Rooms to Let, 2015 Slavic Village, Cleveland
PARTING SONG, Co-Curated by Rian Brown, Rebecca Cross
A site-specific artists installation in vacant homes. May 16th and 17th, 2015. in Slavic Village, Cleveland
These are images from PARTING SONG, 6731 Fleet Avenue Front House, which was one of three houses slated for demolition. These homes were lost, or abandoned in the massive foreclosure crisis in 2007 that plagued much of Cleveland neighborhoods.
"It's a complicated thing, to simultaneously say goodbye to and to celebrate something. Rooms To Let offers artists a chance to try to navigate these oppositions. Our house is called Parting Song, and includes a wide range of work that explores the problem of foreclosure through creative means. All of the art installed in our house in some way communicates themes of departures, returns, legacy, residence, dislocation, memories, decay and reconstruction, as well as the idea of place and home, the relentlessness of racism and poverty in what should be a democracy, and the perpetual nature of human flight from and toward different horizons. Through performance, sculpture, painting, drawings, prints, music, film, fiber, mixed media constructions and participatory installations, in Parting Song we hope to traverse -with joy and with hope - a thoughtful and provocative line between celebration and loss. "
Rian Brown and Rebecca Cross, curators of Parting Song.
Artists at Fleet Street Avenue included:
Acerbic, Scott Pickering, Nancy Baker Cahill, Mona Gazala, Claire Campbell, Claudio Orso, Kelsey Moulton, Rian Brown/Rebecca Cross, Tina Ripley SPEC (Allison, Jeff, Michelle & Sam) Liz Maugans, Lauren Sammon, Oberlin Taiko and the Cleveland Orchestra