8-Ball Community

Last updated

8-Ball Community is a New York City-based artist collective that operates a zine library, online radio station, and online public-access television station. [1] [2] [3]

Contents

History

People gather for an event at 8-Ball's Newsstand. The newsstand.png
People gather for an event at 8-Ball's Newsstand.

8-Ball was formed in 2012 by a group of friends looking to help keep a billiard hall from going out of business in gentrifying East Williamsburg, Brooklyn. They hosted film screenings, readings, performances, parties, and other events at the request of Grand Billiards' owner, who wanted to attract the neighborhood's new residents to his pool hall. These events included a zine fair, in which local artists and publishers were invited to sell their wares on pool tables. [2] [3] Grand Billiards' landlord shut down the space in August 2012, but the friends decided to keep working together, host more events, and welcome more people into the group they decided to call "8-Ball Community." [3]

From 2013 to 2014, 8-Ball displayed zines and hosted dozens of events at an abandoned newsstand in the Metropolitan Avenue/Lorimer Street station of the New York City Subway. [4] The Newsstand was rebuilt in 2015 as an installation at the Museum of Modern Art, [5] which purchased it for the permanent collection [2] and later exhibited it in Paris at Fondation Louis-Vuitton. [6]

The collective teamed up with tattoo artist Mark Cross to start Muddguts, an exhibition space in Williamsburg, which it helped run from 2013 to 2014. [7] From 2014 to 2018, 8-Ball operated out of a basement in SoHo, described by The Village Voice as "a superhero's hideout — if the superhero was some mythological lovechild of Jean-Michel Basquiat and Laurie Anderson." [2] From 2018 to 2019, 8-Ball maintained a space in a storefront on Canal Street in SoHo. [8] In 2019, the collective was invited by the art nonprofit Creative Time to operate out of a floor of their building on the Fourth Arts Block in the East Village. [9]

These physical spaces have served as 8-Ball's headquarters as it has grown from a team of three – Lele Saveri, Giuseppe Furcolo, and Josh Hubbard – to a collective of dozens that operates a zine library, online radio station, and online public access television station. The collective has hosted film screenings, workshops, art exhibits, artist talks, skillshares, music shows, and other events out of these spaces. [2] [1]

8-Ball received nonprofit status through the fiscal sponsorship of Fractured Atlas in 2016. [10]

Projects

Zines

Artists pack up their wares after the 15th 8-Ball Zine Fair, at El Coqui Billiards & Lounge in Ridgewood, Queens on June 22, 2019. 8-Ball NY Zine Fair 2019.jpg
Artists pack up their wares after the 15th 8-Ball Zine Fair, at El Coqui Billiards & Lounge in Ridgewood, Queens on June 22, 2019.

8-Ball hosts two annual zine fairs in New York and one in San Francisco. All its fairs are held at billiards halls and feature a drop-off table that allows anyone with a zine to sell their work. [1] [3]

The collective has participated in zine fairs worldwide, including in São Paulo and Tokyo, selling zines and setting up exhibits on topics such as public-access television production and the history of American zines. [11] [12]

8-Ball also produces zines and other printed matter, such as calendars and flyers, internally and in collaboration with other artists and groups. 8-Ball has hosted zine-making workshops at the Whitney Museum of American Art, [13] MoMA, [14] and the Aperture Foundation, [15] and collaborated with the New York art bookstore Printed Matter on events in New York [16] and Los Angeles. [17]

8-Ball also maintains a library of several thousand zines, chapbooks, pamphlets, and artist's books at its East Village headquarters. It has displayed the zines at MoMA, MoMA PS1, and The Studio Museum in Harlem and in Miami, Istanbul, Amsterdam, Milan, Paris, Tokyo, and San Francisco. [12] [3] [2] [16] [5] [6] [18] [19] [20]

Radio

8-Ball launched its online radio station in 2014, when the collective was based out of the Williamsburg exhibition space Muddguts. [1] Originally called Radio Muddguts 41, the station changed its name to 8-Ball Radio in 2015. [21] Its shows include The Clayton Patterson Show and Dis Is A Test Radio. [22] [23]

