News and Notes

Soundsuits, Art and Activism

One piece that has continued to stick with me over the past few weeks is Augment by Nick Cave, which ran August 2019 through April 2020. The project, installed by Now and There in Boston, is a piece of art, a social experience, and a call for the city to come together in public and spread joy across the city. It centers around the question of “What brings you joy?” and relies on interactions between people and art. 

This project is especially powerful because it is complex and multi-dimensional and seems to push the definition of public art. It reminds me that public art can essentially be anything the artist wants it to be, and that it doesn’t have to be static. Instead, it can be moving and changing and shaped by interactions with the public. The voices of the community are active and alive in Augment, a dynamic and energetic piece built by the way people choose to engage with the art, with one another, and with the question of what brings them joy. 

After viewing Augment, I was inspired to learn more about Cave and his other work, especially his Soundsuits. These pieces are both sculptures and fashion pieces, and they come in many different shapes, colors, sizes, and materials. Like Augment, they pushed the definition of public art, showing that it can even be something worn on a body and can be part of a performance. At first glance, they are fun and eye-catching, but they actually have a deeper, more troubling meaning. The goal of each of them is to hide the gender, race, and class of the person wearing them. 

The inspiration behind the first Soundsuits was the beating of Rodney King, and Cave says in an interview with Art21 that the point of the pieces is for people to look at his work without judging it based on identity. Cave explains that the pieces are meant to represent the need for Black men like himself to build a thick skin to protect themselves against the system and that is built against them. Since Soundsuits hide identity, they make racial profiling impossible, and serve as suita of armour of sorts that empower Black people in America. 

Cave’s Soundsuits brought me back to a question I raised in the first blog post about what role public art plays in activism, and how it can address social, racial, environmental, and economic issues. It made me think about what constitutes activism. Can public art itself be considered activism? Or is the action created by public art the activism? Maybe it’s both. The Soundsuits were clearly a way for Cave to express his deep frustration with a system that works against Black people, but is that activism in itself? I’m hesitant to believe that with no background information someone, especially a white person, would be able to understand the message behind the pieces, let alone take action from it. But maybe that’s not the intention of Cave’s pieces, and that’s okay.

In my first blog post, I wrote about the goal of public art, and how it was meant to be understood without more information. I’m starting to question this goal because I fell in love with Cave’s Soundsuits only after I was able to read about them, understand the context behind them, and see how they expressed Cave’s pain so clearly and beautifully. Cave’s Soundsuits are meant to be understood past surface level and within the context of the history of violence against Black people in America. Moving forward, I want to keep exploring and questioning how public art can contribute to activism if it is generally supposed to be taken at face value. I also want to explore personal examples of public art and activism in my own life — like, can signs at protests be considered public art, and how is this different from Cave’s Soundsuits?

For more information about Nick Cave and his Soundsuits, visit these websites:

Nick Cave: The Greats

Nick Cave on Art21

Nick Cave’s Soundsuit sculptures – Everything you need to know

How Nick Cave’s Soundsuits Made Him an Art World ‘Rock Star’

Starting My Summer Internship

Mother’s Garden by Daniel Minter a 2019 TEMPOart Project

I’ve always been interested in creating, participating in, and viewing art in general. I chose to work with TEMPOart because I wanted to get more involved with art on a more public level. My goal for this internship is to understand more about how public art can make powerful and thought provoking statements in ways that are more difficult (or impossible) for other forms of art. I want to learn more about the value of showing art in a public space that is accessible to everyone as opposed to a more formal setting, like a museum. Also, I want to learn more about the relationship between public art and activism, and how public art can address social, racial, environmental, and economic issues, and bring communities together while exciting public spaces in the process. 

Going into the internship, I had a lot of questions about what makes a piece of art “successful”, what counts as public art and what doesn’t, and about the definition of public art more generally. Looking at all the different projects and approaches to public art by each of the organizations I’ve researched—such as The Association for Public Art in Philadelphia, Creative Time in New York City, Forecast Public Art in Saint Paul, and Now and There in Boston—I’m beginning to understand that public art can mean many different things, and lacks a universal definition.

