In 2014, I was awarded a commission as part of The Art in the Loop Foundation’s Downtown Street Art / Creative Placemaking Pilot Project. Among many projects, Poke A Dot was selected and is currently installed in downtown Kansas City, between 12th & 13th on the west side of Walnut St. The key thing is that if you see one of these stickers below, you can take some. Really, you can take the dots.
Poke-A-Dot was originally designed as a minimalist project that respectfully acknowledged and responded to the permanent artwork “Barnacles” by Egawa + Zbyrk, while also allowing the public to actively manipulate and even possess the temporary intervention. Passers-by are encouraged to re-position the elliptical decals to form new abstract compositions and to take a few with them to create new smaller works elsewhere.
However, the curator (as well as performance and video artist) for the overall project, Jessica Borusky, recommended overlapping the installation for a week or so with the artist whose work was installed for the summer slot, Mark Allen. We loved it so much, we decided to keep it that way! See here for more insight into the curator’s takeaways from the pilot project that took place all over downtown KC this summer and fall.
After seeing then next to Mark’s amazing underwater photographs, I began to see my dots as bubbles!
It was such a pleasure to have a spontaneous collaboration with another artist. We really enjoyed how our ideas, though planned separately, worked so well together!
So just remember, if you come across this installation, please feel free to take a few dots and put them wherever you like!
It was also interesting that in 2008, I completed my first ever installation, Dreamscapes, on the other side of Walnut on the exact same block, in the old Jenkins Music Co. storefronts. How many artists can say that?
On a final note, Happy 2015! I wish a happy and healthy year to you all!
Rachelle Gardner-Roe 