social practice art

An amazing article in the New York Times defines what I've been doing in art for the last 10 years. "Outside the Citadel, Social Practice Art is Intended to Nurture" http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/24/arts/design/outside-the-citadel-social-practice-art-is-intended-to-nurture.html
These projects use public participation to accomplish social justice and community building goals and often aim for audiences beyond the monied art world. DNA of Blue certainly fits this description.

Many of my other projects have created large walk-through installations that engage viewers in contemporary issues. See these projects on my website www.margaretparkerstudio.com

Here's my latest piece.

                                                                      a Mer I cans
                         16 wood panels wrapped with pieces from cotton T-shirts. 2012

I was interested in how we Americans cross tribes, castes, class, age, gender, religion and place to define our own individuality and personhood.  Signals are often printed right on our clothing to tell total strangers who we are and what we stand for, at least for that day. We shed the T-shirts like a second skin. I collect T-shirts to use as found objects in art projects both large and small.

We're becoming more racially mixed and that means crossing old boundaries. Once common ideals like "patriotism" have become loaded with subtext. 4 different shirts are used, each wrapped in different techniques. Weaving, knotting, binding the corners, using the circle of the neck are followed through the 16 pieces in as many ways as possible.

These pieces explore Americans' core belief in individualism. 

In the studio for Art Walk 2007

My studio is in a hundred year old building on the west side of Ann Arbor that started out as a farmer's feed and seed store. The wooden floor has metal patches made from scrap tin. 

The beams that hold up the almost flat roof remind me of Egyptian palms. The studio is the continuous center of my working life. One year I taped the word "continuum" on the window for Art Walk, it's stayed ever since. I love the way it catches the light, going from light to dark.                                                                                               

Once a year I open my studio for the Ann Arbor Art Walk when people can see where I work.  I've been a part of the Ann Arbor Art Walk for the last 10 years and it's helped me see my work through visitor's eyes. All art is local, this is the shock of it. 

 

DNA of Blue has been part of the Art Walk weekend

event several times. People climb the inside stairs, look around, and often get very involved with this project.

                                                                 
                                                                                                                           

Old friends come to hang out, new friends show up with their kids.  People admire each other's work.  

                                       

These sisters had to do it 4 times. When they built this, it was amazing from every angle.

This friend goes to all the openings in town. He built his own cool version.

By the end of the weekend, the shadows are long and I have the studio back to myself. 

Scope - Miami

Scope was one of the several off-shoot shows held in Miami during Art Basel in 2006. 

 This time I stayed outside on the grass in the dappled shade, catching people as they wandered into or out of the show. The outdoor light changed all the colors.

Photo by Gary Mercer

I always thought that the different designs from each performance could be strung together like strands of DNA.  Here is the first example:

The moving spots of sunshine marked the photos, making them look like they were under water.

Blue of shadows, blue of memory, swans on blue water.

"Pleasure to meet you at the scope art fair during art basal week, 2006, and participate in your performance piece, DNA of Blue.  As a big fan of performance art, I liked how you were grabbing people off the sidewalk and asking them to participate. Very cool stuff. We need more conceptual and performance art in our society."

~ Gary Mercer, PM Gallery, Miami

I saw little or no work at any of the shows in Miami that told that our country was in the midst of two wars, in Iraq and Afghanistan. Much of my other work at the time was all tied up in war, see www.margaretparkerstudio.com

Army Time, 2005

Wounded, 2005

Crumpled Columns, 2005 

DNA of Blue was started as a search for a broader definition of humanity - my reaction to the 9/11 attacks, instead of starting a war. The project gives me a way to approach people from all walks of life and find a common delight in design. This participant said as she was working: "I must meditate. It's speaking to me."

Art Basel - Miami

Art Basel Miami, one of the biggest art sales in the US, holds it's event at the Convention Center in Miami Beach.  I staged my invasion in the lobby.  It's corporate high stakes atmosphere was palpable

I spread out my cloth on the carpet and invited people to arrange the blue shapes. Sophisticated art buyers dropped on their knees to participate in a project that did not equate art with money.

  

After each arrangement was made, I took a picture and it became part of the ongoing DNA of Blue project.

Parents and kids loved to work on this together, and kids did it by themselves.

                                                    

 

                                   They readily joined in this art world subversion, until I was told to either pay for a $50,000 booth or leave.          Free art is dangerous.

Pool-Miami

The only artist-presented show which coincided with Art Basel Miami 2006 was called Pool Miami.  I was selected to come and brought the DNA of Blue along with my other work.

Each artist had their own room at the Cavalier Hotel, right on the edge of Miami Beach.  I installed deconstructed T-shirts, prints and watercolors. 30 artists filled two floors of the hotel with their work. It was a gas.

People from all over the world strolled through the halls. Many came from Central and South America, a group I'd had little chance to engage with on an artistic level.  They enjoyed vibrant color and active design. They were easy going and art loving, such a change from angst ridden New York and depressed Michigan. They liked my stuff.

When action was slow, I spread out the DNA of Blue, which filled most of the floor space, and invited participation. 

Artists, friends and visitors added their arrangements to the collection of DNA of Blue. This was the bathroom installation.

Skinned, 2005, 1 cotton T-shirt, wire; 7’h x 10”w x 10”d

This Brazilian artist took the DNA of Blue pieces off of the floor cloth and into the tiny bathroom where they danced with the pattern of the tiles.

 These twin artists are from Switzerland and New York.  Watching them work was amazing, their collaboration was like a duet or a dance.

This friend mixed the best martini.  Her looping creation looks like a race track or the symbol for infinity.

Living for four days in this hotel room filled with my artwork and watching people dive into this project gave me the confidence to continue with DNA of Blue, the first piece I'd done that so publicly asked for participation.