Art Loisaida Foundation

A Thin Green Line was a community gardener’s project in 2000. It was developed and written by an Artistas de Loisaida collaborative. Diana Signa Klein, James Jiler, Pam Pier, Carolyn Ratcliffe and Sylvia Syracuse. It was presented at the American Community Garden Coalition at Columbia University in 2001. This project was made possible from the Manhattan Community Arts fund, the City of New York Department of Cultural Affairs and Citizens Committee of New York City.

This project is currently being revisited as a publication in the near future.

This show presents 10 mixed media pieces of the New York based multidisciplinary artist, Anna Pasztor. Her work is abstract and inspired by everyday life and current events.

Even if she has a predisposition towards abstract forms of expression – as she is a former choreographer, many of her pieces have a narrative structure.

Four of the larger works were created during the previous presidency and they are creative reflections of some of the topics discussed widely at the time, such as misogyny and the separation of children.

The smaller pieces were created after the COVID pandemic started.

In April of 2020 she joined the NowNetArts LAB group. This group consisted mainly of musicians and sound artists. She provided visual materials during the group’s weekly public, live

presentations on Zoom. During these presentations she performed live painting and projected her videos. After the presentations ended, she continued painting the pieces, prolonging and transforming the original rhythms and textures that had generated the initial versions. That’s how the “Music Improvisation” series was born.

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Artist Statement

I am a multidisciplinary artist currently working on mixed-media and interactive multimedia projects. I was born and raised in Budapest behind the Iron Curtain. My involvement in the arts started through theatre. As a former performer, I am never completely detached from my imaginary audience. At first, I have an analytical approach to narrative structures, an attitude originated by my academic studies in literature. However, I tend to express myself in a more abstract way by rhythms and textures – an obvious reminiscence of my former life as a choreographer. Living in different cultures increased my predilection for mixed forms of expression. I am constantly searching for my own artistic language that I find meaningful in the context I live in.

Theater gave me the key to understanding how to dissect human relationships. Dance helped me to come within reach of the abstract meaning of creative work and the infinite ways to present the human body. I have always been eclectic, enjoying, and mixing together apparently mismatching peoples, meals, music, and films finding in them the occult possibility, and secret longing for unification. I am seduced by the infinite possibilities of digital work. At the same time, I need to return to work in real space with real materials as I miss that sensory experience. Hence, my process goes through several artforms sometimes in the same project.

Being an immigrant, the “Other” since I left Budapest in 1991, has certainly influenced my vision about the human condition.

Anna Pasztor

Upcoming Exhibit November 6th, 2021 to January 3rd 2022

THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY

CRYSTAL FIELD, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

PRESENTS

JUST ACT NORMAL

AN ART LOISAIDA VISUAL ARTS EXHIBIT

Artist Application for exhibiting due by October 22, 2021. Download for more details.

Many thanks to Citizen’s Committee for New York City for funding our Food Safety Program in partnership with Campos Community Garden. This allows the gardeners to produce more organic vegetables for 33 households and share a bi-weekly donation of fresh produce to Trinity Lower East Side Lutheran’s Shelter and Food for the Homeless soup kitchen.

OCTOBER 1st. Jim Flynn on harp. OCTOBER 2nd Anna Pasztor jewelry workshop.

OCTOBER 5th. FALLing for Art & Poetry – Carolyn Ratcliffe and Lissa Moira co-creative directors presented works by six artists, performers, poets: Aziza, Izzy Church, Jonathon Fox Powers, Paige Cutrona, Bina Sharif, Kevin Martin.

Open Arts LES (Oct 1-10) an opportunity to explore world-renowned institutions, vibrant community hubs, and unique small arts organizations that together make up one of the most creative neighborhoods in New York City! http://www.fabnyc.org

LUNGS Harvest Arts Festival, 10th Anniversary (September 24 – October 3rd) Art Loisaida Events are part of LUNGS Harvest Arts Festival. http://www.lungsnyc.org

In the fall of 2021 LUNGS hosts the TENTH Annual LUNGS Harvest Arts Festival. This 10-day-long arts and cultural event is staged in more than 30 community gardens. The festival is FREE to the public and features dance, music, theater, spoken word, and much more.

ALF’s Garden Stories project 2021 worked with 3rd graders at Childrens Workshop School to plant a traditional Native American 3 Sisters Garden. They went on to explore Lenape bandolier designs by creating their own individual stoles based on exploring Campos Community Garden plantings for inspiration. Instructors Montana Leonard, Gladys Feliciano and Carolyn Ratcliffe introduced the children to the concepts that this area was inhabited by the Lenape Native Americans before the European settlers arrived. We explored planting practices as to how corn squash and beans planted together compliment one another. The art project explored how the Lenape designs for their clothing decoration was inspired by nature and replicated plants and animals that were part of their everyday life. Each child created their own bandolier stole which they took home with them. We also engaged the children to write and draw their experiences in the garden in notebooks provided by ALF for the project.