A few weeks ago I made a questionable last minute decision to drive to Philadelphia and Baltimore for 4 days. It takes about 8 hours from Maine to get to Philly, and then another 2 to make it to Baltimore. So, yes, if you do the math, that’s about a day and a half in each place and 20 hours in the car. Crazy, but totally worth it.
My friend Daniel Fuller, who directs the ICA at Maine College of Art, right next door to SPACE, had been coaxing me down to Philly for some time, and since he was doing a Publication Studio book launch with Anthony Campuzano at Temple Contemporary, I figured it was a good time to head down.
Temple Contemporary is a gorgeous space, and the director, Rob Blackson is a super nice guy! I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the bee hive installed by Hilary Berseth in the back gallery and Ander Mikalson’s Score for a Dinosaur; she recently presented one part of this project at the ICA at Meca and totally won our hearts.
Afterwards we headed over to AUX and saw the tail end of a night of performances by Spacin’, Columboid, L.U.N.A.R revolt, + Needlepoints. I really enjoyed seeing live music at AUX and I’m look forward to seeing what kinds of experimental performances they will program in the future.
I was thrilled to finally have a chance to check out Theaster Gates’ Soul Manufacturing Corporation – To Make the Thing that Makes the Things installation at The Fabric Workshop and Museum.
I love the viewing format at FWM, where you step on to the elevator and end up immersed in an industrial style exhibition space alone (in our case). Daniel Arsham’s Reach Ruin was disorienting, beautiful and a thoroughly sensory experience.
We also were pretty excited about Tacita Dean’s installation: Merce Cunningham performs STILLNESS…(six performances, six films). It felt like we were a part of the work.
We headed back to Vox Populi where I was excited to see Tara Pelletier and Jeffrey Kurosaki’s installation, which is now in our annex!
Love the view from the 319A North building:
Here are some images from Grizzly Grizzly’s exhibit Warrior Dash:
Also loved Ed Panar’s Animals that Saw Me show at Tiger Strikes Asteroid.
After meandering around that building for a while, and seeing some amazing stuff, we ate food, took the Steve Powers’ Love Letters tour and managed to sneak a peek at the Superbowl before heading into the belly of the beast right before the big Raven’s win. Needless to say, arriving in Baltimore at 10PM when they just won the game was kind of amazing, and pretty unforgettable, as people proceeded to dance and light fireworks in front of our car.
I was thrilled to finally get the chance to check out Current Gallery and see the work they’ve been doing on their space. It’s inspiring to see how an alternative arts venue like Current can transform a community.
Thanks for the tour of Baltimore Bob + Monique! And thanks to all of our new Philly friends too! We’ll surely be back soon…
