Calling all creators, professional or not: Your ideas can be the next Industry City installation.
The Collision Project at Industry City fields submissions to find public art installations for the 40-acre industrial complex, and it’s open to anyone with a good idea, regardless of actual artistic skills.
At least two dozen interactive and provocative artworks have been placed around the campus over the past three years, including an infinity mirror by Gabriel Pulecio and a collection of positive phrases written by students at P.S. 24 in Sunset Park about and for women during Women’s History Month in March.
While artists are always welcome to submit their work, Industry City is hoping to include more people outside the art community going forward.
We spoke with Kendall Tichner, the creator of The Collision Project, about how people can get involved and what the benefits are.
Why do you want to open this to outside the art community?
We wanted to include the community of Industry City and Sunset Park and have it open to the general public because it’s not about making a competition between artists, but opening it up to the public so there’s less of a limited batch (of submissions). We wanted to make it submission-based and less about who or what you know. The idea of what an artist is these days has expanded. Just because you’re not an artist, writer or filmmaker doesn’t mean you can’t create visual pieces. Everyone is an artist. I’d prefer if a dentist in town wanted to make a tooth sculpture or see something from a local architecture school.
But what if you have no artistic ability?
[The] Industry City marketing and creative team is full of designers and architects that will help 100 percent if someone needs help visualizing an idea we believe in. We don’t have a humongous budget but we will fund the project and make sure it pays and makes them feel appreciated.
What are you looking for exactly?
It has to be attainable, interactive and has to be able to withstand… ebb and flow with everything going on at Industry City. I ask that it helps start conversations between people. It’s OK if it’s not beautiful, so long as it adds value to people’s lives by connecting them to other people or getting them to think in a different way that they haven’t yet.
So, what are some examples of work that has been displayed there?
We teamed up with Broadly, Vice’s platform for women, to create a version of an infinity room that inspired nostalgia. That killed it. We didn’t tell people where it was. People also love the takeovers of the industrial elevators. It gives a 360-degree immersive, industrial experience. James Moore’s “Crypto” and “Neon Elevator” by Straker did awesome. Another, “Liminal Scope” by Hovver is a meditative light and sound experience. People would sit in it for hours but it was too intense for others.
Let’s say my idea makes it. How long will it be displayed?
It varies case by case. It could be three to four months or years. Industry City is a space that is evolving. Sometimes we’ll put a piece up and need to move it because a new brewery is moving in. We also listen to the public’s reaction to it and we don’t want things to get stale but want to make sure it lives a good life there. We’re always in communication with the artist.
Why is Industry City a good spot for this project and why would someone want their art to be shown there?
The creative community that’s there is really strong. There are hundreds of visual artists and hundreds of makers and small entrepreneurs who are super creative. It gives people a new way to push their limits, helps them get exposure to Industry City and to the general public. Industry City has raw spaces, clean spaces, open spaces, closed spaces, dark spaces, spaces with windows … it’s such an evolving, humongous, great place that can provide different spaces.
OK, so how do you submit your work?
Head on over to collisionproject.com/submit and fill out the form, which you can attach files to if need be. There’s no deadline.
