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Project 1: Crossed Lines

Project 1 is the first in a series of multi-sited public art exhibitions in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Produced by ArtPrize, Project 1 consists of five artists commissioned to create sculptures, installations, performances, urban interventions and community-oriented projects.

Artists are invited to explore the theme of “Crossed Lines” — how lines are drawn, literally and figuratively, to demarcate public and private space, and how boundaries inform our movement and sense of belonging. This theme reflects the complex conditions of Grand Rapids, a place with a rich legacy of public art defining and enhancing civic space, yet still confronted with difficult questions about access and boundaries, both visible and invisible.

The artists in Project 1: Crossed Lines have been selected because of the way they create more than objects, using public art to question and alter spaces, both physical and social. The way people move through a city—the ways in which people feel as if they do or do not belong—are the result of design decisions as well as policy decisions. In asking artists to temporarily alter public spaces, and create new ones, Project 1: Crossed Lines seeks to follow these artists into an embodied exploration of how and for who the city is made. What can artists—with their ability to manipulate form, experience and social engagement—teach us about what it means to belong?

Learn more at project.artprize.org

Accessibility Visitor Tools

For visitors unable to physically access installations Virtual 3D Tours are available on the website. For visitors that have a visual impairment Audio Descriptions of the work are available on the website.

Browder creates large-scale, vibrant fabric installations — turning building exteriors and other public sites into multi-colored sculptures. Community participation is essential to her work. She engages community members in the cities where her projects take place by gathering materials and stories. Throughout the early spring and summer of 2019, the Grand Rapids community is coming together in support of her work — donating colorful fabric and working alongside her to sew the immense textile pieces you’ll soon see wrapped around public spaces throughout the city. Through this community involvement, Browder looks to give a voice to the citizens of Grand Rapids and blur the division between audience and artist.

Kaleidoscopic

Spectral Locus by Amanda BrowderPhoto by Tom Loonan

Did You Know?Amanda Browder is from Missoula, Montana and is currently living in Brooklyn, New York.

Browder has a love for math and she is reliant on geometry throughout her art-making process.

Kaleidoscopic was created with the help of 600+ volunteers. All of the fabric was donated by residents of Grand Rapids along with X-Rite.

The skybridges located downtown connect buildings across almost one mile.

The MLK Park lodge was built in 1919 and has a rich history of neighborhood activity including a boxing gym. Currently the lodge is used by a local dance troupe and community meetings.

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Questions to Consider

Do you think the colors and variety of fabric are important in the artwork? What do they represent?

Do you have clothes, flags, or fabric that represents you or a community you belong to? How would you feel if that fabric was a part of this installation?

How has this work transformed the building it occupies? Do you notice the buildings and structures these installations cover?

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Action

Browder’s works are on view at each site location. Explore the work from every angle and at each site for an entirely different perspective. Be sure to tag #KaleidoscopicGR and your photo will be added to a project archive by the artist.

Lozano-Hemmer develops interactive installations that live at the intersection of architecture and performance art. Voice Bridge is a site-specific installation along the handrails of Grand Rapids’ iconic Blue Bridge, a pedestrian bridge which connects the East and West sides of downtown over the Grand River.

Voice Bridge

Voice BridgeDowntown

Did You Know?Rafael Lozano-Hemmer was born in Mexico City and is currently based in Montréal, Canada.

Lozano-Hemmer’s work frequently revolves around public participation through interaction via technology. He studied Physical Chemistry and has an interest in science.

Voice Bridge features 400 speakers and lights that shine on the footpath of the bridge.

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Questions to Consider

Consider the importance of participation in this piece - inviting visitors to tell a story or leave a message. Why does the invitation to participate generate belonging, community, and ownership?

Why do you think the artist chose the location of this work? What is the bridge connecting and what does that represent?

How does Voice Bridge address ideas about physical access, power and belonging within the city?

Action

Invite visitors to control the intensity of each light by speaking into the intercoms at each end of the bridge and recording a message. Once recorded, their message will play back as a loop — jumping from speaker to speaker across the bridge as more messages are recorded.

Hart creates submerged rooftops, complete with shingles and dormer windows, that look like they were dropped from the sky. The rooftops refer to home, stability or shelter. Hart speaks about the rooftops as thresholds between public and private space. Combined with family and oral histories, and activated by performance, her work explores the power these thresholds have in our lives, and become stages from which power can be reclaimed. The Oracle of the Soulmates are twin rooftop sculptures, one in the center of Rosa Parks Circle in downtown Grand Rapids, the other on the lawn in MLK Park.

The Oracle of the Soulmates

The Oracle of Lacuna by Heather HartPhoto courtesy of the artist

Did You Know?Heather Hart was born in Seattle, Washingtonand currently lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Hart grew up learning the craft of carpentry from her father and Architecture plays a key role in her design and process.

The Oracle of the Soulmates twin sculptures are both placed in public parks named after Civil Rights Leaders.

The Parks Commission purchased the land for a park space in 1911. In June, 1969 the Franklin Park was renamed as a memorial to Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Rosa Parks Circle was designed by Maya Lin who is famous for her work on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

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Questions to Consider

How does this work showcase the community that it is in? How does it create a space for storytelling?

What other spaces do you experience storytelling in your community? Think about other spaces that people and communities gather.

If this sculpture was in your neighborhood, what stories, songs or performances do you think would be shared on the rooftop? Why?

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Action

Invite visitors to explore on the rooftops and venture inside the attics. Encourage them to give impromptu performances on the rooftop and invite them to a series of live performances that will happen on the rooftops during Project 1.

