(via White Walls Boston)
#BOSTON based curator ETHAN KIERMAIER doesn’t really need white walls to put together a exhibition. Instead, all he needs is concrete, a latitude tracker and #U-HAUL. The project, WHITE WALLS BOSTON, a mobile friendly series of installations happening this summer, is proof the alternative can always find a place to evolve. Continue to close our galleries? #WHATEVER, we’ll just get some trucks.
#PHOTOTROP, the first installation by VELA PHELAN + JESSE KAMINSKY covered the entirety of the 25-foot-long truck with thousands of clear blue strings, made to look like almost like an orb; a video was projected through it’s rear, causing the strings to throb and twitch with light. It drifted through Boston, stopping occasionally to draw a crowd, before finishing its route at the SPECTACLE performance space. Noting on the utter strangeness of this kind of scenario, Kiermaier recently told MutualArt:
“I’M MOST SURPRISED WHEN PEOPLE WALK BY A GIANT TRUCK ON A CITY STREET WITH A CROWD OF PEOPLE AND PULSATING BLUE LIGHT POURING OUT OF IT AND CHOOSE NOT TO INVESTIGATE. IT’S INTERESTING TO SEE WHO CHOOSES TO ENGAGE AND WHO PRETENDS IT’S NOT THERE.”
Kiermaier started the project as a reaction to the pressures small galleries face, and is using the concept as a ‘step-back’ from a reliance on larger galleries and institutions to provide alternative discourse. A smart move, as something as #EPHEMERAL as 24-hour mobile art definitely aims at a city-wide collaboration; both engaging artists who’s work can thrive in a non-traditional context, and by projecting their ideas onto whoever happens to be roaming the streets. I’m reminded of the R.K. PROJECTS, still alive and well in #PROVIDENCE, who hosted their first show on a vacant loading dock of a city wharf in the summer of 2010. Sometimes, pop-up projects (if given enough support) can generate tremendous interest, based almost solely on an eagerness to push boundaries and desire for complete #ARTPOCALYPSE survival; kind of like a baby tree first beginning to dig it’s tiny roots into the soil.
What’s Next?
WHITE WALLS will host the work of MARIA MOLTENI (August 4-5th) and SHANE BUTLER (September 1st).
Stay #ALERT, we’ll be covering the remining performances for DigBoston.
This project was made possible by a kind donation by the Berwick Research Institute, and is sustainable. Kiermaier hopes to continue hosting new work in an out-of-gallery context next summer too. And I hope he does, because this is exactly the kind of project Boston needs right now.
#PHOTOTROP documentation via JESSE KAMINSKY:
