With the year coming to a close I look back at a particularly productive year. From my “Marie Antoinette” piece last March to the entire “Heirlooms” exhibition in June to the current body of work titled “Unentitled” which is more than half way complete and will show in Los Angles in early 2013, I am looking forward to the new year.
This year also saw the beginning of a long-term project titled "Booming Dunes: A Study in 35 parts" that will consist of an extensive study of the worlds signing sands. Below is an excerpt of the initial texts I have written regarding the project.
"Our lives are driven by logic; every choice, decision, movement and thoughts use
logic, great or small, as a pivot point. When logic is challenged or seemingly
defied we are forced to pause to assess, question and investigate the source of
what, by human understanding, seems impossible or at least improbable.
Booming Dunes: A Study in 35 parts does precisely that. A long-term study of the
worlds singing sands phenomenon and the environments that surround them.
From the Kelso Dunes in Southern California to the Gobi Desert in China where
Marco Polo experienced the singing sands in the 13th Century."
As the project progresses I will set up pages with documentation of the studies complete with photos, video and audio recordings made. The work created from the project will be exhibited year to year, which will include photographs, drawings, sculpture, sound installations and more.
News - October 2012
The long out of print album j.frede:eremiophobia now available on iTunes, Spotify and Amazon.
“Hollowed and spatial ambient noise construction abound on j.frede’s latest amazing full-length. Similar to the lighter drones of fellow artist Radiosonde. j.frede slyly intensifies his noisy augmentations, creating ploddingly destructive sonic crashing or brief minimalist cessations of audibility. Dark foghorn-esque moans and metallic footsteps are indicative of ability to puncture the ear with the intricacies of of sound while building a large wall of lo-fi noise. With execllent transparent packaging in the bargain, this is one of my favorite releases in experimental sound this year.”
A collection of three live recordings that best represent the live audio performances I was doing between 1998-2004. Delicately weaving field recordings with analog textures and tones quietly processed juxtaposed by crisp noise.
"frede gradually introduces textural abrasions that quietly overwhelm his initial palette of tonal digital flutterings. The subtle intrusions from electroshock pinpricks, psychoacoustic drone play and anxiously skittering gestures activate frede's sound constructions to create disquieting atmospheres."
Jim Hanyes - The Wire [issue 235] - September 2002
Heirlooms New Sculptures that investigate objects and their memories
I am proud to present a new body of work I have completed titled Heirlooms. Consisting of 13 new sculptures Heirlooms addresses our relationship with objects and their hidden histories.
I am interested in the idea of objects holding the past while hiding their past. The memories we associate with our grandfather’s watch or the blanket our mother made us, we can have strong reactions at the mere sight or smell of items whose history we can recall and these same objects are static to anyone else who sees them with no personal association.
Is this history locked into the mantel clock whose chime mesmerized us as children or the stool we climbed atop to sneak cookies at night? Do they act as some sort of memory safe that grips its contents allowing only you to fall back into the past, for better or worse?
The objects are still while the knotted masses hold dear or secure the items and act out as the gripping hand of ownership, tightly wound balls of tension and as growths that can be both troubling and foreign.
This new work, Heirlooms, marries my Security Sculptures with objects both from my past and objects I have no personal history with but surely invoke strong memories for strangers I have never met.
Heirlooms will be shown alongside Amanda Gordon Dunn’s latest paintings, which combine the painting style of 1960s surfboards and color combinations of comic books from her youth.
June 22nd, 2012 (Opening Reception 6pm - 10pm)
Pirate Contemporary Art
3655 Navajo St,
Denver, CO 80211
303.458.6058
Los Angeles artist Joshua Petker and myself did a joint interview that goes into our upcoming exhibitions and includes preview images of some of the works.
I have a new piece in a large group show happening in Los Angeles March 31st 2012. "All In For The 99%" is organized by Van Jones (Rebuild the Dream), Russell Simmons (Occupy the Dream), SEIU, and MoveOnCivilAction taking place in Hollywood for a single day at a pop up gallery. 50 Artists were invited to present work that addresses the Occupy movement and the 99%.
My work for the show is titled "Marie Antoinette" and features a guillotine blade silkscreened, silver leafed and drawn onto a single dollar bill.
below is the info taken from the All In For The 99% page;
All in for the 99% is a launch event, calling for unity and cooperation in the progressive community. On March 31st, artists, musicians, writers and activists will gather and use creative collaboration to amplify the voices of the 99%, demanding an end to Citizens United and calling loudly as one for real campaign finance reform.
Last Fall, the 99% finally found it's voice. This Spring, we’re giving them a microphone: a wave of united art, culture, & music aimed directly at the core problem obstructing real change in our country.
