kristen Alvanson (born in 1969 in Minneapolis) lives and works in Shiraz, Iran. She attended The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York and holds a degree from Sarah Lawrence College. Alvanson has exhibited in shows in both the United States and the Middle East. She will be participating in the upcoming International Roaming Biennial of Tehran. Her writing and artworks have been published in Collapse: Journal of Philosophical Research and Development, New Humanist, Frozen Tears III and will be included in an upcoming issue of Cabinet magazine.

For more information visit Alvanson's website at www.kristenalvanson.com or email Mohsen Nabizadeh of Azad Gallery at azadgallery(at)yahoo(dot)com.

Invitation for 'nonad'

If you happen to be in Tehran on Friday, May 23, please join me for the opening of my exhibition ‘nonad’ from 4-8pm at Azad Gallery.

Azad Gallery
No. 41, Salmas Sq., Golha Sq.
Tehran, Iran
+98 21 88008676

A printable invitation is available here.

I will post more information on the show soon.

Update Collapse Volume IV: 'Concept Horror'

Contributors to this volume include: Kristen Alvanson, Jake and Dinos Chapman, Iain Hamilton Grant, Graham Harman, Michel Houellebecq, Oleg Kulik, Thomas Ligotti, Quentin Meillassoux, China Miéville, Reza Negarestani, Benjamin Noys, Rafani, Steven Shearer, George Sieg, Eugene Thacker, Keith Tilford, Todosch, James Trafford.

Collapse IV, published as a limited edition of 1000 copies, features a series of investigations by philosophers, writers and artists into Concept Horror. Contributors address the existential, aesthetic, theological and political dimensions of horror, interrogate its peculiar affinity with philosophical thought, and uncover the horrors that may lie in wait for those who pursue rational thought beyond the bounds of the reasonable. This unique volume continues Collapse's pursuit of indisciplinary miscegenation, the wide-ranging contributions interacting to produce common themes and suggestive connections. In the process a rich and compelling case emerges for the intimate bond between horror and philosophical thought.

Collapse Volume IV will be shipping around May 15 and is available for advance purchase online.

Collapse Volume IV: Concept Horror

An update from editor Robin Mackay on Collapse Volume IV...

We are delighted to announce that Collapse Volume IV will be published May 2008 and will soon be available for advance purchase online.

Collapse Volume IV: 'Concept Horror' is an investigation into the philosophical, existential, aesthetic, religious and political dimensions of horror. Its task is not to promote theories of horror, but to uncover the horrors that may lie in wait for those who pursue rational thought beyond the bounds of the reasonable.

The volume brings to fruition Collapse's vision of a miscegenated text in which contributions interact and produce a series of interzones or objectively-collaborative spaces. Throughout the volume many different styles of philosophical texts and graphic works intermingle, creating unanticipated connections and adding new dimensions to one another.

George Sieg's Infinite Regress into Self-Referential Horror demonstrates the simultaneously cognitive, existential and political nature of Horror, through a conceptual investigation of victimhood.

In The Shadow of a Puppet-Dance, James Trafford tracks weird fiction writer Thomas Ligotti's anticipation of the radical thesis of neurophilosopher Thomas Metzinger's book Being No-One: namely, that 'there has never been such a thing as a self'.

In Thomas Ligotti's own contribution to the volume, he takes up the work of obscure Norwegian philosopher Peter Zapffe, among others, to take an unflinching journey into the depths of nihilism...

...As a counterpoint to Ligotti's deflation of human hubris, Ukrainian Oleg Kulik, a prominent contemporary artist known for his disturbing investigations into the borders between life and death, human and animal, contributes his photographic series 'Dead Monkeys'.

Eugene Thacker's Nine Disputations on Theology and Horror gives a detailed and penetrating account of the 'teratological noosphere', discussing the ontologies of horror from Aristotle to Lovecraft.

Novelist Michel Houellebecq is well-known for his ability to evoke the horror that dwells within the banalities of contemporary life. His poems, of which a selection are translated into English here for the first time, distil his powerful vision into translucid moments of dread.

Jake Chapman, half of the notorious Brothers Grim of the British artworld, who unveil their infernal new work Fucking Hell in London next month, contributes a set of etchings created exclusively for Collapse in response to the other contributions in the volume.

Quentin Meillassoux's work is familiar to our readers. In the third of a 'trilogy' of essays published in Collapse, Spectral Dilemma, Meillassoux reveals some of the ethical consequences of his deduction of the 'necessity of contingency', through an examination of the problem of 'infinite mourning' for the dead.

Kristen Alvanson's photographs, at once repellent and fascinating, of preserved specimens of deformed and mutated animals and humans, are accompanied by a text which discusses Paré's sixteenth-century treatise which makes of taxonomy itself something monstrous.

German artist Todosch (Thorsten Schlopsnies) meticulous sketches seem to depict varieties of heterogenous slime in the process either of disintegration or coagulation...

