Sustainable Fanaticism in America Series on View

My work was just installed at the USF College of Engineering in their main offices in the Engineering II building.

 

If you go in the main entrance (north) of Engineering II, walk to the back hallway and take a left. The main office (includes the Dean's office) will be a few doors down on your right. There is a receptionist at the front desk and you can explain you'd like to see the work by Ellen Mueller.  If you walk past the reception area to the back hallway and turn to the left, you will see "Sustainable Fanaticism in America" installed as a series.

 

The work will remain in this location until February 2012.

Book of Enid Multimedia Reading

I am performing a reading of my latest work, the "Book Of Enid," at the Shimberg Playhouse, located at the Straz Center for the Performing Arts, at 11pm on Friday, February 18, 2011. The Straz Center for the Performing Arts is located at 1010 North W.C. MacInnes Place, Tampa, Florida 33602. Admission is $5, and FREE for Jobsite season ticket holders. Refreshments will be served.

The "Book of Enid," follows the narrative of Enid, a time traveller attempting to stop a violent conflict after it has already occurred. Supplementing the imagery of the book will be video works before and during the reading, including selections from the Practical Preparedness Series, a collection of videos which explores "practical," everyday preparedness in our often fear-driven society.

Job-side Productions Presents "Book of Enid" - A Multimedia Reading Date/Time: Friday, February 18, 2011 11:00PM Location: Shimberg Playhouse Straz Center for the Performing Arts 1010 North W.C. MacInnes Place Tampa, Florida 33602 Media Contact: Ellen Mueller, Ellen@EllenMueller.com

Night Depository Catalog Now Available

Exciting news! You can now check out all the dreams people submitted to the "Night Depository" in a new catalog.  It took a while to compile them all, but they're all there.  The book is organized according to the same directions that participants encountered at the installation (dreams about being chased, dreams about being late, dreams about missing boats, etc).

Practical Preparedness

Video Still from "Creating Smoke Signals"

So I've dropped off the radar a bit in the past few months, but it's because I've been keeping very busy preparing for the MFA exhibition that opens April 1, 2011.  As a part of my contribution to that show, I'm not only finishing up Book of Enid, but I have also started working on a series of videos, Practical Preparedness, which I've started posting on my Vimeo account.  Here are the first couple in the series of what expect will eventually be 20+ videos:


Estate Planning - 01:54 minutes
Creating Smoke Signals - 01:25 minutes
Maintaining Motivation After a Terrorist Attack - 01:25 minutes

This series of videos explores preparedness in our society, in addition to the everyday challenge of resisting change and maintaining control. It examines the fear generated by a world of non-stop exponential technological revolutions, the impending global climate change, and a media focused on an uncertain economic future that serves the omnipresent consumer culture. I use humor and absurdist situations as a method for dealing with these challenging topics in an indirect way, leaning on an element of escapism.

Happy Holidays!

PAGES exhibition in Kansas City

Detail of Book of Enid, pages 6-7

If you know anyone in the Kansas City area...

PAGES: Book as Medium, Catalyst, Venue
November 19, 2010 - early January 2011
Curator: Amy Kligman
Opening Friday, November 19, 6-9pm / Curator’s remarks at 6pm


Paragraph Gallery, an Urban Culture Project Space
23 East 12th Street
Kansas City MO 64105
Gallery Hours: 12-5 Wed, Fri, Sat; 11-6 Thurs


The two pieces I'll be showing are pages from my current project, Book of Enid.

Featured artists:
Cara Barer, Kelie Bowman, Joe Bussell, Caitlin Cass, Alicia Chester, Justin Cownden, Greg Crawford, Brian Dettmer, Christa Donner, Shea Gordon Festoff, Ben Finer, Julie Green, Julian Jason Haladyn, Tanya Hartman, Rob Hatem, Aimee Howard, Lisa Iglesias, Brooke Inman, Michael Krueger, Judith G. Levy, China Marks, Liz Maugans, Colleen Maynard, Ellen Mueller, Armin Mühsam, Mia Nolting, Jessica Owings, Nathaniel Parsons, Samantha Persons, Lee Piechocki, Caroline Pjecha, David Pjecha, Stephen Proski, Melissa & Lucy Powlas, Luke Rocha, Ryan Sarah Murphy, Tennille Shuster, Angela Silver, Sean Starowitz/Jordan Stempleman, the WAFA Collective, Courtney Weida, Corinna West, Donika Wiley, and David Williams/Kotaro Itami.

Pages: Book as Medium, Catalyst, Venue is an exhibition that celebrates the diversity of thought, process, and experience that can be revealed or inspired via the book. All of the artists in this show draw inspiration from books in some way, and as a collection the work demonstrates the potential of the book in art-making, as a subject, tool, material, and/or springboard for other work.

For some artists in the show, the book is an inexpensive, unpretentious venue that one can carry anywhere and work on at any given moment. For others, it is appreciated for its relationship to story and narrative, or for its nature as a multiple, to be published and distributed widely. Still others use the book as raw material to carve or sculpt, fascinated by its capacity to reveal secrets one page (or layer) at a time. Some see the book as a record of facts, used to document process and discoveries.

This exhibition will include all kinds of artist books, ranging widely in format and purpose. The hope is to present the book as an opportunity—as an entry point to one's own art practice, as a catalyst to new and evolved work, and as an object that even in an age of digital media still carries a certain aura of the limitless potential of all the worlds possibly contained within its pages.

Pages features the work of artists from the Kansas City area and around the country, including emerging as well as established artists. As part of the exhibition, Paragraph will include a "reading room" of work shown in a library-like setting, where visitors will be encouraged to engage in browsing artists’ books, sketchbooks, and zines.