d e t r i t u s @ coup d'oeil art consortium installation views.

Back in Auckland and looking forward to getting back to work. The show is up until February 5th. Any remaining pieces will stay at Coup d'oeil, New Orleans (for the time being).

Chris Dennis - d e t r i t u s @ Coup d'oeil in New Orleans.

Struggling with the nightmare of stuffing paintings into a case and trying not to forget anything. Leaving the gorgeous New Zealand Summer and heading towards Louisana Ice storms for my second solo show in New Orleans at Coup d'oeil Art Consortium. I'm looking forward to being back and a couple of days of eating (and shopping) in San Francisco on the way home.

Press release is below:

Chris Dennis: d e t r i t u s

January 15^{th -} February 5^th 2011.

Coup d’oeil Art Consortium. 2033 Magazine Street, New Orleans, LA 70130.

Phone: 504 722 0876

e.mail: ken@coupdoeilartconsortium.com

http://www.coupdoeilartconsortium.com/

Coup is pleased to herald the start of a new year with d e t r i t u s : paintings by Chris Dennis. After spending the last year in Berlin and Auckland, Chris returns to New Orleans for his second solo show at the gallery. He describes this new collection of carefully obfuscated narratives as "unapologetically small". These new, intimately-sized, mixed media paintings where surface is sometimes the initial subject, seamlessly incorporate a variety of found materials and alternative media.

Beneath the surface, Chris continues to direct his now recognizable Therianthropic figures (often possessing the head of a fish or a bird) in landscapes and settings where the depiction of the external hints at the internal. Bad jokes, confessions, memories, and untruths are scattered (sometimes buried), offering clues to the stories within. The show runs from January 15 through February 5, 2011.

Please join us for the opening reception on Saturday, Jan. 15 from 6-9pm.

Chris will also be at the gallery on Sun. Jan. 16 from 1-5pm.

From one Cnut to Another.

By ARTINFO

Published: November 23, 2010.
http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/36415/radiohead-singer-thom-yorke-orchestrates-massive-eco-art-ode-to-king-canute/

Radiohead Singer Thom Yorke Orchestrates Massive Eco-Art Ode to King Canute

BRIGHTON— Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke is putting his celebrity to good use, helping catalyze volunteers for a massive experiment in global crowdsourced art, set for November 27 in Brighton, England. The giant-sized spectacle is part of Earth350, a week of art actions spearheaded by environmentalist Bill McKibben, who has called on volunteers from around the world to form massive pictures, often with their bodies, that will be photographed from space by satellites. The events are timed to take place in the lead-up to the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Cancun, Mexico, running from November 29 to December 10, to demonstrate public consciousness of global warming.

Yorke's particular project for Earth350 aims to bring together 2,000 volunteers for a massive living portrait of King Canute, a Viking king of England who according to leged tried, but failed, to command the ocean to stop its waves. The image was conceived by the singer along with artist Stanley Donwood, who has been responsible for Radiohead's album art since the band began.

"Please also note that we will create the human sculpture even if it rains and is stormy, since weather is a central character in this art piece," a Web announcement for the event tells would-be volunteers. "Yes, this sounds mad but since we're recreating the story of King Canute it works."

Chris Dennis. The Great Cnut Diptych 2009

The Multispecies Salon 3: SWARM. New Orleans Nov 13 - Dec 5.

I have 2 pieces courtesy of Coup d'oeil Art Consortium included in this show:

Art exhibitions centered on the relationship between humans and other creatures, The Multispecies Salon 3: Swarm, will open in the St. Claude Arts District of New Orleans on November 13, 2010 from 6 pm to 10 pm and will run through December 5^th.

Spawned by the annual conference of the 2010 American Anthropological Association (AAA), this year convening in New Orleans, the Multispecies Salon will explore relations between humans and other creatures. Art shows will be installed at three sites in the St. Claude district: The Ironworks, (612 Piety St.), The Front (4100 St. Claude Ave., on November 13^th only), and Kawliga Studios (3331 St. Claude Ave.).

