Erin Charpentier and Travis Neel are ACA’s current Community Artists-in-Residence. They have just settled into Harris House and will reside there for the next four months. During their stay, the innovative collaborators will be working on a project entitled Maintaining Paradise.
The artists are currently looking for subjects to interview about their work experiences here in New Smyrna Beach. The stories, collected through field research, will be compiled into a publication and distributed in public places across New Smyrna Beach in early December 2015. Potential venues include vacation rental properties, libraries, coffee shops, bars, government buildings, visitor information kiosks—anywhere people gather and might be open to interact with the publication and reflect on the impact of maintenance labor on their local community.
This project will culminate as a publication and exhibition featuring stories and interviews about the working lives of New Smyrna Beach residents. The final publication will be available in early December 2015.
On the project, the artists state “GUESTWORK is one of the many partnerships between artists Erin Charpentier and Travis Neel. As serial collaborators, we are deeply invested in developing our capacity to cooperate. We produce participatory events, exhibitions, and publications that allow us to unpack power dynamics and test our idealism in the politics of everyday life. We work by invitation in various contexts and create our own when necessary”.
We invite you to meet ACA’s newest Community Artists-in-Residence and learn more about their intriguing study of New Smyrna Beach’s unique working culture.