About this project
I will create a public large-scale exterior intervention in which the sculpture simultaneously imposes and interacts with an old riverside mill site adjacent to the Grand Rapids Public Museum. The sculpture will be exhibited in conjunction with ArtPrize Grand Rapids, an annual public event attracting more than 200,000 visitors. ArtPrize is one part arts festival and one part social experiment where the public chooses the best art project.
The sculpture that I will create will be unique and specific to the site at the Museum. It will be constructed on site during a ‘mini’ residency lasting approximately two weeks, allowing the public to witness first hand the creation process as I personally construct the sculpture. The final form will be dependent on funding and engineering but generally speaking it will be a towering structure with an exposed cave like interior allowing visitors to experience the piece from beneath in addition to surrounding views. The particular structure that I have in mind is a chaotic geodesic configuration or lattice like structure composed entirely of uniform sized lumber, most likely 1000 to 4000 pieces of 2”x4”x8”, that allows for multiple interpretations including but not limited to, skeletal remains, bio-mimicry, architecture, growth, and non-hierarchical organization. At the end of the festival if all components of the sculpture are not sold, or the entire sculpture is not sold, I will dismantle the sculpture to be repurposed or recycled locally in Grand Rapids.
The desired affect will ultimately be to stimulate dialogue towards the intervention as to its metaphorical nature. As an intervention, is it an infestation, interpolation, or industrial anomaly? Ultimately the answer lies with the citizens and voting members of ArtPrize and Grand Rapids.
Funds raised will go towards airfare for the artist, food/lodging during ‘mini’ residency, materials, and other sculpture related costs.
FAQ
Have a question? If the info above doesn't help, you can ask the project creator directly.
21
Backers
$4,000
pledged of $3,500 goal
0
seconds to go
Funding Successful
This project successfully raised its funding goal on July 13, 2011.
Pledge $25 or more Pledge $25 or more
Backers at this level will be thanked on the project website and signage at the installation site.
Pledge $100 or more Pledge $100 or more
For backers at this level, in addition to acknowledgment on the project website and signage, they will receive a project photo documentation book (approx 60 pages).
Pledge $500 or more Pledge $500 or more
In addition to previous rewards, generous backers at this level will receive a high quality archival photographic print of the project.
Pledge $1,000 or more Pledge $1,000 or more
In addition to all of the above reward levels, backers at this level will receive a framed medium sized original drawing of their choice from a selection by the artist, John Kenneth Melvin.
Project By
Connected as John K Melvin (693 friends)
John K. Melvin is a multi-disciplinary artist working primarily with sculptural installations intended or situated in the public realm. Throughout all of his work there is a strong commitment to an investigation of material guided by conceptual practice.
In the process of this investigation, connections are made between themes of absence and presence -- and material movements through time, place, identity, order, and change. The material response to these environments tends to be of an industrial nature, as that history and reference is a nostalgic component of Melvin’s perspective. His current research investigates fields of flexible structures, modular methodologies, and systems of repetition that occur in natural constructs. At the center of this investigation is to distill a meaning of ecology that is relevant to cultural identity.
Exhibitions of his work have been in San Francisco, Portland, Santa Fe, Sarasota, and Boston nationally, as well as internationally in Scotland, France, and the Ukraine. Melvin earned his BFA from Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, Massachusetts, a Post-Baccalaureate from the Pont-Aven School of Contemporary Art in France, and received his MFA in 2009 from the San Francisco Art Institute. For more information please visit http://www.johnkmelvin.com
