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  • MOTHERING / Nina A. Isabelle

    HOME ABOUT PROJECTS THREE PHASE CONTACT SEARCH More... MOTHERING NINA A. ISABELLE, EVER Z. PEACOCK, & SYLVIA ​ ROSEKILL PERFORMANCE ART FARM ROSENDALE, NY JUNE 3, 2017 MOTHERING looks at a child's nonverbal perception of the unspoken or hidden in relation to the improbability of a hierarchal god or mother. Multilayered family video and sound are projected onto a quasi-defunct Airstream trailer behind the south barn at Rosekill Performance Art Farm while Mother and Son perform with gestural sound-loops and shrouded interpretive movement.

  • Nina A. Isabelle / The Giant Weed Web at Rosekill Performance Art Farm

    HOME ABOUT PROJECTS THREE PHASE CONTACT SEARCH More... THE GIANT WEED WEB IV SOLDIER'S F.A.G. (FEMINIST ART GROUP) at ROSEKILL SEPTEMBER 2016 ​ Feminist Art Group founder IV Castellanos of IV Soldiers Gallery curates a group of artists at Rosekill Performance Farm in Rosendale , NY for a weekend of building and performance. Elizabeth Lamb, Kaia Gilje, Amanda Hunt, Lorene Bouboushian, Nina Isabelle, Quinn Dukes, Anya Liftig, IV Castellanos, Jill McDermid, Claribel Jolie Pichardo.

  • CONTACT | nina-isabelle

    HOME ABOUT PROJECTS THREE PHASE CONTACT SEARCH More... CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE TO NINA A. ISABELLE'S QUARTERLY EMAIL TO CONTACT NINA A. ISABELLE USE THE MESSAGE FORM BELOW: Email sent to Nina A. Isabelle Send

