PLEASE REPOST TO UR LISTS:
1. MY ARCHIVE IS GOING TO NYU FALES LIBRARY!!!!!!!!!!!!GOOD.
2. BUT IT NEEDS BOXING AND ORGANIZING
3. THEN A SWEET SEND OFF
4.ON AUGUST 31, SATURDAY FROM 12:30-3 I NEED 3-5 PEOPLE TO HELP ME PREPARE THE ARCHIVE. LIFT AND CARRY BOXES FROM SECOND FLOOR, PUT THINGS IN SMALLER BOXES ETC.
5. THEN WE WILL COLLABORATE PERFORMATIVELY ON HOSTING A BON VOYAGE PARTY FOR THE ARCHIVE MOST LIKELY IN SEPT-OR OCT OR NOV.
CALL IF U WOULD LIKE TO PLAY ARCHIVE WITH ME.U GET A PERFORMANCE ART CERTIFICATE TOO!
845-3992502
LOCATION: THE ART/LIFE INSTITUTE, 185 ABEEL ST, KINGSTON NY 12401, ACROSS THE STREET FROM P&T SURPLUS.
Friday, August 23, 2013
PROPOSAL FOR ECO INTERVIEW MONTANO-ESTEVEZ
| From: | Nicolas Dumit Estevez (indioclaro@hotmail.com)This sender is in your contact list. |
| Sent: | Tue 8/20/13 11:21 AM |
| To: | linda montano (lindamontano@hotmail.com) |
A Conversation Between Linda Mary Montano and Nicolás Dumit Estevez
for the manuscript:
Sex-Ecology and the Spiritual Pursuit: The Implications of Guilt and Pleasure in the Act of Loving the Earth
Performance artists Linda Mary Montano and Nicolás Dumit Estévez will dialogue about the shared religion of their youth, Roman Catholicism, and its interface with nature, the earth and current ecological concerns, issues and insights.
The question is: Does conservative religion leave room for the interpretation and treatment of the earth as living, co-breathing “sentience;” or does the paradigm of strict religious adherence to law, rules, and the sin-fear model gets collaged over the earth so that subsequent treatment of her might echo a punitive-suffering model that is not conducive to nurturing the planet as loving mother? Perhaps environmental carelessness and abuse might be a more accepted modus operandi of a culture that does not address joy and pleasure as birthrights?
Estévez grew up in an Afro-Caribbean, Lebanese, and Latina/o environment rich in syncretic spiritual identities and beliefs; Montano was raised strictly, was in the convent for two years and is presently a returned and practicing Catholic; so this dialogue between the two of them will be a revelation of struggles and successes in their path of opening the door to their current truth(s).
About Linda Mary Montano and Nicolás Dumit Estévez
In a career spanning over forty years, performance artist Linda Mary Montano (b. 1942) has created works in a variety of forms that explore the possibility of eliminating the distinction between art and life by creating videos, books, objects from past performances, live performances, workshops/teaching and spiritually deep ways of bringing sacred truths to her own daily life and the lives of others.
Nicolás Dumit Estévez (b. 1967) treads an elusive path that manifests itself through experiences where the quotidian and art often overlap. During the last seven years, he has received mentorship from Linda Mary Montano a pioneer figure in the performance art field. Estévez holds degrees in art and theology. Born in Santiago de los Treinta Caballeros, Dominican Republic, he was recently baptized as a Bronxite; a citizen of the Bronx
FATHER BARNABAS KECK RIP
| From: | linda montano (lindamontano@hotmail.com) |
| Sent: | Sat 8/17/13 7:10 AM |
| To: | linda montano (lindamontano@hotmail.com) |
FOR FATHER BARNABAS KECK: RIP
BOY BODIED, SUPER MIRACLE, BIG LOVED GOD-MAN
GLIDES FLOWER TRAILS
PRESENCING STONES.
SILENCING HEARTS.
YOU'RE CUTE WE SING.
ENOUGH! ENOUGH! ENOUGH!
WATCH.
HE FLIES OUR SINS TO
WHITE CLOUD SKIES.
THEN, HOME.
Linda Mary Montano, New Paltz, 8/16/2013
BOY BODIED, SUPER MIRACLE, BIG LOVED GOD-MAN
GLIDES FLOWER TRAILS
PRESENCING STONES.
