UPHAM’S CORNER
Nick Cave
Augment, 2019
Transforming a building, reflecting the vibrancy of Upham's.
Augment spilled out of the windows at 555 Columbia Avenue and was accompanied by a custom-designed building wrap comprised of collages made by members of the Upham’s Corner community during public workshops facilitated by local artists and our partners at DS4SI between April and July 2019. Augment is a beacon of happiness, creativity, and togetherness built hand-in-hand with the neighborhood.
This project marks a critical transition point and growth in Cave’s practice in public space. Themes of togetherness, assemblage, and finding joy in sadness are hallmarks of Cave's civic-minded work. Augment evolves Cave's interest in how bodies navigate civic spaces by engaging dedicated community partners and brokering thoughtful relationships with stakeholders in the neighborhoods where the artwork will be presented.
By partnering with Design Studio for Social Intervention (DS4SI) to host and facilitate a series of workshops designed to explore how we can come together to spread joy across communities Augment purposefully and thoughtfully engages with the spatial justice work DS4SI has been doing in Upham’s Corner over the last 8 years. At a time when the City of Boston has labeled Upham’s a new “Arts and Innovation District”, DS4SI seeks to mobilize local artists, organizations, and residents to imagine and prototype what the district could be like if it prioritized local cultures, communities and artists.
Over 5 months, DS4SI and local artists Destiny Polk, L’Merchie Frazier, Barrington Edwards and Wilton Tejeda led collage workshops at Upham’s Corner community sites like the local library, churches, schools and community programs, gathering over 100 collages based on the prompt “what brings you joy?” Each workshop fostered increased dialogue around public space, public art, and how joy is profoundly personal but also collective, shared and cultural.
In addition, DS4SI and Wilton Tejeda brought a mobile collage cart out on the streets to engage passers-by who might not know about the workshops or the upcoming installation.
The images shared and stories told formed the basis for the building wrap at 555 Columbia Avenue, which surrounds the inflatable sculptures installed in the windows. The collages are also being exhibited in local businesses and on public light post flags. To Lori Lobenstine, DS4SI Program Design Lead, this public work is critical: “We want people to know this is coming and to feel a part of it. Each workshop was not just a chance to come together and express what brings us joy, but a chance for the community to hear about Nick Cave and what was coming to Upham’s.”
ON VIEW
Upham’s Corner
UPHAM’S CORNER
Nick Cave
Messenger first, Artist Second.
Augment marks a new avenue for Cave’s practice in public space. Themes of togetherness, assemblage, and finding joy in sadness are hallmarks of Cave's civic-minded work.
Nick Cave’s public collections include the Brooklyn Museum, New York; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR; the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; the National Gallery of Victoria, Australia; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA; and the Trapholt Museum, Kolding, Denmark, among others.
Cave has received several prestigious awards including: the Americans for the Arts 2014 Public Art Network Year in Review Award (2014) in recognition of his Grand Central Terminal performance Heard - NY, Joan Mitchell Foundation Award (2008), Artadia Award (2006), the Joyce Award (2006), Creative Capital Grants (2002, 2004 and 2005), and the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award (2001). Cave, who received his MFA at the Cranbrook Academy of Art, is Professor and Chairman of the Fashion Department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.