new york city – The Trops

Norooz

Bako performing at the Trops celebration of Norooz, Photo by Derek Davis

On March 21st, the Trops celebrated a special Bohemian Wednesday full of music, poetry, and dance. The evening was in celebration of the Spring Equinox and the Persian New Year, Norooz, at Manero’s of Mulberry in Little Italy, NYC.

Nowruz / Norooz, Farsi for “new day” – is an ancient festival celebrating the first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere. The vernal equinox has been observed as the beginning of the new year for more than 3,000 years in different regions, including the Balkans, the Black Sea Basin, the Caucasus, Central Asia, the Middle East and others. As UNESCO puts it, the return of spring has great spiritual significance, representing the triumph of good over evil and joy over sorrow.

The night included special performances by

Daniel Carter, Mehrnam Rastegari, Martin Shamoonpour, Khadim Sene, Ilka Scobie, Isaiah Barr, Jonathan Harris,

Judith Dimitria, Iam Forde, DJ Darius

Trops celebration of Norooz, Photos by Derek Davis

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Event

Workshop with Kanami Kusajima

Event / Alexandra Kosloski

Kanami is interviewed by Amelia A during their artist talk

On March 6th 2024, Trops Foundation presented a Bohemian Wednesday Workshop with Kanami Kusajima in NYC.

Kanami Kusajima is a dancer, choreographer, and performing artist based in New York City. She is well known for consistently performing at Washington Square Park since November 2020, known as “Let Hair Down,” combining live painting and improvisational dance. Her unique style of dance has captivated the city and awarded the artist recognition and media attention.

Kanami’s performance featured David Kennet and Manami Aoki. The event was a fundraiser for disaster relief on the Noto Peninsula in Japan. After the recent devastiating earthquake, one of the biggest issues is that the Noto Peninsula infrastructure is damaged, and limited, making aid difficult to the area. Since so many roads are closed, many people who survived the earthquake have suffered because of the lack of access to resources and supplies. Funds went to Hokuriku Charity Restaurant, who creates and distributes meals for affected areas.

Moments from the Trops Workshop with Kanami

Compilation of Kanami Kusajima’s workshop and artist talk with Amelia A

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Event

How To Look At Art: Formal Elements

Editorial / Alexandra Kosloski

Utagawa Hiroshige, Autumn Moon on the Tama River, Japanese, ca. 1838, via The Met

Diving deeper into the art, Alexandra Kosloski uses design principles to unpack the language within visual compositions in the “How to Look at Art” series.

Continued from Part 1

Part 1

Moving past the basics of visual analysis, we can look into the work for the formal elements and the principles of design. The formal elements of art are basic terms we use to communicate visually; line, light, color, shape, pattern, space, and time.

Line

Linear marks made by artistic mediums like paint or pencil are actual lines. Implied lines are not made physically but still can make up the composition– dotted lines that don’t connect, the horizon in a landscape, the pointed hand on the outstretched arm of a figure.

Carmen Herrera, Untitled Estructura (Black), 1966/2016 © Carmen Herrera; Courtesy Lisson Gallery

Notice the vertical actual lines and jagged, horizontal implied line in Herrera’s work.

The direction of lines can indicate meaning. Viewers can draw from their own real world experience. Horizontal lines, like a sleeping body, could indicate rest, peace, or inactivity. Vertical lines may suggest aspirational reaching or standing at attention. Diagonal lines would suggest action, like all the diagonal lines of a runner. Curving lines may suggest movement, or the organic lines of nature. Line quality– if a line is thick or thin, or sketchy or bold– can also convey meaning.

Ogata Korin, Rough Waves, ca. 1704-9, Courtesy Met Museum

“Rough Waves” strives to capture the amorphous tide in ink.

Light and Value

Art may utilize natural and artificial light, like in sculpture or architecture. In 2D art, artists use value to represent shades of light and dark. Artists manipulate light to create form by mimicking shadows and plasticity in 3D objects. Value can also portray emotion. For example, high contrast visuals look dramatic.

Sante D’Orazio, White Beluga Whale at Coney Island Aquarium, 1975

The harsh contrast between light and dark brings intensity to the mood of the photo.

Color

Color consists of three properties. Hue– the state of a color, like red or blue; value– lightness or darkness within a hue; and intensity– the dullness or saturation of a hue. Color can be warm or cool, which affects the viewer’s experience. There is a lot to learn about color theory because color is so subjective. It interacts with its environment and the colors around it, and can be very complex. Color is also largely symbolic, like the colors of a nation’s flag, or red being the color of passion.

The interaction between the colors causes our eye to see them differently.

Texture and Pattern

Texture can be tactile or visual. A marble sculpture of a figure would be physically smooth to the touch, but visually, the artist might represent soft flesh or sinuous muscle. Texture and pattern are related, as pattern may be perceived as texture and vice versa. Pattern is an arrangement of repeated form, and they can be natural, like in leaves and flowers, or geometric, with mathematical shapes and lines.

Egyptian, Leaf Pendant, ca. 1390–1352 B.C., Courtesy Met Museum

The pattern is meant to mimic the appearance of a natural leaf and add texture.

Shapes

Regular shapes are often geometric and identifiable like triangles and squares. Irregular shapes are organic and spontaneous, like a patch of light or a mark made by a paintbrush.

