Public Art

Archisuits by Sarah Ross

Sarah Ross is an artist who works in sculpture, video and photo. Her projects use narrative and the body to address spatial concerns as they relate to access, class, anxiety and activism. Sarah also works collaboratively with other artists on projects such as Compass (of the MRCC), Regional RelationshipsChicago Justice Torture Memorials, and Prison and Neighborhood Arts Project. She has co-curated exhibitions at SPACES Gallery, Cleveland, Sea and Space Explorations, Los Angeles, and PS122, New York. She teaches at The School of the Art Institute Chicago and is a co-organizer of the Prison and Neighborhood Arts Project, an arts and humanities initiative at Stateville Prison. Sarah is the recipient of grants from the Propeller Fund, Graham Foundation, University of California Institute for Research in the Arts and the Illinois Art Council. Some of her work has been exhibited in venues such as the Armory, Pasadena, CA; Gallery 727, Los Angeles; PS122, New York; Roots and Culture Gallery, Chicago; Pinkard Gallery, Baltimore; META Cultural Foundation, Romania and the Canadian Center for Architecture, Montreal.

http://www.insecurespaces.net/archisuits.html

Concerning the archisuits, Sarah Ross writes:

“They were built to be provocative—to ask questions about how spaces are architecturally created to get rid of people. They are not solutions but spectacles to make people laugh, then hopefully take up critical questions about how we see and treat each other.”

“A Piggy Bank For the Homeless” by JWT Amsterdam

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http://creativity-online.com/work/badt-a-piggy-bank-for-the-homeless/35932

During Spring 2014, JWT Amsterdam (www.jwtamsterdam.nl) launched an initiative to raise awareness, and money, for the not-for-profit organization for the homeless, Belangenbehartiging Amsterdamse Dak– en Thuislozen (BADT).

Inspired by recent articles in Dutch newspapers illustrating the growing issue of homelessness in the city, over 15,000 and counting, a wider conversation opened up within the agency that presented the question ‘What can we do to help?’ Immediately, ‘A Piggy Bank For the Homeless’, an awareness and fundraising campaign designed to help tackle the homeless issue head-on, was born.

The concept was simple: in order to get more homeless people off the streets we would put more homeless people on the streets. The execution: source mannequins, dress them in shabby, used clothes and install a roughly cut-out money slot on top of the head to resemble a piggy bank. The result is an a thought- provoking online film, shot on location in Amsterdam, with the mannequins in situ, similar to those of the homeless, with hand-written cardboard signs asking for donations to support BADT.

The entire project took less than a week to make and came in at under €100. The mannequins were sourced for free, other colleagues at JWT Amsterdam donated clothing.

The ‘Piggy Bank For The Homeless’ film can be seen on the BADT website (www.badt.nl) and across all JWT Amsterdam social media channels.