The Crappy Magic Experience is a multi-volume art event by Nashville artists David Hellams and David King. In 2016, Crappy Magic hosted two shows at Seed Space. The first featured bins full of discarded consumer goods that attendees were encouraged to play with, reconfigure, and reconsider. At the second event, artists donated reconfigured consumer goods to be auctioned off. Then they made infomercials to induce people to buy stuff.
Crappy Magic will return on Saturday, April 1 at abrasiveMedia, and they want your weird stuff!
As the contributing artist guidelines state, your item “can be a hand-crafted artwork; or it can be a ‘found’ object.” If you like, you can make an accompanying sales video. You can even borrow an item already donated to Crappy Magic and make a video for that.
The deadline for submissions is March 5. Learn more at CrappyMagic.com
The Crappy Magic Experience
3pm-10pm, Saturday, April 1, 2017
@ Abrasive Media (Houston Station), 438 Houston St #257, Nashville, TN 37203
The class is called “Papercraft Automata” and is open to students ages 11 and up. (Younger students are welcome with parental accompaniment.) If the first class is successful, I hope to make it a continuing series.
Using Rob Ives’ wonderful paper automata designs, I will teach you the basics of mechanical movement. Each class will explore a different mechanical movement concept including crank sliders, scotch yokes, geneva cranks, gear boxes, worm gears, rack and pinions, and more
In the first class, we will learn all about cams by building the Hungry T-Rex Dinosaur! This is a great introduction to mechanical movement because the kit provides several sets of cams that change the dinosaur’s animation.
Cams have been around for hundreds of years. They are the main mechanical principal behind self-writing, self-drawing, and music-playing automata such as the one featured in the movie Hugo. There’s so much you can do with this one simple concept!
Date: Sunday, August 21 from 12pm to 4pm.
Location: Make Nashville, 947 Woodland St, Nashville, TN
Class fee: $7 for Make Nashville makerspace members. $12 for non-members.
We will supply all tools and components, however if you have a favorite cutting mat, pair of scissors, or Exacto-knife, feel free to bring it along.
Buy your tickets here. This class is limited to 18 students and is expected to sell out, so reserve your spot quick.
Tracy Nakayama’s Ceremony, part of TRIPLE FANTASY at Third Man Records
There are plenty of great art events this week in Nashville, including several featuring Modular Art Pods participants.
On Thursday, August 4th from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Third Man Records, Nashville Scene arts editor and friend of-MAPs Laura Huston is curating Triple Fantasy, a three-artist exhibition exploring the intersection between sex and magic. 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
From the press release:
Artists Elijah Burgher, Tracy Nakayama and Benjy Russell address themes of queerness, sexuality and the occult through their unique drawings, prints, paintings and photography. Burgher’s drawings, paintings and prints draw largely on sigils and an imaginary cult called the Bachelors of the Dawn that claims the supremacy of homosexual men. Nakayama’s paintings reference 1970s porn and, more recently, contemporary nudist colonies. She has created a painting specifically for this exhibit, and will have a limited edition print of another painting available. Russell uses photography to incorporate ideas of ritual and sexuality. His often surreal work eschews Photoshop in favor of absurdism and in-camera effects. Join us on the 4th for the opening reception, or if you can’t make it, stop by in the following 4 days to see this incredible show.
Legs, part of Sideshow Fringe Fest
Thursday, August 4 marks the kickoff of the 2016 Sideshow Fringe Festival curated by MAPs alum Jessika Malone. This multidisciplinary, multi-venue stage arts festival has been running strong for 6 years, and it gets better every year.
One can’t-miss show is the play Legs, directed by MAPs alum Madeleine Hicks.
When Cara Smart turns 16 years old, it’s time for her to answer the age old question that every young woman must face: which limb would she amputate first? Disturbing, hilarious, and poignant-Legs provokes important questions about how society constructs beauty and the struggles women face to conform to a world built against them. “After all, a woman without prosthetics would be just, impractical.”
Legs takes place Saturday, August 6, 8:30 p.m. at the Darkhorse Theatre. Check the Sideshow Fringe website and show schedule for the full list of events.
Chip Boles
Saturday’s Downtown and Wedgewood/Houston art crawls are shaping up to be spectacular.
At 40AU Gallery in the downtown Arcade, MAPs alum Chip Boles presents his first Nashville solo show. He’ll be there doing live drawing. Saturday, August 6 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Chip Boles’ Art Pod at OZ Art Fest
Tinney 10th Anniversary Show
Saturday at Tinney Contemporary we have A Decade in the Making, a two-part exhibition celebrating the gallery’s 10 year anniversary. The exhibition features a number of artists, including MAPs alum Carla Ciuffo. Check the Tinney Contemporary website to see the full list of artists. 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Pod by Carla Ciuffo + Stasis Universe; Sooner or Later w/ Tanya Butler & Dee Simpson, at OZ Art Fest
Raybin and Harmening, who created the Peep Pods at OZ Art Fest, will be premiering an infomercial for a compact disc compilation of music from their pod.
All auction proceeds benefit the wonderful Track One gallery Seed Space.
Jaime Raybin and Briena Harmening’s Peeps Pod at OZ Art Fest
Queen Ave, the East-Nashville experimental gallery and venue, just announced their own edition of Modular Art Pods, slated for November 11 and 12, 2016. This makes me happy. My hope for MAPs was always that other people would take the concept and run with it. That’s exactly what the Queen Ave organizers Tyler Blankenship and Tyler Walker are doing. It’s is why we licensed the idea under Creative Commons – Share Alike.
That being said, I should be explicit in stating that I am not involved in the production of Modular Art Pods @ Queen Ave, although I plan on submitting a pod idea for the show. If you have any questions, contact Tyler Blankenship at jtblankenship@me.com.
Applications are open now through August 25, 2016. Queen Ave will consider both new pods and pods built for previous editions of MAPs. This is a great opportunity to re-use the pod sitting in your basement. They will also consider performers who don’t necessarily want to build their own pod.
Andee Rudloff’s Art Pod (foreground). Photo by Becky Fox Matthews.
Andee Rudloff’s Art Pod (interior). Photo by Becky Fox Matthews.
Modular Art Pods participant Andee Rudloff will be exhibiting at Ground Floor Gallery on Saturday, March 7th during Arts & Music @ Wedgewood/Houston. From 5 to 8 p.m., Rudloff with be leading a community mural painting project. $5 to participate or just come to watch. The viewing of the finished mural happens from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m.
That’s one of the many great art events going on this Saturday around Nashville. For more info, check out Joe Nolan’s Crawl Space on NashvilleScene.com and Erica Ciccarone’s art crawl post on NYCNash.
Andee Rudloff prepping for the mural painting at Ground Floor. Photo by Janet Decker Yanez.
Modular Art Pods 