Show and Tell
Show and Tell
Show and Tell aimed to foster a conversation about space, the urban, and how individuals and elements interact ecologically therein. Artists and designers involved were asked to respond to a specific site in the city, in this case, the West Bottoms. The term ‘respond’ was left intentionally open ended here. We are interested in the diverse kinds of evidence and data that each artist employed in their response to the site, and the ways these were transmuted into the works in the show. The show was organized and curated by JC Franco and Jacob Canyon with the assistance and generosity of The Bauer.
+ Come here, Build ----------------.
In response to a prompt asking to rethink and explore the possibilities of the West Bottoms district in Kansas City, Come Here, Build __. asks citizens to participate in reimagining the potential of one underutilized area of a unique icon, the 12th street bridge. Participants were supplied with templates and colored pencils, and invited to draw and dream together.
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+ High Water Mark
In 1951, the Missouri and Kansas Rivers flooded, devastating low-lying areas of the city. The West Bottoms is located entirely on the flood plain of these rivers and was hit especially hard. The three tiles describe the water height in different languages: one is a map of the flood zone, another a photograph taken after the flood, and the last is an indicator of the water line. These tiles were displayed at the show and subsequently installed on the Gustin-Beacon building at the height of the water shown in the center tile.
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+ The Uses of Fear
Miranda Clark
This interactive sculpture invited viewers to rearrange a group of wooden frames which represent a scale model of a group of buildings in the west bottoms.
+ 8th Street Tunnel
Atlas Lense
This proposal was for the construction of a public space built around the abandoned 8'th street tunnel, which connected the West Bottoms to down town Kansas City via streetcar until the 1950s. Atlas lense reinvisions this object as a pedestrian/cyclist path that terminates in a public park below the bluff.
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+ Audio Work
Joseph Tuzzolino and Meghan Skevington
Taking the form of two parallel narratives, spoken on top of one another, this audio work dealt with the West Bottom's sorted history of high water. Listens choose between 3 inputs, each playing a different recording of the same narrative.
+ Sq2 Studios
Chris Meyer, Mary Lim, and Sam Yates were invited to debut their endevour, Sq2 Studios, a studio which offers services, resources, equipment and a workspace to young creatives in Kansas City.
+ Phantom Limb
This video installation documents the route of an ancient stream interpolated though an industrial borough. The footage follows the path of the old Turkey Creek where it ran through the West Bottoms while playing a sound scape captured from the dark and caveronous tunnel though which the water was diverted and now flow.
+ Reinvesioning the City
The Kansas City Design Center's students constructed this enomous scale model of the West Bottoms, adding structures of the students design. This was the culmination fo a body of research on the area that has grown into a continuing collaborationbetween KCDC and the Office of Culture and Creative services, funded by the National Endowment for the Arts.
