All About What We're All About
Let us
introduce ourselves, we are XINA (a photographer) and WILL WOLFF (a
storyteller): two young, motivated artists with a few holes in our wallet
where the cash usually goes. We are long time friends, artists, and collaborators.
We are two of a generation of freshly-educated artists who are taking on
the preconceived notions of our nation and the art it has
inspired.
We want to find
the New America -- where everything is still possible and nothing is left
untouched. That strange country where you can eat the same sandwich in
every state or sample fish from both coasts in the same day. We
want to find the New America -- where womyn run cities, where minorities
outnumber the assumed "majority," and where you can still die over
your sexual orientation. We want to find, to capture and create, to build
a web over so many states that the country can be outlined in our
footsteps.
We will travel the same roads that
have been the paths of great migrations and quests west for
generations. We will redefine them with the photographic and written works they inspire in us.
To be blunt: these ambitions cannot be achieved through willpower alone. Art supplies, contrary to the beliefs
circulated in the stationary isle, are damn expensive, and they often don't pay
for themselves. A single roll of medium format 120 film, for example, can cost
more than eight dollars, not including the additional fees associated with
development or printing. As creators, we want to express the realities of our
lives, despite the economic constraints forced upon us. We want to paint, to
capture light, to weave narratives, and to tell stories. Yet, in order for this
to happen, in order for artistic expression to continue to flourish in our
society, we need people to step up and contribute. Here's what we're making.
Art on the Endless Road
As Americans, it is our duty to
keep pace with the demands of each new world order--to leave a generation
better suited to the future than the ones that came before it. As artists and
creatives, it is also our duty to express the realities of our lives--to
document, to prove, and to envision. As young adults, we see the issues
that plague our country: poverty, unemployment, drug abuse, racial tensions,
obesity, corporate dominion, and hateful prejudice. And yet we also see the
good, the mixed, and the strange. The upstarts, the rollers, and the country fairs. This is America, plain and simple, and today, in the spirit of the frontiersman who came before
us, we want to capture this country anew.
To achieve this goal, we need the
American people to believe. The contributions of pioneers like you will help us
surmount a gargantuan feat. We will encapsulate the zeitgeist of the early 21st
century in stories, in photographs, in illustrations, and in poetry. This is
the magnitude of what you will help us achieve:
-
A photographic installation by groundbreaking
visual artist Xina Graham-Vannais, sprawling forty-five states and covering
the limitless ground that unfurls between them.
-
A collection of short stories written on
the road by award-winning storyteller William Wolff Herbert -- including
poetry, prose, non-fiction, and experimental writing inspired by the
American notions of endurance and prosperity.
XINA : “It is important that I am a woman and being a woman, sharing in this traditionally male rite of passage, but my gender is not what makes this work important. These photographs will be revelatory because they are necessary as an account of our land in the 21st century. They need to be taken at this point in time to serve as a link between the rich exploratory work of Evans and Frank mid-twentieth century, and what is to come.”
WILL WOLFF : "We are living in the era of mechanical reproduction, of instant transport, and of split-second media frenzy. Like a sheet of paper folded in the center, today's narratives bind only the extremes and the edges. The sprawling middle ground, the places between train stations and airports, these grounds are now largely forgotten. With them, the magic, mystery, and overwhelming freedom once seen in the landscape of America. Gone but not forgotten, my work will imbue these places with the lore and legend of our rebel generation."
follow us on Instagram: @instagraham_vannais + @jerseyneue
What We Need
This fund, assuming the support of
the people, would cover the costs of the cheapest possible transcontinental
journey we've described above. It would allow two hard-working, talented
artists to traverse the United States of North America, allowing the country to
inspire a wealth of incredible creations.
Those associated costs break down
into five major categories: Food, Shelter,
Transport, Supplies, and Perks/Overhead. We've included an itemized breakdown of
each of these categories below.
Food: $2,000
- $20/day/person
for two people for 50 days: $2,000 (this is the
estimated cost of shopping exclusively at grocery stores for the
entire trip, plus the occasional and often essential caffeine fix)
Shelter: $2,350
There will be
approximately twenty or so cost-free nights where we will be crashing with
friends. We don't care if that means a couch, a carpet, or a front lawn.
