Video: Liz Cohen on Her “Bodywork” Car Transformation Project

Liz Cohen, Trabantimino
Liz Cohen, Trabantimino

For her Creative Capital-supported project, Bodywork, Liz Cohen (2005 Visual Arts) took two cars—an East German Trabant and a Chevy El Camino—and transformed them over the course of eight years into a hybrid: the Trabantimino. Liz presented this project in the Creative Capital session, Art at the Edge, at the 2012 IdeaFestival in Louisville. Our friends at IdeaFestival recently shared this video of Liz talking about how the ambitious project came to fruition.

As Liz explains in the video, Bodywork is essentially a project about transformation and hybrid identities. She says, “Cars can have so much to do with people’s identities, and national identity. For example, the Trabant and the El Camino both embody the values of the two countries that they come from. I thought that was a nice foil for what could happen to a person who is going from one country to another, or from one job to another job, or is marginalized in any way from the mainstream.” Continue reading

Deborah Stratman Featured in MOCAtv’s “Techno Mystic” Series

Deborah Stratman‘s film, It Will Die Out in the Mind, is featured in the Techno Mystic program curated by Michael Connor for MOCAtv, MOCA’s video art channel on YouTube. The series explores the incongruous co-existence of mystical beliefs and modern technologies. Along with Deborah’s film, Techno Mystic also includes work by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Sam Fleischner, Seth Price, Shana Moulton and Jon Rafman.

Stratman is a 2012 Film/Video grantee, and was recently selected by popular vote as one of our Community-Supported Artists. It Will Die Out in the Mind is a short meditation on the possibility of spiritual existence and the paranormal in our information age. Texts are lifted from Andrei Tarkovsky’s film Stalker, in which the Stalker’s daughter redeems his otherwise doomed spiritual journey. She offers him something more expansive and less explicable than logic or technology as the conceptual pillar of the human spirit.

The title is taken from a passage about time from Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s The Possessed:

Stavrogin: …in the Apocalypse the angel swears that there’ll be no more time.

Kirillov: I know. It’s quite true, it’s said very clearly and exactly. When the whole of man has achieved happiness, there won’t be any time, because it won’t be needed. It’s perfectly true.

Stavrogin: Where will they put it then?

Kirillov: They won’t put it anywhere. Time isn’t a thing, it’s an idea. It’ll die out in the mind.

PDP Brings Practical Tools to Artists in Nashville

The Arts & Business Council in Nashville hosted its second Professional Development Program Core Weekend workshop for local artists in late September. The workshop has been described as a ”crash course in self-management, strategic planning, fundraising and promotion.” The ABC staff asked the participating artists what they learned, and compiled this amazing video of their feedback (click Play above to watch). We’re thrilled to hear that the artists walked away with so many practical tools!

Learn more about PDP’s workshops and webinars for artists

In Focus: Robert Karimi’s “28 Days of Good Energía”

Mero Cocinero serves guests at ¡Viva las Roots!, Intermedia Arts, 2011

Robert Farid Karimi premieres his Creative Capital-supported project with 28 Days of Good Energía, a series of events and performances in the Twin Cities celebrating culture, well-being and the revolutionary act of eating together (October 19 – November 15, 2012). Drawing on the rich tradition of Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), 28 Days of Good Energía features ¡Viva la Soul Power!, a live performance and culinary experience, and Feed & Be Fed, an interactive art exhibit, both at Intermedia Arts in Minneapolis. Additional happenings in Twin Cities neighborhoods include community potlucks, workshops and public performances.

28 Days of Good Energía is the newest episode of The Cooking Show con Karimi y Comrades, which uses the framework of a live cooking show to raise awareness about Type 2 Diabetes in communities of color in an engaging, culturally relevant way. Performing as the dynamic revolutionary Mero Cocinero, Karimi encourages audience participants to use the power of their cultural stories, rituals and recipes to curb the rising tide of this disease. Check out Karimi’s videos from The Cooking Show project below! Continue reading

Videos from the 2012 Artist Retreat

We asked Theaster Gates about his experience at Creative Capital’s 2012 Artist Retreat. Theaster is a 2012 Visual Arts grantee for his project 12 ballads for Huguenot House.


Sonali Gulati on what she’s learning about Creative Capital’s approach to supporting artists. Sonali is a 2012 Film/Video grantee for her project Indian Patient.


Daniel Eisenberg on what makes Creative Capital different. Dan is a 2012 Film/Video grantee for his project The Unstable Object.