DOC / UNDOC
Documentado/Undocumented Ars Shamánica Performática
Opening Reception October 3 from 5-9pm
http://www.felixkulpa.com/october2014_doc_undoc.html
http://firstfridaysantacruz.com/felicia-rice-interview/
A traveling case for apprentice shamans
A reliquary for imaginary saints
A toolbox for self-transformation
A quiet call to heal yourself with fetishes and antidotes
A border kit to face the uncertainty of future crossings
A new project, seven years in the making
A mixed-media production housed in a hi-tech aluminum box, which contains DANM Program Manager, Felicia Rice’s, artists’ book, DOC/UNDOC of performance texts by artist/writer Guillermo Gómez-Peña and critical commentary by art historian Jennifer González, video by artist Gustavo Vazquez, and sound art by Zachary Watkins.
The object itself carries within a crisis of identity: What is it exactly? A stage for an intimate one-on-one performance? An unusual video screening room? A personal multi-media altar? A “vanity” used for preparing for a performance? It is all these things and it is also an original book, a performative artists’ book in search of a new format a new audience. Each element stands by itself, but together they form an indescribable whole.
Quotes from the artists about this piece:
“How do we create a more intimate, performative and ritualized experience for the viewer/participant in this unique book object? Its interactive dimension may be its main contribution to the field of experimental book art or rather “performative book art.”
Guillermo Gómez-Peña
“The book invites us to consider an ongoing tension as we navigate a world of politics and appearance, racism and immigration, self and other.”
Jennifer González
“You have to see it live.”
Felicia Rice
Bios
Guillermo Gómez-Peña is a performance artist, writer, activist, radical pedagogue and director of the performance troupe La Pocha Nostra. Born in Mexico City, he moved to the US in 1978. His performance work and 10 books have contributed to the debates on cultural diversity, border culture and US-Mexico relations. His art work has been presented at over eight hundred venues across the US, Canada, Latin America, Europe, Russia, South Africa and Australia. A MacArthur Fellow, Bessie and American Book Award winner, he is a regular contributor for newspapers and magazines in the US, Mexico, and Europe and a contributing editor to The Drama Review (NYU-MIT).
Jennifer A. González teaches in the History of Art and Visual Culture department at the University of California, Santa Cruz and at the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program, New York. She has written for numerous periodicals including Aztlán, Frieze, Bomb, Camera Obscura, and Art Journal. Her essays about cyborg bodies and racial embodiment in digital art can be found in anthologies like The Cyborg Handbook (1995) and Race in Cyberspace (2000). Her book Subject to Display: Reframing Race in Contemporary Installation Art (MIT Press, 2008) was a finalist for the Charles Rufus Morey Book Award.
Felicia Rice is a book artist, typographer, letterpress printer, publisher, and educator. She has collaborated with visual artists, performing artists and writers under the Moving Parts Press imprint since 1977. Work from the Press has been included in exhibitions from AIGA Annual Book Shows in New York and Frankfurt to the Victoria & Albert Museum. Her books are held in numerous collections including Stanford University, the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, and the Bodleian Library, Oxford. She has been the recipient of multiple awards, most recently the Rydell Visual Arts Fellowship, and grants from the NEA, CAC and the French Ministry of Culture.
Gustavo Vazquez, originally from Tijuana and currently residing in San Francisco, is an independent filmmaker and teaches in the Film and Digital Media department at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Vazquez has directed over thirty productions, including documentaries, video installations, and experimental narratives. His work has shown at film festivals and art exhibitions including the Luton UK, Festival Internacional de Cine de Morelia, Mexico, L’immagine Leggera, Palermo, Italy, Margaret Mead Film and Video Festival Broadcast on National PBS. He is a co-author of Documentary Filmmaking: A Contemporary Field Guide, 2nd edition published by Oxford University Press in October 2013.
Zachary James Watkins is a sound artist who has earned degrees in composition from The Cornish School and Mills College. Zachary has received numerous grants and commissions and presented works in festivals across the United States, Mexico and Germany. His 2006 composition Suite for String Quartet was awarded the Paul Merritt Henry Prize for Composition and has been performed as part of the 2nd Annual New Music Marathon in Seattle, WA the Labs 25th Anniversary Celebration and the Labor Sonor Series at Kule in Berlin. Zachary has enjoyed artist residencies at both the Espy Foundation and Djerassi.
Check out this video: https://vimeo.com/100265906
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Moving Parts Press has published handsome and innovative books, broadsides and prints under the direction of Felicia Rice since 1977. These editions of new literature, works in translation, and contemporary art explore the relationship of word and image, typography and the visual arts, the fine arts and popular culture.
Moving Parts Press :: 10699 Empire Grade :: Santa Cruz, CA 95060 :: 831 427-2271
The FELIX KULPA GALLERY’s address is: 107 Elm Street, Santa Cruz, California. The Gallery is located right behind STREETLIGHT RECORDS on Pacific Avenue, directly across from the METRO BUS STATION. The Gallery hours are Thursday through Sunday, 12 noon until 5PM. For Appointments or information call Gallery Director Robbie Schoen at (408)373-2854.