BENJAMINPICTURES

Check out Tumblr

2011-07-19T11:04:00.000-07:00

http://benhell.tumblr.com/

I have become more active with my Tumblr Blog, for more recent entries, check it out.

[blog] sighting

2011-04-28T09:56:00.000-07:00

countryfried.uk
http://countryfried.co.uk/2011/01/19/1454/

reflection

2011-04-20T06:35:00.000-07:00

"How foolish of me to believe that it would be that easy. I had confused the appearances of trees and automobiles and people with reality itself, and believed that a photograph of these appearances to be a photograph of it. It is a melancholy truth that I will never be able to photograph it and can only fail. I am a reflection photographing other reflections within a reflection. To photograph reality is to photograph nothing."

- Duane Michals

circular vices and hipstamatic meditations

2011-04-19T15:42:00.000-07:00

Circles around my circles

2011-03-16T16:29:00.001-07:00

2011-03-02T07:58:00.001-08:00

Benjamin Heller: Featured Interview

2011-02-07T07:00:00.001-08:00

My photo that is currently on view in the ICP exhibition "Moment of Recognition" has been featured with an interview. Click on the image to read the interview.

Link to Interview

60 Seconds

2011-01-31T15:36:00.000-08:00

from MOMA's Pop Rally with Conrad Ventur: Screen Tests

VIDEO

Affordance Theory

2011-01-31T15:30:00.000-08:00

Affordance theory states that the world is perceived not only in terms of object shapes and spatial relationships but also in terms of object possibilities for action (affordances) — perception drives action.

Originators: J. J. Gibson (1904-1979)

PDN: Photo of the Day

2011-01-19T09:26:00.000-08:00

Today one of my photographs from the upcoming ICP show is featured on PDN as the photo of the day, check it out.

Photo District News - Photo of the Day

Film: TURF

2011-01-16T18:25:00.000-08:00

A new dance film I made with Company Stefanie Batten Bland:

TURF from Benjamin Heller on Vimeo.

a film by Stefanie Batten Bland & Benjamin Heller

Dancers
Miguel Anaya, sbb, Eric Jackson Bradley, Emilie Camacho,
Jesse Keller, Trenard Mobley

Filmed by Benjamin Heller

Edited by Benjamin Heller & Stefanie Batten Bland

Music by Alva Noto

Production & Technical Director: Lacee Godman

with support from the
Baryshnikov Arts Center,
The Jerome Robbins Foundation,
Virginia Commonwealth University,
and Dogtown Dance Theatre

birlegs.net

SHOW: Moment of Recognition @ ICP Opening Jan 21 6-8pm

2011-01-05T20:00:00.000-08:00

I have three self-portrait pieces in the upcoming "Moment of Recognition" new portraiture show curated by Amy Arbus at ICP.
1114 Avenue of the Americas.
The show will be on view from January 15 - March 20th 2011.

The Opening reception will take place on January 21st from 6-8pm.

event info:
http://www.icp.org/events/2011/january/15/moment-recognition

show info:
http://www.icp.org/school/education-gallery

Show: Postcards from the Edge @ CRG Gallery - Benefit for Visual AIDS

2011-01-05T13:51:00.000-08:00

I am participating in the "Postcards from the Edge" show this weekend at the CRG Gallery.

Postcards from the Edge is a Visual AIDS benefit show and sale of over 1400 original, postcard-sized works on paper by established and emerging artists. All works are sold on a first-come, first-served basis. The works are signed on the back and exhibited so the artists' signatures cannot be seen. While buyers receive a list of all participating artists, they don't know who created which piece until purchased. All proceeds support the programs of Visual AIDS.

January 7-9 2011

CRG Gallery
548 West 22nd Street
New York, NY 10011

EVENT & SHOW INFO

BENEFIT SALE
Over 1400 anonymously displayed postcard-size artworks.
LIST OF ARTISTS

Visual AIDS utilizes art to fight AIDS by provoking dialogue, supporting HIV+ artists, and preserving the legacy -- because AIDS IS NOT OVER! visualAIDS.org

Framed up for ICP

2011-01-04T19:48:00.001-08:00

2010-12-26T10:28:00.001-08:00

ストーリー

2010-12-04T11:09:00.000-08:00

A full moon on the other side of the world

2010-11-20T18:20:00.001-08:00

falls

2010-10-18T08:35:00.001-07:00

Have you heard that it was good to gain the day? I also say it is good to fall, battles are lost in the same spirit in which they are won. - Walt Whitman

Ex Deo Libertas >>> Life is Art >>>>> WEST

2010-10-15T17:03:00.000-07:00

I will be making a journey to california in a few days...