  • IMAGINED PERFORMANCE STORYTIME | nina-isabelle

    HOME ABOUT PROJECTS THREE PHASE CONTACT SEARCH More... IMAGINED PERFORMANCE STORYTIME WITH IV CASTELLANOS Imagined Performance written by Nina Isabelle and read live on Instagram by IV Castellanos @iv_castellanos Para\\el Performance Space February 12, 2021 READ BY IV CASTELLANOS: You will be guided through a sequence of events that have been systematically untethered from any and all singular, multiple, or quantifiable physical locations. Any and all astral, psychic, temporal, and somatic pins have been removed from the fabric of time. All known and unknown extradimensions will be accessible to you. Some of the events may feel familiar to you. You might recognize the radiator in this space. You might be familiar with the sound of my voice or the way this space expands and contracts at will. Sometimes this space is as large as a destroyed production room of an old abandoned textile factory with remains of broken equipment The person sat down. The seated person had an idea and hoped to untangle it by sitting down. They started to speak out loud- "I have an idea and I want to sit down." They didn't say the next part out loud but only thought it to themself inside their own quiet mind - "I'm not sure where to start." The next part involves the person discussing with themselves what they believe they know about three things; beginnings, middles, and ends. A lot of time goes by. The person sits and thinks. ​ Hello. Welcome to Imagined Performance. My name is IV Castellanos and today I will be reading a performance imagined by Nina Isabelle. This performance starts right now: at 8:17 pm on February 12, 2021 and will end precisely at 8:32 pm. All participants are asked to please defocus their perception using whatever breathing or other techniques they find useful. Be with your laptops but not of them. Hold your phones loosely or not at all. Connect through disconnecting. Believe that you know what this means. I will continue speaking during your process. Please know that it is not necessary for you to understand what I am saying. I am moving my mouth. I am vibrating my vocal cords in a certain way that I have found useful. There are many sounds happening where I am. I can hear traffic. A radiator is hissing. Sometimes people's boots are stomping up and down staircases. The walls here are thin. The sound of passersby breathing and conversing and slogging through cold, ice, and snow. While I continue to speak, please list the sounds you notice in your environment. Speak these sounds out loud to yourself where you are now. In this way, we can be together through our differences. You may whisper, yell, or use any variety of tone or volume you choose. As a disclaimer, please know that I will be recording you through an invisible and unreal mechanism. In order to indicate that you agree, please either respond or remain unresponsive. Please continue to focus on the sounds of your environment and continue to speak them out loud. I will now begin to describe the performance I am sitting here at Parallel Performance Space in Brooklyn, NY. I am speaking into the camera on my computer. Here in the space with me, are sixteen audience members. They are each wearing a new mask prototype made of woven atmospheric particles interlaced through a selective ionic process that traps virus particles using infra-aural radio webs emitted by the human ear. This new technology makes it possible for us to once again be together in small spaces, to hug one another, and sit next to each other with our knees and elbows periodically touching by accident as we move. Everyone here is silently focused on the performance, blinking and slowly shifting their posture. They are listening to the space and my voice. Their phones have all been silenced. Now they are watching me light a candle. Some of them are nervous because the flame of the candle is reaching all the way up to the ceiling. There is a thin ribbon of fire with a black smoke tip that is drawing something out on the ceiling with a line of soot. Some of the audience members are acting as if they are not surprised or nervous. They're keeping their faces very still and devoid of expression. Some of them are trying to photograph the tall ribbon of flame with their phones. One person makes a short video for their Instagram story. Some others are looking back and forth at one another, wondering what will happen and waiting. The symbol drawn on the ceiling by flame is so far unrecognizable. It might be a slanted reflected cursive letter Q, an off kilter house, or the runic shape of Perthro reversed. No one can tell. For a while, people watch and wonder. Time passes. A thick hemp rope unfurls down from the ceiling and drops down to the floor with a heavy thud. At this point, a person comes into the space from the street through the front door, a latecomer. They're trying to be small, silent and unnoticed out of politeness for the performance. Right now, as I'm speaking, this person is sitting down in the corner trying to appear quickly as if they are being observant and contemplative and they're pretending not to notice this reference to them. They want to appear as if they know what is happening. They are also wearing the new mask prototype. I want them to feel comfortable. Now I will play back for you the sounds I have been recording of you speaking at home. Please listen closely: ​ SPEAKING SOUNDS Nina Isabelle 00:00 / 04:52 While this loud sound is playing, I place a large transparent vat of diesel fuel in the center of the space. It is a beautiful transparent pink fluid. People are stunned at its beauty. How can such a toxic substance be so beautiful? Everyone wonders. The ribbon of flame is still tickling the ceiling. I use my hand to bend it down toward the vat of diesel. The black tip of smoke connects with the surface of the fluid. Some people seem nervous because diesel fuel is flammable, however not combustible. Many people are not aware of this distinction. The ribbon of flame slowly dips into the vat and begins to grow in size. People are squeezing their faces in fear and inhaling through their clenched teeth. Some are starting to shield their faces and ears with their hands. No one heads for the door. The intensity of the fire ribbon grows and grows until finally a figure emerges from the pink flaming liquid. It's a full size human wearing a green robe. The robed diesel person floats toward the radiator and, crouching down, they begin to turn the knob, opening the radiator further and further and further. A glowing purple ring of light grows with each turn. Once the purple ring of light reaches six feet in diameter, I blow out the candle. I walk into the purple ring of light, stand dramatically frozen for a moment, turn, and reach for the person closest to me to join me and they do. The person is wearing a thick wool plaid skits and has a large pile of blond curls stacked up on top of their head. They have a felt cloak with a large golden leaf broach pinned to their lapel. Underneath this, they're wearing a neoprene shirt - a rash guard like surfer's wear with a giant plastic zipper. Together we enter the portal and vanish. The green robed figure takes out a bucket of grey paint and a paint brush and, crouching down slowly, they begin to paint the plywood floor. They are groaning and wailing and complaining loudly about the floor, about how many times they have had to do this in the past and how each time, it never seems to matter. Someone always spills taffy or blood or resin and it always needs to be scraped up or sanded or covered over. They continue to paint the floor and cry. This lasts for over twenty minutes. Their tears sizzle as they drip and mix with the grey paint. Tiny smolders of atomized paint-tears begin to float throughout the room with a small being encapsulated in each floating speck. They all cry out and their own tiny tears begin to rain down on the performance attendees. The diesel fumes mix with the tear droplets and the people begin to feel light headed and nauseous. Some people try to escape but the door is jammed shut. Everyone wants to go home, but they can't. They're stuck. Please, now, if you will, shift your awareness from the sounds in your atmosphere to the physical objects in your environment. Please speak the names of the objects you see around you. Say these things out loud. Say the colors of the objects. Be as descriptive as possible. Say the size of the objects. Describe their textures and whatever other particulars you notice or feel. For example, you might say: Beige Chenille sofa. Small cigarette stains. 5 x 8 deep red wool handmade Turkish Bokhara rug. Regular sized half eaten bowl of cereal. Crystal chandelier missing three light bulbs. Green plastic 2.5 gallon bucket with mop water. four square inches of peeling orange paint. Tiny chocolate fingerprints on thick mauve polyester drapes. Again- you are being recorded and you agree to this. I will now play the real-time recording of your collective voices. SPEAKING OBJECTS Nina Isabelle 00:00 / 02:24 While you continue speaking and listening to yourselves speaking together, please simultaneously turn one-third of your awareness back to the performance at hand. We are here at Parallel Performance Space. The performance attendees are uncomfortable and scared. A glowing spot begins to reveal itself on the ceiling between the cryptic soot symbol and the hemp rope. Several non-human entities start to slip through the glowing spot and descend into the space by sliding down the hemp rope. The beings are translucent, faceless, and silent. They emit an overwhelming feeling of love, safety, hope, transformation, and understanding. The odors of diesel fumes, soot, mop water and paint fumes dissolve and are replaced by the smells of lilac, hyacinth, roses, warm potato leek soup with chives, and chamomile tea. Warm local raw organic creamed honey bubbles up from the floor and everyone covers themselves in it. It's amazing. The performance attendees are now bursting into tears of joy and relief. They now know in their bones that everything is perfect everywhere in the world and for the first time in a long while, they feel hopeful. The glowing beings begin to hand out the most amazing cupcakes. Everyone is happy and hugging and eating cake together. Here is what it the space sounds like now: ​ IMAGINED PERFORMANCE FINALE Nina Isabelle 00:00 / 03:24 In the mean time, The radiator begins to hum and the sound begins to grow into the harmonic sound of a thousand electronic angels breathing in unison and every pipe organ on earth begins to sing together. Bells are ringing in the clouds and the purple portal returns with a beautiful hum. I step out of it along with the performance attendee who joined me, and the floating green robed figure. We hold each other's hands and take a big dramatic bow. This is the end of the performance. People clap and clap and whoop, hollar, and whistle. Everyone is so happy. No one wants to leave. People want to debrief. What just happened? How can we explain this? One person says they saw their ancestors. Another person miraculously figured out why their car wouldn't start. One person's psoriasis vanished completely. Another realized how much their mother loved them. Yet another discovered the whereabouts of their lost passport. A few realized it was time for a career change. Now, people are outside smoking and mingling on the sidewalk. All the lights are extra sparkly, everything looks clear and bright. The air is crisp and clean like it hasn't been in years. Some people are starting to head home. People are walking arm in arm and gazing in each other's eyes. We start to clean up the space and get ready for bed. It was a good night. A performance like no other.