Coming together in a collaborative venture from the East Coast, the West Coast and New Orleans, six members of a curatorial swarm—Myrtle Von Damitz III, Marnia Johnston, Amy Jenkins, Nina Nichols, Karen Kern, and Eben Kirksey—have brought together a multitude of creative agents. Over seventy artists—hailing from New Orleans, the far reaches of the United States, Europe, and Australia—will animate the shows. A full list of these participants—including internationally acclaimed artists like Kathy High, Adam Zaretsky, and Cornelia Hesse-Honeger—is available online. Multispecies Salon 3: SWARM

The swarm is a network with no center to dictate order. Swarming is the tactic, rather than the theme, of the Multispecies Salon. Three interrelated themes—orbiting around human relationships with plants, microbes, and animals—will come together in the Multispecies Salon: “Hope in Blasted Landscapes”, “Edible Companions”, and “Life in the Age of Biotechnology.” Hope in Blasted Landscapes will showcase forms of life that persist in post-industrial sites, in the aftermath of disaster. Blurring the boundaries between food and art, we will invite gallery visitors to eat Edible Companions—critters whose bios, biographical and political lives, might provoke a bit of indigestion. Life in the Age of Biotechnology will feature new organisms and machines that have been created by humans or are dependent upon on humans for their very survival.

An opening reception will take place at all three gallery sites on Saturday, November 13, from 6 pm to 10 pm, in conjunction with the Prospect 1.5 biennial and the St. Claude Art Walk. The Swarm Orbs, spherical robots that embody the tactics of our show, will be on the move outside The Front Gallery among goats from Pretty Doe Dairy, creatures involved in an urban bioremediation project. Samples from a buffet of edible insects, prepared by Zack Lemann of the Audubon Insectarium, will also be available to visitors.

Multispecies Salon events will continue the following week in association with the American Anthropological Association (AAA) conference as well as the New Orleans Fringe Festival, both from November 17-21. Internationally renowned anthropologists will give lectures about human relations with other species, free and open to the public, at Kawliga Studios (6:30-7:30 pm, on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, November 15-19).

Anthropologists will become embedded art critics at the Multispecies Salon—working alongside the curators to help stage and document the events with a live blog. Happenings in art worlds will accompany discussions at the AAA conference about the emergence of a new approach to anthropology: multispecies ethnography. Literally ethno-graphy means “people writing” and conventionally anthropologists have limited their research to human realms. “Creatures previously appearing on the margins of anthropology — as part of the landscape, as food for humans, as symbols — have been pressed into the foreground in recent ethnographies,” write Eben Kirksey and Stefan Helmreich in the November special issue of Cultural Anthropology, the flagship journal of the discipline.

Beached is part of Hope in Blasted Landscapes, curated by Eben Kirksey, Amy Jenkins, and Myrtle Von Damitz III
Swine is included in Edible Companions, curated by Nina Nichols and Amy Jenkins.

Multispecies Salon 3: SWARM

Auckland Art Week - SOBI Open Studios

To coincide with Auckland Art Week, my new home: SOBI (Society of Brilliant Ideas. 35 High St. CBD) will be opening their doors on Monday, November 8th from 6.30pm:

"The Society of Brilliant Ideas in conjunction with Rakinos, is holding an Open Studio Exhibition and Night market. Featuring the works of Artists such as Robyn Hughes, Jared Milne, Suzanne Levesque, Joan Thurston, Glenys Cullimore, Chris Dennis, Claire Cowan, you'll be able to meet and observe S.O.B.I Artists in their natural habitat and buy or commission works directly. S.O.B.I also hosts a Night Market on several levels of the building for the first time, selling goods from crafters such as Bibliographica, Desiree Tait, Avoir Young, Elk and many more. After checking out the market, make sure you pop down to Rakinos for a drink and some tunes from St Janera".

Society of Brilliant Ideas Auckland Art Week

Art in the Dark. Western Park, Auckland. October 2010.

It's taken me a little while to post a couple of pics from the inaugural Art in the Dark weekend in Ponsonby's Western Park. It looked to be a great success for all concerned and I hope it happens again next year (and I get to take part).




http://www.artinthedark.co.nz/

Back in Auckland/New Studio.

The new studio.

Back in Auckland on my first day in my new studio in downtown Auckland. It's less than 3 months until my follow-up show at Coup d' oeil, so no time for gazing out the window.

The view.