The Elysian Park Museum of Art is pleased to present “Diversions,” a group exhibition curated by Akina Cox, featuring the work of Ingrid Von Sydow, Andrew Cox, Cammie Staros, Akina Cox, and Joseph Imhauser. Artists in “Diversions” interact with various communities that utilize the park. Their works respond to the surrounding environment, anticipating vandalism or natural destruction, and examine the role of park rangers in mediating the relationship between Elysian Park and the general public.
Cammie Staros’s “Like a Rock,” a collection of paper rocks inserted among existing rocks in Elysian Park, indulges the fantasy of everyday alchemy with a material transfer that points as much to what was as to what has changed. By playing with material properties, Staros highlights the existing significance of the rocks and questions the metaphorical connotations that pervade our language and culture. These rocks are not steady (like a rock), strong (like a rock) or dependable (like a Chevy); they will break and crumple and, with time, will wash away.
“Monument for Discretion #1: Elysian Park,” by Joseph Imhauser exists in multiple locations throughout Elysian Park, some very public while others more tucked away behind bushes, hills, and off unraveled paths. As a whole, this installation celebrates the potential the Park holds as a site for both public and semi-private experience. As each person in the park has his or her own understanding of what this space can provide, the potential it holds, as a place for social interaction remains universal.
Andrew Cox’s “Piñata Pulley,” will be installed in the picnic areas around Elysian Park. An aid for anyone bringing piñatas to the park, the pulleys point the role of Elysian Park as a gathering place for celebrations, a site where cultural rituals are enacted every weekend. They also encourage personal interventions instead of relying on a bureaucratic system, and investigate ways in which an individual can provide a service to the community.
Using the loaded cultural material of hair, the “Panoply of a Picnic” by Ingrid von Sydow serves as an opportunity for reflection, discussion and performance. The etymology of the word picnic is convoluted and murky, although plenty of definitions explore the French origin of the word very little is written of the use of the term during the abolition of slavery. The Panoply of a Picnic is not an explanation, nor is it an assertion; it is a performative utterance, a surface by which we can consider alternate histories.
Both “Park Rules,” and “Infinite Object” by Akina Cox are meant to be seen as props for a performance to be carried out by non-suspecting park rangers. “Infinite Object,” is an installation of glitter-filled stockings hung on a tree in Radio Hill. The installation plays with the permanent nature of most public art. If the stockings are torn, glitter will escape, thus continuing the life of the sculpture. A bright hand-painted sign displaying the official park rules, “Park Rules” teases the park rangers, who will perhaps be momentarily stopped from taking down the sign after realizing that its information is accurate.