8-Ball Radio frequently hosts events around New York City. [22] In 2018, 8-Ball Radio was voted Listeners' Choice Best Online Radio Station in North America in the Mixcloud Online Radio Awards. [24]

Television

8-Ball launched its online public access television station on January 20, 2017, playing Aldo Tambellini's piece "Inauguration '81" while Donald Trump was getting sworn in as president. [25] 8-Ball described the station as a "free platform for, of, and by the people" [26] with "no censorship, no prejudice, no hierarchy, no advertisements, no limits." [27]

8-Ball TV's content includes original series, submitted videos, and footage of interviews and protests. The station has aired Angela Davis' 1972 interview from California State Prison, footage of protests in New York and Standing Rock, a video countdown show called MTV 12, interviews with East Village residents, short films by Look at my Black Beauty (LAMBB), Hello Kitty's Alice in Wonderland, "cam-girl pseudo-porn and a video that shows how to skin a whole hog." [26] [27] [9] [28] According to amNY, "the only thing 8-Ball [TV] won't allow is branded or commercial content." [27] TANK Magazine likened the station's programming to the 1970s downtown New York television show TV Party, "known for its decadent raucousness as much as its dissident outlook." [26]

8-Ball TV has exhibited in Milan, [19] São Paulo, [11] and Tokyo. [12]

Other

8-Ball also produces merchandise, engages in social activism, and hosts educational workshops and opportunities for youth. [19] [29]

8-Ball's activist work includes co-sponsoring the New York Kurdish Film and Cultural Festival. [30] The collective airs protest footage and programs devoted to advancing social movements on 8-Ball TV and produces an activism zine called the Affinity Journal. [26] [31]

In 2019, 8-Ball launched a mentorship program for emerging artists in memory of Jim Walrod, a New York designer, Fiorucci art director, and "downtown legend" who died in 2017. "Jim's Web" paired established artists such as Paper Magazine co-founder Kim Hastreiter with newer artists, who were given $3,000 to complete a project in four months. The projects were displayed in November 2019 at 8-Ball's space in the East Village. [29]

In 2020, 8-Ball hosted a series of online educational workshops during the COVID-19 pandemic. The collective also partnered with artists including Tauba Auerbach, Daniel Arnold, and Kim Gordon to release a line of T-shirts for its eighth anniversary. [32] [33]

Philosophy

8-Ball co-founder Lele Saveri started the collective in part to create a "welcoming place" within the New York art world. [3] A 2017 Vice Media article describes the collective's ethos as "explicitly inclusive" and "free of censorship, gatekeepers, and commercial interests." [1]

In a 2019 interview with Love Injection Fanzine, Saveri describes his motivations for forming 8-Ball: [3]

When I moved [to New York] in 2010, it felt like the crowd, the scene, or whatever you wanted to call it – not underground because it's not underground – but the downtown arts scene, was somewhat welcoming, but I really had the general feeling of people wondering, 'Who [is] this new person?' ... I was very put off by it, and I felt like that's why I wanted something that was not about being cool.

The collective is run by volunteers in a non-hierarchical fashion. A 2018 Village Voice article defines 8-Ball's ideals as "everyone is welcome," "we have no elitism," and "we do not have any association with brands." [2]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zine</span> Collection of self-published work reproduced by photocopying

A zine is a small-circulation self-published work of original or appropriated texts and images, usually reproduced via a copy machine. Zines are the product of either a single person or of a very small group, and are popularly photocopied into physical prints for circulation. A fanzine is a non-professional and non-official publication produced by enthusiasts of a particular cultural phenomenon for the pleasure of others who share their interest. The term was coined in an October 1940 science fiction fanzine by Russ Chauvenet and popularized within science fiction fandom, entering the Oxford English Dictionary in 1949.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Museum of Modern Art</span> Art museum in Manhattan, New York City, U.S.

