Prague Jan.-April 2011

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Some press and pics from Praha;

http://meetfactory.cz/residents/detail.aspx?itemID=6724

Displays include post-industrial, post-nature hybrids. photo by Walter Novak

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Statement for Praha show I have been thinking about; The role of technology in our lives and the worlds environment. Fukushima happened as i was preparing the exhibition. Movement, space. Movement in space. Brining the outside in. Bringing the dead alive-the Frankenstein Theory. The man-made beast that turns on it’s creator. Using specific materials, specifically local materials, not representations of them, casts, simulacra’s nor digital…..real life stuff. Interactivity is proactivity ala your life actions and interactions with the world. Being proactive with society via art and technology. The Zen saying if a butterfy flaps its wings in China does it create a thunderstorm in The United States. If you are pro-active with your life does it affect the wotrld. What does it mean to make interactive works. Is it enough to just vote? Do you need to do more? To get people involved. If you don’t do YOUR work, no one else will. Ever. It will never get done. Tree avatars, para normal otherworldly spaces and objects. Extending a trees abilities via technology. 40,000 species go extinct each year. Technology has powers. Nature has powers. a lot of these powers you  can’t see or understand but both can teach us. Something universal and mythical. A magic forest, hidden meanings, a dystopic land. A celebration of life. Kinetic energy is what powers everything. People = Action

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 Kal Spelletich (born 1960, Davenport, Iowa, USA) presents a collection of interactive installations created during his residency at the MeetFactory. An amiable interactivity meshes with sinister mechanicality in his playful installations combining punk and dada. Apart from combustible mixtures and explosives, Spelletich works mainly with scavenged refuse, with the goal to give it a new life often quite different from its former purpose. In a way, Duchamp meets Mad Max.

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an interview:

http://www.vimeo.com/26425235

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TREE SWEEPER

*Assembling Flight Systems and Arming the Trees*

photo in exhibit

OPENING NIGHT March 24, 2011 at The MEETFACTORY,  Prague, Czech Republic. LINKS TO VIDEOS: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owEigh0VIgU&feature=related *                                                                http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nsE9RzIvpA&feature=related *****************************************

Preliminary Notes

Kal Spelletich (nar. 1960, Davenport, Iowa, USA) přestavuje soubor interaktivních instalací vzniklých během jeho residenčního pobytu v MeetFactory. V jeho hravých punkově-dadaistických mobilních sochách se přívětivá interaktivita prolíná s výhružnou mechaničností. Jako host výstavy se představuje český umělec Richard Loskot (nar. 1980 v Mostě), který se dlouhodobě zabývá fungováním mechanických i elektronických systémů.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Oh, the opening was crazy, fun!  very crowded, and busy. Got home at 5am after getting the police to let me go++ *

+Tree Cannon in repose+

Root Spinnerer leaving its mark

photo from exhibit

A technologically mutated organic hybrid to, of and for trees.machines. robots. photographs.

+FLYING LADDER TREE+

Some drawings

TREE IN WAITING

+We are mastered by the forces of nature and our world is coming to an end. Trees don’t need our help, we need theirs. They replenish the environment with oxygen and filter pollution–nourishing us by their mere existence; they have the ultimate (more than anything humans may construct) capacity to heal. Trees will be the savior but only if we let them. Tying ourselves to the trunk of a 2,000 year old Sequoia is no longer the answer. Now, it’s all about mobilization.********************                                OPENING NIGHT March 24, 2011 at The MEETFACTORY,  Prague, Czech Republic.                                                              ************                                                                                                             Arbor Aeronautics and Telepresences

Kal Spelletich, visiting artist from San Francisco, Ca. will be exhibiting machines and robots built from trees at the MEETFACTORY. The exhibit is about technology and its role in our lives and its role with the environment. There will be flying trees, machines you can operate and a wine pouring machine to serve you a glass of wine! Opening Reception;Thursday, March, 24, 2011 18:00 on.The Exhibit closes on April 15,            2011 I am doing 3 walk though’s with special, ahh, effects shall we say, in conjunction with other events at the MEETFACTORY, on 6.4 -18:00, 9.4 -14:00 and 14.4 -18:30. http://meetfactory.cz/MeetFactory opsThe glassworks 3213/15, Prague 5 – Smíchov

Also in the exhibit will be the amazing work of Richard Loskot   http://sites.google.com/site/richardloskot/Home >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>                                                                                                                                                   I have a residency In Prague, workin on a show for late March  2011

The orignal Defenestartion windows…where they tossed to politicians out the window

The national drink! only there are much better micro brewery

Audience presses button, tree root spins, green paint sprays wall

close up of green root tree spinnerer

*I Got interviewed the other day By Prague radio, http://www.rozhlas.cz/radiowave/portal/ the were inquisitive about what i was up to to say the least…..* Hello All!I am having an open studio at the Meetfactory, this Thursday, February 17, 2011 from 16:00-21:00 room 21, 1st. floor. Come on by!I will have a flying Christmas tree, food, a defenestration machine, a wine pourer, a basketball bouncing machine, a dizzy beer bottle, some drawings and maybe some other stuff!I hope to see you all. Invite anyone you want.There is a really interesting event at 21:00, downstairs in the club, hosted by Alexannder Hacke and Danielle de Picciotto.          http://meetfactory.cz/scheduleDetail.aspx?itemID=329&referrer=/program/default.aspxall the best,Kal

Flying Christmas Tree

The Flying X-Mess Tree prototype

SOCIALISM !

