Events / The Cries of San Francisco
When:June 11th, 2011 @ 12:00pm to 5:00pm
Where:
Market Street, San Francisco
Mint Plaza, 5th St between Mint Plaza and Market St, Market St between 5th and 3rd Streets
Activity:
Reverse Archeology
Enrollment
6/unlimited
Organizer:
Not Here No More
Description:
Project by Allison Smith in Collaboration with Southern Exposure. Curated by Courtney Fink
The Cries of San Francisco invokes the historic tradition of street peddling with melodic songs and calls. Nearly 70 Bay Area artists, craftspeople, and other urban workers. The Cries of San Francisco takes the form of a public art event centered around Mint Plaza, an installation and series of events at Southern Exposure, and publication chronicling the project.
The Market Day public art project is the central element of The Cries of San Francisco. On June 4th, 2011, the project will center around Mint Plaza and adjoining blocks of Market Street. Led by Allison Smith as the Town Crier, nearly 70 participants engage in the project, offering goods or services--tangible or ephemeral--embodied by elaborate sculptural costumes and advertized through the melodic street cries called out by each participant. Exchanges take the form of ephemeral acts and actions that cross and blur boundaries of public and private space while others serve as a parody on commodity exchange and the capitalistic nature of the art market, offering up potentially useful models for contemporary artists working in times of economic uncertainty.
Cost: FREE
Responses
6 Attending
Terms
(none yet)Comments
Madeline and I will be completing Reverse Archaeology with our time machine, but this is really just a wacky art event and not really an SFØ gathering, though the reason that I put it on here is that, honestly, I think you guys might get a kick out of what we've put together.
I am so jealous of you, this sounds epic.
I know this is a pre-organized event, and that participants had to apply to take part. I have an idea of what I'd like to "sell"; do you think this is the kind of thing wherein if I show up in costume and start hawking my goods it would be cool, or a major faux-pas? If it helps, I'm "selling" fresh dreams and stories.
That would be completely inappropriate, I'm afraid. This show was pretty intensely curated. It's been put together with care. With respect to the other artists, Courtney, Alison, and everyone else who works at Southern Exposure, I'd say that you and everybody else need to be on the other end of the transaction.
What! No! The public is encouraged to hawk their wares and compete with some of the "selected" artists!
Fuck it Bryce! We butted our youth board ass heads into it and made something of it!
Go ahead! Sell your shit! It's in a public space, and it's not moderated nor are the the peddlers related to one another!
I'm confused... two equally strong opposing opinions from people who are properly involved... ekk! I've looked at the website, and I think my ideas fit in very well, and there is no one else doing what I'd do. I'll be careful, yeah?
I've realized that I actually do this semi-regularly, and have for several years. I hang out in the Haight and call -
"Compliments for sale! Get your compliments! Only 10 cents! Genuine compliments, surreal compliments, quotes about compliments by Mark Twain! Love poems for a quarter!". Do good business, too. I can make almost $20 in a couple of hours (which I then donate to someone who looks like they need the money). Course, I'm not doing it so much for the art as a social experiment, wherein people don't hear enough nice things, and we only value that which we pay for.
At any rate, I'm looking forward to this event, and wish I'd learned about it early enough to take part properly.
Oy! This here event's being rescheduled to the Saturday after this Saturday, the 11th, because of impending sogginess.
Madeline and Ruth and I are participating, tasking like crazy.