Sight School

One player writes an instruction to be completed by both players in their respective spaces. The next player creates their instruction based off of the previous directions and matter that they have produced and arrange within their space. The duty of supplying the instructions alternates between players.

If a previous step is referenced in an instruction that is no longer available, replace this part of the instruction with a photo document of it.

If you arrive at a boundary in accomplishing a step, continue on around the corner until the desired length has been achieved.

If you lack a specific material required for an instruction, substitute it a drawing of that material.

Instructions:

#1 KLJ: Create a repeated pattern with 4 shapes and the colors of gray, pink and orange. It should be no bigger than 24in.

#2 BWO: Using the entirety of the pattern and the whole of any support that it was produced on, rearrange the project so that it no longer has any pattern.

#3 KLJ: Take one piece of the leftover pattern and make a larger version of itself, then attach it to one side of wall 12in from the ground and attach a 36 in string to it. The other end of the string should gently lie on a favorite object. **photograph this.

#4 BWO: Replace the favorite object with an interpreted miniature version of the first Richard Tuttle artwork that you encounter next, whether it be in person or in reproduction.

#5 KLJ: Take that miniature version and place it in a “natural” environment. Find a shape within that environment that you find intriguing and make a drawing of it that is at least 3ft tall.

#6 BWO: Make a black paper diamond coming from each corner of the drawing.

#7 KLJ: Within the diamond, re-interpret this Yoko Ono’s piece:
Build a dotted line house
Let people imagine the missing parts (a)
Let people forget about the missing parts (b)

#8 BWO: You are now entering Sight School.
1. Place your drawing in the right corner of your space so that it rests on your wall, your right side boundary, and the floor.

2. Your work from step three should be centered along the length of the wall, and placed at eye level. Eyeball this positioning.

3. Your favorite object should be positioned in a safe place, and can be moved at any point later to ensure its safety.

4. Position your work from step two directly above that from step three. Use or alter the hanging device so that it is pink.

5. Place your photograph of the mini Tuttle to the right side of the hanging 36in string from step three. Align the photo’s bottom edge with the strings end. Orient the photo so that the side which is green or closest to green is at the top.

#9 KLJ: Take 6 steps (foot in front of foot) from the wall under Step 2 and 3. Then take one step right. Create an object with a material of your choice that is inspired by Step 6. It cannot be larger than 24in high and should have the color gray somewhere in it.

#10 BWO: Apply the same gray to the length of the left side of your 36in string.

#11 KLJ: Start from the middle divide of boundary. Take 3 steps forward. Take 1 step left. Make a box using the color orange. Inside the box arrange the scraps/ leftovers from Step 6 to current inside.

#12 BWO: Affix a new string from the point where your hanging string ends and attach its other end to the exterior of your box. It should be as taut as possible.

#13 KLJ: Count the number of pins in the curtains. This number is how many squares you will make. The material is your choice. They will then be stacked and installed on the wall one Ft. above the first line in Step 8. The squares cannot exceed 2in wide.

#14 BWO: Go to the library across the street. Pick an image out of a book that interests you. Photocopy it. Take the first copy, no matter how it turns out. Reverse the order of the whole number portion of the call number which is closet. Copy the first image, which appears in this book, or copy the title page in the case that there are no images present. Accept the first Xerox.

#15 KLJ: Trim photocopies to desired length. Hang them side by side, 9in from the corner on left side and 12in below the wall. Attach these with tape. Find something interesting within the photo on the right and create a new 3D version of it. Once finished, it should be placed 5 steps in front of Step 9 (towards wall connected to door), then one step right.

#16 BWO: Take one piece of scrap from your Xeroxes and a piece of a single material from your construction. Mail them to the other player at Sight School. When they arrive, they must be incorporated into the step being worked on at the moment. Whoever had created this direction will decide how they are added in.

#17 KLJ: On one piece of 8.5 x 11in white paper, write a text piece that consists of only 5 words. It has to be in the middle of the page. The words come from text found from your scraps of the photocopy. Use every other word to create your 5 word sentence. The paper goes directly above the two photocopies.

#18 BWO: Find 5 verticals and 5 horizontals to extend onto the wall. These can be of any length, but at least one rectangle must be produced. Draw them with a pencil.

#19 KLJ: Use the rectangle from Step 18 as a guide. Measure it to the ground. Then use a ruler and measure 48in onto the floor. Make the same size rectangle in that place. It will act as a “shadow of the original”. You can use any material to make the rectangle.

