The Family Creative

Due to the process-based nature of the Session program, this project will undergo constant modifications; the features of this page provide accruing information on the project’s developments.

On October 1, 2011, FCKNLZ will begin work on their project, The Family Creative, as part of Recess’s signature program, Session. Session invites artists to use its public space as studio, exhibition venue and grounds for experimentation. FCKNLZ’s project will take place at Recess’s outpost in Red Hook, Brooklyn, continuing Recess’s ongoing collaboration with Charlotte Kidd and Dustin Yellin from Kid Yellin Studios.

Over the course of their two-month long project, FCKNLZ will house a series of workshops adapted from The Family Creative Workshop, a twenty-three-volume encyclopedia of craft projects published in the 1970s. FCKNLZ has approached the books as more than a compendium of projects; they have embraced the contents a way of life. Using images and instructions in the encyclopedia, FCKNLZ will render the world around them as an environment which can be fabricated from the ground up: cat cabanas to topiary and bookbinding, chair caning, and Japanese tea ceremonies. Once a week, the group will invite a guest artist to choose a project from one of the 23 volumes of the Family Creative and lead a hands-on workshop for the public which will be filmed and edited into a TV program.

In addition to their weekly workshops. FCKNLZ will operate Doppelgangers, a photo session where participants are transformed into found images and objects. in which participants are invited to explore a catalog of possible references, selecting prompts such as the saguaro cactus, spaghetti Garbo, or canals of Venice. Using everyday objects and homemade backdrops, FCKNLZ will transform the person into a living image of their chosen source material.

Session invites artists to use Recess’s public platform to combine productive studio space with dynamic exhibition opportunities. Sessions remain open to the public from the first day of the artist’s project through the last, encouraging sustained dialogue between artists and audiences. Due to the process-based nature of Session, projects undergo constant revision and the above proposal is subject to change.