Exhibition: Observatory

Observatory exhibition, Tahoe Gallery, Sierra Nevada University, Nevada
January 2022
Mary Jeys and Sarah Logan

The work presented in Observatory was the first version of presenting from the archive of collected livestream videos. I presented a burning candle at a window at sunset on a TV monitor, a pot of water going from cold-poured to boiling on an iPad, and myself and my own watching and waiting on an iPhone. I installed a dorm room to call to the visitor’s mind and body an experience of watching and waiting at a networked happening in a site-specific sleeping quarters. I chose to perform toasting bread as an everyday activity that shifts bread or stale bread to palatable toast.

The work was available not only in the gallery, but also on Twitch whose daily active users spend an average of 95 minutes watching streamers stay at their camera for over 8 hours in any given day. The opportunity that I saw was to introduce my own artistic play into a place of durational long watching that might offer an introspective offering that could invite a togetherness across the experience of our screens.

I view this work as an invitation to consider our position of solo screen time as both a site of unknowing or otherspace that can invite or provoke emotional conditions for change within the visitor and to point to the place of online engagement as instructive in our solitude.

Untitled Portal, Candle
Video of recorded livestream, video monitor
Livestreamed October 18, 2021 TRT: 02:34:37

Untitled Portal, Pot
Video of recorded livestream, iPad
Livestreamed November 18, 2021 TRT: 00:17:27

Untitled Portal, Dorm
Furniture on loan from Housing Department: Bed, Sheets, Pillow, Desk; wallpaint, toaster, bread, plate, computer, webcam
The visitor was invited to watch livestream via the artist’s Twitch channel on their mobile device using a QR code.

Untitled Portal, Toast
Performance of toasting bread slices while livestreaming to artist’s Twitch channel.
Livestreamed on January 9 and 11, 2022

Untitled Portal, Toast
Finished performance with toasted bread loaf.
Livestreamed on January 9 and 11, 2022

Untitled Portal, Self
Splitscreen video of recorded livestream and screen recording of received livestream, iphone
Livestreamed December 5, 2021 TRT: 00:21:02

Drop in the Present
Mary Jeys and Sarah Logan
microscope, camera, artist saliva, computer, projector, artist’s open crate display
Livefeed from microscope of saliva from artist’s mouth on January 4, 2022.

Open the Gate: Livestreaming Portals to Unknowing

You are invited to join me on the internet as I produce my MFA Thesis work for Sierra Nevada University’s MFA program in Interdisciplinary Art which I am calling Open the Gate: Livestreaming Portals to Unknowing this fall.

For this project, I am working with live internet time. Ever since we were forced by health and safety guidelines to stay at home during the Covid-19 pandemic and many workplaces became our homes we lived our lives evermore in front of our screens. This work was developed exclusively considering the meaning in this context. I have created programming for live-streaming on my Twitch channel towards unknowing each day through December 5th as follows:

Monday: Burning
Tuesday: Moving
Wednesday: Day Shifting
Thursday: Evaporating
Saturday: Glitching
Sunday: Rehearsing

Each livestream is an opening, a chance to live time together. This is a kind of ‘time opportunity’ to rest and reconnect with one another and with a way of being that engages a mediated, perhaps underdeveloped, practice of unknowing. Monday’s Burning stream is an opportunity to experience time through energy transfer in a flame as a wick burns through wax, we can connect to a shared way of unknowing flickering light. Tuesday’s Moving stream is a chance to share movement through space- walking with me, or observing other’s walking can connect us to our shared sense of kinetic experience. Wednesday’s Day Shifting stream is a chance to feel the sharing of our sun across the planet. It says goodbye at sunset and the stream holds time until it says hello the next morning. This is when we can experience waiting together through the darkness. Thursday’s Evaporating stream is a way to connect to water’s mutability. We will be watching liquid transform to gas as a ritual anticipation steeped in unknowing at “teatime”. Saturday’s Glitching stream is a chance for us to experiment with ritualizing technological unknowing- here I create a camera loop live or play with computer mirroring and pixel compositions. Sunday’s Rehearsing stream is a chance for me as an artist to share my mind, camera and sound in an attempt to carry and re-carry the week’s events. This word, rehearsal comes from Old German meaning to re-carry, and although it currently connotes a draft version before a final performance, I am working to imagine a rehearsal as carrying forward into the unknown, to a place not unlike death where a hearse carries a body towards a grave for. This livestream is weekly on Sunday when you can communicate directly through me and observe a lag between your screentime and my cameratime. This lag is an important unknowing experience for our distanced relationships.