James Turrell, Meeting, 1980-86/2016, at MoMA PS1, Copyright Hugh Pearman

The shapes create the space of the architecture around the viewer.

Space

Artists can portray space in 2D art by employing one of many illusory techniques, like by manipulating vale or scale. A complex technique is by taking advantage of perspective. There are a few methods of perspective, but generally, the artist considers the natural experience of a viewpoint and tries to mimic it– or, as popularized by the cubist movement– defy it.

Paul Cezanne, Mont Sainte-Victoire, 1902-6, Courtesy Met Museum

The blue mountain seems far away, past the houses.

Time and Motion

Time and motion functions differently across mediums. As we view sculpture, we observe several viewpoints as we move through or around it. Painting and drawing can have an illusion of motion through mark making. Film, dance, and other performance depend on time and motion.

Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Apollo and Daphne, 1622-1625, Photo by Daniel Kelly

“Apollo and Daphne” seems to have a sequence of motion as the viewer moves around the sculpture.

Next, we activate the formal elements by understanding how they make up design principles.

Continue to Part 3

Part 3

How To Look At Art: Formal Elements Read More »

Editorial

Keeping The Faith, November 2023

Exhibition / Alexandra Kosloski

Style Writing by Jona Cerwinske at Keeping the Faith

The Trops presents community paintings created live in NYC’s public spaces, representative of the sort of pieces that were done on the walls, streets, and trains that manifested into a global movement. Mark making attached a figurative significance to the individual spirit that guides self-expression in these exhibitive spaces; however, in their original contexts, the art of writing was not necessarily intended as a painting in the western sense of the word. These works, painted by legendary living writers, are contemporary developments of the Style Writing tradition that bring the vitality of the culture into canvas.

Featuring:

KEO VFR JONA

SOZE RIFF

Keeping The Faith, Video by Avery Walker

The opening reception for Keeping The Faith presented musical performance by Daniel Carter and Ebrima Jassey, as well as a screening by Producer Plug, featuring Big Boo and The 45 King.

Train Writers

Shop our “Train Writers” collection, featuring Style Writers from Keeping The Faith.

View or Buy

Ebrima Jassey (left) and Big Boo (right) at Keeping The Faith, Photos by Adel Saad Abouelalav

Style Writing

Learn more about the Style Writing tradition by visiting our page for the culture.

Style Writing by Soze at Keeping the Faith

Style Writing by KEO at Keeping the Faith

Performance by Daniel Carter and Ebrime Jassey at Keeping the Faith, Style Writing by RIFF

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Exhibition

On Message Off Grid (March 2022)

Exhibition / Alexandra Kosloski

Performance at On Message Off Grid

March 2022

On Message Off Grid was a 2022 installation by Jona Cerwinske in collaboration with the Trops in New York City. Presenting works created in situ, On Message Off Grid showcased the gallery format as the ultimate studio visit as the artist created additional works across the streetscapes of NYC.

Plato’s allegory of the cave was intended to show “the effect of education and the lack of it on our nature.”

The allegory consists of a family who has lived their whole lives in a cave with no natural light. The only things they see are shadows cast on the wall by a fire. They see these shadows as real figures and learn from them as if they were aspects of real life. One day, someone finds a way out of the cave. They first are overwhelmed by the light, and soon realize that what they were looking at were the actual forms of the shadows they had been seeing their whole life in the cave.

When the person goes back into the cave and tells the other about his discovery, they become angry and do not want to see his reasoning, plotting to kill him. The purpose of the allegory of the cave is to show that the reality of life often contrasts with the version of it that we interpret.

“I create in a marriage of two art forms that rebel against each other. I come from a generation when galleries did not accept anything from the street. And, vice versa, the street wanted nothing to do with the galleries. I had to experiment with what that looked like, combined.”

Jona Cerwinske

On Message Off Grid (March 2022) Read More »

Exhibition

NYC Parks: Central Park (Part 3)

Public Art / Alexandra Kosloski

Lithograph by Julius Bien, Central Park (Summer), 1865, via the Met Museum

Central Park, and all of its features and amenities, demonstrate the intent that designers Olmsted and Vaux had in 1858– to create a social space where New Yorkers could come together to connect with nature and enjoy arts and culture. The vast park contains listless hidden gems and art drops, but below are a few highlights.

The Literary Walk

The Mall and Literary Walk is the wide walking path lined with trees and benches, located mid-park at 66th St. The path is renowned– it was part of Olmsted and Vaux’s original design of the park. Today, it is populated with vendors, musicians, and artists, it has been featured in many of the famous movies filmed in Central Park, and the path leads the way to many favorite spaces in the park. It is named the “Literary Walk” because of the sculptures of notable writers that it features, including William Shakespeare, an art drop that can be found using the Trops Mobile app.

William Shakespeare, Photo by Avery Walker

Chuzo Tamotzu, Central Park South, 1935, via the Met Museum

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Located on the edge of Central Park facing 5th Avenue, The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a significant and beloved institution of art history in New York City. The museum has one of the largest collections in the world, with a diverse and endlessly fascinating breadth of art works. Between the Met and Central Park’s Great Lawn sits the obelisk known as “Cleopatra’s Needle”.

