Spirit Tours 11

Due to the process-based nature of the Session program, this project will undergo constant modifications; the features of this page provide accruing information on the project’s developments.

On July 7, 2010, Dave Hardy and Siebren Versteeg will begin two months of work at Recess, entitled Spirit Tours 11. The artists collaborated as Spirit Tours for the first time in the summer of 2004. In summer 2010, Hardy and Versteeg will continue dictating the future.

Recess invites resident artists to use its storefront as studio, exhibition venue and grounds for experimentation; under Hardy and Versteeg’s direction, Recess will become the site of an ongoing sculptural event. Since its inception, the project has evolved to investigate the notion of the journey, a fancy that continues to disappear from a contemporary experience that creates a demand for and delivers immediacy and consumption. At Recess, Spirit Tours 11 will generate what the artists call a “bootleg transformative experience” that takes cues from the gray-market economy in full swing a block away on Canal Street.

Versteeg and Hardy’s residency will begin with a virtual tarot card reading with predictions emanating from an oversized skull. Yes, that’s right. Premonitions that come from the readings will shape the project for the rest of the summer.

Session invites artists to use Recess’s public platform to combine productive studio space with dynamic exhibition opportunities. Sessions remain open to the public from the first day of the artist’s project through the last, encouraging sustained dialogue between artists and audiences. Due to the process-based nature of Session, projects undergo constant revision and the above proposal is subject to change.