Art Into Life: PSPS in Chelsea

Courtesy of Paul Seftel.

I opened PSPS in Chelsea in July 2011 on the northern edge of the gallery hub—a changing block rapidly rezoning from a scrap metal and nightclub wasteland into a city developer’s dream. Art has paved the way as it always does, but for the next year or two it will remain somewhat of a ‘free zone’ as they dig and build out of the dirt. Artists may still perhaps break some ground here with growing audiences while gentrification will continue to shift the earth beneath our feet.

Establishing PS Project Space in Chelsea has been about balancing my worlds of interest as a nature-inspired city-boy. I’ve lived and traveled across the US extensively. The extremes of living in remote mountain, desert and island landscapes and the inspiration of my cultural and family heritage in London and NYC mingle in my process and work. Exploring nature, consciousness, and metaphysics, long periods of travel and exploration have deeply inspired me, the wilds of nature and outdoor living having been my preferred classroom. Textural and raw, ancient and modern, I’m interested in the fabric of time and how these distant spaces and worlds come together. Being in Chelsea, New York involves embracing my antithesis to some degree, allowing the greatest number of visitors anywhere in the international art world, so the opportunity to educate, inspire and influence a growing audience is very alive.

Since my inaugural show, which explored lost messages, mediums, time and the notion of Post Art, I’ve been intent on bringing elements of process and transformation into the creative space. Being located in a creative building and neighborhood helps immensely with outreach while creating work, producing projects and shows, and using the space as a platform for other artists & curators. PS Project Space becomes a fresh canvas every time a new project is created, and I enjoy the challenge and momentum of each opportunity. As market models change, having a physical space far from guarantees sales, but the project space is my soup to nuts arts studio, office and exhibition space—a living blog and place to develop and go beyond my own practice and thinking. Building an audience and collaborating with other artists can be a rewarding learning process. In collaborative projects, from a large scale painting (i.e. the Four Elements project in Feb/ March 2012) to a pneumatic sound & light installation and performance (i.e. Space Within), to more static exhibitions, there are always interpersonal politics, negotiation and shared motivations as artists come together to produce successful projects.

Wandering through opening receptions and gallery shows in Chelsea for many years, I felt like something was absent. Not just my work, as most artists’ feel, but a way of thinking and approach that inspired me. Many very talented would-be artists remove themselves from the “art world” as it is often far from connected to the essence and energy of real life practice. The oft quoted “It’s art ’cause I am an artist” has never flown with me. I’ve always asked myself big impossible questions like ‘What is Art?’ I question it and test it for myself constantly when considering creative concepts as form. To me it is a higher philosophical ground, a metaphysical reality. Art and philosophy inextricably linked. Religion, science, mathematics and law all play a part and where natural laws abide, art offers answers within the big metaphysical equations. The journey is the great adventure and only one’s thinking defines what is the end. This is why we all love art.

Many museums have imported artists’ studios into their galleries in the last few years, responding to the growing interest in project spaces and process driven art forms with shoestring budgets. I’ve encountered many artists (from Bushwick to Detroit, LA, SF, Chicago, Berlin, and London etc), who derive their work from ephemera, found objects and ‘ready-mades’. In this sense they embrace something of a recycled Dada zeitgeist, capturing the urban wasteland, but what seems missing in the focus of the art world at large in something more transformative. I’m interested in how art can transform life as one experiences it in the moment. This is very different from mutation, mimicry and reflection, which I recognize as the real challenge. I am fascinated by the open ended thinking that maps this personal and collective territory.

Most industries craft illusions and spin propaganda as part of a larger conceptual con game, critical thinking has been mimicked and replaced by reality TV, while the illusion of art pedigree and academic credentials have been sold throughout the US. The art world is always ready to serve up the Kool Aid, but I wonder who has their eyes on the real prize. I still optimistically believe the market has room at the top.  We know that art is constantly reborn. Collective consciousness reveals the timeless seeds of revolution and art may still stand up to the onslaught of social, political and environmental conditioning. The artist has to fight to keep their mind independent and free-thinking. It’s important to keep pushing buttons and questioning reality, checking personal authenticity and following one’s own way. As an outsider, one can see a bigger picture and notice the details. Climbing ‘inside’ requires a whole other footing—as the shifting tectonics of creative introspection encounter art market self -reflection. Thankfully more and more people are beginning to recognize what art is for themselves, perhaps through the whisper of spaces like PSPS. I meet the most interesting people with experience of all layers of life, and the opportunity to surprise, inspire and influence people with a love of art never grows old. There is real measure of success in that alone.

PSPS will hopefully keep expanding beyond its physical presence in NYC to encompass my interest in working on larger scale, earth art and performance related projects and productions. Its pretty boundless, the idea and reality of a Project Space is as endless as one’s imagination.