I had lunch at Jivamukti Cafe with Erin Lindsay to discuss her recent project, An Economic Cycle (AEC). Her event turned out to be a beautiful evening of sculpture, community and dance. AEC explores an artists careful attempt to transform an abandoned riverside landfill into the now beautiful Socrates Sculpture Park and breaks it down into 9 smaller parts.
Socrates Sculpture Park has seen a great deal in the past 25 years. Before it's birth, you would have seen an abandoned riverside landfill and illegal dump site where there was reported criminal activity. This wasteland left little room for safe, communities where children could explore and develop their personal identities. Erin spoke of a man named Mark di Survero who led a coalition of artists in 1986 to develop this piece of land and turn it into an open studio and exhibition space for artists and a neighborhood park for local residents.
AEC Mission Statement:
Artists are humble. They reach out to the industrious society for reclamation and in return; justify the cause of giving back through their ability of creative expression. When industry fails and society begins to landslide. When the economic struggle has set in and innovation begins to lessen; the arts will in fact stand. A garden will be planted where a landfill once lingered. We will change the lives of others and a void that once was; will be diminished. The arts will give back when hope has been lost.
Erin developed a 9 part series which illustrates this transformation, performed by 9 different dance companies. More to come, check back with Enforced Arch as we explore each step of Erin Lindsay's interpretation of An Economic Cycle!