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New York is nothing without its islands, Manhattan, Staten.. hell even Brooklyn and Queens are on an island (though you’d never get anyone from there to admit it). But while rich in culture, these main islands are well entrenched in their own people, shops, culture and demographically placed box stores.
Enter Governors Island. The newest isle on the block, it’s served as a private historical military outpost and community for years until recently opening to the public in 2003. The newness of it all has posed a near blank slate for development as well as the perfect canvas for a growing art community there including the 30 artists behind a new show called Emergence by our friends over at the Pure Project.
The theme, ‘Emergence: Creative pioneers in uncharted territory’ was chosen to resonate with the context of the emergence of a historically rich Governors Island. This show, in the ‘Commanders House’ (Building 14) is part of the growing cultural renaissance of the island and an exploration of its creative potential.
Curated by Johan Kritzinger, Joyce Manalo, Elke Dehner & Audrey Boguchwal, Emergence is a show of transformation.
The Commanders house has morphed from an abandoned outpost into an inclusive, interactive, 3-dimensional, living exhibit, featuring contributions from visual artists working across fields of media which include but are not limited to sculpture, installation art, aerial kinetic sculpture, photography, and computer graphic sequencing. The installation will change over the course of the summer as a result of the interactive elements and the engagement of visiting participants.What are the resultant artifacts in the experience of discovery of land, creating a new set of rules and culture? What is the romanticized idea of moving to a brave new world? These can include authentic objects and ephemera of time or contemporary objects that reference people and things of the past. Who are the people who lived and passed through the island? The present reveals our questioning of economic, political, environmental, social and sustainability issues. What are challenges that we are facing today? Creative explorations of the future will reveal new inventions, manifestos and fantasies that illuminate our understanding of self, place, change and time
The show is a project of FIGMENT 2008 a now 3-day art event occurring June 27-29, 2008 featuring more than 120 art installations, preformances, musicians, art lectures, and creative ventures.
They’ll be holding several performances starting this weekend, so if you haven’t been to island yet, stop by and leave your mark.
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