  • Nina A. Isabelle // Multidisciplinary Artist // The Woodstock Library

    HOME ABOUT PROJECTS THREE PHASE CONTACT SEARCH More... THE WOODSTOCK LIBRARY FLOATING BOUNCY CHAIR JUNE 2016 For the 85th Annual Woodstock Library Fair Hudson Valley artists were commissioned to repurpose a heap of old metal folding chairs for a silent auction to benefit the library. I made this floating bouncy chair using studio scraps and discount bungee cords from P&T Surplus in Kingston, NY. Fellow artist and Vice President of Friends of The Woodstock Library Michael Hunt says “It's the coolest motherfucking chair.”

  • JUST SITUATIONS | nina-isabelle

    HOME ABOUT PROJECTS THREE PHASE CONTACT SEARCH More... ​ FEMINIST ART GROUP (F.A.G.) doing JUST SITUATIONS June 23, 2017 Grace Exhibition Space Brooklyn, NY ​ "Just Situations is a hybrid conference, festival, and “political science fair,” hosting artists and active citizens who are working in performative ways, moving beyond the trending commercialization of art “about” politics, into non-representational and non-reproductive modes of performance which directly construct, speculate, design. position, and posit “just” forms of political, social, and personal human being and becoming." ​ "States of unknowing, collectivity transcending and social becoming are workshopped and parsed, particulated and presented." ​ ​ JUST SITUATIONS is a project of the Brooklyn International Performance Art Foundation (BIPAF). BIPAF is an ongoing (since 2013), communal, and demi-anonymous/open-source platform for performance of socially-constructive institutional critique. ​ https://justsituations.wordpress.com/ ​ IMG_E6818 Thea Little, IV Castellanos Elizabeth Lamb Quinn Dukes Elizabeth Lamb Elizabeth Lamb Elizabeth Lamb Elizabeth Lamb Elizabeth Lamb, IV Castellanos 1/1

  • SAN DIEGO ART INSTITUTE | nina-isabelle

    HOME ABOUT PROJECTS THREE PHASE CONTACT SEARCH More... MOTHER VS GOD A short creepy video by Nina Isabelle ​ September 28, 2016 ​ The Dead Are Not Quiet was organized by Scott Mitchell Putesky, an artist and musician best known for his work as the guitarist and co-founder of the musical group Marilyn Manson. the exhibition will run concurrently with “The Haunted Art of T. Jefferson Carey. Exhibiting Artists in The Dead Are Not Quiet include Addison Stonestreet, Alex Ingram, Alison Chen & Michael Covello, Anne Pelej, Cayce Wheelock, Clayton Llewellyn, Dakota Noot, Dan Adams, Daniel Corona, David Russell Talbott, Emily Hastings, Eric Potts, Garrett Wear, Hannah Johansen, Hugh Schock, Ivy Guild, Janice Grinsell, Jenya Armen, John Purlia, John Straub, Julia Oldham, Karim Shuquem, Kurosh Yahyai, Larry Caveney, Liza Hennessey Botkin, Lucas Novak, Maidy Morhous, Michelle Mueller + Erik Mueller, Natalie Meredith, Nathaniel Clark, Nina Isabelle, PANCA, Paul Koester, Philip Petrie, Rita Miglioli, Robin Spalding, Shahla Rose, Sheena Rae Dowling, Wick Alexander, and Yvette Jackson.

  • BANGKOK UNDERGROUND FILM FESTIVAL | nina-isabelle

    HOME ABOUT PROJECTS THREE PHASE CONTACT SEARCH More... BANGKOK UNDERGROUND CINEMA ​ The Bangkok Underground Film Festival 2017 program consists of a series of events across multiple venues in Bangkok. Co-organised by Speedy Grandma , emesis , Bridge Art Space & Jam Caf é , with support from VS Service , Projectionist Asia , Panda Records and Museum Siam . ​ MARCH 5-12, 2017

  • F.A.G at OLD GLENFORD CHURCH | nina-isabelle

    HOME ABOUT PROJECTS THREE PHASE CONTACT SEARCH More... FEMINIST ART GROUP (F.A.G) HURLEY, NY ​ SEPTEMBER 1-4, 2017 ​ ​ THE OLD GLENFORD CHURCH STUDIO IV Castellanos, Amanda Hunt, Miette, Anya Liftig, Elizabeth Lamb, Jodie Lyn Kee Chow, Lorene Baboushian, Valerie Sharp, Kate Hamberger, Linda Montano, Ernest Goodmaw, Jennifer Zackin, Clara Diamond, Nina Isabelle ​

