station923

summer season kicks off on June 21 with an installation by Caroline Byrne

station923 — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 15:37:20 +0000

The Photon Articulator Museum (and Gift Shop)

Special Exhibit: The Ithaca Years

by Caroline Byrne

Opening reception: Friday, June 21 from 5 to 8pm

The Photon Articulator Museum is the nation’s primary institution dedicated to the history and memory of the Photon Articulator.

Hours:

Friday June 21, 5-8pm Snacks and beverages will be available at our Opening Celebration

additional hours:

Wednesday through Saturday June 26-29, 1-6pm

*coupon for gift shop available at thephotonarticulatormuseum.org

At Dark:

The Ithaca Fantastic Film Festival Presents:

An outdoor screening of Ishiro Honda’s Gojira

(weather permitting)

starting 9pm

Highly inspired by Ray Harryhausen’s The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, Ishiro Honda’s Gojira (1954) is deeply anchored in Japanese culture and reflects the direct trauma of a post- atomic bomb era. Replacing Harryhausen’s innovative stop motion technique with actual humans in a monster suit, the cheaper production values rocketed Honda, and Gojira, to stardom and remains one of the most profitable Japanese franchises ever. Also called by the generic name Kaiju, Gojira has a timeless flavour that few films have: a political tale blended with the pure fun of unadulterated mass destruction.

station923

923 E. Shore Drive

Ithaca, NY 14850

station923@gmail.com

note:

parking is limited. please park at the visitor center and walk across the street.

the state of Ruined State(s)

station923 — Sun, 26 May 2013 13:09:54 +0000

Spring has definitely sprung, and after its third winter, Robert Andrade’s Ruined State(s), the site-specific sculpture installation installed in the front yard of station923 has never looked better. Andrade created the work in August 2010, just as he was completing the MFA program at Cornell. The piece consists of five square concrete panels, each imprinted with a section of a map of ancient Rome.

The intention, in part, was for the piece to crack and become ruins. While the structural integrity of the panels are still holding up well, the sculpture is settling in to the surrounding landscape in a more striking manner than in previous years. There are also some interesting markings occurring on the surface, although we are not sure yet whether these are temporary, as well as the addition of a few additional cracks. We look forward to seeing how this work continues to evolve.

4th Installment of Arcades Project:

station923 — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 14:12:35 +0000

ARCADES PROJECT 2013, TANSTAAFL: Walk-ins Welcome!

May 3rd, 2013, 6-9 pm.

Press Bay Alley (Green St, west of Cayuga St)

Ithaca NY

To appropriate the historic transformations of human nature that capitalism wants to limit to the spectacle, to link together image and body in a space where they can no longer be separated, and thus to forge the whatever body, whose physis is resemblance — this is the good that humanity must learn to wrest from commodities in their decline.

-Giorgio Agamben

“The Coming Community”, 1990

Arcades Project, started in 2011, is a curated, one-night event for the exhibition and sales of limited edition works produced by small and independent presses, artists, and other creative practitioners (art books, book arts, prints, image and text works, artist multiples). Arcades also hosts workshops, performances, screenings, and readings. Arcades, although an opportunity to sell work, is an event that hopes to subvert the expected context of commerce by switching themes and locations every year. This May will be the fourth incarnation of the Arcades Project– an event that wears many guises, at once a museum, a mall, a swap shop, a school, a pub, & a party.

The acronym, TANSTAAFL (“There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch”), was originally born in critique of the “Free Lunch” business practice of 19th century American saloons in which overly salty foods were served for free: tricking sated but parched participants to pay for beer in order to quench their thirst. The lunch is in fact not free in this scenario, but represents a manipulative advertising tactic that obfuscates a fundamental want for an open and honest exchange of goods.

*Everything depends on everything.*Everything happens for a reason.*You don’t get something for nothing.

These aphorisms* exist to demonstrate a need for a balanced economy that encourages generosity and transparency, where cost correlates to value. Only in a balanced economy does the desire to get something for “free” dissipate. The cutthroat mentality of free-market capitalism pushes people to take what they can get. Let’s invest in what we want! The exchange of currency implies a contract, the value of which we as participants decide upon, and on which is built a community. If people, things, and environments are compensated adequately for their work the practice of commerce can be one based in gratitude, as opposed to one built in a competitive model of greed and scarcity. In the end, a better sandwich.

