Blue Sky Project : Ari Tabei

Installing the Cocoon

2010-07-29T10:39:00.000-07:00

Yesterday after session hours Ari and I went to the Armory and finally installed the large cocoon. We suspended each piece from the ceiling and then covered everything in plastic (the floor, the ceiling and the cocoon). The cocoon still needs to be reshaped and covered with more woven paper, but by Monday it will be finished aside from very minor adjustments.

armory cleansing: day 2

2010-07-27T18:40:00.000-07:00

Suited up and ready for Day 2 of conquering the grime and dust all over the Armory floor. Dust masks and eye protection were a must.

Here's a picture of our space in the Armory. Please note the lighter parts of the floor where the wooden floorboards are peeking out - we are making progress!

By the end of the day we had swept, vacuumed, scraped, scrubbed and mopped our entire area and moved our neatly wrapped cocoon parts into the center of our space. Tomorrow evening we will have finally hung the main cocoon structure. Stay tuned, this only gets better from here on out!

top secret mission: cleaning the armory

2010-07-26T17:28:00.000-07:00

Can the Armory floor be cleaned? Is the dust and grime too thick for our paint scrapers and scrub brushes? Will our task prove to be impossible? WILL WE SUCCEED?

To Be Continued...

extra random images from last week

2010-07-25T15:05:00.000-07:00

Arielle and her mother led the morning activity last Tuesday and taught everyone how to hula! They are so cute in their matching outfits.

Me with the base of my giant head cocoon.

Some blurry pictures of the group playing with Lenka's group's projection set-up in the black box.

And Arielle being sassy!

GOTW: Michael Casseli

2010-07-25T14:47:00.000-07:00

Thursday Michael Casseli's group gave their Group Of The Week presentation and it was phenomenal. As soon as you walked into their space you were surrounded by projections of flying birds and once seated you faced a 5 foot by 5 foot wax paper house which had more projected video footage on it.

The presentation began with an introduction by an invisible narrator (Nate) and live music by Kristen followed by explanations of each facet of the group's project by the rest of the group members. It was extremely impressive and was an inspiring way to end our 6th week of the program.

end of the week festivities

2010-07-25T14:25:00.000-07:00

Thursday was De'Narrow's birthday so we sported hats and celebrated potluck style. Chris, Lenka's student artist, came by to steal leftover guacamole (made by Arielle's family - delicious!) and Sydney and Jalisa took frequent dance breaks.

Despite the party and all the food we were extremely productive. Everyone's individual cocoon/suits are coming together and now the extensions/enlargements are becoming visible. Each person is using different materials and methods to create their enlarged/extended body parts including fabrics, paper mache, pompoms and woven/twisted paper.

Arielle's brother Andrew joined us in the afternoon and worked on adding more paper to the larger cocoon structure.

And here were are heading out to help out Lenka's group in the black box. We got to wear our Tyvek jumpsuits and run/jump/crawl around in front of their crazy projection set-up. It was a ton of fun and the projected imagery that resulted from our play was very effective. Unfortunately most (if not all) of our pictures of this excursion didn't turn out so well because of the low-light levels, but if I get my hands on some pictures that Lenka took I will post them immediately.

Group Trip: The Armory

2010-07-25T10:01:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday we traveled to see the exhibition space at the Armory for the first time as a group. Everyone was fascinated by the old freight elevator that we rode up to the third floor.

Once we made it up into the space everyone separated to explore and take photographs. Other groups have been working in the exhibition space for a week or so now. John's group is in the process of sanding and re-finishing the floor in their space and Joyce's group is building new walls. Everything is starting to come together and our group will be joining the others in the Armory on Monday morning.

the screen is always greener... on the bluer side?

2010-07-25T09:26:00.000-07:00

At the beginning of last week Joyce's group kindly allowed us to use their (blue) green-screen set up to do some filming. Everyone took turns working on twisting paper or wrapping pompoms while Ari and I filmed their hand movements.

After filming each team member individually we did some group shots of everyone's hands and feet mimicking bug movements. Some of the finished pompoms made an appearance as well.

HIGH 5!!!

2010-07-25T08:13:00.000-07:00

Hey all!! We are truly on the last leg of our journey here at Blue Sky and that definitely deserves some high-five action.

My deepest apologies for not keeping up with blogging lately. The past week has been a complete whirlwind. Half of our group (along with myself) participated in Shaw Pong Liu and Rodney Veal's live performance installation "Of A River" at the Schuster Center this past Thursday. We have also been preparing to move into the space at the Armory and working on getting video footage for the project portion of our piece. Keep an eye out - lots of entries will be going up on the blog today and in the following two weeks to document how everything gets pulled together!

performance inspiration

2010-07-20T18:35:00.000-07:00

As a group we stumbled upon a strange video by a mysterious artist by the name of iamamiwhoami. The subtle movements of the performers in this video is especially inspiring. Check it out!

1st perfomance: GOTW

2010-07-20T06:27:00.000-07:00

Group Of The Week Presentation!!!

2010-07-18T09:43:00.000-07:00

Thursday July 15th was our team's day to give our Group Of The Week (GOTW) presentation and we totally rocked it. Here we are in uniform getting our game faces on...

getting buggy with it...

and getting pompom prepared!

In the afternoon we had to lug all of our supplies over to the Auditorium and that proved quite a task since we had to move "Jared" who is a massive pile of twisted paper spawned by our very own Sydney. Thank you to everyone who helped move "Jared"- you are all much appreciated! Below you can see Georgia hiding in "Jared" and him helping out in our performance.

So finally, following our several hour set-up, we gave our presentation to all of the Blue Sky groups along with several visitors. The following slides document the whole presentation, beginning with a short performance which involved several group members hatching from a nest. Following the performance everyone took turns explaining our progress up to this point.

For those of you who could not make it to our group presentation remember you can always come in to visit us and we would be glad to talk to you more about our project. Also, questions and comments on the blog itself are always welcome. Thanks for following us!

SNEAK PEAK: GOTW PRESENTATION

2010-07-14T17:45:00.000-07:00

GET READY FOR IT:
Come see our Group Of The Week presentation tomorrow at the University of Dayton's Jesse Phillips Humanities Center on the Humanities Plaza. The presentation is from 3-3:30pm and is free and open to the public. Check out the following photos for a sneak peak of our presentation (which includes a performance). Hope to see you there!

hunting the natural world

2010-07-14T16:45:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday morning we went out into the world to hunt down and bag nature. Our journey took us to Woodlawn Cemetery where we climbed up to the top of Dayton as we gathered sticks, bark, and leaves into garbage bags (materials we may use later on in our piece). At the top of the cemetery (and what seemed like the world) we rested, Ari filmed grass and Arielle drew flowers on her legs. After awhile we ran back down to Rike and continued working.

By the end of the day Sydney had created something extraordinary and huge out of twisted paper. The general consensus was to use this object in some way,shape or form in the final performance.

And finally we have almost completed all the paper mache on the main cocoon structure. One big hoorah for progress!

OPEN STUDIOS: July 8th

2010-07-12T18:09:00.001-07:00

Open Studio was last Thursday (July 8th). We had a ton of parents, family, and members of the community come through to check out each group's progress. We answered a lot of questions and met a ton of people who live in the Dayton area - AND we got a lot of work done along the way!

Channel 2 news came and filmed everyone working. They also interviewed Ari along with some of the other artists about their proposals and the group projects. I am not sure whether or not we were on the news yet - maybe you saw us but if not keep on the look out.

Ari and I in our Tyvek Suits.

Open Studios gave us group members the opportunity to check out what everyone else at Blue Sky is up to and we took full advantage of it. Here Lenka Novak's group members work with projections and invite guests to participate.

Joyce Lee's group had a projection running with footage of the group marching that they had green-screened the week before.

Micheal Casselli's group had what seemed like a ridiculously intricate set-up involving sculpture, projection and sound. The video footage was projected on a house made of wax paper and it was extremely beautiful to watch. I can't wait to see the final outcome of all the groups at the August exhibition!

ATTN: Progress Report

2010-07-12T18:02:00.001-07:00

Hard at work - everyone has started altered their individual Tyvek suits (which are set to become our individual cocoons). Here Sarah sports antlers and Sydney's to-be paper hand casts.

And of course we are continuing to work on pompoms daily.

Sydney and Arielle began weaving small sections of torn/cut paper together to add onto the main cocoon structure.

And finally, Ari's husband Ken came to work with us this week and he built the wooden structure which will become the base of the large cocoon. Thank you Ken for all your hard work!

the mission

2010-07-12T16:32:00.000-07:00

It is always good to revisit our mission every once in awhile as our project progresses, and it seems more than appropriate to do so via this blog to clarify to our readers what it is that we are aiming to create.

