Art in Odd Places Normal 2021

www.artinoddplaces.org

LABOR LINES: THE WORK OF CONTEMPLATION

Chris Kaczmarek

Along the length of 14th street, 100 labyrinths are drawn in a single day. Through this action of endurance and repetition, this symbol of contemplation becomes conflated with acts of resolute production.

Saturday May 15, 10:30am - Until....

LOCATION

14th Street from Avenue C to the Hudson River.

Art in Odd Places NORMAL 2021

The Viral and Racial Pandemic confirms that the structures established for collective order in the United States of America failed. Colleges are run like companies and the criminal justice system like corporations. Corporations are bailed out with trillions of tax-payer’s dollars while citizens are made homeless by eviction. At our nation’s border desperate families are separated, and children caged. Hospitals struggle with depleted resources during a global pandemic, and police continue to brutalize black citizens. All this while the U.S. elected President orders the use of clubs and tear gas on peaceful protesters to enable a quick photo shoot with a bible.

Some are quick to place blame on 45’s presidency. The man is an amalgamation of everything that is hateful and wrong in America. Trump, however, is the result of the failings of this country, not the cause. Many in the United States of America clearly do not have the inalienable rights promised to them by the Constitution. The ‘Great American Dream’– championed as the right of every citizen– is a sham, and has always been a sham. Hard work does not guarantee success for all. Racism, classism, xenophobia, islamophobia, and homophobia are deeply rooted in our democracy. The American Normal is a culture steeped in severe inequities and greed.

Art in Odd Places (AiOP) 2021: NORMAL, curated by Furusho von Puttkammer, invites artists to critique and dissect the American Mythos for AiOP’s sixteenth annual public art and performance festival taking place from Avenue C to the Hudson River along 14th Street in Manhattan, NY.

NORMAL. ELITIST. POWER. CORRUPTION. HYPOCRISY. DELUSION.

Art in Odd Places 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. AiOP reminds us that public spaces function as the epicenter for diverse social interactions and the unfettered exchange of ideas.

Art in Odd Places (AiOP) began as an action by a group of artists led by Ed Woodham to encourage local participation in the Cultural Olympiad of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. In 2005, after moving back to New York City, he re imagined it as a response to the dwindling of public space and personal civil liberties – first in the Lower East Side and East Village, and since 2008, on 14th Street in Manhattan. AiOP has always been a grassroots project fueled by the goodwill and inventiveness of its participants.

CHRIS KACZMAREK

CHRIS KACZMAREK