State of the Art: Lenka Clayton
17 March 2014 at 14:52
Hi Lenka,
I hope this message finds you well! We are currently wrapping up on the travel portion of State of the Art and are starting to move things forward with exhibition details. That said, I’ve cc:ed Melanie Fox, Assistant Registrar for Exhibitions and Loans, and Diane Carroll, Interim Director of Communications. They will both be in contact with you regarding questions and information we’ll be collecting for our preparations and all the logistics involved.
Also, I noticed on your website you mentioned the works’ inclusion in the exhibition. At this time, we’d like to ask you to remove the exhibition information until we are ready to make our announcement. We’re thrilled to see you are excited to tell everyone but we’re asking all the artists to keep it quiet for just a little while longer!
Please let me know if you have any questions, I’m looking forward to working with you!
All best, Ali
Ali Demorotski
Curatorial Assistant
17 March 2014 at 15:03
Hi Ali,
Really nice to hear from you, thank you for your email. I’m sorry I wasn’t aware that the information was to be kept secret, I’ve taken it off the website.
I look forward to being in touch with your colleagues.
All the best from Pittsburgh,
Lenka
17 March 2014 at 15:06
Chad didn’t mention it so we take the fault on that. Thank you for the quick reply and for being so kind to remove it…for now! Diane will definitely let you know from the communications end when word can be spread.
Thanks again!
Ali Demorotski
Curatorial Assistant
21 March 2014 at 11:59
SOTA object information – Lenka Clayton
Hello,
I am the Associate Registrar for Exhibition and Loans at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, and am responsible for shipping and installation scheduling for the exhibition, State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now.
We are excited about your potential involvement in the exhibition. I have attached a questionnaire that will help us assess your installation needs for your installation of How Far I Can be Away from My Son and Things Retrieved from My Son’s Mouth. Since this appears to be a combination of two types of objects I have included two questionnaires. Feel free to combine the information required for installation on one form or supply the information on a separate sheet. The information you provide will help us plan the exhibition and enable us to provide the best experience possible. Once we receive your detailed information I will contact you again with additional documentation such as loan agreements or installation contracts and non-exclusive license for the exhibition catalog.
Also included is a confidentiality agreement. Since the exhibition is still in the planning phase, your confidentially is of the upmost importance. Please refrain from discussing your inclusion or possible artwork included in the exhibition. Our communications team will update you periodically with details on when and what information can be shared.
Please return the questionnaire and confidentiality agreement as soon as possible so that we can begin planning with the most up to date information. This can wait until next week after your return home. Please let me know if you have any questions.
Regards,
Melanie
Melanie Fox
Associate Registrar, Exhibitions and Loans
3 attachments
2014Confidentiality Agreement – Artist.pdf
SOTA 3D Object Questionnaire.pdf
SOTA video installation Object Questionnaire.pdf
26 March 2014 at 17:52
Dear Lenka,
By now, you will have been contacted by other members of our staff to coordinate your participaton. Please know that if you have any questions as we go along and you’re not sure who to ask, you should feel free to get in touch with me. I’m happy to help!
I look forward to hearing from you.
Warm regards-
Chad
Assistant Curator, Special Projects
31 March 2014
Hi Chad,
Lovely to hear from you. Thank-you for offering a listening ear, I appreciate it.
I have added you to my very infrequent mailing list of studio news, I hope this is ok ?
Thanks and all the very best,
Lenka
7 April 2014 at 10:24
Hi Lenka,
Just making sure that you had received the attached forms. If you have already sent them please let me know if you sent them via email, fax or mail.
Thanks,
Melanie
Melanie Fox
Associate Registrar, Exhibitions and Loans
9 April 2014 at 12:27
Hi Lenka,
Forgive me, I neglected to ask about optimal equipment for the video work. Thanks for your help with this.
I look forward to your response!
Chad
Assistant Curator, Special Projects
Wednesday, April 10, 2014 22:34
Hi Chad,
No problem. I will get back to you asap. Would next week be ok?
