Introductory essay by Alysse Stepanian, for Creative Action Coalition’s first (online) exhibition catalog. The exhibition runs indefinitely. Website and catalog created by Stepanian.
Add your name: Open Letter to Amy Goodman of Democracy now!
#MemoryoftheUniverse | Bayesian Poisoning: My upcoming collaborative performance with composer/sound artist Philip Mantione, and dancer/choreographer Mallory Fabian at Coaxial Arts Foundation in Los Angeles (Sept 15). More about the work here.
“Workshop Performance: Memory of the Universe in L.A. Sept. 15th”
Review of my work in collaboration with Philip Mantione in Brooklyn & Boyle, by artist/writer, Kelly Blunt (August 2018). Project page here…
My performance for the opening of my Solo Video Exhibition (Nov 8 – Dec 3) at Galerie DEUX [dø], Marseille, France, Listed as recommended in Journal Ventilo.
#MemoryoftheUniverse observes and absorbs! (20 minutes); sound design by Philip Mantione; Nov 8, 7pm
Organized by Instants Vidéo Numériques et Poétiques: 29th Festival Les Instants Vidéo.
The performance was funded in part by the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant.
Interview article with Alysse Stepanian and exhibition review of a co-curated exhibition @ the Pori Art Museum. Finland
NIETZSCHE WAS A MAN
VIDEO ART BY 20 IRANIAN WOMEN
February 6 – May 24, 2015
Download PDF copies in Finnish, with English translations by Anu Lankinen, courtesy of the Pori art Museum.
Satakunnan Kansa (Kulttuuri). Pori. Finland
Cover story interview: Feb 7 2015
Exhibition Review: Feb 12. 2015
Curator Stepanian’s meritorious catalog can be considered the 21
st work of the exhibition. It ranges from the questions of humanity to submitting and categorizing animals. The text feels at some point over interpretational behind which the works position. That way the curator uses her power and makes it visible but also gives a reading experience, which expands our thinking way past the black veil.
August 2014
The Artist Behind the Video
Interview With Alysse Stepanian
by Magmart – video art festival based in Italy
June 2014
Interviewed with Alysse Stepanian by Saba Okhovat for videoartist.ir based in Iran.
Original interview in English here…
Farsi translation here…
Numéro mai-juin 2014
Art Actuel N°92
En kiosque national le mardi 22 avril
pg. 62-63
By Giannina Mura (coup de coeur)
“NIETZSCHE WAS A MAN-19 VIDÉASTES AU FÉMININ: D’origine iranienne ou iranienne,19 femmes. Autor des relations humaines”
Download PDF here… (1.5 MB)
For more press on Nietzsche Was A Man on the project site.
Sept 2013
VOA Persian TV report by Sara Dehghan about Stepanian’s co-curated exhibition, Nietzsche Was A Man at the Museo Ex-Teresa Arte Actual in Mexicio City.
Aired on satellite in Iran and Europe, and via the internet
(watch 14:48 – 20:55)
August 2013
Nashville Arts Magazine
“Seed Space: 50 Years of Videoart”
by Alyssa Rabun
July 20. 2013. Mexico City
1 hour internet TV interview
Lulú V. Barrera of Luchadoras interviews Alysse Stepanian, co-curator of Nietzsche Was A Man about her work and the exhibition.
Original English Youtube link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UO8aVIssjBs
Spanish-dubbed interview:
Alysse Stepanian y el arte feminista iraní en Luchadoras TV. Rompeviento TV. 07/8/13 (español)
STIGMART10, VIDEOFOCUS 2013, SPECIAL ISSUE
“Alysse Stepanian: What Is My Name, Sister?”
“An interview with Alysse Stepanian” and article
1 Jan. 2013, p. 4-8
April 18, 2012
“Virtual Gallery “Urban Ranch Project” Brings Awareness to Injustice Against Animals, Human and Non”
By Jasmin Singer
June 9, 2011
The Baltimore Sun
“Looking for LOL at the Contemporary Museum”
by Tim Smith
November 3, 2010
Voices Of America News
“Online Film Contest Focuses on Muslim Women”
Radio phone interview with Alysse Stepanian by Julie Taboh
(starts at 3:05)
ON THE COVER
March 12, 2010
Pasatiempo cover story (arts and entertainment magazine of the Santa Fe New Mexican). by Casey Sanchez. “A Dream Within A Screen” interview with Alysse Stepanian about For Action’s Sake – 1st year anniversary show of Manipulated Image.
