On May 16, 2007 we began our six-week process of creating ARISE, an installation and conversation area that continues the ideas behind Salvage/Salvation: new ways to think about our material world, the value of noticing and re-using what already exists, finding treasure in "trash," using what you have to make what you need, and encouraging a society of scavengers and survivors rather than producers and consumers (feel free to circulate any of these ideas and catchy slogans everywhere).
"We" are a group of artists: Susan Englert/RA Friedman, Paul Schifino, David Burns /Jason Morris (SO-AD), Brenda Battad, Claire Hoch, Laura Miller, Dawn Weleski, Nashid Ali /Clarinda Mac Low/Jeremy Cannon. Salvage/Salvation is a project of CULTURE PUSH, and was initiated in 2002 by Clarinda Mac Low. (More information at http://www.culturepush.org)Salvage/Salvation Part 5: ARISE is taking place at the United Brethren in Christ Church in North Braddock, PA, just outside the central Pittsburgh area. In October, 2006, Clarinda was brought to Pittsburgh by Society for Cultural Exchange, and through the efforts of one of the leaders of the SCE, Elizabeth Monoian, made contact with Susan Englert, who led her to John Fetterman, Mayor of the borough of Braddock, who in turn suggested the church as an ideal setting for a new Salvage/Salvation. Now Society for Cultural Exchange has brought Clarinda back for a 6-week stay, providing the project with a home base for operations outside the church.
The church was built in the 1850s and abandoned in 2004 or 2005. What has been discarded and neglected is being used to craft a new reality. The unique history of North Braddock and the church is integrated into the design of the piece and the working process of ARISE will be open to the public. The "final" outcome will be a multi-part installation that also serves as the setting for panel discussions, film showings, and performance events, but it's the process and the conversation that holds the greatest interest, and the greatest value. The Braddock area is currently a nexus for change, a community on the brink of extinction that could go either up or down. A church is a locus for salvation, both spiritual and, through charitable works, material. Through revivifying an abandoned church, ARISE
hopes to offer a secular version of salvation, emphasizing the holiness inherent in individual creative acts, and offering hopeYou can see on the top left the church as it was in October, 2006. Through the heroic efforts of John Fetterman, Mayor of Braddock, PA, Jeb Feldman (volunteer deputy mayor), the artists, and volunteers from KEYS Service Corps, in March, 2006 it looked more like the photo to the left. We have now been working on and off at the church, and it looks even more lovely.
Tomorrow: Stories so far...
Clarinda Mac Low is the originator of the Salvage/Salvation concept, and a happy visitor to the Pittsburgh area
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