"Pilgrimage" by Laurie Lebreton for Art in Odd Places Festival 2011

Laurie Lebreton's "Piligrimage" was on display at the window of 14th Street Framing Gallery located at 225 W 14th Street for the recently concluded Art in Odd Places Festival 2011. The exhibit consisted of about 300 figures 14” to 30” tall. She created the images with simple wire armatures that she covered with wet handmade paper. As the paper dried and shrank, the figures changed shape slightly. She ornamented them in various ways. No two figures are alike. They’re kind of generic spiritual figures that viewers interpret in many different ways. They can be viewed as spirits, ancestors, or as a depiction of community. The work was inspired by her visit to Laos on two pilgrimages.

Art In Odd Places 2010 Chance: CITY SOUVENIRS - Performance Art By Nicole Seisler and Liene Bosquê

Performance artists Liene Bosquê and Nicole Seisler made direct impressions of a marker on a sidewalk along 14th Street Union Square using wet clay yesterday. Dubbed "City Souvenirs," the performance art aims to "create objects that will serve as a record of a specific moment in time of New York City's history." Their performance is part of the annual art festival called Art in Odd Places 2010 (Chance). Liene Bosquê and Nicole Seisler are Chicago-based artists currently pursuing their MFA degrees at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. They have been working together on City Souvenirs for the past year. This project blends their interests in site-specific work and the use of walking as a tool for art making. 

Art in Odd Places (AiOP) is New York City’s annual public art and performance festival from October 1 to October 10, 2010, along 14th Street in Manhattan from Avenue C to the Hudson River. The festival featured approximately 30 artists from New York and beyond, who applied their practice to an unconventional structure—playing off the idiosyncrasies inherent to the urban plane. The selected projects demonstrated various interpretations of the term CHANCE, including proposition, luck, randomness, risk, and opportunity, as they explore 14th Street’s rich history, configuration and heterogeneous communities. 

Art In Odd Places 2010 Chance: PUMP 14, The BroLab Collective Performance Art

ART IN ODD PLACES, an annual public arts festival along 14th Street kicks off today. Thirty artists created work based on this years theme chance encompassing luck, randomness, risk and more. Expect site-specific installations, video and audio projects, performances and other exhibits, all with the same goal of changing how the public views art and how it interacts with city living.

One of the participating performance art is called PUMP 14 by the BroLab Collective. Earlier this evening, I chanced upon two of the performers who used self-constructed yokes and pails to transport water from the Hudson River to the East River by foot. This performance art ultimately "sheds light on the city's vital waterways capped by 14th Street." Performances will be repeated on October 3, Sunday (3-6 PM), October 5, Tuesday (3-6 PM), October 7, Thursday (3-6 PM), and October 8-9, Friday-Saturday (3 PM-3PM, 24-hour performance). All performances will be along the 2.5 mile stretch of 14th Street from the East River to the Hudson River  and back.

Coming in October: ART IN ODD PLACES 2010 PUBLIC ART AND PERFORMANCE FESTIVAL, "CHANCE"

Press release courtesy of CESAR JESENA, social media director, Art in Odd Places

ART IN ODD PLACES (AiOP) invites everyone to see, experience and enjoy CHANCE, the 2010 Public Art and Performance Festival, featuring tours, performance, interventions, installations, sounds and more. Over 30 artists from around the world will participate in the festival that will take place along 14th Street in Manhattan from Avenue C to the Hudson River from October 1-10. The featured art projects will be interpretations of the word CHANCE, including proposition, luck, randomness, risk and opportunity. Opening reception will be held on Friday, October 1, 7-9 PM at Theaterlab, 137 West 14th Street (RSVP: AiOPpr@gmail.com). Elnat Amir, Mike Estabrook, Bryan Zanisnik and others will perform during the reception.

AiOP is a New York City-based art project that aims to stretch the boundaries of communication in the public realm by presenting artworks in all disciplines outside the confines of traditional public space regulations. AiOP reminds us that public spaces function as the epicenter for diverse social interactions and the unfettered exchange of ideas.