George Beasley and Paul Cosgrove installing the exhibition, Atlanta, Georgia
The exhibition at Alumni Hall, Georgia State University (April 22nd), was designed to encourage wider dialogue on the initial research phase. 10 monitors were sited around the main curved balcony of the central stairwell, with the 'talking heads' of diverse students facing out into the space, each responding to questions on place - what makes and gives a sense of place? The students' responses evoked a deeply personal picture of 'home' that was at the same time strangely similar in their accounts of the elements that were missing from the here and now of their experience in GSU's campus - colours, smells, sounds, foods, people - powerful resonances that signaled home to them. As you entered the high and broad marble space of Alumni Hall, their conversation filled the room and as visitors stood infront of each monitor, not only did the physicality of each individual exert a presence, but they overheard the sounds and ideas of those before and after as they circled the exhibition space. These videos were complemented by a large projection of strongly colored text that filled and wrapped around the curved space of the stairwell, that visitors read as they ascended and descended the space. A scale model of one of the GSU sites under consideration stood to the forefront and on the opening night, Sculpture Majors moved and positioned and re-positioned elements - small objects, forms, colours - within the space of the model, inviting guests to participate and encouraging a sense of openness in how the possibilities of space might be considered and developed in response to a collaborative and consultative process. This was key to the CENCIA project; to go beyond the expectation of the artists defining a proposal, to a more fluid conception of a process for thinking and shifting ideas in response to the many publics of GSU and the wider Atlanta community who all share a vested interest in and aspiration for a space - described by one student as a space of 'calor humano' - human warmth. A proposal for stage 2 has been submitted, which hopes to develop and test these ideas further.
