Press: Inspiration Info and Homeland Screening

"The Maas Building is a relatively new venue in North Philly (just under a year old) and generally hosts performances and events. It just so happens to be a wonderful venue for visual art, as “Inspiration Information” proves. The ideas and methods in this show are definitely some food for thought and shed light on a variety of creative processes."

- Chip Schwartz for The Art Blog

link to full review  •  http://theartblog.org/2011/11/inspiration-information/

Still from Maria Dumlao's Untitled (2010) 

"HOMELAND, a screening curated by Jesse Pires as part of the recently ended Inspiration Information exhibit at the Maas Building, offered a thoughtfully considered program of films and videos about the power of place and its influence on one’s point of view. Human presence is elusive in these films, but each in its own turn uses sound and lonely, unpeopled landscapes to explore place as a social and personal construct. The biggest pleasure of this show is in the sum of its parts – the contemplative pace of the program encourages a reading across the four films. Viewed together, they emphasize the rewards of slowing down to take a good look at the places to which we have grown habituated, which we are complicit in constructing, and which ultimately control and define us."  

- excerpt from J. Makary's review on The Nicola Midnight St. Claire.

Link to the full article  • http://the-st-claire.com/1111/1111-review2.html

Inspiration Information at Maas

Inspiration Information
Curated by Sam Belkowitz & Alex Gartelmann

Taking its title from a song by R&B artist Shuggie Otis, Inspiration Information is an open examination of the subconscious drives that inform our making practices. What made you become an artist? What ideas are at the core of your art practice? Like Otis’s soul-driven, dreamy expression of the happiness and inspiration one can get from true love, the show looks at the myriad of ways that our artistic interests and practices are deeply woven into our lives. The exhibition uses this song as a parallel for framing personally motivated practices in art making.

Inspiration Information opens on Friday October 21 at the Maas Building, 1325 Randolph Street, Philadelphia, and runs through November 12th, 6pm. This exhibition will include video, installation, painting, sculpture, and photography. Featured artists include: Isaac Lin, Jason Musson, Sam Belkowitz, Matt Pruden, Kim Walker, Jonas Sebura, Barbara Jenkins, Joel Parsons, Corkey Sinks, David Harper, Jesse Butcher, Alex Gartelmann, Jamie Diamond, and Lee Arnold.

Staircase in the 5th Side Space

Thanks Anthony Angelicola for this amazing staircase, made from a pile of reclaimed wood that we had lying around the place. Not only does it look totally stylish, we can now get to the second floor without a ladder!  This space just became ... something.  Real good. 

For more info on Anthony, check out his website.

The icing on the cake is that we suspended the stairs from the ceiling. 

Floating stairs! Proving that magic is possible...

Julet Hope Wayne: October 28th

Join us for a really special show: Comedienne/storyteller Juliet Hope Wayne (of The Moth on NPR) will be performing for a taping of a live comedy album before YOU, the studio audience, throughout the evening! In between Juliet's bits (that did not sound right at all), you'll hear sets from Arctic Splash and Acres Of Diamonds.

This will all take place at the 5th Side and Hi5 Studio where we will be keeping it warm with burning wood. 

NOTE: YOU CAN PURCHASE ADVANCE TICKETS HERE:

http://philebrity.ticketleap.com/juliet-hope-wayne-w-arctic-splash--acres-of-diamonds/

Maas Design Philly Furniture Show

The 5th Side Hosts Ditzler-Wittchen Wedding

This was a truly awesome event. 

Congrats Samantha & Ben!  

Hi 5 Studio Progress Pictures

Control Room Window in the Hi 5 Studio. Double glass using reclaimed Philip Glass glass.

Rewind a few weeks and we were building the 20' double wall in the Live Room. 

Fall Rains and Grass

A watched pot never boils, but all the rain this fall has helped our grass seeds fill in.

More Garden Pics

The Cypress tree, in front of the shed, almost but still unfinished. 

Pile of scrap wood, to burn. Bike leaning on chair. (Not So) Still Life...

We Planted a Mimosa Tree on 5th St. Some say it's a weed tree. 

Don't believe everything you hear.

Victor and Ben made planters on Randolph Street. 

EMBRACING WHITE

The change was much bigger than we imagined. All the irregularities evened out and it became one entity.  One European-style entity.  French Barn or Spanish Castle Magic?

A reminder of what the building looked like before...

Summer Report on The Garden

Our fig tree in the foreground

We surrounded this rock we forraged from the woods in New England with some low growing herbs. 

Future firepit spot.  

Our tomatoes went pretty crazy and took over a whole patch of the garden. But they're delicious.

This is a volunteer Jimson Weed plant.  You may have heard of this plant from the Carlos Castaneda books. Folks smoked the stuff. 

After a Rain.

Who knew that the perfect tool for digging ferns out of the woods was the guitar?

The grass, in the end, grew in kind of patchy-like.  The sun really scorched some parts of the yard. We'll re-seed when it gets cooler in the fall. 

ARS NOVA JUNE 2011

It's about time we get some experimental music up in here. 

The folks at Ars Nova are doing a show on June 13th, 2011 at the Maas Space: Henry Threadgill, Jeff Parker/Mike Reed.  

[ HERE'S AN MP3 to STREAM ]

HI5 Studio Progress Spring 2011

Looking into the control room.  Very exciting. 

For more info: Hi 5 Studio

Oh! Pears Variety Show, Friday and Saturday May 20-21

Stay tuned... this should be a great show!  Here's the Facebook Link.

Michael Mullin Will Haughery BFA Show

Michael Mullin and Will Haughery were in Ben's class at Tyler School of Art, and helped out in the early stages of renovations around the Maas Building a couple summers ago. From sandblasting, climbing obscenely tall ladders to crawling under floorboards to run water pipes, these guys have done it all.

... And they're really great artists!  Come see their combined BFA show this coming weekend.  Congrats Michael and Will!  Opens this Friday 6-9pm.

The guys, painting some dirty walls, in preparation for the show

THE DAWNING OF A NEW ERA

We've been pretty hard at work: hoping the work part of this will end, and the enjoyment of this yard will begin. This picture represents: the finishing of the stone path, 12 tons of dirt spread around the yard, the planting of a few bushes, the moving of a tree, and seeding grass seed.

The last loads of cobblestones from the secret ghetto cobblestone mine.

2 loads (6 tons each) of screened and tested topsoil. Bury the lead!

We moved Honeysuckle and Vibernum bushes: after finishing the stone path, this place started to come together and some changes needed to be made.  Rake the soil, and seed grass, add water, and... enjoy!  well, wait a month maybe and then enjoy...

We'll be watching this closely.  Do they make ultrasounds for grass?

We decided to move the Hawthorne tree to the spot where the Black Gum tree had been - and died this past winter.  The Hawthorne seems to inhabit this spot majestically.

Woop here it is.