BARBARIDADES V

This time in English

In Spanish Barbaridad means 'something very outrageous' , like barbarity in English, but it could playfully mean 'Barbara's world' (on a very wide meaning). Barbaridades is a section I opened in this blog long time ago to talk about two extremes: my favorite creative projects by people not necessarily famous and also the weirdest, flat or outrageous phenomena out there, like Sarah Palin. In Barbaridades the two extremes touch each other, because, as in life, you need a split of a second to go from heaven to hell.

Japanone from bombonia on Vimeo.

That's Japan according to super talented Spanish artist Celina Alvarado. I want to talk about her and her magic way to look at things. She is my friend therefore this post is biased but I am convinced that she deserves media attention because she is giving beautiful gifts to New York like her home gallery, Onebyone or the interactive project Try Me, an electronic t-shirt that tweets the meaning of hugs (she explains that project here in Spanish).

Onebyone breathes in Alphabet City, on Avenue D, inside Celina's apartment. The idea is not new, many New York artists in the eighties used to have galleries in their homes, in the same neighborhood. Today everybody shares pictures of drunken nights on facebook but who is willing to share something really useful and intimate such as their private space?

In this video Celina herself explains the origins of the project, and the first show she organized, appropriately called ONE:

One by One Gallery from Kaleido Works on Vimeo.

It was up for a few months and then, last September, she decided to take it down inviting two performers to do an action, Down with one, and so she created another great and intimate event:

*you can look at a video of this whole performance on onebyonegallery.com

She was born in Madrid and moved to New York about a decade ago, after working in Canal + Spain doing those amazing promotional clips that made that channel shine like no other at the time. When I met her she used to travel around Brooklyn with a plastic alien on her bag and a Super 8 camera. It was a weird and beautiful image, looking at this smiling woman with green hair taking out this small alien in the middle of the street and start filming it. She also took lots of pictures of him, a series that yet has to be shown in New York. The Super 8 material became my favorite short film about New York, the awarded I live in Brooklyn:

I Live in Brooklyn from bombonia on Vimeo.

A couple of years ago she decided to learn more about the digital world through the Interactive Telecommunications Program at FIT and now she gives us presents like the Try Me t-shirt or a program that allows you to throw a book against the wall and see the letters falling down like in a visual poetry.

You should check out her whole production at www.celinaalvarado.com

Then you will understand why I am in love with her work. She is one of those awe-inspiring people that make New York still unique.