oUT iN tHe zONE -MAY 12, 2017 PHOTOS BY WALTER WLODARCZYK HOME ABOUT PROJECTS THREE PHASE CONTACT SEARCH More... oUT iN tHE zONE NYC ANARCHIST PERFORMANCE ART EXHIBITION #11 JUDSON MEMORIAL CHURCH, NYC MAY 12, 2017 PHOTOS BY WALTER WLODARCZYK walter-wlodarczyk-2017-05-13-_87A3101 Nina A. Isabelle - Anarchist Performance Art #11 at Judson Memorial Church, NYC 2017 (photo: Walter Wlodarczyk) walter-wlodarczyk-2017-05-13-_87A3103 Nina A. Isabelle - Anarchist Performance Art #11 at Judson Memorial Church, NYC 2017 (photo: Walter Wlodarczyk) walter-wlodarczyk-2017-05-13-_87A3085 Nina A. Isabelle - Anarchist Performance Art #11 at Judson Memorial Church, NYC 2017 (photo: Walter Wlodarczyk) walter-wlodarczyk-2017-05-13-_87A3092 Nina A. Isabelle - Anarchist Performance Art #11 at Judson Memorial Church, NYC 2017 (photo: Walter Wlodarczyk) walter-wlodarczyk-2017-05-13-_87A3095 Nina A. Isabelle - Anarchist Performance Art #11 at Judson Memorial Church, NYC 2017 (photo: Walter Wlodarczyk) 18319281_318426008575701_4965584380399255762_o

IV Castellanos Reads an imagined performance written by Nina Isabelle as part of IV's Imagined Performance Storytime series at Para\\el Performance Space in Brooklyn, NY on February 12, 2021. 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.

HOME ABOUT PROJECTS THREE PHASE CONTACT SEARCH More... FORCE YOURSELF TO BE GOOD Panoply Performance Laboratory, Brooklyn, NY May 24, 2018 Force Yourself To Be Good Nina Isabelle /Performancy Forum / Panoply Performance Lab / May 24, 2018 / Images provided by PPL Force Yourself To Be Good Nina Isabelle /Performancy Forum / Panoply Performance Lab / May 24, 2018 / Images provided by PPL Force Yourself To Be Good Nina Isabelle /Performancy Forum / Panoply Performance Lab / May 24, 2018 / Images provided by PPL Force Yourself To Be Good Nina Isabelle /Performancy Forum / Panoply Performance Lab / May 24, 2018 / Images provided by PPL Force Yourself To Be Good Nina Isabelle /Performancy Forum / Panoply Performance Lab / May 24, 2018 / Images provided by PPL IMG_9611 Nina Isabelle /Performancy Forum / Panoply Performance Lab / May 24, 2018 / Images provided by PPL Force Yourself To Be Good Nina Isabelle / /Performancy Forum / Panoply Performance Lab / May 24, 2018 / Images provided by PPL Force Yourself To Be Good Nina Isabelle /Performancy Forum / Panoply Performance Lab / May 24, 2018 / Images provided by PPL Force Yourself To Be Good Nina Isabelle /Performancy Forum / Panoply Performance Lab / May 24, 2018 / Images provided by PPL Force Yourself To Be Good Nina Isabelle /Performancy Forum / Panoply Performance Lab / May 24, 2018 / Images provided by PPL Force Yourself to be Good Nina Isabelle /Performancy Forum / Panoply Performance Lab / May 24, 2018 / Images provided by PPL Force Yourself To Be Good Nina Isabelle /Performancy Forum / Panoply Performance Lab / May 24, 2018 / Images provided by PPL

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

HOME ABOUT PROJECTS THREE PHASE CONTACT SEARCH More... MOTHER VS. GOD SAN DIEGO ART INSTITUTE / THE DEAD ARE NOT QUIET OCTOBER 2016 Mother vs. God uses personal photographs combined with multiple sound tracks of digitally altered voice and electronic violin. The compilation of multiple media and input results in a distortion that parallels the dialogue that can exist between religious beliefs and psychotic delusions. In October 2016 Mother vs. God was chosen by Marilyn Manson’s Daisy Berkowitz, Scott Mitchell Putesky, as part of The San Diego Art Institute’s show The Dead Are Not Quiet.

