A C H A R L O T T E S T R E E T F O U N D A T I O N P R O J E C T

K A N S A S C I T Y, M I S S O U R I • W W W. C H A R L O T T E S T R E E T . O R G

rises ZoraAN EXPLORATION OF THE URBAN LABYRINTHAT LA ESQUINA & BEYOND • MAY 10 - JUNE 15, 2013ORGANIZED BY CHARLOTTE STREET CURATOR-IN-RESIDENCE JAMILEE POLSON LACY

A C H A R L O T T E S T R E E T F O U N D A T I O N P R O J E C T

K A N S A S C I T Y, M I S S O U R I • W W W. C H A R L O T T E S T R E E T . O R G

rises ZoraAN EXPLORATION OF THE URBAN LABYRINTHAT LA ESQUINA & BEYOND • MAY 10 - JUNE 15, 2013ORGANIZED BY CHARLOTTE STREET CURATOR-IN-RESIDENCE JAMILEE POLSON LACY

A C H A R L O T T E S T R E E T F O U N D A T I O N P R O J E C T

K A N S A S C I T Y, M I S S O U R I • W W W. C H A R L O T T E S T R E E T . O R G

rises ZoraAN EXPLORATION OF THE URBAN LABYRINTHAT LA ESQUINA & BEYOND • MAY 10 - JUNE 15, 2013ORGANIZED BY CHARLOTTE STREET CURATOR-IN-RESIDENCE JAMILEE POLSON LACY

FEATURING KANSAS CITY ARTISTS / THINKERS:

Barry Anderson

Arboretum

Todd M. Christiansen

Chris Daharsh

David Dowell / Jim Woodfill

Jeff Eaton

Lindsay Fernandez

Gotch & Hansen

Erika Lynne Hanson

Caitlin Horsmon

Laura Isaac / Maritza Ruiz-Kim

Lindsey Griffith / Charlie Mylie

Ghyman Johnson / Megan Mantia / Leone Reeves

Ken Johnson

Ezhno Martin / Jeanette Powers

Mnemosyne Duo

m.o.i.

Jessica Palko

Gerry Trilling

May Tveit

This digital catalog was published to accompany the multi-venue visual and performance art exhibition

rises Zora: An Exploration of the Urban Labyrinth, a project produced as part of the curatorial residency

program at Charlotte Street Foundation, Kansas City, Missouri.

Curated by Inaugural Charlotte Street Curator-In-Residence Jamilee Polson Lacy

EXHIBITION FUNDER

Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation

©2013 Charlotte Street Foundation

1000 West 25th Street

Kansas City, MO 64108

www.charlottestreet.org

TABLE OF CONTENTS

12

Foreword and Acknowledgments

Jamilee Polson Lacy

14

RISES ZORA : A Cultural History Through the Urban Labyrinth

(as Kansas City Artists Move Through Another and Another)

Charlotte Street Inaugural Curator-In-Residence Jamilee Polson Lacy

24

RISES ZORA plates

48

Movies in the Parking Lot: Notes from Academy Records

Academy Records

54

RISES ZORA poems: “The Puzzle,” “Maze Builders,” and “Into the City”

Jeanette Powers

60

RISES ZORA program itinerary

64

RISES ZORA artist biographies

68

RISES ZORA credits

Foreword and Acknowledgments

Since 1997, when the fledgling Charlotte Street Foundation made its first artist grant, a central aspect of the organization’s mission has been to bring the work of Kansas City’s artists—longstanding and rising—to public attention. Now a cornerstone of the Kansas City cultural community, Charlotte Street has, in addition to making countless cash grants to local artists, revitalized and reserved urban space to present major exhibitions and presentations of important contemporary artists destined to become cultural fixtures in Kansas City and beyond. In 2012-2013, on the occasion of its new curatorial residency program, Charlotte Street empowered me, the Inaugural Charlotte Street Curator-In-Resi dence, to collaborate with artists through full-on engagements with exhibition and other public spaces, streets, parks, rooftops, parking lots, and more in Kansas City. In total, I have curated four exhibition programs: Have I been here before?; Composite Structures (co-curated with Los Angeles-based curator Lee Foley); Focus: OK<->KC (organized in conjunction with Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition); and finally, rises Zora: An Exploration of the Urban Labyrinth, an exhibition and event series with accompanying publication that seeks to provide time and space that is both documentary and generative for Kansas City artists and that explores new juxtapositions, contradictions, and connections through multiple approaches to art and place making. Upon the culmination of these projects and my curatorial residency tenure, Charlotte Street has actually created yet another avenue that shows off the brilliant productivity of Kansas City artists: me! Moving forward, it is my privilege to take with me wherever I go Charlotte Street’s mission to cultivate and promote Kansas City’s artists and arts ecosystem. I will continue to think of and include Kansas City artists in my curatorial endeavors, writings, and other creative projects; I will continue to recommend them to other curators, galleries, and museums; I will continue to stretch their reach to cities near and far.

That this exhibition and publication have received such tremendous support is testament to the significance of Kansas City’s artists and urban culture. Charlotte Street and myself are indebted first and foremost to the artists, thinkers and city cultural workers who have magnificently committed themselves and their resources to making an ambitious, multi-venue project like rises Zora not only possible but successful. I also want to convey special thanks to the many rises Zora participants who created new, thoughtful, and challenging works just for the exhibition. For their immense generosity, we are additionally grateful to the Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation for providing lead support for the exhibition and publication; to them we offer our deepest gratitude. For their kindness and assistance with rises Zora’s numerous public programs, warm thanks are due as well to Academy Records; Bill Haw and Bill Haw Jr.; Christopher Leitch and the Kansas City Museum; Crosby Kemper, Henry Fortunato and the Kansas City Public Library; Joni Cross and Copaken-Brooks; Lisa Cordes and Prairie Logic; Meghan Buum and City Market; Plug Projects; and Unified Government of Kansas City, Kansas. Lastly, I thank Charlotte Street’s board for treating me to the opportunity to work with them and to become a steward of its organization. To Charlotte Street’s staff—David Hughes, Jr.; Kate Hackman; Jamie Braun; Jen Vogrin; and Pat Alexander—I personally extend my appreciation for the dedication and verve with which you have supported rises Zora and my curatorial and professional goals. It has been an exciting, challenging, and deeply satisfying year in Kansas City; thank you so much for inviting me into Charlotte Street’s wonderful community.

Jamilee Polson Lacy

Charlotte Street Inaugural Curator-In-Residence

12

Tothepresentday,thefigureofthelabyrinth

hasappearedaroundtheglobeasimage,ideaand

physicalreality,withanextensiverangeof

interpretationsandapplicationsincraftandfinearts,

architectureanddesign,danceandperformingarts,the

humanitiesandsciences,andotherareasofhuman

creativityandthought.Thelabyrinthprovidesa

philosophicalframeworkinthatitexpressesastateof

mindthatisconstantandessentialtohumanexistence:

theposingofquestionswhenfacedwithlife’schoices,

andthechallengeofmakingdecisionsthatcyclically

determinethecourseofrealityandfurthercontributeto

ourunderstandingoftherelationshipbetween

humankindandnature.

ThePortugueseartistandwriterLimadeFreitas

putitwell,sayingthat“Whatmakesthelabyrinth,inits

wealthofanalogicalassociations,sorelevanttoday

isthatitisanemblemoftheexistentialdilemmasofthe

modernurbanman.”Inthespiritofthisemblem,rises

Zora,amulti-venuevisualandperformingartsproject,

wasaninvitationtoKansasCityartistsfromCharlotte

StreetFoundationtoexplore,ingreaterdepth,the

elementsthatmakeupurbanreality,oraswearecalling

it,theurbanlabyrinth.Sporadicallystagingpublic

eventsacrosstheKansasCitymetroarea,artists

activatedandconnectedthecity’sdynamicspaces

intheireffortstounderstand,emphasize,andtravel

throughthelabyrinthsofthecity.Accordingly,this

projectfeaturedadiverseselectionofmentaland

physicalengagementswiththeso-calledurban

labyrinth—installations,performances,walks,screenings,

andotherexperiences—,allgatheredandpresentedin

awaythatlinkedtogethercommunitiesofactive

participants,spectators,andevenpassivebystanders,

compellingthemtoseewhatexcitingpossibilitiesexistin

thiscitybeyondtheroutine.

Let’sreturntotheurbanlabyrinththatisKansas

Cityinjustamoment.First,whatexactlyisthelabyrinth,

andinthiscase,theurbanlabyrinth?Whatmakesthe

labyrinth/urbanlabyrinthsovaluableasacultural

construct?

Asitsdefinitioncurrentlystands,theword

labyrinthhascometomeanseveralthingsatonce.In

everydayspeechitoperatesmetaphoricallyasan

intricate,difficult,andoverallconfusingspaceor

situation.Asarepresentationoranallegory,labyrinthis

usedloosely,becomingsynonymouswithspiral,meander,

concentriccircles,andmostoften,maze,whichis

definedasatortuousstructureconsistingoftwo

openings—anentranceandanexit—andmultiple

pathways,someofwhichleadtoforks,blindalleys,and

deadends.Thislackofdefinition,whichisacommon

characteristicinthetransmissionofanymythology,has

meantthatthelabyrinthhasbecomeforartofallkindsa

universalthemethathasendured,metamorphosed,and

generatednewthoughtforcenturies.Forthepurpose

ofthisessay,labyrinthreferstoallofitsconnotations

interchangeably,whichseemsappropriategiventhatan

RISESZORA:ACulturalHistorythroughtheUrbanLabyrinth(asKansasCityArtists

MoveThroughAnotherandAnother)

CharlotteStreetInauguralCurator-In-ResidenceJamileePolsonLacy

14

actuallabyrinth,likeallthatthewordpotentially

represents,presentsamyriadofpossibilities.

Thelabyrinthalsoassumesanumberofforms

andconceptualities,withtheoneofancientCreteon

recordastheearliestinstanceofeither.Presentingitself

atonceasanarrativestructure,visualmotif,andliteral

form,thefirstdocumentedlabyrinthhousedtheKnossos

MinotaurandwasoneofAthenianDaedalus’many

ingeniousarchitecturaldesigns.WhenheroTheseus

goesinsidethelabyrinthtokillthebloodthirsty

Minotaur,hefollowsathreadleftbyhisbeloved

Ariadne,whonotcoincidentallyhasbeenofferedup

toKnossosasasacrificialsnack.Theseussolvesthe

labyrinth,savesAriadne,andthusknowstrueloveand

thefuturethatitholds.Followingthistale,thelabyrinth

showsuparoundtheworld(thoughnotveryoftenin

NorthAmerica),asametaphorforrisk,humandiscovery,

thought,memory,andexperience—thesumofwhichis

knowledge—becauseofitsback-and-forth,pendulous

swingbetweenpast,present,andfuture.