“The Indian Hunter”

“The Indian Hunter” by John Quincy Adams Ward, was first built on a smaller scale before it became the life size bronze monument that we see in Central Park today. The Met Museum describes some of the history surrounding the statue:

“With his statuette of a Native American youth and his dog, Ward answered the call for sculpture modeled by home-based, rather than expatriate, artists in a realist style. He imagined an Arcadian hunting scene, a stark contrast to the reservation system by then established to confine Indigenous peoples to U.S. government-specified tracts of land.”

John Quincy Adams Ward, The Indian Hunter, 1860, via the Met Museum

Anonymous, Central Park, Statue of The Indian Hunter, 1860, via the Met Museum

José de Creeft, Alice in Wonderland, 1959, Photo by Avery Walker

Conservatory Water

Many water features can be found in Central Park, and the Model Boat Pond at Conservatory Water is a popular favorite. Visitors can watch the races of miniature boats and yachts on the pond, and it is an ideal place for relaxing. The scenery also draws guests towards one of the most adored statues in Central Park, Alice in Wonderland.

The sculpture was donated by philanthopist and publisher George Delacorte, as a gift to the children of the city and in honor of his late wife, who loved literature and would read “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” to their children.

Find “Cleopatra’s Needle”, “The Indian Hunter”, “Alice in Wonderland” and many more art drops and hidden gems on the Trops mobile app, available in the app and google play store.

Video by Avery Walker

NYC Parks: Central Park (Part 3) Read More »

Public Art

NYC Parks: Prospect Park (Part 2)

Public Art / Alexandra Kosloski

William Merritt Chase, Alice Gerson in Prospect Park, 1886, via the Met Museum

Prospect Park, the crown jewel of Brooklyn, NY, is admired by tourists and adored by locals. The green space, spanning 585 acres, is nestled in the middle of several charming Brooklyn neighborhoods. Since its opening in 1867, the park has been a place of leisure for New Yorkers in the busy city. Below is a guide to some of Prospect Park’s art drops.

Grand Army Plaza

Reminiscent of Paris’s Arc de Triomphe, Grand Army Plaza features an arch in honor of Union Civil War soldiers. The space holds the Grand Army Plaza Greenmarket, open on Saturdays year round. Grand Army Plaza serves as a striking transition from the city to the verdant park.

Grand Army Plaza, Photo by Avery Walker

Lookout Hill

Lookout Hill is the highest point in the park, and offers a beautiful panorama view of Manhattan and Brooklyn. A great time to visit is in the late fall, after most leaves have fallen, and the hill has the best visibility. There, you can also find the Maryland Monument. This art drop is a tall Corinthian column that commemorates the Maryland 400, the group of Maryland soldiers who fought at Lookout Hill almost a hundred years before the park opened.

The Horse Tamers, Machate Circle, Photo by Avery Walker

Machate Circle

Machate Circle is the grand south entrance of Prospect Park. Like Grand Army Plaza, designers Olmsted and Vaux envisioned the space to be a palatial transition from busy city to peaceful park. Here, you can find “the Horse Tamers”, using the Trops mobile app. This entrance leads right to the Prospect Park Lake, a popular place for fishing and leisure.

Hiking Trails

Prospect Park features several hiking trails. As the weather cools, fall is the perfect season for hiking and spending long hours out in the beauty of nature. See the leaves change in Brooklyn’s oldest forest.

Find “The Horse Tamers”, “The Maryland Memorial”, Grand Army Plaza and more art drops and hidden gems on the Trops mobile app, available in the app and google play store.

NYC Parks: Prospect Park (Part 2) Read More »

Public Art

NYC Parks: Olmsted Parks (Part 1)

Public Art / Alexandra Kosloski

Prospect Park, Photo by Avery Walker, 2023

Frederick Law Olmsted is widely recognized as one of the most influential landscape architects in history. Together with his partner Calvert Vaux, Olmsted created iconic designs for New York City’s Central Park and Prospect Park, leaving an indelible mark on urban landscapes.

In 1858, Olmsted and Vaux’s design for Central Park was selected through a competition, chosen over 32 other entries. Their vision was a departure from the prevailing Victorian-era park designs characterized by geometric patterns and ornate features. Instead, Olmsted aimed to create a practical park that embraced the natural landscape, incorporating native plants and offering an escape from the bustling city. The design prioritized harmony with nature rather than asserting human dominance over it. The result was a revolutionary concept that introduced an idealized version of nature within an urban setting. Central Park’s winding paths, tranquil ponds, and wide green spaces provide respite for residents and visitors alike.

Olmsted’s influence extended beyond Central Park. Prospect Park in Brooklyn, also designed by Olmsted, was similarly intended to serve as a sanctuary for city-dwellers seeking solace in nature. Constructed in one of the most densely populated areas of the country, Prospect Park provided a much-needed escape and a source of inspiration for the local community.

Beyond the immediate impact on New York City’s landscape, Olmsted’s work elevated the profession of landscape architecture itself. He brought a visionary and artistic approach to his designs, recognizing the importance of creating spaces that not only served practical purposes but also resonated with people on a deeper level.

Frederick Law Olmsted’s legacy lives on in the enduring beauty of Central Park and Prospect Park, as well as in the countless parks and landscapes that have been inspired by his innovative designs. His commitment to blending nature with urban environments continues to shape the way we perceive and interact with public spaces, reminding us of the profound impact that thoughtful design can have on our quality of life.

