The Authorship Experiment

Throughout the fall, nine “makers” from different artistic disciplines will collaborate in teams to play with the term “authorship.” Each team will work from The Project Room during open studio hours during which the public is invited to visit and watch/listen/ask questions/participate in whatever it is they are doing.

The results of their time together will be presented to the public in a series of evening events- dates and times TBA! If you’d like to be notified of the schedule as soon as it’s confirmed, please join our mailing list.

See the Calendar for dates and times!

About the Participants:

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Leo Berk: Born in 1973, Berk received a B.F.A. from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, in 1997, and an M.F.A. from the University of Washington, Seattle, in 1999.  His work has been shown in solo exhibitions at Lawrimore Project, the Lee Center, and Howard House in Seattle, cherrydelosreyes in Los Angeles, and the Bellevue Art Museum. His work has been included in shows at the Henry Art Gallery and Frye Art Museum in Seattle, Galleri Erik Steen in Oslo, Edward Cella in Los Angeles, d.u.m.b.o. Arts Center in Brooklyn, Tacoma Art Museum, Marylhurst University in Portland, and California State University, Long Beach.  Berk has been honored with grants and awards by the Seattle Art Commission, Artist Trust, and 4Culture and was the 2010 Artist Innovator receipient.  His work has been published in Art in AmericaArt Ltd., LA TimesModern PaintersThe Seattle TimesThe Seattle Post IntelligencerThe Stranger, and Seattle Weekly, and has been acquired by such public collections as the Tacoma Art Museum; University of Washington; City of Seattle; King County; Amgen Corporation, Seattle; and the United States Department of Navy. Berk lives and works in Seattle.

Brangien Davis: Brangien Davis is the arts and culture editor at Seattle Magazine. Previously, she has been a freelance writer (The Seattle TimesReadyMade magazineWired), writing teacher (Richard Hugo House, Seattle Central Community College), book editor (“A Woman Trapped in a Woman’s Body,” by Lauren Weedman, Grist.org’s “Wake Up and Smell the Planet”), managing editor (Amazon.com), professional blogger (petriproject.wordpress.com) and founder/editrix in chief of a literary magazine (Swivel). Her creative writing has been published in SwinkFilter and Rivet (not a law firm, but should be).

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Garrett Fisher: Garrett Fisher is the Artistic Director of the Fisher Ensemble, a Seattle-based collective. Since 1994, Garrett has created ten music-theater pieces which weave ritual and myth to bridge ancient and modern forms.  Fisher’s music is considered “a strong, unified and strikingly individual utterance of unambiguous beauty” (New York Times). His piece Kocho was recently produced by Beth Morrison Projects at New York’s Galapagos Space.  He was a recipient of a Seattle Magazine‘s 2011 Artist Spotlight Award.

Jennifer Borges Foster: Jennifer Borges Foster is a poet, bookmaker, and the editor of Filter, a hand bound limited edition literary journal. She is the recent recipient of grants from Art Patch, 4Culture, and the Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs, and was short-listed for The Stranger’s 2007 Genius Award in literature. She has completed several residencies in the States and abroad. Her poems have appeared in The Beloit Poetry JournalPrairie SchoonerZYZZYVAFailbetter,Hoarse and other journals.

John Grade: John Grade is a Seattle-based artist particularly known for his skill in relating sculpture to the environment; his innovative installations have garnered him an international reputation. Grade is currently working with salvaged timbers from the historic Northwest schooner Wawona to create a monumental sculpture for the new MOHAI museum.

John is the recipient of the 2010 biennial Willard Metcalf Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in New York. He has also been awarded the 2011 Schnitzer Prize from the Portland Art Museum, an Andy Warhol Foundation Award (NY), two Pollock Krasner Foundation Awards (NY), and a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award (NY). Grade recently exhibited at Galerie Ateliers L’H Du Siege in France, Fabrica in the UK, and Cynthia Reeves Gallery in New York. Grade has been a fellow at the Djerassi Foundation (CA), the MacDowell Colony (NH), and the Ballinglen Foundation in County Mayo, Ireland. His work has been featured and reviewed in Art in AmericaSculpture, Artweek, American Craft, ARTUS, the Boston Globe, The Huffington Post, Conde de Nast Traveller, Italian and Russian Domus and on NPR’s All Things Considered and Studio 360. Two monographs of the artist’s work have been published coinciding with major museum surveys of his work.

