Exhibition

Your Town, Inc.

Big Box Reuse with Julie Christensen

Duration

August 29, 2008 - November 23, 2008

Curator

Astria Suparak

Big box buildings have increasingly dominated the American landscape since the 1960s. Author, artist, and researcher Julia Christensen spent the last six years studying these monolithic, free-standing structures and their resulting effects on our culture. In Your Town, Inc., photographs and new installation work examine how communities are changing in the shadow of corporate real estate.

Your Town, Inc. exhibition view.

Seventy-seven photographs from Christensen’s critically acclaimed book, Big Box Reuse (MIT Press, 2008), illustrate the ways in which communities throughout the United States creatively re-employ the structures constructed and abandoned by multinational corporations, such as Wal-Mart and Kmart. Resulting endeavors include: justice center, megachurch, senior resource center, elementary school, and flea market.

Your Town, Inc. exhibition view.

For Your Town, Inc., Christensen fabricated a sculptural construction that is a reaction and response to the big box concept. Her UnBox (2008) demonstrates values and conventions opposed to the superstore sort: it is modular, transportable, easily reusable, and made of regional and recycled materials. Furthermore, UnBox will be activated for creative and social uses, rather than retail purposes, by various local groups who can propose events to take place within this new facility. The installation can enable discussion about urgent issues such as sustainability, user-friendliness, and reusability.

Across the floor of the gallery an actual-sized parking lot will be painted to local city code. The lot raises questions about the infrastructural aspect of our lifestyles–particularly, the auto-centricity of our culture.

Your Town, Inc. exhibition view.

Your Town, Inc. is an exhibition that explores the state of our built environment. Among Christensen’s photographs of reworked big box buildings, the UnBox structure, and the parking lot setting, the audience will be asked to think critically about how their own town has changed in light of corporate real estate. And ultimately, the question will be posed: how can you reclaim power over the design of your town’s future?

Your Town, Inc. exhibition view.

Your Town, Inc. is organized by the Miller Gallery at Carnegie Mellon University, in connection with the release of the artist’s book with MIT Press. The Carnegie Mellon Office of the Vice-Provost and the School of Art Lecture Series have provided assistance for the Big Box Reuse presentation.

Julia Christensen’s work has been featured in the New York Times, the Globe and Mail, Preservation Magazine for the National Trust, and other publications; her new media, video and installation work has shown recently at the Lincoln Center, DUMBO Arts Center, and the Walker Art Center, Carnegie Museum of Art, and Yale School of Architecture Galleries. Her book, Big Box Reuse, was published by MIT Press in 2008. She holds the chair of Luce Visiting Professor of the Emerging Arts at Oberlin, where she teaches in the Studio Arts and TIMARA (Technology in Music and Related Arts) Departments. She has also taught at Stanford University and California College of the Arts.

Past Events:

Sept. 19, Fri.
6-8pm: Hometown BBQ Reception

Nov. 13, Thurs.
4:30-6pm: Carnegie Mellon University Lecture Series: Big Box Reuse Presentation
+ Book Signing

Oct. 2, Thurs.
Unbox Event: CRAFT LUNCHTIME with CFAfun

Oct. 28, Tues.
Unbox Event: "From Cellar to Attic", video installation by Ian Warren

· Worlds Away: New Suburban Landscapes: Carnegie Museum of Art,
Oct. 2008–Jan. 2009

· Society for Photographic Education: Mid-Atlantic Conference, Nov. 7-9, 2008

Feb. 25 – Mar. 19, 2010 Richmond Center for Visual Arts, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI