Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Saturday, October 29, 2011

Seeking Medusa-Mimi Shapiro [16]



what goes on in the mind is hard to tell
but living like this was being trapped in hell
the ongoing story of separating mind and body
losing power to a wicked shadowed contained past

today she is your wild and creative muse to love and to use

perfect sweetness running through life
independence and mystery retelling the stories
to rejoice in using your creative power over and over again and again

©mimi shapiro
lancaster, PA

Friday, October 14, 2011

Seeking Medusa-Ria Vanden Eynde [11]


Seeking Medusa-Helene Kippert [10]

©Helene Kippert-Shatter 10

Love is best when mixed with anguish.
In our town,
we won't call you a Lover
if you escape the pain.
Look for Love in this way,
welcome it to your soul,
and watch your spirit fly away in ecstasy.
Rumi

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Seeking Medusa-Billie J. Maciunas [4]

beat the earth whores drum up the dead One /
He cannot hear empty eyes. rake the earth
agonize. speak, mothers your wombs have been
eulogized. change the fruit of your lives. decide /

terrible lies have made you blind, all but killed
the twin spark hidden in the dark brain
of chaos, whose voice is wrenched from
earthquakes. know the soft voice of comfort

is a palliative whose power is brought up
short by shock. know the demon whores who burned
in your mothers’ hearts and have gone with them
to where post partum blues depart. speak /

anarchist whores destroy the images
that identify you. she not she/ she not her
she not him/ she not here nor there. speak she not /
give your death to dogs whose night quivers

disturb not. she roam she gnash she inhabit
trees she speak windflinging groans to her own
roots. speak. withdraw your names from the expert
layout of casts. find breath in your pocket

mar the intentions that manufacture
your accessibility. draw a dictionary
of danger. veil the rocks in the path of ghosts
who have not relinquished their sacrifice

deify their vanishment and rest on the journey
to their voices that now sing namelessness


©Billie J. Maciunas

Seeking Medusa-Francesco Mestria [3]

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Artist Call: Seeking Medusa!

A Seeking Kali Artist Call:

"SEEKING MEDUSA"

Curated by Ria Vanden Eynde, Susan Shulman and William Evertson


Seeking Medusa is presently conceived of as an online exhibition of artist works based on interpretations of the archetype Medusa for an online exhibition on the Seeking Kali blog.

The inspiration behind Seeking Medusa:
In the Medusa myth, as related by the Roman poet Ovid, Medusa was originally a ravishingly beautiful maiden, priestess in Athena's temple, but when the Poseidon, the god of the sea, raped her in Athena's temple, the enraged and jealous Athena, choosing not to punish Poseidon, transformed Medusa's beautiful hair to serpents and made her face so terrible to behold that the mere sight of it would turn onlookers to stone.

Medusa’s image has since been frozen in time as a petrifying and petrified head. That way, she has been interpreted in art by Rubens, Caravaggio, Bӧcklin, Dali, her image has been used on warriors’ breast plates and on flags, as Versace’s logo, she has been discussed as archetype in feminism and psychology.

Medusa’s archetype is linked to Athena’s. Athena adopts the voice of the father/men in order to be heard in the culture, she uses a voice that is not her own and hence cuts her off from her self and her inner power. In this sense, Medusa's severed head symbolizes the wound of the powerful woman disconnecting the mind from the body, from instincts, intuition, and eros and the loss of authentic voice. Medusa’s hair locks are snakes representing a creative, vital life force and a more fluid, relational, and embodied consciousness. In order for Athena to become whole again, she needs to remove her armor and dissolve the rigid boundaries that keep her defended from her self and others and that keep Medusa dismembered, literally and figuratively petrified in Western consciousness.

Through this art call, we want try to restore Medusa’s authentic voice and beauty and loosen the literal interpretations that have frozen her in a silent scream.

