John Sheldon Master Guitarist Scores Music for Eye to Eye

John Sheldon is a consummate musician whose creative path has had an amazing trajectory among the then rising stars of the 1960s and 1970s.

John bought his first guitar at around 15 from James Taylor, a close family friend and then suitor of his sister. He was notably inspired by the older JT’s just penned, self-revelatory compositions and distinctive playing style that was soon to rock the world in his debut album. Later in Sheldon's home turf of Cambridge, Massachusetts a soulful, tempestuous Irish minstrel named Van Morrison begins to use John’s basement as rehearsal studio and consequentially writes much of the material for his seminal album, "Astral Weeks" there.

At 17, jamming in the basement with Morrison, a melody and lyric evolved that entered the world as Domino.This eventually led to touring as Van Morrison’s lead guitarist. Immediately after high school graduation he became a session man in L.A. He soon developed a well-deserved reputation as a guitar whiz kid and toured with James Taylor, Danny Kortchmar and Linda Ronstandt. But after a decade of session work he decided to go back to school and hone his innate skills at the New England Conservatory of Music. It was here he was able to fully explore musical composition in many genres and become adept at all of them. On the East and West Coasts he was recognized mainly as a rocker and developed a loyal following. But in his heart of hearts he is a prolific storyteller and really a “painter with sound”. Ironically the early admiration of James Taylor’s songwriting came full circle a few years back when Taylor recorded John’s “September Grass” on the album, October Road and another song ,“Bittersweet”, on his most recent Greatest Hits collection.

Sheldon is a wonderful wordsmith but the instrumental tone poems and cinematic landscapes of sound that he is currently focusing on are deep and rich and transcendent.

We of the Eye to Eye Project were thrilled to have him consent to create a signature piece of instrumental music that reflects the exchange and juxtaposition of East and West that he called “Joined Horizons”. This was played over the fabulous sound system at the Zendai MOMA and charged the air of the outdoor plaza where we unveiled our project.

Recently developing atmospheric music for “Milosevic at the Hague” a play by Milan Dragicevich, John had been exploring folk music of the Balkans and the music it derived from. Some of the influences go back to the Ottoman Empire, where literally the East met the West. Intrigued with our idea of using images from art history to represent different points of view, he shared with me samples from vast sound catalogs he had created on his computer. Myriad passages of musical styles were used as points of departure,creating original music with historical inflections of tone and rhythm. They were carefully selected and artfully interwoven to create an aural conversation between East and West. The infectious beat that resulted had all passersby enthralled after the first clarion call of searing electric guitar. Young and old happily smiled and swayed to the music, instantly eliminating the language barrier and making it easy to give away our painted eyes.

We thank John Sheldon for generously creating and performing this wonderful music that added so much to our initial concept.

We invite all of you to check back for an audio clip that will be installed on this site soon.
To learn more about this exceptional musician and how to obtain his music please visit www.johnsheldon.com .

Intrude 366 Web Archive

Intrude 366 has finished its online archive of the 2008 projects.


To see the official Eye to Eye project archive go to this
link on the intrude 366 project archive site:

Photo from intrude site

http://www.intrude366.com/en-US/intrude366/Project.aspx?articleid=1121

Intrude 366 Phase 2 - A Starting Point: Intrude Art & Life 366 Dynamics of change and growth Jan 1st - Dec 31st, 2008

Presented by:
Shanghai Zendai Museum of Modern Art Dates: Jan 18th - Apr 18th, 2009
Venue: Shanghai Zendai Museum of Modern Art (No. 28, Lane 199, Fangdian Rd. Shanghai, China)
Chief curator: Shen Qibin

On 18, Jan, 2009, A Starting Point: Intrude Art & Life 366, Dynamics of change and growth,
Jan 1st-Dec 31st, 2008, will be presented at Shanghai Zendai Museum of Modern Art.

