I've been thinking carefully about what the future holds for the luxury economy and the sustainability of the art world. Art is a luxury on one level but also a need and a good. So perhaps luxury and sustainability ought to merge.
The Experience of 'beauty' is arguably a human need, and in ideal circumstances it can also encourage us to contemplate philosophical, ethical and material questions. In short, humans need art to conceive new utopias, new possibilities or alternative ways to view the world. Art, is a complicated multifaceted experience. It is vexing at times, often hypocritical and occasionally if you are lucky--a revelation.
In collaboration with a curator called Dana, I designed and built a sustainable "Gallerykit" that requires virtually no overhead to fund and only needs a compact space to stage exhibits for the public. It's an experimental operational model. But so far, it has actually worked as planned and has delivered a few surprises that surpassed any expectations.
The current exhibit "Jimma!" is a portrait of Jimmy Carter by an artist in LA called Jay Lizo. (Picture links over the flip) and for this exhibit I rigged up a solar powered unit to power the gallery lighting system. I hope that the design serves as an inspiration for other designs to improve upon.
This diary is not, as you might suspect, a transparent ploy to drive up internet traffic for "Gallerykit". In fact it is the first time I have attempted to diary in any depth on here about art or my own efforts in that field. First things first, the painting depicts a Democratic President, so it is an image that should be of some interest to the Kos community. Here is the link to the image:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/...
Lizo's painting is based on a photograph taken while Jimmy Carter made a speech about the Middle East. He predicted the inevitability of democracy in the region, (a prophetic forecast considering recent upheavals in power.)
This is obviously the post White House Jimmy Carter. He looks battered and old. But he's full of determined energy. His upraised hand is foreshortened as it reaches toward us. It's a strong gesture, yet open and welcoming. Lizo's rendering of Carter also beams light down from the heavens atop a blue-silvery background, effectively making the warm complimentary orange flesh tones 'pop'. This isn't a sycophantic representation though, even if it's a special picture for Lizo as it forms part of his "Song From My Heroes" series. For as many of us liberals know Carter's heroic life began post presidency, with projects like 'Habitat for Humanity'. The Hero series depicts fictional and historical figures Jay Lizo admires in one way or another. Clearly Carter is being presented in a way that would have been familiar enough to orthodox Icon painters, but the overall effect of the viewing experience is secular. It's also a reminder of Andy Warhol's portraits of Carter made in the late 1970s (Warhol's pop alchemy famously included the silver spaces of 'the factory'.) On the other hand this is also an older and wiser Carter. You can see the wisdom in his wrinkles. A portrait: Warts and all.
Anyway, The portrait is now housed in the Gallerykit at the Isolation Room venue in St Louis. The Gallerykit is a basic DIY carpentry construction intended to house works of art in a room situated within a room. At Isolation Room for example the gallery is located in an Urban dining room. Here is a link to an image of the set up:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/...
So it blends elements of the private with the public. At another location the Gallerykit has been constructed as a permanent fixture at Hunter college New York's MFA gallery:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/...
It is extremely adaptable and simple enough to build yourself, which you are welcome to do:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/...
...all told it costs about $400 to construct.
As a venue it even got a first class review, in this case for Johannes Wohnseifer's conceptually driven Thin Commandments:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/...
This was a shock btw. Thanks Artforum and Ivy.
When the planning for the show of Jay's "Jimmy Carter" (2010) came around, we wanted to push the exhibition design a little. The bare bones construction of the Gallerykit itself referred neatly to Carter's activities with home construction and habitat for humanity. Raw, simple, cack-handed, honest carpentry. This wasn't enough though. Too simple. When I saw Carter's portrait I immediately though about how Reagan had removed the solar panels off the Whitehouse roof, how he paraded in a limo on his first day, while Carter walked to his swearing in and how Reagan fired the air-traffic controllers. The contrast between the humble and Imperious stuck in my mind. Removing the panels was a calculated insult on Reagan's part and a signal of how Reagan planned to undermine green energy proposals. So I thought, why not put them back in? At Least here in this situation. I wanted to reclaim Carter's nickname too, so we titled the installation: "Jimma!" (It all slotted together nicely). Gallerykit already had its own internal lighting system so it was simple enough to rewire for the show. The panel needed a battery pack to store collected energy and generated enough power to run the show. Here is the panel:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/...
Here is the rechargeable battery:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/...
I confess I do not have much of developed environmental consciousness. I leave the lights on don't recycle, but I'm frugal. I don't like driving, I don't consume much in the first place. I keep the heat off, even in winter. More to do with lack of means than a do-gooder mind set though. (God forbid I ever make any money!) But this wiring job was fun and it "demystified electricity", which as it happens is a project Chris Burden used to set for his undergrad students when he taught at UCLA. In a sense redesigning the power source conceptually completed the project. The politics followed form; the form followed politics without being preachy or didactic.
Here is an interior shot of the kit from the front page of the open source instructions:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/...
It felt quite satisfy to honor the things Carter proposed and stood for-- still stands for-- within our political culture, by practically building and rewiring my design. Generally the shows so far have steered clear of politics but this was a nice change of pace. I think it honored his legacy without reifying him. Isolation Room is a sort of secular chapel for the moment and Jay's painting has a hauntingly beautiful presence. At least until Alison Jackson's work shows up...
So, I hope "Gallerykit" and the account of it, inspire a few people to come up with their own designs. Their own little dreams and experiment with them to see where they might go. Try something and see if it can be made to work. Don't despair. If you read this Mr President, it's been a pleasure to contemplate your efforts to blend the beautiful with the practical within a design framework.
Gallerykit