Whartscape Tapeway and Tri-Flags

Whartscape Tapeway 01

I had the privilege of setting up two installations during this year’s Whartscape. “Tapeway” was a colorful tape installation along the sidewalk leading into the MICA parking lot. With this piece I hoped to cultivate a sense of visual excitement beginning half-way down the block and culminating at the entrance to Whartscape. Various colors of tape began far apart, moved towards the entrance, started intersecting and became increasingly intense as audience members approached the entrance threshold. The installation was well received and I plan on doing similar public tape installation in the near future.

Click here for full documentation.

Whartscape Tapeway 01

“Tri-Flags” were two pair of bamboo tripods I lashed together that each displayed three colorful flags. Both stages in the Whartscape outdoor lot were framed by these vibrant flag stands. More than just stage decoration, I see these structures as becoming part of my growing collection of temporary public event structures. I plan on re-using the tripods with an array of interchangeable flags alongside other banners and kiosks in future parades and festivals. This collection of nomadic party infrastructure will help to create a sense place within temporal situations of play and celebration.

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Mirkwood Estates blog now up!

09 04 30 Mirkwood Performance Night - JJR Bob Calusari Jared Josh 05

MIRKWOOD ESTATES BLOG

Mirkwood Estates is comprised of Mirkwood and Tinges Commons. Mirkwood is a home and performance space. In the last week of each month come enjoy domestic happenings, experimental sound performance, spoken word readings and installation art. Tinges Commons is a community garden and collaborative, contemporary public art space on the vacant lot at the southeast corner of Frisby and 33rd Streets. Mirkwood Estates is located at 701 East 33rd Street, Baltimore, MD 21218.

09 04 30 Mirkwood Performance Night - JJR Bob Calusari Jared Josh 05 09 04 30 Mirkwood Performance Night - JJR Bob Calusari Jared Josh 14

New Public Sites – Symphony Terrace Vista

Symphony Terrace Vista is a continuation of the New Public Sites installation series where I invite participants to explore invisible or unseen public spaces. For NPS-STV I set up neon pink “x”s leading people to the circular, landscape brick terrace structure in front the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra building at Preston Street and Park Avenue. After climbing the odd HVAC structure, one finds three yellow strips of tape that both orient the viewer and frame a fantastic cityscape vista.

This installation was a part of the Wandering: You Are Here show at MICA’s Middendorf gallery that ran December 3-10, 2008.

Click here for full documentation.

Visionary Crosswalks – MTR

Last week I set up my first public art intervention in Baltimore. “VXW-MTR”is a continuation of the Visionary Crosswalks project I started in Bushwick, Brooklyn last spring. I set up the installation along Mount Royal Ave, between Lafayette and Lanvale, next to the MICA green. After jaywalking across this block on a weekly basis – and seeing many others doing the same -, this became the first public space in Baltimore I felt comfortable working within.

For this crosswalk I enhanced my original singular, neon-orange, over-spray design by drawing three parallel lines connected by corresponding “X” markings. The overall layout is derived from the surrounding architecture of the plazas in front of the MICA Brown and Main buildings. The Brown building’s diagonal layout opens up to Mount Royal Avenue, clearly suggesting a visual and pedestrian connection to the historical Main building. It no surprise then that students, professors, and workers are constantly cutting across Mount Royal Avenue mid-block. VXW-MTR is my attempt to both highlight this casual path to motorists, and “legitimize” the experience as a pedestrian.

In addition to the street markings, I am also bringing an element of performance to my Visionary Crosswalks project through my inclusion of “G-Mack the Construction Guy”. G-Mack is the character which I embodied during the nighttime installation of the crosswalk. As a character he serves three purposes: 1) to convince possible authorities that whatever I am doing in the middle of the night is legitimate, 2) as a personal/social entry point to the project for other pedestrians, and 3) as humorous acknowledgment of my role as the artist in creating this piece of slightly absurd direct-actionist, intervention art. Look out for future appearances from G-Mack, both as a construction worker and soon-to-be crossing guard!

Click here for full documentation.