This will be an exciting week for me. A few months ago I was asked by Cristiana Perrella, a curator hired by the Fondazione Marino Golinelli, to participate in a show revolving around how man has been shaped by the world around him. The show will be titled From 0 to 100. The New Ages of Life. The show will be the third in a series of shows that focus on how the world has shaped human beings. The show will be a combination of art and science, two disciplines that I think actually have a lot in common. Included in the show will be some of the biggest artists around, and I am really excited to be included. Some of the artists included are Cindy Sherman, Ryan McGinley, Guy Ben-Ner, Nan Goldin, Rineke Dijkstra, Louise Bourgeios, John Pilson, Martin Creed, Hans Peter Feldmann, Stefania Galegati,  Ottonella Mocellin, Nicola Pellegrini, Gabriel Orozco, Adrian Paci, and Miwa Yanagi. There will also be a catalog with the show.

Crate Waits For Pick-up

The first show will be at the art fair ARTE-FIERA in Bologna and will only run from January 28 – February 2nd. That show will be very short and will function as a preview for the larger show. The larger show will be at the Triennale Bovisa in Milan and will open on February 21 and run through the beginning of April. There is the possiblity that the show may also travel to Rome, although that has yet to be confirmed but for now I’m keeping my fingers crossed. There were 16,500 visitors at the last iteration of the show, which took place last year, and I am hoping the crowd is even bigger this time around.

Whisking the Work Away

Last week I got to have the pleasure of trying to get the work (four pieces from my Illuminati series) back from the show in Milwaukee and crated back up and prepared for the trip across the ocean. I have never had to do international shipping by myself before, so there was a little trial and error, but (with some help from DHL) all was worked out. Then, DHL was nice enough to help me get the 300lb crate down from the second floor of my building.

But, all should now be taken care of, and hopefully the work is getting ready to go on the wall. I only wish I could be present for the opening.

PEF 2011 :: E|E :: Quase Íntimo – Evan BADEN from Paraty em Foco on Vimeo.

A while back, I was asked to come and give a lecture about my more recent work at Brazil’s largest photo festival, Paraty Em Foco. The festival is in it’s seventh year, and much of the photo world in Brazil has begun gathering there each year. There were also a number of international guests including Pieter Hugo, Olivia Arthur, and Penelope Umbrico.

PENELOPE UMBRICO’S WORK

I flew there last Wednesday. It is my first time flying south, which is odd because there was almost no time change (or jet-lag), which was welcome. I landed in Sao Paulo and then it was a nice 5 hour drive through the jungle to the costal town of Paraty. I am told it is one of the oldest settlements in Brazil and one of the most beautiful.

TALKING ABOUT MY WORK

On Friday evening, I gave my lecture about my work. When I have given lectures in the past, at most maybe 30 people show up, so this was quite different. My lecture was sold out. The small hall where the lecture was to be given could seat 200, then there was additional seating outside in the lobby and in the main exhibition hall, where the lecture was simulcast to a large screen.

MAGAZINE ARTICLE FOR PARATY EM FOCO

It was an interesting format. First, I talked about my work for about 45 minutes. Then there was a public interview. My interviewer was a Brazilian photographer named Felipe Russo. He asked questions for around 20 minutes. Then we let the microphones loose to the public. That went on for about another 20 minutes. So the whole thing ended up lasting about an hour and a half.

MYSELF WITH FRENCH PHOTO STUDENT STEPHANIE CHAUVIN IN THE NIKON LOUNGE

After the lecture it was off to the Nikon Lounge where Felipe was launching an online magazine titled “A Revista”. I spent some time there chatting with people about the lecture. It was odd for me. It seemed like everyone knew who I was and wanted to ask all sorts of questions and take photos with me. That was something I was totally not used to.

EVAN BADEN WORKSHOP

On Saturday, I gave a workshop. Again, that was sold out. I ended up with 22 students. I spent the day with them talking about how to go about creating a body of work and how to market that work when it was finished. It was a lengthy day, but everyone was really happy with what they learned.

PIETER HUGO AND PENELOPE UMBRICO

After the workshop it was off to the Prince’s house (seriously, the Prince of Brazil) for a private party for the participants and photo collectors. I got to have a nice chat with Marcel Feil from FOAM in Amsterdam and with Pieter Hugo and Penelope Umbrico, as well as some of the other photographer and curators. Then it was off to dinner (around 23:00) with some of the organizers.