Wesee,too,thatknowledgeandunderstanding

shapethearchitectureofanyandeverycityinItalo

Calvino’sInvisible Cities,afictionalcollectionofcities

asdescribedtoKublaKhanbyMarcoPolo.Pageafter

page,CalvinodetailsPolo’saccountsoftravelsthrough

aseriesofcitiesacrosstheworldthatcannotbepinned

downbytheemperorKhan’sgreatatlases.Witheach

city,thankstotheliterarymethodsusedbyCalvinoto

designthisnovel’sproseandstructureaswellasits

conurbations,PolofurtherexpandsKhan’s

understandingoftheworld’sineffablecapacityto

mysteriouslycreatebreathtakinglandscapesand

innovativecultures.Zora,onesuchbreathtakingand

innovativefar-offplace,Poloexplains,isacitythatno

one,havingseenit,caneverforget:

Beyond six rivers and three mountain ranges rises

Zora… Zora has the quality of remaining in your memory

point by point… Zora’s secret lies in the way your gaze

runs over patterns following one after another... The man

who knows by heart how Zora is made, if he is unable

to sleep at night, can imagine he is walking along the

streets and he remembers the order by which the

copper clock follows the barber’s striped awning, then

the fountain with the nine jets, the astronomer’s glass

tower, the melon vendor’s kiosk, the stature of the hermit

and the lion, the Turkish bath, the café at the corner, the

alley that leads to the harbor. This city, which cannot be

expunged from the mind, is like an armature, a

honeycomb in whose cells each of us can place the

things he wants to remember… Between each idea and

each point of the itinerary an affinity or a contrast can

be established, serving an immediate aid to memory. So

the world’s most learned men are those who have

memorized Zora. (15-16)

Zora,itsstreetsadornedinallthatcomeswith

citylife,embodiestheurbanlabyrinthasadynamic

conceptionofspaceandimpressions,ratherthanaset

ofstaticperspectives.Moreover,ampleknowledgeis

accumulatedwhenpassingthroughthismesmerizingcity.

Butaboveall,Zoraillustratestheurbanlabyrinthasa

structureformentalorganizationandcreativemethod,

wanderingsanderrors,passesandimpasses,luminous

breakawaysandtragicseclusion.Thisurbanlabyrinth

demonstratesthatwhatisrealandimaginedmakesno

differencetothegeneralizedmobilityofthepast,

present,andfuture.Atthenovel’send,thereader

realizesthatPolohasmerelydescribedVenice,his

hometown,overandoveragain,butneverasthesame

citybecausenoonecity,VenicenorKansasCity,ever

repeatsitself.Everytimewewalkthroughthedoorour

cityisanew;ithasregeneratedinsomewayoranother,

readytochallengeourmemoryandsurpriseour

senses.UsingZora,anurbanlabyrinth“whichcannotbe

expungedfromthemind”analogouslywithKansasCity,

acitytooconsistingof“patternsfollowingoneafter

another,”therises ZoraprojecttakesupPolo’s

agenda,demonstratingthatKansasCity,likeVeniceor

anymetropolis,isneverthesamecitytwice.KansasCity

istheurbanlabyrinth.

Atmost,thisvisualandperformancearts

venture,alongwiththeartistsandurbaniteswho

contributedtoit,emphasizedtheinfinitepossibilitiesof

KansasCity,afineurbanlabyrinthiftherehaseverbeen

one.Why,youmightask,isametropolis-sprawling

projectlikerises ZoraappropriateforaMidwestern

localelikeKansasCityinsteadofatwisting,turning,

nearly-impossible-not-to-get-lost-incitylikePolo’s

Venice?Theanswertothatquestionisassimpleasit

iscomplex:thegrid.Forages,thegridhasbeenused

throughouttheworldasanurbandevelopmentand

organizationalpattern.HippodamusofMiletusfirstused

itatPiraeus,Greece,inthe5thcenturyBC.Fastforward

some2,000years,WilliamPennutilizedthegridin1682

asthephysicalfoundationforPhiladelphia,andThomas

15

Jeffersonsubsequentlyemployedittosystematizethe

purchaseoftheLouisianaTerritory.Theseurban

applicationsweredeemedsuccessful,so,likemostcities

organizedaspartofAmerica’s18thand19thcentury

westwardexpansion,KansasCity,atthebehestofits

merchantfounders,adoptedtheGreatAmericanGrid

system,alsoknownastheJeffersoniangrid,inaneffort

toorderstreetssetatopaterrainofhills,valleys,rivers,

swamplands,andbluebluffs.

Asanorganizationalprinciple,thegridworks

fine.Itiseasytonavigate,anditmakesbuying,selling,

andclaimingpropertymucheasiertasks.However,

countlessurbanactivists,theoristsandhumanists—Walter

Benjamin,UmbertoEco,JaneJacobs,Pierre

Rosenstiehl,andtheLettrist/SituationistInternational,

tonameafew—havediscussedthegridashumanity’s

unsuccessfulattemptstoorderthelabyrinth,controlits

unwieldiness,and,tovaryingdegrees,derailthe

possibilitiesitpermitsforexperimentalurbanactivity.

MakingaboldmoveagainstKansasCity’s

monotonousgrid,GeorgeE.Kesslerinconjunctionwith

theCityBeautifulmovement,layeredovertherigid

urbanplananamorphoussystemofparksand

boulevardsthatKansasCitiansknowtoday,

re-introducingorganicprinciplesthatwieldmuchmore

naturallandscapeswithinthecity’slimits.In

combinationwiththelast100-plusyearsofadded

railroadsandhighways,aswellascontinuoussocialand

architecturalconstructionanddestructionofdifferent

neighborhoods,theKansasCitywenowinteractwith

iscomposedofmultipleaspectsoflabyrinthianand

urbantheory.Themultifarioussettingthatnowmakes

uptheurbanlabyrinththatisKansasCityhaslong

facilitatedexperimentalactivity,itsartistsandthinkers

takingadvantageofitsmanyquirksandquandaries.The

rises Zorainstallationsandprograms—FIELDWORKS,

GARDENPARTIES,MOVIESINTHEPARKINGLOT,and

WALKINGTHEURBANLABYRINTH—providedartists

andthinkerswithavarietyofavenuestoproduceand

presentpublicallyengagedpresentationsthatconjured

andconsideredthewideimplicationsoflabyrinthian

narratives,forms,andexperiencesspecifictolocal

urbanity.Cumulatively,thesecreativeprojectsworked

withtheurbanlandscapetoartisticallyreflectthe

philosophicalandmysticalimplicationsofKansasCity,

anurbanlabyrinthwhichbydesigndeterminessingular

andmultiplecoursesofrealityinitsattempttoconnect

eachpartofthecitytoeveryotheroneofitsparts.

Forthedurationofrises Zora,laEsquina’s

entrywayoperatedasacommunicationheadquarters

(pl.12)whereenthusiastscoulddelveintoan

informationalhub,archive,andresearchcenter.

Becausetheprojectincorporatedseveral

presentationsandprogramsatmultiplelocations,this

communicationheadquartersservedasacentrally

locatedcollectionofallthingsrises Zora,including

eventlistings,documentation,literature,mapsandmore.

Itwasmaintainedasakindofcentralnervoussystem

orbrain(twoothertypesoflabyrinths)forthewhole

project,andbecameaplacewheretheephemeral

andresidualeffectsofrises Zora’sengagementswith

theurbanlabyrinthcouldbecohesivelycollatedand

re-presentedforintellectualconsumption.Inadditionto

housingartfulrises Zora advertisements,branding,and

archives,thecommunicationsheadquartersfeatured

labirinto urbano(2013)(pl.12and13),alimitededi-

tionofXeroxphotocollagesbyJessicaPalko.Designed

fortheoccasionofthisproject,Palko’scollagesempha-

sizedtheoverlapsofurbanlabyrinthsondifferentsides

oftheworldthroughthecompositionofwhimsicaladja-

cenciesbetweenKansasCityandthefantasticalVenice

recollectedbyPoloinInvisible Cities.Aperfect

jumpingoffpointfortherises Zoraproject,labirinto

urbanoshowedthatZorahasrisenrighthereon

Midwestground.

The rises ZorainstallationswithinCharlotte

Street’slaEsquinagalleryspacesetupaseries

metaphoricalscenariosillustratingrises Zora’scuratorial

ponderingsonurbanity.Inthemaingalleryspace,Gerry

TrillingandChrisDaharshpresentedbodiesofworkin

tandemtoinvestigatespatialandconceptualthemes

oftheurbanlabyrinth.Thoughthisgallerypresentation

wasdesignedtoexpandonvariouscomponentsofthe

urbanity,thereismuchtodiscussinregardstothe

individualqualitiesofeachartist’swork.

Trillingreferstohertextilecollagesanddigital

printsas“constructedpaintings,”whichseems

appropriategiventhatthecolorpalettes,geometric

designs,andmaterialsusedareinextricablylinkedto

multiplehistoricaltrajectoriesoffineartandcraft,

includingOpart,abstractpainting,andtraditional

women’sworklikequilting,needlepoint,andweaving.But

itisquiteobviousthattheartist’scollagesvisually

referencemaps.Fromadistanceeachpiecelookslike

anaerialviewofsomekindofarchitectural

development,andupclose,theworksprovideoneor

16

morepathsfortheeyetowanderdown.Interestingly,this

kindofvisualunderstandingoflabyrinthsas

architecturalgroundplanshasalonghistory,which

includesa17thcenturyengravingbyFischervonErlach

showingtheCretanlabyrinthinperspectiveasaprison

basedonaCarthaginianmedalandanotherTheseus

storybyLuciusMestriusPlutarch.Thatthroughouttime

ourmapshaveoperatedasAriadne’sthread,aguide

tohelpussafelymovethroughtimeandspace,literally

illustratesthattheurbanlabyrinthmustberecordedto

memoryifwearetoattempttounderstandit,especially

beforeitchangesagain.Trilling’scollages,thoughnot

necessarilydepictingrealspace,toywithournatural

desiretofollowastringoramap,tohaveaguidethat

givesanunderstandingofaplacesothatwemayknow

itsshape.

Startingwithatemplateorsystemderivedfrom

griddedcompositionsofvaryingcomplexities,Trilling

arrangesandlayerssmall,cutsquaresofpatterned

fabricsandpaperscollectedfromhertravelsthrough

urbanlabyrinthsaroundtheworldtocreateintricate,

illusionistictextilecompositionslikeSQ111 Color Line

(2011)(pl.6),reminiscentoftopographicalurban

plans.Eventually,thepatternedtextilesinpieceslike

Jitterbug: Taking Over The City(pl.7)andJitterbug:

Hidden Minority(both2010)visuallyoverpowerthe

imageoftheguidinggrid,creatingananalogy:the

labyrinthcannotbecontrolled;itsgenerationisrandom,

infinite,unstoppable,andall-consuming.

Trilling’s JSP 113 Stacked (2013)(pl.5,right),

afourbyeightfeetcollageconsistingofanorderly,

barely-thereblackandwhitegrid,containsthreemajor

insertions/deviationsthatdisruptwhatwouldbean

otherwiseflatpictureofsimplelatticework:

1. anequallywell-orderedgridofoff-whitetiles

thathasbeenskeweddiagonallyandlayered

ontopoftheprimarygrid;

2. thecorrugatedsurfaceoftheoff-whitetiles;

3. andthehandwrittennumberspenciledinaround

thepiece’sframe.

