Last Week we told you FIGMENT was coming to Boston, well now we are here to tell you it is coming BIG this weekend on Governors Island in New York.
FIGMENT is an annual arts event on Governors Island in New York, with artwork in every medium, from installation to performance to music to games and many things in between.
When the founders of FIGMENT began the event in 2007, their inspiration was to marry Burning Man‐style do-ocracy, volunteerism, and the 10 principles with the prolific New York arts scene, and to build a new community for the participatory arts. In 2010, the vast majority of the FIGMENT artists, and a growing number of FIGMENT volunteers, have never been to Burning Man, and there is a groundswell of enthusiasm for an increasing number of season long projects on the island.
Have you heard of “The Harrisons”? Helen Mayer Harrison and Newton Harrison are leading pioneers of the eco-art movement. Most often you will see them referred to as “the Harrisons”. They have been working artists for almost forty years, collaborating and crossing disciplinary lines. Much like many other cultural innovators they pay no attention to lines; to them everything is fair game for appropriation in their artwork – biology, history, ecology, architecture, public utilities, urban planning, etc. By repurposing these disciplines they have been able to create a “dialogue to uncover ideas and solutions which support biodiversity and community development.” Their dialogue has often extended outside the context of art leading to changes in environmental policies.
But why are they important? Art and culture at Burning Man have not been created in a vacuum; we have ancestry and the Harrisons I include in that lineage.
They will be lecturing tomorrow at the recently opened David Brower Center in Berkeley.
