Sometime living as an artist makes you feel like you live on the Island of Misfit Toys.

We especially can feel this over the holidays when we are forced to co-mingle with our families - who don't quite understand why we do the things we do, and why we don't have much money to show for it.

Well for those of us creatives who either did not go to their families of birth this holiday or simply forgot to make plans, The Biennial Project is inviting you to celebrate this blessed holiday with us.

Please join The Biennial Project at The Boston Biennial 2012 exhibit being held at The Gallery at Spencer Lofts at 60 Dudley Street in Chelsea, MA on Christmas Day (that’s December 25th) from 3pm-5pm.

Come and drink the milk and eat the cookies Santa didn't get to because he choose not to visit you this year either because you behaved poorly (yes you are a drunken tramp) or simply because he doesn't exist.

 The Gallery at Spencer Lofts

60 Dudley Street

Chelsea, MA

3pm-5pm

FREE

Shit We Saw at The 2012 Whitney Biennial

OK, so we know The Whitney Biennial 2012 closed months ago. And we know we should have told you on our blog about the shit we saw right when we returned from the ‘Special Friends of The Whitney Biennial Preview Party’ that we, The Biennial Project, attended. Well if that bothers you - ‘Eat Us’ (we’ll enjoy it). This can only mean that you have not gone on our Facebook page and joined ‘liked’ The Biennial Project Page because we did report on the exhibit there. So that this doesn’t happen again please like us at:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Biennial-Project/208168052547147

In presenting ‘The Shit we Saw Whitney Biennial 2012 Edition’ we would like to add the precursor that some of what is written are our own opinions and words and some of the text we used has been lifted directly from other people’s articles. We do not know anymore where most of this came from because we keep terrible track of our footnotes. If we plagiarized you please take this as the compliment that it is meant to be. It means we like your voice - imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right?

Anyhow let’s start off by mentioning Tom Thayer’s reddish room of puppets and crane paintings. These make him a modern mythographer by way of William Kentridge and Balinese shadow-plays. Thayer’s work lyrically combines elements frail and feeble in nature, crudely parroting reality, in an effort to reveal the poetry that underlies our own existence. The very kind lady in the wheelchair pictured below told us all of that. She also said his work feels most at home alongside the ostensibly shambolic music of freewheeling experimental Brooklyn groups like the No-Neck Blues Band and Amolvacy. She then asked if we would kiss her pineapple. We liked the portable children's record players so much we bought one on EBay later that week. They turn and make playful music from playful record albums. So much fun!!

Next let us visit the exhibition of Dawn Casper who set up her studio on the 4^th floor of The Whitney for the duration of the show. She made a deep statement about society not supporting artists or something like that, or maybe just the bad economy in general, we’re not entirely sure. She is very smart. What a great way to get free rent and great exposure for a few months. Everybody asks her where she goes to the bathroom. They ask all day, really. The Biennial Project didn't ask her where she goes potty. We simply asked her to sign one of the 'Limited Edition Whitney Biennial 76 Artists Trading Cards' we made of her, to honor her Whitney Biennial Achievement. She almost signed, then read that we listed her old LA address on her card and was like totally freaked out because some of her friends, who according to Dawn, are nice girls, are living there now. I mean we got this address off the Internet. If we wanted to stalk Dawn we know where to find her. She can be found at THE FUCKING WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART where she works everyday. The stupid little docent even told her not to do anything she didn't “feel comfortable with”. Really! Like we were going to watch her TAKE A DUMP or something. REALLY!!

Next we thought Fluid Employment by Sam Lewitt was neato!! He directs ferroliquid across a magnetic plane, shaping bubbles on a darkly oiled path.
There is little explanation accompanying the work. This nice Tibetan Monk pictured below told us that the title’s significance, in lieu of Kasper and Frazier’s work, may suggest a quest for direction and connection in a world low on fiscal fuel. We just thought it was really rad because it moved and changed shapes and seemed a little toxic and dangerous. Also The Biennial Project enjoys chemicals, A LOT!!

