At the turn of the 20th century, New England’s wealthy elite gathered in opulent private salons and ballrooms in Boston to define their social status. These gathering spaces were the seat of power, privilege, and politics in the city. In contrast was a growing movement to create more democratic gathering spaces through the development of public parks. The founding and incorporation of parks like Boston Common (established 1660; park status 1850), and the Commonwealth Avenue Mall (dedicated in 1888 as a promenade for public enjoyment), were milestones in American urban planning, representing an early effort — still on-going today — to grant democratic access to public space.

The work highlights historic class distinctions and references the architecture and interior design of New York’s William C. Whitney ballroom, a magnificent, now demolished, interior designed by Gilded Age architect Stanford White, the architect of the Boston Hotel Buckminster and numerous Commonwealth Avenue mansions. 

This fully-functioning furniture will offer residents and visitors alike a place of respite and reflection while also evoking the history of leisure in Kenmore Square and the often-manipulated wetlands of Charlesgate.

ABOUT THE ARTIST:

Liz Glynn creates sculpture, large-scale installations, and participatory performances using epic historical narratives to explore the potential for change in the present tense. Her work seeks to explore the individual agency within complex superstructures in the face of an increasingly abstract economy. Her practice seeks to embody dynamic cycles of growth and decay by evidencing process, encouraging participation, and inciting future action.

Recent projects include Open House, a project of the Public Art Fund in NYC, The Myth of Singularity at LACMA, Los Angeles, RANSOM ROOM, a solo exhibition and durational performance at SculptureCenter, New York; [de-] lusions of Grandeur (Monumentality and Other Myths), a 5-part series of performances exploring monumentality and human ambition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Her work has also been presented at The New Museum, NY; the Barbican Centre, London; MoCA, Los Angeles; the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; deCordova Sculpture Park, MA; the Petit Palais, Paris; and Künstlerhaus Halle für Kunst & Medien, Graz, Austria. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, New York Magazine, Artforum, Vanity Fair, Vogue, The Los Angeles Times, The New Yorker, W, Interview, Domus, Archaeology Magazine, and frieze.

The Archaeology of Another Possible Future is on view in Building 5 at MASS MOCA, North Adams, MA through September 2018.  The exhibition explores the question of what happens to objects, and the people who make objects, in an age of an technological acceleration, ephemeralization, and increasingly abstract economy.