Being Here Is Better Than Wishing We'd Stayed
Posted April 17, 2008 by k_c_ in Events
Hey folks! Since finishing the last collaboration piece at ABC No Rio, I've been up at the Mass MoCA in North Adams, MA working on another one. Its been a really intense experience. Collective process, group & individual dynamics, and just plain old opinion and not liking someone's idea or aesthetic has given me a lot to think about.
North Adams has given me the break that I've been needing, from NYC. I have no cellphone service, its quiet here, and I'm surrounded by the Berkshire Mountains. And I have something to focus on, the installation.
The Miss Rockaway Armada (for Aquatic Glee) was invited to MassMoCA to design an installation related to the journey that lasted over two summers. The small number of crew members that gathered for this opportunity decided that would be a bad idea. Instead we have brought the intentions, ingenuity, and impractical ideas of the project to New England. There have been some outrageous ideas, some scrapped, others manifested with the instruction of those with experience. All very much like the building of the initial rafts in 2006.
We've gotten thru three weeks of process and are coming down to the wire. Our installation "Being Here is Better Than Wishing We'd Stayed" will have its opening Friday April 18th! And remain up for almost a year.
99 percent of the lumber and materials used was scavenged, scrapped, or found at MassMoCA or discarded in the surrounding area. Hardware is another issue, that's where our small budget went. I find it disconcerting, yet unsurprising, when I hear about the new trend that funding and philanthropy are going towards, "green" art projects. I'd like to hear about discussions or writings on the art markets response to the current interest in Capitalism's newest trend.
I'm highly critical of any industry that uses the same infrastructure and inefficiency to produce a product that "appears" to have a conscious or address ecological issues. What are the means being used to express the message, and where does the funding come from?
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A blog called the Eye and the Spectator reviewed the Miss Rockaway exhibit here
Its a pleasant review.
Posted by: kc at June 15, 2008 9:44 PM