The Digital Museum - Frank Shifreen, Curator
	The Curator's Abstract My current art practice takes many forms, including painting, sculpture, drawing, curation, installations, video, web design, digital images, teaching and the study of the creative process. In this report I show how different facets of my perception, motivation and process are informed with underlying elements. The Six forms include Material Frame, Perspective, Ground, figure and Strategy, all derived from painting practice. In this report I describe sections of my life and history, influences, as they relate to my work. I show how creative strategies bring me closer to my work and allow creativity to flow. I also include fantasies, personal psychohistory, and others ways of communicating my interests. I am still trying to integrate this project with my curatorial interests, which are continuing to organize Election Protest exhibitions against the Bush agenda. There is one opening on March 15th at the Theater for the New City. The International Portrait Survey will Open May 7th at Open Space Gallery in Allentown, PA.     [Art Practice] My Art Practice   The Images in my oeuvre are a dense accumulation of process, where parts are obscured and other parts revealed, through size, color, clarity and the focus of representation. The works are a map of the journey I took to discover them. I use multiple perspectives, conventions of illusionism, and other means, to create an image or structure that can be read in different ways concurrently or alternately. The juxtapositions create a frisson, of the mind and eye attempting to synthesize the image. My historical antecedents are cubism, both lyrical and analytic, surrealism, painters such as Francis Bacon and R.B. Kitaj, and scientific depictions of multidimensional space, manifolds, and other theoretical phenomena. My relationship to my art is both personal and idiosyncratic on one hand, and on the other, it is a research based process for personal, social, political and consciousness exploration. Since my earliest memories of childhood(see Prologue A-The Baby at 14 Months) I have used the medium of art for physically modeling my own thoughts and feelings, intuitively knowing it to be a path to understand the world, nature, and my own experience. My approach to art is the same as it was then, but my scope has been widened considerably. My work is phenomenological and experiential. Emotion is the key to relationship. The basis of my emotions are desire, longing and the infantile space that is the basis of the creative impulse( Melanie Klein). I paint about the Self and the Other, The Self is the country of sensory information, the inside, and all things that are identified as me. The Other is outside , beyond my skin, the other side of the border, and you. I try to paint you, to know you, as intimately as I know myself, but it is a futile effort. I only paint myself. When I know something or paint some- one , my identify fuses with the information , and It then becomes part of me, like food. I am as impulsive now as I was then. I jump into activities and unfamiliar situations with wild abandon. That has allowed me to accomplish much in many different areas of art production and exhibition. This trait has both positive and negative sides. On the positive side, I learn by doing and risking all. I am a quick study and like learning on the job. Sometimes the best way to learn is by immersion. On the negative side, by not researching and checking the history and experience of others, I made mistakes that might have been avoided, especially in my work organizing art shows and groups. But that is exactly why I decided to come to this program at Columbia Teachers College. I wanted to be able to evaluate my entire career and oeuvre, and understand the lessons that my experience has given me. I also perceive myself to be a perennial outsider. Part of the problem is the role that art plays in our society, artifacts that sit somewhere between the worlds of collectibles, fashion, commerce and culture, sometimes being all, some, or none at different times. The negative stereotypes that I and other artists have to work against have been inculcated by the barrage of the media-spectacle, capitalism and consumer propaganda, and the lack of support structures for artists. ( See Part Vl: Schmendrick: Cultural Introject(Rant)) People at the margins of society are often criminalized. I was arrested twice for having arts shows. A photo of me in handcuffs was on the cover of the New York Daily News. I spent several days in jail each time. Both times I ran afoul of private property and exhibition without authorization laws. Sometimes Capitalism uses the velvet glove, and sometimes it uses the mailed fist. I had hoped that artists and others would support me after I was arrested, but once in jail and through the justice system, I was on my own. (See Part V: The Criminal Enterprise of Don Franco). I have a rebellious streak, a part of my impetuous nature. I have deconstructivist tendencies, in that I interrogate my method, my materials, my society to make visible underlying structure and expose my impurities (Johnson) I am a painter, first and foremost, but have jumped headlong into