ASC Episode 3.

Art School Confidential(ASC) is a quarterly event series at MASARY Studios composed of artists showing artwork and inviting a reflective conversation critiquing the work with the artist present as a collective discussion. ASC is derivative of the 2006 movie and nostalgic environment of the art school experience.

Each episode includes never-before-presented artworks at ASC. Episodes consist of the artists, guests, host, curator, and producer. The episode may have a theme or not, this is decided upon by the episode curator.

Episode 3 Artists

GARRET GOULD

"Itself (inside a lemon inside a box)"

"I've been thinking about four lemons connected together for a long time, sketching different iterations throughout my practice until I made the mitered lemon form. From there I thought how do I illustrate the progression of multiple iterations into a large volume while still keeping the piece contained? I landed on mirrors adhered to the walls of each lemon box to simultaneously open the piece up while keeping it centered itself."

Year: 2020
Materials: cardboard, wood, mirrored glass, paint, packing tape, paint.

Dimensions: 15" x 15" x 15"

Garrett Gould is a graduate of Massachusetts College of Art and Design with a BFA concentrated in Sculpture in 2014. His work is about the gaps through which the sensations of realness and familiarity enter and exit daily life. He seeks to make work that is simultaneously “like and unlike itself” by subverting the functions we assign to everyday objects. The persistent and fluctuating unease from this dislocation of form and function requires the viewer to resolve incongruities between what is evoked through making and what is illustrated from memory. He currently lives and works in Boston, Ma.

WEBSITE: www.garrett-gould.com

SOCIAL: @24carotgould

JAK RITGER

STARSEED GANGSTALK (2021)

COLLIDER HYPER-OBJECT( 2021)

SOLAR RADIATION MANAGEMENT (2021)

A selection from a series of 12 photo compositions created during a residency in Holyoke, Mass. Futuristic brick architecture hums in the background as dinosaur footprints, 5G towers, resurgent plant life. A machine learning data-center is churning away, powered by the same mechanical hydro-power that fueled a paper production boom 150 years ago, meanwhile a shopping mall parking lot becomes an inflection point for deep-time compression.

Extended Artist Statement here.

3'x6' inkjet print on vinyl

Jak Ritger is an interdisciplinary artist, writer, and activist based in Allston, MA. Ritger’s practice combines photography, theoretical future-casting, and tech-materialism. In an effort to construct new vectors for collectivity, Ritger (along with longtime collaborator K8 Howl) has recently instigated a series of film screenings/underground music shows in para-institutional spaces. In early 2020, TRLLM (Ritger & Howl) hosted German artist and director, Loretta Fahrenholz for a local premiere screening and discussion of her feature film “Two A.M.” The screening took place in Allston’s Studio 52 shortly before the space was shuttered permanently. The event was a final installment of four years of programming that blended drone music performance, poetry, promenade theater, political discourse, visual art, and film.

WEBSITE: www.punctr.art

SOCIAL: instagram.com/ja_ak_rtgr

JAME COYNE

Default Mode

Reflective of the work's name, "Default Mode" referring to the brain's default mode network, which has been thought to be responsible for handling autobiographical information, emotion, and recall of past memories, the work displays a colorful audio/video sequence that consists of sporadic camera captured images combined with continuous synthesized video, which conjures a dull sense of nostalgia while attempting to develop a core sense of self.

Displayed on loop on a clear 13 inch CRT television, the transparency of the object gestures to a sense of self examination as all of the innards of the machine are clearly visible to the user, while the endless video loop references a process of continuous, un-ending exploration.

Does each fragment of the sequence combine to center around something that could be its core defining factor, or is each aspect of it inherently different, and separate from the rest, impossible to be described as one?

Default mode consists of one clear 13 inch CRT television displaying a ~5 audio video loop adorned atop a black pedestal.

