Date: Sunday, February 26th 2012, 4 – 6 pm
Location: Flux Factory, 39-31 29th Street, Long Island City

SP Weather Station will host a Special Preview for the 2011 edition of the SP Weather Reports, presenting new works and works-in-progress by its most recent group of collaborating artists.  The public is welcome to join past and current artist participants for a reception and conversation at Flux Factory about this ongoing publication series.  Portfolios from all years will be available for view and sale (including 2011 pre-orders) and refreshments will be served.

Now in its fifth year, SP Weather Reports is a collated portfolio published annually by the artist-collaborative SP Weather Station.  Each year, twelve artists (or artist groups), one per month, are invited to ‘report’ on the weather data taken by the SPWS rooftop station, installed on the roof of Flux Factory in Long Island City. This open-ended assignment may be interpreted strictly or loosely; past artists have created prints, booklets, drawings, audio files, photos and video.

The 2011 SP Weather Reports feature works by: (January) Emcee C.M.; (February) Glen Einbinder; (March) Rafael Hidalgo Múgica; (April) Naomi Miller; (May) Chad Stayrook; (June) Michelle Rosenberg and Howard Huang; (July) Hope Ginsburg; (August) eteam; (September) Paul Kennedy; (October) Adrienne Garbini; (November) Travis LeRoy Southworth; (December) Rick Myers.

Click here for more information on current artists and an archive of past SP Weather Reports.

The event is free and open to the public, come and celebrate with us!  This event is made possible (in part) by the Queens Council on the Arts with public funding from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.

About SP Weather Station: SP Weather Station is an interdisciplinary project that collects weather data, hosts a Guest Lecture Series, and organizes weather-related publications, events, and exhibitions. For more information please visit: spweatherstation.net

Image: Snapshot of August 2011 Weather Reports by eteam, No day without weather, 2012.

Flux village puppeteer Adam Ende, photo courtesy Alison Nguyen

Taco Night!!! (an opening holiday for Banquet for America): Friday, February 3, 7-11pm

It’s an American tradition, one that many get excited about. And traditions are funny: they start out as one thing, everyone brings something to it, and it changes. Taco Night!!! will show the diversity of America and its tradition through a tableau of food.

Flux will bring the basics: tortillas, rice, and vegan beans. You will bring the rest; in order to eat, you will need to bring a filling. Whatever you like: salsa, meat, vegetables, cheese, sour cream, etc., with enough to share.

While you are there, you’ll be able to meet the Flux village. Later on, we’ll have performances by Adam Ende, Hector Canonge, LuLu LoLo, and Trabajo (with the special collaboration of The Sperm Whale). Taco Night!!! is presented by Jean Barberis and Mark Krawczuk.

Special Flux Thursday: Thursday, February 9, 8pm+

Join us for this month’s Flux Thursday, our monthly potluck and salon… in our town-within-the gallery, as part of Banquet for America! This month, we’ll have dinner at the banquet table and enjoy presentations and performances from artists taking part in the exhibition, including Alison Ward, Hector Canonge, Kerry Cox, and Veronica Dougherty.

This evening is a potluck; please bring drinks or something delicious to share!

Cabaret Extravaganza: Saturday, February 11, 7pm

Join us for a night of performances staged in our artist-built town. The Invisible Kitchen puppet theater will perform The Master of Prayer. Following the show will come fantastic performances by Homo Hasidus, Angela Washko, Veronica Dougherty, Kagero, and the Ruffian Arms.

The Invisible Kitchen presents: The Master of Prayer, a puppet allegory based on the story by Rebbe Nachman.

The Master of Prayer lives in the woods with his followers, singing, dancing, and repenting like crazy.  But he hears of a city of riches where people are valued only according to how much money they have, and is compelled to save these poor idiots from their money-lust. To this end, they depart together on a journey that takes them through many strange kingdoms where some people worship only happiness, others lust, and some even death itself.  They must cross a sea of wine, a river of milk, and a sea of blood before they find their way to the truth.

Featuring traditional and original klezmer music by the beautiful and talented Craig Judelman, with puppeteers Adam Ende (the director and janitor of Jawbone Puppet Theater) and Noah Block Harley (of Tic Toc Laboratories fame).

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Kagero is a fabulous, eclectic, part-Japanese pseudo-gypsy band, “your local neighborhood urban-gypsophonic, border-jumping, international debtor’s prison groove-loving feel-good band next door.” Kagero regularly travels throughout the New York Metro Area and crawls into the Kazmovan to gig in Jersey or parts North, South or West. The sound has been described as a melting pot of tonalities and rhythms from Asia, the Middle East, South America and Eastern Europe — “Cultural Confusion.”

