Clio Maudlin, connoisseur of fine arts and supporter of using 4 in place of “for,” has an announcement to make about a good cause, so listen(read?) up!

Art 4 Art’s Sake

This month, Postcrypt will be hosting a public event at St. Anthony’s Hall that will not only be an exciting opportunity for art creators and enthusiasts, but will also be making a positive change for visiting children at St. Luke’s Hospital.

Organized by Clémence White, Gabby Barsocchini, Mausi Goess, and Marianne Barthélemy (representatives from Postcrypt and St. A’s) and in collaboration with RxArt, “Arts for Art’s Sake,” presents an exciting and social art experience. The event will be an auction of not just student work, but also pieces made by alumni and working artists who have generously donated their art to be auctioned off to whomever bids at the event. Not only will students be able to feature their own creations and have them seen by other members of the artist community, but many generally unaffordable pieces will be available for auction at college-student-budget costs.  The proceeds will go to help fund an interactive art installation by Rob Pruitt in the children’s wing at St. Luke’s hospital, which will allow kids to entertain themselves by drawing on the wall rather than anxiously waiting around.

For those of us who want our work shown outside of our dorm room walls, this is a great opportunity to present and network your skills to other passionate artists. Or, if you aren’t a creator and are more of a collector (or even just want something to put on your walls besides some cute party pics), this is a fantastic chance to get your hands on some fabulous art at an affordable price. Not to mention all the proceeds are going to help Pruitt’s large scale dry erase board be installed at St. Luke’s, which can really help make the St. Luke’s environment (which let’s be honest, is nothing to look forward to) a little bit better.

The event is being held at St. Anthony’s Hall on April 19^th from 7 pm - 10 pm and tickets are currently on sale ($10 for students, $20 for non-students). Until April 8^th Postcrypt is still looking for submissions! So if you have some awesome artwork you want to be seen/sold, and would also like to get into the event for ~*~*free*~*~, e-mail postcryptartgallery@gmail.com. And for those of us just looking for a Friday night activity, come enjoy some art, perhaps pick up a couple pieces for yourself, dip into some finger food and mingle with on and off campus artists. But if that isn’t enough to convince you to attend, there will also be a raffle on the most prominent piece AND live music!  (band is TBD). The event in sponsored by Veev, as well as Skate’s Art Market Research, which has generously donated books to be sold at the auction.

Tickets can be bought at http://www.cuarts.com/calendar/view/type/4/event_id/16092

Submit your work to postcryptartgallery@gmail.com

For more information/announcements check out the event Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/events/360555477388776/

Earlier today, Bwog sat down with Pat Blute. Blute, of BwogWeather and HardCore fame, has been of late consumed by the production of his new rock-opera, SPEARS: The Gospel According to Britney. Tickets go on sale at 5 pm today, and will sell out fast. Blute, director and creator, is pretty excited. Bwog sat down with him on the Steps to hash it out.

Blute: This is the interview for SPEARS: The Gospel According to Britney, the story of Jesus Christ, told to the music of Britney Spears, “The Greatest Story Ever Told, the Greatest Music Ever Written.”

Bwog: That’s such a great tagline. How did it come to you?

Blute: It’s an extremely self-explanatory tagline that tells you exactly what you are going to see. No surprises, no gimmicks, beyond that. There’s no dialogue and none of the lyrics are changed.

Bwog: That does sound wonderful. So how did you come up with the idea?

Blute: That’s a great question. So, I don’t remember how I really came up with the idea, but I can share some of its iterations. High school Spanish class, we did modismos, we had to come up with two things which contrasted, but which were similar. So I did Britney Spears and Jesus, and it worked out, and everyone gave a laugh. That was 12th grade. It then just became this running party joke, where I would tell people certain select scenes, and always get a laugh, or a “That works.”

Bwog: So when did it become serious?

Blute: It became serious when I talked to some people with certain connections, and they said, “You have to try this.” It was originally going to be a staged reading, but I didn’t like the idea of outside dialogue, so it literally is the Gospel according to Britney, and Britney alone. Her discography allows her to play both friend and foe, villain and hero, and in many ways it captures the motifs of the gospels.

Tactfulness, the concept, and the project, after the jump.

