Designboom

Alicia Eggert and I's "You are (on) an island" tour was recently featured on Designboom.

An exhibition and two artists talks this week!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

You are (on) an island by Alicia Eggert and Mike Fleming
Limited edition publication and exhibition at Neon Workshops

Wakefield, West Yorkshire - March 15, 2013 - In 2012, Neon Workshops invited American artists Alicia Eggert and Mike Fleming to bring their collaborative project, You are (on) an island, to the UK, and present it as a mobile venture to an unsuspecting audience around Yorkshire. In January of this year, the artists arrived in Wakefield, installed the neon sign on the back of a hire van, sparked up the delicate gas-filled glass with a small generator, and took to the road.

The sign, along with photo and video documentation of their guerrilla sculpture tour, will be featured in an exhibition at Neon Workshops March 15 - May 11, 2013. The opening reception on March 15 from 5-9 PM will also include the launch of a limited-edition publication.

A digital version of the book can be viewed here:
http://issuu.com/mikeflem/docs/youareonanisland/1

The artists will be giving two lectures about the project:
- Queen Mary, University of London on Thursday, March 14 at 2:00pm
- The Hepworth Wakefield on Friday, March 15 at 3:30pm

Alicia Eggert and Mike Fleming are American interdisciplinary artists working primarily in sculpture, installation and time-based media. They have been working collaboratively since 2009, and have shown their work at the Triennale Design Museum in Milan; CAFA Art Museum in Beijing; ISEA2012 at the Albuquerque Museum of Art and History in New Mexico; Cyberfest in St. Petersburg, Russia; the Art Moves Festival in Torun, Poland; the Artefact Festival in Leuven, Belgium; the Vimeo Festival + Awards in New York; and at institutions in Philadelphia, Maine, and Ontario, Canada. Alicia currently lives in Portland, Maine, and is an Assistant Professor of Art at Bowdoin College. Mike is currently pursuing his MFA in Sculpture/Dimensional Studies at Alfred University in New York.

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Back from Belgium!

I had a very quick trip to Belgium to install "Eternity" at STUK, the main venue for the Artefact Festival 2013. I can't say enough good things about STUK and the people there- it's an incredible, incredible place with wonderful, wonderful people! I was unable to stay for the opening and the 12 days of the festival, but I heard it was a great success. Here are a few photos:


lots of bikes


STUK


installation in progress


lots of banners!


great signage


lunch


exhibition space

New Work

Spread Out Balloons



Cash 4 Gold
An arrow sign used in human advertisement is disembodied from its human owner and hovers in the air, spinning pathetically



Liminal Zone
A floating glass plane reveals a hidden light box text on the ceiling, converging two planes of space into one

The Point

"You are born into a society and you are shaped by it, whether you know it or not, or whether you like it or not. Each of us is born into a prison of received opinion, superstitions, and of prejudices. Now one of the functions of art is to try and define the prison. A) The artist must know they are in it, and many of them don’t know they are in it and those are the bad artists; they don’t see past those bars. The prison is going to break you eventually but you can at least get a look out, and it is the look out that is art. Try to see the thing whole is what we all want and why we write. There is no purpose to life or point to life other than what you invest by in yourself by your own actions. The making of a book or music or your own creation is to try to hold the moment and give it a certain order and bring order out of chaos and say 'here it is, seen whole, even though of course it really isn’t.'”
-Gore Vidal

Truth

"It is imperative that we give up the idea of ultimate sources of knowledge, and admit that all knowledge is human; that it is mixed up with our errors, our prejudices, our dreams, our hopes; that all we can do is to grope for the truth even though it is beyond our reach."
- Karl Popper

Cyberfest in St. Petersburg, Russia

The 6th International Festival for Cybernetic Art ( aka CYBERFEST) was held in St. Petersburg, 23-28 November 2012. Alicia and I were invited to install "Eternity" and we had an amazing experience. Here are a few photos. Learn more about Cyberfest on their website.

New Work

Two more works made during my first semester at Alfred.

Mylar Balloon in Rain
2012
installation dimensions variable
silver mylar balloon, water, pond pump, vinyl tubing, steel, wood, aircraft cable






Bubble Wands
2012
7" x .125" x 1"
7" x .125" 1.5"
acrylic, bubble solution

Mark Dion @ Alfred

Wonder (for Alicia)

"..And that's what I think the magic ingredient is: Wonder. Wonder is honest, it’s completely innocent. It can’t be artificially evoked. For me, there’s no greater ability than the gift of another human being giving you that feeling — to hold them still just for a brief moment in their day and have them surrender to wonder. When it’s tapped, the affirmation of being alive reaches you almost to a cellular level. And when an artist does that to another artist, it’s like you’re compelled to pass it on. It’s like a dormant command that suddenly is activated in you, like a call to Devil’s Tower. Do unto others what’s been done to you." - Andrew Stanton

I Have Nothing To Say

"It seems to me that there are two basic ways of working: one is that the artist leads the work and the other is that the work leads the artist. The work ought to lead the artist, not the artist the work. For the artist to lead the work one must assume that the artist knows what he or she is doing and has something to say. When the work leads the artist, the process is one of discovery. I don't have anything I'm dying to say, but I do know that if I allow myself to excavate, to research, the process leads to meanings that could never have been logically imagined." - Anish Kapoor

A Great Big Yes

The first piece I have finished in graduate school:

A Great Big Yes
2012
12' x 30' x 4"
Wood

 

 Here are some installation shots:
 

ISEA was awesome!

Alicia and I had an amazing time in Albuquerque for the International Symposium on Electronic Art. All the folks at the Albuquerque Museum of Art and History were incredibly wonderful people and a pleasure to work with, and we're so excited about how the piece looks in the gallery. Here are some installation shots.

Staff Pick

Our Kickstarter Campaign has been featured as a "Staff Pick."

Kickstarter

Alicia and I have launched a Kickstarter campaign to bring You are (on) an island to England! Check out the link and the video for more information. And please help spread the word!

  Our Kickstarter Project 

 

Eternity at Niagara Artists Centre

"Eternity" is currently installed in the Plate Glass Gallery at the Niagara Artists Centre in St. Catherines, Ontario. It will be on view until August 31, 2012.