Site of Metropolis: Past/ Future, Present/ Future, vinyl mesh banners distributed throughout the City of Buffalo, New York for the occasion of the Beyond/ In Western New York Biennial, 2010.
Site of Metropolis is part of a body of work and research investigating the implications of King Camp Gillette’s late 19th Century proposal to build a single world city, which he simply referred to as Metropolis, between lakes Erie and Ontario. The familiar format of banners placed upon chain-linked fence―as commonly used in the aesthetic masking of corporate and bureaucratic development sites―has been employed to advertise the coming of Gillette’s plan. Situated at construction sites as well as other areas cordoned off by chain-link, the work implies the breaking of ground on Gillette’s mammoth project which entails the creation of an uninterrupted grid of towering multi-use apartment buildings that would extend from Niagara Falls all the way to Rochester amongst other things. By positioning the project within various sites in Buffalo, a parallel demonstration of historic attitudes toward space is provided: on the one hand, a sustainable utopian vision of the perfectability of mankind, and the other, our realized present in search of practicable sustainable options. Whereas it was Gillette’s mission to put an end to the wastes of distance transportation and distribution as well as the competition amongst cities for attention, inhabitants, and resources, ‘Site of Metropolis’ reinserts his presence into the contemporary landscape and resonates with the hopes of the biennial to become a destination and to gain attention, inhabitants, and resources for Western NY and the City of Buffalo.
Beyond/ In Western New York Biennial
organized by: Albright-Knox Art Gallery
site: City of Buffalo, various locations
9.24.2010 – 12.19.2010