HOME ABOUT PROJECTS THREE PHASE CONTACT SEARCH More... LAUNDRY LOOPS (JOB) IV SOLDIER'S F.A.G. (FEMINIST ART GROUP) PANOPLY PERFORMANCE LABORATORY NOVEMBER 3, 2016 (Lorene Bouboushian, IV Castellanos, Amanda Hunt, Kaia Gilje, Nina Isabelle) Photos: Brian McCorkle LAUNDRY LOOPS // JOB // F.A.G. //PPL Laundry Loops JOB // IV Soldier's F.A.G. at Panoply Performance Laboratory November 3, 2016 Photo: Brian McCorkle LAUNDRY LOOPS // JOB // F.A.G. //PPL Laundry Loops JOB // IV Soldier's F.A.G. at Panoply Performance Laboratory November 3, 2016 Photo: Brian McCorkle LAUNDRY LOOPS // JOB // F.A.G. //PPL Laundry Loops JOB // IV Soldier's F.A.G. at Panoply Performance Laboratory November 3, 2016 Photo: Brian McCorkle LAUNDRY LOOPS // JOB // F.A.G. //PPL Laundry Loops JOB // IV Soldier's F.A.G. at Panoply Performance Laboratory November 3, 2016 Photo: Brian McCorkle LAUNDRY LOOPS // JOB // F.A.G. //PPL Laundry Loops JOB // IV Soldier's F.A.G. at Panoply Performance Laboratory November 3, 2016 Photo: Brian McCorkle LAUNDRY LOOPS // JOB // F.A.G. //PPL Laundry Loops JOB // IV Soldier's F.A.G. at Panoply Performance Laboratory November 3, 2016 Photo: Brian McCorkle LAUNDRY LOOPS // JOB // F.A.G. //PPL Laundry Loops JOB // IV Soldier's F.A.G. at Panoply Performance Laboratory November 3, 2016 Photo: Brian McCorkle LAUNDRY LOOPS // JOB // F.A.G. //PPL Laundry Loops JOB // IV Soldier's F.A.G. at Panoply Performance Laboratory November 3, 2016 Photo: Brian McCorkle LAUNDRY LOOPS // JOB // F.A.G. //PPL Laundry Loops JOB // IV Soldier's F.A.G. at Panoply Performance Laboratory November 3, 2016 Photo: Brian McCorkle LAUNDRY LOOPS // JOB // F.A.G. //PPL Laundry Loops JOB // IV Soldier's F.A.G. at Panoply Performance Laboratory November 3, 2016 Photo: Brian McCorkle LAUNDRY LOOPS // JOB // F.A.G. //PPL Laundry Loops JOB // IV Soldier's F.A.G. at Panoply Performance Laboratory November 3, 2016 Photo: Brian McCorkle LAUNDRY LOOPS // JOB // F.A.G. //PPL Laundry Loops JOB // IV Soldier's F.A.G. at Panoply Performance Laboratory November 3, 2016 Photo: Brian McCorkle LAUNDRY LOOPS // JOB // F.A.G. //PPL Laundry Loops JOB // IV Soldier's F.A.G. at Panoply Performance Laboratory November 3, 2016 Photo: Brian McCorkle LAUNDRY LOOPS // JOB // F.A.G. //PPL Laundry Loops JOB // IV Soldier's F.A.G. at Panoply Performance Laboratory November 3, 2016 Photo: Brian McCorkle LAUNDRY LOOPS // JOB // F.A.G. //PPL Laundry Loops JOB // IV Soldier's F.A.G. at Panoply Performance Laboratory November 3, 2016 Photo: Brian McCorkle LAUNDRY LOOPS // JOB // F.A.G. //PPL Laundry Loops JOB // IV Soldier's F.A.G. at Panoply Performance Laboratory November 3, 2016 Photo: Brian McCorkle LAUNDRY LOOPS // JOB // F.A.G. //PPL Laundry Loops JOB // IV Soldier's F.A.G. at Panoply Performance Laboratory November 3, 2016 Photo: Brian McCorkle LAUNDRY LOOPS // JOB // F.A.G. //PPL Laundry Loops JOB // IV Soldier's F.A.G. at Panoply Performance Laboratory November 3, 2016 Photo: Brian McCorkle 1/2

Things can be objects or subjects. While objects are tangible things abstracted from the particularness of subjects, subjects are the intangible concepts or notions we extract from objects. How do we process the intangible sense data we extract from encountering objects made of particles in the phys HOME ABOUT PROJECTS THREE PHASE CONTACT SEARCH More... MOSS ROCK CAGE April 2020 Moss covered rock welded into hand-bent steel cage sold for a fundraising effort for HiLo Art in Catskill, NY during the pandemic.

HOME ABOUT PROJECTS THREE PHASE CONTACT SEARCH More... FEEDING THE ENTITY MARCH 2015 Clara Diamond & Nina Isabelle Feeding The Entity explores the development and agenda of interwoven notions of communal beliefs, material dynamics, possibilities of non-linear physical travel implied through numbers expressing location using longitude and latitude, the metaphor of breath in relation to inspiration and language styles expressing give-and-take or push/pull communication patterns, the articulation of verbal concepts in relation to the movement between ball-and-socket joints such as the hips and shoulders during the birthing-process, as well as the documentation of scientifically unsubstantiated effects of focused intention and ritual action in non-physical reality such as memory, deja-vu, and other phenomena of psychic imprint.

HOME ABOUT PROJECTS THREE PHASE CONTACT SEARCH More... ARTIST & LOCATION CZONG INSTITUTE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART GIMPO, KOREA October 2016 CICA MUSEUM

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

HOME ABOUT PROJECTS THREE PHASE CONTACT SEARCH More... THE SILENT MASS GENERATOR WORKSHOP GES #411 ARCHIVE SPACE NOVEMBER 6, 2015 The Silent Mass Generator Workshop incorporated the public to assemble, build and incorporate physical mass within an experimental simulated mindfulness environment. The duration of the workshop spanned 5 hours and 44 minutes inside of The Grace Exhibition Space Shirt Factory Studio #411. There was no speaking, eating, or drinking. Participation was not required, participants were free to come and go, or stay for a portion of the workshop. The workshop was designed to distract the subconscious mind by the tedium of cutting, ripping, and tying material to form long strands in order to facilitate the entry into a mindful, meditative, psychic space. The project explored the development and agenda of interwoven notions of communal beliefs, material dynamics, possibilities of non-linear physical travel implied through numbers expressing location using longitude and latitude, the metaphor of breath in relation to inspiration and language styles expressing give-and-take or push/pull communication patterns, the articulation of verbal concepts in relation to the movement between ball-and-socket joints such as the hips and shoulders during the birthing-process, as well as the documentation of scientifically unsubstantiated effects of focused intention and ritual action in non-physical reality such as memory, deja-vu, and other phenomena of psychic imprint. An experimental soundscape designed with Christina Amelia Diamond acted as an electronic gong wash intended to initiate 23 cycles of ordered energetic body activation using specific Hz. Other auditory Information within the noise composition was generated by The Entity. Speaking was disallowed at The Silent Mass Generator Workshop. The Entity thanks Jeanie Antonelle, Undine Brod, Leonard Fujiyama, Hillary Harvey, Mor Pipman, and Christina Varga for their contribution of materials. CALL FOR MATERIAL DONATIONS SEPTEMBER 25, 2015 The Entity seeks donations of scrap, waste, or unsellable materials such as fabric cut-offs, twine, rolled or spooled material, rope, ribbon, thread, or anything that is in long strands or could be cut and tied to form long strands. The nature of the project has lead to the present development of an official CALL FOR DONATED MATERIALS. The Entity also seeks donations of traditional artist’s materials as well as non-toxic industrial materials which might be repurposed. The upcoming phase of the project includes an opportunity for community participation with an interactive component in the form of a silent workshop intended to build physical mass through the hands-on manipulation of donated material. The workshop will be free and open to the public. FEEDING THE ENTITY MARCH 2015 Feeding The Entity explores the development and agenda of interwoven notions of communal beliefs, material dynamics, possibilities of non-linear physical travel implied through numbers expressing location using longitude and latitude, the metaphor of breath in relation to inspiration and language styles expressing give-and-take or push/pull communication patterns, the articulation of verbal concepts in relation to the movement between ball-and-socket joints such as the hips and shoulders during the birthing-process, as well as the documentation of scientifically unsubstantiated effects of focused intention and ritual action in non-physical reality such as memory, deja-vu, and other phenomena of psychic imprint.

Nina A. Isabelle performs as part of Anarko Art Lab's Temporary Ungovernable Zone at Ft. Tilden in NYC 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

Nina A. Isabelle is a process-based multidisciplinary artist working with abstract painting, performance art, video, photography, sound, and sculpture. HOME ABOUT PROJECTS THREE PHASE CONTACT SEARCH More... THE BEDROOM 4th Iteration THE HOLLAND TUNNEL GALLERY Brooklyn, NY October 20 - November 12 The Bedroom is an international monochromatic flux installation by The Women Artist Team. The 3rd Iteration was exhibited at NA Gallery in Chungcheongnam-do, South Korea.

We Can't Tell What We're Doing is the discovery of a process that eats itself and then absorbs information from its own bowels. Nina Isabelle. HiLo Catskill. HOME ABOUT PROJECTS THREE PHASE CONTACT SEARCH More... WE CAN'T TELL WHAT WE'RE DOING A recursive Installation event including painting, sculpture, performance, wearables, photo & video, explosions, and more. HiLo Catskill, NY June 20 - August 26, 2018 Through the superimposition of objects, photographs, video, action, painting, performance and narratives, We Can't Tell What We're Doing presses toward and hunts for a shift in meaning. This work is an inquiry and demonstration of a process that highjacks the past as a way to cultivate a future the way an AI robot might discover how to make sourdough bread out of itself. We Can't Tell What We're Doing is the discovery of a process that eats itself and then absorbs information from its own bowels. In attempt to manipulate spatial priority through ingesting inspections of object installation designed to illuminate internalized pockets of herniated or obstructed space where abstracted, impacted, and encrypted information and nutrient data might be stuck or diverted, this process reveals itself as a method that facilitates a solid flow of information that can be used to bind meaning and value to the motility of art in a regular way.