Our project engages individual and group conceptions of "home" and "nest" through installation and performance art. We began with Ari's personal inspiration: the Caddisfly. Caddisfly larvae create cocoons from any object in their surrounding area that they are able to scavenge. They are hoarders of sorts, and their shelter is a mish-mash of whatever is local to them.

Even when given flecks of gold and precious stones by the French artist Hubert Duprat the caddisfly larvae did not hesitate when building itself personal cocoon.

We began like the caddisfly larvae, with our immediately surroundings, and we have submerged ourselves in this process of making - it is sometimes as unwinding spools of thread to collect materials. We are creating and will be performing as an exploration of our own individual journey of home. Our process along with our performance during the exhibition will be simple, repetitive, perhaps almost to the point of being meditative, and it will involve us shedding layers of cocoons or nests that we have come together to build as a group and as individuals.

Along with researching insects and their nesting behavior we have also looked at several contemporary artists who create objects or environments that require performance for their activation. One of these artists is Nick Cave. The following photos show a few of his series of soundsuits. They are most effective when in motion as illustrated by the following YouTube video : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tXQcGQ95wE&feature=related

Another artist our group has felt particularly inspired by in Brazilian artist Ernesto Neto. Neto creates fantastic organic environments that invoke viewers' senses of space, touch and smell. He also has made a variety of sculptural objects that require viewers to participate by embrace the object with their own bodies, whether they are hugging it or being enveloped by its mass.

daily events

2010-07-06T17:07:00.000-07:00

John's group allowed us to share their field for our improv session. We watched them hang letters and take photos from afar.

Later in the afternoon we continued making pompoms and began making our group tags which we will give away to visitors at the exhibition. Georgia wrapped herself in fabrics and disappeared. Can you spot her?

She re-emerged a few minutes later and life went on as usual.

The last 20 minutes of the day we were invited to visit Joyce's group and had the opportunity to watch them while green-screening. They were re-enacting soldiers marching in a Goya painting. Our group was most impressed, however, by how clean their room was.

IMPROV SESSION!

2010-07-06T16:53:00.001-07:00

This morning De'Narrow ran an improv session for the group. 90 degree weather and Tyvek jumpsuits don't mix too well so we only lasted about an hour, but we didn't throw in the towel before getting some awesome video footage of everyone rolling, crawling and creeping around.

De'Narrow also managed to rip his pants. It was too funny for words, but this photo captures his surprise perfectly.

July 5th

2010-07-05T20:00:00.001-07:00

Ari's husband came to visit this week and he is helping us with our project. Here Ari is showing him and De'Narrow how to use the sewing machine. Sewing Tyvek proved to be more difficult than we had first anticipated. Trouble shooting ensued.

Arielle, Maureen and Hayley (guest of Maureen) worked on twisting together lengths of paper to prepare them for weaving onto costumes and the cocoon.

Sydney and I spent most of the afternoon caged in and sitting in wheat paste but we managed to finish covering the inside of the tube by 3:30. We kind of felt like puppies up for adoption at a fair: "Free to a good home. Potty-trained."

Tomorrow we are going to start filming and do some performance exercises led by De'Narrow. Video footage should be posted by the end of this week so watch for it!

July 1st : Team Nature presents!

2010-07-04T20:29:00.001-07:00

John's group was the first to give a group presentation and they rocked it. They sported crowns while showing off their collection of videos that you can check out on their own blog: http://blueskyjohnpena.blogspot.com/

Here's Alexa speaking at Team Nature's very own human podium (made up of Rachel, Christany, Jeen and Shay) - You can't buy one of those at Walmart, that's for sure.

PS: Happy Fourth O'July everyone- Hope you have a good one!

hanging the crown

2010-07-04T20:19:00.000-07:00

By Thursday afternoon the crown of the cocoon was complete and we hung it from the ceiling where we will continue to work on building out the rest of the structure.

Everyone just barely fits underneath - in the final installation/performance we will all be standing or sitting inside the large cocoon. The cocoon will stand at about 8 feet at its peak.

The view from below (looking up into the crown structure) is very ethereal thanks to the fluorescent lights in the ceiling above it.

the Beginning

2010-07-03T13:59:00.001-07:00

Wednesday we finally began construction on the large cocoon. We used wheat paste (used for paper mache/wall paper) and different tying techniques to cover a chicken wire frame. Above De'Narrow and Arielle work on covering the tube-like entrance.