ThoughTrillinghassetupalogical,systematicprocess

foroureyestofollow,shecontinuouslydisturbsour

expectationsforthiscompositionwiththerealitiesof

opticality,imperfectsurfaces,andsignsofthehuman

hand.LikeJSP 113 Stacked,anumberofherworksfind

variouswaystointentionallycreateperceptualdoubt

andophthalmicuncertainty,neitherofwhichnecessarily

yieldtheclarityandorderwehavecometo

anticipatefromthetraditionalgridsandrepetitive

patternsofAmericancraftworksorthecleanshapesand

linesofgeometricabstraction.Asaresult,Trilling’sentire

bodyofworkpresentedwithinrises Zora,despiteits

ultimatelytwo-dimensionallimitsandfairlymodestscale,

provokedourtrustinorganizationalsystemsmeantto

createperfectorder.Insteadofrestingassuredinthe

works’uniformity,wefindourselveslookingforthe

spontaneousqualitiesofthelabyrinth,where

inevitableflawsoftheartist’shandsignifyhumanity

andwhererandomnessmakesroomforchance.Inthis

collectionofTrilling’scollagesandprintstheviewerwas

confrontedwithunpredictability—astockcharacteristic

oflifeintheurbanlabyrinth—,whichalwayspredicates

reality’smostinterestingoutcomes.

Conversely,Daharshprovidedamoreobvious

lookintothelabyrinth’scomplications,impediments,and

conundrums.Composedwithmaterialsofadistinctly

urbannature,Daharsh’ssculpturalinstallationscame

togethertomakeupproblematicspacesofvisualpuns

andriddles.Carefullyconstructedtointeractwithand

evenbecomepartoflaEsquina’sindustrial-styledesign

andfloorplan,eachsculptureandinstallation

encouragedviewerstotrytodecipherwhichpartwas

artandwhichwasthegallery’sstructure,andtherefore

demandedaudiencesthoughtfullyconsidermaterials,

layoutand,oddlyenough,language.Andthoughhis

artworksrelyonthefinickylexiconandrigidvisualmotifs

ofMinimalistworkbythelikesofDonaldJuddandAgnes

Martin,Daharsh’soverallpracticespringsforthwith

urgencyinspiredbythesensibilitiesofurbanspaceand

landartprovocateurslikeGordonMatta-Clarkand

RobertSmithson.Daharsh,liketheseandmanyother

artistsbeforehim,isaself-professedscavengerinand

ofthecity.Heaccumulates(orinmanycases,flawlessly

replicates)remnantsofKansasCity’sin-fluxurbansites

tothenmanipulate,juxtapose,andformulateakind

ofobject-basedpoetrythatservesashomagetothe

beautyoftheurbanlabyrinth’smanychallenges.For

rises Zora,theartiststagedworksasiftheywereprops

makingupanobstaclecourse,theresultingfloorplanof

whichwasnotunlikethatofafielddaygame,

playground,ormini-golfcourseinthatitrequired

patronstomovecarefully,strategicallyeven,toview

eachartwork.WorkslikeStumbling Block(2011/2013)

(pl.9)andLow Wall to Step Over(2013)(pl.1,front

rightonthefloor)notonlyhadtobelookedat,they

17

alsoforcedviewerstoconvertimagesandobjectsinto

languageconveyingsimpletruths,like“pebblesinyour

shoeareannoying…stepsaretricky…wallsblockthe

shortestroutetoyourpreferreddestination.”The

circumstancesofthesepiecescreatedabackand

forth,asometimesrhythmic,sometimessporadiccanter

reminiscentofthepoeticversefoundinJohnKeats’s

“OdeonaGrecianUrn.”Whileekphrasticexperiences

andepicenterswerekeptatasubstantialdistancein

theexhibition,Daharsh’ssculpturalcontributionsleft

tracesofanumberofarthistorical,literary,and

temporallabyrinths.Evidencedineveryartworkwasthe

factthathe,auserandnavigatoroftheurban

labyrinththatisKansasCity,hastakenanumberof

routesinsearchofapathwayofhisveryown.Tosumup

thistwo-personpresentation:Daharsh’sleavingoftraces

islikeconstructingthelabyrinth,whereasfollowingthe

tracesinTrilling’scollagesislikesolvingthatlabyrinth.

InHarukiMurakami’sacclaimednovel,Kafka on

the Shore,thecharactercalledOshimaputsintohisown

wordsaversionoftheKafka-esqueworldheis

attemptingtotracewhenhesays“theprincipleofthe

labyrinthisinsideyou.Andthatcorrelatestothe

labyrinthoutside.Thingsoutsideyouareprojectionsof

whatisinside,andwhatisinsideyouisaprojectionof

whatisoutside.”Thisinnerprojectionoftheouter

labyrinthwasappliedtoaprimaryobjectivefromthe

late19thcenturyandthroughoutthe20thcentury:the

humanbrain.Accordingly,FriedrichNietzsche

proclaimed,“Ifwewantedtoattemptanarchitecture

modeledonthepatternofoursoul…thelabyrinth

wouldbeourarchetype.”Andsome30yearsearlier,

NathanielHawthornewrotethattheonlythingthatwas

moreintricateandcomplexthantheCretanlabyrinth

wasthebrainofitscreator,Daedalus.Aningeniousman

whohasbeenmythologizedasapersonwhocould

solveanypracticalproblemswithhistechnicalskilland

designartistry,Daedalus’brainsignifiesthehoned

intellect,methodicalskillandingenuityrequiredofand

appliedforthegoodofallbyhisdescendants—

architects,cityplanners,andthelike.Afterall,the

peoplewhofilltheserolesincontemporarysociety

constantlyconstruct,confrontandtrytosolvetheurban

labyrinth,whichisamajordesignchallengethattests

thetheoryofnodesinmathematicsandbothcreates

andusesknowledgeatoptheslipperycommonground

betweenscience,artandrevelation.

Continuouslybuildingonthatslipperyground,

architectDavidDowellofKansasCity-based

architecturefirmeldorado,incandartistJamesWoodfill

markedaten-yearanniversaryofartistic/architectural

collaborationwiththeircontributiontotherises Zora.

Theirjointpracticefitperfectlyintotheconceptual

premiseoftheprojectsinceforoveradecadethetwo

haveconsistentlycollaboratedwithoneanotherand

withthecityscapeofKansasCity.Together,they

developpublicartworksandarchitectural

compositionsthatblurthelinesbetweenadornment,

urbanplanning,andcivicintervention.Indeed,projects

likePedestrian Strands,animageandlightinstallation

fixedontofourhighwaybridgesrepairthevisual

experienceofacross-citywalk,andPULSE,alight

andsound-basedworkthatspansthestairwellsof

downtown’sWolfParkingFacility,arebothprojectsthat

reconceptualize,repurpose,andreactivatethecity’s

urbanplaninwaysthatmoreappropriatelyreflect

contemporaryurbanactivity.DowellandWoodfillinvest

inthepossibilitiesofthecitysothattheymay

incorporateintotheircooperativeproductionanimble

abilityto,intheend,helpothersmoreenjoyablymove

throughtheurbanlabyrinth’sexpresswaysanddead

ends,itssubtlebendsandsuddenturns,anditsinside

andoutsideforms.

Fashioningwhattheycalla“Temporary

Renovation”(2013)(pl.10)forlaEsquina’sneglected

backroomjustoutsidethegalleryrestrooms,theduo

devisedasite-specificinstallationthatfocusedonthe

nooksandcranniesinherentintheurbanlabyrinth’s

buildings.Thisimprovisedyetmeticulouslyconstructed

artworkdrawsmeaningfromitsmaterials,whichimitate

andsubsequentlyhonorthosethatmakeupthespace—

fluorescentlights,builder’smetalhardwareand

fasteners,andafewbucketsforcolor’ssake.Itisan

entirelynon-functionaltemporaryrenovationthat

emphasizestheentirelyfunctionalnatureofthishidden

interiorspaceandstoredobjects.

“TemporaryRenovation”recognizesthetension

betweentwosetsofbinaries:first,isatensionbetween

themysteriouscomplexityoftheurbanlabyrinthasa

wholeandtheuniquepotentialitiesinherentinitsmany

parts.Second,isthatfoundbetweenthecontrastingyet

equallycreativerolesoftheartist—whoexperimentswith

andoftenrelishesinthequirksandinconsistenciesfound

withintheurbanlabyrinth—andthearchitect—who

utilizescreativitytosolveproblemsandeffectively

eliminatethosequirks.With“TemporaryRenovation”

18

DowellandWoodfillplayedwithperceptions—boththe

viewer’sandtheirown—ofwhatconstitutesanoverall

workingconceptandwhatfiguresasasiteofpotential

artistryorasaproblemneedingresolution.Brilliantly,

however,“TemporaryRenovation”stagedadialectical

synthesisofsuchbinariesinthatitobligedarchitect

DowellandartistWoodfilltore-evaluatethe

classificationsofproblemsandpotentialitiesintheirown

fieldsandtotrust,evenembrace,theunfamiliartools

oftheircollaboratingpartner’srespectivediscipline.In

turn,acollaborative,site-specificworklike“Temporary

Renovation”causestheartistandarchitectrolesto

becomeinterchangeable.

Suchdualitiesalsopersistinhistoriesand

philosophiesofboththelabyrinthandmodernurbanism.

GARDENPARTIES,oneofrises Zora’sperformance

programs,attemptedtoreconcileanotherbinary

opposition:natureversusartifice.Urbanparksandcity

gardensmakeforgoodcompromisesbecausesuch

placesbringnatureintotheultimatebuiltenvironment—

thecity—andtheyprovidepeacefulandsafespace

forimaginativeplay,respite,andprivacywithinand

fromthechaoticurbanlabyrinth.But,themeldingofthe

builtenvironmentandnaturetocreatesanctuaryisnot

new.Fromthe15thcenturyonward,anunprecedent-

edcreativeleaptooktheunicursal,two-dimensional

labyrinthinerepresentations,whichcouldbefollowedby

theeye,tothemulticursalhedgemazesthatonehadto

walkthroughstepbystepwithouthavingan

overallsenseofthewhole.Inthistypologyoflabyrinths

aninevitabledialogueoccurredbetweenarchitecture

andplantlife,totheextentthatthegrowthoftreesused

aswallshadtoberegulatedpatientlyandconstantly

inordertoachievetherigorousgeometrydesired.Thus

thelabyrinthbecameanorderedchaos,acontrolled

complexitythattiedinwithnaturesubjectedtothe

culturethatgovernsthewaywater,stoneandplantsare

arranged.Theseearlymodernsynthesesofnatureand

artificeviathelabyrinthfirstcroppedupinRenaissance,

ManneristandBaroquegardens,andthenlaterinthe

morevisuallyabstracteddesignoftrails,pathways,and

shrubberyorforestryfoundinparkslikeKansasCity’s

LooseandSwope.

ThefirstoftheGARDENPARTIES(pl.14-15)was

heldintherooftopgardenoftheKansasCityPublic

Library’sCentralBranchindowntownKansasCity,

Missouri.Itfeaturedtwoperformancegroupspresenting

variouspoeticworksthatconsiderednotonlythe

aforementionedbinary,butalsotheintersectionof

urbancultureandthelanguageusedtoconveythe

experienceofthatculture.Inanimprovisationalmusic

performance,Arboretum,aduetconsistingof

RhiannonBirdsallandJoeWheeler,performeda

selectionoffolk-soundingtunesforwhichphrases

sampledfromaseriesofmindmapsandwordlistswere

turnedintosonglyricsonthespot.Songsincluded

topicsandstoriesoflovechasedandlostina

sprawlingmetropolis,ofyouthfulconversation,of

non-sensicaljourneysthroughurbantheory,andmore.

