The theme for this year’s ArtBeat festival in Davis Square is “Roots”, and Artisan’s Asylum was asked to do a thematic installation for the gallery space in the windows of the CVS in Davis Square to be on during the festival. We decided on a theme of “Roots of industry in Somerville”, showing examples of work currently made by Asylum members as well as images of industry historically in Somerville. My main contribution, aside from coordination, was to create a huge collaborative map that took up the entire back of one window.
I started by drawing a series of large blocks with a thick black pen, and then we set in and started coloring.
For the most part, people chose a block or series of blocks and colored them in using various different patterns. I had specified that the designs be somehow geographic (that we’re trying to fill in city blocks or subdevelopments, not just abstract shapes), but people still had some very varying ways to interpret this, including going between aerial and oblique views.
We installed the map early, and then added the rest of the installation soon after.
It turned out as a complex shadowbox of industrial and art objects, and a fun thing to look at while you pass through the square.
The display will be coming down next week, so make sure to catch it this weekend while it’s up!