mildeart
What You Are
Marek Milde, What You Are, 2007, site-specific, interactive installation for Klapper Hall, text by Walt Whitman, wallpaper, tape, dust
“What You Are” is interactive site-specific installation, that draws on the historical identity of the site. Text gradually appears on the floor according to the intensity of the visitor’s movement, and the amount of dust brought in to the gallery on their shoes.
The piece “What You Are” reveals a part of hidden history related to Klapper Hall, Art Department of Queens College, New York, formerly the Walt Whitman Building. Renovating and redefining of the building in the 1950's covered the connection to poets presence on the site.
Walt Whitman instructed students in 1839- 40, in a building called the Jamaica Academy, on the present campus of Queens College. Walt Whitman Building the former English Department housed also the poets museum before it’s relocation to his birth house in Long Island.
more : www.forgotten-ny.com/STREET SCENES/paumanok/pomonok.html
I wanted to rediscover this part of a history, which lies under the surface of this site. And seek for the context within the covering structure of the architecture.
The piece “What You Are’” uses fragments of Walt Whitman’s poem ”American Feuillage”, 1860, from the collection “Leaves of Grass”.
“ O lands! all so dear to me — what you are,
( whatever it is, )
I become a part of that, whatever it is “
Walt Whitman’s poetry addresses the theme of identity and place. Suggesting a concept of site created by internalizing a place. New place the vision of future America is created out of connection and relationship between person and place.
My installation creates a space that encourages visitors to be involved, connected and part of the place and its history. As participants’ presence and activity accumulates in to the patterns a new landscape emerges, revealing the poem hidden under the surface.
What You Are
Marek Milde, What You Are, 2007, site-specific, interactive installation for Klapper Hall, text by Walt Whitman, wallpaper, tape, dust
“What You Are” is interactive site-specific installation, that draws on the historical identity of the site. Text gradually appears on the floor according to the intensity of the visitor’s movement, and the amount of dust brought in to the gallery on their shoes.
The piece “What You Are” reveals a part of hidden history related to Klapper Hall, Art Department of Queens College, New York, formerly the Walt Whitman Building. Renovating and redefining of the building in the 1950's covered the connection to poets presence on the site.
Walt Whitman instructed students in 1839- 40, in a building called the Jamaica Academy, on the present campus of Queens College. Walt Whitman Building the former English Department housed also the poets museum before it’s relocation to his birth house in Long Island.
more : www.forgotten-ny.com/STREET SCENES/paumanok/pomonok.html
I wanted to rediscover this part of a history, which lies under the surface of this site. And seek for the context within the covering structure of the architecture.
The piece “What You Are’” uses fragments of Walt Whitman’s poem ”American Feuillage”, 1860, from the collection “Leaves of Grass”.
“ O lands! all so dear to me — what you are,
( whatever it is, )
I become a part of that, whatever it is “
Walt Whitman’s poetry addresses the theme of identity and place. Suggesting a concept of site created by internalizing a place. New place the vision of future America is created out of connection and relationship between person and place.
My installation creates a space that encourages visitors to be involved, connected and part of the place and its history. As participants’ presence and activity accumulates in to the patterns a new landscape emerges, revealing the poem hidden under the surface.