FLUXspace, Extra Extra, and Little Berlin Present: THE DEPARTMENT OF ALTERNATIVE AFFAIRS June 24 - July 29, 2011 Opening Reception: Friday, June 24, 5 to 7 pm Gallery Hours:
In February 2011, the Exhibitions Advisory Committee of City Hall invited the artist-run organizations Extra Extra, FLUXspace, and Little Berlin to collaborate on an exhibition to be presented in room 116, City Hall, Philadelphia in the summer. To participate in such a project, a divergence from FLUXspace’s usual working style was necessary: a project in City Hall has specific limitations and expectations, a set of obstructions perhaps, which created an initial framework for our efforts. Thus, having found ourselves working at the site of Philadelphia’s city government, it seemed most pertinent to create a project which could investigate our notions of place, power, access, and labor. The office of the Department of Alternative Affairs aims to provoke comparisons between our collaborative modes of production and traditional bureaucratic hierarchical structures. We see the office as a means of bringing to light the administrative work we do as volunteer workers at art spaces. Additionally it is a site to elevate something we value: namely an unwieldy collection of microfilm. Referring to a series of Maintenance Art Performances by Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Helen Molesworth states: “The silliness of the piece hardly mitigates the incisiveness of the critique of the modern organization of work, as the diagram satirizes the managerial desire to divide labor and in so doing assigning it different types of value.” (Helen Molesworth, Work Ethic [PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2003]) Here, in our collectively fabricated Department of Alternative Affairs, we desire to explore the sanctioned and the non-sanctioned, the skilled and non-skilled, the amateur and the professional, and the validated and the disregarded.
Extra Ephemera and Digital Detritus: The FLUXspace Museum of Contemporary Culture: The Microfilm Collection (.pdf) Department of Alternative Affair's Website
Press: WHYY (NPR) - "Whimsy for art's sake: Fake office makes a real point" by Peter Crimmins, June 25, 2011 Phillly Side Arts -"The Department of Alternative Affairs @ Philadelphia City Hall Art Gallery" by DoN Brewer, June 25, 2011 Philebrity -"The Office Of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy Introduces The Department of Alternative Affairs", June 22, 2011 The Nicola Midnight St. Claire - "Department of Alternative Affairs with Little Berlin, Extra Extra, and FLUXspace" by Nicole Wilson, July 8, 2011 One Review A Month - "SHOW REVIEWED: The DAA at the Art Gallery in City Hall" by Annette Monnier, July 31, 2011
For more information on this show, contact info[at]thefluxspace[dot]org. |
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