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Makers at the MAH: Andrew Purchin with Lisa Hochstein: Reflections on Undoing
Andrew Purchin
Saturday September 3, 11am-5pm
Andrew Purchin with Lisa Hochstein: Reflections on Undoing
From viewing the art of Lisa Hochstein to a movement improvisation and to the making of movement paintings by Andrew Purchin
-Lisa Hochstein will be ripping large pieces of paper creating a meditation and soundscape through out the 6 hour day.
-Museum goers will be both the moving models and muse for Andrew Purchin as he creates paintings inspired by the sensitivity and creativity of museum patrons as they engage in the following movement improvisation:
-Museum goers are invited to move up and down the stairs and through the atrium in slow motion with 10 -20 second pauses– in random groupings, without ever blocking the stairs over the course of the day.
-Participants are encouraged to experiment with both pedestrian movement and more expressive movement.
-How can these art viewers move like movement of Lisa Hochstein tearing paper in her collages of torn paper?
-How can viewers group themselves in patterns that characterizes Hochstein’s work?
About Andrew Purcin:
In 1982, Andrew Purchin developed an individual major at UC Santa Cruz entitled, The Arts and Social Action. Through this major, Purchin created art exhibits and experiences in which participants were encouraged to interact with the art.
In the last fifteen years, Purchin has been painting on site, be it landscapes or at events such as weddings or at historical moments. Purchin puts himself in the middle of things, capturing the movement and the mood. Purchin has created on site paintings at the Inauguration and the “We Are One” concert in Washington DC.
In 2010, Purchin founded the Artists Everywhere Project in which he creates installations of artists creating work in public with the aim of shifting the paradigm so that the making of art will be as popular as the playing of sports.
Purchin’s work has been published in American Artist and in the Cultural Council Calendar. Purchin was awarded a partial fellowship to Vermont Studio Center where he was artist in residence in 2005. His work has been exhibited and honored in many venues including Lana Santorelli Gallery in NYC, the Pearl Canyon Gallery in Carmel, the Triton Museum in Santa Clara, Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History(MAH), the Santa Cruz Art League, the Santa Cruz County Government Center, the Santa Cruz Institute of Contemporary Arts. Purchin is a Santa Cruz County Open Studios participant.
Artist Statement:
The ideal condition for my creative process is when all of us are deeply present and thus are aware of the sensations we feel inside and attuned to one another and all the qualities in our environment. By asking viewers to move to visual art, I hope to create a field which is both kinetic and immediate so that I may go even further into my creative process.
Lisa Hochstein’s collages in the exhibit “Undoings” bring me into a textural and visual field which leads me to endless discovery. I’ve invited Lisa to participate publicly in finding the movement in her creative process as a way to support my painting practice and to bring all of our attention to the beauty of the making.
I invite viewers to immerse themselves in movement, which is my primary subject matter. One option is for museum goers to find their own movement through being in touch with their bodies as they view Lisa’s collages. Another option is to observe and imagine being me painting the movement. Yet another option is to imagine being both me painting the movement and being the movement at the same time.
My work spawns from my duel practices of being in the moment as I paint directly from life and from my practice of deep dance improvisation. In the deep dance practice, I work to stay present in a microscopic way, sensing my bones, joints, muscles and cells and how sensation and movement connect. From that point I sense the other dancers’ presence. A soft peripheral receptive vision is important to be aware of the other dancers as we collaborate with our bodies. I use my body like a paintbrush carving the space. When I paint on location, I dance directly with the world as it passes by. Today, you the viewers are the world that passes by me.
Andrew Purchin September, 2011
Reflections on Undoing
Website: www.andrewpurchin.com
How to Move to Visual Art: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vziekba0GA0
About Lisa Hochstein:
Lisa Hochstein has been painting and working in collage for over 20 years. Inspired by the spare lines and industrial materials of modern architecture, her work reflects a love for both geometric abstraction and the painterly gesture.
After receiving her BFA from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Hochstein spent several years in Barcelona, Spain, painting, traveling, and teaching English. After returning to the U.S. in 1991, she lived mostly in the Boston area before moving to Santa Cruz in 2002.
Hochstein has been an exhibiting artist in Santa Cruz County’s Open Studios since 2003 and has had work in numerous local and national shows. In 2011 she was awarded a partial fellowship to the Vermont Studio Center, where she will be in residence for the month of November.
Artist Statement
Collaborating with Andrew Purchin on Reflections on Undoing has allowed me to translate elements of my smaller collage pieces (on view in the third floor lobby) into larger gestures of tearing and arrangement. Throughout the day I will be working with a 1,000-foot roll of ordinary butcher paper, with no specific plan or destination in mind other than to elaborate on the notion of “undoing.” I have chosen to work with unadorned brown paper as a way of focusing on the simple beauty of the material itself, as well as on the physical action that will transform the original neatly packaged roll.
The openness of the Museum atrium provides an area for expansive movement, as well as a wonderful setting for the soundscape created through large and small tearing motions. Andrew Purchin’s onsite painting offers the opportunity for museum-goers to not only observe the artist at work, but also to be an integral part of the his movement-based painting. As visitors ascend and descend the stairwell they are encouraged to move in a way that is expressive of their responses to the collage work on the third floor. Andrew will be working on multiple canvases, capturing the movement and mood of the day.
At the end of the day I will gather the torn paper and begin building a large collage piece. I invite you to listen, reflect, and move in response to the work on the third floor, the sounds you hear, and the spirit of the day’s performance.
For inquiries or to view additional work, please visit www.LisaHochstein.com.