COUNTDOWN TO MEMORY #1: Ground Rush
For me, my final exhibit was already here, I was here in my last mill space, it was time, and I didn’t want it to be. I didn’t want my 18 years to be over.
Amy Stacey Curtis
In 1998, artist and writer Amy Stacey Curtis began an 18-year commitment to interactive installation art, nine solo-biennial exhibits from 2000 to 2016. In the end, Amy will have installed 81 large-in-scope, participatory works in the vast mills of eight or nine Maine towns. Each solo-biennial exhibit is a 22-month process, each exhibit exploring a different theme while requiring her audience to perpetuate its nine unique installations. As part of each biennial process, Amy scrubs by hand its respective mill; the spaces averaging 25,000 square feet.
The Maine Arts Commission’s 2005 Individual Artist Fellow for Visual Art, and recipient of numerous grants including those from the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation, the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, and the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, Amy committed to this ambitious and ephemeral project to convey that everyone and everything affects everyone and everything, no matter how small or fleeting the impact. MEMORY, Amy’s last solo biennial, will be open for participation September 17-October 28, 2016 in a Maine mill to be announced. MEMORY will be worth the trip from wherever you are.
Amy (and the thousands of objects she stores to mount her massive exhibits) lives with her husband Bill in Lyman, Maine.
COUNTDOWN TO MEMORY #2: A Little Bit Of This, A Little Bit Of That
I certainly try not to think about how this 9th exhibit—of which these little things are part—is about to complete my 18-year project overall. All of this would be too big, too overwhelming.
COUNTDOWN TO MEMORY #3: Stories in a Mill Floor
Each floor is the ground for my installations, and I get this surface ready, much like a painter would prepare a canvas before beginning to paint.
COUNTDOWN TO MEMORY #4: A Good Artist Is a Prepared Artist
I’m preparing for how I’ll feel after something which has been the largest part of my existence for so long. But the truth is, there’s no way to get ready. I won’t really know how I’ll feel until this is done.
COUNTDOWN TO MEMORY #5: With Big Installations, Less Is More
When my solo biennials are done, I will make my life smaller. Less intense. Slower. Eliminate. Do only what I love most.
COUNTDOWN TO MEMORY #6: A Mill Space to Call Home
You would think after 17 years, eight mills, and eight solo biennials that securing the ninth mill space for my ninth solo biennial would be easy-pee-zeety.
COUNTDOWN TO MEMORY #7: Mike the Builder
Mike the Builder (Mike Feliccitti) is my chief carpenter. He’s been building the underlying structures for my solo biennials since my sixth biennial (TIME, 2010).
COUNTDOWN TO MEMORY #8: The Unforeseen and Unplanned
I want to share three things that at some point during my 18 years didn’t go as I saw them going, three things that didn’t go as planned.
COUNTDOWN TO MEMORY #9: My #1 Art Assistant
Before I knew I was an artist, I knew how lucky I was to find someone who supported me and anything I wanted to do.
COUNTDOWN TO MEMORY #10: Not That There’s Anything Wrong With Audience
My first two solo biennials (EXPERIENCE in 2000 and MOVEMENT in 2002) had interactive installations which involved entering, perceiving, maintaining, perpetuating, and moving things around.
COUNTDOWN TO MEMORY #11: Giving Artist Talks
After my first solo biennial exhibit of interactive installation (EXPERIENCE, 2000), I started giving artist talks—as many as I could.
COUNTDOWN TO MEMORY #12: Please Read Before You Proceed
Thousands of things are precisely placed. Each mill floor, column, sill has been uber-cleaned of all specks. And the first thing the audience sees: Please Read Before You Proceed.
COUNTDOWN TO MEMORY #13: Making Space In My Studio, Making Space In My Head
After each solo biennial, I spend my 22nd month of its 22-month process making space for the next biennial’s work.
COUNTDOWN TO MEMORY #14: Large-scale Installation Is Risky Business
Committing to what would be an 18-year, not-for-profit, large-scale installation art project in abandoned Maine mill spaces was risky business.
COUNTDOWN TO MEMORY #15: Managing My Time
I thought I’d share 18 things I’ve done these past 18 years to manage my time. I’m not suggesting you spin your arms and leg too.
COUNTDOWN TO MEMORY #16: Creative Juice
My brain is at its peak creative-juices-flowing-in-my-noggin time first thing. So, I start with tasks benefiting most from this level of cranium-ness.