I have to hand it to the Czech’s, for such a miserably cold dark grey city, they somehow stay mostly upbeat. The homes and businesses are all very warm! The beer flows like water and is beyond description. They are a scrappy bunch and make do and keep plugging away oftentimes with little or no support. Their architecture is beyond belief. Really really. * http://blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2011/02/seemens_kal_spelletich_takes_f.php * * WHY DOES A TAMED DOG WAG IT’S TALE Behind every great fortune there is a crime. – Honore de Balzac There is an open studio on Thursday Feb. 17th, 2011 at the meetfactory! i will have several machines on display for your involvement= *

aRTICLE IN THE fEBRUARY 11 ISSUE OF sAN fRANCISCO wEEKLY NEWSPAPER:

Hello, Well, i showed up at my residency in Prague not wanting to know what to do. A luxary i have never been afforeded in my 30 years of art making. Three weeks into my stay, I have built a machine that bounces a basketball by itself, one that pours you a glass of wine and have almost finished with a flaming/flying christmas tree. I made a window opener inspired by Vaclev Havel writing that Czech society needs to throw open a window and let in some fresh air and a day later I read about The Czech rite of Defenestration; throwing out the old corrupt politicians.They are all operated by the audience.

mY CONTINUING OBSESSION WITH THE BRILLIANTLY EFFICIENT MASS TRANSIT SYSTEM IN PRAHA

The Czech’s are very interested in my work. The art scene here is almost completely a sort of retro 1970’s conceptualism. They are pretty blown away when I try and explain my work, that I build machines and robots that are audience operated. They look at me with puzzlement and disbelief, not a whole lot different than the U.S. Every time i travel it becomes an audience experiment, ho will a “foreign” audience interact with my work? Are they shy? scared? confused? indifferent? Are they familiar with interactive art? Will they press the button?Always a challenge. I was interviewed my national Czech Television and that gets aired next week.I have been checking in with some U.S. X-pats. A hardy bunch!I have my own apartment, a studio, a budget and supprt.The Meetfactory, http://meetfactory.cz/ where I am being hosted is an amazing place, with a bar/cafe, nightclub, gallery and filmhouse. There are several other resident artists. There is quite a vibrant scene here with deep roots in the arts. Though everyone says the good old days are long gone, and somewhere else must be the happening place. I have been hearing that my whole life. I try and be in the present, these are the good old days!  Most arts spaces are funded by the state and get about 95% of their budgets from them. They feel the US system is better, we always feel their system is better. In the U.S. spaces and artists raise money through odd jobs, fundraisers and for the very few with commercial work, through sales. It is exhausting and incredibly time consuming. I rekon the grass is always greener and your neighbors apples always taste better.

ye olde jewish cemetary

Either you repeat the same conventional doctrines everybody is saying, or else you say something true, and it will sound like it’s from Neptune. – Noam Chomsky I am having a small introductory exhibit on Feb. 17th and another final exhibit in early April just before I leave.There is an amazing country and western station on AM radio here. Really amazing, they play the usuals, Johnny, Waylon, Willie, you know, and then they play Czech covers of them, really great versions!It is on 24 hours a day, nothing cynical, snarky/childish about it. Completly sincere. Amazing. Every public place is real smoky, cigarette smokey. You forget people live this way, eye burning clothes stinking throat choking, cafes, resterants and especialy bars.There is still the sweet smell of coal at night in the cold winter air. I have an evolving blog that is documenting my adventures:https://kaltek.wordpress.com/prague-jan-april-2011/ best, Kal at thee one and only  http://meetfactory.cz/ –

SNOW! and lots of it-

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fERNET

I have been making some Drawings

MY STREET

fERNET

Walking thru a park one night

Basketball Bouncerer, PlAYING wITH mYSELF

bASKET bALL bOUNVERER, Playing With Myself

BasketBall Bouncerer, Playing With Myself

outside my window

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The Amazing Prague underground

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more from the underground

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My Czech wine pouring machine:

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OUTSIDE MY WINDOW

Hello, I am attending a residency and exhibiting in Prague from Jan. 17 to April 18, 2011. http://meetfactory.cz/ As well as a few probable other cities on the continent. If you are around Prague or Europe then let me know. I have an apartment and studio. If you know of anything going on or places i should go to or people to see- lemme know! I feel lucky that during my 50th revolution around the sun I get to still keep making art, all over this planet. all the best kal https://kaltek.wordpress.com/

OUTSIDE MY STUDIO WINDOW

Dear Mr. Spelletich, I am writing you, according to  a decision of MeetFactory Art Council, to offer you a 3 months residency in MeetFactory Prague, fully supported by US embassy in Prague and other institutions. This residency is planned to be started at the beginning of January and finished at the end of March 2011. The residency will be finished by an exhibition in MeetFactroy gallery. Please write me if you are interested so we can discuss details. Sincerely **** ************ Dear Kal, first of all let me introduce MeetFactory. MeetFactory is a multicultural centre of contemporary art in Prague, Czech republic with an Artist in Residency Program. We started in 2001 but unfortunately because of flood MeetFactory was not working from 2002 to 2007. Nowadays we are occupying old glass factory in Prague. MeetFactory has got 15 ateliers, theatre, gallery and a big concert hall. See pictures and more information on http://www.meetfactory.cz Your residency is supported by US embassy in Prague, Ministry of culture of Czech republic and City of Prague. It should take place from January to March 2011. The final aim (not mentioning meeting other people, contact with European, Czech and Prague cultural scene etc.) of whole residency is an exhibition  of your work in MeetFactory gallery. This exhibition will take place in one of our gallery spaces, most probably in cooperation with some other Czech or European artists.  You will be also given an atelier of aprox. 40 m2 and a room in a flat. Flat will be shared with other artist.

Goddesses

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Entering the amazing Prague undeground

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Exiting the amazing Prague underground

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thinking, always thinking….

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A rock sculpture at train station

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A 1950s pen and ink drawing i bought

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space time tree study

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