The Biennial Project loves a 'What the Fuck Moment'. Kate Levant gave this to us. You all probably remember when in September 2009 Kate set up a Blood Drive at Zach Flreur Gallery in NYC. This was really cool but Biennial Project member Eric felt left out because he still, in the good old US of A can not donate blood because he is a man who 'sleeps' with other men’. All this even though he is HIV negative and isn't nearly as slutty in his 40s as he was in his 20s

Kate Levant scavenged the materials for her 2012 Biennial installation from a burned-down house in inner-city Detroit; an area often associated with economic distress and daunting foreclosure rates. Sheets of foil insulation lining, cardboard, and other materials found in the insect-infested ruins are transformed into a strange, visually powerful sculpture that suggests the eternal oscillation

between life and death. Each element strikes a tenuous balance between cohesion and dispersion, disintegration and growth. Describing these components as “wrecked, still trying to contend,” Levant sees this makeshift sculpture as a reflection of the landscape of Detroit, which amid its crumbling structures and faltering social systems is mutating into something new and unknown.

Kate likes cooking. She likes making soup from scratch, especially stock. She also likes making funky salads. She is quite prolific. "Kate Levant takes audience participation to a new level.” She like breaking things …for the physical act and for the result. Kate likes cleaning things up and packaging things. If she could be anywhere doing anything right now she might be in Houston with her friend Jacques sipping syrup, driving a convertible, and letting off firecrackers. Her junior year Kate dressed up like an Ewok. They’re awesome. A group of little dudes that can’t communicate but are like, “What’s up!”

The psychedelic, avant-garde rock band from Houston, Texas, RED CRAYOLA, performed on April 13th but we and any other visitor were able to talk to them live in The Whitney. They were so COOL!! The band was once paid ten dollars to stop a performance in Berkeley. When we returned in May they were still there, very tired but still speaking to strangers.

We were hoping that Kai Althoff's work would be more homoerotic sexy. We like to be a little turned on when looking at art. A half woody or semi in a museum is sort of pleasurable after all. His piece shown here looked different each time we went. Granted it was cool looking, but we once again were not part of the in crowd who knows when all the dam performances and movies were to take place at this Biennial. We live in Boston and New York is like 4 hours away (3 if Anna drives). They did give us a schedule and posted it online and everything but we can't even get to work on time let alone get to NYC to see thousands of performances.

Anyhow, Kai Althoff neither owns nor rents a studio.

Kai Althoff's paintings, installations, and mise-en-scènes reflect a struggle with complex and dialectical notions of love and hate, sexuality, and interior and exterior worlds. The German artist Kai Althoff is a second-generation Neo-Expressionist storyteller whose works constitute what might be called a scattered surrealist symphony of both youthful anomie and bohemian optimism. He is most notorious for vibrant, vaguely homoerotic scenes that could have been painted by the love child of Edouard Vuillard and Egon Schiele

We are sure Mayra Davey is a very nice lady and all but these mailed photographs seemed like something we did in art school. WE also can see them anytime we want at Boston’s ICA. We liked what famous Czech painter and sculptor Bo Petran said -"Big fucking deal”.

Lutz Bacher’s “Pipe Organ” (2009-11) evinces a distrust of modern technology via an aging Yamaha synthesizer organ tinnily played by robotic apparatus. The organ is decked out with huge tin pipes that bring to mind missile shells.

We spotted Lutz outside with her gallerist and we did not take her photo because she does not like her photo taken. Even The Biennial Project can play nice with people who play nice with us. Sometimes.

Hometown Boston boy Luther Price’s work!! He is neighbors with Anna in Revere, MA and often comes over for green tea and small town gossip, but it is a totally unfounded rumor that they are lovers. Wicked Sick!!

We spent some time with Werner Herzog’s five-screen digital projection of details from etchings by Hercules Segers; We enjoyed the visuals and cello music performed by Ernst Reijseger enough but we were more happy to rest our tired, dirty, throbbing feet and grab a five minute nap in this chamber of solitude.

Wu Tsangs installation and movie was our favorite thing at the whole biennial and she/he is not only one of our favorite artists but also one of our favorite personalities and LGBT leaders. We'd love to tell you more about the work but we're tired of writing for tonight and want to watch TV. We'll fill you in later.

XXOO, The Biennial Project

We know it has been February 23rd since The Bronx Museum of the Arts
announced that Sarah Sze was chosen to represent at The Venice Biennale for The
USA at the upcoming 2013 Venice Biennale. The Biennial Project did not report to you about this then because we were busy that week doing our thing
at The 2012 Whitney Biennial and throwing ‘a time’ at The First Windsor-Whitney Biennial.

