Kickstarter

WHAT IS MARIAN SPORE? Marian Spore is an accumulative museum of contemporary art in Industry City, Brooklyn founded by Michael Connor in September 2009. New artworks are regularly added to a steadily-growing exhibition housed in a 16,000 square foot space.

IS MARIAN SPORE A COLLECTION? We think of Marian Spore as an art collection, although the works have not been purchased. Instead, they are all on loan from the artists until the space closes in December 2010. At that point, we aim to sell the collection as a whole into the care of a larger institution.

PROJECT 1: FLOAT! BY THOM KUBLI One at a time, members of the audience float in a custom-designed isolation tank, listening to an audio composition about politics and zero gravity. We need $2200 to bring this unique project to Marian Spore. This will go towards tank transport, installation, salt and equipment.

PROJECT 2: PARADOXICAL SLEEP BY MARINA ZURKOW Zurkow will 'submerge' Marian Spore by digitally compositing floodwaters into video footage of the space. The resulting videos, which may be taken as haunting visions of the future, are played on monitors that hang on specially fabricated steel armatures in the space. We need $1000 to pay for a professional videographer and camera rental as well as the modification of the steel armatures.

PROJECT 3: MODELS FOR A HISTORY OF LIGHT BY JOE WINTER Artist Joe Winter makes beautiful abstract photograms (cameraless photographs) by exposing ordinary construction paper to household lights over long periods of time. The work has been on view since December at Marian Spore; we need $800 to pay for installation materials (wood, display cases, framing, further light fixtures).

OUR NAMESAKE The space is named after the wife of Industry City's founder, Irving T. Bush. Spore (1878-1946) was a visionary artist who claimed to commune with the spirits of dead artists. Working from their instructions, she made surrealist-tinged paintings that offered stark visions of the future. She is our 'patron saint', but there is no direct connection between the space and her estate.