The thread that runs through all my work is joy,” says local artist Elisa H. Hamilton. That goes for her Dance Spot series, which has brought pop-up dance floors to museums, parks and City Hall Plaza, and her latest project, Supermarket, which plays with the idea of a store for superpowers. “Not only does it tap into that joyful place of imagination, but it’s also an entry point to real conversations about the responsibilities we have to our communities.” It’s also the driving force for her 15-week spring residency at the Boston Center for the Arts; we chatted with the MassArt alum to learn more.
HOW DID THE IDEA FOR SUPERMARKET START? For three years, I lived across the street from this great supermarket. Because I lived so close by, I would go there pretty much every day. I developed a deep affection both for the store itself—they had a great wine selection—and for the people who worked there. This place brought me such pleasure that I began to think about the positivity that it brought to my life, in combination with the word “supermarket,” and began to wonder what the possibilities of a genuine “super” market might be.
WHAT’S THE PLAN FOR YOUR NEXT BCA EVENT? I released an online survey asking, “If you could have one superpower, what would it be?” The answers have been stunningly rich, as have the conversations I’ve been having in person. At the March 20 program, I plan to share those survey results and ask participants to think about what these superpowers would actually look like on a shelf. Does invisibility come in a tube or a spray can? Does the ability to fly require assembly, and how would you activate it? It’s going to be a really imaginative conversation with some super fun hands-on activities.
SO WHAT WOULD YOUR SUPERPOWER BE? At first, I thought I wanted to have the ability to heal others. But that power comes with such heavy social responsibility; I would basically need to spend every second of my life running around saving people. And how would I choose who to heal and who to let suffer? … Ultimately, I decided I would want a power that could have great positive impact, but wouldn’t make me forfeit the things I love about my ordinary life. So my final answer is the power to instantly grow flowers anywhere. Instead of healing people’s bodies, I could heal their souls.
Spring into Action: Visual Art
A preview of the jam-packed arts season ahead!
By Jacqueline Houton | Photo Credit: Off the Wall: Francisco de Zurbarán’s A Doctor of Law / Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston | Collecting for the Boston Athenæum: J. Mayer & Co., Swamscot Machine Co. Stationary and Portable Steam Engines South Newmarket, N.H. / Boston Athenæum | March 12, 2016
DON’T FORGET TO CHECK OUT THE REST OF OUR SPRING PREVIEW!
Collecting Thoughts
How does a work of art wind up on a wall? Two Boston institutions are tackling that question this spring, offering inside looks at how their collections came to be. First up is Off the Wall: Gardner and Her Masterpieces, which has temporarily moved some of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum’s most prized pieces from the palace Gardner called home into the contemporary Hostetter Gallery. On view through Aug. 15, the 25 works—including this 1635 Francisco de Zurbarán painting, A Doctor of Law—are joined by archival photos, letters and travel albums that chronicle how the museum’s globe-trotting founder acquired them more than a century ago. Then comes Collecting for the Boston Athenæum in the 21st Century, a sampling of the 1,100-plus works the storied library’s Prints & Photographs department has acquired since 2000. Running April 6-Sept. 4, the exhibit spans everything from contemporary inkjet prints to 19th-century finds, like this 1870 lithograph from Boston’s J. Mayer & Co.
