"best of the philly free school flickr set"

7/29/2019 "Best of the Philly Free School Flickr Set"

1/18

Best of the Philly FreeSchool Flickr Set
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-aVGCD7u_6pE/TXgQZ7IVbmI/AAAAAAAABPU/7Wd3LK2w5EQ/s1600/adamandmary.jpg


2/18

Preface

We, as an artistic community in Philadelphia in the Aughts, went out of our way notto stay on the surface. We wanted to create art which had some depth to it. As such, thetendency in Philly for us was not to put too much effort into our appearances. We dressed

casual, and offhand. It just so happens that many of us were also photogenic. What animatesthis collection (and raises it above the level of La Boheme meets Beverly Hills 90210) is thatmany Free School artists were also competent photographers; particularly Mary Harju andAbby Heller-Burnham. The trio of Mary Harju paintings herein included make their ownstatement The Fall is a testament to the vicissitudes of my relationship with Ms. Harju,and her absolute formal proficiency; her self-portrait, The Vessel, demonstrates the rawcourage of the best confessional art, drowned in luscious Spanish coloration; and her 2007portrait of me explores the subjects devilish androgyny and the issue of who the witch isand whos being bewitched. The inclusion of Abby Heller-Burnhams masterful urban moodpiece, The Skaters, is meant to lead curious viewers to her entire oeuvre; and her photoportraits of me (alone and with Mary, which is on the cover here) demonstrate that a serious

painters facility can be successfully applied to taking quality photos as well. Mary had thesame knack, as her stark black and white portrait of me in Clark Park in West Philadelphiashows. Many of the anonymous portraits here are also stunning the sleek moodiness ofMike Land at the Last Drop, and the loopy insouciance the camera caught from deep-in-his-cups Nick Gruberg.

In some ways, Center and West Philly architecture speaks for itself the facadespictured here are elegant and decrepit in equal measure. The atmosphere generated is almostParisian, which brings to light another Philadelphia Gemini (I have elsewhere ascribed thesun sign Gemini to Philly) contradiction portrayed by the American press as an ugly,Detroit-level losers/underdogs paradise, its architecture aligns it more with the nicersections of western Europe. The portraits in this collection are all expressive Matt

Stevensons brusque ragamuffin exterior is unmistakable, as is Jeremy Eric TenenbaumsNeo-Romantic decadence and the dark punkishness of the Bad News Bats. Thats a keyelement of the entire Flickr set darkness. Not that we were ones to mope; just that we, asa collective, preferred to dwell (as most serious artists do) on the dark side of things. Thestrangeness of this conglomerate of artists is profound that we shared a vision which notonly chafed against the rest of the Philadelphia art community but against the entire historyof indigenous American art, all in the unselfconscious spirit of youth, and from one urbanheart of America. On a fundamental level, we didnt know who we were or what we weredoing, and we benefitted from this lack of knowledge. Had we known what the odds againstus were, we mightve been stymied; but the fertility of the Center City scene sheltered us,and we were able to persevere. Darkness and innocence are strangely mixed in the PhillyFree School as is queerness and straightness. Those of us who werent queer were queer in

spirit. The queerness we shared was a taste for shadows, apparitions, multiple meanings, anda passionate engagement with arts Collective Unconscious.

Adam Fieled, 2013


3/18

Adam Fieled in Clark Park, West Philadelphia, by MaryHarju
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vZwfEiI-678/UIxeThWt1qI/AAAAAAAADeE/WutizT2kJB8/s1600/AdamClarkPark.jpg


4/18

Mary Harju at 4325 Baltimore Avenue, West Philadelphia,early Aughts
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9wXHRjVfWIQ/UCLPUSMMQHI/AAAAAAAACG0/NQoz_5DVbsA/s1600/MarySultry.jpg


5/18

Painting (Self-Portrait: The Vessel) by Mary Harju
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hQ7G261Fhts/UBRHfT4mUSI/AAAAAAAACFk/3zuYqoat-kk/s1600/MaryVessel.jpg


6/18

Painting (The Fall) by Mary Harju
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-56tK34DA1oE/T_8sGXstMeI/AAAAAAAAB8w/bXOhEMke9uM/s1600/Mary'sPainting.jpg


7/18

Painting (The Skaters) by Abby Heller-Burnham
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jtuZlixsOBY/UE5c-7OsvvI/AAAAAAAACPM/eoV5cbEOCJ8/s1600/AbbyPainting1.jpg


8/18

Portrait of Abby Heller-Burnham (Anonymous)
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SIE73EJrKSA/UDkJLivyfhI/AAAAAAAACIE/kG5kwbhv-kw/s1600/abbyhellerburnham.jpg


9/18

Mike Land at the Last Drop, Center City

Portrait: Nick Gruberg (Anonymous)
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6jYQGonfiOU/UGiObh6GG2I/AAAAAAAACkw/n8nGxXd9YCA/s1600/MikeLastDrop.jpg


10/18

Portrait: Jeremy Eric Tenenbaum (Anonymous)
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DR_N4xzLZYU/UHnIOynv93I/AAAAAAAACyA/5JwUcKoJFLQ/s1600/nickgruberg2.jpg


11/18

Flier for 7/29/06 Show at Highwire Gallery: Jeremy EricTenenbaum
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lcLNsesU_XM/UHnILeczQRI/AAAAAAAACx4/u9Ndg5_Rs9s/s1600/JeremyEricTenenbaum.jpg


12/18

The Last Drop Coffeehouse, Center City Philadelphia
http://photobucket.com/


13/18

Portrait: The Bad News Bats
https://my.uarts.edu/blog/2008_curtis/files/2008/12/211.jpg


14/18

Adam Fieled and Mary Harju in the Montreal BotanicalGardens
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nKrDoUem3x4/UIAiCl6XHgI/AAAAAAAAC80/5_kTz-tY_dE/s1600/BadNewsBats.jpg


15/18

Portrait: Adam Fieled and Mary Harju by Abby Heller-

Burnham
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jfZLeK5koDM/UJVP59MLO1I/AAAAAAAAELA/3QR53mkWv2g/s1600/MaryBotanical.jpg


16/18

Portrait: Adam Fieled by Abby Heller-Burnham
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-aVGCD7u_6pE/TXgQZ7IVbmI/AAAAAAAABPU/7Wd3LK2w5EQ/s1600/adamandmary.jpg


17/18

Portrait: Adam Fieled by Mary Harju
http://stainofpoetry.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/adam4.jpg


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EMBED ITEM
http://free.yudu.com/item/embed/554084/-Portrait--Adam-Fieled--by-Mary-Harjuhttp://free.yudu.com/item_files/554084/d0f49a55a/adam.jpghttp://free.yudu.com/item/embed/554084/-Portrait--Adam-Fieled--by-Mary-Harju

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