Prospect Park, Photo by Avery Walker, 2023

Embrace the spirit of adventure with the Trops mobile app and unlock the hidden gems of your community, like the enchanting parks of New York City. The Trops mobile app is a guide to new art drops experiences. This fall, step outside, breathe in the fresh air, and let Trops be your ultimate companion. Download the app now and let the adventures begin.

NYC Parks: Olmsted Parks (Part 1) Read More »

Public Art

An Interview with Sante D’Orazio (Part 3)

Interview / Alexandra Kosloski

Film strip frame by Sante D’Orazio

D’Orazio’s world is populated by supermodels, actors, rock stars, and icons. His +30 year career has seen concurrent themes of eternal youth, stunning beauty, and rock and roll. D’Orazio’s portfolio is a mixture of informal and posed – an uncensored and provocative trademark. Since he first shot for Italian Vogue in 1981, D’Orazio’s work has been published in the likes of Andy Warhol’s Interview, Italian, French and British Vogue, Vanity Fair, and GQ among others.

In the final installment of their 3 part interview, Sante D’Orazio and Alexandra Kosloski discuss “nice accidents” and connecting with the unknown.

Continued from Part 2

Part 2

AK: What was the most unexpected photograph you’ve ever made?

Sante D’Orazio: Well, in the editing process, a lot of times you’re shooting from one particular angle and you think it’s genius. And then for whatever reason, you try another angle, you do only two frames and think it’s not good, and go back to where it was before. And then you’ve got 500 frames of that angle you thought was so much better, and two frames of the one you tried, and those two are the best. Or something went wrong in the last frame and there’s a glitch, and that glitch makes it unique. That happened quite often when it was film, film offered more technical glitches that were wonderful.

That’s on film (right). It’s a Polaroid film, 35 millimeter film. That’s the last frame. So it’s a sticky film, where you peel off the emulsion. She’s like a Greek goddess.

AK: There’s such an intensity in her expression.

Photo of Tatjana Patitz by Sante D’Orazio

Sante D’Orazio: Here’s another picture (below). That’s from a glitch, too. So those are nice accidents. I was always doing experimental stuff that was more painterly.

Photo of Tatjana Patitz by Sante D’Orazio, 1989

I had all these pictures that I could never publish. A lot of naughty pictures, and they’re all famous people, and then one day I decided I would scratch everybody’s face out. And I did. And they were much better pictures. You didn’t need to know who they were. And then I bought a 70’s porn and I scratched out everybody’s face. Every frame. It took four months to scratch out 10 minutes. And so as the film moved and the scratches– 24 per second– all moved around, it became a moving abstraction. That was my first one. Then the second and third one, I used colored inks. And I not only had the film, but I would take individual frames and scan them and print them, so they were like little paintings.

AK: I like your series of priests, too. Could you talk about the little bit of the connection between art and religion?

Sante D’Orazio: The connection is not literal in terms of religion as we know it, especially not any kind of organized religion. Art to me is a means of connecting with the unknown, and that’s really what I think religion is; connecting with the source of being. Not all the time, and not all art, but certain art. That’s what it was for many of the abstract expressionists and the minimalists. It’s a means of connecting with the unknown. We all have different experiences, we have different beliefs, and it’s not literal, it’s the sensory perception.

Geometric paintings by Sante D’Orazio, installation in the artist’s studio

My geometric paintings are about how there’s a lot going on in what we can perceive and what we can’t sense. I was like, “How do I paint that?” Not the literal, but that sense. With those paintings, it was the geometric shape– the landscape creates a space between them that’s invisible. That’s what those paintings are about.

Everybody has a different approach to it, but I always tell people: learn how to stop thinking. Once you start thinking with the camera in your hand, you’ve lost the picture. If you had time to think, the picture’s gone. I’ve told that to some very famous painters, and they went from taking shit pictures to taking some really good ones, because they got it. They were already doing that in their paintings, they realized that they could do that in their photographs. I think it applies to every art form; dance and music. Stop thinking. You do all the thinking in between, all the thinking you want. But once you get to it, stop thinking. Feel. It’s all feel. All sense perception. That’s the language of that connection that you have with the unknown. It’s all a sensory thing. That’s the only connection you have.

AK: Lastly, could we talk a little bit more about your current projects?

Sante D’Orazio: Presently, I finished the memoir and I’m looking for a publisher. Then I want to finish editing the archive, discovering new pictures. I can make a new book from those pictures, and maybe I can throw in some of the writings from the memoir into that book that pertained to photography. I’m revisiting an old script that I didn’t get to develop. I’m more ready now than ever before, so I’m back to that. I would like to direct a film. I wouldn’t mind getting back to my painting work. And you know what I would love more than anything? I would love to do some great photo projects. I just went to London three weeks ago and shot Guns N Roses in Hyde Park. That was my first photo assignment in seven years. I got some great pictures, and that was exciting. Otherwise, I shoot on my own. I still love shooting nudes because I started by drawing nudes. I was never really a fashion photographer. I learned how to do it, but I was always a beauty photographer.

An Interview with Sante D’Orazio (Part 3) Read More »

Interview

An Interview with Sante D’Orazio (Part 2)

Interview / Alexandra Kosloski

Tatjana Patitz, Photo by Sante D’Orazio

In part 2 of their 3 part interview, Sante D’Orazio tells Alexandra Kosloski how he broke into the fashion industry, and shares the best advice he ever received.

