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It is difficult to imagine that 2012 is going to be even busier than last year but that is indeed the case. The latter half of 2011 was filled with exhibitions, activities and events related to Pacific Standard Time, the Getty funded initiative involving institutions from Santa Barbara to San Diego, all documenting and celebrating southern California art from 1945-1980. Between September and December last year, Donald and I made four trips to, and spent many weeks in L.A. This year, we will be returning for two more long sojourns.
January brings the eleven day Pacific Standard Time Performance and Public Art Festival where I will be presenting two works. Kicking off the Festival on January 19th will be the Sublime Environment,so named because it will be created with dry ice which disintegrates, a process that is called sublimation. This piece is based on several monumental dry ice installations from 1967/68, created with the late Eric Orr and the sculptor Lloyd Hamrol. This time, Donald and I have been working with Materials and Applications, an alternative architectural firm.
Dry Ice Workshop, Santa Monica Airport, October 2011
With a group of artists, designers and architects, we will construct a series of stepped forms using twenty-five tons of dry ice to create an environmental installation outside the opening of Art Los Angeles Contemporary, Barker Hanger, Santa Monica Airport.
Two days later, I will present A Butterfly for Pomona, commissioned by the Pomona College Art Museum as part of a day of events. In the late '60's, a group of my friends would accompany me to various sites where we would light the fireworks ourselves, something that would be completely impossible to do now because of safety and fire regulations. Instead, A Butterfly for Pomona will be executed by Pyro Spectaculars, a family owned fireworks company.
 Judy Chicago laying stakes for A Butterfly for Oakland, 1974
While I was doing fireworks during those early years, I was also studying to be a pyrotechnician, which involved an intensive apprenticeship. Unfortunately, the owner of the fireworks company where I was apprenticing (in no way affiliated with Pyro Spectaculars) sexually harassed me, making it impossible for me to complete my course of study. When we first met with Chris Souza, the sixth-generation family member at Pyro Spectaculars, I told him this story. In December, when we met with Chris again, he told me that he was bringing an all-female crew to the Pomona fireworks piece, his personal (and very sweet) effort to right what he apparently viewed as a long-ago wrong.
One of my original goals with the fireworks pieces was to 'soften' or 'feminize' the environment by filling it with an array of colored smokes. As the smoke cleared, for one moment, the world seemed more feminine, an impulse that will be reignited (so to speak) by the placement of the fireworks butterfly.
A Butterfly for Oakland 1974
A few weeks later, we will return to southern California where I will be having three openings in a row (a record - even for me). The first will be on Thursday, February 16th, at the Palm Springs Fine Art Fair, where I will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award. That same evening, David Richard Contemporary will open a career overview exhibition to be titled "Judy Chicago: Material Girl". Curated by David Eichholtz, one of the gallery owners, this show will survey some of the varied materials I have employed, including plastics, paper, needlework and glass.
Judy Chicago working on Find It In Your Heart, one of the works to be included in the exhibition.
The next evening, February 17th, Nye + Brown, a new gallery in Culver City, will open "Judy Chicago: Deflowered", an exhibition of work from the first two decades of my career . At the opening, I will present another new fireworks piece, commissioned by the gallery. Titled The Deflowering of Nye + Brown, both this work and A Butterfly for Pomona build upon the last fireworks piece I did, A Butterfly for Oakland, which was different from the earlier Atmospheres in that it involved an image.
Although there have been advances in technology along with new types of fireworks since then, one thing hasn't changed. The hand-built lance-work structures for all three pieces provide the only means of creating images with fireworks. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to pick up where I left off so many years ago, particularly because I stopped for such an unfortunate reason.
In conjunction with the Nye + Brown show, there will be a catalog that includes an essay by art critic Saul Ostrow along with an historic interview by Lucy Lippard (in a 1974 issue of "ArtForum"), which will be introduced by a new Preface by Lucy, whom I've known for over fifty years. Re-reading her interview brought back many poignant memories of my California years.
On Saturday, February 18th, the Jancar Gallery in Chinatown will open "(Judy) Chicago in LA: the 1970's", an exhibition of some of my pioneering work from the early 1970's, when I was first formulating a Feminist art practice. There will also be a catalog for this show written by the artist/curator Micol Hebron.
March will bring "Surveying Judy Chicago: 1970-2010" to the Crocker Museum in Sacramento. Organized by ACA, my New York gallery, this exhibition provides a small survey of selected works from my nearly five-decade career. In conjunction with the show, on Saturday, March 10th, I will do a public conversation with Mark Van Proyen, a well-known Bay area artist and art critic.
That same month, the Pacific Standard Time Getty show, "Cross Currents" (which includes two works of mine) will open at the Martin-Gropius-Bau Museum in Berlin. And my work will also be in several other exhibitions in southern California, "Abject Expressionism" at the Pasadena Museum of Art, and "Ends of the Earth" at LAMOCA. (See Get Out Your Calendars for a complete listing).
 Creation of the World, © Judy Chicago, 1981, embroidery on fabric, 15" x 22", Embroidery by Pamella Nesbit, Collection, Pennsylvania Academy of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA.
Even while all these exhibits are going on, Through the Flower and I are continuing to provide resources to students and scholars interested in my work. In early February, two women are coming to New Mexico to interview me about the Birth Project and to see work in the collections of The Albuquerque Museum (which owns the Birth Project core collection) and the UNM Art Museum (which owns three Birth Project pieces).
Francesca DeBiaso, an art history student at Gettysburg College (which owns one Birth Project work), received travel funds from her university to do research in New Mexico. We have put her in touch with Helen Knowles, curator of Birth Rites, the first and only collection of contemporary art dedicated to the subject of childbirth. They will be visiting the museums together and also, interviewing me.
 The Crowning, © Judy Chicago, 1982, Batik, Embroidery and Quilting on fabric, 29: x 44", Needlework by Gwen Glesmann (to be gifted to Birth Rites Collection, Manchester, England) In addition to seeing Birth Project work and interviewing me, Helen will bring back to Manchester, England (where Birth Rites Collection is located) two Birth Project pieces that Through the Flower is donating to her organization as part of our Permanent Placement program, established as part of our goal of ensuring that women's experiences become a permanent part of our cultural heritage. Another example of this ongoing effort is the publication of "Gendered -- Art and Feminist Theory" by Dr. Tal Dekel, the first book about Feminist art to be published in Israel, which contains a number of images, including a Birth Project piece embroidered by Pam Nesbit. All in all, there is much to look forward to in the new year.
Lastly, I've redesigned and expanded my website so check it out at www.judychicago.com. And if you haven't joined Through the Flower or renewed your membership, it would be great if you'd do that now. Just click this link.
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