April 12, 2010

Event: Pop Stoppage Assemblage at Green Spaces

pop_stoppage_assemblage.jpg

Hand torn soda bottle labels and acrylic on paper suspended on vellum, 77.5” x 110.5” Photo: Annie Powers

Currently, to my delight, I've installed a mural-sized assemblage of Pop Stoppages at Green Spaces in Tribeca. Structured as a place where social change happens, Green Spaces is an incubator for sustainability-minded entrepreneurs, providing office space to green startups and a hub for visionary exchange.

The Pop Stoppages were born of a desire to construct works in an environmentally neutral manner – upcycling refuse into art. In recognition of the Green Space venue, the installation embarks on an expansion of this idea into a process project called Net-Zero Art.

The assemblage aims to be sustainably constructed; it is as chemically benign at the end of its lifecycle as is manageable in this transitional moment. For example, the wood support is a salvaged piece of molding from Build It Green (Yes, I carried an eleven foot long board on the subway from Astoria), the vellum support is 100% natural fiber and no adhesive is used to attach the individual works. They are held in place by small slits cut in the vellum. Even the acrylic paint is ‘fixed’, effectively sequestered, in the work.

The yet-undiscovered prize in my quest to attain Net-Zero Art remains an eco-acetate to protect the entire construction. (We were able to source chemically benign deicing pellets but not clear film rolls). Fortunately, it – and the whole construction – is reusable.

In celebration of this work, Green Spaces and I will be hosting a Chill Night on April 21 – 6:30 - 8:30pm – to contemplate the possibilities of the moment and to change the way you think of 2-liter soda bottles for evermore. Consider yourself invited! Please stop by.

Green Spaces is located at 394 Broadway 5th floor between White and Walker. Ring the buzzer.

Thanks to Annie Powers for her photo. She’s a Brooklyn-based photographer who’s available to document art and does a great job with humans, too. Check out her Out and About series.

Posted by mark at April 12, 2010 02:09 AM
Comments

Intriguing piece! Visually appealing and timely in its environmental statement. Well done!

Posted by: SKR at April 14, 2010 11:32 PM