Terri Saulin

Correspondence I: TSA New York

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 07:03:31 -0400

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PHILADELPHIA-
Tiger Strikes Asteroid is pleased to announce the opening of our March exhibition, CORRESPONDENCE I, a group exhibition featuring the work of TSA NY members, Alex Paik, Naomi Reis, Rachael Gorchov, Vincent Como, Will Gabadon, Tai Yin Ho, Jackie Hoving, Norm Paris, Matt Phillips, and Andrew Prayzner.

Founded in 2012, TSA NY is an artist-run, artist-curated exhibition space located at 44 Stewart Ave, #49 in Bushwick, Brooklyn. TSA NY is our “sister space” and was formed when founding member Alex Paik relocated to NYC and began “corresponding” with the local talent. TSA NY seeks to invite a dialogue between an eclectic mix of artists and curatorial visions with a focus on emerging artists from New York and beyond.

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tigerstrikesasteroid: CORRESPONDENCE I: TSA NYMarch 1st– 31st,...

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 16:16:17 -0500

tigerstrikesasteroid:

CORRESPONDENCE I: TSA NY
March 1st– 31st, 2013
Opening reception: Friday, March 1st, 6pm-10pm

Hours: Saturday and Sunday, 2pm-6pm and by appointment
(484)-469-0319, tigerstrikesasteroid@gmail.com

tigerstrikesasteroid: Alexis Granwell: Lean ToOctober 5th–...

Mon, 15 Oct 2012 20:54:27 -0400

tigerstrikesasteroid:

Alexis Granwell: Lean To
October 5th– 28th, 2012
Opening reception: Friday, October 5th, 6pm-10pm

Hours: Saturday and Sunday, 2pm-6pm and by appointment
(484)-469-0319, tigerstrikesasteroid@gmail.com

Last weekend to catch Rubens Ghenov :: The Silent H @ Tiger Strikes Asteroid, 10/29 & 10/30, 2-6pm!!!

Wed, 26 Sep 2012 09:36:52 -0400

Rubens Ghenov and a mystery wrapped in an enigma

Published on September 25, 2012 by Chip Schwartz in Philadelphia

Rubens Ghenov has a solo painting exhibit at Tiger Strikes Asteroid right now, but his abstract forms, although the outward face of the show, are only a portion of the full concept at hand. Along with his sharp, textured paintings, Ghenov provides an essay by Ana Monique Abe and a short documentary film, which examine a couple of disparate concepts that come together for a visually and intellectually stimulating experience.

Rubens Ghenov, “Tanin no kao 1, Perec pererecando” and “O Lado Redondo do Quadr(a)d(o).” Photo courtesy Jaime Alvarez

The title of the exhibition is “The Silent H” which is a nod to Ghenov’s first language – Portuguese – in which the letter ‘h’ at the beginning of a word is silent. The artist notes that, with this in mind, the English word ‘history’ would therefore essentially double as a ‘story.’ This blurring of the lines between fact and fiction is exactly the territory that Ghenov wishes to explore. He does so by means of visual abstractions that are, more often than not, highly indiscernible, yet crisp and precise in their presentation.

Rubens Ghenov, “Mangueir(a)d(o)-a” and “Hiroshi.” Photo courtesy Jaime Alvarez

When Ghenov’s images are identifiable, they generally take on the rough shape of a human face or any number of inanimate objects like a guitar. All of the visual breakdowns resemble those of Cubist painters from the early 20th century, in which faceted sections of reality reveal multiple perspectives and angles. Such a philosophy in painting is highly conducive to the theme of the story versus the reality. Presenting us with images cobbled together in bits and pieces, Ghenov illustrates that we are always only viewing the world from our individual corner of existence. While the abstract paintings force us to think inside the box in a way (we all have limitations), they also make us acutely aware of the box and its dimensions.

A shot of the documentary about Algia Adamus. Photo courtesy Jaime Alvarez

Accompanying the paintings are an essay and a documentary which help Ghenov round out his ideas utilizing non-visual media and other people’s perspectives. The documentary is part of a canceled television series about female electronic music artists, one of whom is a major focus of this show. Algia Adamus was an obscure poet whose recordings and creations were nearly all lost to time – if they ever existed in the first place. Very little evidence is left of her besides the story as told by the woman who employed her in her home. Her poetic recordings were broken down from words into electronic noises which were representative of words without meaning.

