"NAP Church: Exercises for Rebel Nappers"

Sunday, July 10, 1-3pm, at SKYDIVE ArtSpace as part of a Many Miny Residency.

"NAP Church: Exercises for Rebel Nappers" by Rev. Emily Sloan
Napping Affects Performance’s NAP Church will meet for a Sunday nap on July 10 from 1-3pm. In addition to napping, we will be discussing rebellious napping strategies. This B.Y.O.P. (Bring Your Own Pillow...and blanket, yoga mat, whatever suits you) event of “two or more gathered” to nap is open to all faiths!

Location:
SKYDIVE
2041 Norfolk Street,
Houston, TX 77098
info@theskydive.org

About the Many Mini Residency:
Many Mini Residency is a short-term residency program operated in conjunction with alternative exhibition venues in Europe and the United States. The name 'Many Mini' encompasses two main components of the project which is hosted in one room 24 hours a day for one week. The 'Many' describes the open call for proposals and the resulting multiplicity of responses and participants. The 'Mini' component of the residency describes the limited amount of time available and the scale of the room.

About SKYDIVE:
SKYDIVE is an artist run exhibition venue unique to Houston. Its mission is to broaden the spectrum of the dialogue in Houston by bringing in artists from outside of Texas. The aim of SKYDIVE is to host a range of art practices that push the limits of their material forms, including non-traditional methods of sculpture, installation, video, performance, and works that engage the viewer through participation, as well as text and web-based projects.

SKYDIVE utilizes an open and collaborative model for producing its programming. A group of artists, curators, and other professionals function as Advisors to help create shows, invite artists, and collaborate in the mission and programming of the space. Participants in SKYDIVE will be invited to Houston for a sustained number of days, previous to the exhibition to make their work, interact with the Houston community and see the sites in Houston and surrounding areas.

About Napping Affects Performance:
Napping Affects Performance (NAP) and NAP Church are interactive performance projects by 14 Pews artist-in-residence Emily Sloan providing community naps in collaboration with various performances, including (but not limited to) collaborations with sound, word, touch, and the delivery of naps to various sites and/or contexts. In May and June of 2010, NAP operated out of Art League Houston with six weeks of continuous performances taking place during Art League’s regular hours of operation. Since then, followers and napophiles began meeting once a month for a Sunday naps and naptisms during NAP Church services.

NAP Church meets monthly for Sunday naps.

Southern Naptist Convention Public Service Announcement

Nikki Araguz, Michael Galbreth, Mattress Mack, Stephanie Saint Sanchez and Cressandra Thibodeaux testify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmEQQQ5GYoM

What is a Naptism?

What is a naptism?
When someone believes in and is committed to a regular practice of napping, they are ready for naptism. Naptism involves an outward professing of this belief and then a ceremony of being laid to rest and doused with feathers. The believer then awakens to a new lease on life provided by regular restful, healing naps and the abolishment of any shame regarding napping.

Naptisms will be offered this Sunday, June 12 during the Southern Naptist Convention hosted by 14 Pews, 800 Aurora St., Houston, TX 77011.

THE NAPTURE!

The Napture is based on the prediction that humans are increasingly becoming insomniacs. There is already evidence pointing to it being true as humans stay awake for 16-18 hour stretches on average while most animals engage in napping throughout the day (just think of how much our pets sleep!). The invention of the light bulb has affected this change as have societal pressures. People staying up through the nocturnal hours fuels insomnia and increases the usage of environmental resources while daytime sleeping is demonized as laziness. Technology is also keeping people "wired" for longer hours.

Naptists believe we need sleep for survival. If not practiced, it is predicted that on the set date of October 21, 2011 non-nappers will be left awake in an insomniac hell.



About Napping Affects Performance: Napping Affects Performance (NAP) and NAP Church are interactive performance projects by 14 Pews artist-in-residence Emily Sloan providing community naps in collaboration with various performances, including (but not limited to) collaborations with sound, word, touch, and the delivery of naps to various sites and/or contexts. In May and June of 2010, NAP operated out of Art League Houston with six weeks of continuous performances taking place during Art League’s regular hours of operation. Since then, followers and napophiles began meeting once a month for a Sunday naps and naptisms during NAP Church services.

