Wednesday, October 11, 2017, 4-6pm
The Barker Center, Room 114, The Kresge Foundation Room
The Barker Center, Room 114, The Kresge Foundation Room
Artist recycles + rehangs street banners; new cold war the focus of "affirmative re-action"5/7/2017   Artist’s new project recycles and re-hangs Provincetown’s plastic street banners; Russia and the new Cold War is the first focus of Jay Critchley’s latest project,
Affirmative Re-Action. New work will also be shown at two exhibitions at AMP Gallery in Provincetown this summer. reroot@comcast.net www.jaycritchley.com Ever wonder what happens to all that plastic that hangs over us on Commercial Street every summer? After the roses have faded and the event is over? Artist Jay Critchley’s new venture, the Affirmative Re-Action Project, will recycle and recreate these discarded signs and re-hang them over Commercial Street. The first will be installed from May 8-31near Provincetown Town Hall, designed with paint and naturally colored sand. The concept for this first two-sided banner – 8’ X 30” – is rooted in both the centennial of Provincetown’s historic, fecund decade: 1910-1920, and the new Cold War. Side one reads in large Russian constructivist numbers, 1917, the year of the Russian Revolution and WWI; side two, the word, DEAL. One hundred years later, Russia looms as a dominant political force. The young American journalist, Communist and Provincetown Player, John Reed, wrote Ten Days That Shook the World, an iconic book about the Russian Revolution. It inspired a riveting black and white documentary by Sergei Eisenstein, and a popular movie, Reds, about Reed, O’Neill and Louise Bryant, played by Warren Beatty, Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson, respectively. The artist is seeking donations of old street banners from businesses for his Affirmative Re-Action Project. Critchley also has new work in two shows scheduled at AMP Gallery in Provincetown this summer, both dealing with race, ethnicity and perception: May 26 – June 8, People of Colors*, sand paintings featuring repurposed advertising images; July 14 – 27, launching an investigative and collaborative new project, The Whiteness House – tarred and feathered**. * Sand Drawings: People of Colors Working with the sands of time for over thirty years – encrusting cars and a motel, sandblasting and filling a car – these sand drawings seem frail and intimate. Fracturing the stylized gloss of fashion magazine advertisements with the rawness of naturally colored sands exposes the bones and artifice of the human body on the flat page. How is our perception of an image altered when a gritty veil or mask of sand is applied? The sand may be black, white, pink, orange or beige. What shades of color do we perceive? What shades of color do we defy? ** The Whiteness House “The White House. The Whiteness House. The nation’s home takes on an ominous presence with a white President who has defined much of his Presidency based on color – following a black President. How white is a Whiteness House after a black President? How does a white house express its whiteness? The ongoing project and investigation will invite other artists to collaborate and draw upon cultural signifiers, such as: the White Cube; White Christmas; White Flight; Shades of White; Whitewash; Snow White; White Lies; White, Whiter, Whitest; Whiteout; White Race Films; Black & White mixed race films; People of Color Films; White Lite; White Rainbow; White Lightening; and Whitened Teeth. I recently visited the Bahamas to assist Harvard Professor Doris Sommer in her week-long workshop, Pre-Texts. It is a unique project that teaches literacy and citizenship through the arts.   Miami Beige – island of abandoned luxury (formerly Miami Beach) “You’ll swear you were really there!” A proposal by Jay Critchley Residences start at $22.5M! Move it on up - to aspirational high ground! Realize true luxury. Experience this sand-encrusted, entombed, island of sumptuousness, a post-petroleum haven: Miami Beige – island of abandoned luxury. Enjoy innovative, border-secure, sustainable island living with all the comforts you deserve. Its Coastal Living resort architecture features an eco-friendly beach-sand patina, a nostalgic reminder of yesteryear’s Sunshine State. Indulge in opulent high life on this last, rarified, car-free outpost in South Florida with ocean views from every lookout. Amenities include solar powered incinerator toilets, potable drinking water, yoga and rumba classes and 24/7 heliport services to other “carried interest” island retreats. And, indoor beaches, free of jellyfish and sharks! Miami Beige facilities, developed by Mobil Warming for a small planet in partnership with Disney World, include: - Carbon Kindness Golf Club - Chapel of Our Lady of the River of Grass - Meltdown Mall - Road Rage Rehab Center - Climate Change Casino & Spa - Faith-based Corporate Inversion Headquarters - Manatee Fitness Center - Governor’s Mobil Yawning Museum - Bank & Trust the Magic - Museum of Modern Archeology And solar powered sump pumps in every residence. It’s a small world after all.  Jay Critchley, Incorporated