Download PDF of the article here…
A dream within a screen
Artist Alysse Stepanian once dreamed of a cleaning lady whose broom became a machine gun, and this fantastic image, inspired by Stepanian’s memories of the 1979 Iranian revolution, was woven into one of her short films. Since early 2009, Stepanian has brought Santa Fe monthly installments of cutting-edge video art in an ongoing program called Manipulated Image. On Friday, March 12, For Action’s Sake — a four-hour-plus program of music, live performance, and moving pictures by artists from 10 different countries — celebrates one year of Manipulated Image in Santa Fe….
March 4, 2010
MOMENT EMAGAZINE
| For Action’s Sake | Santa Fe
See more press for Manipulated Image.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Exhibition Review:
Montgomery Media. By Andy Stettler
“ART THOU: Enduring the latest ‘Endurance’ exhibit”
….My head, beneath the headphones, begins to relinquish its own sanity as Stepanian glares again into the lens, hypnotizing this writer in a sick, demented way. Suddenly I was on the verge of joining this “Endurance” exhibit as my ears blister to the “bang, bang, bang” of the typewriter sound. To take the headphones off, to release myself from the grip of Stepanian’s drilling hypnotism, is no less than a relief.
Her naked body is covered only by a black censor strip which we later see is not added by the content editor but instead is a physical black rectangle that the artist has taped to her breasts….
72 Hours: Acrobat’s Little Leap.
I deprived myself of sleep for 70 hours and documented a set of activities in random intervals. The title of the piece was inspired by an experiment conducted by the US military, under the code name “Acrobat’s Leap”…
Finish reading about the video here…
Abington art center, Jenkintown, PA, USA
“Endurance: Daring Feats of Risk, Survival and Perseverance
curated by Sue Spaid; September 10 – November 29, 2009
Download the curator’s essay.
January 2009
CIP – Curators Interview Project
Top 5 Art Exhibits Beijing – City Weekend Guide.
Vol. 6, Issue 17, No. 12; June 22 – July 5, 2006, Pg. E5
“Don’t be afraid, be ready” listed as the #1 exhibit
Imagine Gallery, Beijing
Alysse Stepanian and Philip Mantione have made, in 3-D, a Dr. Seuss depiction of the American government’s color-coded terror alert system and its affect on the American psyche during post 9-11 America. Through installation pieces the pair try to reflect the constant paranoia incited in citizens by a governmental plan that claimed to protect.
June 4, 2006
Listen to the interview with Ren Hongjuan
ARD German Radio Beijing Bureau
About the BOX 1035 installation: “Don’t be afraid, be ready”
Imagine Gallery, Beijing
Sunday, September 18, 2005, Pg. D3, Art section
Utility of Obsession: All Things Orange
An outdoor installation with video and kinetic sculptures in collaboration with Philip Mantione at Branchville Gallery; Ridgefield, Connecticut (also see BOX 1035).
The Advocate & Greenwich Time (Stamford)
By L.P. Streitfeld
“Americans and security: Wanting our cake and eating it”
In the Outdoor Project Space, the collaborative couple known as BOX 1035, Philip Mantione and Alysse Stepanian, connect bright, shiny – orange – products of consumerism and safety to a cycle of running water in the “Utility of Obsession: All Things Orange,” a wry and profound commentary on the conflicted state of America’s emotions…. The opposites – anxiety and desire – that create a wonderful tension between these two installations are united when “Utility of Obsession” enters the conversation. In this multimedia installation with found objects, Mantione and Stepanian establish a self-perpetuating,orange-colored system of running water from pitcher to bucket through three levels of bright orange night tables. Behind the transparent orange curtain in the confined space, the sound of running water is as calming as the shrieking from the orange-obsessed woman in the video is alienating. The nerves are further frayed by the machinations of a vibrating table, its base wrapped with bright orange caution tape. A plastic snake is a surface reminder of the primordial dangers inherent in blockages unleashed by floodings. Additional orange colored symbols such as a baseball bat ignite the conflict between public/private, security/liberation and flow/blockage. The nerve-racking effect strikes at the heart of America’s values, which have been summed up since 9/11 by the Orange Alert, orange representing the color of the second chakra, where emotional attachments and blockages are formed…. Meanwhile, BOX 1035 provides the warning signs on the journey to this strange and unfamiliar place.
