Habitats for Artists and EcoArtspace at Solar One

October 3, 2009
10:00 amto6:00 pm

s1habitat

On Saturday October 3, 2009,  Solar One and EcoArtspace, one of the country’s foremost art organizations concentrating on ecological/environmental art, are pleased to present a day of workshops, discussions and performances about the artistic process, the environment, public vs. private space, as well as presentations from local artists engaged in environment-focused projects.

For much of this summer, sample “studios” from artist Simon Draper’s Habitats for Artists project have been displayed on the blacktop near the Solar 1 building on the East River south of 23rd St. Throughout our events season, the sheds have provided a community space for concessions, a bulletin board, a studio for artist Todd Betterley and a conversation piece for the many bicyclists, joggers, fishermen and kids who regularly visit Stuyvesant Cove Park. On October 3 from 10am-12pm, Simon will demonstrate how to build your very own artist habitat and answer questions about the future of the Habitats project.

From 1-4pm, performance artist Chere Krakovsky will bring the personal into the Habitat for Artists shed in her performance “Mothers and Daughters”,  exploring how one generation offers its lessons to the next, both learned and unspoken.

In the first part of the performance Chere will honor her Eastern European grandmother by washing her laundry by hand in the way her grandmother did a century ago and will then hang it out to dry using the area around the habitat as backyard.  Following this she has invited her 86 yr. old mother, Dorothy Krakovsky to join her teaching Chere to sew by hand, which she in turn was taught to do by Chere’s grandmother.

In this piece as in many of Krakovsky’s performance works, the everyday and the creative co-exist.  The Habitat for Artist shed will serve as the home location for the everyday tasks of doing laundry and sewing.  Others are invited to participate in the sewing lesson or share in conversation about what has been offered/handed down to them from their mothers. Chere, her mother and grandmother are three generations of artists. The artwork of mother, daughter and grandmother will fill the interior of the habitat for the duration of the performance. Krakovsky’s own relationship to the domestic has complex. Much of her performance work revolves around her ever-changing notions of home, its location and meaning. Women, domesticity, creativity and everyday tasks converge. She is also helping to raise awareness that before it is too late there is much to be learned from those who have gone before.

Following the performance, environmental artists will display and discuss the projects they are working on, participants TBD.

Events at Solar One will be followed by the opening of Down To Earth at the EcoArtpace NYC gallery at 53 Mercer st, 3rd Floor. Artists include: Joan Bankemper, Knox Cummin, Stacy Levy, Ann Rosenthal/Steffi Domike, Susan Leibovitz Steinman, Simon Draper and the Habitat for Artists Collective, including Todd Sargood, Cathy Lebowitz, E Odin Cathcart and Jeff Bailey, plus additional Contributing Artists:
Jacinto Astiazarán and Fritz Haeg, Lenore Malen & The New Society for Universal Harmony, Eve Mosher, Andrea Polli and Chuck Varga, Andrea Reynosa/Kevin Vertrees-SkyDog Projects and Christy Rupp



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