Tom Sanford » No Longer Empty

ICE ICE MAYBE RECAP (lots of photos)

tomsanford — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 14:28:31 +0000

Brent Birnbaum’s ICE ICE MAYBE in store appearance at Ted Reiderer’s NEVER RECORDS went extremely well. Brent channeled Vanilla Ice with such gusto that not only did he autograph and sell hundreds (well at least well over one hundred) of Sanford/Birnbaum prints, but he also signed almost as many body parts. Yes he signed boobs!

We still have a few prints left which we are selling off over the internet to people who weren’t able to be at the performance, they are moving at a pretty good clip, so if you want one ACT NOW! If you are interested you can send Brent an email with you address and the name you want the print to be autographed to. They still only cost $5 but we are adding an additional $5 on internet sales to cover the added costs, such as shipping, packing and paypal fees for a total of $10. Brent will send your limited addition print out asap once ordered and bill you via paypal. Email Brent at pearbomb@gmail.com

Here are some photos of the event, but if you want more check out VANILLA twICE – Brent’s offical ICE ICE MAYBE site. He is available for parties and bar mitzvahs….

ICE ICE MAYBE / Never Can Say Goodbye

tomsanford — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 21:17:49 +0000

No Longer Empty is putting on a show called Never Can Say Goodbye at the (now defunct) flagship location of Tower Records at East 4th street and Broadway in money makin’ Manhattan. I am excited to be collaborating with Brent Birnbaum in the show, as part of Ted Reiderer’s NEVER RECORDS installation.

Ted will be realizing a grand, multi-artist installation in which he will create a simulation of a long forgotten relic of the 20th Century: the record store. Ted’s project, called NEVER RECORDS, will include work and merch from a whole bunch of artists:

Where I come in is in collaboration with Brent Birnbaum. During the opening reception for the show, Brent will appear dressed as Vanilla Ice (c. 1990 of course) and do a performance which he calls ICE ICE MAYBE. The performance will resemble an “in store appearance,” where Brent will assume the character of Rob Van Winkle’s 1990’s cross-over hip hop villain/scapegoat Vanilla Ice, and he will autograph some ICE ICE MAYBE merchandise, which I had a hand in creating. I am not exactly sure whether or not he will spit some white-boy flava, but I guess there is a chance, depending on how “full of 8-ball” he is. Either way, I know for a fact that Brent has a full array of V.I.P. Posse dance moves.

For my part, I have made a couple of my poster paintings in support of Brent’s vanilla vision. One of the posters is to publicize the performance (pictured above) the other will be reproduced in 8X10 form and autographed for fans willing to wait in line and thus “participate” in Brent’s Rob Van Winkle re-awakening. Those who do cue up to meet ICE will not only have the opertunity to have a brief chat with with the pseudo-star, but will get the chance to purchase his autograph on a LIMITED EDITION ARCHIVABLE* BRENT BIRNBAUM/TOM SANFORD PRINT FOR ONLY 5 DOLLARS!

Brent and I have produced a very limited edition print of one of the posters that i painted for his performance. The print will be signed by both of us artists and numbered one of two hundred and fifty. In addition ICE ICE MAYBE will autograph every print bought to the lucky fan on the spot and personalize it with an ice cool vanilla message. If you bring a camera you will even be allowed to take one photo with ICE ICE MAYBE with each print purchased. So get to the opening early so not to miss your chance to get you print and photo op.

* These prints are archivable in that one can archive them. We make no claim that the paper is in any way archival, in fact it was selected to approximate the quality of the pages of the Tiger Beat magazines that inspired Brent’s performance. Anyway they look great and judging by Brent’s collection of Tiger Beat magazines they should hold up for at least 20 years with absolutely no quality issues.

Never Can Say Goodbye will open on January 15th from 6-8PM, and be open for at least a month. No firm end date has been established as of now. The show will be in the old Tower Records location on the northeast corner of East 4th street & Broadway.

In addition to the artists participating in NEVER RECORDS, the following other artists are also contributing to Never Can Say Goodbye:

Curated by Manon Slome, NLE; Steven Evans, Dia Art Foundation; and Asher Remy-Toledo, NLE.

Jonathan Lethem Visits “Motherless Brooklyn” Mural.

tomsanford — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 22:42:39 +0000

Earlier this summer Manon Slome asked me to be in the 3rd installment of No Longer Empty at the Invisible Dog. When I checked the space it seemed perfect for a site specific project, and a lot of the work proposed by the other artists in the exhibition was going to be made out of materials found at the venue, which was filled with the remains of its past: a belt and dog collar factory abandoned for the last 5 years or so.

