Current Exhibition
YOUR
TOWN, INC.
Big Box Reuse Aug. 29–Nov. 23, 2008 EVENTS:
·
Hometown BBQ Reception:
·
Carnegie Mellon
University Lecture Series: RELATED:
·
Worlds Away: New Suburban Landscapes: Carnegie Museum of Art,
Oct. 2008–Jan. 2009
·
Society for Photographic
Education:
Mid-Atlantic Conference, Nov. 7-9, 2008
|
|
| Spam Museum, renovated Kmart building, Austin Minnesota by J. Christensen |
Big box buildings have increasingly dominated the American
landscape since the 1960s. Author, artist, and researcher Julia Christensen
spent the last six years studying these monolithic, free-standing structures
and their resulting effects on our culture. In Your Town, Inc., the Miller Gallery at Carnegie Mellon University will exhibit photographs and
new installation work examining how communities are changing in the shadow of
corporate real estate.
Seventy-seven
photographs from Christensen’s forthcoming book, Big Box Reuse (MIT Press, Nov. 2008), illustrate the ways in which
communities throughout the United States creatively re-employ the structures
constructed and abandoned by multinational corporations, such as Wal-Mart and
Kmart. Resulting endeavors include: justice center, megachurch, senior resource
center, elementary school, and flea market.
For Your Town, Inc., Christensen
fabricated a sculptural construction in collaboration with students at Oberlin
College. The structure, UnBox (2008),
is a reaction and response to the big box concept. Her UnBox demonstrates
values and conventions opposed to the superstore sort: it is modular,
transportable, easily reusable, and made of regional and recycled materials. Furthermore, UnBox will be activated for creative and social uses, rather than
retail purposes, by various groups from Greater Pittsburgh who can propose
events to take place within this new facility. The installation can enable discussion about urgent issues
such as sustainability, user-friendliness, and reusability.
Across the floor of the gallery an actual-sized parking lot will
be painted to City of Pittsburgh code. The lot raises questions about the
infrastructural aspect of our lifestyles–particularly, the
auto-centricity of our culture.
Your Town, Inc. is an exhibition that explores the state of our built
environment. Among Christensen’s
photographs of reworked big box buildings, the UnBox structure, and the parking lot setting, the audience will be
asked to think critically about how their own town has changed in light of
corporate real estate. And
ultimately, the question will be posed: how can you reclaim power over the
design of your town’s future?
Your Town, Inc. is organized by the
Miller Gallery at Carnegie Mellon University, in connection with the release of
the artist’s book with MIT Press. The Carnegie Mellon Office of the
Vice-Provost and the School of Art Lecture Series have provided assistance for
the Big Box Reuse presentation.
###
Christensen’s work has been
featured in the New York Times, the Globe and Mail, Preservation Magazine for
the National Trust, and other publications; her new media, video and
installation work has shown recently at the Lincoln Center, DUMBO Arts Center,
and the Walker Art Center. Her book, Big
Box Reuse, will be published by MIT Press this fall. She is the Henry R.
Luce Professor of the Emerging Arts at Oberlin College and Conservatory in
Ohio, where she teaches in the Studio Arts and TIMARA (Technology in Music and
Related Arts) Departments. She has also taught at Stanford University and California
College of the Arts, among other universities.
AREAS
OF INTEREST:
·
Architecture:
Urban Planning, Landscape Architecture
·
Art:
Photo, Sculpture
·
Design
·
Environmental
Studies
·
Humanities:
American Studies, Cultural Studies, Popular Culture
FOR
FURTHER INFORMATION:
·
http://www.cmu.edu/millergallery
· http://www.bigboxreuse.com/book/
MORE ABOUT JULIA CHRISTENSEN:
http://www.juliachristensen.com
CV: http://www.juliachristensen.com/cv
More about Big Box Reuse:
http://www.bigboxreuse.com/book/
More about the UnBox (2008):
Images: http://juliachristensen.com/unbox/unbox.html
ABOUT THE MILLER GALLERY AT CARNEGIE MELLON
The Regina Gouger Miller Gallery at
Carnegie Mellon University has supported the creation, understanding, and
growth of contemporary art through exhibitions, projects, events, and
publications since January 2000.
The 9,000 square foot space functions
as a showcase for experimentation, examination, discovery, and discussion. The
gallery aspires to engage diverse audiences, to create and strengthen
communities through art, and to stimulate, provoke, and encourage contemplation
of the visual arts of our times. Over the last eight years, the Miller Gallery
has exhibited work by Laylah Ali, Janine Antoni, The Art Guys, Michael
Bevilacqua, Enrique Chagoya, Catherine Chalmers, Michael Ray Charles, Minerva
Cuevas, Nicole Eisenman, Inka Essenhigh, Neil Farber, Karen Finley, Rachel
Harrison, Arturo Herrera, Tran T. Kim-Trang, Glenn Ligon, Kerry James Marshall,
Larry Miller, Takashi Murakami, Yoshitomo Nara, Shirin Neshat, Christy Rupp, Al
Souza, Sarah Sze, TermiteTV, Kara Walker, Olav Westphalen, Gail Wight, and Sue
Williams, among others. Notable Carnegie Mellon School of Art alumni including
Mel Bochner, Jacob Ciocci (Paper Rad), John Currin, Cassandra C. Jones, and
Shana Moulton have also exhibited here.
© 2005 Miller Gallery | Carnegie Mellon University
Gallery Hours: Tue.–Sun. 11:30 am–5 pm; Closed Monday