It is problematic to try to define public art because definitions in the past have excluded the voices of marginalized communities, and public art has often failed to take into account non-white perspectives while installing projects. Perhaps public art should remain undefined in order to elevate the voices, approaches, and experiences of people that have traditionally been silenced. I’m realizing that the question of what “counts” as public art, something that I asked earlier in the week, is unanswerable. Allowing only some pieces to “count” makes it easy to disregard non-white ideas of public art and continue to erase diverse perspectives. This makes me think about the need to diversify and decenter whiteness in public art, increase the accessibility of public art, and  bring out the voices of communities that have been excluded. 

I’ve also had a lot of time to think about how we are supposed to interact with public art. The short answer is that there is no answer, and that “supposed to” is not the right way to think about it. There are so many ways people engage with art, and the way this happens with public art is especially hard to control since the pieces are integrated within daily life. It’s sometimes easy to glance at a piece and forget about it if you are rushing or preoccupied, for example. Since public art has no solid definition, beyond art that happens in public, sometimes it can be hard to find a uniting factor. Each project is so unique. But no matter the intention or medium, each project is meant to catch viewers’ attention in some way and cause them to think about and remember the piece. 

Although artists can try to guide the way their projects are perceived, each person will take something different away from the piece based on their level of awareness, their experiences, their beliefs, and their willingness to engage with the project. hat it is depends on the way it is perceived, which is extremely subjective from person to person. I’m beginning to understand that redefining public art is essential to embracing the versatility of public art and helping diversify and expand the movement in Portland and as a whole.

In Support of BLACK LIVES MATTER

BLACK LIVES MATTER

The board and staff of TEMPOart are horrified by the murder of George Floyd, Ahmaud Aubrey and Breonna Taylor and so many other victims of racist violence in the United States. 

We support the Black Lives Matter movement, along with the protesters in Portland and across the country, in demanding an end to systemic racism and police brutality. 

For the past year, we have worked to clarify and define TEMPOart’s mission, vision and values. Part of that mission is to champion and support public art that is a catalyst for social, racial, environmental, and economic justice. 

In pursuit of this vision, we commit to the active pursuit of diversity in our work and to holding ourselves accountable for commissioning, presenting, and amplifying the work of artists who are Black, Indigenous and People of Color.  

-The board and staff of TEMPOart

Looking back on 2019 and Exciting News

This past summer TEMPOart commissioned four monumental sculptures by Daniel Minter called Mother’s Garden. These sculptures, which are located near Kennedy Park in East Bayside, evoke the food and spirituality of the African Diaspora. In conjunction with this project, and in partnership with World To Table, TEMPOart sponsored four dinners for recently arrived immigrants and longtime Mainers. Our goal for the year, to help bring Portland’s diverse communities more closely together through art and food, was a great success.

In addition to the dinners, we sponsored four youth art and writing programs, including those offered by the Telling Room and Mayo Street Arts. We also hosted summer interns from the Portland Museum of Art.

Each year new TEMPOart projects enliven Portland’s public spaces. They serve as catalysts for addressing important issues and ideas that can help make our city a richer and more interconnected community.

For the coming year our theme is Resilience in Place, a concept that will enable us to explore and respond to challenges posed by imminent changes in our natural and social environments. From a field of 14 artists we are pleased to announce that Jesse Salisbury has been invited to create an installation for TEMPOart 2020. The sculpture will be located at Fish Point along the Eastern Trail, an easy walk from both Fort Allen Park and Commercial Street.

Concept rendering shows what the 2020 TEMPOart project by Jesse Salisbury will look like.
This concept rendering shows what the 2020 TEMPOart project by Jesse Salisbury will look like.

We have another exciting announcement. After 6 years of reliance on an all-volunteer board, TEMPOart has hired its first full time executive director. We are happy to welcome Tony Adams who will start work in December. Tony brings many years of experience in non-profit arts management as well as a deep commitment to multiculturalism. We hope you will have a chance to meet him in the near future.

