Channeling Fort Point: Interview with Elisa Hamilton and Andrew Edman

Channeling Fort Point is a temporary public art project that will be installed in October in Fort Point Boston. To learn more check out past posts or go the FPAC website: www.fortpointarts.org

FPAC: How did you decide to apply to the Fpac public art works call for artists? Have you done other public art projects before?

Elisa: We've both been involved with public art in some form in the past, but this is our first collaborative effort. When the call for proposals first went out I immediately thought that it should be something that we should try to tackle together. Our artwork and ways of working are very different, but we both love a good challenge and knew that we could come up with an exciting combined vision.

FPAC: How did you choose the materials for your piece?

ANDREW: Material is always an important consideration, both for technical performance and conceptual content. We felt strongly about the particular materials we chose for this piece for both of those reasons.

ELISA: I think we may have even arrived at our materials before our concept was fully fleshed-out. We knew that we wanted to make a sculpture that really embodied the feeling of Fort Point. When we considered the rich history that Fort Point has as an industrial district, copper piping immediately came to mind as a possible material. Inherently practical and beautiful, we also love its linear quality and allusion to line. Wood, another common yet beautiful material, seemed like the perfect coupling.

FPAC: Do you think temporary works have a different impact on the viewer and how? How did take this into consideration regarding your work?

ANDREW: I think what temporary works offer is the chance to shift the environment and then restore it. By existing for a finite amount of time, temporary works have a built in lifespan, in which they can be seen and known only briefly. They don't have the chance to become completely familiar. They occupy public space as a modifier rather than a fixture, and I think that sort of deference to the existing environment is important when considering the makeup of a public artwork. They don't exist to be collected, owned or auctioned. They exist purely to be experienced.

FPAC: How have you created a community dialogue with your work?

ELISA: I hope that our piece makes people stop and stare and ponder; I hope it makes strangers look at each other and say "Hm, I wonder what that's all about" or "Hey, that's kind of cool" or "What the hell is that thing supposed to be anyway?". It doesn't really matter what people are saying as long as the piece is fostering discussion.

FPAC: When will the final project be installed?

ANDREW: The final project will be primarily constructed on site as it is so enmeshed with what is already there. We have been working with the copper and a partial full-scale mock-up off site to prepare.

ELISA: There's a certain thrill that comes with letting much of the creating happen on site. I was invited to paint a switch box in East Somerville last October and went to do it armed only with a couple small pencil sketches of the design and all of my materials. Looking back on it now I think that I probably should have been much better prepared, but I knew so strongly what I wanted to do; and I did it. This project is far more complicated than the switch box I painted, so we are doing a great deal of work ahead of time; but even so, I expect much of the magic to happen right there on Summer Street as we put all the pieces- both in our minds and physically- together.

FPAC: Who or what are your greatest influences?

ANDREW: I think our influences are fairly divergent, but it makes the process of working together more interesting. There's tension that emerges from the differences in our worldview but it leads to the creation of something that is apart from what either of us would make independently, even if those works were to be combined. The primary influence on my artistic practice is the area I grew up, in rural Minnesota. There's a very utilitarian and customized approach to building and repair, which I think has carried through to the considerations I make in sculptural work.

ELISA: Historically I've been a primarily two-dimensional artist, so this way of working is very exhilarating to me. Color, movement, and line are an essential element in all of the art that I make and I expect that Channeling Fort Point will be no exception. I think that when the sculpture is complete, from across the street it's going to look a hell of alot like a drawing!

FPAC: What can we look forward to in the future from you?

ELISA: I'm not sure what's ahead for us; I guess we'll just going to keep working hard and see what happens. And depending on whether or not we kill each other while trying to install Channeling Fort Point, perhaps more collaborative projects are on the horizon.