In the essay, Abe explains: “The story of Algia Adamus is found at this precise juncture where fact, fiction and poetry mingle muddily, all ending in sound that turns silent.” This excerpt is extremely telling of the show as a whole. All of the words and images here tumble together to provide something wholly unreal, yet strangely concrete. Rubens Ghenov concocts a puzzling portrait of a world through meaningless sounds and visual cacophonies where the silence tells us more than words.

Tiger Strikes Asteroid is located at 319A North 11th St., Philadelphia, Suite 2H; 484-469-0319; tigerstrikesasteroid.com.

Limited Shares Available... Hurry! Hurry!

Sat, 04 Aug 2012 11:38:00 -0400

About the CSA

The Idea

Like a Community Supported Agriculture program, our CSA program supports a direct maker-to-buyer relationship between artists and collectors working and living in the Philadelphia region. Over the last 20 years, Community Supported Agriculture has become a popular way for consumers to buy seasonal food directly from local farms. With the same buy-local spirit in mind, Grizzly Grizzly and Tiger Strikes Asteroid’s Community Supported Art is a endeavor to support local art, artists, and collectors.
Since its inception by Springboard for the Arts in Minneapolis, MN (2010) this model has gained a lot of notoriety and has been replicated throughout the country. The goal of both Grizzly Grizzly and TSA is to cultivate an open, authentic, and deep connection between artists and collectors. This program seeks to create dialog through a series of events revolved around local, innovative artwork.

How it Works

Grizzly Grizzly and Tiger Strikes Asteroid have commissioned nine artists to make 50 “shares” for this program. These shares range from sculptures to DIY rings to prints to paintings to drawings to records. Each work is unique; and even multiples have been individualized. The commissioned artists were curated by both collectives, and we believe the work to be truly exceptional.

Interested consumers/collectors will purchase a share (aka a “membership” or a “subscription”) and in return will receive 3 “farm boxes” of locally produced artwork at intervals through season. The first pickup will be in October 2012 and the last in January 2013. Click here to find out more about the three pick-up events.

The Cost

Each share costs $450 for nine pieces of artwork.
There will be only fifty shares available on a first-come basis.

Shares will be available starting on July 19, 2012 at 10:00am by clicking here.

Grizzly Grizzly is an artist collective established in 2009. Tiger Strikes Asteroid is an artist collective established in 2008. Both are based in Philadelphia, PA, and are dedicated to programming and exhibitions in emerging contemporary art.

Community Supported Art has been supported by a grant from Springboard in the Arts, funded in part by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. It is one of two inaugural CSA programs in Philadelphia. For more information about the other CSA program, by the Philadelphia Folklore Project, go to www.folkloreproject.org/programs/csa.php

2012 Artists Sarah Kate Burgess Anda Dubinskis Jacob Feige Sarah Gamble Brian Giniewski Ivanco Talevski Brent Wahl Douglas Witmer Linda Yun Buy a SharePick Up EventsCommunity SponsorsPressContact

Community Supported Art is a joint program of Grizzly Grizzly and Tiger Strikes Asteroid.

Tiger Strikes Asteroid: On Loan: Curated by Nora Salzman

Fri, 03 Aug 2012 15:48:53 -0400

Tiger Strikes Asteroid: On Loan: Curated by Nora Salzman:

tigerstrikesasteroid:

August 3- August 26, 2012

Opening reception: Friday, August 3, 6pm-10pm

PHILADELPHIA- Tiger Strikes Asteroid is pleased to announce the opening of our August exhibition, On Loan: Curated by Nora Salzman.

On Loan is an examination of how institutional methods of display arrange our…

Installing BAR SINISTER @ Tiger Strikes Asteroid with artist...

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 20:31:02 -0400

Installing BAR SINISTER @ Tiger Strikes Asteroid with artist Michael Macfeat!

Michael Macfeat: BAR SINISTER

April 6 – 29, 2012

Opening Reception: Friday, April 6^th, 2012, 6-10pm

Hours: Saturday and Sunday, 2pm-6pm and by appointment

(484)-469-0319, tigerstrikesasteroid@gmail.com

319A North 11^th Street 2H, Philadelphia, PA 19107

Michael Macfeat: Bar SinisterCurated by Terri SaulinTiger...

