16/9/2001
Reports From Afield
Mobius, Boston
Mobius presents "Reports From Afield: A Woman's Work Is Never Done: A House of Curiosities," an artists' talk given by Merry Conway and Noni Pratt. They will discuss their latest art creation that occupies a 10,000 square foot space at 71 Amory Street in Jamaica Plain, an area that is home to a number of different artist and community organizations.
Merry Conway and Noni Pratt of Conway and Pratt Projects,
Inc., in association with The Bostonian Society, the MIT Office of
the Arts and The Woman's Educational and Industrial Union, will
discuss their latest art creation that occupies a 10,000 square foot
space at 71 Amory Street in Jamaica Plain, an area that is home to a
number of different artist and community organizations. This "house
of curiosities" continues their series of large-scale, site-specific
art projects that have a large community element. The work explores
aspects of female identity, with a broad range of women's experience,
exploring care-giving and care-taking, beauty and desire. The cast of
10 performers, to be found throughout the installation, will include
9 women and 1 musician. Viewers walk through the exhibit, and are
encouraged to snoop - to actively investigate the environment by
opening doors, looking in drawers, and interacting with the
material. This evokes a spectrum of thought and feeling about the
current state of women's roles in our society, the nature of
traditional "women's work", and the needs and value of that work in
new configurations today. Deeply collaborative, Conway and Pratt
create powerful bonds with hundreds of participants to create each
piece - bringing a wealth of personal experience and wisdom into a
public sphere.
The project itself will take place at 71 Amory Street in Jamaica
Plain on Wednesday through Sunday, September 12 to October 14, with
an opening reception on Wednesday, September 19th. For more
information regarding this project visit their website at
http://www.conwayandprattprojects.org
(Bios.) Merry Conway and Noni Pratt have collaborated for 15 years,
along with co-designer Gregor Paslawsky, developing a dense, layered
form that wraps all around the viewer - drawing on elements of
theater, visual arts, and museum traditions. Conway and Pratt are
dedicated to finding shape for experience not represented in
colloquial discourse - experience that often has no official
expression, is mostly communicated between the cracks of language,
and is normally denied or taught in the encoded gestures of domestic
life. Conversations and collaboration are at the root of Conway's and
Pratt's work, bringing to mind cultural critic Homi Bhabha's comment
that "conversation shrinks the distance between subject and object
and shatters the cultural silence around the art object." A whole
temporary community is formed as each project is built over two
months, involving the interest and help of a wide range of
volunteers, artisans, artists, organizations, individuals and
passersby who happen to wander into the space. They locate the
projects in neighborhoods and the particular qualities of each site
are revealed by the very nature of the project itself - heightening
the level of conversation with the themes of the piece.
"Reports from Afield" is an ongoing series of monthly Monday evening
talks by members of the Mobius Artists Group and guest artists. These
presentations focus on projects that have been created abroad or
outside the Boston area, or in a public area, and that explore
important artistic, socio-cultural, or political issues. In addition,
many of the reports reflect Mobius' increasingly international
outlook. Please call the Mobius office if you would like more
information about this program.
In 2001, Mobius has been granted a Boston's Best Performance Art
award by The Improper Bostonian. "For more than 21 years, Mobius has
been the city's premiere venue for experimental art, programming a
42-week roller-coaster ride of events that range from
consciousness-raising to the downright bizarre. The annual ArtRages
fundraiser is one of the funkiest and most fun happenings in town,
and the group's commitment to the Fort Point artists' community is
one of the few things standing between it and the developers'
wrecking ball. Our hats are off to them."
Monday, September 17, 7 pm
Tickets:
free; reservations recommended; please call Mobius at (617) 542-7416
Mobius
354 Congress St., Boston, MA 02210
phone: 617-542-7416 fax: 617-451-2910