Jeffu Warmouth

Kaunas Photo Festival

Sep 4, 2009: I am currently in Kaunas, Lithuania to present artwork at Kaunas Photo, the largest photo festival in the Baltic states.

• ‘K’ from The Orange Diary blogged about my artist talk in her post Kaunas Photo ‘09 : day two
• Photo Kudra posts a portrait of Charismatic Bostonian Jeffu Warmouth
• Another Lithuanian blogger on the Spudnik Video. Read in English (Google Translation)

Untitled Art Project

I recently auditioned for Bravo TV’s reality show Untitled Art Project. Unfortunately I didn’t make it to the next round, and I can’t reveal anything about the casting process (strict contract). But the press caught up to me before I became an official contestant, so here’s a few articles that may be of interest:

• Soterios Johnson and Carolina Miranda, Can Bravo Pick the Next Top Artist?, WNYC-FM (New York’s NPR station), July 20, 2009. Great radio segment. I chat about my reasons for wanting to audition, and we also hear from Leroy “King of Art”, who I waited in line with for about 6 hours. Then Carolina Miranda gives a run down of the game show I co-created, Art Show Down

• Carolina Miranda, Casting Bravo’s Untitled Art Reality Show, WNYC Blogs, July 20, 2009. This is the culture article that accompanies the radio segment
• Sarah Douglas, Taking a Shot at Reality, ArtInfo.com, July 20, 2009. Article on the casting process, Jeffu featured in the Photo Gallery section
• Aneta Glinkowska, Sara Jessica Parker’s Untitled Art Project NY Casting, NY Art Beat, July 18, 2009. There’s me, at 1:18 on the video, in my Art Show Down t-shirt

JeffuBurger & JFC

I was recently featured in NOURISHMENT: New work by Jeffu Warmouth and Ellen Wetmore, an exhibition at the Art Institute of Boston, 700 Beacon Street near Kenmore Square, in conjunction with the Boston Cyberarts Festival. My contributions are JeffuBurger and JFC: competing fast-food franchises as room-sized interactive video installations. The show is free and open to the public.

(photo by Fred Levy)

Reviews of NOURISHMENT

Cate McQuaid, “A Vegas-style staging of the scripture”, Boston Globe, April 22, 2009

Fun, interactive art: Puns, parodies, and jokes have always been Jeffu Warmouth’s mainstay. Warmouth’s interactive video installation brings the viewer into the middle of a fast-food war between “Jeffu Burger” and “JFC.” Life-size videos of Warmouth in uniform, ready to serve up the shakes and fries, stand at the ready as the viewer uses a touch screen to order. One or the other will prepare the meal, as his adversary complains. The food is crazy – one server dons onion-ring chain mail to protect himself from the slings and arrows of his business – but usually there’s sly social commentary at work. It’s a whopper of an installation.

Greg Cook, “Our digital landscape,” Boston Phoenix, April 28, 2009

Warmouth’s video installation is a satiric face-off between McDonald’s and Kentucky Fried Chicken joints. You order off interactive computer menus that feature a mix of conceptual and absurdist gags. One restaurant prepares your order (which often seems to involve Warmouth dumping a bucket of chickenish stuff on his head) while the other heckles (that guy will put anything in his burgers). A serious-silly joke about fast food and conceptual art, it’s a hoot.

Sebastian Smee, “In cyberarts, technology overrides emotion”, Boston Globe, May 1, 2009
This is an awesome review; I’ve never been called the WORST of anything by an art critic before!

Sometimes being an art critic has an undeniably comic dimension… The best curated group show I saw as part of the [Boston Cyberarts] festival was “Syntax” at the Photographic Resource Center. The worst was probably “Nourishment” at the Art Institute of Boston (reviewed in the Globe’s Galleries column by Cate McQuaid, April 22), which features the artists Jeff Warmouth and Ellen Wetmore.

Many thanks to everyone who attended the opening reception, especially if you decided to wear a paper JeffuBurger hat. And HUGE thanks to the people that made the installation possible:

• Fred Levy, who went far beyond his curator duty helping me build, install & troubleshoot
• Jim Manning, who spent 3 very full days helping me build & install. I owe you beers for life!
• Paul Concemi, who did lighting & videography for all the video content — thanks a million.
• Jeff Andree, who did product photography that wound up on the JeffuBurger menu boards.
• Brendon Wood, who composed music for JeffuBurger and JFC — the sound of fast food!
• And countless others who helped with the video shoots or installation: Sean English, Megan White, Rob Coshow, Alden Dalia… Sorry if I missed anyone, you know who you are. Cheers!