LOGISTICS LANDSCAPE: Works by Mark Dineen and Eleanor Sabin
OPENING RECEPTION: SATURDAY MAY 8 — 12:00 PM - 5:00 PM
VENUE: Evans School/ 1115 Acoma St, Denver, CO 80204
In their paper “Logistics Landscape” (Landscape Journal, 2008) Charles Waldheim and Alan Berger describe globalization as being “characterized by neo-liberal economic policies, ‘just-in-time’ production, outsourcing, flexible or informal labor arrangements, and increasingly global capital flows.” The places at which these ideas and systems meet the ground are known as operational or logistics landscapes. These are active sites of production and transition that exist at the intersection of manufacturing, agriculture, commerce, and habitation. Logistics landscapes are embedded in the promise of modernity and are a manifestation of the pluralistic structure of contemporary American life.
Today, as we become increasingly detached from the origins of objects that we use to populate our identities (and consequently the peoples, cultures, and environments that produce these objects) we feel a combined sense of anxiety and awe in the presence of such a complex global infrastructure. The idea of a vessel is a useful way to represent these ideas within an object. In its most expanded definition, a vessel is simply a unit of containment. So, the term vessel applies not only to its function as a container to hold and organize materials for distribution or storage, but it can also pertain to a parcel of land as a unit of containment determined by the use and function of that site or as a method of sorting ideas. In Logistics Landscape, we are reflecting on the impact of the vessel and its dispersed interpretations in a hyper-modern era.
This exhibition is part of Checking In, a state-wide collaboration designed to provide platforms of connection between artists, curators, businesses, cultural institutions and communities who have been in isolation but collectively have space or creative works to offer and/or exchange.
