Author: Graem Whyte

Hamtramck in Translation Workshop

Sunday, July 2 , 12PM – 6PM

Hamtramck in Translation is a free, hands–on workshop lead by Juliette Pepin, current artist in resident at Popps Packing. Inspired by the variety of signs and scripts found all over the city, this workshop will explore and highlight Hamtramck’s unique linguistic and cultural diversity through the creation of unique yard sings.

This is a free drop- in workshop!

12-6PM
All Ages Welcome!
All Materials included! More than 10 different alphabets!
All projects will be digitally archived and shared with participants.

Contact: poppspacking@gmail.com
Location: Popps Packing, 12138 St. Aubin Hamtramck MI, 48212.

Juliette Pépin is a multidisciplinary designer based in Paris, France. She is a communication designer working on the positive representation of cultural diversity though modern means of communication. Her communication design and education project, M.O.T.S, won a Social Design Award in 2016. M.O.T.S is language awareness education tool in which Juliette designed school materials, games and other tools to trigger children interest in cultural diversity through language awareness. Pepin utilizes foreign alphabets that were co-created with teachers, psychologist and education counselors to help frame the activities within a knowledge and experience based context. “Hamtramck in Translation” workshop is a continuation of her interest in socially conscious locally based projects that find unique ways to highlight cultural diversity. http://juliettepepin.com/mots

Current Residents

2017 Summer Artists in Residence:

June/ July 2017

John Bianchi,  New York, USA – (Painting, mixed media sculpture and installation)

John Dante Bianchi (b.Nashua. New Hampshire) received his BFA from Cooper Union and his MFA from Yale University. He lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. He has exhibited at Galerie Derouillon in Paris, Tyler Wood Gallery in San Francisco, Night Gallery in Los Angeles, Thierry Goldberg Gallery in New York, Signal Gallery in Brooklyn, Kai Matsumiya in New York and David Zwirner Gallery in New York. He has received press coverage in Art Forum, The New York Times, Architectural Digest, Bomb Magazine, Observer, Vice’s The Creators Project, ARTNEWS, Interview Magazine, Blouin ArtInfo and Teeth Magazine.

His recent bodies of work – the Bruised Panels, Torqued Panels and Relief Panels- refer in name to the physical process of their making. Bianchi’s wall-based works are both sculpture and painting, emerging from the wall or built in many layers and exactingly constructed all the way through, from stretcher to support to surface. Much of Bianchi’s work explores the ideation of the pieces as a body (an Object), which is exposed to forces of time and events leaving their mark. The Bruised Panels, for example, are speckled with colors that directly reference skin tones and bruises: pinks and blues and creams. They are built up in layers and sanded down to reveal textures and colors beneath. Bianchi’s work encapsulates a sense of time within it, not only in the sense of process, but in some of the materials he chooses, such as recycled redwood ( the world’s largest and longest-living trees) to make his freestanding sculptures.

James Carry, Melbourne, Australia- (Drawing, painting, sculpture and site responsive interventions).

James  Carry (b. Melbourne Australia) received a Bachelor of Design in 2005 from RMIT and PHD  from the RMIT School of Architecture & Design in 2016. Carry’s creative practice research explores process-based interventions within decommissioned buildings and gallery spaces. The methodology he engages with is one of working responsively, allowing particular temporal conditions to surface within these sites and situations. The potential of these conditions are then engaged with in ways that do not seek to prescribe an outcome in advance. Sites are inhabited in time, and specific rendering techniques – such as drawing and mark making – are introduced. These situations are then reassembled through a variety of processes, and the marks made materialize immateriality, allowing the residue of particular processes to be assembled as collections of materialized and spatialized time.

Recent projects and exhibitions include between two homes 2016 commissioned by Hobson’s Bay Council and presented by Blackartprojects, sighting 2016 commissioned by MCES and presented by Blackartprojects, to wonder / to wander 2016 in collaboration with Megan Cope and the Culpra Milli Aboriginal Corporation, Mildura Arts Centre, beginning in incompleteness: works in formation 2015 at RMIT Project Space / Spare Room, wall work[ing] 7 2015 at Kings ARI and rendering the [im]material, a visual essay published in the IDEA Journal 2012. James has been the recipient of an Australia Arts Council New Work grant in 2010 and also received an Honourable Mention at the Shanghai Biennale in 2007.

