About this project

THE SHORT STORY:

This spring, we (Jimmy Riordan, an artist and Leslie Rosa-Stumpf, a curator) are taking an exhibition we organized last fall, which included works by over 50 international artists, on a road trip from Anchorage to New York City. The goal of this trip is to meet with all of the participating artists based within the United States, collaborate with various art spaces across the country on exhibition-related projects and mini-shows that draw tighter connections between the various artistic practices, host art dinners, document the trip, make prints, send post cards and construct a catalog of the Marginalia exhibition en route.

We plan to send one free copy of the resulting catalog to each artist involved.

While we have received help from an Alaskan art grant, we still need your help! Money raised will be used exclusively for the production and manufacture of this hand-bound catalog and screen-printed posters, gas, postcards, stamps and the occasional bag of skittles.

THE LONG STORY:

The term “marginalia” refers to scribbles in the margin of a book created by an engaged—if potentially delinquent—reader. While seen as secondary to the original text, these writings and drawings, simultaneously become inseparable from it. Through critiquing, questioning, illustrating, outlining, developing and the like, marginalia provides a critical exploration of the ideas presented in a given text. It notably also denotes the moment when a reader becomes an active participant—that is to say, a co-author, a critic, a collaborator.

Last year 55 invited artists from around the world read James Riordan’s English translation of French poet Francis Jammes’ 1903 novel Le Roman du Lievre. Using the themes contained within the text as a jumping off point (its plot most simply described as a hare’s journey to heaven, co-starring St. Francis of Assisi), the artists created works in an individual fashion presenting a multitude of divergent personalities and processes, while in many cases recording their thoughts in the margins of the hand bound copies of the book they received from Riordan. The project’s blog (http://leromandulievre.com), a form of digital marginalia, also served as another outlet where artists could post their related stories, ideas, research, etc. The result of this experiment was an exhibition in Anchorage, Alaska that provided insight into each artist’s creative practice, while abstractly presenting a narrative of Le Roman du Lievre. Though connections existed between each artist’s work and the text, their value is not inherently related to their service as illustration. Rather, like marginalia, these pieces informed the text, elevated Le Roman du Lievre, and brought it closer to a state of collective completion.

Marginalia: The Exhibition Road Trip is the next step in this evolving curatorial and artistic project. The exhibition organizers, artist James Riordan and curator Leslie Rosa-Stumpf, will be driving from Anchorage, Alaska to New York, with many zig zags in between, meeting with participating artists, returning art work and/ or picking up new work, collaborating with various art spaces along the way on exhibition-related projects and mini-exhibitions that draw tighter connections between various artistic practices, hosting art dinners, documenting the trip, making prints, sending post cards and constructing a catalog of the Marginalia exhibition en route.

While we have received help from an Alaskan art grant, we still need your help! Money raised will be used exclusively for the production and manufacture of a hand-bound catalog and screen-printed posters, gas, postcards, stamps and the occasional bag of skittles.

MARGINALIA ARTISTS:

Elysa Lozano, Kayla Spann, Brian McNearney, Vlad Smolkin, Samuel T. Adams, Ted Mineo, Ali Aschman, Azikiwe Mohammed, jsun, Lindsay Clark, Ed Mighell, Sam Bornstein, Enrique Marty, Holden Attradies, Leah Schreiber, Anna Raupp, Stefano Minzi, Collin LaFleche, Gretchen Weiss, Beka Goedde, Jimmy Riordan, Brian Hutton, Mark Muro, Rosie Cooper, Florence Boyd, Ben Cove, Constantin Andiel, Emily Foden, Lara Hoke, Esy Casey, Lisa Rybovich Cralle, Emily Noelle Lambert, Lucy Ward, Colleen Asper, Trish Tillman, Alison Blickle, Nathan Manuel, Diann Bauer, Anda Saylor, Krista Peters, James D. Kaiser, Marisa Favretto, Anick Gosselin, Simon Woolham, Doug Williams, Craig Updegrove, Reverse Retro (Lukas Bouvrie and Tony Olexa), Hal Gage, Lawrence Stumpf, Mother Father Ghost(Stephan Koweluk), Bruce Farnsworth, Gretchen Sagan, Austin Lashley, Tommy O'Malley, Rachel Weber.

THANK YOU!

Jimmy & Leslie