Sunday, June 10, 2012

The Remodeling Project


The Remodeling Project by artist Heidi Kayser is a social practice and intervention, an installation and performance art project on the Fort Point Channel.  The project is funded and sponsored by The Fort Point Artists Community, the Friends of Fort Point Channel, New England Foundation for the Arts, and Boston Cyberarts.

The project is an 8 x 8 floating wood dock, moored between the Summer and Congress Street bridges in Fort Point Channel and is quoted by Kayser as a "performative micro-environment." Kayser kayaks to the floating dock dressed in her business suit and "remodels" the scenery. The dock has metamorphosed from a garden with a picketed white fence to an office with computer.   Later a lawn grew into a backyard fashioned with a clothesline and ironing board.  In the backyard picnics and one person parties that seemed almost "VIP" made the channel come alive. Finally the garden and the garden Gnome arrived. Truly the cherry on top.  


Now when passing by the "little dock that could" is listed for rent and many have stopped to ponder if this is just what they were looking for in life all along.

The project is about shared ideas of space - literally thinking "outside" the box, throwing ideas of where art lives overboard, and making people think about the boundaries between public and private activities in urban spaces.