One of the tasks taken up by a significant number of younger artists is confounding the line between fine art and social interaction. For them, the production of objects is secondary to the creation of scenarios in which artists and other citizens talk to each other and work on projects together. The impulse is democratic and anti-elitist; the belief is that we all have something to offer and the artist is the instigator, the catalyst, or the aesthetic entrepreneur making things happen. Four Projects brings three individual artists—Claudia Tennyson, Kate Pocrass, and Amy Franceschini, and an artist team—wowhaus—to UC Davis to share this approach to art making.
Tennyson is, ironically, very caught up in the production of objects. However, her accumulation of broken objects has to do with using them as an opportunity through which to meet and chat with their original owners. As she transforms the donated items from discards to artfully repaired status, she shares with us a particular way that an artist can be in and of the world, and makes the public feel included as co-conspirators and honorary pranksters.
Pocrass has been designing her “mundane journeys” for several years. These involve scouting neighborhoods for ephemeral, slight visual oddities, strange design decisions, and other curious historical detritus in the built environment. She then suggests self-guided tours for those interested in sharing her discoveries. For UC Davis Pocrass has located three sites that she rigorously analyzes for their particular color patterns amid the constructed visual field. We are guided to those places and given appropriate charts to share her insight.
Franceschini combines her expertise in web-based art formats with a keen commitment to environmental activism. For this occasion she collaborates with scientist Arthur Shapiro of the Evolution and Ecology section of the Division of Biological Sciences on campus. They have fashioned a project that will bring together partners ranging from the UCD Design Department to the California Native Plant Society. Their task will be to seed polluted sites in Silicon Valley with native plants that will serve as habitat for butterflies.
Wowhaus, comprising the team of Ene Osteraas-Constable and Scott Constable, has been developing community-based art, education, design and architectural projects for over a decade. They are interested in how social networks sustain and foster innovation and community. For the Nelson they present Friesel, a project about making free diesel fuel using human-scale technology and local resources. Partners include Food Services on campus.
