The Styrene Fantastic

Some Total Styrene 7.20.11 Moments

2011-08-08T11:21:00.000-04:00

Georgia X. Lifsher performs with a floating Styrene Fantastic object.

Kyli Kleven and Patricia Milder lounge on Styrene Fantastic sculptures.

Kennis Hawkins experiments with coffee cups.

Max Steele performs Teach Frankenstein to Dance

Michael Mahalchick dances 8 dances in 8 minutes.

The stage and styrofoam backdrop.

Total Styrene 7.20.11 was a great success! Thanks to the artists who performed: Kennis Hawkins, Michael Mahalchick, Rashaun Mitchell, Max Steele and the women who performed my pieces: Kyli Kleven and Georgia X. Lifsher.

Thanks to those who donated work for auction: Josh Blackwell, Janice Caswell, Keiko Narahashi, Michael Mahalchick.

Thanks to Lia Gangitano and Participant Inc for generously donating the space and giving so much time, advice and help to the evening. Thanks to Patricia Milder and Michael Mahalchick for their curatorial and event-planning genius. And thanks to Eric and Marty for working the door and the bar.

And especially thanks to everyone who came and braved the heat and bought tickets and art. We exceeded our fundraising goal, and the night felt like a fabulous (and very hot) beginning to our great experiment.

Our only problems were with documentation, as both photographer and videographer were unable to attend at the last minute! But here are some images from the evening.

There will be more to come, and if any of you have any documentation of any kind, definitely send it to me at styrenefantastic (at) gmail (dot) com.

Save-the-date: July 20th

2011-06-20T14:10:00.000-04:00

Save the Date!

Total Styrene 7.20.11

Participant Inc
253 East Houston Street
New York, NY 10002
Wednesday, July 20, 8:00 pm

Performances by:
Kennis Hawkins
Michael Mahalchick
Rashaun Mitchell
Lizzie Scott
Max Steele
Curated by Patricia Milder

Tickets $15

Bring some styrofoam to recycle and get a $5 discount!

Donate to The Total Styrene Experience here

The Total Styrene Experience is a project by Lizzie Scott, curated with Patricia Milder and Michael Mahalchick. The Total Styrene Experience is a sponsored project of the New York Foundation for the Arts.

What is The Total Styrene Experience?

2011-06-16T13:42:00.003-04:00

The Total Styrene Experience is a laboratory for recycling Styrofoam into art and performance, turning the glut of empty storefronts and the glut of discarded Styrofoam into an opportunity for experimentation and collaboration across live and visual art. A temporary pop-up storefront in Lower Manhattan will collect styrofoam from the surrounding community and turn it into art.

The project aims to create a small temporary space for creative generosity and intellectual abundance in resistance to the commercial and institutional models of competition and scarcity that define current art worlds. It celebrates the alchemy of turning toxic Styrofoam trash into a source of artistic abundance.

A project of artist Lizzie Scott, The Total Styrene Experience presents installations and performances exploring the material relationship between Styrofoam and the body. Working with curators Michael Mahalchick and Patricia Milder, The Total Styrene Experience invites guest artists from the dance, music, and art worlds to use the combined resources of the space and the collected Styrofoam to create experimental work of all kinds.

Participating Artists (list in formation.)
Kennis Hawkins - Choreographer and Performance Artist, Dance Gang
Michael Mahalchick - Visual, Sound, Dance and Performance Artist
Rashaun Mitchell - Choreographer and Dancer, Merce Cunningham Dance Company
Lizzie Scott - Visual Artist and Performance Choreographer, The Styrene Fantastic
Max Steele - Conceptual Go-Go Dancer and Cabaret Performance Artist

Project Organizers
Lizzie Scott has had exhibitions and projects at John Tevis Gallery in Paris, at the Brooklyn
Museum, The Jersey City Museum, and at LMAK Projects in New York. She has recently
staged performances in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, at Rachel Uffner Gallery, and under the Manhattan
Bridge.

Michael Mahalchick’s work has been presented in solo and group exhibitions and performances
at CANADA, the PS 1 Museum, and the The Kitchen. He has curated performances and exhibitions
at CANADA Gallery and Klaus Von Nichtsagend Gallery in New York City, and was
co-curator of the Movement Research Spring Festival 09.

Patricia Milder was Associate Curator of Writing Live at Performa 09 and a Production Associate
at Mt Tremper Arts Summer Festival in 2010. She is the Managing Art Editor of the Brooklyn
Rail. Her writitngs have appeared in the Brooklyn Rail, ArtCritical and PAJ: A Journal of
Art and Performance.