Open the Gate: Livestream Portals to Unknowing is the culmination of my research into the qualities of time and process during our period of profound isolation combined with mediated relationships (Zoom family holidays, small screened cultural and political events, large and small). My livestreams are an exploration of finding a way to wait and experience unknowing on the internet simultaneously with others. The hopeful practice here is to sustain a waiting anticipation without expectation or outcome, something that might help each of us sense as a transitional feeling or mental state before some real change happens.

When to watch LIVE:
I am live-streaming daily (except Fridays) from now through December. I am live-streaming from New York City through November 29th and will livestream from Yucca Valley until December 5th.

How to watch LIVE:
twitch.tv/parodyofmyself
My twitch channel is free to watch, and you do not need an account to view my livestreams. However, I won’t know you are there and you won’t be able to chat with me or others without an account, so please make one to engage. Alternatively, “lurking” as a behavior that describes a non-engagement that works well with unknowledge, is encouraged for these streams. But please do let me know if you are there in another way- email, direct message, etc. work well to let me know you have joined.

How to get ALERTS on when watch LIVE:
The easiest way is to follow me on Twitch. If you do not have an account, you can create one to follow me. When I go live, followers will get an alert -email, usually. You can also follow me on Instagram where I try to announce once I am going live that my Twitch livestream is on. I occasionally go LIVE on Instagram, but have focused on sending followers towards my livestream twitch link to view. As I persist with this research, Instagram’s role as an audience announcement platform may shrink or grow as I observe changes in the web ecology.

_______
Mary Jeys
https://www.maryjeys.com
Livestreams here: Twitch twitch.tv/parodyofmyself
Daily announcements here: Instagram: @maryjosephinejeys

Exhibition: Value Exchange

A collection of currencies I have come across through my Brooklyn Torch Project will be on display in a group show at the Galveston Arts Center in an exhibition curated by Dennis Nance titled Value Exchange this summer/fall. If you are in or near Galveston, please check it out.

July 13 – October 6, 2019
Opening Reception Saturday, July 13, 2019
6:00 – 9:00 PM
Artist talks at 6:30 PM

ReGeneration Exhibition

The ReGeneration Exhibition is up from November 30th, 2018 to February 16th, 2019.

I created and co-curated this six week residency and exhibition. See below for detail photos and curatorial statement. Click “read more” to see postcard invitation and more installation photos.

Opening Reception: November 30th, 2018 6-9pm
Artist Talk: Saturday, January 26th, 2019 2-4pm
Closing Reception: February 16th, 2019 6-9pm

Tracey Rolandelli, Source (detail), Watercolor, Oil, and Pastel on Paper, 2018

Noga Wizansky, Recovery Still Life 4 (Support System (detail), Charcoal on Strathmore 400, 2018

Constance Moore, Inevitable Forms (detail), Felt, Glitter, Paper and Altered Table, 2018

Stephanie Potter Corwin, Circadian Echoes (detail), Dye-Sublimation Print on Aluminum, 2018

Kate Godfrey, Community (detail), Cotton Thread on Linen, 2018

Regeneration has an embedded notion of loss. Loss of limb, loss of life, loss of deadweight. In this residency, we considered the work of rebuilding artistic practice after having lost something. Many of us have experienced loss in our community, in our perception of safety, in political decency, and in our personal economics as independent creators. In this residency, we recombined our efforts, tackled our own challenges and met them with powerful regenerative forces.