NYFA QUARTERLY – Fall 1999
Interview with Alysse Stepanian and Philip Mantione, Co-founders of MANY.
“Remediation: The Changing Spaces of Multimedia Art” (excerpt)
by William R. Kaizen
Download full article here…
More about MANY here…
One new organization that has recently formed revives the old variety show format as a way of reinvigorating multimedia. Founded in 1997, MANY (Musicians and Artists New York) produces art festivals that features different genres – from music to dance to theater to multimedia – all on the same bill. Like an old time variety show, a MANY’s festival showcases talent regardless of genre. Founders, Phil Mantione, Alysse Stepanian and James Martentic see each festival in total as a multimedia event although individual artists’ work may be discipline specific. As Ms. Stepanian says, “The individual pieces are not necessarily multimedia but together the entire event is.” The goal of a MANY festival is to create new audiences for different types of work. The founders were tired of going to the same discipline specific art events and seeing the same faces at every event. They wanted to create a festival that would draw a mixed audience, a festival where someone might come to see a dance performance and stay to hear music. “The original idea,” Mr. Mantione says, “was to provide a venue to bring different disciplines together. I found it frustrating when I would go to music concerts and see the same people there in the audience. I wanted to expose people to types of work that they may not seek out otherwise. My hope was that people would come for one part of the program and stay for the rest.” MANY offers complete freedom to the artists it invites to present work. They put no constraints on the projects. “We create the possibility for artists to meet and work together,” says Mr. Mantione. “What we’ve found is that when we invite people to be part of a program they may not have been thinking about working collaboratively. But when we tell them that there is going to be a video projector available, they say, ‘I’ve been wanting to do this.’ It spawns something that wasn’t there before. Often there is the desire there but it remains untapped unless it’s the right opportunity is presented.” To date, MANY has presented three festivals featuring over fifty artists in total. The most recent was OnetoMANYthree held at Dixon Place in June. It featured work that ranged from spoken word to new music to dance to mixed media performance. Stepanian says of the event that “they are very stressful to produce but we get such a high from watching the performances. And afterward, when people from the audience show us their appreciation and when the artists are excited — that’s our reward.”
Saturday, November 26, 1994
Pg. F12 (Calendar Section)
Los Angeles Times newspaper
“A Good Motive With Mixed Results”
by William Wilson
Los Angeles Times Art Critic
Alysse Stepanian paints patterned domestic interiors overlaid with architectural plans and lettering. They are a curious combination of reflection and force, of forbearance and analysis.
Domestic Dreams
1991. 86.5″x71″
oil on canvas
Take 2: Second city-wide biennial LAX, The Los Angeles Exhibition 1994
California Afro-American Museum
Los Angeles, CA.
by Curator: Max F. Schulz
Alysse Stepanian [also] unnervingly displaces ordinary expectations, calling upon a dimension of magic realism to flavor her depictions of the mundane world of ordinary aspirations. She draws viewers into scenes of alienation and disorientation that depict the routines of daily life gone awry; set within a crowded yet intimate domestic space, Stepanian’s haunting interiors reverberate with unexpected surrealist and neoexpressionist syntax.
A disturbing resonance of indefinable mystery informs Stepanian’s densely painted environments. … Stepanian depicts scenes that are at once surrealistically fantastic and realistically heartwarming. A weightless disarray of household items–chairs, tables, and pepper grinders–vies with individuals sleepwalking through a dream world of marriage, homemaking, and male-female pairings. Where irony ceases and reality obtains resists our analytical perception.