StrAnge Birds, 2012
A featured artist project with:
Arthur Aviles, Jill L. Conner, Barry Frier, Bibbe Hansen, Geoffrey Hendricks, Jim Hubbard, Stephen Kent Jusick, Stephen Lack, Agosto Machado, Stefani Mar, Liz McGarrity, Lucia Maria Minervini, Angelo Monaco, Augustmoon Ochiishi, Uzi Parnes, Dennis Redmond, Hunter Reynolds, Charles Rice-Gonzalez, Rob Roth, Edward Rubin, Rafael Sánchez, Arleen Schloss, Gervaise Soeurouge, Sur Rodney Sur, Chris Tanner, Brad Taylor, Gail Thacker, Jack Waters, Kathleen White, Brian “Soigne” Wilson, and Stephen Winter
The Center For Book Arts is excited to present Ethan Shoshan’s featured artist project, StrAnge Birds. This project encompasses vignettes into people’s lives through objects that hold significant personal meaning to them. Through each object on display, a conversation with its caretaker begins; visitors have the freedom to peruse the objects and listen to an accompanying audio guide conversation. It is through these stories that we connect and engage with the person behind the story and gain insight and an intimate connection to something deeper within ourselves. From Bibbe’s relationship with her mom through gathering stones to a realization of home in acceptance of every moment as “perfect,” to SKJ’s first projector providing the construction of personal and social resources that help shape his creative community. A new inspired look at timeless portraiture, weaving together personal archives and institutional archives, forgotten histories, memories, and embodied experiences in a testament and an affirmation of life and its lessons.
This accompanying online archive of the StrAnge Birds Exhibition contains 31 conversations over the course of 6 months with people I met about an object, place, or idea of importance in their life. Each conversation is approximately 10-15min long and the exhibition contains over 5hrs of material to experience.
In order to get the full experience/story/portrait, I suggest selecting 2-3 objects that you are curious about and listen to the audio link in its entirety. Please do not stop a conversation midway. Feel free to choose more objects if you have time or come back again.
