Santiago de Chile

Santiago is a city of confrontations and contradictions: the architecture, the people, the politics, the religion(s). It sounds like an overwhelming and unconsidered statement, but it has been swimming around in my brain since I arrived.
The people are open and hospitable, like none I have ever seen or met. Yet, there is this an astounding feeling of separation - from you and them and amongst themselves. There is a middle class, unlike many South American countries (so I have heard), but the separations between the classes is much greater than I am used to. There is a clear divide between the haves and the have nots. There is a clear divide between the mountains and the sea, that is where Santiago lies. There is a clear divide between the architecture of the 60s and now, hmmm yet they are situated right next to one another.
There is a quite uneasiness with the history of the Pinochet regime (I realize this is a very touchy subject here) and yet, there isn't. I definitely do not understand how all of this is.
The balancing act is precarious, yet they seem to almost cancel each other out. They are hiding something. Or are they?
I need to investigate.
I almost feel like I cannot post this.

Just some thoughts

Some of you may be wondering just what is it that I have been up to on the other side of the world.

I've been thinking (amongst other things). I thought I would post a few thoughts. Still working with the lil' fuji - I love the exposures, but I certainly don't luv the un-user-friendly-ness of the menus. My new LUMIX should arrive in the next week or so. Hopefully the menus will be easier to navigate.
Additionally this lil' lumix will give me access to better shots. Why? Santiago (and Valparaíso) are notorious for pickpockets and theives of the like. The smaller the camera, the less conspicuous I look. I hope the camera is all that the reviewers said it was....
You may be wondering what you are looking at. Well, there is the fish market, Kate, a certain perspective in Valpo, somewhere on Irarrazaval (yeah, took me a while to figure out how to say the name of that street correctly) waiting, an almost deserted beach after days of rainstorms in Chuy, Uruguay, some debris from a day of neglect in Uruguay (before the rainstorms), and just a corner house with the Andes in the background - respectively.
I figure, even if I don't really have the time to make work, I can at least work visually through ideas.
Do you think I should write more so that all of the images have some text in between them? Hmmmmmm......

Alfred University in LOOP Video Art Festival '09

It's done! It's done!! We (Victoria Bradbury, Stephanie McMahon, and I) watched 56 videos last Friday night and chose 12 of them to participate as the Alfred University 2009 Selection for the Programa de las Escuelas at the LOOP Video Art Festival in Barcelona, Spain this May (May 21 - 31). It was mighty difficult this year, I have to tell you. But we finally made some decisions and here they are (in the order they will be screened):

• Stephen Rooney, Surreal Alfred in Winter, 2008, 4:25
• Gia Michael, anx, 2008, 2:43
• Colleen Keough, aggwessive, 2008, 1:47
• Terese Longva, RE-producing the Original Me, 2008, 9:09
• Woody Packard, Why I am Late, 2008, 2:49
• Jason Bernagozzi, Recitation/Reception, 2008, 5:54
• Joe Bigley, A Western Man's Rejection of Convenience,2008, 2:36
• Chris McDaniel with Chang Chun and Zhang Jing, Covergence/Divergence,2008, 4:53
• Elena Grajek, basil, 2008, 0:45
• Lauren Graves, just the yolks, 2009, 4:23
• Moyi Zhang, Organ city, 2009, 9:26
• Elena Grajek, Lane's Brain, 2009, 2:04

I'm currently exporting a version so that I can post it here .... maybe it will be up later on tonight!!

Thank you to everyone who submitted!!!

New Curatorial Work for Me! Yipee!

Just a quick note: I'm on the curatorial team for the digital art and photography biennale in San Francisco del Monte de Oro in the province of San Luís in Argentina! In commemoration of the the bicentennial of the May Revolution, the municipality of San Francisco del Monte de Oro is organizing several events and the biennale is one of them. The exhibit will open there in March of 2010 and then travel to the capital of the province, Cordoba, Rosario, and finally Buenos Aires!

Submissions will be taken from April to December of 2009. Stay tuned!

Life is a series of breaking down and building up. But do we have to break down in order to build up? Can you build on top of something that has already been established? I guess (now remember, I dropped out of architecture school) with buildings that would only be possible if you adjusted the foundation. Is that the same with us?

During my educational journey I have spent a lot of time rebuilding my process, my thinking process. I think there were points when it was torn down and completely rebuilt. Now, at almost thirty-one, I'm not sure if this type of demolition could ever happen. Something happens with age (yes, I know I am not old, but I am older). Currently, I am doing a course which is pushing me to a different way of processing information. Sometimes I think that this process is very similar to the one that was obliterated a while ago. Is it the same? Or only similar? And, should I be fighting against this?

Things come and go in our lives for different reasons. People, places, pets, thoughts, interests, tastes ... Why can't we exchange ways of thinking periodically during our lives? Choosing to change one later in life for one we had earlier? And when we do, why is it so painful and difficult?

New Screening - New Traveling Exhibition

I am super excited to tell you that Walk with me has been accepted to participate in Human Emotion Project 2009, with its launch in Melbourne Australia Febuary 24th!! HEP is a non-for-profit project/event organized by Allison Williams and is traveling for several physical screenings, including Italy, Spain, and Greece.

HUMAN Emotion documented visually by international artists using film/video. LAUNCH 6pm AUSTRALIA 24 FEB - Exhibition runs @ Guildford Lane Gallery Melbourne 25 Feb - 8 March 2009

Stay tuned for more updates!!

Washington Wasn't Only a President

I arrived at the station and the turquoise charter bus was running. The driver, and the man that always rides with him, were outside waiting. There were impatient looks on their faces. Did they know I was coming? How could they be waiting for me?

"Montevideo?" they asked.

I confirmed, ready to hand over my luggage.

"Primero coche?"

Hmmm. Primero coche? I hadn't checked. I was too concerned with waking myself up at 4am and waiting for Washington (the Brazilian taxi driver) a little impatiently, than to check my ticket for all the specifics of my voyage. I searched through my purse for my ticket, and there it was "Segundo Coche."

"No," I said, "Segundo."

So, I waited. It was already 5 minutes after the time of departure. There seemed to be a bit of confusion amongst the two men outside and the man behind the counter inside.

The station (if you want to call it that) was pretty bare. Besides the poster of the schedule, printed in large lettering with uniquely 80s graphic design on the right wall as you walk in, there was nothing. About 30 feet from the entrance were the counters. I guess all that space was originally intended for long lines, but at 5am on the last Saturday of the high season in a rather sleepy border town, there were no lines. There were only three men trying to figure out if they had another man's cell phone number.

As I waited outside, I zoned out for a while reading the posters, on the windows, telling of festivals and some group that has been around for twelve years that will be performing the following Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. When I came to, the two men were hopping in the bus.

The short stout one yelled to me, [say the following phrase as if they were English words) "Dga vee-en-ay!" (¡Ya viene! - Spanish translation) [It's on its way! - English translation]

Yet, five minutes after the Primer Coche had left, the Segundo had still not arrived. I started to get a little worried that I hadn't understood, or rather, that I had misunderstood. Then it occurred to me that they had taken advantage of the "gringa": now, I would have to buy another ticket to Montevideo. But these people aren't mean-spirited, I thought to myself. And what would they have gained from this trap?

Just then a Radio Taxi arrived out of nowhere and out popped Washington, as if to confirm the thought I had just had. I told him about the two Coches for the 5am bus. He looked concerned, but didn't have time to say anything. My eyes had wandered behind him to the turquoise charter bus rounding the small street corner.

I thanked him again as he got in his taxi. I can only assume that he went back home to get some more sleep.