recycle your ideas

Version 09-NFO XPO April 24-25, 2009

2009-04-29T18:39:00.001-07:00

January snowstorm 2009

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NFO XPO 2008

2009-02-05T15:47:00.000-08:00

Friday Dec 19, 2008- 7:03am

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I walked to work today and noticed my sticker was not removed from this. It has been since the spring when I pasted this, but I guess it blends with the others.

PROMT MAGAZINE

2008-08-09T06:32:00.000-07:00

My art will be in a new art journal called PROMT and below is an excerpt from the mag. If the writer sends me the entire article then I will post it later...but for now this will be my section(unless it is edited at the last minute):

Practical Revolutions: WORK
by Sabina Ott

Artists Burtonwood & Holmes, Miguel Cortez, Joan Giroux, Myra Greene, Anni Holm, Friedhard Kiekeben, localStyle (Marlena Novak and Jay Alan Yim), and Tracy Taylor don’t privilege one practice over others that they engage in, instead, they approach all their activities as an interlocking set of art practices. These artists work across a range of platforms including sound and installation, object and video making, curation and criticism. They explore social activism and identity formation, embodying a connectivist approach toward art that is non hierarchical and fluid. Over time, the art object in and of itself becomes one of a range of practices. In this new paradigm, the network, not only the making is privileged. At the heart of such relational art is a devotion to expanding what artists do and what artists can do in the social realm, a practical revolution to be sure. Displacing the solo artist, the collective, as well as the collaborative team is one of the ways these artists seek replace traditional means of exchange between maker and viewer. Many of these artists also take the role of curator and producer, further extending the reach of their production.

Born in Guanajuato, Mexico, Chicago artist Miguel Cortez also embraces a fluid relationship between various roles as artist (the situationist kind), curator, and founding member of the art collective Polvo. Polvo began in 1996 and opened an exhibition space (2003-2007) in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago. Cortez has just started antena, a new project space dedicated to new media and installation projects on a local and global scale. Cortez’s art in all of its manifestations radically revises the role of the artist from solo practitioner to viral warrior. Some form of networking produces most of Cortez’s work –literally. His works are interactive- often made by
participants downloading stickers from the web and placing them in the urban landscape, thus de-centering the process of artistic production. “Recycle Your Ideas” is an ongoing project, in which the artist places decals at various locations, then photographs the site, draws or paints it and then generates an animation to be viewed online. Each incarnation influences the next one, and each piece is simultaneously independent and connected. His recent exhibitions include the Krannert Museum, Champaign, IL; the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago; VU Space in Melbourne, Australia. and at Mighty Fine Arts Gallery in Dallas.

See Miguel Cortez's "Recycle Your Ideas" project here: http://recycle-ideas.blogspot.com/
Purchase PROMT from the Chicago Artist's Coalition web site: http://www.caconline.org/default.asp?page=Prompt_Main

bathroom @ antena

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cash station

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Lincoln Square, Chicago

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photos by Lindsay H.

inerview in Gaper's Block by Laurie Apple

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Recycle Your Ideas is a two-year-old project by Chicago artist Miguel Cortez that explores the concept of recycling -- a hot topic these days, in case you haven't noticed -- through various media. Portions of the project are on display at the Krannert Art Museum in Champaign until July 27 as part of the show "Landscapes of Experience and Imagination: Explorations by Midwest Latina/o Artists." Cortez recently answered a few questions about his project for us.

Tell us about the Recycle-Your-Idea project.

It's a project that pokes fun at the art making process: how artists come up with an idea for, let's say, a painting, and how that idea then manifests into a finished piece. The artist repeats the same idea, and the same painting style, over and over, until the art no longer has the substance that it had at the beginning. It now becomes a decorative pattern/product.

Is the project just you, or others?

This is an individual project, but on the blog/site people can request stickers to then post in their city, document them and then they can send me a digital image.

What was the inspiration?

I wanted to create a series or artworks that would not be limited to just one media. I think of it more like a tree branch. It started out with stickers. Once I placed several at various sites, I documented them. I then traced the photos on the computer and the finished drawings became computer prints; these are being shown at the Krannert Museum. After this, I created a Flash animation piece for online viewing, plus others, and so forth. Each piece influences the next one, and they are independent but still connected. So the series keeps growing.

What examples of idea-recycling come to mind when you describe your project?

You can probably compare it to the idea of re-use and recycling of actual materials like paper, plastic, glass, etc., but on a conceptual level. I mean, all art's recycled in some way, so how to differentiate between art that would fit with your project, and art in general?

Yeah, most art concepts nowadays are recycled from the past or taken from individual experiences. The end result may be innovative, such as in cases where artists use new technology. Some have started to utilize new media to create fresh new work, such as creating art for cell phones, online projects, computer programs, mp3s, video for ipods, 3D environments for Second Life, etc.

How do you choose the locations for your stickers?

It's random. Wherever I go and if I have one I place one.

Describe the pieces on display at the Krannert.

They're two computer drawings taken from previous documentations. Originally, the museum wanted to show and distribute the stickers, but it turned out, some university people complained and felt the university students would paste stickers all over the campus, so instead the museum made business cards.

What is the ultimate project goal?

It will keep on growing until I become sick of it.

- Lauri Apple
http://gapersblock.com/ac/2008/05/26/post-2/

3:59pm

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4:26pm

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laundromat

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Version08 - NFO XPO

2008-04-30T17:39:00.000-07:00

April 11, 2008 @ 4:17pm

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Krannert Art Museum

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March 7, 2008 @ 6:37am - Pilsen, Chicago

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Krannert Art Museum April 2008

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to be shown at the Krannert Art Museum this April as part of their "Landscape" art exhibit.

Feb 8, 2008 @ 4:27pm

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Harrison Park in Pilsen

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outside of the National Museum of Mexican Art

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Blue Line Feb 7, 2008 @ 5:04pm

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mug

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http://www.cafepress.com/polvo.224634155

New Orleans Jan 24, 2008

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Chicago Jan 26, 2008, 10:56am

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