Virtual Verbs

I just found out my Post-Internet Verb List (after Serra) has been one of the inspirations for a new project by the London based artist Molly Richards- Virtual Verbs. As stated on the website for the project:

“Influenced by Richard Serra’s 1972 Verb List (over 100 processes that could be done to, or with a given material) and Brandon Bauer’s re-appropriated list (2010) I’ve compiled a set of verbs that have been re-appropriated, gained new meaning or have been invented since the birth and evolution of the internet reflective of my generation.

Looking at the internet as a subject as well as a medium, how do these newly appropriated verbs sculpt the internet? In commissioning a selection of international artists to respond to this verb list, virtualverbs.com invites them to react artistically to the internet in a physical way with a physical outcome placing the same value on virtual verbs and ‘real’ verbs as a creative methods.”

Keep watching the site as new works are added in response the the list! It looks like a great project.

New Project – Living With The Bomb

I have begun working on a new project titled “Living With The Bomb”. It is a project exploring nuclear proliferation, nuclear disarmament, and peoples movements for the abolition of nuclear weapons. I have began a few associated sites related to the exploration and development of the work. There is a wordpress site relating to research and development of the project that can be found here. I have also started a timeline relating to my research that can be found here. Both of these site are in progress and will act as a supplement to the larger project and to the work produced.

The first iteration of the work is scheduled for exhibition at the Frank Juarez Gallery at the end of November.

Links:
Living With The Bomb (WordPress)
Living With The Bomb (Tiki-Toki Timeline)

Remembering Who We Are

To mark the closing day of the “Posters of Inspirational European Women: Taken from the zine Shape & Situate” exhibition, Space Station Sixty Five in London hosted a collection of resources from other sociopolitical art, poster, zine and publication projects for everyone to explore. Inspirational work featured, displayed, exhibited and screened included projects such as: the Celebrate People’s History poster project, Occuprint, Inspired Agitators, Dead Feminists, Peops, Great Anarchists, and many more.

A great recap of the events can be found on the blog- glue, a glove and some plyers.

The above images are from glue, a glove and some plyers

Remembering Who We Are: Exploring artistic and creative sociopolitical memory, and art in social change movements

Space Station Sixty Five, 373 Kennington Road, London, SE11 4PS
http://www.spacestationsixtyfive.com/

Guns vs. Butter

Some of my work is included in this great show in Pittsburgh at Future Tenant- details below…

[Text From Justseeds Website]

Guns vs. Butter is an exhibition of anti-war graphics, bringing together the contemporary print work of the Justseeds Artists’ Cooperative alongside posters from the historical collection housed in the Interference Archive. The exhibition contextualizes the work of current socially-motivated graphics alongside a history of posters as an integral element of popular grassroots movements against war, colonialism, and military occupation.

This exhibition is currently on at Future Tenant in Pittsburgh, PA until Jan.6, 2013. More details here.

[Slideshow Link]

Works In Progress – Works in the Exhibition

WORKS INCLUDED

Meek Inherit Earth (1996)
Acrylic, enamel, pastel, charcoal, spray paint, and graphite on paper

Abolish Alienation (2000)
Acrylic, enamel, ink, graphite, and paper collage on newspaper mounted on screen

Fallujah (2004)
Contact C-print on photo paper

Works from the “Post-War American” series (2007)
Mixed media, monotype, graphite, and paper collage on paper

Works from “The Times” series (2008-2011)
Mixed media, monotype, acrylic, enamel, watercolor, ink, and graphite on paper

US Aid (2011)
Ink and graphite on paper

Words Are Not Enough (2008/2012)
Wood Frames, newspaper, magazine, paper collage, ink and acrylic on tracing paper, vinyl photographs, digital frame, digital photographs, animated GIF transferred to video (loop), video (loop), DVD players, tripod, mini-projector, alligator clips, binder clips, push pins, nails, and flag on wall

Still Life #1 (2012)
Duratrans lightbox

Presidential Address (2012)
Photographic images on vinyl, aluminum grommets

Free Files (2012)
Various files, flash drive, USB cable

AUDIO

Transmission: Hectic Mix (1999)
Sound collage (loop) Total Running Time: 14:30 Listen

VIDEO

A Day Under The City (1999)
Analog video transferred to DVD with music by Franz Buchholtz (loop)
Total Running Time: 50:22 DVD Available Through Lowave

Endless Productivity (2006)
Powerpoint presentation transferred to video (loop)
Total Running Time: 7:08 View

short/cuts (2006)
A Selection of short video and animation works (loop)
Total Running Time: 15:24 View

Fractured Landscapes (2007)
Video and sound (loop)
Total Running Time: 2:54 View

The Spin Zone (2007)
Video and sound (loop)
Total Running Time: 4:32 View

State of the Union (2008)
Video, animation, and sound (loop)
Total Running Time: 2:57 View

On the Second Day (2009)
Video and sound (loop)
Total Running Time: 01:10:16

ZINES

Random Culture Zine (2009)
Printed copies of Random Culture Issue #1 & #2 PDF webzine

RCP.ML2K.PDF Zine Issues #1 – 12 (2009-2012)
Printed copies of RCP.ML2K.PDF webzine / A collaboration with A. Bill Miller Link

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Works In Progress Exhibition Images and Detail Views

Installation in Progress!