Many thanks,
Lenka
10 April 2014 at 22:35
Dear Melanie,
So sorry – I have not got to this yet. Would it be acceptable to complete them over the weekend?
Many thanks,
Lenka
11 April 2014 at 10:03
Dear Lenka,
Next week would be fine. More and more artists are coming on board and I just don’t want to forget about your information or realize too late that I don’t have it.
Thanks!
Melanie
Melanie Fox
Associate Registrar, Exhibitions and Loans
11 April 2014 at 14:40
My name is Shane Richey, I’m the Digital Manager at Crystal Bridges
Museum of American Art. You recently had a conversation with Don Bacigalupi and/or Chad Alligood about your work, as part of their research process for the State of The Art exhibition happening at Crystal Bridges this fall. This exhibition will include multiple elements both inside the Museum (audio guides, interactive kiosk, video labels) and on the exhibition website that require additional video and audio footage. If possible, I would like to schedule a time to visit your studio and record some additional footage of you and your work. We are interested collecting footage of an interview, you working in your studio and of any other aspect of your work that you feel is important for the exhibition. Jessica Whalen, our Digital Media Producer will be in your area on the week of May 12, would you have time to meet with her early in that week? Also, please sign and return the attached video release form, in order for us to use any footage we capture. Should you have any questions, please feel free to call me directly or email. We appreciate your help and I look forward to hearing from you.
Thank you
Shane Richey
Digital Media Manager
2 attachments
Artist video release form.pdf
69K
ATT00001.htm
1K
13 April 2014 at 12:21
Hello Chad,
The equipment used to best project the work will be very standard (a non-HD projector, playback device i.e. Mac mini, Quicktime (to run & loop the file), cable from the playback device to projector, speakers and speaker cable.) The videos are DV NTSC. Would you still like me to choose a specific projector & playback device, or should I work with your usual set-up? I’m very happy to price out all equipment from scratch if necessary but wondered if this decision might best be made in collaboration with your technical team – that way we could make the best decisions to integrate with your existing set up. If this seems like a good approach perhaps you might consider putting me in touch with your technical department?
Thank-you very much and all the best,
Lenka
13 April 2014 at 13:07
Re: FW: SOTA object information – Lenka Clayton
Hi Melanie,
Thank-you for your patience. Please find attached the documents that you asked for.
As an addition to your questionnaire: 63 Objects Taken Out of My Son’s Mouth has the following materials list: (it seems to be cropped short on the form): acorn, bolt, bubblegum, buttons, carbon paper, chalk, Christmas decoration, cigarette butt, coins (GBP, USD, EURO), cotton reel, holly leaf, little wooden man, sharp metal pieces, metro ticket, nuts, plastic “O”, polystyrene, rat poison (missing), seeds, slide, small rocks, specimen vial, sponge animal, sticks, teabag, wire caps, wooden block
A quick note regarding the confidentiality agreement – as mentioned before I had had my inclusion in the exhibition on my website and c.v. for a short time as I was not made aware that it was confidential. I have since removed it from everywhere and will certainly not discuss any details henceforth. I just wanted to make sure that this retrospective mention doesn’t consist of a breach in confidentiality of the agreement!
Thank-you
Lenka
13 April 2014 at 13:26
Hi Shane,
Many thanks for getting in touch. The week of May 12th should be fine. I am waiting on two interview dates to be confirmed in the next few days that will happen during that week. I wonder if we could confirm an exact date for filming in a week or two once those are in place. I can certainly make sometime that week work.
Does this work for your schedule?
Many thanks,
Lenka
15 April 2014 at 11:33
Hi Lenka,
Thanks so much for sending in all the information. What is the contact number that we can use for the shipping pick-up?
Please send an image or images that could be used for the exhibition catalogue as well as any image credit information. Images must be at least 10” along the longest side (vertical or horizontal) at 300 ppi. If we decide to use the images for the catalog we will send an image license contract to the appropriate parties.
