Adam Putnam

"Green Hallway"

Putnam acknowledges that the obelisk may remind viewers of the Washington Monument in DC, but he is less concerned with politics than with the ineffable quality of space. This is evident in the Magic Lantern installations he has been producing since 2004, named after the protocinematic theatrical device that uses an oil lamp and painted slides to project images. In Putnam’s versions, a low-wattage bulb is suspended inside a transparent boxlike container resting on a pedestal. The light passing through the structure’s internal supports and sides limns a ghostly illusionistic architectural image on the walls. Pieces of opaque tape a≈xed to the container’s surface cast shadows that appear as phantom doors and other architectural details. By installing mirrors inside, as he does for his Biennial piece,Green Hallway (Magic Lantern) (2007), Putnam is able to multiply the illuminations, creating illusionistic architectural spaces on the surrounding walls. “These are small, virtual rooms, and you project yourself into them imagining yourself into the space,” he says.

"Feeding Pigeons" Allen Street Lower East Side

Carl Pope

“The Wall Remixed: The North Philadelphia Small Business Advertising Campaign”, 2009-10

Carl Pope and Mari Hulick with Homer Jackson

Pope’s project brings the unseen small businesses that define neighborhoods to the scale of public advertising with this project. Working with students from the Mural Arts Program, he has collaborated with business owners in North Philadelphia to develop a brand for each as well as advertising materials, and placed them in locations usually occupied by the images of multinational corporations. By insinuating neighborhood anchors with great local significance into these commercial marketing spaces, Pope celebrates the dynamics of community and substitutes their productive values for easy consumption.

Art & Audience

1. How does an artist benefit from the audience giving their participation? and visa versa?

2. When the audience is a voyeur to a performance, is their presence still necessary in the piece? Isn't the participation of the audience always necessary for art to exist? Or can art exist without an audience?

Shazia Sikander

"Pleasure Pillars" 2001

Anish Kapoor

"Vertigo" 2008

Art & Spirituality

1. Is there a separation between one's spirituality and one's reality? I guess this void or transition can be found in the artwork itself? (ex. Anish Kapoor)

2. Is the art world a practicing religion on its own? Is the institution a religious one? Are we its followers? Is art a faith?