Art Out of the Box Southside

My AOB residency is now over.
I want to take this opportunity to thank Sam McDonough for her amazing vision and hard work to make this project happen; and for making a part of her artwork that of supporting other artists.
I also want to thank Michael McFadden for his support and awesomeness.

On site, I constructed and installed a total of 13 Mini Sites in the corner of 12th and Carson.
Here is a selection of stereo images of the main sites (I like using stereo pictures because they come a little bit closer to capturing the three-dimensionality of the actual pieces.)

"Paper Boat Site 1"

"Paper Boat Site 2"

"Clothes Line"

"How to Fold a Paper Boat"

"Three Chairs"

"Picnic"

"Chess Game"

"Park"

"Park" detail

"Salad Bowl"

"The Cave"

"Pond 1"

To get an idea of the context where these live, and to see the public's interactions and reactions, check out this last of the photo videos:

Mini Sites 3 from Alberto J. Almarza on Vimeo.

I had a truly wonderful experience working in (and out of) the box; and plan to continue hiding more miniatures in the streets of Pittsburgh.
I also have a renewed interest in furthering the dialog with the public, building community and conversation around art and its great power to...
put a smile in someone's face.

AA11

Alberto Out of the Box DAy 5

When I arrived to the Box, one of my informants disbursed that the fire hydrant Mini Site was gone. In deed, the surface was wiped clean. Was it an angry anti-art manifesto? was it a dog tail or a sneeze? We will never know.

Closely analizing the scene, I found the remains of the Site, which appeared to have been struck evenly, impacting the surface in a flat manner, directly from above.

From this scarce evidence, we can only speculate. Perhaps someone went: "Oh yeah, "art"?... WHAM!!"

or perhaps the fire hydrant simply served (as it would in the Southside on a Friday night) as the support system for someone in desperate need for an anchor to the horizontal plane that is the ground. We will never know for sure, unless the perpetrator confesses.

In either case, I went and re-did it!

But last night was a SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE SOUTHSIDE...

I wonder if ANY of the mini sites survived... :)

I will find out today, Sunday June 19, 2011; during my last day doing Art Out of the Box. I will be there, in the corner of 12th and Carson, from around 1 till 8pm.

During the day on Sat, I installed a number of new things, like this bench (someone had mentioned something about that bus stop needing a bench... hey I did what I could...)

And also had lots of great conversations, sharing the secret location of the Mini Sites with as many people as I could.

I am now working on creating a third photo-video to share all the rest of the sites, locations and audience interactions. Hopefully I'll have it done by tomorrow or so. Meanwhile, to watch the first two Mini Site clips click HERE.

Finally,

people keep asking me to create a map with the site locations. I like the idea and might do it, but for now I just haven't had much time to do anything other than make sites, install them, photograph them, show them and talk to people.

So this morning my son surprised me with a wonderful father's day surprise!

Yes, a fully accurate detailed map displaying all the secret site locations plus some other landmarks, such as the box, me, Samantha... and Totoro the friendly monster

Secret site locations are marked here in light blue. So there you have it! now you can easily locate the sites yourself. Otherwise, you can come talk to me Today, for the last stretch of Art Out of the Box in the Southside. Make sure you also check out the three upcoming residencies, and stay tuned for one last blog post from me.

(By the Way, if you actually find a Mini Site solely from my son's map, make sure you talk to me for a special award)

Thanks for stoping by!

AA11

Art Out of the Box Day 4

Another day out of the box, making art in the Southside.

Today was a busy, fun day.

I finished a number of Mini Sites, all made on site and semi-permanently installed within crevices in the corners of 12th and East Carson st.

The focus was paper boats...

A little beach scene...

And instructions on how to fold a paperboat.

Lots of visitors, both new comers and returning Mini Site watchers...

These guys (below) heard the word from Pat (my new argueing friend from day 3...)

And THESE guys, were Geocachers! who actually came in search of a different treasure and accidentally found one of the Mini Sites!

They became only the second noted case of accidental Mini Site finding (to my awareness).

The first noted case of an accidental Mini Site discovery, apparently, might have been that of Mr. Esser himself, tending to the park's flower garden and stumbling across "the cave" Mini Site. I have to say, for ANYBODY to accidentally find this particularly-hidden site seems VERY impressive to me. I have yet to walk in to his flower shop tomorrow, meet him, and learn the full story first hand.

At the end of this long, eventful day, I got hungry and fixed myself a salad bowl...

...on top of this fire hydrant.

A mini site like this one, one might wonder if it will even be there tomorrow, or if it might be brushed into oblivion by a sudden force: a dog tail, a low hanging purse... or a sneeze.

And yet, and yet...

Nothing is really permanent.

Alberto AOB Day 2

WOW, what a day was yesterday... (don't miss the video at the end)

Talk about audience interaction:

I am crouched down all the way to the ground talking pictures of one of the mini sites, and this woman sees me from inside a bar across the street, and decides she needs to come out, cross the street and...

GIVE ME A WEDGIE!!!!!

(Here is me in a wedgie; I acted real mad for this picture. In reality it was all laughs)

It was epic!

Fortunately Chris Ivey was right there with his camera, and he captured the whole event!

We were laughing so hard.

Later she came back with her friend and took advantage of my celebrity ignorance and claimed he was Chris Farley???!!! I totally believed her too.

Such fun and crazy people... giving artists wedgies.

Only in the Southside!!

So in the first part of the day it was really slow, but it was good because I got a lot done, and it also gave me the chance to hang out with Chris (not Farley, but Ivey) and get some good pictures and conversations on film. Pretty soon people started flowing, and many conversations were had.

Later, my number one fan base AND superstars of my Mini Sites video came back for the second day, demanding for more Mini Sites to be seen.

I found that one of the installations was already compromised, and was missing a chair. I remade the chair and replaced it. Later, I decided to look for the missing chair, and unbelievably, I found it amidst a pile of crumpled leaves about the size of my thumbnail.

My plan is, while I'm on site till Sunday, to continue to install, repair and add to the pieces. Once I'm gone, It's all up to the wind.

I really like that aspect of it; it is ephemeral art and its impermanence gives it an extra value. Talking to Chris, I realized that one of my favorite things about this project is that the art can hardly be taken for granted: it is not immediate and in your face, but the viewer has to work a little bit for it, and it seems like people enjoy having that aspect of challenge. People also have been loving the novelty of being amongst the few who know the locations of the sites. While I'm there, I've been telling the people where the sites are, so there is a word-of-mouth propagation taking place. Those who know the secret are eager to tell their friends. FUN!!

Yesterday I installed two new sites, which is less than what I wanted to make, but a good ammount of time was rightfully spent talking to my visitors. From here on, it seems like it's going to rain a lot, which will significantly complicate things. We will see what happens.

For now, I have another video to share the documentation of artworks and some reactions from the public. These videos also will help treasure hunters locate the pieces.

Enjoy!

Mini Sites 2 from Alberto J. Almarza on Vimeo.

Alberto's first day!

(Hey, if you don't feel like reading, just skip to the cool video at the bottom!)

Allright!

I started my Art Out of the Box residency yesterday June 14, 2011. It went very well!

So here I am, working at the box, in the corner of 12th and Carson in the Southside. Not much foot traffic at first, but soon things started picking up.

I had the idea to put my sketchbooks out to attract people, which worked great.

Kids are always a great audience; curious, and not afraid to be social and ask questions.

My project involves creating miniature scenes that are hidden within wall crevices, sidewalk cracks, etc. This is what my work space looked like in the first hour or so.

The wind was a pain, and it claimed one of the mini chairs, but overall I cannot complain about the weather, and the box was well equiped and comfy.

I spoke to all sorts of wonderful and friendly people; didn't have a single akward interaction!

Ok, so, THE ARTWORK....

Would you guess that there is a hidden installation in the following image?

Without further ado: A pretty fun photo-video of the two mini installations I created, plus some public reactions and participation, check it out!

Mini Sites 1 from Alberto J. Almarza on Vimeo.

So two mini sites where set in place, and a lot more to go. My plan is to make enough that I kind of forget which ones are where. They are made to be fairly weather resistant, so if all goes well they should stay there for quite a while. Aren't you curious? Do you think you can find them? I dare you!

At the end of the day, Samantha found this cool bug on the side of the box; what I consider to be an auspicious omen!

That was a peek of day 1; now I gotta run to the Southside again, will be there till Sunday...

SEE YOU THERE!

AA11