almost every art making and exhibition opportunity that came my way. I have had solo exhibitions of my paintings, sculpture, drawings and installations. I have organized shows, curated shows, formed and directed art groups, and participated in art support and documentation throughout the years. Recently, I am making digital video and images, designing web sites, and attending this institution. I grew up with the Beats, and knew many of them, both famous and unknown. I see in my headlong rush to experience, my intensity, my outsider status, my spirituality, a reflection of what I saw in them. There was a fire in some of them that made me seem placid. I was much younger than most, and I am probably one of the last left. There are six principles that guide my praxis in all the forms I work. They are Material, Frame, Perspective, Figure, Ground and strategy. They show my background and reference as a painter. It might be felt that these are general categories and not specific to my work. My belief is that the art process must be kept simple to allow for spirit to come into the work. I also will try to show that these simple groupings can be seen on many different levels. They unfold, as Physicist and Philosopher David Bohm has used the word, I believe, from the specific word as used in painting terminology to words that have a universal meaning, perhaps to the borders of our notion of reality itself. Material is primary. The material dictates the structure of the work, how it will be produced, and its surface. The materials of a painting are the kind of paint used, the material it is painted on and the kind of brush used to lay the paint down. Material in a digital video is the DV tape, the kind of camera to shoot with, the editing system ( linear or nonlinear). The material is the recording system that structures the idea. My personality structures how I use the material. I do not want to get into defining myself, but there are certain characteristics that create a stylistic consistency, I believe, in all the media in which I work. My impetuous ways, for instance, create loose, rough-hewn works. My use of material is as Harold Rosenberg used it, factual, in that it is visible and directly a part of the work. If there is any illusionism, the material is part of it. The next decision to make is choosing a frame. The frame is the boundary of my inquiry. The size of the work and also the Keying, or Coding as Erving Goffman uses the terms, to suggest the context in which the work is set. There are many keys for the work I do. It is primarily modern art, It has a political orientation, closely aligned with neo structuralism ( a cultural critique that attempts to analyze the problems in society and pose answers) on One hand, and Situationism(see below) on the other. Situationism attempts to alter personal and social relations by altering space, creating actions and engendering dialogue. My work encapsulates other disciplines, Science, Shamanism ( a form of native spirituality that sees everything as a living part of a living family) and other information systems. Deciding to work in the frame of art is like playing in the playground. It is an arena with a structure, a proscenium, a theater in which to construct a play, that before I created it, was unknown to me. Like a game or improvisation, there are a few rules I will devise to facilitate the structure of the process. They are only a doorway that allows me to enter. Once there, feelings, ideas, reactions and impulses will present themselves to me as image and structure My art is a reflection of my self and also a search for a hidden truth, pattern, organization or environment. My approach is very simple, whether I am working on a painting, a sculpture, a set design for a play, an environment, or organizing an exhibition. I have a position, and that position is my perspective. In a landscape painting it could be a perspective of space. It could just as easily be a political perspective, or a feeling. The perspective is where I am standing when I start to survey the territory, in literal or symbolic terms. Orientation is a key to perspective, it suggests the viewers participation. By changing perspective, the viewers orientation also changes. Before I started organizing exhibitions, for instance, I experienced the isolation that many of the artists I knew existed in. The Soho galleries and Museums were out of reach for most of us. There were few places to show large scale works, works in progress, or works with political import. Many of us had models and plans for public commissions and competitions that were rejected. I also felt that artists would appreciate and support each others work in a group environment. The Times Square Show was wonderful, but chaotic, There was no curation, or organizing principle. I wanted to change the system. I surveyed the territory and took a position. In the Universe there is space, and there is matter. In my work there are figure and ground. The ground is the environment, the place, the room, the milieu, the landscape, the set, locale, the stage, space, the whole, the field, the map, the matrix, the surface, the grid, the continuum, the screen, the context. In or on the ground is a figure that