  • Handmade book by Nina Isabelle

    HOME ABOUT PROJECTS THREE PHASE CONTACT SEARCH More... Handmade Book 1992 7x9 ​ This book was made using vintage photos, construction paper, and resin coated photo paper sent through a Xerox machine, map scraps, and electrical, scotch, and masking tape. I used a sewing machine to stitch it together. The book had been in storage for years and I decided to document it. ​ ​

  • SEEMRIPPER | nina-isabelle

    HOME ABOUT PROJECTS THREE PHASE CONTACT SEARCH More... SEEMRIPPER A conceptual video-performance demonstrating artist as self replicator The Elizabeth Foundation As Far As The Heart Can See Curated by Nicolás Dumit Estévez October 2018 Seemripper was produced using The Self-Limiting Conceptual Video Production Process; a system that interlaces action, duration, direction, speed, sound, color, sequence, subject and object to form a linear audio and visual arrangement. The Self-Limiting Conceptual Video Production Process was designed as a system to sidestep consciousness in order to access lateral dimensions of awareness and is a continuation of The Video Manifestation System released by Human Trash Dump in January 2018. The video-performance frames the artist as a self replicator caught in a recursive loop of infinite destruction and renewal generated by the physical and quantum relationships between fire, water, air, metal and earth. This project was initiated by Linda Mary Montano as part of 'In Honor Of,' a performance series Curated by Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful with curatorial fellow JP - Anne Giera at The Elizabeth Foundation in New York City on October 20, 2018. Performers were nominated by artists featured in 'As Far As The Heart Can See' (Nao Bustamante, Billy X. Curmano, Irina Danilova & Project 59, Beatrice Glow, Ivan Monforte, Linda Mary Montano, Praxis (Delia & Brainard Carey), Beth Stephens & Annie Sprinkle, and Martha Wilson & Franklin Furnace Archive) and include former mentees, current students, assistants and younger artists whose work they admire: Elena Bajo Bajo, Sindy Butz, Larissa Gilbert, Nina Isabelle and Xinan (Helen) Ran.

