Christina deRoos

Guest Artists for The Maze! Sat 7/28 2pm - 7pm

Spread Art takes over The Maze to present a 5 hour participatory sound & video installation @ Secret Project Robot!

With 6 projectors, multiple laptops, a PA and no time to tech, the improvised performance spectacle will begin with 2pm load in and roll until the clock strikes 7pm, or until systems crash and burn. Welcome to chaos...

Remote Control Tomato (Thomas Bell / sound & Christina deRoos / video) from 2pm - 7pm

Plus from 4pm - 6pm additional sound, video & performance artists including: Brett Zweiman / David Tamura / Robert L. Pepper from PAS / Hiroshi Shafer / and more...

More about The Maze
Trouble and Secret Project Robot Present:
The You Are Here Festival (aka the maze)
Buchwick Brooklyn, July 2012


"As a sort of anti-panopticon, the labyrinth explores the boundaries that we often take for granted about where one art community ends and another begins, while advancing the notion that the audience, itself a kind of community, should be stripped of its consumptive role and forced to discover its creative one." - The Brooklyn Rail

"(an) "anti-festival festival" in which a bevy of versatile musicians and artists play shows within the confines of this tailor-made labyrinth." - The Village Voice

More details here.

The Art of Letting Go @ Figment (Belle Isle, Detroit)

Super fun collaborative bus painting today on Belle Isle as part of Figment Detroit! Thank you Rolando Garcia for making this possible! More photos here.

"The Art of Letting Go" is an ongoing collaborative participatory mural project with its beginnings in Brooklyn in 2009.

Upcoming Performance: July 28 "You Are Here"

Remote Control Tomato (Thomas Bell and I) will perform Saturday 7/28 from 6pm - 8pm at Secret Project Robot (Brooklyn, NY) as part of the You Are Here Festival aka The Maze. Six projectors!!!

The ‘You Are Here’ festival, takes place in New York City approximately once every two years. The festival consists of 4 weeks of performance and time- based arts events in a life size maze installation.

 

 

Interview: Playground Detroit

Thank you, Playground Detroit, for the interview & profile of Spread Art and our new location in Detroit. 

SPREAD ART CREATIVE INCUBATOR RELOCATES TO DETROIT FROM BROOKLYN

Spread Art is an artist-run creative incubatordesigned to foster new works through collaborations with artists, curators, and organizations from around the world. With Operations now concentrated in Detroit, (the organization just moved from NYC recently!) 

Spread Art supports emerging artists through group and solo exhibitions, music events, and performance showcases, and also facilitates opportunities for youth and adults to explore their creativity and increase self-awareness through art. Spread Art supports the creation and evolution of art festivals and cultural collaborations locally, nationally, and internationally.

PLAYGROUND DETROIT sat down with the duo behind the organization, Thomas Bell and Christina deRoos, to ask them about Spread Art and their recent re-location from Bushwick, Brooklyn, to Corktown, Detroit. The two are originally not from Detroit, or NYC, both growing up elsewhere.

PD: When was the first time you visited Detroit? What was your experience and impression of the city like?

de Roos: ”I first visited Detroit in Oct/Nov 2011. A lot of aspects reminded me of the feel of Bushwick, Brooklyn when I first moved there in 2003. I was struck by a similar sense of creative possibility, but on a much grander scale.”

Home Sweet Home: Detroit!

A lot of changes since January. I'm loving Detroit and grateful for the many new doors that are opening.

Below is news about the new home for Spread Art, an organization I co-direct with Thomas Bell. Yoga class schedule coming soon, as well as more info about artist residencies and upcoming events.

Spread Art opening new 4000 sq ft creative center in Detroit

104 Meserole St. -- Spread Art Brooklyn.
Jan 2008 to July 2012

After 4 and ½ years of successful exhibitions, events, workshops, and residencies, Spread Art has wrapped up activities at 104 Meserole Street in Brooklyn as of July 1st 2012.  It has been an amazing time with many wonderful memories and we would like to thank all of the artists who were a part of Spread Art’s events, exhibitions and residencies during our time in Brooklyn.  As one door closes however,  another is opening and in a big way.  Spread Art has moved its headquarters to Detroit and has taken on a much larger physical space. This transition enables Spread Art to continue working in collaboration with artists and spaces throughout Brooklyn and New York City, while also expanding operations and activities in Detroit.

 

3 Exhibitions - Brooklyn and Detroit

I have work in 3 shows happening now - 2 in Detroit and 1 in Brooklyn. Details below.

Art for Denitza

Exhibition at Studio 207, 20 Jay street, Brooklyn, NY, with online bidding here: www.artfordenitza.com

A fundraiser for an eleven year old girl, Denitza (Deni), whose mother, Tzveta Tocheva, was killed in Mexicantown in Detroit. Tzveta was an artist and community organizer who could always be found painting murals and co-organzing exhibitions and events in Detroit. The organizers of this show wanted to help Deni and give something back in memory of everything that Tzveta gave to the community. 100% of the proceeds will go directly to an educational fund for Deni.

