Monday, June 14, 2010
Visual Arts Preview: Lot and Parcel fundraiser for BurnAway
Posted by Wyatt Williams @wyatt_williams on Mon, Jun 14, 2010 at 5:18 PM
Local arts blog BurnAway got no less than three mentions in Creative Loafing's Best of Atlanta issue last year and it wasn't just because their design looks so damn good. BurnAway have become an indispensable voice in Atlanta's art scene, consistently furthering the discussion through a steady stream of interviews, editorials, and essays from within and outside of Atlanta's art establishment. In other words, Creative Loafing really loves BurnAway. It's just that simple.
Like usual, we're impressed with the ambition of their latest project, Lot and Parcel - a fundraiser exhibition to held this weekend at The Goat Farm. Instead of the typical hodgepodge of donated works from artists (an unfortunate hallmark of fundraisers), curators Susannah Darrow and Christa Tinsley Spaht asked artists for "maps of neighborhoods within Atlanta that hold individual significance for them." The theme is a fitting parallel to BurnAway's mission, creating a conversation between these neighborhood-based works in a similar manner to the discussions that often happen through BurnAway's stories.
We asked Kombo Chapfika, Lee Tesche, and The Palifox Legend, to tell us why they chose specific neighborhoods and styles for their work. Their answers after the jump.
Lee Tesche, Edgewood
"The idea behind my map was that my neighborhood (Edgewood) was much more than street lines and street names. It was the embodiment of the people who live there and could be better described in these moments or major events in their lives. Take my street for example. I don't think of numbers or of the street name, I think about when a car caught on fire or standing in my drveway clutching a bottle of wine right after a breakup or sitting at my kitchen table sifting through bills trying to figure out what I can afford to pay. That's Edgwood to me. To my neighbor it might be the moment the garbage truck backed into their car or where they were standing the moment they made a big life decision. Anyway, i've tried to capture that. We'll see if I was successful. That's why I've been tooling over this copy, it's not my strongpoint so I'm hoping it comes off alright. It's tricky. I can make anything look pretty, I'm just hoping it tells the stories in the correct way."
Kombo Chapfika, 8EL
"My piece '8EL' is an abstraction that focuses on my ever-changing perceptions of places within the city over the years that I've lived and travelled (mostly by car) on my various social and professional rounds. I attempt to recreate Atlanta as an ongoing process of discovery and forgetting as my familiar places; homes, workplaces, and social locales change over time: some places, and relationships rise to the fore, while others fade into the past or take on new meaning. It's a layered hodgepodge, a confused and disorderly mass of both decaying and emergent networks which often bleed into each other at the fringes."
The Palifox Legend is Stephanie Dowda & John Paul Floyd, Downtown
"Downtown typifies the overarching perspective that Atlanta is a cultural void. It's like an illusion of a place. Beyond this tragic feeling is one that is beautiful and inspiring, one that propels us to challenge the nothingness. Though this change is happening, it’s difficult to articulate what this change looks like or how it has altered our environment. Yet, we find it comforting that there are still quiet places in our city, little mysterious pockets that allow our minds to race around the possibilities of what can be. Sometimes down town Atlanta feels like a blank slate waiting for the perfect cause to react."
Lot and Parcel, featuring works by Kombo Chapfika, Jason Kofke, R. Land, The Palifox Legend, Whitney Stansell, and more, opens at the Goat Farm on Sat., June 19 at 7 pm. More details at BurnAway.
Comments (2)
Showing 1-2 of 2
I absolutely love the duality of Palifox Legend's take on downtown. Brilliant. I drive through downtown everyday to and from work and feel equally bummed out and inspired by all the vacant space there.
like
dislike
I'm curious: have any of these people who think of Downtown as a "cultural void" ever been to Theatrical Outfit? A concert at the Rialto? An exhibit at GSU or MODA? (The Outfit in particular has been on a roll the last couple of years.)
I yield to no one in wanting to see MORE cultural life Downtown (where I work), but it's just not accurate to dismiss these places as if they don't exist.
Now that Moda is moving to better space in Midtown, it reminds me of the brief period a few years ago, when MODA, the Downtown branches of the High and MOCAGA, all within a few blocks of each other, made for a delightful combination of small museums within walking distance. Now at least the High and MODA will be near each other.
Latest in Culture Surfing
-
Weekend Arts Agenda: Another Green World
Jennifer Schwartz gallery hosts two openings, Kai Lin gallery features Terra, and works inspired by Brian Eno at Beep Beep Gallery
-
Spruill Gallery's got the goods
Spruill holds "The Goods," a pin-up style show featuring artists from all over Atlanta.
-
Europa Galante brings "gutsy" sound to Atlanta
Baroque-n-roll at Spivey Hall on Saturday night
- More »
Author Archives
-
5 things today: Franz Liszt, Amul 9
Music by Franz Liszt, a fruit tree workshop, and more
-
5 things today: Those Darlins, Female Trouble
Catchy tunes at the Earl, John Waters at the Plaza, and more
- More »
