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In their first Coaster Project, the art collective TransCultural Exchange
members Malvina Sammarone, Mary Sherman, Sunghoon Yang, Theodore Cantrell
and Heejung Kim distributed their coaster-sized art, free of charge,
under unsuspecting patrons’ drinks at Cynthia’s Cyberbar in London in
time for the London Biennale. Next came a second coaster project at the
Telephone Bar in New York in conjunction with their exhibition at New
York City’s Trans Hudson Gallery.
Although exhibiting and then giving away their work
hasn’t exactly been the most common route artists take to get people to
consume their work, this has exactly been the tack chosen by
TransCultural Exchange.
And now comes the third installment of their project,
titled The Coaster Project, Destination: The World, ongoing this March
through May, 2002 in 32 countries with 99 artists working together to
transcend geographic, political, and cultural boundaries. Last year,
TransCultural Exchange invited artists from all over (including three
Filipinos) to create a set of 100 coasters that were to be shipped to the
US where they were being tagged and documented and farmed back out so
that all the participating artists received back a set of works made up
of their own and their collaborators’ coasters. These in turn were to be
exhibited and given away in their home countries.
All in all, The Coaster Project is made up of 99
transnational exhibitions, with over 10,000 art works to be freely given
away around the globe. The aim of the effort is to create an
international, public forum in which people from various cultures can
realize the positive effects of working together and see art as a
reflection of a common denominator — the basic human desire to express
self through images.
The Coaster Project brings together artists from
Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Columbia, Denmark, England, Finland,
France, French West Indies, Germany, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy,
Japan, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Palestine, Philippines, Poland,
Russia, Scotland, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland,
Netherlands, Turkey, and the United States. It’s Filipino participants
are Lala Gallardo, Claro Ramirez, and Eric Zamuco.
Exhibition and distribution dates in Manila are: April
25-May 7, West Gallery, Glorietta; May 7-19, Music Museum; and May 14,
Freedom Bar, Quezon City. The exhibit is online at www.transculturalexchange.org.
As in the two previous projects, the artists have
arranged to have their works freely given away in cafes, restaurants or
other similar establishments at the end of their exhibitions. By
exploring such unconventional interactive means and sites, these artists
hope to work together to bring art directly into the life of their own
communities.
Among the other international exhibition and
distribution sites are the Inner Mongolia Museum of Fine Arts, Museo de
la Ciudad in Guadalajara, Bilbao Arte, the Simon Wiesenthal Center Museum
of Tolerance, Los Angeles, Barbara Krakow Gallery, The Fuller Museum of
Arts, The Museum of the National Center of African American Artists, and
PS 122 Gallery, New York.
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