Comix Ex Machina: New York's Flux Factory presents innovative comics exhibit

I got something cool in the mail this week. It was an ad for what sounds like an awesome exhibit in New York City, but in the form of a mini-comic. I wish I could give everyone a copy of it, but I can't, so I'll settle for posting the text here and whining about how much I wish I was closer to New York.

In the summer of 2004 the FLUX FACTORY produced a collaborative installation called CARTUNNEL. Artists illustrated the walls of a 2000-square-foot maze. Different routes taken through the maze by the viewer resulted in different narratives. Cartunnel became the first in an ongoing series of exhibits with the idea of a sequence of narrative images as its conceptual core.

This June, Flux Factory will present:
COMIX EX MACHINA

For this exhibition, artists have built devices that each present a series of narrative images to the viewer by means of a mechanical process, either interactively or automatically. Comix Ex Machina looks back to the antique entertainment devices of the nineteenth century, as well as to the aesthetics of the contemporary science museum.

Opening Reception: June 18th, 2005, 7 p.m.
Slide show by Carousel at 9 p.m.
Admission is gratis.

For more information, contact Stefany Anne Golberg: info@fluxfactory.org

For detailed directions visit: www.fluxfactory.org

Our participating artists:

Leah Beeferman & Michelle Higa will be collaborating on a monumental projection kinetoscope. They have previously collaborated on a human-scale kinetoscope, and have individually created video installations, reactive objects, drawings, and books.

Ian Burns will be presenting a series of animated scenes viewed through the interface of a motorized funhouse ride. Originally from Australia, Ian now lives in New York and is represented by Jack Tilton gallery. He has contributed to recent shows at Sculpture Center, P.S. 1, Smack Mellon, and the Newcastle Region Art Museum.

Daupo will be presenting the Daupomatic Stripatron, an interactive console for creating enigmatic rubber stamp comic strips. He has exhibited at Subculture gallery, and contributes frequently to collaborative Flux Factory projects. He is presently at work (with Josh Tyree) on Gray's Economy, a graphic novel.

Brian Dewan's contribution will be a series of interwoven scenes in a vast landscape. Viewers will be able to explore the images inch by inch by means of a viewing scope. Brian has exhibited drawings and I-CAN-SEE film strips at the Brooklyn Museum, Pierogi Gallery, The New Museum, and the Armory Show.

Andrea Dezso will present a multi-layered rotating mechanical theater, hand-operated by the viewer. Originally from Transylvania, Andrea has settled in New York where she is represented by Jack Tilton gallery. Andrea's illustrations have appeared in the New York Times Book Review. She is a contributor to Print Magazine, and her fiction has been published in McSweeney's.

Aya Kakeda will be contributing an apparatus for viewing an animated flip-book. Aya grew up in Japan, and has made her home in New York. She has had illustrations in many prominent publications, notably the New Yorker. She has been featured in Print Magazine. She has contributed to many Flux Factory shows, including Cute & Scary and The Disenchanted Forest.

Yunmee Kyong will be displaying a box containing a giant scroll, hand-cranked by the viewer to present a story. Yunmee is from Korea, studied in London, and has settled in New York. She creates and exhibits artists' books, and has had illustrations in Harper's Bazaar and the New York Times.

Jason Little will exhibit a series of lightboxes that present three-dimensional images to the viewer by means of the Pulfrich effect. He is the author of the Doubleday graphic novel Shutterbug Follies, as well as Motel Art Improvement (forthcoming from Little-Brown in 2007).

Pirate Brian Matthews will be showing an animated tableau depicting a war of automatons as envisioned by Nikola Tesla. An artist-engineer, Brian has built many fine contraptions for Madagascar Institute projects and collaborative Flux Factory under-takings.

Doug Skinner's contribution will be the Skinner Graduated Pictodisc, a three-disc phenakistiscope. Doug presents cartoon slide shows regularly with the Carousel group. In addition to his work as a visual artist, he is a translator, lecturer, actor, ventriloquist, and musician. He composed and performed the music for Bill Irwin's The Regard of Flight. Doug has played piano on the BBC, cello at the White House, and ukelele on the Joe Franklin Show.

About Flux Factory

The Flux Factory is an artists' collective in Long Island City, Queens, New York. Flux sponsors a continuing series of exhibitions and performances in its lofty main space, and contains artists studios, facilities for printmaking, photography, publishing and recording. Additionally, Flux residents foment collaborative projects executed outside Flux, notably at the New Museum, the Queens Museum, and the Dumbo Arts Festival.

Flux Factory
38-38 43rd Street
Long Island City, NY 11101
www.fluxfactory.org
718-707-3362