exists in that space. The figure can be a person or group, the particulars of a place, the manifestation, the object, the pile, the shape, the actor, the sculpture, an identity, the gesture, the part, a protagonist, an archetype or myself. The figure on the ground, and in relation to the ground, forms an identity. Emotion drives my work, and my feelings about the figure in that place will engender reactions physically, mentally and spiritually. There is a story to be found in the unraveling of the relationship. The figure in the relationship is man as the measure of all things. It is the scale, in both size, measure, volume, and balance. >From the age of five to 35 years old my work was hobbled by psychological problems that made it difficult to see and analyze the art I was creating( see Prologue ll-The challenge of the Introject). During that time my work was purely automatic. I became an expressionist who could not see the meaning of the feelings I was expressing. , I learned to use creative strategies to bypass the blocks, Since my painful epiphany, I am more conscious, and can interact more closely with the various levels of the work. Strategy is the last step in the process. Strategy is the means of structuring the building of a piece, and also the creative strategies used to move deeper into the work, to redefine it, and to maintain an authentic presence inside it. Marianne Williamson says there are two basic states, love and fear. When we fear, we distance ourselves. When we love, we become closer to what we love. The handling of material is sensuous and even erotic. There are times when I have to use strategies to move into the work, because I am blocked, turned off, and distancing myself.   Prologue l: The Baby at 14 Months (Imprint). Picture the baby. Closed in room that is darkened to hopefully make him sleep. Adults busy elsewhere with their own lives. No stimulation or toys except a ring of rattles on the bars of the crib where he lay. His mind is active and alert, and he is very self aware. He climbs out of the crib, like Sweetpea in the Popeye Cartoons, and explores the room. He reaches the wall and feels it with his hands. The smooth texture, the rounded nodules of paint on plaster. He has an impulse to play with this surface. The only material available is in his diaper. He takes gobs of the stuff and draws it over the wall. He feels joyful in this wonderful activity. His abandonment and loneliness are ended in the practice of this game. Moral: Some things change, and some things stay the same Commentary I do not know how innate art making activity is. This is my experience. It validates the child I was, and my connection to him. As I wrote in my Crayon Show essay, we can access creativity, by accessing the child mind within. + Add feminist Prologue ll: Challenge of the Introject(Antithesis) During my attendance of the "Aboriginal Ways of Knowing" Seminar, I felt deep empathy for the experience of the Aboriginal Peoples. I have endured much suffering of a personal nature, and yet that suffering has helped me expand my awareness as an artist and a person. During my childhood, severe abuse caused me to dissociate. I had many problems that resulted from this condition, including severe mood swings, depression, stuttering, night terrors, acting-out behavior and other symptoms. This later led to alcohol, drug abuse, and many conflicts. I was hindered in almost every area of life. In this condition the sources or causes are repressed below conscious awareness. The unraveling of this mystery has been a lifelong quest. In the search for an authentic self all resources must be brought to bear. I can state with humility that I did uncover the source, which was the repository of childhood feelings and reaction I had submerged. I had to re-experience them fully. For all the therapy, the psychoanalysis and talking that I had suffered through, it was techniques and people that modeled the "felt sense" and compassion that allowed me to retrieve lost knowledge. My work as an artist helped me in my search. As an artist I am used to letting energies run through me and transform into work . . . I learned to be pragmatic, flexible and strategic. I never gave up. I cannot minimize how difficult this process was for me. Integrating intense child emotions within the ego of an adult is a challenging piece of work in itself. It felt like I lived without skin for several years. This integration affected my art career and led to my becoming a teacher. I needed space, time and a daily routine. I was not able at that time to concentrate on my work in the same way as in the past. I dedicate my life and my art to those whose lives, whether for personal or social reasons, were affected in this way. It is an often fatal condition. "I alone am left to tell the tale"- Moby Dick Aphorisms     Part lll: Poem of Practice(Preliminary) Some artists sit on the fence. I jump in the yard to play with the other kids. I love to paint Critical Understanding of our culture Has made me a Situationist . But unlike them, I have nostalgia for poetry. The path leads in as well as out. Self is a contracted frame of the mass. Some artists learn a mysterious discourse. I want to be as clear as a bell. While