INTERNATIONAL PANELING/March 2022
Image by Horster
Above and Below or Why am I so Tired?
by Wolf Vest
NYC
Here in New York City, the situation is becoming more and more surreal. Everything looks about the same on the surface, as crowds of tourists return, and workers return to their offices. But underground, in the subways, violence against Asians, and other random violence, often perpetrated by a growing cohort of the mentally ill and drug addicted, undermines normalcy and makes everything feel “off.” Above ground, blatant shoplifting goes unchecked just as prices for everything from food to electricity and gas go through the roof. And, in the USA alone, over one million have died from the virus, while so many more died from other causes—related and otherwise.
It reminds me of the rise of spiritualism which took place after the civil war, then continued along with the development of photography, as well as the aftermath of WWI. When many people die, it stirs whatever post terrestrial life scene there might be. The veils between places can get thinner as the backlog of bodies and souls is slowly processed. It’s in this weird world, this new normal, that we find ourselves in the winter of 2022. Familiar, yet so bizarrely different.
And now I would like to talk about what is going on in my dreams—a world that is so bizarrely different, yet weirdly familiar. My subconscious has become a place loaded with suspicious strangers, all seemingly on the make.
And now I would like to talk about what is going on in my dreams—a world that is so bizarrely different, yet weirdly familiar. My subconscious has become a place loaded with suspicious strangers, all seemingly on the make—out to get me, sprinkled with some old familiar friends and family members who visit warmly, then vanish. There are levels of access that seem to beckon me deeper, while also threatening to be another trap. These mornings, I am waking up more tired than I was when I went to bed. What’s going on it there?
In the state between, I find myself thinking of Einstein and alternate reality stuff, and wonder if we aren’t dipping further into semi-charted places on the astral plane. Are the suspicious ones some kinds of border guards between realities? And are they so stressed because now we are trespassing on their turf so regularly. Who is the real threat? Of course, I don’t know. But I do feel like the subconscious has become a much murkier, yet weirdly clearer, swamp of mind. Somehow, if I could peer more clearly through it, I might see something more spiritual. Do I want to? Maybe the core of being is somewhere in there. Yet as the depth of vision increases, so do the layers of uncertainty and the feeling of being unwelcome. It’s all rather tiring and stressful and not what one hopes for in a warm winter’s bed on another clear cold night.
Image by Juliane Pieper
It’s Time for Poetry Corner!
by Nicole Callihan
Brooklyn
Light
How foolish to even approach this subject.
It is as if I have drawn a card.
The way right now the leaves of the linden oak are catching it.
The scale of the fish you wrestled from its hook.
The glint of the cats eye marble I nearly choked on, wanted to choke on.
The speed of which is slower than negative matter.
In such, that to send a message effectively and more quickly, I should do so through negative matter.
Or I could wave a flashlight with my hand; the speed being sped by my own physical momentum.
When the light hits the incision mark, I’m alarmed.
But when it hits the coverlet, or the poppies, or the bee balm, I’m charmed.
The way a gravestone by day looks like something for a picnic, a rubbing, but come night, the story becomes another story.
Shorty of the Month! "Rollerskater"
by Lindbergh Palace (N'conduit) - video by Domenico Barra
Intro by Leo Kuelbs
“Rollerskater” is coming from the “SoundxSight” series, which paired visual artists with musicians from different cities, continents, etc. The project happened during the first lock-down in 2020. Brooklyn-based musician, Alex Hamadey was paired with several visual artists, including Domenico Barra from Napoli, Italy. The result is this very tasty tune and video which somehow just keeps getting tastier with time! Ewww…sweet AND salty! Enjoy!
An Accidental Journey into NFT Art Collecting!
Image by Los Charcos 2 - La Cascada A by jonib.tez
by Adrian Pocobelli
Berlin
I remember when I sold my first NFT artwork on the SuperRare platform in late-2020. I didn’t think I was scamming the collector, per se, but I did marvel that someone was willing to pay hundreds of dollars for a JPG. I thought to myself, “Whatever floats your boat, man. If you’re willing to pay, I’m willing to make it for you.” But maybe the last laugh is on me, as last I checked, my ‘genesis’ piece was on sale for 10 eth (around $30,000 today).
