THE BUBBLE: Safety By Ritual and Design
Meditations on threat, safety and the actions we take to navigate our fears.
Opening Reception
Saturday, November 19, 5-7 pm
6007 12th Avenue South, Seattle WA 98108
On view November 19 - December 10, 2016
Meditations on threat, safety and the actions we take to navigate our fears.
Opening Reception
Saturday, November 19, 5-7 pm
6007 12th Avenue South, Seattle WA 98108
On view November 19 - December 10, 2016
We often speak of safety as a place where one can arrive, but safety is never static. New threats arise continually, requiring a constant reinvention and renewal of the tools we use to protect ourselves. In this terrifying time, what does safety look like? Are the ritual actions of safety more important than the devices? How do organic bodies evolve for safety in comparison with designed objects? How are we shaped by what we are protecting ourselves against?
Exhibiting Artists:
Ian Curry explores the design of safety with an ethnographic survey of strategies ranging from the practical to the superstitious. As a designer whose practice has ranged from physical goods to museums, he is interested in how we both shape, and are reciprocally shaped by protective mechanisms and spaces. Coven is a conjoined ring of inflated protective suits. The bodies suggest a group protecting both the space within their circle, and themselves.
Meghan Trainor shows her Protection Circuits, spells as artwork created in the context of her Digital Witchcraft practice. Some were made in conjunction with her participation in activism against construction of a new police precinct, locally referred to as the Block the Bunker movement. Others were conjured in response to a Mechanical Turk query that Ian Curry generated, asking participants to explain what makes them feel safe. micha cárdenas is an artist/theorist who creates mobile media to reduce violence and increase health. Inspired by the BULLETPROOF shirt designed by Foremost and Damon Turner for the #BlackLivesMatter movement, micha cárdenas, Patrisse Cullors, Edxie Betts and Chris Head are collaborating to develop UNSTOPPABLE, a set of materials and processes for producing DIY bulletproof clothing at low to no cost. Her video documents an empirical investigation of the bulletproof attributes of kevlar and rubber, which can be recovered cheaply from discarded cars. |
Curator's Note: 18 November 2016
This exhibition came about the way it did because of community support and trust, which are my safety net. In the weeks before I was scheduled to begin developing and promoting this exhibition, I was sexually assaulted by a fellow member of Seattle's music and art community. This induced a perfectly normal, expected response to trauma: I was unable to think, work, speak, or focus on anything for some time. My body formed itself into a cocoon around my mind to give it time to process and heal. Shortly after that, the presidential election of a racist, misogynist, homophobic, xenophobic, classist demagogue and bully who has publicly boasted about sexual assault further compounded and extended this trauma.
Still, I felt an urgency to do something in The Alice, given the opportunity and the current political climate. It didn't seem at all necessary to wait for circumstances to be perfect, well-timed, or by the book. All I knew was that I wanted to bring these specific artists together, and to create a program that would address the crossover (whether that meant the difference, or lack thereof) between art and design. So, I turned to the artists I wanted to invite and explained the situation.
In less than two weeks, Meghan Trainor, Ian Curry and micha cárdenas came forward with an exhibit related to safety, protection, and magic, including newly commissioned work by Curry and Trainor specifically for this exhibit. C. Davida Ingram will collect her Facebook status updates - which are some of the most relevant, poetic political writing I have encountered. As I write this note, 24 hours before the exhibition is set to open, Kevin Golden and Corinne Chin are still in the process of generating a response to Project Diana's prompt of "doing something you haven't done before, or were previously afraid to try."
All of this is an experiment. It is rapid-fire, ad-hoc, and almost certainly imperfect. As a curator, it is an intentional position to clarify how things are made, by whom, and why, and to counteract typical marketing of exhibitions as appearing, sui generis, tidy and thorough. We don't yet know what you'll encounter when you visit The Alice on Saturday because it is still coming together - but I am confident in this community of artists to carry each other forward during this time. We are all on high alert and ready to act. We look forward to seeing you on Saturday and throughout the duration of this program.
S. Surface
This exhibition came about the way it did because of community support and trust, which are my safety net. In the weeks before I was scheduled to begin developing and promoting this exhibition, I was sexually assaulted by a fellow member of Seattle's music and art community. This induced a perfectly normal, expected response to trauma: I was unable to think, work, speak, or focus on anything for some time. My body formed itself into a cocoon around my mind to give it time to process and heal. Shortly after that, the presidential election of a racist, misogynist, homophobic, xenophobic, classist demagogue and bully who has publicly boasted about sexual assault further compounded and extended this trauma.
Still, I felt an urgency to do something in The Alice, given the opportunity and the current political climate. It didn't seem at all necessary to wait for circumstances to be perfect, well-timed, or by the book. All I knew was that I wanted to bring these specific artists together, and to create a program that would address the crossover (whether that meant the difference, or lack thereof) between art and design. So, I turned to the artists I wanted to invite and explained the situation.
In less than two weeks, Meghan Trainor, Ian Curry and micha cárdenas came forward with an exhibit related to safety, protection, and magic, including newly commissioned work by Curry and Trainor specifically for this exhibit. C. Davida Ingram will collect her Facebook status updates - which are some of the most relevant, poetic political writing I have encountered. As I write this note, 24 hours before the exhibition is set to open, Kevin Golden and Corinne Chin are still in the process of generating a response to Project Diana's prompt of "doing something you haven't done before, or were previously afraid to try."
All of this is an experiment. It is rapid-fire, ad-hoc, and almost certainly imperfect. As a curator, it is an intentional position to clarify how things are made, by whom, and why, and to counteract typical marketing of exhibitions as appearing, sui generis, tidy and thorough. We don't yet know what you'll encounter when you visit The Alice on Saturday because it is still coming together - but I am confident in this community of artists to carry each other forward during this time. We are all on high alert and ready to act. We look forward to seeing you on Saturday and throughout the duration of this program.
S. Surface