The Collective Museum
“Part of the makeup of my intellect, part of how I operate in the world, part of my modes of operation has to do with a very strong understanding of and strong sensitivity for things you cannot see.” Theaster Gates 2015
In the last 30 years making works of art as a collective has moved from the theater to the visual arts arena. Socially minded work like the Aids quilt, made by citizens to create awareness is one of the greatest examples of our time. Works like this must come from a place of real sincerity and research not simply a collective without a mission. You will work as a class collective and consider what to archive and what it is the community will say by making one glass wall together. Readings such as the Vera List Centers interview with Theaster Gates, essays on the Citizen Museum, the Museum of Post Natural History as well as on individual artist like Emily Jacir who research that which has been left behind in war, or Rovner, that which remain of history will be discussed.
Technically you will be trained in mold making methods, and glass casting. Example pieces from contemporary artist will inform the process technically and hopefully inspire you.
I ask you to engage in transformation and sympathetic imagination. The sympathetic imagination is, according to Walter Jackson Bates the ability of a person to penetrate the barrier which space puts between him and his object, and, by actually entering into the object, so to speak, to secure a momentary but complete identification with it.