still using the discourse of art. Linda Montano says art is life. But I think frames are necessary to view the Material without distraction in most cases. When I go into the street to play, as I am wont to do. Everything I do is framed by art. When I am blinded by the light or the darkness. Art is my seeing-eye dog. I have tried to play by the rules. But I really like to make up the rules as I go along. I want to change the nature of the game. Create new games with new rules. I want everybody to join in the fun. Some hide the games behind the fence. In the yard with the dog. They like tall fences that block viewing. I want the yard visible from the street, with a wide gate. I plan the strategy. But the execution is spontaneous. I know theory, but my art is about feelings. My hand is as important as my eye. Process is more important than conclusion. Means more important than ends. I draw from life. Landscape, objects, politics, science, and dreams I draw on my knowledge of things. I draw from my feelings. My process is a part of the content. The media forms the content. Rosenberg called it Factual Paint. My pictures are often landscape with figure. My sets are a form of landscape with active figures. My sculptures sit in the landscape as figure. My installations install the viewer as the figure in the landscape The large events I organized were art as landscape. My curations are about survey as landscape. Text is figure The landscape is the terrain I view, and also where I stand. The figures can be persons, abstractions, or piles. I change perspective readily. Changing perspective changes consciousness. I expand or collapse the frame as needed. I abstract to generalize information. I like riffing. Matter, space and time are holographic with enfolded meaning. In the past I tried to fill the entire space. But now I appreciate emptiness. Situationism: An International Art Movement that emerged from an analysis that indicted capitalism for its transformation of citizens into Passive Consumers of the depoliticised media-spectacle that had replaced active participation in public life. It emerged from Surrealism, but instead of focusing on the unconscious, emphasized an interest in Detournement (diversion or displacement), derive (drift) and urbanisme unitaire (integrated city life). The latter necessitated crossing the boundaries that separated art forms ( paintings larger than buildings, for instance)- and of urban environments as locales for situations, or meaningful social interactions. ( Atkins, R. Artspeak, 1990) (Note: the Situationists were the organizers of the Great Paris Strike of 1968) This description aptly describes much of the work I have done as an art organizer and artist. Although I have never read Debord before, I will do so now. Interestingly, I was in Paris in 1968, but left just before the great Situationist uprising began. Perhaps I absorbed the ideas that were being discussed everywhere in Paris at the time. lV: My work is concerned with heuristics, the study of methods and discovery, as opposed to proof. My art is a modular, humanistic, landscape-based narrative. I have also used text as probe, where the text becomes figure. I do not believe Modernism is finished, the fact that Post is included as an antecedent suggests that it is still aligned with the narrative. Developments in science usually signal changes in consciousness. New theories and techniques, such as the proof of quantum action at a distance, superstring, enfolded dimensions, or multiple dimensional space at the quantum level, the genome project, freezing of light itself, contradictions of dark matter, the development of computer networks with consequent knowledge and information access to the entire world: These things (and others) will change the way we think, what we see, and whom we think we are. Art will change and adapt, and I would like to investigate it. Another interesting point is the media spectacle theory of the Situationists. Many artists, like Keith Haring, The Blue Man Group. Survival Research laboratories, Cirque de Soleil, Barbara Kruger have been eaten and absorbed to become just another act, circus, image, style. That is why style without substance means very little. The values that an artist uses to make work are extremely important. They might not even be seen in the work, but they are embedded. There was a saying from the 60's. If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem. The landscape also refers to Geomancy (Pliny), external signs as an indicator of what to do next. My spirituality, which is be a form of Shamanism, or native spirituality, informs my process and subject matter. As an artist I study creativity and art and construction techniques as tools of the trade. I believe any process or state can be examined and understood. The one mysterious part of the mind is the subconscious, which reveals secrets grudgingly. V:The Criminal Enterprise of Don Franco: Power Trip(Riff) Frank "Franco" Shifreen is the Godfather of a vicious criminal enterprise in north little Italy. He is masquerading as an artist. His operation creates forgeries, steals ideas, and infiltrates stable cultural entities. His bribes and deconstructions are legend. He plagiarizes