Life @ Otis : Faculty Life : Faculty Development

Renee Petropoulos


2008-09 Faculty Development Grant

FacDev Petropoulos 317paces view 1

FacDev Petropoulos 317paces view 4

FacDev Petropoulos 317paces view 3

FacDev Petropoulos 317paces view 2

FacDev Petropoulos 317paces view 5

       

June 2009:
As per my proposal I am currently working on a brochure/document for my project 317 Paces and 2 Stops (and 4). I have had the photographs taken and refined,  and have begun the layout for the brochure. The text is not yet complete but will be by July. We have designed a folding, three part brochure (six pages) that will have photographs on both the front and the back.

Excerpt from the original text for the Grant Project:
I would like to produce a document/brochure to accompany the artwork, "317 Paces and 21 stops" (and 4). This document would be formatted in a 7 x 7" three panel brochure. This is in keeping with three previously published brochures created for three of my public artworks. (Please see accompanying material) The brochure would contain a series of photographs and a written essay describing and commenting upon the artwork. Some of the brochures would be available at the site where the work exists, and the rest would be for distribution in the community at large.

It is important for me to document and extend the public life of the work as it is site specific but of a social nature that has common characteristics to many public situations. The work itself exists in a space that is often perceived as public, but is in fact privately owned. It exists in the area between the city sidewalk and the edge of the building, traveling into every opening or suggested opening of the building (25 in total). The work itself advances, on the one hand the material of terrazzo asking it to reflect upon itself as a "decorative" floor material and image while on the other hand to reflect on the nature of public and private space as it is publicly encountered (via the car and the pedestrian).

This document would operate in several ways. It would reveal the thinking behind and expanding the perception of one work for those residing or inhabiting the building. It would also further the discourse in the professional art world that I inhabit through a scholarly text written by art historian Sally Stein. The brochure extends and expands on the life of the artwork as well as giving further visibility to an aspect of my practice that has been ongoing for twenty years. It is an important aspect of the permanent work as public works are often subsumed and 'lost' to discourse although their presence seems so 'available.' Chronicling and commenting on the work brings it into the oeuvre of my entire body of work as an artist, and centralizes it within this discourse.
Images from the project, 2009
Pasadena, CA