Portraits of Lives Lived in the Shadows

By Robin Tierney

During a visit to Knoxville, I filled my journal with the stories of a dozen or so folks revitalizing the city’s core as a walkable arts district that retains its downhome roots. Just as interesting were the rootless Knoxvillians encountered through the photographs of David Habercom.

In the process of moving his studio from the Emporium Center for Arts & Culture downtown to his new home, Habercom now shows his work on the web. Three series capture the individual character and spirit of those pushed into society’s margins – those, he says, are commonly regarded as “gypsies, unattractives, these humiliations in the street.”

For “5th Avenue Motel,” he documented residents, some dwelling there for 20 years, soon before they were evicted a couple of years ago.

Habercom points to one photo: “The dog in 5th Ave 1 [below to right] is hard to see, since he was a huge, black Labrador-type guy. His name was Bear. The python was called Jake the Snake. This couple had lived in the 5th Avenue for eight years.”

After eviction, 5th Avenue residents moved into low-end apartments, public housing, or the streets, said Habercom. “Knoxville has a very good record of helping the homeless, so [they] had a number of reliable resources to get them reestablished.”

The sun bounced hot off the pavement as I tramped to the urban ruins at Fifth and Broadway. Built in 1913, by mid-century the Minvilla townhomes housed squatters as the neighborhood declined. While dismissed as derelicts, the dwellers included decent unfortunates who lacked family or government safety nets. It’s a reminder how fine a line exists between the have-nots and the haves who have gamed public programs, lax loan guidelines and tax/regulatory rules to spawn new breeds of burdens to society.

I imagine the souls pictured by Habercom in the hollow quarters decorated only by unartful tags. In 2007, following the eviction, the furnishings, interiors, windows and facades were stripped. A smiley face nests in the “O” of a jauntily drawn F*ck you inside one doorway.

A sign by the chain-link fence sagging around the property announces “Future Home of the Minvilla Manor.” A little digging reveals that VMC Volunteer Ministry Center across the street is helping some of the displaced, and the City of Knoxville is finalizing a Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program. Plans include restoring Minvilla as "supportive housing” model with onsite social workers, health services and drug/alcohol treatment to help the homeless grip those bootstraps.

In his “Viaduct” series, Habercom turned his lens to resourceful loners who made homes under Knoxville’s Gay Street bridge.

For his newest project, he collaborated with public radio news editor Matt Shafer Powell and musician/artist Bob Deck. "Adrift on American Streets" pairs formal studio portraits of 27 homeless people with a soundtrack of their stories, self-told. ”We published the project as a DVD because couldn't afford a gallery show. Which is too bad, since that format would blow everybody away.”

Check a 5-minute preview clip at this website.

There’s plenty to see by walking the streets of Knoxville. Walk north from the cluster of downtown galleries on South Gay to the industrial+art district dubbed Downtown North. At Ironwood Studios, look for John McGilvray’s clever woodworkings and Preston Farabow’s “Aespyre” metal creations from racetrack debris art to delicate finials.

If your feet get tired, hop on the free trolley.

Linda Evans of Dogwood Arts tells me about the city’s coalescing arts scene: new public art around town (Krutch Park, World’s Fair Park, the Convention Center), new galleries and juried competitions. Time a visit to catch the monthly First Fridays.

Want free tickets to the art fair?

The Affordable Art Fair NYC is next week in New York. Drop me an email if you want me to set you up with a couple of free tickets (they are $20 each).

Congrats!

To DC area artist and my good friend Tim Tate, who has just been announced as the winner of the Virginia Groot Foundation $35,000 award for sculpture.

Buy Tim Tate now.

Aqui Estamos opens today in Philly

Later today the Cuban contemporary art show that I curated last year and which has been exhibited in Norfolk, VA and DC opens in Philadelphia's Projects Gallery. It is titled "Aqui Estamos" (Here We Are) and in the show we find narratives and imagery that represent many of these artists’ historical dissidence to the stark issues of contemporary Cuban life. The works are images that offer a historical and visual sentence in the history of an island nation behind bars with a powerful world presence in the arts and events of world history.

"Consume Preferably Before 30 Years of Age" by Cirenaica Moreira
The opening, free and open to the public is on May 1st, 2009 from 6-9PM. Projects Gallery is located at 629 N 2nd Street, Philadelphia, PA 19123, tel: 267.303.9652 and on the web at projectsgallery.com. The exhibition is open through May 29, 2009.

Wanna go to an artist's talk tomorrow?

DC artist Robin Rose will be completing the 2nd half of his terrific exhibition at American University's Katzen Arts Museum on May 2 a 4:00PM with a talk at the Museum. Rose calls calls this section of the exhibition "The Stories". He will discuss the basis of each piece, much like a director speaks about particular scenes or concepts of a film.

Wanna go to an opening in DC tomorrow?

Loads of them at the many galleries around the Dupont Circle area... while there, do not miss Katya Kronick at Studio Gallery.

Cy Twombly Drawing lost in NYC cab

Cy Twombly, Untitled (2-sided drawing), 1957, graphite on paper, 13 3/4 x 19 in., signed and dated in pencil Cy Twombly, Roma, May 57
The above scribbly drawing by Cy Twombly was being taken by someone to the framing shop, when they either left it in the taxi or somehow lost it getting out of the cab somewhere in NYC.

The owner is offering $5,000 as a reward for anyone who finds it.

I am far from being a Twombly fan, but let's be honest... unless you are a big Twombly fan, the chances of anyone recognizing the pencil scribbles on the paper as an important work of art, even in a cultured city like NYC, are pretty slim to none. The fact that it is signed and dated in pencil may prove its saving grace, if someone did find it and took the time to actually examine it.

This is yet another reason why signatures are important when it comes to artwork, and begs the question as to why this is such a hard issue to grasp for so many artists who never sign their work.

If you had no idea as to the provenance or origin of this drawing and saw it, most of us would discard it as someone trying to sharpen up his pencil by running it back and forth across the paper a few times. Add a signature, location and date and immediately, with a little art history behind you, the finder may have a change to realize that he/she just found something very valuable as art.

But I still wonder if the cabbie just threw it out at the end of his shift when he was cleaning his cab. It wouldn't be the first time that someone thought that what some consider art, others see as trash.