Above: Artist Jebney Lewis holds the hand of the Super Creature of Energy and Power, a sculpture that will be erected at the corner of Fernon Street and Point Breeze as part of the Commotion Festival. (Emma Lee/for NewsWorks)
June 14, 2012 By Peter Crimmins for Newsworks
An arts festival will pop up in Grays Ferry and Point Breeze, run for two weeks, and disappear, never to return again.
The Commotion Festival -- featuring theater, dance, music and video, all specific to the Grays Ferry and Point Breeze neighborhoods -- represents a new twist in Philadelphia's "One Percent for Fine Arts" program: temporary public art.
Fifty-one years ago, Philadelphia pioneered the concept, mandating developments on city property must devote 1 percent of construction costs to public art. All that time, "public art" has meant sculptures, plazas, murals and other media designed to stick around for at least a generation.
At times, the program stepped into more contemporary media. Neon has been placed atop an apartment building and video monitors have been embedded in a wisteria garden.
The Commotion Festival represents a further innovation. All the art will vanish after two weeks.
"We wanted to think about what public art is, in Philadelphia in the 21st century," said Julie Guerrero, director of the Fine Art Program at Philadelphia's Redevelopment Authority. "We eliminated the requirement of permanency. We're still commissioning permanent works, but now we're commissioning temporary work as well."
Energetic expressions
PECO recently built a substation in Grays Ferry, using RDA land. As part of its 1 percent obligation, the energy company decided it would rather put together a festival that would attract visitors to the economically troubled neighborhood, than put a sculpture in the heavily industrialized section of the city.
PECO worked with the University of the Arts for two years to coordinate artists and residents into a vision of what Commotion would become. All the work is rooted in the neighborhood.
For example, musician Nick Krill of the area Spinto Band, wandered around the dozens of massive electrical transformers PECO planted between Washington Avenue and the Schuylkill River.
Krill recorded the drones and hums of those generating stations and substations. He heard tonal variations and harmonics buried in that sound, and used it to build a 4.5-minute track of melodic sound art.
"I was surprised at how musical different sounds and noises can be," said Krill. "Even just overheard speech -- I was surprised by how musical some people's speech can be. Especially when you start looping it and hearing it repeatedly. There's a lot of musicality of people just sitting on steps shooting the breeze."
Neighborhood inspires, informs Commotion
Krill submitted the track, "Neighborhood Dynamo," to be included in 13 site-specific sound art pieces designed to be downloaded from the Commotion website and listened to on location, via iPod or smartphone. They make up the sound portion of Commotion.
The festival also has a double bill of dance and dinner (subcircle and Team Sunshine Dance Corporation go back-to-back in the historic Shiloh Baptist Church); a series of short theatrical acts performed in a funeral parlor, telling stories based on a handful of real people who lived and died in Point Breeze (written by Pew Fellow Ed Shockley, who grew up in the neighborhood); and a giant Wicker Man-esque sculpture that will be erected with the help of area kids, then dismantled within 24 hours.
Though not permanent, Guerrero says this free festival, still satisfies the goals of the 1 percent program: a public art experience specific to the location. All the art is conceived and/or executed in consultation with residents.
Even though it will all evaporate in two weeks, the hope is that intense creative activity will leave a trace on the community struggling with crime and blight.
"You know what Philadelphia's like. There's lots of small groups that don't necessarily talk to each other," said Commotion director John Phillips. "We're not trying to accomplish social goals, but the fact that we went in and talked to people, got them talking to each other, it gave everybody there an exciting boost. There's more to life here than the problems that we all have."
The Redevelopment Authority is watching the Commotion Festival very closely, to see what works and what doesn't for future temporary projects already in the pipeline.
For more details on the Commotion Festival, visit http://commotionphilly.org/
Saturday, June 16, 5pm – 7pm
FESTIVAL KICK OFF
@ Zion Hill Memorial Baptist Church
South 27th Street and Ellsworth Street
More info >>>
Wednesday, June 20, 6 pm
SHILOH DANCE DAYS
with Subcircle and Team Sunshine
@ Shiloh Baptist Church
2040 Christian Street
More info >>>
Thursday, June 21, 6 pm
SHILOH DANCE DAYS
with Subcircle and Team Sunshine
@ Shiloh Baptist Church
2040 Christian Street
More info >>>
Friday, June 22, 7:30pm
THE GREATEST LIFE THAT NEVER WAS
by Ed Shockley and Mosaic Theatre Productions
@ Mitchum-Wilson Funeral Home
1410 South 20th Street
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Saturday, June 23, 7:30pm
THE GREATEST LIFE THAT NEVER WAS
by Ed Shockley and Mosaic Theatre Productions
@ Mitchum-Wilson Funeral Home
1410 South 20th Street
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Wednesday, June 27, 6 pm
SHILOH DANCE DAYS
with Subcircle and Team Sunshine
@ Shiloh Baptist Church
2040 Christian Street
More info >>>
Thursday, June 28, 6 pm
SHILOH DANCE DAYS
with Subcircle and Team Sunshine
@ Shiloh Baptist Church
2040 Christian Street
More info >>>
Saturday, June 30, 2pm – 8pm
SUPER CREATURE OF ENERGY AND POWER: SCULPTURE RAISING AND BLOCK PARTY
by Jebney Lewis
@ 2200 block of Fernon Street
at Point Breeze Avenue (just south of Tasker)
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Saturday, June 30, 8pm – midnight
NIGHT FERRY
by John JH Phillips
@ Grays Ferry Crescent at Schuylkill Banks
near 34th Street Access Point
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ongoing June 16 - 30
SOUND PLACES
co-presented by bowerbird
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print publication
46-45 VERANDERING
by Tim Fitts
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