TEMPOart continues to grow and to provide unique ways to encourage community connectionsand conversations. Our challenge in the coming year is to support both our ambitious 2020 project and our new professional staff.

Welcoming Youth

We have had so much fun welcoming local youth educational programs to engage with our Welcome Feast project this summer. First, we hosted a community painting party to collaborate with Daniel Minter as he wrapped up production of the sculptures before installation day. Kids got a chance to learn about printmaking and see how an artist prepares for a big public project! Students from various youth art and writing camps have engaged with the project by responding to the sculptures with writing and art making. Students from the Telling Room, Oak Street Studios, Mayo Street Arts, Love Lab Studio and the Portland Museum of Art have all spent time contemplating concepts of community, what it means to be welcoming and how food and art can bring people together.

Young volunteers helping us print the sculptures before installation day.
Making sure all surfaces are covered!
Students at Mayo Street Arts working on art inspired by Daniel Minter’s Mother’s Garden. The students also collaborated with students from Love Lab Studio to make paper flowers as center pieces for the tables at our community dinners.
Students at Oak Street Studios making solar printed fabric to sew in to a table runner for the Welcome Feast community dinners
Students at the Telling Room writing camp responding to the sculptures.
The Portland Museum of Art’s Homer Fellows learning about public art and responding to the installation

Here is a poem written by Elizabeth Thomas, one of the Portland Museum of Art 2019 Homer Fellows:

Mother’s Garden: Daniel Minter

By Elizabeth Thomas

2019 Homer High School Fellow at the Portland Museum of Art / rising senior at Portland High School

Powerful winds dance among our silent bodies

Painted wood creates our faces

And our structure which stands

Now old in the sun

Has grown fond of her light

We turn our faces left

Perhaps searching

Perhaps our gaze is cast on something fixed 

Something which brings strength 

Matching the burnt umber wood which crouches under our painted tones of fire, yellow, and blue of the sky

We taste of fire and ash

Yet here we stand

Unburnt

New Direction for 2019 Art & Programming

For over a year now, we have been working with the artist Matthew Mazzotta on his Shifting Tides project. While Matthew’s concepts are beautiful and fit our mission, the Board of Directors has recently voted to cancel the project. Even with generous and enthusiastic in-kind support from so many involved in our waterfront and building communities, the project’s costs have more than quadrupled. We cannot move forward and remain good stewards of your support.
With that decision behind us, we are already working toward a new project for the summer of 2019 that will support our mission and make the city proud. We will start engaging with artists in Maine and elsewhere for their ideas. We see an exciting path forward and can’t wait to show you what’s next.

SHIFT OF SHIFTING TIDES

Matthew Mazzotta’s SHIFTING TIDES is now planned for installation on Portland’s Back Cove basin in June of 2019 by TEMPOart.

TEMPO has had many supportive meetings with city officials over the past two months, including the Temporary Art Committee, Parks Department, Planning and Zoning, Harbormaster, Department of Environmental Protection and Army Corps of Engineers.  All parties have been committed to ensuring the success of the project and, several weeks ago, it became clear that success would entail additional time for permitting and fabrication.

This is a one-of-a-kind project, so changes in the path to completion are normal and can only make it better.  Plans for partnering with World to Table to host a series of community meals inside the SHIFTING TIDES “dining room” have already gained great support from other community organizations and local chefs.  Between now and June 2019, we expect to find even more opportunities to take advantage of the SHIFTING TIDES’ unique platform for community connections.

Matthew Mazzotta’s lecture at Architalx, “The Architecture of Social Space,” was a great success.  To hear his lecture and learn more about his engaging kinetic installations in communities throughout the world, you can watch the video which will be posted after the series ends at vimeo.com/architalx.

Stay tuned for further developments.  You can sign up for emails at tempoartmaine.org/contact, and follow us on Facebook (@TemporaryPortlandArt) to get the latest details.

Your support and your involvement are essential to realizing SHIFTING TIDES and TEMPO’s projects.