About this project
A BOOK ABOUT DEATH takes its inspiration from the late, underground American artist Ray Johnson. Conceptual artist and inventor of “Correspondence Art,” Ray Johnson mailed his original unbound “book” to friends and to his New York Correspondence School “students.” The pages, in his idiosyncratic style, were funny, sad and ironic one page visual meditations on death and life. Ray lived on Long Island, NY and committed suicide there in 1995.
The first ABAD show in 2009 was the brain child of Paris-based American artist Matthew Rose. He was influenced by the mail art work of Ray Johnson and invited artists to contribute 500 identical postcards on any aspect of the theme of death. The show took place at the Emily Harvey Foundation Gallery in NYC. Visitors were encouraged to collect one of every card and take them home. The pages, of every kind of design imaginable, approached this universal subject from every point of view–personal, metaphysical, conceptual and abstract. This original show is now in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art NYC, the MoMA Wales, UK and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and included work from artists as well known as Yoko Ono and as obscure as Dame Mailarta.
ABAD has since grown into an international art movement that continues to travel across the US and internationally. ABAD has shown in Brazil, Belgium, the UK, Croatia, Italy, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Mexico. It has spawned dozens of collaborative exhibitions on three continents.
This new exhibition celebrates THE TIES THAT BIND all living things universally through death, as well as the creative ties which now bind thousands of artists that literally reach around the world.
The Bay Shore, LI exhibit will feature for the first time new work from worldwide artists that are actual book pages like Ray Johnson originally created in 1963, and NOT postcards. The pages will be bound by the curator into a handmade volume and displayed at the exhibition, thereby furnishing an Omega to the Alpha of the Unbound Book from the original NYC show.
There have been many performance pieces included in these shows but never any music. For this show, I would love to feature some live New Orleans Funeral Jazz! That is primarily what I am raising the money for. I also need to print up posters and fund publicity and other items for the opening reception.
www.abookaboutdeatharchive.blogspot.com
SEE A VIDEO ABOUT THE ORIGINS OF THIS PROJECT by Brazilian Artist Angela Ferrara HERE
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Funding Successful
This project successfully raised its funding goal on June 12, 2011.
Pledge $10 or more Pledge $10 or more
Receive the signed and numbered Original Mail Art Card "The Obeisances" by the curator of this show, LuAnn Palazzo. This piece of art debuted in the first "A Book About Death" show (Soho, NY 2009) and is also in the Permanent Collections of the MoMA NY, the MoMA Wales UK, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
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Receive the signed and dated Original Stencil Piece "Dumb Bunny" by the father of the ABAD project, Matthew Rose. (See http://matthewrosestudio.blogspot.com)
Pledge $20 or more Pledge $20 or more
Receive a SWEET SECRET THINGS Envelope that will contain various surprise mail art goodies. You get 3 ORIGINAL postcards (from 3 different artists) that appeared in the very first "A Book About Death" Show in Soho, NY in 2009 (See http://abookaboutdeath.blogspot.com), an Unofficial New York Correspondance School Membership Card and ???? NO TWO ENVELOPES ARE ALIKE!
Pledge $100 or more Pledge $100 or more
Receive a KaliRay Flip Book–A Seeking Kali artist book collaboration. The black and white prototype is part of the 2011 Omaggio Ray Johnson - Un Libro Sulla Morte exhibition in Treviso, Italy, curated by Virginia Millici. This handmade artist book by William Evertson, Susan Shulman and Ria Vanden Eynde is produced in an edition of 20 with 6 artist proofs. 4.5" x 5.5" 120 pages. archival pigment, hand bound. (See http://vimeo.com/22005239)
Project By
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LuAnn T. Palazzo is a working artist, independent curator and award-winning designer living on Long Island, NY. She has been a part of the "A Book About Death" project since the original Soho, NY show, and her design and photography has been shown and collected all over the world.
In November 2010, she co-curated the highly acclaimed "Ray Johnson and A Book About Death" exhibition at C.W. Post College/Long Island University in Brookville, NY. This groundbreaking show put the entire movement into its historical context and featured Ray Johnson's original "A Book About Death" for the very first time.
