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Jonah Freeman's, Sixteen Scenarios
For immediate release
Public Art Fund presents?
On View May 17 through June 23,
2002
Opening Reception Thursday, May
16 5-6pm
New York, New York (April 21, 2002) - The Public Art Fund is pleased
to present major projects by artists Jonah Freeman and Anissa Mack at
Brooklyn Public Library's Central Library at Grand Army Plaza. Anissa
Mack's Pies for a Passerby-a miniature cottage in which the artist
will bake and give away whole apple pies-will be installed on the plaza
steps outside the library, while Jonah Freeman's modernist maze, Sixteen
Scenarios, will be on view inside the Grand Lobby. With projects sited
both inside and outside the library-located in the cultural heart of Brooklyn
and at one of the borough's most important crossroads-this first-ever
collaboration between the two institutions is sure to capture the attention
of library visitors and pedestrians alike. Both works are projects of
the Public Art Fund program In the Public Realm. The exhibition
begins with an opening reception, which will take place on the Brooklyn
Public Library's Plaza on Thursday, May 16, 5-6pm.
Anissa Mack, Pies for a Passerby
"If I were to design a coat of arms for our country," Betty
Crocker once said, "A pie would be the main symbol." Inspired
by these words, artist Anissa Mack will set up a temporary country cottage,
complete with an oven, on the steps outside Brooklyn Public Library's
Central Library. From these cozy quarters-built by Amish craftspeople
in Lancaster, Pennsylvania-she will bake whole apple pies, made from scratch.
Anyone who is fortunate enough to pass by just as she pulls a warm, sweet-smelling
pie from the oven and sets it out to cool may be tempted to steal it-or
to chat with Mack as she begins to make the next one.
Anissa Mack's conceptual projects often explore the way that art can
facilitate a sense of community among strangers, engaging others in friendly
one-to-one contact. Here, Mack takes one of popular culture's most familiar
chestnuts-stealing a pie from the windowsill, as seen in countless cartoons
and movies-and transforms it into a tangible reality and a good-humored
experiment in human interaction. Bringing nostalgia and rural Americana
to a contemporary urban setting, Pies for a Passerby is art that
stimulates all the senses.
Pies for a Passerby will be on view Thu-Sat 11am-3pm, Sun 1-4pm.
Jonah Freeman, Sixteen Scenarios
In literature and history, libraries are often referred to as labyrinths.
With Sixteen Scenarios, artist Jonah Freeman creates a mirrored
labyrinth in the Grand Lobby of Brooklyn Public Library's Central Library.
Interested in the ways that our ideas and emotions are influenced by contemporary
architectural spaces, Freeman based his design for Sixteen Scenarios
on a generic model for metropolitan steel-and-glass architecture, creating
an aluminum and Plexiglas structure with multiple doorways, interlinking
passageways and atrium-like rooms.
Inside Sixteen Scenarios, a variety of artificial lighting scenarios
fluctuate and fade intermittently, suggesting a range of possible theatrical
experiences: the gray light of a cloudy afternoon, the brightness of a
skyscraper corridor, or twilight in a lamp-lit parking lot. Sixteen
Scenarios is, in a sense, a small-scale version of contemporary entertainment
complexes-such as casinos, shopping malls or movie theaters-in which insulated,
self-referential universes offer displacement from the external world.
By presenting us with a maze of physical and visual possibilities, Sixteen
Scenarios elevates our awareness of how the space we are in affects
us, and how we affect the space we are in.
Sixteen Scenarios will be on view Mon-Thu 9am-8pm, Fri-Sat 9am-6pm,
Sun 1-5pm.
Brooklyn Public Library's Central Library is located at Grand Army
Plaza, at the intersection of Eastern Parkway and Flatbush Avenue. Subway:
1, 2 to Grand Army Plaza.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Anissa Mack
Anissa Mack has had solo exhibitions at Parlour Projects (2001) and
in the Ten in One Gallery project room (2000), and has been included in
group exhibitions at Art in General, Bellwether Gallery, Postmasters Gallery
and P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center in New York. She received a BA from
Wesleyan University and an MFA in sculpture from Tyler School of Art,
and later studied at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture.
Jonah Freeman
Jonah Freeman has had solo shows at Edward Mitterand in Geneva, Switzerland
(2002) and Andrew Kreps, New York (2000), and in the project room at Artists
Space in New York (2001). He has recently been included in group exhibitions
at Danese Gallery, Matthew Marks Gallery and P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center
in New York City. He attended Parsons School of Design and received a
BFA from New York University, Tisch School for the Arts.
About In the Public Realm
Jonah Freeman's Sixteen Scenarios and Anissa Mack's Pies for
a Passerby are both projects of the Public Art Fund program In
the Public Realm, which is designed to encourage innovative, experimental
public projects by emerging artists living and/or working in New York
State. Artists who have participated in the program include Paul Pfeiffer,
Keith Edmier, Paul Ramirez Jonas, Josiah McElheny, Christine Hill, Tony
Matelli, Olav Westphalen, Maria Elena González and Valeska Soares.
In the Public Realm is supported by the National Endowment for
the Arts, The New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency, the
City of New York Department of Cultural Affairs, the Office of the Brooklyn
Borough President, The Greenwall Foundation, The Jerome Foundation, The
Silverweed Foundation, The JPMorgan Chase Foundation, and friends of the
Public Art Fund.
About Public Art Fund
Public Art Fund is New York's leading organizer of artists' projects,
new commissions, installations and exhibitions in public spaces. With
25 years of experience and an international reputation, the Public Art
Fund identifies, coordinates and realizes a diversity of major projects
by both established and emerging artists in New York City. By bringing
artworks outside the traditional context of museums and galleries, the
Public Art Fund provides a unique platform for an unparalleled public
encounter with the art of our time.
The Public Art Fund is a non-profit arts organization supported by generous
contributions from individuals, foundations, and corporations, and with
public funds from The New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency,
and the City of New York Department of Cultural Affairs.
About Brooklyn Public Library
Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) is an independent New York City library
system serving the borough of Brooklyn. It is the fifth largest in the
United States. Its Central Library, Business Library, and 58 branch libraries
offer free information, programs and computer access to people of all
ages. The Library offers visual arts exhibitions and related programs
as part of its ongoing programming, with dedicated gallery spaces at the
Central Library and the Flatbush Caribbean Literary & Cultural Center.
BPL offers resources of over 50 reference databases, catalog information
and news, available 24 hours a day at www.brooklynpubliclibrary.org.
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Contact:
Public Art Fund
tel: (212) 980-4575
e-mail: info@publicartfund.org
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