City Shutters Art Space, Locks Up Goldfish Inside
An automotive showroom for the R.L. Taylor Motor Company, a restaurant supplies retailer under Adams-Burch, and a Pentecostal chapel with the Church of the Rapture—the building that occupies the southwest corner of 14th and T Streets NW has served many people in many ways. Its most recent and perhaps improbable career turn—as a guerrilla art space hidden in the heart of one of D.C.'s fastest-rising commercial corridors—came to a close on Saturday.
Citing improper permits and fire hazards, city inspectors shut down "Here & Now," an art exhibit hosted by Transformer Gallery at the 1840 14th Street NW space. The temporary exhibit featured site-specific sculpture and installation art, some of it made using leftover odds and ends from the space.
“They were operating without a business permit, construction permits, and a whole boatload of other issues,” says Ken Wilson, chief fire inspector for the D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs. Wilson said that his office had received an anonymous tip that the building was being used to host auctions. He would not say who registered the complaint or when it was received.
Wilson arrived after inspector Kevin Smith and police interrupted artist Matt Mullican, who was giving a lecture about his work to a crowd of about two dozen people. (Mullican's work is not in the show.) The officials evacuated the building and summoned Dan Ford, a representative from Four Points LLC, the development company that owns the building. Ford then changed the keypad combination on the door.
Inspectors Wilson and Smith told Ford that the incident was serious and that the matter would almost certainly lead to a hearing. Wilson noted as an example that fire extinguishers within the building were expired as of 2003. (Ford had no comment for this story. DCRA had no record of complaints against the building since 2004; a representative was not immediately available for comment.)
The 14 artists in "Here & Now" whose work fills the space—many of whom were on hand for a day of artists' talks and dialogs—were not given an opportunity to claim their work before the building was sealed. It will remain closed for the foreseeable future.
“All of that work is basically being held hostage,” says Victoria Reis, director of Transformer, a nonprofit organization that promotes emerging artists. Transformer operates a storefront project space at 14th and P Streets NW, where a separate leg of the “Here & Now” sculpture exhibit is ongoing.
One of the works in “Here & Now” will die before the space is re-opened. An installation by Kyan Bishop and Kate Hardy features 100 goldfish in half-globes attached to the wall—none of which are going to last long without food.
“We're trying to get in for fish removal,” Hardy explains.
Photos by Flickr user Vincent Gallegos.
Nearly all the pieces in the show are site specific or site responsive and employ ephemeral, found, or low-cost materials—meaning that the pieces might not necessarily have any life after the show's run. But a few installations do feature fine artworks and crafted elements. As part of their collaborative piece, Graham Childs and Lily deSaussure hung hand-embroidered drawings in a built-out sunroom that includes their own home furniture.
The anonymous complaint that prompted the closure might have referred to an event put on by the Cultural Development Corporation (CuDC) three weeks ago. On May 3, CuDC held its Flashforward Gala and Auction, a live art auction benefit complete with dinner, music, an open bar, and dancing late into the night. For $175, attendees enjoyed the juxtaposition of drinks sponsored by SKYY Vodka and walls covered in graffiti.
Merin Frank, development associate for CuDC, said that a neighbor called the police the afternoon of the gala complaining that suspicious individuals were entering the building. Police checked out the space at that time and then again after midnight, when the same neighbor called to complain about music. CuDC also fielded a site visit from D.C.'s Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration, in response to a complaint that individuals were bringing alcohol into the building.
“When the police had stopped by and ABRA had stopped by, the moment we showed them everything was in order, they were fine with that, and they went on their merry way,” says Frank, noting that the caterer retained by CuDC showed ABRA a liquor license.
Reis says that Four Points had given Transformer a standard license agreement she recognized as one typically used by CuDC as a contract for the use of the space. She says that Transformer did not pay Four Points to rent the building, but the gallery did give the developer a $2,500 security deposit.
Frank says that Four Points donated the use of the space for the CuDC auction as well.
In January, Meat Market Gallery covered the building inside and out in graffiti to promote its second-annual Performance Week, a performance art series, which also took place in the building.
“There's a history of other organizations using the space,” said Reis. “How were we supposed to know about the building having problems?” Reis adds that Transformer spent hundreds of hours and several thousand dollars to assemble the show.
Not all the artists were bothered by the notion of the work being shut up inside the building.
“I feel that it's almost appropriate for it to be locked away, inaccessible,” said artist Mandy Burrow over email. For her piece, she arranged materials she found throughout the space as a diorama to recreate a linear, imagined history of the building—from tires to signify the building's origin on Washington's Automotive Row to a deli meat slicer and church pamphlets to represent its more recent incarnations.
“The objects and the entire piece are part of the building, and whatever becomes of the building should also determine the fate of that particular work,” said Burrow. “I see Saturday's occurrence as another chapter in the building—and thus the work's—life.”