We are in an exciting time where issues of barter, exchange, commerce and value are being pressed at the forefront of contemporary thought —but issues of market are still sensitive around arts, writing, and culture—our preconceived notions of creativity(pure) and consumerism(corrupt) put at risk the dialogue between the two. Commerce is about trade, and trade enables dialogue, production, collaboration, sustainability, and progress. The Arcades Project offers a forum in which artists, writers, publishers, and customers are given an opportunity to support one another in a small model of a balanced economy within culture.

For more information and updates visit:

http://arcadesprojectithaca.wordpress.com/

and thus concludes another season

station923 — Sun, 28 Oct 2012 16:33:01 +0000

Many heartfelt thanks to all who came out on what was the last beautiful autumn evening for the foreseeable future, to view ‘The Stationmaster’s Unspeakable Hobby,’ the neo-primitive folk art spectacle created in the gallery by Kurt Piller and Brody Burroughs.

The installation marks the last show of our 2012 season, as well as the conclusion of our third full exhibition season. If you didn’t have a chance to make it to the opening, the work will remain on view by appt. through Nov 15th. Please stop by and spend an hour pondering what many others before you have tried to ascertain – just what exactly was the last stationmaster’s ‘unspeakable hobby?’

Meanwhile, we hope you have a great year, and we hope to see you next year when the 2013 exhibition season begins in May.

xo.station923

photos by Heather Ainsworth

The Stationmaster’s Unspeakable Hobby: An Interview With Alternative Historians Brody Burroughs and Kurt Piller

station923 — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 03:14:27 +0000

By Dara Engler

Station 923, the long-abandoned dwelling and workshop of Ithaca’s last light-rail stationmaster, has been revived and is open to visitors! Join us for the site’s opening reception on Friday, October 26^th, from 5-9pm. I had the chance to preview the exhibit before its unveiling.

Stepping through the stationmaster’s doorway was like falling through a rabbit hole into another world, operating within alternate laws of time and space. Upon crossing the threshold, my senses – visual, olfactory and auditory – were met with the foreign, yet oddly familiar sensations of an untold story. I immediately found myself uncomfortable and claustrophobic, enveloped in the very private life of a mysterious stranger. The experience left me with the combined intrigue and guilt you would expect to accompany this sort of historical voyeurism. Left with numerous questions, I had the opportunity to sit with the curators of the space, zealous alternative historians, Brody Burroughs and Kurt Piller.

E: How did you become involved in this project?

B: In 1987, after a previous owner purchased this abandoned property and began exhuming the ramshackle buildings therein, our New York State office of the Alternative Historical Preservation Society was called upon to document, catalogue and acquire all artifacts on site for posterity. You see, as local alternative historians (we contract independently through the statewide office in Utica), the contents of this chamber were of particular interest to us, and as we researched archive and artifact, it became clear that the dwelling and doings of this mysterious mind yearned to see the light of day.

P: …Right, and so, for the past six years, we gathered from storage every artifact – every button, bone, surgical instrument and shard of glass curated in the exhibition you see here – which we took on a highly acclaimed tour of North America, finally coming to rest here, precisely in its original location. Thus ends a fateful journey.

E: As alternative historians, what are your roles and responsibilities in a project such as The Stationmaster’s?

B: The Alternative Historians’ creed is thricefold: “Preservation, Presentation and Prevention.”

P: Actually it’s “Precision.” “Preservation, Presentation and Precision.” Our greatest responsibility is to historical truth and accuracy. And if not accuracy, then at least precision.

B: And if not precision then at least plausibility. Also, these items are on loan from our state archive, and we assume they will want them back eventually, so please do not touch anything.

P: Especially if you’re not current with your tetanus shots.

E: In your professional opinions, is this site – and the artifacts within it – relevant to American history?

B. Well, considering how many of this country’s religions began in Upstate New York, it goes without saying.

P: Yeah, this area is a veritable fool’s goldmine of historical pseudo-scientific and quasi-religious precedents, starting with the nation’s earliest recorded sightings of the Cortland Skunk Ape and “Old Greeny” the Lake Cayuga Leviathan. This area has witnessed the Angelic Visitation that sealed the fate of the Donner Party, and the pious mania of Biblical Literalism that made the Cardiff Giant and the Manlius Midget the premier tourist destinations of Upstate New York, second only to Niagara Falls and Howe Caverns of course. They made Syracuse the city it is today. Believe me, Jersey and Rhode Island would kill for our historical significance.

E: In the course of your research about the station and its inhabitant, which findings have you found most surprising?