SILENCING HEARTS.
YOU'RE CUTE WE SING.
ENOUGH! ENOUGH! ENOUGH!
WATCH.
HE FLIES OUR SINS TO
WHITE CLOUD SKIES.
THEN, HOME.
Linda Mary Montano, New Paltz, 8/16/2013
KINGSTON FESTIVAL OF THE ARTS
Kingston Festival of the Arts - August 24, 1 - 9pm
Linda Montano, The Old Double E, Lynn Herring & Regina Marie are the featured artists.
The Storefront Gallery
93 Broadway, Kingston, NY
The Storefront Gallery is pleased to participate in the first annual Kingston Festival of the Arts. The gallery will be opening their backyard garden patio for an afternoon and evening of art, music, poetry and performance.
Lynn Herring, the exhibiting artist for August, will be making a special presentation of her video work throughout the day in the Garden of the Storefront Gallery. Ms. Herring's conceptual work has been based on human relationships including perception and identity. Those ideas have come to life in box sculptures and video performance installations.
Between the hours of 1 to 3pm, Linda Montano will be on hand doing individual ART LIFE Counseling. Linda M. Montano, a seminal figure in contemporary feminist performance art, has been actively exploring her art/life since the mid 1960. She is interested in the way artistic ritual, often staged as individual interactions or collaborative workshops, can be used to alter and enhance a person's life and to create the opportunity for focus on spiritual energy states, silence and the cessation of art/life boundaries.
Regina Marie writes poetry heavily under the influence of Tantric meditation, Whitman, the beats, and the Spanish poets with dark eyes who love women. Her reading will begin at 6 pm.
PDF OF YOU TOO ARE A PERFORMANCE ARTIST
AIA_SITE_JUNE_JULY13.pdf
View online
SITE-Linda-lowresSpreads.pdf
View online
ARTISTS CARE MEETINGS
ARTISTS CARE
WHAT: A DISCUSSION OF ARTFULLY CO-CARING AND VOLUNTEERING FOR EACH OTHER WHEN NEEDED.
WHY: WE WILL WATCH NURSE, NURSE, A VIDEO BY LINDA MARY MONTANO, FILMED BY JOSEPHA GUTIELLES; THE NURSE: LAURA KOPCZAK. ANIMATION AND EDITING : TOBE CAREY; SOUND , JIM BARBERO, TO BRING ATTENTION TO POSSIBLE FUTURE MEDICAL NEEDS.
WHY: WE MIGHT NEED EACH OTHER. WE WILL DISCUSS WAYS WE CAN VOLUNTARILY HELP EACH OTHER INTERDEPENDENTLY AND ORGANIZE WAYS TO ALERT EACH OTHER WHEN WE ARE NEEDED : FOOD? RIDES? VISITS? PHONE CALLS?
HOW: LAURA KOPCZAK WILL FACILITATE THE DISCUSSION . BRING PAPER AND PEN.
WHERE: IMOGENE HALLOWAY GALLERY
WHEN:
WHAT: A DISCUSSION OF ARTFULLY CO-CARING AND VOLUNTEERING FOR EACH OTHER WHEN NEEDED.
WHY: WE WILL WATCH NURSE, NURSE, A VIDEO BY LINDA MARY MONTANO, FILMED BY JOSEPHA GUTIELLES; THE NURSE: LAURA KOPCZAK. ANIMATION AND EDITING : TOBE CAREY; SOUND , JIM BARBERO, TO BRING ATTENTION TO POSSIBLE FUTURE MEDICAL NEEDS.
WHY: WE MIGHT NEED EACH OTHER. WE WILL DISCUSS WAYS WE CAN VOLUNTARILY HELP EACH OTHER INTERDEPENDENTLY AND ORGANIZE WAYS TO ALERT EACH OTHER WHEN WE ARE NEEDED : FOOD? RIDES? VISITS? PHONE CALLS?
HOW: LAURA KOPCZAK WILL FACILITATE THE DISCUSSION . BRING PAPER AND PEN.