Thesemi-improvisationalperformancegaveoffa

stream-of-consciousnesseffect,yetwasremarkably

prolific,poignant,andhumorous.

Exploringsimilarthemes,poetryduoJeanette

PowersandEzhnoMartinpresentedamicro-play1

exploringthevariousculturalobstaclesoneconfrontsin

theurbanlabyrinth.Thepoets,dressedin

complementaryredandblackgarbthatheldno

particularmeaningbutseemedfittingwiththe

overalltheatricalityoftheirdemeanor,moved

constantly,choreographingtheaudience’sdizzinessas

theypacedandchasedoneanotherinbigcircles

withinthecheckeredsquareoftilesontherooftop’s

patio.Deliveringaseamlessbackandforthexchangeof

poeticverse,thismale/femaleduo’slyricalprose

centeredaroundthreeconflicts:theinteractionof

variouscultures,themeldingofdifferentsexualities,and

theblurringoflowandhighbrowartisticproduction,all

inevitableproductsoftheurbanlabyrinth.

Understandingthattheurbanlabyrinth’sdifficulties

sometimeswreakshavoconthosetravelingthrough,

PowersandMartindemonstratedthatthemazeofcity

lifeforcesindividualstoeitherfindaplaceinthemelee

ortosurrendertoalifelosttothetreacherousreality

ofthelabyrinth.Atworst,thisforcedchoiceorthelack

thereofspiralsintopervasivetensionsandtragedies

inherentinthetheoryofthelabyrinthaswellasurban

culture.Atbest,thechoicemakesforinteresting

communities,fascinatingintrigue,andstrangepitstops

aswepassthroughthisthingcalledlife.

Thefactthatthelabyrinthisconsideredtobe

architectureconnectedtothenaturalworld,whichis

wellillustratedinthehumanhistoryofhedgemazes,

gardens,parksandthenaturalversusartificialequation,

alsohasaclearprecedentinClaudiusAelianus.Inhis

1 See rises ZorapoemsbyJeanettePowers

onp.54

19

workOn the Nature of Animals,thehistorianandcultural

criticreproacheshistorianswhocelebratethelabyrinths

ofCreteandotherancientcultureswhiletheyignore

the“paths,twistsandturnsandcirculartrailsofantsin

theground.”Anthillsandburrows,liketheurban

labyrinth,areacombinationofartificial(becausethey

donotoccurnaturallywithouttheants)andnatural

labyrinthinestructures,which,inthiscase,arecreated

bytheanimalsthatbuildthem,liveinthem,andmove

throughthem.Aelianus’sargumentprovidesfurther

evidencethatwemustnotforgetthattheessenceof

theurbanlabyrinth,andthenature,builtenvironments,

andcommunitieswithinit,ismovement.Despitethegreat

numberoflabyrinthsthatimposetheirstaticpresence

aroundtheworld,movementisnecessaryinorderto

enter,interactwith,andexiteachofthem;therefore,the

urbanlabyrinth,likeanetworkofanthillsandburrows,

iscomposedbythenumerousroutesofitsmakersand

users.

risesZora’sWALKINGTHEURBANLABYRINTH,

aseriesofon-footwalks/tours/adventuresledbylocal

artistsandthinkers,usedmovementasanartisticmedium

tocreativelyexplorethemythologicalandoccult

aspectsoflabyrinthsingeneralaswellasthe

unexaminedcollectivehistoriesandpersonaljourneys

containedwithintheurbanlabyrinth.For“Excavatingthe

EastBottoms”(pl.19)inNortheastKansasCity,local

resident,historian,andcommunityorganizerKenJohnson

guidedlocalsonaphysicallychallenginghikethat

touredthestoriedarea,NortheastKansasCity’s

originalbutnowovergrowndowntown.Experiencingthe

sometimestreacherousandoftenrandompathsand

occurrencesthatmakeuptheurbanlabyrinth,hikers

facedsteephillsleadingto19thcenturyandearly20th

centuryarchitecturalruins,dodgedsuspectlitterand

debrisleftbehindbycontemporarysub-cultures,and

finally,wentthroughaferociousrainstormtocatchsight

ofbreathtakingviewsofsunnyskiesfromthecrestsof

theEastBottoms’nowforestedhills.

Toinvestigatetheoppositeendofthe

locationalspectrumconceptualartpairLindseyGriffith

andCharlieMyliecoordinated“QuietintheCastle,”

(pl.18)anadventurethroughthewinding,cavernous

spacesofCrownCenter,KansasCity’sinfamous85-

acrecomplexmega-mallownedandoperatedby

HallmarkCards,Inc.Thisgiantretailandentertainment

complexhaslongstoodinKansasCityasaneconomic

center,touristattraction,andmulti-facetedbeaconof

capitalistspectacle.Itscomplicatedmulti-levelfloor

planboastscountlesshallways,corridors,stairwells,

nooks,andcrannies,nottomentionanumberofvaried

spacesforahotel,afoodcourt,multiplestand-alone

restaurantsandfranchises,retailstores,specialtyshops,

servicesalons,andmore,allofwhichdontheirown

brand’scolorpalettes,createaclashingbrandof

sensoryoverload.Intheireffortstobothpaytributeto

theplace’saestheticqualitiesandtocompetewithits

endlessdemandsforattention,GriffithandMylie

requiredparticipants,whowerenotallowedtoutter

awordlesttheybecastoutofthegroup,todressin

monochromaticallycoloredoutfits,effectively

spectacularizingthe“QuietintheCastle”groupitself

anditsactivitiesfortheviewingpleasure,ormaybe

horror,ofeveryCrownCenterpatron.Combining

differentaspectsofgroupplayandpublicpresentation,

includingparades,charades,scavengerhunts,and

gameslikeSimonSaysandRedLightGreenLight,Griffith

andMylieorchestratedastrangeadventurethrough

thiscapitalistlabyrinth,whichishousedintheheart—just

northofdowntownKansasCity—oftheurban

labyrinth.Astheywalkedsinglefilethroughthrongsof

shoppersandtheirchildren,thegroupwasclapping,

holdinghands,skipping,orevenjumpinginwater

fountainsastheirshamelessleaderscommanded.

Eventually,theCenter’scrowdbecameaccustomed

tothegroup’sshenanigansandwithoutmuchthought

shruggedthewholethingoffasjustanotherpeculiartrip

throughtheurbanlabyrinth.

PerhapsthemostepicoftheWALKINGTHE

URBANLABYRINTHexpeditions,“ExaltedForever”(pl.

20)wasablindfoldedtour-cum-cultishritualorganized

byMeganMantia,LeoneReeves,andthefictionalyet

able-bodiedcharacterofGhymanJohnson.Roughly

thirtyparticipantsRSVP’dfordirectionstoasecret

place,andthenshowedupatalocationthathadbeen

disclosedwithinapersonalizedinvitationsentthrough

thepostalservice.Someparticipantshadtheirfaces

paintedlikedogsandcats;othersdidnot.Theyallwore

blackhoodedcapescustom-madeforthemby

“ExaltedForever”organizers.Afterafewminutes

waitingandgettingtoknowtheirfellowwalkers,awhite

vanpulledup,screechingtoasuddenhalt.Anequal

numberofhoodedfiguresjumpedoutandquickly

pairedthemselvesoffwiththeparticipants,

communicatingthattheyweretheir“see-ers.”They

blindfoldedeachparticipant,andexplainedthatthey

20

wouldbetheireyes.Withquietlycalm,matteroffact

voices,thesesee-ersinformedtheirdesignated

participantthattheywouldguideandensurethesafety

andcomfortacrossthecitytoyetanotherundisclosed

location.

Theguidedtourproceededacrossparks

andboulevards,inandoutofsupermarkets,bars,

andrestaurants,throughtheurbanlabyrinth’swinding

landscapeoftextures,sounds,smells,andmore—someof

whichwerereportedtohavebeenperceivedasquite

chaoticanddisturbing,whileotherssurprised,delight-

ed,andmystifiedtheparticipantswhosenon-visual

sensesintensifieddramaticallysanssight.Naturally,this

paradeofblindfolded,hoodedpeoplebeingledby

thehandsofotherhoodedindividualsspeakingineerily

softandsoothingtonesprompteddifferentcomments

andresponsesfromonlookers;however,forthepersons

involved,confusionquicklyfadedawaytobereplaced

byclose,symbioticrelationshipsbetweensee-ersand

participants.Interestingly,duetotheabsolutetrust

requiredonthepartofparticipants,strongbondsthat

willlikelylastforeverwereformedbetweentwopeople

whohadlikelynevermet.

Recountingherexperienceasablindfolded

participant,KansasCitianandartistLynnBenson

explainsthat:

Blind folded, it became all about concentrating and

letting go at the same time. The sounds and terrain and

smells and conversations and, for me, analogies to

parenting, friendship, religion, community, alternate

worlds, et cetera, rose to the fore. Barking dogs, traffic,

the sound of lots of shuffling feet at once, [a] Les

Miserable singer! I kept thinking about the phrase

“sentinels in the night” as I proceeded on from that

point… I held my see-er’s hand and enjoyed the trip.

Whenthepairsreachedabackyard

decoratedwithtwinklinglights,drippingcandles,anda

bonfire,see-ersunmaskedtheirparticipantsand

initiatedthem.Initiatedthemintowhat,noonecould

say,buttheyknew,andnotjustbecauseMantia,Reeves,

andJohnsontoldthemso,thattheirsharedexperience

wasanadventureinspiredbyandattributedtothe

possibilitiesnurturedbytheurbanlabyrinth.They

feastedandtheydanced.Andtheywere“exalted

forever”astravelersthroughtheurbanlabyrinth.

Thebulkoftherises Zorapublicevents

focusedonthewayswhichKansasCityartistsand

culturalworkersengagewiththeurbanlabyrinth.Indeed,

artisticpresentationsmadeaspartofFIELDWORKS,a

programmaticplatformthatallowedartiststoactivate

theurbanlabyrinththroughaseriesofsite-specific

investigationsandproductions,highlightedthequirks,

theintricacies,andthecharmingrandomnessofthe

constantlyshiftingcity.JeffEaton’s“NON.IMG”(pl.22)

performanceofassemblageandmetapoetrycentered

arounddescriptivewordsculledfrombothstock

photographsandtheparticularitiesoftheperformance

setting—AndrewK.Dripp’spark,whichismerelyabridge

overI-35onKansasCity’sWestside.Inspiredbythe

wanderings,errors,passesandimpassessituatedwithin

KansasCity,MnemosyneDuo’s“RelevantSound”

(pl.26)transformedtheunderbellyofaCrossroad’s

DistrictI-35overpassintoasoniccathedralof

instrumentalsandrecycledurbansoundsgeneratedwith

thehelpofpeoplepassingunderthebridgeonfoot

orbycar.Similarlyrelyingonurbansettingsforcontent,

performanceduoGotch&Hansontookaneight-hour

journeythroughtheurbanlabyrinth.Aspartofthis

journeyandperformedartworktitled“revelationis

lockedinmotion,”(pl.23)thetwosomecarefully

consideredtheinputandrecommendationsoftheir

multipleaudiencesinordertochoreographavariety

ofartisticresponsestospecificsitesandsituations;they

documentedeveryaspectoftheirmovements;and

measuredtheendurancedemandedbythemultiple

methodsoftransportationneededtotraversethecity.