It was almost a year later, in October 2021, while on vacation in Greece, that I bought my first NFT artwork. The crypto markets had been performing well, and I had made a couple of big sales on SuperRare for 1.5 eth ($6,000 at the time), which was starting to burn a hole in my wallet. I had discovered an artist that I liked on Twitter (not Instagram) whom I thought was underrated, and started to consider doing the unthinkable and spending 0.3 eth ($1500 at the time) on a digital artwork. And sure enough, I made a bid on the work.
And what followed was quite interesting. First, the artist was beyond grateful and proceeded to give massive thanks to “pocobelli.eth” across all his social media channels. The core NFT community is relatively small, and I ended up receiving several follows on Twitter (where the crypto world lives), and I thought to myself, “Wow, the press alone was worth the $1500, much less the artwork.”
From there, I had caught the bug. I had crossed the line. And it was the kind of knowledge that comes only through experience. I realized that digital art ownership was far more convenient and liquid than traditional art collecting.
From there, I had caught the bug. I had crossed the line. And it was the kind of knowledge that comes only through experience. I realized that digital art ownership was far more convenient and liquid than traditional art collecting. I’ve been obsessed with art my entire life, but I had never considered accumulating a physical collection, as I’ve largely lived the life of an artist, which means going from apartment to apartment every few years (some bigger, some smaller), and not having a ton of extra space (much less funds) to store an art collection.
All of a sudden, with digital art, I could accumulate endless works and never have the inconvenience of storing them. Further, if I ever wanted to resell a work, there was an easy to reach market on Twitter and OpenSea that I could potentially offload the work onto. How much simpler is that than selling a physical work of art? Financially speaking, this makes digital art a much more attractive proposition, which is part of the reason, in my view, the valuations are so high.
From there, more for speculative reasons more than anything, I began collecting certain PFP (Profile Picture) projects that I thought would perform well. Some performed spectacularly (mfers) and others just performed very well (Sad Girls Bar). As a result, I had begun loading the OpenSea website in the morning, rather than CoinGecko (a crypto portfolio tracking website), as what was taking place financially was far more exciting. Interestingly, I began to see that liquidity also worked in favour of price. Yes, the liquidity of digital art is far better than physical art; however, the liquidity of NFTs is far lower (often 10,000-max collections) than your average crypto coin that has millions, or even billions, of tokens. A 10,000-image collection might sound like a lot, but it’s actually a very low amount, relatively speaking. As a result, NFT projects, when they catch on, tend to go fairly crazy in price, again, making them an attractive place to put your money.
So, with this success, I began to expand my reach, and this is where things get pretty interesting. One of the great features of OpenSea and other NFT platforms is that you can see who is buying which works, and, if you like their taste, you can easily peruse their collection (as long as they don’t ‘hide’ their works) and cherry-pick all your favourites. This enables a completely novel form of discovery in the art space, which, in my view, can’t be understated. You can spend days on end (and I have) scanning other people’s collections, picking your favourite works, see who the other buyers of those works are, and then scan their collections, in turn, and on and on endlessly. This is a very big deal. And further, because of the transparency provided by blockchain technology, you never feel like you’re overpaying for something because you can see what everyone else is paying for it. How different this is from the traditional art world, where you really have no clue what’s going on (unless you’re paying an expensive consultant), which is just another reason why people are reluctant to buy physical art.
But little did I know, as far as I had gone on my journey, that it was only just beginning. There was an artist I discovered on OpenSea that I quite liked, and, when I was looking at his links on Twitter, I noticed he had artworks on the Tezos blockchain, which is quite popular with artists — in fact, I also have works on Tezos, but I hadn’t done the deep dive yet, so I didn’t quite understand the magnitude of what was taking place there.
So, like my previous adventures on Ethereum, I was looking at what the artist was collecting on Tezos and found a few more artists I liked, and looked at their collections and found even more artists I liked. It became a total obsession from waking up to going to sleep. I was so excited by what I was seeing — the genuine seeds of the biggest art movement since Pop Art — that I could barely sleep.
Further, Tezos is far cheaper than Ethereum and the art is arguably far edgier—real contemporary art gallery type work—but far more interesting and exciting than your typical contemporary art gallery, which I had more or less given up on. And, perhaps surprisingly, the contrast between blockchains was stark. Ethereum felt like the Disney Channel compared to what I was finding on Tezos. And I remain convinced that five years from now museums will be buying these works from me for 100-1000 times the current prices. (It’s just a theory, so don’t go crazy.) And that, my friends, was my accidental journey into NFT art collecting.
It’s time for 3 Questions with Paneling Favorite…. Sandra Ratkovic!
