Traditional Textiles of Southwest Chinese Minorities
Features a selection of more then 500 objects including historically significant clothing and silver ornaments from a collection of southwest Chinese minority costumes unmatched in this world. Costumes from 15 ethnic groups and nearly 100 subgroups will be shown in the United States for the first time.
University of Hawaii at Manoa Art Gallery September 21 - November 30, 2008
"Diversity…is not casual liberal tolerance of anything not yourself. It is not polite accommodation. Instead, diversity is, in action, the sometimes painful awareness that other people, other races, other voices, other habits of mind have as much integrity of being, as much claim on the world as you do… And I urge you, amid all the differences present to the eye and mind, to reach out to create the bond that…will protect us all. We are all meant to be here together." William M. Chase, "The Language of Action"
v. tr. To dissolve the organization of (a corporation, for example).
v. intr.
1. To cease to function as an organization; break up. 2. To separate and move in different directions; disperse.
(scroll down to just watch the damn thing)
"The Disbanding"
This work has been my greatest achievement and my biggest downfall. I have tried over and over again to share this work with people, especially the people involved in the process, but alas, I've always fallen short. I cannot get the damn thing on the internet. Frick and Frack.
I have always had a keen knack for concept, I can think of ten artistic projects I would love to tackle, daily, and if there were twenty of me, I would gladly. Coming up with an idea or a concept is not the problem. Sticking with one project is pretty difficult but I can usually get things done to a point where I am satisfied. Artistic hands-on projects are wonderful and I could do them all day long.
Technology, however, is my foe. I am not very good at anything technical or based in logic or reason. I'm a feeler. Everything I do is loose, a flowing and personal and emotive. I wade through the day in a vast swamp of Emotions and thoughts. When it comes to structure I must wrote everything down or else I'm doomed to forget it as soon as I see a bright color palette or something shiny. Therefore even with manual in hand (and massive amounts of coffee in my system), I haven't been able to get this thing out and available for public view.
Until now.
I have finally figured out how to get this dang thing online. After Six months of being finished with this project I've got it in two places online. Why did this take so long? Well I am not a video person, I am entirely self taught and cannot crunch the compression numbers like a certain Dirty Pig film genius I know. After much search and helpful guidance of aforementioned Pig I found a handy guide on line about compressing videos. I've got the file size down to a fraction of what it was and i think the quality hasn't lost hardly any sharpness.
So this is the original concept that I wrote in early 2008, when i started this whole mess.
"I have started a new and tremendous project that will probably drive me a bit further into complete and utter insanity... however, I am very excited about it! But that's probably because I just started. But hey, this is my united states of whatever. Who needs sleep right? Pshaw.
So anyway, as some of you probably know my film group, Complementary Colors Cinema is disbanding. It's sad, yes, it's tragic, of course, BUT it also gives me a plot for another film! I'm awful, yes but whatever.
So to celebrate the short year-ish we had together I am creating a film, very similar to the first film we made together. It breaks my heart that Tiger cannot be here in Montgomery making plaster people with me but I will trudge on regardless. Her creative madness lives on in my heart.
So the movie will be gin with interviews of all the colors... This will be done over the course of time because some of us are a 1000 miles away. It will be the set up for the next part of the film which will be me creating a monument to CCC, in plaster. After I'm done I will mention how I look forward to seeing how this work and how all of our projects will move and grow and become something better and more exciting. I guess this is just how the six of us operate as people, we grow and change and try to be better and do better. At least that's the goal.
Anyway, so the film cuts to six plaster casts which have dreadlocks growing out of their heads and up into the ceiling (this is because Tigger and I have dreadies of complementary colors when we first started this whole thing) after a some beautiful camera work by moi, the plaster will suddenly be real people! painted while draped in canvas.
After some more set up shots one by one the plaster people (now turned real) walk away. we each go out separate ways, just like the real people, and get on buses, bikes, cars and go away. The blue hair one (me) will be the last to leave. Eventually I will walk out side and toward downtown. the difference with me is that the paint will start to walk away and eventually my canvas will fall and I'll be me as I normally am and I'll just keep going and walking without noticing the final change.
This also signifys that I'll be graduating soon and out on my own and become my own person.
*whew* this is getting long...
Anyway a special thanks to Jazmine, Eric, James, Ky, Nathan, Kyle, Kyla, Daliah and Lisa for being such willing victims... models, I mean models... yeah.
lovelovelove, Boz"
Obviously after you watch the finished product you will realize that the concept has indeed changed. But it's basically the same. Six friends leaving and going to the four winds. It is ultimately about change. ...
...
To watch a higher resolution version of "The Disbanding" please visit my Youtube or Blip TV pages.
