Jay Critchley

29th Re-Rooters Ceremony: Super PAC Rats (repuS CAP staR)

jay — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 16:16:56 +0000

January 7, 2012, Provincetown Harbor

And the Lord appeared to Moses in the form of a burning bush + gave him…

The Ten Commandments of De-Mortaged Free Shipping

1. The Untaxed Overdogs are the Lord Thy God and thou shalt not have animal migration engineers propotoled by multi-bang bromosphere’s Sperminators;

CHANT after each: repuS CAP staR

2. Thou shalt not self-track radiated global pulse swolls pepper sprayed by on-demand glitter bombing galactic architects;

3. Thou shalt not bilk extra cellular matrix assertions re-performed by phone-hacking luxury rappers retail campaigning for bath salted otherings;

4. Thou shalt keep holy morally injured stockless organ designers repurposing the fusion centered sequestered home zoo movement;

5. Honor thy father and mother: Pee + Party;

6. Thou shalt not kill right to oblivion Neatnik Bees with eternally inflated brain recording devices dreadlocking sustainable pre-existing draughts;

7. Thou shalt not commit fracking unknown known pizza cartels dancing on free shipped speculative urine energy;

8. Thou shalt not steal actionable pharm-fresh warmists’ sentiment analysis hashtags zoned out by caffeine inhalered declinists;

9. Thou shalt not bear false witness against surveillanceless offshore balancing inflated by de-mortgaged convenience reading child molesters;

10.Thou shalt not covet hypermiling baby bumped audit trailing clown fish paywalling cuddleless muddle class immolation;

Let it be known that the devils and sinners who deceive us shall be cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beats and false prophets are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever. Amen

Provincetown Swim for Life honored at State House, Boston, artist Jay Critchley speaks

jay — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 18:25:25 +0000

Greetings from the Provincetown Swim for Life & Paddler Flotilla,

As 2011 comes to a close we are excited to report the launch of our Swim 25 celebration – September 8, 2012 is our 25th community fundraiser!

We were honored to be featured at the first World AIDS Day event at the State House in Boston, initiated by me through Representative Sarah Peake.

The Prayer Ribbons provided the backdrop for all speakers, who were from the departments of public health from the state and Boston, as well as politicians. The Swim for Life was the only community organization that shared the podium.

Attached below are my remarks, which included a few short but telling stories written on the ribbons. Also, be sure to check out the extensive Swim archive Mike Syers has put together on Flickr, and please send us your photos to share. And watch the exciting action videotaped by Daniel Llata at the 2011 event on Provincetown Community TV:

http://www.provincetowntv.org/?s=provincetown+pieces

Have a Happy and Joyous New Year. Peace, Jay

Swim Photo archive and submission:

http://www.flickr.com/people/swim4lifephotos/

New York Times review

jay — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 04:06:13 +0000

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: JAY CRITCHLEY “DEEP BONES” AND CHAD PERSON “A HERO NEVER FAILS” reviewed in the New York Times by Ken Johnson

Freight + Volume is pleased to announce that Jay Critchley, “Deep Bones” and Chad Person, “A Hero Never Fails” is featured in the New York Times today, reviewed by Ken Johnson. The exhibition will be open through September 10th; summer hours are 11 – 6 pm, Tuesday – Friday. For further information, please contact Nick Lawrence or Michelle Lee @ 212-691-7700, or info@freightandvolume.com.

Jay Critchley, Deep Bones, 2011

1979 MG sports car with wrapped engine and internal component parts, recycled plastic shopping bags, engine lift, mixed media

Installation; dimensions variable; photo Adam Ryder

August 18th, 2011

“In art as in life, desperate times call for desperate measures. That may mean mummifying an old car Egyptian style using plastic bags instead of fabric, which Jay Critchley has done as a quasi-magical ritual in the Freight + Volume gallery. He has partly dismantled a ’70s-era MG sports car, carefully wrapped its viscera — seats, engine and other parts — in strands of crumpled plastic and put it back together.

Plastic bags are petroleum based, and cars run on petroleum, a substance that continues to cause no end of worldly havoc. Mr. Critchley’s funereal tableau is not beautiful, but it effectively expresses an exasperation shared by many about modernity’s economic and ecological trajectory.

In a still-timely mockumentary video from 1988, also on view, Mr. Critchley poses as president of a fictional organization called Nuclear Recycling Consultants, whose purpose is in part to convert nuclear plants into residential complexes and historic sites. Resembling a younger, thinner John C. Reilly, he describes his project and performs rituals at nuclear sites with engaging, wide-eyed verve.

In the rear gallery Chad Person offers a complementary solution in the form of folksy signs jig sawed from wood or collaged from pieces of United States currency. They say things like “Resign” and “Accept Less.” A giant inflated representation of the cartoon character Underdog sits irresolutely in the gallery too, while video montages show him performing frantic acts of heroism fueled by energizing vitamin pills. Two Cassandras, Mr. Critchley and Mr. Person, deplore our addictions to oil, drugs and competition. Give them credit for trying.”