Intro by Leo Kuelbs
NYC
Berlin-based artist Sandra Ratkovic is traveling a lot these days! Her shows seem to find the mirror/dividing lines which separate similar people. Using photography as the main medium to express these social-conceptual works, Sandra often presents opposing sides of issues or borders. The boundaries themselves become almost as visible as the people or places pictured. The seemingly random ridiculousness of the people-made barriers give her work a lightness and a sense of humor which also help distinguish her unique style!
Sandra also was a key part of the ongoing Digital Fairy Tales project, where she started as a co-curator and is now a contributing artist! Her first video in the series will appear as part of the LIGHT YEAR 84: Digital Fairy Tales: Transformation! in April of 2022. There’s a lot going on in SandraLand right now! Enjoy the video and check the link below for more info!
The Questions:
1. Hello Sandra! Can you give us a little bit of background of who you are, where you are coming from and what you do/what you have been doing?
2. Can you describe in more detail your practice as a photographer? You are also an observer and almost a sociologist, in a way. Would you agree with that?
3. Can you tell us about your ongoing relationship with the Digital Fairy Tales project and how your role has shifted in the last several years?
Hey, so what’s the Story with Digital Fairy Tales?
by Wolf Vest
Berlin
On Thursday, April 7th, you can check out LIGHT YEAR 84: Digital Fairy Tales “Transformation!” on the Manhattan Bride, as well as ONLINE, in Berlin (SCOPE BLN), in Toronto (The Drey). It’s the eighth incarnation of the Digital Fairy Tales series which is presented by the Leo Kuelbs Collection. Check the link at the end of the article for more information!
The Story
The “Digital Fairy Tales Series” is a set of short film/video programs based upon various stories and themes taken from an almost forgotten archive of folk and fairy stories from the Upper Palatinate region of German. The area is near the Czech Republic and was changing quite a bit at the end of the 18th Century. A rather well connected, yet humble, fellow name Franz Xaver von Schönwerth collected these stories as a means of preserving cultural objects that would likely be lost to the oncoming industrial revolution, wars, etc.
In the 1950s, an inspired teacher was using fairy tales to help connect children to their heritage, creativity and general “humanness.” Towards that end, she discovered the archive hidden away in vaults in the ancient city of Regensburg, Germany. The teacher is named Erika Eichenseer, and for years, she and her husband traveled, not only the region, but all over the world, she telling the tales and he playing the hurdy gurdy and other musical instruments of the time.
Eventually, in 2015, an English translation of many of old stories was published, and this is where the “Digital” part of the story begins.
Curator and art collector, Leo Kuelbs, discovered the works through an article in the “Guardian,” via an ad on Facebook. Having completed the successful multi artist show, “Submerged!” which used stories written by Kuelbs as the basis for the works, a new approach was needed, and he was out of his own stories appropriate for use.
Kuelbs and co-Curator, Sandra Ratkovic, moved forward, connected with Eichenseer and the Digital Fairy Tales project was launched in October of 2016. Since then, three more iterations of the von Schönwerth tales have appeared with three other shows based upon similar concepts (“Chinese Stories,” “Obvious Surprise (Feminist stories)” and “Vengeance is Mine”).
Daniela Kostova’s work as part of LIGHT YEAR and Digital Fairy Tales on the Manhattan Bridge in NYC; Photo: Julienne Schaer
The main concept of the project was to create connection between contemporary creatives and those who generated and nurtured the stories in eras past; kind of a living bridge of creativity and common interest.
The main concept of the project was to create connection between contemporary creatives and those who generated and nurtured the stories in eras past; kind of a living bridge of creativity and common interest. Digital artists were asked to think through time and to try to spiritually commune with those who thought up, told, and evolved the tales in their place in time and space. The original tellers changed the stories to fit their needs and the interests and attentions of their listeners. Just as they had no known notions of our current, every evolving, digital reality.
The Digital Fairy Tales concept hoped that through creating this personal connection through time, that the stories would allow themselves to be, once again, evolved toward a new audience, through new media, by creators with new skills, yet the same curiosity and creative drive that all people have shared since the days of the cave people.
For some purists, especially in Regensburg, this approach caused quite a stir. And when the initial program was released in October of 2016, tempers flared. Purists wondered why and how the stories could be subject to such shocking change, while the more open minded defended the changes as respecting the living energy of the stories. Quite a lengthy debate was had after the initial screening. But once Eichenseer declared her approval for the project and all opinions were heard, everyone agreed that, at least the quality of the work was good and respectful, whether or not you approved of the contemporizing of the material.
