‘Who Will Provide’ Exhibition at The Crypt Gallery
31/10 – 4/11 2018
Our group of thirty three MFA students explored and responded to themes relating to charity and its place in today’s world. The exhibition presented a collection of site specific works, ranging from painting to sculpture, assemblage to video through to performance and photography.
Before the summer break preparations started by putting together various teams to properly organise and execute the event. The members of the research team responded to the site by looking into its history, connecting it to its past and designed the theme ’Who Will Provide?’ around the wish list, a document from 1995 which outlined the desired purpose for the building. This included shelter and provision for the homeless, serving the nearby student population and a focal point for community activities.
I volunteered to join the Installation Team. Over the summer I visited the crypt twice with the view to inform myself about the site (wall space, wall and ceiling heights, location of electrical outlets etc.) and to explore a potential location for my own work.
Two weeks prior to the event the curating team got in touch and supplied our team with a list of required tools and materials. We also received technical information on some more complicated works and installing requirements from The Crypt Gallery itself (No drilling of new holes!). There was very good collaboration between curating and installation team and minor installation problems were efficiently dealt with.
SKILLS: HANDLING ARTWORK, COLLABORATION, PROBLEM SOLVING, ATTENTION TO DETAIL,
SITE SPECIFIC WORKING
‘We Are All In The Same Boat’ SUPERFLEX
Museum of Art and Design, Miami DADE College 15/11/2018-21/04 2019
This first large-scale survey of the Danish collective SUPERFLEX in the USA focuses on the group’s installations and films that deal with the economy, financial crisis, corruption, migration, and the possible consequences of global warming.
The exhibition’s title envisions passengers together in a ship at sea, and a set of shared risks that may put them in danger. It suggests that if our boat sinks, we all sink with it.
The title refers to the importance of working together, but also to the problems that we now face as part of the current global situation. We must act now and by working together find solutions to the most threatening problems we may have ever confronted.
The exhibition includes video, sculpture, installations, and works selected for their relevance to the history, present and future of the city of Miami which cover the topics of water, migration, refugees and the economy. In the installation ‘Lost Money’ the artists affix coins to the floor, playing to the visitors ‘greed’ and frustration. The video ‘Flooded McDonald’s’ represents a replica of an uninhabited fast food franchise, slowly filling with water in a expressionless apocalyptic flood.
The exhibition also includes SUPERFLEX’s newest film, ‘Western Rampart' which challenges our perception of borders and boundaries, whether natural or human built, through time.
The film is set in the area of Vestvolden, southwest of Copenhagen, the last historical fortifications constructed to protect this city.
As a combination of visual and narrative poetry and magic realism, the film is a tale featuring a giant anthropomorphic mushroom in discussion with the revived wall,Western Rampart.
Through the existential conversation, two perspectives are opposed:
while the rampart embodies the necessity of borders and walls for survival, the mushroom advocates for constant motion and circulation as everything is meant to continuously transform to thrive.
SUPERFLEX has been at the forefront of artists who look at these pressing issues that generate discussion and commenting on society through art, creating political awareness and help us think and act.