Florida Atlantic University Feb 5 - April 2, 2016 Opening Feb 4, 6:30pm Reading Feb 5, 7:00pm mid-career exhibition read Press Release Gallery Lecture at Florida International University Miami Beach Urban Studios, College of Architecture + the Arts Feb 19, 7:00pm SCULPTURE MAGAZINE INSPICIO MAGAZINE, interview with artist by Susan Rand Brown ART IN AMERICA, advert image: Jay Critchley, Incorporated installation view from the Provincetown Art Association & Museum, 2015  33rd Re-Rooters Day Ceremony – 1-7-2016 – Provincetown Harbor
Mobil Warming – liboM gnimraW The Lord appeared to Moses in the form of a burning bush and gave him… The Ten Commandments of Corporate Gene-edited Shootings 1. Marketing of maladies is the Lord Thy God and thou shalt not have on fleek robotic heat seeking sensors fuel loading pre-human inversions; CHANT AFTER EACH: liboM gnimraW 2. Thou shalt not mastermind revenge porn virality fast-tracked as assisted giving buybacked water 3. Thou shalt not unravel intermittent stressors micro-pandering algorithms chemtailing de-carbonized short-termism 4. Thou shalt keep holy capsized digital natives bombed out from branding assaulted pet-centric low earth orbits 5. Honor thy father and thy mother: Train & Wreck 6. Thou shalt not kill mood hungry electrocueticals retweeting pain capable e-commerce walls 7. Thou shalt not commit ice-capped infectivity trigger warning bingeing hackers’ redacting carried interest revenge porn 8. Thou shalt not steal graceful degradation borders terrorforming nuked yoyo dieted combinatorial explosions 9. Thou shalt not bear false witness against politicians bloviating metaprobabilities electrocuring corporate gene-edited shootings 10.Thou shalt not covet moral licensing of mutation detection climate-controlling browser beaten microbiome flybys. Let it be known that the devils and sinners who deceive us shall be cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beasts and false profits are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever. Amen. Twelve Days of Stockpiling 2016 (Twelve Days of Christmas)
Jay Critchley featured in Dec 2015 edition of Sculpture Magazine.   The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere Listen my children and you shall hear, Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere. With a world-class city without no jive, Hardly a man is now alive Who remembers that famous betrayal and fear. He said to his friend, “If the CEOs march By land or sea with their 2.0 tonight, Hang a torch aloft in the belfry arch Of the Widett tower as a signal light- One if by land, and two if by sea; And I on the transparent shore will be, Ready to ride and spread the alarm The Olympics are coming! The Olympics are coming!” * * * * * * * * * * ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas ‘Twas the night before the Olympics, when all through the house Not a voter was stirring, not even a louse; The medals were hung by the chimney with care, In hopes that St. Olympics soon would be there; The homeless were nestled all snug in their shreds, While visions of glory danced in their heads; And mamma in her moo moo, belting a rap, Could not settle down without a night cap; When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter, I sprang from my bed to see fatcats untattered. Away to the window, hoping for cash, Tore down the plastic, I looked for the stash. The moon on the breast of men in the know, Gave a lustful promise to the riff-raff below. When what to my wondering eyes did appear, But a gigantic sleigh and eight whiny Bain-deer. With a little manic fever so lively and schtick, I knew in a moment, that dude’s not a chick. More rapid than eagles his backers they came, And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name: “Now Davey! Now Connor! Pugliuca and Fish! On Robey! Lucchino! On Walsh and Patrick! To the top of the Hill! To the top of the haul! Now cash away! cash away! cash away all!” His eyes—how they twinkled! With Putnam Investments, His cheeks were like roses – Parthenon testaments! His Fidelity pout was drawn up like a bow, While the Celtics and Patriots put on a show! MassMutual’s pipeline he held tight in his teeth, And EMC smoke encircled above like a wreath; He had a Staples’ face and Bank America belly, That shook when he laughed, like State Street jelly. He was chubby and Mutual, a Liberty old elf, And I dared not laugh in spite of myself. He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle, And away they all flew, shooting a pistol. But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight-- “Happy Olympics to all, and to all a good plight!”  |