No worries about previously posting your participation in the exhibition earlier. We weren’t quite organized yet to let you know about it so it was our fault.
Regards,
Melanie
Melanie Fox
Associate Registrar, Exhibitions and Loans
16 April 2014 at 09:30
Hi Lenka,
Thanks for getting in touch. Please price out all the equipment as a bundle (this is a large exhibition, and we will be maxed out of many of our a/v materials!) and then we’ll assess how best to move forward. (I think you should be able to find a relatively cheap media player that won’t require a whole computer to play the file…)
Thanks very much!
Chad
Assistant Curator, Special Projects
17 April 2014 at 15:55
Hi Chad,
No problem at all, I can do that. Is there any chance of connecting with your AV people for advice in getting compatible/related equipment to what you have for other works?
If not then I will research here and get back to you asap,
Many thanks & all the best!
Lenka
17 April 2014 at 16:00
Hi Lenka,
Sure! I’ve cc:ed here Matt Franklin, our AV specialist, who can provide some guidance on what equipment might work best for our purposes. At this time, we are looking to project the work on its own in a dedicated space.
Matt, let me know if you have questions about this. See the correspondence below for some guidance on what Lenka normally uses to set up her work. For reference, the video will be projecting in this project is viewable here: http://www.lenkaclayton.com/the-distance-i-can-be-from-my-son
Best,
Chad
Assistant Curator, Special Projects
18 April 2014 at 10:00
Hello Matt,
Chad put us in touch yesterday with regards to the tech needs of my video series “The Distance I Can Be From My Son”. Just to clarify – would you be able to advise me on a tech set-up that would optimally project the video & sound in your space (and also is equipment you recommend/are familiar with/is compatible with your set up?) Once I have an equipment list I will price it and pass it on to Chad. Thanks so much for your assistance, I usually work with what is available and really appreciate your input as to current best equipment.
The films are a single .MOV file (with sound) that plays best in my experience when played with Quicktime. It needs to be endlessly looped.
What can I use to play the file from? Do I need a computer or can it be played from a hard-drive or media player? If from a media player do you have a recommendation and how would I be able to play/make the file loop? Do you have a recommendation for a good projector? (The video is DV NTSC so presumably doesn’t need a HD projector?)
Do you have a recommendation for a speaker set up? Any other things (cables etc. I should think about?)
Thank-you Matt, I appreciate your help.
Best,
Lenka
18 April 2014 at 11:35
Good morning Lenka,
I can certainly attempt to advise, or help in any way I can. Classically we use a media player to show any media content due to its ease of use, ability to play most file formats, and cost. The media player we currently use is the ( ). These players will play MOV files as well as almost any other available format. They can be set up on a continuous loop very easily.
As far as the projector is concerned I need to research where it will be installed. This depends on whether we would use a short throw projector( special space considerations so it is mounted on the wall) or a standard throw projector which would be mounted from the ceiling. I will look into this and get back to you ASAP. What have you used in the past for a speaker set-up? We usually use the internal speakers on the projector. These usually will give adequate sound depending on the space the work is installed. If we do indeed need separate speakers I can look into that as well. The cabling, and mounts depend on which projector we will be using. I can advise on these as well once we are able to pin down the projector.
If you have any other questions please don’t hesitate to let us know.
Thank you.
Have a Great day!
Matt Franklin
AV Specialist
20 April 2014 at 08:00
Good morning Matt,
Thank you so much for your reply, I really appreciate your help.
I have used speakers in the past. I believe they were two very small (approx. 4″ x 4″ x 6″ each) Bose speakers hung on either side of the projection. I’m open to using the speakers on the projector if the quality is good and they are powerful enough, I haven’t done that before so will take your advice. I look forward to hearing more about the projector once you’ve had the chance to research it.
Thanks again and all the best,
Lenka
24 April 2014 at 11:51
Lenka,
That’s great news. Jessica Whalen, our Digital Media Producer will be the one that actually makes the trip up to see you so I’m CC’ing her on this email so that she can start working with you to schedule an exact time to come to your studio.