The Biennial Project is all balls out not only because we love, love, love her work - we are doublly proud because Ms. Sze (pronounced ZEE) is, you
know, a Bostonian, born and raised right here in capital city of the Bay
State, the home base for us, The Biennial Project.

Wicked fuckin’ pissa!!

Let’s make a Packie Run and buy some scratchies,and get retarded.

Sarah is no average chowder head. She comes from a notable family. Her great Grandfather, Dr. Alfred Sao-ke Sze was the first Chinese ambassador to the
US and her Grandfather Szeming Sze confounded The World Health Organization.
Grandma Bessie Li was a pianist. Her Dad Chia-Ming Sze is a
Chinese-American architect whose firm is located at 326 A Street in Southie.
He designs lots of municipal projects around town. He can be reached at
chiaming@szearch.com or by phone 617-451-2727. Sarah’s Mummy is Judy Sze and
like most of Boston is of Irish descendent and is a retired schoolteacher.
We would never want to label her Lace Curtin. Judy's father was Alexander
Mossman, known as Sandy, an advertising executive who was Brookline Rat born on December 28th, 1897. Her Bother David Li Ming Sze  attended Buckingham, Brown & Nichols in Cambridge and is now a general partner at Grey Lock Partners a private Equity firm located in San Mateo, CA and sits on the boards of Facebook, LinkIn, and Pandora to name a few.

Sarah grew up on Beacon Hill in a 4 bedroom, 1890 mansard-roofed house
located at 44 Pinckney Street. According to Zillow the 3.242 sqft house is
valued at $2,165,447 and the 2012 property taxes were $24.197. Her folks
still live there. It's not the Triple Decker we are used to but we are sure
it has tons of chacta ­you knows.

Sze attended the Beacon Hill Nursery School with the other Brahmins at 74
Joy Street. Beacon Hill Nursery School which was founded in 1955and whose primary mission is:
"to nurture our students' innate curiosity and lay the foundation for a
lifelong love of learning. We believe that children who develop strong
self-concepts and social and emotional skills are most successful both in
school and later in life."

Sarah left the Hill to further her education on the other side of the
Charles at The Shady Hill School at 178 Coolidge Hill in The Peoples
Republic of Cambridge. When Sarah Sze started as a Beginner at Shady Hill in
1973, a teacher described her as being "good at imaginative play." When she
graduated from the school's ninth grade in 1984, a teacher commented on her
"considerable artistic ability."

After Shady Hill, Sarah went on to Milton Academy which is a coeducational
independent preparatory boarding and day school in Milton, Massachusetts
consisting of a grade 9­-12 Upper School and a grade K­8 Lower School. Milton
is noted for its prestige and strong academic programs, having produced many
notable alumni, including Nobel Laureate, T. S. Eliot, several members of the
United States Congress, Governor Deval Patrick of Massachusetts,
Saturday Night Live comedian Jenny Slate, James Taylor and a handful of
Kennedy's.

 The Biennial Project knows of this institution as Mouth-on Academy because of the oral sex scandal that happened there a few years back when a 15 year-old female student gave head to five boys on the Hockey team, one right after another.

We like to think of Sarah as a teenager in the 80s hanging out in the Pit in Harvard Square or The Rat in Kenmore. She’d be rockin’ out to Tracy Chapmen or The J Geils Band, spraying her locks into a Hair Wall otherwise known as The Quinzee Claw or the Revere Claw.

Sarah Sze was invited back to Milton in 2007 to be the graduation speaker
when she gave the students permission to fail or be failures. Sarah’s sick
nasty work entitled ‘The Edge of One of Many Circles’ is a permanent
installation at Milton Academy’s Schwarz Student Center. Sarah installed
it in 2006.

After graduating Summa Cum Laude from Yale University in 1991, Sarah spent
a year in Japan working in Television and studying ikebana, which is Japanese
flower arranging. In 1992 she once again donned her skally and returned to
Taxachusetts where she worked in a Boston public school art-education
program and painted on weekends.

