Sixty Inches From the Center Review

Added on by Cole Pierce.
Having just opened in June, the bright lights and white walls of Hinge Gallery were welcoming against the coming cold on the night of November 5th. A lovely space in an ideal location among the bustle of Chicago and Damen, Hinge Gallery opened its doors for a dual artist exhibit featuring recent paintings by Cole Pierce and prints by Rusty Shackleford.

The works that greet you as you walk through the door of Hinge are two paintings by Pierce, titled “Triangle is the Strongest Shape #10” and “Triangle is the Strongest Shape #11”. The paintings are dizzying patterns made of triangles, as geometric grids that deviate in some sections. This gestures to the rigid grid interrupted by the hand-made process of art-making.

Pierce and Shackleford have known each other for a time, having been a part of an artists’ collective in years past. Although stylistically their artworks seem on opposite ends of the spectrum, the works juxtaposed made for an engaging exhibit.


When I spoke to Pierce about these works, he told me that his intention was to keep the triangle patterns as straight and as perfect as possible but as he created these works, it become about idiosyncrasies in the shape – letting imperfections happen. The paintings started as black and white paintings, but Pierce added a new perspective with color as the series went on. The paintings displayed at Hinge have gradients of color, with the patterned triangles fading from light cream to white in one painting and blue to darkest blue in the other.

Shackleford’s pieces in the exhibit are prints that utilize the relationship of gesture and found images, with the series titled Sweet Bones and Clean Secrets. Shackleford told me his process included dumpster diving for inspiration, using found objects to emote a nostalgic vibe. Tiny photographs of nature landscapes were painted, drawn, and marked upon, then blown up to become plexi-glassed prints.


Shackelford spoke of his processes and intention as concerning directed ambiguity- pushing an image into flat space and speaking to the relationship of what framing is about. The result was on full display in the works at Hinge, with pieces of nature prints paired with broken glass, cinderblocks, and neon paints. The consistency of color influences comes from within the prints, as Shackleford emphasized the importance of the presentation by painting the walls so as to create a full installation.

I was lucky enough to have to opportunity to speak to both artists during the opening, and them being friends made the discussion all the more enjoyable. They each were very different in their approach to art and speaking about their art, but the variance between the artworks held balance within the Hinge Gallery.

- Amanda Mead

Sixty Inches From the Center

Cinchel - Ritual Habitat - Videos

Added on by Cole Pierce.
Cinchel has a new EP released on Feedback Loop and has reedited some of my earlier videos to use as visual scores for two of the tracks.


track3-fire.fly.flash.flood. from cinchel on Vimeo.



track2-inherit therin (the mistakes) from cinchel on Vimeo.

Cinchel and I had previously collaborated on Disorientation, a video that was installed at Hinge Gallery this past summer.




Field Mic - short documentary

Added on by Cole Pierce.

Field Mic (Documentary, 2011, 3 min) from Ani Pandit on Vimeo.

Here is a short documentary of my history as an artist that connects the dots between my early collage work to my recent paintings and interest in field recordings and sound art.
Produced by Ani Pandit.
Featuring works by Scott Ashley at Hinge Gallery, fieldmic.com, collages, paintings and field recordings by Cole Pierce.

The Archeospiritist Study and Consortion Initiative, Illinois.

Added on by Cole Pierce.


YOU ARE INVITED to join us for the second installment of ASCII.
The Archeospiritist Study and Consortion Initiative, Illinois.
A group exposition & offering of audio multiples.

ASCII 2
Thursday, August 4 -- one night only!
8:30pm - 10:30pm
954 N. Calfornia Ave.
(above the Rootstock Bar)
Chicago

Participating:*
EC Brown, Chelsea Culp, Ben Foch, Chris Hefner, George Larson, Bruce Neal, Catie Olson, Cole Pierce, Chris Uphues


These participants have been invited to adhere to the following ASCII specifications:
An edition of artifacts shall be created, to be distributed freely, or perhaps available for barter.
Editions must involve recorded audio.
Editions must bear your insignia.
Attire shall always be elegant.
Additional rules and specifications are available here:
http://www.archeospiritist.com

The attached images are prompts for this singular event, as well as the following video:






Field Mic Talk at IFP Producers Series

Added on by Cole Pierce.
Able and I are honored to participate in an IFP salon/discussion series next week. We will be talking about Field Mic, our approach of curating content online, and sharing some our favorite finds. Please join us.


A comprehensive four-part workshop, the Producers’ Series addresses the challenges of producing a feature film. This intensive workshop is led by experienced producers and industry professionals, and combines classroom style instruction, panel discussions, case studies and screenings.

