context, context, context....

We are on our third location. We started in a church, in the central valley, filling a fellowship hall. Then we moved to Interplayce, “a dance studio”—for lack of a better description—in the heart of a city. A finally, on the walls of a seminary gallery, that used to be a library, sharing space with archeological artifacts from Jesus’ time (and earlier…). Some of the exhibition has not changed. The words of the poems are the same. Most of the panels are the same. The poster is the same. And much has changed. The work must change (we must change) with the context… whether it wants to or not. I should not have been as surprised as I felt when I discovered that despite my best efforts, I could not exactly duplicate the way the installation hung in its first location in the second location. It just would not work. So, we improvised, adapted and transformed.

And we do again. Our panels are attached to the walls of the Bade Museum at Pacific School of Religion, stretched and squished to fit. Yet, as awkward as that may feel, it also feels like coming home. The exhibition hangs across the quad from where we had out first meeting and started this journey almost exactly two years ago. The ground that birthed this movement within in us, made sacred by the transformation that happens here, is where we return. Though as holy as it was two years ago, it is not the same. It is a dynamic place. This will be as new, exciting and dynamic of an experience as that initial meeting—so full of dreams and possibility—was.

In the next two months, while unFound hangs in the hallowed halls of Holbrook, we will (re)discover, (un)find, and (trans)form along the way.

watching us being watched

there is something fascinating about watching the way people approach your artwork. our the course of the development of this project, one of the priorities of this project was to ask people to approach the art work in an unfamiliar way, to make art that required people to engage more deeply than simply standing in front of a picture. we wanted our artwork to be a journey in and of itself. the result: an installation to invited engagement: touching to read all the poems, lighting incense, walking in bare feet, and maybe even pondering and praying. we wanted to pull more out of our audience.

so, on friday night, many people came to interplayce without knowing what to expect--both strangers, and people who knew the artists.

once the doors were open, there were four ways that strangers engaged (or didn't) our artwork.
1. poking head in the door and deciding it wasn't up his or her alley
2. coming a few feet in the door and reading the poster
3. coming ten feet in the door to read the booklet of poems and look at the installation from there
4. coming all the way into the room, walking around the installation, to read and engage all the work.

someone asked me if it bothered me that so many people peeked without coming in. i figured it was a natural result of this intention to encourage folks to engage in the artwork in a new way. not everyone will want to engage. that is that.

this was one of the interesting differences between displaying the installation in an art venue and in a church. at central united methodist, no one expected to engage art in their church, and with fewer expectations for what art should be, they were willing to engage. in an art venue, with a long list of expectations, that may have not been met, some people did not want to engage.

such is life. i hope we pushed the boundaries of art as much as we intended to.

unFound at Interplayce Oct. 3rd

This Friday, we'll be taking unFound to Interplayce on Telegraph in Oakland. Come join us.

unFound: a Poetry and Visual Art Exhibition

Friday, October 3, 2008
7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.

Interplayce
2273 Telegraph
Oakland, CA

Come find out what it's all about!