It was that she met her Barney husband Siddhartha Mukherje while he was at Harvard Medical School. He then worked at Man’s Greatest Hospital, MGH .He authored the 2010 book, The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer, which won the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction, and was described by TIME Magazin, as one of the 100 most influential books of the last 100 years, and by the New York Times magazine as among the 100 best works of non-fiction.

Unfortunately New York City attracts Boston artists like flies on shit and
Sarah and Siddhartha moved down to the big apple so she could attend SVA.

Whateva!!

In 2002 Sarah hopped on ‘the Pike’ and returned back home to Boston as
the second resident artist to participate in the series RSVPmfa, in which
artists are invited to respond to and work among the collections,
architecture, and grounds of the Museum of Fine Arts. At the MFA she selected the
activity-filled West Wing entrance, which extends to a second floor that is
visible through an elliptical balcony. Fascinated by the energy of the many
distractions in this area, as well as by the movement of the viewer through
space via escalators, Sze had a field day constructing her piece to unite
the first and second floors. It was anchored on a corner of the second floor
and swept up into the barrel vault above spanning the space above the first
floor and descending from a supporting column to the floor of the lobby. On
the first trip home Sze was greeted by Beacon Hill neighbors at a party
sponsored by the Beacon Hill Village.

Maybe she was craving a Regulah at Dunkies! Because Sarah banged a U-ie again in 2004 and returned to Red Sox Nation to put up the permanent installation ’Blue Poles’. This piece is a whimsical miniature fire escape on the front of MIT's Sidney-Pacific Graduate Residence. The work, commissioned by MIT's Percent-for-Art Program, is titled "Blue Poles", in honor of Jackson Pollock's 1952 drip painting by that name. This is totally ‘the shit’ and it is made of small blue steel ladders, balconies and stairways welded into fire-escape-like clusters, "Poles" climbs to the roof of the six-story building from just above the front door. In designing "Blue Poles," Sze said that she was inspired by her childhood memories of fire escapes on apartment buildings near her home. Those rickety iron or wooden structures, used both as places to relax and as escape routes, are rarely found on new buildings; "Blue Poles" reconnects the Sidney- Pacific residence to its urban past and to the myriad ways people adapt to crowding, anonymity and summer heat. Sze made "Blue Poles" during a yearlong residency at Alexander Calder's former studio in Sachet, France. Sze described her own work as related to Calder's in its focus on gravity and air and play. Some people thought this looked sketchy but we, The Biennial Project say that Blue Poles is The Pissa!!

Sarah must have been craving some jimmies from JP Licks and candle pin bowling because once again she took the Salt and Pepper Bridge ‘across The River’ to install ‘Model for Corner Plot’, Agassiz House, Radcliff Yard,Cambridge, MA.

This was Wicked Frickn’ mad

.

So don’t we know that Sarah loves that dirty water because last year she returned once again to Boston not only to root for Da Broons, but also to do a residency with The ICA with Trajai Harrell in which she produced The Untitled
Still Life Collection, a dynamic exchange between visual art and dance. This
was made possible by the Contemporary Art Centers (CAC) network administered
by the New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA).

Hi friends. 

Yes, it's that time of year again.

Time to start thinking about The Biennial Project's 2013 Venice Biennale Tour de Force...seven nights of art, art, and more art in, well, let's call it a pretty nice town.

And did we mention the parties?

The Venice Biennale - the world's largest Art Event, opens on June 1st 2013, with press preview days on May 29th, 30th, and 31st.

  

  

The Biennial Project 2013 Venice Biennale Tour will begin on May 30th - so that anyone who is interested in getting a press pass (it's not hard, and we can work with you to help you get one) can have some time to see the exhibits, meet the artists, and go to the insanely-cool pre-opening parties before the Biennale is officially open. With press credentials you also get in free everyday and can get friends in free too!

 

Here is where we will be staying:  

(This Residence is the perfect accommodation for a large group of people wishing to stay at the same place while having their own and individual privacy. The location could not be better, just footsteps off Campo San'Angelo, about 10 minutes away from San Marco, Rialto and the Accademia Bridge. The building is composed of 3 spacious apartments laid out on 4 floors in total.)

Click Here to see Our Fabulous Digs in Venice

Not bad huh?

The cost for this unforgetable trip will be between round $550 per person double occupancy for 7 nights.

