Casa batlo' de Gaudi, Barcelona, Espana http://www.casabatllo.es/
Bottle Caps Giraffe, Washington DC at American Art Museum http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=24493
Aug 10, 2011
Philadelphia Magic Garden and my Project Proposal
http://www.phillymagicgardens.org/
The Magic Garden is an open air museum of art of recycle. The artist Isaiah Zagar created beautiful mosaics with recycle materials, such as bottles, bicycle wheels, tiles, broken clay cups, etc.
The idea of "transforming garbage into mosaics has been explored by many artists some of which listed below:
http://beautifuldecay.com/2010/07/21/green-art-10-artists-working-with-recycled-materials/
http://www.tomdeiningerart.com/headhunter.html
http://www.haschult.de/trash.html
My proposal will ask the opportunity of transforming one call box into something as colorful and aligned with the concept of sustainable art and repurposing of material as many of these artists have done, and as it is hinted by the ideas put forth by Art on Call.
Aug 2, 2011
Golden Triangle Surprise
Most of Golden Triangle's art consist of paintings on canvases, photographed and reported onto a metal sheet and positioned in the middle of the call box. In the back we can see the map of all the boxes that can be found in the area. In the corner of L and 21 there is the most fun of the boxes I have yet seen. Unfortunately I do not have a photograph of it. The artwork was printed on an oval-shaped table and place loosely in the call box with a metal rod going through it and secured in the middle of the box, so that the oval table could be turned. The work becomes interactive, in a way. The community might consider itself more engaged with this particular work of public art, rather than feeling passive with a small change of their environment that they might or might not notice.
Jul 29, 2011
Ideas for submission
SO I have been thinking about what my proposal should be.
I can we "use" the Art on Call project to our advantage. Considering that we are not a DC school, and almost none of us is a DC resident, it might be very hard.
However, since the call boxes project is basically a "recycling" project, perhaps it would be interesting to use recycled material to reinvent the boxes. They would become art themselves.. maybe with recycled glass or clay pieces, the boxes can be the canvas for a mosaic. The recycled material could be provided by DC tourists, or DC people, so that the work would be as much theirs as ours. We would have to discuss logistics. During my research I realized that much of the material that is used to fix the boxes comes from specific vendors. In our case, we would not need a locksmith or a professional painting company, because the refurbishing of the boxes would be entirely done by us.
This still needs some thinking!
More Photos from earlier travels
In order :
1-Mt. Pleasant. This is one of Michael's Sculptures. They can also be found int he Kalorama neighborhood.
2-Dupunt Circle. Very graphic and informative. The layout is the same in all the boxes, I mentioned in an earlier post about the number at the top being the original identification number.
3- Dupont Circle again.
4-Eastern market. My smile after a day of useless search. I could NOT find any call box.. this was next to the metro I was about to take to go home :-)
5, 6, 7, 8 e 9- Eastern market again. Front and back. The art work here is a bit more authentic (for all it means)
Jul 27, 2011
Walking Up and Down the city.. not only call boxes
DC holds a lot of street art. We should appreciate more!
Jul 26, 2011
Glover Park
Charles Glover Sculpture in a Call box which becomes the frame of the relief
Last Saturday I was on my way back from my Batala rehearsal and I stopped in the Glover Park area to walk around the Arts on Call there. Underneath is a quick map that can be found on their neighborhood association's website. All of the boxes are painted dark green with gold highlights. I noticed that many of the "theme" colors for the project include a main color and a highlight, however the original call boxes were designed to only have one color (blue for the police boxes and red for the fire fighter boxes). It is interesting and it speaks to the natural human instinct of spirit of emulation.
One of the boxes in glover park represents a map of the neighborhood's important building. This underscores the similarities between the way these boxes are used and the informative panels around the city.
The site underlines a very important point: "note how many times you have walked right by them without even knowing they were there. We would like that to change."
I wonder if that really changed. Perhaps in the future I could work on an interview/survey to figure out if something did change in people's awareness.