Nina A. Isabelle is a multidisciplinary artist working with abstract painting, performance art, video, photography, sound, and sculpture. Nina Isabelle HOME ABOUT PROJECTS THREE PHASE CONTACT SEARCH More... Addition Equals Subtraction, 43.50 x 62.25, house paint and flashe on canvas, 2017 Nina A Isabelle performing in Temporary Ungovernable Zone for Anarko Art Lab at Ft. Tilden, NYC. Photo by Jaime Rosenfeld FUTURE: -Weirdos in the Woods - an upstate art adventure by The Tavern , Three Phase Center , and Rosekill Performance Art Farm . August 29 - September 1, 2025 PAST: -May 2025 recipient of The Malcolm S. Morse Graduate Research Enhancement Award -THE CORVETTE PERFORMANCE MACHINE , OFF SIGHT + SOUND , Eastern Bloc , Montreal, Quebec, March 20-21, 2025. -UFO Conjuring for Transit of Venus at Kiddie Pool Art, December 6, 2024, Albany, NY -Dialogues for the Ear & Eye: Anton Yakovlev, Nina Isabelle, Marianne Osiel, 9W Diner, Saugerties, NY, November 12, 2024 -Linda Montano, Nina Isabelle, Brian McCorkle, O+Art festival, Keegan Ales, Kingston, NY, October 13, 2024 -The Scholar with Structure Affliction, Hampshire College, Amherst, MA, October 7, 2024 -Noisy Exercise Video Performance, Rosekill Performance Art Farm, Rosendale, NY, May 24, 2024 -Seeding Care with Kathie Halfin, Hanae Utamura, and Georgia Lale, Artport, Kingston, NY, May 19, 2024 -RPI Graduate Exhibit, Create Communities Studio, Troy, NY April 28, 2024 -Postenkill Gorgeous with Lisa Schonberg, Oakwood Community Center, Troy, NY, Jan 15, 2024 - 5 Objects, Percussion & Piano for Lisa Schonberg's Old Growth Playback at The Sanctuary for Independent Media in Troy, NY on December 16th, 2023 at 7:PM - Electronic Arts PhD Open Studios, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY - Chicken Performance with Linda Montano, Paul McMahon & Brian McCorkle at Lamb Center, Saugerties, NY - Art = Healing - group exhibit by Linda Montano at Emerge Gallery, Saugerties, NY - b priori, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute EArts PhD Graduate Exhibit at Collarworks , Troy, NY - SOLVERMATH! Initial phase opens virtually February 24, 2023, CLICK HERE > > > SOLVERMATH! - West Hall Open Studios, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, December 2022 - Livestream - Nina Isabelle & Adriana Magaña at Jennifer Zackin's Upstate Art Open Studio, July 2022 - Building as Being / Construction as Performance - IV Castellanos & Nina Isabelle at Rosekill Performance Art Farm, June 2021 -Nina Isabelle - Artist, Thinker, Observer , Theresa Widman's Podcast #183 - The Black Meta Interviews Nina Isabelle for Radio Kingston, by Beetle & Freedom Walker, May 2021 -PSYCHIC SELF-DEFENSE Sculpture, Installation, & Demonstration at Art/Life Kingston, May 1st - 29th, 2021 -Imagined Performances read by IV Castellanos at Para\\el Performance Space, Brooklyn, NY, February 12, 2021 -Kerry Santullo interviews Nina Isabelle for NYC Children's Museum of Art "Meet The Makers ," October 21, 2020 -Spheres of Perception & Value, Virtual Presentation, Hynes Institute for Entrepreneurship & Innovation at Iona College, September 21, 2020 -Video Manifestation System User Interface Lecture and Presentation, Grace Exhibition Space, NYC, May 1, 2020 -Superfund Revisioning Project Lecture, Grace Exhibition Space, NYC. May 15, 2020 -EQUINOX, An Emergency of Joy, March 19, 2020 -The Ear, Brooklyn, NY, August 23, 2019 -Remarkable New Locations- Nye Ffarrabas & Nina Isabelle, CX Silver Gallery, Brattleboro, VT, May 18th - June 15th, 2019 -PARALLEL-104 Meserole Street, Brooklyn NY, Saturday, March 23rd,2019-7:PM -documentation discussion panel with LiVEART.US featuring Emergency INDEX at Queens Museum , February 17, 2019 2:00-5:00 -Empathy Blinders by David Ian Bellows/Griess with Nina Isabelle & Elizabeth Lamb, Brooklyn Arts Media , December 4-18, 2018 -As Far As The Hart Can See / In Honor of, The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts , NYC, October 20th, 2018 -actLife, Linda Mary Montano, Nye Ffarrabas, Cai Xi, Nina Isabelle, Jennifer Zackin, Lee Xi & Sharon Myers, CX Silver Gallery, Brattleboro, VT, August 24 -Healing + Arts / Radical Domesticity, Movement Metaphors Workshop, Kingston, NY, August 24, 2018 -NO NUDES NO SUNSETS , August 11 - September 22, 2018, Green County Council on the Arts , Catskill, NY -Whistle Portraits, Linda Montano & Nina Isabelle, Secret City Art Revival, Woodstock, NY, July 28 - DRAMATIC OBJECT MAKING / EMPATHY BLINDERS with Elizabeth Lamb & David Ian Bellows Griess, THREE PHASE , Sept.1, 2018, Stone Ridge, NY -WE CAN'T TELL WHAT WE'RE DOING, HiLo , July 20, 2018 - August 26, 2018, Catskill, NY -Whistle Portraits, Linda Mary Montano, Nina Isabelle & Jennifer Zackin, HiLo, Catskill, NY June 10, 2018 -ANIMALIA, Anarchist Art Festival, Judson Memorial Church, NYC, June 8 2018 -GUTTER HANGER w/ Lorene Bouboushian & Friends, THREE PHASE , 1:PM-DARK, May 27, 2018, Stone Ridge, NY -EMBODYING THE OUTER BODIES: a demonstration of low-level energetic vacuum form technologies 7:PM, May 24, 2018, PPL , Brooklyn, NY -Citizen Participation: Diagrams & Directives, Feminist Art Group, www.bulletspace.org , May 6, 2018, NYC -Hymn Warp Transducer at Paul McMahon' s Bedstock Exhibit, 9 Herkimer Place, Brooklyn, NY, April 15, 2018 -New Genres at Living Arts in Tulsa,OK , March 2-3, 2018 -MUSCULAR BONDING at M.A.R.S.H. (Materializing and Activating Radical Social Habitus)- Feb 15 - March 5, St. Louis, MO -The Video Manifestation System released by Human Trash Dump - February 26, 2018 -PIANO PORTRAITS By Linda Mary Montano with Nina Isabelle, & Jennifer Zackin at HiLo , Catskill, NY, Feb. 11, 2018 -BEAST CONJURING by Nina Isabelle, The Mothership , Woodstock, NY, Jan16-21, 2018 http://paulmcmahon.tv/mothership -MKUVM, Human Trash Dump, November 27, 2017 https://archive.org/details/htdc002 -The Bedroom, 4th Iteration by The Women Artist Team, Holland Tunnel Gallery , Brooklyn, NY , October 20- November 12 -Patricia Field's International Art / Fashion Show, Joe's Garage, October 6, 2017, Catskill, NY www.greenearts.org -CENTENNIAL:SHE, Greene County Council on the Arts, October 7 - November 11, 2017 -The Shirt Factory Centennial Celebration- Performance / Open Studio , Kingston, NY, September 16, 2017 -F.A.G. Slumber Party, Nina's House & Yard Studio, Hurley, NY September 4-6, 2017 -We Are The Secret Garden: An Evening of Performance, Kingston, NY September 26, 2017 -The Bedroom , The Women Artist Team at NA Gallery, Chungcheongnam-do, South Korea, July 23- Aug. 7, 2017 -Just Situations, Grace Exhibition Space, Brooklyn, NY, July 23, 2017 https://justsituations.wordpress.com -Temporary Ungovernable Zone , Anarcho Art Lab / ARTINYC, Ft. Tilden, NY July 8, 2017 -Experimental Archery Workshop , Rosekill Performance Art Farm, Rosendale, NY, June 10, 2017 http://www.rosekill.com - Mothering, Rosekill Performance Art Farm, Rosendale, NY, June 3, 2017 http://www.rosekill.com/ - N Y C Anarchist Performance Art Festival #11, The Judson Memorial Church , NYC, May 12, 2017 -The Fabric Of Women's Space-Time, The Lace Mill Gallery, Kingsotn, NY, May 13, 2017 -UNITY, The Lace Mill Gallery, Kingston, N, May 6-13, 2017 -The Unstitute's Projection Room,Catalunya, Spain, August 2017, http://www.theunstitute.org/Projection.Room.html - STAGES, Performance by Clara Diamond with Valerie Sharp & Nina Isabelle, GREENKILL , APRIL 15, 2017 -P R O P E R T Y , R O M A N S U S A N / RPWRHS, CHICACO, IL, APRIL 1-30, 2017, www.romansusan.org -Bangkok Underground Film Festival , Bridge Art Space, Bangkok, Thailand, March 4-12, 2017 -SHORTCUT TO HELL, January 22, 2017, Otion Front Studio, Brooklyn, NY www.otionfront.com -HiLo Art, April 2017, Catskill, NY https://www.hilocatskill.com -EotW (Embarrassed Of The Whole) February 4, 2017, Panoply Lab, Brooklyn, NY http://www.panoplylab.org -Mock The Chasm, November 12, 2016, Art/Life Institute Kingston, NY http://www.artlifekingston.com/ -JOB /// IV Soldier's Feminist Art Group at Panoply Performance Lab, Brooklyn, NY -San Diego Art Institute - The Dead Are Not Quiet, San Diego, CA October 1-31 -Animal Maximalism, Green Kill, Kingston, NY, October 1-15 www.greenkill.org -POLITRICKS: Theories & Other Conspiracies, October 14, Ellipsis Art, Philadelphia, PA -Artist and Location, September 23-October 9, Czong Institute For Contemporary Art, Gimpo Korea, www.cicamuseum.com -Jurnquist Coloring Book Show, September 24, Studio Fidlär, Alexanderplatz, Berlin

