Monthly Archives: May 2008
Going Places (Doing Stuff)
Take a summer ride with Flux Factory!
You get on a bus, you don’t know where you’re going, and then something happens.
June – August 2008
Going Places (Doing Stuff) Flux Factory invites New Yorkers to take a tour with artists who have become tour guides for the city. For six weeks, the general public can sign up for personally designed artist tours that range from a single afternoon to 3 days. The content of the tours are entirely up to the artists, though where you will be going is secret. Even to you!
Each tour has simply the following information: the artist, a title, a duration, and a list of needed supplies. In other words, when you sign up for a tour, you know what to bring and how long you will be gone, but you will have no idea where you are actually going or what you will experience.
There is always mystery in traveling, even if you know where you are headed. Going Places (Doing Stuff) is all about this mystery, asking the general public to give themselves over to our artists. The excitement of simply stepping on a bus to who-knows-where becomes a metaphor and catalyst for the leap of faith inherent to aesthetic experience in general.
All tours will meet at 38-38 43rd Street unless otherwise indicated.
TOUR DATES
PAST TOURS:
Saturday, June 14th
Action & Direction with Matt Levy
TOUR DURATION: Day trip
WEAR: Comfortable shoes, clothes you don’t mind getting a little bit dirty (some walking in muddy areas might be involved)
BRING: Plenty of water, bring some money for lunch, drinks and souvenirs
About the artist: Matt Levy is a born-and-bred Brooklynite (represent!), a licensed NYC tour guide, an ex-poet, current romantic, urban historian and spectacle enthusiast. His blog, Action & Direction (the two major requirements for a fully adventurous life) is mostly about NYC cultural history and spectacle. He is also the event coordinator at the City Reliquary Museum in Brooklyn. His knowledge of New York City and his rambunctious personality make him the greatest guide you could wish for.http://actiondirection.blogspot.com/
Sunday, June 29th
The Pennsyltucky Expedition with Douglas Paulson
TOUR DURATION: Day trip
WEAR: Comfortable shoes, clothes you don’t mind getting a little bit dirty
BRING: Some money for lunch, drinks and souvenirs
PROVIDED: Safety goggles, gloves, respirators and an MRA s’mores kit.
About the artist: In addition to his own work, Douglas Paulson joins Copenhagen’s Parfyme to become Parfyme Deluxe, and collaborates with Ward Shelley. Based in Long Island City, Queens, he works in New York and Europe, and got his BFA from Tyler School of Art in 2003. Among other things, his work deals with urban exploration on land and water, and turning everyday experiences into extraordinary adventures.Sunday, July 6th
I LIVE ON REICHERT AVENUE with Annie Reichert
TOUR DURATION: Day trip, roughly 7am to 7pm
WEAR: Comfortable shoes, sunblock, sunglasses, and a big shoulder bag
BRING: $10-$100 in small bills and a camera, booze whatever.
PROVIDED: morning coffee, water, and a big afternoon mealAbout the artist: Annie Reichert is from Seattle, New Jersey, and Ohio. Annie enjoys photography, eavesdropping, gold paint, fake blood, hiding spots, good storytellers, and talking about building things. Professionally, she keeps busy but rarely profits from it: her pictures have been published in USA Today and US News & World Report for free! As an artist, she is interested in making oblique references to her childhood, hoping that no one will notice. Annie has a BA in Photography and Film Theory from Antioch College. These days she is working with photo, video, fabric, and food.
Saturday, July 12th
WANDERING RESTAURANT with Gary Wiseman
TOUR DURATION: Day trip, 10 am to 9pm
Wandering restaurant mostly caters to omnivores but vegetarians and vegans are welcome to attend.About the artist: From March 2006 to January 2008, Gary Wiseman produced 30 interactive performances under the heading Tea Project in collaboration with Red 76, Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, Cooley Memorial Gallery at Reed College and hundreds of performers and participants. Wiseman is currently engaged in numerous smaller scale collaborations and ongoing projects such as Personal Favorite Places (an ongoing exploration of the world through the experience of strangers), Ephemeral Temple Ltd (Purveyors of high quality low overhead temporary sacred-space), Penny For Your Thoughts (with Amy Steel) and T-Folk: Granville and Reginald Sing the Sacred Songs For You which debuts at the upcoming Artcity festival in Calgary, Alberta.
Saturday, July 19th
WHAT WILL THEY THINK OF NEXT? with Flux Factory senior trio: Jean Barberis, Stefany Anne Golberg and Morgan Meis
TOUR DURATION: Day trip, 10am to 9pm
Precise instructions including dress code and what to bring will be send out with the RSVP.
August 16 and 17th – double tour!
THE SECRET LIFE OF FRANKLIN CRUMP with David Felix Sutcliffe
A secret two-day bus tour. Click here for more info!
August 23rd
With Jeff Stark
SOLD OUT
GOING PLACES (DOING STUFF) is made possible with public funds from New York State Council on the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, and Queens Council on the Arts, as well as generous support from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Carnegie Corporation of New York, and Materials for the Arts.
Daily News – April 2008
Art factory still in Flux about move
Tuesday, April 29th 2008, 4:00 AM
Noonan for News
Pierre deSanctis holds his son, Luca, in front of a wrestling head lock photo, as mom, Sophie, looks on at the Flux Factory.
A massive yellow piñata wearing a MetroCard and a fluorescent safety vest hangs in the Flux Factory’s Long Island City home.
The piece, created by artists Cassandra Ferland and Kate Watson, is called “Tough Love.”
It’s a playful, yet pointed, reminder of a looming deadline imposed by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority on the art gallery.
The MTA acquired the building by eminent domain and plans to demolish it to make way for the East Side Access project, which will connect the Long Island Rail Road to Grand Central Terminal.
“We still don’t have a date from the MTA,” said Stefany Anne Goldberg, executive director of the Flux Factory. “We want to stay in Queens, particularly Long Island City. We are talking to everyone we can.”
City Councilman Eric Gioia, whose district includes Long Island City, Woodside and Sunnyside, said he would like the Flux Factory to stay local.
“Its rich cultural and artistic community is part of what makes Long Island City such a special place, and the Flux Factory has been a part of that,” he said. “My office is on the lookout for other locations that might be appropriate for them.”
The Flux Factory, which started in 1994, moved to Queens in 2002 after gentrification priced it out of its home in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
Goldberg said she was thrilled to sign a 15-year lease for the 7,500-square-foot space at 38-38 43rd St. and settle in.
But the building stands in the path of the MTA’s $6.3 billion megaproject. The agency used eminent domain to acquire the building and informed the tenants – several business owners and the Flux Factory – that it will be leveling the building.
Flux Factory’s final show – aptly titled “Everything Must Go” – ended last weekend with a party.
Golberg said the popular artists’ collective will continue holding shows throughout the year, even if they have to move out by the end of the summer.