  • Nina A. Isabelle // The Pain Project

    HOME ABOUT PROJECTS THREE PHASE CONTACT SEARCH More... THE PAIN PROJECT MARCH 2015 The Pain Project revisits eight physical injuries and is meant as an exploration of where pain is held in the physical body and how it changes with time. Each piece was made by applying paint to paper using the affected body parts. 3rd Metacarpal of Left Hand , 44x36, tempera paint on paper Broken 3rd Metacarpal of Lett Hand: When I was in 3rd grade I broke the 3rd metacarpal on my left hand doing a back-handspring on the trampoline at The Nittany Gymnastics School in State College, PA. Initially I thought that I had just cracked my knuckle in a painful way but later that day when I was asked by my instructor to do a glide kip on the bars I noticed that there was a sharp pain in my hand. My instructor assumed that I was lying in order to get out of class. I felt conflicted by her accusation, so I tried to swing from the bars again but it was still painful. Was I imagining it? Maybe I just hated doing gymnastics? I began to question my perception of pain within my physical body, I couldn’t tell if I was hurt. That night I told my Mom that I thought I had hurt my hand. She said she would take me to have an x-ray in the morning, but my Dad told her it was not broken, there wasn’t enough swelling, to leave me alone and it would be fine. They fought about it but she took me anyway and it turned out to be broken. They wrapped it up with a plaster cast. Frontalis Bone , 44x36, tempera paint on paper Multiple Concussions: Due to skateboarding and snowboarding I have been knocked unconscious several times. Once I hung up and fell to my head on a mini-ramp and was knocked out for several seconds. When I opened my eyes a man who was there said “Don’t move, I’m going to get your Dad.” I didn’t move. When the man came back he said, “Your Dad says to get up, that you’ll be fine.” The first time I dropped in on a vert ramp everyone told me, “Make sure you lean forward!” I dove from the top of the 12 foot ramp to the bottom, landing head first. I felt dizzy and was giddy but thought it would be a good idea if I tried again. Everyone was yelling “just sit down, don’t get up!” I tried again. On the way home I felt nauseous, my friend had to drive, I threw up on the side of the road. The worst time was when I dropped in on an 7 foot quarter pipe that went onto an asphalt street course. My wheel ran into a piece of gravel and it caused my board to stop rolling, I fell right onto the front of my head. Right in my hairline, directly above my right eye, a large lump instantly grew straight out of my skull, like when cartoon characters get hit with a bat. I had a lump that was as tall as a spool of thread sticking straight out of my head, like a horn! I couldn’t stop laughing, time was distorted, I was delirious. The person I was with took me to the E.R. I had a concussion, they said to wake me up every two hours. The lump turned to dark colors, and then eventually drained into both my eye sockets. I had two black eyes, like a raccoon. I was in Art school at the time, my painting teacher took me aside and asked if I was experiencing domestic violence, he was convinced that my boyfriend was beating me, I couldn’t stop laughing. My skull is indented in that spot. To this day If I touch it with my finger my heart starts racing and my throat clenches shut and it becomes hard to breath. Right Hip , 44x36, tempera paint on paper Multiple contusions on right thigh, inferior lateral aspect of the greater trochanter of femur : At age 14 I was doing a balance beam trick called a Gainer Layout Step, where you sort of fling yourself up in the air and do a no-handed flip and land on one foot. I missed my landing foot and landed on the lateral aspect of my thigh resulting in a giant black and blue mark. Shortly after that I was required to have a physical for school, the nurses saw my bruises and asked if I “had a happy home life.” They sent me to the school counselor who asked me if I drank or used drugs or if I had been exposed to domestic violence. She didn’t believe my answer, that I had “fallen off a balance beam.” Many years later, I was doing a 50/50 grind around a bowl corner on my skateboard, and when I went to go back in my back trucks hung up on the coping, causing me to slam into the bottom of the 5 foot deep bowl with full force, directly onto my right hip. It swelled up instantly, looking like an enormous raspberry scone stuck to my thigh. Blood and yellow fluid began to push out of my pores and flow down my leg. I’d wake up with the bed sheets stuck to my thigh each night, eventually there was a scab the size of my entire hand. My thigh was swollen fat and wiggly like it was full of jello. I couldn’t put on pants and had to wear skirts for weeks, I had an unbelievably huge and disgusting scabby, black-and-blue thigh. To this day, over 20 years later, I still have a lump of scar tissue the size of a small lemon inside my lateral thigh. It is still surprisingly painful to touch. I call it my “perma-bruise.” Lateral Malleolus of Right Fibula , 44x36, tempera paint on paper Undiscovered Broken Lateral Malleolus of the Right Fibula : I had sprained my right ankle several times doing gymnastics, it usually took 3-4 week to feel completely better. The usual protocol involved sticking my foot in a bucket of ice water several times a day, continuing to try to walk on it so that I wouldn’t loose mobility, and wrapping it tightly with athletic tape so that I could get back to training as soon as possible. I had been through this injury several times. When I was 15 I took up skateboarding instead of gymnastics. One time I dropped in off of a ledge that went to a bank and my front right foot rolled under. I wound up landing on top of my crumpled foot with all of my weight from several feet in the air. It was so painful, I was frozen and unable to make a sound or move. Nobody in the crowded building recognized that I was injured. I slowly and quietly moved myself across the concrete floor toward the exit and crawled on one knee with my ankle in the air, very delicately and smoothly, down the hill to where the athletic trainers were. They looked at my ankle and said I would need to get an x-ray, then I was given a ride home. I called my Dad, who said “No, you don’t need an x-ray, it’s probably just a bad sprain, just ice it.” 4 weeks had gone by and I was still not able to put much weight on my foot. I kept trying to walk normally, and just wrapped it up tightly with athletic tape. It was over 2 months before I could walk without pain. My boss and other people implied that I was faking an injury for special attention, so I made a point to conceal my pain. When I was 36 I sprained my ankle again while bouldering. I had it x-rayed and they said, “It’s not broken now, but we can see where it has been broken previously in several places.” My ankle has never recovered from this, it is extremely sensitive and I can’t allow anything to touch it, the lightest tap makes me yelp. Dragging it across the paper for this project was excruciating, I almost cried. This injury is 18 years old and has not left my body yet. Occipital Bone , 44x36, tempera paint on paper Bad Neck Injury: I’m not sure what happened to my neck. I over-rotated a double back flip on the trampoline and was about to land on the back of my head. My friend dove toward me to stop my rotation before I landed but his fist wound up right in the back of my neck when I landed with my feet crumpling over the top of my body. My entire head and neck were tingling and making crackling sounds, it felt like fluid had been blasted up my nose. I crawled off the trampoline and took myself home. I took some Advil, put a bag of frozen peas on my neck and tried to sleep. I couldn't move for days, the phone had been ringing but I couldn't get to it. I finally crawled to the kitchen 2 days later to eat, but wound up on the floor in pain. I made an appointment with a chiropractor but he needed to see an x-ray. I didn't have insurance so I just waited for it to get better. I have a lump the size of a walnut at base of my occipital bone on my right side. It hasn’t gone away yet, sometimes I have sharp, shooting pains if I turn my head a certain way. Contusions on Lungs , 44x36, tempera paint on paper Contusions on Lungs, Cracked Tooth: When I was 16 I was snowboarding on an icy slope with my friend. Something happened and I wound up in the air face-first and landed on my chest and face. I knocked the wind out of myself and banged the front of my face and head onto the ice. I started laughing really hard, blood gurgled up from my throat and sprayed onto the snow, then I spat a tooth into my mitten, I couldn’t stop laughing. My friend asked if I was okay and I couldn’t stop laughing, I said that I was okay, but he took me to the hospital. They x-rayed my lungs because of the blood coming out of my throat, it had a contusion. The next day I went to the dentist and he made me a new tooth out of putty, I still have it. Lateral Deltoid 44x36, tempera paint on paper Separated Right Shoulder: When I was 16 I was skateboarding on a 5 foot mini ramp inside of a metal building near my home. My back trucks hung up on the coping and I fell to the flat bottom landing on my shoulder. I tried to leave the building but couldn't open the door because I needed to hold my right arm onto my body with my left arm. I tried for a while to open the door with my foot, or to unlatch and slide the barn doors open with my legs. Eventually I managed to open the door and walked home. My parents were upset with me for being late for dinner. My Dad gave me a sling for my arm, and we tied my arm to my torso for several days until it tightened back onto my body. Sacrum / Coccyx , 44x36, tempera paint on paper Possible broken or subluxed coccyx or sacrum: My skateboard slid out from under me and I landed on my tail bone on a metal pipe. I was able to get home and go to bed. In the morning I was in so much pain, I couldn't stand upright. I walked slowly, bent over all the way, to the bathroom, then back to my bed. My parents didn’t know I was hurt. They kept yelling for me to “Make sure you don’t miss dinner at camp, we don’t have any food at the house!” I couldn’t get out of bed, I was so hungry. I never saw a doctor.