Thanks.
Shane Richey
Digital Media Manager
25 April 2014 at 10:57
Hi Lenka,
Thank you so much for your willingness to let me come and record you for our exhibition. I am so looking forward to visiting you and learning more about you and your work. If you could let me know when you know your availability, we can schedule a day that week for me to come by.
Just to help in your scheduling, I will be wanting to have enough time to interview you as well as capture some b-roll of your studio, workspaces, and neighborhood. If possible, I would also love to be able to get some shots of you working on a piece, whether it be at your computer or on a paper project. We want to be able to capture not only the place where the art is created, but also the process you take to get to the final stage. This all usually calls for about a half day of work (anywhere from 2-4 hours).
Once you hear back from the other interviews you’re waiting on confirmation of, let me know what day would work best and we will get you scheduled.
Thanks so much,
Jessica Whalen
Digital Media Producer
28 April 2014 at 12:34
Hi Lenka,
I know you are waiting for confirmation of your other interviewers dates and times, but I was wondering if you could keep the 13th or 14th in mind for us? I could do morning or afternoon either of those days, so whichever works best for you.
Thanks!
Jessica Whalen
Digital Media Producer
29 April 2014 at 09:11
Hello Lenka,
We are now thinking it might be most appropriate to display your video work on a monitor. This way, the video work and the sculptural work will exist in the same space and the viewer can consider them in tandem. We are worried the projector room will isolate the sculptural piece, leaving it orphaned. (Given your commitment to motherhood in your practice, that’s the last thing we’d want!)
Please let me know your thoughts. Because of the aspect ratio of this piece, I even thought we could do something like the MoMA video monitors, which I think are particularly effective at squaring off the form and integrating with the pedestal. Here’s an example: http://notyellowchicken.com/wp-content/uploads /2008/02/making.jpg
But of course this is all up for discussion. I look forward to hearing from you!
Chad
Assistant Curator, Special Projects
30 April 2014 at 08:48
Hi Jessica,
So sorry for the delay. I have had a deadline this week so I’m a little behind. I could do the 13th in the morning. Perhaps we could aim to start at 9.30?
Thank-you,
All the best
Lenka
30 April 2014 at 09:13
9:30 on the 13th is great. Could I get your address so I can put it in my itinerary?
Thank you so much for finding time for me in your schedule, I look forward to meeting you.
Jessica Whalen
Digital Media Producer
30 April 2014 at
Hi Jessica,
It’s ( ), Pittsburgh. Our street is really a set of city steps so best to park at the bottom and walk up. Call if you get lost or need a hand.
Thanks!
Lenka
30 April 2014 at 11:23
Lenka, just to follow up, I received specs on the monitor MoMA uses just now. Here is what they use:
http://www.dotronix.com/dnrSeries.html
Let me know your thoughts!
Chad
Assistant Curator, Special Projects
30 April 2014 at 12:29
Hello Chad,
Thank-you for your emails. I have two directions of thought regarding the monitors. The first is that the monitors you have chosen look excellent, they can be ordered with an internal speaker which would be slick and a nice clean option for having sound. If we choose to go ahead with a monitor I would say this model would be a great choice. I also appreciate your trying to unite the two works.
My concern is that I have observed people watching the projected video and feeling very implicated in the work – as if they are the ones letting the boy run off and are responsible for him, emitting cries of – too far!! for example. This implication in the work is very important conceptually to me and I think that it is greatly strengthened by the viewer being placed physically in place of the parent, experiencing the film in a life-size, all-encompassing environment. I have not observed people watching the piece on a monitor but could imagine that a viewer might feel more seperated from it, which I think could lessen the impact of the piece.
I wonder what your thoughts are on this? Might there be another way to connect the two pieces? I could imagine for example that it could be very interesting to encounter the sculptural piece after exiting the space in which you have felt implicated in a small child running off. This all being said, I very much respect your knowledge of the space and curatorial vision and am open to discussion.
All the very best,
Lenka
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