Continued from Part 1

Part 1

AK: What was your thought process behind pivoting from commercial work to a more personal art practice?

Sante D’Orazio: Well, commercial work is usually directed. They made the choices, it had nothing to do with me afterwards. I was usually directed by someone who didn’t have the talent to direct. I always said just because the word “art” is in their title, doesn’t mean they know anything about art.

AK: And so how would you handle that?

Sante D’Orazio: The thing is, they always wanted something that they recognized and was easy to replicate. I always tried to give them what they wanted, and then I’ll give them something else that might be really good and different. But they already set their mind to what they’re familiar with. Nine out of ten times they go with that. That’s commercial. They go with what’s familiar. There might be something better, but it doesn’t matter.

AK: Even though you can offer something that might exist beyond their taste.

Sante D’Orazio: Yeah, but that’s the nature of commercial work. I was so stupid, I was always trying to make it better, and I allowed myself to get frustrated, and there was just no need to put myself through all that. In retrospect, it’s like, come on, just do it and go home. Make life easier for yourself. There’s a time and place for certain things. You’re doing a commercial job. I would sometimes have to call up my agent and say “how much am I getting today?” Just so I could put up with it.

Tatjana Patitz, Photo by Sante D’Orazio

AK: Who do you create art for?

Sante D’Orazio: I still have to do it for me. I’m looking for something within myself. I’m still that foolish kid, dealing with the commercial world and fighting it. I’ve learned not to listen to all the naysayers. You make something that’s unique to you, and the naysayers are the ones that you like and respect, who tell you “Nah, that’s not really that cool.” And you believe that? That’s the worst thing you could do. You have to believe in what you did, and you have to develop it.

That’s the definition of contempt; to make less of another, to make more of yourself. I had a mentor in photography, and he made me write certain things and stick them to my wall, and that was one of the things. “Contempt is making less of others to make more of yourself.” You never do it. And then the other thing that I’ll always remember is that he said, “Let the obstacles be your guide. It leads you to places you would never have gone on your own.”

AK: And that was some of the best advice you’ve ever got?

Sante D’Orazio: Yes.

Geometric painting by Sante D’Orazio, 2021

AK: Could you talk a little bit more about him?

Sante D’Orazio: Lou Bernstein. He said he was the only Jewish man in Brooklyn with an Italian son. He belonged to the New York Photo League, they were the photographers that did street photography as we know it in New York City. I didn’t know his work at the time. He saw me going to art school, I was going to the Art Students League, and he saw me with one of those big portfolios. I told him what I was doing and he asked me if I wanted to learn photography. Yeah. He had a class up in this attic apartment on East Fifth Street in Brooklyn, and he taught three students on a Friday night. And on the weekend, I would go with him out in the street, wherever there were people gathered. He wanted me to shoot alongside him so I could see what he was looking at. He would point things out, learning how to anticipate a moment. You start putting it all together, and we go from there.

AK: Before you had met him, you had been painting?

Sante D’Orazio: Yeah, I started out painting. I had to figure out in high school what the hell I wanted to do, and the only thing I knew how to do naturally was art. So I went to community college for art direction, and I hated it. Then I transferred over to Brooklyn College for fine art, and those were my best years in college. I met Phil Pearlstein, who was one of the leading artists in figurative painting, and I became his assistant. When I graduated, I had to figure out, what am I going to do now? I had a cousin, who was a well-known hairdresser in the city, who was always telling us stories of all the glamorous people that he was doing hair for. It seemed like a world away, but he encouraged me to go into fashion, so I gave it a try. I put together a portfolio of ten life drawings of nudes, ten pictures that looked like ten different photographers took them, and ten pictures of whales from the aquarium.

AK: You’re laughing, but I saw those pictures and I think they’re great.

White beluga whale at Coney Island Aquarium, Photo by Sante D’Orazio, 1975

Sante D’Orazio: Thank you. Those were my first photographs. And so I put them all in the portfolio. Who do I go to first? Avedon Studio. Didn’t get past the secretary. And then I went to Irving Penn and didn’t even get past the intercom. And then one blizzard of a day, I went to Scavullo, and I got into the door, and the first person I saw was Scavullo, himself. And he’s like, “What do you want?” I was like, “I want to be an assistant”. He’s like, “Get out of here”. I thought to myself, I gotta rethink this.

AK: So how do you come back from that?

Sante D’Orazio: I eventually got a job as a gofer at a commercial studio, with a commercial photographer who borderlined fashion advertising. He worked with famous models on advertising shoots. My job was to mop the floors, clean the dishes, go for whatever was needed, and I was just happy to be in the studio. I was making $75 a week. I didn’t care. I got in the door.

Adrianna Bach, Photo by Sante D’Orazio, 2015

I worked in that studio and I made friends with other assistants, and once in a while they would take me out with them to Studio 54, and the floodgates opened up. I told a friend that I would go to Italy with him, because somebody wanted to work with him there. We planned a trip to Milan, and I gave notice at my job and saved 1500 dollars, which was a shitload of money for me. And the night before, he bailed on me. I didn’t know what to do, so I just said, “Fuck it, I’ll go”, and I went on my own. I didn’t even know where the magazines were. I didn’t know of any hotels. I got a room with a neon sign that flashed and buzzed, like in a film noir. I put my suitcase down and didn’t even open it. I couldn’t even go home.

