Capricious Space is thrilled to announce the upcoming solo exhibition of photographic work by artist Sophie Mörner, opening Friday September 10th. The show is titled The Name of a Song, and will run through Saturday, October 9th, 2010.
Opening Reception: Friday September 10th, 7:00 – 9:00 p.m.
at Capricious Space
103 Broadway (btw Bedford and Berry)
Brooklyn, NY 11211
See the sunset in Williamsburg.
Capricious bookshop’s pick of the week is Jack Pierson’s 18 Postcards. It’s the perfect companion for those of you who haven’t had the chance to hit the road this summer, but still want to send postcards to all of your friends!
This pocket-sized book features just what its title proclaims, 18 of Pierson’s works turned into post cards that you can scrawl on and send around the world! First published in 2007 by A.R.T Press, the book is a collection of photographs taken around the world (on the back of each photo, the location and year it was taken in are typed out). Although Pierson is mostly known for his collage and sculpture work, these photos stay true to his “counter-referential” style. Subjects range from the typical touristy palm tree shot taken in Santa Monica, to a more intimate portrait, or street corner along the Seine that everyone else would overlook.
In an article for Frieze Magazine, Pierson’s work has been described as “…reference and counter-reference. The allusions forming his world are familiar enough …The cultural and even emotional landscape suggested by his work is instantly recognizable as one of tawdry glitz and glamour, melancholy and nostalgia. There is an ethos of specificity involved here; every object, whether a book or a photograph or a single scrap of newspaper, carries with it a culturally conditioned sense of significance. In this aspect his work is deeply set into its chosen context and historical period.”
So if you want to send your friend a quirky photo of India or Paris, without actually having to take the trip there to get it, pack up and head over to Capricious for your own copy of 18 Photographs (for just $13.95!) And really, who doesn’t love getting a post card in the mail? Capricious bookshop is located at 80 South 6th St., between Bedford and Berry, and open Wednesday-Saturday, 12-6pm!
Posted by: Jessica Olm
Congrats to Santiago Mostyn for his mention in the recent NY Times article, “What Is It About 20- Somethings?”! It makes for a good read, so if you haven’t read it yet, you can check it out (here). And be sure to mark your calenders for Santiago’s solo show right here in Capricious, starting October 15th!
Photo credit: Santiago Mostyn
We all had such a fun time at the opening of My Haven, the photography show up at the Nightwood Pop-Up Shop! Thanks to everyone who came over to take a peek at all the lovely treasures that are inside the space! A selection of the works that were displayed as part of the Saturday Sun exhibition here at Capricious have also found a new temporary home in the Nightwood showroom. Great job to Sophie Mörner for curating My Haven, and Karen Codd, for curating Saturday Sun! And a big thank you to Myriah and Nadia of the Nightwood team! The pop-up space will be open until the end of October, so make sure to check it out if you haven’t had the chance yet!
Posted by: Jessica Olm
Whether you had a chance to check out the opening of the Nightwood Pop-Up Shop last week, or are just hearing of it now, the Design Downtown events are a must see for any lover of beautifully crafted interior designs! As part of the event, Sophie Mörner has put together a wonderful photography show, entitled My Haven, featuring works by Anne Hall, Emmeline de Mooij, Justine Kurland, Santiago Mostyn, and others. The pieces are being displayed right in the Nightwood Showroom, on Livingston St. between Hoyt & Smith. The show starts tonight, from 7-9. Hope to see you there!
Capricious is pleased to announce that we now carry Amy von Harrington’s wonderful little hand made decks of tarot cards! I had a moment to ask her a few questions, so if you dare, read on into the future!