Jul 22, 2011
Sticky Man
Sticky Man is a street artist that adds his little robot-like figures all over cities. Like for many other street artists, his image/figure became his "signature". As I mentioned in an earlier post, some of the call boxes have this kind of genuine and "free" art in them, and maybe this makes the boxes more fascinating (from and artistic point of view) than many of the other works. However, even the sticky men are "reproductions". They are not per-se "original"...
Finally a few images | National Cherry Blossom
Finally I am able to upload some of the images from my DC call boxes tours.
My Camera is still in the repair shop, so all these images come from a friend's iphone.
This first series is taken from the Call Boxes that are down by the museums and run straight down by the water. The boxes are all refurbished and painted blue and pink. Their "theme" is the cherry blossoms and representations in honor of the festival as well as the Mall in general. The artist that painted the original work is Thomas Chesterfield. The work, as the plaque explains, was originally painted in 1990, and was later used for this call box. It is then a reproduction of the work itself. This questions the value of the work, and the value of reproductions or re-creation, which was a very heated argument in modern art.
The plaque in the back serve as explanation of the work and give a little background, very much like the museum tags do. This is something that perhaps can be kept in the my proposal.
Jul 8, 2011
Noticing the boxes
Since I started this project, I decided to talk about it with many people. The more I talk about it, the more I understand what the real purpose of the project is. What am I trying to accomplish? People have different opinion and give me various insights on the boxes.
Most of the people I talked to have never noticed them, now the cannot avoid them. Maybe this is the point. The boxes need to be noticed. As of right now the most fascinating part of this research is the stories behind Arts on Call. Reading about the people they portray, or the history of the neighborhoods. As I mentioned in the past blogs, it seems that the value of the project as an informative piece rather than an "artwork" is much higher.
There is no doubt that is in some sort a form of Public Art. However, they hold a similar position in the public-art-spectrum as the informative panel (the "you are here" and "what's to see in this area" ones) which, from a design prospective, are well done and worth to notice.
It is interesting how people with a different background, react differently to my explanation of what I am trying to do. The artsy-people find more interesting works such as the Mount Pleasant's sculptures. Historians like something like in Dupont or Tenlytown. Perhaps the variety offered, makes the project even more interesting.
People in the DC tourism field push the idea of creating "walking tours" related to each neighborhood through the position of the call boxes, an interesting project, but not for its artistic significance.
Some of the work is already coming apart. One of the Dupont Circle Box is pealing off and it is rusting. So the risk is that the boxes will fall into disuse again soon.
What is the solution?
Could the empty boxes become the frame to see the city from, and the city become the artwork? After all is a very constructed city.
What if the boxes themselves became the art rather than the frame for artworks or informational design work? They could become a blank canvas for visiting artists and local artists alike. It still needs some thinking. And talking. And seeing.
Jun 24, 2011
A day with my head in the files
I went to the Commission on the Arts and Humanities office today. A wonderful employee allowed me to look through all the files related to the project. There were two drawers full of papers and photographs, all dated between 2000 and 2009.
I was able to make some copies and finally find some of the events that happened around the project, such as walking tours and unveiling events. It was interesting to see the various wards coming together to create a proposal.
There were studies on the design of the call boxes, surveys regarding the status of those boxes from the department of transportation, old newspaper articles about the project and artists portfolio. I will try to meet with at least one of the artists that took part of the project.
Some wards and neighborhoods seemed more organized then others. For instance, Dupont Circle had a whole binder that included all the documentation, permits, costs, articles, correspondence, artist's statement and brief history about the reasoning behind it.
I had to take in a lot of information. Everyone was very kind to me. So I am very thankful, but I might need to go back again.
On my way back, I walked by one of the Dupont Circle Boxes. Unfortunately I found it ruined. The graphic film that covered a metal plate positioned inside the box, was coming off. (Everything is documented in photographs that I will add soon) I am sure they took into consideration the maintenance of the piece, but maybe they did not think it would last so little time.
