Social Dress New Orleans - 730 days after

06/11/2011 My Thoughts

2011-06-10T21:57:00.003-06:00

It has been three months since March 11th, 2011 in JST. The earthquake in Japan shook me well enough even though I live in New York. First two months and two weeks, I realized I spent 4 hours a day on the Internet. Everyday I pulled 4 - 10 articles on my email. After my birthday in the end of April it changed.

Nina and I went to LA for research trip and bit break. That physically forced me to be away from information technology. Rather it gives me time to chat more old friends there and visiting Joshua Tree national park provided me totally different scale of time and space.

In last May 2011, it was pretty busy month for my daily life that let me not read too much about Japan. Still, more less I spent 10 hours a week to read articles about it. Pulling 4 articles or so a week.

Just past two weeks, I was able to focus on what I needed to do here. Without serious change & my own decision, I was naturally able to think about current my art practice in truly good way. I was chilled. Something in my mind must be change.

Today (or yesterday), June 11th, three month after, I found what I am more interested in than anything regarding the earthquake & Tsunami.

It is about the youth suffering from there & their future and physical & mental loss like photos, home and town.

I feel I know what I could do for that. I am really glad. (Probably not necessary Art project but more personal invisible action and that might lead anything else.)

Long Distance Thoughts

2011-03-17T11:55:00.003-06:00

March 11th, Friday, 2:46pm in Japan, (US time: 00:46 EST Friday 03/11/2011)
M9.0 Huge earthquake hit in northern part of Japan, just north of Tokyo.

I was about to go to bed and closing my email. I received email about 地震, earthquake in Japan.
I opened it and read it and same time I understood this was not one of bunch of earthquakes happening in Japan. I went on search engine to find news. Then, until around 4:00 am (US time), I was unable to go to bed. That was the beginning of the day in NYC, US.

Because I was obsessively trying to gather information right after Hurricane Katrina hit in Gulf coast region in the US, back in 2005, I was pretty much depressed. I had hard time to eat and sleep. Concerning of my friends in New Orleans were wonderful but just worrying them from the distance did nothing but being depressed. My wife was disturbed and she had to truly worry about me than people in New Orleans in the end.

Because of the experience, I decided to meet my old friend, ESL teacher Erika from Loyola New Orleans. She recently contacted me to visit from New Orleans. She wanted to videotape for my ESL experience for their website as alumni. I did not talk anything about earthquake at all. To be honest, I thought once I started talking about it, I was unable to stay focus even though once she put it on the website the footagemight seem strange. But I could not talk about my feeling.

After that, Friday afternoon, I also went out and met friends at East Village. What a strange coincidence, the two of them were also originally from New Orleans region. Emily is currently from LA graduate student to study Public Art and the administration at USC. After the Katrina experience she helped Prospect .1 and then she decided to study further Arts. Another friend who I met first time was Alicia. She is currently working as speech therapist in Boston. I must say I truly felt I was in certain destiny... why I saw three friends same time from NOLA on the day another disaster hit.

We talked about our experiences during right after Katrina. They were in the area. I was in NYC.
What we learned about was that what national news talked about or national level's concerns were slightly different from what they went through and thought about. I was not from New Orleans but I came to the US in 2000 and first three years I was in New Orleans as English as the second language student and truly fell in love with New Orleans. So, in NYC when Katrina hit, I felt my home was in emergency. I felt I was 1.5 degree of separation.

I realized I am again in the similar position to Hurricane Katrina time. I am Japanese from Japan. I am in NYC since 2005. Under this massive disaster hit in Tohoku Japan, I cannot do anything physically over there at this moment. So I feel this is kind of 1.5 degree distance/ separation.

Well, comparing to 2005-2007, what's also so different is that my English is much better particularly the spoken, we have now many social media like Twitter and Facebook. More and more we use txt everyday base. Having the social media changed whole a lot such separation.

As just one of bunch of people, I would like to do what we could do. But also I will keep thinking about what possibly we (or they) need and could do a month later, three months, a year, ten years later and more later just like I did in 2005. I am really not sure about what it is and not sure if anything might happen, but I believe not forgetting this might be the key for us.

Since I often utilize Facebook, please feel free to find me at Facebook if you are interested. The social media is still more tangible and easy to talk and understand while I still like snail snail blog, yet I was unable to update past three years as much as I wanted to do. In that sense, we can share pictures and chat in a timely manner while we can slowly develop or state and discuss on Facebook. You can find Takashi Horisaki on Facebook and please say saw it on this social dress blog if you haven't been connected.

For this Horrible disaster in Japan, I like to know what you feel, know and like to do in terms of helping each other whether or not we do anything specific.

Please understand I am not quick and active person. I spend time to think till deciding something.

Facebook
National Endowment for the Arts
My Website

March 18th, 2011 (平成２３年３月１８日)
Takashi Horisaki 堀崎剛志

I wrote in English here because this is the message for the people not any spesific region.
Eventually I like to do so many different languages, though.

ABC No RIO - Graffiti to Go

2010-05-16T16:06:00.007-06:00

It has been pretty busy again or lazy ! to renew the blog. But my artistic activity was not stopped. So no worry ;-) ABC No Rio gallery project totally nurtured me as well as my work in Summer and Fall 2009. (May - Oct. 2009) What was amazing was first that I was able to tangibly learn the history of lower east Side in Manhattan through this organization. I commuted there almost every day or the other day after work to just chat with people or cast the graffiti in latex with same acrylic color matched with the graffiti. Their zine library was awesome. Any handmade magazine called ZINE, have been precisely collected by this organization. This building looked like just about to fall down and the entrance are full of graffiti. And inside as well. But, this is the place to express your feeling and artistic expression freely o your own because there are shared silkscreen shop, computer shop, dark room, exhibition space, back yard and the Zine library. (They even have a kitchen to fix food for homeless people and provide at Thompkins Square Park.)

Amazingly hidden, yet so many and many people came by every evening to make their own Art or just check out Zine or hang out with friends there. That made me so relaxed and enjoyed painted colored latex on top of graffiti and tags to trace again and again. Needless to say, every evening whenever I went back to there, different tags were added on top of the latex. That was cool. But what was much cooler for me that I was able to understand all the secret coding like tags once I follow what it looked like to be correct. Not just because English is not my native language, but their beautiful designed spelling made me difficult to know what was written and that is also the point for its own of course. The more I traced and overwritten the words, the more I felt it was hidden poetry that was about to fly from the wall to the air.

I continued to do so for four months (actual amount of the time doing so was probably two months.) Then, I realized I should just cast the words not the entire wall unlike in the way I did before. This piece itself is to dedicate for the people build and support ABC No Rio community in Lower East Side and their energy developed the idea of "Social Dress New York City - Graffiti to Go" which sometimes in the near future I like to explain, but love to make it happen in 10 years.

Another Project while working at ABC No Rio

2009-08-27T10:04:00.003-06:00

This Spring to Summer was pretty busy. Nina and I did first collaborating performance together at Inchon, South Korea. It went well.

Last Summer curator from Buffalo Arts Studio visited my studio in NYC. She knew my New Orleans project and she felt along the line of this project will be perfect for City of Buffalo where 20,000 of abandoned houses sitting all over the city due to the economic change past 2 decades.

Past one year, pretty slowly researching all sorts of info of Buffalo or Lake Erie area of cities like Detroit. Although it is not so updated, I looked through many streets by Google street photos. I found more active NPO working for their community.

PUSH Buffalo
Buffalo ReUSE

Beyond these two organizations, so many different group, organizations are actively working.
It is true that without gaining new jobs the city still lose population and nothing easily change. However, I was able to see how still effective to put garden in vacant lots and plan trees along each street.

One thing I noticed there was each neighbor is in slightly different housing situation.
I wondered knowing other neighbor might be very important for them.

Anyhow,
my idea for this project (will happen June 2010) is to go all different neighbor and cast part of abandoned house with latex with High School and College students as teams, and build Geodesic Dome in a vacant lot. It is not representation of our clueless hope or unrealized Utopia. It is our active progress go toward real utopia we believe. It would be cool if we could have such feeling by this project.

We'll see...

Next time, I will talk more about current project at ABC No Rio. Such a wonderful organization who really made it past 20 years. great example, not just hope.

ABC No Rio Gallery

2009-07-09T01:57:00.002-06:00

This Summer to early Fall, I am involved in group Artists' collectives project/ exhibition entitled, "Hanging out" at ABC No Rio Gallery in Lower East Side, Manhattan, NYC, NY. This gallery has very unique grass root history. Recently Steve, the director was invited to talk at Louisiana Artworks. It was just by chance, though. So anyone went to the lecture might have been familiar with this gallery.

Essentially, in mid 80s in Lower East Side in NYC, group of artists purposefully broke in to NYC property, which was taken from private landlord who could not pay tax and abandoned, and did art exhibition to claim about the slam issue. It was new action at the time so it became big news in NYC although it sounds normal part of practice now. From that beginning, they acted together and eventually NYC gave small property with a four story building by one dollar to the group. It became ABC No Rio Gallery as non-profit Art organization. It has silkscreen shop, B&W photo shop, Zine library, Computer Shop and gallery/ Punk Rock show space. This building has been falling apart. Amazingly last week, they got funding from NY to build new facility. It took good 10 years of negotiation.

Anyhow, I as 4 years old young New Yorker Artist, it was fascinating to listen and learn the history. Many of known old generation artists went through this organization. Our show purpose is to learn the history, meet old hidden artists, think about how we could inherit the spirits in this time of the year as young artists, and do something as well as promoting this old hidden gallery since even NY young artists do not necessary know the name even!

Sorry, it takes time to get into my latex oriented project.

I wonder if I could cast specific wall with latex one by one with people coming in this building.
I have to show you how crazy building it is and then you get it why.

Today, I went to the gallery around 3pm. Bad Luck! No one was there. Just locked. No way I can get in touch with people from outside. No inter phone. Low low budget organization can hire only one director. Usually active after 6pm. So, what a hell, I rather do something. Spontaneously I decided to cast entrance. Its color is golden and full of graffiti, signature, stickers. You could say it is beautiful. You might think it is not.

The surface is very slicky because they painted enamel paint. They probably repainted recently. So, even if I paint latex and peel it off, it does not get any graffiti except for stickers. I wondered what would be the best for this. I was looking at each anonymous people's self expression. I got interested in tracing all the signature by my hand painting latex. I made similar color of latex to the graffiti. I carefully followed the signs. As non native speaker, it was more difficult what alphabets they were. By examining order, brush strokes, I figured it out and found it was like Japanese calligraphy lesson. It took forever. Only just 1' x 3' around area, I spent 6 hours. Oh wow. By the time I finish the entrance area (8' x 12' total wall space w/ two doors) I could be pretty good at others graffiti sign by paint brush....? (So far, thin lines are not really same at all!)

Photo coming soon.

New Phase (7/9/'09)

2009-07-09T01:29:00.002-06:00

I have been thinking about how I could use this blog from now on. Originally I thought I use this for Social Dress New Orleans project blog only. However, I myself found the fact using latex with this technique still opens new way of expression as art form.

Last early Summer, I did group show at Smack Mellon Gallery in DUMBO, Brooklyn, NY. I found another way of using latex to cast building as site specific project. In this case, I made same colors of brick wall and painted on the brick wall yet very thinly. I then peeled off partially so that it looks as though thin skin of building came off from the building surface. It was extremely thin so through the sun light from outside, you saw the color and texture. I like to upload the image later here. This is about the history of the building itself.

So maybe, projects utilizing latex cast and similar concept behind could be in this blog even if the blog title suggests about New Orleans project since the readers might be interested in such similar projects as well as it is good for my project diary, thought memo, inventory of the date and photo archives.

Let's begin!

1/28/2009 - Storage!

2009-01-28T00:17:00.002-06:00

Prospect .1 New Orleans Biennial ended.

Now I need to look for storage for Social Dress New Orleans - 1941 Caffin Avenue.

I am looking for approximately 200sqft space wither in New Orleans or New York area.
If you know any inexpensive storage place or could give me good deal, let me know please!!!!!!!

It seems it will be taken down in the beginning of February.

PBS News Hour Showed Prospect .1

2008-12-16T09:47:00.004-06:00

New Orleans Art Exhibit Aims to Help City Heal

Last night on PBS TV at Jim Lehrer's News Hour Prospect .1 New Orleans Biennial was reported by Jeffrey Brown.

Keith & Chandra running L9, community Art center on Caffin ave in Lower Ninth Ward explained how Art could heal them and people in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina still now. Willie and Deborah shared their thoughts through their pieces. If you are further interested in how Dan Cameron conceived this Biennial you can listen to it on this show and more from here.

My project was explained 2:30 - 2:40 in this show. This is amazing.

Thanks!

Holiday Season Prospect .1 Business Hours

2008-12-14T12:47:00.006-06:00

I asked Prospect .1 New Orleans Biennial office about their holiday season business hours. They sent me the info.

They have the visitor's Hotline: 504-715-3968

For people from outside of NOLA,

Cab is not running all over the streets. You have to call the cab and wait.
I am not getting money from certain company, but I always used,

United Cab: 504-522-9771

Airport to downtown:

Airport Shuttle:504-522-3500
http://www.airportshuttleneworleans.com/

Happy Holidays! Snow in NOLA (week of 12/8/08)

2008-12-14T12:26:00.005-06:00

Friends living in New Orleans sent me photos. While NYC does not have snow, New Orleans got lots of snow. It's NOT lots of snow, but for New Orleans where very rarely has snow will usually get, it must be.

Rebecca Rapp is on the photo. We went to school together at Loyola University in New Orleans.
Very recently we reconnected through Facebook.

Two Weeks Printmaking Residency in NOLA - Apply now!

2008-12-07T02:37:00.004-06:00

My friend, Kyle and Jenny's print shop, Hot Iron Press is now accepting artists living outside of New Orleans for two weeks printmaking residency at their wonderful studio.

It seems they even provide flight, place to stay and all the equipments!
If you as an artist missed many time to visit New Orleans even if you heard cool things in NOLA Art before, this is one of the best opportunities for sure. I know them well and their skill sets are amazing.

http://www.hotironpress.com/visitingartists.htm

I am sure they still look for applications.
Let's apply now!

======

By the way,
my house sculpture is still on view till January 18th, 2009 at the Hefler Warehouse, 851 Magazine Street, one block from Contemporary Art Center. (Wed. - Sun. 11am-6pm)

Please come visit.

http://www.hotironpress.com/visitingartists.htm

http://www.hotironpress.com/

Chalk Board at the Charles J. Colton School

2008-11-16T02:15:00.006-06:00

I was able to visit One of the Prospect.1 sites, Colton School, on Halloween day this year. My wife and I rode my friends' bikes all the way to St. Claude Avenue just before the industrial canal.

This school gave me so much emptiness. Or rather void and sadness. A friend of mine told me that he had to clean up a lot before the opening of the exhibition. The feeling I got when I re-visited my elementary or junior high school during the summer-time long time ago was something similar to this.

When we went into one of the classrooms on the third floor, we could not breathe. We were shocked by what remained on the chalkboard.

Please look at what was written. I darkened some of the parts to make it more visible. I could not stop crying after seeing this. It is something much more powerful than any artwork. I know we cannot compare like that.

I wonder if we could preserve this room as a reminder.

Dave Bachli

2008-11-16T01:51:00.006-06:00

Dave Bachli is one of the wonderfully helpful New Orleanians. Yet he is also still suffering from after K.

Right after Hurricane Katrina, he wanted to support his New Orleans-based neighbor artists and started an artists' space called X/0 studios (http://web.mac.com/v00d00/iWeb/Site/Welcome.html) in Bywater, just one block from NOCCA. It opened in 2007.

He actually is not from NOLA originally, but he has been there for a good two decades. He totally fell in love with New Orleans and never wanted to leave.

However, he had to make that decision recently. It is incredibly sad for us that he needed to move his home. Perhaps I have no right to describe this part since I have never experienced real life in New Orleans after Katrina. Yet, if I am allowed, he told me last month when I visited there that he was extremely tired and disappointed and frustrated about the situation there.

He opened a gallery space, but not really for profit. Rather, he just wanted to get started helping and supporting each other to bring his neighborhood back. I feel that since he is a down-to-earth person and likes to help out as a normal part of his life, he was overly exhausted about the past 3 years' living situation.

A couple years ago while cleaning up his house from the flooding, my good friend Michael tripped and broke his left arm, and is still trying to recover from it. His wife recently mistakenly fell on a step and broke her right wrist while evacuating from Gustav. This is NOT necessarily just because of simple mistakes or clumsiness. People from there and people who love the town are willing to stay, but are continuing to suffer from immense fatigue and stress.

Dave already put a "For Sale" sign at his home and X/0 studios. He is ready to move out of town, yet possibly not for good. He said he's excited about going back to his home town up in the Northeast, yet his face did not look like he was excited.

I honestly do not want to talk about this here, never, and I don't want to misrepresent him. But, I guess I did want the chance to say "thank you" for his generosity.

In NYC, many galleries are disappearing right now, due to the current financial situation. It is really rather amazing. But the closing of X/O studios is not the same as what is happening in NYC. Rather it is a sign of the continuing struggle in NOLA.

Metro Poles: Art in Action Exhibition at Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning

2008-11-15T15:49:00.007-06:00

Just right after finishing up my friend Carol's installation at Mixed Greens, I jumped into a group exhibition last Thursday evening.

Three Non-Profit galleries in three different Boroughs in NYC got together proposing that artists work in collaborative groups, building off each others' works to experiment with a non-commercial semi-spontaneous method of creation.

This show system is: one leading artist makes a new work at the gallery for one week during the first week of the exhibition. Then, the next artist comes and takes over the piece to create a new piece for themselves during the next one week. In that way each group of 4-5 artists keeps creating new works from the previous work at the gallery space.

