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<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">From: James Pollack
<pollackj@MIT.EDU><br>
Subject: ZOE Recommendation - Mel Chin April 7, 2008 and Fritz Haeg on
April 16, 2008<br>
Date: Thu, 3 Apr 2008 15:54:48 -0400<br><br>
Our sister program, the Center for Advanced Visual Studies is having two
excellent upcoming events. They are free and open to the
public.<br><br>
<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">The Center for Advanced Visual
Studies MIT / 265 Massachusetts Ave, 3rd Fl / Cambridge MA 02139 / 617
253 4415 / <a href="http://cavs.mit.edu">http://cavs.mit.edu</a><br>
<br><br>
Mel Chin<br>
Monday April 7 2008 6:30 pm<br>
<br>
Preeminent conceptual sculptor and installation artist Mel Chin visits
the Center April 7-9th. On Monday he will screen his new animated film,
<i>9/11-9/11</i>, 2007, which juxtaposes the events of Sept 11th 1973 and
2001. He'll also introduce <i>Fundred</i>, 2008, a major new public
project that brings attention to lead levels in neighborhoods of New
Orleans through a massive national mobilization of artistic labor. During
his visit, he'll meet with faculty and students in urban studies,
mechanical engineering, systems design, and data visualization to discuss
projects in development. <br>
<br>
A voracious learner and catalyst of major endeavors that bring people and
ideas together in unexpected ways, Mel Chin insinuates art into unlikely
places, including destroyed homes, toxic landfills, and even the
television series <i>Melrose Place</i>, investigating how art can provoke
greater social awareness and responsibility. Chin has engaged ecology and
the environment for many years, and has worked extensively with
scientists, notably on <i>Revival Field</i>, 1991-ongoing, in which he
and a research scientist in the US Dept of Agriculture successfully
cultivated plants that extract heavy metal from brownfields--a work of
what Chin calls "real alchemy." His projects also
challenge the idea of the artist as the exclusive creative force behind
an artwork. “The survival of my own ideas may not be as important as a
condition I might create for others’ ideas to be realized,” says Chin,
who often enlists entire neighborhoods or groups of students in creative
partnerships. Mel Chin was born in Houston to Chinese parents in 1951,
and currently lives in North Carolina. (Bio adapted from Art21)<br>
<br>
<a href="http://cavs.mit.edu/artists.html?id=264,605">
http://cavs.mit.edu/artists.html?id=264,605</a><br>
<a href="http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/chin/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/chin/</a><br>
<br>
++<br>
<br>
Fritz Haeg<br>
Wednesday April 16th 2008 6:30 pm<br>
<br>
The Center is pleased to host Fritz Haeg and his project <i>Animal
Estates</i>, 2008, during the week of April 14th. While at MIT, Haeg will
give a talk on his work and, with the help of MIT students and artists,
build one installment of <i>Animal Estates</i>, a new series of dwellings
thoughtfully designed to welcome an animal back into the city. These
environments are made for displaced wildlife or for animals that have
been domesticated. The Center will host one of eight estates—the first
was built in New York as part of the Whitney Biennial while others will
appear at Arthouse, Austin, TX; the Contemporary Museum, Baltimore, MD;
The Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA; Cooley Gallery, Portland OR;
Alaska Design Forum, Fairbanks, AK; and Casco Projects, Utrecht, The
Netherlands.<br>
<br>
Haeg writes: “As animal habitats dwindle daily, <i>Animal Estates</i>
proposes the reintroduction of animals back into our cities, strip malls,
garages, office parks, freeways, front yards, parking lots and
neighborhoods… As the human domination of the planet continues, animals
are alternately viewed as exotic specimens to be treated as spectacle,
cartoon characters that are anthropomorphized, friendly companions to be
coddled, objectified resources to be exploited, inconveniences to be
tolerated, pests to be eradicated or anonymous unseen creatures to which
we are indifferent. <i>Animal Estates</i> intends to provide a
provocative 21st century model for the human-animal relationship that is
more intimate, visible and thoughtful.” <br>
<br>
Fritz Haeg is an architect and artist based in Los Angeles whose work
combines strategies from architecture, art, ecology, and education. Known
for his geodesic dome and the lively Sundown Salons that attract emerging
artists, musicians, and performers, Haeg’s projects challenge
conventional ideas about where art should go and what art can do.<br>
<br>
<a href="http://www.cavs.mit.edu">http://www.cavs.mit.edu</a><br>
<a href="http://www.fritzhaeg.com/garden/initiatives/animalestates/main.html" eudora="autourl">
http://www.fritzhaeg.com/garden/initiatives/animalestates/main.html</a>
<br>
<br>
++<br>
<br>
The Center for Advanced Visual Studies is funded in part by the National
Endowment for the Arts; the Multi-Arts Production (MAP) Fund; the
Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency; the LEF Foundation; and
the MIT Council for the Arts. </blockquote></blockquote></body>
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