[ ...recycledcaronrecordings ]
at Version>09 opening reception.
Paul Lloyd Sargent’s installation comments on the waterway management policies and practices by the Army Corps of Engineers, the St. Lawrence Seaway Corporation, and other institutions regulating major American rivers. His engagement in this body of water parallels my interest in the Indiana harbor Shipping Canal (IHSC), which feeds into the Great Lakes - not only because of my particular involvement with the IHSC, but also because of the role of the artist and designer in this larger dialogue of the built environment.
This is a time when Artists and designers are exercising strengths in dialogues they were traditionally excluded from - such as in making decisions and designing the built environment. I touched on this topic when I asked about the Artist’s role in urban visualization in my post [ Drawing the Lines ]. Another aspect of the Artist’s role has been to bring into and from (reconfigure and re-equip) our visual culture what was either not seen or only seen peripherally at the margins. Much of this work is coming under a research designation of “Experimental Geography.”
We are at a moment of major change in how we address and prioritize voices in the decision making and design process when it comes to the built environment. We are beginning to see the authority traditionally given over to Architects folded under the the authority of “Landscape Urbanists” (often referred to as Landscape Architects, but I already think this is an arcane title). In this shift in roles we are opening up all sorts of new visual disciplines to re-orientate ourselves toward space and re-organize it in a re-development framework. You can see some of these changes in Urban Lab’s H2O project: [ Growing Water ], Valcent Product’s the [ vertical farming ], and William McDonough & Michael Braungart’s seminal book “Cradle to Cradle / Remaking the Way we Make Things.” Luckily there are so many examples springing up daily.
Thomas Multi-media, Sculpture, What I am Looking at
I love discovering. [ www.jensbrasch.com ]
<Untitled Work from 2004>
Thomas Sculpture, What I am Looking at
A native of East Chicago, Neil Goodman shows with the Perimeter Gallery in Chicago, and teaches at Indiana University Northwest in Gary. He is another example of why I am so fascinated by this region. It has been the home and birthplace of so many extraordinary people.
<Tangent>I met Neil at the “Drawing the Lines: International Perspectives on Urban Renewal through the Arts” conference held at IUN. The conference discussed such topics as how creativity and culture influence community change; what role the arts and culture play in urban renewal; and what factors need to be considered on a local level when advancing urban renewal initiatives. A topic right up my alley.
I remember being fascinated by the fact that Neil grew up in East Chicago and that the leaders of East Chicago did not know of him or his work, and frankly were not predisposed to care. At the time I was the President of the Redevelopment Commission and Chairing a Committee to conduct a Comprehensive Plan for the city.
As East Chicago was beginning to redevelop its downtown in North Harbor, I was hoping to get the Mayor, the Director of Redevelopment and the Developers to use Neil’s work in the development plans, unfortunately to no success.</Tangent>
Regardless, there is a lot to enjoy in Neil’s work. You can see his connection to the industrial mid-west and mathematical puzzle books.
From his bio, in a tone only the art world could produce.
To quote the critic Margaret Hawkins on Goodman’s recent exhibition at “Perimeter” gallery in Chicago, “If much abstract sculpture seems somehow loosely rooted in organic forms, Goodman’s does not. His objects look like physical manifestations of mathematical principals, equations somehow made dimensional and wrought in metal. For all their weight and bulk, they have an airy purity about them, like music. To walk among them is a little like listening to a Bach Fugue.
Thomas Sculpture, What I am Looking at
This was a brilliant find. My reaction to seeing Jesse’s work is to get into the studio and get some work done. Anyone who knew Jesse and his work from the mid-1990’s in Chicago, and the collaborations he did with Chester Alamo, will recognize him in this body of work.
Visit Jesse’s website at [ www.Jesse Bercowetz.com ] & his collaborations with Matt Bua at [ www.overcoat.org ]
SPECs on the Artist:
Jesse Bercowetz is a graduate of the School of The Art Institute of Chicago. He was awarded a Jerome Fellowship and is a recipient of the New York Foundation for the Arts Grant. Selected exhibitions include: The Brooklyn Museum, NY, The Drawing Center, NY, White Columns, NY, PS1 / MoMA, NY, Galerie Michael Janssen, Berlin and Derek Eller Gallery, NY. This month he will present a new large-scale sculpture in the exhibition Next Wave At The Brooklyn Academy of Music, curated by Dan Cameron. There will be an installation of his collaborative work at Mass MoCA in 2009. Bercowetz lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
Thomas Sculpture, What I am Looking at
