Social Mobility At Block Museum
Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art
Northwestern University
40 Arts Circle Drive
Evanston, Illinois 60208
(847) 491-4000
Tue 10am-5pm
Wed-Fri 10am-8pm
Weekends 12pm-5pm
www.blockmuseum.northwestern.edu
Social networks and social media mean we're constantly connected to the people and the world around us. But where does art fit into contemporary ideas of connectedness?
It's regularly displayed publicly, in murals or installations, and people can easily go see it in museums or galleries. After seeing the art, you have memories of witnessing it, but nothing physical to take with you. Gift shops exist to help people remember experiences they've had, and a Degas postcard or Rothko poster can serve as a reminder of art we've seen and the emotions it elicits. But there doesn't always have to be a monetary transaction to get a physical reminder of the experience. In Social Mobility: Collaborative Projects with Temporary Services, an exhibit at the Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art on view through August 14, Chicago-based collaborative artists' group Temporary Services (Brett Bloom, Marc Fischer and Salem Collo-Julin) explore the free exchange of objects and information between artists and the audience they'll never see.
The show is broken into three installations. The first, Free For All, documents the 2000 event at a Chicago storefront in which 50 artists, individuals and organizations gave away objects to visitors.
Each person had multiples to pass out, and the objects included a nickel stamped LOST and a quarter stamped HELP, a small red book called The Book of American Type, a pink card offering "free relationship advice" and more. The objects had a strong religious theme, as with the audiotape of a prayer service. The show's unique presentation meant that artists' work was viewed in a broader context than usual, and it fulfilled Temporary Services' goal of increasing an audience for art.
The second piece, Self-Reliance Library, includes shelves of books displayed on the wall. Titles, which include Tool Box for Sustainable City Living and Nomadic Furniture, all focus on a life skill. It includes many of Temporary Services' own publications on creativity and alternative living, and is a physical reminder of things we don't know and ways we can be independent.
Designated Drivers is the third and most interesting piece. It consists of 20 zip drives, each attached to the wall near an Apple computer. The directions for the piece read: "Designated Drivers is a free exchange of material supplied by 20 artists. You are welcome to download it onto your laptop, flash drive, CD or DVD. Not all files are accessible on this computer, but may be copied for viewing later."
The drives, which include photos, audio files and video, come from artists like Matt Bua, Adam Trowbridge and Jessica Westbrook (who work as Channel TWo), IC-98 and the Cake and Eat It Collective. The piece stands on its own if you merely observe it. It's a free exchange of information, with artists simply giving visitors a piece of art to have in their homes. While they're digital works that require a device to experience, the media is a reminder of the original experience of downloading the information off the drive. And it raises the question: which is the real piece of art? Is it the zip drive? The disc the art is on? The media that's on the disc? In a way all are right, which makes this a though-provoking, exciting installation.
In each of these works, Temporary Services explores the idea that art gives us something to take home. It doesn't have to be physical like a postcard or media on a zip drive - the experience of seeing art is what matters and the ideas we take away from it even more.