Napping Affects Performance, Universal NAP Church, and the Southern Naptist Convention are organizing the "NAPTURE: Don't be Left Awake!" event to be held in Houston, October 21, 2011 at 14 Pews. For more information, please visit: www.nappingaffectsperformance.blogspot.com

Southern Naptist Convention, Where Two or More Gather to Nap!

The Southern Naptist Convention is congregating Sunday, June 12 at 1pm at 14 Pews. Please join us for napping, naptisms, and preparing for the upcoming NAPTURE!

This is a very busy weekend as the Southern Baptist Convention is also taking place!

The Southern Naptist Convention is open to all faiths!

For more information, please contact Emily Sloan at 713-582-1198 or emily@emilysloan.com or visit: www.nappingaffectsperformance.blogspot.com

About Napping Affects Performance: Napping Affects Performance (NAP) and NAP Church are interactive performance projects by 14 Pews artist-in-residence Emily Sloan providing community naps in collaboration with various performances, including (but not limited to) collaborations with sound, word, touch, and the delivery of naps to various sites and/or contexts. In May and June of 2010, NAP operated out of Art League Houston with six weeks of continuous performances taking place during Art League’s regular hours of operation. Since then, followers and napophiles began meeting once a month for a Sunday naps and naptisms during NAP Church services.

Napping Affects Performance, Universal NAP Church, and the Southern Naptist Convention are organizing the "NAPTURE: Don't be Left Awake!" event to be held in Houston, October 21, 2011 at 14 Pews. For more information, please visit: www.nappingaffectsperformance.blogspot.com

About 14 Pews: Located at 800 Aurora St., Houston, Texas 77009, this Houston landmark is the oldest white wooden church in the Heights. Built in 1924, it has housed the Sunset Heights Church of Christ, Aurora Picture Show, and is now home to 14 Pews. 14 Pews is a non-profit microcinema providing regular screenings of independent documentaries and feature films, along with 4 annual film festivals and several affordable film/video educational classes. For more information, please visit: www.14pews.org

(NAP) Church: Daylight Saving Time Travel

Houston, TX - Art League Houston is excited to announce NAP Church: Daylight Saving Time Travel, a collaborative art performance between Emily Sloan’s Napping Affects Performance and Patrick Turk’s Time Travel Research Institute Presents: in recognition of Daylight Saving Time, which begins March 13 at 2:00 a.m. The performance will take place in the main gallery on Sunday, March 13, 2011 from 2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. Eye coverings, ear plugs, and a limited number of cots will be provided. Yoga mats and sleeping bags are also welcome. This event is free and open to the public and all faiths.

The Time Travel Research Institute Presents: and (NAP) have come together to create NAP Church: Daylight Saving Time Travel, an environment for visitors of the gallery to come and catch up on their lost hour of sleep. “The first day of Daylight Saving Time is the perfect time to take a nap at The Time Travel Research Institute,” said Emily Sloan, napping minister and naptician from Napping Affects Performance. “Patrick Turk’s light installation offers an organic and spiritual environment that is ideal for adjusting one’s physiological time clock.”

About Napping Affects Performance
Napping Affects Performance (NAP) is a performance and participation project by Emily Sloan providing community naps in collaboration with various performances, including (but not limited to) collaborations with sound, word, touch, and the delivery of naps to various sites and/or contexts.
In May and June of 2010, NAP operated out of Art League Houston with six weeks of continuous performances taking place during Art League’s regular hours of operation. NAP and NAP Church are organizing a Southern Naptist Convention to be held in Houston, June 12, 2011.

For more information or to book a naptism or mobile nap, please call 713-582-1198 or email: nappingaffectsperformance@gmail.com or visit: www.nappingaffectsperformance.blogspot.com

About The Time Travel Research Institute Presents:
Prepare to enter the surreal and extraordinary research laboratory of artist and quasi-scientist Patrick Turk, whose recent studies in quantum mechanics and atomic sciences have generated an interactive light installation that playfully explores the phenomenon of time travel through a series of sculptural works that combine three-dimensional collage with electronic mechanisms, LED technology and futuristic design.

