Please visit or ‘like’ my Facebook page: The Venice Biennale Jenny Krasner Project
O.K., well, I massively apologize for being off the grid, but this endeavor has proven to be about one of the most difficult projects I have ever encountered in my life which is saying quite a lot! It was one thing, to put together the Indiegogo Campaign and raise the funds which was a 24/7, 45 day workout and for that, not only did I have a fabulous team of extraordinary assistants, but also, an extreme influx of support which blew me away and truly emotionally and financial made it possible to get through the next month and a half of creating the actual installation. Again, THANK YOU!!!!!! So, I’m starting you off with photographs of some of my fabulous intrepid + brave contributors in their Oh-so-Fab Jenny Krasner Venice Biennale Tee-Shirts! (Only a few remain (limited edition 150) at $100, send me an email if interested).
Lynette Chiang in front of the Damien Hurst signed to her by him for doing the Damien Hurst Spot Challenge!
Raymond Paretzky Selfie, Go Raymond!
Etiene and Rob Thuemmel looking très sportif in their Bad Dog and Bunny Tee’s!
Matt Wrbican, you TOTAL ROCK in your Bunny TEE!!!!! …and is that a Jenny Krasner welded Martini? YES IT IS! :-)
Give it up for AMY HERSH the famous flutist! Go Amy!
Mark Seski and Joanna Krasner ….SO GREAT!!! :-)
I have been told, that Social Media is something you disperse in small doses and regularly like a vitamin pill. Overdosing is not good and should be avoided. Unfortunately, my internet here in Venice is well, inconsistent to say the least. I have no phone, though 5 solid days of effort between myself, two assistants and AT+T could not get it to work. So, if you are REALLY interested….I’m going to start posting the installation “Diary of an Infatuation Junkie®” from inception to exhibition (real time, end date of Venice Biennale installation 14 October), but in order. This truly did me in. I sprained my ankle, I got trigger finger in my thumb, I trashed my back and have bruises on my knees….by the time I finished producing the piece, getting it to Venice and installing, I was a mess. On top of everything, my mother went into the hospital and it was seriously touch and go for two months in the middle of the Indiegogo Campaign. So basically I have been stressed out and working to the hilt, which, I would have to say, has probably produced the most important piece I have ever done in my life. Seriously, being given this opportunity and actually accomplishing this massive project I believe might even be the most pivotal point in my career.
One thing I learned hands down. I must be totally crazy to have taken this on all by myself. I’d have to say to anyone who asks me about this, “WARNING: The following artwork features stunts performed either by professionals or under the supervision of professionals. Accordingly, Jenny Krasner and the producers must insist that no one attempt to re-create or re-enact any stunt or activity performed in the documentation of this creation.” Look, I’m just warning you, this truly sucked every single particle of energy out of me but, I am beyond excited with the result. I honestly didn’t think I was going to be, up until the final moment, but when I finally saw it, I just cried, I was so relieved to have accomplished my vision. I don’t believe I could have done a better job if I was being commissioned, yet if I was, I think I would be able to walk now and I’d be home drinking Champagne, not still here in Venice 4 weeks later – keeping my eye on it, till I take it down and ship it home.… :-)
I found this diary entry I wrote while in the middle of this project. Besides everything else, I also was in the middle of fighting City Hall as my tooth cracked in half (could anything else go wrong!!!), and I was in pain, and our healthcare system, though it said it covers tooth crowns, only does, if you are missing HALF YOUR TEETH, really, not kidding, and if you are not, then your only option if you are broke, is to have it pulled, so I was sitting in a court room in a really awful place on Long Island to fight the good fight for all poor Americans. Well – I lost, but…..! Here is the entry….
John Carver! – So this is what you do when taking a break from changing corporate governance and ethically steering the world straight – hanging out in your Bad Dog Tee! Excellent John!
