Darius Frank (Photo via Creative Time)
By DCist contributor Blair Murphy
Artist Darius Frank was born in Bethesda, and his family and friends have called the D.C. area home for as long as he can remember. So when he had the opportunity to create his first large-scale public art project, he turned his focus to Washington’s rapid transformation, a topic that is, as Frank told DCist by email, “on the hearts and the minds of almost everybody.”
Drawing on conversations with friends and family, as well as support from the public arts organization Creative Time, Frank created Things I Love/d, a multimedia installation featuring testimonials from 22 former and current D.C. residents about the changing landscape of the city. (Full disclosure: the author works at DC Arts Center, whose Executive Director was one of the individuals interviewed.) The exhibit will feature the large-scale, multi-channel video installation as well as a selection of Frank’s paintings.
For Things I Love/d, participants from a range of experiences, demographics, and ages recalled what they loved (and perhaps feel has been lost) from the city, and discussed what they love about the city now. Incorporating these varied perspectives, the work explores collective memory and the complex emotions inspired by the changes that have taken place in DC—including rapid development, an explosion in housing prices, and an influx of new residents that has transformed the racial demographics of a city that was one of the country’s first majority black metropolises.
Frank earned the opportunity to work with Creative Time as part of Bombay Sapphire’s Artisan Series, an annual competition sponsored by the gin manufacturer that supports emerging artists. As part of his award, Bombay Sapphire sponsored the project and connected Frank with Creative Time, a public arts organization best known for large scale, high-profile public installations and performances and an annual summit (last year’s took place in D.C.). In recent years, these projects have included Kara Walker’s A Subtlety, a massive sugar sphinx installed at a former Domino Sugar Factory and Duke Riley’s Fly by Night, a performance at the Brooklyn Navy Yard that incorporated thousands of carrier pigeons.
“Public art is not for the faint of heart,” Nato Thompson, Creative Time’s Artistic Director, says. “It is a team sport. But many artists are used to operating alone in the studio”.
Moving from the studio into the public realm brings with it a new level of logistical complexity, involving teams of collaborators, increased budgets, and a new world of permits and space requirements. For Things I Love/d, Creative Time supported Frank as a facilitator and mentor, assisting with planning, financing, and helping him shape his vision.
Local artists have tackled the drastic changes facing the city before. How We Lost DC, a 2015 exhibition at Honfleur Gallery organized by the Delusions of Grandeur collective tackled the topic head on, while NoMüNoMü’s recent exhibition, Now More Than Ever, at WPA addressed gentrification as part of a broader critique of racism and inequality. The topic can be complex for artists and arts organizations, whose own relationship to development might best be described as ambivalent.
Representing diverse stories and voices, Things I Love/d focuses on the complex and even contradictory feelings many residents have about the city and its recent growth. Even the work’s placement-above Union Market, a renovated warehouse that is itself a symbol of gentrification, promises to keep these contradictions front of mind for many viewers.
Beyond exploring these contradictions and conflicts, Things I Love/d hopes to offer what Creative Time describes as a “space of contact” for longtime residents and more recent arrivals.
Frank hopes that the project emphasizes commonality and continuity, creating “a story about the new and the old.”
And visitors shouldn’t expect to leave with easy answers. “Art isn’t a thesis, it isn’t an essay,” as Thompson explains. Rather than acting as a polemic, Things I Love/d documents many voices and stories, creating a poetic exploration of the city’s past and present.
Things I Love/d is open to the public on Saturday and Sunday, July 29 and 30, from 12 p.m.—6 p.m. at Dock 5, 1309 5th St NE. Free.