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In the basement at the Sweatshop in Williamsburg, five artists gave birth to the Ruffian Arms, a force to be reckoned with.  They combine hard rock melodies with humorous and clever lyrics and package it with an image fully equipped with gender bending costumes that feature high-heeled boots, cheerleader outfits and tiaras. The Gay Mens Social Crisis has said “They add a certain level of raw sexual energy not always front and center in punk music”.  They have been described as “messy joy” by The Imagist, and their music as “unleashing a sonic barrage that overflowed with plenty of punk noise and bravado.”    New York Magazine has said that they are a “glam (sextet) led by an Amazonian redhead……participating in band wide cheers and pom-pom fights while their trashy, punky, rockabillyesque sound kept the room bouncing along.”  The Ruffian Arms have performed widely in New York City, and been selected to participate in several performance festivals, including the New York Makes Music festival, “New Visions and Voices of Queer Culture” with CINEMAROSA at the Queens Museum, Hot Shots at Dixon place, and the “Alpha Women Attack the Lower East Side” festival at Thompkins Square Park.

A Bacchanalian Banquet: Sunday, February 12, 6-9pm

Giustina Surbone presents A Bacchanalian Banquet, our closing event. A Bacchanalian Banquet is a decadent feast, a visual and tactile extravaganza influenced by Greek and Roman saturnalia and Filippo Marinetti’s Futurist Cookbook.

Featuring: Adam Ende, Alan Williams, Bismarck Del Castillo, David Modello, Hector Canonge, Jazzmine, LuLu LoLo, Morgan Williams, Robin Dann, Stephanie Fribourg, and Theresa Magario

Videographer: Daniel Smyksy

Chef: Nadia Rohrs

This banquet is rsvp-only… and we are no longer taking reservations!

Sponsored by Fairway Market Red Hook, O Ottomanelli & Sons Prime Meat Market, Los Paisanos Meat Market, Raffetto’s, Sahadi’s, and Three Guys From Brooklyn.

WAGMAG, the Brooklyn art guide, has generously donated Pernod Absinthe to the Banquet for America’s opening and closing receptions. Download WAGMAG’s new gallery guide mobile app, The Art & Absinthe Guide to Brooklyn, here.

All events take place at 39-31 29th Street in Long Island City, Queens and are completely free, unless otherwise noted.

Exhibition dates: February 3 – 12, open every day from 10am – 10pm

Opening Reception: Friday, February 3rd, 7-11pm
Special Flux Thursday: Thursday, February 9th, 8-11:30pm
Cabaret Extravaganza: Saturday, February 11, 7-10pm
Closing Banquet: Sunday, February 12, 6-9pm

Flux Factory is pleased to announce Banquet for America, an experimental utopian village centered around a banquet table. Our artist-built town-within-a-gallery will be complete with a theater, specialized shops, and more; come experience a village equipped with bakers, jewelers, barbers, puppeteers, and smørrebrød-makers! Artists will inhabit the space for the duration of the show, eating and living with each other in structures made from reclaimed materials. We have a dynamic group of performance and conceptual artists, and the experience will shift and grow as the show goes on.

The preparation of food and ritual of communal eating has been enormously formative in shaping American culture. Banquet for America will explore food as a way of gaining a deeper awareness of oneself within a larger community, beyond sustenance. In addition, the exhibition is a response to the decline of the traditional town structure in the face of box stores, malls, and chain restaurants. These structures attempt to replace the commercial enterprises of the traditional downtown district, and in doing so, subvert the viability of family-owned businesses. Such changes are more visible in small towns, where transformation is more tangible, but are of vital importance to the larger economy and the fabric of the nation.

Banquet for America will include four special event nights: an opening reception with Jean Barberis & Mark Krawczuk on February 3rd; Flux Thursday on February 9th; a cabaret and puppet show night on February 11th; and, to close, A Bacchanalian Banquet with Giustina Surbone on February 12th.

While the opening, Flux Thursday, and cabaret night will all be open to public, we are taking reservations for the closing event. Click here for more information.

On February 11th, the Invisible Kitchen will present The Master of Prayer, a puppet allegory, followed by glittering musical performances by Homo Hasidus, Angela Washko, Veronica Dougherty, Kagero, and the Ruffian Arms..

Participating artists: Adam Ende; Adrian Owen, Ian Montgomery, & Jason Eppink; Alison Ward; Andy Ralph; Angela Washko; Georgia Muenster; Giustina Surbone; Hector Canonge; Jean Barberis & Mark Krawczuk; Jesper Aabille; Kerry Cox; LuLu LoLo; Stephanie Avery; and Veronica Dougherty. Curated by Alison Ward and Georgia Muenster. Special thanks to Chess Venis, Erich Rodriguez, and Shane Heinemeier!

For press or general inquiries, please contact Georgia@fluxfactory.org.

WAGMAG, the Brooklyn art guide, has generously donated Pernod Absinthe to the Banquet for America’s opening and closing receptions. Download WAGMAG’s new gallery guide mobile app, The Art & Absinthe Guide to Brooklyn, here.