Category: Announcements

Posted on

Cathenge DC -In Proposal to the DC Commission on Arts and Humanities – July 2025

Would you like to see Cathenge installed as public art in SW DC?

Support artist David Normal’s goal of installing Cathenge in “Linear Park” the park in the roundabout at the terminus of Maryland Av. SW in DC SW, Ward 6.   

Cathenge DC is in proposal to the DC Commission on Art and Humanities for consideration in the “Public Art Building Communities”  grant program that awards funds annually for new public art throughout Washington DC.  The grant deadline is July 22nd 2025.

 As a 3D printed sculptural installation, Cathenge represents the leading edge of ambition for the artistic application of large format additive printing.  The sculptures are a multi-media fusion:  3D  printing, LED lighting, lasers, sound, vibration and electronic interactive sensing are integral to the effect and provide visitors with a direct and palpable experience of the mystical Space Cat consciousness.

Visitors to Cathenge experience the majesty of the Catoliths through their interactive sound and lights.  People moving within the circle of cat statues are detected by LiDAR beams.  Soft harmonic purring tones and synchronized pulsing lights are generated which respond directly to the movement.  These interactive light and sound effects evoke the power of Holofelinity.

 

Cathenge DC Visualization

 

Proposed Site of Cathenge: “Linear Park”, Maryland Ave. SW, Washington DC

 

The Catolith.  Mystic cat statue of the Ancient Space Cat.

 

Cathenge at Patricia’s Green, Hayes Valley, San Francisco

Currently, “Cathenge DC” is being proposed to the DC Commission on Arts and Humanities for their “Public Art Building Communities” (PABC) grant which provides funding for public art installations that foster and strengthen community throughout Washington DC.

Background:

Cathenge was on display for 16 months, from October 2022 to March 2024, in downtown San Francisco.   Sponsored by the San Francisco Arts Commission, it was displayed at the prestigious Patricia’s Green sculpture site in the fashionable Hayes Valley district of SF near the Davies Symphony Hall. 

Cathenge began as a Burning Man Foundation funded “Honorarium Project” that  was presented at the annual Burning Man arts festival in the Black Rock Desert of Northern Nevada.

“Cathenge DC” will be a newly revised and improved version of the recent SF installation that features great improvements in the sound and light interactivity of the installation the SF Standard called “Insanely Popular”.

Press:

“Cathenge” Glowing 9-Foot Tall Cat Sculptures Come to SF

https://sfstandard.com/2022/11/17/cathenge-comes-to-sf

https://www.timeout.com/usa/news/a-massive-cathenge-is-being-unveiled-in-san-francisco-with-glowing-feline-monoliths-112522

About the Artist:

David Normal is a painter, animator, and installation maker based in the SF Bay Area.  Normal got his start making fliers for the hardcore punk scene in the Bay Area in the mid-80s.  Normal began contributing to the Burning Man Festival in the mid ‘90s. Normal’s accomplishments were recognized in a solo exhibition of lightbox-murals at the British Library in
London in 2015, “Crossroads of Curiosity”. In 2022 he created “Cathenge”, the Cat Temple, for the San Francisco Arts Commission. This public art installation was displayed at Patricia’s Green Park in Hayes Valley, San Francisco from October of 2022 through March of 2024.  Currently David Normal has newly established a studio in West Oakland for producing 3D printed installation art.

@postnormalism
@cathenge_cat_temple
https://davidnormal.net
http://cathenge.net
http://crossroadsofcuriosity.org

More info about Cathenge can be found on the website:

About Cathenge

Note:  This proposal was begun in 2023, but couldn’t be completed in time for the 2023 grant cycle, so I am finishing it now, and hope to turn in the grant by the deadline on July 22nd 2024.

For the seriously interested:

Here is a link to the proposal draft underway.  You can learn all about Cathenge DC by reading the answer to the DC CAH questions:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vQRdIu3gWpKOtPPx0exW2Ae90d5NWgEmwjifdXFEkIjRX1wOIcRgYtXHhFwvdnMkXLf0X0A0RlL8Upc/pub

Posted on

Miami Art Basel: David Normal’s Futuristic Installations

Documentary and Interview by Julia Schroeder

In December of 2023, I brought artwork to Art Basel Miami for the first time. It did not go unnoticed! Art historian and videomaker, Julia Schroeder, spotted it and approached me about doing a short video about my work. Over the Spring of 2024, we conducted a number of interviews and sifted through project documentation and last Friday, June 21st, the finished video popped up on the web.

