Unnoticed Impressions
CONCEPT: Taking and leaving of things is evidence of the past and present, generating imprints that are many times ignored although always part of a place’s existence. By acknowledging a vacant lot’s past home with a blueprint and furniture, life is brought back to the space. I brought art into the community through an unusual invitation to alter art by taking or “stealing” something that is technically free. Neighbors were invited to take what they need and in return, leave an impression of the now absent furniture through a painted shadow of what was once there. Since the furniture was free to take, participants were encouraged to be part of the changes and through the comment box, create a dialogue about neighborhood memories.
DESCRIPTION: Laid out upon a vacant lot of grass between two houses I painted a blue outline of the former house’s floor plan. Throughout this floor plan, pieces of furniture were placed which identified what type of room they were in along with red symbols of where other furniture could lay. When taken away the shadow or impression painted underneath each piece of furniture remains. Underneath each chair, table, etc. was a sticker of the floor plan connecting it permanently to the project. Over a given time the artwork that has remained is a diagram of a house filled with both the evidence of the taken and presence of the untaken furniture expressing the past.
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Riley Niemack
LOCATION: 1727-1729 North 35th Street, Milwaukee, Wisconsin PARTNERS: Charles Carmickle, Rosalind Cox |