Rethinking Art as Social Practice
May 15-17, 2008
Low Footprints curated by Natalie Loveless, Jamie McMurry, and Lindsay Kelley
Interruption of Hierarchies curated by Shelby Graham and Allegra Fortunati
Art and Life curated by Beth Stephens and Susan O'Malley
Subversive Complicity curated by E.G. Crichton, Dee Hibbert-Jones, and Heather Mikolaj
Thank you for making this event a success. We have a flicker page, two facebook pages, and are proud to be featured in Jamie McMurry's new performance art magazine.
Interventionist practices use interruptions to question norms by using humor, surprise, and unusual associations to overturn assumptions about the world. Such practices work within societal structures to re-examine set ideas, subvert norms, map hidden systems and allow us to see and think in new ways.
The University of California Santa Cruz will host a three-day conference and month long series of interventionist exhibitions entitled Intervene! Interrupt! Rethinking Art as Social Practice in May 2008. A series of exhibitions featuring the work of participating artists will run concurrently with the conference, hosted by: the Art department and the Sesnon Gallery at UCSC; the LAB, San Francisco; and the Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose. Interruptions will foster exchange between scholars, innovative regional and international artists and curators, through panel presentations, performances and indoor and outdoor exhibitions. There will be a Wikipedia dedicated to real-time collaboration and exchange between participants. The conference will generate a publication documenting the scholarly and artistic work emerging from this event.
Our press release (pdf) is available for immediate distribution.
Conference dates at UCSC: May 15, 16, 17th 2008
Special VPS Seminar at UCSC: May 14
Each morning of the conference will be organized around one of the following themes, these themes will also be reflected in the interventions exhibitions. Each afternoon, performance events will follow creative lunches.
Day 1: Interruption of Hierarchies: the academy and the gallery
How do the academy and the gallery impact interventionist art practices?
Low Footprint 1: performance art and intervention actions
Keynote address: Newton & Helen Mayer Harrison
Helen Mayer Harrison and Newton Harrison are a collaborative team working with ecological issues and systems. Their work from 1970 to the present is international in scope, including restoration of forests, particularly in the high grounds of Europe and the Pacific Northwest. They have dealt with grasslands in the "Endangered Meadows of Europe" and estuarial lagoons in their work "The Lagoon Cycle." Global Warming has been a theme in their projects from the mid-70s to the present. They have a studio in Santa Cruz County.
Day 2: Art and Life: Life and Art
An examination of the role of art in creating community
Low Footprint 2: performance art and intervention actions
Day 3: Subversive Complicity: community, protest and resistance
Exploring the artist’s role as critic in global capitalism and local politics
Green Wedding Number Four: an experiment in collaborative love ecology
Ongoing events:
Sesnon Exhibition dates: April 16 - May 17
The LAB Exhibition dates: May 1 - May 24
ICA San Jose Exhibition dates: March 28th- May17th
The Show Starts on the Sidewalk: San Francisco, San Jose, Santa Cruz
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