I have two photographs in the show. If you are interested in purchasing them I encourage you to visit the website and participate in the fundraiser. If after the fundraiser closes you would like a print of these works in exchange for a donation to the fund for Deni, please let me know.

Inaugural exhibition @ 555 Gallery's new home

2801 West Vernor Highway; Detroit 48216; www.555arts.org

555 has a group exhibiton opening Friday 6/27 from 4pm - 2am at their new home in the former police precinct. Come check out their first exhibition in the new space!

I'm showing photography and the mixed media piece below, called "Thanks to People Like You".

Partners in Crime exhibition@ Whitdel Arts

1250 Hubbard, Suite B1; Detroit 48209; www.whitdelarts.com

Whitdel Arts presents Partners in Crime, a collaborative exhibition in which local artists were randomly paired to collaborate. 

Dynamic duos like Thelma and Louise successfully committed their crimes by making sure they knew how to do one thing - collaborate. These ladies understood that through collaboration, each partner gains from the others' talents.  This innate quality of partnership is as equally beneficial for artists. When artists work together, it creates the opportunity for networking and the exchange of ideas.  Each artist grows as new avenues of creativity are opened...and new schemes are plotted.

I was paried with Jen Boyack, and we created two pieces. Photos are below, but both are 3 dimensional works best seen in person - which you can do Saturday 6/30 or Sunday 7/7. 

I was also paired with Thomas Bell, and we presented the performance piece documented & described below.

Remote Control Tomato
Thomas Bell, sound & performance + Christina deRoos, video + Hiroshi Shafer, video
Internet performance from Detroit to Brooklyn and back again

Spread Art, Brooklyn, NY (Right screen)
Spread Art streamed in video from Whitdel Gallery in Detroit. Thomas Bell performed in response to the video. Hiroshi Shafer livestreamed video and sounds from Spread Art. All took place during Spread Art Summer Group Show V in Brooklyn, NY, part of Bushwick Open Studios 2012.

Whitdel Gallery, Detroit, MI (Left and Right screen)
Spread Art video and sounds were streamed to Whitdel Gallery. Christina deRoos created a real time video mix of artwork from the exhibition opening in Detroit (Partners in Crime), the exhibition opening in Brooklyn (Summer Group Show V), the video streaming from Spread Art, personal video files, and a live camera feed at Whitdel Arts.

 

 

Youth Photography Exchange: La Manzanilla, Mexico & Brooklyn, NY

While in La Manzanilla in April I taught a follow up photography workshop with the La Catalina Wings Scholarship students I began working with in November 2011. For this session, each student created a series of photos reflecting aspects of his/her community. The photos were to be shared with students of PS147 in Brooklyn, NY.

During the workshop we talked about things that might be similar (cars) and things that might be different (for instance sharks, as represented in the photo to the left by Citlalli). See more of the La Manzanilla students' photos here.  

 

The following week I was in Brooklyn and thanks to Ms. Cappelletto and Ms. Poley I was able to  lead two photography workshops with students at PS147 in Bushwick. We reviewed the photos from La Manzanilla students, and the Brooklyn students agreed to take a series of photos of their community to share with the students in La Manzanilla. The next day we reviewed what we saw that was similar (trees) and what was different (school buses, as represented in the photo to the right by Jil). See more of the Brooklyn students' photos here.

Both sets of photos were then shared with photography students in Rwanda, an exchange with the nonprofit Through the Eyes of Hope founded by photojournalist Linda Smith.

Thank you to everyone who helped with this latest round of workshops. It was a unique and powerful experience for the students in La Manzanilla and Brooklyn to represent their community through their own photos, and to step briefly into one another's lives through images. I am grateful for the opportunity to faciliatate this exchange, and look forward to the next creative exchange.

Viva Mexico!

I was fortunate to have a quick trip to Mexico in April. Spring had sprung and the flowers were jaw-dropping. There was also a lot of fog, which is unusual for the area, and a couple earthquakes. 

playing with myself playing with yourself

Thank you Anya Liftig and Thomas Bell for a great collaboration at Bronx Art Space.

 

 

Thomas Bell, Christina deRoos, Anya Liftig
April 29, 2012
Bronx Art Space

Part of ITINERANT: FESTIVAL FOR CONTEMPORARY PERFORMANCE ART

March 30th - May 12th, 2012
Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, Bronx, Staten Island
New York City, USA

Allison & Taya's Impressions: 2012 Spread Art Residency in Mexico

Below are reflections and photos from Allison & Taya De Long after returning from a week in La Manzanila, Jalisco, Mexico as part of Spread Art's residency program. I'm grateful they were able to take part, and appreciate their positive contribution to the community. See more photos here.

Our opportunity in Mexico, thanks to Spread Art, turned out to be an even richer experience than we had imagined!  Our location was right where all the action happens, near the plaza and right next to the church.  The day after we arrived, a bishop was visiting and there was a great celebration which included a parade, live entertainment, and a huge "pozole" feast!

On Saturday, we helped with a free art class for the local children.  There were over 20 enthusiastic kids in attendance.  They worked on 4 different projects during the class.  Two ex pat artists living in La Manzanilla give their time and materials to put this on every weekend.