It focuses on my adventure of bringing the Kittolith to Miami Art Week and displaying it in The Maze installation at Hotel Faena’s beachfront. Full story here.

Posted on

Opening Tues. June 11th: The Catoliths at KALW Studio Gallery!!

Group Show featuring:

Exhibition Opening and Live Broadcast Panel discussion with the artists moderated by Ben Trefny:

5 – 7 PM (doors open at 5, discussion at 6)
Tuesday, June 11th
KALW
220 Montgomery St., SF, CA 94104
Admission free – All ages

The exhibition will be up through August 1st 2024.

(Eventbrite link at bottom of page to reserve free tix)

Public broadcasting station, KALW, recently moved their radio station’s studios to the heart of San Francisco’s financial district where they reside in the ground floor lobby of the historic Mills Building located at 220 Montgomery (Montgomery and Bush). The spacious lobby provides a new and exciting arts and events space. KALW executive director, Ben Trefny, is curating a series of art exhibits in the lobby.

The KALW lobby space features large storefront windows looking out on busy Montgomery St. which are a perfect place to perch the Catoliths. Two Catoliths will be placed, one in each large window, on either side of the entrance to the radio station where they will be seen by motorists and pedestrians alike, and, of course, by visitors to the station. These Catoliths will feature their hallmark interactive purring (Purrbration of Holofelinity).

For further info about the Catoliths, Cathenge, and the lore of the Lyran Space Cats visit cathenge.net

Cathenge by David Normal
Infinity Box by Matt Elson
Sculpture by Brenden Darby
Painting by Jesse Pemberton
Posted on

May 2024 – Print of the Month Club

Print of the Month for May 2024:  1943 Series Collages

This is the May 2024 offering for Patreon Print of the Month Club. These images are part of the ”1943” digital collages.  Each month Patreon “Print of the Month” subscribers will receive an 8.5 x 11 in. print on Moab Entrada Natural cotton rag paper.  The print will feature two collages with variations of the similar elements.  It is $15. a month to subscribe and that includes postage and handling for the monthly print sent directly to you.

You can join here:

https://patreon.com/davidnormal

If you would like to order a specific past print from the series, please contact me at:

davidnormal (at) gmail.com

About the “1943 Collage Series”

During the Pandemic, my friend and collector, Josh “Doggy” Norman, gave me a stack of old LIFE Magazines all from the year 1943. Of course, in ’43 the world was plunged into the depths of WWII – the Germans surrendered at Stalingrad, The Japanese defeated at Guadalcanal, and, in the Fall of ’43, after the resignation of Mussolini, Italy made a truce with the Allied Forces.
Even as the war seemed to turn in America’s favor, at home, and certainly in the pages of LIFE Magazine, nothing was certain. It is strange to view this era through the looking glass of its advertising because the advertisers, whose stock and trade is illusion, swing fervently between efforts at buoying up an All-American status quo that is faltering*, propagandizing against the enemy, and rallying the citizenry – especially the women whose men were fighting overseas – to patriotism and sacrifice. It is difficult for me not to feel a poignant empathy for this time, the generation of my grandparents, and the period in which my own parents were born. Despite all the many momentous things that have happened since then – atomic power, space travel, political and cultural revolutions, computers and the internet – 1943 is not a year from the distant past. Not only are the cultural values expressed in these images still relevant, but the entire world continues to feel the consequences – good and bad – from this momentous period.
Yet, in making these collages I have not sought to make a statement of any kind. Rather, I just sought to playfully re-combine the imagery of the period into new configurations that evoke the dream of the collective consciousness (or “unconsciousness” – if you will) of America. Nor did I create the images to be static finished pieces, rather the images are what I would call “instances” of imagery as though they were just stills of a film (or perhaps keyframes of an animation). For this reason the work remains “Work in Progress”, or as my hero, machine artist, Jean Tinguely, would put it: “Remains static in motion”.

*Has the American “Status Quo” ever actually existed?

Posted on

New David Normal Website Under Construction

This site will be an “archive” of all various artworks in different media created by David Normal over a life time (to date!). Here will be an extensive portfolio as well as autobiographical presentation of writings. Additionally, the site will include a store where artworks and merchandise can be purchased.

Come back soon, or write to: davidnormal (@) gmail.com to be added to my mailing list.

Current sites featuring my work:

@postnormalism

http://facebook.com/davidnormalart

http://crazyology.org

http://crossroadsofcuriosity.org

http://cathenge.net

-David Normal, 04/18/23