Fixing to get ready to

Prospects and Provisions

We are preparing for an exhibition at Hemphill Fine Arts,

Workingman Collective: Prospects and Provisions

June 18–August 20, 2011

Public Reception
Saturday, June 18, 2011, 6:30–8:30pm.

please come by

below are images and an excerpt from the gallery's press release

Workingman Collective: Prospects and Provisions

June 18–August 20, 2011

Washington DC—Hemphill opens Workingman Collective: Prospects and Provisions on Saturday, June 18, 2011, with a public reception from 6:30–8:30pm.

The exhibition at Hemphill will include a double swing set covered with numerous steel arms that hold potted plants capable of removing volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from the air. Titled “Swing,” this work entertains and physically mobilizes the viewer while cleaning the air. The plants will be watered daily by a team of volunteers using water from rain barrels situated outside 1515 14th Street. These rain barrels, emblazoned with Workingman Collective’s logo, will become a permanent fixture on the property as both a relic of the project and a reminder of water conservation issues.

Also on display will be an original backpack designed and patented by Trapper Lloyd F. Nelson in 1924 (U.S. patent #1,505,661) and once owned by a train conductor and adventurer named C.D. Beebe. The backpack served as the launching point for Workingman Collective’s creation of a variety of provisions for the modern adventurer, including a custom designed backpack based on the original Trapper Nelson patent. Fabricated at the MOOP studio workshop in Pittsburgh, PA, the waxed canvas backpack has been made in an edition of seven. An HO scale train set on an elevated track, and a single-sided ping pong table that allows the player to compete against a video projection of a ping pong champion, are just a couple of the contraptions and products in this exhibition. In each case, the objects on view are a suggestion of the relationship that might unfold between idea, object, action, and interaction.