Sun, 01 Apr 2012 00:16:00 -0400

Michael Macfeat: Bar Sinister
Curated by Terri Saulin
Tiger Strikes Asteroid
319A N. 11th Street
Philadelphia, PA
April 6 -April 29
Opening Reception: Friday, April 6th, 2012, 6-10pm

Michael Macfeat’s prints and sculptures in Bar Sinister concern
themselves with the issue of color, one through artifice and the other
through the natural process of patina and entropy. They bracket the
temporal extremes of twenty years of Macfeat’s oeuvre. An ambiguity of
meaning is apparent. Neither the sculptures nor the images are obvious
but often stem from his life long love affair with reading. They rely
on Macfeat’s history as a bibliophile, accumulating and cultivating a
compendium of quotes both visual and verbal. They become color coded
strategic military maps drawn from his interest in ‘Pataphysics, the
Situationists and Psychogeography. Once codes are cracked and
coordinates deciphered, the connection modulates between the
Dialectical Materialism of the Arte Povera group and an intellectual
stroll through the arcades with the flâneurs, leisurely walking
lobsters at the end of the leash. Allow yourself ample time to savor
and linger over beautifully turned words and ideas.

promo: Bar Sinister from Timothy Buckwalter on Vimeo.

tigerstrikesasteroid: Jaime Alvarez: Memento on the ArtBlog

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 16:53:49 -0400

tigerstrikesasteroid:

Jaime Alvarez: Memento on the ArtBlog

Hennessey Youngman: Call for Entries

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 19:10:34 -0500

Hennessey Youngman: Call for Entries

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 19:08:56 -0500

Hennessey Youngman: Call for Entries

jaimephoto: Opening this coming Friday in Philadelphia.

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 14:32:36 -0500

jaimephoto:

Opening this coming Friday in Philadelphia.

A little movie about how I make drawings.(This is a sound-less...

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 16:44:07 -0500

A little movie about how I make drawings.
(This is a sound-less version due to copy rules)
The sound it is set to can be found here.
http://grooveshark.com/#!/s/Bach+JS+The+Well+Tempered+Clavier+Book+1+02+Fugue+number+1+In+C+BWV+846/WwOoI?src=5
If you click on the link for sound a second before you start the video … it works pretty well!

Michael Macfeat @ Tiger Strikes Asteroid / Opening April 6th, 2011

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 20:47:04 -0500

Bar Sinister promo from Timothy Buckwalter on Vimeo.

Love Squared First Edition

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 15:10:29 -0500

Love Squared First Edition:

Expect rapture – a bolt of inspiring lightning, instantaneously fracturing the mind at the moment of its mysterious conception. A vision if you like – from the like-minded genius of the author to your own noggin (we share the same mind, I’m reading your mind right now). Efficiently and concisely told, this is a story of fantastic brilliance – a crusading pilgrimage to the center of your beautiful and caring heart. It’s true what the experts say, “Love Squared will change your life forever!”

Night Is A Girl @ Tiger Strikes Asteroid, 2011

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 14:35:00 -0500

The Solipsism of an Inverted Cartography
“On Exactitude in Science…In that Empire, the Art of Cartography attained such  Perfection that the map of a single Province occupied the entirety of a City, and the map  of the Empire, the entirety of a Province. In time, those Unconscionable Maps no longer  satisﬁed, and the Cartographers Guilds struck a Map of the Empire whose size was that of the Empire, and which coincided point for point with it. The following Generations, who were not so fond of the Study of Cartography as their Forebears had been, saw that vast Map was Useless, and not without some Pitilessness was it, that they delivered it up to the Inclemencies of Sun and Winters. In the Deserts of the West, still today, there are Tattered Ruins of that Map, inhabited by Animals and Beggars; in all the Land there is no other Relic of the Disciplines of Geography.”  

Suarez Miranda, Viajes de varones prudentes, Libro IV, XLV, Lerida, 1658 from Jorge  Luis Borges, A Universal History of Infamy, Penguin Books, London, 1975  ISBNo-14-003959-7   

We encounter what resembles a coral bed but upon further examination it bears a family resemblance to an unholy marriage of disparate elements. These resemble the exoskeletal remains of an impossible and somewhat harrowing symbiosis of human organs hosting parasitic natural accretions of coral and wood combined with the impossible sprouting of the limbs and heads of infant humans. One can imagine Mary Shelley creating this ﬁctional aquatic homunculus, the bed of a bizarre coral colony known only through its calciﬁed remains. In its animate state it would be a frightening experience for the scientist encountering this undersea Frankenstein’s monster. Perhaps it is an act of mercy to only consider the traces it left behind.   

