Austin Critics Table Awards

We were nominated for Best Independent Project


And we won!
Here's our very official certificate.


And a link to the post that announced the winners.
http://www.austin360.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/seeingthings/index.html

We attended a very entertaining awards ceremony on Monday evening were we accepted the award. We even had to go up on stage and thank everyone (which we were not prepared for) but it was fun and we felt like stars.

Thanks Critics! Thanks Art Alliance! Thanks to everyone that let us take their picture and who shared a little a bit about themselves with us!

Full plus

Sunday EOD. The cube is full.
Here's a picture from each corner.





And on the inside...

The artists and Sean (Director of the Cube)

What's next?
The cube has been taken apart and put away, hopefully not for long, we have a few leads on a home for the entire installation. We are picking up those conversations and will let you know where you can find it next.
We are also working on scanning (or finding resources to scan) all the images. We will eventually have all of them posted on the flickr. They will be organized by the dates they were taken so that you can search for yourself and others.

Thanks for all your support at Art City Austin. A special thanks to Allison, Meredith and the Austin Art Alliance for a uber sucessful weekend of art and festivities.

Saturday

The project is a hit! We shot tons of pictures, we installed tons of pictures. We had crowds and a line all day. We shot more than our quota of shots by 3:30 and closed up shop for the rest of the day. The crowd didn't seem to mind, people want to get their picture taken, but most of all they just want to enjoy the project and read the collection we already have installed. After closing up we encouraged people to fill out a board and take pics with their own cameras- even that was a huge hit.

The Art After Dark Party was great. The cube attracted lots of attention.
We'll be out there again today. We have about 200 more exposures to shoot. Come early if you want your picture installed. We'll start shooting around noon, and I predict we will be through our film and the project will be complete by 3:00ish. If you want to be involved on an even more intimate level- we'll be disassembling and loading it back up at 6pm- any help will be of great value. And... uh... if anyone has place to store a lovely giant cube... it's looking for a temporary and permanent home.

Journey to the city

Tying the frame to the trailer.

Heading south on I-35

Pulling into the site

Mounting the plexiglas- Overall the installation was very smooth. We had to re-drill a few holes on one of the sides (probably the side we fitted during the late night session a few days ago). Thanks to our friend Jeff and Allison's boyfriend and Officer Steve- we had the strength to get everything in place without too much stress.


We left the site about 1:00am. It was hard to leave the cube, I almosted wanted to camp in it. We came very close to a disaster when the portable toilet delivery truck came within a couple inches of smashing the corner of the cube. Sean, Jackie, Jeff and I were all inside the cube peeling the protective paper off the interior when their tail lights appeared about a foot and a half from Sean's head. It was at this moment that we discovered that I could open the trap door and get out of the cube in a very very short amount of time (and that I was willing to risk getting my legs run over to save a sheet of plexiglas.) Other than that incident the set up was smoother than I had anticipated.
I did have a nightmare that we arrived on site Saturday morning and the cube was tossed in the grass in the form of bent up metal and shattered plexiglas. In my fitfull sleep someone had tried to steal the cube and then ditched on the side of the road. By the time we arrived back in the morning Meredith had recovered it, but it did not look good. I guess I had a little latent stress that needed an outlet.
Here's a clipping for the Austin Chronicle Arts Section from 4.11.08

The cube is complete!

The cube is as ready as we can get it. Everything else we need to do will happen on site. Keep you fingers crossed that it will all go together smoothly. We've learned a few lessons in measurement and materials over the last few days. Steel is not nearly as rigid as I thought. When this is all said in done we'll write up a recap on the construction- maybe even include a post work session stretching regiment- our bodies are in a fair amount of pain. The cube is trying to get the better of us, we'll see how the weekend goes.
Here's a pic of the complete cube (it's still upside down and still has the protective paper on it.)

Here's a detail from the inside.

Drilling the plexiglas.


We also worked on the backdrop that Jackie will shoot infront of at the festival.
(It looks like it's snowing, but really the shop is just dusty.)


The weather looks like it should be nice- although the storm that hit late last night certainly has me a little fearful. I couldn't sleep thinking about how our cube was going to hold up to forceful winds and driving rain (not to mention lightening). Forcast says sun- again, keep those fingers crossed.

We are shooting a few pics on 2nd Street this evening from 5-8pm (last opportunity before the actual festival).

Construction by flashlight

We worked until late last night and got 4 of the 8 sheets of plexiglas fit to the frame. In order to align the sheets we had to start with the top sheet of plastic- we decided the best way to do so was to work on the cube with it upside down. It was no small feat to flip it over, but once we got it turned the plexi installation went pretty well. One more work session and we should have it. We'll remove the plastic to transport it. Once on site we'll peel away the protective paper and so some touch up and fine tuning.

Less than a week until Art City Austin!

It was a full weekend of shooting.
Check out the picture of the South Congress American Apparel store front. We shot about 200 pictures on site plus installed a bunch that we had taken at the Blanton Art Museum Friday.

Here we are in the hot hot sun at the end of the day Sunday.

Less than a week until Art City Austin!
We'll be doing the Art Talk on Tuesday evening and shooting (for the last time before the festival) on Thursday. Come out and see us!