MONUMENT LAB

"Plainsight is 20/20"
September 16–November 19, 2017
Monument Lab

 RAIR was invited to create a site-specific artwork for Monument Lab: a Public Art and History Project. Aiming to build civic dialogue and to stoke historical imagination as forces for social change, Monument Lab commissioned artists to develop site-specific, socially engaged artworks that functioned as monuments to the current city of Philadelphia. Mural Arts and the Monument Lab Curatorial Team led by Paul Farber and Ken Lum installed these temporary prototype monuments by 20 artists across 10 sites in Philadelphia’s iconic public squares and neighborhood parks.

For Monument Lab, RAIR envisioned a monument to the tension between Philadelphia's simultaneous and conflicting identities as a green, sustainable city, and as a grounds for rapid commercial and residential redevelopment. The site-specific sculpture Plainsight is 20/20 features an excavator holding a large uprooted tree behind an 8-foot-tall construction fence in Penn Treaty Park, and serves as a portrait of the tension between the natural landscape and urban progress. This monumentalized excavator is shown to be responsible for destruction as well as development and, wrapped in metallic vinyl, both interrupts and reflects its environment.

RIVER CHARETTE

The Quiet Circus is a yearlong project by Philadelphia Contemporary and Headlong which considers questions of development and decay, land and water, industry and gentrification through 36 performances including a series of River Charrettes which take the form of public performances and participatory conversations at various sites along Philadelphia’s waterfronts. RAIR was pleased to host the second River Charrette, a silent walking tour and interactive performance dialogue, at Revolution Recovery. Presented amidst the site’s mountains of demolition waste and recycled materials, the second River Charrette addressed issues of environmental sustainability against a backdrop of urban industry near the banks of the Delaware River.

FILTHY RICH

Filthy Rich: projects made possible by the waste stream
and Ana Peñalba: Philli
The Galleries at Moore

Presented at The Galleries at Moore, Filthy Rich: Projects Made Possible by the Waste Stream is an exhibition showcasing twenty-five of the forty-plus projects developed by artists through RAIR’s Special Projects and Residency Programs since the organization’s inception in 2010. Co-curated by Billy Dufala, Director of Residencies and Lucia Thome, Director of Special Projects, Filthy Rich includes sculptural objects, photography, video, performance, and process documentation reflecting the emergence of two prevailing themes: “site as medium” and “material as medium.”

Filthy Rich was accompanied by a special exhibition of 2016 resident Ana Peñalba's work titled Philli.

Ana Peñalba’s practice is built upon continuous research that explores architectural systems and theories, ultimately interpreting their cultural significance through collaborations and varying creative disciplines. This exhibition presents Peñalba’s most recent work that was created during her Fall 2016 residency at RAIR where she had the opportunity to examine Philadelphia’s architectural history and interpret its crowd identity through “spatial post-productions,” past and present.

Filthy Rich featured a roster of public programming including “Recycled Rhythms,” a night of RAIR-inspired music; “This Is Your Life,” a game-show-format presentation of RAIR’s history hosted by Curator, Art Historian and RAIR Collaborator Paul Farber; two trash-themed collage and writing workshops led by RAIR Artist in Residence Ana Peñalba; and a fashion show of clothing designed and created collaboratively by the USchool and Moore Fashion Lab.

TRASH ACADEMY

Trash Academy is a collaboration between artists, environmental activists, community members in Southeast Philadelphia, and high school students from all across the city. Supported through Mural Arts’ Restored Spaces initiative, Trash Academy responds to neighborhood concerns about waste disposal practices and inspires a actionable solutions to issues involving trash. Trash Academy worked with RAIR to design, build and install a series of planters and benches made from recycled rigid plastic on a street corner in Southeast Philadelphia.