By: Julia Wald
Guest Editor: Vincent Sherry
History attests that art lays the groundwork for social awareness and change, a truism a noted sculptor has acted on in a new exhibit he hopes will help form the understructure of a better city.
Social Dress Buffalo, at the Buffalo Arts Studio, is a presentation meant to galvanize communities to revitalize the East and West sides. It is the latest installment of New York City-based artist Takashi Horisaki's Social Dress projects, sculptures addressing urban sprawl and decay.
As Horisaki's website says, "The project is intended to inspire a sense of togetherness and similarity of purpose within the community so as to foster empowerment among local citizens that may inspire creativity in local responses to this ongoing crisis."
Though cities around the country, including better-known ones, suffer from urban decay and sprawl, Horisaki said he chose Buffalo because he worries that the lack of attention to its problems could worsen them.
"(Buffalo) has been and continues to be affected by both the general trend of migration out of urban centers and the specifics of the home loan crisis," he said. "Some of the cities that are worse off have gotten a lot of press, but my concern is that those that have not received as much attention are in the most dangerous situation as they could be on the precipice of a downward spiral with another economic downturn or housing crash."
The Japanese-born performance artist, whose post-Hurricane Katrina work in New Orleans drew a national spotlight, sought to include the community in every step of the creative process, working with students and urban renewal organizations such as PUSH Buffalo and Buffalo ReUse. The effort began with an invitation from the Buffalo Arts Studio after Horisaki visited Buffalo last summer.
The sculpture is dome-shaped and covered with thin, colorful latex molds of the exoskeletons of abandoned homes on the East and West sides. Horisaki said the shape is meant to be a bridge between the past and the future because 20th-century architects proposed that domes would become prominent design elements. Although at first glance the structure appears to be somewhat like an igloo, the texture of the latex coverings draws the viewer in for a closer inspection. Horisaki is definitely interested in the small details that give homes their character, as evident in his use of disintegrated bricks and the fragile design of an old window frame.
But most interesting and moving is the memorial to a neighborhood of ghosts: a wall of address numbers, colorful latex casts hung adjacent to the dome, that emphasize that mail was once sent to these homes.
While the exhibit, running through Aug. 7, is supposed to send a message of community action and rebirth, it also raises some questions. Why were these homes abandoned in the first place? Are these homes even salvageable? Or are they just husks, their roofs caving in, their wooden floors rotting, and their walls eaten by mold?
Nevertheless, not all is lost: These houses after all still stand, and there is time to save the communities they occupy. The belief is that Buffalo, just like its other Social Dress counterparts, can renew and rebuild.
Buffalo Arts Studio
2495 Main Street
Buffalo, NY 14214
(716) 833-4450
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Julia Wald is a student working towards a degree in journalism and fine arts at a local college. She enjoys biking around Buffalo, going to concerts, creating art, and writing her music blog.
Vincent Sherry, a Buffalo native, is a freelance reporter and copy editor. He also tutors second-language learners of English. He graduated from Howard University in 2007.
View image
Guest Editor: Vincent Sherry
History attests that art lays the groundwork for social awareness and change, a truism a noted sculptor has acted on in a new exhibit he hopes will help form the understructure of a better city.
Social Dress Buffalo, at the Buffalo Arts Studio, is a presentation meant to galvanize communities to revitalize the East and West sides. It is the latest installment of New York City-based artist Takashi Horisaki's Social Dress projects, sculptures addressing urban sprawl and decay.
As Horisaki's website says, "The project is intended to inspire a sense of togetherness and similarity of purpose within the community so as to foster empowerment among local citizens that may inspire creativity in local responses to this ongoing crisis."
Though cities around the country, including better-known ones, suffer from urban decay and sprawl, Horisaki said he chose Buffalo because he worries that the lack of attention to its problems could worsen them.
"(Buffalo) has been and continues to be affected by both the general trend of migration out of urban centers and the specifics of the home loan crisis," he said. "Some of the cities that are worse off have gotten a lot of press, but my concern is that those that have not received as much attention are in the most dangerous situation as they could be on the precipice of a downward spiral with another economic downturn or housing crash."
The Japanese-born performance artist, whose post-Hurricane Katrina work in New Orleans drew a national spotlight, sought to include the community in every step of the creative process, working with students and urban renewal organizations such as PUSH Buffalo and Buffalo ReUse. The effort began with an invitation from the Buffalo Arts Studio after Horisaki visited Buffalo last summer.
The sculpture is dome-shaped and covered with thin, colorful latex molds of the exoskeletons of abandoned homes on the East and West sides. Horisaki said the shape is meant to be a bridge between the past and the future because 20th-century architects proposed that domes would become prominent design elements. Although at first glance the structure appears to be somewhat like an igloo, the texture of the latex coverings draws the viewer in for a closer inspection. Horisaki is definitely interested in the small details that give homes their character, as evident in his use of disintegrated bricks and the fragile design of an old window frame.
But most interesting and moving is the memorial to a neighborhood of ghosts: a wall of address numbers, colorful latex casts hung adjacent to the dome, that emphasize that mail was once sent to these homes.
While the exhibit, running through Aug. 7, is supposed to send a message of community action and rebirth, it also raises some questions. Why were these homes abandoned in the first place? Are these homes even salvageable? Or are they just husks, their roofs caving in, their wooden floors rotting, and their walls eaten by mold?
Nevertheless, not all is lost: These houses after all still stand, and there is time to save the communities they occupy. The belief is that Buffalo, just like its other Social Dress counterparts, can renew and rebuild.
Buffalo Arts Studio
2495 Main Street
Buffalo, NY 14214
(716) 833-4450
----
Julia Wald is a student working towards a degree in journalism and fine arts at a local college. She enjoys biking around Buffalo, going to concerts, creating art, and writing her music blog.
Vincent Sherry, a Buffalo native, is a freelance reporter and copy editor. He also tutors second-language learners of English. He graduated from Howard University in 2007.
in what way does a balloon-frame wooden house have an 'exoskeleton?'
how will draping abstract latex molds of isolated house parts over geodesic domes foster 'empowerment' and 'creativity?'
will policy-makers see this work and suddenly embrace the formation of a land-banking entity? will they speed up the form-based code revision? will they expand the preservation tax credits? will housing court start jailing repeat offenders? will more neighborhoods pursue local historic district designation? will we finally get land-value taxation so that investment is rewarded rather than penalized? or an urban growth boundary?
sorry to be a crank, but i am a little insulted by the implication that buffalo's problem is that we suffer from a 'creativity' deficit requiring intervention from a visiting artist. what we lack are appropriate urban policies.
my balloon frame house has an exoskeleton made of asbestos shingles!