Artist Kalup Linzy during an acupuncture appointment at Kangmei Pan’s Natural Health (Midtown, Manhattan, 12.08.10). Production still from the New York Close Up film Kalup Linzy & James Franco, That’s Entertainment! © Art21, Inc. 2011. Cinematography by Rafael Salazar & Ava Wiland.
The ART21/CUE Book Club returns on November 13, with video and performance artist Kalup Linzy guiding our conversation.
Given the freedom to assign any text, Linzy selected Shakti Gawain’s Creative Visualization about “the power of your imagination to create what you want in your life.” First published in 1978, in an edition of two thousand, Gawain has since sold over ten million copies worldwide. “All you need to bring to this book,” says New Age Journal, “are an open mind and heart, plus the desire to greatly enrich [your] life.”
Linzy, who has been interested in “new thought” since the late nineties, connects Gawain’s book and methods to his own artistic process: “I have seen things I’ve written or created privately suddenly appear.” Through chapters on such topics as “Contacting Your Higher Self” and “Going with the Flow,” Gawain explains the basics of creative visualization and how to apply them to your life. Readers will encounter an assortment of affirmations, invocations, and meditations, including “Pink Bubble Technique,” which involves visualizing your goal inside of a pink bubble, and “Treasure Maps,” creating actual pictures of your desired reality. The final chapter? “Your Life Is Your Work of Art.” Linzy says, “I would like to have a conversation with a group about how effective or non-effective this approach to life is.”
The ART21/CUE Book Club meets at CUE Art Foundation, located at 137 W. 25th Street in New York City, from 7 to 8:30 pm. Come prepared to discuss—and possibly practice some of Gawain’s techniques—as we nosh and imbibe. Space is limited to twenty-five people; RSVP via Eventbrite.
About the ART21/CUE Book Club
An initiative of the ART21 Magazine in collaboration with CUE Art Foundation, the ART21/CUE Book Club brings readers together for semi-intimate conversations about books relevant to ART21 Magazine themes. Our fall program anticipates the “Magic” issue—an exploration of spirituality, witchery, alchemy, and supernatural forces—launching in January, and Linzy’s upcoming performances at Joe’s Pub on November 25 and 26, 2014.
About the Artist
Born in Stuckey, Florida, Kalup Linzy is best known for his videos satirizing the conventions of television soap operas. Linzy received his MFA from the University of South Florida, and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. He has received numerous awards, including grants and fellowships from the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, Creative Capital Foundation, Jerome Foundation, Art Matters, and Headlands Center for the Arts. His work has been shown at The Studio Museum in Harlem, Prospect.1 New Orleans, MoMA PS1, and the Hessel Museum of Art. In 2010, Linzy appeared on the ABC soap opera General Hospital alongside actor James Franco, and the following year released the music EP Turn It Up, also featuring Franco. Linzy’s new album and multiplatform project Art Jobs and Lullabies debuts this fall. Based in Brooklyn, the artist is featured in three ART21 New York Close Up films: Kalup Linzy Likes It a Little Bit Off, Kalup Linzy Makes His Way Through the Art World, and Kalup Linzy & James Franco, That’s Entertainment!.