WHERE: IMOGENE HALLOWAY GALLERY
WHEN:
YOU TOO ARE A PERFORMANCE ARTIST LETTER TO COLLEAGUES
Dear Artists, Colleagues, Professors, Friends and Lifeists,
I have just completed a re-write of ART IN EVERYDAY LIFE, 1980, and the updated and recontexualized version is titled:
YOU TOO ARE A PERFORMANCE ARTIST, by LINDA MARY MONTANO
Published by: SITE SANTA FE, 2013
THE BOOK:
Are you teaching performance art/theory/history and do you need to see how my work influenced this practice?
Do you want to purchase a book of performance suggestions inspired by 45 of my previous performances?
Would you like to read interviews by Moira Roth/Charles Duncan/Janet Dees with me?
Have you read Janet Dees' essay-walkthrough of my show at SITE, 2013 yet?
Are you interested in seeing not only images of my performances from the 70's but documents from the SITE show?
Are you interested in seeing how my life inspired my art and how yours already does or can as well?
IF SO:
You can order a copy of YOU TOO ARE A PERFORMANCE ARTIST from SITE: www.sitesantafe.org. Or call 505-989-1199.
They will give discounts to Educational Institutions.
Wishing all of you an adventurous/courageous ART/LIFE,
Linda
THE GUARDIAN: SITE SANTA FE
• 1606 Paseo De Peralta, sitesantafe.org. Open Tues-Thurs and Sat 10am-5pm, Fri 10am-7pm
IN ABSENTIA: ART/LIFE COUNSELING AT STANFORD
LINDA MARY MONTANO: ART/LIFE COUNSELING IN ABSENTIA
I WILL NOT BE ABLE TO ATTEND name the conference hjere BECAUSE I SLIPPED AND BROKE MY HAND IN 2 PLACES WHILE WASHING MY FRIEND'S FLOOR.
SO, INSTEAD OF SEEING YOU FACE-T-FACE AS I HAD PLANNED DURING THIS CONFERENCE, CALL IF YOU WOULD LIKE AN ABSENTIA ART/LIFE COUNSELING EXPERIENCE.
845-399-2502 . CALL 9AM-7PM NY TIME( 3 HOURS DIFFERENCE) WEDNESDAY-SUNDAY.
LETTER OF RECOMMENDATION
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:
I met +++++++++ 6 years ago when I was her yoga student, and immediately recognized her as a fellow traveler and deeply committed seeker. I’ve been her student and like- minded colleague for 6 years on this adventure called - your art is your life. I’ve found +++++++'s yoga classes to be of the same high caliber as those I experienced while I was living on an ashram on and off for 20 years; and her performances also have the same surprisingly mature and wise trajectory which I associate with knowing how to both know and live the real truths of life and art.
For example, having seen her performances and videos, I have witnessed that +++++++ understands that art is not just about shape, colors, size, form, texture, materials, sand, clay, wood, stone - but about the process of self healing and self understanding. When this process is shared, it allows for a communal experience of group catharsis. +++++++ continues to take workshops and classes in order to expand her techniques and hone her skills as a performer who incorporates her spiritual training to inform her artistic practice.
Let me digress and end with a story. One winter day ++++++ and her husband invited me to their home for a Christmas party. I walked into a room which vibrated with the same energy of a meditator’s cave, a yogi’s ashram, a performance artist’s endurance, a performer’s performance. The room was transformed by hanging lights, greenery, handmade decorations, the smells of home cooking wafting in from the kitchen, and the frequency of wonder coming from their two homeschooled children. The experience was one which spoke to a deep understanding that our art is our life and our life is a work of art. +++++++ has exhibited her expertise in her daily life, her spiritual life, and her art life. You will be so lucky to have her on your team.