...A perfect companion to Iain Hamilton Grant's Being and Slime. This untimely excavation of the naturephilosophische work of Lorenz Oken - according to whom the generation of the universe from a 'primal zero' corresponds to its coagulation from a 'primaeval mucus' - puts an entirely new slant on Badiou's notion of 'founding on the void'.

Benjamin Noys meditates on Lovecraft and the real, revealing that the most abyssal of Horrors is Horror Temporis.

In The Corpse Bride: Thinking with Nigredo, Reza Negarestani shows how Aristotle and Plotinus both unlock and dissimulate the ontological mechanism expressed by an unspeakable form of Etruscan torture.

A rising star, Canadian artist Steven Shearer, contributes a new series of his Poems - striking graphical pieces created through a manipulation of the nihilistic and extreme titles and lyrics of death-metal bands.

China Miéville, better known for his bestselling weird fiction novels, writes on M.R.James and the Quantum Vampire, introducing us to a new fearsome creature from his arsenal, the Skulltopus!

Czech art collective Rafani present their cycle Czech Forest, an adaptation of folk-tale imagery which presents a very modern tale of warcrime and revenge from the end of WWII.

Graham Harman returns to Collapse with On the Horror of Phenomenology: Lovecraft and Husserl. In a polemical defence of 'weird realism', Harman demonstrates that philosophical thought has more in common with weird and horror fiction than it might like to admit...

...Singular Agitations and a Common Vertigo, Keith Tilford's series of images, deftly disintegrated objects with more than a hint of 'pulp', anticipate and shadow Harman's invocation of the weird inner life of objects.

Collapse Volume IV // Ed. R. Mackay // May 2008 // 400pp[TBC] // ISBN 978-0-9553087-3-4 // £9.99

Order here: http://blog.urbanomic.com/urbanomic/

blocks of pest

The back of a diagram for Lessons in Schizophrenia.

For more information on my forthcoming book check here: http://www.kristenalvanson.com/new/LIS.html

Maskh Project

The Maskh Project has been abstractly created after the forgotten art of Talisman-forging in the Middle East particularly Iran. Middle Eastern talismans are forged in the form of diagrammatic bodies whose true figurative ideas are stripped down to their minimal abstract components – numbers as body parts, letter curvatures as fiendish fauna, geometric elements as skeletal frames and alpha-numeric convolutions or miniature ciphers as elementary particles of the world surrounding the figures. Each talisman or spell-diagram casts a particular spell and by doing so effectuates a metamorphosis or possession. Middle Eastern talismans present the idea of metamorphosis through the realm of in-between, between the figurative and its numero-diagrammatic double.


For more information and new images, please check my website: http://www.kristenalvanson.com/new/maskh.html

dESIRE Update

In line with demand and current inflation, the price of one unit of desires has been increased from $100 to $125 (date of increase - March 2008). There is still time to buy a unit at a low price. Be a participant in the exploration of the economy of intangible art and desire. Buy a unit now and let's see what happens over time.

For more information, please check here: http://www.kristenalvanson.com/new/market.html

RE: FIGURING MEMORY

An essay by A. Gargett on my works created while in New York...


RE: FIGURING MEMORY – THE ART OF KRISTEN ALVANSON
_ A. Gargett

“I look at you and think of the evening I first met you, and you’re not that person anymore. I mean, the elements are the same, but you’re different. Look at me right now.” Christy lifted her long arms right up in the air, still holding the dripping spoon, asking me to take in all of her. “I will never be this person again. When we walkout of here today – when tomorrow morning comes – I will be somebody else, not exactly the same as I am right now. Maybe that’s all dying is.” Ethan Hawke – Ash Wednesday

Quirky, yes. Offbeat, certainly; but more than that, with its mixture of media and its oblique take on the very act of being an artwork, the paintings of Kristen Alvanson imply that their creator’s vision is wrested from the world rather than being at home within it. In an era when so much art strives for the ready-made statement – in reality provoked by the times but seeking nonetheless to be provocative of them – Alvanson’s work remains carefully stated. The working is always shown; an art of passion in which the terror of – and desire for – abandonment, is expressed with consummate cool.

Alvanson’s art is an art of presences and resonances, acts and allusions. Perhaps it is viable to start with memory. With memories that are positioned before our eyes. What here has been remembered? How does the painting work to remember? It is not that these paintings simply turn around the interaction of memory, histories and representation, it is more accurately, that these themes present what comes to be framed within the paintings as their own apposite topos; and within that topos, their presence is intricate and complex. At work within the field of the painting they source the paintings with their work. What this means is that the paintings draw on and develop the resources that inhere in memory, history and representation. The specificity of their work, however, is connected to what occurs when these elements are themselves put to work. In this, their supposed determinations – the already given particularity of memory, history and representation – no longer control, and even though these elements need to be understood as encompassing, and enacting, the material presence of tradition, what is enacted takes the form of an active questioning rather than a painterly or interpretative “fait accompli”. It is that their movement into work is traversed by a questioning of memory, history and representation. This questioning comes to be at work in the frame and thereby forms an integral part of the work’s work. This questioning is no mere idle speculation; it is rather a questioning that, once acknowledged, forms a resolute part of the present.

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