Bridge 4 – AntiKulture

Mission Statement

Our nomadic museum’s purpose is to bring awareness to underappreciated, undervalued, or unknown aspects of culture from around the world.

The museum of antiKulture uses multimedia installations to showcase movements that go against the grain of larger and more powerful conventions. We strive to start a conversation about topics considered to be too taboo or too trivial to be in a museum.

Our exhibits are constantly rotating due to the fact our directors and curators have their finger on the pulse of our fluctuating cultural values. The works in our 2018-2019 collection cover various relevant topics from challenging beauty standards to addressing the issues of climate change and LGBTQ rights in Saudi Arabia and many more. From planned installations in Iowa City to Reykjavik to Lima, we aim to reach as wide an audience as possible by having the museum’s location change every four months. The museum travels on an invitational basis. The museum will be in Brooklyn’s Park Slope neighborhood from November 30, 2018 to March 30, 2019 before travelling to Iowa City for a four month long installation.

Proposal

What is the theme/narrative of your museum?

Counterculture/anti-culture– things or groups that are underground/underappreciated or go against the norms of society

– Why should it be made? Items representing counterculture are not found in museums because museums intrinsically contain things what society finds acceptable or “deserving” of preservation. Our museum will play on how museums are typically thought about as it will feature things going against the establishment. It will bring awareness to things or movements that museum-goers might not know exist.

While artists throughout time have typically been known to participate in a subcategory of counterculture, the unpopular movement that existed during their time isn’t being given enough recognition. The Museum of antiKulture will exist to exhibit and celebrate the underlying movements of today that serve to display the environment and social climate that may have influenced certain works.

For location (at least for the November 30th installation in class), we are going to present our work in 1108 because that room is more conducive to what we want to show (large images and projections) than 1111. For ideal location, we are thinking about the museum traveling around the world as a sort of “pop-up museum”. The museum will be set up in a place for a 3-4 months before traveling to other location.

 

Personal Proposal

The roles I am planning on taking on in this project are a presenter, map/program maker, and social media campaign helper. As a presenter, I plan on talking with everyone in the group and getting to know everyone’s projects. Also, I will be able to thoroughly explain and help people to understand the meaning of our museum and how it relates to the community. As a map/program maker I will map out our expected presentation room and create a floor plan and program to give to those visiting the museum. I plan on helping the social media campaigners by suggesting typography, helping with ‘branding’ ideas, and more when they need it.

For my part of the project I plan on making a sort of tapestry that I could project on (I am still deciding if projecting on it is necessary). My focus is on global warming, and the protection of the environment. This is related to our project because of the current adversities that the environment is facing due to the current political climate. I plan on making this tapestry so that it is a ‘zero-waste’ tapestry where I don’t throw anything away, create any garbage, or waste materials. I plan to embroider onto it, although I am unsure of what exactly I will be embroidering. I plan to make this tapestry large, hopefully square, and around 6’x6’.

My current plan for production is that I will go through conceptual ideas and finalize my idea by November 10. From then I will gather supplies by November 13. From then I will focus on finishing my tapestry. During this time I’ll also be working with my groupmates on other aspects that I’m responsible for like social media and presenting. This is tentative, and up for change.

I intend to present this as a hanging piece to view. If I do end up projecting onto it, it will be a viewing screen yet also sculptural. I am hoping to present it by hanging it in the middle of the room but is up for change depending on our layout.

Some inspiration I’m drawing from is historical, the first idea that kind of came to mind was the Chilkat robe from Native American work. I have not worked with much sewing or textiles, but I plan on doing more research to find out more about what I can draw inspiration from.

PERSONAL:

For this project, I began by sketching ideas in my sketchbook different ideas for a tapestry and also looking for research on global warming. I then decided on a final layout and worked with the group to make a temporary/changeable floorplan. From there I designed the imagery’s layout and sketched ideas with some markers. I took observation photos of my hands and then begun to embroider. From there it was many many hours of embroidering and then a basic sewing together. I tacked and sewed in stuffing for the overall effect of walking through the “break” between prioritizing nature and prioritizing capitalism and city life. This is a part of the museum because of the current day struggle of admitting to the existence of global warming. It has become largely politicized and thus has a movement behind it to begin the change needed to save the planet.