Next Up at Modern Art: Corner Store of the Spectacle
Friday, May 17 from 6-9pm at Modern Art
All are welcome. Stop in for some art, food, drink, conversation, music, deals and surprises.
Admission is always free (but don’t forget your wallet because everything is for sale!)
“COOL, BUT WHAT THE HECK IS IT???
A STORE?
A GALLERY?
A STUDIO?”
Sure is. All of that. Read on to find out more below (and get in touch with any questions.)
—————————————
"The spectacle is not a collection of images, but a social relation among people, mediated by images." - Guy Debord, "The Society of the Spectacle"
Welcome to The Corner Store of the Spectacle—part art installation, part economic experiment, part situationist intervention— a space that blurs the line between art, community, and the capitalist system.
Inside the Corner Store the walls are filled with 300 hand-painted signs, each advertising a unique price ranging from $1 to $300. Every painting is accompanied by documentation of the circumstances around which the sign was created. Every painting is available for purchase.
But that’s not all: not only the signs are for sale, EVERYTHING in the studio is for sale. The furniture, the pens, the books. The paintbrushes, the cleaning supplies, the curtains. Everything that Modern Art has gathered and created for the past 12 years— all can be yours in exchange for some cold hard cash (or credit, or check or venmo— whatever your monetary style.)
Modern Art is set up as it is on any other day- as a working storefront studio with a graphic design business in the back - only now the everyday objects are affixed with price tags and costs, where you, dear customer, can buy anything you want. Everything you purchase makes you part of the art, the conversation and part of the (Corner Store of the) spectacle.
But what’s an economic system without a good gamble? A speculative enterprise? To that end, under each painted sign is a piece of a secret message—a path to hidden treasures (monetary or philosophical treasures? You’ll have to play along to see.) The secrets will gradually unfold as each of the signs are sold, only to be fully revealed in the event that all the signs are purchased. The “Corner Store of the Spectacle” invites everyone’s participation and demands, like any good economy, that you take pleasure in the hard sell and the possibility of an unexpected return on investment.
————-
Born from a moment of existential financial panic, "The Corner Store of the Spectacle" is a deeply personal exploration of my relationship with money and the challenges of sustaining a creative career in a world that often prioritizes profitability over compassion, automation over craft, and efficiency over beautiful meandering. Throughout the last six months, I’ve kept meticulous notes detailing the hours and money spent, the investments, the overhead— all the resources—seen and unseen— that have gone into putting on a artistic spectacle.
As you browse, consider what we value, as individuals and as a community, and why. What determines value? How do we assign a monetary value to art, engagement, and the unknown in an increasingly automated, data and efficiency-driven society?
The Corner Store invites us to question whether such a space can thrive in our current economic climate and challenges us to consider alternative ways of supporting creativity, surprise, mystery, and human connection.
So come on down on May 17, and beyond. The Corner Store will be open through August 2024….or until everything is gone.