Sincerely,
LINDA MARY MONTANO
ALWAYS CREATIVE FROM SITE
Linda Mary Montano: Always Creative
Linda Mary Montano: Always Creative is a concentrated survey of the work of American performance artist Linda Mary Montano (b. 1942). This exhibition will consider the breadth of the artist’s practice through a careful selection of works from 1969-present. In a career spanning over forty years, Montano has created works in a variety of forms that explore the interaction between art and life. At the heart of her practice is the belief that the strategies employed in the creation of and engagement with art, such as focused attention, openness, and awareness, can enhance the quality of one’s life, if turned toward everyday activities. Similarly, the experiences of one’s life can enrich one’s art.Linda Mary Montano: Always Creative will survey the various themes and strategies that Montano has employed in her practice. These include collaborations with other artists, character-based performances, art/life performances, interviews, writings and art/life counseling. The exhibition will present approximately 15 works including live performance, drawings, video, performance documentation and artifacts. The title of the exhibition comes from a 2003 video work in which Montano interviewed several members of her upstate New York community about the ways they continue to be active as they enter their 80’s and 90’s. Included will be seminal works such as Mitchell’s Death (1977), a meditative film in which Montano used acupuncture to help heal the grief associated with the death of her husband, as well as artifacts and documentation from Montano’s art/life performance Fourteen Years of Living Art (1984-98). Fourteen Years of Living Art was an extended study of the chakras performed in two cycles of seven years each. In each cycle one year was dedicated to each of the seven chakras. Among other activities, for the first seven years of this performance (1984-91), Montano conducted art/life counseling once a month in the window project space of New York’s New Museum. The color of the room was changed to reflect the color associated with that year’s chakra. Montano developed art/life counseling to share her techniques with others. Always Creative will also include many elements that will prompt audience participation. Montano has created a new two-part performance work Singing My Heart Out…, which she will perform at the opening and closing of the exhibition. Montano will conduct one-on-one Art/Life counseling sessions in-person and via Skype at selected times during the run of the show.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a fully illustrated (approximately 150 page) publication You Too Are a Performance Artist: Art in Everyday Life, produced by SITE Santa Fe. This publication will function as a performance art workbook consisting of newly created performance instructions paired with documentation of several of Montano’s performances from 1969 onward. It will include interviews with the artist by Moira Roth, Charles Duncan, and an essay by Janet Dees.
In addition to State of Mind: New California Art Circa 1970, which will be on view at SITE at the same time as Always Creative, Montano’s work has been included recent important historical survey exhibitions including WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution (Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles & MoMA P.S. 1) and The Third Mind: American Artists Contemplate Asia: 1860-1989 (Guggenheim Museum). Montano’s book Performance Artists Talking in the Eighties was published in 2000 by the University of California Press. It consists of over 100 interviews that Montano conducted with artists between 1979 and 1989 and remains an important source about art in that era. Letters from Linda M. Montano, an anthology of her writings, was published by Routledge in 2005.
7 YEARS OF LIVING ART: PROPOSAL FOR MOMA
SEVEN YEARS OF LIVING ART: DECEMBER 8 1984- DECEMBER 8 1991
During the first seven years of 14 YEARS OF LIVING ART, I was the guest of MARCIA TUCKER, Director of THE NEW MUSEUM, who graciously and generously hosted me for those 7 years by making the Wooster St window of the Museum available solely to this project. Each year the room was painted the color that I wore every day: red, then orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, white.
I sat there during Museum hours and saw people who came to me for palm/psychic readings and tarot, because at that time I was not a practicing Catholic and was able to use these gifts without question.
Presently I continue ART/LIFE COUNSELING but practice it more generically and without reference to those strategies. In fact we practice mutual PRESENCE/PRAYER.
Why did I do this back then? Was it because I remember years and years of going to Mass and Confession to men as a child when I really had always wanted to be the officiant so I designed a performance which set me up to be just that; the boss, the "man", the healer, the intercessor between the two worlds?
Was it because my social skills verge on the shy and ART/LIFE COUNSELING provides a way for me to feel comfortable talking with others? An added benefit is that we don't have to "small talk".
Was it because I really wanted to be able to design an event which would bring me to NYC on a scheduled basis?
Was it because I have an unusual skill and can really be of service to others using this practice?
Most likely all of the above are relevant reasons for my performing ART/LIFE COUNSELING.
THE PHOTO:
What you see in this photo is an orange room ( I know it looks yellow but it is orange because my hair was short during the orange year ). I am holding my eyes. WHY? Who knows! Was I sitting with the person who wanted me to give then stock tips? Or the one who I saved from suicide? Or is this the one who pulled a knife on me and threatened my life? No I think I am sitting with one of the hundreds of friendly and lovely co-creators who came to see me year after year after year, wanting to be face to face with another human in a museum?
