JUNE 5-25, 2011
opening reception (free & open to the public)
Sunday, June 5 , 4-7pm
AS220 Main Gallery
New Work by Marc Leitzel and Rick Billings
Open Window
New Paintings by Polly Poulten
Youth Gallery
New Work by Jordan Carter
AS220 Project Space (93 Mathewson St.)
Day to Day new work by Gillian Christy
Artist's Reception Thursday June16th, 6 pm -9 pm at the Project Space
Reading Room
Artist's Books, art books, and more!
The AS220 Project Space/ Reading Room is psyched to have Tom Bubul's OSPREYS #16 Obscure Finale. This fantastic, dense, rich zine is filled with hidden treasures that demands multiple readings.
OSPREYS #16 consists of sixteen unbound single-sided two-color 11"x17" offset litho prints on 28lb blue paper, packaged in folded white butcher paper envelopes, individually titled in pink paint pen. It's big, and there's a lot in there.
This issue was designed to allow for a different experience from the wall and from reading distance; hang it up or read it in bed, either or. At medium distance, each of the package's sixteen pages is dominated by a large numeral and a sigil drawn on a diminishing grid that corresponds to that numeral's value; close up, eleven of the package's sheets are jammed with collages made from hundreds of drawings spanning late April and early December 2010. Two short stories written from October 2010 through February 2011 fill the other four.
This edition of the zine was produced by RK PROJECTS in an edition of 300 in conjunction with the solo drawing and painting exhibition OSPREYS, which was open May 2011 at an RK PROJECTS pop-up space in Providence. Printed at AS220 Community Printshop.
"Basilica View", silver gelatin print, 2010.
Photographer Roger Carl Johanson talks about his recent body of work, In Italy, at the AS220 Project Space from 6 - 8 p.m. Free!
"Vatican Hallway" silver gelatin print, 2010.
Photograph by Jonathan Beller
Wednesday May 18th at 6pm AS220 will host a screening of the film Leh Wi Tok: When Radio Gives A Voice to the Voiceless (suggested $5 donation), with the director and film's photography team in attendance. The documentary screening is in conjunction with this months exhibition, Resilient: A Portrait of Sierra Leone photographs by Jonathan Beller and Kate Kelley, who worked with Leh Wi Tok's director, John Lavall, and the rest of the film's small production team. Leh Wi Tok the story of radio pioneer Andrew Kromah's unrelenting quest to grow an independent network of community-based radio stations in his country, Sierra Leone, so that peace and democracy can flourish after ten years of civil war.
Leh Wi Tok follows Andrew and his team of radio journalists as they uncover and investigate a tragic landslide that kills 13 people and leaves many more homeless and desperate. Leh Wi Tok is the story of how one individual, amidst flagrant and persistent political harassment, financial and technical woes, and geographic challenges, literally puts his life on the line to bring disparate and often unheard voices to the airwaves. In the words of Andrew, "No democracy can endure without considering the views of both the majority and the minority. A strong and vigorous media, especially independent radio broadcasting, will help ensure that no one is left without a voice at the decision making table because of lack of resources."
Woven into the narrative are the stories of other radio pioneers, such as Foday Sajuma, station manager of Radio Moa, "The Voice of the Voiceless" in remote Kailahun. We witness Radio Moaʼs many challenges, from its rural location with nearly impassable dirt roads to the lack of skilled mechanics and technicians and a dependence on aging diesel generators. Since its first broadcast in 2003, Radio Moa, "The Voice of the Voiceless," has kept critical information flowing during crisis, often preventing a region that spans nearly 70 kilometers, well into neighboring Liberia and Guinea, from a quick descent into chaos. Radio Moa works tirelessly to keep citizens abreast of and engaged in national and local elections as well as governmental decisions; programs expose corruption, offer counsel, deliver warnings, play music and soothe the fears of a troubled populace.
The photography exhibition is on view at the AS220's Main Gallery at 115 Empire Street from May 1st to 28th. Official AS220 gallery hours are Wednesday-Friday: 1pm-6pm and Saturday: Noon-4pm, however, our Main Gallery is often accessible at other times. The photographers have also released an 80pp book of their work in Sierra Leone, a compelling series of strong portraits juxtaposed with beautiful landscapes and the remnants of war - a true picture of Sierra Leone today.
Neal Walsh got in touch with Kate Kelley and Jonathan Beller, the photographers behind, the book and AS220 Main Gallery exhibition, Resilient for a little Q&A
AS220: The exhibit Resilient, A Portrait of Sierra Leone, came out of your work on the documentary film, Leh Wi Tok. How did you get involved with the film? How long did you spend in Sierra Leone?
