Working With Leather

Host: MC

This was a wide open project, the only guideline being to make something with the leather and tools provided by our host. Creation of an art object, rather than something strictly decorative was encouraged, but--as often discussed--that border is a porous one.

Taking his inspiration from Hermes scarves,
DH used chalk to sketch a design and an X-Acto to etch it in,

creating a muscular rendering, almost a repeating pattern, of

rope interplaying with free-floating pillars

MC's menagerie covers Pop figuration, American Southwest

decorative emblems with silhouette and stitching,

a Guston-inspired ghost with jewel eyes,

and the bold simplicity of  a two-tone rectangle with clear dimensionality

Special guest MM's bird figure also evokes an American Southwest folk/outsider piece, and makes effective use of the creepy accoutrement of a trained hooded condor

MR's lumbering horse has multiple layers but remains

obstinately flat, with a playful leather string curling out from the face, and a defiant hole punched into the base layer

After an early struggle, NG created an homage to the

cigarette-holding hands and watches of B(A)NO[S] fave Philip Guston

 Prior to the above, NG made a beastly totem figure,

using orange paint and yellow chalk

See these photos as well as process documentation here.

African Masks

Host: DH

After viewing this inspiring web gallery provided by our host, members created African masks using cardboard, paint, fabric, and glue. This project went especially well, and the results speak for themselves.

MC's textiles-inspired war mask

preliminary drawings

DH's tribal mask as Viking helmet

Preliminary drawing

MR's oversized festival mask

Test sketches

NG's eyes-above-the-bushes attack mask

 preliminary drawing

Contemporary Art and Design

Details and documentation forthcoming.

Shapes of Things

Host: MC at Cleopatra's Gallery

This project was unique in that it was open to the public. For one evening,  B(A)NO[S] occupied Brooklyn gallery Cleopatra's, set up a movie screen and a digital projector, ordered some upside-down pizzas, and invited friends and their friends to help create a wall of cut-out shapes.

The goal was to explore the iconic quality of something's (or someone's) shape when devoid of line, shade, and color using scissors and black paper.

As participants finished cut-outs, they were encouraged to tape them to the wall to create a one-night exhibition at a sort of pop-up gallery within a gallery.

Many participants drew free-hand with scissors, some even without visual references. Others drew with a pencil from photos or objects in the gallery before cutting out.

Aftermath.

Animation

Details and documenation forthcoming.

Printmaking: a well-documented session with a SPECIAL GUEST

Host: DH

For this BANOS session we were joined by special guest MOMO. Learn more about him here.

Using cardboard tubes, lots of ink, and household supplies like rubber bands, string, rope, buttons, and burlap, members created prints.

Steps:

1. Paste, tape, or otherwise adhese things to a carboard tube.
2. Coat the tube in ink or paint either by coating it with a brush or rolling it on or slathering the tube in a puddle of ink.
3. Roll the tube onto paper. Repeat on a few sheets to experiment and to see how the pattern changes.
4. After the first layer dries, try adding to it with more shapes and patterns, or re-applying the same shapes or patterns with different colors.

Tubes

DH's rubber band and button print.

MOMO's circles and relief.

Incidental life prints. Better than the intended product? Your call.

MC's lifestyle shapes with webbing, inspired by satellite member HM's reminiscence of printing a whole pair of shorts.

MR's "am I here ... or over here?" print.

NG's repeated rope plus table football.

Materials. 

Clean-up time.

Don't forget to visit member web sites:

MC

DH

MC & DH store

NG and NG store

MR and/or MR blog

Honorary member

Ab Ex Sculpture

Host: MR via MC

Inspired by his trip to the MoMA Abstract Expressionism exhibit, MR's project was Abstract Expressionist sculpture, to be made from cardboard scavenged in the neighborhood. Materials turned out to be provided by some one stop shopping as a nearby condo had just put out a bunch of boxes from some flat pack furniture.
In concept, the product is the photo itself, not the sculpture, which was a dynamic way to shift the ideas in the 2D canvases of De Kooning et al into a 3D format and then back to something flat. This is of course keeping in mind that in BANOS spirit the process is just as much a part of the project as the product and interpretation of the project is meant to be loose, as we'll see in the following photos.

MC's sculpture looks like the future as conceived by an AbEx era pop scientist. Especially considering the materials involved, he gets a remarkably sturdy effect here that gives the mismatched upper half and angular base stronger energy.  

MR makes excellent work of shadow, does a nice job of capturing the AbEx spirit in his shapes, and even incorporates the angle of the traffic boundary in the background for a strong juxtaposition. He and MC both showed quick mastery of the materials and heart of the evening's project.

 

DH created a deeply personal piece, which included hair clippings. The "before and after" feel of two separate sculptures provides tension. Note that DH did not set the two pieces neatly beside each other.

NG's tiny pot on a rising coil strays from the abstract in Abstract Expressionist, but he let the materials determine the shapes, and this is what emerged. The way the jagged shadows made by the angular flames play out against the coil is the strongest element here.