The sculptures of Terri Saulin, however, are of a much more benevolent origin than these hybrids might imply. The process begins with cartography. Cartography is the science or art of making maps. It is also the catalyst that inspires the sculpture of Terri Saulin. Her use of mapping calls to mind the work of the late Ree Morton, one of my teachers at Philadelphia College of Art, although Terri was unfamiliar with her work before our discussions. Rather than using cartography in its traditional role of simply mapping, the maps she makes generate a new and fantastic topography with more similarities to a mutated coral bed than the plant beds of an urban yard, which is the actual landscape examined. Often the original product of the mapping process which breeds the porcelain topography will be remapped and those maps overlaid on other maps and traced to produce another series of shapes. It is a labyrinthian and  solipsistic use of the mapmaking process and an inversion of the process when the topology produced by the map is mapped again. Like the Borges story above, the sculpture of Terri Saulin employs a radical expansion of the cartographic process beyond its traditional uses and limitations. Her proliﬁc production of these porcelain sculptures may realistically cover the entire small area of land that she has obsessively mapped over time, although their actual placement might be subjective. The production of a three dimensional topography rather than the mirroring of one and producing a three dimensional schematic is the inverse of the traditional cartographic process. This process itself is sometimes again inverted by creating maps of the porcelain topography that has been created by another map. This provides another additional shapes, which are traced and overlaid to drawings and potentially more objects. Once the initial information is transferred from the mundane reality of an urban yard, the options of mapping, tracing, and casting could conceivably mimic the spiral of a Fibonacci series, a mathematical principle applicable to many examples in nature, that explodes into an orgy of the self- referential reproduction. The system information produced and altered by the overlapping, tracing and remapping of existing sculptures can sustain itself without a return to the scene of the original landscape if she so desires.   

Topography is both the starting point and the end of a solipsistic system generated by the cartographic record of her back yard. The choice of the yard as paradigm is an extension of her love of her miniature botanical gardens, the process of planting in general and the growth of herbs as a future element of her remarkable cuisine. During my visits to her studio she served lunch. What a wonderful chef she is! I had some of the best meals in recent memory in her kitchen, which looks out through her sunroom to the garden that is the inspiration and the site of the maps. If she thinks that I have had my last meal in her kitchen she is wrong. Her gastronomic skills will inspire me to ﬁnd reasons to be invited to lunch.   

A visual vocabulary of human-like organs result from the tracing of maps over other maps. They resemble organ shapes but they appear to have secreted a calcareous carbonate shell that left behind a brittle record of an organ not longer there. Along with the organ shapes are other natural shapes, coral, wood, bone and the recent addition of doll parts. The porcelain shares the whiteness of bleached coral and bone, with the gloss of clear glazes applied in small doses, perhaps acknowledging the wetness of living things. These objects appear to be generated by a natural process of accretion, mimicking coral in their assembly. Hollow sea urchin shapes develop, the porcelain giving them the ghostly look of coral.   

Coral, the major point of reference regarding the appearance of the work, is an animal that reproduces asexually or hermaphroditically. This is a curious subtext, considering Terri herself describes the recent inclusion of baby parts as representative of reproduction or its absence. The shapes are the result of the overlays of multiple maps of the yard. A vocabulary of various porcelain shapes are assembled into what ends up suggesting a coral bed. A major recurring element is what appears to be the exoskeletons of human organs, with holes that may have once been the point of entry of arteries or tubes. They also suggest the void left from the point other minor organs once shared space that are now absent. The organ shapes tend to be the central and larger elements to the sculpture, the point of attachment for smaller elements recalling bone, wood, coral and other shapes of natural origin. In the more recent works the addition of cast doll parts leads the work from a natural history to a human one that never came to fruition.

  I habitually do a quick analysis of a persons bookcase while in their homes. A great deal can be learned about someone very quickly by what they read. The bookshelves in the Saulin home are heavy on Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, two philosophers that use the term “rhizome” or “rhizomatic” to describe theory and research that allows for multiple, non-hierarchical entry and exit points in interpretation. The rhizome works with horizontal and uses trans-species connections, which directly relates to the structure of this sculpture. In botany, the rhizome is a horizontal root stem found underground. If detached and broken into pieces, they may result in growing into an entirely new plant. Saulin’s sculpture looks as if it is the product of a rhizomatic system of vegetative reproduction, the shapes repeating themselves throughout this body of work with theoretical similarity.   

