I have just done some updating to me older site and more traditional photography site: photozoology
www.photozoology.com
I will be working on updating my www.michellelevante.com site also, and trying to keep up with some new posts.

Here is some text about my favorite tree that grows in Brooklyn:
Tree of Heaven -Ailanthus altissima is a common tree in disturbed urban areas, where it sprouts up just about anywhere, including alleys, sidewalks, parking lots, and streets. Ailanthus altissima is native to Asia, and began its journey west by being introduced to Europe in 1751 by a French Jesuit preist who brought it from Nanking, China to England. The first known specimen was brought into the United States a few decades later by William Hamilton, who planted this species in Philadelphia. A. altissima is considered an "Invasive" species by some. But in reality most of the habitats it invades are places where not many other species can grow. Its only fault may be decreasing the biodiversity of urban weeds; the other species it outcompetes are often non-native themselves. And we are all to blame for this, since the recent success of this species is due in part to the alteration of the landscape by humans.

On Oct 30th at an event for the Artist Collective at Galapagos Art Space, I put together a terarrium installation...
the focal point was a human pelvis and spinal column. I entwined weeds, such as Bitter Sweet Nightshade and thorny vines around the spine. In the pelvis, I place a gourd with a green pepper and the spines from a dead cactus. On the ground were Destroying Angel mushrooms, a poisionous species. In the skull I grew grass. I was wondering if perhaps I had some health code violations placing it in a bar.....

Upcoming events: A one night installation at Galapagos Art Space in Williamsburg, part of event hosted by Artist's Collective and a benefit for MoveOn.org. It will be Oct 30th from 8pm till closing. I am working out the details but it will include 3 aquariums, plants, rotting gourds, and human bones.
Also, 6 prints will be on display at a new art supply store in Newark, named oddly enough Newark Art Supply. It's part of another Halloween themed show called Morbid Art. I guess I am getting pigeon holed, but appropriately so.

Brooklyn Arts Council accepted two photos into their upcoming show Site Matters: Brooklyn Represents
Sept 28th - Dec 14th at their gallery at 55 Washington Street 2nd floor. Opening reception is Friday the 27th at 6pm.
www.brooklynartscouncil.org
Finally someplace in Brooklyn.
I have been actively seeking an empty lot for a garden installation to start next year. But NYC is rife with politics and fear of
lawsuit, and of course greed. I will be revising my installation idea to "work" around these issues. The solution should
deal with these issues rather than dance around them and will become part of the work.

A small segment of the film Microscopic Love in now on the website. I am also going to be cleaning up the website a bit, and creating a seperate Gallery page. I think it will make things a bit more organizied. I also added the night shots and last day shots from Garden Fate, which is in the Movie / Installation section. I don't know when they plan to finally tear down the building, but hopefully I can be there to see some of it and photograph it.

Well, Microscopic Love was changed to a time-lapse film for the Lilliput Show I did at home and presented on an Ipod screen. The show stated that every peice be presented no larger than 1.5 inches in size. I guess I took it to literally. But I will have segment of the movie up on the website soon, and of course, check out the show which is great at Red Saw. They also have a cool catalog of the show you can purchase.
http://www.redsawart.com/wb/pages/current-shows/main-gallery/lilliput.php
And below is my artist statement.

Microscopic Love: The Intimate Fluids Through A Microscope

While doing research for this project I came across this article on seminal fluids:

The normal environment of the vagina is a hostile one for sperm cells, as it is very acidic (from the native microflora producing lactic acid), viscous, and patrolled by immune cells. The components in the seminal plasma attempt to compensate for this hostile environment. Basic amines such as putrescine, spermine, spermidine and cadaverine are responsible for the smell and flavor of semen. These alkaline bases counteract the acidic environment of the vaginal canal.

It is fascinating that nature would make reproduction such an adversarial event even on the microscopic level, and I started to imagine work revolving around this idea.
Microscopic Love is a series of time-lapse film segments of seminal fluid, blood and vaginal secretion viewed through a microscope or macro-lens. Each segment is a manipulation of one or all of these fluids, such as freezing, blood drying and coagulating, or one fluid taking over another. The sounds are of a patient with bronchitis and the sound of a human heart, both taken from a website for medical students to diagnoses irregular heat rhythms and breathing

Red Saw Gallery in Newark, NJ was gracious enough to accept me into their show Lilliput. I am submitting a timelapse film. Here is the proposal I wrote and some images as part of the proposal.
Microscopic Love: The intimate fluids through a microscope

