Neighborhood Art: Risk Exposure
By Stephen Ross
Steven Reign's The Bench Project conceptual piece was part of Total Risk 3Reminiscent of the nostalgic green benches of yester year's St. Petersburg, Gulfport's public benches could similarly soon become an artistic statement. If artist Steven Reigns' proposal is approved, Text Art such as the saying, "He never wanted a telescope. Viewing the stars was more about dreaming than science," would be semi-permanently written on canvas or muslin material and affixed to the back of Gulfport's public benches. "I'm interested in little snippets and sound bites and how it affects us."
Reigns, of Tampa, says he is "a big fan of artists who use text in their public statements," and wants "to bring art into public space and take it out of the galleries." Such is the shared ideology behind the City of Imagination's latest showing, Total Risk: An Exhibition of Contemporary Art, on display through Feb. 28. Restoring credibility to Gulfport's self-proclamation as an art village, third-year Arts Director Frank Hibrandt has compiled an eclectic mix of artists and coordinated a continuous showing of exhibits at five locales throughout the city. Focus, the main exhibit, can be seen at Gulfport's public library. Kids, capturing portraits of children,is at the city's dance hall Casino, 5500 Shore Blvd. S., while To Be Looked At is exhibited in the Bank of America lobby, 2808 58th St. S. Civilized Graffiti is at Gulfport Garage at 2731 Beach Blvd., and Time Stamp, an exhibit of postal art, is featured at the Catherine Hickman Theater, 5501 27th Ave. S. The latter exhibit, an extraordinary circa - 70's/80's assortment of matted and framed postcards,is owned by Gulfport resident and architect Emmett Walsh. Culled from his collection of postal art obtained from artists living under totalitarian regimes in Eastern Europe, this exhibit showcases individual pieces of art, each one itself an artistic expression. Walsh salvaged these little postcard collages and paintings - sometimes even 3-D objects - almost exclusively through postal exchanges with artists living in countries where only officially sanctioned, state-approved art was permissible.
Many art expressions perhaps "critical of government systems or expressing concepts not aligned with government ideology"were repressed in these countries, so many artists subsequently turned to the postal system. "The only thing that regulated what went in and out were the postal regulations," said Walsh, whose postal name was Post Industrialism. Somewhere, someone's got his work, too, as he added wistfully, "For every piece I have, I mailed one out."Postal Art as a genre can be traced tothe New York CorresponDANCE School beginning in the 1940s, according to the exhibit literature. Also known as Mail Art, it was popular in the pre-Internet '60s to '80s time period. So Time Stamp functions as a bit more than an art exhibit. It also serves as a mini-historical museum, providing snapshot evidence of and reflection upon the Cold War. Also worthwhile is Focus, a hodgepodge assortment of artistic work by local Florida artists. There's the provocative image by Sarah Thee Campagna, of Dunedin, a composite of a laced wedding veil, box of chocolates, sunglasses, and a safety-pinned mouth backgrounded by a vintage orange musical song sheet for "I Was Never Kissed Before." There's also work by Marian Higgins, Teresa Beaumont, and Janet Folsom. Taylor Oliver has several psychedelic reality images purportedly inspired by images captured on TV during a cable outage.
Maria Saraceno should be mentioned for her copper wire mesh weavings, some with personal attachments like buttons, and Marian Licodo for her curiously Crusader-like patterns as well, which confront the viewer with the woven texture and techno-metallic fabric of our lives.
Keith Stillwagon is there in the library exhibit, too. Stillwagon is one of the new breed of artists who have a connection to Gulfport. Hibrandt, along with fellow artist Reigns, with his Gulfport public bench project/proposal, wants people to "feel included in the arts community" and to "bring it out into the public space and thereby out of the galleries." They have something they want to say; just like the Time Stamp postcard art display provides a voice to artists who wanted to speak out in their time in history, and record a bit of creative humanity. Will it impact the public or is it just inconsequential self-expression? To be an artist is to risk. Be part of the Total Riskexhibit yourself and join in as a resident citizen in the City of Imagination.