  • Nina A. Isabelle // Multidisciplinary Artist // Windmill Weapon

    HOME ABOUT PROJECTS THREE PHASE CONTACT SEARCH More... THE WINDMILL WEAPON MATRON MAY 2016 ​ ​ The Windmill Weapon Matron was built on May 12, 2016 and exhibited on June 3, 2016 as part of The New School's Social Justice exhibition with The Bushwick Collective. Materials include s awhorse, l umber, co nstruction m aterials, s pray p aint, h ouse p aint, a fghans, w eapons, b icycle p arts, y arn, p laster, t erra c otta, c hain. She is 90h x 53w x 45d. ​ She is a dangerous female machine expressing an active stance and aggressive posture. She no longer identifies as passive and has most recently emerged as an international threat. Based on a jumbled compilation of afghans, defunct bicycle parts, weapons, lumber, and chain her biographical narrative has been holographically reconfigured into a destructive biological machine made of woman’s time. While The Windmill Weapon Matron acknowledges her destructive approach as a natural response to her capacity for childbirth, she hesitates to dichotomize the two simply saying “Come, let me destroy you.” Utilizing a process of defiance The Windmill Weapon Matron has successfully developed a system capable of transforming eye-rolling, financial aid application trauma, stuffed animal over population, and hair pulling as well as other sensory input bull shit into a clean, renewable, and sustainable energy source for mothers. ​ ​ Nobody will lend her a chainsaw It is safe to breed with her She makes a mockery of science Her system is nervous ​ Her face is spinning When she was a virgin politicians killed and ate her She is secular Her system has calcified ​ She loves The Antichrist She birthed a female bastard She wan’t trained up the way she should go The system tries to destroy her ​ She has nothing to depart from Rabbits fear her She has been relieved of advantage Her system is unkillable ​ ​ ​ ​

  • Nina A. Isabelle // Abstract Painting // 2017

    HOME ABOUT PROJECTS THREE PHASE CONTACT SEARCH More... PAINTINGS 2017 1-2017 - 43.50 x 62.25 Acrylic on Canvas 43.50 x 62.25 2017 2-2017 43.50 x 62.25 Acrylic on Canvas 43.50 x 62.25 2017 3-2017 - 43.50 x 62.25 Acrylic on Canvas 43.50 x 62.25 2017 Paintings in the studio Paintings in the studio In January 2017 I began an investigation of addition and subtraction in relationship to concepts of minimalism and maximalism which looked at birth and death. I built and stretched three 44" x 63" canvases and then used a four-inch wide brush to drag six colors sequentially across the surface of the canvas. With the birth of each additional color came the death of a portion or the previous colors, shapes, and spaces. At the time, I was reading about the seventeenth-century deathbed performances outlined in books intended to teach people how to "Pass away in a dignified and Christian fashion," a pre-death technique presented in several mid fifteenth century books referencing The Ars moriendi, ("The Art of Dying") a practice intended to perfect the performance of dying, or- as I was thinking of it in this case, the subtraction of life. Do foundational systems of math stem from our perception of life and death, where birth is addition and death subtraction?

  • WHISTLE PORTRAITS | nina-isabelle

    HOME ABOUT PROJECTS THREE PHASE CONTACT SEARCH More... WHISTLE PORTRAITS By Linda Mary Montano HiLo Catskill June 10, 2018 During these dangerous / confusing / armageddonned times we are all looking for connection, understanding, and warmth. The three of us are committed to providing public art medicine. ART=LIFE=ART. For WHISTLE PORTRAITS at HiLo, we invite audience member-collaborators to sit with us and receive a public art healing. ART HEALS!!! - Linda Mary Montano photo by Adolfo Ibanez Ayerve

  • NEW SITUATIONS | nina-isabelle

    HOME ABOUT PROJECTS THREE PHASE CONTACT SEARCH More... NEW SITUATIONS ​ Arranging matter in space is a way to build new situations. June 11, 2018 ​