That's some artistic intensity

The Arts Initiative is sponsoring a free five hour (!!!) Drawathon tonight in 501 Dodge from 6 to 11 pm featuring various snacks included but not limited to: cookies, chips, pretzels, cheese, and dips. Prepare for artistic adventure as seven student figure models pose for your drawing pleasure. There will be art supplies there, so don’t worry about appearing unarmed! The event will also feature musical performances from the Columbia Classical Performers, Bluegrass Band, and more. Admission with a valid CUID.

Venus in Heels via Wikimedia Commons

This version: not cool

Not only can Jeremy Lin rule the world, occupy half our posts, and inspire dozens of memes, he can also teach us how to have better sex. (The Daily Beast)

Perhaps the Kardashians’ quotes are so…memorable for a reason: they’re pioneering social linguistic change. Turns out that creaky frog-sound of female reality stars everywhere actually has a name. (NYT)

Sometimes your food fantasies are more than just food fantasies. (Gothamist)

Cindy Sherman teaches you how to hide in plain sight in her long-anticipated MoMA retrospective, which opened this past Sunday. (Capital)

It’s that magical midterm time, which is probably reminding you of all those participation points you have yet to accumulate. Here’s a handy guide on how to raise your hand as trendily as possible when the time comes. (NYT)

Untrendiness via Wikimedia 

This is what they mean by atonal, right?

Tonight, Miller Theatre digs deep and offers us the first of its brand new series of Popup Concerts. In exchange for free beer, intimate musical times, and communitarian bonding, all we must do is sit through an hour of atonal music. Punters will be encouraged to grab a bevvie and join the instrumentalists on stage. Such egalitarianism is, to be sure, a little offensive, but we cannot complain since the price is free.

Bwog spoke to Ari Streisfield, violinist with the JACK Quartet, about how modern music is weird but also good. Full interview after the jump.

Musical Experiments: Popup Concert. Tuesday, February 7th, 5.30pm, Miller Theatre. Free.

Bwog: Contemporary classical music often repels people. You suddenly hear two bars of that and you say, I don’t know this, I don’t understand. How do you listen to something like the stuff you’re playing on Tuesday?

Ari: We’ve played that piece for audiences that have never heard anything like this before, all over the country, and they usually respond to it immediately, just because of the physicality of it…if you let your mind go and all expectations gone, just allow yourself open to a new experience, it definitely opens new doors in your mind of what’s possible. It does make sense, the way [composers] weave the material together, things come back, memory is used….a lot of [the great Western composers] talk about the idea of memory, or it’s apparent in their music.

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Get cultured.

Your goal for the semester was to really get out there and explore more of New York City. Well, now those readings have kicked in and you’ve got a little less time to spare. That doesn’t mean you can’t take a look at our second installment of  Where Art Thou, a listing of enthralling arts events that will take you on and around campus, and are sure to entertain. If you would like to see your cultural event here, please let us know about it at events@bwog.com.

Thursday

Ethnographic Exhibitionism, 6 pm in 930 Schermerhorn.
A talk with Alys George of NYU, focusing on performance culture, body history, and dance: The Body as Spectacle and Science in Vienna 1900. Free.

Bach and the Romantics, 8 pm in Miller Theatre.
Best known for her inspired recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, Brooklyn-based pianist Simone Dinnerstein offers selections from her forthcoming CD in this first solo recital at Miller, again breathing fresh air into the music of Bach. Tickets $7 from the TIC, more details.

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We have a new concept space on campus, hot on the heels of the Zen Garden. A recent email from DSpar on Barnard’s renovations included the following message:

“Thanks to the faculty and students in the Architecture Department, Altschul Atrium is newly reconfigured as The Hive. It’s an innovative space divided into lounge, meeting, and gallery areas with modular furniture that can be arranged in a multitude of ways.”

This has literally been realized in a series of bee-related installations, and was officially opened on Tuesday. Behold:

Searching requires settings

The opening reception for Search Settings is today from 3-4 pm in the Leroy Neiman Gallery on the ground level of Dodge Hall. Come by for free wine and cookies, not to mention some fine undergraduate artwork.

Greenish blob via Wikimedia Commons

On a recent gray, midterm-y Wednesday, intrepid Bwoggers Helen Bao and Allie Curry  visited “Sightlines,” the first exhibition of the season at the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery (that’s the 8th floor of Schermerhorn.) Here, they tell us about it.

First of all: Schermerhorn is confusing. To get there from the stairs: Enter on the fourth floor (yes, the ground floor) and make your way up to floor six. Then climb one more sets of stairs to reach floor eight. (We don’t know either.) From the elevator: Enter on the fourth floor (ground floor) and press the up button to the elevator. Exit on the 9th floor to reach the 8th floor.

