For Immediate Release:
Arcades Project
The Poem of Display
art books + book arts + small presses + editions + multiples + games
Friday, May 4, 5pm-9pm
408 E State Street, Ithaca
http://arcadesprojectithaca.wordpress.com/
Ithaca, NY - On Friday, May 4, the Historic McCormick-Cowdry House at 408 E. State Street will
transform into an experimental marketplace of literature, art, and design. Local and regional
independent presses, makers of art books and editions, conceptual artists, and indie craft vendors will
convene to offer visitors an alternative and thought-provoking shopping experience for the biannual
Arcades Project.
The event is sponsored Spring Writes and The Community Arts Partnership. It will offer gallery visitors
and shoppers a chance to purchase affordable and original works of art and literature. Expect to find
original titles by local and regional presses, narrative and experimental film, art books, book arts, zines,
jewelry, artist prints, and art installations related to text and book arts. Viewers and shoppers will
encounter a wide range of artistic mediums from local artists and companies. Vendors will include City
of Asylum, Buffalo Street Books, Essays & Fictions, and a number of other various local artists.
Displayed works will cover a variety of mediums. Crooks and Nannies Productions will distribute a zine
series that re-imagines and contextualizes Ithaca history through the eyes of ten-year-olds. Floralia Films
will screen a continuous loop of short experimental films in an enclosed 1-person “movie theater.” Artist
Lindsey Glover will exhibit a new body of silkscreen prints entitled “King of Trees” that focuses on
patterns of groves in trees and their spatial relationships to each other. She will also project the video,
“The Grove” behind the prints.
"Site plays an important role in the Arcades Project events; as each installment takes place in a different
venue, the location exerts considerable influence over the overall aesthetic and the overall experience.
As a result, there is always the element of the unexpected, and we are eager to see how this Arcades
Project will take shape within the confines of the McCormick-Cowdry House, one of Ithaca's historic
architectural gems," said co-founder and curator Wylie Schwartz.
As part of the event, the literary journal Essays & Fictions will host the launch reading for their 10th issue
at 5 pm. Featured readers include contributor Will Cordeiro, a Ph.D. candidate studying 18th century
British literature whose work has also appeared in publications such as Harpur Palate, Gulf Stream, and
Stone Canoe, contributor Bob Proehl, author of The Gilded Palace of Sin, and co-founding editors and
contributors David Nelson Pollock and Danielle Winterton. Special guest Irakli Kakabadze will read a
poem he has written specifically for Arcades Project. Kakabadze is a Georgian writer and activist and is
the Ithaca City of Asylum writer-in-residence, 2008-11.
David Nelson Pollock, Arcades Project co-curator and co-founding editor of Essays & Fictions, said he
hopes participants and shoppers will contemplate the broader themes of the project while they enjoy
the event.
"For this Arcades Project, we chose the theme of de-colonializing consciousness,” Pollock said. “This is a
very large, abstract theme, but it was an important idea to Benjamin, who is, of course, a great
inspiration to us. We also wanted to challenge our participants to think radically about how their work
mirrors or communicates with conventional conceptions of art and the marketplace. Needless to say,
visitors and shoppers will find a lot to enjoy, purchase, and to think about."
Danielle Winterton, Arcades Project co-curator and co-founding editor of Essays & Fictions, sees the
project as an opportunity to consider the relationship between consciousness and commercial activity.
"David and I have found ourselves somewhat troubled by what we've seen as reactionary responses to
recent social and economic unrest, and we thought the idea that the consciousness itself is colonialized
is important for all activists and dreamers to deeply consider,” Winterton said. “Benjamin wrote that
the process of colonializing consciousness was partly executed through the Paris Arcades and the Dream
of Commerce. Before we can 'build the world we want to see,' we have to recognize how we imitate
colonizing forces in our own behavior. Through art, literature, and play, we can ponder what it would be
like to untangle consciousness from the illusory fantasies surrounding commercial transactions."
The event will take place on Friday, May 4 from 5 to 9 pm at the Historic McCormick-Cowdry House, 408
E. State Street in downtown Ithaca. Arcades Project was founded in spring 2011 by Danielle Winterton
and David Nelson Pollock, founding editors of Essays & Fictions Press, artist Karen Brummund, and
curator and art critic Wylie Schwartz.
For Info Contact:
emailarcadesproject@gmail.com
Danielle Winterton ph.
914.572.7351
Wylie Schwartz ph.
607.227.7803
Spring 2012 participants include:
Mara Baldwin
Jesse Hill
Heather Hallagan
Rachel Ferro
Lindsey Glover
Harpur Palate
Louise Felker
Essays & Fictions
Buffalo Street Books
dock2letterpress
LilySillyToys
Dacha Project
Lauren Valchuis
Kaleb Hunkele
Michael Brutvan
Ithaca City of Aslyum Poets and Vista Periodista Press