Featured Artists: Nathan Bockelman, Frank M. Burton, Digital
Delphi, Desiree De Virgilio, Giovanni Higuera, Diana Markessinis,
Kyle Riedel and Anna Rodriguez
Curator: Jeff Wasinger

Please participate in this event by bringing an offering to
our communal altar.

One Night Only: Saturday February 3, 2007 7-10 pm
Doors shut at 8:40 pm for performances that
begin at 8:45 pm.

Notes on A Curatorial Process

Feng Shui 2007 for me is about bringing artists together to interact within an art space while loosely following some conceptual guidelines pulled from traditional Feng Shui principles. I came to the show with no real connection to, or experience with Feng Shui, other than a brief introduction to the Bagua which divides any given space into nine energy centers. These energy centers operate as an organizing principle to address an interior space, optimizing harmonious energy flow. I based Feng Shui 2007 on four questions:
What is the core concept of Feng Shui?
What is my relationship to this core concept?
How might this concept relate to art in interior space?
Who are the artists that I would want to co-create an exhibit with?

I went about orchestrating a show that utilized the nine energy centers by asking eight artists to address an energy center that resonates with their current practice reacting to the interior architecture of UNIONartspace in an unconventional way. Through various group interactions with the artists the show began to take on a life of its own as each artist negotiated their personal response to the challenges presented by the space. In a strange, unexpected way the collective energy of our group interactions became the unifier between these diagrammatic spaces.

-Jeff Wasinger

The Communal Altar

Through a very organic process of working with the eight artists it became apparent that the ninth space (helpful people, located along the stairwell) could be addressed by the community of people attending the show, essentially acting as the ninth “artist”. In extending an invitation to the community to share a personal offering for the duration of the evening the communal altar becomes an act of creative solidarity. The creation of this altar is about collaboration, community, and the exchange of positive energy.
After the show guests are encouraged to retrieve their object/s thereby extending the energy of the evening out into new spaces.