Public Art/Moving Sites

January 21—May 26, 2006


An innovative traveling public art collaboration between Artspace, the Cambridge Arts Council (MA) and the Rockingham Art Museum + Project in Vermont that stretches the concept of site. Three artists/collectives each created work for three New England venues and re-conceived them for each community, in successive rotation.

Sponsored by New England Foundation for the Arts.


Spurse: Provisional Restaurant, January 21-February 17, 2006

Provisional Restaurant: a temporary restaurant based upon migration, global movement of resources and gleaning.  Open only a few times, the restaurant will host a number of community organized events (food based performances, dinners, etc.) and will be viewable from the street in a space separate from the Artspace gallery itself.  The first event will begin with a series of excursions to collect cooking equipment, wild food, and food donations and culminate in a daylong multi-course dinner project. The project will end with a garage sale where all items will be given away and the space will be left only with the addresses of people who have the materials.


DeWitt Godfrey: The Lot, March 1 – April 7, 2006

Godfrey will install a large-scale physically interactive sculpture made of steel rings, which will respond structurally to the surrounding environment and community.  The rings will be stacked and placed across the Orange Street entryway of the Lot making it necessary to walk through them in order to enter the site. As visitors move the piece, their motions manipulate the construction, making each visitor not only a spectator but also a participant in installation.  As structure moves – either by physical intervention, wind, or vibration – it will emanate noises corresponding to its subtle transformation, which will require slow and measured contemplation to experience.


Michael Oatman: Model Citizens a Miniature Epic, April 17 – Mar 26, 2006

Title: Public Art/Moving Site
Photo Credit: Christopher Barnes

Oatman’s work consists of a video and installation about people who make dollhouses, model railroads, dioramas, scale models and, in general, spend parts of their day in a small world. The artist will seek out individuals and modeling clubs in New Haven and film them in their homes, meeting places and at public displays of their work. The piece will explore the people who make models, how they are made; and why they make them. For the exhibition, the artist will not show any of his own work, but rather the models of the local makers themselves along with the final film produced about the project.