Then it was back to reality. I left on Sunday night, only to arrive just in time for class on Monday morning. It was a great experience, one that hopefully I will get to have again in the near future. I met a lot of great people and brought back a lot of prints and books from people I met.

The opening of Generation NEXT went really well. MIAD wanted to do a small lecture series in conjunction with the show. So on Tuesday night I was back in Milwaukee to talk about the work I have been making, and the work I am planning to make while here. It was a small gathering in the gallery.

The nicer part of the evening was after the talk. MIAD students wrote small essays about why they wanted to come out to dinner with me after the talk. Six were selected and off we went. It was actually the best part of the night. We were at dinner for a few hours and there were lots and lots of questions asked, both about my work, my professional life, and why I was returning to school and what that was like. Sometimes answering those types of questions for others helps me formulate my own thoughts.

On Friday night I was in Milwaukee for the opening of my current show Generation NEXT. I was approached about being in the show in August, which is really fast. The show was curated by Jason Yi, with suggestions from Lisa Hostetler, curator of photographs at the Milwaukee Art Museum.

From the website:

“Generation Next” features a diverse group of young artists whose talents identify them as the next generation who will make a significant contribution to the cultural life of the region. Artist and MIAD Chair of Foundations Jason S. Yi selected the five with advice from Lisa Hostetler, Curator of Photographs at the Milwaukee Art Museum, and Cassandra Smith ’02 (Sculpture), co-editor of Fine Line, an international fine art magazine.

The show features 6 pieces from The Illuminati. There are four other artists in the show, and it runs through December 10, 2011. I was the only photographer in the show. I find that it is nice to be included with other mediums every now and them because the audience changes a little from just the viewers that are interested in seeing photos, to those interested more in art-in-general.

For this show, with the help of the gallery, I decided to do more of an installation of the pieces. Instead of just having the pieces on white walls, the walls were painted a dark grey. This was similar to what the Stozzina did for my show there. However, instead of just painting the walls, the gallery also walled off the space so that it would be dark. Then, the pieces were lit with single spotlights. It has an interesting effect in that the pieces look backlit and it fits with the mood of the work. It was interesting to try.

Melissa Cooke

The other artists included in the show are Sarah Luther, Sofia Arnold, Emily Belknap, and Melissa Cooke.

Opening Night at MAMA

You All Fell For My Act is now up at Media and Moving Art in Rotterdam. There was a last minute addition to the show. Ai Weiwei was added to the show just before it went up. The reception has been good. I have four pieces in the show. They are Megan, Heidi and John, Lexi, and Sady. They are the full size versions and were mounted for the show.

Once again, the artists included in the show are Ai Weiwei (CN, 1957), Kalup Linzy (US, 1977), Kim Nuijen (NL, 1984), Jamie Warren (US, 1980), Renée van Trier (NL, 1983), Evan Baden (US, 1985), Mark Callahan (US, 1971).The show will be up until October 16, 2011.

These will be a limited edition of 100 boxes. Each portfolio comes in a Kodak 4×5 film box which I have used for one of my projects. Inside each box is a full set of contact prints from both the Illuminati and Technically Intimate series. Each print is labeled with the title and other information. Also included are artist statements for both projects as well as installation views of each series. That is a total of 36 prints. Each box will be signed and numbered.

This is a great way to own a full set of each series. Edition 4/100 resides in the permanent collection at the The Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction. 

If you are interested in purchasing a box, please contact me at evan [at] evanbaden dot com.

DUMMY, "Freiheit"

Really happy to have received my copies of DUMMY magazine. Each issue revolves around a central theme. For their 31st issue, the theme was Freiheit, or Freedom.

Two of my images from Technically Intimate were included in the issue alongside an interview by Oliver Gehrs. The magazine is out of Berlin and is really nicely designed. There are some great images in the magazine, and I would have to say, this is the among the best examples of my images in print form.

Below are a few of my favorite pages from the issue as well as my images.

Enjoy.

Sady, 2010

You All Fell For My Act
27 August – 16 October 2011 
Opening: 26 August 2011, 19:00 – 23:00
Media and Moving Art. Rotterdam, The Netherlands

I am happy to announce my inclusion in an international show titled You All Fell For My Act at Media and Moving Art (MAMA) in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. I will have four pieces from Technically Intimate in the show (Megan, Heidi and John, Lexi, and Sady). Artists will include Kalup Linzy (US, 1977), Jamie Warren (US, 1980), Renée van Trier (NL, 1983), Evan Baden (US, 1985), Mark Callahan (US, 1971).