HOME ABOUT PROJECTS THREE PHASE CONTACT SEARCH More... MUSCULAR BONDING-PHOTO DOCUMENTS Adriana Disman, Nina Isabelle, Kaia Gilje, Beth Neff, Esther Neff, Edward Sharp M.A.R.S.H, St. Louis / Living Arts, Tulsa, OK February 15 - March 5, 2018 We traveled, lived, worked, and performed together for three weeks as a performance experiment conceived, initiated, and enforced by Esther Neff. On February 15, 2018 we drove from Panoply Performance Lab in Brooklyn, NY to M.A.R.S.H (Materializing & Activating Radical Social Habitus) in St. Louis, MO. We lived, worked, and ate together under strict and extreme circumstances, and then performed actions that were devised through collective manipulation to "materialize participant's structural realities" at The New Genre Art Festival at Living Arts Tulsa. Kaia Gilje & Adriana Disman carry a sheet of dry wall up a staircase at M.A.R.S.H. (Materializing & Activating Radical Social Habitus) in St. Louis, MO. Photo: Nina Isabelle

Inspired by Dion Fortune's Psychic Self-Defense: The Classic Instruction Manual for Protecting Yourself Against Paranormal Attack published in 1930, I carved a 15' 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. 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

HOME ABOUT PROJECTS THREE PHASE CONTACT SEARCH More... REMARKABLE NEW LOCATIONS Nye Ffarrabas & Nina Isabelle CX Silver Gallery, May- June 2019 Remarkable New Locations is a series of interactive art objects inspired by Nye Ffarrabas's poetry and produced by Nina Isabelle using a car as a printing press. The objects are interactive as they invite the viewer to engage in marking and remaking the dry erase surface as a way to facilitate perceptions of process, language, and action. The printing process involved inking each plate individually and pressing it into each sheet by driving a car over it to emboss the plate image into the saturated paper. Each piece was rolled over ten times with a car revealing various degrees of chance in the imagery. The original monoprint plate was produced using hand-etched plexiglass. Using black printmaking ink on 100% cotton 22x30 Arches 88 printmaking paper, the prints were individually processed, then hand painted using ink, gouache, and acrylic paint to highlight and color code the vowels using purple As, yellow Es, orange Is, blue Os, and green Us. The final layer is a hand cut transparent material affixed to the image surface machine stitched with orange thread. Nye Ffarrabas (formerly Bici Forbes and Bici Hendricks) has been an artist for 60 years and a poet for 80. She participated in Happenings beginning in 1961, as part of the Fluxus scene. In 1962 she interviewed several artists including Roy Lichtenstein, Bob Watts and Ivan Karp. In 1965, she established her own publishing company, the Black Thumb Press. Nye/Bici had her first solo show at Judson Gallery in 1966 and the next year performed Ordeals with Carolee Schneemann. In the 60s and 70s, Nye/Bici participated in many of the Annual Avant Garde Festival of New York events coordinated by Charlotte Moorman. Starting in 1964, Nye/Bici compiled journals as conceptual art with Geoff Hendricks, a series known as The Friday Book of White Noise which contains many seeds for her event scores. In 2019 Nye completed a mobius-strip-shaped infinite event score as a performance, installation and wall-piece.

Abstract oil paintings by Nina Isabelle - 2015 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

HOME ABOUT PROJECTS THREE PHASE CONTACT SEARCH More... ILLUMINATING INTANGIBLES Performance by Nina Isabelle & Amelia Iaia at Para\\el Performance Space in Brooklyn, NY on March 23, 2019 English fails at describing the location of abstractions in relation to the human body. Identifying such things is challenging and understanding our proximities to both physical and abstract structures or concepts is a murky smudge in our perceptive fields and abilities. Recognizing how perceptions transition from one "place" to another requires a deep inquiry into the question of how we arrive at sensing or knowing. Prepositions are words that describe the location of things in relation to other things. The English language has more than a million words to describe subjects and objects yet only 150 prepositions. Prepositions are useful for describing the location of physical objects yet fail when put up against or in combination with abstract subjects. Amelia and I generated a random list of prepositions paired with abstract nouns and verbs and came up with one-hundred-and-fifty phrases that we used to produce an audio arrangement. We constructed interactive objects of materials consisting of various textures, densities, and transparency for our performance. We came up with a set of gestures that we felt illustrated the concept as a way to illuminate the intangibleness of our language and perception situation.