THE ATTITUDE
On the table is a salt shaker. Often I would sprinkle some on the visitor's hand and say, "Take this experience with a grain of salt!"
During the first seven years of 14 YEARS OF LIVING ART, I was the guest of MARCIA TUCKER, Director of THE NEW MUSEUM, who graciously and generously hosted me for those 7 years by making the Wooster St window of the Museum available solely to this project. Each year the room was painted the color that I wore every day: red, then orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, white.
I sat there during Museum hours and saw people who came to me for palm/psychic readings and tarot, because at that time I was not a practicing Catholic and was able to use these gifts without question.
Presently I continue ART/LIFE COUNSELING but practice it more generically and without reference to those strategies. In fact we practice mutual PRESENCE/PRAYER.
Why did I do this back then? Was it because I remember years and years of going to Mass and Confession to men as a child when I really had always wanted to be the officiant so I designed a performance which set me up to be just that; the boss, the "man", the healer, the intercessor between the two worlds?
Was it because my social skills verge on the shy and ART/LIFE COUNSELING provides a way for me to feel comfortable talking with others? An added benefit is that we don't have to "small talk".
Was it because I really wanted to be able to design an event which would bring me to NYC on a scheduled basis?
Was it because I have an unusual skill and can really be of service to others using this practice?
Most likely all of the above are relevant reasons for my performing ART/LIFE COUNSELING.
THE PHOTO:
What you see in this photo is an orange room ( I know it looks yellow but it is orange because my hair was short during the orange year ). I am holding my eyes. WHY? Who knows! Was I sitting with the person who wanted me to give then stock tips? Or the one who I saved from suicide? Or is this the one who pulled a knife on me and threatened my life? No I think I am sitting with one of the hundreds of friendly and lovely co-creators who came to see me year after year after year, wanting to be face to face with another human in a museum?
THE ATTITUDE
On the table is a salt shaker. Often I would sprinkle some on the visitor's hand and say, "Take this experience with a grain of salt!"
ONE DAY ART& HEALING FESTIVAL PROPOSAL
ONE DAY ART AND HEALING FESTIVAL: ROSENDALE THEATRE 2013
SATURDAY:
11-1PM: THE ART OF HEALING THE SELF: AN OPEN GROUP MASSAGE EXPERIENCE FOR EVERYONE . BRING YOUR BLANKET, COME ANYTIME AND PRACTICE THE ART OF RESTING, THE ART OF LAYING DOWN, THE ART OF WHISPERING, THE ART OF SELF MASSAGE, THE ART OF YAWNING, THE ART OF BEING 2 HOURS WITHOUT YOUR CELL PHONE, THE ART OF NOT-TEXTING, THE ART OF LIFE.
11-1PM: THE ART OF HEALING THE SELF: AN OPEN GROUP MASSAGE EXPERIENCE FOR EVERYONE . BRING YOUR BLANKET, COME ANYTIME AND PRACTICE THE ART OF RESTING, THE ART OF LAYING DOWN, THE ART OF WHISPERING, THE ART OF SELF MASSAGE, THE ART OF YAWNING, THE ART OF BEING 2 HOURS WITHOUT YOUR CELL PHONE, THE ART OF NOT-TEXTING, THE ART OF LIFE.
1PM-2PM: THE ART OF HEALING THE EARTH: ILLUSTRATED TALK BY LINDA WEINTRAUB
3-5: THE ART OF HEALING THE SELF: PANEL CURATED BY ANN McCOY WITH McCOY, CAROLEE SCHNEEMANN AND LINDA MARY MONTANO
7PM: THE ART OF HEALING THE UNIVERSE: MARTHA WILSON AS BARBARA BUSH
3-5: THE ART OF HEALING THE SELF: PANEL CURATED BY ANN McCOY WITH McCOY, CAROLEE SCHNEEMANN AND LINDA MARY MONTANO
7PM: THE ART OF HEALING THE UNIVERSE: MARTHA WILSON AS BARBARA BUSH
THE ART OF SEEDING TONIGHT'S DREAM: IONE
THE ART OF HEALING WITH SOUND: PAULINE OLIVEROS: HORSE SINGS FROM CLOUDS.