The Total Styrene Experience is a sponsored project of the New York Foundation for the Arts.

Oh my God things are Horrible, right?

2011-03-31T13:04:00.000-04:00

Oh my God things are Horrible, right?

But the Styrene Fantastic was born of horrible. It’s my balm against horrible.

Toxic Plastic Pollution? Free Sculpture Materials! Economic Disaster? Cheap Real Estate! Republicans? … Fuck Them.* We will never stop making things Eric Cantor doesn’t like or understand.

UPDATES

PERFORMANCE AT ART PARIS

On Saturday April 2^nd, John Tevis Gallery will present the Styrene Fantastic performance “Floating Island” performed by Jean-Baptiste Veyret-Logerias at Art Paris at the Grand Palais.

THE TOTAL STYRENE EXPERIENCE PROGRESS REPORT

I was overwhelmed by the generous outpouring of support in response to our Winter fundraiser! Thank you to all who donated! With that seed money, Curators Michael Mahalchick and Patricia Milder and I are working on opening this temporary storefront for recycling Styrofoam into art and performance, turning the glut of empty storefronts and the glut of discarded Styrofoam into an opportunity for experimentation and collaboration across live and visual art. We’re already developing a program of mini-residencies for guest artists to take advantage of the space and the material.

In the meantime, we are also putting together some very special benefit events for the summer, with the aim of opening in fall 2011. It’s closer than it sounds!!!

I AM ALREADY ACCEPTING STYROFOAM, ESPECIALLY PEANUTS

So don’t throw it in the trash! Email me if you have any, and we can arrange for a transfer.

Thanks and don’t despair.

Lizzie

The Total Styrene Experience is a sponsored project of the New York Foundation for the Arts. If you would like to make a tax-deductable donation to The Total Styrene Experience, click here to go to Artspire, NYFA’s new online donation site for sponsored projects.

*Figuratively only. I would never actually have sex with a Republican, nor would I advocate that others do so.

Floating Island 1 at John Tevis Gallery

2011-03-15T16:24:00.000-04:00

Floating Island 1 from Lizzie Scott on Vimeo.

Performed by Jean-Baptiste Veyret-Logerias at John Tevis Gallery in November, 2010.

Announcing The Total Styrene Experience

2010-12-07T21:27:00.001-05:00

HUGE NEWS:

In 2011, The Styrene Fantastic will be working with the New York Foundation for the Arts to open The Total Styrene Experience – a temporary storefront laboratory dedicated to transforming discarded Styrofoam into art and performance. I have teamed up with writer and curator Patricia Milder and artist and curator Michael Mahalchick to significantly expand programming for the project in 2011. The space will accept Styrofoam from the community, present Styrene Fantastic performances and sculptures, and host guest artists exploring ideas of trash, excess and clutter.

The Holidays are great, but they create a lot of trash. In this season of consumerist frenzy, why not create some balance with a tax-deductible gift to a project that transforms the detritus of consumer culture into art?

We have already raised $1500 of our $5000 year-end goal. But we still need a few inspired contributors to help found the project and make our visions of transformed trash come to life. Your tax-deductible contribution to The Total Styrene Experience will help make this project possible. A $100 donation will pay our utility bills for one week. A $75 donation buys paint to cover one wall. A $50 donation buys cleaning supplies for moving in. A $25 donation gets us 1 large Styrofoam collection container.

There is so much Styrofoam in the world! Let’s keep it out of the landfills and oceans, and turn it into a resource for art.

To donate money with a credit card, simply click here.
The link will take you to NYFA's NY Charities donation page.
Type in Artist Name: Lizzie Scott
Project Name: The Total Styrene Experience

Thank you for supporting this green interdisciplinary experimental project!

Lizzie Scott

The Total Styrene Experience is a sponsored project of the New York Foundation for the Arts, a 501(c)(3), tax-exempt organization. Contributions on behalf of The Total Styrene Experience must be made payable to the New York Foundation for the Arts and are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.

