New Haven Register (Sunday) (New Haven, CT)
Generations mix in Alternative Space Weekend
CityWide Open Studios readies artful expressions in Orange Nov. 23
CityWide Open Studios, Artspace New Haven’s monthlong celebration of visual and other art will be colorfully capped Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 23, in Orange with Alternative Space Weekend, when the work of 230 or so artists (and collectives) will be on display, including nine special commissioned projects.
For the second year, Yale West Campus, located on the Orange/West Haven line, will host the weekend event. You can pick up a schedule at the entrance to Building 410 to find locations for each artist, plus information about special events.
The thoughtprovoking special commissions, which largely reflect the year’s theme of “Older But Younger” (intergenerational collaborations between artists who seek to explore a range of topics related to the questions of longevity, memory, etc.) include:
⏩ “Creativity is the Key” is a project by the Concepts Group, a collective of 10 female artists ranging in age from 60 to 92, who were all students of Constance Kiermaier.
⏩ “Memory Edit: I will never forget” is a participatory project and installation by Megan Craig, Ralph Franklin, Nick Lloyd and Kyle Goldbach that invites four residents of the Whitney Center retirement home and life care facility to collaborate on the production of four quilts that tell their stories.
⏩ “The Body is an Archive” is a dance film and live performance by Angharad Davies that explores how memory lives in our bodies (1 and 5 p.m.).
⏩ “Strange Fruit” is a conceptual sculpture collaboration between Howard ElYasin (born in 1957) and Dymin Ellis (born in 1997), two artists based in New Haven who are meeting for the first time through this project.
⏩ “The War Experience
Project,” created in 2008 by Iraqi War veteran Rick Lawson, is a way for veterans to share their stories about their military experiences without relying on language alone.
⏩ “Ages of Life: Inhabiting the Fossil Record” is an immersive installation by Leila Daw (born in 1950) and Alexis Musinski (born in 1994) that will allow visitors to experience themselves within the strata of the Earth as part of the fossil record, and alludes to Planet Earth as our greatest inheritance.
The Yale West building is equipped with wide corridors, elevators and fullyaccessible restrooms. Onsite parking is ample and free and there will be food trucks onsite and free coffee and pastries available courtesy of Bridges Healthcare (noon to 2 p.m.).