SCULPTURE RETROSPECTIVE: PROPOSAL
PURPOSE:
To show past and present "sculptures" with a corresponding catalogue to articulate Montano's 4-part sculptural evolution:
1. OBJECT MAKING 1965-PRESENT
2. CONCEPTUAL/LIVE OBJECT PRACTICE: CHICKEN SHOW (live or virtual chickens)
3. PERFORMANCE OF SELF AS A "LIVING SCULPTURE": CHICKEN BED, 14 YEARS OF LIVING ART
4. VIRTUAL SELF-SCULPTING VIA VIDEO (45 ENTRIES)
BACKSTORY:
MONTANO studied classical sculpture in Tuscany where she received a sculpture MA and at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, she received a MFA in sculpture with the presentation of THE CHICKEN SHOW, 9 live chickens in three 20 feet by 10 feet by 10 feet cages.
In the 70's she literally entered her work as a "LIVING SCULPTURE" and became THE CHICKEN WOMAN; lying down, sitting , dancing and singing as that persona.
THE SHOW:
1. 7 EARLY SCULPTURES: WOOD, METAL, STONE: RELIGIOUS ART, TORSO, HEAD, etc.
2. THE CHICKEN BED, THE CHICKEN SHOW etc.
3. NUMEROUS PHOTOS OF SCULPTURES FROM THE ARCHIVE.
4. OBJECTS IN VITRINES FROM EARLY PERFORMANCES.
5. THE ENTIRE 14 YEARS OF LIVING ART SHOW. See You Tube: SHHHHH
6. A WALL OF 45 MONITORS EARPHONED SO THAT A "SCULPTURAL" EFFECT IS CREATED BY REPETITION. EACH WILL HAVE ONE OF MONTANOS VIDEOS FROM 1970'S-NOW.
7. A CATALOGUE/BOOK WITH IMAGES OF EACH ENTRY AND A POSSIBLE DVD OF VIDEOS.
To show past and present "sculptures" with a corresponding catalogue to articulate Montano's 4-part sculptural evolution:
1. OBJECT MAKING 1965-PRESENT
2. CONCEPTUAL/LIVE OBJECT PRACTICE: CHICKEN SHOW (live or virtual chickens)
3. PERFORMANCE OF SELF AS A "LIVING SCULPTURE": CHICKEN BED, 14 YEARS OF LIVING ART
4. VIRTUAL SELF-SCULPTING VIA VIDEO (45 ENTRIES)
BACKSTORY:
MONTANO studied classical sculpture in Tuscany where she received a sculpture MA and at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, she received a MFA in sculpture with the presentation of THE CHICKEN SHOW, 9 live chickens in three 20 feet by 10 feet by 10 feet cages.
In the 70's she literally entered her work as a "LIVING SCULPTURE" and became THE CHICKEN WOMAN; lying down, sitting , dancing and singing as that persona.
THE SHOW:
1. 7 EARLY SCULPTURES: WOOD, METAL, STONE: RELIGIOUS ART, TORSO, HEAD, etc.
2. THE CHICKEN BED, THE CHICKEN SHOW etc.
3. NUMEROUS PHOTOS OF SCULPTURES FROM THE ARCHIVE.
4. OBJECTS IN VITRINES FROM EARLY PERFORMANCES.
5. THE ENTIRE 14 YEARS OF LIVING ART SHOW. See You Tube: SHHHHH
6. A WALL OF 45 MONITORS EARPHONED SO THAT A "SCULPTURAL" EFFECT IS CREATED BY REPETITION. EACH WILL HAVE ONE OF MONTANOS VIDEOS FROM 1970'S-NOW.
7. A CATALOGUE/BOOK WITH IMAGES OF EACH ENTRY AND A POSSIBLE DVD OF VIDEOS.
LINDAMONTANO@HOTMAIL.COM, 845 399 2502
SITE SANTA FE:ALWAYS CREATIVE AND YOU TOO ARE A PERFORMANCE ARTIST
Linda Mary Montano: You Too Are A Performance Artist. Text by Montano, interviews with the artist by Moira Roth and Charles Duncan with an essay by Janet Dees, SITE's Assistant Curator
SITE Santa Fe presents three interrelated exhibitions inspired by artistic production on the West Coast of the United States from the 1970s to the present. These exhibitions are currently on view through May 19 as part of SITE Santa Fe's spring 2013 season:
State of Mind: New California Art Circa 1970 explores the emergence of Conceptual art as it developed in California in the 1970s—a fertile moment of artistic production, collaboration, and experimentation, which continues to influence contemporary art today.