"Ex Deo Libertas"

setting one's roots in motion

2010-10-15T13:49:00.000-07:00

Let us wager that our own century's modernity will be invented precisely in opposition to all radicalism, dismissing both the bad solution of re-enrooting in identities as well as the standardization of imaginations decreed by economic globalization. For contemporary creators are already laying the foundations for a radicant art—radicant being a term for an organism that grows it's roots and adds new ones as it advances. To be a radicant means setting one's roots in motion, staging them in heterogenous contexts and formats, denying them the power to completely define one's identity, translating ideas, transcoding images, transplanting behaviors, exchanging rather than imposing.

-Nicolas Bourriaud

we discover our world through action

2010-10-15T10:10:00.000-07:00

play itself into exhaustion

2010-10-05T12:33:00.001-07:00

WAIT

Wait for now.
Distrust everything if you have to.
But trust the hours. Haven't they
carried you everywhere, up to now?
Personal events will become interesting again.
Hair will become interesting again.
Pain will become interesting.
Buds that open out of season will become interesting.
Second-hand gloves will become lovely again;
their memories are what give them
the need for other hands. And the desolation
of lovers is the same: that enormous emptiness
carved out of such tiny beings as we are
asks to be filled; the need
for the new love "is" faithfulness to the old.

Wait.
Don't go too early.
You're tired. But everyone's tired.
But no one is tired enough.
Only wait a little and listen:
music of hair,
music of pain,
music of looms weaving all our loves again.
Be there to hear it, it will be the only time,
most of all to hear
the flute of your whole existence,
rehearsed by the sorrows, play itself into exhaustion.

-Galway Kinnel
from Mortal Acts, Mortal Words

one season

2010-10-03T12:52:00.000-07:00

Someday, emerging at last from the violent insight,
let me sing out jubilation and praise to assenting angels.
Let not even one of the clearly-struck hammers of my heart
fail to sound because of a slack, a doubtful,
or a broken string. Let my joyfully streaming face
make me more radiant; let my hidden weeping arise
and blossom. How dear you will be to me then, you nights
of anguish. Why didn't I kneel more deeply to accept you,
inconsolable sisters, and, surrendering, lose myself
in your loosened hair. How we squander our hours of pain.
How we gaze beyond them into the bitter duration
to see if they have an end. Though they are really
our winter-enduring foliage, our dark evergreen,
one season in our inner year-, not only a season
in time-, but are place and settlement, foundation and soil
and home.

- Rainer Marie Rilke, from the Tenth Elegy (translated by Stephen Mitchell

Life is beautiful because it is multi-faceted

2010-09-30T12:47:00.000-07:00

Life is beautiful because it is multi-faceted. -Alejandro Jodorowski

Thank you for coming out to see (til Oct 3)

2010-09-05T07:17:00.000-07:00

It was a fun opening. It is a good show with a lot of great pieces in it. Thank you to everyone who came out for the gorgeous hot summer night. It was great to see you there. The show will continue to run until October 3rd if you missed the opening, or want to go back when it is a quieter hour to take a look, or a closer look.

Opening: Sept 2nd 6-8pm - Hope to see you!

2010-08-19T14:15:00.000-07:00

light breathes within infinite space

2010-08-04T08:08:00.001-07:00

light breathes within infinite space from Benjamin Heller on Vimeo.