The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. The institution was conceived in 1929 by Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, Lillie P. Bliss, and Mary Quinn Sullivan. Initially located in the Heckscher Building on Fifth Avenue, it opened just days after the Wall Street Crash. The museum, America's first devoted exclusively to modern art, was led by A. Conger Goodyear as president and Abby Rockefeller as treasurer, with Alfred H. Barr Jr. as its first director. Under Barr's leadership, the museum's collection rapidly expanded, beginning with an inaugural exhibition of works by European modernists. Despite financial challenges, including opposition from John D. Rockefeller Jr., the museum moved to several temporary locations in its early years, and John D. Rockefeller Jr. eventually donated the land for its permanent site.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William S. Paley</span> American television executive (1901–1990)

William Samuel Paley was an American businessman, primarily involved in the media, and best known as the chief executive who built the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) from a small radio network into one of the foremost radio and television network operations in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MoMA PS1</span> Museum in Queens, New York

MoMA PS1 is a contemporary art institution at 22-01 Jackson Avenue in the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens in New York City, United States. In addition to its exhibitions, the institution organizes the Sunday Sessions performance series, the Warm Up summer music series, and the Young Architects Program with the Museum of Modern Art. MoMA PS1 has been affiliated with the Museum of Modern Art since January 2000 and, as of 2013, attracts about 200,000 visitors a year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ABC No Rio</span> Formerly squatted cultural centre in New York City

ABC No Rio is a collectively-run non-profit arts organization on New York City's Lower East Side. It was founded in 1980 in a squat at 156 Rivington Street, following the eviction of the 1979–80 Real Estate Show. The centre featured an art gallery space, a zine library, a darkroom, a silkscreening studio, and public computer lab. In addition, it played host to a number of radical projects including weekly hardcore punk matinees and the city Food Not Bombs collective.

Storefront for Art and Architecture is an independent, non-profit art and architecture organization located in SoHo, Manhattan in New York City. The organization is committed to the advancement of innovative positions in architecture, art and design.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jess Dobkin</span> Canadian artist (born 1970)

Jess Dobkin is a performance artist based in Toronto, Canada. She is best known for her 2006 work The Lactation Station.

<i>White Fungus</i> Art magazine and project based in Taichung City, Taiwan

White Fungus is an arts magazine and project based in Taichung City, Taiwan. Founded by brothers Ron Hanson and Mark Hanson in Wellington, New Zealand in 2004, it began as an intended one-off, photocopied political zine. Over time, the publication evolved into a widely distributed print magazine with an international readership.

<i>Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine</i>

Launched from the Lower East Side, Manhattan in 1983 as a subscription only bimonthly publication, the Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine utilized the audio cassette medium to distribute no wave downtown music and audio art and was in activity for the ten years of 1983–1993.

K8 Hardy is an American artist and filmmaker. Hardy's work spans painting, sculpture, video, and photography and her work has been exhibited internationally at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Tate Modern, Tensta Konsthalle, Karma International, and the Dallas Contemporary. Hardy's work is included in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and the Museum of Modern Art. She is a founding member of the queer feminist artist collective and journal LTTR. She lives and works in New York, New York.

Day Without Art (DWA) is an annual event where art institutions and other organizations organize programs to raise awareness of AIDS, remember people who have died, and inspire positive action. Initiated in 1988 by VisualAIDS from New York City (NYC), nowadays a global event.

The NY Art Book Fair is Printed Matter, Inc's annual event, historically held in September or October. The NY Art Book Fair is the world's largest book fair for artists’ books and related publications, featuring over 370 exhibitors from 30 countries, and attended by over 39,000 visitors annually. Originally free, the now ticketed fair presents an active program of exhibitions, talks, workshops, book launches and performances, as well as many off-schedule events hosted by individual publishers.