For an interesting discussion of Medusa’s archetype, her snake hair and attributes associated with her, like the mirroring and shield emblem , and to be inspired by it all, visit:
‘The Silent Scream of Medusa: Restoring, or Re-storying, Her Voice.’ by Cathy Ann Diorio, 2010, download at gradworks.umi.com

How to submit:
1. We would be honored to exhibit jpegs of your original work on our Seeking Kali blog. The jpeg may be submitted via email to:
2. Please submit your work as a jpeg. Note: for best online viewing we recommend that your submission be no wider than 900 pixels and about 300k.
3. Please include you name as you wish it to appear and URL if you wish us to link to your website or blog.
4. The original remains with you. All copyright remains with you. (Although by submitting you are granting permission for the work to be displayed by Seeking Kali.)
5. Your original can be in any medium including video. Please contact us by email for embedding your video. If you are submitting poetry that requires formatting, again, please contact us by email and we will attempt to format within the blogs limitations.
6. Deadline for the online submissions is March 30th. 2012.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011



From CUTV Arts + Culture, Seeking Kali artist Susan Shulman speaks about her work on A Book About Death, Seeking Kali and Analogue Narratives - hosted by Alex Kuchiran and directed by Betty Esperanza. Great editing by Maegan Broadhurst. This show which aired July 15ht is all about empowerment !

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Kali Medusa Project

©William Evertson, my photo in projection.

Yesterday I got cornered and verbally harassed by a really crass guy in town. It's not the first time neither. This guy made some very crude remarks about my 'breasts'. I, baffled looked down my dress thinking a button got undone and my scars are on display. Because, after the reconstruction, I'm sensitive to that. But all is clear. So I looked straight at the guy, said 'thx for that' and added in my mind 'for ure rudeness, u moron', gave him my Medusa Gaze, which stops dogs (!) in their tracks when they fiercely run towards me, carefully maneuvered passed him and walked away, still shaky.
I was still thinking over what happened as I angrily trimmed our garden hedge. I realized I actually thought I was off those guys' radar being more mature, with a scar on my neck and both breasts amputated. I must have dropped my guard somewhat. Silly cos in the mirror, I see a radiant woman. In the meanwhile I had also told my seekingkali collaborators about it. Susan Shulman suggested a blog and Bill Evertson made me the above image, thereby creating a project:
The Seeking Kali Medusa Project.
DVD projections from the back of a van.
Pictures of women and the words 'I will not be intimidated'.
An unannounced guerrilla piece.
Bill told me there are a couple of artists that do this type of guerrilla projection. There has f.i. also been some of that going up on Chinese consulates with Ai Weiwei's picture. He explained it's about driving up somewhere and projecting until police show up to get rid of the 'nuisance', rightly remarking that this kind of art-action probably addresses the 'silence' in societies (!) about this kind of harassment well ...

If my Sistahs feel spoken to: Join me in a Guerrilla Projection Raging Against Sexual Harassment. Help us make a Visual Tag to Claim our Right to Walk Freely and Safely in our Cities!
How to participate:
Send us your 15 to 20 seconds video file or jpg of your gaze, no text, no name, no photo manipulation, just your icy stare. For uniformity, standing like I am and cropped the same way. We will add the text ‘I will not be intimidated’ to it and add it to the projection loop. We will accept images&videos throughout the Summer 2011. We plan projections beginning in Fall and will document them online.

Send your images & video files to:


Friday, April 29, 2011

Kali Scroll Sari

The Seeking Kali Sari is making it's debut in Boston next weekend (May 6th) at Mobius in Boston as part of the Wearable Art Runway Show.  The Sari is a unique piece, hand painted by William Evertson of the artist group Seeking Kali using images from the Kali Shadow Theater, a poem by Ria Vanden Eynde and a school of fish which are a signature icon of member Susan Shulman. The sari is inspired by oriental scrolls painted on silk and is designed to be modeled by two people. As the models weave their way down the runway various portions of the theater narrative are exposed to view.

The material for the piece is 20 feet long by 3.5 feet wide.  The photo above shows a section of the piece in progress.
Mobius (est. 1977) is a non-profit, artist-run organization, whose mission is to generate, shape and test experimental art. Mobius is located at 725 Harrison Ave, Boston.
The Runway show is curated by Mobius artists Jane Wang, Allison Safford and James Ellis Coleman.