EachFIELDWORKSeventorprogramcastKansasCity

artistsandaudiencesintheinterdependentandinter-

changeablerolesofAriadne(theguide)andTheseus

(theconqueror),demonstratingthatwhileartistsoften

leadaudiencesonaquestformeaning,theyusuallyde-

pendonaudiencestodetermineexactlywhatisworth

makingmeaningful.

Returningtothefieldofvisualartistic

representation,themovingimagehasmadeahefty

contributiontotheiconographyoftheurbanlabyrinth,

notjustduetothealternatingviewsmadepossiblein

theeditingprocess,orthejourneysalongcitystreets

usingthesubjectivecamera,but,inparticular,by

identifyingwiththenarratorsandcharactersthatlead

viewerstoexperiencethefullgamutofthoughts,

emotions,andsensationsthattheexperienceofthe

urbanlabyrinthinvolves:disorientation,anguish,fear,

desire,courage,search,persistence,prudence,despair,

ingenuity,voyeurism…thelistgoesonandon.rises

21

Zora’sMOVIESINTHEPARKINGLOT,(pl.21)afilmseries

curatedbyChicago-basedAcademyRecords,didtwo

things:first,bysettinguphugeinflatablemoviescreens

aroundtheKansasCitymetropolitanareainvarious

parkinglots,whichKansasCityproperaveragesmoreof

persquaremilethananyotherurbanareaintheUnited

States,theprogramhighlightedthisuniqueaspectof

thelocalurbanlabyrinth,allowingArttotransformsites

intocentersofculturalactivityandrenewal(afterthe

carshadbeendrivenhomefortheday).Secondly,the

selectedfilmsandvideosconnectedthemesofthelocal

urbanlabyrinththatisKansasCitywiththerestofthe

worldbyextendingthedialogueandcomparingand

contrastingKansasCitywithotherurbanlabyrinthsnear

andfar.Ineffect,MOVIESINTHEPARKINGLOTenabled

anotherkindoflabyrinth—thenetwork.Inanetwork,

eachpointcanbeconnectedtoanyotherpoint,which

makesitpossibletotravelaround,presumablythrough

aninfinitenumberoflabyrinths.Initsconjunctiveessays,

AcademyRecordsshowsviaMOVIESINTHEPARKING

LOTthatfilm,likeliterature,music,visualartingeneral,or

theInternet,utilizesthetransportingaspectsofaccu-

mulatedandnewlyacquiredknowledgetoillustratethe

vastnessofthenetworkthatexistsbetweentheworld’s

urbanlabyrinths.

Andthat’sjustit—theessenceoftheurban

labyrinthisthesurprisinglyendlessabundanceof

knowledgetobeacquiredwithinit.Inordertotruly

learnfromtheurbanlabyrinththatisKansasCity,or

anycityforthatmatter,wehavetogetoutthereand

move;wehavetorelentlesslyexplore,document,and

applycreativity,imaginingourselvesascontemporary

Daeduluses,Theseuses,Ariadnis,andMarcoPolos.rises

Zoraartistshavedonethis,andtheywillcontinuetodo

sobecausetheyknowthatthelabyrinth,especiallythe

urbanlabyrinth,hasnoend.Atitsexitistheopportunity

tomovethroughanotherandthenanotherandsoon.

Thepossibilitiesareendless.

-Jamilee Polson Lacy

Jamilee Polson LacyCharlotte Street Inaugural Curator-In-Residence

JamileePolsonLacyisacuratorandwriterbasedin

Chicago.LacyistheInauguralCurator-In-Residencefor

CharlotteStreetFoundationinKansasCity,whereshe

organizesexhibitions,educationalprogrammingand

publicationsforCharlotteStreet’sgallery,laEsquina.In

Chicago,Lacyadditionallyoperatesasthefounding

directorofTwelveGalleriesProject,atransitory,

collaborativeexhibitionexperiment.Shehasengaged

insoloandcollaborativeprojectswithmanycreatives

andinstitutions,includingA+DGalleryatColumbia

CollegeChicago,TheBlackVisualArchive,Chicago

Artists’Coalition&HatchProjects,SchooloftheArt

InstituteofChicago,HydeParkArtCenter,Museumof

ContemporaryArtChicago,WesternExhibitionsand

QuiteStrong,amongothers.Inadditiontonumerous

catalogueessays,interviewsandarticles,Lacyhas

publishedColor:FullyEngaged,abookofinterviews

andessays,andwrittenfor Flash Art’s Umelec Magazine,

Art 21 and Bad at Sports.Lacyholdstwo

undergraduatedegreesinstudioartsandarthistory

fromtheSchooloftheArtInstituteofChicagoanda

MastersofComparativeLiteratureandArtsfromNorth-

westernUniversity.

22

RISES ZORA plates

1. rises Zora, 2013, installation view at Charlotte Street’s la Esquina, Kansas City, Missouri

2. rises Zora, 2013, installation view at Charlotte Street’s la Esquina, Kansas City, Missouri

3. rises Zora, 2013, installation view at Charlotte Street’s la Esquina, Kansas City, Missouri

27

4. rises Zora, 2013, installation view at Charlotte Street’s la Esquina, Kansas City, Missouri

5. rises Zora, 2013, installation view at Charlotte Street’s la Esquina, Kansas City, Missouri

7. Gerry TrillingJitterbug: Taking Over the City, 2010

6. Gerry TrillingSQ111 Color Line, 2011

8. Chris DaharshUntitled (Pedestal Piece) (detail), 2013

9. Chris DaharshStumbling Block, 2011/2013

30

10. David Dowell and James Woodfill“Temporary Renovation,” 2013, installed for rises Zora in the tool room of Charlotte Street’s la Esquina, Kansas City, Missouri

11. rises Zora Communication Headquarters, 2013, installation view at Charlotte Street’s la Esquina, Kansas City, Missouri

32

12. rises Zora Communication Headquarters featuring Jessica Palko’s labirinto urbano, 2013, installation view at Charlotte Street’s la Esquina, Kansas City, Missouri

13. Jessica Palkolabirinto urbano detail, 2013

33

15. Musical Duo Arboretum at Garden Party #1, 2013, Kansas City Public Library Rooftop Garden

14. Poets Ezhno Martin and Jeanette Powers at Garden Party #1, 2013, Kansas City Public Library Rooftop Garden

16. Performance group Hyperkewl enacted “The Relics Project” at Garden Party #2, 2013, Loose Park, Kansas City, Missouri

17. “The Relics Project” (detail) at Garden Party #2, 2013, Loose Park, Kansas City, Missouri

34

18. Lindsey Griffith and Charlie Mylie led “Quiet in the Castle” for the Walking the Urban Labyrinth series, 2013, Crown Center, Kansas City, Missouri

35

19. Ken Johnson led “Excavating the East Bottoms” for the Walking the Urban Labyrinth series, 2013, Northeast Kansas City, Missouri

36

20. Megan Mantia, Leone Reeves, and Ghyman Johnson led “Exalted Forever” for the Walking the Urban Labyrinth series, 2013, Kansas City, Missouri

21. Movies in the Parking Lot #1 curated by Academy Records of Chicago, 2013, Downtown Kansas City, Missouri

39

22. Jeff Eaton performs “NON.IMG” for the Fieldworks program, 2013, Andrew K. Dripps Park, Kansas City, Missouri

23. Gotch & Hansen perform a small part of “revelation is locked in motion” for the Fieldworks program, 2013, Kansas City, Missouri

41

24 and 25. Documentation from Laura Isaac and Maritza Ruiz-Kim’s “You are not here. Parts I an II” for the Fieldworks program, 2013, Kansas City, Missouri

42

26. Mnemosyne Duo performed “Relevant Sound” for the Fieldworks program, 2013, undeneath I-35 at Southwest Boulevard and 25th Street, Kansas City, Missouri

43

27. m.o.i. performed “Unlearn: Ask an artist about science” for the Fieldworks program, 2013, Crossroads District, Kansas City, Missouri

44

28. Erika Lynn Hanson set up “Manner of Looking at, or Regarding Something” for the Fieldworks program, 2013, Stockyards District, Kansas City, Missouri

Movies in the Parking Lot

Curated by Chicago’s ACADEMY RECORDS

Kansas City is made up of a network of roads,

boulevards, highways and other pathways for

automobiles. Parking lots, too, are aplenty in here, and

they tend to exist in a singular fashion: They are places

to store cars. However, they could operate more like

parks and gardens, as pit stops along the way through

the urban labyrinth, as sites that facilitate community

interaction and creativity. The Movies in the Parking

Lot program moved towards repurposing parking lots

throughout Kansas City by showcasing, on a grand

scale, urban labyrinth-themed works by video artists and

filmmakers—some contemporary, some past, some local,

some international. Just like a movie in the park program,

this series brought people together to take advantage

of and consider the many possibilities of their city’s

unique urban plan.

Notes from Academy Records

Program 1

May 22, 2013

Copaken-Brooks Parking Lot in Downtown Kansas City

Man of Action

Transfilm Productions, 1955

As a call, a herald of what one person can do when

facing the colossus of urban planning and governmental

oversight, this short animated film shows where and how

the needs of the many should outweigh those of the few.

In Transfilm Productions Man of Action , we see how one

person can lead a community of conscientious citizens

to work together to provide for that greater good,

thusly circumnavigating the many arms of policy. Creat-

ed by HUAC blacklisted animators Maurice Rapf and

David Hilberman, who both previously worked on Disney

classics Snow White, Bambi, and the anything-but-PC

Song of the South, this animation provides us here in the

“comfy environs” of 2013 the much needed perspective

on how to slow down our communities and make a more

sustainable existence to benefit the majority. Transfilm

contracted out the job to Rapf and Hilberman (whose

name was named in McCarthy’s hearings by none other

than Walt Disney), but due to political forces they were

forced to complete this paen to American ingenuity in

England, with the help of Digby Turpin and Frank Cordell.

Niterover

Barry Anderson, 2012

Although there is layered depth to these images

composed by Kansas City-based artist Barry

Anderson, Niterover is collaged stasis—we find ourselves

48

in place yet moving laterally through a long tracking

shot of horizon that keeps us, the audience, distant from

the menacing growth of fragmentation. Missing is the

linear perspective needed for the impact of time to

signal fully the outcomes of natural landscape and

sprawl. We only have the overlap of these existing

images to convey the weight of use, non-use, and

possible re-use necessary to further the social contract

drafted by the urban environment.

The Pruitt-Igoe Myth

Chad Freidrichs, 2011

The Pruitt-Igoe Myth, Program 1’s feature film, provides

real life context to the issues dramatized in the two

preceding selections. Examining the impact of public

housing and urban planning on a discrete

community (unlike the anywhere cities and scapes

in Man of Action and Nightrover), Pruitt-igoe asks a

question of its viewers: as both community members and

citizens of a greater group, can we effectively maneuver

through political challenges and economic growth and

still have the stamina to learn from history and embrace

the urban labyrinth?

