On Wednesday March 12th, Amanda Hunt, curator of Portland2014: A Biennial of Contemporary Art organized by Disjecta Contemporary Art Center, Portland, and Christopher Michlig and John Zerzan will host a public conversation on art in the public realm.
Hunt in dialogue with Michlig and Zerzan, whose public project Kiosk Kiosk Kiosk is featured in the biennial, will discuss processes of conceptualization and the role of public art and gesture in contemporary exhibition practices.
This is an excellent opportunity for students who are practicing artists and for those pursuing careers in contemporary art and curation to learn about how these fields intersect in professional practices.
EVENT DETAILS
Date: Wednesday, March 12th
Where: Hearth Cafe, Lawrence Hall
Time: Panel, 5:30-6:30PM; Q&A 6:30-7PM
Contact person: Kate Beaver, MA History of Art & Architecture program, katlyn@uoregon.edu
About the speakers:
Portland2014 Curator Amanda Hunt is based in Angeles, where she is Curator at Large for La><Art. She has worked at various galleries and institutions including Whitechapel Gallery, London; Friedrich Petzel Gallery, New York; the Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco; and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Hunt worked on two major arts initiatives in Los Angeles in 2012, including the Pacific Standard Time Performance and Public Art Festival, co-produced by LA><Art. Hunt is a graduate of the Curatorial Practice program at California College of the Arts, San Francisco.
Eugene-based Christopher Michlig is an artist making work in a wide range of media, primarily focusing on the manipulation of public formats of communication to explore, expose and upend the aesthetics of urban space. His work has been exhibited internationally, most recently in one-person exhibitions at Marine Contemporary, Los Angeles; VOLTA 8, Basel, Switzerland; Galleria Giuseppe, Pero, Milan; and devening projects +
editions, Chicago. His work has been published and reviewed in a number of publications. Michlig received an MFA in Sculpture from Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, California, in 2007. He is currently Assistant Professor of art at the University of Oregon.
John Zerzan is an American anarchist and primitivist philosopher and author. His works criticize agricultural civilization as inherently oppressive, and advocate drawing upon the ways of life of hunter-gatherers as an inspiration for what a free society should look like. Some subjects of his criticism include domestication, language, symbolic thought (such as mathematics and art) and the concept of time. His five major books are Elements of Refusal (1988), Future Primitive and Other Essays (1994), Running on Emptiness (2002), Against Civilization: Readings and Reflections (2005), and Twilight the Machines (2008).
About the projects:
Kiosk Kiosk Kiosk
A synthesis of the critical voice of anarchist author John Zerzan and artist Christopher Michlig’s interest in engaging public space and language itself, three kiosk cubes will be staged at public sites across Portland, standing as catalysts for latent possibility. The kiosks’ exteriors will integrate excerpts from Zerzan’s writing; free pamphlets featuring his full text will be distributed at each kiosk. www.biennial.disjecta.org/public
Portland2014: A Biennial of Contemporary Art
Presented by Disjecta Contemporary Art Center, Portland2014 is a major biennial exhibition celebrating artists who are defining and advancing contemporary art practices. Portland2014 will include exhibitions, events and performances in multiple locations throughout Portland from March 8 through April 27, 2014. Exhibitions in Disjecta’s 6,000 sq ft building in North Portland, Upfor Gallery in the Pearl District, White Box, University of Oregon in Portland in Old Town/China Town, and The Best Art Gallery in Portland in NE Portland, will be complemented through a series of public artworks, interventions and a Saturday Series of public
lectures and panels designed to engage diverse audiences by activating new contexts for contemporary art throughout the city. www.biennial.disjecta.org