The installation is underway! Here are a few images of the installation in progress. The exhibition has examples of my print and mixed media work, video, installation, an early sound art piece, and physical copies of my collaborative webzine with A. Bill Miller. The exhibition opens tomorrow- stop by if you are in the area!

Works In Progress – Interview

The following interview was conducted with the curator Shan Bryan-Hanson about my upcoming exhibition Brandon Bauer: Works In Progress 1996-2012. The exhibition will be held in the Bush Art Center Galleries at St. Norbert College From October 26th through November 20th 2012, and the opening reception will be October 25th from 5-7pm.

Shan Bryan-Hanson: When we discussed possible exhibition dates you were very interested in timing this exhibition with the Presidential election. How does your work engage with politics? Is it political?

Brandon Bauer: My work has consistently engaged with social and political issues from the beginning. Sometimes this has manifested itself in very pointed and specific ways, and other times in more reflective or ambiguous ways. Given the topical nature of my work I thought the political spectacle of the election would be an interesting backdrop for this exhibition.

Shan: How does your work fit into the notion of art as activism?

Brandon: I have never considered myself an activist, but I do feel art has a responsibility to engage with the most pressing issues of our time. I am intrigued by the space art creates for social, cultural, and political critique and the contemporary and historical roles of such perspectives. In many ways the issue of art as activism comes down to the question of the critical distance or the critical proximity one takes to any particular issue.

Shan: There are many drawings, and even a few paintings, exhibited in this show. What role does drawing play in your work? Are there similarities in the way you approach your drawings and digital work or do you view them as entirely different means of expression?

Brandon: I enjoy the process of manipulating material to create. I employ methods often referred to as traditional such as painting, drawing, and printmaking, as well as installation, photography, video, broadcast television, and web-based works. In many ways there is no difference in the way I approach these various methods, but there is a difference in how works are received. I tend to approach ideas through multiple methodologies and assess the effect on content. Recently I have been concentrating primarily on drawing, photography, and video. I like that all three of these approaches are open ended and flexible. The quality of the human touch in drawing, the immediacy of the photographic image, and the sequential and durational nature of video all have the potential to provide distinct effects with the content I am addressing.

Shan: Define “New Media”, as you see it. The term can seem a bit nebulous since digital technologies are constantly evolving.

Brandon: Honestly, I have a lot of conflicting feelings about the term. On one hand, it is really too vague to have any meaning, and the emphasis on “new” seems to be from another era more concerned with breaks and ruptures, and specific divisions like old and new, rather than how ideas and forms evolve and continue in altered configurations over time. However, I do appreciate that it is not a static term and is really a moving target one can never catch up with; for example, methods that were new in the 1960s when the term was first adopted are no longer new. In that sense it is an appropriate label in that it speaks to the continued development of art in relation to technology, and how artists continue to adapt, create, and critique new technological forms as they continue to emerge. On the other hand, digital technologies are so embedded in our culture now, even artists using explicitly traditional means employ digital technologies as forums for discussion, research, or utilize networks to share their works possibly indicating that “New Media” as a descriptive term creates more problems than it solves. Perhaps it is time to be more specific about the possible forms art can take and the continued evolution of these forms rather than setting up a contentious dichotomy between old and new with the use of such terms.

Shan: Would you address the use of text and appropriated imagery in your work? I’m thinking about your recent fashion drawings and the collage images from the mid-2000s. The juxtaposition of the fashion images and your choice of text is very compelling and really speaks to the strange barrage of images and ideas we’ve come to view as normal; an advertisement for designer shoes on the same page as a news story about war and human suffering, for instance.

Brandon: In many ways that is a project I have been developing for a long time in multiple ways over several series of work. At heart I am a collage artist, even if it is through other means that do not directly read as collage. Collage is about bringing distinct fragments together in a shared context. The two series you refer to are both about bringing together distinct spheres of mediated language and the worlds they represent, such as the language of the advertising image and the language of the news headline. In all of my work I am looking for specific tensions or frictions between the elements I combine often using strategies of collage and montage to create new meaning from existing materials. I want to create awareness of the normalized barrage present in mass media that appears largely unexamined in society. I feel it is often the things that are taken for granted or overlooked that need the most scrutiny.

Bush Art Center Galleries – St. Norbert College
403 Third St., De Pere, WI 54115

Hours of operation:
Monday – Friday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. during the academic year.
Closed summer and College holidays.

The galleries are free and open to the public.