Vital Contour of U + US (U interior - light)
a dialog between Lisa Lozano & Benjamin Heller 2010

Permanent installation built in residence at the Eiffel Society Project

The Vital Contour of U + US

2010-08-03T13:51:00.000-07:00

2010-08-01T07:11:00.000-07:00

Eiffel Society Opening - Order of 8 - Friday July 30, 2010

2010-07-27T17:19:00.001-07:00

Opening Invite & Details

wires

2010-07-26T22:00:00.000-07:00

Intimate space

2010-07-19T11:57:00.001-07:00

[what birds plunge through is not the intimate space]

What birds plunge through is not the intimate space
In which you see all forms intensified.
(Out in the Open, you would be denied your self, would dissappear into that vastness.)

Space reaches "from" us and construes the world:
to know a tree, in its true element, throw inner space around it, from that pure abundance in you. Surround it with restraint.
It has no limits. Not til it is held in your renouncing is it truly there.

-Rainer Maria Rilke -from "Selected Poems" translated by Stephen Mitchell

mirror

2010-07-10T06:13:00.001-07:00

enter

2010-07-10T06:01:00.001-07:00

video still

la cage de oiseau dans la lumiere

2010-07-09T21:47:00.000-07:00

Fire & Brass in the Quarter

2010-07-08T10:15:00.000-07:00

the beginning of light

2010-07-05T18:32:00.000-07:00

Focus travels in interaction between the reflection in this world of self and the divine nature of light.

measure cut measure

2010-07-04T20:58:00.000-07:00

The inimitable Thomas Beale

2010-07-02T08:17:00.001-07:00

Location:Eiffel society

Caucasian kanye

2010-07-01T16:38:00.001-07:00

Benjamin is the man

downpour

2010-06-30T18:35:00.001-07:00

Big muddy

2010-06-30T17:48:00.001-07:00

Sitting by the big Mississippi I had always heard about as it flows into the ocean...

Perspectivation

2010-06-30T12:05:00.001-07:00

Location:New Orleans

a light within intimate space

2010-06-29T00:00:00.000-07:00

MOUNTAINS

2010-06-27T11:29:00.000-07:00

Eiffel Society in ART IN AMERICA

2010-06-20T10:33:00.000-07:00

Life is Art Foundation - Eiffel Society
ART IN AMERICA review

sleep in a glass house

2010-06-12T11:31:00.000-07:00

Skeleton and frames

2010-06-12T07:51:00.001-07:00

The skeletons of wood are engineered structurally with the permanent solidity of carpentry to hold light and circuitry within a skin of mirror.

Double octogon

2010-06-08T14:14:00.001-07:00

2010-06-07T07:23:00.001-07:00

2010-06-06T15:51:00.001-07:00

2010-06-06T15:50:00.001-07:00

22.5 degrees

2010-06-05T19:24:00.001-07:00

2010-06-05T09:35:00.001-07:00

2010-06-05T09:12:00.001-07:00

2010-06-04T21:09:00.001-07:00

Octogonal

2010-06-04T15:00:00.001-07:00

In the beginning...

2010-06-02T20:47:00.001-07:00

What May Be/What May Be Lost

2010-06-02T07:40:00.000-07:00

Is there any end in sight? We must wake up and find a new way!

Photo: Memorial Crosses symbolizing what may be lost due to the BP Offshore Oil Spill. (AP)

Summertime salon - hope to see you!

2010-06-02T06:33:00.000-07:00

I have a piece in the summertime show at Robin Rice Gallery on w11th street. Great photographic work from some of great photographers. Opens July 14, 2010. I hope to see you there.

revisit

2010-05-24T08:38:00.000-07:00

Keys

2010-04-24T11:52:00.000-07:00

3 directions

2010-04-24T11:08:00.001-07:00

Location:Marfa, Texas

2010-04-23T06:23:00.001-07:00

Inside the Hive

2010-04-21T14:42:00.001-07:00

Location:Honeyspace Gallery - Chelsea - NYC

roadmaster

2010-04-09T14:13:00.000-07:00

Leave them where they lay

2010-04-09T09:37:00.000-07:00

2010-03-25T16:46:00.001-07:00

Echo

2010-03-23T20:12:00.001-07:00

Spring

2010-03-20T15:03:00.000-07:00

Location:Central park

2010-03-19T07:48:00.001-07:00

Kafka

2010-03-18T11:04:00.001-07:00

persistence/adaptation

2010-03-17T10:56:00.001-07:00

Contrasts

2010-03-16T19:55:00.001-07:00

I am struck by the contrasts of travel. Shovel heavy with snow and a wave of humid heat. It's immediate effect on the temper of the body. The stark contrast of an architectural photo taken from an impossible vantage point on a wide avenue, now a narrow street. We take a certain view...

