4833 rph — Explore and Discuss

In the Spring of 2005, CJ Mitchell, Executive Director of Links Hall, and Allison Peters, Director of Exhibitions for the Hyde Park Arts Center, put out a call for performance for video work to be presented on the video façade of the new Hyde Park Art Center building.

The call for proposals stipulated only a few points. Any video work proposed should align with Links Hall’s mission of supporting artistic innovation in the performing arts, as well as HPAC’s objective that the exhibition include multiple community perspectives. It was also made known that a general theme of the show would fall under the title, For Public Consumption. A number of performance, visual, and text based artists responded with proposals. CJ then asked us, Erik Fabian and Stephanie Pereira, to curate a selection of videos from the proposals, using the call to inform our decisions.

A delay in the run of the exhibition gave us the luxury of having more time to discuss the selected work with Allison and CJ. Out of our meeting came the decision that though the call and the original title brought the work together, the thematic content of the final set of videos implied a different vision.

What follows is our attempt to break that vision into bite-size chunks, more suitable for ” public consumption.”

The title, For Public Consumption, the technical/architectural circumstances of the façade, and the missions of the two organizations were the four constraints we used as we approached the curation of this show. It was important to us that the work selected responded to all four of these criteria.

When considering the proposals in relationship to the title we asked ourselves several questions. Some, of many, are as follows: Who is HPAC’s public? What communities emerge in response to this work? What is the relationship of a bystander, a passer-by, to this work? How is the work consumed or How does it resist being consumed? How do we, the curators, enable consumption?

The new façade, initially understood only as a drawing and technical specs, raised questions not only about the scale, scheduling, and visibility, but also about the implications of projecting such work, super-sized and in the public sphere, across the face of a community arts center.

For instance, Richard Fox’s animated poetry and Shawnee Barton’s slideshow elicits, superficially, news-tickers or advertisements as one might see in Times-Square. How do these videos transform the HPAC building, or the interpretation of such a building? In what ways might their not so subtle imposition impact pedestrians who encounter it? How will the work presented in the exhibition newly enable communication - from building to person to building?

In response to Links Hall’s mission, we looked for ideas and activities intrinsic to performance-making. The medium of video is inherently displaced from the present body and awareness of the performer, so we looked to how these artists asserted their identity, body, practice and presence in this displaced and consumable presentation. Deva Eveland’s silently shouting heads evoke an intense curiosity, Morganville’s figures dancing alongside the more happenstance stride of passing pedestrians. These works are both remote and silent; yet reach out to us as bodies, spectators, citizens, architects, artists and consumers.

We considered HPAC’s request to include ‘multiple community perspectives’ and understood community in a broad way: a community of people that feel one way or another about dance, a community of voyeurs, a community who identifies strongly with ‘favorites’ and ‘hates’. We imagined a person who might get caught up in a story presented to them only in passing, or who spends her day humming a catchy or meaningful tune. With John Bannon’s piece we imagined many communities - Italian, Puerto Rican, American, children, families, friends; anyone who has ever been to a parade, ever.

The result of our consideration is the selection of five videos, presented as a series and accompanied by additional programming for consumption on upgraded projection screens available day and night, indoors and out. It seems the final task for us as curators is to join the public and commence with the meal.