Part of 5×5:2014
September 6–December 2014
Opening: Saturday, September 6, 5–8pm
Naval Building 170
200 Tingey Street SE
Washington, D.C. 20003
LAND (Los Angeles Nomadic Division) will present Alter/Abolish/Address: five site-specific commissioned projects throughout Washington, D.C. as part of 5×5:2014, a District-wide program of 25 contemporary, temporary public art projects dedicated to exploring new perspectives on the city through the lens of five curators, presented by the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities. The exhibition, including installations by Diana Al-Hadid, Dan Colen, Brendan Fowler, Glenn Kaino, and Marianne Vitale, opens to the public on Saturday, September 6 with an opening reception at artist Glenn Kaino’s installation at Naval Building 170, 200 Tingey Street SE, Washington, D.C. 20003 from 5 to 8pm.
Alter/Abolish/Address confronts and explores the evolving landscape of Washington, D.C. by highlighting the dichotomous notion of historical permanence and temporality, where innovative contemporary art can have impact in concert with this formidable history, allowing past and present to live together.
Diana Al-Hadid will use an abandoned building at 2412 Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue SE Washington, D.C. 20020 to replace the aged and warped plywood boards covering the broken windows with a triptych of frescoed panels titled Interior Sketch that will evolve and change over the course of the exhibition, altering the facade of the blighted building and addressing the potential for change and beauty in an often overlooked site.
Dan Colen will use the underpasses at 4th Street SW and E Street SW and 4th Street SW and Virginia Avenue SW Washington, D.C. 20024 to present two sculptural installations. The first is a kinetic sculpture of a fedora hat that appears to be blowing in the wind beneath the underpass, referencing a scene in the 1990 film Miller’s Crossing by Joel and Ethan Coen wherein a dead man’s hat blows away in the woods, conveying a sense of poetic despair and hope abandoned. The hat is carried by the wind every Wednesday at 12pm sharp. The second installation is comprised of a boom box tucked away in the underpass that plays a continuous loop of various fortune tellers reading artist Dan Colen their version of his fortune and predictions for his future, imbuing the dark, foreboding space with possibility, hope, and presence.
Brendan Fowler will install six freestanding “wall” sculptures at St. Elizabeth’s East Gateway Pavilion at 2700 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave SE Washington, D.C. 20032 which function as part art object, part platform for community involvement/interaction, and part site for further artist collaborations. Walls at St. Elizabeth’s (September 5 - October 5: Newer Pictures; October 11–December 6: Group Show Curated by Rock 512 Devil) will feature two iterations of artwork layered onto the sculptural walls; the first including work on vinyl by Fowler and the second with an exhibition of work curated by Baltimore-based collective Rock512Devil.
Glenn Kaino will use the expansive Naval Building 170 at 200 Tingey Street SE Washington, D.C. 20003 to install Bridge: an undulating footbridge comprised of 200 gold “slats” made from a contemporary cast of athlete Tommie Smith’s arm, which became an iconic symbol of Black Power in 1968 when Smith won first place in the 200-meter Olympic Race in Mexico City. Kaino’s sculpture is thus constructed of those ideological and symbolic referents, changing and morphing over time, stepping through history just as the bridge moves through the space.
Marianne Vitale will install Common Crossings (Riggs & Dakota): a triad of steel railroad “frogs” which are the tracks used as the switches to change the direction of trains at an open field on the corner of South Dakota Avenue NE and Riggs Road NE Washington, D.C. 20011. Vitale alters them further by installing them upright, as monuments of change, totems to the variable nature of movement and direction.
Various programs will take place throughout the course of the exhibition in collaboration with Pleasant Plains Workshop. For updated information, please visit www.nomadicdivision.org.
This project is funded by the D.C. Commission on the Arts & Humanities, 5×5 Temporary Public Art Project.