Nancy Popp: Mason Line Hammocks
Nancy Popp and Side Street Projects staff facilitated the making of Mason Line hammocks through a series of workshops with local residents. Through the physical activity of knitting, and imaginative poetic and narrative /storytelling, together we created a resting place which occupied and held space for both an individual body and it’s sustaining networks.
Using Mason Line, the material common in Popp’s urban architectural interventions, residents and community members knitted hammocks that were installed in public parks adjacent to libraries, a high school, and the Side Street headquarters. A series of public readings from the hammocks were co-curated with local writers and poets. These events brought together artists, writers, community organizers, students and local residents.
The knitting workshops offered an equitable space to exchange ideas, personal anecdotes, and shared labor. By inviting local residents and communities to come together and work on the Mason Line hammocks, social bonds were created that mirrored the physical materials and process being used to construct them. The support for and of each hammock was literally created by the community that accessed and used the hammock by resting their bodies within it. These bonds gave the opportunity to continue and expand outside of the project, affecting the ways we work together on pressing political and social issues. Support networks make initiatives and action possible. These circles functioned as places for dialogue to learn about issues in each community that can be thought through collectively.
This project manifested according to each site or location; for example, on the street as a public intervention outside of a commercial gallery, taking a moment of reflection in the midst of a busy street, or rest in a green place for rejuvenation.
Public Events:
October 29, 2016 11am-2pm: Knitting Workshop
November 5, 2016 11am-2pm: Knitting Workshop
November 19, 2016 1pm-4pm: Community Event
December 10, 2016 1pm-4pm: Community Event
January 28, 2017: Knitting Workshop
February 25, 2017: Community Event
BIO
Nancy Popp is a Los Angeles-born and - based artist, educator and organizer. Her work draws upon the rich traditions of durational, corporeal performance and direct political intervention to explore relations between the body as a site, the context of site that envelops that body, and the constant fluctuations that connect the two. Her practice engages both architectural and public space to wrestle with political and social boundaries of geography and identity through risky, playful, endurance-based and site-specific interventions and installations. She also works with photography, video, drawing, and community networking and organizing.
Popp's projects have been supported and exhibited at MOCA Los Angeles, the Getty Center, the 2011 Istanbul Biennial, the Atlanta Contemporary Arts Center, the 2014 Dallas Biennial, Rowan University, SUNY University, CSU Los Angeles, in addition to galleries and public spaces in Belgrade, Düsseldorf, Tijuana, and London. Recent residencies and fellowships include the 2011 California Community Foundation Visual Arts Fellowship and the Lucas Artist Fellowship from Montalvo Arts Center. She holds degrees from Art Center College of Design and San Francisco Art Institute and is represented by Klowden Mann Gallery, Los Angeles. She also writes for various magazines and websites on art, education and politics.
