It is one thing to feature an exhibition from an individual or a collective in an art gallery. Most exhibitions consist of pieces of work which are brought in, set up, and later dismantled and moved to another space, or possibly a storage unit.
“Site-specific” works, however, are made to address the space in particular. While they have recently been popularized as the basis of street art, projects of this kind are a rarity in the traditional arts scene. One Miami organization called Dimensions Variable wants to blur that line and bring these unique projects into the gallery.
The organization has made it their mission to “provide a forum for the introduction of unfamiliar, complex, collaborative and multidisciplinary practices to a Miami audience,” and with the help of recently winning a Knight Arts Challenge grant, they are soon going to be able to expand their project, and widen their scope. Recently I had the pleasure of visiting artist Alice Raymond when she was setting up her latest installation in the Dimensions Variable space in Miami’s Design District.
The current space is unassuming enough, as there is a glass entrance to a 490 square foot room with white walls and little else to speak of. Alice is constructing what looks like a wooden octagon that sits at eight feet tall with the help of two friends. One of the sides has a door and a lock on it. She explains the project, called Unit to me. “We will allow two people at a time into the room, then we close the door. You will be able to spend whatever amount of time you want in the space with your friend, girlfriend, or whoever you are with,” she says. Within the walls of the Dimensions Variable space there is now a “sub” gallery that can essentially occupy any space and still hold it’s own. And once you enter into it it is yours.
While the insides of the octagon are now blank, Alice has enlisted the works of 19 friends to line the walls, some close, some recent acquaintances. “I have always been on the move, like I have been in Miami now for two years” she tells me. “And no matter how long you stay in a place, no matter how long you are going for, you leave with two suitcases. That is what they let you take on the plane, so that’s what you take.” She goes on to describe to me that these 19 friends represent the state of her social life at this point in time. If she had to fit her friends into two suitcases, today this is all she could fit. If it were a few weeks ago, the gallery would be different, and a few months from now the same.
The following is taken from the Dimensions Variable site:
Considering them as part of herself and partly responsible of her work, Alice Raymond invites friends and colleagues she has encountered throughout her travels, to build an eclectic collection. This collection is offered to visitors within the confines of a unique structure. The structure is asymmetrical in shape with a raw and unfinished exterior. Inside, the walls are finished and create an intimate environment to offer these works as a private collection to two individuals at a time for the duration of their stay.
Behind the rough walls, we can see the formation of relationships between the participants and the artist—relationships built over time and by chance. Raymond uses the act of choice in her practice to bring together people and their offered objects for one installation. Instead of decisions about materials, Raymond is interested in social choices influenced by her travels and everyday encounters. This project brings up collective pluralistic ideas and questions the individualistic tendencies popular in the art world.
We look forward to following the organization over the course of the next year as they gain traction thanks to the Knight Arts Challenge grant.
This unique project is running from January 14 through February 18, 2012. Dimensions Variable is located at 171 NE 38th Street in the Miami Design District.