The Boom and the Bust

Jeyifous works in public art, installation, drawing, collage and design and explores the past and potential futures of urban environments. The Boom and the Bust is a monumental sculpture referencing the historic and contemporary challenges of housing discrimination and the inequities of urban life. This abstracted multi-story building form inspired by the artist’s research into the recent history of housing in Grand Rapids. By combining references to skyscrapers and single-family houses, it reflects the juxtaposition between massive downtown development happening alongside foreclosure and displacement.

The Boom and the BustDowntown

Did You Know?Olalekan Jeyifous was born in Nigeria and currently lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Jeyifous has a background in Architecture, his work has been exhibited around the world including a 50-ft tall public installation for the 2017 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.

The Boom and the Bust is 25-feet tall and was fabricated in Kansas City, Missouri and shipped to Grand Rapids in parts to install on location.

The Boom and the Bust is 25-feet tall and was fabricated in Kansas City, Missouri and shipped to Grand Rapids in parts to install on location.

Grand Rapids has an interesting history with public sculpture. One of Grand Rapids, most iconic large-scale public sculptures, La Grande Vitesse, by American artist Alexander Calder was the first public art work funded by the Art in Public Places program of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA).

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Questions to Consider

How does this sculpture reflect the Grand Rapids’ community and families that live here?

Why do you think the artist chose Downtown Grand Rapids for the location of this work?

If it was hard for you to find a place to live in a neighborhood or city, would you still feel welcomed in that community? Why?

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Action

Invite visitors to walk around the sculpture and space that it occupies.

Critical Infrastructure

Amenta and Lott, known for their history of wide-ranging collaborative artistic productions with SiTE:LAB, created Critical Infrastructure for Project 1, a site-specific architectural intervention at the landmark Tanglefoot Building, a fly paper factory that now holds artist studios. In collaboration with DisArt, an arts and culture organization that focuses on creating public art events that cultivate and communicate a disabled culture, the intervention is an environment that addresses issues of accessibility in both form and function. The project will reimagine the site by temporarily transforming a private space into a fully accessible public space, through a series of ramps and landings which welcome visitors and a wide variety of performances and interventions by other artists.

Critical InfrastructureTanglefoot

Questions to Consider

How has this installation transformed the space it occupies?

Why are performance, storytelling, and community engagement important elements to this work?

How does Critical Infrastructure advocate for the disabled community? Consider how it is representing, establishing, reinforcing, and reflecting a group identity.

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Did You Know?Critical Infrastructure is being activated in collaboration with two local organizations: DisArt and SiTE:LAB.

Tanglefoot is an industrial campus named after a flypaper manufacturer.

For many years, Tanglefoot has been the location of local artists’ studios. Tanglefoot artists host gallery events throughout the year that are open to the public.

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Action

Invite visitors to explore the series of ramps and landings and encourage them to attend the series of programs Thursday - Sunday evenings which will include dynamic programming and community engagement.

Flexible Fence is a collaborative art installation that brings together the voices of every fourth grade student in Grand Rapids Public Schools. Student drawings on fabric cover the fence in a patchwork of visual stories about community inclusion and what it means to belong. The 6-foot tall wooden fence overlooks the river, a natural dividing line of the city, and curves into a loop with two intersecting open circles. While the fence reflects ideas of land use and ownership, the curved line changes the traditional function of property division to create an open space, a space to enter, and an inaccessible space. Students’ drawings will be added after the start of the Project 1 exhibition, completing the installation in late September.

Flexible Fence

Flexible FenceEliza Fernand

Did You Know?Over 1,000 students from Grand Rapids Public Schools are contributing to this collaborative installation.

The Grand Rapids Public Museum, is among the oldest history museums in the United States. It was founded in 1854 as the “Grand Rapids Lyceum of Natural History”.

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Questions to Consider

Walk around the installation, can you find similar imagery about community inclusion and what itmeans to belong?

Why is it important to include youth’s voices in community conversations?

Action

Invite visitors to walk around the entire space that the installation occupies, when students’ work is included look for patterns, connections and similarities in students’ visual expressions of belonging.

Volunteering during Project 1 by ArtPrize

Below is more information on how you can prepare for your volunteer shifts and what you can expect throughout your volunteer experience.

Where should I check in?When you signed up for your shift on volunteer hub, the event details contained information about where to check in. We like to make it simple! You will receive a reminder email 3 days before your shift with more information about where to check in.

What should I bring with me?Be sure to dress for the weather, wear comfortable shoes, and wear your Project 1 volunteer t-shirt and badge, which you picked up at your orientation session. If you were unable to make it to a session, we will have a t-shirt and badge for you when you check in for your shift. We ask that you wear your t-shirt and badge during all volunteer shifts.

Bringing a snack and a refillable water bottle is also a great idea! We will have a place for you to store all of your personal items at our volunteer hospitality spaces located at the back of each Visitor Kiosk.

What do I need to know?Be sure to attend a volunteer training session and read through the whole Project 1 website, paying close attention to the exhibition and learn tabs at the top of the page. This volunteer page is also a must-read! Exploring these pages will provide you more insight into the Project 1 theme, artists, site locations, events, and educational programming.

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Thank You.You’ve shared your time, energy, and enthusiasm for the arts with us, and we couldn’t be more grateful. Thank you! Visit project.artprize.org/volunteering to learn more about the perks of volunteering and all the ways we’d like to celebrate you.

The ArtPrize Volunteer Program is presented by

VOLUNTEER REFERENCE CARDSproject.artprize.org/volunteering