Esopus
To celebrate its 10th anniversary and its 20th issue, Esopus magazine invited 10 musical acts to create new songs inspired by personal belongings. Selections range from deeply personal family heirlooms inherited from distant ancestors to found objects, brick walls, and, in one notable case, a significant other. Featured in the magazine's Personal Effects CD, The Garment District song, Sullivan's Island, is inspired by Jennifer's Little Leather Library edition of Edgar Alan Poe's The Gold Bug, and her travels to the South Carolina island where Poe once lived while enrolled in the United States Military Academy. The magazine's Personal Effects CD Also features music by Prince Rama, Jeff Mercel, Sam Phillips, Julian Lynch, Lee Sargent, Cassandra Jenkins, Wesley Stace and others. Edited by founder Tod Lippy, Esopus features content from all creative disciplines presented in an unmediated format. Each issue showcases long-form projects by both established artists (such as Ed Ruscha, Jenny Holzer and Kerry James Marshall) as well as emerging figures. Presenting unfiltered perspectives on creative expression, Esopus 20 is dedicated to archival materials -- many that have never been viewed by the public. Included are works from Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner, designer Stephen Sprouse, musician Dean Wareham, photographer D. James Dee, poet Christopher Knowles, artist Dom Sylvester Houédard, designer Toby Mott and others. Every object, including the personal belongings that inspired the songs on the themed CD, has a story to tell.
John Riegert Exhibition
For this group exhibition at SPACE Gallery in Pittsburgh's Cultural District, designer, artist and curator Brett Yasko invited 252 artists to each make a portrait of the same person: John Riegert. Creating a sound portrait in cassette form, Jennifer's work features a compilation of John reading her favorite Facebook posts of his, along with ambient recordings created by Jennifer and John, and original interstitial music created by Jennifer. The project included an interactive corner, where visitors could sit and listen to the audio portrait in the gallery space via a Walkman or a cassette deck with headphones. During the run of the exhibition, John acted as a docent: when visitors walked in, they saw hundreds of portraits of the same person and then got to meet the subject himself. John told stories of each artist and their work, as well as stories of his own. The exhibition is accompanied by a 700-page book, a Tumblr archive and a short documentary by Julie Sokolow.
Read more about the exhibition.
_ _ _ _ _ _ at SPACE Gallery
For this group exhibition at SPACE Gallery in Pittsburgh's Cultural District, designer, artist and curator Brett Yasko invited 87 artists to shoot one roll of 35mm color film and return it back to him, undeveloped. The result was an epic presentation of 1,921 photographs that none of the artists saw until stepping into the gallery for the opening reception. The work was presented in four different ways — unattributed on the wall, attributed in a fast-moving slide show, unattributed in a large, slow-moving slide show projection, and in sound recordings created by each artist -- describing what they shot or what they think they shot — that were broadcast on a loop over speakers. A podium at the center of the gallery included headphones with a recording of Yasko revealing his inspiration for the project. The exhibition is accompanied by a book and postcard collection.
Pittsburgh Signs Project
Created by Jennifer Baron, Greg Langel, Elizabeth Perry, Mark Stoup, Pittsburgh Signs Project: 250 Signs of Western Pennsylvania is a crowd-sourced book of photographs documenting and celebrating the region’s visual landscape and roadside culture through its signs, past and present. Published by Carnegie Mellon University Press, the project was made possible in part by a grant from Pittsburgh 250 Community Connections. Designed by Pittsburgh-based Brett Yasko, the 206-page, full-color book features work by the four authors along with 60 additional contributors, as well as essays, photo reflections and an image index with GPA coordinates for each physical sign. The project is centered around the belief that signs provide people with authentic inspiration, resonate with the personality and interests of viewers, and represent an under-recognized material culture — those things that best demonstrate Pittsburgh's (a city in transition) genius of place. Capturing the region's visual culture, architectural heritage, entrepreneurial spirit, and legacy of innovation, the award-winning project draws on social history, urban archaeology, photography and social computing applications to create a shared space for documentation, articulation and celebration of a visual landscape. Production of the book occurred during a residency at Carnegie Mellon University's STUDIO for Creative Inquiry. Evolved from a DIY collaborative website into a virtual museum, the project also included a limited-edition poster as well as exhibitions at Pittsburgh Filmmakers, FLUX, Hothouse and the Pittsburgh Cultural District Gallery Crawl.
Handmade Arcade
Producers of Pittsburgh's first and largest independent craft fair, Handmade Arcade celebrates the cutting edge of craft by connecting creators and consumers through making, sharing and learning. After selling her original craft line, Fresh Popcorn Productions, as a vendor, and serving as an event volunteer for many years, Jennifer served as Director of Marketing and Outreach for Handmade Arcade for more than 10 years.
A pioneer in Pittsburgh’s maker movement, Handmade Arcade bridges the gap between consumers and creators while increasing awareness about handmade, locally produced craft goods and processes. In addition to producing award-winning annual event, Handmade Arcade also operates a Youth Maker Scholarship Program, Hands-on Handmade Activity Area, Craft Corridor program for emerging makers, Show & Sell pop-up marketplace and more.