Juliette Pepin  (Paris, France)– (Social & speculative design and Installation)

Juliette Pépin is a multidisciplinary designer based in Paris. While studying at the Design Academy Eindhoven and doing internships at Intégral Ruedi Baur (Communication – Fr) and Onomatopee (Editorial/Gallery – Nl), she developed skills in a wide range of domains such as communication, conceptual design, research and cultural mediation. She currently works with different institutions such as the Gemeente Eindhoven with her educational project M.O.T.S. ― Social Design Award 2016, as well as a trained communication designer for individuals and institutions.”

 

 Coming in July 2017:

Kambui Olujimi, New York, USA

Kjellgren Alkire, Lake City, Minnesota

Maisha Baddoo, Toronto, Canada

HAVE YOU SEEN ME?

THELONIOUS BONE & JIMBO EASTER
OPENING RECEPTION SAT. JUNE 10TH,
7-10PM
SHOW RUNS THROUGH JULY 8TH

 

These two great and pure artists have joined forces together to present to the world a haunted vision of midwestern american punk art, in it’s most majestic state.

Thelonius Bone. Previous works include, but are not limited to: Bronx, Pussy Boys, Rock N Roll Pool Boy, Turn to Crime Roadie, Total Trash, Hard Rock Cafe, Die Hard Christmas.

Jimbo Easter. Previous works include, but are not limited to: Piranhas, Druid Perfume, Diamond Hens, Jim Beam and the Throw Ups, Salvador, Odd Clouds, Redford Civic Parade.

In an art world populated mostly by ultra soft, unimaginative, reductive, generic, soulless, fake ass, out of touch, narcissistic, vapid, shitty, jerk off, con job jokers…these two true idiot fool savage maniacs of art, through a diligent practice of primitive and ancient recognition and conjuring rituals, have gained access to an underground mind world where dreams, emotions, and existence sit still like a toad in the heat breathing fast so you can see into yourself and the others and into a higher plane, and think what you want to think, and feel what you want to feel, move closer to the mystery, and in the end, experience an actual, real transmission of spiritual communication.

You may notice the collaborative work and individual works in this show share certain commonalities and explore some of the same spirit land. Gnomes, rock n roll landscapes, beasts, monsters, mistakes, creatures, cowboys, psychedelic minds, youth, family, destruction, absolute irreverence, strange freedom, death, birth, etc. You may notice, even within the contrasting variety of means and techniques employed by each individual, these artists are indeed working towards certain creative goals in stereo. A real Laurel and Hardy of the contemporary Detroit art scene!

Please enjoy the show and take the time to speak to these very special artists. I, myself, will use the opportunity of this opening to congratulate both of them on remaining real in a society that is blanketed in falsehoods.

JK, 2017

WELCOME BACK

OPENING RECEPTION, SATURDAY MAY 20
6-9 PM
SHOW RUNS THROUGH JUNE 17

Popps Packing is excited to present “Welcome Back” an exhibition of selected works by Cristin Richard (some of which have never been shown in Detroit). After 6 months away from her practice, Cristin has chosen this moment to reflect upon the existing narratives found in her work and to explore them wihtin a new context.

“Sometimes things happen in life that force you to change the ways of which you would have typically operated. It takes a good period of observation and discovery to find your new way.”

Through an interdisciplinary approach, Cristin leads an in depth reflection around the notions of the body and identity. She examines the human condition and the fact that the body is physically and mentally determined in this condition.

In her artistic practice, installation and performance hold an essential place. Particularly interested in the manipulation of organic matter, these materials build a dialog of what it feels like to be human. The human being is like nature. It transforms and regenerates in poetic and unpredictable ways. In the majority of her work, she reconstructs animal intestines into tangible objects. Playing upon the ambiguity created by the presence of this material, she develops metaphors loaded with complexities, and also explores the experience of the body in its perception and transformations. Her most recent works take the form of a participatory performance, where the audience unconsciously becomes an active part of the project.

Cristin Richard was born in Detroit, and currently lives and works in the city. She received a BFA from the College for Creative Studies
and has exhibited her artistic work locally, as well as in New York, Paris and Iceland.

A SHAMEFUL ENLIGHTENMENT

Opening Reception Sat. March 11th,
6-9pm
Show runs through April 8th

This is an exhibition and book release occasioned by the publication of “BLACK EYE No. 3,” the final and timely volume of “Black Eye,” the anthology of humor and despair published by Rotland Press. This all-comics issue compiles 136 pages with a jaundiced eye on the zeitgeist. Subtitled “A Shameful Enlightenment,” it is a riff on the absurdity of our times, as charted by a coterie of 36 international cartoonists. “Black Eye No. 3” will thrill, sicken, amuse, titillate, horrify, and fortify.