- Ken Johnson The New York Times, “Art in Review”

Forbes Magazine

jay — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 03:17:32 +0000

http://www.forbes.com/sites/tamarawarren/2011/08/30/art-and-old-cars-jay-critchleys-deep-bones/

“Best in Show” The Village Voice – by Robert Schuster

jay — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 22:18:24 +0000

“Best in Show”, The Village Voice – by Robert Schuster

http://www.villagevoice.com/2011-08-24/art/pointing-a-telescope-at-the-sun-at-minus-space/

DEEP BONES opens in NYC – Aug 4 to Sept 10, Freight + Volume

jay — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 03:50:58 +0000

JAY CRITCHLEY’S “DEEP BONES” @ Freight + Volume, NYC, Aug 4-Sept 10, with CHAD PERSON “A HERO NEVER FAILS”.

jay — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 16:20:57 +0000

Freight + Volume

530 West 24h St, Chelsea, NYC

August 4th-September 10th, 2011.

Opening Reception: Thursday, August 4th, 6 – 8 pm

Freight + Volume is very proud to announce the New York debut of two remarkably talented installation artists. As both politically- and ecologically-motivated voices, this pairing will transport the viewer through an unusually provocative and timely dialogue amongst the F+V walls.

O Swallower of Shades…, I have not slain people…, O Breaker of Bones…I have not stolen food…, O He-who-is-Blood who came forth from the place of slaughter, I have not done grain-profiteering. – Egyptian Book of the Dead, Chapter 125

Jay Critchley’s two-part installation, Deep Bones, mixes basic elements of our voracious energy appetite _ hydrocarbons and the nuclear atom. Jay writes, “As we race on our journey in our ‘solar barque’ to the Sun God Re, will we make it in time to

defy the death-defying carbon kindness we practice? What will the afterlife on earth be like? Have we lost our desire for eternity? Our pilgrimage to the afterlife begins in this earthly place [Hydrocarbons], the place we return to after our spiral journey into the multiverse. But return we must, as we take our prized possessions and techno necessities into the afterglow!”

In the main gallery, the artist’s performance installation will eviscerate the “organs” of a classic MG sports car, ritually wrap each engine part with recycled plastic shopping bags, display them, and finally return them to the corpus vehicle and mummify the car. Above, a lowered, circular ceiling fashioned from recycled plastic shopping bags will hover over the remains.

In the video room, Critchley presents NRC – An Atomic Journey. In 1988 Critchley made a pilgrimage to abandoned, un-built nuclear power sites and facilities across the Mid-West/USA as president of the Nuclear Recycling Consultants (NRC). This video installation documents official visits and ritualized actions that explore our relationship to the atom and our quest for dominance of nature and the future itself. NRC _ An Atomic Journey visits sites in Tennessee, Mississippi, Ohio and Indiana,exploring links on a proposed Nuclear Heritage Trail.

The video installation will be projected above a trough of consumables, immersed in motor oil, with the reflected light dancing upon its petro-surface.

Please join us for a lively artists’ reception Thursday, August 4th from 6-8pm. On opening night, Jay Critchley will conduct a ceremony at the body of the MG, O Breaker of Bones, at 8:00 pm. During gallery hours on Tuesday and Wednesday, August 16th and 17th, Critchley will work in the space, returning the wrapped engine viscera into the cavity of the car and the ceremoniously mummifying the MG with recycled shopping bags. The public is welcome. For further information, please contact Nick Lawrence or Kevin Kay @ 212-691-7700, or info@freightandvolume.com.

Critchley’s environmental work dates back to the early 1980s with his sand car series in a waterfront parking lot in Provincetown. Founder of the patriotic, controversial Old Glory Condom Corporation and several corporate personas, his videos and conceptual proposals and projects have won numerous awards, including ones from HBO and the Boston Society of Architects, and he has had residencies at Harvestworks, NYC, Harvard University, AS220 in RI and Milepost 5 in Portland, Oregon. His work has been presented world wide, and recently in Argentina and Colombia.

Chad Person explores the concepts of heroism, manifest destiny, and apathy in a new show titled A Hero Never Fails. Using his signature repertoire techniques of inflatable sculpture, currency collage, and video Person’s objects ask the viewer: what

is heroism and why do we care? The centerpiece of the exhibit is Hero, a defeated caricature of the 50’s cartoon character Underdog. The goofball “hero who never fails” has resigned to abject apathy. Hero is rendered as a gigantic inflatable (a laused car dealership gorilla). Strung out on the “super vitamin pills” that provide his super powers, he sits slumped forward, meditating on his iPhone.

