BravinLee Programsis pleased to have been selected as consultants to the Downtown Alliance for their Re: Construction program. This initiative channels the energy of Downtown's rebuilding process by recasting construction sites as canvasses for innovative public art and architecture. Each project uses standard construction barriers for artistic installations, embracing the ongoing nature of Downtown's redevelopment. The program will run for three years, and is funded through a grant from the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, which is funded through Community Development Block Grants from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development.
This summer BravinLee programs will present Rachel Hayes and Nina Bovasso on two different construction sites in Lower Manhattan.
In mid August, Rachel Hayes will install Rainbow Conversation at the Louise Nevelson Plaza construction site, part the of New York City Department of Design and Construction's Liberty Street reconstruction project, located at the corner of William Street and Maiden Lane. In Rainbow Conversation, Sculptor Rachel Hayes creates spectacular experiences of color and motion in an area that might otherwise be overlooked or avoided. Strips of opaque and sheer fabrics and vinyl have been sewed into striped panels. These materials are not only objects with boundless properties for manipulation, but also historical signifiers of gender, fashion, decoration and gesture. Hayes' installation will transform the 41 aluminum fences that surround the construction zone into a sensual and vibrant experience, building experimental multihued landscapes with line and light. Some of the pieces will flutter in the wind so that one will see both movement and color from either end of the Plaza, beckoning the viewer to move around it. Hayes is interested in the deep conversation going on behind the fence, consisting of mostly grueling and heavy activity, engineered with giant machines. Rainbow Conversation has been just as carefully engineered as the construction going on behind it: Each piece was meticulously hand-sewn, and incorporates not only Hayes' own physical labor, but also that of family and friends, including both her mother and mother-in-law. According to Hayes, "It is almost as if my work doesn't care what is going on behind it, yet I am responding to the construction site, offering sheer windows to peep through and witness the hard work of others. It is quite interesting that all this construction surrounds Louise Nevelson's 'Shadows and Flags', 1978, a powerful sculpture by an important woman artist. It is almost cyclical."
Rachel Hayes hails from Kansas City and currently lives in Brooklyn, NY. She earned a BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute and an MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University. She has had solo exhibitions at Shaw Center for the Arts, Baton Rouge, Solvent Space, Richmond, VA, LAB Gallery, NY and Roswell Museum and Art Center, Roswell, NM. Group exhibitions include the Sculpture Center, NY, Kansas City Jewish Museum, Grand Arts, Kansas City, and Fakespace LA. Awards and Residencies include Sculpture Space Residency, Art Omi International Residency, Roswell Artist-in-Residence Program, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Fellowship in Sculpture. Most recently she was awarded the Augustus Saint-Gaudens Memorial Fellowship in Sculpture and will have a solo show 2010 in Cornish, NH.
Project management for Rainbow Conversation: Eric Sall
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