Spring Art Exhibition

Elizabeth_Street_Garden_Spring_Art_Exhibition_Poster

A special thank you to Serra Sabuncuoglu for her vision, dedication and contribution of her curatorial talents and to each of the more than 50 exhibition participants for sharing their thoughtful perspectives on and insights into our community’s unique green, open space — a natural place for our neighborhood to engage with art.

A Particular Kind of Solitude, inspired by the writings of Robert Walser and curated by Serra Sabuncuoglu, was a nearly month-long, site-specific exhibition engaging more than 50 artists, writers, readers, musicians, dancers and filmmakers. The early twentieth-century Swiss author has become something of a hero, or anti-hero for writers and artists over the last few decades. Much of his work and philosophies rest on the quiet magic and personal fulfillment of walking; the urban experience is full of such walks, and this is often how people discover Elizabeth Street Garden.

Exhibition Participants
Wayne Adams, Giorgio Agamben (as Cooper Francis), William Anastasi, Ariane Anthony and Jeffrey Bauer, Robert Barry, Susan Bernofsky, Lisa Blas, Anne Boyer, Dove Bradshaw, Jane Carver, Emmy Catedral, Greg Colson, Caroline Copeland and Friends, Siobhan Davies and David Hinton, Mina Pam Dick, Peter Downsbrough, Satoru Eguchi, Joy Episalla, David Fenn, Alec Finlay, Aileen Frankel, Kylie Gilchrist, Elana Herzog, Hess Is More, Lanny Jordan Jackson, Corinne Jones, Alison Knowles, Ruth Liberman, Tim Maul, Panagiotis Mavridis, Paul McMahon, Sebastian Mekas, Jeremy Millar, Kazuko Miyamoto, Linda Montano, Dalius Naujokaitis, Jill O’Bryan, J Pasila, Janet Passehl, Michele Quan, Raha Raissnia, Tamara Riewe, Elke Rindfleisch, Robert Walser Society of Western Massachusetts, Andrea Robbins and Max Becher, Michelle Rosenberg, Martin Roth, Antonio Rovaldi, Ben Russell, Ethan Ryman, Serra Sabuncuoglu and Roland Andrijauskas, Kazumi Sakurai, Damion Searls, Martin Seck, Carol Szymanski, Alexandra Tatarsky, Rachel Devorah Trapp, Elizabeth Tubergen, Masha Tupitsyn, Merrill Wagner, Dana Ward and Carrie Yamaoka

Opening Weekend Receptions with the Artists
Saturday & Sunday, May 10 & 11, 3:00 – 7:00 p.m.

Exhibition Performances
Sunday, May 11
4:30 p.m. Im Gras by Elke Rindfleisch, dance

5:00 p.m. The Mound Speaks, confessional musical performance by a mound of dirt with Alexandra Tatarsky

6:00 p.m. Robert Walser: Nature and the City, reading and commentary with Susan Bernofsky and Mina Pam Dick

Tuesday, May 13
6:30 p.m. All This Can Happen, film by Siobhan Davies and David Hinton, courtesy of the filmmakers and presented by Susan Bernofsky
(Screening venue: NYU Tisch School of the Arts, 721 Broadway at Waverley Place, Room 670)

Thursday, May 15
5:00 p.m.Ben Russell, violin

8:00 p.m. – Deviant by Panagiotis Mavridis, Sebastian Mekas and Dalius Naujokaitis, handmade instruments

Saturday, May 17
4:30 p.m. – Im Gras by Elke Rindfleisch, dance

5:30 p.m. Ariane Anthony and Jeffrey Bauer, dance

Sunday, May 18
12:30 p.m. Wayne Adams, reading from Damion Searls’ translation of Walser’s A Schoolboy’s Diary

2:00 p.m. – Rock ‘n’ Roll Therapist and original songs by Paul McMahon

5:00 p.m. Wayne Adams, reading from Damion Searls’ translation of Walser’s A Schoolboy’s Diary

Saturday, May 24
3:00 p.m. Caroline Copeland and Friends, dance

4:00 p.m. Caroline Copeland and Friends, dance

Sunday, May 25
3:30 p.m.– Tamara Riewe, dance

Monday, May 26
7:00 p.m. Last Minutes of the Robert Walser Society of Western Massachusetts, mysteries by Masha Tupitsyn, Lanny Jordan Jackson, Jane Carver, Kylie Gilchrist & Giorgio Agamben (as Cooper Francis) with loose pages from Dana Ward and Anne Boyer

Thursday, May 29
5:30 p.m. Ben Russell, violin

7:00 p.m. – Deviant by Panagiotis Mavridis, Sebastian Mekas and Dalius Naujokaitis, handmade instruments

8:00 p.m. – Litany by Raha Raissnia and Panagiotis Mavridis, homemade drone instruments and film loops

Saturday, May 31
3:00 p.m. Hess Is More, live music in the sun by somewhat unplugged 9-piece ensemble

Sunday, June 1
3:00 p.m. – Rachel Devorah Trapp, singing the musical score of collage works by Lisa Blas

6:15 p.m. – Such a facade, madame, is odd: New Translations of Robert Walser, reading by Damion Searls

6:45 p.m. – Im Gras by Elke Rindfleisch, dance

7:15 p.m. – I gasp for breath already, reading and sound collage with Serra Sabuncuoglu and Roland Andrijauskas

7:30 p.m. – Jane Carver, piece for accordion and voice

Curatorʼs Statement
Elizabeth Street Garden encourages drifting and contemplation, a reprieve from our hectic structured lives. A rare gem with relics from another time and place, with an undetermined future in an ever changing city. While artists make objects and put more physical things out in the world to comment on the complexities of human existence, Robert Walser’s sublime reflections of walks in parks reveal the Garden’s purpose for city dwellers and provides us a frame to contemplate the work we make and observe in this outdoor setting.

I call upon my fellow artists, writers and performers to carry on a dialogue with Walser’s writings and engage with the unique environment of the Garden. I invite the community and passersby to join us as we gather together in this enchanting setting to celebrate Walserʼs appreciation for nature and the surrounding landscape.

Curator’s Biography
Serra Sabuncuoglu is an artist and curator who orchestrates independent curatorial projects in offbeat and unusual spaces around the city. She has volunteered with Elizabeth Street Garden since 2013 and organized this outdoor exhibition to bring awareness to the site by engaging contemporary artists, writers and performers.