Dedicated to critical cultural production at the intersection of art and activism.

Public Things, curated by Conrad Bakker, highlights the necessarily contingent nature of producing in public, including work from six artists whose works focus on the dialectic between public and private, between objects and their surroundings, between networks and the nodes within them.

Ryan Thompson’s “Glacial Erratics” regards the erratic displacement of rocks by both glacial and human forces.

Relying on a definition of the public thing as a “specific production of space and time for the purpose of both contemplation and conversation—[at once] a thing, an event, a platform, a meeting place, an issue, and a matter of concern,” the exhibition includes both naturally occurring and human made objects and gestures.  For example, Untitled (On the Ideology of Public Things 1) by Jennifer Danos examines the democracy of dirt in a participatory piece that will evolve over the course of the show, while the Think Tank that has yet to be Named hosts a series of Privately Held Public Meetings on the subject of public things.

The influence of history is a recurrent theme, explored in the Think Tank piece, as well as Ryan Thompson’s Glacial Erratics, pictured above, and Melting Pot, by Katie Hargrave and Meredith Warner.  In boulders and tourism alike, the artists find the forces shaping the public and their interaction with it, and offer pieces that make that continuity visible.

Participating artists include Conrad Bakker, Jennifer Danos, Katie Hargrave, Meredith Warner, Philip Matesic, and Ryan Thompson.  Public Things opens March 18th, at Galerie Analix Forever, Geneva, Switzerland.

No comments

This Wednesday evening, sprout asks “What should happen next in the rebuilding of Haiti, and how can we best support the reconstruction?”  As part of their ongoing dinner series, this event gathers linguists, puppeteers, and urbanists to unpack the history, politics, and contemporary issues within the recovery effort.

In addition to spaghetti served up by Boston’s Food Not Bombs, the lineup includes:

• Michel DeGraff is a linguist focusing on Creole and an Associate Professor at MIT. He will talking about political interests vying for influence in the reconstruction of Haiti; and present images from his recent trip there.
• The History of the Haitian Revolution is a toy theater performance written and directed by John Bell and performed by Trudi Cohen, Shaunalynn Duffy, Brooke Jarrett, Adam Schutzman, and Michael Romanyshyn. Originally performed as a part of Antiretrovirals and Water Refugees: A Living Newspaper on Haiti, this toy theater spectacle chronicles the history of the Haitian Revolution in miniature (battles, politics, and all), as a conflict of Enlightenment principles and 19th-century globalization.
• Cherie Miot Abbanat is a lecturer in MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning. She will be talking about reconstruction efforts through the lens of an urban planner, exploring the politics of construction and rebuilding processes.

Dinner will be served at 7:30PM, performances begin at 8. The address is 339R Summer St., Somerville MA.

No comments

City Life/Vida Urbana and Greater Four Corners Association have teamed up with Groundswell Journal contributors John Hulsey, Ilaria Minio Paluello and other members of the community, to recapture a group of foreclosed houses in the Four Corners part of Dorchester, a neighborhood of Boston.  The intervention begins this Saturday (March 13th, 2010) at 5:00PM, at 21 Bullard Street in Dorchester.

72 Hours, an audiovisual intervention comprised of a series of video projections evoking the personal histories of neighborhood residents, will be seen through the building’s windows, and one unit will be opened to the public for a walk-through sound installation that evokes lives of former owners.

A still from 72 Hours

From the artists’ description:

Walking through an empty foreclosed unit in the building, visitors will encounter sounds of a family in its daily life cycle, relayed by hidden speakers. In the kitchen, people will be heard washing dishes and discussing the day’s events. Upstairs in the bedroom, a father reads his children a story before going to bed. As visitors explore the vacant rooms, they become animated by the sounds of former residents.

The houses, clustered together in the space of a city block, are owned by Deutsche Bank and other international banks. During the Block Rebellion, demands will be made to immediately cease all no-fault post-foreclosure evictions and begin negotiations to sell back the vacant units at real value.

John Hulsey’s portfolio site has more on 72 Hours.  Keep up with this and other actions at the City Life/Vida Urbana website.

No comments

The Urbano Project and Artists in Context lend a hand to Mel Chin’s collaborative art piece, Fundred, this weekend, as the project celebrates its Boston kick-off. Fundred is an advocacy strategy to garner $300m in federal funding for lead decontamination efforts in New Orleans. Participants draw interpretations of U.S. $100 bills, and after 3,000,000 have been collected, they will be delivered to Congress in a vegetable oil-powered armored car, along with the request that the fake bills be exchanged for real funds.

A hand-drwan Fundred from Fort Wayne, IN

The city of Boston has pledged to raise fifteen thousand Fundreds.  Participants needn’t wait for the Fundreds to come to town, as an online template will help you get involved now.

Mel Chin explains the project in his own words in the video below, from Art21.

No comments

Somerville’s speculative history/community art project by artist Tim Devin (previously seen on Groundswell here) has launched, offering a rich vision of the next 90 years, from fleets of mobile libraries to population influx due to the flooded streets of neighboring Boston.  Grab a free PDF of the book,  or browse the full timeline here.

No comments