The Digital Fairy Tales series has appeared at several sites and in several cities around Europe and in the USA. Some screening highlights include the LIGHT YEAR series on the Manhattan Bridge in NYC, The FLUCA series, based in Plovdiv and Sofia, Bulgaria; Mitte Media Festival in Berlin, SCOPE BLN, as well as online screening and appearances at a variety of other sites and cities. Several works included in the series have won awards at short film and video festivals around Europe.
For 2022, a new series titled, “Transformation!” will feature seven new works, based on the von Schönwerth catalog, as well as probable programs generated from various pre-incarnations, remixed for specific purposes.
Some artists included in the series:
Rani Messias + Kinga Toth , Sarah Mock + Daniela Imhoff, Richard Jochum, Integrated Visions + Miss Natasha Enquist, Radka Salcmannova, Thomas Rotenberg, Josh Graham, Keegan Luttrell + Justin King, Daniela Kostova + Anna Leevia, Kristian Pedersen + Elke Brauweiler, Anton Marini & Danielle Ezzo, Boris Kralj + Matresanch, Michael McGuirk + Alex Hamadey, Maria Naidyonova, Kitzinger Gabor + Alex Hamadey, Juliane Pieper with Sea of Daisies, Ana Bilankov, Lea Brugnoli with Carsten Schneider, Sarah Oh-Mock with Kriss Roebling and Theory, Mighty Kongbot + LAMA, Jim Ellis, Vadim Schaeffler, Julia Obst + Mark Fernyhough, and Jonathan Phelps with Joel Barlow, Katie Walker, Kaci Contompasis, Stephen Phelps, and Oscar Allen Guinn IV, Zoe Duchesne, Nina E. Schönefeld, Dahye Kim, Nicole Antebi, Matthias Fritsch, Yuki Ideguchi with Suguru Ikeda + Isis Salam, Xiren Wang, Lian Mengzhuo, Nina Sobell + Laura Ortman, Làszlò Zsolt Bordos, Junjie Zhang, Vivian Qin, Dorothée Billard, Kaminila Kard, Mai’T Segura and Harald V. Uccello, Eszter Szabó, Alexis Karl and Adam Torkel, Juliane Ebner, Adele Perrin, Eric Dunlap, and others
We are Back with…3 Questions with NYC-based Curator, Kyoko Sato!
Intro by Leo Kuelbs
Japanese-born, NYC-based Kyoko Sato’s curatorial work has brought together a wide array of artists (eras, media, backgrounds) in an effort to truly illuminate hidden meanings, contexts and connections in the ever-evolving international art scene. Her support and guidance of expat Japanese artists in the USA is legendary, and her shows are well covered in press from around the world. Kyoko is currently an independent curator. Check the link below for more info about Kyoko’s current (Lin Shih Pao: Golden Age at the Crystal Foundation) and recent projects, plus more biographical and background treasures!
The Questions:
1. Hello Kyoko! Can you tell a little about your background in the arts and how long you have been practicing your craft in NYC?
2. What do you see as commonalities between Japan and the USA (as well as anywhere else) and differences when it comes to how cultures interact with art, at large?
3. What are you working on these days and what is coming up? Also, tell us a little bit about how you connect press coverage between Japan and the USA. It’s really impressive!
Diary entry,
Paris, May 1953
Image and Text by Stu Spence
Sydney
Woke with beastly head again, and Charlie beside me, again! This must stop. Something about that darned Chateau Latour he keeps pouring down our throats. As I say, it must stop and I shall tell him so again today. (God only knows what our tab at Marcelle’s must look like!)
On that note, must wire papa today and beg for a teensy advance. Charlie says the market is quite ‘buoyant’ right now (Charlie loves using words he doesn’t really understand), so not such a bad time for begging, apparently.
Had a quick glass of bubbles with Fritz and the pretty Cuban girl (Celeste, Celine, can’t remember) before dashing to meet Charlie at Trocadéro. Such a silly romantic boy, he wanted to ride the children’s roundabout under the Eiffel Tower at the ‘purple hour.’ I go along with these things, but truly!
Anyhoo, strangest thing. Every time the woman’s husband left the table or spoke to a waiter….this Tanguy fellow would casually lean his arm back around his chair (while still facing the opposite direction, mind you) and tickle the woman’s foot.
