MOCAD Fall Winter 2021 Exhibitions
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The following series of exhibitions are on display at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit. 

As the CEC (Curatorial and Exhibitions Coordinator) It was my job to manage installation and timeline along side the Curatorial team and the Director of Exhibitions. Many of the pieces and installations had to be fabricated and installed by contractors and myself.
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HANNAH TOTICKI: UNIVERSAL HUMAN RESOURCE
NOVEMBER 5, 2021 – JANUARY 30, 2022

Universal Human Resource is the first museum solo exhibition of work by the artist Hannah Toticki in the United States. Born and raised in Denmark, Toticki’s practice investigates the emotional architecture created by work environments in western cultures. Specifically implicating systems of productivism, this exhibition asks: does one work to live or does one live to work? In Universal Human Resource, Toticki asserts that the workplace has evolved into a religious practice that maintains many theocratic hierarchies through the gendering and privatization of labor.​​​​​​​

The Hanging points for each of the garments were actually foundation screws designed specifically for this exhibition according to the artists needs. 
Based on a few photos provided by the artist and input from the DOE , I was able to sketch the hanger concept and forward it to my friends at RAD_ish Studio. From there Bre and Ken were able to fabricate the hangers ready for install.

The rest of the hanging bolts were fabricated at Federal Pipe and Supply Co. in Detroit.
The artist was kind enough to give me creative freedom in recreating their work to fit our exhibition space. The original size of this piece is over 10 feet long and would not have arrived on time for the exhibition given the current international shipping crisis. It also would have been too large for our exhibition space.

Given the scale of the conveyor belt, I sketched up the legs and mount for the Keyboard which would be attached to the front end of the conveyor.

The objective was to attach hands to the conveyor belt, and as it rotates the rubber hands will slap the keyboard. The type will then be transmitted to a tablet which randomly generates nonsense regardless of the input.
We again worked with RAD_ish Studio to fabricate the legs to our specification. Like always they did a phenomenal job with an amazing turn around time.
JANE JIN KAISEN: PARALLAX CONJUNCTURES
NOVEMBER 5, 2021 – JANUARY 30, 2022
Parallax Conjunctures presents the work of South Korea-born, Copenhagen-based interdisciplinary artist, Jane Jin Kaisen. Working in video installation, experimental film, lens-based media, text, and archival practices, Kaisen’s work is shaped by extensive historical research and community engagement.

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This side of the exhibition was pretty straight forward with the exception of the 3 red light boxes for the installation. The process required a bit of team work to build the light boxes, solder the LEDs, and assemble them with the transparent print sandwiched between the plexiglass sheets.
The other two pieces were video based works, which required projectors for display. One was cast directly onto a wall in the space and the other was projected onto a wall we had to build in house, and suspend from the ceiling. The Director of Exhibitions built a majority of the wall himself, and as a team we suspended the work. 
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JEANNETTE EHLERS: TAKE ROOT
NOVEMBER 5, 2021 – JANUARY 30, 2022
Take Root is a visual celebration of the ways that Black women have created networks with each other in beloved community, family, and siblinghood. Created as a site-specific installation, Take Root presents elements of Copenhagen-based artist Jeanette Ehlers’ practice that honor Black Womanhood through a global lens. This exhibition includes Ehlers’ 2021 film, We’re Magic. We’re Real., an allegory of Black Girl Magic told through language and performance.​​​​​​​
This exhibition was pretty straight forward to install with the exception of one element. Shown above is the main piece being projected onto the wall of the Dark Room. We installed the projector, audio mixer, and speakers within the space to complete this installation of the piece. We also masked off the area for the screen and blacked out the wall surrounding it to crop out the projection exactly.
"Secret Pathways to Freedom" by Halima Cassells and Jeannette Ehlers
The one piece that was a bit more involved was the Hair installation. The goal was to hang the braided har in a row, so when installed gave the appearance of growing out of the wall. To do this I designed a bracket for the hair to be connected to, then mounted directly to the drywall in the space. With some minor advisory from the Director of Exhibition, we were able to safely install the work that ended up weighing approximately 40lbs+ ​​​​​​​
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JOHN KØRNER: INTERCONTINENTAL SUPER FRUITS
NOVEMBER 18, 2021 – JANUARY 30, 2022

Grocery, bodega, market, party store – these are just some of the names for a place where one might spend several hundred hours within a lifetime to obtain nourishment. These sites of consumption are networks for cultural exchange, where global citizens gain an understanding of local customs while also exploring new tastes, textures, and scents. Intercontinental Super Fruits presents work that engages artist John Kørner’s visual explorations of the allure of product advertisement and globalization in the rapidly expanding commodities trade industry. Kørner, a visionary artist from Copenhagen, Denmark, whose studio practice traverses painting, graphics, and sculpture, will introduce Intercontinental Super Fruits as a large-scale multi-sensory installation in MOCAD’s Woodward Gallery.

While the Director of Exhibitions was out of office, I was left to manage a majority of this exhibition. I was in charge of timeline, installation, fabrication management, and handling of John Korner's work. 
One of the more time consuming tasks required for this exhibition was the double stripe vinyl that had to be installed above the work. It was the Director of Exhibitions decision to use vinyl instead of paint, which will hopefully make for an easier deinstall. 
I ended up cutting all the vinyl with my plotter in my studio, then masking the transfer tape on location.  From there, a majority of the vinyl was installed by a revolving staff of 3 art handlers and myself.
Seen above are the 5 individual fridges that had to be fabricated by my friends at RAD_ish Studios based out of Detroit. Each of the fridges was designed to hold one of John Korner's paintings. From there our installation team had to paint each fridge, and light the interior using LEDs purchased as the artist requested.
These pieces called "Troubles" are hand blown glass and were designed to be set on top of these tables made by our contracted art handlers. They were originally designed to the artists specifications, but required more support after realizing the weight of the glass objects. 

We called RAD_ish Studio to build reinforcements, which they turned in over night.
One minor design job I had to come up with was to figure out how to hang the banners. I ended up ordering wooden dowel rods, cutting them do size, attaching eyelets to each side, and suspending the works from the ceiling with chain. The most difficult aspect of this install was lining up all the work within each series, as well as making sure each series were equal in height from the ground with the varying heights of the ceiling. 

For this used a laser guide and a laser level to make sure the work was square.
The rest of the exhibition was a pretty straight forward install. I'm so grateful to our team of art handlers, curators, and contributors who helped pull this whole show together. We could not have done this without them.
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