Ted Stanke

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Solo show planned for the 27th of February

I'll be having a retrospective exhibition at the end of the month in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. The work will span an era of 10 years, including brand new work. Plan on coming and tell your friends, this should be a doozy... more updates later....

Sunday, February 1, 2009

RESCUE/more work ahead

As corporate capitalism continues to crumble, creativity can once again breathe. Economic instability doesn't worry me, it excites me. I've never had anything resembling a steady income and have also never cared. Things fall into place, and I trust that will continue. I follow the path I'm on not sure where it's going, but enjoying the journey. This recent turn was a surprise even to me.

For the past 4 months, I've known that the storage unit containing a huge collection of my artwork was becoming more and more overdue. Unable to generate enough money to pay it off, I ignored the phonecalls and kept searching Craigslist for work. I knew something would happen.

In America, the work ethic was once superb, and workcrews all across NYC laid millions of cobblestones. In Europe, when roadwork needs doing, the crews pull up the cobblestones and then replace them again. Here, they just slather the stuff with asphalt: cheap and fast, all beauty aside.

As the months went by, and late fees piled upon my past due balance, I started to long for the easy way out. I would just walk away, let them auction it, and go forward with things. Like a roadcrew in Brooklyn, I was about to pour asphalt on it and smack it with the back of a shovel. Hampered by finance and the lack thereof, I came to accept never seeing any of this artwork again, and rationalized the loss by comparing my problems to those of the people in Gaza. Things could be worse.

I would rebuild and recover, and would have no regrets. I was happy with this decision, yet I could not shake the feeling of grief. Everytime I remembered something else in that room I sighed deeply. So much effort, so much beauty, five years of rent, only to end in an anonymous sale to someone looking for things with resale value. The dumpster bill alone would be hundreds, simply to take it to a landfill. I imagined the reaction that whoever opened it would have, and took consolation in the thought. It would be quite dramatic, and possibly hilarious.

First of all, the entire room is packed completely in with art and supplies. Moving aside the boxes, they'd see what appears to be an indiscernible mound of colorful junk.

Mixed into the junk are relics from the past and various books and electronic devices. To the untrained eye, it is difficult to comprehend, but properly appreciated, this vault contains priceless treasures.

Letting this all go would have been easy, yet now I'm bound to it more than ever. After spending the entire second Bush term in darkness, my portrait of America emerges and rubs its eyes, shaking off the musty feeling that hibernation has left behind, and once again existing as artwork, once more capable of inspiring awe and appreciation.

This art is huge, and any project involving it will not be easy, yet I feel a sense of duty to finish this project to a satisfying conclusion. The entire map has never been shown, and perhaps never will be, yet its link to the future is solid, and in time I will understand more deeply its significance, mysterious as that might still be.

When I decided to auction these sculptures to the highest bidder, I was hoping for a big break with the press which would get me the kind of exposure I'm incapable of generating myself. What happened was something else.

People from all parts of my life came forward to invest in my future by staking out a piece of my past. A small core group of longtime friends, some of whom have been out of my life for decades, came forward to show their support, and I look forward to working with them all to take this project to a climactic conclusion later this year.

The path continues, the struggle endures, the satisfaction remains. The immediate crisis has been averted but so much more work lies ahead. I will not stop.

Saturday, January 31, 2009

Was the Auction a success? ProblEBAY....

Although my attempt to play Auctioneer to my own artwork did not put me on Easy Street, it did accomplish exactly what I'd set out to do. For $817.50 I was able to remove the lock from my storage unit in DUMBO less than 24 hours before it's foreclosure, effectively saving the art. This problem aside, I turn to others. Starting today, I will run auctions of the individual states on Ebay, starting with Alabama. The days of $100 investments are over, but it's not too late to pick up some land for a reasonable price.

>>GO TO AUCTION<<

Monday, January 26, 2009

Auctioning America: The Land Grab Update

Auction Ended. Thanks to all who participated, and congratulations to those who won!