During my research, I realized that the main idea behind the project—besides renovating the call boxes—was to create a link between local artists, residents and historians. By doing so, they developed a new link between "current art" and "old history". In art history this link is very much present, public art in general (above all in the US capitol) is very much related to history. This project seems to take in a different side of history, that is often understated and overlooked. However, some of the work is very similar to the indicator panels seen around DC. I am trying to wrap my head around the importance of the project: is it informative? is it community building? is it art?
Jun 22, 2011
First experiences
Monday, June 20
I left at 11 am heading towards DC. In five hours of wondering around, we found only six emergency call boxes and only two of those where "active participants" of the Art on Call Project. I want to be able to write on a map and draw a list of all the call boxes with art in it. On Friday I have a meeting with the DC commission for Arts and Humanities, and they will allow me to look through all the material they have regarding the project. So, even though the first day did not give me a lot to look at, it is fair to say that I left unprepared.
One of the Art on Call boxes was situated between 9th st and Independent Ave NW. It was a reproduction of a 1990 watercolor painting by Thomas Chesterfield. The call box was painted blue with pink borders which recalled the subject of the painting: Cherry Blossom and the Washington Monument in a sunny day. On the back there was a plaque describing the work. The work becomes then a reproduction of the original work commissioned to the artist at least 10 years prior to its use within the Art on Call project. The work is then very much detached from its original purpose. Maybe it has been repurposed—like the call boxes have.
The second Art on Call box I found during my first "date" with the project was in the Eastern Market area, by 7t st and Pennsylvania Ave SE. It was a bass relief by Will Feishell. This time it was not a reproduction, but the actual work was fitted in the empty space of the box. I found this second piece more interesting, since it seemed to be less detached. I will upload some photos in a couple of days.
The empty boxes often have trash in them. One of those trashed boxes had the little Stencilman robot sticker on it. It made me think about the importance and the value of art. It made me go back to think again about the old infamous question "what is art?" In a way, I believe that the little ingenuous and spontaneous sticker, has a charm that the premeditated works of the other boxes do not have. A few blocks from Stencilman's call box, my friend and I saw another one of his stickers on the cross walk.
By walking around and looking for this call boxes, I discovered area of DC that I have not seen before. In any way, it is a big gain on my part.
Wednesday, June 22rd
I was in Washington for a baseball game and I stumbled upon an Art on Call box by Steven Walker. It was very similar to Thomas Chesterfield's piece, however it was painted in 2007.
The highlight of the night was brought to me by another empty call box. It was painted in blue with pick borders, like many of the boxes in the waterfront area. It looked locked, but at first sight, it looked like any other empty box with trash. After I looked closely though, I found that there was something in it that was more than trash. It was a plastic binder. It was hidden well, a bit stuck behind a sheet of metal, but I was able to get it out. I flipped through the pages and there was a syllabus from a Beginning Italian course from Fall 1997!!! How random! I am italian and I found it! Inside the box was also another item. I believe it was a SnapPhish carton container. Possibly pictures. But I didn't make the effort of taking it out. I wish I would know what that was about. My love believes that it could have been a time capsule that somebody was trying to keep. If that is the case, it is still interesting for me to find it. Not many people study my language. The syllabus was from Middlebury college and the professors that used it were Mrs Zupan, Skubikowsky, Van Order and Carletti.
I am enthusiastic about this project more than ever. It is a work of discover and rediscover.
Jun 18, 2011
The Plan: visit the city
As mentioned in the first post, the 145 revived emergency call boxes are spread around DC into 15 neighborhoods:
Cathedral Heights
Cleveland Park
Downtown
Dupont Circle
Forest Hills
Georgetown
Golden Triangle
Glover Park
McLean Gardens
Mount Pleasant
Sheridan/Kalorama
Southwest
Tenleytown
Woodley Park
The boxes' art should reflect the neighborhood characteristics and history. For instance, it might highlight the work of an important person that lived in the area where the box is, or it refers to an historical event that is important for that area's history. A few examples and comments can be found in the following websites:
Most of the artists that are/were involved in the project, are local and it might be possible for me to meet them and discuss the project from their point of view.
