The Bridge Club

'The Observation Room' at 1708 Gallery

2009-06-08T13:51:00.001-07:00

The Observation Room by The Bridge Club
1708 Gallery, Richmond, VA

The Observation Room, an installation, performance, and video work by The Bridge Club collaborative will be on view at 1708 Gallery in Richmond, VA from July 17- August 15, 2009.

The Observation Room incorporates a Victorian notion of identity—that our identities can be contained by our possessions and surroundings, and that our stories can be told by what we leave behind. The multipart exhibit features four related components: 1., a gallery exhibit invoking the carefully arranged display of a history museum; 2., a built environment containing a series of domestic spatial vignettes, inviting from the viewer the construction of narrative facilitated by any historical display; 3., a one-night performance, calling to mind the fictitious historical reenactment seen at Colonial Williamsburg or any ‘living history’ museum; and 4., a video depicting the physical use of historic objects and preserving a record of their function in familiar documentary fashion.

Using simultaneously the conventions of contemporary art—clean white walls, oversized video projection, and temporal, live performance—as well as the conventions of historic preservation, The Observation Room challenges and conflates our ideas about the collection and preservation of art and objects, and points to the viewer’s complicity in designations of value and construction of narrative.

Come by if you're in Richmond, or watch for images to be posted here following the exhibit opening.

'Domestic Surveillance'- Public Launch, Valentine's Day 2009

2009-02-18T10:20:00.004-07:00

Domestic Surveillance, a performative project for the web by The Bridge Club, went live and was publicized to the internet and artistic communities on February 14, 2009. The project site is located online at www.resistlooking.net

The Domestic Surveillance project site presents the viewer with four simultaneous video feeds, depicting four women engaged in mundane activity in an ambiguous domestic setting. The visual confines of the camera's lens invoke the viewer's familiarity with two ubiquitous cultural institutions: first, the security cameras used by a guard or convenience store to simultaneously monitor limited visual fields; and second, the teasing visual feed presented through webcam technologies, often marketed through subscription access to viewers hoping for a glimpse of something illicit. These dual references conflate power relationships and generate uncertainty about the roles of captor, captive, voyeur, and subject.

A secondary and invisible aspect of the project is borne out of intrigue with the internet search engine's role as curator, grouping sites with disparate content via shared keywords. Data is being collected about site traffic, including individual users' length of time spent viewing, repeat visits, and method of finding the site (i.e., links and search terms). The project site itself, however, contains no links back to The Bridge Club as originators, nor any acknowledgment of the site as an artistic inquiry. The site itself exists and behaves exclusively as camera display.

Domestic Surveillance acknowledges the inherent, uncomfortable eroticism in both watching the unsuspecting and in the possibility of being watched, and invokes themes of surveillance, voyeurism, captivity, aggression, and visual power.

www.resistlooking.net

1708 Gallery, July- August 2009

2008-11-20T08:04:00.003-07:00

The Bridge Club will create a multi-part video, installation and performance work at 1708 Gallery in Richmond, Virginia in July 2009, tentatively titled Observation Room. Images of the work will be posted here following the July 17 event opening, or look for the work in Richmond between July 17- August 15, 2009.

Front Window, Wichita, KS May 2008

2008-11-20T07:36:00.004-07:00

Front Window, a combined installation and performative video work, was created by The Bridge Club for the River City Biennale in Wichita, Kansas in May 2008. The video was projected on a large scrim at Fisch Haus Gallery, while the installation was housed in a separate site at Heterotopia. The video’s footage shows human activity within the installation environment, but this activity exists only within the video-- the viewer encounters the installation as an uninhabited space.

The installation utilizes the context of the surrounding neighborhood and the manmade geography of Wichita, whose characteristic brick structures and many vacated retail spaces point to a discrepancy between the buildings’ former vitality and their current, diminished role in public life. The installation visually aims to blend in with this environment— taking the shape of yet another once-vibrant human space that has been left to sit empty.

The video activates the space of the installation— though never in real-time, but only in the viewer’s memory. The video exists in the gallery context, and is displayed as art using the stylistic, technological, and conventional display mechanisms of contemporary art, whereas the installation negates all such visual designations through its resemblance of the surrounding environment.

The video, like many contemporary cultural forms, relies heavily upon nostalgia. It activates the space of the installation in a romanticized vision of what was (though this in itself may take the form of what never was). The installation itself, on the other hand, stoically asserts that what is—and its history—need not nor could not be in any other way. The installation affirms the ‘what-is’ in its implicit visual agreement.

Domestic Surveillance, Colorado Springs, CO April 2008

2008-11-19T16:43:00.004-07:00

Domestic Surveillance, an installation by The Bridge Club, was created at IDEA Space as part of the '1440 Minutes: An Evening of Installation and Performance Art' event hosted jointly by Colorado College and the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.

Domestic Surveillance, an installation by The Bridge Club, examines the distinctions between virtual space and physical space, and investigates cyberspace as a relational forum where multiple spaces and times, both real and imagined, coexist.