I originally proposed something about visual information from tourist souvenir postcards.
I am more attached to NOLA now and quite aware of the reality after Hurricane K. Over the past month, I walked around tourists' stops and checked out postcards. It's interesting. They are all pretty much similar to what I first bought and sent to my grandparents eight years ago. Then, I thought that we as tourists maybe take a bunch of digital photos or even cell phone camera photos all the time and send the images to friends at home right away. Also, the images on the souvenir postcards do not necessarily convey what I feel about NOLA. It's nothing wrong, but my NOLA is not at all about Bourbon Street for instance. Yet, I like Mardi Gras or any festivity there while my friends grew up there are usually saying that they are a bit tired of it.

So, since I have many many photos I have taken in New Orleans over the past eight years, I decided to create my own NOLA postcards. It has my own notes already on the back as well as my address. Viewers are free to take some, address them and send them to their friends.

Probably everybody has their own idea/image of each region, city, country. I often enjoy others' images of Japan for instance.

I am not sure how the next artist, Claudia Weber will work on my postcards........ (She is nervous since she is very much a studio practice artist who creates her installation work at her studio, not spontaneously. ) It's a huge artistic challenge, and she just got sick. I hope she is all right, but I'm sure she'll do something interesting.

Catching up with my Life (11/13/08)

2008-11-14T10:49:00.003-06:00

Now I understand over three weeks of out of town causes a bit of a time lag and/or culture shock. It is taking time for me to get back to my own life; my brain takes time to get back to where I am.

This evening, I had a group show opening for an exhibition called Metro Poles at Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning. Several groups of artists work on their own art at the gallery over the next two months. Every week a different artist takes over and work on a new work from the previous work exhibited at the gallery.

It looked like an artists' party with a reunion kind of feeling. I enjoyed it a lot.
Coincidentally, I met two Jasons at the show who are also participating in this exhibition.
One Jason asked if I worked for Boxart before. I said kind of. He said, "hey you made that latex door?" Oh wow how did he know that? It turned out they made the crates for the Social Dress New Orleans piece. Jason liked the colorful door. We were very glad to meet and work together.

In NYC or anywhere this happens a lot. Most artists work for other artists or in art services such as installation at museums or being a crater. I finished Carol Salmanson's beautiful LED light architectural installation at Mixed Greens Gallery this week. I came back 3 am on Thursday morning!

Whenever I can see and meet people related to our activities, I am very happy. Now we know that the humongous crates were made by Jason and Jason (and probably more people as well) at Boxart!

By the way, I am making my version of New Orleans' tourist postcards for the Metro Poles exhibiton. I have more than a thousand pictures I took in New Orleans over the past 5 years, off and on. I wonder about tourist postcards, now that it's digital camera or cell phone camera era. Postcards are not renewed often, and tend to be a set of image of the city. I thought it might be fun to make my own postcards write my commentary on the back where you usually write a message, but let visitors take them and address them to their friends. These are free to take by anyone at the gallery, but if you take one, I'd like you to send it to your friends.

One Extra (11/03/08)

2008-11-03T22:21:00.005-06:00

My wife, Sculptor, curator Nina wanted to get started on her video project since Spring 2007 related to Post-Katrina New Orleans. We were not sure if we would have the chance but fortunately, at the very last moment, we were able to stop by our friends' house, in Uptown New Orleans, to do filming. In the afternoon, Nina wore a T-shirt and jeans and jumped into the pool to swim for a few hours. The water is a bit cold this time of year. We set up a video camera and shot only the part of the pool where she waded. I am not sure about the details of how she will complete the artwork, but it is both about floating for long time after Hurricane Katrina hit and flooded, and a metaphor for the waiting residents have experienced in reconstruction (The flood in the city is not directly because of the Hurricane. It's because of levee, pump system and what not.) She talked about wondering how people were able to swim for long periods of time or stay in the water for a long time after the city flooded. She originally wanted to do floating in a pool or any place she could do this for more than 8 hours. She wanted to experience that length of time to understand physically how it was actually harder than we may imagine to wait for rescue anywhere it was not dry. Anyhow, she told me that as she was wading she started feeling her fingers became freezing and stiffening. So she decided to stop after just a couple hours. Although the water must have been a bit warmer in August-September 2005 than what it is right now, being in the water a long time must make us totally burned out. We'll see how Nina's project goes later.

By the way, after filming, we quickly packed up and called a cab, and left for the airport. However, the traffic was pretty bad and we ended up missing the flight but got one for the next morning instead. Oh well, at least we got to see interesting art, and stay one more night with our friends!

After the Installation (10/31/08)

2008-10-31T02:49:00.005-06:00

Last Wednesday 29th, Nina (my wife and life saver) arrived from NYC. She did not have time to sleep before coming due to her many tasks at a non-profit gallery. Tara, one of the wonderful volunteers for Prospect.1, nicely gave us a ride to and from the Airport. In the end, we actually picked up two art writers who had just arrived there but were waiting for their rides. At the airport, it is quite obvious who does not belong to NOLA;) I just asked if they came for Prospect .1 and if they needed a ride.

During the first day of previews for the media, Thursday 10/30, parts of the installation at the Hefler were still in-process due to a few unexpected delays. My house, itself, was done last Tuesday, but the Welcome Center behind my installation was still under construction. When Nina and I visited there around 2pm, the carpenter, Christian, was on top of the welcome center. However, compared to the day before, when it was still a skeleton, the center was almost done. Yaay! Unfortunately, the electrical circuits at the warehouse were not done so they took electricity from next door by extension cords. They ran just next to my house making it look like it was still under installation. Also, it seemed a bit unsafe as people could trip over them, so I added more extension cords so they could be run right against the wall. The final touch-up was done! I packed the rest of my equipment and left for the hotel. It's just amazing the fact that overall we still complete our installation for Prospect .1 in time. I felt that Prospect .1 showed some energy and possibility to us in New Orleans.

Day #8 Lighting Done (Monday, 10/27/08)

2008-10-28T00:45:00.006-06:00

1:45am Tuesday 10/28:

All the lighting has been set up so that the electricians can hook them up properly tomorrow.

A volunteer Tara came to help me. That saved me a lot. We went to the hardware store to buy all the lights: 6 flood lights and six clip lamps. On the way back to our warehouse, we ran into Gene who works at the Art Council and who helped this project whole a lot last year. That was a nice coincidence.

In the afternoon, unfortunately one of the contractors' car ran into one of the aircraft cables supporting the latex panels and cut it off. Fortunately there were no injuries. Late in the evening, James came to help me. All the damage was fixed and we got a new, better idea about how to support the section.

Lighting is very difficult. It took forever to find the right direction and amount, and I am constantly wanting to change things slightly.

After all the contractors left, Kurt from DDD came to visit and we just talked about this project.

In the end, I feel pretty good. I think this is finally it. Tomorrow Tara and I will clean up all of the stuff and help the electricians if needed.

Oh wow, I missed dinner. I guess I should eat now!

Day #7 (Saturday, 10/26/08)

2008-10-26T09:30:00.004-06:00

Today, I was by myself. It made me very lonely since Prospect .1 installers were so nice and friendly. We had a wonderful time together.

I will work with the electricians up until Wednesday to set up the lighting. It's kind of difficult to decide how it should be done.

Day #5 (Thursday, 10/23/08)

2008-10-25T08:08:00.004-06:00

Today was Johnny's Birthday. So, I asked a volunteer to secretly buy a cake.

Just before we the completed front window and entrance section, we enjoyed the surprise Birthday cake!

Finally we finished the entrance side.

Day #4 (Wednesday, 10/22/08)

2008-10-23T08:10:00.007-06:00

We understood now how the installation works, and perhaps accelerated the process yesterday. So, we separated each task, assigning one per installer and moved everything along smoothly. Of course, as is always the case, there were certain minor mistakes that we had to stop and redo. Overall I think we met our goal for today. Personally, I would like to do a bit faster: I will try to complete 90% by Thursday!

Day #3 (Tuesday, 10/21/08)

2008-10-22T00:57:00.013-06:00

Tuesday, October 21st was a good day. I did not have to run to the hardware store before coming over to my work site. Yet, somehow I had a nightmare the night before, so felt not so great. But, once I got to Hefler Warehouse, where I am installing the house, I was fine. Maybe because all the installers were very nice as well as hard workers. Also, in the late morning, we received the drill press, the missing materials (wire clips for 1/16" wire rope) and the rest of the stuff. Yaaay!

I do not have pictures here, but Daniela worked on drilling one hole each on the tiny couplings, Natalie completed all threaded rods for supporting each latex panel sheet, Steve Quick and James set the wood screw eye bolts and hung the set up pieces on a scissor lift, along with Johny and Joy who are also repairing some of the latex pieces. Her solution was quite amazing. I am very glad to have her for my installation crew. In the afternoon, Steve Pauley, whose artwork is pretty cool by the way, came to join our installation. Well, I feel so lucky to have such a cool team.

Tomorrow, I would like to complete the south side wall and part of west side wall as well as middle walls. I hope we have no trouble, issues or injuries.

Good night!

Installation Day 1 (Sunday, 10/19/08)

2008-10-19T22:29:00.010-06:00

It seems to me that first day of installation is always slow and somewhat difficult. This seems true for this installation too. It is very nice cool and dry weather now, totally different from last Friday's humidity and heat so that helped us a lot. Natalie, James, Steve and I began to figure out how we should start hanging the piece. All the parts we needed were shipped previously except for one piece. We needed wire clips for 1/16" Aircraft cable but there were only 5 in the box we received. But we have to have 405 pieces! Well, it's not really a big deal, but I had wished not to have that kind of problem. The exhibition manager Keith ran around town to all the different hardware stores, yet could not find any anywhere and decided to order them again. He has been extremely helpful in getting equipment and supplies for me, though, despite working with so many (81!) artists! He brought us a hammer drill and more work lights, etc.

Okay, let's start!

First, we figured out where the house will be situated in the warehouse. It took time: 3 hours. We had to make certain it worked with the columns and the house itself, and wasn't imposing too much on the other occupants of the building.

Second, we re-organized all the pieces by the numbers.

Third, we installed the pediment (the front tilted triangle facade piece). That took time, till the end of the day (6pm). The Prospect Registrar, Kellie, came by and gave us a hand. She was very sweet. She herself walked around picking up all sorts of trash that had been spread around and organized some equipment for us. That was very helpful.

Anyway, the weather helped. We temporarily hung the front portion. We will finish it up first thing tomorrow morning.

Good night!

Unpacking Social Dress from crates

2008-10-18T19:43:00.006-06:00

Friday 10/17, afternoon, we started unpacking.
The Prospect .1 Registrar suddenly called me up to see if I was available to get started.
I was wandering around Bywater area and said yes I could, in 30 minutes.

I rushed to the warehouse and realized, "oh my! it's still Summer down here": T-shirts and sandals are fine here while NYC's weather is late Autumn cool.

The process of unpacking was quite sweaty: the very hot and humid warehouse nicely made us tired quickly. Well, we are running out of time so we got going anyway. Amazingly, by 6pm, we were done! 39 pieces were out from boxes.

Thanks Kellie, Daniela, Christine, Steve and James!

1941 Caffin Avenue will come back on Magazine Street

2008-10-14T11:33:00.008-06:00

It has been our hope to bring this shotgun house back home. Over the past year, many people helped to make this happen. Finally we found space, funding, means of transportation and people to install the house.

Although I have not completed the installation, I thank you all for helping bringing the house back to New Orleans.

I will be back in NOLA starting this coming Wednesday and will slowly begin the preparation.

The location will not be the same 1941 Caffin Avenue that the house came from, but instead will be on Camp Street just 5 minutes away from the Contemporary Art Center (CAC). If you walk from the CAC to French Quarter, it is less than one block down to Magazine Street from CAC.
If you would like to get in touch with me, please use my gmail: socialdress@gmail.com

10/20-24 will be intense 8hrs x 5 days installation with supposedly 6 installers. I might be dizzy during this time, but you are more than welcome to swing by:)

Exhibiton starts 11/1 - 1/18/09
www.prospectneworleans.org

One Thanks!

2008-09-03T14:43:00.006-06:00

I will update two more blogs very soon, and these are supposed to come first, but I'd like to mention this as soon as possible.

After Gustav, the New Orleans area has been very busy getting back to normal. But all the people in charge of security, transportation and what not seem to really be working hard.

I need to figure out my flight to New Orleans since it was canceled due to Gustav. The air flights restarted, but a means of transportation from the New Orleans airport seems uncertain. I was not in a hurry so I'm not so worried about it, but since I needed to rebook my flight, I needed to know the airport shuttle and taxi status.

I emailed New Orleans Airport Shuttle this morning. I did not expect to receive an individual answer, but just wanted to do my best to find out the situation.

Amazingly, in the afternoon, after I figured out everything else, I received an email from the manager.

He said some of the shuttles will come back by Saturday.

This was from the Airport Shuttle General Manager, Don Duvernay.

I appreciate your precise customer service!

I am sure he is helping deal with the massive number of inquiries from customers.
I hope the company is able to set up some announcements on their website next time so that Don does not have too much extra work!

Thank you Don!

Gustav - thoughts

2008-09-02T11:06:00.019-06:00

The last weekend of August, 2008 has been annoying.
Briefly I tried to get in touch with my friends living in New Orleans.
Their reactions and range of worries varied widely, very individually.
Students and those on the younger side of my friends seem to just be getting going on what they have to do. Needless to say, however, my friends who have their own home or young kids were rather stressed out. I was planning on coming down to New Orleans 9/1-12 for another small, community-based project as well as a University exhibition in Hammond which has been in the works for the last half-year.

Last Saturday I had a studio visit with a curator named Donna Harkavy. We ended up discussing all sorts of subjects from Hurricane Katrina to our government's activities since the show she is co-curating at Colgate University this coming October also is about the changes that have occurred in the country during the Bush administration.

Although I am very much so paying attention to them, but I personally always hesitate to go further into discussions about political issues. Rather, I tend to think about major social issues from considering the situation of each family I know, for instance. Like my close friends in New Orleans, the Whites, who are about to complete their home renovation right now after going through all the trouble of getting insurance approval, rebuilding permission and extra finances while paying off their kid's education etc.

Then Gustav came.

Last May I revisited the Whites at their home. Compared to last summer in 2007, the house had undergone major improvements. Their first floor, which had been totally destroyed by Katrina, became a modern living space and had a nice new couch that I took a nap on for a while. Whenever I visited their home back when I lived in New Orleans several years ago, I remember that being the room where I enjoyed looking at antique furniture and Chinaware. I remembered the Whites talking about how every time they moved they carefully wrapped all the kitchen stuff and Chinaware. It was their memory's room, like an old sepia photo album.

That was all wiped out by Katrina.
So, it was not easy for me to feel and say to them how beautiful their new renovated living room was. The daughter, Glenavin, said essentially the same thing: "The contents will never come back."

Yes, they all survived. We know New Orleans is the place that is, historically speaking, is often hit by hurricanes. This must be why they then developed such a sensitivity to the aesthetics of ephemerality over the centuries.

But still...

I am sure Lee's must have been feeling very worried these past few days. What if they got flooded again? What can they do next financially? If they were still on the younger side, maybe they could drink beer and start over again by cynically laughing, but I don't think they can now.

Preoccupied with thinking about these various potential problems, I spent my weekend watching the Wunderground website and listening to the radio after emailing as many friends as possible about where they're gonna be. NYC life is busy as usual. Nina and I did what we had to do, but my mind never shifted to what I was in the midst of doing here.

For me personally, I would not mind any of the crappy parts of bureaucracy or politics as long as each person did one's job in timely manner without making too many excuses. We have to pay tax. Even though I am still foreigner, yes I am paying too :) although I have no right to vote.
If things really need to get done, I guess we still have to find the finances and do them for safety's sake.

I do not know the details, but it seems people in all the administrative positions prepared and worked hard this time. I truly appreciate it. My school, Loyola University, sent alumni an update on the school's info from Dallas, TX.

So, for now, I would rather like to know more about the current levee situation. By watching the internet videos and photos, it looks as though the water was as high as the Industrial Canal Levee wall. Just saying "Please don't worry, it is safe," in that circumstance probably cannot give us relief. I would like to know if we need to raise the height or what is the bottom line about the protection the city currently has and will have in the future. Maybe residents of New Orleans got used to it, but it still seems to give us all so much stress. People outside of New Orleans might say that it is their choice to live there. If they're concerned about it, why don't they leave the city? I understand that point of view, but I am sure you do not want to hear such words if you are in their position. Why do we have to leave our homes? If we tried to avoid all potential natural disasters, all Japanese would have to leave Japan due to typhoons, tsunami and big big earthquakes then. I understand how amazingly expensive it is to build levees and/or any other type of protection system, but everywhere has something they have to defend against.

Maybe, while we begin to deal with the 2-5 year short-term security system, we might have to reconsider how we live and interact with nature.

I think New Orleans reminds us of that just as an election approaches.

I am saying we must think as human beings, not as Japanese, Americans, citizens of NYC or New Orleans or any place in particular. Thinking about Lee's anxiety, which is probably similar to that of all the others who faced Gustav, I would like to think hard about our society's politics and our lives.

Looking back Past One Year (8/23/08)

2008-08-23T10:54:00.016-06:00

It has been for a while since I wrote my last blog entry. Time passes very very quickly.

I received an email recently from Bruce who supported the Social Dress New Orleans project as a pro-bono lawyer, negotiating with City Hall.

==============
Bruce to me
Aug 17 (6 days ago)

Takashi:

I thought of you when this news came out - with hundreds of houses still in need of demolishment the city demolishes a house that someone wants!

I was in the neighborhood of your project on Caffin Avenueand there are still houses standing that could or should be knocked down . . . and I am reminded how they targeted "your" house before all the others. Funny - but not laughing funny.

http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2008/08/city_mistakenly_demolishes_cou.html

I am quoted in this article linked below - I have been busy in criminal court.
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5ibnhDYXzQEhYVsz8iQ0hRepT5GkgD92HNQAO0

Anyway - take care friend!

