Thursday, April 15, 2010

"keys to an eighty-eighth" - a new group project / curated by j. shelley harrison

“Keys to an Eighty-Eighth”
*an 88 person group art project curated by – j. shelley harrison
2010

About this project:

With “Keys to an Eighty-Eighth”, artist j. shelley harrison has created a very encompassing project based on a straightforward and communicable concept, the type of she is often noted for. After destroying a piano for a project by (knee shy) in early 2010, harrison was felt compelled to creatively implement the leftover parts. She was specifically drawn to the piano’s keys, and decided to distribute all 88 of them amongst 88 selected creative individuals.

The guidelines provided by harrison were extremely loose. Each individual has been instructed to prepared their key in some creative fashion, and returned the product to Harrison upon it’s completion. Per instruction, all participants maintain the control to do basically whatever they want involving the key given to them. Thanks to this liberalness, the body of work as a whole is already showing signs of incredible depth, and creative elements from one extreme to the next.

The ongoing variety of the pieces of can also be attributed to the scope of individuals selected by harrison to be part of the project. For participants, she selected creatives of all kinds, from all over the map. Visual artists, designers, writers, children, musicians, strangers, friends, family, insiders and outsiders... you name it. By inviting such a diverse crowd, she has captured a full spectrum of backgrounds and approaches, from sculptural to audio, photography to poetry.

Keys are still steadily arriving, and the end date from the project is still in the future. After all the keyed-up pieces make their return, the entire collection will be shown in a gallery exhibition. Where and when are still up in the air, and there is also the possibility of showings in multiple cities.

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