The installation incorporates two physical spaces divided by a wall. On each side of the wall there is also a virtual space, linking the two physical spaces via a web link and a closed-circuit video feed displayed on computer and television monitors. The displayed footage at first appears to be in real time, but as it becomes apparent that neither of the monitors displays current activity, the idea of multiple realities or times merging into one experience becomes evident.
The viewer’s understanding of social connectivity shifts between the physical space of the gallery and the virtual activation of cyberspace, as neither the physical space nor cyberspace provides the opportunity to interact with its implied inhabitants. This confuses the viewer’s assumptions about who is watching whom and links the missing inhabitants of the two spaces in a complicated, voyeuristic relationship. The viewer is left to question his or her role in this series of spaces and relationships, and to wonder who is being manipulated, who maintains relational control, and which space-- virtual or physical-- offers the authentic social experience.

River City Biennale, May 15- June 20 2008

2008-03-26T08:37:00.005-07:00

The Bridge Club will create a multi-part, multi-site installation and performative video work in Wichita, KS for the 2008 River City Biennale, curated by Stacy Switzer of Kansas City's Grand Arts. Images of the work will be posted here following the May 15 event opening, or look for the work in Wichita between May 15 and June 20.

LABOR [ETHEREAL], a web exhibition

2008-03-26T08:21:00.003-07:00

The Bridge Club's video, Shift Work, is featured in a current web-based exhibit titled Labor [Ethereal]. From the exhibit's curator, "This collection of art works, featuring work by several artists, primarily acknowledges the notion of learning through repetitive action."
The exhibit can be viewed online at www.laborexhibition.com

1440 Minutes: An Evening of Installation and Performance Art

2008-03-26T08:07:00.003-07:00

The Bridge Club has been selected to create an installation/ performative digital and video work for the upcoming '1440 Minutes' performance and installation event in Colorado Springs, CO. The event is hosted jointly by the Gallery of Contemporary Art at the University of Colorado- Colorado Springs and by IDEA (Interdisciplinary Exploratory Arts) at Colorado College. Look for the Bridge Club's work, Domestic Surveillance, in Coburn Gallery at Colorado College on April 11, the evening of the event reception. Images of the work will be posted on this site following the event.

More information, from the event organizers, is as follows:

The Gallery of Contemporary Art at UCCS and IDEA @ Colorado College, in Colorado Springs, Colorado, are excited to announce a joint public program supporting Colorado contemporary artists. 1440 Minutes is a twenty-four hour art installation and exhibition event, curated around the theme of “Social Spaces”. Simultaneous installations and performances will be completed in the Gallery of Contemporary Art and Colorado College’s Coburn Gallery, as well as on a shuttle bus transporting visitors between the two sites. Receptions for all installations will be held on Friday, April 11, 2008, 5-8 p.m. A shuttle bus featuring an artist installation/performance will connect the two sites throughout the evening.

The Bridge Club shortlisted for 1st LICC prize

2008-01-03T08:43:00.000-07:00

The Bridge Club has been selected for the shortlist in the first
London International Creative Competition (LICC). Further information about the prize, and The Bridge Club's shortlist profile, can be found on the LICC website. A catalogue of finalists and shortlisted work will be published by LICC.

Works-in-Progress, Fall 2007

2007-08-20T11:26:00.001-07:00

The Bridge Club has just returned from a week of performance activity in New York's Hudson River Valley.

Seven performance sequences were shot to video at six distinct sites over six days, incorporating the watery landscape, its various myths, and its human occupation. The taped sequences will shortly become two companion performative video works, with editing sessions scheduled for October 2007. Stay tuned for forthcoming details about exhibition and screening dates and venues.

The corresponding images are taken from the Hudson Valley performance sessions. The Bridge Club extends a special thanks to the following individuals and organizations for their invaluable assistance with logistics, videography, and access to these remarkable locations: Marlana Owen; Jerry Owen of Owen Machine in Wappingers Falls, NY (845) 297-6349; David Hardy and crew at Building Bridges, Building Boats in Cold Spring, NY; Neil Caplan and the Bannermans Castle Trust; Smilin' Jack Feddigan of Market Street Industrial Park in Wappingers Falls, NY; and finally, the Wappingers Falls Dog Control Officer. Many thanks!!

Shift Work at SPACES Gallery, Cleveland OH, June- August 2007

2007-05-27T20:07:00.001-07:00

The Bridge Club's video projection Shift Work will be on view as part of the Storage Space exhibit at SPACES Gallery in Cleveland, Ohio from June 22- August 3, 2007. Further information about the exhibit can be found at the SPACES website: http://www.spacesgallery.org
The Shift Work video can be viewed online via the following link: http://www.thebridgeclub.net/shift_video10.html

Ceaseless & Solitary, performance at the Durango Arts Center, March 2007

2007-03-08T08:06:00.000-07:00

Ceaseless and Solitary, a performance art work by The Bridge Club, features four women engaged in ongoing solitary practice-- picking at paper or thread, excavating bone or plaster, or methodically rearranging or reconstructing the materials found in their respective environments. The spaces these women inhabit reference both the decorative comforts of the domestic and the confined austerity of a cell. Though not confined, the continuity of their activity indicates that they are unable or unwilling to see the possibility of leaving. This is a ceaseless individual pursuit, mirrored unknowingly by others engaged in similar pursuits-- something between working and waiting.