You All Fell For My Act is an international group exhibition about the way in which we relate ourselves to idealised images of a prevailing norm. The participating artists mainly use lens based media to show emerging tendencies of how we present ourselves on a global stage. This approach is informed by the wealth of different platforms to stage yourself as an individual: TV talent shows, social media, YouTube, but also city photography and fashion blogs. Whilst the individual performs the implication is that the world is watching.

The artists in this exhibition play, in different ways, with these emerging phenomena. Evan Baden shows young girls who make photos of themselves in their bedrooms whilst posing in front of a webcam. The photographic work of Jamie Warren is more theatrical; she dresses in a carnivalesque way contrasting her looks with her surroundings. In Kalup Lenzy’s videos he plays with his own identity by adopting different roles in a soap opera, which he then acts on camera. As such, the artists in this exhibition play with the way a prevailing ideal or standard affects the behavior of people. By transgressing the boundaries between real and fake, and between public and private we see the variability and changeability of identity.

The Exhibition You All Fell For My Act has been produced and curated by the second intake of participants of MAMA’s Rookies MA. In 2009 the first intake of the Rookies MA presented their exhibition For Security Reasons. Through the Rookies MA course (the successor of Mr. Miyagi Curating Tomorrow course) aspiring young curators are given the opportunity to realize and create an exhibition from start to finish. Under the guidance of MAMA’s staff and a variety of local and international guest lecturers the rookies MA course teaches many important aspects of curatorship including: fundraising, liaising with artists, communication, exhibition design, set-up and take down of exhibition, up to and including a final evaluation.

About Media and Moving Art:

MAMA (1997) is a project by the Public Art Squad Foundation and is situated in Rotterdam. MAMA is a platform for visual culture on the cutting edge of visual arts and popular culture and serves as a home base for the youngest generation of producers of images, artists and an audience aged between 16 and 26. MAMA produces exhibitions, books and magazines, organizes performances and events, presents and represents young artists at home and abroad and is part of an international network of like-minded organizations.

Untitled (I Get Around)

I have been thinking about a new body of work for months now. Actually, it’s been almost a year. Now I am heading back to school, and I will begin to go full steam with this new body of work. Picking up from Technically Intimate, I will be looking further into how youth culture’s learned sexual behaviors have been shaped by popular culture and how the porn industry has played an integral role in that shaping.

I would also like to take a closer look at how feminism has changed over the last 30 years, from a sense of female empowerment to a willingness and want by young women to be seen as a sexual object. I happen to feel there is a difference between female sexual empowerment and simply being in Playboy. They are not one and the same.

I have begun writing (soon to be posted) and currently have 60 images that I want to shoot. That should take me the next three years or so. The imagery will take on many different looks and I am hoping to get a really wide variety. I am still taking a lot of cues from the imagery that I am finding online. I will use those images as a base to jump off of.

Way back in February, I shot this image. This particular image takes a look at the Victoria’s Secret PINK brand, which I find of particular interest.

Right now my head is still spinning with all of the elements that I want to include in this body of work. I am slowly but surely beginning to refine them.

More to come…

Advertisement for Paraty Em Foco

In September I will be traveling to Paraty, Brazil to participate in the Paraty Em Foco Photography Festival. I am quite excited as I have never been to South America. I am hoping there will be some time to see Rio, and I will bring my Polaroid camera along for the ride. I will be there for the entire festival, which runs from the 21st of September through the 25th. I will be involved with two events while there.

First, I will be giving a lecture about my past and current work. I am excited because this will be the first that I get to speak in public about my third series. I am mostly in the planning stages at this point, but hope to be a little further by the time the festival rolls around. There will also be an interview section to the lecture. The interview will be conducted by Felipe Russo, a young Brazilian Photographer. His blog can be found here.

I will also be giving a workshop during the festival. I didn’t want to do a shooting workshop. Mostly because shooting is a very small part of any project for me. Plus, I think it would be pretty boring to stand around and watch me shoot a staged image. So instead I will be focusing on how to research, write about, and plan an extended body of work. Then, after that work is created, how to market it and get it shown around the world. The workshop has already sold out, however, I believe we will be adding more spots as there is still some demand. That was somewhat of a surprise to me.

The image above is the first advertisement for the Festival, whose topic this year is “The Future”. More info can be found here.