Bruce

==============

For people in NOLA, this is not necessarily unusual stuff to hear since it seems to have happened quite a bit in past three years. This is also a little bit of business-as-usual in NOLA, from my tiny knowledge and pre-Katrina experience. However, I read the article and felt that it was, again, difficult to believe such things are still happening in NOLA. For someone who lives and work in different city, state, it is so remote from me - such news does not seem to make it out here to NYC. It is quite sad that, even if I have been concerned about New Orleans, from a distance there is certain limitation to what I can pay attention to. I am not responsible for knowing and doing something about every problem NOLA faces, but due to the time, energy, and assistance I gained from the local community, I do feel a bit obligated to say something.

As an outsider from the disaster, I think accumulating any info and learning from the mistakes and successes teaches us important lessons to prepare for any future disasters in other places. In my case, my family and friends talked about earthquake in Kobe area a lot so I learned a lot about how people were and were not prepared. Of course, at that time, the victims and their families were tied up in recovery efforts, so they had not time to talk about it themselves. Instead, media and government officials released that information. Certainly, earthquakes might not happen in many areas of the US, and similarly, flooding like what we saw in NOLA might not happen elsewhere. But the reality of what one must go through in terms of insurance, security and recovery systems could apply to all types of disasters and therefore apply to us all. If anyone finds any good links for stories like this that we should hear more about, let me know. I will add such links to this site in the future.

New Orleans Trip - 5/10-5/15/08 - Lower Ninth Ward

2008-05-14T22:17:00.013-06:00

Last week, I re-visited New Orleans. This was my first visit after the completion of "Social Dress New Orleans - 730 days after." There are too many thoughts and things I would like to show here. I will make small blogs one by one, I hope. Entries titled under "New Orleans Trip - 5/10-5/15/08" are all from last week.

First:

I borrowed a bike from Courtney Egan. She and David nicely let me stay at their place the entire week. Thank you for your generosity.

I rode the bike more or less 15 miles a day in order to grasp how things are going compared to last summer.

Good News: It's changing and getting better, yet it is still at a New Orleans pace.

I would like to describe Lower Ninth Ward first.

Sunday evening May 11, I was able to cross the industrial canal and go into the Lower Ninth Ward. Many New Orleanians had previously said there was nothing going on there.

Yes, that may seem true to them, yet to me it's a "NO."

From the Holy Cross area toward the north, crossing N. Claiborne Avenue, I reached 1941 Caffin Avenue where my project took place. Just a couple houses before that, I found a brand new shotgun house.

I was extremely glad.
It really made me cry.

I rode further north. It was pretty much the same landscape. Then, I turned in the direction toward where levee broke. I think that was on N. Galvez Street. I found huge red house there.

It was not just a house. Many people were having a BBQ party. I could see a yellow inflatable playground for kids.

It was Mother's Day.

I kind of wanted to say hello to them, but instead just slowly passed.
I really honestly cried then.

I was not sad. I was moved. I was encouraged.
I have never been to a war zone. I have never had the chance to go and help people in a disaster area. I am not a medical doctor. I am just a third person observer. I could be a disturbance.

I was wondering if I could do as well as they did after a huge disaster if one hit my home.

After seeing this, I felt more and more convinced that New Orleans will be coming back.
(To be honest, I never felt this city would be gone because I knew they are all really strong.)

I would say that on each block east, west, south and north, one house has come back. Considering how many houses had been there before Katrina, it seems like not so many have returned. So, we can still say the speed of progress on the house construction is very slow in the Lower Ninth Ward.

I went to Mid-city but could not visit Gentilly and Lakeview because, before I made it there, I was again dehydrated.

The family in the red house, however, still stays with me. They give me so much hope.

Prospect One

2008-05-01T04:38:00.008-06:00

I received an email from Dan Cameron, Chief Curator of the Contemporary Art Center in New Orleans, who is organizing Prospect One, New Orleans' new International Art Biennial.

He invited me to participate in the program!

Oh wow... We are really able to bring the house back home.

I really appreciate it.

http://www.prospectneworleans.org/

Bring It Back to Home!

2008-04-25T11:57:00.005-06:00

I am wondering if we could bring this latex New Orleans house back to its Home during Prospect.1...

This is a hand-drawn rendering of how it might look if we install it indoors in a warehouse where it would not be exposed to so much light. A dim and quiet place.

Unable to Come Back to Home (4/14/08)

2008-04-17T00:54:00.004-06:00

Loyola University and I have been working to try to bring the house back home for past 8 months, since last September '07. Unfortunately, the school recently told me that they were unable to raise enough funding under the recent circumstances. I appreciate their long-term efforts. They decided to reschedule the exhibition of the project's documentation, at the University's Collins C. Diboll Gallery as well. We have done our best for now. So, I am sure this will allow for some other possibility in the future. Let's cross our fingers!

Going to Germany? (4/10/08)

2008-04-17T00:53:00.001-06:00

I got one email from Dresden Germany. It said the museum in the city was interested in showing the house for their environment oriented exhibition. We'll see how it goes.

March 31, 2008 - Finally Ended at Socrates

2008-03-31T23:10:00.007-06:00

This is the end of this first phase of the project.

Monday morning, once again it was showering.

This project started with rain and ended with rain.

My old raincoat from Japan was, again, quite useful.

The new studio manager at Socrates Sculpture Park, Lars
and I discussed about possible storage.
He pointed out container 4's ceiling as a good space for latex pieces and
the outdoor steel rack for the rest.

Yaaay! Finally I found temporary storage.
Park director Alyson said it should be fine there till the piece
goes to New Orleans.

It took a good day to re-organize pieces and set up storage.

Essentially, I made a storage rack hanging from the container ceiling
with leftover aircraft cable, rigging stuff and PVC pipes.

To shut out UV light, it was covered by cardboard, paper and plastic
bags.

I wrapped the pipes and wires tightly together.

Well, to be honest, due to the time and effort necessary to maintain
the piece, I was quite tired so I tightened and wrapped them
very well so that I hope I do not have to unwrap them during the next half-year at least....

Just as they state in the sculpture park's mission statement, this was the first ever large-scale overwhelming outdoor sculpture experience for a young sculptor (me) who usually does not have such opportunity in NYC.

Beyond that, however, I was able to meet so many different people from all over the nation and learned so many thoughtful things related to our lives.

I just want to say thank you to everybody.

----

Jerry and Annie,
Thank you for encouraging me to get started this project.

Karoline,
Thank you for working hard to bring this back home to New Orleans this coming Fall.

3/29/08 - Karl and Mateo Gave Big Big Help

2008-03-28T23:03:00.009-06:00

It's already the end of March!

I remember this was the time last year when I was about to make my decision to do this project.

Last year March 18, 2007
http://socialdress-neworleans.blogspot.com/2007/03/reunited.html

This winter was not so snowy. That helped preserve this project a lot. But, it was still cold enough to freeze the ground so we couldn't pull out the footings.

This is the time when the next group-show artists will be starting to work on their projects. That means that I absolutely have to de-install all of the pieces. I emptied my weekend out, although I still have to do many tasks related to my current project, especially on weekends.

Since I worked a late-night for the project blog, I got started a bit later this morning than I had hoped. Karl was nicely offering his arms and brain again for this de-installation.

He suggested that taking out the footings by digging and using a sledge hummer would take forever - good three days at least. He said we should utilize Mack.

Mack?
Mac?

I was not sure what it was, but decided to first try working on this by hand to see if it works. He quickly used a torch and made a nice tool: a thick iron L-shaped plate which has two holes. He put it into the footing's top, put a long iron bar underneath, and pushed down on a piece of 4x4 wood. Yes, that is the principle of leverage.

It worked! But only once. I was kind of fine to keep doing it that way because I feel sorry to let more people get involved in this de-installation.

Karl, however, said, "That does not work. We will kill our backs. Let's use Mack."

After we got rid of the pipes from the footings and took out the wires, the Mack came from next door to the park. That is Mark di Suvero's big, big flatbed truck with a crane.

Oh wow! So cool. Really!

Mateo (I am not sure of the spelling of his name), who has been working for Mark for a long time drove carefully backwards.

It was amazingly fast!

Done.

He left to help with the Armory show.

Karl and I celebrated.

----------

What's not done at this moment is to store all the parts in a decent place. This is one of the nightmares of this project. It was already evening.
I had to wait till next Monday.

2/21/08 - Oh Wow, Just in Time. Thanks Karl!

2008-02-22T00:32:00.008-06:00

To be honest with you, it has been extremely hard for me to make schedule for the de-installation of this project at Socrates Sculpture Park in Long Island City, NY (Queens Borough).

This exhibition was well received and we decided to extend the duration in the fall. Surprisingly, even in the cold, windy winter time, it seems there are some park visitors. The park is located along the East River where you can look across to skyscrapers on Manhattan's Upper East Side. (Really nice;)

Meanwhile, I have been looking for possible storage for this humongous Sculpture. I still do not really have any good place to store it. As if I could find inexpensive storage in NYC, hahaha!

Anyhow, this piece is made out of Latex. The more it is exposed to UV radiation (sunlight), the more it's deterioration accelerates. However, every time I tried to schedule a time to take it down, something (usually the weather or a change in a helper's schedule) would happen.

Over the past three days, it was pretty nice and sunny although the temperature is still not so nice. I felt this must be my last chance to make it happen - otherwise I have to wait until April?!

Yesterday (2/20) our pickup had a malfunction. We needed a jump-start. So, again, I had to cancel. Today, Thursday, February 21st, I woke up and looked out. It was still clear and sunny. Great it's the best day!

I arrived at the park, brought a 12-foot ladder, and started. It's still actually incredibly cold! It took time to take it down even one piece. I took a chance and called Karl, the park manager and a pretty good sculptor.

He came out and nicely offered help! Oh wow wow wow!!

Karl Friederich is an amazing guy. He controlled Mark di Suvero's Cherry Picker very well and helped me by quickly taking down all the east-side pieces. After a break but before 5pm, he managed to take everything (that we could take down) down!

Meanwhile, I unscrewed all the bolts and took off the wires, then carefully rolled each piece. I was in hurry to finish up all before sunset, but when we finished I realized sun was still there! Yes, Spring is closing in on us, even if it still long way off.

I ended up leaving some of bottom pieces up and all pipes standing. But, this was a miracle for my schedule!

You know why?
It is snowing right now!

If the sculpture is wet, it is difficult to store. It might cause molding, and deterioration, and sticking.

Thank you for your support, gods of weather!

and

Of course, Karl!

He is definitely a last minute super-hero for this project.

TBC

Did you read this article?

2008-02-17T20:52:00.009-06:00

Recently NYFA Current featured New Orleans Art.

NYFA Current: New Orleans

Both Elizabeth and Courtney are wonderful, active artists in NOLA
who also helped with my project.

For those who are not familiar with the New Orleans Art scene other than
cultural festivities, this could be a very interesting start.

Also, my good friend, Laura Blereau, originally from Louisiana and currently living in NYC, is an independent art writer, curator, and organizer who recently joined Courtney Egan's blog, Alternative Arts New Orleans. It is now called:
ART SWAMP

By the way,
My sculpture at Socrates Sculpture Park is still on view...

Now, I am working on new kids' performance project called,
"Meet Me at the Unisphere."

I will talk about it more later...

Postpone the Up-Coming Exhibition in New Orleans

2008-01-11T10:37:00.006-06:00

This is quite sad news. I am not glad to have to say this. However, I am not disappointed because this is not the end. I do not mean there is no hope or anything of that sort.

Loyola University New Orleans and I decided to postpone "Social Dress New Orleans" the documentation exhibition as well as displaying the piece itself.

Over the past half year we all worked hard to raise funds for the project. However, still it is not enough to ship and install the piece in New Orleans. Under the circumstance post-Katrina, the institution itself and New Orleans in general does not have enough funding.

The director of the Collins C. Diboll Gallery at Loyola University New Orleans,
Karoline Schleh, and her assistants worked so hard to raise the funding, but it didn't come through on schedule. However, she has not given it up.

(You may think Katrina was already years ago, but it is not so far in the past. However, the Media and the City Hall have not talked loudly about it recently.)

It is our hope to bring this piece back to it's home and share it with those
who helped and supported this project, as well as the people who still suffer from
Katrina and Rita. I would like to encourage them by sending the message that we outside the New Orleans area are still behind them.

We decided to spend more time fund-raising and try to schedule this exhibition during the new art biennial in New Orleans, Prospect.1, starting November 2008. Loyola University and myself have chosen this time because we would like to present this piece at to an international art audience to share your thoughts and action.

If any knows of any leads for raising funds, please contact us:

socialdress@gmail.com

Happy Holidays

2007-12-29T00:31:00.000-06:00

Early December I had planned on taking down the Social Dress NOLA piece at Socrates Sculpture Park, but it snowed and became very muddy. Some friends nicely offered their help, but we ended up having to cancel.

Meanwhile, Nina and I have to deal with moving now! This the end of year and
next new year, we are focusing on building out our new live/work space.

Today we received all of the major materials. 60 pieces of 10' 2x4 stud, 25 2x6 beams,
5 2x8 beams and 10 sheets of particle boards.... Walking them up to the second floor was pretty tough.

Once the construction is completed, we will move into here and our studio and apartment will be one. Parts of the Social Dress piece will be temporary rolled and stored. Toward the end of
January, I hope to find time to deliver the piece to New Orleans.

On March 5th, 2008, the piece will be re-erected in New Orleans.
I have been thinking about what I should show and explain at the accompanying indoor exhibition.

Tuyen, James, Rebecca and I talked about the exhibition plan.
They will each be in charge of part of the show in an effort to give viewers several perspectives on the project. James and I talked about this a bit last week when he was driving back to home for the holidays. The New Orleans exhibition is now getting started!

By the way, my left shoulder is still slightly in pain.
Good news, however, is that one of the artists I work for gave me wonderful Christmas gift:
an appointment with an acupuncturist! Thank you Carol. I cannot wait to check it out!

Happy Holidays!

(I wrote one more blog before this, but since it is too long and bit difficult for me to
express correctly in English, I am waiting for Nina to check the English.)

Another Encouragement Tonight

2007-12-20T23:15:00.000-06:00

I guess this Social Dress Project gave me plenty of experiences, particularly in terms of obstacles related to competing a large scale sculpture that I had to overcome and that I have talked about a bit in this blog.

In my case, as much as I suppose I am able to imagine how hard or easy, good or bad something I have never experienced before is, in the end, I have often felt that until I have physically experienced something, it is pretty hard to fully appreciate or understand with any confidence what that something is like.

In this sense, although I fully expected that this project would be an extremely crazy project for me and I might not be able to realize it, I actually did not realize how tough a process and how strenuous the physical requirements would be.

Back to September 2005, when Nina and I just moved to NYC and started new life here, we went to Little Italy during their festival season. I happened to recognize that standing right behind us on the street were Mr. Christo and Mrs. Jeanne-Claude. Since I have been a big fan of their works, I immediately recognized them and my heart started beating very fast. I wanted to say hello and that I love their work, but it was pretty tough to do so. However, I managed to get myself to do so anyway. They were pretty quiet and seemed a bit embarrassed. Of course... But, still they were pretty nice, but I was nervous and do not remember what I said, then they left.

Well, I am sure you do not know what I am talking about here.
At the time, I imagined how crazy and difficult projects they did must have been. I often thought about how they were able to make it happen.

But, after the Social Dress New Orleans project, I realized it must be really really tough to complete the projects they did, as they are on such a large scale. Everything is from their own funding and organizing, their own drive! Oh wow...

Now, as the title hints at, tonight I met them again!
Last week at the Sculpture Park I meet Mark di Suvero and tonight at The Noguchi museum I met Mr. Christo and Mrs. Jeanne-Claude! I became nervous again to say hello. Yet, again, I did it:>

I explained two years ago we met at the street. Of course they should not remember it. Mrs. Jeanne-Claude did not understand my English, "Little Italy." But, Mr. Christo slightly changed his face and sort of recognized me. (Well, it really does not matter about this.)
laugh:)

Anyhow, I honestly said to them that I appreciate their work and totally got inspired by them therefore I was able to complete a large project this summer. They asked me what it was, and I said that it was a project in New Orleans to cast a damaged house and then reassemble it here in New York at Socrates Sculpture Park.

Mr. Christo said that he knew my project! He said Mark (di Suvero) talked about it to them and that they really liked it. Then Ms. Jeanne-Claude said that even if I felt inspired by them, this project came "from here" were the words she used as she pointed to my head.

Seriously I lost next words.

This is amazing! Just like your personal big star person that you respect a lot acknowledged what you did. It is not direct personal apprenticeship, but to me, learning by studying my favorite artworks and researching about the artists usually makes me feel as if they were my master.

First, being able to meet the master artist is a crazy thing. I usually cannot talk a lot. Second, honestly talk about art is, "Oh My god!" This is difficult to distinguish from just following fame or known name, I guess, but I do not mean that. I mean being able to share and talk about art with respect with any known, unknown, older, younger, established or not artists are the moment that I feel so glad to do work on art.

Last Whitney Biennial in 2005, Mark di Suvero re-exhibited about Peace Tower. While looking through all sorts of artwork for piece hanging from the tower, I thought about what it meant and how effective it would be. Also I often talked about political art with my good artist friend. I was negative.

I was wrong. These things are messages. Not "political Art" that expect any happening afterwards. It is individual and personal statement.

I respect such sincere personal statements and actions whether or not someone else necessarily pays attention to it. That is a record of one's statement.

Throughout learning about Mark and Christo + Jeanne-Claude's works and through my experiences with this New Orleans project, I have re-learned what I did and wanted to do and what the actual artwork means for myself and even possibly for others.

Even if I was extremely upset about the situation in New Orleans two years ago and made an effort to let people pay attention to what is happening down there through my sculpture project, that does not always work.

