Jane Gotch, public² Performance Sat., Aug. 24, 6:15 p.m.

The culmination of the geolocated virtual reality performance, public², is soon approaching. The performance pieces that have insofar only been observed through the captivating VR technology at the Library NB, River Market West, and Union Station Streetcar Stops is emerging out of its digital environment and into the real world.

Photo courtesy of the artist.

The final public² performance will affirm the thesis of the project. Jane Gotch views public art acts as a microscope, directing attention towards overlooked and mundane locales within a city. Through public performance, artists generate a conceptual feedback loop, documenting and describing the environment’s history, architectural features, and inhabitants while simultaneously becoming new pieces of history and architecture.

The history of the virtual performances will be overlaid with a physical, tactile experience, a performance structured on a familiar archeology but bringing something new and transient.

public2  reimagines what “public space” is, how it is created, and how it is accessed within a city. What “public space” means, not as a physical area but a cultural definition, will be examined in this enthralling performance.

This event will take place on Saturday, August 24 at 6:15 p.m. Union Station, next to the Union Station Streetcar Stop.

Click here to add this event to your calendar

For more information about all the other exciting events this summer, be sure to visit us at artintheloop.com

 

/by

KC Campus for Animal Care – Call for Artists Extended to Aug. 23

The City of Kansas City, Missouri is seeking one artist and/or one artist team to develop and create original, innovative new works of visual art for exterior or interior spaces of Kansas City Campus for Animal Care located at the northeast corner of Elmwood Avenue and E Gregory Blvd.

The Kansas City, Missouri Animal Shelter is the third-largest open-admission no-kill shelter in the United States.

The KC Parks Department staff has been working with representatives from HNTB, Grand Construction, Kansas City Campus for Animal Care (KCCAC) and Park Staff to design and construct a new animal shelter in Swope Park. A larger upgraded facility is needed to provide better care of the animals entrusted to them and to provide better access by the community they serve. The state-of-the-art facility will be pivotal in accommodating the 57% increase in admissions since 2012 while providing a clean, accessible facility in the center of the city.

The selected artist(s) will create one (1) work of art for Kansas City Campus for Animal Care. The selected artist will work collaboratively with City staff, KCCAC Board, and the design team to develop concepts that are site-specific and site-responsive.

Deadline for submission is August 23, 2019

Estimated Public Art budget: $175,000

To apply go to https://artist.callforentry.org/festivals_unique_info.php?ID=6637

For more information contact Jimmi Lossing, 816-513-7627

/by

UN/TUCK COLLECTIVE Presents TRANS/PORTAL, Saturday, August 17 in Washington Square Park

TRANS/PORTAL is a one time, all-ages, interdisciplinary electronic popup exhibition celebrating LGBTQIA+ electronic music artists and the power of interactive media.

The UN/TUCK COLLECTIVE specializes in merging the magical with the mundane, the technological with the natural. The “PORTAL” in TRANS/PORTAL is a gateway, separating the outside world, the “known” environment of Washington Square Park, and an experience that cannot be captured or expressed with words. Let yourself pass through this gateway into a fantastic realm of radical self-expression and personal liberation. At sundown, a new life will strike down into the very core of Washington Square Park: electronic musicians, DJs, color lighting, projection mapping, live painting, installations, and dance. The music will feature live hardware and DJ sets from top artists on the UN/TUCK roster while the visuals will include projection mapping collaborations with other queer visual artists in the Kansas City community. 

By bringing together artists of various mediums, this event hopes to create an immersive display of queer/trans artistry, while building an engaging, public facing and community-minded event.

This event will take place on Saturday, August 17 at 6 p.m. in Washington Square Park. The rain date for this event will be August 24, same time and place.

Click here to add this event to your calendar

For more information about all the other exciting events this summer, be sure to visit us at artintheloop.com

/by

Endless Enlivens Washington Square Park

Endless is an outdoor visual art installation designed by emerging architectural designer and artist, Alonso L. Ortega. As part of Art in the Loop 2019 theme: Make/Believe, this work invites viewers into the playful and immersive mirage of transforming reality. The Make/Believe concept challenges artists to consider the ability of art to be transportive and for fantasy to be collective. The 18 reflective, stainless steel planks of this artwork are strategically placed in the grounds of Washington Square Park to give the illusion of mirrors growing, unsupported from Earth. The mirrors vary in size and placement to play with the skyline of downtown Kansas City.  With the 2019 Art in the Loop theme in mind, Alonso Ortega creates an inviting and unique space for viewers to become enthralled in the realm of Make/Believe.

Alonso Ortega’s background as an architect allows him to have immense attention to detail. Coupling this with his visual imagery, his work allows viewers to place themselves in a world which they create, a world of Make/Believe that gives them the opportunity to interact with the public around them and the city they live in. As an artist, Ortega believes strongly in questioning everything one does and believes. His appreciation of Kansas City and its people are interpreted through the conversation his artwork creates. The mirrors that protrude from the ground are all different heights just like how people come in different shapes and sizes. This places viewers in a powerful space as they look ahead to see a city that represents entrepreneurship and civic engagement and look around to see themselves from different angles and perspectives imagining that the mirrors are giving them the opportunity to live in what they deem make-believe. It ultimately gives each viewer a sense of individuality, though they are within a large community setting. 

Similar to Ortega’s belief of questioning everything one does, his artwork challenges viewers and the people of Kansas City to reflect on their own lives and beliefs. With the surroundings of nature of Washington Square Park, Ortega influences people to reflect in a humbling and grounding way. The solitude of meditating with yourself in front of these mirrors accompanied by the view of a spirited city instills a sense of revitalization within one to grow and evolve equivalent to the development of downtown Kansas City. The possibilities of who you will become, what you will create, and where you will go are Endless! 

/by