communiques

rememberment

2010-04-03T16:08:00.001-07:00

I need feedback on the newest part of my website: http://www.kimcampisano.com/rememberment/rememberment.htm

Cold April

2010-04-03T14:10:00.000-07:00

Again, I think myself right and that life is looking up, things are getting simpler. I try to trust in hard work and good intentions. But there's always a sneaking suspicion that it's never enough.

working on believing..

2009-08-09T20:17:00.000-07:00

i think the clouds are either forming or parting, but things will soon be clear.

Last Days of Summer

2009-08-06T14:16:00.000-07:00

It's been a while...
Seen here is a view of my most recent installation - "Shedding", a collaboration with Yasmin Lambie-Simpson.

Now I'm trying to squeeze in all the sun, art-making, friends and family I can before resuming work(?) and installing my MFA show. It's weird to think of a solo show after so much collaboration.
I'm keeping fingers crossed that I can find a decent/suitable position with my old district.
Details to follow....

A chance to reflect on last week's show

2009-03-28T14:45:00.000-07:00

I was more than impressed by everyone's showing last Saturday and thankful for the opportunity to slow down for a bit and soak it all in. Thanks especially to Robbyn for being so selfless and committed to our successful expressions. Here are some images. Contact me if you want higher quality copies of y0ur pieces.

John Latham

2009-03-16T15:39:00.000-07:00

Here's the quicktime movie I did in homage to Latham's Encyclopedia Britannica ...

Kasper's Stories...

2009-03-16T15:01:00.000-07:00

One reason it's been over a month since I posted.

To fill folks in, there was a community art event I collaborated on called "Kasper's Stories". It culminated Saturday on Telegraph Ave. in Oakland. For me process of working on Kasper’s Stories was an exercise in seeing the self in relation to others and the individuals involved in the context of a whole community. As an artist I often feel this tug between the personal work, the exploration of the ego and personal memory and the need to do work that addresses others – feels like it belongs to something bigger. In a sense that was all I ended up doing after ten years of teaching. “My work” (as it were) almost disappeared in sacrifice to students’, the school, community projects, etc. I am working on this dance between the big picture and my intimate space and personal expression. I may have to spend a bug chunk of time now in the studio – doing “my work”. But that alone won’t fulfill me in the long run and the project and this class has given me confidence in my moves into and out of these modes – that they are legitimate and can be accessed and asked for when needed.

Here's some info and documentation:

Collective Statement:
The Site Memory Collective was begun by a small group of students from John F. Kennedy University’s Arts and Consciousness Department in Berkeley, California, housed in the historic Heinz Building on San Pablo Avenue. Our focus is on personal and social transformation through art. We engage in research, performance, and site-specific instillations exploring the changing urban landscape as seen through individual and community memories of public spaces. We are particularly concerned with what it means to create art in a time of economic crisis. Where do we turn for inspiration? How can we keep community from being forgotten?

Excerpted from the Press Release:

TITLE: Kasper’s Stories

What does it mean to create art in a time of economic crisis? Where do we turn for inspiration? How can we keep community from being forgotten? Would you miss your neighborhood Hot Dog Stand if it weren't here anymore?

"Kasper's Stories” is a community art event organized around the idea of remembering and sharing memories of Original Kasper's Hot Dogs on 4521 Telegraph Avenue in Oakland which existed in this location for over 60 years before its doors closed on 2003. This art event is geared toward exploring the ways in which a community is affected by the closure of such a pivotal meeting place, and how the skeleton of the building lives on as a beacon to better times.

"Kasper's Stories” fuses art and community. This presentation will include art objects, which were created to memorialize the hot dogs, readings of testimonials from the community about the legendary food and memories created here, as well as lemonade and cookies for refreshment.

"Kasper's Stories” was conceived and created by members of the “Site Memory Collective”, a group of graduate art students from John F. Kennedy University in Berkeley. Members of the collective were drawn to the Kasper's because of its unusually shaped building and a simultaneous feeling of loneliness, love and centrality that pervaded the site and it’s surroundings.

DATE: Saturday March 14th, 2009
TIME: 12pm-2pm
LOCATION: Original Kasper's Hot Dogs
4521 Telegraph Avenue
Oakland, CA 94609

Lineage at the Red Door Gallery Feb. 6th-28th

2009-02-13T20:47:00.001-08:00

Catching up.
Really so much energy went into joining the Red Door collective and installing a show and curating performers that I didn't have room for blogging or journaling. I wonder if that's my problem with over commitment or all of our unreasonable expectations that everything we do is interesting enough to share with the entire planet. I am suspicious of both. Here's what I'm up to outside of class...(you already know about the inside) plus i will share from time to time thoughts, plans, insights, experiments, when they don't keep from actually doing said activities ....

I am really grateful to the Red Door folks for inviting me in and providing the space and faith to nurture the growth of individual artists they (now 'we') admire (for a small membership fee - worth every cent!). I feel like I have a forum for other work with community and projects that can be workshopped during and and well after 'art school' .

Actually as intimate as that space felt before I finished the installation, it really seemed like all those pieces couldn't fill it the way I'd imagined. Then I settled into the sparseness - added the weight to the floor and came to realize that each envelope was so visually and conceptually dense that it feels now like it works. And as people entered the space, they were able to pear though the 'wall' and see each other...I feel that worked. I was happy to gallery sit the day after opening, as that weekend is when people who couldn't make it to the reception usually come by and the vibe is very different.

It was important to get the work as far away from the wall as possible and cast the shadows on it instead (i've always been into the notion of traces, ghosts and artifacts, and shadows are part of that realm). Without initially intending to I settled on two sections that roughly represent my mother and my father...very roughly...gazing at each other.

To be honest, although some of this work is related to some of my other series, it's different in intent. It's quieter and more personal, I'm creating a story, from evidence, it's true, but much if it is evidence that I created as well or that I excavated and collected into a love letter Wunderkammer of sorts. Although many people represented at the front are still in this life, it is about communication from before or beyond.

I love what Seth Eisen said about this work seeming 'above and beyond words and language.' I totally feel that...even when I do quote or excise text to use.

More news than is fit to print...

2009-02-10T18:04:00.000-08:00

It seems we can never hear enough about each other and even those we have never met.

And so it is with me.