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

KaliRay Flip Book

_ Detail of the KaliRay Flip book in action_

The Seeking Kali color version of the book that is currently being shown in the Un Libro Sulla Morte Omaggio a Ray Johnson  exhibition in Treviso, Italy is available as a limited edition.

This 4.5" x 5.5" artist book is produced in an edition of 20 with 6 artist proof copies. These books are the collaborative effort of William Evertson, (USA),  Susan Shulman, (Canada) and Ria Vanden Eynde,(Belgium).  The 120 page book is printed with archival inks and  is hand bound.  Each copy is numbered, dated and signed by the three artists.

We are offering the book for $75.00 plus $5.00 shipping/handling through our Paypal account which can be accessed on this page.

Shipping is via the postal service - expect delivery within 5-7 days (7-10 for overseas)


Our book began with the idea that for the Italian exhibit we wanted to produce this flip style edition and make it appear that we are waving farewell to the late Ray Johnson, an artist whose influence we all fondly acknowledge.

The making of the KaliRay Flip Book.


The images used in the book were photographed in each artist's home location of Canada, Belgium and USA then reassembled to produce the merging of the artists into a single person waving.  For this edition the color symbols were introduced by Susan Shulman.




Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Kali in Hong Kong

-Seeking Kali poster seen on the streets of Hong Kong-
 

Thanks to Matthew Rose of the Defense D'Afficher project for tipping us off to this picture of the Seeking Equal Rights poster created for free download.  The photo, courtesy of Chelsea Leung, is taken on the streets of Hong Kong. The Defense D'Afficher project promotes posters that are available for free distribution via the internet. We created two submissions for the project in time to celebrate International Women's Day.



We encourage others to download and use the poster wherever a statement is needed concerning the lack of equity - Which includes almost everywhere. Please send your picture to our email:  seekingkali @yahoo.com for publication in the News tab of our blog and in our Facebook group.


This poster as well as our Seeking Peace poster can be downloaded from the right sidebar of this blog as well as from the Defense D'Afficher site.

Seeking Equal Rights is based on art by Ria Vanden Eynde
Seeking Peace is based on art by Susan Shulman.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Seeking International Women's Day


-In celebration of International Women's Day and in collaboration with the DEFENSE D'AFFICHE project by Matthew Rose, we are pleased to offer two posters for free download.

The download links are located in the thumbnails of these posters in the right sidebar of this blog.

The Red Kali image in the Seeking Equal Rights poster is courtesy of artist Ria Vanden Eynde.

The Kali Sara Gypsy Goddess in the Seeking Peace poster is courtesy of artist Susan Shulman.

More information about International Women's Day 2011.

Monday, February 21, 2011

The Seeking Kali Artist DVD

The 2010 Seeking Kali artist call is now available in DVD format.  


All 80 artists who have submitted works are included in this archived format of the artist call.  


The paintings, collage and mixed technique works have been set to music composed by Ian Evertson and are represented in the opening eight minute video.

The entire DVD contains almost 80 minutes of content.

Submissions from our video artists, poets and musicians are also featured in their own chapters.


The Seeking Kali DVD will premier with a screening at Prima Center Berlin during the Archetypology exhibition, curated by Ivana Režek.  The Berlin exhibit opens February 25th and runs through March 23rd.  This Seeking Kali submissions DVD will also be screened in Boston and Joliette, QC in the coming months.

We are offering the DVD and an accompanying 12 page booklet for $20.00 plus $5.00 shipping/handling (US) via Paypal. 

Shipping is via the postal service - expect delivery within 5 -7 days (7 -10 for overseas)

If you require PAL format (or have any questions) please contact us via our email




Sunday, February 6, 2011

The Submission Video for Painting, Collage and Mixed Techniques

A video presentation of the painting, collage and mixed technique artists who submitted to the 2010 Seeking Kali artist call. Links to individual artists can be found on the Seeking Kali blog at seekingkali.blogspot .com. Soundtrack by Ian Evertson.