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BIG RED THING

Title: TBA (mabye BIG RED THING)

In 1969, the citizens of Grand Rapids dedicated a gigantic red stabile by Alexander Calder as the heart of an ambitious urban renewal effort. Designed to announce a new, spirited civic center, the sculpture embodies notions of the public sphere that are under much critical pressure today. Contemporary art historians often suggest that public sculptures of this type are passé, but how have citizen experiences with and responses to La Grande Vitesse developed over time? How do ordinary citizens define, use, and produce this arguably still quite prototypical public art work?

A new research project argues that vernacular photography has much to tell us about the relationship between citizens and public art. To test this claim, Civic Studio will mount a drive to collect photographs of Calder’s sculpture created by local residents over its nearly 40-year lifespan. Photos will be collected by hand, via email, and through a website upload utility. The goal is to collect several hundred photographs created by Grand Rapidians from all walks of life. The collected photos will be displayed at Civic Studio, online (at http://look.gvsu.edu/calder), and at a poster session in February at the College Art Association’s annual conference. The researcher is currently seeking additional venues to display the photographs.

The researcher, Jennifer Geigel Mikulay, is a Ph.D. candidate in visual culture at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is writing her dissertation about public art in Grand Rapids, and she teaches visual culture at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design.

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