All the great explorers

Are now in granite laid

Under white sheets for the great unveiling

At the big parade

- For the Turnstiles, Neil Young

Program 2

June 3, 2013

Livestock Exchange Parking Lot in Stockyards District

If Program 1 was about citizens getting lost in growth

and sprawl, then Program 2 presents the reverse with

what awaits us in the labyrinth—the minotaur. As

development spreads outward from the center,

citizens become unwitting accomplices and confidants

of corruption and neglect, bearing witness to the effect

of said growth on the communal psyche. Through our

gaze, the functionality of brick and mortar monoliths

and paved avenues become monuments to tools long

since left behind in the rise of technology and economic

globalization. The danger zone here is not the

construction site, abandoned lot, or weakened

structures of industry long lost. Rather, it is what awaits at

the center—the machinations of man himself.

Le Bled (Buildings in a Field)

Jem Cohen with Luc Sante, 2009

With Jem Cohen’s Le Bled (Buildings in a Field), we listen

as Luc Sante pulls us through this abstract city left

undone. In Tangiers, miles away but not dissimilar to the

American Midwest, we see the synthesis of the

isolated countryside with a city, once optimistically in

flux, now oppressed by the stasis of a number of mitigat-

ing circumstances.

Practice Process: Classical

Caitlin Horsmon, 2013

Kansas City filmmaker Caitlin Horsmon presents a new

work, Practice Process: Classical. This is an exposition

on the harsh and geometric landscape of the Stockyard

District, a part of town still in use by the cattle industry

and now creeping toward revitalization and/or

gentrification as artists and creative entrepreneurs move

in. Turn of the century buildings designed for warehous-

ing and transit are rehabbed into shops, lofts, and stu-

dios in hopes to bring about a newly energized econ-

omy. As reconciled landscapes emerge here, relics of

past identities serve as constant reminders of what once

was. Indeed, as Practice Process: Classical suggests, X

marks the spot, or any spot for that matter.

Hands Over the City

Francesco Rosi, 1963

Our feature in Program 2 is the 1963 Francesco Rosi film,

Hands Over the City. Starring Rod Steiger in a career

highlight role as Edoardo Nottala, an advantageous

suburban developer in postwar Italy, this film becomes

an allegory wherein labyrinths of political largesse,

49

individual gain, and civic dreams collide into a

nightmarish network of immorality. With Steiger playing

‘the Man’ as minotaur, the newly alienating landscape of

a modernizing Naples casts the citizens as a sacrificial

Ariadne lost inside the machinations of civic politics’

labyrinth. At the film’s end, we can only hope that a

string, or something like it, will guide a hero, or something

like one, through this tangled network to save the

proletariat from the brutality of ‘the Man’ and his farce.

Motion pictures on my TV screen

A home away from home, livin’ in between

But I hear some people have got their dream

I’ve got mine

- Motion Pictures, Neil Young

Program 3

June 7, 2013

Charlotte Street Foundation Headquarters Parking Lot in

Crossroads District

The City

American Documentary Films, 1939

Originally created for exclusive presentation at the

1939 New York World’s Fair, The City features a litany of

proto-American modernes coming together to make a

plea for the suburbs. With commentary supplied by Lewis

Mumford, The New Yorker’s architectural critic, the film

takes an odd stance: First, it romanticizes the not-so-

distant past of pre-industrial revolution hometowns; then,

it moves on to stress the problems of crowded

depression-era cities. By the film’s end, we are brought

full tilt into a clarion call for suburban epiphany thanks

to the wonders of the culprits—technology and

industrialization. Mumford, who later became known for

his growing pessimism of technology (see his Technics

and Civilization), sees through the suburbs’ sheen of

perfection in this almost allegorical tale of treading

lightly towards the “new and improved” industrial state.

Interestingly, the suburbs would become Mumford’s

barometer for a place that signified industry’s failure

to produce lasting quality products in favor of built-in

fragility and superficial fashion changes.

Untitled

Lindsey Fernandez, 2013

If ever there were a soundtrack fitting for a house, David

Bowie’s Low would surely emanate from inside this home.

The cold and delineated images that Fernandez

constructs in Untitled’s sharp black and white scenes

pair well with Todd M. Christiansen’s Eight Danger Zones.

Fernandez brings us into the tactile through her

constructed sets of a domestic interior that is being

surveilled if not burgled. As such we the audience are

not merely voyeurs, we are instead held in captivity as

we monitor Modernist interior and exterior states from

both beyond and behind bars.

Eight Danger Zones

Todd M. Christiansen, 2012

In Eight Danger Zones, we venture into a possible

approximation of what William Burroughs might’ve called

‘the Zone’, an ever-shifting space of hierarchy and

authority. Though bleating surveillance blasts and

makeshift digital structures, we continuously journey

through the past as either inmates or homeowners in this

short loop of a peeping Tom’s architectural/urban gaze.

A Propos de Nice

Jean Vigo, 1930

Whether taking an objective lens or a subjective stance,

remember that while in transit through the various

neighborhoods offered up by Program 3, we can always

take a particular vantage point to see both sides at

once. With A Propos de Nice, a short travelogue of the

city in all of its French Riviera-ness, we can see Nice

hasn’t changed much in the last 80 years—there is old

Nice and older Nice. Somehow though, it all ends up

feeling like Miami—the city is one big beach party. Like

any good Mediterranean town, there is not much time

spent indoors here, so the hierarchy of who uses the

town versus who makes the town run is apparent. Enough

so that it gives us a sense of not only the superficial

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fashion changes brought on by those of us who can

afford respite, but the fragility and impermanence of

those that make it all possible.

The Weak Bullet

Tony Oursler, 1983

Returning to construction and suburbs, Tony Oursler’s

The Weak Bullet gives us a scrawled public service

announcement, or at least an invitation, to look upon

the horrors and awkwardness that hides behind your

neighbor’s walls. The constructed sets and awkward

illustrations only reinforce The City’s plan for the future

and the inevitable outcome of Eight Danger Zones.

Surveillance might just be a simple re-telling, but there is

certainly no Mr. Rogers placidly waiting for us to arrive

back home to this neighborhood. Watch where you

point that thing as you travel along the interiors and

exteriors of this early Oursler piece.

The Indian Boundary Line

Thomas Comerford, 2010

For the feature selection, we have The Indian Boundary

Line by Chicago’s Thomas Comerford. Seated directly

on the fulcrum point of what’s coming and going,

Comerford leads us through a historical shifting of where

one thing is and where the other thing might have once

belonged. The Indian Boundary Line ties up all the

selections of Program 3 through the filter of history, the

effects of industrialization on a neighborhood, and the

ultimate out-moding and displacement that comes with

all of it. We often hear a critique of gentrification, but it

might actually be a built-in not foreseen 80 years ago

as those first trucks left the docks with new goods to

benefit the masses. In this masterful flick, time rather than

industry shifts the power balance required for a

neighborhood to provide an identity to its dwellers

through a space of desire, development, and so-called

progress.

I saw the movie and I read the book

But when it happened to me

I sure was glad I had what it took

To get away

- Sedan Delivery, Neil Young

Program 4

June 12, 2013

City Market Parking in River Market District

At its conclusion, the Movies in the Parking Lot program

has explored various constructions of time. Time

provides hindsight if not context to what the past

presented and what the future may portend. If we isolate

the shifting tide to just one day, alienation emerges

within the landscapes in which we are so harshly placed.

Here in the Midwest, the unreachable horizon is broken

by trees, hills, and parks (both industrial and natural).

The labyrinth of any given day can seem like a week or

indeterminably more, and it is in those moments of

forward looking/past searching realization that we find

ourselves.

A Room with the Walls Blasted to Shreds and Falling

Jennifer Reeder, 2001

In Jennifer Reeder’s 2001 video, we follow a travelogue

of an average day in Ohio. The protagonists are many,

yet they all operate sequentially. From dawn to dusk,

the heaviness of time is played out by long avenues,

expansive fields, and mundane tasks that are so common

place in a Midwest small city or suburb. Though we can’t

be sure how long it will take to actually cross the parking

lot, we can find out that it sometimes takes a whole lot

longer than mowing the yard. Each of life’s moments go

on nearly forever here, and you get the sense that it’s

still oppressively the same today.

Product Placement Black Friday

May Tveit, 2013

In a continuation of an ongoing series, Kanas City artist

May Tveit gives us a bit of product placement. As we

trudge alongside her to get these goods back to the

promised land, we are annointed to the cult of Black

Friday, the biggest shopping day. Take notice of the

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edits here—in opposition to Reeder’s piece, Product

Placement Black Friday’s shots compress time for the

viewer while simultaneously amplifying the durational

and physical task undertaken by the central figure of

Tveit herself.

Last Year at Marienbad

Alain Resnais, 1961

The feature film of Program 4 and the keystone film of

Movies in the Parking Lot series is Alain Resnais’ Last

Year at Marienbad. Staying pretty true to the originally

penned novel of the same title by Alain Robbe Grillet,

the methodical style of the screenplay’s words

miraculously convey Resnais’ acute sense of space

and time. Marienbad’s fractured story line moves us

away from our prior two selections’ ideas of sequence in

that we are placed heavily in a disjointed love triangle

that may be taking place now, then, or never. As in the

legend of the Cretan Labyrinth, which Theseus travels

in order to halt the sacrifice of Ariadne to the Knossos

Minotaur, there is only one correct path though there

are many to choose from. With the intense overlays of

outcomes and results and the general uneasiness that

comes with starting the venture, sometimes progress

made seems futile. If the labyrinth produces anything, it

surely must be time. Marienbad gives us with a

protagonist who will stop at nothing to break the veil

of time for love, while Tveit’s video contrastingly gives

us more a sense of continuity as the reels of time roll on.

Ultimately, our feature film, and the rises Zora Movies in

the Parking Lot program in general, forces us to cross

the threshold into the urban labyrinth, where we begin a

journey that guarantees we will get stuck in the middle

somewhere between here and there.

If somebody is haunting your mind

Look in my eyes, let me hide you

From yourself and all your old friends

Every good thing, comes to an end

Drive back, drive back, drive back

- Drive Back, Neil Young

ACADEMY RECORDS is an aegis for live performance,

recorded events, and printed ephemera. Producing

works and scenarios that take on lives both immediate

and enduring, Academy Records projects are often

collaborative and inclusive, and many include different

kinds of creators, including aural, visual, and

performing artists, designers, writers and filmmakers. In the

past, works have consisted of independently produced

7-inch records, live broadcast radio plays, 16mm films,

performances and large-scale sculptural installations,

curated screenings and multi-media events. Each having

contained within them a printed element, every

Academy Records’ project is concept, time, or site-

specific, and usually of a DIY nature to encompass

various networks and participants offered up by smaller

economies. Therefore, Academy Records’ productions

purposefully utilize simple means, readily available

resources, and experimental ideas spawned from local

culture.

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RISES ZORA poems

- Selected works by Jeanette Powers

THE PUZZLE

I don’t know if you know this but the labyrinth made famous byaguywhocouldn’tflyoutofit without coming unglued was built by a king for one and only one purpose: toconfineandconfuse a half-ling man-bull who apparently only dined on teenage children whom the king naturally got from his neighbors.