Location:San jose

2010-03-16T19:53:00.001-07:00

For the first time in so so long

Location:Bathroom analog

Coming spring

2010-03-12T13:05:00.001-08:00

Interval/Waiting

2010-02-07T09:28:00.001-08:00

Self Portrait - 1995

sunshine at random

2010-01-20T08:48:00.001-08:00

meaning

2010-01-19T14:10:00.000-08:00

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absurdism

(Absurdism)
4. The pursuit of intrinsic or extrinsic meaning in the universe is possible...
...No, but the pursuit itself may have meaning

Thirst

2010-01-18T10:34:00.000-08:00

"Those who don't believe in magic will never find it"
-Roald Dahl

For your consideration.... (Vote early, Vote often)

2010-01-15T06:52:00.000-08:00

Take a look... Artists Wanted: The Power of the Self

Some of my recent work is in an art competition about self portraiture.
There is a lot of amazing art.
There is a fancy panel of judges.
There is also a people's choice category, in which you can cast your votes!

Thank you for taking a moment!
There are stars at the bottom of the page that you can rate with *****s
and places to enter e-mails to send along to other people if you think they might be interested.

<3 B

For your consideration.... (Vote early, Vote often)

2010-01-14T17:07:00.001-08:00

DEATH BEAR

2010-01-13T11:03:00.000-08:00

So today I was telling my friend Andre... That I had been walking though williamsburg this weekend heading for brunch on a bright sunny morning, and I saw this guy all dressed in black head to toe with a shiny bear head on, and I said to myself "I wonder what party he just came from?... Now that's a walk of shame if I ever saw one..." and he said... "Oh, that's Death Bear!"

DEATH BEAR

2010-01-12T12:06:00.001-08:00

these days

2010-01-11T09:31:00.000-08:00

Sing a song of sixpence,
A pocket full of rye.
Four and twenty blackbirds,
Baked in a pie.

When the pie was opened,
The birds began to sing;
Wasn't that a dainty dish,
To set before the king?

The king was in his counting house,
Counting out his money;
The queen was in the parlour,
Eating bread and honey.

The maid was in the garden,
Hanging out the clothes;
When down came a blackbird
And snapped off her nose.

There was such commotion,
that little Jenny wren;
Flew down into the garden,
and put it back again.

nobody sees this blog

2010-01-10T13:16:00.001-08:00

Cross your fingers

2010-01-09T08:15:00.001-08:00

http://www.artistswanted.org

2010-01-07T13:50:00.000-08:00

January

2010-01-06T13:32:00.001-08:00

Loop

2010-01-04T11:16:00.001-08:00

Poison apple

2010-01-04T08:21:00.001-08:00

Bill

2009-08-20T12:17:00.001-07:00

PEER GYNT

2009-08-17T09:03:00.000-07:00

Summerstage with Vv

2009-08-08T15:17:00.001-07:00

A skin on the hull

2009-08-08T06:20:00.000-07:00

Visit the summertime show at Robin Rice Gallery west 11th street between Greenwich St & Washington

2009-08-07T18:21:00.001-07:00

From iphone

2009-08-07T07:25:00.000-07:00

I've added the ability to do this from iPhone! Let the voyage begin

-- Post From My iPhone

Highline

2009-06-10T15:25:00.000-07:00

For this patch of weeds I have paid dearly
A third of my life more than the time of dreams
I can breathe again these plants entering my lungs
A Softer heart reaching out from this rocky soil
How we crave these once wild places
Abandoned, cursed, held up and remade for all of you.
Once Neglected hidden freedoms made open and public
I look out across this city of containers containing
Millions of lives flowering, fading and cutting out through stones surface
To be one of us, softly touched by the wind
bending weeds arching away from origins still standing on roots.

2009-05-16T21:13:00.000-07:00

may

2009-05-06T10:48:00.000-07:00