AUGUST 12, 2015
I DID get up at 5:30 a.m. and worked on the piece for a good three hours – not much – but I almost worked out a visual problem going on the right hand side. A chandelier was knocking into a poster ad on a Post No Bills wall I ripped off in Bushwick, Brooklyn – just too much stuff going on – took me that whole time to get it ‘close’ not perfect – still have to think about it. My image I’m working on is almost 20 gigabytes. If you’ve ever emailed an image, it’s usually about 65 KB, 1000 KB’s are 1megabyte and 1000MB’s is 1gigabyte. So you see, it’s insane. My image is 10 feet high and 42 feet wide. Usually, you can work small and then blow it up, but I can’t do that, because I’m changing the size of all the separate parts so they all have to be worked on separately, so I have to work at the actual size, or when I print it, I’ll have some parts very pixelated and others not. The layers are piling up so I have to constantly PURGE the history PURGE PURGE PURGE PURGE PURGE, or the computer keeps crashing.
(O.K., so in real time now – after I wrote that, even though I backed up every file, everyday, just one day, I let it go. My Hard Drive crashed with four, 12 hour days of work on it. I FedEx’d it back to OWC (who I love, but in this case, the drive was only 2 yrs old + they were not liable, they did give me a new one though, la-de-dah), so my only option after three days of working at it, was to either pay $3500- $4500, no kidding, I am not kidding, that’s what it costs to get your crap back if the drive REALLY goes, not ‘sort of’ goes….OR….and this is what I did, I REDID ALL THE WORK. Oh yes, in this time crunch, I actually spent 4 more days redoing all the work. Oh yup, I was cooked, but a carried on…..).
AUGUST 31, 2015
I am completely drained.
I am on the plane to Venice and I am just exhausted.
I worked up till 11pm last night to finish the piece.
The entire work, 10 feet high, forty-two feet long laid out on the driveway in Melville, New York…my moms driveway. Nothing sexy about that at all, Suburbia Long Island — my mom, 85 just had an operation her doctors told me she would not recover from, yet she did….after two months of care, these past weeks, she walked out of her house and perused the work I’ve done….”THAT WORKS…THAT DOESN’T”!!!! So great to get feed-back from your mom who is an astounding and accomplished artist herself.
This has been a trying three months.
Doing a crowdfunding campaign is 24/7 work. I read it was hard, but until you do it, you really have no idea. You can’t do anything else if you are going to accomplish your goal, on top of that, mom in hospital, my tooth broke in half, my thumb from working so hard got ‘trigger finger’ – I can’t bend it, …I can go on, it’s really too boring. And all through this, on my my own, creating and building a piece that large, two times the size of my apartment! And I have to get it to Venice……and a first, that large AND sending it around the world….. I wish I was happier, I wish I was excited…. But I am just so tired. I’m sure after a few days I will be better, but I have been working since the sun rises and after the sun sets without a break for months. I really needed a corporate sponsor and a full time assistant, and….no other responsibilities or problems. But, well, none of that – life gets in the way and you just have to plow through it. I am not happy. I often think it’s too bad I didn’t have such wonderful things happen to me when I was younger and had oodles of energy and didn’t have so many physical problems — but well, that wasn’t in the cards. Now that someone believed in me finally, to give me such a tremendous opportunity, I barely have it in me to make it happen, but I did. I DID IT. And now, now I’m spent. Well, let’s see what happens….right now I just feel awful – gained weight from just grabbing whatever I bothered to stick in the fridge that I didn’t have to cook; there was no time…..stopped going to the gym – no time —– but I’m on my way to Venice and my dear friends have all sent emails cheering me on – they are so wonderful. Nothing would really matter to me if it wasn’t for my friends, because well, frankly, no one else gives a damn, really — and I have the most wonderful exceptional and passionate friends, I love them so much. I do believe, I am one of the luckiest people in the world, I know I am. But, I just wish I felt it. I am hoping I just need some sleep. I am not at all satisfied with the work I did. I needed six months, to rent a space to house it, hang it, work on it up on a wall with an assistant. Instead, I moved everything out of my moms living room, took it over as my studio so I could take care of her, and built it there, working on it whole, on the driveway and in the garage — no, I am not happy — to me, it is not done – It doesn’t feel finished. But – well, it’s bloody huge, and maybe, when you do something that big it doesn’t need to be the same as making a piece that is 30″ x 40″ inches — maybe that is just something else. As I mentioned, I have never done this before and it goes up on the 9th so who knows, maybe I’ll changed my mind. I am just so shot — and I just wish I had more time and money, but, well, who doesn’t. :-)
Xoxo, Jenny