WEBSITE: https://jame.dev/

SOCIAL: instagram.com/lo.fi.sci.fi

PHILIP GEDAROVICH

Politricks

Philip Gedarovich, AKA Dynamic Phil, presents digitally mediated works of art that range from the playful to the abstract to the subversive. This series of work represents his critique and reaction to the machinations of far right extremist politics in the age of Donald Trump, particularly during the most tumultuous periods of the Covid 19 pandemic throughout 2020. Over the years, activism, inclusiveness, diversity, and the awareness of unconscious biases has become a beacon for which Philip has structured elements of his life and his work around. He continues to strive to become a more empathetic, open-minded individual through his research into these topics, and ways in which he can express such messages through his work.

Series and presentation of 5 digital animations.

WEBSITE: www.creategreatstudios.com

SOCIAL: www.instagram.com/dynamic.phil

RAE OCHHIPINTI

F/W 2021: HOPES Not-Ready-to-Wear Collection; Garment #001, Garment #002, Garment #003

Garment #001: Up-cycled polyester, elastane, nylon, expired notions

Garment #002: Up-cycled cotton, polyester, expired notions

Garment #003: 100% Up-cycled post-consumer paper, plastic packaging, tape, expired notions

Please, feel free to try on the garment on the coat rack.

“Zero post-production waste has been the goal of my creation process since the start of 2013. I renew and repair clothing and jewelry on a daily basis in my studio, in hopes of giving them an extended life. These actions have prompted me to do more research regarding the amount of waste produced in the act of creation within the fashion and adornment industries. I created these 3 garments made specifically from materials otherwise considered industry waste.

For this collection I gave myself restrictions and guidelines, as follows: Garment #001 is made entirely of synthetic fiber knit fabric scraps, spare pieces of elastic not large enough for their originally intended use and technically “expired” notions. Garment #002 is made entirely out of rectangular shaped cotton fabric scraps--there are no curves to the pattern pieces allowed; nothing can be trimmed away. Garment #003 is made entirely out of the plastic packaging that has been shipped to my studio from countless companies with “eco-friendly practices.”

I became lost in the process of producing these garments. My mind and body often flow to the hum of the industrial sewing machine, as if we are one. Together we create an energy exchange, and unfortunately, an eventual product. I understand on an intuitive level that every item produced is connected to our future selves. The humans producing our garments, whom we will certainly never meet, will suffer the consequences of a need for abundance in the name of vanity. The thought that most often crossed my mind while creating this mini collection is the absurdity of perpetuating a problem by participating in it. I feel fortunate to have a skillset that is in high demand where I am able to thrive simply because scarcity creates value. However, fast fashion garments are keeping humanity on a downward trending spiral where the makers have no choice but to participate in order to survive and the consumers sustain that momentum.

It is no accident that “sustainability” and greenwashing have become hot button terms in the name of adornment. Our global need for convenience, choices and individuality is undoubtedly causing our downfall when it comes to plastics, fast fashion and non-recyclable options. Even in the creation of these specific garments here today, I wonder, when they too will become “trash” in the future and how that will affect our planet. While it is true that most of the damage done in fashion is by large scale corporations polluting our environment, I still do not feel absolved of my own past mistakes. It was in those choices that I tapped into the inevitable privilege that comes with the blissful ignorance of consumerism.”

WEBSITE: bio.site/occhi_rae

SOCIAL: @occhi_rae

TAI JIMENEZ

The Space Inside the Flame (excerpt)

“This is a work in progress that is accompanied by text excerpted from my memoir and read by my brother, Patricio Jimenez.”

My mother used to say that when I was little, I just danced and danced and danced. I eventually became a Principal Dancer with Dance Theatre of Harlem and Boston Ballet. Although I loved ballet, I always longed to create a language of my own. That desire persisted into my fifties, long after I retired from ballet. I began exploring a language that honored the physical changes that came with age, while celebrating my new stage of life as an elder, a mother and a teacher. I wanted to challenge myself to dance improvisationally and to transcend the confines and expectations that arise with linear thought. What resulted is a movement meditation that I call "Soft Pop." It is influenced by ballet, modern, hip-hop, breath, mystery and hot fudge sundaes.

BLOG: taijimenez.com/

VIMEO: vimeo.com/taijimenez

SOCIAL: @taipiyungjimenez