For six Sundays in the fall, artists Autumn Bree, Kate Godfrey, Constance Moore, Stephanie Potter Corwin, Tracey Rolandelli and Noga Wizansky met as a group with curators Mary Jeys and Shoshana Zambryski Stachel to discuss topics brought forth in their proposed projects. Weekly discussions addressed issues of regeneration and process as they related to each artist’s practice.

Given the curators’ interests in artist/gift economies and community arts access, artists were also encouraged to create companion works available in the gift shop during the fall/winter season. All artworks are on sale — both gallery-installed and smaller companion works available in the shop.

ArtVale Gallery
3463 Champion St. Oakland, CA 94602
WEDS-FRI: 1-7PM SAT: 12-6PM
artvalegallery.com
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ReGeneration Open Call- extended deadline September 7th

Regeneration has an embedded notion of loss. Loss of limb, loss of life, loss of deadweight.

What is Regeneration? How does my practice manifest the concept? How does our cultural imagination understand regenerative processes? What about this is personal, political, scientific, magical, etc.?

In this residency, we will be considering the work of rebuilding our artistic practice as we reconstruct ourselves having lost something. Many of us have experienced loss in our community, in our perception of safety, in political decency, and in our personal economics as independent creators. With ReGeneration, we seek to recombine our efforts, to tackle our own challenges, and meet them with powerful force.

We invite you to participate in a residency program engaged in discussion about your work, our cultural climate, the history of art, social change, and beneficial economies. Weekly discussions will address issues related to regeneration (and rejuvenation, reclamation, refinancing; etc.,) as they relate to art practice. Each participant is encouraged to bring as much as possible to the group, including readings; artistic, social and political heroes; marketplace concepts, foolish ideas; etc.

Beginning September 30th through November 4th, accepted applicants will meet every Sunday as a group at ArtVale Gallery to discuss the current social issues and topics brought forth by participant projects. All accepted applicants must commit to all six Sunday meetings where we will participate in group discussions and critically review the works-in-progress (see schedule below). At the end of the program, there will be a group exhibition at ArtVale, final date to be determined. Read the rest of this entry »

Houses and Home

My Grandmother’s House in Houston, TX

I have been painting small gouache paintings of houses. I was inspired by bold exterior paint and respective color theory in my neighborhood. I love the way that gouache has an almost sculptural quality- I think it helps in making strong lines and in building window trims and sash. I am sharing these online as a submission for Illustoria‘s open call for work related to Home for an upcoming issue. All are available for spot art/standalone.
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Animation Sketch

I was recently in Japan and had the inspiring experience of visiting the Ghibli Museum which is Hayao Miyazaki’s animation studio’s museum. I’ve always loved animation and have returned to a renewed interest in illustrating moving pictures. I watched this dog a few years ago jumping through the grass at Lake Merritt in Oakland and kept the material to see if I could make a little video like this to share. It’s taken me that long to gather the skills and enthusiasm to make this mp4. I’m happy with this little sketch- looking forward to pursuing this direction in craft.

New Watercolor Art Socials

I’m hosting watercolor art socials this summer out of my house in Oakland. It’s a great opportunity to check out my new project. Through august, the following art socials will be in a home setting. I provide light refreshments, and you can feel free to bring a bottle or two of any wine or beverage preference you and your buds will like. These classes are for adults only and since it is my home, I am limiting the class size at eight people maximum. Please invite your friends and make it a night/afternoon out!

A Whale Gif!

Here is a .gif I made in a digital illustration class I took over the fall. It came after designing a book cover for Moby Dick as one of the early assignments. Look out, Pequod!

New Instagram

I created a new instagram to feature my doodles and designs. Happy to be back to drawing and painting regularly.