- 30 nights at
$55/night spent in organized campgrounds: $1,650
(this is the averaged cost for spending a night at an
organized campground)
- 10 nights at
$70/night spent in the cheapest of motels: $700
(this is the averaged cost for spending a night at the cheapest
motel available, reserved specifically for when weather makes it unsafe to
camp or when campgrounds aren't available)
Transport: $2,295
We will be
covering roughly 17,000 miles. The average cost for a gallon of gas is a little
over $2.70. Our car gets about 20 mpg combined highway/city.
Supplies: $6,000
This portion of the funds covers the most
essential of the supplies for our trip -- in Xina's opinion anyway -- film and
film processing.
- 35mm: $500*
(cost for 2 rolls of 35mm/day for 50 days at $3/roll plus the cost of
processing of each roll at another $2/roll)
- 120: $5,500*
(cost for 10 rolls of 120/day for 50 days
at $8/roll plus the
cost of processing each roll at another $3)
*covers the cost for processing at
the insanely affordable and incredibly high quality establishment of Millers
Pittsburg, in Pittsburg, KS. check them out!
Perks + Overhead: $2,250
**Important: we
have added an additional $2,250 to our funding goal to cover the percentage that Indiegogo
gathers off the top of our campaign and the cost of making and shipping our lovely perks.
IF WE DONT REACH OUR GOAL: If
it turns out we become unsuccessful in realizing our financial goal -- and
depending on how far we fall short -- we will either organize a shorter trip or
donate the money to non-profit photo organizations based here in Philly, like
that of the incredible Philadelphia Photo Arts Center.
Art, Impact, and Legacy
The American people have long
established themselves as pioneers. This is the double-edged, crushing and liberating, truth of our country. It is clear we are a populace
inclined to risk and reward, to progress, expansion, and uncertainty--whether through credit card companies, entrepreneurial cities, space
explorations, Louisiana purchases, organized crime, or the avant-garde.
We are a nation bound to the notion
that freedom must express itself visibly, must prove itself in the endless
miles of untouched highway we've created. As citizens, we express our freedoms
in the ratification of these notions, in our practice of this
non-constraint.
In the year 2015, we still firmly
believe that the American families of the 21st century continue to follow in
these traditions. Our forefathers -- including Lewis and Clark, Kerouac,
Boone, Steinbeck, and Lange -- all did the same. They followed in traditions as
old as the country herself, and they were celebrated for this--for
traveling the open road, for glimpsing the world unseen, and for documenting
every freedom, value, and hardship.
These founding
theories of pioneering spirit, individualism and capitalism -- these are the
cruel, advantageous ideologies that America was built upon. These are the
philosophies that built the highways, that motivated those sprits that later
traveled them, that incited the self-made men that rose from nothing to capture
what is now widely known as the American dream. Today's United States might
look a little different, but we believe firmly that the wheels are still
churning. Yet with centuries, wars, world orders, and revolutions behind us, a
question remains:
how can we claim to know a land we no longer roam?
Lily from The Self-Directed Portrait -- XINA's most recent project
Risks & Challenges
Not enough money! Car failure! Camping catastrophe! Heat stroke! Road rage! Killer bees! Fears of inadequacy!
There are many
opportunities for problems to arise while on the road, but thankfully we live
in an age of communication and globalization. Help is often just a phone call away, while GPS systems live on our phones and music players. Both artists also happen to have
extensive experience with tent camping, long-distance driving, and map reading, a fact that should help alleviate most obstacles that may come about.
If their combined knowledge falls short, they are lucky enough to have
the ability to tap into a rich legacy of Graham-Vannais family history. Xina's father, David Graham, is a talented fine arts photographer born into a tradition of roaming artistry. Having made seven similar trips himself, he will no doubt prove useful as a source of wisdom and guidance. Or maybe not.
Other Ways You Can Help
You should always share your feelings and the link to this campaign! Get
the word out to your friends, your neighbors, your haters, and your Creator --
use the Indiegogo share tools!