B: Some of the most intriguing are the latest developments, brought to light by Carol Kammen’s research and column (E’s note: Pieces of the Past, Ithaca Journal, Saturday, October 20, 2012, page 4A) on nineteenth century Ithacan and “Scripture Madman” Alson Dean and his Museum of Wonders. This fellow created a Leviathan, Man-Beasts which P.T. Barnum eventually presented as Gods Worshipped by the Natives of Timbucktoo, and even sculpted Satan himself! She writes… I have it here actually… uh, “He disappears from the local record by 1900. I wonder if any of his creations might still be around?” Well, not only do we believe that some of Alson Dean’s creations may well be in this very exhibit, but we are also beginning to unravel the thread between Dean and our Last Stationmaster, or whoever the final occupant of this room may have been. Whether it is a lineage of blood relation, apprenticeship, or indentured servitude remains to be determined.

P: I personally was most surprised to find that his mother was a one-legged French prostitute named Madeline. It’s details like that that really help us connect with the past.

B: Precisely! Which is why presentation is so important. It’s how we all piece the past together, so to speak.

E: What, have you determined, was the stationmaster’s hobby?

P: It would be unprofessional for us, as professionals, or amateurs, to speculate without further input from historians and qualified medical personnel. As to whether this “hobby” was a viable business venture or the symptoms of an undiagnosed mental illness, or both… who knows? I’m not a doctor, yet there is no doubt in my mind that this man loved animals. And needles.

B: And was a devout Catholic. Clearly what you see here could only be the passion of a unique and solitary individual, who spent the entirety of his days focused on this, and nothing more. Unless of course he had a regular day job, too.

E: What are the moral implications of making public, the private space of this past occupant?

B: Well, that’s an interesting notion… but come on, we all have bills to pay. And really, its a victi-

P: What I think we are saying is that, because the exact identity of the Last Stationmaster, or whomever last inhabited this room- and we have our theories – but since the precise identity remains unknown, there is really no need to confront this question, and no way any legal claims could be made. And it’s not slander if it’s accurate, merely defamation of character. Legally speaking. Not morally, of course, but our scruples are sound.

E: Legality and morality aside, do you ever feel as if you are unearthing someone’s last resting place?

B: As far as we know, he’s not actually here in the exhibit… though we certainly do not know what became of him, and this is the original site, so anything’s possible… anyway, I think I know what you’re getting at. Look, we’re not forcing anyone to go in there. That’s the decision of the viewer. We learned our lesson in Canada. No kids.

E: Do you have any advice for youth interested in pursuing careers in alternative history?

P: Oh, I say “Go for it!” Look at me!

B: You are limited only by your imaginations.

For an opportunity to tour The Station Master’s Unspeakable Hobby, you may attend the opening reception on October 26^th from 5-9pm at station923, located at 923 East Shore Drive; Ithaca, NY. Additionally, the installation will be on view through November 15^th, by appointment: station923@gmail.com

image by Rotem Rozental

Final show of 2012 season

station923 — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 12:49:09 +0000

The Stationmaster’s Unspeakable Hobby

an installation by

Brody Burroughs and Kurt Piller

Artist’s reception: Friday, October 26, 2012

from 5pm to 9pm

Hot mulled cider and donuts will be served.

Dare ye enter the humble abode of Ithaca’s last stationmaster?

On Friday October 26th, you are invited to explore the uncelebrated history of this native son through an intimate immersion into his freshly exhumed living quarters/workshop, currently known as 923 East Shore Drive. Local alternative historians Brody Burroughs and Kurt Piller curate “The Stationmaster’s Unspeakable Hobby,” an exhibit which delivers an unsavory taste of our stationmaster’s unadulterated inner space and demons. What was he attempting to achieve there? Did he succeed? Was he truly yesteryear’s falsely maligned genius of pseudoscience, or merely a visionary farceur of the near-flung future? Only you may judge. Heralded as “the Pompeii of Upstate New York,” and banned in three Provinces of Canada, this installation promises and provides revelations on par with Al Capone’s Vault and tempts the viewer to dwell upon the indescribable confusion of habitat and inhabitant.

The installation will be on view through Nov 15th by appt.

About the artists:

After growing up in southwestern Pennsylvania, Brody Burroughs attended Kenyon College and Indiana University. He has taught drawing and painting at the University of New Hampshire, Lyon College in Batesville, Arkansas, and, currently, at Ithaca College. At other times, he has washed dishes, filled potholes, fried catfish and painted for a living. He also enjoys working with kids and seniors, and maintains a streak of residencies and public art projects in the communities of Washington and Johnstown, PA.

