About, With & For (2013)

The artists in this exhibition – many of whom work collaboratively – articulate various aspects of Folklife as a cultural precedent. Folklife encompasses all facets of self-organized creativity, including boatbuilding, collective mending, parading, storytelling, foodways and interactions with the built and natural environment. The millenium-old rituals of street spectacle are re-imagined, an abandoned library-turned-art incubator fosters a multi-part installation, historic watercraft built from salvaged materials are rendered seaworthy, and folks who fix things do just that in About, With & For. Exceeding the specific concepts of the art world discourse, this exhibition revels in the expanded possibilities of cultural influence in contemporary life.

About, With & For features works by artists from New York and New England including Matt Bua, Dirt Palace, Clare Dolan/Museum of Everyday Life, Fixers Collective, HONK! The Festival of Activist Street Bands, Mare Liberum, National Bitter Melon Council and Jeff Stark.

Read the full press release and view artist bios

More installation photos

Mare Liberum also presented a workshop:

1860’s Paper Canoe Building with Mare Liberum
Saturday, November 16 | 10am-1pm
Mills Gallery at the Boston Center for the Arts
Free and Open to the Public

New York-based artist-boatbuilders Mare Liberum revive the 19th century practice of creating full-scale paper racing shells, skiffs and canoes.  Popular with American boaters in the mid-to-late 1800s these low cost, lightweight and repairable watercraft were used by racing teams, explorers, sportsmen and novice urbanites attempting to escape the trappings of modern life, as part of a popular “back to nature” trend that foreshadowed an early environmentalism.  Learn about the process of full-size paper boatmaking with common items from the hardware store and work along side the artists to finish their in-progress paper canoe.