Friends of the High Line’s Post

I'm thrilled to share my latest publication, which explores the intersection of public art, colonial monuments, and the impact of artistic interventions. It focuses on the Monumental Shadows project by artist duo Various & Gould, who challenged the Otto von Bismarck monument in Berlin with a temporary paper-mâché intervention. Their symbolic tearing of this colonial-era figure raised important questions about European colonialism in public spaces, happening alongside the monument's restoration - a paradox of critique and preservation. This intervention, while temporary, sparked public debate, from support to hostility, highlighting the challenges of confronting entrenched narratives. The project shows how art can reshape societal views and prompt us to rethink how we engage with colonial symbols. Conducting this interview gave me the opportunity to bring the artists' voices to the forefront, and it feels like a "fifth shadow" in their project - extending their efforts into academic and media spaces to amplify their work. This collaboration, which includes SAVVY Contemporary's Colonial Neighbours - partners of Various & Gould, has been a vital part of the ongoing dialogue on decoloniality in public spaces. Special thanks to the artists Various & Gould and PAD Journal team, especially Tanja Schult and Brenda Schmahmann for their invaluable support for making it possible to bring these critical discussions to a wider audience. You can read the full article here:  https://lnkd.in/eNAC-udu #PublicArt #Decoloniality #ArtisticIntervention #ColonialMonuments #ArtistInterview #SocialChange #BismarckMonument

This recent article from The Christian Science Monitor on Destination Crenshaw highlights the need for cultural design and intentional public/private investments -- something so necessary can feel like gentrification if we collectively turn our back on what improvement is needed for the people living in our communities today. Surviving or flourishing is our choice. Crenshaw chooses FLOURSHING.

Roots on the Rock | Cesar Forero | Gallery Reception: Saturday, March 9, 4 – 7p (Performance 6 pm) https://lnkd.in/gZBKSQkS My generation is witnessing good and powerful changes on our planet, making our lives easier and more efficient. Technology makes our work more productive and with greater global reach. The great disparity continues to be that we are advancing economically, but the emotional and spiritual relationship with our planet is increasingly more distant. It is difficult to understand how it is possible that our intelligence allows us to advance so quickly at a technological level, but we do not find the balance to prevent the destruction of our environment. This project evaluates our active participation in environmental recovery. My personal development as an individual artist who transforms and matures, is now finding physical limitations to do what was previously very easy to do. The re-adaptation of my body makes me aware that the changes in my own being occur simultaneously with the changes in the planet. The big difference is that I accept the shackles of my life as the normal process of my existence, but this planet will be home to millions of future generations. Therefore, we should not accept the deterioration of the planet as normal, but do every possible act to reverse the damage we have caused.  Perhaps my job as an artist creating this project is to rely on something greater than myself and send a spiritual message embedded in the artworks. Possibly and very ambitiously, the dream is to create a project that radiates and expands like songs and love stories. The message and objective are the creation of a piece that unfolds in nature and that makes sense if humanity participates in this environment, enjoying it, but leaving it intact for the future. - Cesar Forero 

Making Space Winston Churchill had an intuitive understanding of space. How it influences all manner of subconscious human behaviour. He gave a characteristically rumbustious speech to parliament in 1943 where he famously said: “We shape our buildings and afterwards our buildings shape us”. It was a speech about the re-construction of the House of Commons which had been destroyed by a massive Luftwaffe bombing raid on London in 1941. Churchill was adamant that the Commons chamber should be re-built in a way that preserved all of its original features. There was significant pressure to re-design the House. A new layout and more seating. He, however, wanted to retain the layout as was, with those famous tiers of green leather benches - incumbent government on one side and the formal opposition on the other.  And it should be rebuilt he said, with the exact same number of seats it had before it had been destroyed. Which was not enough seats for everyone when the chamber was full. This meant that the House could never accommodate a full house of seated MP’s if the chamber was full up for key votes. It meant lots of standing and sitting on the floor in the aisles. But Churchill’s logic was interesting: “On great occasions”, he said, the House needed a “sense of crowd and urgency.” He believed the House should be bursting at the seams when crucial votes were being held. Everyone jostling for position to get a good spot behind the reserved front benches. There would be a great sense of anticipation. A sense of significance. The space would speak to all the MP’s gathered of a sense that something of great importance was happening. What Churchill understood instinctively, was that spaces shape not just how we communicate and interact, but how we feel. And how we behave. In short, they are critical in how our identities are moulded. Churchill’s intuition, honed over 40 years in the House of Commons, is now soundly backed up by research in the field of environmental psychology. Recent studies confirm that our relationship with the spaces we create goes well beyond their role as places of shelter and occupation. Our deepest relationships with space extend into the deep and mystical landscapes of what constitutes a life well-lived.  

