For Immediate Release ANNE ARDEN MCDONALD: INSTALLATIONS AND SELF PORTRAITS
PUBLISHED BY AUTONOMY AND ALCHEMY PRESS, 2004
 With texts by Leslie Findlen, Wanda Strukus and Anne Arden McDonald 
Imagine that as you sit in a chair, tiny wet feathers sprout in the palms of your hands, and you fold your arms and hear the rustle of giant wings. Testing these wings, you feel them pull against the stone weight of your body, lifting you off the ground, and you feel the wind against your face as you move through an open window and up into the clouds. “I have many fantasies that I cannot achieve in life as I have known it–being able to fly is the main one–and am frustrated by the limitations of an earthbound body,” writes photographer Anne Arden McDonald, who for 15 years, beginning at the age of 15, created a series of self portraits – “not just about who we are, but who we could be — the selves we sometimes encounter in our dreams. We share the dilemma of being both flesh and spirit–living in a body with a mind that dreams. I mythologize and narrate the places and objects around me, and so I survive via imagination in a world that has paved over some of its magic.” Using as backdrops the interior and exterior spaces of abandoned buildings, McDonald created installations and private performances for her camera. The self portraits were constructed through various rituals that explored her relationship to the world – a combination of theater, daydreams and psychotherapy. The resulting images have recently been published in ANNE ARDEN MCDONALD, INSTALLATIONS AND SELF PORTRAITS (New York: Autonomy and Alchemy Press, 2004). “The photographs serve as visual metaphors for the many struggles we all face each day: the tensions and balances, the ability to keep hope alive against obstacles, and living in a vulnerable way without feeling crushed,” said McDonald. “The images have a relationship to sculpture and installation art in the way I alter the spaces, and to theater and performance in the way I perform myself into existence. There is also a connection with spirituality and psychology because the images are full of introspective examination and seek answers to big questions.” Although selections from ANNE ARDEN MCDONALD, INSTALLATIONS AND SELF PORTRAITS have been previously featured in two books, eight exhibition catalogues, and more than 100 periodicals, the new publication marks the first time the entire series has been published as a book. Selections from the series have also been exhibited 143 times in 13 countries – during a 16- year period – in solo and group exhibitions in museums and galleries throughout the United States and abroad, including Bonnie Benrubi Gallery, Robin Rice Gallery, Tom Cugliani Gallery, Exit Art, Artists’ Space, and the Queens College Museum in New York; the Detroit Art Institute, the Houston Center for Photography; the Delaware Center for Contemporary Art in Wilmington; Fotofest in Houston; the Clement Gallery of the University of Toledo in Ohio; the Atlanta Photography Gallery; Moore College of Art and Design in Philadelphia; the Museum of Applied Arts in Budapest; Fotogalerie Wien in Vienna; the London Contemporary Art Fair; the American Cultural Center in Prague; In Focus Galerie in Cologne; and Melkweg Gallerie in Amsterdam. In addition, her work is in public and private collections, including those of the Houston Museum of Fine Art, the Detroit Art Institute, the Brooklyn Museum, the Denver Museum, and the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris. 
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Hardcover with dust jacket
12×13 inches, 100 pages, 40 duotones
Published by Autonomy and Alchemy Press, 2004
ISBN # 0-9745340-0-5 Available for 60$ retail, less 40% to stores– Contact: Anne Arden McDonald
Telephone: 718-418-5414 Address: 49 Bogart St. #21, Brooklyn NY 11206 E-mail: AnneM2605@aol.com Distribution probably available from Ingram in the future–“

Kenta was born in Kumamoto Japan and his work is included in the permanent research archive at the Asian American Arts Center in New York city.

Born in 22. 7. 1968 in Eisenstadt, 1995 Go to New York, 2001 Go to Berlin, 1991-1995 Study at Akademie der Bildenden Kuenste, Wien, 2000-2001 Studied at Whitney Museum of American Art, Independent Study Program, New York

Born in Osaka in 1973. MA of Kyoto University of Art and Design.

Artist Statement ; The main theme of her work is “scenery” but she does not mean drawing the real scenery. Instead, she tries to re-establish time and space within a given scenery in a most defined way. By looking at her drawing, one will be able to experience the emotion that the drawing projects. Also, she uses many materials for her works and this is because she applies specific material for specific work. She is one of the most hopeful young artists in Japan.

Andrea Cote is a multi-disciplinary visual artist and dancer living in New York. She has presented solo and collaborative installations and performances in Seattle, Miami, and New York, including Henry Street Settlement’s Abrons Arts Center and Jack the Pelican Presents (New York,) the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, as well as The Dorsch Gallery (Miami) and 911 Media Arts Center (Seattle). She received her MFA in Sculpture from SUNY Purchase in 2003 and performs with PURE (Public Urban Ritual Experiment.) In her work she questions the boundaries that have traditionally divided artistic disciplines, taking on multiple roles by using her own body as subject, object, and medium. For many years she worked as an artists’ model. These experiences informed her current work, in which she mediates the space between the world inside an artwork and the one in our bodies.

Born in Shikoku Island in Japan, 1981, Hiromi started drawing and painting when she was 4. The subject of Hiromi’s paintings is always an imaginary girl  with a textile-like pattern on her face. However, the main subject matter is the extreme emotion hidden behind the face.