Featuring approximately 150 works by 60 artists,State of Mind explores the growth of Conceptualism and the exploration of new methodologies, technologies and sites for artistic expression in California in response to immense social change. Artists moved out of museums and galleries and into the streets as a form of institutional critique and aspired to create a community that fostered an exchange of radical forms and ideas. The exhibition centers on nine themes: the Street, the Environment, Politics, Feminism and Domestic Space, Public Space, Perceptual and Psychological Space, the Body and Performance, Art about Art, Artists' Books, and Ephemera.
State of Mind is curated by Constance Lewallen and Karen Moss. The tour is organized by Independent Curators International (ICI), New York, and is made possible, in part, by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, Video Data Bank, Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), and with the generous support of Robert Redd, LLC, and the ICI Board of Trustees.
Linda Mary Montano: Always Creative is a concentrated retrospective of the work of American performance artist Linda Mary Montano (b. 1942), curated by Janet Dees, SITE's Assistant Curator, in collaboration with the artist. This exhibition considers the breadth of the artist's practice through a careful selection of works from 1969 to the present. In a career spanning over forty years, Montano has created works in a variety of forms that explore the interaction between art and life.
On Friday, May 17 from 10am to 5pm, SITE will host Linda Montano's closing performance:Singing My Heart In. For the second part of this endurance performance, the artist will be stationed in the front of SITE singing along to the music of Raka Mukherjee. Montano will descend on a scissor lift from the top of the building, once an hour for seven hours until she has reached the ground.
Published to accompany the SITE Santa Fe exhibition Linda Mary Montano: Always Creative, the book You Too Are A Performance Artist features a My Art/Life – Your Life/Art workbook written by Montano that documents 45 of her performances from 1964 to the present and gives suggestions on how readers can create their own performances based on the themes explored in Montano's work. It also includes interviews with the artists by Janet Dees, Charles Duncan and Moira Roth, a curatorial essay by Janet Dees, preface by Irene Hofmann and documentation of the exhibition. Paperback, 132 pages. 13 color/ 119 black and white. Illustrated throughout. 30 USD. ISBN: 9780985660208.
ARTFORUM:ONLINE
ARTFORUM:ONLINE
" I was an exceptionally timid child, afraid of the dark, afraid of mice, afraid of practically everything. Painfully, step by step, I learned to stare down each of my fears....and only then was I free." Eleanor Roosevelt, YOU LEARN BY LIVING, 1960
Dear ARTFORUM Readers,
Artwriter Himali Singh Soin of New Delhi, India, presented me with a Haiku-like challenge that exactly fits my proclivity for limitations/ structure. "Write 500 words about your show at SITE, Santa Fe, Feb-May 2013, and focus on intention, process, metaphor and meaning." ( 1 ) I will do my best and I'm happy because now I don't have to remember and unravel my past traumas:near death from anorexia, current PTSD, Mitchell's murder, the Catholic Church's failings ...because it would take pages for me to explain how my art cured and continues to heal these aspects of my life! Back to my letter.
A show of this scope and size , at a major museum, is not without invitation and I thank Irene Hofmann, SITE’s Director and Janet Dees, Assistant Curator for inviting me to their home of art for three months. Like any visit, this one included mega planning, gestating, shipping, installing and it took over a year and a half for Janet and I to bring it to birth. What I found to be most interesting was to see my work curated through Janet's eyes, vision, ideas and brilliance as she chose work from the four quadrants of my practice, " interviews, character based performances, endurance and durational performance, and Art/Life Counseling."( 2 )
To do this she perused my personal archive in Kingston and Saugerties NY,and sat for hours at the Video Data Bank, Chicago, viewing their archive of my videos and chose: LEARNING TO TALK; HANDCUFF TO TOM MARIONI; MITCHELL'S DEATH; THE 7 SPIRITUAL LIVES OF LINDA MONTANO; ANOREXIA NERVOSA; ALWAYS CREATIVE:INTERVIEWS WITH HUDSON VALLEY ELDERS; Maida Barbour's: 7 YEARS OF LINDA MONTANO'S LIVING ART; MARTHA WILSON AS BARBARA BUSH & LINDA MONTANO AS HILARY CLINTON TALKING. I created a new video for the Art/Life Counseling Room titled HI! SO HAPPY TO SEE YOU IN SANTA FE.
