Please join me for my MFA thesis show and events, New Public Sites – T/MBX,
April 23rd – May 2nd.
The Typology of New Public Sites (NPS-T) and New Public Sites – Middle Branch Crossing (NPS-MBX) are two interrelated investigations into the invisible sites and overlooked features of our everyday environment. Serving as both field guide and manifesto, NPS-T organizes these liminal public spaces and pedestrian experiences into a system of sites, components and qualities, indexed and described through architectural and poetic terms and definitions. Putting this typological language into action, NPS-MBX explores Baltimore’s spectacular southern gateway – the Middle Branch, a majestic amalgam of voids, lost spaces, paths, pauses and vistas.Opening reception Friday, April 23rd, 5-7pm
Maryland Institute College of Art – Fox Building
1303 Mount Royal Ave, Baltimore, MD 21217
Gallery talk Wednesday, April 28, 1-3pm.
Participants are invited to explore the Middle Branch Crossing through three modes of transit: car, bicycle and light rail. Sweeping back and forth across the I-95/I-395 interchange, the car tour will provide breathtaking zoomscapes of the water below and city beyond. At a slower pace, the bicycle tour will navigate sites of pause south of the stadium, before joining the Gwynns Falls Trail as it skirts the vistas of the Middle Branch’s western shore. Heading farther south, the light rail tour will glide over fluid dynamics and unseen fields before culminating in an excursion of radical pedestrianism.Free NPS-Button and copy of The Typology of New Public Sites for all intrepid participants!
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!