Kate: The director of the film, John Lavall, approached Jonathan about coming along to Sierra Leone to take stills. After further planning, Lavall decided that the documentary would be shot with the Canon 5D Mark II and Canon 7D, both professional SLR cameras used by photographers. Jonathan realized that the crew needed someone to organize the files, and also wanted me to have the same experience, so I was brought on to do that. The first trip to Sierra Leone was for 3 weeks in January of 2010, dry season for Sierra Leone. Dry season was chosen because this is when the roads are in the best condition for travel, and we were planning to do a lot of driving across the country. After looking over the footage, we realized that we needed to show the rainy season. Only half of the original crew returned for 2 more weeks of filming in September of 2010, I was a part of the second trip as well.
AS220: Sierra Leone is a struggling country that has just recently emerged from a long and bloody civil war with little in the ways of infrastructure or resources for a photographer. Technically, what impact did this have on your working process as photographers? What sort of photo equipment did you use and what was the greatest challenge you had as working photographers?
Kate: For filming, Jonathan and I used the Canon 5D Mark II. We also had a Canon 5D Mark I for digital stills, a Hasselblad medium format film camera, and a Linhof Technika III 4x5 film camera. I am still a big advocate for film. Our biggest technical challenge was re-charging our equipment. Sierra Leone's power grid was destroyed during the war. Electricity is only available at certain times of the day, if it is available at all. We often needed to pay the hotel extra to run the electricity at night so that we could download images and charge all batteries. Another problem was that our external hard drives would not run when plugged into any power source. Only external drives powered by the computer, such as LaCie Rugged drives, worked. We were unaware this was going to happen and had only brought five 500g Rugged drives. We needed to have 6 more sent over to us, which turned out to be very difficult, but it all worked out.
AS220: Sierra Leone's civil war pit neighbor against neighbor and evidence of that war is still so apparent. What approach did you take when documenting the people and places you visited? What sort of reception did you find in the various communities in Sierra Leone that you visited? What was you experience photographing the people of Sierra Leone?
Jonathan: We were not traveling alone. We had two drivers to help us translate and explain to the people what our intention was and what we were trying to accomplish. Once people understood what we were doing, they were very receptive and most were willing to help us out. We were issued passes by the government stating that we had permission to be taking photos. It was also broadcast over the radio to inform people who we were. The people of Sierra Leone are very kind and generous with their time and we appreciate everything they did for us.
AS220: In the exhibition at AS220 there are three images, "Kids Playing Behind Cars", "Slaughterhouse" and "Slaughterhouse, detail". It was not until I looked through your book, Resilient, ( available at http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/2085597) that I was fully aware of what is pictured. "Kids Playing Behind Cars" is an image that seems to be a typical street scene, an old beaten up car behind which two children shyly smile at the camera. Directly behind the children is a weathered building. Reading the caption we learn that behind this house is actually a mass grave. What seems like a good photo of a relatively ordinary street scene suddenly become something of an entirely different order. The same with "Slaughterhouse", an image of a dimly lit wall - pock marked, stained, highly textured, imbued with a morbid sensibility, but also one of human necessity; then we read that it was a human slaughterhouse. Can you talk a bit about these images, and what it was like to come upon such concrete and visceral remains of the horror of the Sierra Leone civil war?
Kate: These remnants of war are everywhere you look in Sierra Leone - bullet marks on buildings, overgrown house shells, broken down tanks on the side of the road. It is devastating when you look around and realize what has happened to these people, yet it is not evident on their faces. They have forgiven each other and moved on. They have no other choice.
Jonathan: The slaughter house in Kailahun is where hundreds of Sierra Leoneans' captured by the RUF fighters were imprisoned and killed during the war. It remains in Kailahun as a reminder to the people of Sierra Leone in the hopes that war will never return. The slaughter house was a very emotional place to photograph.
AS220: What's next? Do you have any plans to return to Sierra Leone? Any big projects in the works?
Kate & Jonathan: We would both love to return to Sierra Leone someday. It is a beautiful country. We miss the friends we made when we were over there. We are both working together with John Lavall to produce a PSA for Project Goal, a non-profit organization, whose mission is to facilitate the development of Rhode Island's disadvantaged youth through after-school tutoring and soccer-related programs. Jonathan continues to work on multimedia assignments for ipad editions and portraits for editorial clients and ad agencies. Kate is continuing to photograph for a wood-fired oven cookbook with her friends.
Learn More at:
www.lehwitok.org
www.katekelleyphoto.com
www.jonathanbeller.com
Check out the Leh Wi Tok Documentary Trailer from Devlo Media on Vimeo.