While doing research on some ideas for the Lilliput show online I came across this interesting article about seminal fluids:
The normal environment of the vagina is a hostile one for sperm cells, as it is very acidic (from the native microflora producing lactic acid), viscous, and patrolled by immune cells. The components in the seminal plasma attempt to compensate for this hostile environment. Basic amines such as putrescine, spermine, spermidine and cadaverine are responsible for the smell and flavor of semen. These alkaline bases counteract the acidic environment of the vaginal canal.
It was fascinating that nature would make reproduction such an adversarial event even on the microscopic level, and I started to imagine work revolving around this idea.
My project is in two parts; one will be photographs taken with a microscope of the fluids of sexual reproduction and of violence, such as semen, vaginal secretion, saliva, and blood. Using these substances I have written words with an extremely small brush that revolve around the theme of adversarial mating, such as Love, Lust, Fuck, etc. Some of the fluids will be manipulated by freezing, burning, or adding harsh chemicals. The images will be presented as slide transparencies and viewed using a small slide viewer.
The second phase will be an evolving piece set up in the gallery, using a microscope and a time-lapse camera attached to a laptop. In a Petri dish, I will add the three fluids of blood, semen and vaginal secretion, creating a microscopic image. I will then introduce a bacterial and / or mold substance to the piece which will slowly eat away at the fluids over the next couple of weeks. (Nothing dangerous to the public will be used). Viewers can see the current image on the laptop or choose to view the time-lapse film of what has transpired up that point.

Another week, more growth and Chapter One of my film is now up on the website.
www.michellelevante.com, under the link Movie.

GARDEN FATE 06-16-07
After one week of growth. This weekend I added the gourds along with mushrooms and moss. And I finally got the timelapse set up, so hopefully by next weekend there should be a week of growth to see. At 15 minute intervals, I am hoping to capture the growth of the fungal mycelium, which then may turn into the mushroom fruit. I was able to start the process at home, and the mycelium was quite beautiful, long wispy white hairs growing over a log. Hopefully this environment will be damp enough for mushrooms and the moss. At least the gourds will rot. I am hoping to add the peppers next week, or perhaps more sprouts.
Here is the description from the curator, Eileen,

DEMOLITION

An exhibit of art that explores destruction and impermanence
curated by Eileen Ferara
June 19-July 12
Artist’s Reception July 12 6-8pm
Art Across the Plaza-a temporary Pro Arts window exhibit
corner of Grove and Montgomery St, downtown Jersey City

Thomas Carlson € Ed Fausty € Kathe Frantz € Mary Jeys € Robert Kosinski
Michelle Levante € William Rodwell € Bill Rybak

Our city and the surrounding area provide many opportunities to witness demolition. The artists approached the theme with a variety of possibilities; from the excitement of watching things destroyed to a more introspective documentation of plant growth taking place in the building, (a last gasp before the end).

This show also touches on the impermanence involved in the creation of art itself. This will be the last exhibit in the Art Across the Plaza windows. The building is scheduled to be demolished in approximately a month. Artists participating were aware of the risks of hanging work in a raw space with the possibility of damage to the work. Some of the artists have chosen to have the work they are exhibiting demolished along with the building.

For more information call 201 798 3038.

There is something so wonderful and pure when an animal attacks a human being. It just seems right.

BERLIN (Reuters) - An aggressive squirrel attacked and injured three people in a German town before a 72-year-old pensioner dispatched the rampaging animal with his crutch.

The squirrel first ran into a house in the southern town of Passau, leapt from behind on a 70-year-old woman, and sank its teeth into her hand, a local police spokesman said Thursday.

With the squirrel still hanging from her hand, the woman ran onto the street in panic, where she managed to shake it off.

The animal then entered a building site and jumped on a construction worker, injuring him on the hand and arm, before he managed to fight it off with a measuring pole.

"After that, the squirrel went into the 72-year-old man's garden and massively attacked him on the arms, hand and thigh," the spokesman said. "Then he killed it with his crutch."

The spokesman said experts thought the attack may have been linked to the mating season or because the squirrel was ill.

I have a new installation coming up in the next few days in Jersey City,on Montgomery Street near Grove, right across the street from City Hall. It's part of the Art Across The Plaza year long event, located in the window of an abandoned building set to be torn down sometime in July. Here is the window description.

Garden Fate
dirt, stones, logs, rusted objects, refuse from Jersey City waterfront, mulch, gourds, vegetables, mushrooms, moss, branches,
grass, broadleaf plantain, field bindweed, hedge bindweed, morning glory, purple basil, garlic mustard, Virginia creeper, common pigweed, ragweed, tree of heaven, etc……

The intention of this piece is forcing nature to have one last gasp before the building is demolished and recording the growth and destruction using time-lapse photography. I plan on having the movie available to view on my website by the end of the month and updated periodically until the building comes down.

