Objectives

Students will learn that art occurs outside of galleries and museums.

Students will understand that the placement or location is significant to arts impact.

Students will gain insight into the value of connecting with an unsuspecting audience.

swoon

Birth Name: Caledonia Dance Curry

Born in 1977 in Daytona Beach, Florida she now resides in Brooklyn, New York.

She is a Street Artist who’s known for her life size wheatpasteing prints and her flotillas.

A word about street art…It is important that street art be placed very quickly due to its illegality. Street artists accomplish this through various means including spray painting, stencilling and wheatpasting. Even with these techniques most street art is created in remote locations under cover of night. These locations are usually neglected urban areas where one wouldn’t usually expect to find provocative art. Because the art isn’t being sold or paid for by a commercial interest the content of the art is completely up to the artists discretion.

Banksy

Shepard Fairy (Obey Giant)

Miss Van

Social Sculpture

Swoon painstakingly creates life size woodblock prints, wherein the

“reverse” of the image is carved into wood and then stamped onto huge sheets of paper, then cut out and placed on almost any surface using a homemade glue called wheatpaste. This allows her to create an image with a lot of detail that can still be placed relatively quickly.

Sylvia ElenaShe was killed in 1995 in Juarez, Mexico at the age of 17. This image was created to raise awareness of the rampant number of women that are murdered (600 since the 90s) or go missing (3000 since the 90s) in Juarez.

Rembrandt van Rijn

Max Ernst

Henri de Talouse-Lautrec

InfluenceHer art draws from the influence of previous artists while appealing to modern audiences.

HoweverSwoon has taken these influences to the street where everyone can experience them, not only gallery and museum goers.

Gustav Klimt

The Kiss

Österreichische Galerie Belvedere,

Vienna, Austria

Admission Approx. $20

Braddock,PennsylvaniaA suburb of Pennsylvania, Braddock’s population has decreases 90% since the 1950s. It’s primary industry, steel, collapsed while a crack cocaine epidemic took place in the 80s leaving the city dilapidated and rife with crime. In 2005 is mayor extended an open invitation to street artists to have free run of the community in hopes of breathing a

creative life back into the decrepid city. Countless artists have responded, including Swoon and her community. Now residents and visitors get to enjoy incredible street art throughout Braddock every day for absolutely free.

Portland, Oregon

New Orleans, Louisiana

What do you know about these cities and why do you think swoon chose these locations?

Portland, OregonPlaced under the 205 bridge in the recently gentrified Pearl District.

New Orleans, LouisianaPlaced outside the location for her up coming installation Dithyrambalina—a musical house.

Lower East Side, Manhattan, New York

Clarion Alley, San Francisco, California

Lower East Side, Manhattan, New YorkAn immigrant neighbourhood, it has undergone recent gentrification.

Clarion Alley, San Francisco, CaliforniaFormerly a Latin American neighbourhood it’s now a notable art community.

Floating ExhibitionsBeginning in 2006 Swoon and her community of artists began collaborating to construct a series of amphibious exhibitions to navigate various waterways around the world.

The Miss Rockaway ArmadaIn 2006 Swoon and a collective of 30 artists navigated the Mississippi from Minneapolis to St. Louis in craft made from recycled and found materials.

Swimming Cities of Switchback SeaIn 2008 Swoon and her collaborators took seven vessels down the Hudson River from Troy, NY to Long Island. Along their route the company would stop at night to perform live music along the riverbank.

Swimming Cities of SerenissimaIn 2009 Swoon and her “crew” transported two vessels to Slovenia and constructed a third from materials scavenged from the coast. They proceeded to travel to Vienna, Italy stopping by the shore to preform and collect artefacts for their “Cabinet Of Curiosities”.

Konbit Shelter

A sustainable building project with the objective of sharing knowledge and resources through the creation of homes and community spaces in post-earthquake Haiti

RefrencesSwoon. New York: Abrams, 2010. Print.

“Deitch.” Deitch. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Nov. 2011. <http://deitch.com/artists/sub.php?artistId=31>.

“The Miss Rockaway Armada.” The Miss Rockaway Armada. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Nov. 2011. <http://missrockaway.org/>.

Bloom, Julie. “Swimming Cities of Switchback Sea - A Floating City With Junkyard Roots - NYTimes.com.” The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Nov. 2011. <http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/18/arts/design/18flot.html?pagewanted=all>.

“Swimming Cities Of Serenissima.” Swimming Cities Of Serenissima. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Nov. 2011. <http://www.swimmingcities.org/>.

“The Konbit Shelter Project | konbitshelter.org.” The Konbit Shelter Project | konbitshelter.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Nov. 2011. <http://konbitshelter.org/>.

What do you think?Can a piece of art raise more awareness about a specific issue if it is placed in a controversial location?

Can art on a street impact people differently than art in a museum or gallery? Does this only apply to visual arts? What about street musicians, performers, bridges or architecture?

Why are some people allowed to make public art and some are not? Who has the right to determine what we see, smell hear or feel?

Are you prepared to decide what’s suitable for public viewing and what’s not?

ActivityBefore the lesson begins print and distribute an image and a piece of tape to every participant. (See attached image file or find your own.)

Without explaining why or giving limitations invite the participants to hang their selected image anywhere and in any fashion.

After the lesson invite the participants to discuss and critique how they and their fellow participants hung their individual images. Invite them to re-hang theirs or to hang another.

Points to consider: •Aremuseumsandgalleriesgoodorbadforartingeneral?Whereelsecanone view so much different art in one place? •Shouldstreetartbeillegal?Whataboutviolent,racistorsexistimages?Whereis street art OK? What about the front of your home? •Whatauthoritydoesastreetartisthaveovertheirworkaftertheycreateit?Coulda building owner cut a piece of art off their wall and sell it? Does the art belong to the owner of the wall it is on? •Whatresponsibilitiesdopropertyownershavetotheircommunity?Shouldtheybe required to make their property look “good”?