Nocturnal Notations: A Living Installation


It is hard to believe that it is almost the end of October and that Dana’s month of residency in the dsitrict is almost complete. Together, we have adapted to a second temporary studio, the first being the generous welcome provided to me and Tim DuRoche - the September Guest Artist, by SWF’s favorite cafe - Bella Espresso.

Many SWF residents, workers and visitors have casually wandered into the currrent AiR temporary studio over the last several weeks to look at her evolving installation. Filled with drawings, suspended objects and treatments for the floor, the studio changes daily. Many residents have also let us know how enamored they have become with Dana’s two temporary nighttime light projections that extend the images from the studio into the neighborhood. These lit installations will be active until Thursday, Nov.1.

On Saturday, Oct. 27th, Dana will present the culmination of her one-month residency in the district - Nocturnal Notations: A Living Installation. The work has been conceived and built on site and references both the artist’s as well residents’ and visitors’ dreams offered throughout the month. A ‘Living Installation’ means that the objects in the installation will be purposely inhabited during the open studio in ways that forward and nuance their meaning.

During her residency, Dana has been exploring the question of how one dreams a community into being. The accumulated installation draws connections between Dana’s experience of communities in West Africa and the very fluid process of creating community that is evident daily in the SWF neighborhood. Issues in this work involve the fluctuations in privacy between the daytime and nighttime, publicly shared space and use, as well as the collaborative energy required to co-habitate. Visitors can look forward to live music on the baliphone and hot tea. The installation time is ongoing, 7-9:30p which means that one can just drop in or stay awhile. The temporary studio is SW Bond @Gaines across from the park. All events of the AiR program are free and open to the public.

AiR LKJ

When the opportunity became available to spend a year thinking about and making work relevant to the SWF district, it was clear to me that multiple voices, perpsectives and artistic practices were necessary in addition to my own. While never having formally curated my own series, I have many times been intimately involved in a range of curatorial processes with programs and institutions of all sizes. The hybrid nature of my own pratice has also brought me collaborative opportunities across many disciplines so I have a very grounded sense of artists working in many different forms.

I found it extremely exciting to think about the broad range of makers in this city through the lense of place and site. When considering artists for the Monthly Series a few things seemed important. First, a month is a very short period of time to develop an idea or body of work in the context of a community of people, especially if that community is invited to participate on some level other than just being a traditional audience member. It seemed relevant, therefore, that I consider artists who were comfortable with a more public creation cycle and artists who had some history of working in this way. It also felt very important to include artists working across the broadest range of disciplines in order to generate the most rich and layered interpretation/imagining/dreaming/critic of the SWF district. Having been an artist who benefited greatly by being included in performances or collaborations with colleagues much more practiced than myself, it also seemed important to have the series reflect a range of ages and experience levels. Finally, as the commissions are modest at best, it also seemed reasonable to consider artists who might be so deeply intrigued by the idea of addressing the SWF neighborhood that they would agree to alter/stretch/adapt their practice in order to deal with a small budget and honorarium. Could these residencies provide an opportunity for an artist to finally explore something they had been thinking about but in a drafting kind of way? “Soft making”, as I have come to refer to it.

So, with these thoughts in mind, I started making lists, long lists. I whittled from 55 down to 25 and then began the very delightful process of talking to artists. Along the way, I also checked in with several curator colleages to get their sense of the city and who might be a good fit for this particular opportunity. Some of these conversations shifted my thinking and I pursued several other artists. In the end, I got 19 proposals from which I selected 13. Calendar, availability, duplicate concepts and discipline representation all were factors. Several projects that I could not include are still bubbling out there with a chance of happening.

I am excited and honored to be working with this group of artists. It is my hope that these projects will serve as a kind of innoculent (as my colleague and friend Brian Borrello refers to it) for dialogue and interaction.

Corpus Botanicus: A Temporary Herbal Apothecary Project