LOCATION: The Nightingale, 1084 North Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL 60642

DATE: Wednesday, May 18th

TIME: 7PM

PRICE: $10 non-members, $5 members

The IFP is pleased to launch a new salon/discussion series for media makers in the Chicagoland and Midwestern region: MEET YOUR DIGITAL PARTNERS. The goal is to bring together people from a broad array of fields related to media making, to exchange ideas and talk about developing visual and aural stories in a variety of cross-platform arenas.

With the convergence of technology, there is a lot of talk of making work that can be relevant across a multitude of platforms. Yet media makers may not know where to meet potential collaborators outside their usual circle. Stay relevant and make new connections by attending this open forum, whether you’re a game developer, filmmaker, social media producer, advertiser, audio artist, or cross-platform media maker.

Round #1 of this experiment features the following media artists:

Ian Pottmeyer graduated college prepared to be an opera singer. From there he became acomposer, then a composer of video game soundtracks. Now he creates the games themselves at Studio Cypher, a game design studio based in Bloomington, Indiana. As part of the three-man team, he takes on numerous design roles, from game to graphic to web to audio. Ian’s games are often marked by his desire to help players be as personally creative as possible. On May 18th, he’ll be giving a crash course in game design to help ensure that everyone who comes across your experience feels like they can participate and have fun.

Ben Groenevelt makes fast, robust websites for non-profits, artists, musicians as well as smallbusinesses and larger corporations. His tool of choice is Drupal, an open-source contentmanagement systems (CMS) used to build sites like the whitehouse.gov and grammy.com. He also, along with other open source devotees, spends his time giving back to Drupal’s open source community. He will be presenting, “What is this Drupal Thing?” giving a brief overview of what Drupal is and some of the powerful tools it provides to build dynamic, content rich web sites.

Cole Pierce is a Chicago based artist who makes paintings, video installations and audiomultiples. He earned his MFA in Art Theory & Practice from Northwestern in 2007 and has exhibited work at Antenna Gallery, Old Gold, Vega Estates, and is curating a group show at the Milwaukee Avenue Art Festival for the third consecutive year. He co-authors Field Mic, a sound art and music blog, and contributes music mixes to Headphone Commute’s podcast series. He is currently a videographer and educator at the Chicago Teachers’ Center of NEIU.

Jon Satrom is a new-media artist, educator, designer, and organizer. He performs realtime audio and video, celebrates obsolescence, and cultivates glitches. Satrom operates a production company called studiothread http://studiothread.com and teaches in the Department of Film Video New Media Animation at the School of the Art Institute. He will discuss “Strategies for Shattering Through Glowing Rectangles.” Riffing on Gene Youngblood’s Expanded Cinema (1970), Satrom will discuss new-media art’s potential to sculpt stories, transcend technologies, and remix our relationship(s) with cinema.

Able Parris is a designer, art director, and illustrator. He learned graphic design at the Rhode Island School of Design before opening his own niche design studio in Providence, RI. His collage art has shown nationally, and has been published internationally. He co-authors Field Mic, a sound art and music blog, and contributes to We Love Typography, the beloved typography site that’s like an FFFFound for type-related content. Currently, he spends his days at McKinney in Durham, NC practicing design and art direction in the context of advertising.

The Archeospiritist Study and Consortion Initiative, Illinois.

Added on by Cole Pierce.

You are invited to join us for the first installment of ASCII.

The Archeospiritist Study and Consortion Initiative, Illinois.

A group exposition & offering of audio multiples.

Thursday, April 28 – one night only!
8pm – 10:30pm

Back room of the California Clipper
1002 N. California (at Augusta)
Chicago

Participating:
Jon Bollo, EC Brown, Chris Hefner, Bruce Neal, David More, Caroline Picard, Cole Pierce, Rob Ray, Julia Rooney, Kendrick Shackleford, Paul Shortt, Edra Soto, Ralph Syverson, Bill Talsma

These participants have been invited to adhere to the following specifications:


• Multiples will be created, to be given freely or available for non-monetary barter.
• Multiples must involve recorded audio.
• No direct digital transfers can occur during the timeframe of the event itself.
• Attire shall always be elegant.

Furthermore, participants may opt to apply themselves to the “Brute Nail's Cruel Etiquette” specs:

• 23 songs.
• The first word of each will be added together to form a description of its themes (a poem, a
• paragraph, a haiku and a sentence etc. - punctuation can be added afterwards at the creator's
discretion)
• All adherents must wear a blue flower (real or homemade) on the night of the event.
• Packaging should include a blue flower (marker, sticker, printed, etc).


The attached images are the prompt for this singular event.



http://www.archeospiritist.com

Vote for Zombies and Vampires!

Added on by Cole Pierce.
The folks over at Headphone Commute just informed me Zombies and Vampires, the mix I put together last year and was part of HC's podcast series, is in the running for Best HC Mix of 2010! It has been played 580 times on mixcloud.

Vote for Zombies and Vampires! Best mix of 2010.