May 31, 2011
the citizen artist
To better understand the possibilites that are offered by showcases such as the abandoned call boxes, I am reading books and articles that analyze the ideas behind the need for public art. The introduction of The Citizen Artist, which can be read below, provides a good explanation. It suggests that there is a need to unify art and the “real world”. Art on Call most likely is aimed at linking the neighborhoods of DC to the art world, at least on a superficial level. I am proposing to further this relationship and allow young artists to take charge of the development and realization of artworks within these public spaces.
The Citizen Artist: 20 Years in the Public Arena. Originally Published by Critical Press, 1998. From the Introduction by Steven Durland.
Artists who used to regularly appear in the pages of the magazine were dropping out of sight. When we tracked them down we found that they were now doing art with at-risk youth or in prisons or hospices or just in their neighborhoods. They believed that the arbitrary separation of art world and real world had made them less effective as artists, and caused them to call into question their commitment to the public. This new sensibility didn’t necessarily reject the art world, but rather viewed it as one of many contexts in which art could exist. It followed that the context of art was just as crucial to its success as the form and content.
These artists have chosen to invest themselves directly in the public in such a way that they are no longer viewing the public from the outside, but rather are an integral part of that public. In such a context, the art that develops is a direct reflection of the particular culture in which it is created. This creates an entirely different relationship between the artist and the public, because where the artist is invested in the public, the public is invested in art. The art need be no less innovative or experimental when the public views the work as developing from a common experience.
The irony, or course, is that this is not really a new context for art at all, but rather one of the oldest—the artist as an integral part of a larger community. It’s a traditional context that is still common in many societies and even within isolated subcultures of our own society. But it’s in direct contrast to the isolationist view of the artist that has dominated Western culture.
It’s the “artist as citizen,” a concept that seems so obvious that one can only wonder how it became so alien. Is it a threat to traditional Western art practice? Hardly. Nor should it be. It’s to everybody’s benefit that the arts have multiple contexts in which to thrive. Socially committed, community-engaged artists add depth to our culture and re-enchant their chosen publics, coming back to the reason why art was ever important in the first place.
May 15, 2011
the reason behind it all
This summer I am going to engage in a new adventure/study/program. The purpose of this "study" will be to critically analyze the Art on Call Project in Washington, DC in the context of public art. Art on Call is a project directed by Cultural Tourism DC, partnered with the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities (which provides most of the funding), and the District Department of Transportation. The idea behind the project was to refurbish the capital’s neglected emergency call boxes.
The call boxes have been unused since the introduction of the 911 emergency call systems in the 1970s, and finally abandoned in 1995 when all of the electronic components were removed. A city survey found about 1,100 boxes, 700 of which are ready to be redesigned. The Art on Call project started in 2000 and at the present time only 145 completed call boxes can be seen in the Capitol Hill, Cathedral Heights, Cleveland Park, Downtown, Dupont Circle, Forest Hills, Georgetown, Golden Triangle, Glover Park, McLean Gardens, Mount Pleasant, Sheridan/Kalorama, Southwest, Tenleytown, and Woodley Park areas. Each community chose a theme or color palette to unify all the boxes. The approaches taken to renew the call boxes’ design vary. (Facts from Cultural Tourism DC website)
However, it is arguable that the styles of the works designed for the boxes do not represent the current artistic aesthetic and are not of any value to the contemporary spirit of public art. There is more of a connection between the style of the works and a marketing campaign than a re-purpose founded in the worth of the art itself. I believe that a group of young artists, our Honors class for example, can offer a fresh take on some of the boxes, either within the boundaries of the Art on Call project or through a brand new initiative.
Throughout the summer I will visit Washington DC under a new light. My city-guide will be the Art on Call project. I will keep a record and post photos of the boxes. It is going to be a way for me to revisit DC and its underground art scene while thinking "out of the box".
DISCLAIMER: English is NOT my first language therefore I apologize if some of my sentences do not make grammatical sense.
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