I ordered a big pitcher of beer, and I got myself shitfaced, and who walks by is a photographer, who I had assisted. He’s like, “Why are you in that hotel? Stay in my hotel, with all the models and the young photographers.” He goes, “I’m going to Portofino tomorrow with my girlfriend for the weekend. Why don’t you come with us?” I was like, “Oh, God, thank you.”

I took my luggage over there, and went to Portofino. He gave me the name of all the agencies, all the magazines and everything I needed to know. It was a godsend. I checked into the hotel on Sunday night, and Monday was the next day. And the photographer said to me, “Look, there’s no work. I’ve been here for three months. I have to go back, there’s nothing happening.” I said to myself, I’ll take my shitty portfolio and go to Italian Vogue. And when they say no, I’ll get on the train and go visit family.

I go to Italian Vogue and they let me wait for the art director. He looked at the portfolio– the whales, the drawings, ten pictures that looked like ten different photographers. And then he goes, “Wait here. I’m going to wait for the beauty editor to come”. She came and they talked to each other, this and that, and they gave me two double pages to do nudes for Italian Vogue Beauty. So on my first day there, I got that job. Because they were creative, they saw nude drawings that I did, they saw I could draw a sensual line, they saw the whales that were sensual, and they saw in the ten different photographs that I could light.

AK: They see skill, they see good composition, so they can make the connection.

Sante D’Orazio: They were creative. That’s what you don’t get here in the States. And that was the beginning of my career.

AK: So do you remember that photo shoot?

Sante D’Orazio: Oh, yeah. There were two nudes on how to tan yourself. One was in natural light, and one was in the sun bed. So that was all blue lights. And the other one was in the sunlight. So you turn the page, one was all orange and yellow and one was all blue. I had to wait the entire month to shoot it, but in the meantime, I got to meet all the agencies, all the important people. Then it was the end of July, and nobody works in August, so I went home. I had to wait two and a half months for the magazine to come out in the U.S., and I went back to work as an assistant, saved more money, and went back to Milan again in February. So that was the start of my career.

Irina Shayk by Sante D’Orazio for CR Girls, 2016

Continue to Part 3

Part 3

An Interview with Sante D’Orazio (Part 2) Read More »

Interview

An Interview with Miriam Parker

Interview / Alexandra Kosloski

Miriam Parker in her studio. Photo by Avery Walker

Miriam Parker is an interdisciplinary artist who uses movement, paint, video art and sculpture/installation. She has been influenced by her experience as a dancer, her study of Buddhism phenomenology, and her connection to the free jazz tradition. Through re-organizational practices, Parker refines her understanding of individuality, outside of traditions built from oppressive ethics. Parker is a Monira Foundation artist-in-residence at Mana Contemporary.

In their interview, Alexandra Kosloski and Miriam Parker discuss the artist’s philosophy and the way it manifests in her art.

AK: What is your studio practice like?

Miriam Parker: Well, there are two aspects. One is working on installation, which is this practice of translating my process from being a dancer into being someone who is making something outside of her body, not just using the body itself. In this installation practice, I’ve been really steady with this idea of creating a space that itself becomes generative. I first use my body to create something, but then, the aim is for this thing to be the matrix for its own development. For instance, if I draw a line, it’s not just about creating a line that stays there, but the line itself has to be growing. How do I create an installation- in space- that is alive, the same way a dancer is alive, or music? How do I create an installation that animates the space?

For the past year, one of my research areas has been about the frame; what does this frame- that is going to allow for the space to be animated- look like?

I have also replaced the body with paint, still with the same question at the back of my mind– what makes something alive? How can you create life, especially where you make do with the human body? Paint is interesting because it is viscous and it can be a vehicle for energies and flows; and right now I am learning about viscosity and paint and pumps and how much energy it takes to bring the water/paint up to a certain height. I am trying many different things and learning from the numerous mistakes I make in the process. But what is interesting is that while I was working with the paint, I also realized that it was not just about using the paint as a proxy for the body– I slowly realized it was also about how the paint was released– that’s where the magic lies.

In the artist’s studio. Photo by Avery Walker

For instance, as I am speaking right now, the impression you have of me is not just the result of what I am saying, but also of how the words are released from my mouth. When someone is dancing, it’s not just about their movements, but it’s about how they move out of their bodies and towards the onlookers. Well, it’s the same thing with the paint. So now the challenge is understanding how to have each of my sculptures– which is dispensing paint– have its own rhythm and language.

AK: So there’s that translation between inside and outside of the body, do you define any boundaries between performance and visual art? How?

Miriam Parker, in residency, via @miriamparts on Instagram

Miriam Parker: Technique. You know, the technique of creating a painting is a choreography that’s very different from the technique of creating movement with your body. The choreography of painting, or of architecture, is a different technique. I would say an artist has a vision that usually has a primary actor and then secondary actors, just like in a movie or a play. For me, my primary actor or main character is dance. I’m a dancer, I’ve spent my whole life dancing. The essence of dance is no different than painting or music making, the essence itself is always art. What is different lies in the technique, the craftsmanship, and now that I am working with different mediums, I have to learn about their own idiosyncratic techniques.