Ceaseless and Solitary was performed for a two-hour duration in the main gallery of the Durango Arts Center in Durango, CO on March 2, 2007. The performance environment and residue-- constructed walls, wallcoverings, thread, bone, and porcelain implements, as well as the material of their decay-- will remain installed in the gallery throughout the month of March.

The Bridge Club at Durango Arts Center, March 2007

2007-02-13T10:24:00.000-07:00

A performance by The Bridge Club will take place in the main gallery of the Durango Arts Center in Durango, Colorado on Friday, March 2, to coincide with the opening of the exhibit Intersections: Artifice & Matter.

Further details and images will be posted here following the event-- check back soon!

Shift Work, September 2006

2006-10-17T23:12:00.000-07:00

Shift Work, a recent performance by The Bridge Club, took place in the upper cupola of the Colorado Fuel & Iron Company's former administration building in Pueblo, CO. The site is now home to the Steelworks Museum of Industry and Culture. A big thanks to Andy Sanchez and to the Bessemer Historical Society-- particularly Maria Sanchez-Kennedy-- for their generosity in both preparations and use of the space.

Shift Work, a performance art piece by the Bridge Club, is a cultural examination of work, family, gender, and the labor of waiting. Shift Work takes place inside the decaying space of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company’s former administration building— a site that once embodied industrious opportunity, and in its current disrepair, still contains the layered residue of years of both successes and failures.

Shift Work’s action incorporates four women sitting silently around a table at afternoon tea. Each slowly sips from a teacup filled with ore dust—the residue left in the Colorado mountains where the coal that fueled the CF&I factory was mined. The ore slowly spills down the dress of each woman, coating the dress fabric in a patina of use that mirrors the residue found literally in the crumbling administration building and metaphorically in the course of a life. This slow enacting of labor and leisure continues until interrupted by the distant sounding of a factory whistle—the women leave, seemingly to be replaced by a second shift. It is unclear whether the women sipping tea are at work themselves, are waiting for a spouse or loved one to return from the day’s work, or a combination thereof. Shift Work thus subtly investigates the contradictory role of work in a family relationship and the role of gender in traditional labor.

Binding Books, September 2005

2006-09-12T16:41:00.000-07:00

Performance incorporating selection, processing, and altering of books in a public library. Boulder, CO September 2005

House and Sky, May 2005

2006-09-12T16:32:00.000-07:00

A performative interaction with an abandoned landscape, Mead, CO. May 2005

Laundry, March 2005

2006-09-12T16:26:00.000-07:00

Durational performance at the Evergreen Launderette in Boulder, CO, in association with Tailgate Gallery. March 2005

The Bus, January 2005

2006-09-12T16:19:00.000-07:00

A performance event taking place on an RTD city bus in association with Tailgate Gallery. Boulder, CO, January 2005

Each artist’s individual aesthetic informs The Bridge Club’s collective choices, and our understanding of one another’s interests facilitates the responsive and intuitive nature of our performances. This makes possible the most potent and unanticipated moments of our performances, as for example, when we each silently recognize the compelling beauty of our eight gloved hands intertwined with the material of one another’s garments, and prolong the action accordingly. These same ‘moments’ are actively experienced by our audiences, expanding the personal nature of public engagement.

Pillows & Pantyhose/ Ambush Decorating, December 2004

2006-09-12T16:14:00.000-07:00

Pillows and Pantyhose/ Ambush Decorating-- the Bridge Club's inaugural performance event-- took place on the front porch of a vacant house in Boulder, CO. December 2004

Bridge Club Basics

2006-09-12T14:15:00.000-07:00

Although The Bridge Club has been active since 2004, this is a new blog. Images of past performances can be found here, and updates on future Bridge Club performance activities and news will be posted as these arise.

First, some basic information and history about The Bridge Club:

The Bridge Club is a collaborative art and performance group consisting of artists Julie Wills, Annie Strader, Christine Owen, and Emily Bivens. Performances have taken place in both traditional and nontraditional venues, incorporating and responding to sites such as a city bus, a public library, an abandoned house, and a laundromat, in addition to the traditional gallery space. Each performance is conceived in specific relation to its site and audience. The ideas embedded in these performances directly parallel the investigations happening in each member's individual studio works, to broadly and specifically include notions of femininity, gender roles, family dynamics, intimacy, privacy, and social narrative.

Costuming, props, and responsive action contribute to The Bridge Club's collective persona. Each member wears wigs, shoes, gloves, and a variety of carefully selected garments that relate directly to the site and concept of a specific performance. The costuming and other aesthetic choices, such as sound and environment, create a historical ambiguity of era that addresses change and continuity of gender and interpersonal histories. Performances are not scripted per se, and contain no dialogue, but are rather structured as an aesthetic and conceptual conversation. Each member's actions are in response to concept, space, sound, interaction, and visual appeal.