#20 BWO: Place a pillow from home beneath the shadow.

#21 KLJ: Go back to the photocopy on the right from Step 15. Create another 3D form like the 3D version you have already made. This one should be at least 24in in height. It should also have at least one element from the original 3D. It should be positioned one step in front and one step left in front of Step 11. It should also have at least one element from Step 11 incorporated.

#22 BWO: Take an object or material. Do not alter or cut it down. Fold it in half. Place it beneath one of your objects that sits on the floor.

#23 KLJ: Take 4 steps away from the wall next to your Richard Tuttle piece. Then take 1 step right. Create a small piece no bigger than 3in that somehow relates to the curtains.

#24 BWO: Spanning the distance between that object and the wall, place something blue along the floor.

#25 KLJ: Cut the string that was attached to the box and 36in string. Curl it up and place it on top of your rectangle shadow.

#26 BWO: Place something that travels beneath your pillow and your box, without being beneath any other parts.

#27 KLJ: Remove one part of something you do not feel is working.

#28 BWO: Place the removed portion alongside your pillow.

#29 KLJ: Take the same material you folded and put it under an object and put under an object and put it under your favorite object.

#30 BWO: Do the same thing 85 times to the wall.

#31 KLJ: Put the envelope either behind or underneath your favorite object. Take one piece of the mail and collage it to your Richard Tuttle photocopy. Take the other piece and put it on your shadow rectangle.

For Week 2, Brandon Walls Olsen and I worked side by side with curtains dividing us. We could not see each others work but were making work from the same set of instructions.

The First Instruction.

Create a repeated pattern with 4 shapes and the colors of gray, pink and orange. It should be no bigger than 24in.

Our Instructions

Please join us for the second opening of Re-Imagine | Re-Build | Repeat:
The opening is this Saturday, 10/16 from 7-9pm.

For Week 2, Kelly Lynn Jones and Brandon Walls Olsen have devised a game in which they both, as players, interpret and respond to a series of instructions. The duty of creating the next instruction alternates between players. Each will call for either new actions or reply to the specific versions, edits, and accumulations of forms. This will be occurring …only within their individual spaces temporarily held at Sight School, as they are literally blind to the other player’s previous translations from language to production which have simultaneously occurred next door.

Although the game has no set goal, it functions to highlight the artists’ working methodologies and logic, and to expose the malleability of these practices under various limitations and structures. The project has also been designed to position the collaborative space as a site of competition, or one for productive misinterpretations, as laboratory, and as an intersection between monologue and dialogue.

First two instructions:

Kelly Lynn Jones: Create a repeated pattern with 4 shapes and the colors of gray, pink and orange. It should be no bigger than 24in.

Brandon Walls Olsen: using the entirety of the pattern and the whole of any support that it was produced on, rearrange the project so that it no longer has any pattern.

Observation Booth: Georgia Carbone and Kelly Lynn Jones:

This week at Sight School, Kelly Lynn Jones and Georgia Carbone begin to orient themselves in the area surrounding The Observation Booth. Exploring empty lots and the multiverse of the library across the street brings up the theme of “Latency”.

The opening for Week 1 was an amazing turn out. It went from 6:30 to 11! We are both super happy with the outcome of our project.

Michelle and I at the end of the night.

My video projected onto Michelle's painting

It was a hectic week trying to get everything together for the first show. There were doubtful moments, but in the end Michelle and I’s piece came together beautifully with the help of Collin McKelvey and Josh Churchill. The Observation Booth with Georgia also came together smoothly. Below are some photos highlighting last week!

Michelle working on the painting

Georgia working on the shelves for the Observation Booth

Collection from our first walk in Oakland

Wine Break

Georgia and I working out some stuff

Collin and Josh helped us build the structure

Please join us for the first opening of Re-Imagine | Re-Build | Repeat:

Within the first week of the exhibition, Kelly Lynn Jones collaborates with the Director of Sight School, Michelle Blade to attempt to control both stillness and movement. Culminating on the 9th will be an interactive installation with audio, visual and sculptural elements. The two seek to define moments of internal focus, homage to the present and the importance of pause and reflection.

Observation Booth: Georgia Carbone and Kelly Lynn Jones

Georgia Carbone

For the month of October, Sight School becomes the epicenter of a month long investigation that aims to form an acquaintance with the physical, temporal, and social qualities of the surrounding area.

Week 1: The Approach

Our investigations began on October 2 with a three hour walk across Oakland to Sight School. We encountered poetic moments, lost objects, and insights into the nature of our perceptions and ways of relating to space.

