Recess Art in SoHo and Proposal to Recess Art

Recently while searching online for alternative art spaces that accept proposals from artists I found an interesting art space that allows artists to have a work place as well as show their work.

Recess is located at 41 Grand street, Ground Floor, New York, NY, 10013 and allows for artists to work at the same time as they interact with the audience at the same time. Artists are given this opportunity through what they refer to as Sessions. Sessions are similar to artist in residency programs, but instead of a typical artist in residency in which the audience is only involved at the end, during the exhibition, they are involved through out the entire process.

Hosting 10-12 sessions a season from August to August. Each session lasts for about 2 months with 6 artists taking part in a session at a time. Sessions as mentioned above requires the artist to work as well as exhibit. How this is done is up to the artists themselves for some choose to consider their work on exhibit as it is being worked on while some divide their time at Recess into a working stage and an exhibition.

Artists interested in taking part in a session at Recess must fill out an application; applications are accepted in Mid-March. Each application must be accompanied by numerous materials such as artist statement, resume, proposed budget, project proposal, work samples, and descriptions of work.

In mid-March of 2014 I will be applying for a session at Recess. While at Recess I plan to expand on two series I am currently working on about domesticity and male domesticity. As part of this expansion of these series I will be working on two separate pieces that will come together as a whole with the two current series.

These two pieces will be a video project and a series of prints both based around the idea of 1950s tea parties. The video project will record the interactions amongst the audience and myself around a table that is designed to look like it was transported to the present day via time machine from the 1950s. Audience members will be invited to walk around as well as sit at the table and interact with one another while enjoying a mid-afternoon snack. The prints will be a continuation of a series I am working on about male domesticity called “Not Your Average Housewife”, which depicts males in domestic situations that your “typical” housewife would be in while they don the persona of housewife through the use of a pair of high heels. This particular series of prints that I will work on while my time at Recess will be about the same topic, but focus specifically on males in the situation of attending a tea party.

Currently, still in the planning stages this proposal is just an overview of what I plan to propose to Recess in March of 2014.