For your ruples you will get a very well-organized trip and a one-of-a-kind experience with other fascinating artists, and an ability to promote your own work to an international audience. 

 

You do not have to participate in any Biennial Project antics if you are silly enough to prefer not to - but everyone MUST help out with the ridiculously cool party that the group will host - not so terribly unpleasant. 

 

We have spots for eighteen artists - with 14 spots already spoken for. So let us know right away if you want to be part of this amazing trip!!! 

 

To help you decide, here are excerpts from a few of the many reviews our artists wrote for the press after coming back from our trip last year:

 

 

"Where to start in trying to report back from the first week of a spectacle that represents the art world equivalent of the Super Bowl, Cannes Film Festival, and Mardi Gras rolled up all into one? First, by admitting that this huge city-wide production does undeniably include a fair portion of the narcissistic self-congratulation by pretentious bores and snobs that you imagine that it would. Then, by trying to explain that despite all the silly pomp and circumstance, the Venice Biennale is worth it, because of two crucial additional ingredients. One is a heart-breakingly beautiful city that deserves every one of it’s endless accolades, and remains deeply intoxicating despite hoards of tourists.

This is a city that is built on art and festival, and is easily up to the challenge of hosting planet earth’s biggest art circus.

The second is an intense focus on art and what art means that is not matched anywhere in the world. The closest experience I’d had to this prior to this trip was several years ago when I spent some time with actor friends at a Shakespeare festival. After a week of nonstop watching/thinking/talking all things Shakespearean, a friend leaned over and whispered mischievously that “the problem is, now we’ll think that Shakespeare matters”.

The Venice Biennale is this level of intensity raised a few orders of magnitude, and leaves you feeling that art might possibly still be relevant to the role of being human. For an artist, there is nothing like this. We few, we lucky few indeed.

So that’s what me and the band of artist siblings I traveled with are feeling now – the euphoria not yet dispelled by returning to stacks of unpaid bills and dirty laundry. That’s one good drug, and I’ll take it again the next chance I get."

Anna Salmeron, 2011 Venice Biennale, The Power and the Glory, DigBoston

 

"I’m in Venice – at last – and, with its subtle mists and roaring crowds, it does not disappoint. I have seen my first ineffable sunset and have had the various parts of my anatomy shoved by an indifferent attendant into an impossibly packed vaporetto. So I’m in Venice and pretty indiscriminately happy, wandering around the ‘back-behind’ of mobbed St. Mark’s Square, escaping from the sun and heat and screaming masses of people, who, as Henry James observed a century ago, should immediately leave and let me properly enjoy all this alone, when I happen on the big red “Biennale” pennant outside an old building, church, whatever, and enter, mostly just to get a rest. The place is dim, quiet, cool, and a bit of a ruin, stripped to its architectural bones, former function unrecognizable.  I climb the stairs to the loft and settle into a room-sized beanbag, and all I want or expect is about 15 minutes of peace. Luckily not to be had...

...Spectacle, you say? You bet. And I’d see it again. And, what’s more, it’s stayed with me and resonated this past month as no blockbuster movie has ever been able to do. One other point, about going to Venice.  Getting there cost an obscene amount of money and was a hard thing to decide to do in these times.  For anyone who still contemplates the purchase of, say, that big screen TV or latest i-thing, using the logic that these things are tangible and lasting whereas some vacation will be over in a matter of weeks, 

my advice is to go for the real lasting thing, the trip.

True, I saw some really bad art, ate some mediocre food, was roasted, stomped on, and drenched by torrential rains, but this show alone (and it wasn’t alone in its wondrousness, ref. Swiss, German, Polish, and British Pavilions) was worth the price of admission. When the electronic objects are nothing but additions to the recycle bin, I’ll still have the Biennale and the aging Disney marvel that is Venice."   

Charlene Liska, 2011 VENICE BIENNALE: THE CLOUD OF UNKNOWING, DigBoston

"When I look at art, I am unreasonable. I want it to ravish me, delight me. I want a revelation. Naturally, I am usually disappointed. But the Venice exhibition “New Chinese Art After the Cold War” left me exuberant and panting for more. I wish you could have been there."

Shelah Horvitz, Atlantic Works at Venice Biennale, DigBoston

 

That's all for now comrades -

see you in Venice!

