PRODUCERIZM

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 SIMONE DESOUSA GALLERY

Fall 2017

In March of 2017, Zero-Craft Corp. collaborated with the entire 3rd grade class at Bennett Elementary School in southwest Detroit as Schara Artists/Designers in Residence. Through daily workshops, ZCC introduced Bennett Elementary students to the design process and contemporary modes of art making. ZCC and their young collaborators produced over a dozen sculptures during their week together.

The sculptures produced with Bennett Elementary students are composed of stacked construction materials. Borrowing production strategies from Detroit’s manufacturing industry, each class of students was split into small groups and challenged to build several iterations of a tower using a specific kit of parts. Each kit was identical, yet interchangeable, and was designed and prepared by ZCC. Through experimentation, each group reached a consensus as to what arrangement was the most visually interesting to them and then committed to this form by wrapping the object in plaster gauze. The objects were finally painted and “documented” through drawings.

“produceriZm” is a presentation of the complete body of work created in response to ZCC’s experience as Schara Artists/Designers in Residence. During the months following the residency, ZCC developed editions of screenprints and small sculptures that observe a similar “identical, yet interchangeable” nod to manufacturing strategies used by the Bennett Elementary students.

Zero-Craft Corp. would like to thank the 3rd grade students at Bennett Elementary for their contributions to this project and the University of Michigan’s Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design for their generous support.

Visit the Schara Residency website →

Prints and small sculptures available through Simone DeSousa Gallery