October Resident at the Society for Cultural Exchange

Here's a little about the October Artist in Residence at The Society For Cultural Exchange, both the images and the statement is from thier Website.

"Salvage/Salvation* is an installation and performance project that explores the metaphysics of re-use and the philosophical, emotional and material implications of discard. The project is made for spaces that are between uses or slated for demolition, and appropriate outdoor sites. A group of visual and performing artists create independent but overlapping environments and performances grouped loosely around a central theme. The site itself, the surrounding community and any discarded materials found on-site inspire the exact character of the event. Through its methodology and the striking nature of the final environments, Salvage/Salvation seeks to bring ideas of scavenging and transformation to center stage and create a dialogue with the public about sustainable relationships to our physical environment, advocating ingenuity and unity. Salvage/Salvation uses installation and performance as a laboratory for both artists and audience. It is a primarily urban project that began in New York City. A group of artistic collaborators and outside consultants seek out unused spaces, and create installations and performances that are appropriate to the space and its surrounding locale, taking into account the local neighborhood, the city itself, and local industries. Each group begins with the same hypothesis, but the conclusions (the pieces) are determined through the research process and the specific parameters of the circumstances at hand. The groups works together to create a unified esthetic through the juxtaposition of independent voices.Since 2002, Salvage/Salvation has had four very different iterations; in a gallery reclaimed from a garage in Queens, NYC, (HOME) in a storefront slated for demolition in Times Square, NYC (Living Salvation) and twice at the Queens Botanical Garden (NEST and HIVE). The themes varied with each space—some examples: In Living Salvation the artists contemplated the questions: What is our relationship to our own past, and how do we discard or transform trauma and sorrow in our selves as well as in our physical environment? In NEST, the artists took the gathering practices of birds as their inspiration, and used only materials found on-site at the Botanical Garden to create a series of temporary homes.For Salvage/Salvation Part 5, tentatively titled Pittsburgh Home, I will seek out a residence (house, apartment building, etc.) that is currently not in use, preferably abandoned for several years. Abandoned or unused structures give the sense of architecture finally relaxing into dust and dirt and complex edges, and contain all the ghosts of history in their rooms, clamoring for our attention. What is normally left behind and ignored will be used to create a new reality, as each room in the house is re-built, the palpable past contained in the structure becoming a stage set for an unknown narrative. "

Stay tuned for more on this