Emery C. Martin

The Exchange Rate: 2008 book is now available for purchase in soft cover or as a free downloadable PDF.  I was very happy to see that the book is using a Creative Commons license and to see my screenshot from GTA make the cut.  The book looks great, thanks to Roman Jaster who did the design work for it.  The book includes the original copies of all the performance scripts and descriptions about them, the documentation of the performances, an essay by Claire Ruud, and a interview of Elana Mann about the project.  All in all it is 144 pages long, pretty hefty.  The official description of the book is below and you can purchase or download a copy here at http://www.lulu.com/content/5656529, enjoy.

“This book documents an international performance exchange organized by artist Elana Mann in response to the 2008 US presidential election. Thirty-eight artists living in sixteen different countries participated in the project. With the aid of the project website exchangerate2008.com, participating artists produced, exchanged, and interpreted performance directions related to the election campaign. Artists include: Adam Overton, Aiste Ptakauske, Ana Fernandez , Bruce Conkle, CamLab, Chan & Mann, Danielle Adair, Dorit Cypis, Elana Mann, Emery Martin, Eric Lindley, Ernesto Salmeron, Eva Jung, Jason Kunke, Jean Pierre Lapeyre, Julie Lequin, Karen Atkinson, Kelly Kleinschrodt, Kevin Jamieson, Liz Glynn, Lora Ivanova, Luchezar Boyadjiev, Maile Colbert, Marc Lewis, Marssares, Melissa Wyman, Michael Lazar, Pablo Rasgado, REP, Rui Costa, Sara Roberts , Sibyl O’Malley, Søren Thilo Funder, Stine Marie Jacobsen,Vincent Ramos, Zackary Drucker. Designed by Roman Jaster.”

“OURS: Democracy in the Age of Branding” made it as one of Art Forum’s Critics’ Pick.  A nice thing to see happen for the show.  A small excerpt below.

“’OURS: Democracy in the Age of Branding’” takes the rhetoric underlying US military campaigns in Iraq and elsewhere as its starting point and emphasizes the global dissemination of American ideologies through the lens of consumer culture. Curated by Carin Kuoni (with Marisa Olson organizing its Web component), the project goes beyond the traditional exhibition format to incorporate lectures, panels, workshops, and other related events.”

You can read the short article here http://www.artforum.com/archive/id=21917 (they do make you sign in to read).

The Exchange Rate: 2008 Election Night event was I’d say a smashing success.  People came out, saw the performances but best of all Obama won.  It was a momentous night and I’m glad I had a chance to take part in it as an active participant.  Of course we now have to see what Obama will do while in office but maybe just maybe we will have some change as trite as that sounds.  That aside here are some pictures from Jason Kunke’s performance of my performance script, Ammunation and of my performance of Jason Kunke’s script, Political Speech for a Hydra.

More pictures of Jason Kunke’s performance of Ammunation here.

More pictures of my performance of Political Speech for a Hydra here.

I finally have gotten a chance to start gathering the documentation from the various events I participated in this fall.  Therefore, first up the great installation from Not An Alternative in conjunction with Paper Tiger TV and Deep Dish TV, that was a part of the 2008 NYC Art Book Fair put on by Printed Matter.  My animated short, “Death, Destruction and the Weather Coming Up Next,” was part of the curated video program, as a part of their city-scape that was designed to reference, “language of mass production, advertising, commercialism, and info war.”  For more images, please visit the following links. Final installation and construction.