XXOO,

(your favorite travel planners)

The Biennial Project

 

    “Only in Russia do they respect poetry. They even kill you for it.”

—Osip Mandelstam.

The “crime”:  

http://youtu.be/yZKaBh9pX64

http://youtu.be/yZKaBh9pX64

The “criminals”:

Pussy Riot. “we realized that this country needs a militant, punk-feminist, street band that will rip through Moscow's streets and squares, mobilize public energy against the evil crooks of the Putinist junta and enrich the Russian cultural and political opposition with themes that are important to us: gender and LGBT rights, problems of masculine conformity, absence of a daring political message on the musical
and art scenes, and the domination of males in all areas of public discourse.”

Interview with Pussy Riot

http://www.vice.com/read/A-Russian-Pussy-Riot

(This interview is a must-read.)

The charge: Hooliganism?!

What is hooliganism and why could a conviction put Pussy Riot in prison for seven years?  “any deliberate behaviour which violates public order and expresses explicit disrespect towards the society." Pussy Riot? -

Google Docs

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mNPeqD...

1 of 3 8/11/12 3:17 PM This law was often used by Soviet authorities against political dissidents and clearly still comes in handy. Sounds like an a punk band’s job description, and the kind of activity politically aware artists everywhere should be ready to embrace.

What did they actually say?

“The protest song Virgin Mary, redeem us of Putin was performed in Christ the Saviour Cathedral in Moscow on 21 February 2012 by several members of the feminist Pussy Riot group with their faces covered in balaclavas. The song calls on Virgin Mary to become a feminist and banish Vladimir Putin. It also criticizes the dedication and support shown to Putin by some representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church. It was one of a number of performances intended as a protest against Vladimir Putin in the run-up to Russia's presidential elections in March.”

—Amnesty International

Where are they now?

Maria Alekhina, Ekaterina Samutsevich and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, who are accused of “hooliganism on the grounds of religious hatred” have now been behind bars for months —Amnesty International

Check this statement by one of the prosecutors: "All the defendants talked about being feminists and said that is allowed in the Russian Orthodox church," said Yelena Pavlova, a lawyer for several of the nine
complainants who claimed they were insulted by Pussy Riot's performance.

"This does not correspond with reality. Feminism is a mortal sin." [Prosecutors] also argued that the leader of the church, Patriarch Kirill, had been personally insulted and was "not just an ordinary citizen".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/aug/07/pussy-riot-madonna-concert-plea?newsfeed=true

The treatment Pussy Riot has received suggests that Russia is sliding back into dictatorship, with Putin, their main target, as untouchable strong man, supported by a religious institution so patriarchal its leader is known as The Patriarch. Their trial is only one of many example of how the Russian justice system is being abused by the powerful, but artists everywhere need to show solidarity with Pussy Riot. There are parts of the United States where fundamentalists are attempting to institute functional theocracy. The religious right has a history of attempting to silence artists, from Andre Serrano to Robert Mapplethorpe. As their political power increases, will artists begin to self-censor in order to be able to show their work? Have they
already?

The attention Pussy Riot has is receiving has turned their incarceration into a PR problem for Putin and the Russian Orthodox church. Both the church hierarchy and Vladimir Putin have said they believe Pussy Riot should be treated with leniency. Attentive to the wishes of their master, prosecutors are asking for three years imprisonment for Pussy Riot.

You need to help Pussy Riot

to defend free speech in Russia.

Go to

http://www2.amnesty.org.uk/blogs/sms-action-network/pussy-riot

to find out what you can do.

Pussy Riot? - Google Docs

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mNPeqD...

And in case you think Pussy Riot are a bunch of silly twats who don’t deserve your support and are only getting noticed because of their stupid name, a) you are an asshole, and b) Here’s a link that’s serious as a heart-attack. Happy now?

http://chtodelat.wordpress.com/2012/08/09/support-pussy-riot-by-all-means-but-support-the-kazakh-oil-work
ers-too/

Critics agree – Bizarre Artist Happenings is the social event of the season!