  • Nina A. Isabelle // Abstract Painting // 2014

    Nina Isabelle HOME ABOUT PROJECTS THREE PHASE CONTACT SEARCH More... PAINTINGS 2015 60-2015, 22x30 60-2015, 22x30 59-2015, 22x30 59-2015, 22x30 58-2015 gouache, tempera, spray paint, acrylic on paper, 42x30 57-2015 gouache, tempera, spray paint, acrylic on paper, 42x30 frontalis.jpg Frontalis, 44x36, tempera on paper Go to link 56-201549_n gouache, tempera, spray paint, acrylic on paper, 42x30 55-2015 gouache, tempera, spray paint, acrylic on paper, 42x30 54-2015 gouache, tempera, spray paint, pencil on paper, 22x30 53-2015 gouache, tempera, spray paint, pencil on paper, 22x30 52-2015.jpg 52-2015, 24x30, oil & spray paint on canvas 51-2015.jpg 51-2015, 24x30, oil & spray paint on canvas 50-2015.jpg 50-2015, 24x30, oil & spray paint on canvas 49-2015.jpg 49-2015, 60x60, oil & spray paint on canvas 48-2015.jpg 48-2015, 72x72, oil & spray paint, brick twine, on canvas 47-2015.jpg 47-2015 87x87 46-2015.jpg 46-2015, 54x45, oil & spray paint on canvas 45-2015.jpg 45-2015, 54x45, oil & spray paint on canvas 44-2015.jpg 44-2015, oil, pastel, spray paint on canvas,, 54x45 43-2015-web.jpg 22x30, oil & spray paint on prepared paper occipital tempera on paper, 44x36 42-2015-web.jpg 22x30, oil & spray paint on prepared paper 41-2015-web.jpg 22x30, oil & spray paint on prepared paper 40-2015-web.jpg 22x30, oil & spray paint on prepared paper 39-2015-web.jpg 22x30, oil & spray paint on prepared paper 38-2015-2-web.jpg 22x30, oil & spray paint on prepared paper 37-2015-web.jpg 22x30, oil & spray paint on prepared paper hip.jpg Hip, 44x36, tempera on paper Go to link 36-2015-web.jpg oil & spray paint on canvas 32-2015 copy.jpg 24x24, oil & spray paint on masonite, 2015 30-2015 copy.jpg 24x24, oil & spray paint on masonite, 2015 35-2015 copy.jpg 22x30, oil & spray paint on masonite, 2015 34-2015 copy.jpg 24x24, oil & spray paint on masonite, 2015 33-2015 copy.jpg 24x24, oil & spray paint on masonite, 2015 31-2015 copy.jpg 29-2015-web.jpg lungs.jpg Lungs, 44x36, tempera on paper Go to link 28-2015 copy.jpg 40x18, oil & spray paint on masonite, 2015 27-2015 36x36, oil & spray paint on canvas, 2015 26-2015 36x36, oil & spray paint on canvas, 2015 25-2015 36x36, oil & spray paint on canvas, 2015 24-2015 48x48, oil on canvas, 2015 23-2015 48x48, oil on canvas, 2015 22-2015 48x48, oil on canvas, 2015 13-2015 18x24, oil & spray paint on masonite, 2015 21-2015 32x48, oil & spray paint on masonite 20-2015 36x36, oil & spray paint on canvas, 2015 19-2015 36x36, oil & spray paint on canvas, 2015 18-2015 36x36, oil & spray paint on canvas, 2015 17-2015 36x36, oil & spray paint on canvas, 2015 16-2015 36x36, oil & spray paint on canvas, 2015 1/2

  • JURNQUIST COLORING BOOK SHOW IN BERLIN | nina-isabelle

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  • WEST HALL OPEN STUDIO | nina-isabelle

    HOME ABOUT PROJECTS THREE PHASE CONTACT SEARCH More... WEST HALL OPEN STUDIO RENSSELAER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE TROY, NY DECEMBER 11, 2022

  • THE BODY DESCRIBES ITSELF | nina-isabelle

    HOME ABOUT PROJECTS THREE PHASE CONTACT SEARCH More... THE BODY DESCRIBES ITSELF An in-progress painting series started August 2020 by Nina Isabelle. ​ My Grandmother designed leather gaskets used to strap prosthetic limbs onto amputees. Being an athlete and bodyworker, this series of paintings is an inquiry into what the body knows of its own shape and where might this knowledge come from. This is a study to learn how my own body might describe itself with line and paint. ​ Oil on canvas sizes range from 36 - 60 inches Inquire here for details and prices ​

  • Ft. Tilden / Temporary Ungovernable Zone / Nina A. Isabelle

    HOME ABOUT PROJECTS THREE PHASE CONTACT SEARCH More... FAMILY SOUNDS THE UNGOVERNABLE ZONE ​ FORT TILDEN ​ ANARKO ART LAB AND ARTI NYC ​ Nina A. Isabelle / The Ungovernable Zone at Fort Tilden Beach / NYC Fort Tilden is a defunct United States Military base now listed as NYC accessible ruins along the coast in Queens. ​ As an inquiry into motherhood, "Family Sounds" involved a site-responsive approach to the superimposition of an internal childhood landscape onto the defunct Ft. Tilden military base along with self-reflexive research referencing quantum nonlocality, interpretive movement, and the manipulation of physical material to align intention with action as evolved ritual. To start, I visited my childhood home in central Pennsylvania and collected audio samples like gunshots, piano, flute, and conversation. I also collected materials from an old family barn such as safety nets, camouflage burlap, industrial Velcro, and vinyl pieces. I used these materials to construct a giant robe and from the audio samples I melded a cacophonic multilayered soundscape as a way to create a tethered telepathic multigenerational connection. During the performance I blinded myself under the giant robe and bent my psyche into the constructed auditory and kinesthetic dimensions where I psychically postscribed childhood memories as a way to explore motherhood. One challenge of working this way is that documentation and integration of unlanguageable data uncovered along the way becomes difficult as perceptions expand beyond the framework of linear languages. ​ PHOTOS BY JAIME ROSENFELD JULY 8, 2017

