I am very pleased to invite you to the opening of an exhibition of work related to the Gatekeeper's Lodge residency in Point Pleasant Park, titled SURVIVAL/SALVATION. The show is taking place at Eyelevel Gallery in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and will run from June 21 to July 1, 2011. The official opening celebration is this Friday, June 24 at 7:00 pm.
Eyelevel Gallery is located at 2159 Gottingen Street.
This exhibition will wrap up what has been for me an exceptional experience with the park over the last five months; getting to know the park's history, its people and the city of Halifax just a little bit more has made me a more aware citizen of the HRM. The show is a chance to show the works that have been developed while I've been in the Lodge and will include (among other things) terrariums based on species thriving in the park, drawings, small sculpture and video works . I hope you can make it!
Also - coming up this weekend there is a fantastic performance series taking place at Point Pleasant Park, please see the poster below for more information about who is participating or visit the Eyelevel Gallery website (linked above) for more information. I know I'm hanging out at the park this weekend to check out these projects - rain or shine!
As a thunder and lightning storm brews here in Halifax, I wanted to share images from the Suburban Shelter project before heading out of town for a week. A wonderful group of folks showed up to participate, planned and unplanned alike.
The 1/2 acre lot this project was based upon was first plotted with flagging tape, using GPS wayfinding points and two semi-transparent maps, one historical and one contemporary, overlaying one another as seen below.
Once the flagging was complete, a shelter was constructed within the boundaries of the land plot. The shelter was visible from Birch Road, one of the main gravel paths in the park and was sewn and adapted from an existing tent-pole skeleton and mosquito netting, along with some of the project's signature blaze orange.
As visitors and Park goers discovered the shelter, they were invited to have a seat in the shelter on one of the reupholstered blaze orange chairs.
Once settled, guests were offered a cup of tea prepared to their liking, a tea biscuit or macaroon, and a card of printed information as a keepsake of the experience (which was adapted from a survival guide chapter about building shelters in the wild).
The shelter was a terrific way to celebrate the close of the public component of my residency at Point Pleasant Park - which has been a true gift. While only documentation from Saturday's event is featured in this post, I want to extend sincere thanks to everyone who made an effort to find the shelter this past weekend. Also a big thanks to the Coast for featuring the project in their Thursday edition.
This week has been particularly celebratory as my public projects at the park come to an close, Visual Arts News has published an artist profile about my project in Point Pleasant. If you are a luddite, like I can be, I hope you pick up a printed copy of the magazine. If you are savvy with your technology - please visit their site, linked above.
I will continue to post during the month of June as I am preparing for a week-long exhibition of my work related to the residency with Eyelevel Gallery in Halifax, opening June 21 to the public, with an official opening on Friday, June 24, and running until July 1. Stay tuned!
