Harrell Fletcher came to talk at UO today. He's an artist who tends to collaborate with the community surrounding the places where the work will be installed or exhibited. In that sense he could be called a kind of assistative curator. Check out the project in Brittany called Constantine's Turtle.



Really cool. A few of the people that saw him with me liked his particular way of keeping himself (to an extent, in a way) outside the center of his own work. I agree. I also thought some of his work has a strange relationship to the places where it winds up. On the surface of things, some of his exhibits feel like kitchy folk art or "dumb drawings" that have been exhibited with the sensibilities of contemporary gallery installation. The big difference, though, is in the stories of how those drawings get made.

See also: Ze Frank, who does similar things with the online community of people who watch his video blog and other web-based projects. Ze Frank doesn't have to engage his projects in the physical art gallery context that Fletcher does because everything is exhibited online. Also the projects seem either conceptually weak/random or brilliantly dorky and effective in building community.

See also: Barack Obama, "...less to do with me and more to do with you"

See also: His ongoing project with Miranda July, Learning to Love You More.