One of my professors, Jerry, mentioned that he thinks artists will make the mark just like recording the moment in the history, not change our world. We wish we could, though. I guess I am still young enough not to figure out if it is possible or not, but I feel I learned those elements from these two artists and my experiences with New Orleans through this project.

In that sense, again, I was encouraged.

Getting Ready for De-Installation

2007-12-12T23:18:00.000-06:00

This week, I am working on marking each piece to prepare for de-installation over the coming weekend (I hope). It's pretty cold out there. Today was not so much colder than last week; since it is right next to East River and the winds are gusty, my hands and ears were practically frozen even last week.

The next exhibition of this work will be in New Orleans. Because of limited budget and time, it has to be well prepared so that people working for the gallery there will be able to handle it easily. One by one, I duct-taped each pole to mark the number indicating location and directly wrote down number on each latex piece.

The gusting wind blew each piece around just like washed clothing hanging on the rope, but I was pretty amazed by the fact that none of the pieces have been significantly damaged.

Just about the time I was ready to leave, Mark di Suvero, the renowned sculptor and one of the artists that founded the park 20 years ago, came by. He had also just finished working on his stuff in his compound next to my project site. That was actually the first time we got to meet and talk after completing the piece back in July.

He said, among other things,

"I just really wanted to tell you that this is really beautiful, but sad.
This is really sad, but so beautiful."

"You don't have to climb up on your pickup truck to work on the piece. You can
just ask Kurt to use our Cherry Picker..."

"You should bring this to D.C." (Well, I personally do not know how, though.)

(I had driven in my pickup to park right next to the piece so that I could reach the top row and mark each piece.)

I was extremely glad. I was very honored to receive such words
from one of my respected, favorite artists. When driving down to work for another artist afterwards, I kept thinking about his words.

Beautiful and Sad.
Sad and Beautiful.

A very crucial contradiction in those two words.

I also met a group of art students from Toronto Central Tech Centre today at the park.
They were so nice and gave me much interesting input.

One person said to me that it might be interesting if we take pictures of many different people inside the piece (house), especially in Mardi Gras-like style costumes.

Well, maybe we can do that in New Orleans in March, although Mardi Gras
will be just done at the time this goes up.

First Snow in NYC

2007-12-03T01:51:00.000-06:00

Sunday morning, the light through our window shade was pretty bright but there was none of the orange-ish color that I usually see from sunrise. Also, it was really quiet. Even on Sundays we usually wake to the sound of traffic.

I had a crazy thought that it might be snow, then Nina woke me up told me it really had snowed. Oh wow! I really had not expected winter weather to come so early. But, then I thought I should go run to Socrates Sculpture Park to check out the Social Dress NOLA sculpture in the snow!

Here come some images I took.

Well, really soon I have to take it down to protect this sculpture from weather damage.
Hopefully I can find enough storage.

Already Thanksgiving's Gone!

2007-11-27T17:23:00.000-06:00

The past four months went very fast.
I've been getting jobs and paying off some of the expenses while talking to High school students that visit the park.

I guess I worked too much. I was unable to work well last August and frequently got sick.
I feel like I am getting old and should not work too hard...
Now that a few months have passed, finally I have realized this was an ambitious and very large scale sculpture project.
Also, I was fortunate that I did not think about how big a project this would be. My wife was rather shocked and sort of disappointed about how ignorant I was.

Honestly, I was unable to do anything other than just working for surviving, so I have a lot of leftover loose ends still to tie up. My bag from New Orleans is still in our kitchen -- it is a huge obstacle yet nicely Nina is not complaining so much about it. My desk is layered with paper, receipts, and everything else from this project.

So regarding this blog:
I wanted to add more and more past four months, but my energy was not fully charged.
I was amazed how difficult it became to write just a couple sentences, even.
Two schools from NYC and the suburbs visited the park and I discussed Katrina, the aftermath, and current New Orleans with them. The teenagers were wonderful listeners. Their questions made me shocked since they were simple, straightforward questions that I couldn't easily answer. It was difficult to come up with a truthful but still convincing reply sometimes, and it made me feel my portion of the responsibility and blame for this situation that rests on each of our shoulders.

NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg also visited this sculpture past September.

The reason why I resumed this blog again was because this Thanksgiving weekend, I pulled a muscle in my left shoulder and had to lie down for a couple days so I had much time to think about all of this.
Also, I have to take down this sculpture pretty soon. Officially this exhibition was over
at the end of October, but we extended till the end of November.

Since my arm does not work well, I guess I will have to de-install in December
and get ready for the upcoming exhibition in New Orleans.
(This displaced house will come back to New Orleans in March 2008.)

Now I am going to start working on the exhibition plan and schedule.
I am glad that the many friends who helped and supported this project in New Orleans
will have a chance to get to see the house in person.

Loyola University's Collins C. Diboll Gallery and I plan on publishing a book of documentation
from this project. Now I will have time to sit and look through a whole a lot of papers, sketches, etc. I found a wonderful book editor/designer and a couple writers. I am excited.
I hope this book and house can travel all over the place in the future to help remind people of the disaster and the continuing need for help in the recovery effort.

731 days after

2007-08-30T01:03:00.000-06:00

Two days ago (8/28), I was thinking about New Orleans back and forth.
Yesterday, strangely, I did not think so much about it but rather had to focus on my
new job. It has been going smoothly since Monday, though.

But, for some reason, I cannot sleep well right now and turned on my computer.
I did not watch or listen to any broadcast news yesterday, but decided to watch
and read some through the Internet.

Too much stuff is running around in my head to say anything. That would be
my honest feelings right now.

From here in NYC, New Orleans is far. We cannot hear from New Orleans easily.
Last Monday, Butch and I caught up together after his performance in
Mid City New Orleans. He told me that he will continuously do this
performance every year from now on. We talked a lot about New Orleans.
He is from New Orleans and it is still home for him. He believes
he will go back to New Orleans someday. I am proud of him for that.

Also I talked to Matthew Israel, a writer from the national magazine,
"Art in America" on the phone recently.
He and I seriously discussed about the possibilities for and ability of Art
to change and to explain our society. He is currently earning his Ph.D. at NYU and his thesis
is about Vietnam War and Art in that era. He is hoping that there can be more art
speaking up about our current society and its issuea to raise awareness.
It is difficult, but I guess every single person's tiny effort accumulates to become one
large voice. (Pardon my clumsy English.)

Although he was very positive about my project and appreciated it,
I have been struggling with my piece recently. One question
constantly repeats in my mind: "What is this and what does this mean for myself
as well as for others?" Park visitors frequently walk in and stay inside
for a while. I wonder what they think about.
The grass inside the sculpture has become worn thin, and there is one path
showing how visitors generally walk around inside.
I was amazed by that, though.
I just could not stand just being here in NYC, while there is so much to do in NOLA,
but what I was able to do was make art. So, I did this project.
Pretty much that is all I feel I can say if I describe it in a couple sentences.
But saying this, I somehow feel guilty.

I will stop by the park as many times as possible
to stay with the piece to find the answers to my questions.

Tomorrow, at Ad Hoc gallery where there is the group exhibition entitled,
"Second Line," we will have fund raising party for NOLA. It is next to Morgan Station on the
L train in Brooklyn. 6-10pm.

Note:
NOLA FUNDRAISER Featuring Film & Punk Rope
6:00 – 10:00 PM THURSDAY AUG 30

In conjunction with the exhibit
Second Line: Art & Film related to the Gulf Coast
Ad Hoc Art, 49 Bogart Street (between Siegen & Grattan), Brooklyn
For more information visit www.jambalayarts.com and www.adhocart.org

$5-$10 suggested donation

7:30 PM Film Screenings
"Second Line" & "Congo Square" by Royce Osborn
"Holdout" by Brent Joseph
"Protecting New Orleans" by Bongiorno Productions
"Electric Swamp" by Mr. Quintron & Miss Pussycat

8:30 PM Punk Rope
Special New Orleans edition of Punk Rope with Tim Haft & Shana Brady

Proceeds benefit the following organizations:
Common Ground Collective
Contemporary Art Center of New Orleans
Louisiana Assistive Technology Access Network
New Orleans Musicians Hurricane Relief Fund
Rebuilding Fund for the Keith Calhoun & Chandra McCormick Photography Studio
ReNew Orleans
Tipitina's Foundation and Voice of the Wetlands

New Discovery Four Months Later

2007-08-27T23:45:00.000-06:00

Last Sunday,
I hang out with several friends at Socrates Sculpture Park.
There was live outdoor concert while many EAF'07 artists worked on
their new projects.

When My friends from Washington University in St. Louis, Juan
and his friend Alex arrived and looked through this project sculpture,
we happened to find fish bone stuck in latex piece. I mentioned about
lots of stacked fish on windows after flooded water gone in New Orleans.

I actually did not notice another fish bone is in one of parts of the piece
up in the Park. I guess it was pretty dark inside and we usually had to work
inside when it rained, so I missed it.

If you check out the piece at Socrates Sculpture Park, you will see the real small
fish bone half embedded inside latex sheet.

I think the more I go back to maintain the piece, I will find more stuff that I was not aware of later...

Group exhibition "Second Line" in Brooklyn

2007-08-27T00:19:00.001-06:00

These pictures are from the group exhibition, "Second Line" about New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, curated by Laura Blereau. The opening was last Saturday at Ad Hoc Gallery in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY.

I will add more explanation later, but I just wanted to upload images sooner so that the artists from New Orleans who are showing in this exhibition can get to see how it looked...
Gallery was a bit dark so some of the digital images here might not be so clear.

Good night

Butch in New Orleans, August 6th, 2007

2007-08-17T15:01:00.001-06:00

Butch completed his new performance last week.

Two links:
You Tube Movie
Part of Art in Action

I was not an eyewitness, but, I would like to quote this comment of his from an email to me.
(I have not gotten any permission, but I suppose it is okay.)

" The last 2 hours of the performance, 4:30-6:30 a.m., were the most
important and learned. It was during this time that my anxiousness and
impatience for the sun to rise was steadily building. These key emotions,
emotions with which we consistently struggle, were brought to the
surface, giving me no choice but to open myself to them. The more I sat
with these emotions, the less intense they became. And when they grew
intense again, I just sat and continued the piece.
But the most challenging part of this performance wasn't the performance
at all, it's the time after. The time like right now, a week later, when
I'm reminding myself to let go."

Please check out my one of the oldest blogs where you will find
another one of Butch's performances.
This does not directly connected to my project. However,
I believe it is important to show how artists in and out of New Orleans
develop their discourse in the wake of Katrina through their personal
expressions related to the current situation in NOLA.

Thanks go out to Butch and his friends.

Conversation with Karoline

2007-08-17T02:12:00.000-06:00

Good news!
I found a freelancing job for three weeks beginning August 27th.
(Believe it or not, it is pretty hard to find jobs here too, but for different reasons.)

The past three weeks have been horrible. I was a zombie: just ridiculously tired and unable to
think about anything. This was great lesson about how three
months' intensive work can affect my body. Beginning this week, it seems to be changing back to normal. I can eat and sleep better. I was even able to visit MoMA today. It sounds like nice vacation (laugh.)

Strangely enough, I got really excited because I happened to see Natalie Portman there.
Her guard was very subtle & quiet and not really noticeable. So, even if it is summer time,
and there are really very many visitors in the museum, not many people noticed, or they
nicely ignore her. Yes, she is really beautiful! ( I am glad that I am writing this funny thing. That indicates how much I am now relaxed and feeling okay after this project.)

Okay, on to the main subject... I talked to Karoline, my former instructor and the gallery director at Loyola University New Orleans. She visited NYC and checked out Socrates Sculpture Park. She was very glad to see the piece and liked it. Now we have started working on how possibly we can bring this shotgun house back to New Orleans to exhibit. She said she wants to show the piece both for the sake of the people who helped with this project and can't get to New York, as well as because of the significance of this entire process and the project.

Over the past two days I checked out approximately how much it might cost to bring the piece to New Orleans. I was somewhat freaked out. It is not cheap. Also, as you know, it is not easy to quit a job and find a new job back and forth. Installation of this piece is not a one weekend job. Please do not misunderstand me. I am not just paying attention to the budget. As much as Karoline convinced me today, I agreed that it was not about cost. It is about the piece and its surrounding meaning. Day by day, not so many people necessarily take immediate action, but each visitor to Socrates Sculpture Park in NYC seems to be paying attention to the piece and wondering about what it is. Plus, I am receiving personal e-mails about the piece from many visitors, and when I am at the park and they ask me about the piece they talk about New Orleans and their concerns about it. I am glad that, even if it is hidden at first, people still are not forgetting about the Hurricane Katrina disaster. And recognition of the problem is the first step in getting something done about it. So, showing this back in New Orleans might encourage people in New Orleans, realizing that others do still care and are still paying attention. That is how Karoline believes and I understand and appreciate it. She has scheduled an exhibition of the documentation at Collins C. Diboll Art Gallery at Loyola University New Orleans this coming March, 2008.

I feel that the piece is not my work somehow. I feel that it is itself, "Social Dress New Orleans."
It is it's own, different entity; An independent presence. Not like I am a father and this is my kid. It is like one of my colleagues who has his or her own will. It is a bit awkward to say this, though. My professor Jerry said previously that it is still my work and never ever someone else's. I guess, but maybe not? It's not that I feel it is someone else's work, but rather that it has moved beyond any relation to the artmaking process, and has somehow then become detached from me. When I look at the piece, I am not thinking about
myself and how I did it. I keep thinking about what it means for us or at least myself.
I guess that is why I feel like saying that this is not "my" work. Well, needless to say,
so many people got involved in helping with the piece, and without others' help, it would not have been finished to begin with.

In that sense, I would like to see this piece in New Orleans. But, when Karoline mentioned installing the piece on Loyola's campus, I was wondering about the meaning of the location.
Is that the right location? Is that an accessible location for all of us?
Then all of sudden I just got the idea.

Loyola's campus will be great. But, if we can have parade, Second Line, from 1941 Caffin Avenue in the Lower ninth ward to the campus or vice versa, it might make it more relevant. New Orleans City is huge. Living in Chalmette gives different atmosphere and feeling from living in uptown right now. When I worked there, St. Barnard and the Lower Ninth Ward area was so challenging. I know it is still. I saw that a group of Congressmen recently visited there, which made me just a bit glad. I had feared Chalmette was forgotten. Anyhow, my point is that if we make a physical line in between, people in New Orleans are more powerfully united and can bring an enormous voice out of the city. I remembered that WWOZ talked about how many musicians actually commute to the city from outside the state, like from Houston, TX, just to do gigs. Of course I did not know about that until I came back to New Orleans. We do not hear about that here.

That is why we need to speak up beyond the city, state and country.

Okay, I should go to bed...

石井さん　と　私

2007-08-15T23:34:00.000-06:00

I am sorry for this Japanese blog...

セントルイスの大学院を終えて、２００５年にニューヨークへ引っ越してきてすぐ、
村上隆さんの工房でお仕事に携わったのですが、そこで出会った友人に
石井さんがおります。

彼は、非常に繊細な絵画を中心に活動する作家さんで、
紆余曲折の末、交友関係が今も続く＝呑みにいく仲です。

実は昨晩、多分３月からずっと音沙汰にしていて、久しぶりに
仕事後に会う時間ができ、最終的に呑むつもりではなかったんですが、
呑んでしまいました。（ニューオリンズの作品制作以降、私は身体がだいぶ弱っていて
出歩くのもままならない状況で、石井さんから「では呑まないで堀崎くんの近所で会おう」
というくだんだったのですが...）

ところでなんでブログに、それも突如日本語で書いているかというと、
なかなかうれしい充実した時間が過ごせたからです。

石井さんは、とても頭脳明晰な人で、美術家としての制作活動に関し、
非常にうまく言語化するので、（といってもテレビとかでうまくものごとを解説する人のよう
ではないですが）美術の話をするNYの日本人の作家さんとしてはいまのところ
数少ない仲の良い友人です。

そういう意味で、今回の私の作品や彼と会っていない間の
彼自身のよもやまの話しなど、つもる話しを気兼ねなく話せて、
なんかとっても充実したので、

ブログという公なんだけどもプライベートな気分になれる場で
まぁ、このことをいいたかったわけです。（失礼いたしました。）

ちなみに、これまでの５ヶ月間、（私の家族のように）英語で読んでいない人には、
今までの内容がわからないと思うので付け加えますと、
英語の文章はもうちょっと現実的に日々の状況を綴ってきた内容だったこと、
更に、これから時間をかけて少しずつ日本語に訳し直していくことを、ここに書き添えます。

ええと、どうして日本語で書かなかったかというと、
本当に、とんでもなく時間がなかったのが第一、第二に私の奥さんが、英語版を
推敲してくれていたから、そして今回の作品はアメリカを中心に制作していたので。

石井さんの話しに戻りますが、
彼は、かなり頑固な作家さんで、そう簡単にほめる人ではないのですけど、

彼から「いやぁ堀崎くんががんばって（作品を）やり遂げたのを見て
勇気づけられたよ」

と言われなにか自分の中でこの作品は何だったのかもう少し実感がわいてきたような
気がしました。

彼は最近１ヶ月ほどそうとうにいろいろ大変だったようで
それにも関わらず、私が忙しかったのを懸念して連絡を
一回もよこさず、展覧会のオープニングに突然来てくれたことを
昨晩の話しで知り、ほんとうにありがたい友人だと思いました。

なかなか、美術をおこなう人というのは作品を発表してみせる反面、
プライベートで自分の感情をぶっちゃけられない繊細な人々なんだなぁ
と考えさせられる昨晩でもありました。

いやはや、なんだかわけのわからぬブログになってしまいましたが...

石井さん、ありがとうね

After Good Sleep and Rainy Days

2007-08-01T20:51:00.000-06:00

The past two and a half days I slept and slept while my wife kept reminding me that I still needed to touch up the sculpture and finish a bunch of other small stuff at Socrates Sculpture Park.