Mary Beth Edelson was an American artist and pioneer of the feminist art movement, deemed one of the notable "first-generation feminist artists". Edelson was a printmaker, book artist, collage artist, painter, photographer, performance artist, and author. Her works have been shown at the Museum of Modern Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lele Pons</span> Venezuelan and American YouTuber (born 1996)

Eleonora "Lele" Pons Maronese is a Venezuelan-born American YouTuber, actress and singer. Pons came to prominence on Vine before the platform was shut down in 2016 where she was the most followed woman and the third most followed viner with 11.5 million followers. She then expanded into creating comedy sketches for YouTube, where she has over 18 million subscribers as of August 2023.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Juliana Huxtable</span> American artist

Juliana Huxtable is an American artist, writer, performer, DJ, and co-founder of the New York–based nightlife project Shock Value. Huxtable has exhibited and performed at a number of venues including Reena Spaulings Fine Art, Project Native Informant, Artists Space, the New Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, and Institute of Contemporary Arts. Huxtable's multidisciplinary art practice explores a number of projects, such as the internet, the body, history, and text, often through a process she calls "conditioning." Huxtable is a published author of two books and a member of the New York City–based collective House of Ladosha. She is on the roster of the talent agency Discwoman, a New York based collective and talent agency that books DJs for parties and events around the world. She previously lived and worked in New York City, and has been based in Berlin since 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">DIS (collective)</span>

DIS is a collaborative project based in New York City. It was founded in 2010 by Lauren Boyle, Solomon Chase, Marco Roso, David Toro, Nick Scholl, Patrik Sandberg and Samuel Adrian Massey, and publishes DIS Magazine, a twist on a lifestyle and fashion magazine. It is now composed of Lauren Boyle, Solomon Chase, Marco Roso and David Toro.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bobbi Salvör Menuez</span> American actor and model

Bobbi Salvör Menuez is an American actor and model & founder of the Luck You artist collective in New York City. Menuez appeared in such films as Something in the Air, The Breakup Girl and White Girl and appeared in the Amazon Video series I Love Dick. They have been a curator at MoMA PS1.

Colin Self is an American artist, composer, and choreographer. Their work centers around ideas of gender, communication, and consciousness, and their practice includes social relationships and digital technologies. They gained attention as a member of the avant-drag collective Chez Deep 2012–2014 performing in New York City, Miami, and Glasgow with members Alexis Penney, Bailey Stiles, Hari Nef, and Sam Banks. They are a member of the electronic music trio Holly Herndon, which supported Radiohead on their 2016 European tour.

GenderFail is a publishing and programming initiative created by Be Oakley that seeks to encourage projects from an intersectional, queer perspective. Many projects are tied together by the slogan "Radical Softness as a Boundless Form of Resistance". The press is currently based out of Brooklyn, New York. In an April 16, 2020 article "Our Favorite New Yorkers on the Best Things in All Five Boroughs" in Conde Nast Traveler, curator Legacy Russell mentioned GenderFail as one of their favorite things in New York.

