Get The Press Release – 2013 AiOP Number

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NUMBER OCTOBER 11-20
Along 14th Street from Avenue C to the Hudson River, NYC

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NEW YORK, NY (October, 2013) Art in Odd Places (AiOP), New York City’s annual public art and performance festival announces the program for its ninth edition to take place this October 11-20 along 14th Street from Avenue C to the Hudson River.

This year’s theme is NUMBER which investigates the pressing, poignant and provocative ways in which numbers populate daily life. Everyday, in countless ways, they hold us to account, steal into our memories, lead us and crowd us – through banks and foreclosures, landlords, censuses, salaries, passwords, pin numbers and phone numbers, votes and statistics. Calculation, measurement and collection exist alongside hope, luck and play.

The artists in this edition play with the restrictions and buoyancies of numbers in our daily lives: they archive daily thoughts; explore the oppositional meanings of numbers; invite you to a game of happiness hopscotch; or on an urban wildnerness hike led by a canine companion and a Companion Species app; give out lottery tickets in return for your desires; re-imagine the street through novel forms of wayfinding; map the waterlines of our topography; dial a call to connect you to your past; and stimulate an exchange on the “hot button issues” that face our city. “We invited artists to explore the numerologies of our time,’ said guest curator, Radhika Subramaniam, “and their projects combine the mundane, mythic and magical in equal proportions.”

“This year, I’m excited to take the ‘show on the road’, exploring the same theme in diverse locations with their own stories, histories and scale,” said Ed Woodham, director/founder of AiOP. “AiOP will work with local artists in Warringah and Manly, Australia and at the Southeastern College Art Conference in Greensboro, North Carolina.”

WHO:

CURATOR: Radhika Subramaniam is Director/Chief Curator of the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center (SJDC) at Parsons The New School for Design where she is Assistant Professor in the School of Art and Design History and Theory. With an interest in urban crises and surprises, her curatorial practice is cross-disciplinary, committed to critical urbanism, social and political justice, and public pedagogy. In 2009, she curated AiOP: SIGN with Erin Donnelly.

AiOP Founder and Director: Ed Woodham

Festival Producer: Sarah Brozna

Curatorial Assistant: Claire Demere

WHAT:

SELECTED PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS:

Hot Button Issues / Concerned New Yorkers:
Part public performance, part civic survey, the artists use the tradition of political campaign pins to map the concerns of New Yorkers.

The Dept of Accumulated Thoughts, Division Overtime / Tatlo (Sara Jimenez, Michael Watson, Jade Yumang):
A performative archiving by three characters with an office desk who will interact and survey the public through a rigorous method of absurdist but essential data collecting.

Borders / Merav Ezer:
Installation of an architectural blueprint of the artist’s apartment into which she will invite guests.

Human Cannonball Countdown / Rory Golden:
A colorful cape-wearing figure in a gold helmet enlists help from passersby in surprising interactions to conduct random acts of boldness, bravery and fun. This Human Cannonball counts down to audacious acts in cahoots with the public.

Opportunity for Reflection / Institute for Sociometry:
Inspired by the oppositional identities that numbers evoke in us, docents carrying facial reflection shadow boxes with changeable images will invite the public to see their faces inset into portraits relating to a number on the box.

Remembrance of Phone Numbers Past / LuLu LoLo:
Telephone Operator Loretta, circa 1940, will attempt to connect passers-by to the earliest phone number they remember and invite them to leave a message to the past.

Wallart Takeover / Jerry D. McGuire:
50 hand-painted unauthorized advertisements reading: Wallart, Save Money, Live Poorer, 99% of the entire store.

Manhattan Phrase: 40.74279,-74.008981 to 40.728411,-73.975679 / Shannon Novak:
An augmented reality mobile experience of the musical history of twelve sites on 14th Street, connecting songs to colors and shapes.

Dirty Laundry Line / Tracee Worley:
A toll-free hot-line that invites the public to air their “dirty laundry”.

WISH//CLOCK / Toisha Tucker:
A series of clock faces with all the numbers in the same or consecutive order granting the possibility of a wish come true.

Signs of Intelligence / Samwell Freeman and Julia Vallera:
Hand crafted, temporarily installed street signs that re-imagine NYC’s historic “14th street”. The signs are designed to hide in plain sight, offering a surprising reward for perceptive pedestrians.

Dreams for Free / Jody Servon:
The artist purchases and distributes lottery tickets to people inviting them to share their desires in exchange for a chance at winning millions of dollars.

0 (Women) / Paula Hunter and JUMP!:
A relay dance performed by young dancers advertising on their backs the jobs/positions that women have never held.

Take a Number / Vicky Virgin:
A choreographer and demographic analyst invites the public on an adventure to see how art and statistical literacy connect.

WHEN:

October 11-20, 2013.
Opening reception
Friday, Oct 11, 6-8pm Pedro Albizu Campos Plaza, 14th Street between Avenue B & C

WHERE:

14th Street between Avenue C and the Hudson River, New York City.
Subways: 4, 5, 6, L, N, Q, R, W to Union Square; 1, 2, 3, A, C, E, F, V to 14th Street.
L to First Avenue, Third Avenue, Union Square, Sixth Avenue, and Eighth Avenue

WHY:

Art in Odd Places (AiOP) is a thematic annual festival that presents visual and performance art in public spaces along 14th Street in Manhattan, NYC from Avenue C to the Hudson River each October. Active in New York City since 2005, AiOP aims to stretch the boundaries of communication in the public realm by presenting artworks in all disciplines outside the confines of traditional public space regulations. Using 14th Street as a laboratory, this project continues AiOP’s work to locate apertures in public space policies, and to inspire the popular imagination for new possibilities and engagement with civic space. AiOP is a project of GOH Productions.

AiOP MEDIA CONTACTS:

Jen Smith • amensuburbia@gmail.com

Sarah Brozna • Sarahbrozna@gmail.com

Ed Woodham • artinoddplaces@gmail.com