putAtoring * Allison Rentz


About the books:
PutAtoring is a collaborative book-art experiment started by Allison Rentz and finished by over 20 contributing artists. The blankbooks are handmade from recycled materials like plastic waste, trash, and discarded paper. To celebrate the work, on May 9th, we threw an "Off Yer Rocker", a party to display the completed books and to promote positive attitudes towards mental health issues and cultural change through the insights of the creative arts community. The handmade blank books serve as a window into the various creative processes unique to each contributing artist. The books will shown as a collection, and will serve as a vehicle to collect information on the connection between the arts and mental health. We'll conduct a follow-up focus group and organize the ideas for presentation at a later date.

book project timeline: published August 2008, distributed thru May 2009, then on display as a collection.


Participating Artists:
Leigh Cooper
Allen Taylor
An33dy
Bean Summer/ Ben Worley
zano
eggtooth
Susan A. Cipcic
woody cornwell
Bethany Rentz
John Hannah
Tommy Chung
Jimmy Lo
Ahva Minina
Mandie Turner Mitchell
Jon Ciliberto
JL Costes
Nisa Asokan
Cha Asokan & her students
Stan Woodard
Susan Ann Laura
Jena Sibille
Pam Rentz
Tracey Gagne
Robby Kee
Laura Bell
Sloane R. Cheatham
Pamela Rentz
Zac Denton
John Bowman

ALLISON RENTZ is a metro-Atlanta artist who works in installation, performance, drawing, and multimedia. She is interested in how humans interact with each other, and with the environment.

Allison's art has been presented in Atlanta, Athens, GA, France, Italy, Spain, Chicago, Lexington, KY, Texas, NY, and on the Web. Noted projects include "c o n t a i n i n g = h a t e," a performance installation at the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center as part of "Bring it on! A series of solo positions."

Allison is the dictator of her own country--artempeerealism--where art is the law, and the law is art. She has been enjoying experimenting with music in the bands "Chinese Frankenstein" and "ASSTOW." Collaboration has become a big part of her recent artistic practice.

ARTIST statement:
An artist is a worker...
//...I work for harmony...//

An artist's work reflects experience...
//...My journey is a battle with internal and external influences...//

Creating effects the environment......
//...I reuse my materials whenever possible...//
//...Plastic is an abundant component of my work...//
//...My ___________________ often include parts from previous works...//
//... site-specific...//
"I like makin' books.
They are so fun.
Woohoo.
Part of my process of realizing projects involves making a book to work out my sketches and drawings in.

In June 2008, Allison Rentz won the inaugural Idea Capital Artist Grant, which is a new grassroots initiative established to help jump start Atlanta-based, artist-initiated projects that might not otherwise be supported through mainstream arts institutions.

About:
Allison Rentz is an Atlanta based conceptualish artist. A graduate of UGA, Rentz has exhibited work at Eyedrum, Spruill Gallery, Downtown Arts Center (Lexington, KY), Polvo Art Studio (Chicago), and at venues in Beziers, France; Lecce, Italy; and Barcelona, Spain. She is also the founder of her own country, "Artempeerealism."


To learn more about Allison's projects: http://www.allisonrentz.com.

 


  
 


 

 




putAtoring
Allison Rentz
ISBN # 978-1-880855-16-4
Pub. date August 30, 2008

photo gallery

 


books are handmade with recycled materials.
available from Fifth Planet Press and
allison rentz.

 

Book Launch at the Decatur Book Festival Aug 30th, 2008!!

May 9th, 2009: Off Yr Rocker was a one night group show featuring work in the blankish books putAtoring by the artists below and performances by monomania, chinese frankenstein, and facehugger. We also showed Bean Summer's video component to the book: Information: Experiments in Digital Prints.