This exhibition is a review and continuance of the museum’s grand whole year long project:

Intrude: Art & Life 366.

Instead of coming to an end, Intrude: Art & Life 366 will enter a brand new phase in 2009. In addition to the brilliant videos, installations and paintings provided by our Intrude artists, the exhibition will also feature the display of project-related documents. Works of nearly 60 Intrude artists will be selected and put on display, making the exhibition one of the largest ever since the opening of the museum. What’s special about the exhibition is that this time works will also be displayed at the Thumb Plaza, an act to further reflect the core mission of Intrude: to make contemporary art transcend the boundaries of art museums and become more approachable to the general public. During the three-month exhibition, nearly 10 works will be shown at the plaza. The exhibition will last from 18, Jan, to 18, Apr, 2009.

Artist & Institution List:
Adad Hannah, Ala Younis, Anne Senstad, Barbara Edelstein, Cang Xin, Chang ke, Chen Hangfeng, Chen Zhou & Zhang Xiaojing, Dong Wensheng, Duan Yongjun, Elisa Marchesini, Gabriela Marciel, Gao Mingyan, Gu Wenda, Guan Huaibin, Guerrilla Girls On Tour, Guo Lijun, Museum In Progress , Heartbeat Sasaki, He Chengyao, Heidrun Holzfeind, Huang Dehua,
Huang Kui, Roslisham Ismail aka ise , Jen Denike, Li Ming, Li Mu, Li Qiang, Liang Bin,
Liang Shaoji, Liu Jin, Lydia Panas, Maider Lopez, Michael Yuan, Mitsunori Sakano,
Mo Chaolue, Razvan Botis, Ren Jie, Ren Qian, Romy Achituv, Sean Raspet, Shi Qing,
Staelens Mathieu, Susanne M. Winterling, Tiffany Chung, Touch Design（Pan Jianfeng/Zhao Jie/Lu Pingyuan）, Two Girls Working, Utopia Group(Deng Dafei/He Hai), Vibeke Jensen, Wojciech Gilewicz, Wu Gaozhong, Wu Junyong, Yan Jun, Yang Guangnan, Yang Jian & Sandra Kunz, Yang Licai, Yang Yong, Yap Saubin, Yu Ji, Yu Xudong, Zhang Hui, Zhang Jianjun, Zhao Zhao, Zhu Siyun

Chief curator: Shen Qibin
Project manager: Tong Juanjuan
Academic advisors: Shen Qibing, Binghui Huangfu, Biljana Ciric, Wang Nanming, Zhang Aidong Executive curator: Biljana Ciric
Curatorial team: Liao Wenfeng, Hu Yun, Liz Coppens
Installation team: Yoyo Huang, Dai Wenjie, Du Luoming, Su Yingchun, Su Jing Location coordinator: Su Yi Media: Gu Yaofeng, Felicia Huang
Translator: Wu Chenyun
Archive editor: Christy Xie
Video documentation & editor: Wang Shui, Luo Huijun
Photographer: Zeng Yu, Tong Xin
Designer: Jiang Yanjie
Web master: Bob Wang

Photos of Thumb Plaza and Zendai MoMA

These are a few photos from Thumb Plaza.

This was the perfect East meets West location for our project. I (with the flaming red hair) tended to stick out a bit in China.....If I had a penny for every look I got especially in the more rural areas where I can't even tell you most of the things that happened ..... actually there were even times when I turned around and caught people taking pictures WITH me! Yikes.....
So it was good to find a neutral place to just BE. I felt most "at home" at

Thumb plaza. It seems to be a popular place for ex pats., Americans, and Europeans.

I found comfort in my daily trip to Starbucks! although it is not quite the same.....

Wagas was a great place to eat as well and Barry (the manager) from the Philippines
was good to us.
We also had dinner at the local Irish Pub and Malones a sports bar.
We did of course have Chinese food but it was nice to have a choice especially when everything is foreign and your clock is 12 hours off.