Yesterday afternoon, Chris and Katy, interns from Pratt Institute, very nicely
helped me clean up around the piece and wrapp each wire's end in duct tape for safety reasons.

Today, I was again unable to wake up and ended up getting up at noon.
One of my first friends in New Orleans back to 2001, Glenavin, came back
from Italy where she underwent a couple of weeks of language study, and, on her way back to NOLA stayed a couple nights at
her aunt's home in NYC.

Nina, Glenavin and I had some lunch and visited the park.
Since she did not have a chance to see the 1941 Caffin Ave. shotgun house
in New Orleans, it was interesting to hear what she thought.

As an artist makes a piece, it is not easy to step back and look at the piece
as a third person. In other words, it is not easy to gain an objective perspective.
Especially after more than three months of intense production with lots of rain and
mosquitoes...

Today was nice. I was able to clear out my mind and organize my thoughts.
Deborah and I also talked about our artistic careers and processes to
make art in NYC.

So, most of the pictures here are shots I took today under much better health conditions than Sunday.
I hope that the many people who helped and supported this project in New Orleans
and other cities have a chance to glance through these.

Finally Finally Finally

2007-07-30T23:44:00.000-06:00

The entire night , from Saturday 28th to Sunday at 1:30pm,
we kept working to complete the project.

Of course it started raining, right around noon. One time it was raining (and thundering) pretty badly. Although it probably cut down on visitors, I was not entirely unhappy about it. I rather felt like, "Yeah, it makes sense for it to rain."

My first flight to New Orleans was cancelled because of a rain storm in NYC, right when I was about to begin the preliminary search last April. Then there was all the rain during production, and even rain on the drive back to NYC.

Well, this is about Katrina.
I guess New Orleans itself came to the opening to celebrate the sculpture.

I did not want to work in the rain at the last moment, though.
My fingers were totally soaked, wrinkled like they would be after long hours of swimming.

Several New Yorkers nicely helped with this installation at Socrates last week.

My favorite artist, Ann Hamilton came over and shared her thoughts on the piece with me.
I was extremely happy. (Her husband, Michael Mercil is exhibiting his piece at the park as well, and out openings were at the same time.)

I am going to touch up a bit more over the rest of the week.
But, I guess this is one of the last moments in this project.

At the opening, Woody from Volunteers of America and Travis from Acorn
came to open their booth and explain what they do in New Orleans to support
the rebuilding process.

Rish finished the first draft of his documentary film about the Social Dress Project and screened it at the opening!

I will keep posting what is happening around this project in NYC.

Several NY papers wrote articles with nice images (NY Times, AM New York, NY Japion).
The Times Picayune super-nicely followed up this project with images of the completed
sculpture (care of Connie), in today's paper.

Thank you everybody!
I will see you all soon.

Rushing

2007-07-26T20:11:00.000-06:00

Interns from New Orleans arrived in NYC.

James came last Monday, followed by Rebbecca yesterday, and Tuyen and Tuyet today.
I felt like I was seeing old friends.

We were energized and accelerated.
An intern at the park and Pratt student, Chris, came to help one more extra day today.
Since last week Connie has been leading the team to put extra latex and cheesecloth on the pieces.

So far, no serious injury. (knock on wood)

We have to finish everything up before the opening.
Oh wow, 12 hours a day of work will not be enough.

One mistake: 5/16" aircraft wire is running out! Even though I purchased 500 feet!

On Sunday, New Orleans musicians will come play live music and North of New Orleans, from Park Slope, Brooklyn, will provide food.

If you enjoy hot and spicy New Orleans summer, please come celebrate New Orleans on Sunday!

Yeah, I gotta work harder to make it.
Good night!

Steel Pipes in West Side Wall were Erected

2007-07-22T20:59:00.000-06:00

It was seriously difficult to get up this morning.
Nina and I poked each other to force ourselves to get up.

Finally, around 9:30AM, we got to Socrates Sculpture Park in Long Island City, NY.
(Usually start working 8:30AM for better productivity.)

By the way, Long Island City is the name of a large town-like neighborhood in Queens,
NYC, NY. Part of the area along the west side of the East river, in Queens, is called
Long Island City. It is next to, and overlapping, Astoria. The Post Office never clearly distinguishes those two, so sometimes people in Queens call it LIC, sometimes Astoria. Anyway, it is probably 10 minutes from midtown Manhattan, NYC by subway.

Today we continuously got rid of the dirt inside the footings we just installed, which meant pulling out the pipes and banging, pounding, and drilling them. It was pretty tough in the beginning. Nina and I finished that around 2:30PM.

Meanwhile, one lady who lives nearby showed up and started helping.
Alex
She did not hesitate to do anything. She took the pipes out, step by step, too.
It was not so simple, but we completed it anyway .

Then, she and Nina cut 16 of 1" d. x 15' steel pipes while I started cutting off the bent edges of each footing. Ah, Mark, yesterday's huge helper, came back and dropped off his Sawzall since we could not find the one belonging to the park.

Late in the evening, another lady, Christina, showed up to get an idea of what we were working on, and lend a hand.

We all together started posting 15' tall 1"d. pipes into west side of footings.
Oh wow. As we had actually imagined, it was not straight at all since all the footings
were hammered by hand.

Nina, Alex, and Christina put shims around the footings to try to straighten them
up a bit more.

Anyway, we finished the basic footings and west side poles. Tomorrow, we start drilling holes and testing wire cable while putting more cheesecloth and latex along the edge of each latex house skins where the grommets will be punched through.

Dominicans Saved the Day

2007-07-22T00:09:00.001-06:00

I was knocked out pretty quickly before we were able to knock down the footings.

Then,
Pedro, a park visitor, came by and said,
"You need help?"

Here in NYC, it all comes down to $$$. I bargained with them and got deal.

I am an idealist, and I would like
to simply share and help each other out, but I am in NYC. That does not always work, and we were short of hands.

I have no budget left, but I appreciate his offer.

Then, Oh My! the Dominican guys are amazing. Very quickly they were able to knock many steel pipes into the ground.

I guess they finished quite a bit before sundown.
My shoulder was saved. Previously my leg had been getting
tense constantly and I was dizzy all day. I guess this is beyond my physical limit.

Nina, my wife, quietly works very hard too.
Hopefully I can complete this project before the opening
next Sunday.

Thanks Pedro, Yancarlos, Polyansky and Mark and Nina!

Now, we have to pull the posts out again and get rid of dirt inside....

Astoria Born and Raised Super Helper

2007-07-22T00:02:00.002-06:00

His name is Mark.

He is one of many sculpture park visitors/users.
His dog Sydney enjoys visiting the park too.

He came by and asked what I was doing yesterday evening.

Then, he came back with a bunch of good tools and started helping us a whole lot!

He cut steel pipes and helped hammer the footings into the ground.
Nina, Mark and I rotated turns with the hammer. Sledge hammering is not easy...
21 posts were too many for us to finish...

Then!
- to the next entry

(Mark sucking dirt from a hole after we hammered one footing in)

Finalizing the Exact Location

2007-07-21T23:58:00.001-06:00

Although I picked out the general location for the installation at Socrates Sculpture Park last March, finalizing the exact position of the displaced shotgun house was not easy.

It took a good two and a half days.

Saturday, noonish, I finalized my decision about where I should rebuild the latex skin shotgun house from New Orleans.

Let's Start - Stormy weather AGAIN!

2007-07-19T21:46:00.000-06:00

This morning I got started at the Sculpture Park.

>I visited Material for the Arts - a service run by the city where I can get donated materials for use in this project.
- I had hopes of finding some of the types of items I saw there before, but there was not so much of the stuff I was looking for there this time, though.

>Discussed with Deborah, a sculptor who works at Socrates Sculpture Park.
She is the studio manager as well as a pretty amazing sculptor. Her piece is installed right next
to where my piece will be, and hers is also about New Orleans.
- We figured out what we need in terms of supplies, and what we should and should not do for this installation. She gave me some very helpful input.

>We ordered cable wire, turnbuckles and cable clips after the discussion. - They are shipping out of upstate NY today, so they should arrive on Monday!

Then, we (Connie from TX and I) laid the pieces out on the ground. It had been cloudy all day, but perfectly dry, so, since we were running out of time, we began work. Just as we had started pulling the pieces out of the trailer, a storm came by and dumped buckets of water on all the pieces. I was very anxious. Until we can install the latex, it should remain dry and separated. Otherwise they stick together... however, in just an instant the rain totally soaked all
pieces, making little puddles in all the depressions.

After I chilled out, we organized all of rest of materials and tools.
It was now past 6pm. so Connie and I went to have dinner in a neighborhood Greek diner.

Nina came after work and together we all laid down the pieces in the approximate order they needed to be installed. Although Nina brought a work light, it was too dark to see well. We decided to stop for the day.

Tomorrow, we will decide the location of the posts and start digging holes!

Yaaay We Made it.

2007-07-18T17:20:00.000-06:00

Last night at 7pm in NYC, (Tuesday, July 17th):

Nina and I arrived at Socrates Sculpture Park in Long Island City. That was a really long way to drive.

Luckily we had no accidents. Our s10 pickup truck worked very well with the 4'x8' trailer.

By the time we arrived at the park, the director, Alyson, and one of the staff, Ellen, were about to leave. They congratulated us on our safe arrival.

However,

I was really tired. I had a serious stomachache again last night and was unable to start working today. Instead, I decided to rest very well.

Tomorrow morning Thursday, July 19th, I will start working at Socrates Sculpture Park.

On the Way Back to NYC

2007-07-17T01:43:00.000-06:00

6am on Monday, Nina and I left for NYC from Jerry's house, after cleaning-up and packing-up the trailer.

It's been again raining a lot. At one point I even felt as if someone was dropping buckets of water on top of my pickup.

3am on Tuesday, we finally arrived in Winchester, VA, on the north-east side of Virginia.
Michael so wonderfully got in touch with us through our cell phones and booked this wonderful cozy hotel to stay in one night.

Now we can crash on the bed.
We'll be in NYC tomorrow, probably around 3-5pm.
Thanks Michael and Lee!!

New Orleans to New York City = 1332 miles of driving.
Around 18 miles/gallon = approx. $213.12 of gas ;[

Good night

Exhausion

2007-07-15T18:06:00.000-06:00

At 6pm, finally I finished packing all parts of pieces.

I tried to complete by Friday, but too much. I had stomachache and Backache.
I decided to delay one more day at 3am on Sunday. However, for NYC production,
I have to be there next week. After got up around noonish, I called up my wife Nina
for SOS. Although it is not good idea for financial and her job situation, she decided
to fly to New Orleans to drive together back to NYC.

Meanwhile, radio producer Jason kindly came to help packing with his brother John.
While he recorded some of sounds for his program, he and John put baby powder
to each piece, roll them up and put in a trailer.

Trailer has full of pieces.

I really did not think about this much intense situation in the beginning of
writing the proposal back to October 2006.

Now, I have to pack and clean up my belongings in Jerry's trailer.

Okay, see some of them in NYC,
and thank you for your help in New Orleans.

One Thing for Sure

2007-07-12T15:36:00.000-06:00

I began writing this immediately following my previous blog entry.

I think I have found my thoughts regarding this demolition.

I think that I was attached to the house as well as the huge trees. I had gone through an intensive experience there over the past two months. I had a few tears. It was as if I used to live there - I felt some loss.

If I come back there now, there isn't anything right there.
I am not sure how to put my feelings together.

It is sad.

Yet, my project schedule will not allow me to sit down and think about
this. It never happened before. It might not happen until I complete
this artwork at Socrates Sculpture Park. But even now I feel extremely sad.
I wonder what this feeling is.

Yeah, at the demolition site this morning, Michael and I opened up my map and discussed the highway route back to NYC. It was totally weird to be standing there, after this slightly traumatic experience, and to be discussing something so mundane.

I do not believe our mind and emotions can move on that fast.
You might feel funny, but I am crying somehow.

Now I am becoming so very emotional...

I guess that is why I try not to stop for now.
Art is tough.

-from Jerry's trailer-

7am Morning Demolition Today

2007-07-12T14:22:00.000-06:00

I went back to 1941 Caffin Avenue work site about 7:15 AM.

Usually a single demolition crew consists of around five different companies. Their tasks include demolishing, checking the condition of all of the work, inspecting the air pollution level, controlling individual trucks, etc.

By the time I arrived there, half of the shotgun house was already gone. Within 30 to 45 minutes, the whole main structure quickly disappeared.

By 8:20 AM, the entire shotgun house structure was gone. About four to six trucks carried away the debris.

>A large water-tank truck was there spraying water on top of house as it was being demolished. The crews told me that they have to refill the water tank about every three houses.

>Each dumpster truck usually carries debris from the equivalent of 2 yards.

>There were 20 demo companies working two years ago, but now there are only 4 companies running demo.

>The dumpster truck carrying asbestos is covered by a large translucent plastic sheet, and stops next to the demo site, then other crews will spray glue and close the plastic
sheet to prevent spreading asbestos powder during the transportation to the dump site.

I felt the cypress and pecan trees in front of the house had a pretty large presence - I could really feel their existence - after the demolition emptied the property. These two trees have been eyewitness to the many events in the history of this land, and will continue to be guardians of its history as long into the future as they live there.

I was probably unable to really take in and gaze at the demo process. I ran the video camera and took pictures instead. Reviewing this footage could allow me to process and collect my thoughts about it in the future .

At the time, a producer, Jason, form the WNYC radio show "Studio 360" asked me how I felt after working here on my project for two months and then watching the house disappear in less than one hour. I was unable to figure out my feelings at that time. Instead, I kept describing what was happening. My interns seemed to talk to him a lot. I wonder what they gave as their commentary.

Looking at the grand scheme of this project, I feel that this is still just the beginning of the process again. As part of the New Orleans recovery process after Katrina, it could be just one of those tiny everyday scenes in this quiet neighborhood.

There are still many many house demolitions occurring this Summer, 2007.

A couple blocks from the Caffin Ave house, one home owner appears to have come back and started renovation on the house. I was glad.

Whenever I thought about what I would do if I were the home owner, I was unable to gather my feeling and thoughts. In fact, my friends here are in that situaion, and yet they supported my project here with their time and money.

I guess I am stiil too close to this event today to grasp the notion of what it means yet. That is why I am working on putting images together for this blog. I may not necessary have entirely grasped what happened, but perhaps, in the back of my brain, or where I process images, I have already figured something out... (After I put three images together for here.)

----
By the way, the pecan tree on the left of the picture was not damaged by the demolition.
It has been like that since I first saw it.

Spiders and Lunch

2007-07-12T04:14:00.000-06:00

Midnight, 0:12am, already on Thursday, July 12th.
We were finally able to finish peel ing off all of the shotgun house latex skins.

I came back to the trailer at 2:30am.

Tomorrow (really today at this point) at 7am the 1941 Caffin Avenue shotgun house will
be demolished.

I asked one of the art students from Loyola University New Orleans who has been helping me throughout this process what was the most memorable part of this project for her.

"Spider and Lunch..."

Yes, there are many many different spiders there, all of which were so amazing.
When we peeled off one of the latex pieces, some of the original paint from the wall came off and dropped on a spider web. Surprisingly, the spider came to clean it up, picking up each piece of paint and throwing it off of the web.

I had no time to enjoy lunch. Anytime I had lunch, always something happened or someone visited, and my precious lunch time was interrupted. The Interns giggled about it. Lunch time was the only time when my interns were able to chill out and stay away from my high-demand requests:)

By the end of this production (almost two months to the day), the process of working at the site probably wasn't the focus for the interns, as well as myself, since it was too intense every single minute. The focus was really just getting the work done as quickly as possible. We wanted to go home. Though we were happy to go through everything we did, this is probably our honest feeling at this moment.

Grasping the true reality of what we got out from this two months might come later. That is how I feel while I cannot sleep this evening.

Yesterday the Times Picayune people came and asked some interesting questions. "Why do you keep saying "we"?" I truly feel that all of those people who helped and supported this project in New Orleans are part of this project. In the end, as an artwork, it may be credited to me. However, any time you wee a large scale artwork at museum, for instance, there must have been so many people behind the process of the production, just like a major film.

This project is not being produced by a collective, it's not collaborative, yet it's also not 100% one single person's art. I am learning whole a lot about Art right now.

I am hoping I am able to go through rebuilding/installing the piece at Socrates Sculpture Park in time. I have reviewed my schedule, come up with a plan of action, but the timing looks tight.

We will see how it goes!

-----

Also yesterday, Mark, one of my professors at Loyola University came by and screamed. "You are not gonna finish by tomorrow. You need more help!" Somewhere, he talked to someone and, magically, I got three amazing helpers.

Travis, the owner of Evenstar, Inc from Kenner, LA sent out three helpers. First, we all were not sure if it would work. Yet, within probably 45 minutes, they caught on to the process of peeling off the pieces. Without any rest or complaints, they finished deinstalling the blue tarps, peeled off major parts of the latex while adding baby powder to the surface of the pieces to prevent them from sticking together. Thank you Mack, Robert, and Ashelay. (Please forgive any misspellings.)

I was unable to sleep tonight...

Final Final and Final Moment in New Orleans

2007-07-11T07:07:00.001-06:00

My wonderful interns, Loyola University New Orleans Art students, kept saying,
"So today is the last day. Is that right Takashi?" I kept saying, "Tomorrow is the last day or work and you are free to go. Please, please be patient..."

My car has to go to the repair shop today now! So, whole day no pickup yet we have to transfer all the large pieces, tools and ladders from the site. It's gonna be a hectic day.

Plus, many media (even from a Canadian radio station!) called me constantly. My final production time has become a game of multi-tasking. Talking on the phone, peeling off the piece, meeting visitors, and giving instruction to interns, etc.

Please, please, not too much more rain. That is what I really hope for now.

