The Institute of Contemporary Art invited eight artists and artists’ group to create installations, as part of the Locally Localized Gravity show. One of the main ideas here is that the installations will serve as staging areas for special events impressarioed by the eight. The exhibit opened Friday to a crowd so large the walls practically bulged.

Three of the Philadelphia collectives–Space 1026, Black Floor and LURE–have quite a number of members altogether, so the artists themselves contributed to the swollen crowd. Ultimately, more than 100 artists will perform or show or contribute in some way to this exhibit, and more than 100 events are scheduled, but from what I understand, the schedule’s a little fluid–so stay updated with the ICA here.

The other local “group,” Basekamp, is a group of one so far as I can tell. So. A conceptual group. But Scott Rigby, like the three collectives, does collaborate with others to produce shows and events.

Other artists and groups in the eight invitees are out-of-towners Matt Bakkom, Fritz Haeg, LTTR and RED76.

Space 1026’s treehouse stats

Space 1026’s onion-domed towers and tree, connected by rope bridges, turns the often unmanageable ICA space into Peter Pan’s Camelot. The project displays work from 1026’s 33-plus members.

According to Jesse Olanday–one of the engineers of the structure, along with fellow ICA employees and Space 1026ers Adam Crawford and Isaac Lin–said on opening night:

Space 1026 members made 3,000 shingles–the material recycled from the Fertilizers show at the ICA.

2,300 of the shingles got used.

Cost for rope bridge ropes–$0 (the ropes are made of recycled plastic bags and a workshop on how to make plastic bag ropes is one of the many scheduled events).

LURE’s greenhouse stats

I asked LURE’s Aaron Igler if he could tell me how many jugs of recycled cooking oil (a passive way to hold heat in the space) were in the greenhouse LURE built to survive the eco-disaster we all fear. Here’s his emailed answer:

46 jugs of waste veggie oil (primarily from Honey’s Sit-n-Eat and The Royal Tavern)
30 sheets of Homasote recycled paper board (an in-kind donation, by the way)
36 heads of Butterhead lettuce (grown on a South Jersey hydro farm, Arc Greenhouses)
3200 sq. feet of greenhouse film
900 sq. feet of Tekfoil radiant heat insulating material
14 primary collaborating artists (plus myself) and over 30 contributing individuals
24 running feet of 2×12 laminated lumber recycled from Olin/Eisenman Fertilizers exhibition
25 sheets of re-purposed slotwall MDF from future [Fabric Workshop and Museum]location
40 hay bales from a local farm in Media, PA (Linvilla Orchards)
9 greenhouse hoops, 8 hydro gutters, 1 pump and immeasurable support provided by Greensgrow CSA, Kensington

Black Floor’s stats
installed in the ICA a portable black floor on milkcrates and wheels for staging events. I asked Black Floor’s Nick Paparone how many t-shirts Black Floor gave away at the opening. Here’s his answer:

We gave away 96 shirts. There is a list of all the people who will be having shows and events on the Black Floor Gallery website: you’ll have to scroll down a bit. The 6 of us scheduled and/or curated everything. Overall about 21+ people will be participating in some sort of event or one day show.

I have to say from looking at the list of events that Black Floor is the main impressario here.

Basekamp’s picnic tables

I emailed Rigby but my email didn’t get through. I don’t know who built the picnic tables or if they are from recycled material.

On one of the tables, I did count 5 questionnaires.

Questionnaire two asks you to rank yourself on several scales to figure out whether your relationship to art defines you as a Maoist, a Deleuzian, a Situationist, an Adornian or a Greenbergian formalist.
Number three is an ultra short story with no questions.

These and the conversations and games–scheduled as events to take place at the tables–are supposed to be “research tools for a larger, upcoming project called ‘Plausible Artworlds,'” according to one of the ICA press releases. I honestly cannot tell if this is serious or a joke, but it made me laugh.
Lettuces growing in a hydroponic system in LURE’s tent

With all the ecology concerns the artists are expressing, I was saddened when I realized my pile of papers, including the press kit plus the handouts I picked up at the opening, measured more than an inch. I don’t mean to grouse. It’s just a fact–a lot of trees.

For more pictures go to my Flickr set.