Somehow Janet wove all of these videos into the space without “Tower of Babeling” them and there was enough breathing room for the documents from performances and live interactions:
· the 7 Chakra colored jumpsuits and 7 "piles" of clothes that I wore during 14 YEARS OF LIVING ART, 1984-1998
· the 14 drawings that I made for those years with the right hand (year 1-7) and the same image re-drawn with my left hand (year 8-14)
· Minnette Lehmann's photo of my ONE WEEK BLINDFOLD performance
· a list of all of the participants in my ART/LIFE INSTITUTE SCHOOL: ANOTHER 21 YEARS OF LIVING ART, 1998-2019
· Michael Titus Parkes' photo-shopped view of my face as bi-sexual
· an interactive chalkboard painted Art/Life Counseling Room where viewers drew their dreams using colored chalk and I faux-greeted them via video but also really "appeared" for 4 hours via Skype in March and April, offering interactive Art/Life Counseling.
Back to Himali's question: what about the message? Simply put, I'm in my 70's. I've been there done that, garnered years and years of good attention from viewers who have given me energy, breathed life back into me, woken me up, and this show at SITE was a chance for me to encourage, teach, inspire and give back. Janet Dees explains it this way: "At the heart of her practice is the belief that the strategies employed in the creation of and engagement with art, such as focused attention, openness and awareness can enhance the quality of one's life when turned toward everyday activities." ( 3 ) . So what I have done is make sure that accompanying each work in the show, on every single label (signage), is a recipe so that the viewer can look at the art, read the label and feel empowered to interact later on, do it their way, know they have already done what I have done or re-create my experience without feeling that too often bug-a-boo— viewers’ envy! In fact, for anyone who wants to continue viewing my work, SITE published an augmented, updated version of my 1980 book: ART IN EVERYDAY LIFE as an interactive workbook entitled YOU TOO ARE A PERFORMANCE ARTIST. It chronicles 45 performances and offers suggestions for the reader to re-invent my journey to fit their needs. This is my message: creation is our human right and we all are exactly that, creators!!!!!!!
Bookending the opening and closing of the show were two seven hour durations: SINGING MY HEART OUT WITH LINDA RONSTADT (4 ), (February ) and SINGING MY HEART IN WITH RAKA MUKHERJEE, (May). Both took place on a 14 foot scissors lift. In both endurances I sang for 7 hours along with the CD's of the artists and these two performative ascensions / descensions referenced :
· Santa Fe's mysteriously and beautifully built (by St Joseph perchance or an angel) Loretto Staircase
· the 100 FLYING CHICKEN PAINTINGS in the Art/Life Counseling Room.
· the 14 exacting and ascending feet and leg drawings(LEARNING TO FLY(1971)) that grace an entire museum wall .
My wish is that this show offers a gasp of flight for just a moment or as Janet Dees says: "Montano has changed life challenges such as anxiety, illness and grief into moving art, has used art as a way to inject humor, calm and awareness into life and has sought to help facilitate the development of such skills in others." ( 5 )
Gratitude to all of my inspirational and encouraging teachers and may our life always be art.
Love,
Linda Mary Montano
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
1. Email from Himali Soin Singh
2. The Primary Document is the Change, Janet Dees, p.118. YOU TOO ARE A PERFORMANCE ARTIST, Linda Mary Montano, Published by SITE Santa Fe 2013
2. Same as above p.119
3. Same as above p.120
4. David Merrill collaborated with me on the scissors life where he performed knitting for 7 hours.
5. The Primary Document is the Change, Janet Dees, p.119. YOU TOO ARE A PERFORMANCE ARTIST. Linda Mary Montano, Published by SITE 2013
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