Here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/BozSchurr
And here:
http://bozschurr.blip.tv/
“Film is one of the three universal languages, the other two: mathematics and music” - Frank Capra
Bachelor of Arts - Graphic Design June 2008 – Portland State University Portland, OR
Bachelor of Arts - Drawing and Painting June 2008 – Portland State University Portland, OR
Selected Exhibitions:
Coffee House Café Solo Show March 2003, August 2004 Salem, Oregon
Vagina Monologues Art Show Portland State University, February 2007, 2008
Artists for the Community First Thursday Group Show Albina Community Bank, March – October 2007 Portland, Oregon
Complementary Colors Video Screening First Thursday Albina Community Bank, August 2007 Portland, Oregon Fantastic Friday Fundraiser Group Show Portland State University, August 2007 Portland, Oregon
Food for Thought Student Gallery Solo Show Portland State University, September – December 2007 Portland, Oregon
Portland Women’s Crisis Line Juried Exhibition Katie and Dave’s, September 2007 Portland, Oregon
Bamboo Grove Salon Tiny Art Show, Group Show November 2007 Portland, Oregon
Portland Art Center Group Show December 2007 Portland, Oregon Portland Art Center Group Panel Show Portland Art Center, December 2007 Portland, Oregon Temporary Installation/ Documented Group Performance Portland State University, June 2008 Portland, Oregon
Awards:
Best in Show for Painting 2000 Bush Barn Arts Center Salem, Oregon
Best in Show for Painting 2001 Bush Barn Arts Center Salem, Oregon
Best in Show Portland, Oregon Vagina Monologues Art Show, February 2007 Honorable Mention Portland, Oregon Katie and Dave’s, September 2007
I have a project, which is extra to my regular studio time, assigned by my Seminar professors. Basically the project states that we must find a partner of a different year (i.e. a second and first year must work together) and a create a piece, or group of pieces, of collaborated art. I am excited about this on some levels and apprehensive on others. My previous experiences with collaborations have always been difficult but in the end more fulfilling then I could have ever dreamed. I have high expectations for those I work with.
Basically, in class, we presented an artist whose work we may or may not admire and the reasons why we don't create our art in the same vein. What art style or medium we tend to avoid or just never use. I chose life threatening or self mutilating art, for what I would hope were obvious reasons. I like the work that these artists create, however, I do not feel the need, for the sake of my work, to change my appearance permanently or put myself in harm's way. Another painter, a second year, also depicted artists whose work was face altering or scarring. We have thus decided to work together.
So after some debate we decided to create a piece that is the opposite from the scarring genera. As much as we admire those artists we aren't going to use their methods for a class assignment. Our theme then is safety, security and comfort. To be safe. To feel safe. What does it mean?
During this discussion we tried to think of things that make us feel safe and comfortable. We came up with: pillows, packing supplies, sheets, mattresses, cardboard boxes and bubble wrap. We were thinking of fun things that can also be acquired for cheap. We are poor artists and we'd ultimately like to keep this work simple (since we're trying to be opposite, and facial reconstructive surgery is expensive, elaborate and often time consuming).
So to illustrate my thought process, I have illustrated my thoughts and their process. Below is my first sketch. The Pillow Monk. He is sitting in a room where there are pillows (a symbol of comfort and safety) hang suspended from the ceiling. The catch is that they are filled with dangerous objects, broken glass, bricks, rocks, chunks of plaster, etc. There is one pillow which has supposedly fallen to the floor, demonstrating what could happen to this person sitting below them. He is cast in red light to illuminate how an often seemingly safe situation can become difficult and dangerous.
I like that idea, but there are a few things we would need to work out, however, there are several other avenues we can go with as well. I thought about having the two of us stand against a wall with a projection of a video I edited over top. This video would start out with safe things. People hitting the wall with feathers, pillows and other fluffy things. It would appear that the people in the video would be hitting the two artists standing on the wall. Eventually the video would become more and more violent, the artists being "hit" with harder and more blunt objects: bricks, rocks, bottles, etc. Eventually I would like to end the last panel with a red light and then sudden blackness. With the sudden blackness would be a gun shot sound and as the audience's eye adjusted to the dark they would see the artists on the floor. And as their eyes adjusted all the way we would be bleeding. I am unsure how to rig the blood, but I'm sure it could be done.
So the final idea we've decided to go with is a hybrid of the two previous ideas. We are going to make a video of the two artists pillow fighting. The video will start out innocently enough, a cute couple having a playful, flirty little pillow fight, but then after a while the fighting becomes more and more serious. It will be difficult to notice the gradual shift in intentions. The video will be upward of six or seven minutes long. After it becomes obvious that we are not playing around anymore, we will really start to try hurting each other. After a few minutes of this I will knock his pillow away and the knock him down. I'll push my pillow over his face until he "dies." I wish to use this concept because ultimately we'll only have to use things we already own and there will be no addition prep when we show the work in class. Also it questions how safe "safe" things can be.
"Art is dangerous. It is one of the attractions: when it ceases to be dangerous you don't want it." Duke Ellington
I am an Artist, mainly drawing and painting but I dabble in video, installation and performance. I do what I can with what I have. Thanks for looking, your feedback is greatly appreciated.