This is the video report I submitted to CNN I-Report to draw attention to my art auction. The assignment called for I-Reporters to share their creative solutions for dealing with the bum economy. Specifically, they asked for stories showing efforts to overcome or excel within the faltering financial future we're facing. This being my first video-diary submission ever, I was, of course, a bit nervous, but I got my message across, and feel I completed the assignment excellently.

Since beginning this Auction at 12 am EST Monday, January 26th, 7 states have bids.

1. Mississippi- $100
2. Pennsylvania- $100
3. Delaware- $200
4. New York-$100
5. Wisconsin-$100
6. New Mexico-$100
7. Arizona-$100
One State, California, has sold for $1000.

WEDNESDAY UPDATE: The auction has been posted in all Craigslist Artist sections of corresponding states. After 24 hours, the only 2 to be flagged are San Franscisco and Montana.

WEDNESDAY EVENING: Still no report on CNN... I'm not sure if it will run as a feature, but am keeping up hope. Here's the image from what they had up last night into this afternoon on the I-report page. If anything has no bids when the auction ends at 12 AM EST Thursday, January 29, I will retain possession of it for my personal collection, which is awesome because I love this stuff!

Bid now or be left behind. Once you lock in a bid, it can be yours for next to nothing, granted nobody else bids higher. Help me make art history and usher in an inspiring new era of creativity and hope. Thanks to All, Ted

-SCROLL DOWN TO VIEW THE AUCTION-

Friday, January 23, 2009

STATE of Emergency/Pre-emptive AUCTION

FLASHBACK: The election of 2004. John Kerry -Vs- George W. Bush

One was not necessarily voting for one candidate but rather against the other.

I was working 15 hours a day, 7 days a week to finish my MFA thesis project: A giant map of America made from Junk. My preferred candidate for a time was Ralph Nader, and I saw his campaign as a perfect chance to put my political artwork to the test.

I came up with an idea to offer him my artwork as a way to incite the masses, inspiring them to believe in bringing change to our country. I wanted to travel ahead of his tour to each of the fifty states and organize with Universities and local media stations to set up a project in which people would be told to bring objects of a specific color from their homes. I would put more parts into each state , filling out the artwork with stuff from the specific regions they depicted.

I would work in public, and alongside me would be volunteers educating people about the difference between Nader and the other candidates. When Ralph showed up to speak, the sculpture would hang behind him and then, at his final rally, the entire map would be assembled in Washington DC. With this amount of exposure, whether or not he won, I couldn't lose.

The sculptures were beautiful, featuring cities made from flattened coins blossoming amidst highways from drinking straws and rivers from copper wire. Of course, Nader never seriously ran, and Bush took the election by a suspiciously slim margin, and the hope faded. I moved to NYC that Fall, and the entire project went into storage, where still it sits, untouched, unseen, costing me monthly rent to keep hidden.

Now, in the great recession of 2009, I find myself behind several months in payments and facing a foreclosure auction at the end of the month. I HAVE DECIDED TO AUCTION THESE HISTORIC SCULPTURES TO THE PUBLIC BEFORE THEY ARE LOST FOREVER. There is a precedent for sales on this artwork.

Florida was shown and sold in Brooklyn, in 2005, at a gallery called "Concepto". The price was $2000.

Texas, which appeared in a groupshow, including Matthew Barney and Alex Grey, at Manhattan gallery Bitforms, was sold this summer at Deborah Colton Gallery in Houston Texas, for a price of $2500.

Approximately 40 additional states remain. I will be taking bids on these sculptures Monday-Thursday of this week, and will update this page to reflect the progress. There is no reserve on any state, and bids start at $100. Please email me to place your bid. Whoever wins each state will receive a signed certificate of ownership within days, and the sculpture itself shortly thereafter. I can oversee delivery and installation in the NYC area. Elsewhere shipping costs may apply.

The sculptures fit together like a puzzle, and hang well in clusters or alone. Sizes vary, the average is 2 feet by 2 feet with a varying degree of relief. They hang easily on simple brackets which I will provide and are not as heavy as you'd imagine. A buy-it-now price of $1000 applies to any sculpture with no active bidding. Payments can be made using any major credit card via the donation link at the top of this blog.