Michael E. Smith Untitled 2009 digital print on paper with latex and television screen 8.75" x 11.5" [installation view]
Jacques Vidal FORCED FRIENDSHIP, WITH COLLABORATIVE BASE WITH KATE 2009 wood, plastic, pipe, black caulking 61" x 53" x 50" [installation view]
Elaine Stocki Nelson platinum print 22" x 22"
Brian Faucette Blood Drive Flyers inkjet print on paper 11" x 8.5" each [detail of installation]
Kate Levant Waiting Area 2009 mixed media, dimensions variable [installation view]
CORRECTION: The blood collection is today (Wednesday) and Thursday, not Thursday and Friday. The show comes down at the end of the day on Friday.
Kate Levant appears to have pulled off a pretty amazing stunt at Zach Feuer with her exhibition, and performance, "Blood Drive", what the artist describes as the product of "an open platform invitation towards a commission to produce promotional material for a blood donation drive."
Not your usual late summer art show.
The visuals have already been assembled in the gallery for some time, but the art all comes together over the next three days, beginning with a performance tomorrow night at eight by Jacques Vidal and Noel Anderson, "a glue that will stick anything together forever". A real-time community blood drive will follow from 1:30 until 7 on both Wednesday and Thursday, with the show wrapping at the end of the day on Friday, September 4. You can sign up by emailing the gallery at [email protected] I have no idea how it's going to go off, but this last act will be as interactive as the crowd wants it to be, and I trust these artists to make it more than interesting.
The artists "commissioned" for the installation itself are Noel Anderson, BOBO, Brian Faucette, Michael E. Smith, Elaine Stocki and Jacques Vidal.
Levant already has an auspicious triumph, but this is hardly a surprise to anyone who has had the privilege of encountering her before.
We first met Levant in October, 2006, when she arrived to help Vidal install his large light box, "The Holy Art Project", while we were installing the show we curated at Dam, Stuhltrager, "Dangling Between The Real Thing And The Sign In The Window". Just two months later we were delighted to learn that her art was as impressive as her ability to pitch in for a friend and charm the pants off two strangers. We saw her work in a wonderful installation, "Attic", inside Anton Kern's 21st street annex for a couple of weeks in the middle of December. That show, which was curated by Erin Somerville, also included work by Smith, who is represented in "Blood Drive". Barry put together a small slide show of images from "Attic" on Bloggy.
There are more images of this show on 16 miles of string, and documention of other work by Levant and Smith at Detroit Arts and tryharder.