The Rauschenberg Medical Emergency Grant is administered by The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation is partnering with New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) to administer the Rauschenberg Medical Emergency Grants. The grants are available to visual and media artists, and choreographers living anywhere in the United States or U.S. Territories. This program was established in the tradition of the artist’s Change, Inc., a non-profit foundation established in 1970 by Robert Rauschenberg to assist professional artists of all disciplines in need of emergency medical aid.
Though funded by the Rauschenberg Foundation, the program is administered by the NYFA.
In expanding upon the artist’s legacy, the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation celebrates new and even untested ways of thinking and acting. The Foundation supports research, institutions, and artists that embody the same collaborative, inclusive, and multidisciplinary approach that Rauschenberg exemplified in both his art and philanthropic endeavors.
About China Blue
China Blue’s work explores connectivity. Through her investigation of sound at the intersection of science and technology she is inspired by how our world is built from our sensations and perceptions. This emerging world provides not only a basis for exploring the inner world of the mind but also our senses forecasting a way to transcend their limits and connect to each other.
China Blue is an internationally exhibiting and award winning artist. She is known for her discoveries of the sounds in Saturn’s rings for NASA and the voice of the Eiffel Tower. Over the past two plus decades she has researched NASA’s Vertical Gun’s acoustics whose projectiles shoot at Mach-15, the sonics of an asteroid impact on Mars and the songs produced by our brains. With this research she explores connectivity through her installations, environments, paintings and soundwalks.
As an internationally exhibiting artist in 2019 + 2024 she exhibited her work at the Venice Biennale. In 2013 China Blue was the US Representative at Tokyo Wondersite’s Experimental Art Fair and in 2008 at OPEN XI in the Venice Architecture Biennale. In 2012 her exhibition at the Newport Art Museum “Firefly Projects” was nominated the “Best Museum Show Nationally by the International Association of Art Critics.
Stephanie Jeanjean, PhD has known China Blue for over 20 years. Dr. Jeanjean reflects on her conversations with China Blue over that time and how although her work has changed her focus remains the same. Listen to the interview here.
The exhibition “Listening for the Unheard” is a presentation of sculptures, installations and paintings. These are pieces that play with the sounds in Saturn’s rings discovered by the artist. For this reason this exhibition celebrates her interest in using sound as a sculptural form. China Blue sees its capacity to fill and in addition, to energize space by calling upon its Fung Shui application. In this showcase she defines the internal architectural space as having its own shape delineated by sonics. In addition, this is a terrain, based on sampling our sonic environment for what we don’t hear. This includes these acoustics which she and her team discovered for NASA. Lastly, this is a focus she has honed for over 20 years.
In this presentation are acrylic paintings, sound sculptures, a sonic installation and in addition the sound walk “Saturn Walk” which encourages public participation.
Unheard
The unheard is a category of sound not accessible to human ears. It is a concept that can be applied to words or language that we are deaf to resulting from the internalization of racism or sexism. Moreover by exploring this arena China Blue illuminates the importance of learning to listen into what we are not mindful of to strengthen our divided communities.
Events
“Gravity Cloud” is a collaboration with Canadian dancer & choreographer, Andrea Nann and Lance Massey with China Blue’s sonic labyrinth work “Saturn Walk.”
The artist’s talk is presented by Art Historian, Stephanie Jeanjean, PhD. Dr. Jeanjean’s whose indepth knowledge of the artist’s work has spanned over two decades. She interviews China Blue about her interest in Saturn’s sounds and finally, how she came to make these diverse works.
Dates
Exhibition Dates: May 13-June 18, 2023 Location:Jane St Art Center 11 Jane Street, Saugerties, NY
Events: May 21, 2:00-4:00 “Gravity Cloud” a live music and dance collaboration June 3, 3:00-5:00 Art Historian Stephanie Jeanjean, PhD interviews the artist about her work.
at Sojourner Gallery 446 West 34th Street NYC Dates: February 6 – March 16, 2023 Opening: February 9, 6-9pm
One element of “Saturn’s Siren” will be on display for this exhibition.
Sound is a sojourn that bridges the past and the present while paving the path to a future. It makes audible the progression of time as we experience it. And, by simply listening we discover the evolving new truths that time presents to us. “Saturn’s Song” is an installation that will enable us to listen into the sounds in Saturn’s rings that China Blue discovered for NASA. Like the Perseverance rover that had the first embedded microphone for us to listen into the winds on Mars “Saturn’s Siren” will enable people to experience the sonic events occurring in her rings ranging from the ice particles that are constantly impacting each other to her moons’ interactions.
Listen to Timothy Myer’s interview of China Blue in his podcast Listening on Purpose with Timothy Myers. Mr. Myers is the Principal Conductor & Artistic Advisor at Austin Opera.
