 Peat & Potatoes: Irish peat and potato skins, 2021 The long winter has finally turned to spring. Its beauty is haunted by the turbulence of the pandemic and the wrath of war. This short video is one creative response to the war in Ukraine: VALOR.
I spent a month in Co.Kerry, Ireland at Cill Rialaig before omicron appeared, at pre-famine stone cottages overlooking the Atlantic facing Provincetown! For my Peat & Potatoes project, I worked with indigenous materials of peat, peat ash and potatoes and absorbed the mythos of the people and the ancient landscape (see Bible above, on view at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum (PAAM) through May 8). The Provincetown Pilgrim Monument Museum's (PMPM) summer exhibition includes my video, Provincetown 2020: 36 Solar Lights, created during lock down and premiered at the 2021 Provincetown International Film Festival PIFF. The 39th Re-Rooters Day Ceremony on January 7 took place on a blustery and wet day with 30 souls bundled up and present.The theme: Meta-purse (esrup-ateM) Check out my merch! Looking forward to a safe and open summer. Hope to see you. Thank you. Peace, Jay jaycritchley.com  The Whiteness House - tarred and feathered, 14’ W x 7’ H x 12’ D, paint, feathers, multimedia; Conceptual art installation on Commercial Street in Provincetown, MA at Bubala’s by the Bay Restaurant, October 16-25, 2020. The public is invited to participate. DATE: September 25, 2020 The Whiteness House - tarred and feathered, a walk-in scale model of The White House created by Provincetown artist Jay Critchley, will be installed at Bubala's by the Bay Restaurant, 183 Commercial Street, Provincetown, Ma in a novel art space under its new patio awning. The ten-day outdoor installation will be held from October 16- 25, 2020. Writers, performers, poets and others are invited to submit ideas for daily planned activities. Volunteer to staff the installation are also being recruited. The artist is represented by AMP Gallery, 432 Commercial Street, Provincetown, where other aspects of The Whiteness House will be on exhibit. “Our nation’s home has taken on an ominous presence with a white president who has defined much of his Presidency based on color. How white is a Whiteness House after a black President? How does a white house express its whiteness?” states Critchley. The Whiteness House - tarred and feathered examines race and the politicization of The White House and all of government at a culturally and politically tumultuous time. It was designed and created by the artist at a residency at the Santa Fe Art Institute in New Mexico in 2017 in response to issues elevated by the last presidential election, and now, to continue a community dialogue prior to the November 3 vote. Tarring and feathering is a form of public humiliation used to enforce unofficial justice or revenge. It was used in feudal Europe and on the American frontier, mostly as a type of mob vengeance. It is meant to humiliate and severely criticize a person. “We ask, Who is being tarred and feathered – We the American people, owner’s of the home, or the present tenant? Or, is someone else doing the tarring and feathering?” the artist asks. The Whiteness House - tarred and feathered sculpture will be open to the public with community engagement and participation. The daily schedule will begin at noon with a community Ringing of the Bells. Visitors will be asked to sign up for fifteen-minute time slots, two at a time, to view the sculpture; only one inside at a time. Masks and social distancing will be required. Times and programming to be announced. ++++++ Jay Critchley Jay is a longtime resident of Provincetown and the shifting dunes, landscape and the sea are his palette. He has utilized sand, Christmas trees, fish skins, plastic tampon applicators washed up on beaches, pre-demolition buildings and selected sites in his work. He is a conceptual and multimedia artist, writer and activist whose work has traversed the globe, showing across the US and in Argentina, Japan, England, Spain, France, Holland, Germany, Ireland and Columbia. Jay has had residencies at the Santa Fe Art Institute, Fundacion Valparaiso, Mojacar, Andalucia, Spain, CAMAC, Marnay-sur-Seine, France, Milepost 5, Portland, OR and Harvard University where he also lectured. His movie, Toilet Treatments, won an HBO Award and he recently gave a TEDx Talk: Portrait of the Artist as a Corporation. His 2015 survey show at the Provincetown Art Association & Museum traveled to Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, FL. He has received awards from the Boston Society of Architects and the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in NYC for his environmental projects. The 2020 edition of Provincetown Arts has published his piece, Democracy of the Land: the Moo Moo World. Jay was honored by the Massachusetts State Legislature as an artist and founder and director of the Provincetown Community Compact, producer of the Swim for Life, which has raised millions for AIDS, women’s health and the community. He is represented by AMP Gallery in Provincetown. www.jaycritchley.com By Kathi Scrizzi Driscoll
Posted Sep 28, 2020 at 6:35 AM Updated Sep 28, 2020 at 6:35 AM Provincetown artist creates a White House model as a race-oriented art installation; CLOC adds fall shows; CabaretFest live-streams; new guests for Seth Rudetsky series. Provincetown artist Jay Critchley will create a walk-in-size scale model of the White House as a pre-election Commercial Street art installation commenting on race and the politicization of the presidential residence. READ MORE
Old Glory Condoms - still worn with pride country-wide; Thirty years ago CEO Jay Critchley founded the Old Glory Condom Corporation - worn with pride country-wide, which redefined the definition of patriotism: to protect and save lives. It was launched at an exhibition at MIT in 1989. At the time the US Congress was debating a Constitutional Amendment to outlaw desecration of the flag following a Supreme Court ruling declaring it free speech while the government was doing little to confront the HIV/AIDS crisis. When the company applied for a US Trademark, the government deemed the name and logo - the American flag imprinted on a condom, “as immoral and scandalous to associate the flag with sex”. This led to a three-year legal battle that forced the government to issue the Trademark. Old Glory Condoms is reviving its potent message and relaunching its brand with trademarked t-shirts, mugs and even flip flops. At this time condoms are not available, although they may be in the future. Attorney David Cole, presently National Legal Director at the American Civil Liberties Union, took on the case while at the Center for Constitutional Rights and recently commented on the results:
“Your legal battle was important both culturally and legally. It arose in the heart of the culture wars over both the proper uses of the flag, and over safe sex and HIV-AIDS. As a legal matter, the Old Glory Condom case became a textbook case (literally) in the application of the disparagement and scandalous provisions of the Trademark Act. In the past few years, the Supreme Court has held unconstitutional the legal provisions applied to deny you a trademark, in cases involving an Asian rock group that sought to trademark their name, The Slants, and a clothing manufacturer who wanted to trademark its brandname, FUCT. So you were ahead of your time!” “The challenge to freedom, democracy and sex and gender could not be more relevant today”, especially as we commemorate the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the Pilgrims on indigenous peoples land in 2020”, states Critchley. “For years people have asked us for these irreverent creations so we dug into our archives – a patriotic Christmas!” he added. The controversy generated worldwide media coverage including the front page of the Washington Post and a feature in People Magazine. But its most successful prize was from conservative Senator Jessie Helms, an architect of the culture wars, who inadvertently created the first global safer sex commercial by holding up the Old Glory logo in the US Senate and denounced its Trademark, which was broadcast on CNN. CEO Critchley is a respected corporate leader and influencer whose projects and actions have tackled global environmental issues like plastics, fossil fuels and the automobile, including legislative filings and governmental interventions. His offices and home are on Cape Cod in Provincetown, Massachusetts USA. For more information: reroot@comcast.net Contact: Jay Critchley, CEO Old Glory Condom Corporation - condoms with a conscience reroot@comcast.net www.jaycritchley.com
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