AK: Performance art often physically inserts the artists into the work. Could you tell me a little bit about how you navigate the connection between art and your body when you’re physically in the work? How does that feel?

Miriam Parker: Like coming home. I have this unsurmountable wish to birth something beautiful into the world. I don’t have children, and creating something that is separate from my body, but that still comes from my body, is really important. When I, as much as I can, physicalize everything I’m doing, I’m in a very, very happy place. Then, when I perform inside the spaces I have created and I activate these spaces with my body, the gestures I improvise are of deepest reverence for the space and for the architecture of that space. Once I understand the space I am in, I then can use my body to rearrange this space– even if it’s not visually rearranged for the audience, in my body I’m placing myself in different positions that help me to view the architecture of the space differently. So, what starts off as finite- an installation- then becomes infinite. It’s like a jungle gym of lines and curves and I get to just play.

Miriam Parker, Digital Prints, via @miriamparts on Instagram

AK: I’ve noticed that your art is so tactile. You seem so invested physically, and there’s a lot about process and creation. Also, your art often involves collaboration with other artists, including many different kinds of media. What have these experiences with other characters brought to your practice?

Miriam Parker: The reason why I started fabricating physical spaces and going into what they call “the digital art realm” is because I wanted to play with the power dynamics between performers and creators (of sculptures, installations, etc.). In a solo performance, you usually have a single body, and then you have the space, and if I am the performer I am the number one actor in that space, I am the number one focus. But soon, I felt like I also wanted to honor all the other contributing factors that allow for your eye to see. What if, instead of just applauding the performer, we honored everything- human and non-human- that enable us to see the object? And that, to me, is very much about the social and political aspects of power living. To me, stepping into the visual art world is very much about– let me honor the ground, the importance of how ground plays on the physical body as the performer moves, how ground, in the end, allows the onlookers to see this physical body in its different aspects. And that’s the type of questions an architect would ask. How does the space design the movements? And I say that because I didn’t want to be a master or a conductor. I didn’t want to come and say “This is what we’re doing, this is the object I want to create, and this is how you put it into motion.” I want it to move all together, as a generative, co-operative ecosystem. To me, this is very close to the definition of love.

Working with others is having the joy of bringing in other artists who have a mastery over their own technique, and who have their own vision. People who have spent a lot of time understanding their vocabulary and whatever medium it is. Bringing those together is part of my craft, actually, their masterfulness, their individual creative ways. How do you create space that allows each of these artists to be there in an equal way, without one being more important than the other? That’s my interest in collaboration, which is honoring others without taking away from their voice, which is very challenging.

AK: How has your study of Buddhism phenomenology influenced you?

Miriam Parker: Well, everything I’m saying is birthed from that philosophy. One of the core ideas and concepts that is brought up through Buddhism is the idea of interdependence. The idea is that nothing arises independently, there is always something that is lending itself for something to happen. The question is then– how can I be a part of this collaborative process? How do I honor this creative nature that we are all a part of ? The cooperative, interdependent nature of the life we are living is a key element of Buddhism thought that I am trying to bring into my artistic practice. The goal, in other words, is to break down the misconceptions of how we assume things work (in this case, that things can work independently from each other). So my whole practice comes from my Buddhist philosophy studies, it’s the basis of everything.

Miriam Parker, MAYPOLE to the sun & The Minotaur’s daughter by Eleni Giannopoulou & Benjamin Craig, via @miriamparts on Instagram

AK: What current projects are you working on?

Miriam Parker: Great question. I’ve been working on something called “Heart Patterns” for two years. “Heart Patterns” is based on the idea I was developing earlier of creating an installation that is endowed with a sense of life. In the past, I have created installations in which life was there because my body was there. And I really had this urge to do that without my body. So I’m experimenting with two main elements. One is paint flow, the other is sound. In the end, the whole flow of paint and the receiving of the paint on different canvases and wells will be made sonic. And then this other project, which is so dear to my heart, is a film that revolves around a specific image– the one that stands in the middle of the fire. There is a Buddhist concept called “Bodhisattva”. And a Bodhisattva is somebody who, when they see/encounter suffering, do not run away. A Bodhisattva is one who trains to stand in the center of the fire. And it’s through standing in that center that they transcend by not being afraid of pain. There was an image that I found from the Brooklyn Museum, that is the image that I’m trying to embody and use as the center of this film, a real tribute to wisdom. It is about the fire and the Phoenix and ash and all of these iconic symbols of empowerment.

In the artist’s studio. Photo by Avery Walker

As a side comment– we go to museums and look at these relics and most of them are actually meant for really high spiritual practice. Relics are meant to help us evolve. And looking at them in the context of the way we usually see them shown, does not do that. So I really would like this film to be shown in a museum setting as a challenge. Imagine a show about wisdom. How would you curate that so that people actually learn about transcendence? And not just history.

An Interview with Miriam Parker Read More »

Interview

An Interview with David Aaron Greenberg (Part 2)

Interview / Alexandra Kosloski

Photo by Daniel Wolfskehl

David Aaron Greenberg is an artist who uses multiple modes of expression. His work has been exhibited in various New York City galleries and is in the permanent collection at Stanford University. His critical writing has appeared in Parkett, The Fader, Art in America and Whitehot Magazine. Along with producer David Sisko, he co-founded Disco Pusher, a New York City songwriting and recording duo. Greenberg graduated from Rutgers University, Phi Beta Kappa. He lives in New Jersey and sometimes New York City.

