Take The Streets

This page is about our class exhibit, “Take The Streets With You.“

 

Here are some images from the show!

 

“Don’t Toss That Box!” by T. Suzumoto, R. Lugo, N. Matejcak. Share it at http://youtube.com/watch?v=kRN6qUR-VEc.

Download our public service announcement! Download the postcard: front, back
Download the press release

Download our song! “The Box Song” (Ver. 1) by T. Suzumoto & R. Lugo.

CALL FOR ENTRIES

download the flyer

Exhibition Title: Take the Streets with You
Date/Place: December 6, Fluxuations (@ Betty Rymer Gallery)

ATTENTION ARTISTS!

Are you interested in displaying your work while participating in a show that goes beyond the sterile snobbery of the typical gallery? If you are, then pay attention, because we are inviting artists to submit work for “Take The Streets With You”, an exhibition to be set up and taken down the very same day. The exhibit date is December 6th and is part of the Fluxuations series at the Betty Rymer Gallery. The exhibit starts at 9 am and ends at 4 pm that day. The idea here is the art of the city. Thus work will be exhibited alongside a sound/video installation by Paul Miller a.k.a. DJ Spooky about the city of Chicago.

What we are looking for:

– Found objects decorated by you, the artists. Artists are invited to alter, modify or re-design these found objects in any manner. These found objects will be offered freely to visitors at the exhibit to take home. You can come and take one too!

– Cardboard boxes that have been altered or decorated by you. Boxes can be new, recycled or reused, and can function as the canvas or blank slate for your artwork. The boxes will become part of an assembled box-cityscape that visitors will both contribute to and disassemble throughout the day. The box-cityscape can grow as boxes get added to it; likewise it will disappear as visitors may take a box with them, which may also carry home their newly acquired found art object.

A few stipulations: The found objects must be reasonably safe (no razor blades!) and reasonably sanitary (nothing moldy, nothing damp). Also, art must be appropriate for all ages. Boxes must be no larger than 24” x 24” x 24”.

Another component of our exhibit invites visitors to take part in making their mark on the spot. We will have a “blank wall” made of boxes at the entrance to the Columbus building with markers [and possibly other media] available for all to contribute their drawing, writing or other mark-making to our collectively designed wall. At the end of the day, each box (containing imagery excerpted from the wall’s overall design) will also be offered to visitors to take home with them.

Artists should respond to instantexhibit@saic.edu by November 18th. Include a brief description of your proposed piece(s) as well as your full contact information (Name, email, phone, etc.). Please direct questions to instantexhibit@saic.edu.

“Take The Streets With You” is presented by the “Art of Crossing the Street” class at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

(left, center) Sample box (right) preliminary sketch of configuration of decorated boxes
SUMMARY OF EXHIBIT

Title: Take the Streets With You

Exhibition date: December 6, 2007

Produced by: Students of the “Art of Crossing the Street” class

Students of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s “Art of Crossing the Street” Class and the Betty Rymer Gallery’s Fluxuations series proudly present “Take the Streets with You”, an interactive Installation to be held on December 6, 2007. “Take the Streets with You” explores the artist as a part of the community by using artwork on boxes, arranged architecturally, along with altered found objects, a collaborative wall drawing and original artwork offered for free.

Artists have been invited to submit boxes transformed into artwork as well as found objects configured into art. The boxes and found objects will be displayed at the back of the Betty Rymer Gallery; boxes will be arranged architecturally and found objects will form a floor or table display. Outside the gallery, at the Columbus entrance to SAIC, a wall-like structure will be assembled with plain boxes. As the day progresses, the traffic of incoming visitors will be invited to draw on, paint, cut, or manipulate the wall of boxes in any fashion they wish. This wall serves as a stand-in for a public wall where artists and others may make their mark. In the back of the Betty Rymer gallery, the found objects and boxes will be offered to the public as they come through the gallery. Visitors may opt to choose only a box, or an object, or the box could serve as a carrier for the object. At the end of the day, the wall outside the Rymer will be taken down and each of these boxes will also be offered to visitors of the exhibit. The idea is to have students and community artists understand that regardless of differences, we all play a role and contribute to the whole of society. Another theme includes the notion that ephemera or detritus in our community, even if commonly seen as garbage, can be art and in this exhibit it is considered as such.

This exhibit is coordinated by a community of students in “The Art of Crossing the Street” Fall 2007 semester course. Throughout the semester the class visited and studied many ways in which current artists in Chicago assume roles, such as activist or community leadership roles, presenting various models of artist involvement in contemporary practices.

For more information: https://crossingstreet.wordpress.com/take-the-street