recklessly. He sends his minions to shock and disgust the public. He uses extortion, evasion and blackmail to get his way. He has willfully destroyed many sacred cows. Corpses of his victims lie scattered throughout the world. Many art forms have been corrupted by his fiendish attempt at infiltration. He operates under a phony veil of poverty and humility. He claims to be a man of the people, but he is really a dictator. He has been known to strike down helpless ideas with his club labeled "reason"on one side and "I don't need no reason." on the other He can be seen at lavish affairs at so-called "openings," where he and his cohorts congregate and plot further crimes against the public. He also has created "front" organizations in furtherance of his criminal designs. Investigators are sure that he is behind "pump and dump" schemes to flood the market with his work and that of his cronies. Those that have invested, mostly mom and pop collectors, have lost their shirts . . . Don Franco is a menace, and must be stopped! Commentary This was fun to write. V1 The Schmendrick: Negative Social Introject(Rant) I am a " has been" painter who should have stopped my poor excuse of an art career 20 years ago. I persist in an antiquated format (paintings, sculpture) and style, (abstracted figuration), that has long ceased to be relevant in today's art world. My pictures are a halfhearted attempt at rehashing successful art ideas, in a vain attempt at pretense of "creative genius." I continue making work that piles up in my studio, which wastes the earth's resources, and if it is a sign of anything, it is conspicuous consumption. I show this work in second rate galleries that are seen by only a handful of people, and the majority of those are friends that owe me a favor, or family. The galleries are generally "vanity" in some form that are not run as a business. They are often operated at a loss, on purpose. Nonprofit spaces that have a cancellation or slot to fill will give me shows as well. My first curatorial effort was part of a manipulative scheme by other artists who thought I would "play ball" with their agenda, and resulted in losing the best loft space in the city. Other groups that I hoped to nurture to strength were often conglomerations of artists too disturbed to tie their shoelaces, let alone make good art. Artists would use these groups to further their careers, and then bail out, leaving me holding the bag. The art world today is mostly a sham, a game of smoke and mirrors, where criticism is an infomercial, sales are false, galleries are meant to lose money, and institutions are in on the game. The market and institutional yes-men are a savvy group of insiders who generate the history that guarantees their investment. Commentary While doing research for this article, I came upon an online magazine ( ecological, political activists) with an article that advances the idea that art wastes earth resources and was frivolous. He believed in direct community work. That is why the author stopped making art. I thought it was amusing. I thought to myself, If you can stop making art then you should stop. Artists have to create art. I have compassion for the authors' devaluation of his work and underestimating the power of art to carry a message. This rant is meant as a satire, but in many ways it is factually true. A part of an artist practice in today's society is to find ways to keep going, find some belief in oneself, the process, or have spiritual resources. There are so few rewards for artists who are lacking in ego, or any of the parts that are needed to function as an artist. To be an artist is to be a manufacturer of a product. One has to have studio space. Design, construct, document, find exhibitions, do the shows, and often find sales. There are few galleries in my experience, (with rare exceptions) who really take an interest in selling the work. If work does not sell, it means storing it, reusing, or throwing it away. When artists die in New York,( and I am sure it happens elsewhere), If the artist is not commercially successful, or has no family, the work is thrown out. I have personally have seen this kind of tragedy five times, and know of many other cases, . It makes me want to start a charity with just that purpose, to protect some or all the work of artists who has died. Our society, being as competitive as it is, produces people who compare themselves to standards as promulgated by the media. There is tremendous power in art, but often not in the marketplace, prestige, or outward success. Besides mounting shows, this was often my reason for starting or participating in groups. Unfortunately, in the past I did not have the knowledge to create a structure that was organizationally or critically sound. I could have used some business or management courses . Art schools are not doing their part to prepare artists to survive, organize, and protect their interests. I have always been interested in the business of art, and developing systems to use or bypass the commercial market if need be, in order to present new work .                                   References Lyotard, J F., (1984) Driftworks.(Mckeon, R. 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