“Sightlines” features the work of Nancy Holt, a contemporary American artist famous for environmental and land art. A movement that emerged in the 1960s, land art draws attention to the negative impact humans can have on the environment. Her most famous works are her large-scale permanent works Sun Tunnels and Dark Star Park, which combine sculpture and architecture to form live, experiential landscapes. (more…)

St. Peter's Denial /wikimedia

Ramapo College in Mahwah, NJ has banned the alcoholic energy drink Four Loko. Let’s hope this disturbing trend stays in Jersey. Or not. (CBS New York)

Princeton’s endowment posted a mere 14.7% gain last year, to Columbia’s 17%. (NYT)

The New Museum’s latest exhibit contains a newspaper on the end of newspapers. (Capital NY)

This guy can teach you how to ride a bike in the city, even where there’s no bike lane. (NYT)

The Feds busted a 45-member New York-based marijuana ring yesterday which included Roc-A-Fella Records co-founder Kareem ‘Biggs’ Burke. Bwog sincerely hopes this doesn’t affect Memphis Bleek’s habits. (WSJ)

Photo by ECS

The Blue and White’s Gavin McGown ventures up to 126th Street to find art and innovation.

“This space used to be a machine shop,” says Darryl Hell, technical director and co-founder of New York-based artists’ initiative Chashama, as he walks the halls of its Morningside studio space at 461 West 126th Street. “Before that it was a brewery.” The stained bricks of 19th century industrycould easily hide the studios and exhibition spaces within, but the front entrance has been painted over in vibrant colors that catch the eye. While construction crews restore the exterior, over a dozen artists fill the building with what Chashama considers some of the most innovative art now being created in the city.

Chashama (Farsi for “foresight”) has garnered bothsuccess and recognition for its innovative mission: the organization takes over temporarily unused or abandoned buildings and transforms them into studio and performance spaces, leased to artists for highly subsidized rents. Founded 13 years ago by New York artist Anita Durst in memory of deceased director and playwright Reza Abdoh, “Chashama was one of the original people before the pop-up gallery and the pop-up art space came in vogue due to the real estate crash,” says Hell. “That was always our model.”

The organization now runs 12 facilities in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens, a success story Hell attributes to their willingness to renovate dormant spaces themselves. “We’re an economic solution for landowners to be able to rent their space for more money than they would otherwise get.” Now, Hell says, some landowners go out of their way to approach the organization with space offers. “Before, we were limited to a space that was beat up from the feet up.” He says of 461, before Chashama moved in, “it looked like hell.”

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Postcrypt Artsfest 2010 begins now in the Van Am Quad and ends with an open mic at 11 p.m. Live music will be performed all day. Stop by for free FeelGood grilled cheeses and an art sale! Rumor has it that there is also a catharsis tent.  Come support Columbia’s undergraduate artists!

Hurry now to Lerner for the remains of Live at Lerner’s Tuesday offering of lentil salad and hot dogs! There’s also a DJ and some student artwork.

Photo by Mahrah Taufique

During his senior year of high school, Dustin Martin (CC ’11) was out for a run when he had the idea to start creating t-shirts with a new logo he had designed. Unlike most of us, who probably would have just gotten back from the run and gone to band practice or whatever we were involved in during high school, Dustin actually followed up, and began creating t-shirts with his own designs using stencils and spray paint.

The designs, which employ Native American motifs printed on thrift store-acquired clothing, have a distinctive New Mexico-meets-Brooklyn aesthetic that Dustin has painstakingly cultivated since he began printing shirts. His long-term vision is for his clothes to engender public awareness of issues affecting indigenous people, and he is careful that his designs ring contemporary. “I think the vision that I have is not so much a design as it is the idea that people gravitate toward attractive things, and they listen and they learn and they’re attracted to the aesthetics,” he said. “My vision is really to use that appeal to articulate a cultural message.”

The designs came to real fruition last spring, when Dustin began to silkscreen thrift store shirts in his room in McBain. That semester alone he was able to sell about 50 t-shirts, simply through word of mouth. He has since set up a boutique of sorts in his current room in River Ruggles, and has an assortment of t-shirts and other articles available for sale. Most items are $15. If you’re interested in any of the designs, you can contact Dustin at resisthype@gmail.com.

More photos (including pictures of the clothes) after the jump. (more…)