TRANSported and Digging Deeper 2 new exhibitions from ecoartspace NY

ecoartspace NY currently has two new exhibitions on view. TRANSported, commissioned by Arts Brookfield is presented as part of the New Museum's Ideas City Festival 2013. TRANSported features two site-specific, interactive installations housed within and utilizing the unique features of the 20-foot shipping container. Both projects relate to the Festival’s theme of "Untapped Capital." 

Tender, by Seth Kinmont

Seth Kinmont, whose project Tender begins in Sara D. Roosevelt Park on the Lower East Side as part of Ideas City Streetfest on May 1st, engages the public with a sculptural installation and daily performance. Seth Kinmont will mint and issue his own currency out of his shipping container. The project will present visitors with freshly stamped coins and newly printed bills whose value shifts from fixed to fluid, transforming the items into a kind of lottery ticket that could be considered a souvenir, a token, a piece of art in itself -- or a chance to win a work of art that has the potential to generate its own value. Tender will move to Brookfield Place on May 6th. For more info about purchasing bills or coins click HERE.

Art Pac-Kit, 2 artists studios complete with solar panels, green roof and rainwater collection

Habitat for Artists, an artist collective based in New York’s Hudson Valley, transforms their metal container into a vehicle for dialog and conversation in their piece called Art Pac-Kit. Two hybrid studios and a central hub for shared engagement become evolving spaces for a series of public interactions with groups such as Solar One and the Hudson Valley Seed Library as well as individuals that explore aspects of self-reliance. Solar power and rainwater will be collected from the rooftop, which will also be home to a square-foot garden, while exterior walls will be covered with a vertical garden and a public message board where visitors can leave written suggestions and ideas. Discussions on conservation and sustainability will be held in a central hub connecting the studios. Both projects will remain on view at Brookfield Place (formerly World Financial Center Plaza) and open to the public daily from 10am - 6pm through May 27th.

“My title TRANSported refers to the history of this site as a shipping port where New York Harbor meets the Atlantic Ocean. TRANSported also suggests ways in which Seth Kinmont and Habitat for Artists are both using materials to visually transport viewers into different realities and presenting possibilities for the imagination to soar. As a curator whose work has long focused on environmental issues, I am thrilled to be working with the Ideas City Festival’s theme of Untapped Capital which states as their goal: an examination of surplus resources that may be under-recognized or underutilized, ranging from people and raw materials, to ideas, networks, varied resources, and modes of communication and provides a meeting place for developing alternative thinking as regards new methodologies, new solutions, and new goals.” Amy Lipton

Digging Deeper at Franklin Street Works in Stamford CT is a component of Strange Invitation which brings together 3 collaborative teams. The exhibition asks "What happens when you invite an artist who defines him/herself as both social activist and organizer to do a project at a gallery space?" Each component of Strange Invitation reflects a mix of art and activism, addressing themes informed by the participants in-depth work with local communities. Digging Deeper focuses on sustainable agriculture, entrepreneurship, and artists who create projects informed by our relationships to natural environments. The exhibition includes an outdoor artist studio and greenhouse created by Simon Draper and Michael Asbill, as part of Habitat for Artists (HFA) in partnership with the Hudson Valley Seed Library; The Franklin Street Works Heritage Garden and Farmstand by Andrea Reynosa, a civic ecology investigation into local youth, regional watershed/foodshed awareness, heirloom crop production and entrepreneurship; and a gallery exhibition featuring works by Joan Bankemper, Andrea Reynosa, Jenna Spevack, Elaine TinNyo, Linda Weintraub and HFA. Digging Deeper is on view at Franklin Street Works through June 16, 2013. The art space and café are open to the public on Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday: 12:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. with extended hours on Thursdays, 12:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.
 

Linda Weintraub, Let Us Eat the Colors of Nature’s Spectrum consists of twenty-six foods harvested from Weintraub’s gardens, preserved through canning, and arrayed according to the color continuum they suggest.

It’s the End of the World as We Know it (and I Feel Fine)

It’s the End of the World as We Know it (and I Feel Fine) curated by Amy Lipton, opened on January 31^st at Ramapo College Gallery in Mahwah NJ and will be on view through March 6^th. The exhibition explores contemporary views of nature and habitat expressed through landscape painting and drawing. The artists included; George Boorujy, Adam Cvijanovic, Peter Edlund, Joy Garnett, Kimberley Hart, Eve Andree Laramee, Sarah McCoubrey, Jason Middlebrook, Aviva Rahmani, Lisa Sanditz, Charlotte Schulz, Eva Struble, Sarah Trigg and Marion Wilson envision the natural world in relationship to pressing environmental issues. 

Taken from a 1987 song by the band R.E.M., It’s the End of the World as We Know it (and I Feel Fine) this somewhat ironic title suggests the possibility that by avoiding complacency and with awareness, intelligence, compassion and activism, solutions to environmental problems will be found to avoid potentially catastrophic results. The works attempt to meet the challenges of the new ecological imperative by bringing attention to the viewer of the need for protection, preservation and action.  Artists often have a prophetic role and throughout history have alerted us to problems that are unforeseen or overlooked. Using realism, fantasy or process as a source for imagination and transformation, they seek to create an awareness of loss and beauty in the marginal, the overused and the threatened.

A panel discussion, It’s the End of the World as We Know it (and We Don't Feel Fine)  will include artists George Boorujy, Peter Edlund, Aviva Rahmani, Marion Wilson and Ramapo College Environmental Studies Department Professors, Michael R. Edelstein and Howard Horowitz. Moderated by Amy Lipton, the panel will take place on Thursday February 28th at 3:30pm in the Pascal Gallery located in the Berrie Center for Performing and Visual Arts at Ramapo College.

Images of the exhibition taken by Joy Garnett can be seen HERE.