So that mythological maze was built and maintained as an elaborate prison for a man-eating he-beast.

But mazes are built for more practical purposes, too:

Egyptians took slaves by the millions and made those massive monuments which I don’t know if you know are no more than elaborate grave markers tomakefinding their dead kings and queens

quite treacherous.

Hedge mazes are made for fun dilly-dally, silly little rich lady Sunday parasol laughter on the afternoon air,

same with the dime-store mazeswith a silver ball encased in plasticor printed on newspaper grade puzzle books your grandfather gave you afteramorningfishing or at the farmer’s market and the two of you traced the hidden path with a red crayon.

These mazes— so much entrapment and escapism.

You go in one side and out the other start at the outskirts and stop at the center sometimes you end where you begin

are we the same, after, as when we went in?

55

56

I don’t know if I know.

But we are enchanted.Each labyrinth lives on inside of us.

Not because it is where Theseus killed the Minotaur orwhereIcarusflewfree and then drowned away or where King Ramses sheltered his body and his curses and his hoard of treasure.They are more than a symbol of our excess or our leisure more than the memory of a man who raised you, whiskers and warm hands.

They are the stories we tell,they are a puzzle we could solve.

MAZE BUILDERS

We are here because of an idea— the idea took form and theme a puzzle a labyrinth it seemed, which

we were presented withor born intoandmustfindoutway into or out of.

who put it here?Who laid the stonework?Who designed this?

this, which is less maze and more citywith cul-de-sacsand other nice waysof saying dead endsand ways to get lostor feel lostand overwhelmed

and it’s literal and it’s a metaphorand it’s where we live and what we createbecause the great secret is

that we are the maze builderscontinuing the constructionof constricting corridorsof consciousness and cause

we are building buildingsand agendasto keep outand keep in

to punish and pleasure

laboring over the labyrinthsof soul and mind and cityand the gutter and the ivory towerare connected whetherwe like it that way or not

and to stay on one side orthe other is to say I’m happy with never seeing past this limited visionof the corner I’ve come to know so well

We are the maze buildersadding wings to the Remington Mansionbuilding more walls on top of what we were born into

We are the maze builderswe are the city foundersthe writers of law and lorethe architects of confusionin the name of clarityor protection

creating a convolutionbecause at the heart of every mazeis a solutionandstillweareneversatisfiedwe get to the center

andfindourwayoutagainthen hunt the next mind gamebecause it’s too terrifyingto admit under the wide horizon of truthwhere her gaze guarantees there is no guarantee

but that we built the puzzle, the trapwe navigate our way to where we turn back

and it seems to me that the reason to build all these wallsis so that we might draw a nice solid line which shows us

INTO THE CITY

You enter the cityand don’t even know what you don’t know

you’re like that guy from the turnip truck who just fell off and chews on a blade of grass after it’s lost its whistle

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all happy go plucky at the corner of 10th and Broadway.

If you go North, you’ll hit the riverwith its underside of bridges and burning abandoned tables and chairs for warmth and light to see your hands and her face by.

And if you go West, thehumofsalsaandfishand the men in their moustaches keep the women in the kitchen speak when spoken to and the children all speak two languages.

And East, east past Troost, where if the windows aren’t barredthey are boarded up, abandoned, condemned and the youth are the only ones whose voice you hear but their words are a threat and the best advice is to turn back.

You realize, you’ve lost your whistle, too. so you retreat into the city

the nightlife, the jazz dive, the symphony, theflamers,thecrossdressers, the alienated artists all drinking their way to something to say and taking the bar home to the afterparty.

The turnip truck seems a long way from home, nowand you’ve woken up again on a stranger’s couch.

So you head South, into the tidy outposts of order:those well-heeled and wool coated out-to-lunchnine-to-fivers where the tables and chairs are forever set for guests who never arrive, because they were never invited.

You enter into the city all brand new and unaffectedandthenarethrustfacefirst into every extreme you didn’t know you didn’t know existed and you won’t leave unscarred.

--

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RISES ZORA program itinerary

RISES ZORA COMMENCED AT LA ESQUINA

WITH A SERIES OF INSTALLATIONS

May 10 - June 15, 2013

A two-person exhibition featuring

Chris Daharsh & Gerry Trilling

A temporary renovation by

David Dowell & James Woodfill

The rises Zora communication headquarters featuring

labirinto urbano by Jessica Palko and an informational hub containing research, literature, maps and more.

RISES ZORA WALKING THE URBAN LABYRINTH

Exalted Forever

Ghyman Johnson, Megan Mantia and Leone Reeves

Thursday, May 23 at 7:30pm in a Secret Place

(location disclosed to participants only)

“Exalted Forever” was a blind tour of the Valentine

neighborhood, where the urban labyrinth’s magic and

mystery united to demonstrate the rewards of group

adventures.

Quiet in the Castle

Charlie Mylie and Lindsey Griffith

Sunday, June 9 at 2pm at Crown Center

Griffith and Mylie coordinated a silent adventure

through the winding, cavernous spaces of Kansas City’s

infamous mega-mall. Participants were dressed

monochromatically as they walked single file along

corridors and through shops, restaurants and more.

Excavating the East Bottoms

Ken Johnson

Saturday, June 15 from 1 - 4pm at Kansas City Museum

In Northeast Kansas City, local resident and historian

Ken Johnson led a hike through the historical East

Bottoms, Northeast Kansas City’s original but now

overgrown downtown.

RISES ZORA FIELD WORKS

NON.IMG

Jeff Eaton

May 14 at 9pm at Andrew Dripps Park Walking Bridge

(Belleview and 16th Streets)

Jeff Eaton’s “NON.IMG” performance of assemblage

and meta poetry centered around words culled from

lived urban experience as well as descriptive passages

derived from images which documented that lived urban

experience at a remove.

You are not here. Parts I and II

by Laura Isaac and Maritza Ruiz Kim

May 24th and 25th

(an on-foot journey relayed to audiences over

Twitter, Facebook, and www.risesZora.virb.com) 60

For “You are not here. Parts I and II,” Laura Isaac of

Kansas City and Maritza Ruiz Kim of San Francisco

virtually guided one another on walking tours of their

home cities, all the while documenting the trials and

tribulations of guided experience through various online

and social media platforms.

Manner of Looking at, or Regarding Something

by Erika Lynne Hanson

May 29 from 7 - 8:30pm in the Stockyards District near

Genessee and 16th Streets

For this installation in the Stockyards District, Erika Lynne

Hanson set up a series of props conveying numerous

metaphorical scenarios typical of any labyrinthian

narrative.

Unlearn: Ask an artist about science

m.o.i. aka Minister of Information

May 29 from 7 - 8:30pm in the Stockyards District near

Genessee and 16th Streets

June 7 from 6 - 8pm in Downtown Kansas City near

McGee and 10th Streets

For “Unlearn: Ask an artist about science,” m.o.i. aka the

minister of information displayed graphics which

conveyed a series of conceptual geographies

exploring the transitional labyrinths of language, image

and understanding.

Relevant Sound

by Mnemosyne Duo

June 7 from 6 - 8pm on the Westside under the

I-35 overpass at Southwest Boulevard and 25th Street

Directly referencing the wanderings and errors, passes

and impasses of the urban labyrinth, Mnemosyne Duo

transformed the underbelly of this overpass into a sonic

cathedral made up of instrumentals and recycled urban

sounds.

revelation is locked in motion

Gotch & Hanson

June 9 from 11am - 7pm,

(an all-day performance broadcast to audiences via

Twitter, Facebook and www.risesZora.virb.com)

Together, unconventional sound and movement duet

Gotch & Hanson took an eight-hour journey through the

urban labyrinth, documenting and measuring the

endurance demanded by the multiple methods of

transportation available in one’s own city.

RISES ZORA GARDEN PARTIES

Garden Party #1

Thursday, May 16 at 6pm

at Kansas City Public Library Central Branch

rooftop garden, 14 West 10th Street, top floor

Arboretum

With lyrics composed from travel phrases and word

maps, this male-female folk band’s songs conjured up

visions of a fantastical city ever-ready for experimental

activity.

Jeanette Powers + Ezhno Martin

With back and forth exchange of individual poetic

verse, Powers + Martin presented a micro-play exploring

the various cultural obstacles one confronts in the urban

labyrinth.

Garden Party #2

Saturday, June 8 at noon at Loose Park near the Battle

of Westport Cannon

Hyperkewl

Amidst the trees and history of Loose Park, artist

collective Hyperkewl set up “The Relics Project,” a

costumed performance event investigating the residual

effects of urban navigation.

RISES ZORA MOVIES IN THE PARKING LOT

Movies in the Parking Lot #1

Wednesday, May 22 at 8:30pm

in Downtown Kansas City

at Copaken Brooks parking structure

on Baltimore Avenue and Petticoat Lane

Featured Kansas City video artist Barry Anderson’s

Nightrover. Additionally showed The Pruitt-Igoe Myth by

Chad Freidrichs and Man of Action by Transfilm.

Movies in the Parking Lot #2

Wednesday, May 29 at 8:30pm in the Stockyards District

at the Livestock Exchange parking lot

on Genessee and 16th Streets

Featured Kansas City video artist Caitlin Horsmon’s

Practice Process: Classical. Additionally showed Hands

61

Over the City by Francesco Rosi and Le Bled

(Buildings in a Field) by Jem Cohen with Luc Sante.

Movies in the Parking Lot #3

Wednesday, June 12 at 8:30pm in the Crossroads

District at Charlotte Street’s headquarters’ parking

on

25th Street and Southwest Boulevard

Featured Kansas City video artists Todd M.

Christiansen’s Eight Danger Zones and Lindsay

Fernandez’s Untitled. Additionally showed Indian

Boundary Line by Thomas Comerford as well as The

Weak Bullet by Tony Oursler, A Propos de Nice by

Jean Vigo and The City by American Documentary

Films.

Movies in the Parking Lot #4

Wednesday, June 12 at 8:30pm in the City Market

parking lot at 20 East 5th Street

Featured Kansas City video artist May Tveit’s

Product Placement. Additionally showed Last Year

at Marienbad by Alain Resnais and A Room with

the Walls Blasted to Shreds and Falling by Jennifer

Reeder.

RISES ZORA contributor biographies

Barry Anderson

Barry Anderson is an artist living and working in Kansas

City, Kansas. His work has been show in Chicago, Los

Angeles, Miami, San Francisco, St. Louis, and internation-

ally in Arab Emirates, Canada, Cuba, England, Finland,

and Thailand, among other places. Anderson holds a

BFA in photography from the University of Texas at Austin

and a MFA in photography and digital media from the

University of Indiana - Bloomington. He now teaches as

an associate professor of fine art at the University of

Missouri - Kansas City.

Arboretum

Arboretum is an experimental acoustic musical duo con-

sisting of Rhiannon Birdsall and Joe Wheeler, who both

live and work in Kansas City, Missouri.

Todd M. Christiansen

Todd M. Christiansen is an animation and video artist

living and working in Kansas City, Missouri.