Wes Hurley: Wes Hurley is a filmmaker and performer living in Seattle. His approach to story-telling is inspired by live performance art, cabaret/burlesque and old b-movies. He recently completed his first narrative feature “Waxie Moon in Fallen Jewel” starring Waxie Moon, Sarah Rudinoff, Marya Sea Kaminski, John Osebold, Nick Garrison and many others, featuring music by Jose Bold, We Are Golden and Campfire OK.

Kate Lebo: Kate Lebo is a poet and pie maker from Seattle, where she attends the University of Washington’s MFA program. Her poems appear in Best New Poets 2011, Poetry Northwest, Bateau, and The Portland Review, and she’s the recipient of a Nelson Bentley Fellowship, a 4Culture grant, and a Soapstone residency. For more about Kate’s zine, A Commonplace Book of Pie, and other tasty treats, visit Pie-scream.com.

Amy O’Neal:  Amy O’Neal is a performer, choreographer, dance educator, and the creator of AmyO/tinyrage (tinyrage.com).  From 2000-2010, she was the co-director, along with Zeke Keeble, of locust (music/dance/video)(locustsucka.com). Over he past decade, she has toured nationally and internationally with her own dance and video work as well as with Reggie Watts, the Pat Graney Company,  and was a company member of Scott/Powell Performance from 1998-2004. She has created 2 works for Donald Byrd’s Spectrum Dance Theater, collaborated with Savion Glover at the Paramount Theater in Seattle, and danced in Mark Haim’s “Goldberg Variations” at On the Boards in 2006. Amy has choreographed for theater, commercials, and for Reggie Watt’s Comedy Central DVD in the music video for “Fuck, Shit Stack”.

Amy teaches contemporary dance technique, funk, improvisation,and choreography regularly at Velocity Dance Center and with Seattle Theater Group’s “Dance This” and the Young Choreographer’s Lab, which she helped to develop.  She has been a guest artist at several major universities in the US as well as Dance New Amsterdam in NYC and has a degree in dance from Cornish College of the Arts. Amy was choreographer in residence at Bates Dance Festival in 2007, at Headlands Center for the Arts in 2008, and took part in the US/Japan Choreographer’s Exchange through Dance Theater Workshop and the Japan Society in 2009.  She has received funding for her work with locust and AmyO/tinyrage from all the major funders in Seattle (including an Artist Trust Fellowship and Stranger Genius short list in 2004)  as well as DanceWEB (Vienna, Austria), the National Dance Project, National Performance Network, the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, and the Creative Capital Foundation.  Amy is currently the 2011 Artist in Residence at Velocity Dance Center where she is developing an evening-length solo work. She is also collaborating with filmmaker Wes Hurley for the City Arts Festival.

Paul Rucker: Paul Rucker is an interdisciplinary artist: cellist, bassist, composer, and visual artist known for his innovative performances and installations. He finds inventive ways to integrate live performance, sound, original compositions, and visual art. The music he creates on cello involves extended technique, prepared cello and electronics. His visual artwork incorporates infrared beams, lasers, touch pads, glass, sound, video, photography, animation, and large-format printing.

Paul has received numerous grants for the creation of visual art and music from 4Culture, Seattle Mayor’s Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs, South Carolina Arts Commission, Washington State Arts Commission, King County Site Specific, Photo Center NW, and Artist Trust. Rucker has created public artwork for the Museum of Flight in Seattle, 4Culture, and the City of Tacoma.

He has also been awarded residencies to Blue Mountain Center, Ucross Foundation, Art OMI, Banff Centre, Pilchuck Glass School, and the Rockefeller Foundation Study Center in Bellagio, Italy. Rucker was named Best Emerging Artist of 2004 from Earshot, 2005 Jazz Artist of the Year from the Seattle Music Awards, and Outside Jazz Ensemble of the Year in 2008. He was invited by legendary filmmaker David Lynch to perform for the opening of Lynch’s film, Inland Empire.

Back to Authorship

Images: Water (detail), sound installation from from Paul Rucker’s Sounds Like (top); Empty Temples, still from Garrett Fisher’s web operaPsyche featuring choreography by Christy Fisher and filmmaking by Luke Sieczek (top); John Grade in his studio with wood from The Wiwona being used for The Wiwona Project, a large-scale commission for The Museum of History and Industry (bottom)