FAKE PHOTO DOCUMENTATION OF NON-PERFORMANCE BASED PERFORMANCE All information including location, artist, photographer, subject, process, object, HOME ABOUT PROJECTS THREE PHASE CONTACT SEARCH More... CAVE GIRL FAKE PHOTO DOCUMENTATION OF PROFESSIONAL NON-PERFORMANCE BASED PERFORMANCE All information including location, artist, photographer, subject, process, object, intention, dimensions, medium, duration, software, hardware, is unimportant and disallowed. JULY 9, 2017 Documentation #1 Location, artist, photographer, title subject, and intention are undisclosed and unimportant. Documentation #2 Location, artist, photographer, title subject, and intention are undisclosed and unimportant. Documentation #3 Location, artist, photographer, title subject, and intention are undisclosed and unimportant. Documentation #4 Location, artist, photographer, title subject, and intention are undisclosed and unimportant. Documentation #5 Location, artist, photographer, title subject, and intention are undisclosed and unimportant. Documentation #6 Location, artist, photographer, title subject, and intention are undisclosed and unimportant. Documentation #7 Location, artist, photographer, title subject, and intention are undisclosed and unimportant. Documentation #8 Location, artist, photographer, title subject, and intention are undisclosed and unimportant. Documentation #9 Location, artist, photographer, title subject, and intention are undisclosed and unimportant.