As a child, Kurt Piller enjoyed watching Bob Ross, reading comic books, and drawing dinosaurs and spaceships. In high school, he started painting dinosaurs, spaceships and comic book characters on Secret Caverns billboards. He kept doing it for another 25 years, refining his folk art style. He recently spent way too much time painting one of Ithaca’s electrical boxes for the 21 Boxes project. He suffers from what the medieval monks called horror vaculi, or fear of unfilled spaces.

Also on view:

Daren Kendall’s sculptural installation ‘Station to Barn as Apparatus to Hand,’ which has been permanently installed in front of the gallery. The work will be completed in Spring 2013.

where you are

station923 — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 14:53:01 +0000

In anticipation of tomorrow’s artist reception screening, check out the piece written about the event in today’s Ithaca Times:

Daren Kendall Gives A Sense of Where You Are At Station923

Posted: Wednesday, September 5, 2012 12:00 am

By Bill Chaisson |

An excerpt:

Station923 on East Shore Drive is coming to the end of its third season. “Our schedule is the opposite of that of the rest of the art world,” said curator Wylie Schwartz. “We’re open from May through October and do one show a month.”

The venue was originally a dwelling for a railroad conductor, but Cornell graduate student David Dixon, who was using the space as a studio, began mounting installation-oriented art exhibitions there. After Dixon received his MFA, Schwartz said that a lot of people told that it was be great if someone could continue Dixon’s mission.

“There just isn’t a venue for progressive, innovative are here,” said Schwartz, who just began a Ph.D. program at Binghamton University. “We wanted to provide that. It is a place for artists who want space and feedback.”

Station923 will open a new show with a reception from 5 to 8 p.m. on Thursday, September 6 by Daren Kendall, who recentedly finished his MFA at Cornell and is now a teaching associate in sculpture at the university.

Kendall’s installation is called “Station to Barn As Apparatus to Hand.” The goal of his work is to help people pay attention to the space they are in.

click here to read the whole story.

September Exhibit

station923 — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 12:24:38 +0000

September Exhibit at station923:

Daren Kendall:

Landscape to Barn as Apparatus to Hand

artist’s reception Thursday, Sept 6th from 5 – 8pm

9.6.12 At dusk: Preview screening for the Ithaca International Fantastic Film Festival

As part of promotions for the Ithaca International Fantastic Film Festival (to be held November 16th-18th, 2012 at Cinemapolis and Cornell Cinema), Station923 will be hosting the forth in a series of free film screenings, all selected by the folks at IIFFF. September’s screening continues with the series theme of showing first feature films from up and coming young directors. This time we’ll be screening The Chaser (“Chugyeogja;” Na Hong-Jin, 2008; South Korea) at 9:30pm on Thursday, September 6th, directly following the opening of XXX’s exhibition XXX.

The Chaser starts when two call girls subsequently disappear after being sent to meet the same mysterious man. Joong-ho, an ex-cop turned pimp, leads a chase to stop the killer—a chase to keep a last bit of humanity in an absurd underworld, and, ultimately, a chase for redemption. The Chaser is a rare and surprisingly fresh take on a tale of a serial killer, mixing graphic violence and humor in a way not often seen in Euro-American cinema.

Since the late 1990s, a loosening of governmental control in the industry has been associated with a dramatic boom in South Korean cinema. With directors like Park Chan-Wook (J.S.A., The Vengeance Trilogy), Bong Joon-Ho (The Host, Mother), and Kim Ji-Woon (Tale of two sisters, The Good the Bad the Weird) leading the way, Korean cinema has established a unique and creative style, and won great acclaim in Europe and the United States. Na Hong-Jin’s The Chaser delighted critics with its precise cinematography and well-honed story, but it is its ability to tie in nuanced social commentary that makes the story feel so real-life and unforgettable. Na Hong-Jin established himself as a truly talented director with his first feature, which combines slick directing with ultra realism in a way that is rare, but should be a guide to future filmmakers. Na Hong-Jin’s has continued to make excellent films—his second feature, The Yellow Sea, was selected in 2011 for the Cannes film festival in the category “Un Certain Regard,” which recognizes “original and different” films of particular vision.

View the trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKWpmWogo3s

July exhibit

station923 — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 13:44:04 +0000

7.17.12

Symmes Gardner

Ocean / at sea

artist’s reception: 7.17.12 from 5 to 8pm

Ocean / at sea is a multi-channel video and sound installation which explores the environment and nature of vast bodies of water as well as our concepts of equilibrium and imbalance. Comprised of five monitors and two projections, Ocean / at sea seeks to examine the complex association we have with these liquid entities as well as how we respond to them on a physical, psychological, and symbolic level.

