Franklin Furnace's artist-curated series "Food for Thought" continues with Works from the Permanent Collection. The international collection of works by artists has invited Felix Gonzalez-Torres to consider Franklin Furnace's diverse collection which includes books, periodicals, audio tapes and disks, posters, postcards, and other multiples. Mr. Gonzalez-Torres has selected the most ephemeral objects in the collection- audio works -- his intention being to reduce art to its essence while expanding its boundaries to the limit of space.
"Food for Thought' is Franklin Furnace's continuing series of artist-curated selections from its permanent collection of artists' publications published internationally since 1960. Through this program, Franklin Furnace hopes to make the curatiorial process more accesible to the public. Franklin Furnace Archive, Inc. is the largest body of multiple artworks in the United States, gathered almost exclusively through donations by artists. As Barbara Kruger and Robert Barry ably demonstrated with exhibitions from the collection in 1983 entitled "Artists' Use of Language," artists are perhaps the most proficient "experts" in the relatively new field of twentieth century published works.
Felix Gonzalez-Torres is an internationally recognized conceptual artist whose stacked multiple images on paper challenge the commodity-based art system Viewers are invited to take images, changing the work from object to idea during the course ofits exhibition. Mr. Gonzalez-Torres has also filled comers with candy; mounted billboards picturing empty beds; produced bare lightbulbs as mutiples and other suggestive, ephemeral objects.
Works from the Permanent Collection is funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency; the New York City Departments of Cultural Affairs; and the friends and members of Franklin Furnace.
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School of Bayonne's annual Worldwide Audio-Visual Art Exhibion has been one of the most exciting projects aired over RADIO BAYONNE. The exhibition this year will run in conjunction with the Audio show which opens 6 to 8 p.m, November 19, 1993 at Franklin Furnace. On that night selected art works will be heard not seen, as pictures hang on the airwaves. Don't miss this historical moment, a once- in -a- lifetime (broadcast 4 to 6 p.m on Fridays) opportunity to listen to art and to help plant the seeds of destruction of the gallery system as we know it!
School of Bayonne, founded in 1990, is a non-profit, artist-administrated institution dedicated to exploring new media in art and to challenging conventional notions about the nature of the world on both political and personal levels. In 1992, SOB created RADIO BAYONNE, the world's first artist-run radio station, and has been broadcasting regularly at 90.5 FM at a mysterious location in lower Manhattan. RADIO BAYONNE has been called "the Cafe Voltaire of the airwaves" as each week it brings art to a vast new audience and offers artists a chance to experiment with a normally restricted and largely untapped medium
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Franklin Furnace is located 112 Franklin Street between West Broadway and Church Street, four blocks below Canal Street (Subways: 1/9 to Franklin; A, C and E to Canal; 6 to Canal; N and R to Canal). Telephone Franklin Furnace at 925-4671.
FRANKLIN FURNACE ARCHIVE, INC.
"FOOD FOR THOUGHT, 1993"
September 1993. FELIX GONZALEZ-TORRES is an internationally recognized conceptual artist whose stacked multiple images on paper challenge the commodity-based art system -- viewers are invited to take images, changing the work from object to idea during the course of its exhibition. Mr. Gonzalez-Torres has also filled corners with candy; mounted billboards picturing empty beds; produced bare lightbulbs as multiples, and other suggestive, ephemeral objects.
"FOOD FOR THOUGHT, 1991- 92"
November 1991. NANCY SPERO'S works reveal this artist's lifelong commitment to social activism, feminism, and the role of art in the advancement of social justice. Ms. Spero uses images and text combined, creating rubber stamps of historical images of women and texts by Artaud and others to indict. One of the founders of AIR Gallery, Ms. Spero is regarded as a senior member of the Feminist movement in art.
January, 1992. RICHARD PRINCE. Known for his images appropriated from advertising, Richard Prince uses text and images to jar the viewer out of his or her paths of assumed knowledge -- usually by exhibiting the extreme level of fantasy that these images evoke. His writing and images have been shown and published widely in the United States, and internationally.
"FOOD FOR THOUGHT, 1990"
January, 1990. SKUTA HELGASON, native of Iceland, has lived in the United States and Europe, practicing his work as a photographer, and serving as manager of Washing Project for the Arts' bookstore. As Iceland has a thousand year old tradition of literacy and most members of the culture are practicing artists, Mr. Helgason was well qualified to meet the lay public of New York and to select powerful works.
February, 1990. PAT STEIR is a well known painter whose work is respected in New York and other international art centers. Ms. Steir was one of the twelve founders of Printed Matter, the premier bookstore for publications by artists. She has prepared a cover for Heresies magazine, and has done a multitude of other projects which have illuminated and advanced the field of artists' publishing.
March, 1990. LYNNE TILLMAN. Gaining recognition in the New York Times Book Review for her novel Haunted Houses, Lynne Tillman has long been a fixture in the art scene of New York, contributing to underground magazines such as Bomb and Between C&D, and above ground magazines such as Art in America. In addition to writing, Mrs. Tillman is a filmmaker. In 1984 her film, "Committed," on the life of Frances Farmer, was seen at U.S. and European film festivals. Lynne Tillman selected works from her private collection and other private collections for Franklin Furnace's 1978 exhibition, "Recent, Rare & Remarkable European Books," and has since donated works from her collection to Franklin Furnace's permanent collection.