First, Amy gave me a small brief of the project, explaining that there are 78 cards in the deck, and that they are “…all important pieces in the tale of a spiritual path. Whether reading or just thumbing through, the tarot deck is a comforting companion, especially when it fits in your pocket, for when you’re on the go. The tarot symbolizes spiritual/philosophical/social ideas as wildly deep as the grandest of canyons. With so many decks and so little time, this one visually focuses on carnal desires, gluttonous visions, demons in kid gloves, and western dreamscapes, while maintaining a traditional integrity. Although small, this deck packs the punch of progressive positivity.”
Now some Q & A
When did you first become interested in tarot?
I got my first deck before I could drive. I still have it and it is my main deck. Rider-waite style. Although I have four decks now. One is an oracle deck. It has a different number of cards and functions differently.
What gave you the idea to create your own deck of cards?
I love the tarot and find reading the cards and about them comforting. My summer reading has been inclusive of things around Buddhism and Alejandro Jodorowsky. He has studied and written about tarot and I just had the epiphany. I am a quantity collagist and was waiting for a project. And I was all like “duh” I love the number 78, collages made mini (pocket size) and I am leaning towards projects that are more pragmatic than just pretty in a waste bin. Or as a re-gift. I think more folks should look to the tarot. It is not magic, but good philosophies and reminders. As my friend Daniel once said of Jesus, “He just told people to be cool”; at least that is how I remember it as going down. And so says the tarot. Making the deck became a fast obsession and was the best thing I did all summer. Sorry girls. I love them. Ladies and the cards.
How long did it take you to design the deck?
I collage fast and intuitively. Although I spent months before having cut out many pieces. Like all the dolls, hands, genitals, meats and pies were cut and ready in my collage cache. They are all cut and paste style. So that made it faster. But in total it took about a month of constructing the 79 collages. One was remade, I realized after I got it back that it was not right. but I also read a lot and it took a while to get them produced and then all are hand inked and stamped which takes about a week to dry. So, sumer of 2010. Some are still drying and getting kissed. Each and every one. Why not. I like to pretend that I am an exploited factory worker and pee in my pants for fun.
Did you follow a contrived design aesthetic when constructing the four suits? Or were they just a collection of your various collages?
The four suits are cups, swords, wands, and pentacles. They are the meat and potatoes of the tarot deck. They are the detailed explanations that flesh out the path of the major arcanum. My suits may look a bit different but really follow tradition. So:
The sword is about intellect which is reflected by the mouths and eyes. The thinking mind and the mouth piece to carry out the ideas. It is an airy suit so all the scapes are in the open.
The cups are about emotional energy and relationships. Water is connected with the suit, so each scape is on the water and are numbered with genitals.
The pentacles are about living matters, money, home, and career. This suit takes place within interior spaces. It is about consuming and materiality so cookies, coins and drinks can be found to number the cards.
And the wands are about psychic, sexual, and creative energy. This suit is more abstract with mostly patterns and a bit of all the other things. Genitals, arms, food.
-The four overlap in certain ways, but each have a signature to help them fall into suit. All the lessons that the cards offer are contingent upon how they relate with the rest of the deck, hence the reoccurring themes.
Do you have any advice for the folks out there wanting to teach themselves tarot?
Practice reading. Engage with the deck. Read about the cards. And pull a card at a time, It doesn’t have to be a big ordeal or spread.
a great book: “the way of the tarot” by jodorowsky and costa
and online:
http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/learn/meanings/
browse the decks, and this site is great for at-a-glance info
Thank you, Amy, for answering all these questions and letting Capricious carry your cards! For more info on Amy’s work, visit her website at http://www.vonharrington.com/ . And for your own tarot deck (just $20!), come to Capricious Bookshop, located at 80 South 6th St., between Bedford and Berry, and open Wednesday-Saturday, 12-6pm!
Posted by: Jessica Olm
Just a reminder to everyone that Saturday Sun, the group show currently on display here at Capricious, will only be up for one more week. So if you didn’t make it to the opening, or haven’t gotten around to stopping in yet, now is the time to do so! Saturday Sun is open until August 20th. Capricious Space is open from Wednesday-Saturday 12-6. Hope to see you soon!