In order to make my piece site specific, while also a painting, I decided to make a mural. A mural is of course by definition fixed in place, painted on the wall, and so site specific. I also wanted it to be site specific in concept, and so the mural should be a product of its location, just as a chandelier made of old belt buckles found in the factory would be (another piece in the show). I decided that I would paint a mural of the L&L taxi service / detective agency from Jonathan Lethem’s novel Motherless Brooklyn (1999). In Lethem’s novel, L&L was located at Smith and Bergen – the same block as the Invisible Dog, so this mural refers to the history (albeit fictional) of the city block that is its location. It would also be a tribute to Lethem, who grew up in the area and still lives around the corner.

As we (I was helped by Don Liestman, Michael Hilsman, and Josh Jordan) worked on the mural, passersby would recognize the subject matter and tell us that they knew Lethem as he lived in the neighborhood. So, once the mural was done, I asked a friend who works in publishing if she might be able to get a message to Mr. Lethem. Within an hour or two Jonathan was in touch and was very kind to agree to meet me at the mural. Jonathan was super generous with his time (especially as he was only a few days from the launch of his latest book Chronic City) and spent some time with Josh Jordan and I checking out the mural. He even came to the opening a few days later.

Motherless Brooklyn has an ongoing theme of (as Frank Minna would say) “Wheels within Wheels” – or different layers of truth so that things are always more complicated than they might seem at first glance. With this in mind, I asked Josh Jordan to paint Frank Minna’s portrait within my mural, so as to create a painting within a mural, wheels within wheels. Josh generously agreed and his portrait of the departed Frank Minna is my favorite part of the piece. It turned out that Josh is also a big fan of the book (and lives on the same block in Greenpoint where Frank Minna was killed and stuffed into a dumpster in the book). While the Motherless Brooklyn mural is my piece, I think of the portrait of Frank Minna as an autonomous work of art functioning within the mural – or at least a reference to Josh, and this text serves as its footnote.

“Motherless Brooklyn” Mural for NO LONGER EMPTY 3 @ the Invisible Dog.

tomsanford — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 21:37:18 +0000

BROOKLYN, SEPTEMBER 28, 2009 — The Invisible Dog, a former belt factory in the Cobble Hill section of Brooklyn and the much loved home of the novelty gag of the 70s, the “INVISIBLE DOG,” will re-open on October 3 with an exhibition organized by NO LONGER EMPTY. NLE is a not for profit whose mission is to revive the numerous vacated storefronts and empty spaces throughout New York City. Many of the works presented in the exhibition reflect both the history of the space and the oxymoronic construct of the Invisible Dog: a fantasy, a legend, something born out of nothing. Artists have also been given the opportunity to work with the many trimmings, reels of fabric, leather and other materials left behind at the factory at the request of director, Lucien Zayan, who understood their future artistic value.

One of the featured artists, Tom Sanford, has created a site-specific (both location and subject matter) mural for the exhibition, called “L&L Taxi (Motherless Brooklyn)” based on Jonathan Lethem’s novel “Motherless Brooklyn” (1999). Sanford chose this subject matter because the Invisible Dog is located on the same block as the fictional L&L taxi / detective agency in Lethem’s novel (Bergen & Smith). The 12 x 22 ft mural imagines L&L in the present day, ten years after the story ends in the novel, with characters Lionel Essrog, Gilbert Coney, Loomis & Danny Fantl (left to right in the painting) still on Bergen street operating the L&L taxi service (no longer a detective agency) with a portrait of the departed Frank Minna on the wall in remembrance. The mural celebrates the history (albeit fictional) of Smith & Bergen, and honors one of Brooklyn’s many important contemporary authors.

Sanford claims that he “also decided to make the mural because I understand that actor Edward Norton in producing a film adaptation of “Motherless Brooklyn”. Norton will play Lionel Essrog, the orphan detective with a poetic case of Tourette syndrome from whose prospective Motherless Brooklyn is written. While Norton is a fine actor, he is nothing like how I imagine Lionel, and I thought I would take this opportunity to put my two cents in with regards to making the visual version of the characters of the book. A sort of one man insurgence against the Hollywood, the dominant force of visual imagination in our culture.”

Other artists in the exhibition include: Thomas Bell, Ryan Brennan, Amanda Browder, Gina Czarneck, Jeanette Doyle, Richard Garet, Monika Grzymala, Guerra de la Paz (Alain Guerra & Neraldo de la Paz), Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Kaarina Kaikkonen, Sarah Modiano, Miguel Palma, José Parlá, Rey Parlá, Ian Rawlinson & Nick Crowe, Tom Sanford, Keith Schweitzer, Francesco Simeti, Alfred Steiner, Giuseppe Stampone, Giles Lyon, Steve deFrank.

NO LONGER EMPTY was conceived as a meeting point between art and the economic crisis. The organization seeks to provide a challenging platform to artists whose opportunities have been similarly curtailed by the economic ravages and to revitalize empty commercial spaces by creating more traffic, showing the sites filled with positive energy instead of bordered up shells. The organization also hopes to encourage the local business community of each area through the increased flow of visitors that these exhibitions will bring. A supporting program of events has been planned that will include band nights and performances.

The Invisible Dog, 51 Bergen Street, Brooklyn.