“One can’t truly claim to have summered in Boston without having experienced the multimedia phantasm that is The Biennial Project’s Bizarre Artist Happenings.” Clea Saharoli, noted art critic and curator

“Warholian”, Boston Phoenix

“Did you ever feel like you were missing out on all the fun?  Well, if you weren’t at the Biennial Project’s Bizarre Artist Reception this Thursday then you’re correct to think so.”  Stephanie Arnett, critic, and star of the blogosphere

“Well-attended”, Boston Globe

“They’ll be talking about this one in Berlin for a while”, Alec Onsemska, film critic

“Freakin bizarre”, Erica Femino, style icon

“With its summer show at Atlantic Works, the Biennial Project makes a serious effort to satisfy your minimum monthly requirement of horny Boy Scouts, opium-smoking eccentrics, circus freaks, aging hippies, lumberjacks, and sex workers. Even if you missed the opening party…come to the closing reception: Aug 16, 7-10, Martha McCollough, Boston’s Reigning Hippest Person

“Free Beer, then more free beer”, Michael St. Germain, the most interesting artist in the world

No Joke – just look at the press we got!

Boston Globe on Bizarre Artist Happenings

More Boston Globe on Bizarre Artist Happenings

Still More Boston Globe on Bizarre Artist Happenings

Boston Globe Pick of the Day for Bizarre Artist Happenings

Boston Phoenix on Bizarre Artist Happenings

Boston Phoenix Pick of the Week for Bizarre Artist Happenings

The Art Blogs on Bizarre Artist Happenings

More Art Blogs on Bizarre Artist Happenings

NOW, If you missed the opening, don’t despair – we’re having another awesome event this very Thursday Aug 16 from 7-10PM.

Bizarre Artist Happenings Pajama Party!

Sleepovers are the perfect alibi for youth around the world.

Tell your parents you are spending the night at your bestie's house and prepare for a night of debauchery and teenage fulfillment. Don't miss one of the last hot parties of the summer of 2012!! Let's show Hugh Hefner how its done in 2012!

Come to the sexy closing party for The Biennial Project's Closing Reception for their show 'Bizarre Artist Happenings' Music being created by DJ Dylan Jones and venue is The Atlantic Works Gallery.

You are encouraged but not required to show off your skimpiest or most comfortable sleep ware. Pillow fights, bedtime stories and steamy sex are encouraged. This also happens to be Madonna's 54 birthday so give the old whore from Detroit some honor and heighten your level of hedonism with us.

Don’t Miss it!!!!!!!!!

Here are some great moments from our opening party!

Hell yes it was crazy!

With TONS of people!

And LOTS of LOVE for Biennial

Project ICONS Anna and Eric!

Plus amazing live Performance

and Super Excellent Moving Images!

Many gorgeous Fashionistas!

And let us not forget the

U.S. Launch of The Biennial Project’s

Signature Fragrance STAR OF VENICE!

 More Art World Glitterati!

They love us in North Korea!

And Mark Peterson jurying our

Art with the Stars Photo Contest as

well as winning Best Performance

of the evening!

 Ok, kids that’s it for now.

See you this Thursday!!!

Bizarre Artist Happenings Pajama Party!!!

Photo by Grandmaster Paul Weiner,

Eric Hess, Jaymes Leavitt,

Schon-Ray M. Joseph, Levi Camacho,

and Anna Salmeron

Video by Branden Harrington, Eric Hess,

Stephanie Arnett, Charlene Liska,

Mitchel Ahern, and Anna Salmeron

"

Just as there are Biennales all over the globe, The Biennial Project has collaborators across the oceans. One of our ‘mates’ is Marlene Sarroff who resides in Australia . Marlene is one of those special artists who just does it. She proved this to us at last year’s Venice Biennale by coming to stay with us, The Biennial Project, without having ever met us in person. She co-habituated with us only knowing our reputation (which might keep the shyer artist away) and instantly became part of The Biennial Project.

Not only did she take the opportunity to witness the best art in the world, get rowdy at the most fabulous parties and brighten up our Villa, Marlene had the good fortune to watch a top international prositute make ‘a date’ on skype right in the middle of the lobby of The Hotel Danelli.

If you think you can handle us, stimulating art, fashionable parties and world class hookers keep reading our blog and our facebook page to see how you can join us and elevate your hip factor by coming to The opening week of The 55th Venice Biennale this June.