By Jacqueline Houton | Photo Credit: Forever: Ai Weiwei / Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Worldly Goods
Shows that let you globe-trot without leaving the gallery
Global Citizen: The Architecture of Moshe Safdie surveys the half-century career of the Somerville-based architect whose buildings stretch from Salt Lake City to Singapore. March 16-May 22 at the BSA Space
Walid Raad presents the first survey for the Lebanese artist whose work blends fact and fiction to probe narratives of Arab history, complete with not-to-be-missed live performances. Through May 30 at the ICA
Asia in Amsterdam: The Culture of Luxury in the Golden Age explores the influence of precious porcelain, spices, silks and other Asian imports on 17th-century Dutch art. Through June 5 at the Peabody Essex Museum
Megacities Asia gathers sculptures made from everyday urban materials
by artists representing Beijing, Mumbai and other metropolises with populations over 10 million, tapping emerging talents and big names like Ai Weiwei. April 3-July 17 at the MFA
Everywhen: The Eternal Present in Indigenous Art from Australia showcases 70-plus works, many never before seen outside of Australia, from traditional bark paintings to text-based art from Venice Biennale vet Vernon Ah Kee. Through Sept. 18 at the Harvard Art Museums
By Jacqueline Houton | Photo Credit: Revolution of the Eye: Ernie Kovacs / Photofest
Screen Time: Three Takes on Tech
Most of us try our best to block spam; Beirut-born artists Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige have been collecting it since 1999, compiling 4,000 email scams to map geopolitical conflicts and chart intimate exchanges between con artists, victims and scam baiters. On view through April 17 at the MIT List Visual Arts Center, Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige: I Must First Apologize… features their films, sculptures, photos and installations exploring digital detritus, like The Rumor of the World, in which amateur actors’ recitations of email scams stream through dozens of screens and speakers.
Pixels may be 2-D, but they can have plenty of depth. Just ask Jason Rohrer, whose Passage—a 5-minute existential exercise in which your character ages and dies no matter how many treasure chests you acquire—was among the first video games included in MoMA’s permanent collection. Now he’s the subject of The Game Worlds of Jason Rohrer, the first museum retrospective dedicated to a video game designer. It’s on view through June 26 at Wellesley’s Davis Museum, but mark your calendar for an April 21 party where you can meet (and play) the artist himself.
Cultured couch potatoes should pause the prestige TV for Revolution of the Eye: Modern Art and the Birth of American Television, a look at the medium’s first golden age coming to Andover’s Addison Gallery of American Art from April 9 through July 31. Gathering more than 260 clips, artifacts and works by the likes of Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray, the exhibit explores the surprisingly avant-garde influences on midcentury TV, which saw Salvador Dali popping up on What’s My Line, Andy Warhol creating campaigns for CBS and Georgia O’Keeffe’s cow skulls dotting sets for The Dinah Shore Show.
By Jacqueline Houton | Photo Credit: Joel Benjamin
Market Values
The thread that runs through all my work is joy,” says local artist Elisa H. Hamilton. That goes for her Dance Spot series, which has brought pop-up dance floors to museums, parks and City Hall Plaza, and her latest project, Supermarket, which plays with the idea of a store for superpowers. “Not only does it tap into that joyful place of imagination, but it’s also an entry point to real conversations about the responsibilities we have to our communities.” It’s also the driving force for her 15-week spring residency at the Boston Center for the Arts; we chatted with the MassArt alum to learn more.
HOW DID THE IDEA FOR SUPERMARKET START? For three years, I lived across the street from this great supermarket. Because I lived so close by, I would go there pretty much every day. I developed a deep affection both for the store itself—they had a great wine selection—and for the people who worked there. This place brought me such pleasure that I began to think about the positivity that it brought to my life, in combination with the word “supermarket,” and began to wonder what the possibilities of a genuine “super” market might be.
WHAT’S THE PLAN FOR YOUR NEXT BCA EVENT? I released an online survey asking, “If you could have one superpower, what would it be?” The answers have been stunningly rich, as have the conversations I’ve been having in person. At the March 20 program, I plan to share those survey results and ask participants to think about what these superpowers would actually look like on a shelf. Does invisibility come in a tube or a spray can? Does the ability to fly require assembly, and how would you activate it? It’s going to be a really imaginative conversation with some super fun hands-on activities.
SO WHAT WOULD YOUR SUPERPOWER BE? At first, I thought I wanted to have the ability to heal others. But that power comes with such heavy social responsibility; I would basically need to spend every second of my life running around saving people. And how would I choose who to heal and who to let suffer? … Ultimately, I decided I would want a power that could have great positive impact, but wouldn’t make me forfeit the things I love about my ordinary life. So my final answer is the power to instantly grow flowers anywhere. Instead of healing people’s bodies, I could heal their souls.
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