The event is an opportunity to bring together five of the contributing artists who are based in Detroit: Lucy Cahill, Mark Dancey, Francis Kulikowski, John Maggie and S. William Schudlich. Each artist will be exhibiting recent work made for Rotland Press. “Black Eye No. 3”, a limited edition companion book “The Sightseer’s Complement”, and “Rotland Dreadfuls: The Most Frightening Hole” by John Maggie will all be available for purchase.

“Ryan Standfest brings together an exquisitely curated collection of funny, dark, and beguiling comic art for Black Eye No. 3. I’m going to read my copy by a roaring arson blaze.” —Kaz, Creator of the comic strip “Underworld”

The contributors to “Black Eye No. 3” include: Alexis Beauclair, Tom Bunk, Andy Burkholder, Max Clotfelter, Mark Dancey, Kayla E., Vincenzo Fagnani, Penelope Gazin, Julia Gfrörer, Anna Haifisch, Corinne Halbert, Eric Haven, Ian Huebert, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Clara Bessijelle Johansson, Francis Kulikowski, Meghan Lamb, David Lynch, John Maggie, Nicolas Mahler, Jérôme Mulot, Erik Nebel, Paul Nudd, Onsmith, Pierre La Police, Helge Reumann, Josephin Ritschel, Martin Rowson, Florent Ruppert, Johnny Sampson, David Sandlin, S. William Schudlich, Santiago Sequeiros, Sammy Stein, Brecht Vandenbroucke, Chris Wright The cover is by Joan Cornellà. The book is edited by Ryan Standfest.

Founded in 2010, ROTLAND PRESS is a small publishing house located in Detroit, Michigan, USA. It is a publisher of printed projects that promote subversive humor— be it black, dark, gallows, satirical or absurd. ROTLAND PRESS aims to occupy a place between the mainstream and the avant-garde, the philistine and the genteel, industriously manufacturing the finest in despairing entertainment. Ryan Standfest in the Publisher and Editor-In-Chief.

Visit rotlandpress.com or follow Rotland Press on Facebook

Monica J. Brown (Chicago) and Talel Dayekh (Sweden)

March/April

Monica J. Brown (Chicago) is an interdisciplinary artist exploring the intersections between visual art, sound, movement, poetry, prose and performance. Her visual art has been exhibited widely throughout Chicago, including ARC Gallery, the DuSable Museum, and the Museum of Science and Industry. She has also exhibited nationally and internationally including Juijiang University in China. She received a BFA from Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles; and a MA from Columbia College Chicago. Monica has participated in performances at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; and presented her solo performance “Branch & Bough” at Prop Theatre in Chicago and the Columbus Performing Arts Center in  www.monicajbrown.net                                                    Ohio.

March 15- May 15

Talel Dayekh (Sweden) is a visual artist working with painting.  He graduated 2015 from the Fine Arts program at Valand Academy in Gothenburg Sweden. Talel Dayekh

Untitled Experiment of the Modern Gaze

Popps Packing is excited to present  a new video installation by Oren Goldenberg utilizing 360 degree video, featuring Biba Bell.  

Untitiled Experiment of the Modern Gaze is a contemporary approach to depicting the gaze of the viewer.  Appropriating new Virtual Reality technology, Goldenberg is utilizing video to create an immersive environment that explores how we gaze, and how we are seen gazing.  Through camera and body movements, a contradictory relationship is born between the viewer and the subject.  

Oren Goldenberg is a producer and video artist living and working in Detroit where he uses video to explore the dismantlement of the public sector, subvert the assumed and create catharsis. His work captures society’s effect on the spaces around us, as well as, on the body.  Selected projects included: Art as Ritual Conference, A Requiem for Douglass; and Detroit (Blank) City, to name a few.  He is a 2016 Bernard L. Mass Prize for Fine Arts recipient and 2013 Kresge Artist Fellow.  

Biba Bell (b. 1976, Sebastopol) is a writer, dancer, and choreographer based in Detroit. Her work proposes a modernist threshold between between architecture and dance, and is more recently focused on social dance. Bell’s performance work has been seen at JACK (Brooklyn), Bas Fisher Invitational (Miami), Kunstlerhaus (Bremen, Germany), Cranbrook Art Museum, and in a Mies van der Rohe apartment in Detroit. Bell is a 2016 Kresge Fellow in Live Arts, is an Assistant Professor in Dance at Wayne State University, and she earned her PhD in Performance Studies from New York University.

Check out the Facebook  event.