Ben Altman

I just found out that I'm getting a grant for The More That Is Taken Away, my long digging/video/installation project. It's a New York State Council on the Arts' Electronic Media and Film Finishing Funds grant. I applied for the maximum they give and the request was fully funded. A big boost!

I also got partially funded with a small NYFA/NYSCA Strategic Opportunity Stipend for showing my Guantanamo Basement work at the Syracuse Biennial: The Other New York 2012, coming up this Fall.

skin hides at Gallery Aferro is over, but you can see photos and video from the the show at the blog. There are also pages for each artist; mine is here.

Back at home, I'm working on my long-term video performance, The More That Is Taken Away. I'm hand-digging a big hole in the field behind my house, building a tower, and making photographs as I go. The current compiliation of short clips from the video is here.

Below, a photo by Neil Chowdhury of me at the digging site. This pic will appear with work we and two others will have at ArtRage - The Norton Putter Gallery this fall in Syracuse, NY, as part of TONY 2012, the Syracuse biennial anchored by the Everson Museum. I'll be showing four pieces from Guantanamo Basement, my work about enhanced interrogation.

                  Photograph: Neil Chowdhury

skin hides, my show as part of 2x2 Collective, opened Saturday night at Gallery Aferro, 73 Market Street, Newark, N J. Show looks great. Working on documentation... show runs through April 14, open 12-6, Thu, Fri, Sat, and by appointment.

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Busy at Sculpture Space in Utica, NY putting together a show for Gallery Aferro in Newark, NJ.

Opening is March 10th. Closing April 14th.

Show is with 2x2 Collective, and is called skin hides.

Starting a two-month residency at Scultpure Space in Utica, NY with my collective,  2X2Collective on January 4th .

Looks like we (2X2) may have a show in March - will confirm soon.

My scarf swap participants have all met and exchanged scarves, life stories, and gossip. I'll add a post to that blog soon.

I'm doing a long term (many months) performance in my back yard, recorded on video and in photographs. It involves digging a huge pit and then filling it back in. Final piece will be a mixed-media installation.

I'll have some of my Guantanamo Basement series in the Syracuse, NY, Biennial "The Other New York", Sept-Nov 2012.