Sliv & Dulet - About Us

Kyle Sliv & Burt Dulet
Kyle Sliv, a Chattanooga, Tennessee native, relocated to the Bay Area after completing graduate studies at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan, where he received his second degree in painting. His mother was an artist, the director of Hamilton County 9-1-1, and mother of three, his father a collector and entrepreneur after retiring from 22 years in US Military Service. Kyle grew up playing and listening to death metal and punk rock, running from police for skateboarding, playing in various bands and touring and recording on the east coast.

His earliest activities included building humane rabbit traps, racing wagons, single-handedly assembling his first new bike at age eight, driving a tractor, shooting at birds, and mowing grass. In the in the third grade he completed a life-size model of a Buck Rogers Flight Craft cockpit, and in the seventh grade he was awarded a second place science fair ribbon for his experimentation with types of music found to be most conducive for plant growth. His earliest dreams of adulthood
were to be a racecar driver and an inventor. His first art class was as a senior at his second of three different high schools, where he learned to make chains from construction paper. During his second art class he created videos with a Pixl Vision camera and conducted recreational cough syrup experiments on himself.

While in undergraduate studies at the University of Tennessee, he co-founded an alternative space and began doing performance within an art context with "Going UP, Going DOWN", a live snare drum concert in an elevator. During his studies at Cranbrook he created a mobile gallery in a Ford Aerostar minivan, collaborated on a public billboard project, and experimented with competitive events and interactive performance.

He is the creator of such events and projects as Mobile Backyard- a conversation-starter consisting of a fastidiously maintained lawn in the bed of his truck, Bring Your Own Big Wheel- a race down historic Lombard Street, and a recording project at The San Francisco Dump using entirely found and salvaged objects and instruments culminating in a night of performance and CD. He is also the creator of objects or products such as a Personal Horn (for use by Pedestrians' Rights activists), the Meat Hat (portable, cordless dj device consisting of a hat with a squeaky steak), and a Typewriter Piano.

Burt Dulet was born to Karen Meyer and Burton Horowitz, a schoolteacher and pharmacist respectively, in Westerville, OH on July 19, 1976. He spent his childhood in the Midwest and the South. Burt was a driven and successful businessman, entrepreneur, and organizer from an early age. As a means to save money, he would buy and sell rare coins and baseball cards. He had his first press at the age of 9, when he had coordinated a break dancing competition at the local auditorium as entertainment for senior citizens. However, Marc had several failed ventures, which include a bi-weekly sidewalk art sale of posters and prints collected at local thrift stores, a National Geographic Magazine festival and sale, a miniature circus, and a mobile money conversion center.

Burt's development as an organizer and host began with several seminal projects such as convincing fellow students as early as kindergarten to hide out and scare the teacher (much to Burt's detriment). He hosted a talk show with his stuffed animals in the privacy of his bedroom; and in 1986, he founded his first company - a ghost removal and cleaning service, with his mom serving as scheduling coordinator. Additionally, Burt created several scale model stegosaurus business suits from cardboard in attempt to win the seat for class president. Ironically, while in middle school, Burt conducted the same science fair experiment as Kyle.

At age 15, Burt left home. For a while he lived in an actor friend's basement and attended high school in Paradise, Indiana, playing football, running track, and buying beer for others with his fake ID
as a business venture. He moved around frequently, posing as a foreign exchange student, and at age 17 attended Indiana University in Bloomington, receiving his degree in Business Marketing in 1998. After graduating, he traveled extensively overseas, shearing sheep and turning down offers to start various carpet businesses in Morocco. He ultimately took a job in Silicon Valley with a graphics firm, finally leaving for hopes at starting his own venture. In an effort to do so, he attended the San Francisco Art Institute for a year.

During school, he had begun showing and hosting events in the Bay Area. In 2001, he founded Your Local Gallery in Oakland, and organized and performed in several shows, namely, "The One Minute Show." That same year he received the first student residency at the San Francisco Sanitary Landfill, where he later met Kyle Sliv.

Company
Kyle struck up a conversation with Burt, who was lurking around the mailing list table. Soon after, Kyle volunteered to help out with Burt's "One Minute Show". They began working together more frequently. Their collaborative works have explored and celebrated the creative potential and performative possibilities within ordinary objects such as duct tape, home gym equipment, and found objects.

After some time, Kyle Sliv and Burt Dulet formed their partnership "Sliv & Dulet Enterprises", a research and development company that offers creative and unusual products and services.

Select Press Links

1. New Langton website
   http://www.newlangtonarts.org/
   
2. Art Forum Summer Line Write-up
   http://www.artforum.com/picks/place=San%20Francisco
   
3. Duct Tape Festival
   http://www.sfweekly.com/issues/2002-10-09/nightcrawler.html/1/index.html
   
4. SF Weekly Cover Story
   http://www.sfweekly.com/issues/2002-08-07/feature.html/1/index.html
   
5. Notes Show
   http://www.sanfranciscoartmagazine.com/2001/may/notes/notes.html
6. san francisco art institute review
   http://www.sanfranciscoart.edu/database/whats_hot_detail.asp?id_event=567
   
7. Bring Your Own Big Wheel
   http://www.sfweekly.com/issues/2002-06-19/dogbites.html/1/index.html
   
8. NBC News clip
   http://kntv.feedroom.com/?rf=rss&fr_story=628618dff16351e704113e9d466b4648446029b4
   
9. SF Examiner
   http://www.examiner.com/ex_files/default.jsp?story=X1107FOUNDART
   
10. One Minute show
    http://www.sanfranciscoartmagazine.com/2001/september/oneminute/oneminute.html
    
11. Duct Tape Festival
    http://www.wetgoat.com/unholy/ducttapefest.html (Duct Tape Festival)
    
12. Bring Your Own Big Wheel
    http://www.metroactive.com/urbanview/03.20.02/urban-guide-0212.html
    
13. 21 Grand Gallery - "Pick a Number"
    http://www.21grand.org/20030117.html
    
14. 21 grand - Duct Tape Festival Images
    http://www.21grand.org/Archive/ducttape.html
    
15. DADA fest - smoothie for the afterlife
    http://www.poeticdream.com/gallery.php?gid=52&offset=425
    
16. Door7 Gallery - BYOWB
    http://door7gallery.com/
17. The dump
    http://www.sunsetscavenger.com/air_brumit_photos.htm
18. Stretcher West Coast 7.10.03 Summer line write-up
    http://www.stretcher.org/
19. Bay Area Guardian Summer Line write-up
    http://www.sfbg.com/37/41/art_art_sliv.html

~ Sliv & Dulet @ New Langton Arts • 1246 Folsom Street • San Francisco, CA 94103-3817 ~