Kadak Collective is a collaborative group of female artists from South Asia, who work on graphic art projects, including zines, publications, and other forms of story-telling. Its members include filmmaker and webcomic creator Aarthi Parthasarthy, comic artist and illustrator Kaveri Gopalakrishnan.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 James-Wilson, Matthew (June 2, 2017). "8-Ball Loves Community, Hates Capitalism". VICE. Retrieved May 17, 2020.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Natale, Brittany (April 6, 2018). "8-Ball Community Keeps Downtown's Artistic Spirit Alive". The Village Voice. Retrieved May 17, 2020.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Bertisch, Barbie (Spring 2019). "8-Ball Community: Everyone Is Welcome". Love Injection Fanzine (45): 18–25. Retrieved May 17, 2020.
  4. ↑ Meier, Allison (June 28, 2013). "The Rise of the Artist Newsstand". Hyperallergic. Retrieved May 17, 2020.
  5. 1 2 Gaylord, Kristen (March 10, 2016). "The Newsstand Community at MoMA". MoMA.org. Retrieved May 17, 2020.
  6. 1 2 [FLVMoMA] Lele Saveri on his installation "The Newsstand" on YouTube
  7. ↑ Sharp, Daniel (November 16, 2018). "On working with your neighborhood". The Creative Independent. Retrieved May 17, 2020.
  8. ↑ Fairfax, Kennedy (October 20, 2018). "8 Ball Community at ON CANAL". Office Magazine. Retrieved May 17, 2020.
  9. 1 2 "Your chance to tell a story with the 8-Ball Community". EV Grieve. November 15, 2019. Retrieved May 17, 2020.
  10. ↑ "8-Ball Community Inc.: Supporting artists through publishing and broadcasting". Fractured Atlas. Retrieved May 17, 2020.
  11. 1 2 "8-Ball TV". FeiraPlana.org. Archived from the original on February 3, 2018. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  12. 1 2 3 "TOKYO ART BOOK FAIR 2019". Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo . Retrieved May 17, 2020.
  13. ↑ "Making Zines With Lele Saveri". whitney.org. Archived from the original on May 3, 2020. Retrieved May 17, 2020.
  14. ↑ "Free Zine Workshops: The Newsstand x 8-Ball Zines x Teens". MoMA.org. Retrieved May 17, 2020.
  15. ↑ "Free Zine-Making Workshop with 8-Ball Community". aperture.org. Retrieved May 17, 2020.
  16. 1 2 Silveria, Paige (September 21, 2018). "6 reasons you can't miss the 2018 ny art book fair". i-D . Retrieved May 17, 2020.
  17. ↑ Bay Gachot, Sarah (March 16, 2018). "Los Angeles's Art Book and Zine Fair Scene Is Booming, Here's a Shortlist". Hyperallergic. Retrieved May 17, 2020.
  18. ↑ "Radical Reading Room: 3 May to 27 Oct 2019". studiomuseum.org. March 4, 2019. Retrieved May 17, 2020.
  19. 1 2 3 "8-BALL IN ITALIA". NERO Editions. January 30, 2019. Retrieved May 17, 2020.
  20. ↑ Braun, Maximilian (December 4, 2013). "A Brooklyn Newsstand at The Standard Miami". Widewalls. Retrieved May 17, 2020.
  21. ↑ "TAYLOR LOGUE & ZACK GRASSO, ARTISTS/MUSICIANS". Cult Factory. April 3, 2015. Archived from the original on September 7, 2019. Retrieved May 17, 2020.
  22. 1 2 Kenny, Taya (April 27, 2017). "The best independent NYC radio stations". Time Out New York. Retrieved May 17, 2020.
  23. ↑ "Dis Is A Test Radio Ep. 01". Mixcloud. Retrieved May 17, 2020.
  24. ↑ "Best Online Radio Station finalists". mora.fm. Archived from the original on April 2, 2019. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  25. ↑ "INAUGURATION 81 BY ALDO TAMBELLINI, 8-BALL TV". Atelier Impopulaire. January 20, 2017. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  26. 1 2 3 4 Amoako, Aida (October 2017). "Public access TV's radical resurgence". TANK Magazine. Retrieved May 17, 2020.
  27. 1 2 3 Lynch, Dennis (October 2017). "Tuning into spirit of public-access TV". amNY. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  28. ↑ "8-Ball TV Guide (2019.03.11-23)", 8-Ball TV Guide, New York, March 11, 2019, retrieved May 17, 2020
  29. 1 2 Street, Mikelle (November 6, 2019). "these young artists celebrate the legacy of downtown legend jim walrod". i-D. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  30. ↑ Gomez, Jade (November 7, 2017). "New York's 8-Ball Community to host Kurdish Film & Cultural Festival". The Fader . Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  31. ↑ "Affinity Journal, Issue 1 (April 2017)". Printed Matter. Retrieved May 17, 2020.
  32. ↑ Estiler, Keith (May 22, 2020). "COME TEES and 8-Ball Launch Artist Collaborations for COVID-19 Relief". HYPEBEAST. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  33. ↑ Sunnucks, Jack (May 22, 2020). "8-ball celebrates its anniversary with an 8 month fundraiser". i-D. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.