Above photo credit to Dana Gentile
Opening September 10th at Capricious Space, a solo exhibition of photographic work by artist Sophie Mörner. Titled The Name of a Song, the show will run through Saturday, October 9th, 2010.
“As far as mental escapes from life’s various grinds go, I think it’s safe to say that most people turn to music. It’s accessible, direct, and intimate in a way that visual images simply can’t be. As an example I’d cite subway riders, those tuned into their headphones always appear far more transported than magazine or newspaper perusers.
Curated by Karen Codd, Saturday Sun at Capricious Space offers a spread of works—primarily photo-centric—that focus on these fleeting moments of relief from the daily mental murk. The twelve artists in the exhibition are all in their emergent stage, young like the British singer/songwriter Nick Drake who penned the somber tune, Saturday Sun, in the dawn of his tragically brief career. (Drake knew a thing or two about needing an escape route from life’s downer moments; he overdosed at twenty-six.)
For the most part the artwork in the exhibition features images both quotidian and quaint: a scintillating snatch of California shore, a snow covered cactus, an above ground pool in a moment of quiet vacancy. Generally the work isn’t too technically rigorous, but a highly refined finish wouldn’t capture the same emotive quality. The exception here is Mara Baldwin’s graphite and marker drawing of a really long friendship bracelet titled “Keep Going.” Baldwin’s piece is transporting less through the image depicted than in the embodied concentration her painstaking attention to detail no doubt requires.
What I like the most about this show is that it has a strong sense of genuine feeling. Emerging artists know better than most the difficulty of learning to trust oneself when the support team is just friends and family. In fact, an ability to step outside the contours of life’s routine trajectory could be one of the most crucial abilities for young artists to harness. And for most of the artists in this exhibition practicing art seems to be a solo venture, which only enhances the need for a some kind of outlet to ground oneself and keep from getting carried away in the brain fuzz.
The artwork in the exhibition, like Drake’s melancholy tune, captures a sense of that release. It’s a show for rumination and quiet reflection, like listening to a song you’ve loved for half of your life or taking an old familiar walk just for the walk.”
–Charlie Schultz
published on www.ArtSlant.com on August 9, 2010
…to read the article on ArtSlant click here.
Capricious Bookshop’s pick of the week is There’s No Other Place Like This Place Anywhere Near This Place So This Must Be The Place by Thomas Giddings. The title alone packs a pretty big punch for such a pocket-sized book! But if you’re at all the road warrior type, then this is the book for you!
Having been bitten by the traveling bug early, Thomas first picked up a camera at the age of six, photographing a trip to Los Angeles. After graduating from the London College of Fashion in 2007, he went on another road trip to Los Angeles, this time documenting every step of the way. He said of his journey, “In a vague mid-quarter life crisis what started as a 7 day trip to New York became a 2 month, 4,000 mile long road trip across North America in a 30 foot long RV – and I don’t even have a driving license. With four friends I began my journey in New York, passing through 16 states including Oklahoma, Arizona and New Mexico travelling along some parts of the old route 66 and finally ending my journey in Los Angeles. I was fascinated equally as fascinated by the places we saw along our journey – often travelling hours through abandoned villages without seeing another vehicle – as the people we encountered. Both were a bigger cliché of them themselves than I could ever have expected or hoped for.”
There’s No Other Place…, published by Pau Wau Publications, consists of twenty three original photographs taken along the trip. Giddings begins the book with a wonderfully written foreword, citing the iconic works of those such as Chaucer, Jack Kerouac, William Eggleston, and Robert Frank as inspiration for his series. So if you’re in the mood to hit the highway, make sure to bring this book along for the ride! You can get your own copy (for just $20!) right here at Capricious Bookshop located at 80 South 6th St., between Bedford and Berry, and open Wednesday-Saturday, 12-6pm!
Posted by: Jessica Olm