In part 2 of their 3 part interview, David Aaron Greenberg talks about his memories with his idols and his current endeavors.

Continued from Part 1

Part 1

AK: Is being an artist how you thought it would be?

David Aaron Greenberg: That’s a wild question. Like, “I’m going to grow up someday and be an artist”?

AK: Yeah. Did you have that?

David Aaron Greenberg: I had a strange notion of being a rock star, which I was immediately disillusioned with when I started meeting actual rock stars, and realizing how difficult it is. And then I deliberately did not want to be a rock star.

I think the man who put it over the top for me was Joe Strummer, of all the rock stars I’ve met– and I’ve met Lou Reed, Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Iggy Pop. Some of these people I had relationships and friendships with. I shared a manager with Iggy, this great guy, Art Collins. And then others like Lou Reed hated me. And I never did anything bad to him. In fact, I tried to be nice to him. Maybe that was my problem. I was talking to his wife, Laurie Anderson, who I adore. She’s so sweet. I used to do meditation practice with her. I don’t know why Lou just didn’t like me. I didn’t hold it against him. I still respected him as a songwriter.

David Aaron Greenberg & Daniel Carter Performance at Eroica Variations

Photo by David Sisko

But the last thing he said to me, I was talking to Laurie in Christie’s during the opening of Allen Ginsberg’s estate sale, and John Ashbery read a poem. It was like a poetry reading. And Allen’s older brother was there and I was talking to him. The cool thing about Allen and me is that his family was very accepting of me. So Eugene, his brother, said, “I feel like I’m at a garage sale right now”. It seemed like a garage sale, but it was at Christie’s. It was very weird. So anyway, I was talking to Laurie about how weird it was and how I just saw a T-shirt that actually was mine. I would do Allen’s laundry and our laundry would be mixed, and I just never took it. And there it was, behind glass. You could bid on it. And I’m like, “Oh, well, I guess I’m not getting that back”. I think I was telling Laurie, there’s my T-shirt, and Lou comes up and goes, “Yo, do you have a cigarette?” And I said, “I don’t smoke.” and he says, “What good are you?”. So that’s the last thing he ever said to me. “What good are you?” He never liked me from the beginning. Consistent, I must say.

The first time that he ever interacted with me was when Laurie was performing with Philip Glass and Allen. Lou sat next to me the whole night and didn’t talk to me, which is fine. We were watching the show. And then at the end I was starving. But Allen kept saying “There’s going to be a dinner afterwards, so save your appetite”. So we’re standing, getting a cab, and Lou’s standing there off to the side and they’re talking. So Allen comes to me, he’s like, “Here, take my harmonium in my bag. There’s miso soup and brown rice in the icebox.” Hello? What about dinner? He said “I’m giving Lou your ticket”. I’m like, okay. I said goodbye to Allen, we kissed. And then I went to say bye to Lou, and he just turned. And I was like, “Motherfucker, I worship you”. I learned how to play guitar by listening to Bob Dylan, and then I learned how to rock out by listening to Lou Reed. Lou was a dick, and I have friends of mine, some of them no longer with us who adored him. There must have been some good in him. I just didn’t happen to ever see it personally.

AK: That was a great story, mostly because I’m interested in knowing what Allen Ginsberg used to eat.

David Aaron Greenberg: Okay, so, this is how I know that Allen cared about me. He left a note– when I was out– that said, “There’s miso soup on the stove without seaweed”, because he knew I hated seaweed. He loved seaweed and I hated seaweed. He made it without, with me in mind. That’s an act of love.

AK: That is an act of love. Food is really a manifestation of love.

David Aaron Greenberg: Right? He underlined “without seaweed”.

AK: Looking at your work, I would guess that the body and the likeness of the body is not the objective. You have such an expressive style, I imagine that you’re trying to get some kind of essence or energy from them

David Aaron Greenberg: You said it better than I do. You just nailed me right there. Yeah. Exactly.

AK: So what are you working on lately?

David Aaron Greenberg

2023

Featured in Eroica Variations

David Aaron Greenberg: Recently I’m working on an interesting– conceptually, it’s interesting because it’s a portrait of Fulano Librizzi, and I’ve been drawing or painting Fulano Librizzi since he was a sonogram. I think the first portrait I did, I couldn’t really get to him until he was maybe four. And even then, he was highly suspect of me at age four. He had good instincts, he knew to keep his distance from me at four. I couldn’t handle him at four. I had to wait. When he was around eight, I think I got a good likeness of him. So, I’m working on a portrait of him called Fulano and Fam, with his mother and father behind him. But that’s taken me forever and ever. Because first of all, he keeps changing, he keeps getting taller. And it’s impossible to keep up with him at this point. I think I have to wait till the last growth spurt. He’ll be 20. Will you please stop growing and changing? So, it’s a conceptual thing.

AK: And you’re featured in The Trops exhibition, Eroica Variations. You have three or four paintings in the show?

David Aaron Greenberg: There’s four because there’s one in the bathroom. Everyone forgets the bathroom painting. The bathroom works really well. I would prefer if someone bought it, that they put it in the bathroom.

Continue to Part 3

Part 3

An Interview with David Aaron Greenberg (Part 2) Read More »

Interview