There is an inherent beauty in these exoskeletal works and a natural elegance. In a curious way, the recent inclusion of doll parts, which would be innocent enough by themselves, create a malevolence when combined with the shapes that seem the result of the mining a coral sea bed. Perhaps this emanates from imagining the partial human shapes in the aquatic environment, a drowned antediluvian world that could have been pulled from a story by J. G. Ballard. During my earliest visits to Terri’s studio, the doll elements were not cast yet although they may have been in the theoretical process. They were not what I was expecting. They appeared and they did not have the effect I thought they might when combined with the other elements. I read them as adding an air of malevolence and the horror of scientiﬁc experimentation to the work. I am not sure which direction Terri Saulin will take this sculpture in the future but I am certain that if the path leads through the kitchen I will certainly be following her work closely. Her culinary skills are so remarkable that she may have found the cure to my chronic tardiness. Like Pavlov’s dog, I ﬁnd myself salivating in the cab, anticipating her gastronomic triumphs. I enjoy the sculpture but I refrain from putting it in my mouth.

 — Michael Macfeat, March 2011

  “If we were able to take as the ﬁnest allegory of simulation the Borges tale where the  cartographers of the Empire draw up a map so detailed that it ends up exactly covering  the territory (but where the decline of the Empire sees this map become frayed and ﬁnally ruined, a few shreds still discernible in the deserts — the metaphysical beauty of this ruined abstraction, bearing witness to an Imperial pride and rotting like a carcass, returning to the substance of the soil, rather as an aging double ends up being confused with the real thing) — then this fable has come full circle for us, and now has nothing but the discrete charm of second-order simulacra. Abstraction today is no longer that of the map, the double, the mirror or the concept. Simulation is no longer that of a territory, a referential being or substance. It is the generation of models of a real without origin or reality: a hyperreal. The territory no longer precedes the map, nor survives it. Henceforth, it is the map that precedes the territory — PRECESSION OF SIMULACRA — it is the map that engenders the territory and if we were to revive the fable today, it would be the territory whose shreds are slowly rotting across the map. It is the real, and not the map, whose vestiges subsist here and there, in the deserts which are no longer those of the Empire but our own: The desert of the real itself.”  

- Jean Baudrillard, “The Precession of Simulacra”

Juno Was Adamant

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 14:19:00 -0500

Roman mythology associates Lilies with Juno, the queen of the gods and the goddess of marriage. According to the myth, Jupiter had a habit of seducing mortals in a variety of clever disguises (in the form of a bull and a shower of golden rain he frequently figures in paintings). Hercules’ birth was the result of Jupiter’s appearing to the lady in question disguised as her own husband. Wishing to make the boy immortal, Jupiter carried Hercules to where Juno lay asleep and put him to her breast so that he might drink the food of the gods. The sucking of the infant, later to be renowned for his strength, awoke Juno with a start. As she drew away from the child, a shower of milk shot upwards to the sky to form the constellation of stars known as the Milky Way and part of it fell to earth, creating the lilies.

This sculpture is loosely based on Tintoretto’s painting “The Origin of the Milky Way” and a detailed description of discoveries made during the cleaning and restoration of the painting in The National Gallery Technical Bulletin Volume 3, 1979
by Joyce Plesters.

Dear Glenn Gould

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 14:04:00 -0500

DEAR GLENN GOULD
Introduction: Rhizome
…a becoming-wasp of the orchid and a becoming-orchid of the wasp
…the aparallel evolution of two beings that have absolutely nothing to do with each other

This is an installation of works that began as a visual response to repeatedly listening to Glenn Gould’s “Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier Book I, BWV 846-869.” Objects became maps of sounds.

The series developed, and lead to study of the philosophers Gilles Deleuze & Felix Guatarri, particularly the text, “A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia.” Through examining secondary sources helpful in explaining Deleuze in a contemporary context, I followed the philosopher’s image of the rhizome to Bruce Baugh’s essay “The Usefulness of Deleuze for Life,” published in “Theory and Event,” 1997. In the writing, Baugh states that it is Deleuze’s fate to be known through his coupling/relationships with other writers/philosophers. He notes that Deleuze maintained that a thing’s being is constituted only through it’s relation to specific “others”. This installation explores my “couplings” and is a visual recipe, a response to particular texts, music & visual ingredients.

Raku Vases: Functional Ware

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 23:25:09 -0500