aranea

From ridavio. Angelo Musco is a New York-based artist who works with the human body to create his art. His work is impressive, and being able to participate in the creative process with him is always fun. While I was in Turkey when his large shoot happened, I was able to interview him later after he completed the piece and edited this 'making of' with footage shot by a volunteer.


To create Aranea Angelo needed an enormous quantity of naked bodies. In September he held a photo shoot in Asbury Park, NJ. Around 80 models were recruited to participate. The convention hall on the boardwalk was closed to the public at midnight and for over five hours Angelo and his assistant Danielle worked with the models to create the numerous shapes needed to form the piece.

As Angelo explains in the video, the word Aranea defines a genus of orb-weaving spider thus the creation of the piece consisted in weaving a web with human bodies. The photos taken this evening were mostly used to create the negative space of the web. Several additional photo sessions were held in his New York studio to create the positive elements.

To finish the project Angelo and Danielle worked for several months, and in the last 2 months for 12 - 20 hours a day, to create a web with over 52,000 bodies. The final piece is an 8' X 16' photograph in four panels. Aranea exhibits at Pulse Art Fair in New York City, from March 4 - 7, 2010. Angelo is represented by the Carrie Secrist gallery.

vigilio

In memoriam Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado at the Christopher Street Piers.

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pay

what you will has moved to Saturdays at the Guggenheim. The Kandinsky exhibit is worth full price, but not when you consider the line. A matinee, a stop at the Norwegian Church Xmas fair, and La Danse at Film Forum made for a full afternoon and evening. If you have the opportunity the documentary has been held over and is superb.

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shadow

overcast

A quick shot on the way downtown to meet some friends in town from Kansas via Dallas.

gingko

lights

Yes, it's starting to look a bit like you-know-what on 105th Street.

mix

Volunteered some time today to help set up the Mix film festival. Almost got a contact high.

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wet II

A wet and overcast afternoon, not necessarily ideal for reading on a bench in the park.

night

A blustery evening on the Columbia campus following the 30th Anniversary Soirée of the Social Text Collective.

nuts

Nothing kicks starts the day like a bowl of oatmeal with blueberries, bananas, almonds and honey.

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opening

Ali was shy about getting his picture taken, but he looked great at the opening for the show he curated at the Studio Museum. When the flash didn't go off it seemed like a good way to keep it incognito. The energy in the museum on those nights is always fun. The artistic crowd in Harlem can really turn it out.

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turn III

fairy tale

The bridge near the waterfall in Central Park was for a brief while this afternoon a film set.

act

Neil organized a small 'reunion' from those of us who canvased for Obama in PA last year to phone bank in support of a public option in the health care reform that will be discussed soon in the Senate. The action was conceived by the group Act Now and consisted of calling Connecticut voters and urging them to call Joe Lieberman's office and request that he not filibuster with the Republicans to kill the public option.

As we made our calls the House debated their version of health care reform which they would pass. A Times article states that 36 million more Americans will be covered who do not currently have health insurance. Republicans bitterly opposed the reform and will continue to fight hard to maintain the status quo (their plan called for insuring only 3 million more Americans).

Will these calls make a difference? It's hard to say. Lieberman is quite a wily and smug politician, even leaving his political party and holding on to his senate seat. In any case, we had reports that the voice mail in his offices was full from the calls. If you live in Connecticut and want to try reaching him on Monday Act Now has posted his contact information here.

Personally it felt good to take action, even to read the script aloud, to say words in favor of reform, progress and a way forward. And every so often, to connect with a voter also willing to take action.

instinct

They were stalking a squirrel not in the shot.

perlas

The local community garden, la perla, greets the season.

recycle

The Hudson River bike path was a bit more congested today with the arrival of the USS New York. Not only was recycled steel from the World Trade Center site used in it's construction, it was being made in New Orleans when Katrina struck, what a history.

decisions, decisions...

To my own astonishment I towed the party line when I got in the voting booth this morning - the Green Party line of course, where I am registered - pulling the lever for Rev Billy Talen. Somehow I didn't know or had forgotten he was actually running for mayor. But in the true spirit of democracy I had to support a voice who is among the few agitating for a truly alternative vision for this city, who does speak for the disenfranchised and will continue to create spaces of civic participation.

all saints

It's not the path to sainthood, rather on the way to the east side to pick up a camera this afternoon. I made my way through the final stragglers in the marathon. I'm not sure which saints were helping them along.