Pittsburgh Artist, Diane Samuels: A Noiseless patient spider @ Kim Foster Gallery in NY

"Samuels’ drawing The Odyssey of a patch of street exactingly renders a 21 x 310-feet stretch of scarred asphalt onto a 92 x 33-inch sheet of paper. With the help of a magnifying glass, you discover that the drawing is made from handwriting that word for word transcribes the entire text of Homer’s Odyssey, the epic poem of war and homecoming. The cracked asphalt is the street in front of Samuels’ home. The text winds its way down one side of the sheet of paper returning up the other side, back to her home, and ends with the text’s call to bring a halt to the great leveler, War.

Before beginning to write, Samuels affixed a photo-mask of the street’s crevices and potholes over the paper. After the text was written, she peeled away the mask removing some of the text. Where the text was destroyed, the drawing was created. Accompanying the drawing is an archive of the lost and destroyed memories made from the text-covered photo-masks.

The patch of street is the same small slice of Sampsonia Way, that inspired this major Samuels's work you might have seen at The Mattress Factory.

"Diane Samuels lives on a small alley in Pittsburgh that was originally populated by immigrants in the 19th and early 20th centuries and is now the home to several exiled writers in the City of Asylum/Pittsburgh project, of which she was a co-founder. Samuels will be participating in the exhibitions “Neighbo[u]rhood” curated by Georgina Jackson, independent curator from Ireland, at the Mattress Factory opening in May and “Gertrude’s/LOT” curated by Eric Shiner, Acting Director & The Milton Fine Curator of Art, at The Warhol Museum opening in September."

Diane Samuels
A Noiseless patient spider

April 28 - June 4, 2011
Reception: Thursday, April 28, 6 - 8 pm

Open Tuesday through Saturday 11am to 6pm

Kim Foster Gallery529 West 20th Street
New York, NY 10011

City Of Asylum Working To build North Side Literary Center

Story about City Of Asylum on NewsHour

Been meaning to post something about the efforts to expand on the City Of Asylum project which is near the Mattress Factory.

The total cost of the project is estimated at $3.3 million. The Heinz Endowments, the Richard King Mellon Foundation and The Hillman Foundation have committed $1.5 million in grant money toward the expansion, Mr. Reese said.

"We're combining all of these buildings into one building," he said. "We're hoping to break ground over the summer."

Plans call for building a bookstore, a performance space, rooms for writing workshops, two apartments for writers and a cafe. The new facility will allow the organization to host more events and offer additional programs to the community. Currently, the organization holds one reading each month.

Read more about it

Follow the progress and other news with Sampsonia Way Magazine.