Two public artists are launching projects in Stillwater this week through a new “micro-residency” program at the Art and Water Space, an environmental arts studio run by the nonprofit A House Unbuilt.
During the rest of November, artist and storyteller Michael Venske plans to record conversations with residents to create a “sonic tapestry” exploring people’s connections to Stillwater and the St. Croix River Valley. Also starting this month, artist Olivia Morawiecki will begin “Wrap Me in a Blanket,” a multimedia installation in Lowell Park exploring grief, memory and community.
Based on the corner of Main and Nelson streets in Stillwater, A House Unbuilt aims to support artists and art-making focused on relationships between communities of people and the natural worlds they live in, said founder Victoria Bradford Styrbicki.
Venske and Morawiecki are the organization’s first resident artists, and Styrbicki hopes the program will bring new cohorts of artists to Stillwater several times a year.
A performing artist and choreographer, Styrbicki initially founded the organization in 2012 as a dance company in Chicago, and it has since morphed into a broader visual arts nonprofit. But in a way, she said, the organization’s current work is conceptually similar to a sort of choreography.
“How can we move community into action or into agency?” she said. “I think of the work that I do…in the model of beginning people together, coming to work through a system or methodology together, but not necessarily all having the same outcomes or trajectories. Supporting each other as we go down different paths.”
Tree chimes
During Morawiecki’s residency, she plans to wrap an entire tree, from its trunk to each limb, in wool, then hang chimes from the branches. Visitors are invited to dedicate a chime in a way that honors their grief, whether in relation to a lost loved one, a life phase or other intangible sense of mourning, she said.
“One of the purest things we can do for each other is show up and be present with people who are struggling or going through grief,” Morawiecki said. “The idea of having a public space which exists to say, ‘There is grief and I can sit with that for myself and for others’ — that really resonates with me.”
The chimes, and the sound they make, are also important to the symbolism of the project. Just as people do, chimes respond to touch and to the presence of one another, she said. And whereas we commonly think of grieving as a private process, Morawiecki wants to explore grief as more collective and communal.
Visitors can find information about dedicating a chime on Morawiecki’s website, citizenparlor.com.
But whether or not someone chooses to engage with the project in that way, she said, she hopes the work “gives them some element of comfort or a connectedness to know that somebody else is making time and space for what they’re holding,” she said.
‘Sonic tapestry’
Meanwhile, Venske plans to set up times to visit places like senior centers and schools, plus to spend time at Main Street businesses and in the Art and Water Space studio. People will also be able to participate in the project by recording their own voice memo and sending it to Venske on his website, michaelvenske.com.
After he stitches these interviews together into the final ‘sonic tapestry,’ Venske and A House Unbuilt plan to host a listening event sometime next year.
“The ability to just ask a general open-ended question and see where it runs is really appealing to me,” he said. “People have their lived experiences, their feelings, connections, roots, history in this place. For an outsider to come in and say, let’s talk about this place, what can you share — and let’s just talk about what comes up.”
Although it’s not the subject of his residency work, Venske, like Morawiecki, is also known for a focus on grief: He hosts the show “Your Funeral Music” on WFNU Frogtown Community Radio, in which he and a guest listen to and discuss the music the guest would want played at their funeral.
But whether the topic of conversation is a person’s own legacy or perhaps their memories in downtown Stillwater, Venske said he’s particularly drawn to audio as a way to capture stories.
“How we say things and the way we (hear) things when we’re not watching — when we have to listen — forces our brain to hear things in different ways and pick up the nuance in someone’s voice, the way they approach a difficult topic,” he said. “You can connect with someone on such an emotionally deep level when you can just hear them, hear their voice, hear how they’re reacting to what they’re describing or a memory they have.”
“I really want people to feel like they’ve been heard,” he said.
More information on A House Unbuilt and the Art and Water Space micro-residency program is online at ahouseunbuilt.com.
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