trade routes
Spice Trade Perfumes Workshop
Saturday, May 16, 1 – 4pm
Workshop and Materials Fee: $125
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As part of our Trade Routes exhibition, Proteus Gowanus is pleased to announce a new Zone A Workshop focusing on the Spice Trade of antiquity. Space is limited so register early.
No one benefitted more from the Spice Route than the early perfumers. Prior to the opening of the spice trade, perfumers in Europe were using the materials available to them, mostly herbs and some locally growing flowers, to create the fragrances of the day. The explorations of Africa, India, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and the West Indies garnered fragrant spices, resins and balsams that created an olfactory palette that would create an industry.
In this workshop we’ll explore the discoveries of the early explorers and learn about resinous frankincense, rich vanilla bean, piquant saffron and voluptuous sandalwood. You’ll gain a basic understanding of the sense of smell, the history of perfume and learn how to blend these precious oils into your own bespoke [continue reading…]
Mobile Vending in the Underground Economy
Friday, April 3, 7pm
$5 admission
The Institute for Mobile Research will host a panel discussion with three prolific proponents of game change in the the mobile industry. Join us as panelists discuss their research and activism in mobile industries ranging from art to commerce to food.
Esther Robinson from ArtHome will discuss ArtBuild Mobile Spaces, a new program she’s spearheading to create affordable mobile artist studios in the vein [continue reading…]
Art and Entrepreneurship in Mobile Vending: A Tale of Hair Salons and Trailer Parks on Wheels
Friday, March 27, 7pm
$5 admission
The Institute of Mobile Research founder Lauren Cannon will moderate a discussion with two innovators in the mobile art and commerce realms. MIT Media Lab Fellow and artist Kim Holleman will discuss her “Trailer Park” project and other artistic initiatives in a mobile art space. Caroline Destefano, owner of the mobile hair salon Studio in Motion, will talk about the entrepreneurial and creative journey that led her to operate her hair salon on wheels. [continue reading…]
Trace: A Civil Rights Journey
Friday, March 20, 7pm
$5 admission
A hybrid event combining photography, video, voice, and word, Trace explores the legacy of writer and activist Tom Dent while retracing parts of his 1990 journey visiting lesser-known sites of the Civil Rights struggle, as documented in his book, Southern Journey: Return to the Civil Rights Movement. Dent worked in connection to a larger cultural and economic diaspora, examining the contemporary effects of colonialism while working with and helping to organize black writers and artists. Presented as part of the Trade Routes exhibition at Proteus Gowanus, Trace follows the networks connecting post-colonial Africa and the Caribbean with New York, the Southern Civil Rights movement and beyond.
In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee: a documentary
Thursday, March 12, 7pm
$5 admission
In conjunction with the Trade Routes exhibition, this documentary film explores a troubling side of the international adoption trade involving a Korean child. Her passport said she was Cha Jung Hee. She knew she was not. So began a 40-year deception for this Korean adoptee who came to the US in 1966. Told to keep her true identity a secret from her new American family, this eight-year-old girl quickly forgot she was ever anyone else. But why had her identity been switched? And who was the real Cha Jung Hee? This documentary is the search to find the answers about this troubling aspect of the international adoption trade. It follows acclaimed filmmaker Deann Borshay Liem as she returns to her native Korea to find her “double,” the mysterious girl whose place she took in America.
Trailer and more info: http://www.mufilms.org/
Opening Reception for Trade Routes
Saturday, February 28, 6-8pm
Please join us for wine and conversation at the opening reception for Trade Routes, the third exhibition of our COMMERCE year. Trade Routes focuses on the infrastructures and pathways of commerce, from the winds and tides that were the first determinants of inter-cultural trade to the technological breakthroughs that fuel global trade today. Sociologist-artist team David Schleifer and Tracy Gilman explore Navajo trading rug styles using weather-resistant electric cables. The works of Shari Mendelson and Venetia Dale address the impact of product innovation, specifically the invention of plastic, on the movement of objects and commodities from their countries of origin to their point of consumption. [continue reading…]
