by Sandrine Schaefer [Boston]

Sandrine's piece is a part of CONTINUOUS ACTION a series of four hour continuous performances every Saturday at Grace Exhibition Space

Saturday, May 18
3:00PM- 7:00PM
Donation


Spend an afternoon engaged with one performance, taking the rare opportunity to experience an artists' work as it unfold slowly before you, giving you an interaction with performance that envelope your senses, and invites transportation.

Wednesday May 15th

Odd Spaces Performance Art Event and Panel Discussion launches the MFA’s new performance art program, involving the Boston arts community in a discussion on this new initiative, and the role of performance art in museums today.

The increased presence of performance art at the MFA shifts the relationship between spectators and art to one of social exchange. While performance art often references visual art and art history, it also has a firm grounding in the present, in everyday life, and in human-to-human interactions. Where, then, is performance art’s place in a museum environment? How can performance art expand the ways we experience and define art?

Participating artists Marilyn Arsem, David Levine, John Gonzalez, Sandrine Schaefer and Philip Fryer probe these questions by performing in places where art might not typically appear at the MFA. "Odd Spaces" is imagined as a conversation in which diverse voices resonate across physical space.

11am-8:30pm, Family Meal by John C. Gonzalez, Garden Cafeteria (Level G) 11am-4pm, & Bravo Resturant (Level 2) lunch 11:30-3pm & dinner 5:30-8:30pm

12-6:30pm, With the Others by Marilyn Arsem, Egyptian Galleries (Level 1)

2-7pm, durance by David Levine, Druker Classroom (159) in the Linde Family Wing for Contemporary Art (Level 1)

4:30-6:30pm, Untitled View by Sandrine Schaefer & Philip Fryer, Shapiro Rotunda (Level 1)

7-8:30pm - Panel Discussion co-presented with Big Red & Shiny, Alfond Auditorium

Kate McNamara, Tony Schwensen, David Levine and Sandrine Schaefer will engage in a discussion moderated by assistant curator, Contemporary Art and MFA Programs, Liz Munsell, at 7 pm following the performances.


%Funded by the generous support of The Contemporaries.

Wednesday nights after 4 pm, admission is by voluntary contribution.

Visit the facebook event page for updates the day of the event.%

June 17th-21st, 2013
Monday- Friday
9 am - 4 pm

Montserrat College of Art
23 Essex St.
Beverly, MA 01915

In this week-long workshop, students will learn about the complexities of creating and witnessing durational performance art. What happens when a performance extends into hours, days, weeks, or even years? How do these works conceptually evolve over time and what effect does a lengthened duration have on the artist’s body? In this workshop, students will learn various strategies used by contemporary artists working in this way. Students will heighten their body awareness to increase physical and mental endurance. We will also explore various documentation techniques that are unique to this method of working. At the end of the workshop, students will present durational works that will be open to the public.

Price: $715 Early Bird | $795 After April 10
(available as a credit* or non-credit course | open to the public)
To reserve your space in the summer immersive workshop, use the links provided below to pay a $250 deposit if you register before April 10. Full payments are due May 10. Upon submitting your payment, you will immediately be issued a receipt. Shortly thereafter, you will receive an email from the Continuing Education Department to the email address you provide, confirming your registration. If you prefer, you may also print the form provided at left and mail it the Continuing Education Department:
Registration
Visit the Montserrat website for more information.

Sandrine is quoted in this Boston Globe article written by Cate McQuaid on the current climate in Boston for Performance Art.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/theater-

Sandrine Schaefer and Bradley Benedetti in Conversation on Big Red & Shiny

ANE Online

"Next into the room was Sandrine Schaefer. Sandrine began her piece with a large glass vase full of water sitting in the middle of the room as she walked along the wall eating a banana. Stopping in the corner, she finished the banana and dropped the peel on the ground, then stood staring at the vase for a moment. Eventually she walked over and picked up the vase, which turned out to have a hole in the bottom. She plugged the hole with her finger and walked back over to the corner. She did her best to contain the water but a steady trickle ran down her knuckles to the floor. The vase was tall enough that with the base of it held down by her waist, the top came up to her chin, and at an angle where she slightly rested her face in the opening while standing there.
After about fifteen minutes, showing fatigue from holding the weight of the vase, Sandrine carried the vase outside and allowed the contents to drain out onto the grass as she walked the length of a ledge outside the gallery. Once it was empty, she re-entered the gallery and placed the vase where she had been standing, then sat in the middle of the floor and ran out the remainder of her hour watching the condensation from her breath slowly evaporate from the surface of the glass.

For the audience it was a combined experience of watching the vase, watching Sandrine as she sat as still as possible, and fitting the pieces together. The piece could be viewed as a durational exhibition, or you could look further into the space that was occupied by Sandrine and these objects. The relations between these spaces and the transitory states of being that they went through are things that happen all around us every day, and Sandrine’s piece turns the viewer’s focus toward contemplating these ubiquitous principles of existence.

If she had stood there long enough, all the water in the vase would have eventually drained out and we would have seen the vase go through a full change in its state of being from full to empty. The corner she stood in was occupied, then empty save for the remnants of her being there: the vase and the banana peel. Then there was an immediate remnant of Sandrine in the vase while the condensation was there, but once it disappeared all immediate traces of her body ever being there were, too.

There were also several stratifications of states of permanence displayed within the piece, albeit abstractly. The least permanent object in the performance was the water. If all the water drained onto the floor it would have completely evaporated within a couple of hours. As an object, water holds a very short presence. After that is the banana peel. Given enough time, it would biodegrade and also disappear. Next is Sandrine herself. If enough time passed, Sandrine would also biodegrade and disappear, leaving only the vase. Then after hundreds of years the vase, and also building, would eventually disappear, leaving only the space itself as the one true permanent presence we can count on, at least as far as we’re aware. "
- Matt Kuhlman

Read full review of Time Body Space Objects 2 by Matt Kuhlman on Big Red & Shiny