Monday, August 31, 2009

The Book About Death


Matthew Rose


I liked the idea of this project by Matthew Rose but I couldn't get myself in the right frame of mind to do it. Here is his call for the Book About Death, including his own entries and a few other artist's contributions (some I know and some I don't). I plan to go to the opening so it will be interesting to see them all up close.


An Open Call from Matthew Rose

A BOOK ABOUT DEATH : 1000 ARTISTS CONTRIBUTE 500 POST CARDS EACH TO CREATE AN UNBOUND BOOK ABOUT DEATH. EXHIBITION AT THE EMILY HARVEY FOUNDATION GALLERY IN NEW YORK CITY. OPENING: THURSDAY 10 SEPTEMBER 2009. EXHIBITION: 10 - 22 SEPTEMBER 2009.


Matthew says
"A Book About Death is a project borne from a work by the late artist Ray Johnson, who died in 1995. Ray, who drowned in Sag Harbor, was an enormous influence on me personally, but he has influenced artists all over the world, particularly through his invention of "mail art" but also through his collage works which are seminal. Emily Harvey, in whose gallery this exhibition is taking place, was also a significant contributor to the art scene, especially where Fluxus was concerned. She was a light among artists and her Foundation, in NYC and Venice is a well-lit path for many artists, writers, filmmakers towards the places they want to go. Emily died in 2004 from pancreatic cancer. For me, the exhibition synthesizes many ideas at once and not only sets in motion a large and unbound book on the subject of death, but also empowers artists the world over, I believe with their inclusion here. There is no jury, all works – or "pages" – are accepted and deeply appreciated in this "book." The story of this project inevitably resides in the worlds created by the individual artists...and they are all worth investigating further."

Emily Harvey link: http://www.emilyharveyfoundation.org/emily.html


Here is one more of Matthew's

Matthew Rose


And some others............



Ria Vanden Eynde





Death Book Silence
gwendolynplunkett ancientvessel.blogspot.com


Nancy Natale


Pam Farrell





Yoko Ono




Linda Dubin Garfield.


Emily Parsons


David Benoit

7 comments:

layers said...

Several years ago I saw the documentary HOW TO DRAW A BUNNY about the life and death of Ray Johnson--- and since then I have been very interested in his art and have all the books on him and his work. This will be an amazing exhibit-- thank you for sharing some of the images.

Deborah T. Colter said...

This is a fascinating project. I found I could not get it out of my head. I encouraged my son to enter a project piece he did last year but alas, that did not happen. I hope you will share your thoughts on the works after the opening Lisa. These works have such power.

Unknown said...

Lisa - Is it too late to participate? I did a small series about bee colony collapse. Best, Nancy

lisa said...

NAncy,
The deadline is September 5th ( i think) go on his Matthews links to see the details. Good Luck

Gwendolyn Plunkett said...

Thanks Lisa, for posting about this project. It took me a while to get my head around it, but I am glad I did. Wish I could travel to NYC for the exhibition.
Gwen

Anonymous said...

Enjoyed your post. I am too far away to get to the show, but loved the concept and submitted a collage response. Hope you will post your thoughts after seeing the show!
Best,
Janice

Pamela Farrell said...

I LOVE How to Draw a Bunny. Highly recommended.

Lisa, thanks for posting this.