Mom & Pop
- augmented reality
- in research
- discussing funding options
above photograph by DonVictorio/Adobe Stock
In America we have become terribly aware of the disparity between those who live in cities versus those who live in rural areas – such as the nearby areas that Washington DC forgot about long ago.
This augmented reality event focuses on the many small towns in America where mom and pop businesses ruled, serving locals and the nation’s travelers alike. Many of these towns ran along the east coast from Florida to Maine; almost all of them completely died when major highways were built, bypassing their areas.
Refit Or Die will create a series of augmented reality installations in conjunction with street artists across America. These “dead” towns will once again burst with life through art; encouraging travelers to exit the mega-highways and take the scenic tour through these towns exploding with massive augmented reality graffiti installations like nothing they’ve seen before. Not only will this delight the travelers and bring that sense of whimsy and wonder back to the road tripper, it will also give the viewer a powerful reason to look back at the town’s history, stirring a new awareness about the damage that this nation’s current corporate mentality has ravaged across the country. This event will be aligned with multiple options for the viewer to get involved and take action towards a better balance of smaller local businesses and large corporations on a national scale.
Of course we have to curate work in these small forgotten towns that will draw larger crowds so we plan to go big with the artist we play with.
The following are only 3 possibilities but the list is endless and they don’t even have to be living artists, though I think living artists offer us even more engagement overall.
Takashi Murakami
Japanese artist Takashi Murakami works in fine arts media (such as painting and sculpture) as well as commercial media (such as fashion, merchandise, and animation) and is known for blurring the line between high and low arts. He coined the term "superflat," which describes both the aesthetic characteristics of the Japanese artistic tradition and the nature of postwar Japanese culture and society, and is also used for Murakami's artistic style and other Japanese artists he has influenced.
His bold, playful characters would be adored in this event and would be sure to inspire those unfamiliar while drawing many who know his work globally.
For more of Murakami’s work
Tom Otterness
Tom Otterness is an American sculptor who could be a powerful contributor to this large national scale event. His style is often described as cartoonish and cheerful, but also political. His sculptures allude to sex, class, money and race. These sculptures depict, among other things, huge pennies, pudgy characters in business suits with moneybag heads, helmeted workers holding giant tools, and an alligator crawling out from under a sewer cover. His aesthetic can be seen as a riff on capitalist realism.
Known primarily as a public artist, Otterness has exhibited across the United States and internationally, including New York City, Indianapolis, Beverly Hills, The Hague, Munich, Paris, Valencia and Venice. His studio is located in Gowanus, Brooklyn.
For more of Otterness’s work
Yayoi Kusama
Yayoi Kusama is a Japanese contemporary artist who works primarily in sculpture and installation, but is also active in painting, performance, film, fashion, poetry, fiction, and other arts. Her work is based in conceptual art and shows some attributes of feminism, minimalism, surrealism, Art Brut, pop art, and abstract expressionism, and is infused with autobiographical, psychological, and sexual content. She has been acknowledged as one of the most important living artists to come out of Japan.
The energetic patterns and organic forms, at giant scale, could really engage with the surroundings to create haunting and memorable experiences.
For more of Kusama’s work