Biljana Ciric: Art Forum - Best of 2008

The Intrude project made several of the "Best" lists on Art Forum. Biljana Ciric an Art Forum writer and also Head of the Curatorial Dept. at the Zendai Museum for the Intrude project listed it at #3. She writes……………

3. "Intrude: Art and Life 366" (Zendai MoMA, Shanghai) One of the larger projects of the year, Intrude attempted to bring art out of the white cube and into the public sphere. It was an ambitious project, with one artist or work per day, and the different reactions of media, artists, and others made for an interesting year. (I was involved as a member of the curatorial team for this project.) Perhaps its biggest contribution was its attempt to establish dialogues with very different social groups and fields of inquiry that had previously had no contact with contemporary art. At this scale, it becomes difficult to speak of curatorial discourse or critical intent, but it nonetheless created possibilities and opened passages, hinting at future directions for art in Shanghai

http://artforum.com.cn/angle/1381

Biljana Ciric will be presenting this April at the Transcultural Exchange Conference hosted by Mary Sherman in Boston, MA.

Saturday, April 4, 20094:00 pm – 5:00 pm
LATE AFTERNOON SESSIONS

Country Overview of Programs for Artists: China,
Moderator: M. Isabel Meirelles, Assistant Professor, Department of Visual Arts,
Northeastern University
Presenter: Biljana Ciric, Free-Lance Curator based in China

For more conference info:
www.transculturalexchange.org

Liz Coppens, Intrude Project Coordinator at the Curatorial Dept. of Zendai MoMA

1

Change of Art

(China Daily by Ida Relsted February 1, 2008)

Liesbeth Coppens is in her second year in Shanghai sharing her expertise in contemporary Chinese art. Not only does the 1.8 m tall blonde Belgian literally stand out from the crowd, she is also the only foreigner among 39 locals working at Shanghai Zendai Museum of Modern Art.

When she landed the job as curator, Coppens joined an exclusive group of foreigners who, as a profession, help the world understand new Chinese art.

For Coppens, who has a degree in Art History and Cultural Anthropology, moving to Shanghai has proven an ideal way to combine her two interests: art and culture.

"In Belgium, knowledge about contemporary Chinese art was hard to come by, so I was naturally curious before moving to China," Coppens says.

"Also, I knew I wanted to move to a foreign country when I graduated from university. I have always loved to travel and experience new cultures."

Coppens had friends in both Beijing and Shanghai. When she got the chance in March 2005 to work at 198 Artspace, a private gallery in Shanghai's famed Moganshan Road art district, Coppens could hardly believe her luck. Unfortunately, it soon turned out that the commercial approach needed in a gallery was not the way to go for Coppens.

After nine months in the private art gallery, Coppens decided to move back to Belgium. However, soon after arriving home she realized it had been a mistake to leave China because she still had more to discover.

"I was simply not finished with China," she says.

So Coppens came back to Shanghai. This time she landed her dream job: Project Coordinator at the Curatorial Department of Zendai MoMA. And although Coppens, as the lone Westerner at the museum, is challenged daily on how business is run, she is at ease when she shows China Daily around the large white spaces of the museum.

"I find myself to be a curious person, and I am very fortunate to be here," says Coppens.

Zendai Museum of Modern Art is located in the Zendai Thumb Plaza in the Pudong District of Shanghai. The 3,000 sq m museum building has recently expanded its exhibition space and offices for extra employees.

Zendai MoMA currently exhibits the sculpture piece LOVE by American artist Robert Indiana, as well as works from contemporary Chinese artists.

According to Coppens, the aim is to both help build a native modern arts culture, and to develop a dialogue with the international arts scene.

"At the museum we seek to bring the standard of China's contemporary art academia in line with the country's rate of development," Coppens says.