Chris Daharsh

Chris Daharsh is an artist living and working in Kansas

City, Missouri. His work has been shown at City Ice Arts

Project, H&R Block Artspace at KCAI, Paragraph +

Project Space, and Spraybooth Gallery, all in Kansas

City, Missouri, and at Carnegie Arts Center in

Leavenworth, Kansas. Daharsh holds a BFA in painting

and art history from the Kansas City Art Institute.

David Dowell / JamesWoodfill

David Dowell is an architect and educator living and

working in Kansas City, Missouri. Dowell joined el

dorado, inc as a partner in 1998. His projects have

been recognized in Architect Magazine,

Architect’s Newspaper, Architecture Record, Art in

America, Detail China, Dwell, Interior Design

Magazine, Kansas City Star, Metropolis, and Space

Korea, among other publications. In 2008, he received

an Award for Distinction from Washington University’s

Sam Fox School in St. Louis. Dowell currently sits on the

University of Kansas Architecture Department Advisory

Board. Dowell co-founded a graduate design/build

studio at Kansas State University with el dorado partner

Doug Stockman, and has also taught at the University

of Kansas and Lawrence Institute of Technology, both in

Lawrence, Kansas; Washington University in St. Louis,

Missouri; and the Technical University in Dresden,

Germany.

James Woodfill is an artist and educator living and

working in Kansas City, Missouri. Woodfill’s work has been

reviewed in Art In America, Art Papers, New Art

Examiner, I.D. Magazine and Sculpture Magazine, among

other publications. He has received a Charlotte Street

64

Foundation award and was awarded a multi-year

studio grant from Review Studios in Kansas City, Missouri.

Woodfill holds a BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute

and now teaches there as an assistant professor in the

painting department.

Jeff Eaton

Jeff Eaton is an artist and curator living in Overland Park,

Kansas. Eaton’s work has been shown at the

Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri;

SIGNAL and Terminal Projects in Brooklyn, New York;

Mass MoCA in Boston, Massachusetts; and

Smith-Stewart and Bortolami Gallery in New York City,

New York, among other venues. In 2010, he was a

curatorial fellow at the Neuberger Museum of Art. Eaton

holds a BFA in photography and art History from the

Kansas City Art Institute and a MA/MFA in studio art and

art history from SUNY Purchase College.

Lindsay Fernandez

Lindsay Fernandez is an animation and video artist living

and working in Kansas City, Missouri.

Gotch & Hansen

Gotch & Hansen is an unconventional movement and

sound duo consisting of Jane Gotch and Shawn Hansen,

who both live and work in Kansas City, Missouri.

Erika Lynne Hanson

Erika Lynne Hanson is an artist living and working

Pheonix, Arizona. Her work has been shown at Dean’s

Gallery, UMKC, H&R Block Artspace, Town Pavilion,

Spray Booth Gallery, Paragraph + Project Space, City

Arts, Dolphin Gallery, The Fahrenheit Gallery, The Vault

Gallery, Destination Gallery, and Plug Projects, all in

Kansas City, Missouri; Tompkins Projects in Brooklyn, New

York; Monument2 in Chicago, Illinois; Columbus

Museum of Art in Columbus, Ohio; Soo Visual Arts Center

in Minneapolis, Minnesota; North/South Gallery and

Oliver Art Center in Oakland, California; and Bruce

Galleries, Candystore Collective, Fishspace, and Make

Hang Gallery, all in San Francisco, California. She has

also received a Charlotte Street Foundation award in

Kansas City, Missouri. Hanson holds a BFA in fiber from

Kansas CIty Art Institute and a MFA in fine art from

California College of Arts. She now teaches as an

assistant professor of fiber and social practice at

Arizona State University.

Caitlin Horsmon

Caitlin Horsmon is an artist, curator, and scholar living

and working in Kansas City, Missouri. Her films and videos

have been shown at film festivals and in galleries around

the world and are distributed by The Collectif Jeune

Cinéma in Paris.

Laura Isaac / Maritza Ruiz-Kim

Laura Isaac is an artist living and working in Kansas City,

Missouri. Her work has been shown throughout the US,

including in Miami, Florida; Grand Rapids, Michigan;

New York City, New York; and Santa Fe, New Mexico.

She holds a BA and a MA in studio art from the

University of Missouri – Kansas City.

Maritza Ruiz-Kim is an artist living and working in San

Francisco, California. Her work has been shown at

Compound Gallery in Oakland, California and Sandra

Lee Gallery in San Francisco, California, among other

venues in Brooklyn and New York City, New York;

Santa Fe, New Mexico; Miami, Florida; and

Provincetown, Massachusetts. Ruiz-Kim holds a BFA in

new media genres from the San Francisco Art Institute.

Lindsey Griffith / Charlie Mylie

Lindsey Griffith is a conceptual artist living and working

in Kansas City, Missouri.

Charlie Mylie is a conceptual artist living and working in

Kansas City, Missouri.

Ghyman Johnson / Megan Mantia / Leone Reeves

Ghyman Johnson is a conceptual artist living and working

in Kansas City, Missouri.

Megan Mantia is a conceptual artist and photographer

living and working in Kansas City, Missouri.

Leone Reeves is a conceptual artist living and working

in Kansas City, Missouri.

65

Ken Johnson

Ken Johnson is a local historian and community organizer

living and working in Kansas City, Missouri.

Ezhno Martin / Jeanette Powers

Ezhno Martin is a poet and performer living and working

in Kansas City, Missouri.

Jeanette Powers is a poet and visual artist living and

working in Kansas City, Missouri. Her first book of poetry,

Absolute Futility, was published by Write The Future Press

in 2012.

Mnemosyne Duo

Mnemosyne Duo is an experimental music and sound

duo consisting of Russell Thorpe and Brad Van Wick,

who both live and work in Kansas City, Kansas and

Missouri.

m.o.i.

m.o.i., aka the Minister of Information, is an artist and

environmental scientist living and working in Kansas City,

Missouri.

Jessica Palko

Jessica Palko is an artist, arts administrator, and historian

living and working in Lawrence, Kansas.

Gerry Trilling

Gerry Trilling is an artist living and working in Kansas

City, Kansas. Her work has been shown at Byron Cohen

Gallery, H&R Block Artspace at KCAI, Jan Weiner Gallery,

la Esquina, and Massman Gallery at Rockhurst College,

all in Kansas City, Missouri; Carnegie Arts Center in

Leavenworth, Kansas; and Craft Alliance Gallery in St.

Louis, Missouri, among other venues. Trilling holds a BFA

in painting from the Kansas City Art Institute.

May Tveit

May Tveit is an artist and educator living and working in

Kansas City, Missouri. Tveit’s work has been reviewed in

Art in America, Art Papers, National Public Radio,

66

The Kansas City Star, and Review Magazine. Her work

has been shown at Review Studios Exhibition Space,

Belger Art Center, Gallery Village, H&R Block Artspace,

and Avenue of the Arts, all in Kansas City, Missouri, and

at the Spencer Museum of Art in Lawrence, Kansas,

among other venues. She has received a Charlotte

Street Foundation award and was awarded a multi-year

studio grant from Review Studios in Kansas City, Missouri.

Tveit holds a BFA from Rhode Island School of Design

and a MID from Italy’s Domus Academy. She now teaches

as an associate professor in the design department at

the University of Kansas.

RISES ZORA credits

About Charlotte Street

Over 16 years, Charlotte Street has challenged,

nurtured, and empowered thousands of artists,

distributed almost $900,000 in awards and grants to

artists and their projects, and connected individual

artists to each other and to the greater Kansas City

community. Charlotte Street—with its community of

artists—strives to be a primary catalyst in making Kansas

City a vibrant, creative metropolis, alive with

collaboration, passion, ideas, and surprise.

For more information about Charlotte Street, its awards,

programs and initiatives, visit www.charlottestreet.org.

rises Zora was presented as part of

Charlotte Street’s Curatorial Residency Program

Through its new Curatorial Residency Program,

Charlotte Street Foundation is creating opportunities for

outstanding emerging curators from around the

country to immerse themselves in the arts ecosystem of

the Kansas City region. The program provides multi-

faceted support for an annually selected

curator-in-residence to develop and present original

contemporary arts programming responsive to and

inclusive of the work of Kansas City-area artists.

Teaching partnerships with the Department of Art at

University of Missouri-Kansas City and Kansas City Art

Institute further connect the curator-in-residence with

area art students.

rises Zora Sponsor

Lead support for rises Zora and corresponding

publications has been generousely provided by the

Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation.

Documentation Credits

Cover images by Jamilee Polson Lacy; reproduction

rights belong to Charlotte Street Foundation and

Jamilee Polson Lacy

First title pages image courtesy of artists Mnemosyne

Duo; reproduction rights belong to artists, Charlotte

Street Foundation, and Jamilee Polson Lacy

Second, third, and fourth title page images by Jamilee

Polson Lacy; reproduction rights belong to Charlotte

Street Foundation and Jamilee Polson Lacy

Plates 1 -12 photographic documentation by E.G.

Schempf; reproduction rights belong to Charlotte Street

Foundation and Jamilee Polson Lacy

Plate 13 image courtesy of artist Jessica Palko;

reproduction rights belong to the artist

Plates 14 -17 photographic documentation by Jamilee

Polson Lacy; reproduction rights belong to Charlotte

Street Foundation and Jamilee Polson Lacy

Plate 18 photographic documentation by Stephen

Lacy; reproduction rights belong to Charlotte Street

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Foundation and Jamilee Polson Lacy

Plate 19 courtesy of artist Megan Mantia;

reproduction rights belong to artist, Charlotte Street

Foundation, and Jamilee Polson Lacy

Plate 20 photographic documentation by Leon Jones;

reproduction rights belong to Charlotte Street

Foundation, Kansas City Museum, Leon Jones and

Jamilee Polson Lacy

Plate 21 photographic documentation by Stephen

Lacy; reproduction rights belong to Academy Records,

Charlotte Street Foundation, and Jamilee Polson Lacy

Plate 22 photographic documentation by Jamilee

Polson Lacy; reproduction rights belong to

Charlotte Street Foundation and Jamilee Polson Lacy

Plate 23 courtesy of artists Gotch & Hansen;

reproduction rights belong to artists, Charlotte Street

Foundation, and Jamilee Polson Lacy

Plates 24 -25 courtesy of artists Laura Isaac and

Maritza Ruiz-Kim; reproduction rights belong to artists,

Charlotte Street Foundation and Jamilee Polson Lacy

Plate 26 courtesy of artists Mnemosyne Duo;

reproduction rights belong to artists, Charlotte Street

Foundation, and Jamilee Polson Lacy

Plate 27 photographic documentation by Jamilee

Polson Lacy; reproduction rights belong to Charlotte

Street Foundation and Jamilee Polson Lacy

Plate 28 courtesy of artist Erika Lynne Hanson;

reproduction rights belong to artist, Charlotte Street

Foundation, and Jamilee Polson Lacy

Nightrover video still on page 39 courtesy of artist

Barry Anderson; reproduction rights belong to the artist

Practice Process: Classical film still on page 40 courtesy

of artist Caitlin Horsmon; reproduction rights belong to

the artist

Untitled video still on page 41 courtesy of artist Lindsey

Fernandez; reproduction rights belong to the artist

Product Placement Black Friday video still on page 42

courtesy of artist May Tveit; reproduction rights belong

to the artist

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