Stepping back into the space after what was our first official full day of The Colorboration Project - Chicago we were happy to see things just as we had left them the night before. Paintings were strewn about and a couple of new bigger pieces were leaning up against the walls. Our first task this morning was to begin the exhibition process, so we took to hanging paintings on the walls.
We had a couple of things in our favor, one was that the large skylights in the middle of the space cast a really wonderful light in the place most of the day that illuminated a pretty portion of the north and south walls. The other thing was that the mortar joints in the brick walls were filled with hundreds of masonry nails, most or which were strong enough to support our biggest paintings. How to display the works on paper was our next challenge which was solved with a roll of wire and a trip to Jewel for some wooden clothes pins. By the end of the project I think we ended up buying 200 clothes pins, and another very big spool of wire.
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| Art on Wire. |
In our first blog post we mentioned that there were no bathroom facilities in this space and also no internet. Both of these problems were solved by walking a half a block north on Milwaukee Avenue to New Wave Coffee on the corner at Logan Boulevard. They have internet, bathrooms and pretty good sandwiches.
We didn't really spend too much time at New Wave considering we were trying to keep the doors open at our space constantly starting at 1pm everyday.
About three o'clock Elie Kaplan, the leader of the gHOST Project stopped in to size up the space. Elie came bearing gifts, a six-pack of toilet paper sent by his dear wife Sue. She was thinking ahead and obviously has had enough experience to know that some places you may go to play just might inconveniently run out of toilet paper the night you are to perform. What she wasn't expecting was that what we really needed was a toilet.
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| the gHOST project |
About six o'clock Elie and Sue came back with a car full of gear and slowly members of the gHOST project started to stream in. Once all in place we had the five members of the band, Stacey Taheny- vocals and percussion, Maestro Phil- bass, electronics, drums, guitar, reeds, vocals, Huntress Diana- bass, keyboards, percussion, vocals, Sue Kaplan- percussion, vocals, Eliezer Kaplan- drums, keys, bass, vocals. Plus supplemental percussion by Aimee Bass (of She-Boom), and Ken Monroe.
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| Our art of the gHOST project on stage. |
It was really great the way this evening took shape, the gHOST project is such and interesting group. There were no hard edges at all set-up just flowed into sound check and then into the groove that became to vibe for the evening. No words were really spoken on the front end, we all just pretty much trusted each other. Finally Tali and I looked at each other and said, "I guess this is it, let's go." At that point Tali turned on her lights and started painting while I went over to close the house lights.
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| Purim? |
The gHOST project was a great sonic surprise, we didn't have any expectations, and since we were told that any thing we had heard from them was not what we were going to hear, we also had no idea what to expect. There was a familiar way that this band works that resonated with us really well. Just as Tali and I will switch working on the table to working at the easel, these musicians would switch instruments in the same way.
We can't really say how long it went on. We took a break about an hour into it and then took up where we left for at least another hour.
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| Elie Kaplan's bass fingers paid the price for his art that night. |
When we finally ended the session we not only had several new paintings, but it was really cool that we felt like through the sharing of the experience and the conversation through the art, both the paint and the music, we had become friends. While we talked almost not at all except for the introductions and a quick how do you do, in the end we suddenly had something very special in common and there was lots to talk about.
What a great night and a great surprise.
Check out their site: www.zelwel.com
And here are some links to music from that night.
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