**Every week there will be a rotating arrangements of objects, writings, photos, video and other ephemera in the window of Sight School which for the exhibition will be called the “Observation Booth”. This is an ongoing collaboration of Kelly Lynn Jones and Georgia Carbone.

The Artists Dinner

To begin the exhibition, I wanted to invite the artists to a dinner, where we could eat, drink and talk about the upcoming events for the month. It was a great evening with delicious food and great conversations. Sadly only the Bay area artists could attend, we missed Victoria Keddie who lives in NYC and Samantha Roth who lives in LA, though they will both be in attendance for the closing. I look forward to seeing how the installations unfold.
-Kelly Lynn Jones

Shine (MIchelle Blade's dog) was a good helper.

Maggie Haas

Collin McKelvey, Georgia Carbone, Michelle Blade and Shine the dog

The Backyard

Collin McKelvey making the pizza dough

Michelle Blade and Matthew Waldbillig

Michelle Blade and Brandon Walls Olsen

The first pizza!

Second Pizza!

Maggie Haas made this amazing peach pie

Collin McKelvey and Kelly Lynn Jones

“To erase decay or consciousness of decay, decline, entropy, and ruin is to erase the understanding of the unfolding relation between all things, of darkness to light, of age to youth, of fall to rise. Rise and fall go together; they presume each other.”

-Rebecca Solnit

Kelly Lynn Jones begins her practice under the idea that everything is temporary and comes from something before and will evolve into something new. She sets up situations of balance and movement within temporary works to highlight the fleeting cyclical nature of life. Jones is interested in how a space is activated by what occupies it and how the residue left from those experiences physically and psychologically adds a new layer. These visible and invisible layers provide the next building block for an experience within that place.

Jones uses her studio as the infrastructure to document this evolving process of making, breaking down, remaking, and repeating. Her “work space” exists next to her “designated art space”. The distinction between her studio and a finished art piece has blurred, yet are still dependent on one another. In blurring the distinction between studio and gallery, Jones negotiates a conversation between process, place and object.

Chance plays a huge part in how Jones’s work unfolds. In October at Sight School she will bring this process one step further by inviting other artists to help her re-imagine the same gallery space each week for four weeks. Jones is interested in how her role will shift as she tries to balance being an artist, curator, architect, director and performer simultaneously. Throughout the month she will be examining various ideas around working with other artists in the same space.

The main rule is: A strict timeline of one week per artist
This rule is the only constraint I can rely on, all the actions will be left to chance.

COLLABORATORS:
Collin McKelvey, Samantha Roth, Brandon Walls Olsen, Georgia Carbone, Maggie Haas, Victoria Keddie, Matthew Waldbillig, Michelle Blade

CALENDAR OF EVENTS:

October 1st – The Artists Only Dinner:
All the artists involved will have a dinner at Sight School where they will discuss about the upcoming projects. This will be filmed and photographed for the Sight School Blog.

Throughout the exhibition there will be four openings at the end of each installation period. They will be from 7-9pm every Saturday. Below is the schedule of the artist working with Jones:

Michelle Blade 10/4- 10/9 Opening Saturday 10/9
Brandon Walls Olson 10/11- 10/16 Opening Saturday 10/16
Matthew Waldbillig 10/18- 10/23 Opening Saturday10/23
Maggie Haas and Samantha Roth 10/25- 10/30
Opening Saturday 10/30

Ongoing Investigations:
Georgia Carbone: Field Research
Collin McKelvey: Sounds Recordings
Victoria Keddie: Video Re-Interpretation Piece

CLOSING/OPENING
November 6th
At the end of the month, there will be a closing exhibition curated by Jones highlighting work produced during the month-long series of collaborations.

THE SPACE:
How do we create a sense of familiarity in a space when our timeline dictates a fast turn around? How will the tableau of ideas change as we enter the space or stay the same? Does past events shape our present or do we only focus on our local reality?
Will the past projects inform the current or can they be each singular with no reference to the last?

Each artist involved will approach the space with their own personal landscape and together, Jones and the artist will create something new each week.

Ideas to be explored, but not limited to:

The absurd, multiples, the original remade, viewer participation, non-instructional games, the vernacular, the narrative, faux tours, hidden treasure, studio in a kit, nesting, collecting, classifying, researching, walking, listening, black holes, assemble/ re-assemble, scavenger hunt, magic rugs, documenting and re-conceptualization through sound, video instructions, myths, tales, workshops, one-offs and so it begins.