Last fall, Coppens visited the Asian Contemporary Art Fair in New York City, where she found that the world's focus on Asian art, specifically from China, is increasing. However, Coppens says that much of this interest is hype, which is pushing up art prices.

"Of course I understand why, from a personal perspective, the 25-26 year old Chinese artists who are barely out of school and already selling paintings for $10,000 wish to keep business going," she says.

"At the same time, I do find some of the immense focus on Chinese contemporary art to be more hype than justified interest."

Coppens adds that judging by the catalogues of some young artists, she found that they either repeat themselves or reproduce Western modern art ideals instead of being innovative.

However, while Coppens is critical of some contemporary Chinese art, she remains passionate about the work on display at Zendai MoMA.

One of the projects Coppens is most excited about was launched in Shanghai's cityscape at the beginning of the year.

"We want art to become part of people's everyday life."

Therefore Zendai MoMA has launched the project 366 Days of Artistic Intrusion. During the year-long event, one new artwork or art performance can be found in Shanghai every day.

"Our goal is to make one cultural headline a day," says Coppens about the exhibition's slogan "Making the ordinary extraordinary, the mundane spectacular".

The 366 events will be created by 100 Chinese and 266 international artists or artistic groups, and will involve cooperation with local and international organizations such as the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, College of Fine Arts of the University of New South Wales in Australia, and Institut pour la Ville-en-Mouvement in France. The Zendai Museum of Modern Art is inviting artists, galleries, museums, curators and performers to participate in the ambitious project.

Liesbeth Coppens says her work in Shanghai is an ideal way to satisfy her interests in art and culture. Photos by Gao Erqiang

For Coppens living in a foreign country has proved very different to traveling through it. "I am actively and constantly trying to understand the Chinese," says Coppens who found her work with local colleagues to be enlightening.

"I don't live in the bubble of a typical expatriate life, but on the other hand I am not one of the foreigners here who are always totally pro everything Chinese."

One of the downsides to not living a typical expatriate life is obvious to Coppens when sees other young foreigners at bars and clubs: "These people spend half of my salary on a night out."

"People can't believe that I initially came to China on my own and without a job."

Coppens is used to not fitting in, however she does admit that sometimes she runs a little short on patience.

"Although there is a sweet innocence to it too, some days it does make me feel like a monkey in a zoo when people come up to me to measure how much taller I am than them.

"Getting angry, however, is a waste of time. Because I am a guest in their country, and it is my own choice to be here."

Since Coppens moved to Shanghai, she says her new mantra has become: "Chaos has its own rules."

This article was found at:
http://www.china.org.cn/english/LivinginChina/241664.htm

Emily Prager of Artforum on Intrude: Art & Life 366

This is an interesting article I found about Intrude 366 it has several photographs of other projects that Intruded on Shanghai.


http://artforum.com.cn/angle/703


As we explored the city of Shanghai we did stumble on a few projects ourselves.... Here is a photo of one I took at the subway. I am still tring to find out who did it......


We also met fellow Intrude artist Kate Stobbart who tries to fade into the background in her performance piece “On the verge of a Merge”. Her project took place on the subway where her clothing matched the hot pick seat she was sitting on. Her website is http://www.katestobbart.com/.

Eye to Eye's Goals and Inspirations

The following concepts inspired us to create this project.
These rather abstract ideas were a bit difficult to translate into Mandarin or Shanghainese but were the underpinnings of our intent and as time went by and we sought out

imagery for the visual piece,

we could not help but notice how perception and impression affect

Photo by Alicia Hunsicker

us on many levels. The deeper we went in "observing" from an emotional/psychological perspective, the more often "eyes" seem to visually appear everywhere, on trunks of trees,russet potatoes,even cloud formations in the sky...it was quite amusing!

"Seeing “eye to eye” is a North American expression that implies that two individuals (or groups) can come together on a level playing field to express their own perspective while also acknowledging the other’s viewpoint."