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

HOME ABOUT PROJECTS THREE PHASE CONTACT SEARCH More... ACTIVATING PERCEPTION - NINA A. ISABELLE MIDTOWN ARTS DISTRICT by Debra Bresnan May 10, 2017 https://madkingston.org/2017/05/09/nina-a-isabelle/ When did you first know you were an artist? Growing up people referred to me as an artist and so I became one – an experience that made me aware of the power of language, perception, belief, and social programming, all themes in my current work. It’s possible that if I had grown up in a different environment I might have been an engineer because as an artist I’m always working with how things like concepts of memory and phenomena articulate with visual and spatial perception, language, materials, and meaning and how to build generative dialogue between these factors. Where an engineer might work with materials, data, or electricity, as an artist I use a similar approach but with different variables. Favorite medium(s) you use to make art? My favorite art medium is probably the phenomena of perception and how language builds reality. Right now my focus is on working to manipulate and bend notions surrounding the value and usefulness of art away from commodity and towards structures that represent essential and social value. Inside of this, working with painting I can still have an intention to study gesture, motion, and look for new languages that might emerge from this action and mark making or find new information in whatever emerges. I like to get my hands on chunks of materials like vats of clay, lumber, bolts of fabric, or discarded machine parts and sort of grapple with the stuff until it gives in to another form. Sometimes I might start out with an intention or give myself an assignment, but other times I let myself generate information by engaging with materials and paying close attention as I go. Since I work pretty equally with photography, video, design, performance, installation, and painting, nothing is really off limits to me. I grew up at a summer camp for kids where we had an arts and crafts department with a ceramics studio, photo lab, leather tools, batik, enamels, silk screens, and fabric dye, among others. Nine months out of the year these departments were vacant and I really made the best of it – I learned to use the kiln and glazes by haphazardly blowing up and melting a lot of stuff, mixing chemistry by taste, a lot of other experimental and dangerous learning-by-doing that has carried over to my current approach. I never read instructions as a younger person because I couldn’t really read until I went to college. I’m rarely intimidated by new things, and I think that’s one of my favorite things about my development and approach. What are the most interesting new trends in your field? Is your work changing as a result? One of the most exciting things I notice right now is a shift toward recognizing the social value of art as a tool to reframe reality through community building, open sourcing ideas and data, and through things like artist collectives and working together with other artists and community members. In the art world, there are always these superficial fads like geometric shapes or graffiti, or some new trendy material, or something everyone is doing like such-and-such, but my work doesn’t usually wind up aligning itself with those sorts of cultural flows. I don’t usually find myself in trendy circles — something that has made it difficult to find a community but also has led me to the point where I am now. I recognize that, all along, my running mission has been to challenge outmoded institutional and economic systems that have grown regulated and insular and to work to build systems to replace these. Artists are always pressing hard against hierarchal structures like gender, race, and social class: It seems like the discord generated by our new political administration is influencing a lot of art thinking these days. Talk about your creative process – where/when do you get most of your ideas and how do you know a piece is ‘finished’? My creative process is rooted pretty firmly in letting myself respond instinctively. One thing I often find myself doing is trying to destroy rosy notions that abound around creativity being “beautiful.” Being a person who has given birth to babies I recognize the mess, blood, and pain that goes along with creativity. I have a lot of ideas and mostly I choose to go with the ones that make me laugh about myself or our collective idiocy. I also like to work with themes that irk me such as fake systems of legitimization we use to determine success, such as university degrees, financial values and the gender and power imbalances that seem to perpetually skew the art world. Making art objects like paintings and sculptures, and grappling with material and concepts together, I’ve questioned the point of it beyond decoration or commodity and have come to understand my process as a personal tool that lets me understand reality in a way that I can integrate. Working with materials and visual information puts me in touch with deeper threads of meaning, and nuances of life that fortify the tapestry. I’m drawn toward this way of working and thinking because there seems to be something I can’t quite say in writing or speaking, something linear language can’t quite get at. I don’t know what it is yet and that’s what keeps me engaged. As far as recognizing when something is finished, I think it’s just a matter of paying attention to a subtle feeling of “doneness,” or arriving at a comfortable stopping point or a feeling of resolve – like I’ve figured something out or said what I meant to say. Sometimes a stopping point might never come because maybe I’ve gone down on a dead-end path. I have a lot of projects in limbo because they’ve become overwhelming or I’ve lost interest, things I can always get back to at any point. And, in a quantum way, things can never be finished because time isn’t linear and there’s no such thing as an end point. Do you also teach or are you strictly a creative artist? Who was your most influential mentor and why? How do you see the role of being a mentor? and why? In the past, I’ve taught art classes like photography, modern dance, and painting or movement workshops. There is always a technical entry point where students spend time learning about say, the camera machine, visual mechanics, basic movement patterns, or just becoming familiar with materials, and this can be a fun and engaging way for people to come together. But I always want to move further into dialogue about how the usefulness of these art tools and practices can be more than a fun pastime or therapeutic hobby. Art offers invaluable ways to shift perception and find new vantage points. As an artist, I collaborate with others in several capacities that seem more like mutual mentorship, where we share and build upon each other’s momentum and concepts. I’m not sure that I’ve ever fit the part of strictly a mentor to another, but I do recognize people who’ve inspired me. I had a couple high school teachers who helped me to evade attendance, something that in a typical case might not sound helpful, but I really recognize and value people who have taken risks in order to do the right thing morally. School is not a good place for all children. I can’t say that I’ve ever had a strong relationship with an individual mentor, but something that intrigued me early on was finding and building obscure relationships between seemingly unrelated artists and their work. I remember wondering about Käthe Kollwitz’s Woman With Dead Child in relationship to Henry Moore’s sculptures and sheep sketchbook, and Jim Dine’s Robes. Somehow the similar volume expressed in these works was curious to me, possibly as a subconscious desire to connect the physical form of my body to their work because I’ve always been athletic. I was also intrigued by industrial design and how humans interact with tools and objects, especially mid-century chairs like the Eames Lounger and Bertoia’s designs as a framework for simultaneously supporting physical and thought forms together. So in a way, I’ve let this sense of wonder guide me. What are you working on now? For the past year, I’ve been working on a project called The Superfund Re-Visioning Project . It’s an experimental framework that aims to transform contaminated industrial sites recognized by The United States Government as Superfund Sites. In New York State there are 117 of these sites. I’m developing a project that aims to create a platform for artists and community members who might otherwise be marginalized by political and financial systems that typically deal with these sorts of remediation. I’m also involved with an artist collective developed by IV Castellanos called The Feminist Art Group (F.A.G.) from Brooklyn, and plan to invite them to Kingston this summer for one of The Shirt Factory Open Studio events. Currently, I have a show at the new HiLo gallery space in Catskill and like to participate in local shows at The Old Glenford Church Studio . I think it’s great when things like The UNITY show curated by Sarah Carlson and Lisa Barnard Kelley between the artists at The Shirt Factory and The Lace Mill come together to fortify community connectedness. Upcoming, I have work being featured by The Unstitute in Catalunya, Spain and plan to do something fun at Paul McMahon’s Mothership Gallery this fall. Recently my focus is moving into sound and auditory perception. I’ve become interested in digitally degraded sound snippets and obscuring auditory input to the point of noise in a way to find out what’s behind and within the experience of sound. For more information about my work and listings of recent/current exhibitions, projects and collaborations, please visit www.ninaisabelle.com/cv . How has being in Kingston enhanced/inspired your work? What do you like best about living in Kingston/being involved with MAD? How long have you been here? Kingston has a lot to offer artists and community members and is building momentum as an arts-branded district. Recently we’ve seen several exciting places pop up like David Schell’s Green Kill , Rilley Johndonnell’s Optimism concept, Broadway Arts , The Art/Life Institute on Abeel Street , and Kingston High School Art teacher Lara Giordano, who is exhibiting student work at PUGG on Broadway. The surrounding landscape is diverse and inspiring conceptually because of the Hudson River waterways, The Catskill Mountains, The Ashokan Reservoir, and the surrounding forests, hiking, and rail trails. The Mid-Hudson Library system is phenomenal, and it’s easy to travel back and forth to New York City from Kingston. It’s great to have artist studio spaces like The Shirt Factory and The Lace Mill which offer affordable living spaces for artists, and especially new organizations like MAD that are forming to support this new movement.

Nina A. Isabelle is a multidisciplinary artist working with abstract painting, performance art, video, photography, sound, and sculpture. 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.

