Ann Messner

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Ann Messner (born 1952) is an artist, activist, and a professor of fine arts at the Pratt Institute. Messner received her B.F.A. from the Pratt Institute in 1973.[1]

Activism[]

Messner was a member of Artists Against the War (AAW), The Critical Voice, and the Activist Response Team (A.R.T.), political action coalitions dedicated to non-hierarchical collective response to political events, specifically the American involvement in Iraq.[2]

Messner is also known for her activism bringing attention to real estate inequalities in New York, especially as a participant in The Real Estate Show, an extra-legal artist occupation of a vacant New York City building (125 Delancey St) beginning on December 30, 1979, in order to mount an exhibition.[3][4] The show was reconstructed at James Fuentes gallery in 2014 in order to highlight the city's ongoing housing issues; Messner's work for the show consisted of a printed multiple with a souvenir image of a woman in front of the original show marquee board.[5]

Ann Messner, in collaboration with Carole Ashley, Elaine Angelopoulos, Debra Werblud and Larilyn Sanchez created and directed the documentary, , produced by Artists Against the War. The documentation, covering the years 2001-2005, focused on protest groups who inventively spread their word against the U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.[6][7]

Career[]

Messner's work centers on issues of publicness, transference, and the dynamics of the crowd. In the Subway Series (shown for the first time in 2007 at Dorsky Gallery),[8] works performed on the New York City subway in 1977-79, Messner made a series of interventions into the motion and space of the city. In Frogman, she donned a diving suit, mask, and oxygen tank to make her way through the length of a train. In Balloon, she slowly inflated a large balloon in a subway car during rush hour, forcing fellow riders to shift to make room.[9]

Messner's art practice has included several large-scale public sculptures that are aimed at urban pedestrian spaces. Meteor, installed in New York City's Times Square 1987-1988, comprised five welded steel sculptures with various visual affinities to technology, satellites, and more domestic manufactured items like ironing boards.[10][11][12] Amniotic Sea, installed in Foley Square in 1998, consisted of a steel platform, a large resin sac sculpture, and a newspaper vendor cabinet distributing Amniotic Sea tabloids with images of New York metropolitan beaches.[13]

Notes[]

  1. ^ "Pratt Institute". www.pratt.edu. Retrieved 2016-03-06.
  2. ^ "Ann Messner Statement". UMass Amherst Fine Arts Center. University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Retrieved March 6, 2016.
  3. ^ "Ann Messner - The Creative Time Summit". creativetime.org. Retrieved 2016-03-06.
  4. ^ Johnson, Ken (2014-04-17). "'The Real Estate Show Was Then: 1980'". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2018-03-18.
  5. ^ "Putting the 'No' in 'Nostalgia'". Hyperallergic. 2014-04-23. Retrieved 2018-03-18.
  6. ^ Messner, Ann. "Disarming Images". Ann Messner, Disarming Images. Archived from the original on 13 August 2013. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
  7. ^ "The Line We're On". The Brooklyn Rail. Retrieved 2018-03-18.
  8. ^ "Art Guide". The New York Times. 1997-12-19. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2018-03-18.
  9. ^ "Julie Caniglia on Ann Messner". www.artforum.com. Retrieved 2018-03-18.
  10. ^ "Patricia C. Phillips on Ann Messner". www.artforum.com. Retrieved 2018-03-18.
  11. ^ "Meteor". www.publicartfund.org. Retrieved 2018-03-18.
  12. ^ "Meteor". walkerart.org. Retrieved 2018-03-18.
  13. ^ Messner, Ann; Williams, Gregory (2000). "The Perils of Public Art: Anne Messner Interviewed by Gregory Williams". PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art. 22 (1): 36–44. ISSN 1537-9477.

External links[]

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