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We’ve noticed an ongoing trend: smaller is better. From a backyard curiosity shop in Brooklyn to a kitschy mini-museum in Tribeca, artists are squeezing their works into smaller and smaller spaces. Matthew Jensen‘s ‘A Collection of Walks: Or How to Get To the Earth’ seems to aim for the same thing.
It is the second residency of the summer project, ‘Studio in the Park,’ a collaboration between the Queens Museum of Flushing Meadows Corona Park and ArtBuilt Mobile Studios built around a 150-square foot gallery space housed in a trailer. Jensen’s mini-show debuted on the 15th, just a short walk from the New York State Pavilion and across the flower gardens from the Unisphere.
The premise of Jensen’s project is quite simple, and resembles just the right sort of grassroots, urban artistry that fits a trailer park art gallery in the shadow of the Queens Museum. Mapping out 14 different routes to the Unisphere from 14 landmarks scattered throughout New York City, Jensen will walk the entire way, picking up whatever he finds. These found items, “objects, detritus, and ephemera,” are then displayed in the gallery space as the residency goes on. The goal is for the gallery space to become a “cabinet of curiosities,” filled with the items of the city’s streets and pathways.
The displayed items will coincide with a map that Jensen will create with the purpose of providing visitors with a way to explore the physicality of their own communities.
Jensen was one of two artists selected by the Museum and ArtBuilt from an open call to occupy the mini-gallery over the summer. The first residency, called ‘The Peoples Design Laboratory‘ was intended by artist Patrick Rowe to be a creative space in which visitors are invited to create their own urban navigational signage for the park. An exercise in ‘collaborative artmaking,’ Rowe’s project ended July 15th.
In turn, ‘Studio in the Park’ will continue its second residency through August 16th.
Next, see photos of the 1964 World’s Fair, held 50 years ago at Flushing Meadows Corona Park. Get in touch with the author @jinwoochong.
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