Floating Island at John Tevis Gallery

2010-11-14T15:22:00.000-05:00

Floating Island Dance

Walk around it

Sit under it

Balance it on your head

Turn your head to the right, maintaining contact

Turn your head to the left, maintaining contact

Turn your body to the left, keeping it on your head

Lie down under it

Balance it on one foot

Balance it on two feet

Push it up with your feet, release it, catch it again

Walk your feet under it

Twirl it with your feet

Release it

Lie under it

Sit up under it

Touch it with one finger

Spin it on your hand

Catch it with one hand

Balance it on your hand while you stand up under it

Let go and walk a few steps away

Balance it on your back

Walk with it balanced on your back

Stand up straight so it falls off your back

Kick it high

Catch it with your leg and hold it there

Kick it high

Catch it with your leg and hold it there

Kick it high

Catch it with your leg and hold it there

Release it

Stand with it curving around your chest

Spin with it, maintain contact with your torso,

Let it unwind, maintain contact with your torso (chest or back)

Rest both arms on it, still touching it with your chest

Let the weight of your arms increase with each exhale

Eventually, press down with your arms with each exhale

Press it almost to the floor

Step over it

Release it

Walk away

Two weeks before the performance, I sent dancers Jean-Baptiste Veyret-Logerias and Brenda Salinas this list of tasks to perform with the floating island sculpture. When I got to Paris, they worked with the sculpture, interpreting and re-arranging these instructions within the basic structure of motion: Begin on the floor under the piece, work your way to be level with it, then press it down and climb over it.

Babies dance the styrene fantastic

2010-09-26T13:31:00.000-04:00

well, a toddler, really. Nadia choreographed this piece all by herself.

2010-08-11T15:43:00.000-04:00

Sustainability Studies from Lizzie Scott on Vimeo.

2010-06-22T19:40:00.000-04:00

The Styrene Fantastic, Studio view (Pillow)

The Styrene Fantastic, Performance view (Fainting Couch)

2010-04-15T15:40:00.004-04:00

"Day Bed" Styrofoam, Muslin and Elastic

"Bench" Styrofoam, Muslin, Tulle

"Fainting Couch" Styrofoam, Muslin, Tether

The Styrene Fantastic/Domestic

2010-01-24T20:26:00.002-05:00

The Styrene Fantastic at Rachel Uffner, Movement Research Spring Festival 09, definitive cut

2010-01-24T20:23:00.001-05:00

Manifesto!

2009-10-18T21:46:00.004-04:00

Because...

Our weightlessness crushes us,
Our conveniences control us,
Our speed steals our time,

And our outrage is exhausting,
Our self-denial a self-indulgence...

We submit the following truths.

Use is not Importance.
Eternal is not Precious.
Obvious is not True.

Or, (more succinctly):

Frivolity is Essential.

And so we refuse to...

Measure worth by demand,
Measure virtue by function,
Measure accomplishment by attainment.

Instead we resolve...

...to find purpose in the useless.
...to delight in our detritus.
...to transcend the practical.

To expand the everyday, every day.

copyright © 2009 by Lizzie Scott

Happening Sur L'Herbe, September 20th, 2009

2009-09-27T17:18:00.002-04:00

Happening Sur L'Herbe

2009-09-18T09:52:00.003-04:00

The Styrene Fantastic invites you to Happening Sur L'Herbe, an experiment in happenings and video making on Sunday, September 20, from 11:30 to 1:00 p.m. at Nellie's Lawn in Prospect Park.

If you're free and it's not raining, bring a picnic lunch, wear summer whites and drop in for a while and enjoy the very last day of summer in the park. Spectators do not need to be performers, but there may be opportunities for participation. This will be an intimate gathering, but all guests are welcome.

Featuring Lydia Bell, Mieke Duffly and Josh Row.

The Styrene Fantastic Video Remix

2009-05-08T16:09:00.003-04:00

Edited to suit the online attention span. Includes footage of both Recessional performances at Rachel Uffner with some rehearsal thrown in for good measure. Starring Mieke Duffly and Georgia X. Lifsher

Video of TSF at Rachel Uffner Gallery, Movement Research Spring Festival 09 Recessional

2009-05-04T20:49:00.003-04:00

The uncut video of the Recessional performance, April 26, 2009. Performed by Mieke Duffly and Georgia X. Lifsher

Project Description

2009-05-01T16:02:00.004-04:00

The Styrene Fantastic is a physical exploration of the mountains of styrofoam that are both a by-product and a symptom of consumer culture. In different performances in all kinds of locations, dancers wear clothing constructed of large styrofoam-filled blobs. They collaborate with their costumes, adapting their activities and postures to them in an attempt to make the best of a ubiquitous material with little use and an endless future.

The central idea in my work is that function is excessive while frivolity is essential. I make sculptures and performances that use found materials to explore this idea in the context of the urban landscape.

Styrene Trial One

2009-04-25T22:39:00.003-04:00

Rehearsing for the Movement Research Festival performance

2009-04-25T21:52:00.005-04:00

These moments won't make it into the Movement Research performance at Rachel Uffner Gallery on Sunday the 26th. But Mieke and Georgia look so lovely casually chatting in their styrofoam get-ups that we'll have to revisit the casual chat in Styrene Fantastic's future.