In NYC, my wife Nina, a sculptor who is also showing at Socrates Sculpture Park right now, helps me take care of paper work as well as arranging steel pipes to use for installation.

I am hopefully leaving for NYC super early Saturday.
Friday, I will pick up the trailer.

Let's cross our fingers again.

Peeling it off!

2007-07-08T02:04:00.000-06:00

After a couple of annoyingly rainy days, Saturday July 7th, turned out to be a very nice day for me and volunteers/interns.

We peeled off the facade on the front side of the shotgun house. Courtney, David, and Michael came to help with the documentation. Larry, from the Army Corps of Engineers, also came by.

I went up on the rooftop and started peeling off the roof's latex skin. Then, I did the front porch facade.

Mike and Rebecca came back to help some more. Tuyen and Tuyet also came - amazingly they have come to help continuously since June. They are superb!

I think we can probably finish this by late Tuesday afternoon.
We'll see how the weather goes...

Please cross your fingers:)

Thanks Jenny and Kyle

2007-07-07T07:40:00.000-06:00

Jenny and Kyle came to help with my project a while ago and left a ladder for us. They have been busy to catch up with their lives after Katrina. Their studio was flooded under 6 feet of water and everything was lost. Many artists in New Orleans lost their artwork. Jenny said, "What really annoyed me was that I lost all of my sculpture while, upstairs, our house was okay. We can buy any furniture or other everyday things at a sotre. We cannot buy back our art."

If you are not artists, you should imagine that it is as if you lost your pets, or even your kids or parents. This might be a bit of an extreme example, but an artist's work is a big part of their life.

Jenny and Kyle had just opened up their studio and print shop one year before the hurricane. It took them a while to build their own studio. Since Nina and I similarly got our studio started about two years ago, I can feel how horrifying it would be.
All their stuff was buried under mud. Essentially, Kyle said that they little time to go through what could be used and kept and what they should throw away. They threw away almost all of it.

Kyle kept the flooded wood type cases in case someone wants to use them for some other purpose. It could be a good sculpture project material, I think.

The quality of their work and their commitment is awesome. Please check out their website.
www.hotironpress.com

Recently they started a comic band, "Excuse My French."
That was funny. Jenny, let me know through this blog the site where we can listen to the music.

Jenny and Kyle nicely let me hang out at their place on the evening of the Fourth of July, and then stay one more night after I got the flat tire.
I really thank you.

Flat Tire

2007-07-07T07:31:00.001-06:00

Thursday morning, I arrived at the work site and noticed a strange noise, just by chance. My right front tire was deflating! Yes, a flat tire. Why now?!

I expected rain later that day so, I started changing to the spare tire. Then, Scott, a local
sculptor who I met at Luis' studio, showed up to look at the shotgun house. Amazingly, he picked up his tools and changed the tire within 10 minutes. What a wonderful saver, Scott!

Jenny, the sculptor running Hot Iron Press with Kyle, a printmaker, has been helping with the project this week, so we drove together to the repairshop. Because of Hurricane Katrina, the closest shops never come back, even chain stores. So we always have to drive good 30 minutes to do anything. Jenny said even her neighborhood grocer did not come back, so she drives across town just to do everyday grocery shopping.

I was lucky that the tire was fixed yesterday, Friday, July 6th, although my turn signal and AC are still broken. I need to bring the pickup truck to a shop before leaving for NYC.

Okay, today is Peeling-Off-Latex-Shotgun-House-Skins Day!

By July 10th

2007-07-04T07:44:00.001-06:00

This project production at 1941 Caffin Avenue will end by Tuesday July 10th.
That is simply my goal, so it might be delayed, however I need to leave for New York
as soon as possible now, otherwise I cannot complete this installation at Socrates Sculpture Park, Long Island City, NY by Sunday July 29th, which is the opening.

Really really, I appreciate so much help, encouragement, so many visits, and wonderful donations.

I will work today.

Happy Holiday!

Socrates Sculpture Park:
www.socratessculpturepark.org

At this opening, two organizations helping Katrina and Rita victims will
open information booths, and invite musicians to come to celebrate New Orleans with
yummy food. I hope we can enjoy a real New Orleans-Style festivity!

Acorn: http://www.acorn.org/
Volunteers of America:http://www.voa.org/

2007-06-30T03:03:00.001-06:00

Local Sculptor, Luis Colmenares came by and told me that he had cleaned out his studio for me to work on the PVC armature for the house.

He is a pretty sweet local sculptor who recently lost all his property when Hurricane Katrina hit. Yet, in spite of this, he is very energetic and aggressive to find a way to keep his artistic process flowing.

This late evening, we figured out the project's skeleton system.

Wowow! All we have to do is now follow this system...

It was just amazing!
Thanks a lot

Filmmaker and Photographer Visited

2007-06-27T05:33:00.000-06:00

Last week Farrah and Virginia visited my project site.
James and I got a long well with them and shared so many of our concerns and thoughts
related to New Orleans after Katrina.

I have put her film blog link on the left side of this page. Please refer to that blog.
www.organicprocess.com
She has been frequently visiting New Orleans from South Carolina, and filming by herself.
You will be able to see her documentary trailer and read about her cast and screenings on her site. I appreciate her interviewing so many different people.

Related to our conversation, I want to add this real experience by James.
He took one year off after High School and got ready for college back in Fall 2005.
He is from Omaha Nebraska. After finishing orientation and all the party stuff,
he was about to be in his first class at Loyola University New Orleans. Then he suddenly
had to evacuate. He and a couple of his friends got together drove a car up to north.
They stayed in St. Louis one night. However, they were all under 21. They had to figure out
they could stay in a hotel. I did not know that in most hotels in the US, a group of people under
21 cannot stay in a hotel by themselves. They need a guardian. One of them was able to provide a fake ID, so they managed to get a room. Eventually they got to their homes and immediately found schools where each of them could study for one or two semesters. Some of the students I met here said they decided to take one year off and then resumed their college life in 2006. James said it was not easy... I remembered when Hanshin Akashi, a major earthquake, hit in Japan, many students from the affected area needed lots of financial help. That was already more than ten years ago, when I was at Waseda University in Tokyo.

At this moment, most of the schools in New Orleans are trying to seriously survive, and are unable to work on providing the same rich academic excellence they had pre-Katrina. Many tenured professors or whole departments disappeared by just one e-mail.

I am sure that some or many of High School seniors from the Louisiana and Mississippi area might not be able to go to college because of their financial situation, particularly after Katrina and Rita, although it has been always huge challenge to go on to higher education in this area.

Oh, by the way, thankfully, the car has been fixed!

My Pickup Truck Broke and was Towed

2007-06-24T23:49:00.000-06:00

Yes, always something bad happens all of a sudden.

I finished work Sunday and decided to hang out with Mike, a friend of mine who helped at the work site that evening. While we were driving through a pretty sketchy area, suddenly something went wrong with the front wheel and we could not drive.

Oh wow.

Fortunately one of my interns, James, lives on Louisiana Ave. and across the
street I had noticed a car repair shop. I asked the towing company to tow my pickup to
there.

We will see if it can be repaired in reasonable number of days.

Let's cross our fingers.

People Helping New Orleans Area

2007-06-23T20:33:00.000-06:00

Already a couple of weeks ago, a group of young volunteers stopped by our project site in the Lower Ninth Ward. They were mostly from Acorn and Volunteers of America. They were living together in the same apartment and got along with each other well. They have mostly college students coming down here during the Summer.

I am sorry that it took so much time to write about this, but this is an email from Woody, the coordinator for young volunteers at Volunteers of America.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
On 5/29/07, Hosler, Woody - Solomon wrote:

Takashi,

I would like to start by thanking you for you commitment to your current project. The story of the devastation in the greater New Orleans area needs to continue to be told. The telling of this story now lies in the hands of the volunteers who are assisting in the recovery, the residents themselves, and artists such as you. I met you briefly yesterday afternoon, and I am definitely impressed with what you are trying to do. I wanted to touch bases with you briefly concerning an idea that I have. As a volunteer coordinator for Volunteers of America, it is my job to assist recovery organizations in meeting their volunteer needs. Serving as the volunteer center for the greater New Orleans area, my office is well informed as to the volunteer needs and opportunities that are still ever present. I would like to explore the possibility of attending the opening of your exhibit and possibly setting up an informational booth with information regarding the numerous organizations that are working toward the recovery of New Orleans and the surrounding area. Please let me know if there is any possibility of doing something like this, or if you can think of another way in which I might be able to reach out to potential volunteers in the New York area. That region has shown strong support since day one, and I would definitely appreciate the opportunity to reach out to more people who may be interested in assisting in our recovery. Thank you again for all that you are doing.

Sincerely,

Woody Hosler

Volunteer Coordinator

Volunteers of America

(504) 483-3564 Office

whosler@voagno.org

www.gnodrpvc.net

www.voagno.org

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Anyhow, I had an idea that contacting all the organizations that are helping recovery in the victimized area after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and having them set up information booths at the opening of the show presenting this house to NYC, so that people more easily grasp the notion of what is currently happening and how they may be able to help through these organizations.

On top of that, I dream about bringing New Orleans Jazz and yummy food to the opening
so that people who are not familiar with New Orleans and the south might get at least a flavor of it.

Toward the end of May when there were many horrible rainy days, Travis from Acorn, Woody from Volunteers of America and I started figuring out what we could do at the opening of the show at Socrates Sculpture Park in Long Island City, NY.

Fortunately we were able to get in contact with the park director Alyson to make it happen!

Well, I have been at 1941 Caffin Ave site almost all day every day, so Travis and Woody have been coordinating. Thank you so much for you guys' effort.

I also got in touch with other musician and food vendors so hopefully, between all of us, something will come through...

Final Week ?? - Probably so...

2007-06-23T01:27:00.000-06:00

Just in time, I received 10 new boxes of cheesecloth and 4 more 5 gallon buckets of
pure latex last Thursday. Thank you so much Mid-West Chemical and Cementex for your fast shipping. Also, my art supporters Sharon and Robert for donating one 5 gallon bucket of pure latex!!

Tonight was a long night. James asked me if we should work till late night. I had a hard time to make the decision since I have to come back to work by 8:30am tomorrow again. We ended up doing so, staying until really late at night.
Luis came over and dropped off pretty nice lights, but then Jerry's generator stopped
running. We thought it had run out gas, but it hadn't. Then, James and I just chilled
out and sat quietly in the dark. Only the street signal two blocks away cast blue, yellow
and red light back and forth. It a was nice time. We talked about art and our society, etc.

The TV weather forecast said that next week, from Monday on, there is a 50% chance of thunder storms. That means this weekend is really crucial. Rebbeca amazingly worked even faster and almost completed the back side of one wall today. James worked quietly and finished up the front window.

We are hoping that we can keep going and finish up everything next week, if its not raining.
If it rains, we might have to keep working through the first week of July.

Please cross your fingers for our shotgun house not to be demolished before then.

If you would like to come visit us on-site in the Lower Ninth Ward, please be advised that we might really not have enough time to talk to you now... We love to talk since we are chatty, and want to know peoples' experiences, but we do not have enough time to do so for now.

Running out of Materials!

2007-06-21T02:21:00.001-06:00

In the past couple weeks, as we head toward the end of this project's production in New Orleans,
major materials – latex and cheesecloth – have been consumed very rapidly. I was unable to foresee this situation far enough in advance. Today, Wednesday June 20th, our latex ran out.
Meanwhile, earlier this week, a local artist, Luis, nicely ran around all over the place looking for extra cheesecloth for this project. He found some and we were able to get going while we still had latex. I really appreciate Luis.

Okay, so, as I mentioned, liquid latex ran out today. Last Thursday I was able to order some more latex from St. Louis, but, of course, there was some miscommunication and they weren't ready to send it out when I had thought they would. But, thank goodness, the factory was able to send out one 5 gallon bucket separately last Monday.

After I sent out requests for some help, one of my wonderful friends from St. Louis donated one 5 gallon bucket of latex. I am really happy and felt quite fortunate. Thank you so much for the latex, Sharon and Robert Pettus.

Also, the mold supply company Cementex nicely DONATED 10% of entire project Latex! They shipped 15 gallons to the Sculpture Park in NYC, sent one 5 gallon bucket by two-day shipping, and two more 5 gallon buckets will be coming soon.

Anyhow, I came back to trailer this evening and found two 5 gallon buckets of latex! Oh wow,
I guess then we are able to get going tomorrow! We are so lucky. It is totally amazing timing.

Hopefully the rest of latex will arrive before the weekend so that we can keep working here at 1941 Caffin Ave, New Orleans. Keep your fingers crossed for us. Please!!!

Latexer

2007-06-21T01:09:00.000-06:00

It's not easy to be cheesy.

My friend Lee White said this to me one time. Since then, I have come to like the phrase. At the Caffin Ave work site, I keep saying that.

Also, we made up new word: Latexer. It means those of us who keep applying cheesecloth with latex again and again forever. We are professional latexers.

Well, I think I should explain a bit about how we do what we are doing:

First: we paint pure liquid latex, mixed with with gray color pigment. This is a sort of primer to give the surface of the work a better effect so it can display the real surface of the house in the latex sheet. It attaches to certain parts of the wood, peeling off thin slivers of wood to reveal the grain pattern on the surface.

Second: we apply cheesecloth to the surface and paint latex on it to soak in, binding it to the pigmented latex. The technique is sort of similar to painting a glue mixture on top of paper if you are doing decoupage. This cheesecloth serves as reinforcement for the latex sheet. This process will be repeated for at least 12 layers minimum.

Once it has become a certain thickness, we carefully peel the sheet off, applying baby powder to both surfaces since that prevents the latex from sticking to itself.

This latex will truly replicate all of the surface of the house. The wood grain from the surface of the wood siding, dried and deteriorated house paint, and an impression of all the details of the fixtures and fasteners on the house.

Demolition Issue

2007-06-20T22:57:00.000-06:00

Those who read the news article have probably been wondering about the demolition issue. Here is what is going on.

Last month, after the article came out, we got a huge help: Bruce, a lawyer, has working for us pro-bono, helping us to figure out how to come to an agreement with the city. Essentially, from what he discovered, it seems that city hall sends a list of houses to be demolished to FEMA, FEMA then sends a list from this information to the Army Corps of Engineers. So Bruce figured that we need to contact City Hall to come up with a solution.

First he had a hard time finding out who was in charge of these sorts of permissions, regarding demolitions. He kept being referred to different offices and different people. Finally he got the name of a person who has actually handled delaying demolitions (for a movie) before and tried contacting this person. This individual was, for one reason or another unable to find a solution for us, but Bruce diligently looked into how other agreements had been drawn up, paperwork-wise, and kept positing solutions to her. Finally, this week, the person at City Hall found a solution, but we were unable to complete the paperwork immediately.

Meanwhile, each week City Hall hands out a new demolition list, and Bruce contacts the Army Corps of Engineers to get estimates on how long we might have left to work at the 1941 Caffin Ave site, according to the new work load. So every week, as we wait for the new list, we have been scared that the demolition crew might be coming to knock down the house. Although the Army Corps of Engineers has been very supportive of this project, keeping us informed of the schedule and checking in on our progress.

Recently they have told us that they will notify us two or three days in advance if they have to demolish the house. At this moment we have gotten notice that we are secure at least until next Monday, then we will have to check back again. Since it has taken so long already, and since any agreement with the city would only be good until the end of the month which is only about one week away, we are waiting to continue on the paperwork until we see if the Army Corps of Engineers will again get more names and be able to delay demolition at the site one more week (making any paperwork a moot point).

According to our production schedule we should be done by the end of June, but due to the recent rains, we are afraid we may not make that deadline. We will work harder to try and make it, but we must cross our fingers for better weather. (Photo: Lawyer, Bruce G. Whittaker)

More Helpers - Part 1

2007-06-20T22:50:00.001-06:00

Last weekend one of the interns who has been helping since the beginning, James, had to go to his brothers wedding, so we lost a big help that weekend. However, fortunately, others got in touch with us, so we were able to get enough people to make up for missing James. Mike, Sara, and Courtney came over to help Sunday and finished one wall. Courtney also donated chip brushes to keep production going.

Sara is from Chicago originally, and Mike is a native. Courtney is also from the New Orleans area, not far from Slidell, but across the state border in Mississippi. She was very concerned about the loss of wetlands and the government's lack of concern for wetlands preservation. Essentially, if we lose the wetlands, which extend south and east of the city, separating it from th Gulf of Mexico, then we lose our hurricane protection. The wetlands act like a big spone barrier, absorbing and lessening the impact of the storm surge that accompanies a hurricane. The more wetlands there are, the longer it takes and the less likely the surge is to flood the city.

Why are we losing wetlands?It's related to the canal system, specifically the Industrial Canal just east of downtown new Orleans, and the MRGO (called Mr. Go locally) Canal that links up with it. The Industrial Canal was built in the 1920s connecting Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi River, and MRGO was built in the 1960s to provide a shortcut between the Gulf of Mexico and the Industrial Canal. The Industrial canal was built to allow ships to bypass the circuitous route of the Mississippi, and MRGO, as I understand it, was supposed to allow larger ships, that couldn't fit through the Industrial Canal's locks, to bypass that part of the canal on their way to Lake Pontchartrain. In the end, these canals have provided limited benefit, barely generating any increase in traffic.

They also cause two problems. The first is what I was mentioning before: the destruction of wetlands. Although there is no current in the canals, they allow salt water to flow further inland, killing off swamp vegetation. As the vegetation dies, the soil, no longer held together by roots, erodes, leading to the massive loss of wetlands that we face now (estimated by some at about one football field's worth of loss per day!).

The other problem is that the canals funnel the storm surge, directing that extra water from the ocean into a narrow passageway, thereby magnifying the force and amount of flooding in the waterways, making both topping of and breaches in the levees much more likely. In Hurricane Katrina, the levees along the Industrial Canal are what broke flooding the Lower Ninth Ward, and other neighborhoods all along its length.