Anyhow seeing how important and far-reaching our blog is Marlene wanted to share with you a little of The 18th Sydney Biennial (which also happens to be her hometown). In this article Marlene educates you on Maria Fernanda Cardoso and Ross Rudesch Harley’s MUSEUM OF COPULATORY ORGANS (MoCo) 2012

THE MUSEUM OF COPULATORY ORGANS (MoCo) 2012

by Marlene Sarroff

Cockatoo Island is one of four sites chosen for the 18th Biennale of
Sydney. A small island in Sydney Harbor, steeped in early history, with
large cavernous spaced buildings originally built for shipbuilding and coupled
with remnants of convict history and an undulating topography makes for
intriguing spacial opportunities for artists.

The shipyards former workshops are a perfect museum-like setting to present Maria Fernando Cardosa’s Museum of Copulatory Organs, (MoCo), a selection of scientific models (3D and 2D) and photographs of insect genitalia, together with a film,
Stick Insects most intimate moments.

Originally from Colombia, now living and working in Sydney, she is inspired
by the animal and natural world. She is best known for her flea circus,
whose smallest show on earth became a hit more than a decade ago, when she
discovered the curious yet beautiful plant-like forms in insect genitalia,
which then lead to a PhD at Sydney University on the study of insect
genitalia - The Aesthetics of Reproductive Morphology.

Whilst  Cardosa¹s work is placed within the context of art, much of her practice demonstrates a link between the disciplines of art and science. It raises the question of what makes this art and not science? It is perhaps largely a matter of framing the work in the context of such an exhibition.

Evolution has made this collection of dazzling shapes and reproductive devices, however, it takes the artist to make it become visible.

Along with collaborator Ross Rudesch Harley, Cardosa has created an
orthodox natural history museum encompassing her entire collection of
objects -featuring scientific sculptures modeled from glass, metal and
waxy 3D printed resin. MoCo’s extraordinary pieces are created using
scanning electron microscope imaging to magnify and photograph the tiny
appendages.

These black and white photos, which are a part of the exhibition
are then transformed into large resin and glass sculptures. Cardoso and
Harley understand the humorous aspect to their work. The exhibitions title
references the male obsession with penis size and is intentionally
provocative, playful and ultimately true in relation to insects. 

They invite the viewer to consider the beauty of these sculptural forms, rendered
with scientific precision as they exist in nature.  The collection of the
insect genitalia, featuring reproductive tracts and penises is wide ranging
from the beautifully modeled insect and snail spermatozoa, sex organs of the
female fruit fly, to the penis of the daddy-long-legs. The viewer would not
be mistaken in thinking that a lot of animal species are promiscuous,
especially insects and some species which often compete with each other - their
penises including hooks to remove sperm from previous matings.

Video work and 3D prototypes displayed on small LCD displays are part of new media artist Harley’s contribution.

The vast collection has been accumulating over several years of study. It is
not hard to understand the artist¹s fascination with the subject: a close
examination of these miniscule organs reveals an endless morphological
variety  - all serving a function, including ensuring successful attachment.

The installation gives us insights into worlds known only to scientists and our
perception is compounded by the unbelievable, yet exotic display of nature
as we have never seen it before. ‘It is a celebration of the diversity of
life’ Cardosa says.

Artist Statement:  Maria Fernanda Cardoso

Genitalia are confined to the last two segments of the abdomen, and flea
copulation has been hailed as one of the wonders of the insect world. The
male, normally much smaller than his mate, slides beneath her from behind,
embraces her back-to-belly with his antennae and softly caresses her
genitalia. Then his tail curls up like a scorpion¹s and he penetrates her
with what Brendan Lehane calls the most elaborate genital armature yet
known. The male, he writes, possesses two penis rods, curled together like
embracing snakes. Inside his body, the smaller rod moves outwards lambently,
catching delicate skeins of sperm and moving it into a groove on the larger
longer rod. Then the whole phallic coil slides out from this sensitive rear,
the large rod enters the female and guides the thinner along beside it. The
thin rod continues inwards, eventually depositing its sperm and withdrawing.
Any engineer looking objectively at such a fantastically impractical
apparatus would bet heavily against its operational success writes
entomologist Miriam Rothschild, the astonishing fact is that it works.    

There you go - everything you always wanted to know about insect copulation!

XXOO, The Biennial Project

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