Erratum

2010 - Sculpture (Sculpture)

Futurefarmers

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Erratum: Brief Interruptions in the Waste Stream exists as performance, sculpture, drawing, video and the printed word. In a short video the two artists Amy Franceschini and Michael Swaine transform a porcelain toilet into bricks in four movements. In quite brutal actions, they use sledgehammers to smash the toilet into small shards that are then reshaped to form a stack of bricks. This action builds upon their earlier work whereby they deconstruct food policies, public transportation, and educational systems in order to create tools to understand and transform their intrinsic logics. Often through their disassembly they find new narratives and potential reconfigurations that propose alternatives to the principles that once dominated these systems. Erratum provides a playful entry point and tools for an audience to gain insight into deeper fields of inquiry – not only to imagine, but also to participate in and initiate change in the places we live. Erratum includes a limited edition book in the form of an ancient Egyptian brick mold which serves as both a document of their performance and a functional tool – an invitation to take action in reversing the long list of societies erratum. Two wooden molds are fused together in a mirror image. Inside one of the molds is a brick made from toilet shards and inside the other mold is a poster printed on handmade paper made from porcelain and paper waste from the Center for the Book. The great porcelain toilet can be seen as a mistake, and Erratum can be seen as an attempt to reverse it – making new molds in order to fill them with new content or material – a symbol of self-reliance and regeneration.

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Futurefarmers is an international, trans-disciplinary network. Founded in 1995 as a design studio, over the years, it has included artists, researchers, designers, farmers, scientists, engineers, and architects—all with a common interest in working together on deeply felt, long-term, field sensitive projects that defy current social, political, and economic systems. Futurefarmers involves itself with critical issues of the land and the air, the sea and the seed, rooted in the transformative power of knowledge sharing. The group, which has nodes in Northern California and Belgium, often employs research-oriented workshops, games, and participatory play as a means of engagement, education, and collaboration.

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Colors:

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• future.n.01
• performance.n.03
• engagement.n.07
• education.n.01
• collaboration.n.01
• social.a.01