#fortunefactory

I installed this site-modified presentation of the Walliecamp Fortune Factory at the one and only Dirt Palace artists collective in Providence, RI this week. The installation will be on view for the rest of the month.

It was mind-blowing to see this historic building (formerly a Public Library turned pharmacy, turned jewelry workshop, partially burned-down and made one story shorter at some point) reimagined and reconstructed by women artists over the past decade and a half. Downstairs studio space is packed with projects. Walls are covered with posters, masks and costumes from past and future events and performances. Vibrant colors, decorative silkscreens and hand-written signs abound on walls and floors. Print-making equipment, band practice room, sewing room and wood shop are used by the artists who reside upstairs, where remnants of the old library can be seen in a series of massive bookshelves waiting to be catalogued by some brave library scientist looking for out-of-print treasures of art and crafting books. 

Though I installed on the coldest days yet this winter and the paint froze on the glass as I painted, I left inspired by the fact that, even in our state of global flatness, self-sustaining, one-of-a-kind places are alive, breathing and accumulating items of furniture and decoration. Indeed, the activity of being in a place defends presence, resists reproduction, or at least forces it to become its own thing, related, but not the same as the place itself. 

We create our own reality. The Dirt Palace demonstrates this power to be and to make. 

Window text

Left panel:

a modular epic landscape that inspires in spite of architecture... imagine:

self reflection

commerce

exchange

meditation

yoga

relaxation

awakening 

reinvigoration

natural healing

networking

entreprenurealism

wilderness

self-reliance

emotional wellbeing

connectivity

oneness

freedom

integration

harmony

freshness

pristine newness

spontaneity

disruptive technologies

purity

wholeness

sublime beauty

endless horizons...

a truly grounded sense of self rooted in authentic lived experience

Right Panel:

On life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness:

1 in 3 of us is very happy.1

nearly 1 out of every 100 adults in prison or jail.2

our prison population is largely drawn from the most disadvantaged part of the population: men under age 40, disproportionately minority, and poorly educated.

we are more unequal than most of our developed-world peers.3

wealth inequality is even greater than income inequality. 

the richest fifth of Americans held 88.9% of all wealth in 2014.

emotional well-being rises with income up to ~$75,000/year.4