A lecture at PSU, a conversation at PICA and a back room at the end of the week. Press releases below.

Mon • Mar 4 • 8:15p
Jason Fulford and Mike Slack • PSU Monday Night Lecture Series
510 SW Hall St • 5th Avenue Cinema Room 92
Free



Jason Fulford is a photographer and co-founder of J&L Books. His photographs have been featured in The New York Times Magazine, Harper’s, Time, and on book jackets for Don Delillo, John Updike, Bertrand Russell, Terry Eagleton and Ha Jin. Monographs include Sunbird (J&L, 2000), Crushed (J&L, 2003), Raising Frogs for $$$ (The Ice Plant, 2006).



Mike Slack lives and works in Los Angeles. His Polaroid photographs have been published in two volumes – Ok Ok Ok (J&L Books, 2002; reissued by The Ice Plant, 2006) and Scorpio (The Ice Plant, 2006). His work has appeared in Harper's, The New York Times and other publications. He is working on a new book of Polaroids called Thirty Twelve.

“Photography was the first medium I found where I was able to communicate very vague ideas with the right tone. These are ideas that I can’t explain with words. The tone is very important because the ideas have a certain open-ended quality, and photography allows this ambiguity to stay intact.”Mike Slack (pr)

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Thu • Mar 8 • 6:30 pm
The Precipice Alliance presented by Donna Wingate
A conversation about new mission, new art, and a better world.
PICA Resource Room
224 NW 13th Avenue, #305
Free



PICA and the Douglas F. Cooley Memorial Art Gallery at Reed College present a special conversation with Donna Wingate, co-founder of the Precipice Alliance as she talks about their new conceptual installation by artist Mary Ellen Carroll.

The mission of the Precipice Alliance is to increase awareness of the global effects of climate change. To do so, the Alliance funds high-profile, innovative public artworks that address this urgent matter, while simultaneously functioning as an educational and informational forum.

The Precipice Alliance launched its program with an inaugural artwork by conceptual artist Mary Ellen Carroll. This large-scale project will consist of 8-foot high illuminated characters, spelling out the phrase: IT IS GREEN THINKS NATURE EVEN IN THE DARK. The nearly 900-foot-long piece is installed in the window bays of all five former American Can factory buildings (CANCO lofts) in Jersey City, New Jersey beginning November 1st, 2006 and will remain on view through April 2007. The work is illuminated at night, and is visible to tens of thousands of commuters daily traveling on the Pulaski Skyway and the New Jersey Turnpike. It is also visible by air to passengers flying into Newark Airport, reaching millions of viewers.

Donna Wingate is co-founder and executive director of the Precipice Alliance. From 2000-06 she served as director of publisher services at D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers, the North American art book publisher and distributor. During her tenure, Wingate served as editor and/or managing editor for many of the company's most notable titles, working closely with artists, publishers, and institutions, both in the United States and abroad, to bring their works to public view via artist monographs, exhibition catalogues, and special artist editions. Wingate holds a M.A. in Comparative Literature and a M.F.A. in Photography, both from San Diego State University. (pr)

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Fri • Mar 9 • 6:30 pm
the back room with Marc Joseph in conversation with Stephanie Snyder
Podkrepa Hall • 2116 North Killingsworth Street • 705-9450
Tickets: $45
Meal to be planned and cooked by Naomi Pomeroy • with live music, TBA.



This evening we will welcome photographer Marc Joseph and celebrate publication of his newest work, The Culture Issue, a 24-page full-color chapbook commissioned and published by the back room. Copies of The Culture Issue will be given to everyone who comes to dinner and later be made available for sale (together with the back room's five other original commissioned chapbooks) on their site’s publications page.

Marc Joseph's recent work has focused on book and record shops, framing glimpses of old and new objects as they float through and arrange themselves within the logic of the market, not the abstract logic of art as commodity, but the specific logic of the corner store, the small, peculiar places that expose us to the books and records that matter to us, and which shape our ways of seeing. Joseph explains, "I'd been thinking about what made me look at things in a certain way, and such an important part of it started with books and records, and in book and record stores." In his book, New and Used, Joseph's large-scale, richly detailed color images expose what curator Stephanie Snyder has called "the formative and sometimes transgressive encounters that shape our interests and congeal our sense of identity." (pr)

I missed a couple of things that might flip your switch in addition to those above:

Wednesday night Matt McCormick, whose show at Elizabeth Leach looked really good when I walked through last Thursday, will present "future so bright" with a live soundtrack of music, field recordings, and abstract soundscapes at Holocene. Here is a link to his blog:

http://www.urbanhonking.com/actionitems/

Future So Bright by Matt McCormick
Holocene • 1001 se morrison
Wed • Mar 7th • 9p
$6

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Saturday night has the farewell bash, with fancy drinks and dancing, for the Contemporary Craft Museum and Gallery (soon to be the Museum of Contemporary Craft). With that, you should be aware that this week is the last chance you have to see their current shows.

Farewell 3934: Seventy Years of Contemporary Craft
Featuring DJ Anjali & The Incredible Kid
Sat • Mar 17 • 9p - 12a
$25 at the door • 21 & over (get a babysitter)

(All proceeds benefit the capital campaign for
Museum of Contemporary Craft. Admission
includes snacks and 2 complimentary beverages
at the cash bar. Capacity is limited, so
please come early to ensure entry.)

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