An Evening in a Castle

Seven of my friends have been working hard all semester on a site specific installation and last night was the opening. About two hours out of Rome by road is a castle in the medieval town Genazzano.

Making bouquets on the busAlex, the snail, was part of the bunch

Brendan, Dorion's brother, partner in crime

Castello, Genazzano

Max and Everett

Dorion transformed an incredible room full of frescoes into an animation

The artist and his family

Grant and Marlene

Their installation really pushed the idea of space. From the bedroom of voices a string ran out the window to a swing set at the bottom. It felt like the idea exploded from the room.

Team Juciy: Mike, Emily, Liam and Ben

These photos from the Cenci were taken in February when the idea was still being sketched out

The final result

This window in the room let in air

aria is air in Italian

We were all really excited for this evening.

How often do you get to attend your friends' opening in a castle in Italy???

Dorion and Alex

Mike, Emily, Liam, Ben and Lois!

Che bella Emily!

A wide variety of people attended from artists to local townspeople

Emily and Mike

Liam with Bruna Esposito, the woman who opened this opportunity to RISD EHP students

What is an opening without a refreshment table
No, really

The bus ride back was a riot but good, good fun

Nederland

Liam and I spent five incredible days in the Netherlands on a tri-city mission. Our team's first stop was Eindhoven, where we met our friends Kevin and Heleen. We enjoyed warm Eindhovian hospitality, a French dinner and unusual but very comfortable accommodation. At the Van Abbe Museum our experience was rich. The slate building sat on water and housed engaging exhibits like Plug-in. A ninety minute feature film of the football legend, Zidane, exceeded expectations. We did a reconnaissance mission at the Design Academy Eindhoven. After surveying their impressive and highly conceptual industrial design department we only managed to capture a few shots. Next stop, Utrecht, home of our friend Gabi, University College Utrecht and the Rietveld Schröder House. Our first night consisted of numerous events in celebration of the year's completion. Throughout our stay, we were in good hands and made the most of our Unit home making friends along the way. Finally we touched down in Amsterdam where we spent the day with Kevin and our fellow EHP friends, Ben and Sam. After failing at multiple museum attempts we sought refuge in the beautiful de Hortus, or botanical garden. Despite digestive unrest, the mission was a success!

Eindhoven

We visited our friend Kevin who is studying at the Design Academy Eindhoven for the semester. It was refreshing to be in the design school atmosphere again: seeing the way other schools handle their wood and metal shops. At the design academy everything is one shop.





Utrecht



Amsterdam

(back to) Utrecht

On the airplane

Back in Rome

Rob's the man

Egocentric Eruptions
Robert Brinkerhoff
21st May 2009
6pm

A SUCCESS!!!

Friends

and family

The wonderful work
by the wonderful caterers

From what I understood, the erupting volcano is a metaphor for the self. Egocentric Eruptions seems to tell a story about revealing what is inside a personality as well as how it is perceived and how one wishes to be perceived. Seeing a series is always interesting to me because it views a subject, like the volcano, from different angles.




Today was Rob's show opening. He is our chief critic here on the EHP programme. Click on this, just trust me. Anyway, I wanted to say that it always amazes me to see the Beatrice room in a different setting. The Beatrice Room, sorry, is our multifunctional space where we had art history classes, a casual student show, movie nights, lectures and meetings. It's also used for yoga twice a week and houses beautiful frescoes that I've grown so used to that I don't notice it sometimes. So when they say multifunctional space they really mean it.

It was so refreshing to see Rob's body of work inhabit the space this evening. The mood was light, the company grew gently and the refreshments were made and served with love. Four years ago, before college, openings were an rare occasions. Since RISD started it has become so common for me to attend openings. Almost every Tuesday there is an opening for some show in some gallery on campus. In Rome this semester we get emails multiple times a week notifying us of the different show openings in town.

It's important to step back sometimes. A show opening is a big deal. It's a celebration of efforts and passion directed to a theme or feeling and expressed with a medium. Visual art is a silent performance and a show opening is the closest thing to a spotlight for an artist. So the next time you go to an opening, think about these things. It would not hurt to steal a moment with the artist. Well, if you want to.

What's left to do?

Siena, March 2009

Longer days

It was almost 7pm when this photo was taken and it reminds me of Providence in the spring. Barrett showed me what it looked like outside her window in Copenhagen while we were on skype. The lighting was similar to this except it was closer to 9pm! It feels good, though, to have more sunlight in a day. As we enter our six-week studio concentration period I can only beg for longer days.

Somethings to consider and look forward to:

1. Bruno Munari's work
2. the tree book
3. creating a space to experience the book
4. home away from Rome
5. more tourists- yay!
6. (hot, sticky) public transportation to the beach!
7. the final show
8. crit next week
   
9. what to bring
10. what to leave behind
    

Knew Sounds

Sam introduced Fever Ray to me. The lead singer of The Knife, Karin Dreijer Andersson, ventured off to do her own independent project and here it is.

When I Grow Up from Fever Ray on Vimeo.