26 october 17, 2014 | the providence phoenix | providence.thephoenix.com | @provphoenix | facebook.com/providencephoenix
art October 2 – November 2
making life more magical on ideas and community _By gr eg cook In 2004, the
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greg cook
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amazing alternative art empire, published a paper titled “Compost and the Arts.” It argued that though this art-making thing can seem mysterious, there are practical ways of incubating exciting creative communities. Key among them is offering shared workspaces, bulletin boards, galleries, and hangouts like cafes and bars. Because places where people meet and ideas get shared are ELEMENTAL the 2010 iron Pour at the steel yard. vital to creativity. Theaters, music halls, galleries, and newspapers like our I feel tolerated, rather than embraced or dear departing Providence Phoenix — the encouraged. The Phoenix has been one of spark for these thoughts today — are the rare places in my life where I’ve felt at machines for seeding ideas into our home — a big, public institution for the communities. freaks and activists, the radicals and the And I think these mechanics were rascals. Losing it, for me, is like the death on the mind of John Adams, the second of a close friend. The loss is physical, in American president, when he became the my belly. principal author of the constitution for Last Monday saw the infectious that state to the north of here, MassachuPRONK! street band festival here in Provisetts — the joint that the great founders dence. I’ve been studying how these of Providence were smart enough to get spectacular events work for years now, thrown out of. things like the Urban Pond Procession, But Massachusetts got this thing right. WaterFire and the astonishing annual In the fine art world, there’s lots of dreary Halloween Iron Pour at Providence’s Steel talk about how the creative economy will Yard (on October 25 this year). Community give people jobs or bring moolah to restauspectacles assert that life is more magical rants and souvenir shops, or something. than our usual daily grind — by actually Instead I’m inspired that Adams and going out into the streets and making life friends made it the legal “duty of legislamore magical. tures and magistrates, in all future periIn her 2006 book Dancing In the Streets: A ods of this Commonwealth” to promote History of Collective Joy, social critic Barbara the arts. Ehrenreich notes that around the 17th Why is this the duty of the Massachucentury, carnival, communal rituals and setts government? Because the arts help festivities were extensively drummed spread “wisdom, and knowledge, as well out of Europe for fears that they were imas virtue.” And that fostering these qualimoral, raucous, sexy fun — and that they ties is “necessary for the preservation of might inspire folks to overthrow kings their rights and liberties.” and bishops. This coincided in the West In other words, Adams and friends are with “an epidemic of melancholy.” telling us that we need the arts because Ehrenreich writes that there are reathey help us think better. And we need to sons to think “that festivities and danced think better to be successful in our roles in rituals actually cured the disease we maintaining a healthy democracy. know as depression . . . First, because such For me, writing about art is about rituals serve to break down the sufferer’s community-building in another way — to sense of isolation and reconnect him or encourage more art-making here and to her with the human community. Second, create a more wondrous and meaningful because they encourage the experience of community for all of us who live around self-loss, that is, a release, however tempothese parts. Which is part of why I prefer rary, from the prison of the self, or at least to do it at a free newspaper like the Phoefrom the anxious business of evaluating nix, to make the art we feature accessible how one stands in the group or in the eyes to more folks. of an ever-critical God.” The arts aren’t just nutritional suppleIn Providence, the magic anti-depresments, of course. As an art person, I often sant formula seems to be loud music, unfeel like I don’t fit right in the normal derground/alternative worlds, and setting world. Much as I try, it’s like I’m coming things on fire. So besides, say, mourning at it sideways or upside down. Like I’m dothe Phoenix with drink, I’m going to keep ing it wrong. Perhaps you come to the arts close to that stuff. Let’s stay in touch. because you feel this way too. Let’s hang out. You can find me on TwitWhatever the reason, it feels like I end ter @AestheticResear and at the Facebook. up doing projects in many places where And I’ll be around. ^
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