Join us for Dirty Signs at the Flux House on Governors Island from September 23 - October 1 with Think Tank activities and artist reception on Saturday, September 30 from 1-5pm.
Even though dirt is where our food comes from, is where our bodies get buried when we die, and is literally everywhere we go, it is not represented yet in the emoji universe. Somehow we have emojis for unicorns, pufferfish, poodles and Santa Claus, but not dirt! Dirty Time is planning to try to correct this oversight and will be submitting a proposal for a dirt emoji to the Unicode foundation in 2024.
Dirty Signs is an exhibition of international artist responses to the idea of emojifying dirt, featuring works by B a r b a r a Schneider, Daniel S. DeLuca, Ed Woodham, Gustavo Gómez-Mejía, IPRAMENE, Lee Tusman, Liz Nofziger, M Greenwald, Maia Liebeskind, Noelle Salaun, Renée Crowley, Sarah Dahlinger and Vidya Giri in 2D, 3D and 4D formats. Dirty Time will also be collecting visitor suggestions for a potential dirt emoji through a “think tank” installation within the exhibition, and several participatory activities on September 30.
Dirty Signs runs from September 23 - October 1 2023, with a rousing closing event including live performances by Sarah Dahlinger and Ed Woodham for the exhibition on September 30 from 1-5pm.
B a r b a r a Schneider
My name is B a r b a r a Schneider (b.1966), I am a designer, illustrator, and multiple-disciplinary visual artist and enjoy Social Media Communication as well as EMOJI - messages. I have great passion for toys & children´s literature, fashion, and photography. Some themes of my independent artworks are re-design, childhood, and the discussion of humanity, our modern life, and “our world cultures”.
Daniel S. DeLuca @danielsdeLuca
Daniel S. DeLuca is an artist, designer, and AI researcher currently working on site-responsive projects exploring the overlaps between art, science, and machine learning.
Ed Woodham @ed.woodham
Ed Woodham is a filthy X-rated elder Southern queer. Regarded unchaste, he/they is a conceptual artist, educator, producer, and curator entangled in a mélange of grimy NYC activities for over 45+ years.
Gustavo Gómez-Mejía @gustavo.gomez.mejia
Gustavo Gómez-Mejía is a media scholar and creative research practitioner. He studies digital cultures as a "chiffonnier" (a ragpicker) by coĺlecting screenshots and valuable semiotic dirt on the Internet. He was born in Bucaramanga (Colombia) and works at the University of Tours (France).
IPRAMENE @IPRAMENE
Ipramène (Ipram) describes herself as "an Afro-Haitian woman obsessed with creation". She explores different media and techniques to create her works (painting, drawing, sculpture, mixed media, video). With spontaneous gestures, she creates her works almost with a sense of urgency, a way of better registering her emotions. What really interests her is the creative process, not the end result. says Ipramene, "The act of creating is vital to me. Creation has become an obsession for me. I used to create to become an artist, now I create to exist.
Each of her creations is a fragment of her "Pilgrimage" project.
"Pèlerinage is a huge project, not an artistic project, but rather a project of life, of existence. This project explores existence, life as a kind of prayer that I seek to answer, to capture its essence through creation (through gestures, words, sounds, forms, visual elements). This project combines freedom and madness. a journey towards the unknown and paradoxically a return to the source to find oneself. This pilgrimage is a space created to sew existence together." Ipramène
Lee Tusman @leeetusman
I am an artist, programmer, organizer, and dirt maker. My understanding is based on my 4 decades of experience making it, informed by my family's yiddish-inflected understanding of the term "drek."
Liz Nofziger @nofzilla
Liz Nofziger has been actively creating, gathering, cultivating, and rearranging dirt since her rural childhood in Southern Indiana.
M Greenwald @miagreenwald
I'm an artist who is also also a farm worker on a small organic no-till vegetable farm. I'm coming into close contact with dirt every day, experienced through my body and simple hand tools. I am covered in dirt at the end of the day like a second skin. Maybe I am a dirt emoji.
Maia Liebeskind maipai0
I have lots of fun making digital art about non-digital subjects, and I think making an emoji of dirt is the perfect project to translate that onto! My primary art form is video, where I collage mini-dv tapes, screen recordings, found footage, text messages, ext. I am really interesting in how we relate to our physicality as the world becomes increasingly more online, and love making art on the subject.
Noelle Salaun @the.unusual.variety
Noelle Salaun is a multimedia artist based in Queens, NY. Despite coming from and returning to dirt as we all do, Salaun sees herself as uniquely qualified to create a dirt emoji since she has personally tasted its grit between her teeth.
Renée Crowley @_reneecrowley_
Renee has been dedicated to building strong communities (and soils!) through the art and science of composting for over a decade. This work has included managing public space composting programs, leading workshops, and educating NYers about soil health. She also works in ceramics which has recently included experimentation with foraged clays/soils.
Sarah Dahlinger @sarahdahlinger
Sarah loves a theme and finds the process of creatively riffing on a simple idea to be most fruitful and fulfilling.
Vidya Giri @vidgiri
vidya is from houston, tx, a place where she feels inspired to make things and is able to experience dirt in its many forms.
Dirty Time is:
Hey There Kapplow, savorer of juices. Walker Tufts, planter of faces.
Credits:
Dirty Time logo font by Be Oakely, based on hand-lettered protest signs by HUGOGYRL