The really sad part about these canals, however, is that their levees also trap water inside the city when they leak. Levees make New Orleans into a large bowl, so if there is a leak, it cannot drain because running downhill leads it into the city. All the flooding from breaks in the levees had to be pumped out, and took a great deal of time.

I am really concerned about this wetland loss, especially since working at the site. When we lose wetlands, we are also losing plants and animals. Every day working at the house I can see so many lizards, bugs and creatures that I have never seen in other places. There is a variety of life that is unique to this place. It is rather beautiful. But they will disappear if the wetlands disappear.

I guess the one hopeful sign for all of this is that, after years of neighbors calling for the closing of MRGO, after researching the damage from Hurricane Katrina, the Army Corps of Engineers recentely (mid-May) said they now feel that MRGO must be plugged. We can't reverse the damage it has already caused, and we won't be able to fill the whole thing, but maybe we can lessen the damage it causes to the city and it's environment.

Brooks came over to help on Tuesday as well. He is from Houma, LA. He is working on a huge 15-foot-long painting of the wetlands. He is an artist also very concerned with the loss of the wetlands. He currently lives in Brooklyn, and you can see his work on his website (http://brooksfrederick.com/).

Another helper, Marla, came from Laffyette, two hours west of New Orleans. She finished her BFA in Fine Arts at University of Louisiana, Laffyette a while ago and is getting ready to apply to a graduate program to pursue further her artistic endevours. I will put her pic up later. She was great, immediately understanding how to handle this picky, detail-oriented work.

Mike (who I mentioned above) and I actually briefly met in St. Louis four years ago, by chance. He went to Washington University in St. Louis and is getting ready for Law school this coming fall semester at LSU. As I mentioned, he is from Louisiana, and he is funny. Three days ago he came back to help us, but also brought a bunch of 6 packs. Everybody forced me to be intoxicated and, yes, I was super drunk. Thank you for letting me have an easy going evening while staying away from intense situation of the project. Everyone worked very well while I was the weird guy with lots of Abita Beer.

There are more people I haven't yet had a chance to mention who are helping with this project. Kyle and Jenny, running Hot Iron Press, have lent us their ladder. They also came by a couple weeks ago managed to finish an entire interior section (several walls) of primer (gray latex) in a very short time. They haven't had a lot of time to help, though, because their press was under water. They have been fixing it, rebuilding their studio. Please order your one of the kind invitation cards and such from them! (www.hotironpress.com)

Oh yeah, then there's Jonathan, who is so sweet. He had hard time to get the sense of how to apply latex and cheesecloth, but patiently and steadily worked until he got it. You will find him at the yummy (and affordable) Gelato shop, La Divina, 3005 Magazine St crossing 7th St. The shop donated wonderful Gelato for us. We need more shops like La Divina! (504-342-2634)

Chris is an instructor at Loyola, and a recent graduate from RISD. His mechanical sculpture is very interesting. (http://christopherderis.com/)

And finally, I will mention, since I didn't get to before, my wife, Nina, came down at the beginning of the month for four days. Although we had lots of people to see while she was here (my friends, her Uncle and Aunt who live here and her father who was here on a business trip), we spent the daytime all four days down at the site working.

There are more people to mention, but I am running out of time, so I will have to make another entry about the rest of the wonderful helpers later. In the meantime, thank you to everyone who is making this project happen!

More Blog will be Coming Soon...

2007-06-20T22:48:00.001-06:00

It has been more intensely busy than ever, recently.
I get up around 6 am everyday, work on the computer for a bit, and leave for work by 7:45am.
Then I and my amazing helpers work until sunset, around 8:15pm. I leave to return to Jerry's trailer around 10 - 11pm. I try to work on this blog, yet I usually fall asleep...

My wife, Nina, nicely called me up today to help type and revise the blog. So, soon several postings will come all at once.

At any rate, amazing tropical storms, which are quite normal here, do not help this project. However, the amazing helpers very patiently work through any weather and bloodthirsty mosquitoes.

Thanks a lot!

Tropical thundestorm

2007-06-20T22:48:00.000-06:00

We’ve been getting lots of rain and thunderstorms that, unlike hurricanes, are locally intense and very unpredictable. We have to keep an eye on the sky at all times; if we see any clouds approaching in the sky, we have to immediately prepare for moving our work inside. (Rebecca is really good at reading clouds, so we generally rely on her prediction. Thanks Destrahan girl!)

Around 5 pm on Tuesday we noticed dark thick clouds to north (the lakeside direction), so I yelled to everyone that it was going to rain and we would have to finish what we are doing quickly. About an hour later, we were suddenly hit by a huge gust of wind. There was no signal or warning. The wind was amazingly strong, and caused everything to fly up in the air. Ladders, and buckets were falling, mud and sand were hitting my face! I immediately got rid of the ladder and jumped into the house, although we cannot close the windows in the house, so we could only avoid the rain by remaining in the very center of the building.

It was a really hard rain: not even like rain, but more like water pouring from a faucet in the sky, so we couldn’t see even 4 ft away. We quickly realized we had to leave the site immediately, so we packed everything up and ran out. I couldn’t see in front me, so I slowly drove my car just far enough to park on the shoulder of a street on higher ground, and waited out the storm. I stayed for one hour, then was able to see well enough to drive. I wish I had some images to show how amazing the rain was. Let's wait till Rishi edits the film, and hopefully some of that may show how wild it was.

Due to this storm, the blue tarps we installed in the picture a couple weeks ago blew off, and some of the tarps on the roof came loose. Today was nice and sunny, but we ran out of latex (!), so we worked on fixing the tarps as best we could in order to keep leaks from forming in the future. We cut veneer and added to the edge of the roof to keep water from leaking at the seams between the tarps on the roof and the extension. This evening, another bucket of latex was delivered, so we will head back to work tomorrow.

Crazy weather!

2007-06-20T22:27:00.000-06:00

The weather here has been pretty intense lately. Yesterday, the lightning was really crazy. It wasn't really raining, but suddenly, out of nowhere, a bolt hit behind the house and the project workers back there saw the bolt hit the ground! We were so amazed by the huge sound; it was so loud it was probably even caught by the video camera. Later that afternoon I was working outside, with an umbrella, when it suddenly started thundering, and, for the first time ever, I saw lightning up close – it was probably only 20 or 30ft from me! Even though I was trying to be super safe, it came quite suddenly, and I was totally unprepared for it. I'm just glad it didn't hit me!

I have, fortunately, lived in New Orleans before. And people from New Orleans understand how dangerous it is, so the helpers from the area are really good at working fast to get everything done quickly when it looks like the weather might turn. We are really at the mercy of the weather here. Well, this is probably normal for New Orleanians.

My professor Jerry, at Loyola, lost his large TV when a thunder storm hit sometime ago, although the TV was not on. I usually unplug my computer once thunder comes near.

One thing is for sure: this city's wonderful culture, people, and nature never bore me.

One Day Off

2007-06-10T22:33:00.000-06:00

I have been working without getting a day or two off since the past rain slowed our project down. However, because of this, I was feeling pretty tired and experienced difficulty handling my project. So, I decided to have one day off. I was lucky. Sunday was Japan Fest at the City Park. Also, it was really too hot to work outside that day.

In the morning, I spent time with Jerry, my professor/ friend from Loyola at his home (I am staying in his trailer house.) I interviewed him regarding his experiences after Katrina. The videotaped footage will be part of the documentary film on the project directed/edited by Ambarish Manepalli. Jerry nicely explained one by one what he went through over the past two years.

At the Japan Fest, I met a Japanese woman who's been living here in New Orleans for more than a decade. Her house was in New Orleans East and is therefore completely gone. She was quite cheerful but she told me that her seven-year-old son ended up with PTSD. Once they moved into a trailer house from Dallas, whenever any rain would come he would scream. Recently they found an apartment and he dealing with it much better now.

Jerry also mentioned PTSD. This stress disorder must be all over the city. Even a contractor I met at the 1941 Caffin Ave site who demolish houses told me how sad he was about demolishing peoples' houses. He said he has demolished about 2000 homes since 2005.

This stressful situation will probably continue for more than ten years to come until the city starts to feel like it is "back to normal." One of people from FEMA told me that the organization decided to stay in New Orleans up until 2020.

That is how intense the situation is in New Orleans, Louisiana and the Mississippi Gulf Coast areas. Yet, you will still be greeted warmly by the wonderfully charming people down here, so I can guarantee you will have a fun time as an tourist. That is what I am always amazed about in New Orleans.

I guess the past couple weeks have made me think a lot.

Last Friday, one of our wonderful interns, Connie from San Antonio, TX finished her internship and left for home. She is trying to figure out if she can come up to NYC to help with the installation. We miss you Connie...

Working through the Thunderstorm

2007-06-05T06:21:00.001-06:00

Yesterday morning, I was in a hurry. I wanted to put blue tarps on the roof so that the coming hard rain would not come in and the plaster ceiling would not fall. By the time I started tying the tarps, it started raining. I got soaking wet and felt pretty uncomfortable, but at least no major rain is coming in from the ceiling anymore. Thanks for the tarps Jerry!

Then, in the afternoon, local artists Luis and Crayton came with materials. Amazingly they quickly built an extension roof at south side of wall and a walkway since it becomes swamp once it rains. Now we can work during any weather.

Thank you for your help Luis and Clayton!

Fish on the Window

2007-06-05T00:07:00.000-06:00

As I was taping a window, I felt something and peeled off the tape. At first I thought it was a leaf, but then I realized that it was a fish or rather a dried fish. I guess when the water came in and flooded, fish came in and accidentally got left behind.

Late Sunday afternoon, I finally started working on the outside wall of the northeast corner of the house. It is just between a collapsed corner grocery and my project's shotgun house. There was lots of stuff piled up and almost whole nests of mosquitoes... After cleaning up the path, I duct-taped the windows so they won't shatter if they break. The dead fish remaining on the window was left alone there long enough to become a dried fish. When I told this to one of my friends, she told me that her friend was bitten by shark a in Lakeview when street was still flooded. Also, even when I came to New Orleans in 2001, someone at school told me there was an alligator in the bath tab at an abandoned apartment, injuring a homeless person. Now I can believe that.

By the way, our work site is filled with many different mosquitoes. We are constantly finding new types of mosquitoes! If anyone comes by to help us, please feel free to donate bug repellent spray to protect us.

Bracing the Porch Roof

2007-05-29T07:00:00.001-06:00

Over Memorial Day weekend, in order to make the piece sturdy and aesthetically clean and finished, we tried to complete repairs to every edge of each sheet of latex on the shotgun house's surface.

Sunday, we had many visitors. My friends Michael & Lee and their son Sam, as well as Mike, his son Ian and their friends all came over. We discussed how to brace the porch part of the roof. Since we are ready to begin partially peeling off the porch latex, Mike nicely offered to brace the falling facade, making it a little safer work area.

He came back yesterday and we peeled off the right side of the porch while he braced the front wall. Thanks a bunch!

Since last night, it has been raining. I hope it stops raining sometime today...
We are still figuring out holding off the demolition with City Hall.

After Wednesday Hard Rain

2007-05-26T21:05:00.000-06:00

Wednesday's hard rain forced us to stop working around three o'clock. At that point I went back to Loyola University Visual Art Department to mix more latex with color pigment for the coming weeks.

The amazingly massive rain caused instant flooding around the shotgun house, as you can see in the picture, and we were quickly surrounded by the large pond. It was still pretty swampy and muddy, up until today. Good thing latex is essentially rubber so that it is sort of water proof.

Before we left on the rain day last Wednesday, we stayed inside and tried to work on whatever we could manage inside, but the plaster ceiling started falling. Ouch! So we minimized our tasks for the day and decided to stop.

Anyhow, today, Saturday, was a really nice day. This Lower Ninth Ward is truly beautiful hidden treasure. The sunset here is just marvelous.

Today, I had a couple visitors: Don, Ian, Sam, Michael, Shelley, and Pamela.
My new helpers are Chris, Tuyen, and Tuyet.

By the way, Ian just graduated from Holy Cross High School, and when I was on my preliminary visit, he drove me around the Lower Ninth Ward, after I myself had driven a car and ridden a bike in the same area, which led to me finding this house. I have no idea why I missed it before. It was already on Elizabeth Underwood's blog a while ago too. I feel something special about this house. I really appreciate his assistance. Thanks Ian! (He is going to Pratt Institute this coming Fall. See you there...)

Also, thank you for the non-alcoholic daiquiri, Michael!

2007-05-26T06:15:00.000-06:00

Yesterday, contracters came to remove old cable wires from the area and prepare for the installation of new cable lines. Even if it is little by little, I am so glad that we can see progress in the rebuilding of the community. Around the site at 1941 Caffin Ave, there is more and more demolition in progress. I am hoping that we are able to complete demolition in the area soon and contracters will be able to start making the noise of building new houses soon.

We are still working on figuring out the demolition schedule at our site. I hope it will all work out and we will successfully bring this project to the other state.

Two wonderful pieces of news:
A group of Jazz musicians might be playing at the opening of this exhibition at Socrates Sculpture Park. Once everything is decided,
we will let you know the details.

A wonderful local sculptor could possibly help out with our production of the skeleton house frame after we complete on-site production.

Further information is TBA...

Please come by our work site at 1941 Caffin Ave. We will be working this weekend!

Yaaay! We peeled off the first piece successfully

2007-05-23T07:14:00.000-06:00

While I had to get in touch with people who know about the situation with the demolition schedule, and work with a pro-bono Lawyer to figure out what to do about the schedule (which pretty much bothered and distracted me), we cleaned up the second room and started painting latex on the wall.

John (Sophmore at Loyola) and Stephanie (Sophmore at Auburn ) from Chalmette came over and gave us chip brushes. Meanwhile Connie from TX arrived. They were so nice, precisely and carefully cleaning up the room and painting gray-colored latex as a sort of primer.

Stephanie's family came back to Chalmette quite recently. Her family is now slowly rebuilding their house and printshop. She told me that they and their neighbors are mostly rebuilding their houses by themselves.

The person taking pictures is Connie from TX. Let me talk about her later since I am again getting late. I have to go back to work!

One Step Forward

2007-05-22T07:48:00.000-06:00

Last Weekend, I was able to take a short break. Again, thank you for your suggestion, Rishi! (He is a filmmaker, MFA student of Columbia Univ. NYC. He is leaving today.)

I attached some shots. The one shows a piece of the fallen ceiling and the latex replica piece juxtaposed. Casting or molding the house might be a misleading description of this project. We apply latex mixed with gray pigment to the entire shotgun house at 1941 Caffin Ave. Then, we also apply several layers of cheesecloth and latex alternating back and forth so that it becomes strong enough to stretch on a life-size PVC-pipe-skeleton frame of the house to be constructed in NYC. Once we make the enough layers for the thickness we are looking for, we carefully peel the latex-and-cheesecloth "fabric" off, coating all surfaces with baby powder. Latex is essentially rubber and the uncoated surface is therefore very sticky. To prevent the "fabric" from sticking itself and ruining the piece we sprinkle it with baby powder. We need to wear masks because we are using lots of powder, but the process and the final piece are completely safe. So, this picture below shows how precisely the latex skin depicts the surface. All the substances from the surface of the real shotgun house remain on the surface of the latex. We will put grommets around the edges and attach the skin to the PVC frame house just like an awning or a banner. Thus the finished piece is like the surface of the real house.

I was able to re-examine the porch side of the house. Since it is falling toward the front, it is pretty hard to figure out how I should disect and peel off the surface latex. I think I will figure it out after some more thought, but it will be one of the most difficult parts for sure. Please come by take a look at it before I start peeling!

For some reason, I could not upload the pictures of the work in progress today, but I will try tonight.

Yesterday, New Orleans Artist Willie Birch came to visit us at the work site.
He and I immediately started discussing all sorts of things about contemporary art.
He is really nice! I hope I have time to come visit his studio...
(Chris on our left is his son from Atlanta. Willie got the Delgado Award! Congrats!)

One of the MFA student helpers, Connie, arrived from Houston, Texas yesterday. We will start working today. Thanks for coming, Connie! Okay, I gotta go:)

Local Artists Still Alive!

2007-05-21T07:18:00.000-06:00

Last Weekend, (Saturday, May 19 2007) I was able to get away from work at 1941 Caffin Ave site. My friend Rish, a filmmaker, suggested I should have at least one day off to rest and recover. My artist friends had a gallery opening, so I planned on checking out the show. Elizabeth Underwood from Art in Action worked for the organization hosting the show. I do not have the flyer right now, but I think the address was 2426 Bradish Pl. just off Tulane ave, sort of behind the Superdome with office buildings to the north. The exhibition space was on the first floor of a private property. Before they renovate the house, artists got together and exhibited their works all over the unfinished space.

I was happy that local artists were still crazy in a sense. I am sure they have had a tough time, but I appreciate their artistic energy. Unfortunately, my camera has been upset - I really mean broken. It seems the battery connection or wiring inside are failing. But, in any case, Rish was able to videotape the show, so we will wait to see his footage later. All of the pieces were about Post-Katrina. The intensity of the process of rebuilding the city or even simply individual houses is beyond comprehension. So, of course these artists' creative expressions came out of that process. Some had lost their studios and houses. All got muddied. Right now, on the outside New Orleanians are super-optimistic, but probably not so much on the inside. I was able to feel the mixture of their feelings: not working overly hard, not pretending to be overly happy, but managing their feelings despite dealing with long-term fatigue and difficulties. Those kinds of feelings led to slightly sad yet somehow still optimistic expressions. They were beautiful yet somewhat ironically sad and ephemeral.

Front page! Oh wow

2007-05-17T06:49:00.000-06:00

I was unable to sleep last night. So, I was e-mailing a lot this early morning. Then I realized that I do not have some of the e-mail addresses of those who sent messages to blog. I cannot contact you in person through e-mail if you sent your message to the blog. Please e-mail me at socialdress@gmail.com and let me know who you are again. Also, if you are interested in helping and supporting our project in New Orleans or later in New York City, we are happy to welcome you to join "our" project after we discuss individually to figure out what we could do together.

