Hatuey Ramos Fermin at Longwood Art Gallery

Hatuey Ramos Fermín’s first solo exhibition in NYC opens tomorrow night at the Longwood Art Gallery at Hostos!  Last fall, Dominican / Puerto Rican artist Hatuey asked me to work with him and to help him realize his first solo show as its curator.  I listened to his concept – an exhibition that investigates the livery cab drivers in the Bronx and was intrigued and agreed to help however I could.  The conversation got started, we shared ideas, he presented to me portions of his interviews with drivers, I gave the best feedback possible and tried to lend some direction in how to translate the video interviews into a gallery installation and Hatuey executed!

The show looks great and presents an intriguing insight into the little considered labor of the livery cab drivers.  I also wrote an essay and designed a small catalog in the form of a full spread newspaper sheet, English on one side, Spanish on the other and featuring a map created by Michael E Jimenez for the exhibition.

The day before the opening, Hatuey and I did a walk through and here are a couple photos taken.

TRANSMIT - TRANSIT car top with loud speakers amplifying live taxi dispatch

And below is an excerpt from the essay that I wrote for the exhibition:

“Attending to the local, by taking the local seriously” this is the mission of TRANSMIT – TRANSIT.  Ramos Fermín has engaged in deconstructing an element of local space to investigate just one detail of modernity and globalization.  He has not done so as a traditional artist, walking the streets of the Bronx, getting lost in the vernacular of the city to generate creative musings that reflect one person’s vision.  Instead he has worked as an investigative journalist or documentary filmmaker. Ramos Fermín has logged several hours of video interviews with livery cab drivers, he has visited several dispatch offices, diners, gas stations, car repair shops… the local spaces of the drivers.  Over the last several months, he has engaged with the livery cab community to learn of its reality, document it and create an engaging portrayal that is both attentive and serious.  The final outcome of his investigation is a rich installation that attempts to capture the hardship and diversity of the trade.  And the encompassing device of the installation is the live radio feed from cab livery dispatches surrounding the gallery.

By incorporating the live radio dispatch, Ramos Fermín transforms the gallery visitor from art viewer to voyeur, listening in on the orders being transmitted all around us.  Radio transmissions that direct one human being to drive a vehicle to a specific site, pick up a passenger, and drive to a new destination.  It happens at all hours of each day; it is a common reality of the urban space and absolutely nothing exceptional.   And yet it is fascinating to take a moment, listen and consider the wide implications of these transmissions.  By having us listen, Ramos Fermín effectively dislocates our consciousness into a private space – that radio spaces employed between dispatch and drivers – transmissions that we are only privy to when in a cab and even then hardly take note of.  But when these transmissions are re-contextualized within the gallery walls, when we are invited to listen, not as passengers eager to arrive at our destination, but rather as art viewers expecting to engage with creative work, the transmissions gain new depths.   The gallery becomes a portal to an alternate real-time reality – we listen to what others are doing and experiencing at that same moment, but elsewhere, not far, but beyond the gallery’s walls.

Include letter of application with teaching/artistic/professional philosophy, curriculum vitae, list of three references or send to:
Dr. James Roman, Professor & Chair
Department of Film and Media Studies
Hunter College, CUNY
695 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10065

One of the dissenters on the Supreme Court bench, the ever-thoughtful Justice John Paul Stevens “read a long dissent from the bench. He said the majority had committed a grave error in treating corporate speech the same as that of human beings. His decision was joined by the other three members of the court’s liberal wing.” The change that Obama seeks to bring just seems to be undermined as his presidential tenure proceeds. Read the full article from the NY Times – Justices Overturn Key Campaign Limits.

“I don’t believe theater can change the world. People can — through rigorously created art that can reveal to those watching what their politics are and through an interrogation of ideas that massages empathy, the place where all great politics comes from.”
Melanie Joseph

both were once Banana Republics of the United States.

both were once ruled by dictatorial dynasties supported by the U.S.: Somoza Dynasty (1936-1979) <=> Duvalier family (1957-1986). It’s uncertain to whom Roosevelt was referring to when he said “He may be a son of a bitch, but he’s our son of a bitch…” whether it was Anastasio Somoza or Trujillo of the Dominican Republic, but it could have been made by later presidents about Papa Doc or Baby Doc.

Today both countries remain amongst the poorest of the Americas and both countries are susceptible to natural disasters.

In the late 1960s or very early 70s, Howard Hughes was in talks with Somoza to establish Nicaragua as a tourist destination due to its natural beauty. Had these plans come to fruition, Nicaragua today could be much like Costa Rica, but in 1972 the capital of Nicaragua, Managua was struck by a 6.5 earthquake which destroyed nearly 90% of the city and Hughes soon left the country along with his plans.

International aid arrived and Somoza became even wealthier. Rather than using the relief money to rebuild Managua, create jobs and homes for the poor, Somoza stole foreign aid and stifled industry. Today the ruins of old Managua remain in place with poor people living in them, the new Managua has been built around the ruins with little organization or long term planning. Shanty towns can be found adjacent to the old downtown and there are many sections that do not have running water or formal electricity. Nicaragua, where the streets have no name, remains amongst the poorest countries of the Americas, usually second to Haiti. The history of course is a lot more complex than the 1972 quake, none the less, the earthquake and its scars are very much present.

It’s 2010, a corrupt dictator does not rule over Haiti, however in an impoverished nation with weak civic infrastructure it’s not difficult to envision the future Port-au-Prince in today’s Managua.

Just when it seemed that we had made progress, that change had come, that the little people could unite to raise funds and get an intelligent individual into the office of the president, along come the Supreme Court judges to squash the power of the people.

Currently in NYC, following some deal making, Bloomberg Inc. is in the midst of buying a third mayoral term. The next presidential elections will also be bought by big money.

There’s been little coverage on Citizens United vs. Federal Election Committee. Here’s the opening sentence from a Slate article by R. Hansen:
“If Republicans were wondering how their 2012 presidential candidate is going to compete against President Obama’s $600 million fundraising juggernaut, the Supreme Court seems poised to provide an answer: unlimited corporate spending supporting the Republican candidate, or attacking Obama.”

From NY Times Editorial:
“If Citizens United prevails, it would create an enormous loophole in the law and allow corporate money to flood into partisan politics in ways it has not in many decades. It also would seriously erode the disclosure rules for campaign contributions.”

The word must get out, pressure to the Supreme Court during this decision might be the only way to maintain some semblance of democracy!

Undercover police prepare for a night at work.

As Belsey puts it “Postmodernism celebrates the capability of the signifier itself to create new forms and new rules.”

…the YouTube dance, with its emphasis on the individual, the home, and individuated and internalized production, embodies key characteristics of our economic situation of post-Fordism. If Fordism once described a social and economic system that focused on large-scale factory production, post-Fordism describes a shift away from the masses of workers in the same space, to smaller scale production by workers scattered around the world. These workers are linked by technology rather than an assembly line, and there are more temporary or contract workers, often working from home, producing more specialized, less standardized goods.

Ideas that Jeff Crouse and Stephanie Rothenberg’s virtual sweatshop piece “Double Happiness Jeans”.  An installation and performative work that has real people using their Second Life avatars making jeans for gallery visitors.