Urban Renewal II

Urban Renewal - 01/09 - Now the piece or project has grown to about 53 parts - 5x7" paintings inspired by formal elements of nature but also by the ritualistic and rythmic act of walking the grid of alleyways of my neighborhood ... and of course, with my rescue shepherd Luka. See the first Urban Renewal entry below for more info and images of the first pieces. Above is a grid of 24. The piece continues to grow over time ... created from a piece of history - damaged paintings on paper from the Shockoe Bottom Studio Fire of 1997 (wow, 12 years ago!). These pieces were cut from the saved yet un-restorable paintings on paper left from the fire - re-painted with new and current ideas, formal elements, repetitive motion, and with an overall sense of social equality. See below for a few more details ...

(See the Vanderbilt University show for other ritual-egalite-grid pieces)

Urban Renewal

A grid of small paintings, each 7" x 5", hung together to form a multiple ...

Urban Renewal is a series of painting-pieces on mounted paper hung together to form one art-piece, created from discarded paintings, paintings in a state of decay, paintings saved from a fire ... The work is a continuum of my series entitled Ritual Function, after a theory by Walter Benjamin:

It is significant that the existence of the work of art with reference to its aura is never entirely separated from its ritual function.

Walter Benjamin

“The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”

Brad T. Birchett, Urban Renewal, mixed media on mounted paper - grid, 2008

Urban Renewal: A re-accountment of the visual and physical experience of walking, within a grid of formal-expressionist painting parts. Here are a few details ...

This multiple-piece will be hung, in its present state, mirrored to another piece, Action to Object, in the Other exhibition curated by Rob Tarbell at The Piedmont Virginia Community College Gallery in Charlottesville, opening April 25th ... See the review of the OTHER exhibition at PVCC in The Hook, by Laura Parsons ...

Brad Thomas Birchett, Action to Object, installation with bench, stone cairn, and audio, 2006

For more DECAY - RENEWAL - RITUAL - ENTROPIC behavior see the Transformation work that was up at Vanderbilt University last year: HERE ....