I have been invited by Lori Zimmer, founder of the ART NERD universe and New York based author and curator, to participate in a very special project for the SCOPE Miami art fair taking place this December.
For 'Message in a Bottle', a group exhibition featuring an amazing line-up of artists including Ron English, Beau Stanton, Tara McPherson, Shark Toof, Molly Crabapple, Kenny Sharf and David Shillinglaw (to name a few), Lori will convert the booth of Quattlebaum Foretich Gallery (Hamptons) with a maritime theme (quote):
"'Message in a Bottle' explores the romantic history of blindly throwing messages to sea, leaving it to the hands of fate to deliver them to their intended recipient. Visitors are invited into a maritime ship chandlery, where contemporary artists have created their own message for the ages, captured inside bottles and waiting to be unlocked by their new owners. A special animation by Beau Stanton will further the seafaring fantasy."
So, here's a little image documentation of how I tackled the theme and the interesting technical challenge I faced getting woodcuts inside the bottles ...
The messages in the bottles are of course the little woodcuts and the story they tell.
However, I have included tiny letters in the base of the bottles. Right at the bottom, underneath the woodchips (which, by the way, come from the carvings in the bottles, had to add some from other works too, but only a few ).
To read this messages, the buyer would have to break open the bottles which will most likely never happen. So the text on these messages will forever be my secret… unless … someone owning the bottle really gets too curious … I guess an ‘artist created-Message in a bottle’ will in most cases will fail its purpose, because if there should be, (for example) a cry for help bottled up inside, no one will ever come to the aid, cos the artwork is of much more value if unopened?
We'll see ...
PS: Needless to say, I have been using bottles previously containing the social water of Viva con Agua de Sankt Pauli e.V. ...