There’s so much knitted here about the journey of corporate funded public art and the complications that arise years later. With pop up art installations (like I’ve produced) or street art, the life span is even shorter. With all of it, preservation is at a premium. https://lnkd.in/gDcSbPQq

This is gorgeous! And an excellent example of how to visually, clearly and accessibly communicate your organisations personal impact to your community (i.e. the people your practice actually serves!) without spreadsheets of jargon. Please open the link to fully understand why I adore this 👏

📅 Join us on 4 April for the last in this semester’s History of Art research seminar series. Dr Mehreen Chida-Razvi: A Woman’s Space: Architecture of the Mughal Harem. 📍 5.15pm Hunter Lecture Theatre / online. Free and open to all. 🔗 https://edin.ac/4aBWyTX 💬 The place of elite women in Mughal-era social, political, and artistic spheres has recently begun to garner attention from scholars, but the same cannot be said of the physical space that they occupied, namely, the zenana. This area within a palace or royal encampment was one of the most inaccessible, closed-off to outsiders through both physical means, be it walls or tented enclosures, and by scanty written descriptions of such quarters. And yet, surviving material culture allows for a greater understanding of these female residential spaces. By consulting contemporary references to and descriptions of the zenana in Mughal and European sources, and through the examination of extant Mughal palace complexes and the beautifully rendered images of these spaces on the painted page, it is possible to delve into the boundaries of the zenana and achieve a greater understanding of its creation, planning, and use.

Conceptual Art Unpacking the term Conceptual art is not quite as straightforward as other art movements. It’s easy to get confused by the different ways in which the word is used. While it most commonly refers to the art movement between the 1960s and 1970s that emerged in the United States, there are several other ways of understanding it. What exactly does this word connote? When was Conceptualism an art movement, and does it still exist? In his comprehensive book Conceptual Art, art historian Paul Wood distinguishes between the different ways the term is used: 1: Conceptualism is often used as a negative term for what people dislike about contemporary art which revolves around the concept. 2: Conceptualism refers to the Anglo-American art movement that blossomed in the 1960s and 1970s. The idea, planning and production process of the artwork were seen as more important than the actual result. 3: A more expanded notion of Conceptualism holds that men and women in all corners of the world had been working in a conceptual manner since the 1950s on themes ranging from imperialism to personal identity. In this sense, Conceptualism becomes a Global Conceptualism. "Collection of 100 Plaster Surrogates" by Allan McCollum

Matter as Matter (not symbol) | Please join us on Thursday, March 21st for a gallery opening reception showcasing the works of Nicolas C. Smith in the art gallery art space at Hacker's Portland office. Nic, as both an artist and architect, draws upon each discipline to inform and enrich the other. https://lnkd.in/g5eKcx5V "There is beauty that exists independent of any meaning we as humans may apply that which is material. Symbol is inherent falsehood - the application of an idea or meaning onto an object for which it did not previously hold. My work is an exercise in discovery of intrinsic phenomena to a material or of materials coming together through force of action. Searching for something that cannot be seen or sensed but is the definition of a material, the attributes, the structure, the essence. By pressing a pencil to paper both are changed and both can be discovered. This work is an effort to discover rather than apply. To discover the beauty of two materials coming together with force and phenomenon." - Nicolas C. Smith Matter as Matter (not symbol) is on display March 21st - May 31, 2024. #hackerarchitects #hackergallery #portlandart #portlandgallery