“Harrell Fletcher is an American artist living in Portland, Oregon and a key figure in the development of ‘Social Practice’ and relational art in the US. A one-time collaborator with Jon Rubin, Fletcher became known for making projects in collaboration with strangers and non-artists. He went on to found the Social Practice program in the Art department of Portland State University, where he is still on faculty.”
(sources: Wikipedia + Portland State University)
If I Wasn’t Me I Would Be You
If I Wasn’t Me I Would Be You (2003) are “videos of people’s scars with the stories of how they got them”.
(source: harrellfletcher.com)
People’s Biennial
“People’s Biennial is an exhibition that examines the work of artists who operate outside the sanctioned mainstream art world. As such it recognizes a wide array of artistic expression present in many communities across the United States. Working in cities that are not considered the primary art capitals, the 36 artists in this exhibition present significant contemporary work ranging from documentary photographs of military life in the heartland, to video works focusing on the biological activity in urban ecosystems, and complex, minute marble-like sculptures carved out of soap bars. In covering even the little-known, the overlooked, the marginalized, and the excluded, the exhibition represents a real snapshot of creative practice in America today.
People’s Biennial also proposes an alternative to the standard contemporary art biennial, which mostly focuses on art from a few select cities (New York, Los Angeles, occasionally Chicago, Miami or San Francisco). It questions the often exclusionary and insular process of selecting art that has at times turned the spaces where art is exhibited into privileged havens seemingly detached from the realities of everyday life.
The exhibition is the result of a year of research into the creative communities of five American cities: Portland, Oregon; Rapid City, South Dakota; Winston-Salem, North Carolina; Scottsdale, Arizona; and Haverford, Pennsylvania. In each place, the curators collaborated with an art institution and participated in a series of public events and open-calls, meeting hundreds of artists, which led to the selection of the works on view.”
(source: ICI)
The original iteration of People’s Biennial took place in 2011. A more recent edition was organized in 2014.
One Mile Loop
“One Mile Loop (2014) is a series of public signs and musical performances that respond to the routine exercise habits of runners and walkers who regularly use the park’s walking trail. Six signs, placed at intervals along the trail, replicate historical markers, but instead of containing historical information, the markers share information about the current lives, exercise habits, and musical preferences of six Nashville citizens who regularly use the park. A musical performance was organized with six local bands playing songs selected by the runners and walkers, allowing the public to experience a continual live music experience as they make their way around the path.”
(source: harrellfletcher.com)