Artists Include: Robbie Conal, Aaron Rose, Chris Johanson, Retna, Sage Vaughn, Michael Muller, Deedee Cheriel, Mel Kadel, Shepard Fairey, Ione Skye and over 50 other amazing artists.
-Slake Magazine Curated Readings and Presentations
-Aerial art produced by Interconnected
-DJ Sets Curated by the Embassy!
I have been super busy in the studio as of late working on an extensive drawing series that will consist of 500 drawings all belonging to a body of work titled Incidental Drawings that uses chance to determine the shapes that will be drawn.
I have also finished several new Security Sculptures, I hope to get a few more up on the site soon.
The most recent piece I have completed is a sculpture titled English Oak and is the first in a body of work titled Reductions that is based on the removal of negative space from found objects.
English Oak was a set of chairs I found on the street in Los Angeles. I photographed the pair then took the shabbier of the two and disassembled it, cutting it, breaking it and keeping track of each piece I slowly puzzled its pieces into the base of the chair leaving as little air between the pieces as possible, removing its negative space and reducing it to material.
English Oak will be shown as a set of sculptures, future works will be show along side photographic documentation, drawings or simply measurements of the objects previous size before it was reduced.
Documentation of this work, the Incidental Drawings and snap shots of the new Security Sculptures on my artist page on Facebook, I regularly upload working photos that don’t make it on this site….
A collaborative work between New York based artist Joseph Imahuser and myself was on show for the month of September as part of the Reborn Exhibition at NYU.
Reborn: 9/11 Gallery Exhibition
Human consciousness is finite. Each of us lives for only a passing moment. Perhaps this ephemerality, obvious in the wake of 9/11, compels us to search for the meaning of our existence. For this exhibit, “Reborn,” each artist has been asked to exhibit work that is their memory/reaction. The artists are a community, a diverse group of faculty, graduate and undergraduate artists from the Art and Art Professions Department of the Steinhardt School. The Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and the Steinhardt School have gotten to know each other through the vehicle of art. Cutting across traditional lines is what often brings people together.
When: 9/13/2011 5:00pm-6:30pm
Location: The Puck Building, Rice Conference Room / Newman Reception Area
295 Lafayette Street, New York, NY 10012-9604
News - August 2011
my weekly photoblog that was featured on The Citrus Report for 30 straight weeks is now available here on jfrede.com.
I will continue the project on a regular basis until reaching no.50 at which time I plan to show 500 photographs from the series. eyespies no.32 is now up and ready for your eyes to see !
News - April - recent happenings and upcoming exhibitions
May 6th 2011
j.frede presents
Glass Music at the Berkeley Art Museum
Curated by Mark Allen of Machine Project
I am happy to announce I have been invited to present and perform Glass Music at the Berkeley Art Museum. Mark Allen of Machine Project asked me if I would be interested in doing a larger version of the performance after last years Glass Music show at Machine. This new performance will be the largest to date and will include 30 Performers and Ninety wine glasses. I will be photographing the interior of the museum and creating visual sheet music from the lines of the architecture. http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/exhibition/late050611
I also added more images to the Black Gold page from the recent Beta Release Exhibition.
BETA RELEASE: Experiments in video, sound + performance
Phantom Galleries Long Beach
Opening reception: Saturday, March 12, 6-9 PM
Concurrent with the Long Beach Downtown Art Walk
Organized by Jennifer Frias, Jeff Rau and Sixpack Projects.
Featuring the works of Georg Burwick, j.frede, JEFF & GORDON, Christopher O’Leary, and shea M gauer!
News - January - Southern California Soundscape Ensemble
The first salon and performances from the newly formed Southern California Soundscape Ensemble took place on January 20th at {open} bookstore in Long Beach, CA.
The Southern California Soundscape Ensemble (SCSE) has been created with the intention of becoming part of the American Society for Acoustic Ecology. Consisting of phonographers from around Southern California, SCSE presents and performs unaltered field recordings in group performances creating deep surround sound listening salons using recordings made around the world from its collective of artists, musicians and composers.
Recordings of the first two performances are now online on the Founder, Glenn Bach's website. listen/download here.
News - December - Echo Park; Photographic Study no.009 + New photoblog on The Citrus Report + Amor Fati
I have a photograph in the new issue of Amor Fati Arts & Literary Magazine
AMOR FATI is a quarterly digest featuring the works of Los Angeles writers, artists, and creatives. In a city of disparate parts, our aim is to create an active platform for organic and challenging exchange that is not only reflective of this generation but brings a collective voice to an anomalous city.
The newest set in my Photographic Study Series is now online. Taking a look at the stillness of the streets at night in Los Angeles' Echo Park neighborhood.
News - October - RE:FORM SCHOOL Exhibition NYC; Juxtapoz Greg "Craola" Simkins Feature
illiteral - j.frede
October 9th –11th, 2010 - On show at the RE:FORM SCHOOL Exhibition in NYC
ABOUT THE WORK:
illiteral transforms a classic American novel into a format that is almost impossible to read while maintaining all of the original content. While readers can interpret some phrases with enough concentration and time, the effort to decipher other elements will cause them to lose hope. This struggle and eventual feeling of hopelessness acts as an exercise in illiteracy.
This book was created to explore the emotional and visual experience of illiteracy. Each word in the book consist of the original letters scrambled. No new letters or punctuation were introduced, keeping the experience as true as possible.
illiteral was conceived and produced for the RE:FORM SCHOOL Exhibition, a pop up gallery whose goal is to raise awareness for education reform. Taking place in a empty school in New York City’s lower east side, RE:FORM SCHOOL brings together artists from around the world to address this cause. illiteral is presented as an object in the exhibition; ten copies will be available for purchase.
- j.frede
ABOUT RE:FORM SCHOOL:
RE:FORM SCHOOL is a group art exhibition and event series, bringing together hundreds of artists to send a loud message that the time has come to fix our ailing Public Education System.
j.frede wrote the cover story for this months Juxtapoz Magazine on Painter Greg "Craola" Simkins.
From the Juxtapoz Website:
"To honor the entry of Fall, we have one of the most prolific and active artists going today, Greg "Craola" Simkins on the cover of the magazine for October 2010 issue. We are pleased he took time out and spoke with contributing writer, J Frede and an epic shoot with Kevin Knight......"
News - August - Camera Obscura Installation; Pinhole Camera Workshop; Juxtapoz Review
Camera Obscura - an installation by j.frede at Machine Project
Saturday August 7th – Tuesday August 17th, 2010
Opening reception Saturday 8/7 from 4-6pm
Viewable by appointment during the day – contact machine@machineproject.com
The use of Camera Obscuras can be traced back to 400BC and has both mystified and educated humans ever since. For two weeks in August, Machine Project will be transformed into a Camera Obscura by Los Angeles artist j.frede. Visitors will get to see the lights and shapes of the busy street outside projected into the gallery, and interact with the project using small handheld screens.
j.frede's new book American Idle has a lovely review in the current issue of Juxtapoz Magazine. Swing by a news stand or bookstore and pick up a copy. Or if you live somewhere that doesnt carry juxtapoz, click on the magazine image to visit their online store.
News - July - New Photographic Study Series & Work in The Group Show "How About Now"
News - June - New Book - American Idle
The second book from Frederick Publishing, American Idle is a collection of journals from author j.frede's time as a taxi driver in Los Angeles as well as his Eye Spy journals detailing the things he encountered commuting in the City of Angels.
Excerpt:
...First call of the night, downtown as I get closer to the location I realized where I’m heading, I go one block past skid row and make a left, the street has no street lights and the dark sidewalks flicker like fireflies, crack pipes glowing for a second or two all the way down the street. I pull up to a “inner city volunteers” building and do a callout, as I sit there the locales are lurching around watching my cab like it’s a giant piggy bank or crack rock. It had a slight feel like a zombie movie, several whores rode by on old bicycles. Finally someone came out and said the guy was already gone, I wasted no time getting out of that zone....
News - April - Case Study Nest ; Photographic Study,
News - February - Manifest Equality , Schaefer Series Photographic Study,
News - January 2010- New Postcard Series;
2010 brings a new postcard series, now available for purchase in the shop.
Postcard Series no.001 - Reclamation no.23
About the photo:
Reclamation no.23 is from the ongoing Reclamation study that is based on plants reclaiming manmade materials.
News - December 2009- New Photographic Study Series; The Old Zoo
News - November 2009- New Photographic Study Series; Cornered
. . The Fire & Water diptychs are now up for view on the Photography page.
About The Images: "These photographs are groupings of smoke and rain clouds that challange our perspective of what is peaceful and what is menacing. Visually the smoke images appear to be billowing clouds which we normally associate with serenity. The rain clouds, however are dark and brooding and bring a sense of apprehension. The dark rain cloud is actaully the giver of life whilst the smoke, being a biproduct of fire, is the destroyer of life in this instance. "
News - October 2009 - Black Gold Installation - New Photographic Study Series; Neons
News - September 2009 - Exhibitions and New Photographic Study Series
A newlimited online exhibit gallery taking a detailed look at Parking Structures