Person describes the work as three parts culture, one part self-portrait. “In a political state dominated by an agenda of distract the public and rob what’s left, with two endless wars draining the last of my great grand-children’s hope for prosperity, why be anything but apathetic to injustice? ‘Hero’ is a metaphor for my own vocational and economic struggle, my country’s role on the global stage, and whatever is left of my American dream. If creation is thought moved to action and object, then art-making is an incredibly heroic effort (perhaps more so in this economy). Has the time come for heroism? Or should we just give up, sit back, and have a good laugh?”

Person’s work has been exhibited internationally, with his most recent solo show at Mark Moore Gallery in Los Angeles. Hisprovocative and controversial RECESS project recently led AOL.com to label Person “the most paranoid man in America.” And in 2010, one of his sculptures was seized from Mark Moore Gallery by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives pending allegations that it was an illegally manufactured and trafficked firearm.

Video installation @ Ptown Film Fest: Grace Gouveia – Smoking Bomb; BANNED ON LONG POINT as HAZARD TO NAVIGATION.

jay — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 02:50:15 +0000

Video banned from Long Point Lighthouse as “hazard to navigation”;
Visit Our Site

Jay Critchley’s homage to Grace Gouveia to show at Provincetown Film Fest at Aquarium Mall Aqua Bar on June 16;

Long Point of View Theater: Grace Gouveia – Smoking Bomb.

Just let me live in a simple world
Where I can climb my heights
Or sink to my lowest depths
Without your comment or neon lights. – Grace Gouveia
poster
An experimental video by Provincetown artist Jay Critchley – Grace Gouveia: Smoking Bomb – has been banned from being projected onto Long Point Lighthouse, deemed by the US Coast Guard as a “hazard to navigation”, but will be shown instead at the Aquarium Mall Aqua Bar. The video, which is editied by Carol Pugliese and Critchley, is sponsored by the Provincetown Community Compact and the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and is a selection at the Provincetown International Film Festiva. It will be shown on Thursday, June 16 at 9:00pm. Free and open to the public.

Grace Gouveia was a teacher, activist and poet who arrived from Oloa, Portugal at the age of seven. Artists and writers were fleeing Europe during World War I for the US – Grennwich Village and Provincetown. It was 1916, the year playwright Eugene O’Neill’s first play was performed on a wharf in town. The European diaspora settled in.

The Provincetown Community Compact, Inc. (The Compact) was established in 1993 by Jay Critchley as a community-building and philanthropic organization to support living artists and the vitality of the arts community.

The mission of The Compact is to advance the cultural well being of Provincetown, its people, and the natural environment of the Lower Cape. The Compact also acts as an incubator (think-ubator) for social, environmental and artistic projects. It manages two dune shacks in the Cape Cod National Seashore and sponsors the annual Swim for Life & Paddler Flotilla, set this year fon September 10.

www.thecompact.org

www.provincetownlightkeepers.org

Special thanks to: Massachusetts Cultural Council, Mitch Rosenberg, WOMR FM, Joyce Johnson, Juilia Cohen, Beth O’Rourke, Provincetown Community Television (PTV), Ginny Binder, Provincetown Visitor Services Board, David Ellis, Don Beal, David Fortuna, Lauren Richmond, Seth Rolbein, Provincetown USA, Joseph Mantegna, Ptown Diaries, Carl Gouveia, Provincetown Art Association & Museum, Pilgrim Monument & Provincetown Museum. Paul Mendes, Paul Bowen, Ben DeRuyter, Aquarium Mall Aqua Bar.

Stills from video installation, Provincetown Harbor beach: Grace Gouveia – Smoking Bomb by Jay Critchley, edited by Carol Pugliese & Jay Critchley, 6-16-11, Aquarium Mall Aqua Bar, Provincetown International Film Festival.

“DON’T BE CRUDE”: DAY WITHOUT OIL, Washington, DC, April 14, 2011

jay — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 18:36:07 +0000

“DON’T BE CRUDE”: DAY WITHOUT OIL , DC GREENWORKS PROMOTE ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE A YEAR AFTER BP SPILL, April 14, 201

Two leading environmental advocates are teaming up to commemorate the first anniversary of the Gulf Oil Spill and preview the 2011 Earth Day celebrations with a Day Without Oil – created by Provincetown artist Jay Critchley -gathering to promote reduced use of fossil fuels. www.DayWithOutOil.org

The “Don’t Be Crude” event will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. on Thursday, April 14, at the green roof built by DC Greenworks at the home of the Board Chair, Gail Montplaisir, 1454 Belmont Street, NW in Washington. Those wishing to attend may call DC Greenworks at 202-518-6195 for further details.

CONTACTS: Katherine Sawyer, DC Greenworks, 202.518.6195 Kathy@dcgreenworks.org

Geri Critchley, geri.critchley@gmail.com

Elvis joins Day Without Oil – BP: Don’t Be Crude

jay — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 04:20:38 +0000

“There are no more turtledoves,

Baby let’s drive our car to the heaven above.”