All imagery and sound for Ocean / at sea is appropriated from a wide range of cinematic sources and music archives. The artist’s overarching interest lies in developing reconstructed visual situations that re-clarify and challenge our basic perceptual expectations. Ocean / at Sea presents oceans and/or seas literally through multiple lenses, exposing their unique architecture, fluidity, periods of calm and activity, and ultimately the power these immersive environments have on our consciousness.

On view through 7.24.12 by appt

And, at dusk: Cronocrímenes

Screening hosted by the Ithaca International Film Festival

As part of promotions for the Ithaca International Fantastic Film Festival (to be held November 16^th-18^th, 2012 at Cinemapolis and Cornell Cinema), Station923 will be hosting the third in a series of free film screenings, all selected by the folks at IIFFF. July’s screening continues with the series theme of showing first feature films from up and coming young directors. This time we’ll be screening Cronocrímenes (Timecrimes, Nacho Vigalondo, 2007; Spain) at 9:30pm on Tuesday, July 17th, directly following the opening of Symmes Gardner’s exhibition Ocean / at Sea.

Spanish director Nacho Vigalondo does a delightful job of playing with the traditional science fiction concept of time travel in Los Cronoscrímines, a unique, low-budget drama. Screenwriter Damon Lindelof has cited the film as the main influence for last two seasons of LOST (Liber/Lindelof/Abrams, ABC; 2004-2010), and indeed, the film presents an amazing visual and narrative tour-de-force.

Vigalondo has also demonstrated his great flexibility and talent with his second feature film, Extraterrestrial, which debuted last year at FantasticFest (Austin, TX). While many fans were expecting another high concept thriller in the vein of Los Cronoscrimines, Nacho presented this incredibly touching and well-crafted film, which he describes as “an alien invasion movie without aliens.” With Nacho working on several upcoming projects, including the adaptation of Mark Millar’s graphic novel Supercrooks and the anthology films ABCs of Death and The Profane Exhibit, perhaps we’ll be lucky enough to be surprised once again with a third feature that exhibits even more of the director’s hidden talents.

Instead of watching the trailer for Cronocrímenes, which includes some spoilers(!), check out this link to one of Nacho’s first shorts – 7:35 de la ma‪ñana – to get a taste of his unique voice in writing and filmmaking:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1isC_3Ehdo

Sculpted Lines, Down Terrace

station923 — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 23:26:22 +0000

Sculpted Lines

Kandinsky said that a line is “the trail left by a point in motion. “So, a drawn line is evidence of the passage of time imprinted in space. In this sense, drawings can be understood as sculpture, with a two-dimensional form taking on a third dimension. Using a vocabulary of organic lines and geometric shapes, Jessica Warner and Werner Sun apply an iterative process inspired by each other’s works to create a collaborative installation of drawings based on sculpture and sculpture based on drawings. In doing so, they map out the fluid
boundary that separates two dimensions from three, object from idea, and shadow from substance.

Artist Werner Sun and Jessica Warner have been trading artwork back and forth for a few months, each time building on what the other has done. Their hope is to create an immersive experience where the viewer literally (more or less) steps into a drawing.

Artist’s reception: Thursday, June 21 from 5 – 8pm

Show will remain on view through July 12th by appt

6.21.12 at dusk:

Preview screening for the Ithaca International Fantastic Film Festival

As part of the promotions for the Ithaca International Fantastic Film Festival (to be held November 16-18, 2012 at Cinemapolis and Cornell Cinema), Station923 will be hosting several free screenings of films selected by the folks at IIFFF. We’ll be showing Down Terrace (Ben Wheatley, 2009; UK) at 9:30pm on Saturday, June 21 2012, directly following the opening of the exhibition ‘Sculpted Lines.’

While the promotional plotline of “a crime family look[ing] to unmask the police informant in their midst who threatens to take down their business” (Imdb) seems fairly typical, Ben Wheatley delivers a strikingly fresh take on the mob in the UK in this, his first feature film. With sharp lines of dialogue and extremely precise camera work, especially in capturing violence, Down Terrace does a magnificent job of immersing the audience in this disturbing family business.

Wheatley has been strongly influenced by British director and writer Alan Clarke (Made in Britain, 1982; Scum, 1979), and like him has built much of his career in television. While Wheatley has continued to move back and forth between TV and cinema, his second feature film Kill List (2011) has been acclaimed in film festivals all over the world (SxSW, TIFF etc.). Wheatley’s latest black comedy Sightseers was selected to premiere at the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight in May 2012 and he will be directing a segment of the highly anticipated anthology The ABCs of Death, produced by Magnolia/Drafthouse.