Riverside

Locat: Riverside Art Center | August 30 – October 3, 2015

What purpose does an open, outdoor space situated behind a gallery serve, if not as a respite from the attentive requisites of the gallery space itself? In our upcoming intervention, (ƒ)utility projects (a collaborative comprised of Paola Cabal, Michael Genge, and Chris Grieshaber) seek to elevate the natural elements of the back yard of the Riverside Art Center to “Art Object” status by selectively positioning white “gallery walls” between and around the landscaping and trees already located there.  Partly a response to recent endeavors elsewhere that seek to position “nature” in a gallery setting, and partly an attempt to create a different kind of visual dialogue in a hybrid, natural/built environment, (ƒ)utility projects looks forward to formalizing this heretofore casual space, in this way linking it intimately to the freeark gallery while also positing it as a visually compelling place unto itself.

This intervention was completed alongside Cabal’s installation inside the gallery, “Crescent“.

The group intended an environment of meditation through physical form, bounding and highlighting intersections of nature and man-made spaces. Giving air to those intersections naturally invites contemplation on the human impulse to create, and obfuscates the lines between creation, form, and environment.