At this moment, we are trying to figure out each section's minor technical issues while applying the first latex with gray pigment. We will try to complete the second to third layers of cheesecloth reinforcement at the front porch side this week. So, I guess we would like to get more help from next week!

Meanwhile, if you are looking to help, you could maybe bring some leftover DIY materials for us: paint brush, paint roller and cover, small paint pail and pan. We would also like to borrow your 8' or 12' ladder (which we will, of course, return). Latex is an adhesive. So, after using a brush for about hour or so, it solidifies.

At any rate, I was seriously surprised the fact the Times Picayune put the information from several of their reporters together as one large front page article on the Wednesday morning paper! Yes, we got interviewed over the past two days, but I did not think it would be on the front page. I am glad that the message that I hope to send out through my project sounds similar to what people in new Orleans have told me they felt. I am more than happy to listen to any suggestions, opinions and thoughts from you.

Here, you can read the newpaper article:
http://blog.nola.com/times-picayune/2007/05/artists_plan_for_disaster_art.html
or
http://www.nola.com/timespic/stories/index.ssf?/base/library-125/117929671033610.xml&coll=1

You have a wonderful day:)

First Layer of Painting

2007-05-16T06:13:00.000-06:00

On Monday, May 14th, James came to help. I began by figuring out how & where we should start painting the first layer of latex mixed with gray pigment. By the late afternoon, we had planned a tentative order. For James to get used to painting the latex, we hit the south side of the outside wall first. He is an amazingly quick learner and very precise. He does a better job than I do (laugh)! Meanwhile I examined the porch segmentof the house and slowly eliminated unnecessary debris around there.

Thankfully, many news media got in touch with me through phone. The Times Picayune Art Critic, Mr. Dogulas MacCash, came to visit us in the morning. He shared his understanding of my artwork with me. I was surprised by the fact that he remembered my pine needle installation work at the No Dead Artist exhibition several years ago.

Right after he left, the Mayor's Office got in touch with me! Mr. David Robinson-Morris explained that he is trying to hold the demolition. One hour or so later, Mr. Michael Logne from the Army Corps of Engineers came to check and get information on my project at the site. They were surprisingly very generous and liked the idea behind the project. He even said his daughter is a college student studying art and wanted to show her our hard work (laugh again).

I have to go back to work for now. I will continue this later.
On Tuesday

The day after arriving in New Orleans:

2007-05-14T09:21:00.000-06:00

After sleeping a good 5 hours on the couch, it was hard to get up,
I was not feeling well but one of the supporters, James, called me up with perfect timing. His call encouraged me very much, then I headed over to Loyola University for the preparation.

At Loyola, James, Cherisse, my good friend and artists who works at Loyola, and Cherisse’s friend came to check out what was going on after I unloaded some of the materials. With their help I unloaded the 450lb barrel of latex (I will post pictures later). We opened the drum and started mixing the pigment into the latex to make a neutral grey, similar to the color of the actual building, so that it will look kind of like gesso going on a canvas. We finished around 5pm, and although we were exhausted already, James introduced me to Kyle, a writing and visual arts student who came to be a big help for the rest of the evening.

We packed up supplies and headed over to 1941 Caffin Ave, battling rain and traffic to get there around 7pm. We nailed down the stakes and put caution tape up around the site, as well as a sign asking them to delay the demolition. We did a quick clearing of the site, discussed a plan of attack, and while the others worked on preparing surfaces – clearing off excess dirt and debris – I began painting.

We finished around 10:30pm when the mosquitoes attacking us became too much to deal with. I realized that we would likely be working ‘til late every night, so I headed over to Winn Dixie to do grocery shopping. When I finally got home I was so exhausted I just crashed on the couch.

To make myself clear...

2007-05-14T08:35:00.000-06:00

I am making this entry because I am very concerned that everyone understand my situation and desires accurately. I am afraid, from considering how people might understand my last entry, that I will be misunderstood as being completely opposed to City Hall.

I do understand their desire to get moving on the demolitions so that some sort of rebuilding can commence. It is essential that rebuilding take place as soon as possible so that the healing of the community can begin. People who want to move back should be given that opportunity. My desire is simply that they wait two or so weeks for me to finish this project before tearing down this specific house. I understand that they owners of this house cannot deal with demolishing it on their own, and the city needs to take care of it. However, It seems to me from what I have seen that there are certainly other locations at which demolition can currently commence, and as soon as I have had a chance to finish making my latex cast of this house's surface, I would be happy to let them continue with the demolition of this structure.

I do not want to make this difficult on the City Council or FEMA as I appreciate the fact that work toward reconstruction is progressing. However, I do feel that it is necessary to complete and present this project for the sake of New Orleans, so that we can gain more support from people outside of New Orleans and Louisiana and lighten the burden here. I truly appreciate that the City Council is pushing for a speedy recovery, but I just don't see why we can't work together by making a slight alteration to the order in which particular buildings are demolished.

I feel sorry that it has come to the point that I am having to publicly voice opposition to the will of the City Council, but I am hoping that by this action we may be able to come to a mutually satisfactory conclusion.

Emergency - Your Support is Needed NOW

2007-05-12T13:10:00.000-06:00

I covered some of this in my last post, but it's easiest to tell the whole story all at once.

So I spent two weeks in New Orleans during this final preliminary trip, and was able to secure a house to use for this project. 1941 Caffin Ave, a house that is dilapidated and will clearly have to be demolished, fits my project perfectly and, unlike the many other condemned houses I encountered, I was able to locate the owners. They agreed to let me use their house, we signed a contract about it, I went to city hall to confirm that they were in fact the current owners, and everything looked fine. Just in case anything were to happen, I left a note on the house about the project and that I would be working on-site from mid-May to mid-June, then I returned to New York. When I got to New York, I put up a sign at the site to begin promoting the project to New Yorkers (see picnicers in picture!).

THEN I GOT A PHONE CALL! My nightmare has begun. A very nice person from the Army Corp of Engineers called me to say that they had visited the house, and saw my note, and let me know who to contact about finding out if the demolition of this house could be delayed. I sent descriptions of the project and letters of support from a range of both New York and New Orleans Arts and non-profit organizations to the contact to which I was referred. To no avail. I have been informed that despite all these efforts on the part of many people, the city council and FEMA will not delay, even for a couple weeks. A couple weeks is all I need! And the house has been there so long, and there are many other houses that must be demolished as well, but they would not delay this one. I was told demolition would be delayed a bit as things were getting organized at this point, but that it would not be long.

I rushed to get all my supplies in order, to locate people to help with the production, to reschedule the filming dates with the filmmaker who will be documenting the project and visitors to the project, and to get started on my long trip from New York, to St. Louis (where I picked up the latex) and then finally to New Orleans. I am now, currently, in the car on my way from St. Louis to New Orleans (thank you Nina for writing this down and uploading it), and will arrive this evening, but I fear it is too late.

I found out on Friday that they are going to go ahead with demolition next week, possibly as early as Monday. Monday, 9am, had been the day that I would have begun production! I hope to still start, but I do not know what will happen. The only suggestion I could get from anyone was to try contacting all the media outlets and hope that by getting the word out to the general public, someone could come forward with the kind of support I need - either a way of delaying the demolition on this house, or locating the owners of another similarly condemned house this week. If you know of any way to help, please do - this project depends on it. My contact information is at the end of this post.

This is not just for me. As you can see from my blog, I have been working with many people within the New Orleans community, and I would hate for their efforts to be in vain. I really don't think people in places like New York understand the depth and the severity of the everyday struggle those in New Orleans face. There are so many layers of issues to deal with when rebuilding a community from scratch. I want the message to go out to people across the country so that they can support this city. I would hate to see New Orleans, and the beautiful community and cameraderie of the neighborhoods disappear or lose their way.

I really believe that if such a tradgedy, not just of nature, but of beauracracy can happen here, it can happen anywhere. Plus it affects this whole country - how others view us, how much we can depend on each other, how well our national economy grows, how much tax we get charged - no community is entirely alone. We all affect each other, and I wish that people could realize this and come to help New Orleans before everyone gives up. There is so much energy here now that it is hard for me to believe people would give up, but I can also see how it is a struggle to maintain that energy. And if the energy leaves, I fear the city will disappear. If you can help me send out my message about New Orleans, I feel it would help us all.

Contact:

Takashi Horisaki
- via email - socialdress@gmail.com
Nina Horisaki-Christens (my wife)
- via email - AJCdoyle@gmail.com

Coming Soon:

2007-05-09T10:02:00.000-06:00

After coming back to NYC with wonderful accomplishment that I had no time to explain here about, my wife, Nina was about to have her first group exhibition here at Socrates Sculpture Park in Long Island City. We worked full one week till late late night to get the installation done. She completed her piece 10am of the day of the opening and it went beautifully well. Meanwhile, I received phone call from the U.S. Army Corps of engineers about my project site that I found and got permission. Sadly the property became under eminent domain and the city scheduled to demolish the house anytime very soon. I guess the information at the City Hall as well as what the owner told me about were not accurate. Since I do not want to impose on the city's recovery effort, I have to accelerate this process. I am nervous about this situation since I was unable to go back to New Orleans. Tomorrow I leave for St. Louis to receive bulk of pure latex for this project, the main material I am using, and then drive down to New Orleans.

Individually Different - current New Orleans

2007-04-23T12:48:00.000-06:00

It has been one week since I arrived in New Orleans last week. This is pretty busy and somewhat tough process for me to go forward with this project. It is as though I am re-experiencing all of the stuff people in New Orleans had to go through, I am learning so many layers of facts and objective observation. Since it was too much sometimes, it is still to soon for me to express everything through this blog. However, I quickly wanted to mention for readers/viewers here that news coverage, as usual, has a slightly different focus from what everyday people expereince and worry about here. I can feel many people's optimistic points of view for the future of New Orleans despite the increased crime rate. They care about their communities and neighborhoods. It is true that each has a slightly different opinion if it comes down to political elements, though. I was sometimes discouraged when I rode a bike all over the city. But, then I even received a cold water bottle from a stranger and was encouraged. This community has a very strong heart. I hope I can respond and represent this well through my project in NYC. Please wait for next blog. I appreciate many people's support and input.

Responses Encourage Me

2007-04-12T05:39:00.000-06:00

Time passes so fast. My preliminary research trip to New Orleans is already next week. I have been researching many different elements of current issues regarding New Orleans. Sometimes it discourages. Meanwhile, amazingly, I received many responses to my announcements and blog. I sent out a call for interns. One short e-mail from Minnesota absolutely surprised me yet was really encouraging. Coming down all the way from Minnesota and helping out with this project is not easy. I truly appreciate it.

I believe that meeting artists/people from everywhere and meeting to work together in New Orleans through this project provides the basis for a future network and good fluidity of sharing information between states. In fact, I was not sure how artists in New Orleans were responding to post-Katrina circumstances, or even how the community beyond my friends) was surviving there, until just recently when I started getting emails from New Orleans artists. But once I opened my blog, I received communications from other blogs run by Artists in New Orleans and learned so many things about and beyond their arts. I could really remember the taste of New Orleans through their sites. Some organized a group exhibition at an empty house where all the walls were removed and waiting for renovation. I felt it was not just an art exhibition, but rather a ritual ceremony for the house, the owner, and the neighborhood.

The next step in the process of my project is to learn more about circumstances in current New Orleans, a task best accomplished in the city itself.

Deborah's New Work

2007-04-05T05:09:00.000-06:00

Last week, I met Deborah at Socrates Sculpture Park. She is the studio manager there and a sculptor herself. At the meeting with the director, Alyson Baker, we met and surprisingly she mentioned that she had made something inspired by New Orleans. She then showed me her bronze piece: a topographic map of New Orleans. She used steel wire as the main structural grids, mimicking the layout of N.O. streets. Then she dripped melting wax on the armature. She then had a bronze cast made from the molding. She has always had an interest in geography, and one of the recurring techniques in her work is to let the work itself organize its shape over time, allowing natural processes to direct the change. Please check her website for more details.

Honestly I was really shocked by this piece. When I was still at Loyola a couple years ago and was working on my own work, I was mostly curious about the fact that New Orleans was under sea level and people told me this city would disappear one hundred years later because the land was constantly sinking. I made many pieces about saturation, swamps, the Mississippi delta, and about water or other natural forces. So, I totally got what Deborah did at first glance. But at the same time, since I have been so focused on what happened and is happening to New Orleans right now, I missed such elements from New Orleans recently.

This piece reminded me of the different elements of New Orleans' character.
It will be exhibited at Socrates Sculpture Park this Summer.
I cannot wait to see how it will change as time passes.

http://deborahfisher.blogspot.com/2006/08/new-orleans-elegy.html/

Butch Merigoni Contributed to New Orleans - Peformance at Gentilly in New Orleans

2007-03-27T07:46:00.000-06:00

First, please visit this site to check out the performance...
http://visualartsneworleans.blogspot.com/

My good friend, who went to Loyola University in New Orleans and recently completed his MFA at Pratt Institute, revisited New Orleans this month. He is actually originally from there. Unfortunately I was not in town, but my friend, Jerry, told me that his performance was very private in tone yet was intended as a contribution to all the people in New Orleans, and turned out to be such a healing piece.

Butch is the guy who is always encouraging me to be able to survive in NYC and enjoy the many art happenings all over here. I feel that his passion and warm heart cause his work to embrace us.

Anytime I encounter these serious and powerful artworks, I feel so glad that we still have
Art among our life. And as an artist, I feel very inspired.

Thank you for this performance and 12 audiences' lights.

Depends on how we value this - Penn Station

2007-03-19T02:26:00.000-06:00

Late evening on Sunday, a group of students and faculty from Loyola University New Orleans, accompanied by a few alumni, met up at Penn Station to look at the work of Maya Lin, other public art in the station, and the central post office next to the station. "Eclipsed Time" (1994) by Maya Lin is very subtle and because it is on the ceiling, you can easily miss it if you just pass by in hurry. The piece's movement is at a very slow pace, the same as the cycle of the moon eclipse. It makes us think about how tiny our time span is even if we feel, in our busy everyday life, that an hour or two is a long time to waste. In Lin's piece, fiber optic threads transmit light from outside through the glass disks which slide back and forth to mark time. You can only see it if you walk underneath the piece and look up directly at the measurement disks, but the subtle movements cover and reveal various fiber optic threads creating points of light that blink as though you are seeing stars in the sky.

After contemplating about time, we moved to Andrew Leicester's mural work on the wall of the nearby hallway (see picture). The piece explains about the history of the Penn Station building. The original station was built in 1911. After the huge successful renovation of Ground Central station, we wanted to preserve and give value to the gorgeous old, historical architecture. But, due to the cost of maintaining the old Penn Station, as well as a desire for a more efficient way of using such a large patch of land, etc., they already demolished the original building in 1964.

Just a little bit about my own personal experience: since I was about 7 years old, I have loved walking around town and finding out about old objects, streets and buildings' history. I loved the idea of preserving old buildings. I hated to see the old and beautiful architecture in Tokyo disappear, really day by day. That rapid demolition and new construction happened frequently in the 80s under Japan's "bubble" economy. Of course, as a child I could not grasp the impact of the economy, so without considering that other part of the reality of that time, I kept complaining about losing what I felt were such historically important buildings. Now, whether or not it is good, as I have grown up I have learned so many layers of reality, value systems, social structures, and architectural theory. We tend to only say, "It is so sad we lost such a wonderful station building to be replaced by an ugly mundane building" only after losing it. But, on the flip side, Madison Square Garden has been a very active and well known stadium. We might have to say it is more successful way of using the space, even if it seems very utilitarian... Also, experimenting or challenging ourselves to do something we have not done with new technology is important practice, rather than just keeping to traditional, aesthetically pleasing and well established "architecture." Forty years after the demolition, we have come to a certain consensus that the demolition was in a way wrong decision, but that is only something that could be declared in hindsight.

I think it is pretty important to consider about both pro and con elements, understand the real economic affect & value of existing architecture and pay attention to what new projects are coming up in one's own neighborhood. Then perhaps we can minimize and improve the outcome of these endless battles.

Anyhow, this discussion also could be applicable to New Orleans' post Katrina rebuilding situation. My American friends said, "Takashi, your country has much longer history and therefore has a bunch of cultural heritage, but we don't have that much." So we want to preserve whatever old stuff we can until we find out its value in the future. In fact, it is true that New Orleans has a really distinguished cultural heritage from the rest of the nation. Despite that fact, scientists say, directly, that we should relocate the entire city sooner rather than later because the area is constantly sinking, losing land literally day by day, and it is too dangerous to live in because of the hurricane routes. That is probably true considering the economic effects and our personal security. But, upon hearing this, I suddenly felt it sounded very familiar to me! In Japan, we live on top of one of the most dangerous patches of land in the world! We have constant earthquakes. It is also along the favorite route for Typhoons every year. Despite all of that, we have still lived there longer than Americans have been living in New Orleans...? We even developed an aesthetic that tends to love and admire fragile and ephemeral things. This is similar to the aesthetic I discovered in New Orleans too.

I love New Orleans and the people. Because of that, I still have hard time to figure out my own clear, objective opinion about these questions; it is as though I live there and get involved in these issues personally. Especially once it comes down to each home owner level, this becomes a totally different discussion. Each house does not necessarily have such a great historic value at large, but each family most likely has very personal important memories and history with their home, just like a photo album. They remember how many times and why they took care of repainting a wall, battled to prevent termites and maybe hid some toys underneath floor planks as a little child, and maybe they still remain there... These are very important personal histories.

Finally, our group from Loyola stopped by the Central Post Office - an historic building that is still left standing. Now New York City and developers debate and try to come to a consensus on a plan to create a new, grand Penn Station by using the post office.