Gyorgy Singh Ahluwalia

Gyorgy Singh Ahluwalia is an expert in the Decompressionists movement of the 20th century. A reclusive figure, rumor has been floating for years that he will publish a book on the subject. Much to our excitement he has agreed to present a chapter from his book "Deflation as Praxis" as part of this show.

excerpt from: "Deflation as Praxis"

"...It was not that early Decompressionists thought lacked the later subtlety, that particular nuance which allowed it to tether nothingness to nothing, to suck, in a sense, air from an already existing vacuum; instead—and here we enter those particularly treacherous waters where, if we are to follow a post-Glasnoverian reading and give Moody (1963, not 1976) his due, we are in danger of allowing nothing to, in fact, once again become something."

• read the chapter of "Deflation as Praxis"
• more about Ahluwalia

Granger Tolman

Granger Tolman's work has recently been featured in Appalachian Review and The West Virginia Quarterly. Having recieved an MFA in creative writing from Hunter College, she will return this fall to her hometown of Missing Mile, Tennessee, to work as a literature and creative writing instructor in rural Sevier County's public school system. She will miss Brooklyn dearly.

"I will write a series of short poems (probably around five) and imbed them within the fabric of Almost Something for the viewer to "find". Will the poems be seen as such? Will they be seen as prose, or as visual art? Will they be seen at all? This will be left to the perception of the individual viewer."

• web site
• Granger's project

Stefany Anne Golberg

Stefany Anne Golberg is a composer, performer and installation artist in New York City. She holds a BA in Philosophy from the New School and an MFA in Sound/Music from Bard College. Stefany is also Co-Founder and Executive Director of Flux Factory, a nonprofit arts organization and artist collective in Long Island City, Queens.

She will be making an audio tour of the show in collaboration with Morgan Meis

Ranbir Sidhu

Ranbir Sidhu is a winner of the Pushcart Prize in fiction and his stories have appeared in The Georgia Review, The Missouri Review, Zyzzyva, Press, Other Voices and other journals. His fiction has been anthologized in the Houghton-Mifflin college reader Grassroots and in Living In America from Westview Press. He was a writer-in-residence at the Villa Montalvo Center for the Arts, California, and the Atlantic Center for the Arts, Florida, and was one of the novelist-participants in Flux Factory's recent show NOVEL: a Living Installation.

• read Ranbir's Introduction to the Decompressionists"
• more about Ranbir

Laurie Stone

A hand moving absently up and down a stranger's back. Lips glimpsed in a rocketing subway car. A body that makes people want things. Maybe something sexual does happen, if you think of sex as a wave that passes between people at odd and inconvenient times and for no reason. I will be planting writing that feels like breath on your neck, or a sidelong glance, or a brush you're not sure is intentional or accidental. The ambiguity can't be resolved and is something you like. I was one of the writers installed last May in the Flux Factory's month-long project, "Novel." I am working on the book I started there, Indestructible Beauty, and on Forgetting, a prose collage combining memoir, fiction, and meditative commentary.

• Laurie's project

Mira Dancy

Mira Dancy is a painter and a writer. She will be writing a guide book.

excerpt from: "The Cabin Painting Diary"

"There is always something I hear screaming to come along when I'm painting. What do I call it? I read an interview with a painter where he described his paintings as right angles to "the path" and in trying to understand what he was feeling and in trying to imagine this path where paintings appear, my mind immediately jumped and started recounting the story of the shroud that Veronica used to wipe the face of Jesus before his crucifixion. Amidst the dreadfulness of their encounter, Veronica was left with a miracle in her hands when Jesus' face painted itself on her cloth. Like this, I started to think about how paintings can shove themselves up to their painters and how they embody both an offering and a mystery at once."

• read Mira's "The Conjurer's Path"

Morgan Meis

Morgan Meis has a Ph.D. in philosophy. He was supposed to specialize in the Greeks and Romans but managed to write a dissertation on Walter Benjamin. Also, he is the president of an arts collective in Queens called Flux Factory. Also, he writes and edits for Old Town Review and is a regular contributor to 3 Quarks Daily. Also, he is a senior consulting editor for the Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal

• read Morgan's semi-essentialist guidebook

J.M. Tyree

J. M. Tyree publishes essays and criticism in various periodicals, and contributes regularly to the web log 3Quarks Daily.

J.M Tyree has a particular interest in the work of Robert McCarren. He will be writing an essay about his work

• read J.M. Tyree's "Robert McCarren, Invisble Artist"

Francis Gonzalez

One of the two curators of Almost Something, Francis will be writing a catalog, making comments on his choices.

Francis Gonzalez is a careful observer of nature and human society

• ideas and references
• Francis is organizing the sound nights

Eriko Arakawa

Ms. Arakawa is of another generation. She is well into her 80's, lives in Japan and still comments regularly in several Asian Art and Society Journals, and surprisingly is an avid fan of contemporary Asian Art, regularly discovering young artists to propel onto the world stage.

Her long career as a fashion model in the 40's and 50's allowed her to travel the world, several decades before it was common that young Japanese would visit the world's great sites. Her voracious intelligence allowed her to make the remarkable transition from fashion to intelligentsia. This remarkable woman has agreed to make commentary on the works and artists selected for this show.

• read Ms. Arakawa's comments
• view her video introduction