Grand Prizes: A Shortlisted History

Intersections made of laser-etched wood fill the room

with shadows and patterns from a single light source.

A series of photographs and sewn canvases depict

poetry, politics — and hairdressing history. A young girl

cries out for ultimate help and healing – painting herself

into the woods — a perspective of soldiers’ autumn

passage. Twenty-four circles of old set diamonds unchain

the neighborhood – all witness the arts’ collective

court martial. Hyper-realistic hearts sculpt the pond — now

engulfed in glass as Poseidon’s paradise. From afar,

the arts are an island in motion — etched on grains of rice.

Audiences barely notice wavy vibrations or anatomies

of a house — a beehive – where living sculpture embeds

itself inside. Crystal mural walls color out darkness.

Urban tumbleweeds — always nowhere – play chess alone.

Voyeurs watch living canvases of site-specific works.

Visitors dance through the annexes’ original pasts —

view legendary works like project Operation Pay Dirt

and (shortlisted) Life Copies of Musical Capitalism. Yet, despite

similarities to reality, this is simply a series of breaths –

symptomatic constants – including Japanese papercuts

and river petroglyphs. There’s something happening

in the shipwreck of the Midwest. Domestic upheavals place

exhibit items in touch with others in twisting turmoils —

self-portraits as bunnies, as bathers. Ninety-year-old jurors

take over the vacant art and design colleges downtown.

The church becomes a map museum. Fountainheads transform

into institutes for artist-educators — who still stand there

for venues, for visitors — for volunteers — for the grand rapids.

. . . . .

Poet: Susan Powers Bourne
Source: ArtPrize History
Process: Mined and remixed