Middle Class Ice Sculptures
Melt down at the
Republican and Democratic
Conventions
View picture of Middle Class ice sculpture here: http://bit.ly/QicWZk
Tampa:
Lykes
Gaslight
Park,
Monday, August 27, 2012 / 3-5 PM – optimum viewing
time
Charlotte:
Marshall
Park,
Tuesday,
September 4, 2012 / 1-3 PM – optimum viewing
time
Large
ice sculptures of the words Middle
Class will melt away on the first day of the Republican and Democratic
Conventions, in nearby public parks in Tampa and Charlotte. The work is
by
artists Nora Ligorano and Marshall Reese. The sculptures they
will install weigh over 2,000 pounds and measure 15 feet wide.
Individual
letters are 4 feet tall.
The
artists call these sculptures “temporary monuments.” After unveiling
them,
Ligorano and Reese let them melt away and film their disappearance,
which can
take anywhere from 6 to 24 hours. The dates for the conventions, “do
not bode
well,” Reese says, “for the sculptures’ survival.” “They may
disappear,”
Ligorano adds, “even faster than usual. It’s a tossup whether, that’s
due to
economic or climatic conditions.”
As
the sculptures disintegrate, the artists document their destruction,
creating
still and moving images of broken words and letters. Ligorano and Reese
are
launching a dedicated website www.meltedaway.com, to which they will upload
stills
and video clips throughout the event with written commentary. “We see
the
website as a new type of documentary form,” Ligorano says,
“incorporating words,
still images and video.”
This
is the third public ice sculpture Ligorano/Reese have done. In 2008
they
installed ice sculptures of the word Democracy at the conventions in
Denver
and St. Paul. On the 79th anniversary of the Great Depression, the
same year, they melted down the word Economy on Foley Square, New York
City,
in front of the NY State Supreme Court building.
The
artists are naming this year’s installations at the conventions after
Ronald
Reagan’s 1984 campaign. “’Morning in America,’” Reese says, “was a
brilliant
soft-sell advertising pitch with images of Americana almost as if
Norman
Rockwell had drawn the storyboards. 30 years later, one wonders if it
really was
the dawning or a new age or more like an eclipse into darker times.
Certainly
the Middle Class hasn’t fared well during that time.”
Tampa
will be the first public performance of this piece, followed by
Charlotte the
following week.
LIGORANO/REESE
Nora
Ligorano and Marshall Reese have collaborated as Ligorano/Reese since
the early
80's. Their artwork examines contemporary trends in society and the
media
through the manipulation of images and sound from print, television,
the
Internet, and radio. Their installations, limited edition multiples and
artists
books have been exhibited at Jim Kempner Fine Art, Kent Gallery, the
Beall
Center, the Cleveland Museum of Art, The Portland Art Museum, Museum
fur
Angewandte Kunst (MAK) in Frankfurt, Germany, MIT MediaLab, Museum of
Arts &
Design, the New York Public Library, San Jose Institute of Contemporary
Art, the
Neuberger Museum of Art, and Lincoln Center. They have received
fellowships and
funding from the Jerome Foundation, The Puffin Foundation, NYFA, NYSCA,
the NEA,
Art Matters and have been artists in residence at the MacDowell Colony,
Montalvo
Arts Center, and Djerassi Resident Artists Program. They are
represented by
Catherine Clark Gallery and Jim Kempner Fine Art.
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