Press in the Houston Chronicle

"The exuberant art they made in response combines performance, photography, video, writing and sculpture in a just-right mix of silly and smart."

Click on the third image to see Nancy as Michael Heizer at Sun Tunnels published in yesterday's edition of the newspaper.

On the road to Austin - One Swallow Doesn't Make a Summer

Our DVD will be screened in Austin the last week in May with a performance bypres Nancy Douthey on the closing weekend of the Art Week Austin festival (28th May). Press release follows.


Cook & Ruud announces One Swallow Doesn’t Make a Summer, an exhibition of new and site-specific work in four vacant commercial spaces and a park in downtown Austin. One swallow doesn’t make a summer

One Swallow Doesn't Make a Summer
April 20 – May 28, 2010
Installation locations: 210 Guadalupe, 416 W Cesar Chavez, 117 Lavaca, 233 W 2nd, Republic Square Park at 4th and Guadalupe

One Swallow Doesn’t Make a Summer, curated by Cook & Ruud, takes its title from a speech given by former Austin mayor Kirk Watson about the development of the 2nd Street District a decade ago as the project had barely begun to take flight. Watson asserted, “One swallow doesn’t make a summer, and not even a dozen [development] projects makes a Great Downtown.” Since then, aggressive development has transformed this neighborhood, once filled with empty warehouses and parking lots, into a new city center replete with wide, tree-lined sidewalks and well-manicured storefronts. An initial burst of economic hope filled these spaces with high-end design shops and restaurants. Although the imminent international economic crisis of 2008 did not leave all these businesses unaffected, ambitious development projects continue to reshape the neighborhood culturally and economically.

The recent history of this newly-minted neighborhood is both unique to Austin and relevant within a national context. Over the past two decades, countless U.S. cities have undertaken similar re-urbanization projects, and the recent economic crisis has left no city completely unchanged. Using vacant storefronts within Austin’s 2nd Street District as a platform, One swallow doesn’t make a summer brings together new and site-specific artworks to offer a variety of perspectives on the shifting cultural and economic landscape of this neighborhood and its relationship to a larger nation-wide experience.

Artists include Justin Boyd, Paul Druecke, Mads Lynnerup , Leslie Mutchler, Carlos Rosales-Silva, Barry Stone, and Jeff Williams, as well as the collaboratives Circulatory System , Nancy Douthey & Jacinda Russell, Michelle Marchesseault & Virginia Yount, and Skote.

Screenplay

Several people have mentioned to us that we should write a screenplay or book about this earthworks experience. We recently applied to a residency where we proposed this idea. Much to my embarrassment, our concluding sentence was:

"Thank you for considering the upcoming action/drama starring Cameron Diaz and Anne Hathaway written by the next Matt Damon and Ben Affleck."

Nancy and I had a serious conversation about who would be Matt Damon and/or Ben Affleck. Fortunately, the answers were obvious. She's Ben and I'm Matt. My rationale was that I have too many cousins that look like Matt so I must be related to him. She feels closer to Ben because of his relationship to J-Lo (we are all waiting to hear why).

Here's a photograph of my cousin Ben as Matt Damon (he prefers Ben Damon).

Texas Gallery Website

At last all the photographs are up on the Texas Gallery website. You can click on each image and its detail will appear. Thanks Molly! It looks great.

Nancy's MFA Show at the Blaffer Gallery

[the card that keeps on giving...]

Yay! Nancy's thesis show at University of Houston's Blaffer Gallery is up through the 24th April. Rachel Hooper, Associate Curator, writes: "In her performances and video installations, Nancy Douthey draws people into her meditations through repetition, interruption, and disobedient action, and with humor prompts them to question their assumptions."

Nine Swimming Pools (= trespassing at its finest). Our love for Ed Ruscha is undying.



Tammy Fay Baker is Nancy's alter ego. Check out all those screen printed fans and that pink rug!