About Patrick Turk
Patrick Turk is a self-trained Houston-based artist from Galveston, Texas. His works have been exhibited throughout Houston in galleries including Art Storm, Lawndale Art Center and Rudolph/Projects/Art Scan, as well as galleries in Galveston, Texas and Los Angeles, California. His works have been published several times in Mung Being Magazine and include high profile commissions for the 2009 Houston Art Car Parade Poster, as well as the Philokalia album cover by Golden Cities.

ABOUT ART LEAGUE HOUSTON
Art League Houston is one of Houston's longest operating non-profit visual arts organizations and was the first alternative art space in Texas. Founded in 1948 and incorporated as a non-profit organization in 1953, Art League Houston (ALH) was created to promote the public appreciation of and interest in the visual arts. During the past 62 years, ALH has provided over 785 exhibitions to the Houston community, showcased the work of nearly 12,000 artists, and instructed over 36,000 students through the Art League School and outreach programs.

Funeral Party for the Living

Funeral Party for the Living took place on January 1, 2011. It is one of several ritual projects I utilize in my art practice as an ongoing exercise to explore healing and death rituals. The audience participates in actions encouraging realizations of the brevity of life and aiding in connecting to the present.

Front of the 14 Pews church with mourning wreaths on the doors.

View from behind the desk of the "Eulogy Writing Deaconesses." During the visitation before the funeral, a eulogy writing service was available for attendees needing assistance or last minute advice.

The fashionably mournful.

A "Eulogy for Art" was read.

A brass band lead by Nick Cooper.


The back yard funeral pyre where participants said good-bye to such things as addictions, jobs, bras, lovers, and hemeroids, among other things.


The funeral food potluck included foods such as ambrosia salad, funeral pie, severed arm cake, cooper coins for the afterlife, and sweet funeral wine.

All images courtesy of 14 Pews.

Press links:
coming.......

Funeral Party

Performance: Entwined

Entwined is a performance of hair giving. It was performed on November 19 (the Friday before Thanksgiving) with a group I have worked with as a Healing Artist for approximately a year and a half. To bound our relationship even tighter, I offered everyone in the group a lock of hair they could cut off and keep as a memento of me and a passing on of power.


Above: We are discussing Victorian traditions of hair saving, exchanging and hair work. In some cultures and stories the sharing of hair is a sharing of power. Hair is also significant as a part of the body which will not rot.


Reading 19th century sayings such as "when this lock of hair you do see, think of me."




Above: A selection is made from the nape of the neck.




Above: A participant gives me a lock of their hair.

Photography courtesy of Crystal Owens.

Rebirth Ritual

"Rebirth" is a ritual event that took place at El Rincon Social on Sunday, November 14. A truck bed filled with blessed fluid was utilized for participants to be buried/submerged in and then reborn as part of a ritual of beginning anew.

The rebirthing process...












Photos courtesy of Michael Brims and Emily Sloan. More photos to come.

Water Break

Water Break: pick-up truck, tarp, water, release
Action took place following a performance of "rebirth" at El Rincon Social in Houston, Texas on Sunday, November 14.

Truck before:


Unidentified woman near water hose/umbilical cord as the truck is being filled with water.



Water Break:


(Above photo courtesy of Heili Geistert)

Red Sheet placenta was released as well.

Performance: Rebirth / Breaking of the Water

"Rebirth" is a ritual event to take place at El Rincon Social on Sunday, November 14 from 5pm to 10pm. A truck bed filled with blessed fluid will be on hand into which participants may be buried/submerged and reborn as part of a ritual of beginning anew.

The evening will end with "The Breaking of the Water" from the truck onto the earth.

These performances are dedicated to Houston performance artist and Performance Art Houston event organizer Julia Claire Wallace and are part of an evening, called “heyBABY” celebrating her soon to be born daughter.

This event is open to participants and observers.

Performance: Turning the Pages of The World's Largest Book!

Bhutan: A Visual Odyssey Across the Last Himalayan Kingdom, the world's largest book, is 5 feet by 7 feet and weighs nearly 150 pounds. MIT's Michael Hawley is the book's creator. On Friday, September 24, I turned the pages of this book for approximately 3 hours.

This book is in the collection of the Museum of Printing History in Houston, Texas.

Performed by Emily Sloan.
Photos courtesy of mitch samuels grystar.






A special thanks to the Museum of Printing History, Amanda, Charles and Anne.