When it comes to planning a trip, even a day trip (hell,
even a walk around town) I leave out the planning part. I roam, wander, stray, amble,
mosey and stroll. I don’t ask for directions and I don’t have GPS in my
car. The basic philosophy behind this is
that if you let yourself go, you’ll eventually see the things you want to see
that you didn’t even know you wanted to see.
See?
Sometimes I get lost and don’t see shit.
On a recent ramble around Fort Point and Boston’s Waterfront
I stumbled upon a form of expression that I thought had gone extinct in the
area – art. Now let me tell you a little
story kids, back in the day (like 1999) the Fort Point area made up the largest
artist community in New England. Paper mache literally tumbled through the
streets like debris from an Oklahoma tornado. At the heart of this community
was the Revolving Museum - an evolving laboratory of creative expression in multiple
mediums that embraced people of various backgrounds, music and all
manifestations of inspiration. And the
parties – holy shit! Live bands would grind until 3 or 4am and the cops just
didn’t give a fuck…even as the drinking and dancing bled out onto the
streets. The only people that lived in
the area were artists, and most of them were probably at the party anyway. When
I hit up Fort Point’s Open Studios in the early ought’s, I spent an entire day
wondering the mazes of old converted warehouses and factory spaces but only got
to see a fraction of the artists. Sculptors, metalworkers, designers and
jewelers were tucked away in every available nook and dark corner. As the day progressed so too did the complimentary
wine, lots of cheap ass wine, and PBR, and… yeah.
So I was thrilled to meet Ari Hauben, a Fort Point artist and Boston
Public School teacher whose work responds to the detrimental effects of the
increasingly standardized and mechanized worlds of education and society. Take
that society! Here’s a man, much like his Fort Point predecessors, who creates
art not because it's cool but because he has to. The desks, pencils, grades,
students and standardized tests of his teaching life manifest themselves in his
current showing of work entitled Above the Standard. The gallery is tucked away
behind Ming Tsai’s new fancy pants Blue Dragon restaurant at 50 Melcher
Street. And there in lies the rub. If Fort Point could find more spaces for
socially conscious artists like Mr. Hauben, I’d feel much better about buying a
fancy $15 cocktail from Drink, Tavern Road or any of the other places
benefiting from this gentrification and the ousting of artists. I’ll always miss
the free cheap ass wine and tall boys.*
When I am in wander mode I love running across unexpected street art. So I’m going to give Boston and their Vital Street Art program
a big thumbs up. Organized by Design Museum Boston and the Boston Society of
Architects, its mission is to bring designers and the public together to create
a dialogue. As part of this series, the Street Seats exhibit is scattered up
and down the Waterfront. Just don’t call it a bench. Over 170 seating designs
were submitted with the winning works sprinkled throughout the area for the
pleasure of buttocks everywhere. Sure, it’s not earth-shattering artwork, but
the kids I was with had a fun time hunting for the seats and might have even
learned a little something about art and design. Hopefully the city of Boston will look back
fondly at the exhibit and be more open to street art and murals throughout the
city. The entire city of Boston is a
blank canvas as far as I’m concerned…
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