This is the text placed on plaques next to the images that are meant to mimick the Stations of the Cross. It was created as a cut-up from text taken from an actual Stations of the Cross I found on the web.
I.
My Son,
How your eyes penetrate my soul to know my love for you.
For a brief moment we touch.
II.
“Hold me my Son!”
See the thorns pierce his scalp, the nails pierce his flesh,
Feel it pierce your skin, rub raw the place it lays.
III.
He is stripped.
A mother’s heart aflame
with desire.
His body,
his wounds emit forth a perfume of love.
IV.
A degrading act done upon my Son.
Hunger for him in new ways. You will embrace the cross in new ways.
V.
To a tree, nail him. The nails are so large, striking again and again, deeper and deeper. He groans for his mother. You will feel his wounds.
VI.
A mother’s pain is manifested in her heart, at her breasts. You will truly know pain in a deeper way. You will fall with him.
Amen.

Here is part of some Q& A I did for the Mother of God exhibit. Also, here are some images from the show.
Responses to Noelle’s Questions

Michelle Levante “A Season Of Healing” 2007
12 Photos Mounted onto Wooden Plaques And Shellacked

In what ways does your work manipulate the viewer? In what ways is your work a manipulation of sight and touch?

While my work manipulates the Catholic tradition of the Stations of the Cross, it’s based on a reaction to organized religions need to manipulate our sense of sexuality. Growing up in a passive Catholic family, I was introduced to a preponderous of graphic images of martyrs and of course Christ and the Virgin Mary. The overt piety, denial of sexuality and a glorification of suffering left a strong impression on me as a child. Female saints were heavily draped in fabric hiding their bodies to avoid giving lustful young boys a sexual object to look at. The male martyrs and figures of Christ on the other hand were presented naked, sensuous, in as much agony as ecstasy. How many young girls had their sexual awakening because of these images I wonder. Like the trees healing around the invasive metal object, we can be resilient to hypocrisy of what religions teaches women (and men) about our sexuality. We can heal ourselves and manipulate this into something we desire.

How do you create a conversation around the manipulation of women’s bodies?
There is such a long history, that it seems to come naturally, for the artists, institution, whatever. It is interesting that this is the assumption of what is happening in the show. The idea of Mother of God was to bring a sense of an empowered woman into the conversation of religion I believe. For me, giving the Virgin Mary an aggressively sexual voice was a way of finding a voice, however extreme, to women who are indoctrinated into obsessing over their own bodies, rather than the bodies they are sexually attracted to.

How does a “shared dialogue” and collective art process effect what you create? How does it manipulate the idea of the ‘individual” art creativity?

I was very interested in working collectively with a group of women. It had been a long time since art school and the trauma of the art critic. There competition and one upMANship was par for the course. But working with a group of women who have come together in this context was empowering, uplifting and had the true spirit of a communal experience. I doubt that my work would have changed much based on the gender of the participants, but I think that the comfort level on dealing with intimate and sometimes personal work led to more open discussions and ideas. It was a great experience.

I just finished up a residency with Gaia in Hoboken NJ and a six week group show at Mana Fine Arts. The project was called A Season of Healing, and here is part of the text from the artist talk. I am currently reshooting the images and creating new configurations, but I will have the actual plaques I used for the show photographed and put up later.

.A Season of Healing is inkjet prints mounted on wooden plaques, and covered with up to 5 layers of shellac. The top row of images shows the phenomena of trees growing around an intrusive object. The bottom row is divided between male and female body parts mimicking roughly the images above.

Stations of the Cross:
The text was taken and cut-up from text I found online. It had that overt, passionate Harlequin romance quality to it, which I found kitschy. But it also was also reinforcing this idea of eroticism and death. The Virgin Mary’s voice is used to describe the scene taking place, and we are to empathize with her suffering, but also her weird excitation at the martyrdom of her son. This seems to be a very Catholic theme, a wallowing in excess and extremes and finding relationships between opposites. Such as the extreme guilt over sex and issues of the body, but then an acceptance of mystical experiences, religious fervor, and ecstasy of both body and mind such as we see in the saints.
I was just making this hypocrisy a bit more obvious by cutting up the text to emphasize the sexual nature of what was being said.

Trees and the resilience of nature:

The ultimate mother of God I suppose is Mother Nature, the universal laws that govern us all. I find the phenomenon of trees healing, overtaking, engulfing a foreign object quite fascinating. How the healed over area looks like flesh, how there seems to be an impaling quality, almost sexual sometimes. Who is winning, is there a struggle even, or is the tree turning an obstruction into a false symbiotic relationship. A kind of forced conjoined twin, which the tree being the one who can grow will overcome, engulfing the obstruction completely.
I was thinking how organized religion acts like an obstruction to natural law sometimes. It stands in the way to progress, creating a barrier to fully realizing our natures, our desires, and our deaths even. But in the end, nature will always have the final say, we give into carnal lust, we drink, we fall in love and are passionate, and we die and rot, nature engulfs us.