I think I saw the painter Yves Tanguy dining at Chez Georges last night. He was sitting with a couple of other men (all in black, French artists are so dramatic), one maybe Braque, hard to tell, wearing a big hat, indoors. Such arrogance. I adore it! Next to them was an old couple, perhaps in their thirties. He was plain and portly, she pretty, touch of the Jane Russells about her, curly dark hair (natural… to die for!), darling three quarter blouse with broderie anglaise and a Capri pant. ‘Casual chic’ as everyone keeps saying here. (Must partake when finances arrive. Sometimes I feel like I’m wearing a hessian sack next to these Parisian glamour pusses. Honestly.)
Anyhoo, strangest thing. Every time the woman’s husband left the table or spoke to a waiter (or at a waiter, more like it), or read his Match (Papa does this and I deplore it, though Mother seems oblivious), this Tanguy fellow would casually lean his arm back around his chair (while still facing the opposite direction, mind you) and tickle the woman’s foot. Odder still was the fact that she would actually extend her unshod foot (game!) in expectation. It was all in the darkness, Chez Georges is very – what does Baby call it? “Glowy,” yes, and it is. But I saw what I saw. She kept a hand obscuring her face, like a Chinese fan, attempting to cover her mirth. Most unusual. Her husband… oblivious.
I seemed to be the only one who noticed.
Paris is divine!
Image by Tom Rotenberg
Overcoming NFT Obscurity
by Mark Bailey
Minneapolis
For artists, NFTs so far appear to be a hit-or-miss proposition. Some of my artist friends have tried and tried to get noticed in the NFT world with little success. Of the NFT projects I've written for, a few have done quite well while others have totally flopped. As in the traditional art world, the quality of the art and luck are both important predictors of whether or not an NFT drop will be well-received by the market. But my experience suggests that there are other things to consider as well.
My friend Lars is a photographer with a strong following. Last year, he released much of his body of work as an NFT collection on the WAX blockchain. The sale bought him a new Tesla and a degree of financial security that he was unaccustomed to as a working photographer. It also provided an example of what a successful NFT drop consists of.
Instead of trying to produce his NFTs independently, Lars worked with a company that exclusively handles NFTs. Several such companies have sprung up recently, and they handle aspects of NFT releases that many artists wouldn't even consider. The company Lars used had a great advertising and marketing machine. It also took care of all of the technical complexity involved in minting and packaging his digital assets for sale on AtomicHub, the primary WAX NFT marketplace.
Given the utterly impossible number of NFTs now being minted each day, interested buyers become easily overwhelmed.
Personally, I've written for a few such companies, including the one Lars used. What they all have in common is that they're very serious about keeping their efforts in the background, so the art can remain front and center. More than anything, these companies serve as a bulwark against obscurity. And obscurity is the number one threat to artistic success in the NFT world.
Given the utterly impossible number of NFTs now being minted each day, interested buyers become easily overwhelmed. Try searching for a specific type of NFT on OpenSea or another major platform and you'll quickly discover that the search function on these platforms is useless. And for every great piece of art, there are thousands of pieces of garbage to click through, most of which are plagiarized or generated by computer programs.
This is not to suggest that generative art is of lesser quality than works created by humans. Indeed, some of the coolest NFTs I've seen are products of machine learning and generative programs. But the good stuff inevitably gets buried underneath mountains of nonsense. The only work that actually gets discovered is work that's effectively marketed outside of the platforms on which the NFTs are sold.
In practice, this sometimes means running ads in cryptocurrency industry magazines or getting them to publish an article featuring your NFT sale. But, more often, it involves a grassroots marketing campaign on Telegram, Discord, and Twitter, as well as on countless smaller websites that may only be relevant for a month or two. This will likely change as the market stabilizes over the next several years. But for now, it is a chaotic situation that few artists I know have the bandwidth for.
Even without the marketing machines provided by these new NFT companies, an artist that has a large following and solid relationships with their client base can still do okay. But they'll do ten times better if they partner with industry insiders to attract new attention to their work.
It’s Winter Troll Time with Disha Lundberg!
Image by Disha Lundberg
We Hope You are All Doing Well! Spring is Coming Soon!
Now, how about some German Words?
Spielzueg = Toy
Pronounced: Speel-Zoig
In a sentence:
Die Puppe ist ein gutes Spielzeug! The doll is a good toy!
UND
Schlagzeuger = Drummer
Pronounced: Shlag-Zoig-er
In a sentence:
Der Schlagzeuger braucht ein neues Schlagzeug! The drummer needs a new drum set!