HOME ABOUT PROJECTS THREE PHASE CONTACT SEARCH More... BEAST CONJURING at Paul McMahon's MOTHERSHIP Woodstock, NY January 16-21, 2018 On January 21, 2018 performers at Paul McMahon's Mothership in Woodstock, NY work to conjure the sea beast from the book of Revelation. Nina Isabelle at The Mothership The Beast at Mothership Lorene Bouboushian, Nina Isabelle, Brian McCorkle, Linda Mary Montano, Ever Peacock, Miles Pflanz, and Jennifer Zackin. Photo by Amelia Iaia Miles Pflanz at The Mothership The Beast at Mothership Lorene Bouboushian, Nina Isabelle, Brian McCorkle, Linda Mary Montano, Ever Peacock, Miles Pflanz, and Jennifer Zackin. Photo by Amelia Iaia Linda Mary Montano The Beast at Mothership Lorene Bouboushian, Nina Isabelle, Brian McCorkle, Linda Mary Montano, Ever Peacock, Miles Pflanz, and Jennifer Zackin. Photo by Amelia Iaia Nina Isabelle at The Mothership7509 The Beast at Mothership Lorene Bouboushian, Nina Isabelle, Brian McCorkle, Linda Mary Montano, Ever Peacock, Miles Pflanz, and Jennifer Zackin. Photo by Amelia Iaia NAI_7452 Nina Isabelle, Ever Peacock The Beast at Mothership Lorene Bouboushian, Nina Isabelle, Brian McCorkle, Linda Mary Montano, Ever Peacock, Miles Pflanz, and Jennifer Zackin. Photo by Amelia Iaia Beast Conjuring KILL Paper Collage 22x30 (rubberized paint, gouache, ash, enamel, watercolor) By Nina Isabelle The Beast at The Mothership The Beast at Mothership Lorene Bouboushian, Nina Isabelle, Brian McCorkle, Linda Mary Montano, Ever Peacock, Miles Pflanz, and Jennifer Zackin. Photo by Amelia Iaia The Beast at The Mothership The Beast at Mothership Lorene Bouboushian, Nina Isabelle, Brian McCorkle, Linda Mary Montano, Ever Peacock, Miles Pflanz, and Jennifer Zackin. Photo by Amelia Iaia Nina Isabelle at The Mothership The Beast at Mothership Lorene Bouboushian, Nina Isabelle, Brian McCorkle, Linda Mary Montano, Ever Peacock, Miles Pflanz, and Jennifer Zackin. Photo by Amelia Iaia Nina Isabelle at The Mothership The Beast at Mothership Lorene Bouboushian, Nina Isabelle, Brian McCorkle, Linda Mary Montano, Ever Peacock, Miles Pflanz, and Jennifer Zackin. Photo by Amelia Iaia Nina Isabelle at The Mothership The Beast at Mothership Lorene Bouboushian, Nina Isabelle, Brian McCorkle, Linda Mary Montano, Ever Peacock, Miles Pflanz, and Jennifer Zackin. Photo by Amelia Iaia Nina Isabelle at The Mothership The Beast at Mothership Lorene Bouboushian, Nina Isabelle, Brian McCorkle, Linda Mary Montano, Ever Peacock, Miles Pflanz, and Jennifer Zackin. Photo by Amelia Iaia Nina Isabelle, Lorene Bouboushian The Beast at Mothership Lorene Bouboushian, Nina Isabelle, Brian McCorkle, Linda Mary Montano, Ever Peacock, Miles Pflanz, and Jennifer Zackin. Photo by Amelia Iaia Lorene Bouboushian at The Mothership The Beast at Mothership Lorene Bouboushian, Nina Isabelle, Brian McCorkle, Linda Mary Montano, Ever Peacock, Miles Pflanz, and Jennifer Zackin. Photo by Amelia Iaia Lorene & Nina at The Mothership The Beast at Mothership Lorene Bouboushian, Nina Isabelle, Brian McCorkle, Linda Mary Montano, Ever Peacock, Miles Pflanz, and Jennifer Zackin. Photo by Amelia Iaia Brian McCorkle at The Mothership The Beast at Mothership Lorene Bouboushian, Nina Isabelle, Brian McCorkle, Linda Mary Montano, Ever Peacock, Miles Pflanz, and Jennifer Zackin. Photo by Amelia Iaia Nina Isabelle at The Mothership The Beast at Mothership Lorene Bouboushian, Nina Isabelle, Brian McCorkle, Linda Mary Montano, Ever Peacock, Miles Pflanz, and Jennifer Zackin. Photo by Amelia Iaia Nina Isabelle and Lorene Bouboushian The Beast at Mothership Lorene Bouboushian, Nina Isabelle, Brian McCorkle, Linda Mary Montano, Ever Peacock, Miles Pflanz, and Jennifer Zackin. Photo by Amelia Iaia Bouboushian, Isabelle, Peacock The Beast at Mothership Lorene Bouboushian, Nina Isabelle, Brian McCorkle, Linda Mary Montano, Ever Peacock, Miles Pflanz, and Jennifer Zackin. Photo by Amelia Iaia The "Beast Conjuring" performance intended to conjure and kill the sea beast from the book of Revelation. A group of artists and performers were invited to simultaneously interweave their own processes and intentions as a way to generate energies that might be focused toward the common goal of beast conjuring. Together the group worked to build and maximizing the physical, sensory, and psychic spaces that bind the internal and external dimensions of awareness through performative modes of sound making, movement, object construction, and ceremonial-like gestures in a process that became an inquiry into how a metaphoric conjure-and-kill scenario might translate or become useful in a literal dimension where such things are less possible-seeming. "Beast Conjuring" was performed within an installation including ten hand-fabricated crowns, ten cedar root horns dug from local woods, hand painted imagery of the seven-headed ten-horned beast, a suspended hand-sewn white linen angel, a reconstructed domestic scene from the home of an ex-evangelical and a giant edible Whore of Babylon cake as bait. Lorene Bouboushian read personal text and improvised sound and movement, Linda Mary Montano performed a holy water blessing as Chicken Linda, Brian McCorkle produced sound using a Saxophone and his specially designed Beast Box, (a noise machine built with raspberry-pi based software that cast neural nets for soul retrieval,) Jennifer Zackin engaged in a task-based performance to weave a beast trapping vortex, Ever Peacock and I performed an acoustic rendition of Larry Norman's *You've been Left Behind* thirteen consecutive times all awash in Miles Pflanz's video remake of the 2014 American Christian apocalyptic thriller film *Left Behind* (based on the bestselling novels by Tim Lahaye and Jerry B. Jenkins) that reframes durational performance art as post-apocalyptic living. It's difficult to gauge the effectiveness of a performance conglomerate like "Beast Conjuring" due to its potential to be made to mean multiple things by participants and observers and the ripples of their combined experiences and energies. At the same time, the ability of a situation to evade meaning is exciting. No literal beast popped out of the floor, no politicians were struck dead and there weren't any recognizable or even loosely associated repercussive events of cosmic significance but the usefulness and appeal of such a process seems to unfurl over time in a circular and translucent way that generates unanswerable questions and hints at the possibilities and potential of less realistic thinking and doing.