From: James Pollack <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: ZOE Recommendation - Mel Chin April 7,
2008 and Fritz Haeg on April 16, 2008
Date: Thu, 3 Apr 2008 15:54:48 -0400
Our sister program, the Center for Advanced
Visual Studies is having two excellent upcoming
events. They are free and open to the public.
The Center for Advanced Visual Studies MIT /
265 Massachusetts Ave, 3rd Fl / Cambridge MA
02139 / 617 253 4415 / <http://cavs.mit.edu>http://cavs.mit.edu
Mel Chin
Monday April 7 2008 6:30 pm
Preeminent conceptual sculptor and installation
artist Mel Chin visits the Center April 7-9th.
On Monday he will screen his new animated film,
9/11-9/11, 2007, which juxtaposes the events of
Sept 11th 1973 and 2001. He'll also introduce
Fundred, 2008, a major new public project that
brings attention to lead levels in
neighborhoods of New Orleans through a massive
national mobilization of artistic labor. During
his visit, he'll meet with faculty and students
in urban studies, mechanical engineering,
systems design, and data visualization to discuss projects in development.
A voracious learner and catalyst of major
endeavors that bring people and ideas together
in unexpected ways, Mel Chin insinuates art
into unlikely places, including destroyed
homes, toxic landfills, and even the television
series Melrose Place, investigating how art can
provoke greater social awareness and
responsibility. Chin has engaged ecology and
the environment for many years, and has worked
extensively with scientists, notably on Revival
Field, 1991-ongoing, in which he and a research
scientist in the US Dept of Agriculture
successfully cultivated plants that extract
heavy metal from brownfields--a work of what
Chin calls "real alchemy." His projects also
challenge the idea of the artist as the
exclusive creative force behind an artwork.
The survival of my own ideas may not be as
important as a condition I might create for
others ideas to be realized, says Chin, who
often enlists entire neighborhoods or groups of
students in creative partnerships. Mel Chin was
born in Houston to Chinese parents in 1951, and
currently lives in North Carolina. (Bio adapted from Art21)
<http://cavs.mit.edu/artists.html?id=264,605>http://cavs.mit.edu/artists.html?id=264,605
http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/chin/
++
Fritz Haeg
Wednesday April 16th 2008 6:30 pm
The Center is pleased to host Fritz Haeg and
his project Animal Estates, 2008, during the
week of April 14th. While at MIT, Haeg will
give a talk on his work and, with the help of
MIT students and artists, build one installment
of Animal Estates, a new series of dwellings
thoughtfully designed to welcome an animal back
into the city. These environments are made for
displaced wildlife or for animals that have
been domesticated. The Center will host one of
eight estatesthe first was built in New York
as part of the Whitney Biennial while others
will appear at Arthouse, Austin, TX; the
Contemporary Museum, Baltimore, MD; The Museum
of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA; Cooley
Gallery, Portland OR; Alaska Design Forum,
Fairbanks, AK; and Casco Projects, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Haeg writes: As animal habitats dwindle daily,
Animal Estates proposes the reintroduction of
animals back into our cities, strip malls,
garages, office parks, freeways, front yards,
parking lots and neighborhoods
As the human
domination of the planet continues, animals are
alternately viewed as exotic specimens to be
treated as spectacle, cartoon characters that
are anthropomorphized, friendly companions to
be coddled, objectified resources to be
exploited, inconveniences to be tolerated,
pests to be eradicated or anonymous unseen
creatures to which we are indifferent. Animal
Estates intends to provide a provocative 21st
century model for the human-animal relationship
that is more intimate, visible and thoughtful.
Fritz Haeg is an architect and artist based in
Los Angeles whose work combines strategies from
architecture, art, ecology, and education.
Known for his geodesic dome and the lively
Sundown Salons that attract emerging artists,
musicians, and performers, Haegs projects
challenge conventional ideas about where art should go and what art can do.
<http://www.cavs.mit.edu>http://www.cavs.mit.edu
http://www.fritzhaeg.com/garden/initiatives/animalestates/main.html
++
The Center for Advanced Visual Studies is
funded in part by the National Endowment for
the Arts; the Multi-Arts Production (MAP) Fund;
the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state
agency; the LEF Foundation; and the MIT Council for the Arts.
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