"It is a courageous act to see “eye to eye”. It causes one to open oneself to the possibility of new thinking. It is a step towards standing on common ground and arriving at mutual understanding."

"In this time of expanding globalization, it is more important than ever that this concept of attempting to see “eye to eye” be promoted to open dialogue and insure meaningful cross-cultural exchange between nations."

“Eye to Eye” underscores the commonality between East and West via the human eyes that look out at us from Eastern and Western art."

"The “Eye to Eye” project collapses the past with the future. It places us in the present to combine art images that may be obscure with images that have saturated contemporary culture."

"Using the simplest of means, “Eye to Eye” offers profound possibility for forging a rich collaborative cultural vision for the future."

You are invited to take away a piece of this artwork as a symbol of a mutual exchange of ideas. Your participation shortens the distance between East and West and permits us to see each other in a positive way."

The later part of "taking away" was enthusiastically understood.... though most people thought the painted tags were for "Good Luck" or "Happy New Year". Many people lined up to get more than one and quite a few said "Are these for Peace?" "Yes", I replied...(ultimately that was a bonus prize of the whole endeavor)

As Yoko Ono had been in Shanghai for a retrospective of her work and the Intrude 366 project earlier, and planted the hopes for PEACE which has been her life's work, it was wonderful to somehow contribute to that hope and nurture those fragile seeds.

Where shall Eye to Eye Intrude on Shanghai

A few days before our project date we met with our contact person from the Zendai Museum of Modern Art, Liao Wenfeng, (assistant Curator) at one of the proposed project sites, Thumb Plaza. The plaza is directly in front of the museum. I was pleased that a huge statue of the Virgin Mary overlooks the plaza and took that as a sign we were in the right place to execute our project.

Photo of Deborah,

Wenfeng, and Alicia

by Anne Laprade

We were also taken on an adventure with Nadia from the Museum through the Shanghai Subway and a cab ride to find another project site in a park across the city (don't ask me where!) I was totally turned around when we arrived.

Here are some photos of that site as well.

Park Photos by:
Alicia Hunsicker

Anime Inspired Eye

,,,

Anne used a variety of techniques to obtain her eye
imagery from painterly expressions like this anime
eye to an intersting Xerox transfer process as in the
one that follows.

Eyes inspired by Alex Grey

Ancient Eyes meet Modern Eyes

This project “Eye to Eye” is about seeing and being seen… about how we see ourselves and how we see the “other”. At a deeper level, it is also about perception and subsequent impressions that are formed.

We selected eyes from works of art created by Western and Eastern artists throughout
art history and pop culture to represent these distinctive viewpoints. When strung in the project
we will have them tied together facing each other, not as confrontation but as an invitation to look at another’s point of view and attempt to find common ground.

I enjoyed perusing books to source eyes for this work and I chose to work with a sketch book and pencil to record these images as simple line drawings. I then carved these sketches in various materials from raw potato to linoleum block to create the printed images that follow.

In these examples my Eastern references were various Central Asian cave paintings from Khotan , Japanese woodblock prints and the eyes atop Swayambhunath Stupa in Kathmandu. Western were sourced from several Picasso sculptures, and two woodcut portraits by Albrecht Durer.

I hope you enjoy looking at them…
Deborah Garner

Roy Lichtenstein inspired Eyes

The technique I have employed in making my images so far
has started with a line drawing of the source material and then
to painting with brush and acrylic. I am enjoying the process
but feel like the strait painting may be taking too much time
for each image (approx 1 hour each). I may need to employ other
methods that are faster as we move closer to our deadline.
In the meantime I am having fun with it.

Joan Miro inspired Eyes

Yesterday, I considered the work of Spanish artist Joan Miro as I painted my eye tag components. I referenced his painting Nursery Decoration (1938). It is from his disturbed monster period although it is said that he treats his creatures with affection. I chose the eyes of the boy (?) For their graphic quality and because the palette matched the colors we are using for this project.