  • SHAPE OF A FEELING

    HOME ABOUT PROJECTS THREE PHASE CONTACT SEARCH More... SHAPE OF A FEELING Photographs of Piles by Nina Isabelle COLLECTION STARTED NOVEMBER 12, 2018

  • YARD WORK / Nina A. Isabelle

    HOME ABOUT PROJECTS THREE PHASE CONTACT SEARCH More... YARD WORK (YARD STUDIO) HURLEY, NY / MAY 2017

  • PSYCHIC SELF DEFENSE SCULPTURE | nina-isabelle

    HOME ABOUT PROJECTS THREE PHASE CONTACT SEARCH More... PSYCHIC SELF DEFENSE GIANT WOODEN STAKE FOR DESTROYING PSYCHIC VAMPIRES Inspired by Dion Fortune's Psychic Self-Defense: The Classic Instruction Manual for Protecting Yourself Against Paranormal Attack published in 1930, I carved an 11' wooden stake from a white pine tree removed from my property and designed a welded steel foundation to support and direct its potential in a specific way. There was a nearly dead forty-five foot tall white pine tree on my property that I needed to remove because it was next to a home with a newborn. I was overwhelmed by its potential for destruction as well as the terror at having to take responsibility. I feared it might smash a building or kill someone but I felt frozen to take action. Normally, I figure out a way to do things myself, but in this case I knew I had no ability to take down such a tree and I was having trouble finding a tree service who was able to schedule the job during the pandemic. I was also paralyzed by the thought of the expense. I wanted to run away, but knew I had to transform my fear and helplessness. I had the idea to approach the problem as an art project as a way to reconnect with my boldness and to remember the feeling of embodying initiative. Once I realized that I could apply methods from my art practice to this life circumstance, art became my teacher, and I began to hear the tree speaking to me saying "Look at me, I'm a giant wooden stake and I want to help you!" At the same time, I was rereading Dion Fortune's book Psychic Self-Defense: The Classic Instruction Manual for Protecting Yourself Against Paranormal Attack published in 1930 where she discusses the literal manifestation of vampiric energies and vampires themselves as people, circumstances, experiences, and entities that deplete us for their own gain. I had read the book as a young person and was now surprised to realize how her description of this system had maintained its relevance and how it paralleled the language of healthy boundaries as discussed in contemporary psychology. Vampiric energies accumulate through life experiences and interactions with other people and entities who intentionally or not connect their psyche to us. Unhealthy past relationships, traumas, and global events like the pandemic have the potential to develop longterm harmful effects on our beings and we need to develop tools to combat this dynamic. Thinking and working this way is one way art processes can help us. I designed, built, and activated the tree into a large healing tool sculpture that can neutralize the effects of psychic vampirism and other unhealthy energetic connections that impact our wellbeing. To start, I stripped the bark off of an eleven-foot length of the white pine and my son helped me with his chainsaw to carve one end into a sharp point. The base is a prism made of two welded steel equilateral triangle structures that elevate and position the point of the sculpture directly at heart level maximizing its power to blast away the psychic and etheric connections one inadvertently accumulates throughout life. The sculpture is a giant cleansing machine. It targets etheric and energetic fields and tethers that become attached to ones outer bodies over time. It's meant to cleanse the outer bodies by obliterating unhealthy energies and connections, prohibit vampiric energies from sinking their fangs into the many dimensions of our psychic, physical, mental and emotional spheres, and to destroy the parasitic relationship dynamic vampires establish and maintain with our physical host bodies against our will and awareness. The sculpture is interactive. People were invited to stand in front of it, connect with its design, and have their own healing experience. ​ ​ MAY 1 - 29, 2021 ART/LIFE INSTITUTE 185 ABEEL ST. KINGSTON, NY ​ ​ OPENING MAY 1st 6:PM - 9:PM MID-MONTH RECEPTION - MAY 15th 6:PM - 9:PM CLOSING EVENT MAY 29th - 6:PM - 6:PM ​ ​

  • MOCK THE CHASM | nina-isabelle

    HOME ABOUT PROJECTS THREE PHASE CONTACT SEARCH More... MOCK THE CHASM NOVEMBER 13, 2016 ​ ART/LIFE INSTITUTE KINGSTON Mock The Chasm was performed at The Art/Life Institute Kingston during Alex Chêllet and Jaime Emerson’s November 2016 Artists In Residency Night of Performance exhibition. Inspired by the 2016 presidential election, the performance aims to inspect the spiritual illusion between God and America and how it is used to warp the space between morality and finance. Actions include worshipping a golden calf, wrestling and subduing a life-sized victim, and a self-crucifixion. ​

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