Sydney knots strips of fabric on the crown of the cocoon.

Close-ups of the cocoon's crown show all of the layering that began to happen on the surface. Bits of plastic bags, ripped fabrics, paper, tinsel and even De'Narrow's sock made it onto the cocoon, producing a beautiful, heavily textured surface.

The crown of the cocoon by the end of the day on Wednesday. Almost finished!

Uniforms: 100% Tyvek

2010-07-03T13:50:00.000-07:00

The Tyvek jumpsuits came in the mail on Wednesday and now our team looks like we work for NASA or NASCAR. Working in uniform will give us a stronger sense of unity and purpose (like bugs we live together, work together and look identical). They will be the base for our final individual costumes/cocoons. It also allows us to get dirty while continuing to be extremely fashionable. Win-win situation if you ask me.

QUICK- PUT ON EVERYTHING IN SIGHT! (inspired by Georgia)

2010-07-03T13:41:00.000-07:00

The other day, following Georgia's initiative, we all took a dive into the piles of fabrics and stage clothing that everyone was kind enough to donate to us and began dressing/wrapping each other. The end result was pretty fabulous. Ivy gave Ashley a chicken wire helmet complete with a lace veil and a cardboard sword.

Ivy fixing Sarah's hat for her.

From left to right; Sydney, Sarah and Maureen

From left to right; Ashley, Arielle and Jalisa

string cocoon

2010-07-03T13:36:00.000-07:00

After all the spools of string and rope were unwound we combined our castoffs to make a bigger cocoon. Here you can see us encasing Sarah.

the paper cocoon

2010-06-30T17:43:00.000-07:00

Team Ari created a massive paper cocoon as a preliminary model for the larger central cocoon. Here Ashley and Maureen work to staple the edges while everyone else is inside.

Jalisa looks out from the inside of the cocoon.

The empty cocoon after everyone crawled out.

body casts (saran wrap)

2010-06-29T19:08:00.000-07:00

Ari and Ivy used saran wrap to wrap everyone together. These close quarters were just a taste of what that space might be like in our final large scale group cocoon.

We also used the saran wrap to wrap each of us individually to create body casts. After our bodies were wrapped we helped each other carefully cut off the saran wrap in one piece. Above, Ashley wraps Ari's entire body.

Casts of torsos lined the walls of the studio. They may be added to the final piece or used as part of individual costumes.

building the loom

2010-06-29T19:04:00.001-07:00

Ari and Ivy built a loom using one of the tables in the studio. The process involved chucking a giant mass of rope across and under the table for about 30 minutes.

We will be using the looms to create our own "fabrics" out of many different materials, including rope (like the warp), plastics, tinsel, fabric strips, yarn, wire, etc.

over and over and over again (unwinding)

2010-06-29T18:48:00.001-07:00

Our team began engaging in several exercises to jump start our thinking about materials and movement. In this first exercise we each unwound a spool of thread (or in Maureen's case, rope). This was a way of gathering evocative raw materials while also participating in a constant flow of repetitive action. Unwinding the spools began as a simple action that soon shifted into a meditative experience.

As we worked we began to realize that we were inadvertently creating our own strange dance. Arielle and Maureen both ended up with long bunches of string that resembled hair or baby Cousin Its.

Georgia took a different approach and worked by winding the yarn around her free hand. The end result was a miniature cocoon that bound her fingers together.

*Georgia's hand after being cut free

Cocoon Collage: Brainstorming

2010-06-17T19:17:00.000-07:00

Brainstorming for our team has taken the form of a massive wall collage that continues to grow and change with each new idea. Pictured above is the collaged image of the central cocoon structure (first picture) and the ideas for individual costumes (second picture).

measuring our space

2010-06-17T18:59:00.000-07:00

Before we begin construction our team needs to figure out some very crucial information.
Like how much space do we take up as a group when standing?

Sitting?

How about laying down and waving our arms?
Our final cocoon structure will have a base that is roughly 9 feet across by 14 feet long.
That's a pretty big bug mobile.

July 16

2010-06-17T18:57:00.000-07:00

Georgia, Sydney and De'Narrow sporting almost every clothing item in the room.

Tuesday Trip to DAI

2010-06-17T18:55:00.000-07:00

Sketching at the Dayton Art Institute.

Armory

2010-06-17T15:54:00.000-07:00

pictures of exhibition space